Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Category: Homilies

  • Remembering, Reconnecting, Responding

    Remembering, Reconnecting, Responding

    April 2, 2023 – Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040223.cfm)

    On this Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, we blessed our palms to remind us of Jesus’ triumphant entry in Jerusalem, only to be handed over to death. He was arrested, tortured, abused and humiliated, carried his own cross to Calvary, crucified while onlookers waited for him to die hanging on that cross. The palms that symbolized Jesus, revered to be king, but riding on a donkey, culminated in that shameful and painful death on the cross.

    Thus, as we enter the Holy Week and being reminded fn the story of the suffering and death of Jesus, there are three invitations that I would like to share with you today. These three invitations will hopefully guide us in our journey in life with Jesus.

    First, REMEMBERING. To remember a painful memory is not easy. When we do this even with our painful memories in the past, of the trauma, shame and guilt that happened to us, we feel discomfort. Some may even try to escape to forget that painful memory. Yet, this is what we do now as we remember, recall and recover the story of Jesus who after preaching to the people the Kingdom of God and making difference into lives of the distressed, the sick, the lonely, the sinners and abandoned, was being betrayed by his own disciple, denied by a friend, and left alone on the cross.

    In our remembering, we honor the pain, the shame and the guilt that surround in the story of Jesus as well as in our own stories. As Jesus struggled to find meaning in his suffering as expressed in his words, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” let us also find meaning and God’s presence in our own painful and shameful stories.

    Despite the pain and the seemingly absentee-God as we face our own suffering as individuals and as a people, let us also allow the Spirit to bring us further in this journey. This is the second invitation.

    The second is RECONNECTING. In remembering the passion and death of Jesus it also allows us to remember our own stories, we may realize how far we gone away from our painful past. In our attempt to forget, cover and bury what was shameful and filled with guilt, we could have pretend as if nothing was wrong or nothing happened.

    We let the words of Prophet Isaiah be our prayer, “Morning after morning, he opens my ear that I may hear,” so that we may be able to listen well to the voice of God speaking within us and through our human experiences. As we reconnect with the past, we also reconnect with our emotions that may still be overwhelming for us. We reconnect with ourselves and find our re-connection with God who has been with us all along even in our darkest moments in life.

    Photo from JerryTreñasOfficial Facebook

    In reconnecting, we bring our heart and mind into prayer, into contemplation even when we are faced with difficult life experiences and situations that may be challenging to comprehend. In prayer and contemplation, we give ourselves to God just as Jesus gave up his spirit to the Father. This is where we are called to grow in our confidence and faith in the Lord who promised to be with us always and who shall never ever leave our side. And this confidence brings us into the third invitation.

    The third is RESPONDING. Jesus even at his death proved that God’s power of love and mercy outdone human sin and death. Even in death, Jesus responded to bring life and freedom. The Gospel described that “the veil in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn into two from top to bottom. The earth quaked, rocks were split, tombs were opened, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised.” This was how the death of Jesus made the heaven opened for all and brought hope to the dead.

    Hence, as we remember and reconnect, let our heart be filled with God’s presence to empower us by finding healing and freedom, life and renewal. This only means that we won’t allow any painful or shameful memory to dampen our spirit into hiding and pretensions. Do not settle to seek temporary comforts but rather go beyond and seek the Lord. The Lord desires our reconciliation and healing and so let us embrace that grace offered by the Lord to us, as Jesus gave up his spirit for us.

    To respond then, is to be able to get out beyond ourselves and become life-giving, spirit-inspiring and heart-renewing. Kabay pa.

  • Getting Started

    Getting Started

    April 1, 2023 – Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040223.cfm)

    “What would Jesus say? What would Jesus’ advice to us these days?” As we begin Holy Week today, we review first the lessons we might have learned about our faith & life from Sundays of Lent.

    In the 1st Sunday, with the Lord’s temptation, we are made aware that our experiences of life-temptations are but test of faith to rise & stand up for our faith. 2nd Sunday reminds us that like His transfiguration, our prayer life is our chance to meet Him & our Father personally, and to listen to God’s agenda rather than our own business. With the Samaritan Woman, 3rd Sunday teaches us that our experiences of dryness in faith & relationships invite us to remain steadfast & be open to know Him more deeply, and so renew our faith in Him intimately. The healing of the blind man in 4th Sunday shows us that our spiritual sight & blindness are limiting & limited, and so we need to widen our view of life & try to consider life from God’s perspective, will & plan than our own. The raising of Lazarus last Sunday challenges us that in our misfortunes, disappointments, & frustrations in life, we are to believe & trust in Him who is the Resurrection & the Life for all ends not in death but in God’s glory.

