Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Category: Homilies

  • Time of Letting Go. Time of Letting God. Time of Welcoming

    Time of Letting Go. Time of Letting God. Time of Welcoming

    December 31, 2020 – 7th Day in the Octave of Christmas and the Last Day of the Year

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/123120.cfm)

    We have reached the last day of the year of 2020. We have been through a lot this year. There are too many to mention them. Not just to few of us but to most of us living on this planet. 2020 has given us many blows of fear and anxiety. In addition, our personal struggles with our families, with our work, studies and other aspects of our life are also there. And perhaps, they are still with us until this last day of the year.

    One can just imagine the overwhelming trials that brought life-changing moments into our life. Yet, despite all those things that bombarded us personally and as a community, there are still so much to be grateful for. This is very essential as we go forward today and welcome a new day that is about to unfold before us.

    With all of these, it is just proper for us to allow everything to touch us. We can do this by giving a time of silence for us to listen and to feel. St. John’s Gospel tells us that before God spoke to create the world, there was only the silence of God. It was from that silence of God also, that God speaks. We are reminded that “in the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God.” And this Word became flesh who made his dwelling among us.

    And so, for all that has been, I would like to invite you now that we observe a minute of silence and close our eyes to thank the Lord for his grace and favor upon us.

    Please observe a minute of silence now.

    There are also three invitations that I would like you to dwell on this last day of the year. These three invitations will hopefully help us to look ahead with hope, to be grateful at present and to be reconciled with our past.

    The first is the invitation of letting go. There must have been painful, hurtful and traumatic events that happened this year. They could have created sad memories in us. We could have been filled guilt and shame, or with sorrow and grief, or with disappointment and hopelessness. However, when we do not learn to let them go then, we will only be unnecessarily dragging past burdens into our present life. We will only feel being burdened and tired in the next coming days. Then, we will surely lose the opportunities to enjoy the day and enjoy life in its fullness. Hence, this is a time of letting go. Let go what must be surrendered. It might not be easy. But for the sake  of our sanity and the good of those people around you, let go. Nevertheless, be assured also that as we let go those that burdens us, the Gospel of John reminds us, “From his (Jesus) fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace.” We are graced and be confident in that.

    The second is the invitation of letting God. Once we let go, we also let God to heal us, to renew us and to transform us. St. John tells us in his Gospel that God is a light that shines in our darkness. To let God shine in us means not allowing darkness to overcome us. We allow God to be our God and not our selfish desires and tendencies. Hence, this is a time of Letting God.

    The third is the invitation of welcoming. Allowing God to be God opens opportunities for us to be surprised. The days ahead are not certain, yet, if we make our hearts filled with anxiety because of uncertainties, then we also lose the spirit of being childlike. To be childlike is a constant invitation of the Lord to us. To be welcoming is to develop an attitude joy and cheerfulness in us. This makes our day lighter despite the demands that we may have. St. John reminds us again in the Gospel, the true light (Jesus) enlightens everyone. Thus, let us never lose the chance to be enlightened by Jesus by being welcoming of the light. To be enlightened by the light of the Lord is to welcome others into our life and to welcome opportunities for growth without our biases and prejudices. This day, indeed, is a time of welcoming.

    May this last day of the year bring us now new hope and a renewed spirit that does only look what is ahead but also rejoices what we have now. Hinaut pa.

  • Our Longing for God

    Our Longing for God

    December 30, 2020 – Wednesday 6th Day in the Octave of Christmas

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/123020.cfm)

    Homily

    During the Season of Advent, we have been invited to wait patiently and to long lovingly God’s coming. The season was to prepare our hearts and minds to consciously welcome the Lord and celebrate fully the day of his birth.

    In today’s Gospel, we were told about Prophetess Anna who had been waiting and longing for the birth of the Messiah. This old and wise woman, Anna never waivered and never stopped waiting and longing for God’s coming. In those many years of waiting, she must have endured many boring, tiring and heartbreaking days of waiting. Yet, Anna persisted to be in the Temple day after day, to pray, to fast and to at last behold the face of God. Her patience and her persistence indeed bore fruit because God granted her longing.

