Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Category: Homilies

  • Meal-Fellowship

    Meal-Fellowship

    June 2, 2024 – Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/060224.cfm)

    In almost every Filipino homes there is a picture of Last Supper near the dining table. Have you ever wondered why in all places such picture of the Lord’s last supper is hanged near the dining table?

    This is because we, Filipinos love celebrations. We like to be part of big party or fiesta. Basically, we are meal-oriented people. We like to eat, and mealtimes are important and meaningful activity for us. Yes, we like to eat, but we like to eat TOGETHER. We eat not only for nourishment but for the fellowship as well. For us, eating is not only a usual routine of nourishing our own physical body, but also a common activity of strengthening relationship and bonding.

    That is why we eat together not for the food, but for the companionship and covenant it brings. Mealtime for us is not only the time to eat, but also the opportunity to encounter – to experience one another. This is why we don’t like to eat alone. We like to eat with companion, because for us, meals, eating, tables would mean celebrations, table-fellowship, sharing, bonding, rituals, and communion.

    The word ‘companion’ is an interesting word. It comes from two Latin words: cum which means “with”, and panis which means “bread”. So a ‘companion’ literally means someone whom I share bread with. And it is only a few (not all) you enjoy having meal with. There has to a bonding – a relationship first, which is deepened by the sharing of food and drink.

    Usually, by inviting a person to a meal, we seal our contracts, we show acceptance and approval. We know that once you are invited to take part in their table – to eat with them, it would mean that you are already accepted. You become one of them. You belong to them.

    This is why we like the picture of the Last Supper hanging on near our dinner table because we want to be part of Lord’s celebration of life. Taking our meals in front of the picture of the Last Supper, whatever the food is, whether lechon   or bulad or ginamos, would mean we want to be a companion of Jesus and his disciples in their party celebration.

    This is why it is also particularly difficult for us to not able to attend Holy Mass during pandemic & how insufficient it is, just to take part of the Holy Mass through the live-streaming. This is also why it is grave sin for us to miss & not attend Sunday Eucharist. In other words, we do like to renew and strength our faith-relationship with Him.

    We want to be accepted and belong to His community. We like to be part of His family-banquet, His party. And all of these are greatly done and signified until now in our table-fellowship in the Lord’s Eucharist, in our celebration of the Holy Mass.

    Today, we celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Christ. Today, we recognize and celebrate Christ’s continuing Presence and His binding promise of love and redemption to us, through His gift of Himself in a form of bread and wine, and above all our taking part & our fellowship-party with Him in the banquet of our Christian faith & life.

    Our readings today remind us that as in life we feed ourselves with food, the Lord also feed us with His food, not only to nourish us but also to strengthen our covenant relationship with Him. Jesus in our gospel today especially has offered us His body and blood, as our inheritance of God’s manna in the Holy Eucharist.

    By sharing us Himself in body and blood, Jesus sealed us new covenant-relationship with God. And because of this, we are continually nourished by God’s graces and we are in communion with Christ’s eternal life. In other words, through His body and blood, Jesus is offering us not only God’s food for our faith-life journey but also a meal-time party (or a food trip) with God.

    That is why every time we celebrate the Holy Eucharist, we are in covenant or in companionship with God, with Jesus, and with one another. Thus, through our table-fellowship as family and community in our celebrations of the Lord’s Eucharist every Sunday and also as Filipino in front of the picture of the Lord’s Supper, we are united with the Lord and we take part with His glory and work of redemption.

    Perhaps if we say nowadays, “We are what we eat and who we eat with” (Tayo ay Kong ano ang kinain at sino ang kasama), in attending Eucharist, we as Christian proclaim that through the body and blood of Jesus we are having party-meal (food trip/ breaking bread) with God now and always.

    For those who are not able to receive communion during live-stream Masses, nowadays they would pray Act of Spiritual Communion of St. Alphonsus, saying “I desire to receive you into my soul. Since I cannot now receive you sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart… Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen.”

    Such words express our deep desire to be in communion with Jesus, to be part and companion of His eucharistic sacred life.

    We pray that we may always be in communion & in companion with our risen Lord, be nourished by His body & blood, and be always united & bonded, not separated from His love & mercy.

