Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Category: Saints

  • Trying to Touch God

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    October 28, 2020 – Wednesday, Feast of St. Simon and St. Jude, Apostles

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102820.cfm)

    Homily

    When we get sick, we normally ask others to help us so that we feel better. Though others would self-medicate, but still reach out for some remedies when one feels sick. We usually seek the company of others too when we are bombarded with problems. Others who feel shy to ask help or feel awkward in reaching out to friends, deal with their own problems. When problems and issues become overwhelming, this result to unhealthy coping like alcoholism, drug abuse, self-isolation and depression.

    This tells us of our humanity and of that longing to be connected, be supported and be helped. And because others find it difficult to seek proper help or address in a healthy way their problems and issues, then, they tend to disconnect from others and retreat into isolation. This unhealthy reaction could have been influenced by a person’s upbringing or because of an unsupportive and indifferent environment within the family or workplace. Yet, despite such environment, people would manage to cope though sometimes in unhealthy ways.

    Today, as we celebrate the feast of St. Simon called the Zealot and St. Jude the son of James, we too are reminded of our desire to be helped, to be healed and to be free. The two are one of the twelve chosen by Jesus after his intense praying. Jesus, indeed, prayed to the Father, before he called the twelve men to become part of his ministry to heal and give life, to known God’s presence and to live in God’s presence.

    Moreover, these two, Simon and Jude proved that their encounter with Jesus changed their entire life. Their ordinary life became extra-ordinarily wonderful though challenging. In fact, Simon who was called “Zealot,” believed strongly in the importance of following the Jewish law. In his search and effort to become righteous, he encountered Jesus and realized that the Lord is the very fulfillment of what he was trying to follow. Jude, also known as Thaddeus, is a patron of desperate people, of those who feel there is no one else to turn to. Jude earned this because of his witness to Jesus that despite his fears and inconsistencies, he allowed the Lord to transform him.

    These two apostles must have been part of the many people who followed Jesus and wanting to touch the Lord. The people were trying to touch Jesus because they wanted to touch God and be healed by the Lord. This desire of the people revealed that human longing to be connected, be supported and be healed by God.

    Power abundantly came out from Jesus because he has so much love for us, so much compassion for all of us. Thus, all those who were seeking to be healed and be freed and have life, were given the grace. This ministry was shared by Jesus to his apostles. Each apostle became a living presence of Jesus to others that others too experienced God’s wonder through them.

    This is also the call and invitation for us today that as we face our own issues and problem in life, concerns and struggles, let us also try to touch the Lord. Certainly, God invites us to touch him and God even waits that we touch him because this will mean that we allow the Lord to heal us, to make us free and to transform our life.

    We will surely be able to touch God when we also begin to open up ourselves and recognize that we need help and we need others to help us. We will be able to touch God when we sincerely and consciously approach the Sacraments in faith. We too are able to touch the Lord when we become more aware of ourselves and aware of what others are also struggling in life. As we touch God and allow the Lord to touch us, we may also truly experience a healing encounter with God, in both of our mind and body, so that we too will in return be part of the ministry of the apostles in brings to Lord to others. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

  • Influences

    Influences

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    October 16, 2020 – 28th Week in Ordinary Time

    Feast of St. Gerard Majella, Redemptorist Brother and Patron of Mothers, Parents-to-be and their Infants

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101620.cfm)

    Homily

    A wise man once said, “Never underestimate our power of speech. It can make life better or bitter”. True indeed, the words we use, either written or spoken, for better or for worse, can affect and influence us & others. Like, better or bitter. Simple play of spelling and pronunciation may invoke both courage and discouragement, can be empowering as well as alarming, and may connote many meanings and messages. That is how powerful our words are. They can influence LIFE (yours and mine) for better or for worse, better or bitter.

    Along with these words is also a warning that we should also be conscious of our influences, i.e. – either by words or action, we should be careful on how others are influencing you and on how you are influencing others as well. Nowadays, by the words you post, comments you made, posts you shared, you are already influencing others. And the vloggers, life-coaches, and so-called influencers you follow, the book you read, the movies & news you watch are already influencing you. That is why we should be conscious and careful of our influences, and be cautious of our words for it can make or break our lives.

