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  • The Cathedra: A Symbol of Service and Self-Giving

    The Cathedra: A Symbol of Service and Self-Giving

    February 22, 2025 – Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, Apostle

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022225.cfm)

    Today we celebrate the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter. Yes, what is being revered is the “chair” or the cathedra of our first Pope. This feast reminds us of the importance of our unity with the Bishop of Rome, now under the leadership of His Holiness, Pope Francis.

     

    As Catholics, let us pray for our Pope, to always remember him in our prayer. When he was elected as Pope, the first thing he asked to the people was to pray for him. Let us continue that for he indeed needs our constant prayer so that Christ may always give him the strength and that the Holy Spirit may guide him and bless him with wisdom.

     

    These past few days, Pope Francis has been in difficult times due to his illness. Countless Catholics are praying, and we join this multitude of people, praying for the healing and recovery of Pope Francis. Yet, even in this struggle, the Pope remains a beacon of hope for us. He constantly reminds and shows us that “faith is not about fear but love; that leadership is not about power but service.”[1]

     

    Being true to the mission given to Peter, Pope Francis continues what has been entrusted to the “cathedra of the Pope,” that it is of service and self-giving.

     

    As members of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, let us also support the Pope’s initiatives and his pronouncements in building closer relationships with all our brothers and sisters across the globe that is in showing mercy and compassion. This is very evident in the ministry of Pope Francis and how he expressed his closeness with all the suffering.

    Moreover, for us individually, the story of Simon’s confession to Jesus posts a call and a reminder to us. Let us closely look a bit into the attitude of Simon Peter and his relationship with Jesus.

     

    Simon was quite hesitant, doubtful and sometimes inconsistent. In the scriptures we find him having doubts as he was invited by Jesus to walk on water. He was also called by Jesus to get behind him because he refused to believe that Jesus should undergo suffering. He ran and hid himself when Jesus was arrested and even denied him three times when he was questioned by the people.

     

    However, what was redeeming for Simon was his “openness” to the invitations of God to him. This explains to us why he immediately followed the Lord when his brother Andrew brought him to Jesus. This openness of Simon allowed him to intimately recognize and know Jesus in the most profound way. That is why, when Jesus asked his disciples about their perception of him, it was Simon who was so bold in professing that Jesus is the “Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

     

    Simon did not depend on others perception of Jesus who might have thought that Jesus was merely a teacher or some sort of magician. Simon had a personal encounter with Jesus and recognized the Lord.

    Though Simon was an imperfect disciple but God revealed himself to him because Simon was open to God. And thus, Jesus called him to follow and to serve him in the best way he could serve God. This attitude of Simon earned him to be named by Jesus as Kephas or the Rock, a responsibility given to him by the Lord to lead the Church.

     

    This is the message for us now. God knows that each of us is not perfect, yet, our God calls each of us to accept certain tasks in our community. We don’t have to be perfect to be a youth minister, an animator or coordinator, or lector, server, or religious or priest etc. Remember, God never called perfect people. God choose the wounded, the broken, the weak, the fearful and doubtful, the imperfect ones to become His friends and fellow workers.

     Like Peter, God sustains us, he strengthens us and transforms us into mature, faithful and joyful persons if we are also open to God’s call and invitations. We may learn how to open ourselves to God and to be more accepting of his invitations to each of us. Jesus assures us that when we put our trust and faith in him, he will never leave us and will always be with us. That is his promise. Hinaut pa.

    [1] Niere, Harvey Malmis, (https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15hJv2J3VT/).

  • Babel and the Tower of Human Arrogance

    Babel and the Tower of Human Arrogance

    February 21, 2025 – Friday Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022125.cfm)

    A person who excessively seeks self-importance, attention and recognition from people at the expense of others creates a toxic environment at home, at work, at school or in any relationship the person has with others. This behavioral pattern may develop into a disorder such as the Narcissistic Personality Disorder[1] in which a person also lacks the ability to understand or care other people around him or her.

    However, the overwhelming confidence behind this façade is the unsure self-worth and self-value, thus, insecurities when faced even with slightest criticism from others.

    Moreover, it is in fact very important for our own development and growth in self-confidence to seek and receive affirmations from others. Yet, what we need to learn as well in order to find balance is to have the ability to feel for others, the capacity to care and extend ourselves for others or for the sake of others. It is when we become so contained and exclusive that we become toxic in many aspects of our life.

    With this in mind, let us discern how the Lord also makes us remember the dangers of such attitude in our heart and to where God is leading us to learn.

    The story we have in the Book of Genesis today, speaks of the human tendency to be proud and arrogant. The tower of Babel tells us of this human aspiration to be powerful and become like God. The people at that time said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and  tower with its top in the sky, and so make a name for ourselves.” Yet, this made the people to be exclusive and arrogant.