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

  • Three-fold ONE

    Three-fold ONE

    May 26, 2024 – Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/052624.cfm)

    Once a team of mountain climbers were stranded almost near at the highest peak. As the air grew thin and weather got colder – that made them cold and weak, one of them made a fire. So, together they gather around the fire and contribute whatever they have to sustain the fire. As they started to enjoy the heat, they share food, as well as their stories and dreams with one another that in effect, sustain and inspire them again. One of them decided to be on his own. So, he took a fire of stick with him, and isolated himself from the group. Eventually, away from the group, his fire extinguished and he got sleepy and weak.

    With the team, we get strength and inspiration from one another. Away from the team, we get tired, weak, and dispirited.

    As Christians, we praise God in the name of  the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. We give glory to God Father, Son, Holy Spirit. We proclaim our creed of faith, saying: “I believe in God, the Father…in Jesus Christ… in the Holy Spirit.” At its very core, our Christian faith is Trinitarian – i.e. unlike any other religions, we uniquely believe in God, the Father-Son-Holy Spirit.

    As we honor today the Holy Trinity, perhaps now we ask: What does it mean to believe in the Trinitarian God?

    First, the word covenant simply would mean, “coming together”. As God making covenant with us, God wants to “come together for us/with us/in us”. In God the Father of Easter, we come to believe a “God-FOR us” who chooses us to be His own people. In God the Son of Christmas, we come to believe Emmanuel Jesus, a “God-WITH us” who makes known to us God’s love for us, and how to love God in return. In God the Holy Spirit of Pentecost, we come to believe a “God-IN us”, who inspires, directs, and sustains us in life of faith.

    To believe in the Holy Trinity then is to be in covenant with God, much as God is in covenant with us. Meaning, as God is for us/with us/in us, we must also be People for God, with God, and in God.

    Second, in the Lord’s ascension, we are reminded that the risen Lord is not-finished yet. His mission of salvation for us is still a work-in progress, and is now a product of the concerted-effort, teamwork of the communion of the Holy Trinity. Our salvation is the teamwork and actions OF our God, the Father who chooses us to be His own, THROUGH God the Son who is loving us always, and WITH the God the Holy Spirit who inspires, directs, and sustains us in life.

    To believe in the Holy Trinity is thus to be IN Communion with God. As God acts and works as one for our salvation, so also we must be in sync, in tune with God’s concerted teamwork for our salvation. Thus we not only to give glory to them but also we are to be in sync & teamwork  with the works OF the Father, THROUGH the Son, WITH the Holy Spirit for our salvation.

    Third, as the Lord mandated us to proclaim our faith to all nations, in our gospel today, he particularly challenges us to make disciples in the name of the Holy Trinity. Making disciples while proclaiming our faith to all nations would mean helping ourselves and one another to be in constant covenant with God, and in partnership-communion with God’s work of salvation for us.

    To believe in the Holy Trinity then is to lead our lives and faith as Church, a Community of faith. As God is and works as Community, we too must also be and acts as Church – a community of Christian faith, living and witnessing God’s being and acting in our lives.

    The Holy Trinity shows us as Church how to be and act as God’s own People. As much as God be and acts together, to have a Trinitarian faith we too must be and act in covenant, in communion and in community with God and one another.

    As Church then, we must be faithful people for God, with God, and in God – witnessing our faith in sync with the labor of the Father, through the Son, with the Holy, and living our lives as church community making disciples and proclaiming our faith.

    Remember “the community is the bearer of God’s Salvation”. Salvation thus happens in the context of the church, faith-community, and not of individuals. We are God’s own chosen PEOPLE, not chosen individual. We all are to be in covenant, in communion and in community with Him and His church.

    With the church, we are strong and inspired. Without and away from the church, we are weak and dispirited. We are to be with His TRIUNE, (Threefold ONE). As Pentecost marks the birth of our Church, be reminded that the Holy Trinity articulates what is & what our church should be.

    May we, as God’s own, not be separated from the Holy Trinity and God’s church, but instead always be connected and involved with God’s life and labors of salvation for all nations and peoples, now and always.

    So Be It. Amen.