    Now today is Palm Sunday – marks the beginning of our Holy Week this year. These coming days of the week is our time and space to BE with our God. This week is our God-time and God-space. Particularly this week is more than just our chance to be with God but moreso, God’s chance to be with us. Meaning, this week is not only our time and space with God but more so GOD’s time and space with us.

    It is more like, God through Jesus must be first and foremost Be with us rather than We must be with God. The center or focus of this week then is not ourselves but God. This week is not about us and ourselves but about HIM and His being with us now. This is our chance then to experience, encounter and meet God in His own terms and not on our own terms. The best attitude then is to let Him set the agenda, activities, schedules, and venue of this week. Meaning, to let Him takes the steering wheel – let Him drive your life this week – let God be God, not be a god as we want or need Him to be. 

    To do this and make the best of this week, allow me to suggest some appropriate approaches.

    First, RECALL. As I have said, this is not about us but about Him. So, once again be reminded, that is to put into our minds – God’s story with Us which is the Jesus story. We are to call again and remember what God did, does and is doing to us through the life and mission of Jesus Christ. So, time and space to Recall, Remind, Remember God’s story with us through Jesus rather our story with God.

    Then, REFLECT. This is an invitation to mirror back God’s story with and along our faith-stories these past few months. In other words, Manalamin. To look and see our faith-life experiences from the point of view of God’s story and less from our own perspective. Meaning, Be moved. Be disturbed. Be influenced. Be shaken. Be challenged. Be transformed by God’s story, presence, words, movements, plans, agenda and will for us – you and I now.

    And above all, RESPOND to what, when, how, when and where God is calling, inviting, and leading you now in whatever faith-life commitment you choose to be. Meaning, whether you are ordained, married, professed, or baptized Christian, be a BETTER Christian as you choose and committed to be.

    We begin Holy Week today. Recall, Reflect, and Renew what God did, does and is doing in You and Us now by being with God, not in our own terms but in His own terms.

    Consider that it was once said: “Jesus did not say, ‘I am finished’, but said: ‘It is finished’. He is just getting started.”

    May we have a blessed and inspiring week ahead.

    So Be it. Amen.

  • There is Mercy and Fullness of Redemption

    There is Mercy and Fullness of Redemption

    March 26, 2023 – Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032623.cfm)

    Who among us here who have not yet felt or experienced disappointment? Or a failure or a heartbreak? Well, definitely, most of us have these experiences in one way or another. There might be some of us who have also experienced being humiliated, oppressed or abused. Or perhaps who are ill at the moment, or in trouble at work, perhaps lost a job, failure in business or failure in a relationship or having an overwhelming family problem, or who are in great sorrow for losing a loved one.

    These realities cause a person to suffer and make our day turn into darkness, our bright tomorrow into hopelessness and our life bitter and horrible. This was the case of Nanay Celia whom I met in Cebu City when I was in the college seminary. She suffered and died of breast cancer. But before she died I had a deep conversation with her. She shared that her husband left her for another woman. When she got sick and she was completely abandoned. She was all alone. She began to be angry with everything and everyone. She got angry with God and cursed God for such suffering she endured. Life was so bitter. She wanted to end everything because she was hopeless.

    Yet, not until a group of missionary sisters found her in her house. She was brought to the sisters’ institution. It was in that institution that I met her. She knew that she was about to die but before she died, something changed. The darkness of being abandoned turned into light. Her hopeless life turned into a life filled with hope. Her anger, disappointment and loneliness were all gone because she found love, acceptance and forgiveness through the sisters.

    This story is not far from our readings today that concretely portray to us these human realities of failure, disappointment, heartbreak, doubts, and even of being helpless and hopeless. This was how the people of Israel felt at the time of Prophet Ezekiel. The Hebrews were exiled. They were in a land they did not know, where there was no Temple and no God. As a people they were humiliated by their foreign captors. They had no identity and were doubtful of God’s presence in their life.

    The same expression was presented to us in the psalms. “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice!” It is a lament of a person who is in great misery, who felt that God seemed to be deaf of his/her pleas, who felt of a God who seemed so indifferent to his horrible situation.

    This is what we find also in the Gospel. Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus, were in great misery. They were inconsolable and heartbroken over the death of their brother. That is why Martha, in her sorrow said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died…” It was a statement of disappointment and even of anger. It was actually a statement of blaming God for not doing anything.