    They wanted a name for themselves so that they will be looked up and praised. However, this exclusivity made them incapable of following what God wanted. Earlier, God told Noah and his children, “Be fertile, then, and multiply; abound on earth and subdue it.”

    Indeed, the tower of Babel expressed earthly power and riches. Humanity believed that these things were enough for them to make a name for themselves and become powerful like God who created the world. Hence, as those who built the city and the tower, became exclusive, they also refused God’s command to fill the earth.

    The people decided to just stay in that place, in that city and to not anymore share their knowledge, experiences, graces and riches in other parts of the earth. They have become comfortable and well settled to the point that they did not want to go out from their comforts.

    However, it was said that the Lord had seen this and realized as well the evil intentions in the hearts of the people. This was the reason why the Lord scattered them by confusing and dividing them. When they spoke differently, people did not understand and did not care to understand each other.

    From here, we realize that our human efforts and aspirations when they only come from greed, pride and arrogance to become great and powerful are certainly worthless. Our mere human success, wealth and power are not the keys to be great in the eyes of God, but in our capacity to be give and be for others.

    This brings us now into the message of the Gospel today. Jesus expressed a way of life that was different from the people who tried to build a city and the tower of Babel. Jesus tells us that to be a true disciple of him is not about boasting oneself, of our successes in life, of our influence and power over others.

    A true disciple, rather, is a person who denies himself for the sake of others, who carries his own cross and follows Jesus. A true Christian is a person who remains humble before God, who recognizes his/her smallness and dependence, yet, also embraces the presence of God who gives him/her the strength to carry the cross.

    Let us remember, that human effort and strength and our successes in life are not evil. In fact, these are gifts from the Lord and not reasons that we become greedy and self-righteous. What we have received, achieved or accumulated in this life give us the opportunities to be able to share our gifts, talents and ourselves to our community.

    This calls us now that our families, groups, organizations, and communities become inclusive and welcoming. Indeed, to be inclusive and to be hospitable are natural to a Christian home, to a Christian organization or community. May that spirit lead us to give, to share and to reach out even to those who are different from us. Hinaut pa.

    [1] https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/narcissistic-personality-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20366662#:~:text=Narcissistic%20personality%20disorder%20is%20a,want%20people%20to%20admire%20them.

  • The Sign of God’s Covenant  

    The Sign of God’s Covenant  

    February 20, 2025 – Thursday Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022025.cfm)

    When I was assigned in Sumba Island in Indonesia in 2014, it was my first time to see a double rainbow in the sky. And it did not disappear immediately. I was so amazed because most of time there would only be one rainbow and would just easily disappear after few minutes.

    This phenomenon is due to the reflection of the sun to the raindrops in the sky. And as the sunlight reflects twice in a raindrop, thus, creating another reflection above the primary rainbow.

    Today, the rainbow has also become a sign of pride, unity and diversity of the LGBTQ+ community. Yet, at the very beginning, as to be found in the Holy Scriptures, it was God the Creator who first made this bow from above, which now we call as rainbow, as a sign of God’s covenant and faithfulness to us.

    Let us explore a bit our readings today, and discern how God invites us to grow in our relationship with one another, with the whole created world and with the Lord.

    In the story of Noah, we have heard how the Lord renewed the covenant with the whole human family. The Lord God still sees hope in us. And the wonder of this renewal of the covenant with God, as God says, “I am now establishing my covenant with you,” carries with it the call and responsibility to nurture, cherish, develop and give life.

    What does it mean? As the Lord renews the covenant, God also demanded an accounting for the life of every animal and every human life. This is not a threat from God but rather the Lord wants us to value every life. This is how the Lord wants us to flourish and discover the wonder of life here on earth and be embraced by life itself through the whole creation of God. Every creature of the Lord reflects God’s goodness and love and every human being also reflects and carries God’s image.

    In this way, we understand the call to be fertile and multiply within the context of life, in nurturing, cherishing, developing and giving life. This calls us to defend life from anything that will suppress life, abuse life and destroy life.

    The very covenant that we have with God is a testament of that life and promise of the fullness of life. The rainbow is not just some ideological color, however, it is a biblical sign of God’s presence among us, a sign of life and a sign of renewal.

    This calls us further to commit ourselves into that covenant with God so that we too shall become cooperators of God’s action and presence in the world in bringing and giving life, in recreating and renewing our community.

    We can fully express this in our homes, communities and organizations, and into our relationships. Every time we give hope to those who are hopeless, every time we give a helping hand to those who need it, every time we give more attention in taking care of animals and of nature, every time we defend and nurture every human life – these are simple ways of expressing that covenant and call to give life.