  • The Birth of the Church

    May 19, 2024 – Pentecost Sunday

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

    Have you ever experienced a time when you are so caught up with the wonders of the moment that made you say how great it is in our own native language? And then…, a foreigner caught up with the same experience as you are having, utter words of how great it is, and also in your own native language?

    Like once, my Pilipino friend and I were walking sight-seeing in a street of Brussels, Belgium. We caught sight of a beautiful painting being done in the plaza. In our amazement, we both loudly utter words: “Ang Ganda, ano.” “Ohh, Such a beauty”. And then a Belgian guy also in wonder say: “Oo nga, napakaganda” (Oh Yes, Beautiful). All of us (Pinoy and Belgian) where not only caught up with the beauty of the painting, but also with the beauty of the moment where we can communicate and understand each other our appreciation of our momentary experience with the painting.

    Perhaps the same experience could be said about a French man who tries to eat kumtang – a famous Korean beef stew, inside a Korean restaurant with among Koreans, and after tasting it, said: “Masizoyo” (Delicious, Sarap). All understand how tasty kumtang is, and even a foreigner is able to appreciate it through in the local native language and tongue. In other words, Napa-Koreano sa Sarap. O Napa-Tagalog sa Ganda.

    Our shared experiences of wonders and mutual understanding among diverse cultures somehow describes us the experience of the people and the disciples during the day of Pentecost. 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 Christian faith in each other’s own native tongues.

    Because of such experience, today marks not only the culmination of Easter season but moreso, 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 Holy Spirit, as well as the spirit cannot inspire our life without body, the church. We, the church needs the Holy Spirit to live as well as the Holy Spirit needs our Church to offer us meaning and direction in life. For how does the Holy Spirit may somehow work in our lives?

    First, the Holy Spirit makes us experience and witness the present moment. Like being caught up with the beauty of a painting or scenery, with the delicious taste of food, with the wonders of the architectures & building, cooking, or working processes, with the intensity of a good book read, a good drama play or telenovela, and like the risen Lord made Himself known to his disciples, the Holy Spirit inspires us to situate and appreciate ourselves in the present experience. In other words, the Holy Spirit offers us PRESENCE in the here and now.

    Second, the Holy Spirit compels us to share our inspiration of the present moment with others. Our inspiration then is not ours to keep but to be shared with others. Like falling and being in love, the Holy Spirit moves us to proclaim and communicate our life and inspiration with others in a way that we can understand each other. In other words, the Holy Spirit provides us the LANGUAGE to articulate and communicate our inspiration of the present moment.

    And lastly, the Holy Spirit makes us respond rightly and accordingly to the inspiration-given and shared. Like Jesus giving us the mandate and mission to witness and proclaim our faith to all nations, the Holy Spirit encourages us to lead our lives according to our faith-life inspirations. In other words, the Holy Spirit obliges us a LIFESTYLE – a way of being and becoming human in life.

    Like, as Love is one of its gift, the Holy Spirit inspires us to love and be loved, to express humanly such love with an-other and others, as well as to live our lives as loving and beloved person. In the same way with faithfulness, the Holy Spirit inspires us to have faith and trust in the risen Lord in life, to express, proclaim, and share our faith with others (regardless of culture and race), and to practice and live out such faith in our daily lives.

    The Holy Spirit thus concretely offers us PRESENCE – LANGUAGE – LIFESTYLE of Love and Faith in life. That is how essential Holy Spirit is into our day to day lives as Christian and as Church.

    We can only receive what is being offered. And it will be offered us in our life, if and when we allow and invite the Holy Spirit into our very lives now. We can only share what we already have. We welcome then the Holy Spirit into our lives now so that others may feel its presence, relate with its language, & live its lifestyle in our world today.

    As we celebrate the birthday of the Church, we especially once again invite the Holy Spirit into our lives, as we pray: “Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And you shall renew the face of the earth.” Amen.

  • Pruned yet Producing

    Pruned yet Producing

    April 28, 2024 – Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042824.cfm)

    Plant-lovers – (plantitos & plantitas) know that for a banana shrub to grow and bear much fruit, it has to go against the natural process of growth through pruning or trimming. Meaning, for new shoots to bud and sprout, and more fruits to bear, planters have to prune, i.e., cut-off dried leaves, trim, or peel off the dried skins of the banana shrub. Otherwise, we got more dried leaves and skins, but undernourished sprouting shoots and bud, and in effect little or no fruit at all.