    Anna at last saw the face of God. She must have been filled with so much joy. When that day came, it was not difficult for her to recognize Jesus, because her heart always longed for him. Her instinct and her heart guided her towards God.

    She reminds me of the presence our senior citizens who are mostly our regular church goers. They are mostly the first ones to arrive and those who sit near the altar. At the beginning of this lockdown due to Covid-19, Senior Citizens were strongly discouraged to come to Church. Others even imposed strict prohibition to them. Being a Parish Administrator in my previous assignment, I also imposed such measure in my parish as a response to the health protocols imposed by the City.

    However, this has become a great longing in the hearts of many senior citizens whose only desire is to be in the Church and celebrate the Eucharist. This was something also that I did not understand at that time – of that longing to meet the Lord, to receive God, to embrace the Lord and to be embraced by Him in our sacraments.

    Prophetess Anna reminds us to always long for God because this makes our day filled with hope and filled with joy. To long for God is characterized by our prayer which Anna also showed us by not leaving the Temple. Anna dedicated her life after being widowed in prayer and in fasting. This was her own way of serving God. This prayerful attitude of Anna made her to become a powerful witness of God’s action in the lives of many. By being conscious of God in her life, Anna also saw how Go worked in the lives of those people she encountered in the Temple

    This was how Anna recognized the Lord. In her awareness of God’s presence in Jesus, Anna teaches us now of two important lessons from the Gospel.

    First, to always long for God. Our longing for God, grants us discernment and wisdom. To discern is to be able to feel God’s presence, thus, guiding us to know God’s desire. Wisdom will allow us to recognize the Spirit of God hovering over us, leading us to where God wants us to be. By being able to know and feel the Spirit of God allows us to celebrate Christmas every day.

    Second, pray for others and pray with others. This will help us become more aware of God’s wonderful actions in our life and in the lives of those who are around us. This awareness helps us to respond to God rather than to react. A response is a conscious action towards God and others characterized by our willingness and generosity. A reaction is rather an unconscious action that would come sometimes from our strong negative emotions. By making our generous response to God and to those who are in need, this allows us to encounter and meet the Lord.

    May these invitations lead us to God and lead us to that awareness that God has come and visited us. Like Anna, let us also preach to others what we have seen and experienced in God. Hinaut pa.

  • God finds refuge in us

    God finds refuge in us

    December 28, 2020 – Feast of the Holy Innocents

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122820.cfm)

    Homily

    God looking for a refuge? Can you imagine that? Yes. This happened. Joseph had to bring Mary and the baby Jesus out of danger and find refuge, to find a safe haven for them. The cruelty and the violence around threatened the life of the baby Jesus. Such violence came from those who were in power and those who were rich.

    Herod was very threatened of the presence of the new-born King. He was in fact became very insecure that someone will take the throne, the power and his wealth from him. This revealed how King Herod was hungry for power that he became restless. Yet, this is not the first time Herod was like this. History tells us that Herod even murdered his own children so that no one will take what he enjoyed in his life. This insecurity in him had consumed him that he wanted to eliminate those whom he thought were threats to him.

    Herod must have thought that he himself was a “god.” For this reason, he felt so entitled that he was most willing to murder innocent people to get what he wanted. In his desire to have power, he ordered the murder of innocent baby boys in his attempt to kill the Baby Jesus. Hundreds of children were murdered right in front of their mothers and fathers and their families. It was merciless. It was evil.

    On this feast of the Holy Innocents, it reminds us that this kind of killings did not just stop there. This continued until today. Evil still persists until today. People were murdered in broad-daylight. Killed in front of people. Desecrated. This is evil. Evil persists when we allow it, when we allow our hearts to remain indifferent and violent.

    image from thedailybeast.com

    That is why, God has to find refuge. Yet, God runs towards us too, to find refuge in us. Egypt was a common place for Jewish refugees and people who seek safety. Egypt had become an important place in the life of Jesus as it had become a safe place for him. This tells us that even God became a refugee because of the people who rejected him.

