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Category: Saints

  • Having friends? Or being a friend?

    Having friends? Or being a friend?

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    May 15, 2020 Friday 5th Week of Easter – Memorial of St. Isidore the Farmer

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/051520.cfm)

    How many friends do you have in your Facebook account? Or in your other social media accounts? Certainly, those who have fb account or accounts have hundreds of friends. Others even have a thousand or more friends. Well, a Facebook account has a limit of 5000 friends. But, do we really consider every person there, in our account, as a “friend?”

    Today, the word “friend” is differently understood. Our friends in our social media accounts are actually our contacts. However, having those “friends” does not mean that we have a personal relationship with them. Perhaps, to some people, but mostly, we don’t, because among the thousands of friends we have, many can be are acquaintances at school, at work, business or during our summer vacations and trips.

    It has become so common to have such tendency to accumulate friends, to make and have friends, to be socially connected with others through the internet, and to be identified by the people to whom we make contacts.

    Aside from this, there is also another form making friends which can be toxic. It means that such form of relationship is only based on advancing one’s self-interest. Such form of friendship is commonly called as “alliance.” Such alliance protect and promote one another’s interest no matter how selfish and oppressive it could be. It does not look on how one will be able to give life to other in a self-sacrificing manner. It is inclined on what and how I could benefit, gain favor and advance my interests and agenda.

    Thus, we might have become more conscious of having friends, affiliate or make an ally ourselves with others rather than “being a friend.”

    To have friends and to be a friend have different natures. To have friends has the tendency to be self-absorbed, self-conscious and selfish because this attitude looks inward. However, to be a friend is an action that comes with commitment. It is self-giving and self-sacrificing. Hence, this attitude is other-oriented and life-giving.

    This is the kind of friendship that Jesus is talking about in the Gospel. Jesus calls each of us to be his friends. The friendship that Jesus offers is self-giving and self-sacrificing. Jesus commits himself to us as our friend. His commitment is summed up in his love for you and for me by offering himself to the cross on our behalf. 

    Thus, the friendship of Jesus is not about using us or so that he may get something from us. His friendship with us is about giving oneself. Through this friendship, he calls us as his friends, not slaves, not mere acquaintances or contacts, or allies.

    This is how we remember today St. Isidore, a Spanish Farmer who was a friend to many, to humans and to animals. His simplicity and hard labor became a way where he grew in his friendship with the Lord. It was said that he would always spend much time in the Church to commune with Jesus. And as the story about him circulated, an angel would instead plow the field while Isidore was in the Church. Other miracle stories became popular also as Isidore would give his bread to the hungry without running out of supply of bread.

    These stories tell us that such friendship with Jesus makes us more aware of the needs of others. Moreover, to become a friend of Jesus makes us a friend to everybody. With Isidore, he was a great friend who gave life to people and to the nature.

    St. Isidore, the Farmer (image from Aleteia.com)

    This is Jesus’ invitation to each of us now, that you and me will grow in that friendship with Him. Thus, we are called to develop our personal and intimate friendship with Jesus through our constant “chats” expressed through our prayers and this Eucharist. Friendship grows when we come to know each other both our pain and joys, failures and dreams. 

    And because this friendship gives life, our friendship with Jesus should also inspire us “to become real friends with others.” Yes, you and me who are friends of Jesus are called to be a friend of everyone and to express the same love that we have felt from Jesus by giving ourselves too, to “shout out” the goodness that the Lord has revealed to us and “to post what’s on our mind and heart” so that others may know and grow also in their friendship with Jesus.

    In times such as this pandemic, our friendship could be one of the best comforts we could offer to those who are distressed, anxious and in need. Thus, maximize also this Community Quarantine by making sure that you parents will become best friends of your children, and children to their parents, siblings to siblings, and to the rest of the people around you.

    So, friends of Jesus – go and be a friend to others!

    Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

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  • When Love liberates and empowers us

    When Love liberates and empowers us

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    May 14, 2020 – Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle 

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/051420.cfm)

    A friend of mine once shared to me why she became confused and distressed. She was restless and depressed because of a deep-seated emptiness within her. She felt unloved, rejected and worthless. Her parents separated when she was young, her father was so strict that she could not even express what she needed, her siblings treated her as if she’s not existing, at school she was bullied. She’s aware that she has a house to live, but she has no home where she feels being loved, supported and affirmed. This emptiness in her heart haunted her when she’s asleep even when she’s awake. Her life became so dry and meaningless. She does not know where to go.