    This is what Jesus warns us in our gospel when he said: “Beware of the leaven – the hypocrisy- of the Pharisees”. For Jesus, we should be conscious of the many influences in our lives – and should prefer to choose the life-giving and encouraging influences that recognize our worth and value before God, over and against soul-crushing and life-breaking worldly influences in our lives. Here, Jesus challenges us to direct and allow our minds, heart, life and soul to be influenced by God’s grace & spirit rather than be influenced by rigidity and oppressiveness of our earthly hypocrisy of human laws and practices.

    Same way with Paul. He believes that God has a better plan for each and everyone of us, but it can only happen in our lives, if and when we allow God’s will and plans to influence our very lives rather than be influenced by the soul-crushing, demanding, and life-breaking influences of our world nowadays.

    Consider St. Gerard. In our Redemptorist house in Caposele, Italy where he lived until his death, you can find at the very door of his room a wooden signage posted by St. Gerard that says: “Here the will of God is done, as God wills, and as long as God wills it.” These words represent the very orientation and spirituality that influence the life & faith of St. Gerard, which is God’s will. For him, Everything (life here & now, has been, & will be) is all about and centers on God’s will. All that has happened, is happening & will happen is a chance-encounter & a fulfillment of God’s will, according to God’s plans & ways, and in accordance with God… rather than of ours, & by ours. These words are reflective of St. Gerard’s single-minded devotion to God & his straight forward messages & influences to all those he has ministered and shared his witness of faith and life.

    Again like our power of speech, let us be cautious then of our influences on others & influences in us of others, for it can be life-giving or life-breaking. And like St. Gerard may our influences be of God rather than of men, be for the better than for worse, be for the better & not for the bitter. Amen.

    By  Fr. Aphelie Mario Masangcay, CSsR 

  • Painful and Negative Experiences Can Be Opportunities For Growth and Freedom

    Painful and Negative Experiences Can Be Opportunities For Growth and Freedom

    October 16, 2020 – Feast of St. Gerard Majella,CSsR – Redemptorist Brother

    Click here for Readings – Feast of St Gerard MajellaDownload

    Homily

    When we experience rejections and deprivations in life, is it not that we also experience discouragements? And when there is a series of tragedies happening in our life, we would certainly feel desperate and begin to have a sense of hopelessness. A possible reaction could be self-blame, or blaming others or blaming God because of the unfortunate events in our life. This is a possible reason why there are people who would yield to a very low self-worth and low self-esteem because of such negative experiences. For others, this leads to desperation, depression and chronic loneliness. Others too would go to the other side that leads to a life filled with bitterness and then to that desire to always seek recognition, acceptance, and satisfaction. To compensate what had been deprived, what was lost or lacking, the person may seek them in many ways. When these desires remain unconscious and become unsatisfied, the person turns to be selfish, corrupt and abusive in his or her relationships.

    However, negative experiences can also become opportunities for us to grow more as a person and into how God desires us to be. Our painful experiences of rejections, deprivations and even traumas in life are also doors that will lead us into a life filled with confidence, meaning and freedom.

    This possibility of living life fully is the life shown to us by St. Gerard Majella whose feast we celebrate today. Before St. Gerard was known to be a patron for mothers and particularly in time of pregnancy and for their infants, the young Gerard experienced hardships.

    At a very young age he was deprived of a father. His father died and being the only boy, he became a father to his sisters. Though he was very young, he was forced by that circumstance to work and support his family. Consequently, the hard work that he endured caused his health to fail. He had a very poor health as a young man. However, despite these difficult circumstances, Gerard was never bitter towards others who were better and well-off. He never blamed God for the difficulties he experienced.

    In fact, Gerard desired that he will offer his whole life in the service of God. But then, because of his poor background and poor health, he was rejected by a religious congregation that he wanted to join. Despite this rejection, Gerard never wavered his decision. When the Redemptorists came in his hometown, he was inspired by them and asked to join their group. Again, because of his poor health, he was rejected. But because of his persistence, he was able to join, but the Redemptorists reluctantly accepted him.

    In terms of intellectual capacity, Gerard was very far from St. Alphonsus, yet, what inspired the people around him was his sincerity. In all the things that Gerard did, he was always sincere, kind and grateful. The words that he expressed were filled with sincerity. Gerard was not after any recognition or just to satisfy his cravings because of the many deprivations in his life.