    But our readings also today reveal something very important to us. The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel conveys God’s promise of salvation where the Lord shall open the graves and shall have them rise as a people and will be restored to their homeland, Israel. This is entirely connected to our psalm that says, “With the Lord, there is mercy and fullness of redemption.” It means that God is indeed faithful to his promise, he is faithful to the covenant. God will never betray us. The Lord will never abandon us because God is forever with us and for us.

    These characteristics of God are most evident in our Gospel. Jesus reveals to us, not just to Martha and Mary but also to you and to me today, that God is never indifferent to our misery, to our feelings. Jesus reveals to us that he is a loving God and a merciful God. He is a God who feels like us who also feels lonely, feels afraid and even worried, anxious and sad. Yes, in the Gospel Jesus was described twice to have been perturbed. He was distressed and troubled because something happened to his dear friend Lazarus. And when he saw the dead Lazarus lying on the grave, (what happened to Jesus?), Jesus wept! He cried like us. He feels sad and in grief like you and me.

    What does that mean now? It means that our God is not a God who is so far away who cannot hear our cries or deaf to our prayers. God is not indifferent to our suffering, to our questions and doubts. God understands how it is to lose a loved one, or even to be humiliated, to be lonely and alone. God cries with us when we too are in deep trouble.

    This shows, then, the immensity and the greatness of God’s love for you and me. Jesus prayed to the Father to bring Lazarus back to life. Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” What do these words mean to us now? Jesus also wants us to come out from our own graves. That we too will be healed from our own experiences of pain, bitterness, hopelessness and loneliness where we too seemed to be lifeless in many ways, as expressed in our relationships with others. Coming out from our own graves also means being freed from our own selfishness, arrogance and sins that come in many forms.

    We will only be able to come out from our own graves and lifeless situations when we become like the sister of Lazarus, Martha. Jesus asked her, “Do you believe that I can bring your brother back to life?” Mary indeed believed. Each of us is being asked by Jesus, “Do you believe in me? That I am the resurrection and the life?” It is only when we come to realize and believe in the goodness and love of God that God also works wonders in us.

    It is only when we come to believe that God is the author of life that we will also value more our life and the lives of others. It is only when we come to believe that God is the God of our life, that we also see the many good things we enjoy in this life despite the many difficulties and hardships we encounter. When we truly believe that God is the resurrection and the life, that we begin to become true Christians who see light in the midst of darkness, who find joy in the midst of sorrow, who capture a smile in the midst of pain, who embrace hope in the midst of impossibility, who find healing in the midst of so much sickness and who find life in death. Kabay pa.

  • Blessing-in Disguise

    Blessing-in Disguise

    March 26, 2023 – Fifth Sunday of Lent

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032623.cfm)

    So angry, disappointed, and frustrated with God for letting his mother get seriously sick, a seminarian once was about to leave to seminary. In prayer, he said to God, “Lord, I have been your obedient follower. I’ve taken care of your people, but how could you let my mother get seriously sick?” And in response, he heard God saying: “Son, I know how you love your mother, it’s good that you have been so concerned about your mother’s health. But can you please give a chance to heal her? She is also my concern. Did I not tell you to have faith? My plans for her are much better than yours, same as my plans for you are much better than yours.”

    How much of us here, have not been frustrated with God? Yes, in one way of another, we have sometimes experienced how it is to be frustrated & disappointed with God. There are times or moments in our lives that we have felt angry, disappointed, and frustrated with God, especially at times when we were helpless in life, needing His presence, but instead we experience His absence and seeming darkness or dryness in life. Yes, like sometimes we are disappointed and frustrated with our parent, sometimes we are also disappointed and frustrated with God, whether we like it or not.

    Like here in our gospel today, people were disappointed with our Lord Jesus. Mary and Martha, his friends were also frustrated with Jesus, saying “Lord, if you have here, my brother could have been saved”. Consider that days even before Lazarus died, they have already informed Jesus how sickly Lazarus, his friend who lived nearby, has been. But Jesus seemingly did not respond or did not care. Only four days after Lazarus death, that Jesus went to visit. Who would not be disappointed and frustrated with Jesus not able to respond to a family crisis?

    People might be disappointed or frustrated with Jesus then, same way, that we might have been disappointed or frustrated with God now.

    However, our gospel today reminds us again that God has a different view of life than the way we see things. For God, our experiences, perceptions and understanding of sufferings, deaths, problems, and crises in life – frustrating and painful they might be, play a great part or role in God’s plans. Jesus’ seeming passivity or insensitivity toward Lazarus was his way of teaching us to let God be God in our lives.