    To feel being loved and affirmed is everyone’s need. Love gives brightness and meaning to our life even in the midst of suffering and much difficulty. That is why, when love seems absent, life becomes a horror. 

    This reality reveals the imperfection of our human relationships. Though our relationships are the source of our fulfillment and joy, yet, it is through our human relationships also that we find the deepest pain and frustrations because of rejection and at times betrayal. But, that is not the end of everything because even out of a messy relationship, something can grow.

    This is where we can find the presence of God. As God joined us in flesh in our history, God also dwells in our human relationships. Jesus was born into a family and gathered people and made them his friends. Within this context, Jesus experienced rejection as well as betrayal from people closest to him. Yet, despite this painful experiences, we also find redemption, we find forgiveness and find life.

    TODAY ON THIS FEAST OF ST. MATTHIAS, AN APOSTLE, OUR READINGS GIVE US THE COMFORT THAT WE ALL NEED WHEN ALL OUR HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS FAIL. WITH IT, WE RECOGNIZE THE NEED FOR REDEMPTION AND FORGIVENESS.

    In the Gospel, Jesus says to you and to me, “I love you!” John, who is believed to be the author of this Gospel and traditionally, as the beloved disciple,  truly felt the weight of this love. It was because of this love that made him to stand strong even in the midst of confusion at the arrest of Jesus. He followed Jesus on his way to be crucified. John was also present at the foot of the cross of Jesus with Mary and witnessed the death of his Lord. John was also the first to believe in Jesus’ resurrection upon seeing the empty tomb despite his confusion and fears. 

    However, aside from him, the rest of the disciples of Jesus were nowhere to be found. Judas betrayed his Lord and Master and killed himself. Peter denied Jesus three times. And the rest? They all fled and him themselves because of fear. However, the Lord never abandoned them. The Lord never gave up on them. The Lord will never give up on us.

    This is how we find the Gospel truly life-giving. Jesus says, “There is no greater love than this, to give one’s life for one’s friends; and you are my friends.” Jesus calls us his friends and nobody can take that away from Jesus. Hence, even with rejection, denial and betrayal, these will not make Jesus to withdraw from us. “You are my friends,” says the Lord.

    This is the same love shown by Jesus in the most concrete way, that the disciples were converted. They began to see their imperfection that though they were all unworthy, but Jesus remained faithful till the end. This is the love that made the disciples to become confident and daring. The love that they truly believed is life in itself for them. Thus, as a community, we believed that God first loved us and because God is faithful, God will always love us even if everyone and everything goes wrong.

    This love then, empowers the disciples. This is how we find the story of Matthias being chosen to be part of the 12 Apostles who were sent to continue what Jesus has started. Matthias became part of this apostolic ministry that proclaims the life of Jesus and the power of his resurrection.

    It is the same love that God tells us today. When rejections, betrayals and fears haunt us, when our relationships fail, and begin to feel unloved, then, Jesus tells each of us, “I LOVE YOU AND YOU ARE MY FRIEND.” God is totally in love with you and with me. Be assured and be confident in that love because His love is constant and faithful.

    It should be this same love that would hopefully lead us to see the light and joy even in the midst of suffering and pain in life, even in the midst of rejection and betrayal of people who are close to us, and even in the midst of worries and anxieties in times of pandemic. 

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    This love should also inspire us to respond in love, to express our love to God, to ourselves, and to others even to those who have hurt us and people we do not like. This is the commandment of Jesus, “love one another as I have loved you.” St. Matthias is a witness to this. This is the reason that he also committed himself to Christ that he may be able to give life to the Church even in the midst of persecution.

    Indeed, God’s love is liberating and empowering. This is how Easter becomes glorious because God’s love empowers and liberates. As we are being loved, we are also moved to love. 

    Loving and being loved certainly make our life worth living. Love gives us purpose and meaning in life and this becomes concrete as we continually reach out to others to express our love and show our kindness. Thus, hopefully, we may not become reasons for others in making their lives miserable and horrible because of our indifferent, childish and selfish desires and intentions.

    May I invite you then today, show your kindness to people around you in the most concrete way. Make that person feel being loved as God lets you feel being loved today. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

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  • Listen. Live.

    Listen. Live.

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    May 13, 2020 – Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima

    Click here for the readings (http://cms.usccb.org/bible/readings/0513-memorial-our-lady-fatima.cfm)

    Did Jesus just downplay the role of his Mother, Mary by saying, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it?”

