Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Category: Christmas Season

  • In HUMILITY

    In HUMILITY

    January 5, 2025 – Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/010525.cfm)

    A man once asked a wise priest: “Father, how come unlike before God seems to be not talking or speaking to us anymore?” The priest replied: “It is not that God is not anymore talking or speaking to us. But rather it is that nowadays nobody are humble enough to stoop down to listen to Him. Nowadays…nobody… are humble enough… to stoop down … to listen to Him. Bihira nalang ngayong panahon ang mga tao na lumalapit sa Kanya na may pagpakumbaba upang marinig Siya at makinig sa Kanya. Niining panahon pipila nalang ang mapaubsanon nga nangaliyupo sa pagpaminaw Kaniya

    True enough that there are times in our lives that God seems to be silent and absent to us. But during those moments of our frustrations and hopelessness with God, perhaps it is better to consider not His seeming absence or silence, but rather perhaps that we have reach already too far and high in life that we don’t anymore get near and low enough to listen to Him. Siguro napakataas at napalayo na ng ating narating na hindi na tayo lumalapit at may pakumbabang makinig sa Kanya at marinig Siya.

    For the past Sundays, during Advent and these Christmas Seasons, we come to know a number of people who became involved in the birth story of Jesus and happened to encounter God and begun to know God’s will for them in life. Mary met God through angel Gabriel and became the mother of Jesus. Through a dream, Joseph became responsible foster-father of Jesus. Zecharias became the father of John, after meeting an angel in his old age. Elizabeth became pregnant with John also in her old age after his husband encounter with the angel. Shepherds saw and learned from an angel that God’s gift to all has been borne in Bethlehem and they became witnesses (godfathers’ or ninong) of baby Jesus. And now in our gospel, the three kings come to know where baby Jesus, God-promised they have been searching, through an omen of  bright-guiding star. All these people and their experiences are telling us that God had made Himself and His will know to them, and God will always continue to make manifest Himself and His will to us until now.

    Same way as before, we might experience once again God and His will for us now, if and when we honor our dreams, listen to God’s word and witness His works actions in us shown to us by his angels or messengers. God still continues to manifest or reveal to us in many ways through the faith and actions of our community and church as we share each other God’s word, good advice, kind and loving service with others, and responsible guidance and parenthood of our elders and leaders. Even in a special way for us Filipino Catholic, we sense God through our kalooban and pangdama. Kilala ko siya dahil dama ko Siya. Malapit ang loob ko sa kanyang salita at gawa.

    Today, in the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, marks the end of Christmas Season. Today is to remind us that more than about the three Kings, God is still making Himself and His will know to us. He is still reaching out and communicating to us in many many ways. He is still talking and speaking to us, like before. All we need to do is to be humble enough to stoop down to listen and be sensitive to Him and His ways of revealing Himself to us.

    Moreover, Epiphany also reminds us that once we become humble enough to sense, hear, and honor God and His will to us now, we must change our ways. After meeting the baby Jesus, the magi went back in their journey following different path. This would mean that once we listen and honor God’s will for us, life will never be the same again, for it has to change for the better. Simply, God’s revelations requires our humility to follow & obey His better plans for us.

    As we say goodbye to Christmas season, may we be more sensitive to God’s continuing revelations to us (His ways of making Himself and His will know to us) and be more humble & open enough to be changed and be responsible for the gift of life God is offering us now and always.

    So be it. Amen.

  • PARENTING 101

    PARENTING 101

    December 29, 2024 – Feast of the Holy Family

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122924.cfm)

    In every Wednesday novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help, one intention we pray is that we may learn to adapt to our growing children. Parenthood, as we all know, is not only about raising children but also adjusting to our growing children. Thus to parent a child is more than just caring for the growth of the children; it is also adjusting and learning in the process, as children grow in maturity and age.

    As Redemptorist missionary involved in parish, retreat, mission and migrant ministry. For many years, though not a parent myself, I came to be aware of the difficulties of parenthood. In as much as adapting to life-changes is difficult, how much more adapting to growing children. In confessions and counseling sessions with faithful people, I become conscious of the hurts & pains suffered by both parents and children alike in their difficulties with parenthood.