    When he learned that Lazarus was sick, Jesus said: “This sickness will end not in death but in God’s glory”. And when he performed the miracle of resuscitating Lazarus, he said: “so that they may believe it was you who sent.” Meaning, for Jesus, there is more to sickness and dying or more to illness and death. For Jesus, sickness and health, life in its greatness and sufferings are opportunities for us to witness God’s graces working in us – a chance for God to heal us or revive us not only from physical but also spiritual sickness or spiritual death, and to offer us fullness of life with Him. It is a chance for God to show us His divine Glory and Mercy and for us to benefit from it, and to know that He is the Lord. In other words, not misfortunes but blessings-in disguise.

    As one wise guru would say, “Being sick is an opportunity to experience yourself and God in a new way. It is the chance to teach the mind and the soul to remain independent from the body and so connect with your inner resources of peace and silence in God.”

    So whenever we get sick or have experienced death in our family, or is frustrated with God, let Him say to you…”Give up, Surrender, Let me Be God to You. Give me a chance to be God, not as you want me to be but as I choose to be. My plans, my ways, my glory are much greater than yours. So that you may have not only life, but life to its fullness with Me.” Consider then that whatever & however circumstances we may find ourself – whether in sickness, sinfulness, despair, desperations & sufferings, could be blessings-in disguise – great opportunities for God’s grace be known in us & God’s glory be revealed through us, and for ours to rise into the occasion to witness & proclaim our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, His son to others.

    While we grapple with life’s questions, frustrations, and challenges, may Thomas Merton’s prayer of abandonment express our true heart’s desire before our Lord whom we believe most….

    My Lord God,
    I have no idea where I am going.
    I do not see the road ahead of me.
    I cannot know for certain where it will end.
    nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.

    But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.

    I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it.

    Therefore will I trust you always though
    I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
    and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

    So May it Be. Amen.

  • God is a Loving Parent

    God is a Loving Parent

    March 22, 2023 – Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032223.cfm)

    Each of us has a father. Biologically, we need a father and a mother for a child is only born out of a male and female. As we grow up, we have different experiences with our parents and with our fathers especially. Not all of us have experienced a very good father who spends enough time to be with us, who will support us constantly as a child.

    Some of us even may have painful memories particularly when we talk about experiences with our fathers. Others might have actually experienced being abandoned by their father that caused them pain. Others might have fathers who were always away because of work that made a deep longing of their father’s presence. Others might have experienced also with a father who was abusive and irresponsible giving them deep emotional wound.

    Unconsciously, our experiences with our father has a connection on how we relate with God whom we believe as a Father to us. If we have a very good experience with our biological father, then, it might be easy for us to believe in a loving and merciful Father in heaven. However, if we have painful and traumatic experiences with our biological father then, sometimes that create doubts and hesitations to truly believe in God the Father who is loving and forgiving.

    Personally, though my father was indeed responsible, he too was quite strict when I was growing up. That experience of mine was carried on as I related with God. I too believed that God was like my father who was very strict. I should always be a good boy or else I will be punished. This means that our own experiences especially our negative and painful experiences with our fathers can sometimes prevent us to recognize God’s true character as a father to us.

    It is good for us, then, to reflect on the readings today as they reveal God’s true character as a parent to us.

    The Book of Isaiah tells us about a God who is so passionate about us. Isaiah tells us that God is like a parent who brings comfort to us, who is there to flatten the mountains so that life won’t be too difficult for us. Isaiah uses the image of a mother who carries her baby in the womb. A mother is always connected with her baby. However, a mother may forget about her baby but God will never forget us. God remembers us because God always carries us.

    This confidence to a loving and passionate God is expressed in today’s Gospel. Jesus tells us about how he loves his Father so much. Jesus shows his affection to the Father who will never leave him alone. This expression of Jesus is just a confirmation of that passion of God the Father to Jesus.

    Thus, this is the invitation for us today as revealed in the scriptures. Though we might have painful experiences with our own Fathers or mothers or with those who became our parents in the absence of our biological parents, the readings call us to be confident in God as a loving parent to us.

    Just like Jesus, let us take confidence in God who is both a Loving Father and Mother to us, who promised to be with us, who will never leave us and will always be there for us. This is how God is so passionate to you and to me. We may come to believe in this.

    When we ourselves are parents or standing as a foster parent to a child, may our parenting be an image of God’s unconditional love to that child and to our whole family. Kabay pa.