    Gerard was just happy and sincere because he was very confident with Jesus. His confidence and intimate friendship with the Lord made this poor and sickly Gerard satisfied and filled with gratitude. This is the very attitude proclaimed in our Psalm today, “You are my God, my only good.” Consequently, the very presence of Gerard uplifted and inspired others particularly those who were afflicted with illness, with loneliness, with poverty and other needs. Thus, even in his poverty, Gerard was generous; even in the midst of rejections, Gerard was most compassionate.

    In the same way, Paul expressed this in his letter to the Philippians, he said, “I regard everything as a loss… for his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him.”

    This is what Jesus told us in the Gospel today. The life of Gerard was a concrete example after Jesus, of a seed that dies and bears much fruit. Those painful and negative experiences of Gerard were his experiences of dying; his choice to make others happy and to bring others closer to Jesus were his ways of self-denial and denial from his personal cravings. Hence, by his sincere actions and words, Gerard’s life bore much fruit.

    This is the message also for us today. Let us not allow our negative experiences of rejections, deprivations and traumas to bring us farther away from ourselves, away from others and away from the grace of God. Let us rather make them as opportunities for us to grow deeper in the knowledge of ourselves, in our relationship with God and others. As we become sincere and more grateful in our words and actions, we may also become God’s instruments in bringing miracles in your community. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

  • How do we react when confronted with our failures?

    How do we react when confronted with our failures?

    October 15, 2020 – Thursday of the 28th Week in Ordinary Time

    Memorial of St Teresa of Avila, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101520.cfm)

    Homily

    One time, I was asked to reconcile a church organization over a conflict that had caused hatred and division among the members. This started when a member took the risk of giving a feedback to their leadership. The person confronted them and told them about their exclusivity. The leadership seemed to favor few members over the others. The person who brought this out could not take this kind of attitude in the organization anymore. It was in the person’s best intention and good faith to improve the relationship within the organization. However, the leadership’s reaction was quite hostile. Instead of welcoming such feedback, they reacted so much to the point of finding the faults of the person who confronted them. Instead of taking it as a challenge to make themselves better, they became more exclusive and at the same time hostile to those who confronted their attitude.

    A person can be hostile when confronted with his or her failure. Even among our friends, we find it difficult to tell one another of our sins and mistakes. Others, because of such confrontation, friendship was broken. Among neighbors especially, when one begins to pinpoint the mistakes of another, this may cause endless hate-speech, gossiping, and even violent reactions. This happened in that organization whose leaders were confronted of their failure to be inclusive.

    Indeed, people who tend to display a strong image with a sense of self-righteousness will be resistant towards his or her critics. This happens to us when we think highly of ourselves that we forget how to be humble and be accepting of negative comments and confrontations.

    When we have grown to be arrogant, we display an air of contempt towards those whom we believed are threatening our good image. Thus, we become hostile and aggressive towards those who confront us and friendly only to those who flatter us.

    These are the attitudes that we find in today’s Gospel. When Jesus confronted the failures and sins of the Pharisees and scholars of the law, they became unfriendly towards him. Jesus pointed out how their ancestors, as leaders, killed the prophets in the Old Testament in order to hide their failures and sins from the people. The Jewish leaders wanted to keep the people away from the truth and away from God.

    Consequently, in order to advance their personal interest, to preserve their privileges, influence, wealth and power in the community, they developed ways of enslaving the people. They created many laws and demanded that the public must follow them literally but they themselves did not; heavy taxes were imposed upon the people but they themselves would not properly pay taxes to the temple; and they developed a gap among their people, stretching the gap between rich and poor, righteous and sinners.

    And Jesus confronted them, pointed out their failures and evil intentions. But they could not accept it. As a revenge to Jesus, they planned to silence Jesus by killing him.

    The Lord has revealed himself to them but still they refused God’s offer of salvation. These people were without faith. They did not worship God but themselves alone.

    Nevertheless, God continues to confront us of our sins and failures because the Lord desires our salvation, our freedom. Our Psalm proclaims today, “The Lord has made known his salvation.” Paul reminds us too in his letter to the Ephesians, “God chose us, to be holy and without blemish before him.”

    This is God’s desire that we will be able to claim also that we are his and called to be holy. The path of holiness involves confrontation of ourselves, of our selfish tendencies and evil intentions. By confronting ourselves and welcoming God and others to correct us, then, we embrace the grace to be transformed. This is the very life that St. Teresa of Avila embraced also. She confronted the way of life of her community that she believed had already departed from its original intention.