    In a way, the Gospel today tells us also how Peter recognized the fullness of life in Jesus as he confessed that certainly, Jesus is the Christ. However, after realizing that Jesus is to be persecuted, will suffer and die, Peter retreated from his commitment to be with Jesus, the Christ.

    Like Peter, if we confess that Jesus is the Christ, our Lord and Savior, then, this implies commitment and risk. After all, when we commit ourselves to somebody we love, risks and sacrifices are implied.

    As we embrace the covenant God made with us, may we come to fully commit in that relationship with the Lord. Let us therefore, allow our human relationships and relationship with the rest of the created world to be fertile where we can multiply love and multiply life. Hinaut pa.

  • Be Grateful! Be Generous!

    Be Grateful! Be Generous!

    February 20, 2025 – Thanksgiving Mass (Baccalaureate)

    Mt 7:7-11

     

    A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew.

     

    Jesus said to his disciples:

    “Ask and it will be given to you;

    seek and you will find;

    knock and the door will be opened to you.

    For everyone who asks receives;

    and the one who seeks finds;

    and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

     

    Which one of you,

    would hand his son a stone

    when he asked for a loaf of bread,

    or a snake when he asked for a fish?

    If you, then, who are wicked,

    know how to give good gifts to your children,

    how much more will your heavenly Father

    give good things to those who ask him,

    do to others what you would have them do to you,

    this is the Law and the Prophets”

    I would like to ask you first to look at the person beside you now, on your right and on your left. Look at that person and say “thank you.”

    It is just fitting for us to say thank you to people around us; especially, to you graduates, to be grateful to people who have been part of your journey as students. And so please take time to express your gratitude to your friends and classmates, to your teachers and the non-teaching staff of this university, to your nanay and tatay and your brothers and sisters here in the Chaplaincy, to your parents and siblings, and of course to God the source of all wisdom and knowledge.

    Now, as you go forward in life with your different paths and career; you will have a new environment, new people to meet, new experiences to behold, new realizations and discoveries that will mold you and mistakes and failures that will continue to teach you lessons.

    As you go forward, I want you to remember always to have an attitude of GRATITUDE, of just being thankful as a person. So, if I would ask you, “With all the pains and joys, successes and failures, sins and graces, how grateful are you today?”

    GRATITUDE makes us see what surrounds us, both the good and the bad. GRATITUDE also allows us to be embracing and accepting of the things and people around us. It is when we are grateful too that we become joyful persons. We shall see the goodness and uniqueness of others. Through this joy within us, we also become aware of God’s tremendous generosity to us despite our weaknesses and sins. In fact, this is what we recognized in our Responsorial Psalm, “We are nourished by the hands of the Lord.” The Lord indeed, is generous and provides what we need.

     And so, as we express our thanksgiving today on this special day of your life, remember that when we become joyful, we also become generous of ourselves towards the people around us, no matter who they are, whether they are our friends or strangers. Such acts of joy and generosity are expressions of a heart that is filled with gratitude.

    However, if our heart is without gratefulness but rather bitter, hateful and vengeful because of our personal failures and failures of others towards us, then, we become close-minded, rejecting, and vicious in the way we relate with one another and even in the way we relate with God.

    And so let us discern together how the Lord invites us today to grow in this confidence of being grateful particularly as we grow in our Christian faith and in prayer as our way of life.

    In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus tells a parable to his disciples that basically highlights the attitude of persistence in prayer. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For the one who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to him who knocks the door will be opened.”

    Jesus tells us of the generosity of the Father and of His availability for us. It signifies that God wants to give what is best for us and what is wonderful for us. Yet, what Jesus tells us should not be misunderstood also. We might think that we can just ask anything we want according to our selfish desires.

    True prayer keeps us away from our selfishness but brings us closer into God. This means that this relationship found in our prayer is a process of letting go of ourselves and letting God to work in us. This can be possible when we also learn to ask, to seek and to knock. This is an invitation for us to grow in confidence with God despite the many uncertainties that we may face in life, whether in our relationships, in our personal struggles, in our work and in any endeavor we are in at the moment.

    Thus, ask the Lord but we can only ask the Lord once we know what we desire. Hence, name what you desire. Name your problems to be solved. Acknowledge your concerns and recognize your issues. Only then, that we will be able to allow God to work in us.

    Moreover, Jesus would like to remind us that in these many areas of our life they also require more than asking. We too are in need to seek. This means that prayer is also a form of searching what is hidden or what remains undiscovered in us. To pray is not about searching God but to seek ourselves and to let God find us.

    Thus, seek for a deeper insight, seek for understanding and wisdom because God answers us not outside of us but within our own context, experiences and relationships.