    On this memorial day of Our Lady of Fatima, the Lord has actually reminded us how Mary, his mother, is indeed blessed. Mary is blessed among women not just because she carried Jesus and nursed him. Before Mary conceived Jesus, Mary listened to God. Mary welcomed the word of God proclaimed to her. By listening to the word of God, Mary observed it. Mary lived the word of God. 

    This is how Mary silently lived her life within the life of Jesus. And living in that life, Mary became life-giving for she is at the very source of life and of love.

    Hence, the conception of Jesus in the womb of Mary was made possible through her generous participation in the Divine Plan of God. Mary indeed opened her heart and welcomed God’s word. This action of Mary made God’s plan to be fulfilled in our history, through a human participation.

    As a consequence to that, Mary conceived Jesus in her womb. Mary became pregnant with God and brought the Immanuel in our midst.

    Today’s memorial of the first appearance of Mary in Fatima, Portugal in 1917 to the three children, Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta reminds us also of the blessing that we have received from God. Mary’s appearance would tell us of God’s presence in our midst. It is a reminder that God has not forgotten us. God is with us.

    Thus, the call to pray the Holy Rosary daily is a call to constantly listen to God. The Holy Rosary is not a mere memorized prayer that must be done dutifully. Rather, it must be done “prayerfully.” Doing the Rosary “out of duty” is not what Mary wanted because with that attitude, it will only make us tired and disappointed once we have not done it. The invitation is that the Holy Rosary becomes a channel for us to converse with God – in listening to God and listening to ourselves.

    During this month of May, children are being taught to pray particularly the Holy Rosary. Yet, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this annual religious gathering is also suspended. (Photo from Brgy Nabitasan, Iloilo City 2018)

    The repeated prayers in the Rosary and the mysteries attached to each decade are invitations to dwell deeper in the life of Jesus. In every decade, it is an invitation to see our life, and the life of our brothers and sisters within the life of Jesus recalled in every mystery in the Holy Rosary.

    The Holy Rosary then, is a form of making ourselves more aware of God’s presence and more attuned to God’s word, to God’s many invitations for us. 

    This is where we realize how “blessed” we are, because God speaks to us. We are invited to listen to Him and to live by the word of God as Mary, our Mother, did it.

    May Mary, the Lady of Fatima, teach us how to listen prayerfully and lovingly to God’s words revealed in the Holy Bible, in our Sacraments, in our relationships and in our daily affairs with the world. By living God’s words, we may find life then, and become life-giving to every person whose life we are able to touch today. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

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  • God is at work

    God is at work

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    May 1, 2020 – Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker

    Click here for the readings (http://cms.usccb.org/bible/readings/0501-memorial-joseph-worker.cfm)

    When the creation finished, we were told in the Book of Genesis, “God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good.” 

    What God has made reflect who God is. It means that God’s goodness and love overflows towards all creation precisely because God who is so good made everything on earth with love.  Yet, God did not stop working and creating after the creation. God continues to be at work in each of us and in everything. And it is God’s desire that we grow more and be transformed according to His Divine plan.

    This is an assurance then, that God’s work in us and in everything means God’s presence. In God’s presence, we shall find that even a dreadful disease such as COVID-19 has no match with a working God who desires for a world that experiences peace and joy.

    This tells us now of the beauty and the value of work. When we work, we give ourselves into what we are working. Hence, we do not merely extend ourselves to what we are working but it is ourselves in that very work. A masterpiece or any work of art, for example, reveals the personality of the artist, or the person of the artist himself/herself. That is why, God found everything very good because God is in each of us, and in everything.

    Today, we also celebrate the feast of St. Joseph the Worker and at the same time celebrating Labor day. This feast of St. Joseph who is the patron of workers and laborers reminds us of the dignity of labor or work and on how our work can serve God and be in service of others. 

    As a carpenter or craftsman, St. Joseph silently dedicated his every work to God. Most likely, as we do not have a direct account from the Bible, this was how Joseph also brought up the young Jesus.

    Indeed, Jesus was made aware of the value and dignity of work through his human experiences of labor with Joseph. Jesus learned to appreciate work and to realize how work affirms and develops a human person into what God desires us to be.

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    This Labor day reminds us too to give respect and honor to every workmanship. May this celebration also remind us of the struggles of those who labored and worked hard to earn their living, which include farmers, carpenters, constructions workers, janitors, garbage collectors, drivers, nannies, domestic helpers, vendors, police, office workers, teachers, nurses, doctors and other professionals and to be in solidarity with them.