    Jesus in our gospel today describes our faith relationship with Him, akin to relationship of plant’s vine & branches. He reminds us that while He is the vine and we are His Branches, Our Vine grower – our plantito, “the father takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does, he prunes so that it bears more fruit.”

    In other words, for us to be His good disciples we must not only remain connected, loyal and steadfast in Jesus, but we also have to experience & go through pruning & trimming in life for us to bear much fruit.

    Spiritually, sometimes that is what God our Father does to us. Sometimes God prunes or trims us, make us experience suffering, sickness and trials not for its own sake but for us to grow and bear much fruits. Sometimes we do need to experience our limits so that we may be open to receive God’s abounding blessing.

    Why? Because sometimes somehow we grow comfortable and complacent in our spiritual life that we become naturally content with our routine of personal prayers, devotions, personal salvation – trying to lead healthy spiritual life, but we fail to bear fruits of spiritual life for others. Remember: A healthy branch, plant or tree is useless – is nothing, if it does not bear flowers and fruits for others to taste and see.

    So often we view religion as merely our personal relationship with God that exists as though a plant in a vacuum. Yes, we acknowledge a connection with others and the need for community, but so often we see the community merely as a support to have a healthy relationship with God.

    There is something critically missing here. Where is the fruit? The Lord wants us to build up the community by producing more and more Christians followers & believers, i.e. how we can increase the Christian population & the spiritual life of the world. Our goal in life then is to bear and produce fruit, His fruits – fruit for our lives now & His Kingdom.

    In one way or another, pandemic times made us experience sufferings then with a lot of trials, problems, restrictions, and difficulties in life. Somehow God was unusually & especially pruning us then. Perhaps we have been pruned or trimmed by God not only to be healthy in our spiritual life but for us also to bear much fruit for others & for our life now.

    Definitely we experienced a lot of losses during pandemic that still affects & hurting us. But perhaps at this stage, hopefully new buds are getting to sprout, new flowers are starting to bloom & some signs are growing of life in us.

    Saint Teresa of Calcutta is wise enough to remind & advice us that “God did not call us to be successful in life, but rather calls us to be faithful & fruitful in life.” Thus, the Lord places upon us the mission & responsibility for the growth of the kingdom of God. He uses us to call & invite other people to Himself.

    And above all, He longs not for our success, but for our faith & fruits in life. Consider then, at the end of our lives we have to stand before the Lord showing him what our lives produced. He is not going to be interested in our bank accounts, our homes, our athletic, intellectual, or artistic exploits & accomplishments. He is going to consider how well we loved others. He is going to count fruits of our faithfulness. He is going to look to see if we did all we could to bear & produce the fruits of His salvation to everyone.

    Remember, Jesus is concerned not only with the plant but also with good fruits. He wants us His disciples not only to be healthy plants but moreso to become fruit-bearing & producing plant for life & God’s Kingdom.

    And so, if we want to do our best in bearing fruit for Him, we need to stay united to the vine, united to Christ. We need to have His Life flowing through us – which at times needs the Father’s pruning. We received His life at baptism, but if we cut ourselves off & distance from His life by ignoring the vine, by slacking off from our worship of God, by allowing ourselves to be untended & unpruned, then we will have no fruit to bring before God’s presence. It is not enough to say we are people of faith, to say we are Catholic. We ought to practice our faith. We ought to stay united to the vine. We ought to bear & produce fruits for God’s kingdom in our lives.

    Being Christian, being Filipino Catholics is indeed not easy vocation & mission. It means dedication, sacrifice, determination to live as Christ called us. It demands being pruned by God & having to produce for the Kingdom – something to show & contribute for our lives. But we can do this, and we will do this, as long as we are stay connected & united to the Lord, to the vine whose life flows in us & through us.

    In this mass, we pray then that as the Lord’s branches being pruned & trimmed by God, we Christians may all have the spiritual courage & perseverance to remain united and connected onto Christ, our true Vine Jesus, so that we may bear fruit for our life & His kingdom now & forever.

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

  • 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.