    Parents hurt by their children’s disobedience, i.e. going against their will; children blaming their parents for their misfortunes in life. All because of our limitations in parenthood. Parenthood indeed is not an easy task rightly so that we pray to OMPH that we may learn from our experiences of adapting to the growth of our growing children.

    Today, we honor the Holy Family, the family who parented the child Jesus. Our gospel tells us that like any other family, the Holy Family also experienced the difficulties of parenthood. Joseph and Mary followed the proper traditions of raising the child Jesus. They did their best. But as we all know, they also experience how Jesus became disobedient to them, going against their will.

    Surely parents here could relate with Joseph & Mary, and know the hurts, pains and anxieties they experience when children start to grow up and be on their own. Like my mother would say, when we, her children became independent from her, “Kung puede palang ibalik sa tiyan.” (If I could only bring you back in my womb…) It is the same way with the experience of a chicken hen that raises ducks as her chicks. When the duck-chicks, which by nature a swimmer, start to swim and float on a pond, the mother hen would be extremely worried because she cannot swim and she gets anxious that her chicks will get drowned.

    This is also what and how Joseph and Mary experienced parenting Jesus. When the child Jesus began to grow up in age & maturity, his parents also experienced the difficulties of parenthood. However, the Holy Family’s experience could teach us more about parenting, in view of adapting to our growing children.

    First, parenthood is a family matter, not only of parents. To parent a family is not only about the husband and wife tandem in raising their children but it is more on the dynamic teamwork between parents and children. If it was difficult for Mary and Joseph to raise and adjust with Jesus, it was also difficult for Jesus to grow up in his own family. In as much as being parent is difficult, we also know that growing up maturely (to be on our own) is difficult. If Jesus only obey his parents’ will,  we wonder: would we be able to benefit from and share with the salvation God has given us through Jesus, who did not remain a child of Mary and Joseph but become our Christ, our Savior? Surely Jesus had been an obedient Child to His parent, but above all, Jesus became an obedient adult Christ to our God, the Father.

    Second, parenthood is also about trusting in God’s way of raising and forming all of us His children. Inasmuch as we are tasked to parent to our little ones, raising and adapting to their growth, we must never forget that ultimately God is our Father – our ultimate Parent, and we are all His children. If we want the best for our children, God also knows, wants and does what is best for each one of us. God knows what was best for us when we were children, surely, he knows what is best for us when we become mature adult parent to His little ones. So trust and have faith in God’s will, in God’s way of parenting us.

    Photo from YoungCatholic.com

    To parent a child is to work together then with one another as family of parents and children as well as to work with and in deep faith and trust of God’s way of parenting us. Perhaps these days we consider:  “What kind of parent we have been? What is your parenting styles? Have you been a CARPENTER parent who designs, measures, builds up & wills what is best for your children? Or are you a GARDENER parent who prepares, tends, & cares for God’s child in you growing to be a blooming, budding & fruitful blessing for all, God intended our children to be? What need to be improved then, as we learn to adapt to our growing God’s children with us?

    Christmas challenges us Christian to be responsible parents of Jesus in our lives today. Parenting our growing children is also our way of being responsible to Jesus, God’s Word made flesh in us. As we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family, we pray that the Holy Family will continue to inspire all Christian families and communities in parenting our growing children. Amen.

  • Filled with Grace and Power

    Filled with Grace and Power

    December 26, 2024 – Thursday, Feast of St Stephen, First Martyr

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122624.cfm)

    Christmas is a joyful season. The music, decorations, the variety of food and the many gatherings during this season give the festive and joyous atmosphere. Yet, the liturgy today, just a day after the birth of Jesus reminds us how faith and commitment to the Word-made-flesh will make us a contradiction to many.

    Indeed, yesterday we celebrated the joyful birthday of a child and today we celebrate the cruel death of an innocent man. In some ways, the birth of Jesus led to the death of Stephen, one of the first deacons of the church and the first Martyr. Stephen was put to death because of his faith in Jesus, declaring him to be the glorious Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.