    These days of Enhanced Community Quarantine as a protective measure against the COVID-19 Pandemic, work in most sectors of our community has been suspended. Those who earn daily and do not have the security of tenure and other benefits have been affected the most. They have to rely now on the help from the government and from charitable institutions.

    Furthermore, those in the medical field have more weight on their shoulders these days as an unfamiliar virus is infecting many. Many of them were infected too and unfortunately many died of the same infection.

    These days also, we rely on the knowledge and expertise of those in the medical science that through these scientists a vaccine will be developed to fight the virus and save us from this disease. And we pray, that it is progressing. 

    What we realize then, is how a particular work plays an important dynamism in the life of our community. Hopefully, we may also value our own work, whatever that may be and no matter how limited it has become in these days of Community Quarantine. May our work, our profession or ministry will become our own participation in God’s continuing work in us. 

    Mahatma Gandhi said, “It is the quality of our work that will please God, and not quantity.” Thus, God calls us too that like Him, we may give ourselves to what we are working because the quality of our work also reflects who we are. So, give the best in you. When you fail, make it a learning experience. And when you succeed, be proud of it and thank the Lord for the gift of work and for the gift of your person, who is fearfully and wonderfully made by God.

    May our work then, become an act of loving service to others and an act that multiplies goodness and kindness springing forth from our very person.

    With this, let us take confidence in God who is at work, who shall bring fulfillment to our heart’s desires. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

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  • Go and Share Jesus today

    Go and Share Jesus today

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    April 25, 2020 -Feast of St. Mark, the Evangelist

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/042520.cfm)

    St. Mark was converted to the faith by Peter, who journeyed with Peter to Rome and served as his secretary or interpreter. When St. Peter wrote his first pastoral letter to the churches in Asia, he called him affectionately as “my son Mark.” Mark is considered as the author of the Gospel of Mark. According to tradition, he was sent to Egypt and founded the Church of Alexandria. One day he was seized by pagan authorities, dragged by ropes over stones and thrown into prison and died as a martyr. (Source: ibreviary)

    Today is the Feast of St. Mark, believed to be the author or the person behind the Gospel of Mark. The Gospel of Mark is believed also to be the earliest Gospel among the four. One evident characteristic of the Gospel that would tell us about this, is that it is the shortest. The Gospel is more direct in telling the story of Jesus. There are less elaborations or if there are explanations, then, those are short and simple.

    This tells us too that the community of St. Mark to whom this Gospel was addressed had that consciousness to preserve the story of Jesus through writing. It is through writing, then, that the memory of the Risen Jesus will be preserved and will be handed down from one generation to another. True indeed, that memory has been preserved and we today, share that memory of the early Christian community.

    What actually moved them to do this? Or what made Mark to decide to write what had been told to him by his mentor St. Peter? 

    We will find the answer at the end part of the Gospel of Mark. Jesus said to the apostles, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.” 

    The followers of Jesus were now ready. They have become firm in their faith and so were all sent by Jesus to share and proclaim the joyful message who is Jesus himself. 

    Yes, the Gospel that they were about to proclaim is the person of Jesus, the God-with-us, who died and restores us through his resurrection. Mark being an assistant to St. Peter had become a witness of such joy. Mark himself experienced the joy of being with Jesus and being loved by the Lord just like Peter.

    This joy of being with Jesus is what made Mark and his community to write down their memory of Jesus so that others will also be able to experience the joy that they have tasted.

    Today, for all of us who have been the recipients of this great joy proclaimed to us in the Gospel of Mark, each of us is also called to “proclaim Jesus to every creature.” Each of us who have been able to experience the “goodness of God is called to to sing it for ever,” as our Psalm proclaimed to us today.

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    May I invite you then to be more aware of this invitation from Jesus – to go and share Jesus to every person we meet, to every creature that we will touch and encounter.

    Despite the physical distancing, the call of staying home and enhanced community quarantine, sharing Jesus to our brothers and sisters in the most concrete ways is still very possible. Expressing concrete actions of kindness and generosity to your neighbors in need is a way of sharing Jesus. Comforting an anxious and troubled friend is a way of making Jesus alive too. We do share Jesus not just as a mere memory of the past, but making Jesus alive in flesh through us. Thus, go and share Jesus today! Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

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