Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Category: AUTHORS

  • To Repent and To Believe

    To Repent and To Believe

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

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

    What if that something which you are so attached to is needed to be let go in order for you to grow? I remember when I was still a young boy, I was so attached with my baby bottle. I used that bottle until I was about 5 or 6 years old. However, I was asked to let it go and stop using it since I was already big enough and was about to start schooling. I wanted to start school with my friends but I found it very difficult to let go of my baby bottle. I was told that I could not bring it with me and the only way of going to school with my friends was to let go of that baby bottle.

    When we develop forms of attachments, whatever that may be, we could become rigid and stubborn. Our attachment will become the focus of our world that we may refuse to see what is beyond it. Thus, we would tend to limit ourselves from discovering more about ourselves and about others because we are already fixated to one or two. Nevertheless, there is certainly a need for us to look at our attachments and fixations and see if they are helpful or not in deepening our friendship with God and others.

    Our attachments or fixations in life may not just be about material things that we possess but they can also be our beliefs, our opinions and ideas, biases, prejudices and perspectives and even our way of life. Because they have become central in the way we think, in the way we relate with others and in the way we live our life, we also find comfort and familiarity in them. When these happen, they become difficult to let go because those attachments or fixations have gripped us already.

    As a result, we experience tensions and conflicts when we are also asked to detach ourselves from our attachments. We may feel being threatened because of the desire to remain in that state, to remain in that comfort and familiarity.

    This is the scenario behind the story of Prophet Jonah. Jonah, as a Jew, hated the Ninevites. Nineveh was the capital of city of their enemy, the Assyrians. The Jews were assaulted and attacked many times by the Assyrians. However, at this time, God asked Jonah to go there and proclaim God’s message to them. Jonah tried to escape from this because he did not want this. He hated them so much. Yet, because he could not escape from God, he went to Nineveh against his will and called the people to repentance. Jonah must have wished that the people would not repent and be punished by God because he wanted them, dead. However, the people repented and turned away from their sins and God showed mercy.

    This was something that Jonah found it difficult to understand. He thought and believed that God was only for the Jews. Yet, he realized too that God is beyond his limited understanding of God’s mercy. God is for everybody. God’s mercy is borderless. Jonah understood this later on because he was also able to let go of his biases against his enemies. Jonah let go of his prejudices against them and began to see life in God’s perspective.

    Indeed, the experience of Jonah teaches us how God shows His infinite and borderless mercy. In fact, it was not just the Ninevites who repented from their sins, Jonah also repented from his biases and hatred towards the people. This was how Jonah showed his growth as a person and as a prophet of God.

    In the same way, Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians brought this challenge not to be gripped and to be too attached to the things in this world. Though Paul did not say that everything we have in this life are unimportant, but, Paul brought out the essential aspect of what is to come. That is why, he said

    let those having wives act as not having them,

    those weeping as not weeping,

    those rejoicing as not rejoicing,

    those buying as not owning, 

    those using the world as not using it fully.

    For the world in its present form is passing away.

    Paul reminds us really of the danger to be too attached of what the world offers us. Our possessions and even our life itself is not ours. Again, making ourselves too absorbed with our attachments and fixations, deprives us to experience the fullness of life with others and with God. Thus, it is when we learn to give more emphasis on God that we also discover the boundless generosity and mercy of the Lord to us.

    This is the very story that we have also heard in today’s Gospel. The call of Simon, Andrew, James and John was a radical call to follow Jesus and to give more importance to God in their lives. As Jonah repented from his hatred and changed his perspective in God’s perspective, the disciples also turned away from their comforts in order to follow the Lord. By following Jesus, they too embraced a life that completely changed the course of their way of living from being fishermen into being missionaries.

    This is basically what Paul told us in the second reading – and that is in giving more importance to God’s offer to us. Remember, we can only do this and respond like the disciples when we also repent and change our way of life. Jesus, at the beginning of this Gospel, proclaimed, “Repent and believe in the gospel.”

    Indeed, these are the invitations for us this Sunday – TO REPENT AND TO BELIEVE in the gospel, in the Word of God made flesh.

    To repent is to turn away from our sins, as well us turning away from those attachments and fixations in us that are preventing us from growing to become mature in our relationships with one another and with God, and those that are preventing us to see life in the way God sees it to be.

    To believe in the Gospel is to respond with generosity and availability to God and to those who are in need of mercy. To believe in Jesus is also becoming dependent on God and in His providence that will allow us to embrace new perspective and fresh beginnings in life and to embrace change in our way of life according to God’s desire for us.

    May these invitations to repent and to believe, inspire growth  in us and bring us into the fullness of life with Jesus and with the Church. Hinaut pa.

  • HE IS OUT OF HIS MIND

    HE IS OUT OF HIS MIND

    January 23, 2021 – Saturday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/012321.cfm)

    Jesus is out of his mind. Surely, he must be. It will be very difficult to understand him, the way he thinks and the way he does things for others. Only a man like him, who never thinks like us, can only do those scandalous actions by forgiving the sinners, touching the lepers, eating and drinking with sinners and unlovable, and siding with the poor, with women and children, healing the sick and giving freedom to those slaved by the devil.

    This was what the relatives of Jesus believed that he has gone crazy. Jesus’ schedule became very hectic because people were drawn towards him. They even found it difficult to eat because of the people’s demand of him. Jesus would always welcome them and accommodate them. That is why, his relatives even thought of locking him up because “he was out of his mind.”

    At that time, they never understood Jesus’ actions and his ministry to the sick and in preaching the Kingdom of God. What they saw in Jesus was that he was merely a son, a nephew, a cousin to them. They failed to see and recognize at that time that there was more in Jesus, that his actions and his words were signs of God’s presence in them.

    However, the generosity of the person of Jesus, expressed through concrete actions of loving was madness in the minds of others. True enough, God has gone mad to love us. St. Alphonsus even said, “God is crazy for love.” God has come in the form of a baby, became human like us, suffered like us and died with us to show concretely to us the divine love that frees and gives life.

    May this madness in God to love us remind us always of that power of loving to heal, to forgive and to give life. Let that madness in God to love us make us in return madly in love with God too, to be madly in love with our commitments in life, to be madly in love with our passion to help others, to inspire and motivate others, to teach and nurture others. Hinaut pa.

  • 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.