    After such understanding and unfolding of mysteries in our life, we also want to move on, to go forward to where God is leading us. This requires now the attitude of knocking, which means seeking entrance, to enter into it. We might have realized that we have been so hurt by a loved one or a friend who betrayed us. And the pain that we have experienced made us inaccessible, scared and resistant to forgiveness. Now, Jesus tells us to knock, to look for an opportunity to take the risk of entering. Indeed, knocking a door is a risk because knocking here does not only mean one knock but a persistent knock repeated many times until the door opens for reconciliation and peace.

    The Lord in his mercy wants us to exercise our freedom, that we can make a choice for ourselves. To knock God’s door will lead us to many opportunities for growth, for peace and freedom. Jesus assures us that as we come before God to boldly and persistently knock, it shall be opened to us. God would willingly and lovingly open his door of forgiveness and affection to embrace us and to welcome us.

    In this way, we become children who are transformed into the likeness of Jesus, who will not throw tantrums when we do not get what we want just for our selfish reasons, but children who are fully aware that God’s desire for us is far better than our own.

    Therefore, as we ask, seek and knock may these become the very attitudes of our heart so that it will be molded into a grateful heart that finds God’s abiding presence and faithfulness in our life.

    Let us be more grateful then of the gifts and blessings that we have already received each day, no matter how small that would be. But if we have received so much also, be more thankful and be more generous.

    Remember, a grateful person is a person who goes forward, because when we are grateful we also become contented of the present, whatever there is. We also become reconciled with the past, whatever that was. And we become hopeful and positive of the future, whatever there will be. So, be grateful as you go forward by building and cherishing your relationships with your family and friends and people whom you will meet along the way of your journey. Be grateful and be generous! Hinaut pa.   

  • Seeing but not Recognizing

    Seeing but not Recognizing

    February 19, 2024 – Wednesday Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021925.cfm)

    Have you ever experienced searching for something yet could not find it? After a while, that object was actually right in front of you. You must have seen it but was not able to recognize that it is was what you were looking for. Perhaps, as you were walking on a street, a friend met you and greeted you, yet, you were unresponsive. You’ve seen the person but was not able to recognize that it was a friend of yours.

    In medical term, it is called as “agnosia.” This is a disorder of which a person sees an object despite the normal vision but cannot identify what the object is. In particular, this is called as “visual agnosia.” There is also so called “auditory agnosia” of which we heard something but cannot recognize what it was.

    In psychology, this is referred to as “inattentional blindness.” This means that we fail to notice or see something within our visual field because our attention or consciousness is so focused on something or somewhere else. This also applies to our hearing. As a result, we become absent-minded and out-of-focused.

    In our Christian faith, this can also happen. And this is best described in today’s healing story of the blind man in the Gospel of Mark. Jesus who took the blind man by the hand and brought him outside of the village performed the healing. Jesus has to do it twice for the person to see and recognize clearly. The man’s eyes were healed at the fist attempt yet, cannot distinguish between people and trees, thus, a “spiritual agnosia”. And so, for the second time, Jesus touched his eyes then his sight was completely restored.

    What the man received was not only physical healing but also spiritual healing. This means that he was both blind physically and spiritually. As he was healed and restored completely only then that he recognized the Lord’s face in front of him. Then, he was told not to go back to the village of Bethsaida.

    The actions in this healing story are filled with spiritual insights and so, let us take them one by one. Jesus needed to take the blind man out of the village and later told him not to go back. Bethsaida was a symbol of a place of evil, sin and rejection of God’s presence. Jesus was not accepted there.

    Hence, in order for the man to be freed from his illness, he too needed to be freed from that place that made him blind. He was told not to go back but to go home, so that he won’t be able to go back to his old cycle of darkness and sin.

    Jesus also allowed his disciples to witness this event to make them realize of the importance not just of our physical sight but also of our spiritual insight. The disciples actually struggled and found difficulty at recognizing of the wonders that Jesus did. They remained anxious on what to eat even though Jesus fed five thousand people. They were troubled when things got rough and difficult even when Jesus was with them in the boat. At this time, they were still figuring out who Jesus really was. Indeed, they too were blind, spiritually blind because their hearts were still filled with fear, anxieties and doubts. Hence, they too had spiritual agnosia.

    Yet, Jesus remained patient just like with the blind man, until such a time they too received the spiritual insight and recognized that God was with them all along.

    This calls us now to ask for the grace of spiritual insight. This begins by humble owning and acknowledging the beliefs, attitudes or experiences that continually bring us into darkness and sin.

    Indeed, we may have a perfect physical vision and some may have blurred vision and so the need of eye glasses, but most importantly, may we too have a perfect spiritual sight to see and recognize the Lord, his gifts and manifestations. Hinaut pa.