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Category: AUTHORS

  • FOR WHOM AND FOR WHAT ARE YOU WORKING?

    FOR WHOM AND FOR WHAT ARE YOU WORKING?

    January 24, 2021 – Third Sunday in Ordinary Time; National Bible Sunday

    Fr. Manoling Thomas, CSsR

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/012421.cfm)

    A holy rabbi used to live in a small but prosperous town. In one section of that town were the houses of the rich. Practically every house in that section had a security guard employed to watch over the house and the property especially at night or when the owner was out-of-town. This holy rabbi had to pass through that area daily.

    One day he approached and asked one of the guards: “For whom are you working?” Satisfied with the guard’s answer, the guard in turn, also asked the rabbi: “I notice that every day you pass by this area, for whom are you, working?” The surprised rabbi was taken aback. After regaining his composure, the rabbi replied: “Well to be honest with you, I am not working for any particular person!” But after pausing to reflect for a while, the rabbi said to the guard: “May I ask you a favor? Time and again, when you see me pass by, ask me this question: ‘For whom are you working, Rabbi?’”  The guard agreed.

    On many occasions, I have asked people about their work and whether they enjoy their work. Sometimes I get the following answer: “It is not a question of whether I like or enjoy my work. Whether I like my job or not is beside the point. I have to work because I have a family to support. My loved ones depend on me!”  Some see their job as a way of financially supporting themselves and realizing their dream in life! Many OFWs would still choose to work in their home country, if only the job opportunity is as good as what is offered them abroad! Others see work as an opportunity for self-advancement, or as a way of getting a better promotion and earning a bigger salary! So generally many think they know “why and for whom” they are working?

    But today’s Gospel draws our attention to a deeper understanding as to the “why” and the “for whom” we are working? Today’s Gospel shows us that although there is a difference between a “career” and a “vocation” yet these two need not be in conflict with each other! Before Jesus called Peter, Andrew, James and John, their work and source of livelihood was fishing! They had already their job, a career in life!

    When the four fishermen were called by Christ “to fish people” Jesus did not ask them to give up altogether their career, and to stop supporting their loves ones. Rather, Jesus gave them a deeper understanding and awareness as for whom and for what they have to work from now on! To their career, Jesus added a vocation! They are now disciples working for Christ; and like Jesus, their work are primarily for the service of others.

    A career opens the door for one to advance and to improve one’s own status in life. Educators by continuing their own education and earning more degrees hope to either keep their teaching post or even get a higher promotion!

    A vocation however is deeper than a career. Vocation is a personal calling from Christ. Vocation involves having a particular way of looking at life, a correct motivation and being totally committed to one’s specific calling in life. At the start of his pontificate, Pope Francis reminded priests, religious, and the members of the Roman Curia, not to turn their priestly and religious vocation into a “career”. They should not use their positions in the church for their own personal ambition and advancement because theirs is a “vocation” and not a “career”! Vocation to the priesthood and/or the religious life is not a “career” but a special calling!

    Except for priests and religious who have a special calling, when Christians are called to be Christ’s disciples, their respective careers or jobs are not taken away from them. But these are now to be clearly aligned to Jesus’ teaching, and values! Their career or job must not promote or support what is evil, unjust, exploitative of others, but honest, with integrity, and service-oriented! For an example, a Christian in a teaching or health or business profession should now practice his/her profession not primarily to earn more money but in order to give a better service to others. It should be clear now that he/she is primarily working for Christ! The purpose of his/her work must be in accordance with the values, and example of Jesus Christ! The rabbi requested the security guard to ask him time and again the questions:

    “For whom are you working?” and “What are you working for?” Have you also asked someone to remind you as “for whom” and “for what” are you working?

  • To bring others closer to the Lord

    To bring others closer to the Lord

    January 22, 2021 – Friday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/012221.cfm)

    An encounter with the Lord leads to discipleship and to be on mission. This is message for us today. But for us to grasp better the message, let us make a step by step discovery.

    First, the call or the invitation is God’s initiative. It means that it is God who calls us and God chooses us to be His servant, to be his disciple. God’s way of choosing is not through the wealth we gathered, or how much power and influence we possessed. God calls us when we are open to him regardless of our profession, status and state in life. This is how Jesus summoned the ordinary 12 disciples and then sent them to proclaim the kingdom and free people from the slavery of sin and evil.

    Second, we need the help of our family, friends, and community to lead us to God. An encounter with God, though that can be very personal but it is essentially always in the context of the community. Thus, seek the help of others. It will be easier for us to recognize God when we have a friend who will help us to see God.

    Third, our God-experience or personal encounter with God is the most wonderful experience we will ever have. Because it is so wonderful that we cannot just keep it by ourselves. Our encounter with God leads us to action – it leads us to follow the Lord and leads us to tell others about what we have seen, heard, felt, and experienced with God. The 12 apostles’ personal encounter with Jesus led them to this point where that encounter moved them to action to become healers, witnesses and preachers.

    Each of us today, whoever we are and wherever we are, as Christians we are called to preach Christ, to preach the Gospel by our life that we may become agents of healing and reconciliation, and bring other people closer to God. This is what it means to become an apostle.