    Today, there are two invitation for us. First, let us be aware of our tendency to be violent, to be corrupt and to be insecure. Let not those darkness in us consume our hearts. They only bring us to death and misery. As the first Letter of John tells, let us come to the light. Let us come to God because he is our light and in him there is no darkness at all but peace and freedom. Thus, seek forgiveness and seek for reconciliation. This will allow us to live in freedom, to live in peace and to live in joy.

    Second, Egypt was a safe haven for the Baby Jesus, for Joseph and Mary, allow ourselves to become the “Egypt for others.” Let our kindness and generosity, our gentleness and hospitality give comfort to those who are troubled today. Let people find care and attention, love and understanding in us, in our families and in our communities. Allow ourselves too, our families and communities to become a safe place for the weak and the vulnerable. Protect and nurture life. Defend life and stand against those who want to kill life. Though this will not be easy but demanding, make this as our expression of gratitude to the Lord who gave all to us.

    In these ways, we may able to truly celebrate this Season of Christmas with joy and peace. Hinaut pa.

  • Our adopted & chosen Brother Jesus.

    Our adopted & chosen Brother Jesus.

    December 27, 2020 – The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122720.cfm)

    Homily

    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 the sisters’ sending me a message that a child is born in their midst”. Me batang ipinanganak sa kanila. Hmmm???

    Christmas reminds us that God has blessed us with a Child. Yes, 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 in life, God’s child needs also 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 has grown as a Person. Not in a Monastery or Convent.

    Yes, God’s son has a family, a foster parents and family who chose Him to be their own. And He is now our own as well. Jesus is part of our family. He is our adopted and chosen brother, kapatid, igsoon, (우리 형이에요)

    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, Jesus with Mary & Joseph they become a normal human family However, Jesus with Mary & Joseph they also become a HOLY family – now member of God’s family.

    image by Emmanuel Garibay (https://globalworship.tumblr.com/post/181211261330/the-holy-family-painting-by-filipino-artist/amp?fbclid=IwAR2YRCTl61OdcPwb6A-oYun5nkPOJYvU40Rcy9RAJcAaKxpToA2OfQJF8qo)

    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. Since God’s gift of grace comes to us as a Child – not as fully grown man or as superman or as god, but as a poor child on a manger, somebody has to take care of the Child & be responsible for the child to grow & mature into our very lives, so that His grace & blessing be revealed, given & share to all.

    Taking care & responsibility for Jesus by willingly accepting, adopting & choosing Him 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-angkin kay Hesus na ating kapamilya, tayo ay naging at maging ka-anak/kapamilya rin ng Dios at kamag-anak ng anak ng Dios. As we consider Jesus as our chosen brother, as our family member, we are and also become God’s children and Jesus family, part of the God’s Holy Family.

    With the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary & Jospeh, may this Christmas season, and the coming New Year remind us always that even in times of darkness, crisis, quarantine or pandemic, God comes into our lives always & comes to us as a Child, who can bring us hope, promise & better life, as we willingly choose to adopt, take care & parent Him now as part of our human & holy family.

    Have a Blessed Christmas & new Year to us all. Amen.

  • CHRISTMAS 2020: God finds a way

    CHRISTMAS 2020: God finds a way

    DECEMBER 25, 2020 (Nativity of the Lord, Mass during the Night) – Liturgical PublicationDownload

    Homily

    On December 20, a policeman shot dead in broad-daylight a mother and her son. The mother was shot twice. The first was shot while she was embracing her to keep him from the policeman. The second was made when she already fell on the ground.

    It was merciless. It was not just heartbreaking, but it was evil. The police officer without any emotion of fear and doubts, shot them dead in the presence of her daughter and of people.

    This is an image of our world in darkness. Indeed, the world is not just darkened by the recent natural calamities, of typhoons and floods that affected millions of our brothers and sisters. The world is not just darkened by this long and tiring health and economic restrictions brought by our fear of covid-19 pandemic.

    Our world and the hearts of others are also gloomed by anger, by hatred, by violence, by indifference, by evil. The world is also gloomed by the desire to have power, to gain control and manipulations, to be above others. the world is also gloomed by our dishonest and selfish leaders, by our unjust practices, by our hate speech, by our fanaticism, by our support of the corrupt, by our blind obedience of the violent.

    Yet, this is the very world and the very hearts as well that God chose and continues to choose again to be born.


    The world may be darkened by our tragic experiences this year and gloomed by our individual and collective sins; the world may be darkened by our painful and sorrowful experiences and gloomed by indifference and violence perpetrated by many of us, directly and indirectly, God still choose to bring the light, to give us the grace and to grant us his salvation.

    Tonight, this is what God wants to remind us. In the first reading the prophet proclaims the coming of the light because those of walked in darkness will see a great light and those who dwelt in the land of gloom, a light will shine. Paul in his letter to Titus tells us, “God reveals his grace of salvation to all peoples.” God’s promise is fulfilled because God is granting us his salvation.

    And in the prophecy of Isaiah, God will cast away the darkness and land of gloom. But what is this darkness and land of gloom?

    It is our sin and guilt. It is our pain and sorrow. It is our difficult and overwhelming situation whatever they may be. Just look around. Darkness is around us. We may not be aware of it because we have become so used to it. However, God has come to us to bring light and salvation. Indeed, light is hope. It is God’s forgiveness. It is mercy. It is freedom. It is the fullness of life.

    God, indeed, will destroy the yoke on our shoulders that burdened us. This is the yoke of slavery from sin and evil. God destroys them not by violence but through the gentleness of God’s own yoke of friendship, of companionship. Remember, Jesus has offered us to take his yoke.

    God will also smash the rod of the taskmaster. This is the rod of our selfish desires. These shall be smashed by the Lord not through anger and hatred but through God’s gift of peace and mercy.

    Isaiah tells us that a child is born to us, a son is given us. He is Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace. The birth of this child tells us the situation of the world and of our hearts.

    The child was born at midnight and it was dark. He was laid in a manger because there was NO ROOM in the inn. No one offered them a comfortable and respectable place where Mary could deliver her baby. Joseph could not even find a regular bed but found a manger. No one offered a place for the baby to rest.

    And do we think that this was such a happy situation to witness? Do we not feel the indifference of the people around them? Do we not feel those cold hearts who did not care that a pregnant woman was about to deliver her first baby? Do we not feel these at all? Something must be wrong with us!

    Those cold hearts and indifferent people who did not care at all, they remained in darkness and did not recognize that God was among them, that God was there. Their hearts must be so dark that even though it was God who has come near to them, yet, they could not offer him a room. This is an expression of the unwelcoming attitude of the darkness in us.

    However, despite this rejection and indifference, God finds a way to let us know that He is with us. This light found its way in a “manger.” God was born and was laid in a manger – poor, humble and unadorned. Light, certainly, finds a way to illumine the world and our hearts. God, indeed, finds a way to give Himself to an unwelcoming world and unwelcoming heart.

    And to whom did he proclaim his birth? TO THE SHEPHERDS! To the stateless, insignificant, nameless, unimportant, abandoned, unrecognized and poor shepherds of Bethlehem.

    They were the first ones to receive the gift of light, the humble and the underprivileged. This is God’s statement that God is for the abandoned and for the forgotten, whose life have been darkened by those who were indifferent.

    Though, Jesus was born about two thousand years ago, yet, he is reborn in us when we allow our dark guilt and sin to be accepted, confronted and forgiven; when we allow our painful and traumatic experiences become ways for us to discover hope and freedom; when we recognize that we need the Lord and his gift of salvation; when we stop being indifferent and begin to care and to show genuine concern; and when we are able to recognize that we are all brothers and sisters in need of love and mercy.

    Christmas happens every day because God comes to visit us every day. Let his light dispel the darkness in us now. Let his peace dispel our fear now. Let his light cast away our selfishness and evil desires now. Let his peace cast away our anger and hatred now. Hinaut pa.