    St. Teresa’s journey as a reformer was not easy. She herself became a threat to many, a contradiction to those in power. Thus, she became unpopular, misunderstood, misjudged and opposed. Yet, St. Teresa would say, “God alone is sufficient.”

    God alone is sufficient.

    St Teresa of Avila

    St. Teresa of Avila whose feast we celebrate today reminds us of a person who truly found satisfaction, true comfort and riches in God. Through her closeness with Jesus, she discerned and chose God’s desire for her rather than her personal desires even if that leads to personal conflict and difficulty. She made God as the most essential in her life which made her offer also herself.

    This is what Jesus wants us to be, that we become persons who are not trapped by our mere personal desires. The Lord desires that we become free and truthful to ourselves because it is in this way the we shall also find life meaningful and become life-giving in our relationships with our family and friends and with our colleagues at work.

    Let us allow Jesus to confront us. His confrontations with us may appear in different forms. This could be through a lingering guilt and shame of the past sins that we have done, through a friend and colleague who has the nerve to confront us, and through a family member who takes the risk of making us aware of our sins and mistakes. Through them, we may welcome God’s way of transforming us everyday. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

  • In Praying the Rosary

    In Praying the Rosary

    October 7, 2020 – Memorial of Our Lady of Rosary

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100720.cfm

    Homily

    The rosary has become a popular devotion to us. It has a rich history and miracle stories for the past hundreds of years. This repetitive form of prayer is not unique to us Catholics, but other religions too have their own similar to our rosary. Saints and ordinary faithful have been drawn to this form of prayer and have been passed down from one generation to the next.

    Many have become accustomed to wearing or bringing rosary beads and keeping them in wallets, bags, or cars. Some would consider it a spiritual weapon. Others would even believe that it is their amulet or their lucky charm.

    As we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Rosary today, we are reminded of the significance of this ancient and popular devotion. The rosary which come from the words “rose,” is not just any amulet or lucky charm that we could carry around. It is not a way of bargaining with God that in praying the rosary God will be indebted to us that God has to grant our petitions. This is not a mere decoration of our identity but a tool for us to contemplate the life of Jesus.

    The rosary has its own history and indeed developed into a religious instrument for us to carry and pray easily the mysteries of our faith. In fact, the rosary reminds us of the life of Jesus and of Mary’s participation whose life is so significant in the story of our salvation.

    The mysteries assigned in each decade allow us to reflect on the actions of God within our human context, within human experiences. Take for example the joyful mysteries.

    The Annunciation of the Angel to Mary allows us to see how God fulfills his promise through us. Mary’s participation tells us that humanity can be pregnant with God and that we can bring God’s presence to others.

    The Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth reminds us of God visiting us in an ordinary but surprising way. When we are mindful of God’s presence, we would leap with joy just like the baby John in the womb of Elizabeth. This kind of excitement tells us how our heart and soul really long for God.

    The Birth of Jesus tells us that God is not far out there but He is here living among us. God tells us that He is not a God of anger, or punishment and condemnation but of peace and gentleness. God shows compassion to the humble and sinners for He has come to live among us.

    The Presentation of Jesus to the Temple reveals our innate desire to be with God, to dwell in the house of God, where God wants us to be.

    The Lost and Finding of Jesus reminds us of our anxieties and worries that may distract us. As Mary were so worried about Jesus, she pondered all those things in her heart that allowed her to encounter God even in a seemingly confusing situation.

    Other mysteries would certainly, also bring us deeper into the mysteries of the life of Jesus and also into our own lives. Praying the rosary is a life-journey to take with Jesus and Mary, to be able to make ourselves present in the life of Jesus. Consequently, this allows Jesus through Mary to be present in our everyday life and experiences.

    Thus, just as the disciples asked the Jesus to teach them to pray, pray the rosary also with the intention to change our heart and mind according to God’s desire for us and not the other way around. Pray the rosary and develop it into a habit but not merely to just murmur prayers, but a way to realize God’s manifestation in our life. Pray the rosary with Mary who is our powerful companion that we may also clearly see Jesus, and discern clearly His desire for us.

    Let us remember this, that as we pray the rosary, let us also allow God to be ever present in our life so that as we take our steps, we will be assured that God truly journeys with us. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR