Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Category: Easter Season

  • Gut-Felt Sense Recognition

    Gut-Felt Sense Recognition

    April 21, 2024 – Fourth Sunday of Easter

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042124.cfm)

    Once while giving a graduation speech, the Late-Philippine lady senator Miriam Santiago made a joke. She said… Beside the swimming pool, two girls are having this following conversation. G1 said to G2: Know what? You are going to float (Alam mo. Lulutang ka). G2 to G1: Why? Is it because I’m slim, light & sexy? (Bakit? Dahil ba, magaan, slim at sexy ako? G1 replied: No, it’s because you are Plastic (Dahil plastic ka).

    Funny & rude it maybe, but it tells a lot how do we distinguish a GOOD parent, teacher, friend, politician, leader, mentor or coach from a BAD one? How do we know if that person is real, true, authentic, deep, honest & trustworthy? How do we know that person is fake, shallow, liar & unreliable?

    Nowadays it is normal for us to suspect things simply because it is not easy to know whether it is real or fake. Because it is difficult to detect the authentic from artificial or plastic, the durable from disposable, nowadays we do tend to be suspicious of things & even of one another. Same way with our relationships with others. We rather suspect, doubt, and distrust one another, than believe and trust others because it is more challenging to distinguish who are real or fake, honest or deceitful, smart or shrewd.

    Jesus in our gospel today introduced and made Himself known to us as The Good Shepherd who knows His sheep and His Sheep knows Him, and who will lay down His Life for His sheep. As Jesus distinguished Himself from a Hired Worker who work only for pay and no concern for the sheep, he reminds us here that as OUR good shepherd He is a hands-on and committed caretaker/caregiver of His sheep who maintains a personal intimate relation with His sheep, and will commit His life to live and work with His fold in life.

    Be reminded the risen Lord reveals Himself In FLESH. In last Sunday gospel, as the risen Lord reveals Himself in the midst of the disciples, he showed and asked them to touch and see His wounded hands and feet.  The risen Lord then reveals Himself not as ghost but in flesh and bones with wounds.  The Lord has made Himself known to us as “Jesus with a Cross” – a risen Lord in wounded flesh and bones who struggles and sacrifices painfully yet victoriously in life who understands & feels with our own daily crosses in life. He is then our seasoned/experienced life-hero who, by letting us touch and see His wounds in Life -not His glorified body or His spirit, is now willing to shepherd, coach and journey us in & thru life.

    In other words, the risen Lord is Our Good Shepherd because He is hand-on and committed in making known Himself to us, journeying with us and feels  with & for us in our day-to-day humanity and struggles with joys, pains, and wounds of life. And We Christians proclaim that our risen Lord Jesus Christ is OUR good shepherd. We believe that He is our Shepherd, who knows and loves us personally. We also believe that we know Him personally for we His sheep know His voice & recognize His presence among us.

    Christ Holding a lamb.

    Particularly For us Filipino Catholic, we do have special or unique take in knowing our Good Shepherd. We know Him not only because Kilala  natin siya (Kaila ta niya) but because Dama natin siya (Bati nato Siya). Culturally gut-felt recognition is important to us. Like,… I may know you, but I may not feel you. I may feel you though I may not know you. (Kilala kita, pero di kita ramdam. Ramdam kita kahit di kita kilala). (Kaila ta, pero Koy pagbati nimo/ Bati ta ka, bisan dila ta Kaila) This is how we distinguish real from fake & how we discern good & bad.

    Same way as we Filipinos have this natural felt-instinct to recognize & felt-sense to distinguish the real from fake, to discern the good from evil, we also come to be familiar with & know more the shepherd’s voice through our gut-sense and feelings. We do come to know the risen Lord as our true Good Shepherd in life not only by our volition, consent & reasonings, but most of all through our sense & feeling perception (damdamin, pagbati at kalooban).

    By our sense-perception & gut-feeling insights, we come to know the risen Lord with us – in person & in flesh. Knowing the Shepherd is thus not only for us an intellectual or cognitive familiarity but more so a deep felt-sense knowledge and insight of His presence, love & blessing.

    We pray then that the Easter Season this year be our moment to enhance and improve our special felt-sense of knowing our True &Good Shepherd, so that we may not be gone astray from His fold but rather have a much deeper relationship with Him, and be always attuned with His will & plan for us now, especially during this Easter season.

    So Help Us, God. So May it Be. Amen.

  • BE PRESENT TO BELIEVE

    BE PRESENT TO BELIEVE

    April 7, 2024 – Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040724.cfm)

    Once a Catholic missionary tried to convince a young atheist to believe & accept God’s grace by faith in Jesus Christ through the Church. But the young man just said, “I will never believe until I have an experience of Christ.” And the missionary replied, “But you will never have an experience of Jesus in His Church until you believe in Him.”

    Nowadays, it is difficult for us to believe. We ask usually for signs, proofs, or evidences in order to trust somebody. We need some credentials in order for us to believe someone. We even say: “To see is to believe.” Many times, we claim, “We will never believe until we see it”. Others would say, “Show me the money first before I trust you”. Like Thomas in our Gospel today, we say: “Unless there are evidences (see and touch the nailmarks on the Lord’s sides), I will not believe”.

    The opposite of Belief is doubt. Doubt and distrust have indeed been a great stumbling block or hindrance in the growth of our Christian faith. Even Jesus had difficulty in preaching the Good News because of the people’s doubt and unbelief. And the same doubt and unbelief have caused the Lords’

    suffering, crucifixion and death.

    Usually we doubt by certain truths in our life because they are beyond our comprehension. Because we don’t understand them – they don’t make sense- that we doubt if what is presented before us is really true and sincere. So also, many at time in life, we struggle to find God in our signs and evidences, in our darkness and loneliness, in our comprehension and understanding that usually leads us nowhere but doubt and unbelief. But actually, doubt and unbelief happen whenever and because we are just asleep – not aware or not awake and present enough to recognize what has been presented right before us.

    This is what Jesus is trying to reveal and teach his apostles then and us now in our gospel today. As the community of disciples hid themselves asleep in fear for the authority, in shame for abandoning their master, and in hopelessness and defeat for the death of the Lord, Jesus, now the Risen Lord came and shown Himself to them, saying: “Peace Be with you”. Take note, Jesus reveals and presents Himself – make Himself known to them in order to tell them: “Not doubt but believe Him”, that is to wake them up from doubt, and to wake up their faith in Him again. The Risen Lord thus presents Himself before and in the Church to wake up our faith in Him anew so that we may experience God’s glory being offered to us once again.

    And He continues to reveal Himself again and always to us in our Church and whenever we are PRESENT in our Christian faith-community. Remember, Thomas doubted the risen Lord because he was absent – not there but somewhere else – when the Lord revealed Himself for the first time. In the same way, whenever we are absent with ourselves and with our community, we doubt and don’t experience Easter. But whenever we are present with ourselves and our community, we experience and believe in the Resurrection of our Lord.

    TURIN, ITALY – MARCH 13, 2017: The The painting The Doubt of St. Thomas in Church Chiesa di Santo Tomaso by unknown artist of 18. cent.

    “Believe the Gospel, believe in Him, Believe in Jesus Christ” has always been the core message of the Gospel. For us to experience the Good News of God’s glory in our lives always, all we are asked to do is not to look for evidences, signs or proofs but just to believe in Him who reveals Himself right before and in us, our community of faith.

    Without faith, we cannot comprehend and benefit from the greatness of God’s graces offered and can offer us now by the Risen Lord, as he makes Himself present in our Church and community.

    Remember Easter – the resurrection of the Lord happens to us that we.  “may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief we may have life in his name”. Faith in him, not fear, is what is required of us. Believe in Him, not Doubt is what is expected of us. Our repentance is not enough for God’s mercy is more about His healing, love, caregiving, peace, joy, & fullness of sacred life with God – far beyond His forgiveness of our sin. And for those who have believed the risen Lord here & now, much will be revealed.

    Joan Chittister, a known lady-theologian once said: “It takes a lifetime to really understand that God is in what is standing in front of us. Most of our lives are spent looking straining to see the God in the cloud, behind the mist, beyond the dark. It is when we face God in one another, in creation, in the moment that the real spiritual journey begins”. Very true, indeed, we do tend to look for something else while searching for God who is already right before and in front of us. In other words, Easter – the Lord’s resurrection only happens, makes sense and becomes meaningful to us, if and when we are present enough to acknowledge and believe in the Risen Lord as He reveals to us face to face, in front of us, in our Church, our community of believers.

    So, Don’t doubt but Believe the Gospel being and yet to be revealed to us in our community of faith. Be present as the Lord presents Himself & is present in our Church.

    So be it. Amen.

  • EASTER’s WITNESSes

    EASTER’s WITNESSes

    March 31, 2024 – Easter Sunday

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/033124.cfm)

    Today Christians proclaim to the whole world: “Alleluia, the Lord has risen, indeed. Alleluia.”

    Our gospel today proclaims that on that Easter morning, the apostles found the tomb where Jesus was buried, open and empty. Inside the burial tomb, though the burial cloths are still around, the dead body of Jesus is not there and nowhere to be found.  Strange it may be, finding the tomb open and empty, for the apostles it means that what Jesus preached them are true indeed: “Jesus Christ has risen”.

    On that very Easter morning, they gladly witness for themselves the Lord’s resurrection. There and then, they have seen and believed in Jesus’ promise and message of Hope to Life with God. On that day, they became dedicated believers and migrant missionary messengers of God’s offer of resurrection to life.  In effect, their very lives and our lives now change for the better.

    Easter always announces to the whole world a message of hope in life. Through the resurrection of our Lord, God has given and offers us anew Holiness of LIFE with Him. Easter proclaims that our life in the world today is and can be better and meaningful as we believe in the Good News that our Lord Jesus Christ has risen again into our lives today and always.

    There is hope then for a much better and meaningful life for the world now, as we Christians live our lives in faith with the risen Lord.

    Also for this message of Hope in Life to grow and flourish in our lives today, we Christians are challenged to bear witness and share our faith in the risen Lord to all nations. Like the disciples, our Christian witness of faith in the risen Lord makes us also migrant sharers and messengers of resurrection in life with God to all.

    As Peter proclaims, our witness of faith compels us Christians as chosen and commissioned by God to preach and testify to all nations God’s offer of new risen life with Him through Christ.  By our Christian faith-witness, we offer and share to our world today a message of hope for life with our risen Lord Jesus Christ.

    In one of his early homilies, Pope Francis once said: “Today’s world stands in great need of witnesses. It is not so much about speaking but rather speaking with our whole lives”. Here our Holy Father Pope Francis gives importance for us today’s Christians to be witnesses and messengers of Christ’s resurrection to today’s world.

    While in the midst of the world’s widespread culture of despair & death, we, Christians are blessed to have our faith in the resurrection of the Lord for us to share and offer to the world as alternative better way for the world and people’s life. Thus, it is our moral mandate and responsibility as Christian witness to share God’s offer of hope to life in our world today. 

    To be and have Migrant Filipino Catholics here & abroad today brings great opportunity for the world to witness (to taste and see) God’s offer of life with the risen Lord. While others may perceived it as social issue or concern, the reality of migrants and refugees in the world can be the chance for us Filipino Catholics to do our part in proclaiming and sharing our faith in the Lord’s resurrection to our world today.

    Same way as church persecution brought the Lord’s disciples to become migrant missionary messengers of Lord’s good news of salvation to all nations, our experience of migrations and refugees in today’s world gives us Christians also a chance to share our Christian faith to the world and with one another.

    Again Pope Francis appreciates the great potential of having and being migrants in our midst may offer to our world today. He said: “We ourselves need to see, and then to enable others to see that migrants and refugees do not represent a problem to be solved, but brothers and sisters to be welcomed, respected and loved.” Instead of dealing the reality as social concern or problem, Pope Francis invites us here to realize that having and being migrants and refugees with our lives can bring about a time of grace for inculturation and evangelization – for exchanging our faith with one another and sharing such Christian faith with others and to the whole world.

    Thus, having migrants and refugees with us obliges us to make Christ known to them by our welcome, love, and concern through our unique life of faith & culture. As well as being Christian migrants and refugees in a foreign culture calls for testifying and sharing one’s unique Christian faith to the new culture. And such sharing of faith and life-witness among us Christian both migrant and resident, make other non-Christians also witness (taste and see) the risen Lord in their own lives and our world today.

    Brothers and Sister, Christians as we are – resident or migrant we may be, we have a message of hope to share to the whole world. We proclaim to the whole world today: “Alleluia. The Lord has risen, indeed. Alleluia.

    May we never grow tired but be inspired and empowered to become migrant missionary messengers of God’s offer of meaningful life to our world today with the risen Lord. Amen.

  • GIFTED

    GIFTED

    May 28, 2023 – Pentecost Sunday

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/052823-Day.cfm)

    We do know how it feels to receive a gift from someone special. Receiving a simple token of gift and/or few words of call or posts from someone special could really make our day and even help us get through the day. Because we know behind each gift-received is not only the given-gift but also the giver of the gift, and the act of giving itself. Meaning, significant in receiving gift is more than just what we received but also the one who gave it and how it was given. (Gift-Giver-Giving) We really appreciate then even just the simple thought and action of gift-giving from someone special in our life. Such gift-receiving given by someone special could surely offer us inspiration, love and faith in our day to day life.

    For these coming three Sundays we will come to appreciate and value the Gifts of the Risen Lord to us now His disciples. Today, the Gift of the Holy Spirit, next Sunday is the gift of the Most Holy Trinity, and the Sunday after next is the gift of the His Body and Blood. These are His special gifts to us and inheritances for us to live through and persevere with our faith-life journey in our day to day lives as His witnesses to the world. Remember Jesus said: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”. The gift of Holy Trinity as our Way, the gift of the Holy Spirit as our Truth, & the gift of the Body and Blood is our Life.

    In the gospel today, we hear Jesus saying: “Receive the Holy Spirit”. Church tradition has it that fifty days after His resurrection (ten day after His ascension), on the day of Pentecost, the disciples received the promised gift of Holy Spirit to the church, and inspired them to speak in different languages to proclaim the Good News of God’s salvation. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, people from different cultures then and until now are able to speak, hear and understand each other’s faith in their own native tongues. Because of such experience, today marks the birthday of the Church – the day of birth, the day when the church becomes alive. The gift of the Holy Spirit is thus very essential in the life of the Church. Like a soul to a body, the church is dead without the movements of the spirit, as well as the spirit cannot inspire our faith-life without the church. We, the church needs the Holy Spirit to live as well as the Holy Spirit needs our Church to offer us salvation, meaning and direction in life.

    As we celebrate today Pentecost Sunday, the day when Lord has given us His gift of Holy Spirit & the birthday of our Church, we might ponder as well on the meaning of the Lord’s offer and gift of Holy Spirit into our lives now. In other words, what does it mean for us today to receive & live with His Holy Spirit?

    Receiving the Holy Spirit, first of all, is to be IN the Spirit of Jesus, for through the Holy Spirit we acquire the Lord’s inspiration and we are now In the God’s mind. In the Holy Spirit, we are also motivated by the Lord – mindful and inspired (i.e. In-spirit) to believe and follow Him in our lives today. Blessed are we then for through the Holy Spirit, we are one in His Spirit. Sa DIWA, tayo ay nasa kanya at Siya ay nasa atin. Sa diwa, kita Iya, ug ato Siya.

    Receiving the Holy Spirit is also to be WITH the Spirit of Jesus for through the Holy Spirit we enjoy the Lord’s love and we are now in the God’s heart. With Holy Spirit, we come to know love and to be in love, for He loves us in our lives. Beloved are we then for through the Holy Spirit, we are one in His Heart. Sa PUSO, tayo ay Kanyang kasama at siya ay kasama atin. Sa kasingkasing, kita Iyang kauban, ug ato Siyang kauban.

    Receiving the Holy Spirit is to be FOR the Spirit of Jesus too, for through the Holy Spirit we partake in the Lord’s mission, and we are now in the God’s will and way. For the Holy Spirit, we come to be steadfast and faithful in our missions in life, for He appointed and sent us to be His witnesses in the world. Encouraged are we then for through the Holy Spirit, we are one in His Will. Sa KALOOBAN, tayo ay para kanya at siya ay para atin.  Sa Kinaiya, kita alang Niya ug Siya alang nato.

    Like receiving a gift from special someone, receiving the gift of the HS offers us inspiration, love and faith in our daily lives. Blessed, Beloved and Encouraged are we then to receive the Holy Spirit – as our Advocate in our lives, for through the HS, we are in one Spirit, Heart and Will of the Lord. Kaisa sa Diwa, Puso at Kalooban ng Panginoon. Usa sa diwa, kasingkasing ug kinaiya sa atong Ginoo.

    Our liturgy today reminds us that the Lord has already given and offered, as well as, will continually give and offer us His gift of Holy Spirit. The challenge for us now is to invite & receive the Holy Spirit into our daily lives these days. Same as way as Easter season calls us to invite the risen Lord to “Come and Stay with us”, Pentecost challenges us to Invite and Be a Host to the Holy Spirit in our daily ordinary lives, and allow the Holy Spirit to bless, love and encourage us and in effect, Recreate, Renew and Recharge us always.

    As people of Lord’s resurrection and of the Holy Spirit, we now invoke and invite the Holy Spirit into our lives as we pray:

    Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and Enkindle in us the fire of your love. Send forth your spirit and we shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth. Amen.

  • LDR – Long-Distance Relationships

    LDR – Long-Distance Relationships

    May 21, 2023 – Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/052123-Ascension.cfm)

    For those who are into (LDR) Long-Distance relationships, especially with migrants who have lived and worked abroad away from our families and loved ones, separation and homesickness have been a constant struggle in their daily lives. Experiences of separation and homesickness are indeed never been easy to deal and content with in our journey through life. Difficult it may be, but we also know that our day to day wrestling with separation and homesickness could also provide us opportunities for growth in meaning and values in life. Because at times, in our separation and homesickness, we may become more in touch and conscious of who are most important people in our own life, and what, why and how are they valuable in one’s life. Separation and homesickness could be a chance for us to discover, claim and commit once again to what is important and essential in our own lives.

    At times in life, like “one cannot see the forest for the trees” we need then to detach, separate and be distant from our attachments in order to see and discover once again for ourselves the values, principles and meanings that are most dear to us now and in effect inspire us to move on forward with life. As Henri Nouwen would say: “What is most close, most intimate, most present often cannot be experienced directly but only with a certain distance.” In other words, separation and homesickness can move us to be more appreciative, responsible and hopeful in life. Thus, “Absence makes the heart grows fonder”. Ang mawalay nakakabusog rin ng puso. Ang mabulag makatambok pud og kasingkasing. This can be the upside of life-separation and homesickness.

    However, the downside of separation and homesickness is “Out of sight, out of mind”. Ang mawalay nakakawala ng landas at nakakasira ng ulo rin. Ang mabulag makasaag ug makabuang pud. If you don’t see, you don’t mind, and you even don’t care. Separation and homesickness can also render us directionless, meaningless and hopeless in life.

    Crucial then in our experience of separation and homesickness is the once-again & always search, giving importance and making a promise to our values, meanings and missions in life.

    Today, we celebrate the 2nd Glorious Mystery, the Ascension of the Lord. Tradition has it that forty days after the risen Lord appearances before his disciples, the Lord has ascended back to Our Father, leaving behind and separated away from us His disciples. This would mean that separation and homesickness share in our life as well as in our faith, as part of our life-story and our salvation history as well. Like the experience of the two disciples in Emmaus where the Lord appeared to them and then disappeared when they recognized Him, Salvation also requires the Lord’s resurrection and departure (His coming and going into our own lives) – that part and parcel of our faith and life story is the paradox of homecoming and separation, of the hellos and goodbyes. And during moments of departure and distance, separation and homesickness – though with a downside of pain, anguish & of losing direction, could also be the upside and opportunity to discover and claim once again what is importance and valuable in our life as well as what is our mission in life now, that is, our life-values and life-missions.

    Our readings remind us that in the Lord’s ascension, the Lord empowered and gave his disciples the task and mission to be His witnesses in the world, saying “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching them” with the assurance “I am with you always forever.” This explains why the Lord’s ascension is more than just about the Lord’s departure, separation and disappearances but more so about once again and anew finding, claiming, committing and fulfilling our life-missions.

    We pray then, that like the two disciples of Emmaus, may our usual departure and distance from our loved ones and the usual Lord’s departure and distance from us, move and inspire us to go on discovering and upholding our values, principles, and meanings in life, as well as fondly reclaim and actively fulfill our hopes and missions in life. Amen.