    St. Luke describes Stephen dying with two prayers on his lips. First, a prayer of surrender, “Lord, Jesus, receive my spirit.” Second, a prayer of petition for his executioners, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”

    When Jesus was dying on the cross, he had two similar prayers on his lips as well, a prayer of surrender, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” and a prayer of petition for his executioners, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing.” We can see that Jesus prays to the Father while Stephen prays to the risen Lord.

    Mary’s child is now the risen Lord and can be prayed to as we would pray to God. In the church, we often pray to the Father through Jesus, but we are also invited to pray directly to Jesus. Stephen died as Jesus died because he was “filled with the Holy Spirit.”

    We have been given the gift of the same Holy Spirit, and it is the Spirit who empowers us both to live like Jesus and to die like Jesus. On this feast of Saint Stephen, we pray for a fresh outpouring of that Spirit into our lives in this Season of Christmas that we may also be filled with grace and power like him. Hinaut pa.

  • ALTERNATIVE

    ALTERNATIVE

    January 7, 2024 – Epiphany of the Lord

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/010724.cfm)

    During confession, we also make an act of contrition by saying these particular words: “I firmly resolve, with the help of thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance & amend my life. Amen.” In saying these words, we are not only regret our mistakes but we are also making a resolution to change & improve our ways. Meaning, it is not enough just to be sorry of our mistakes, but we have to do something about our mistakes by doing our best because we know that we are much better than our sins, faults & shortcoming, and that God’s mercy is much better than our sins, faults & shortcoming,

    Making an act of contrition then reminds us that the Sacrament of Reconciliation is not only about being sorry for our sins, but moreso giving oneself & God a chance to do things right & do the right things for the better than we usually do. It is useless then to do monthly individual confession if & when we don’t change our ways & resolve to improve, but rather go back to our sinful & corrupt ways. Salvation is all about God’s grace in us rather than our sins. Reconciliation then is allowing God’s mercy & forgiveness work in us, rather than finding & counting our woes, sins, faults, mistakes, shortcoming & others. It is all about receiving God’s grace than accounting our faults.

    Today, we celebrate the feast of Epiphany. This is our celebration of our remembrance of God’s loving act of reaching out to us (God making himself known to us) and our acceptance of Jesus, as God’s self-revelation. We, Christians believe that God has given us His only Son, Jesus Christ, as His first gift to us for our salvation. By sharing us His Sons, we become related to Him and become His adopted sons and daughters, and sharers of His divine life. Indeed, Jesus is God’s greatest gift to us. God’s offer of salvation & our reception of Jesus into our lives give another alternative meaning, directions & ways in our life. Because of Jesus, we are blessed & graced by God

    Here in our gospel today, we are reminded us of what happened when the three kings found the child Jesus lying in the manger in Bethlehem. Guided by the star, in great joy, they saw the child Jesus and they did him homage. Their encounter of Jesus and the Holy Family in Bethlehem brought the three kings great joy for they have finally found what they are searching for. The birth of Jesus brought new promise & purpose, not only to the local Jews, but also  to  the migrant magis & to the whole world. With this, like us now, they are grateful, and offered their gifts in homage and thanksgiving to God’s greatest gift to all.

    But let us not forget that after they have witnessed & accepted the Son of God into our lives, they returned by a different alternative way. This is not because they were afraid of Herod, but because of their encounter with Jesus has also changed their lives. Because of their experience with the baby Jesus, their lives were never the same again. They did not follow the usual path, but they now tread an alternative way, perspective, and attitude to life. After they have recognized God in the child Jesus, the lives of the three kings were never the same again. The child Jesus brought them great joy as well as great changes in their way of life.

    The same with our experience of God’s mercy & forgiveness during confession. After celebrating the Sacrament of confession, we know deep inside that life now & ahead could & should not be the same again. We have to change our ways & paths. Like the three kings, we have to take an-other, an alternative path of life-journey, much better than our usual lifestyle. The usual King Herod-road to Jesus, our sinful corrupt ways are not anymore safe to tread through again. We cannot help but change our normal ways, or else we find ourselves again with our usual unhealthy drama, blame & excuses – away from God’s grace.