    May we always remember this and become true Christians in the way we live our life, in the way we perform our work and in the way we relate with others and with one another so that we who have experienced God’s goodness will also become instruments in bringing other people closer to God. Hinaut pa.

  • To Move towards Jesus and To Move like Jesus

    To Move towards Jesus and To Move like Jesus

    January 21, 2021 – Thursday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/012121.cfm)

    There are two interesting movements in the Gospel of Mark. These two movements are the invitations that I would like you today to remember. First is the movement of the people towards Jesus. Second is the movement of Jesus.

    How do we deal with our stress and tensions? With the difficulties we encounter daily? Or with our own personal issues? In dealing with these, we develop coping mechanism to address our issues. They could be a healthy or an unhealthy coping. There will be occasions where we fall into unhealthy coping mechanism that may trap us from growing and becoming more mature in the way we look at ourselves, in the way we relate with others and even in the way we relate with God. What prevents us could be our stubborn heart to accept our failures and limitations. What hinders us too is our arrogance to rely on our capacities, with our achievements, with our strength and will that refuse to seek help from others or even healing from God.

    Considering all these, I am reminded of today’s Gospel to always approach the Lord in humility but with confidence. This is what we have heard in the Gospel as people from all over the place came to follow Jesus. Mark tells us how the people were drawn towards Jesus. Those people took the risk that they too will see Jesus, touch Jesus and be healed by Jesus from whatever burden or suffering they were carrying.

    Mark presents to us how Jesus was drawing multitude of people. This tells us indirectly how the people have recognized that Jesus has come to give them life, to give them pardon and forgiveness, to give them freedom, to seek the lost, to heal the sick, to uplift the distressed and hopeless and comfort the brokenhearted.

    In Jesus, they must have saw “life.” This is the invitation for us in this first movement – and that is to be able to see life in Jesus and not in any unhealthy coping mechanism, not in arrogance, not in the stubbornness of our heart, not in self-doubt, not in complacency and self-satisfaction.

    Thus, we will only be able to touch Jesus once we also take the movement in taking the risk to remain humble and to remain dependent on God. The people approached Jesus in humility and recognize their poverty and need of God. This means that I am called to recognize my own inadequacies and weaknesses, issues and areas of healing. To remain dependent on God means that I am called to completely put my trust in God’s goodness and providence, and not just on my own strength and capacity. This is the first movement and the call to move towards Jesus.

    Again in the Gospel, Mark presents to us how Jesus became so popular. People heard about him and the wonders he did to many. He became “viral and sensational.” If Jesus was not conscious of his identity, he could easily manipulate the people who have come to him in order to gain praises only for himself and nothing to his Father in heaven. The popularity that he gained, the influence that he was able to build up and his power over the people were most probably also forms of temptations to him from Satan. Surely, Satan had also used these against Jesus.

    However, his awareness of his identity and confidence in His Father in heaven “moved” him to be more generous to the people and more conscious of their needs. As a result, he touched others, listened to them individually and taught them effectively.

    This reminds me to be always grounded and to be always aware of my own identity that I am a sinner in need of mercy, yet, chosen and loved by the Lord. This is a call then for us, not to be intoxicated with the popularity that we might have, with the affirmations and recognitions that we may gain, with the people who have come to us for help, with people who admire us. Intoxication of self-promotion, of self-entitlement, and self-gratification will only lead us to the temptation of gaining control and power that may also lead to abuses, in whatever forms that may be, and corruption.

    This reminds us to be always conscious and discerning as a person. To grow in confidence with God, like Jesus, will make our heart thankful and joyful. This is indeed an invitation for us to have a heart that is simple and undefiled by any form of bitterness, insecurity, arrogance and entitlement.

    To have this heart means to be able to love – a love that does not count the cost or expecting any return of investment. This love comes from the generous heart of God. Thus, the call of Jesus’ movement is a call to see God with others, with my brothers and sisters. This is the second movement and the call to move like Jesus. Hinaut pa.

  • God is New, always New

    God is New, always New

    January 18, 2021 – Monday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/011821.cfm)

    There seems to be a constant friction between what is new and what is old. An old tradition may feel threatened by new developments in the culture. We also find old people and those who live in the old comparing the glory of the past from the present. To compare what was better in the past with what is in the present is surely not bad. This, in fact, it is a challenge and an opportunity to become a better version in the present.

    These are abstract ideas that may be difficult to understand. Yet, there is something important here that we are invited to listen and to grow in our faith. There is a danger as one grows old. This danger lies in the attitude of a heart that has grown old and has become rigid, uncompromising and rejecting towards what is new and fresh.

    We may find this in ourselves when we settle to what is only familiar to us, to what is only routine and to what is only comfortable. This attitude also makes us exclusive, close-minded and cold. Like for instance, having a group of friends is good, yet, to limit ourselves in that kind of relationship and become exclusive may lead us to become rejecting towards others who do not belong to our circle. When we settle to our own comforts and familiarity, we may tend to become selfish and not consider others but only ourselves.

    This is the reason also why we fall into bad habits and even addictions. These are repeated actions, meaning, they become part of a cycle in us. Because of the seemingly comfort that they bring in us, we fall on them again and again. Moreover, when our heart also becomes too absorbed of ourselves, then, we become reactive and even hostile towards others who may challenge to change us or to make us adapt something new.

    This is the message that Jesus was saying to those who objected regarding the actions of his disciples. It was not that Jesus disrespected the old tradition of fasting or has trampled that revered custom. No! Jesus said,

    “No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak.
    If he does, its fullness pulls away,
    the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.
    Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins.
    Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins,
    and both the wine and the skins are ruined.
    Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”

    The very presence of Jesus is the new cloth and the new wine. His person and his friendship was what was being offered. Yet, the limited awareness of the people of Jesus’ divine presence prevented them to embrace and accept Jesus. What they only saw was the threat that they felt from Jesus against their old tradition.

    Indeed, the presence of the Lord and his invitations may become threats to us when we also become reactive and when we tend to value more the rubrics, the physical appearances and the familiarity of things to us rather than the very source of all things, God. This is not just about tradition and practices, but also our sins and even beliefs and prejudices that have made our heart to become rigid and apathetic.

    What Jesus calls us today is to be always attentive to his presence and to enjoy the freshness and the newness that he brings in us. Jesus also brings surprises in life that will surely bring changes and renewal in the way we live our life, relate with others and look at things. Indeed, God is new, and always new.

    Jesus asks us today to make our heart open and welcoming of his presence revealed even in our daily affairs. Be more conscious of his presence today and enjoy his presence to bring new perspectives, to create challenges and to inspire movements in us. May we always discover the joy and the peace of being renewed each day. Hinaut pa.

  • HOW THE ORIGINAL STATUE OF THE STO. NINO DE CEBU SURVIVED THE WORLD WAR II

    HOW THE ORIGINAL STATUE OF THE STO. NINO DE CEBU SURVIVED THE WORLD WAR II

    Edited by Fr. Manoling Thomas, CSsR

    Kept in a bomb-proof vault; the historic icon of the Sto. Niño de Cebu, spent seven months in the safekeeping of the Redemptorists at the close of World War II. This is a little-known page of history which took place when an emergency arose at the close of 1944.   The Augustinian friars had to find a safe place for the icon because the basilica located at the Cebu City’s pier area had been heavily bombed. According to an account of the emergency transfer written by Fr. Antonio Dizon, OSA, the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help was kept in an underground chamber by the Redemptorists, who were mostly Australian and Irish missionaries.

    The icon of the Holy Child was hidden in a vault in the Redemptorist monastery. The vault was placed under the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  [The metal vault still exists today. It is on display at the left side of the main entrance to the church.]

    For Catholics, the symbolism is clear: the child Jesus took shelter in the home of his mother. The Augustinian friars’ account appears in a devotional booklet of the Redemptorists printed in 1984:

    “Among gidala kining dyutay’ng Bata sa balay sa Iyang Inahan, siya karun nagabantay kaniya.” (We brought this little Child Jesus to the house of His Mother who now takes charge of Him.)

    Why the Redemptorist Monastery?

    Its location at the time was in a countryside setting. The Redemptorist Monastery was standing there alone; amid mango trees and cornfields. It made the place far enough from trouble.

    Heavy bombardment had badly damaged other Cebu City churches, including the Sto. Niño or San Agustin Church and convent near the harbor. At one time, a bomb dropped inside the Sto. Niño Church near the main altar, Dizon wrote.  The sacred image, which was at the center with no protective glass case, shook but did not fall directly on the ground.

    Instead, it was found tilting and hanging with the cape snagged on the electric candles of the altar. The original icon of the Sto. Niño de Cebu, fell from its niche and acquired a “chipped eye and scratched cheek”.

    The incident left a visible “scar” on the right upper cheek, which remains one of the signature marks of the Sto. Niño de Cebu for devotees who wonder if this is the original 16th century icon given as a gift by Ferdinand Magellan to Rajah Humabon as a baptismal gift in 1521.

    The archive photo shows the end of the seven-month sanctuary on April 20, 1945; with Fr. Thomas McHugh, CSsR, the Irish rector at the time, turning over the image of the Sto. Niño, with its crown, cape, and pedestal intact to Fr. Leandro Moran, OSA.  The photo is kept in the McArthur memorial Museum in Norfolk, Virginia, USA.

    After that, the Augustinian friars took the image from the debris of the church and hastily carried it to the Redemptorist Monastery. This was the first time that the Sto. Nino icon had left its base since its enthronement in 1740. First-hand accounts are sketchy, so a photo of the return of the statue is a precious evidence of the cooperation between the Augustinians and the Redemptorists during this war-time emergency. The archive photo shows the end of the seven-month sanctuary on April 20, 1945; with Fr. Thomas McHugh, CSsR, the Irish rector at the time, turning over the image of the Sto. Niño, with its crown, cape, and pedestal intact to Fr. Leandro Moran, OSA.  The photo is kept in the McArthur memorial Museum in Norfolk, Virginia, USA.