    As we are beginning a new year, we make an act of contrition. We give ourselves another chance to grow & do better than last year life. As we again receive Jesus, God’s greatest gift for us, let us diminish our tendency to account& highlight our mistakes & faults, but be more conscious of God’s grace upon at work in us. And above all, let us amend & improve our lives for the better than our usual normal ways, and seek a new – an alternative path, roads, & ways for God’s blessing to be always with us today & our near future.

    In other words: “We firmly resolve, with the help of thy grace, to confess our sins, to do penance, & amend our life.”

    Amen.

  • BY CHOICE than Adoption

    BY CHOICE than Adoption

    December 31, 2023 – Feast of the Holy Family

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/123123.cfm)

    How many of you here have experiences with adopted children? Be might you an adopted child yourself, or have adopted a child in a family as son/daughter, or brother/sister or relatives. Child adoption has never been an easy experience within the family. It entails a lot of adjustments and complications not only to the adopted child but also to the parents and the whole family as well.

    I remember once I counselled a couple who have no child of their own and have decided to adopt a child. As the child grew and eventually learned that she is adopted, they observed that their child becomes problematic and difficult. I advise them to try to take care of the child even more, as well as to acknowledge the child not as adopted- someone taken on, which connotes someone who is “sabit o sakay lang” but as chosen “pinili”, as someone they have chosen as their own among other abandoned children.  The child might not be their own but the child is whom they have personally chosen as their own. Essentially, the child then is chosen – the one they have chosen, not only adopted.

    Either by natural birth or adoption, as a child, we are not only taken and accepted but moreso Chosen “Pinili” by our own parents and family. Thus as parent, your child then might be or not be your own, but basically you choose your child. We are chosen children then, not only of God but also by our own fathers and mothers, and our own family as well.

    Christmas reminds us that God comes into our lives as a Child – not as fully grown man or as superman or as god, but as a poor child on a manger. For a child to live and grow, God’s child needs a human parent and family like any other child. Jesus Christ, God’s son has to be taken, accepted, adopted and above all chosen by human parents and family. He grew up then in, with, through his family who adopted and chosen Him to be their own. And In a Family Jesus was born, loved, lived and have grown as a Person. Not in a Monastery or Convent. Once I receive a Christmas card that say: “A child is born in our midst”. Well that’s okay because that is the core message of Christmas. But what made me suspect then was that card was sent from the sisters’ convent. Imagine sisters’ sending me a message that a child is born in their midst”. Me batang ipinanganak sa kanila. Hmmm??? Yes, God’s son has a family, a foster parents and family who chose Him to be their own.

    Today we honor the Holy Family, the very first family who welcomes and willingly accepts the Immanuel “the God with us” into our lives. Mary and Joseph are the very first parents who adopted and chosen the child of God Jesus to be their very own as member of their family. Our gospel today gives us a description on how Mary and Joseph do their best to parent the child Jesus into their own lives as they observe their own local cultural and religious traditions, while conscious of the mysterious unique experience of adopting and choosing God’s blessing into their lives. Yes, with Mary and Joseph they are and become a normal human family; but with the child Jesus, they are and become a HOLY family – now member of God’s family.

    Honoring the Holy Family on Christmas season posts the on-going ever-present challenge for us, like Mary and Joseph to adopt and parent Jesus, God’s child by choice into our lives now and always. By willingly accepting Jesus into our lives to be our own, part of our own lives as family and community, we come to know also that we also are and becoming God’s adopted and chosen children and people, part of His Holy Family. Sa ating pag-angking kay Hesus na ating kapamilya, tayo ay naging at maging ka-anak rin ng Dios at kamag-anak ng anak ng Dios. As we consider Jesus as our chosen family member, we are and become God’s children and Jesus family.

    With the Holy Family, this Christmas season, and the coming New Year remind us always that God comes to us as a Child, who can brings us a lot of joys as well as uncertainties, but above all another chance to live our lives for the better, as His willing chosen parent and family. Have a Grace-filled Christmas and New Year to all us. Amen.