Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Category: Homilies

  • When God Visits Us 

    When God Visits Us 

    November 17, 2022 – Thursday of the 33rd Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111722.cfm)

    How conscious am I of God’s many visits? Certainly, the Lord visits us because God desires that we shall be blessed by His divine presence. Yet, we could be more preoccupied with many things in life that we would take for granted God’s visits or not fully aware of His presence in us. The demands in our work, responsibilities at home or our studies or some other issues and concerns could sometimes be overwhelming that we lose the time to be more sensitive of God’s presence and even of the presence of people around us. The Lord, surely, comes to us and appears in ways that can be so ordinary and in ways we do not expect.

    This is what we have received in today’s Gospel. Luke described to us how Jesus wept over Jerusalem because its people did not recognize that the Lord has already come and visited them. Jesus was constantly rejected because his appearance was not the way they expected it to be. The Messiah was believed to come majestically, with countless armies who shall defeat all enemies of Israel.

    Let us remember, that this Gospel of Luke was also already written after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. The Jews were shocked and in turmoil because of such abomination. Luke reminds us that our rejection of God leads us to misery and separation from the grace of God.

    Hence, the Lord wept because he felt sad on how the people responded with cruelty and rejection against him. God only desires our freedom and salvation through our friendship with Him. However, we could be more focused on many things other than what God is offering us. Yet, the Lord is never tired of visiting us and letting us know that he has come to visit us, to offer his friendship with us and bring us into freedom, into peace and fullness of life.

    This is where we also find God’s invitation for us today. The Lord continues to reach out to us, to visit us and to let us know that he is with us. God’s presence in our life will surely enrich our Christian faith as well as our relationships and daily affairs. It is our hope that as we carry things, we too shall grow in our awareness of God’s presence and let that divine presence give a significant impact into our daily life. There are at least three simple things I would like you to remember to grow in our awareness of God’s visits.

    First, begin your day in prayer. There is no need for a long and wordy prayer but at least spend a moment of silence to recognize the Lord and his invitations for us day by day.

    Second, bring the Lord with you. Whether you are going for work, for school or staying at home be aware that the Lord is with you. The Lord is not just in our moments of prayers or on Sundays in the Church. Allow the presence of the Lord to be there intertwined in your work, studies and house chores.

    Third, recognize the Lord with people around you. This might be quite challenging especially when we encounter an annoying workmate, a bully at school, a problematic family member or an unjust person during the day. However, in any and in every situation, the Lord calls us to recognize him and respond to his invitations. In such a way, such awareness of God’s presence will help us to respond in compassion, in love, in showing concern or perhaps standing up for what is right and just, in defending the weak and in denouncing what is evil and unjust present in our community. Kabay pa.

  • How do I respond to God?

    How do I respond to God?

    November 16, 2022 – Wednesday of the 33rd Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111622.cfm)

    There are three kinds of people in today’s parable of Jesus. In each, the Lord calls us to identify ourselves and draws us to be converted to him if we would find ourselves with those who were far from the Lord and did not respond to God’s invitations.

    The first are those who rejected the king. These people despised the nobleman that they even sent a delegation to declare their rejection of the king. However, these were same people who wanted to claim the throne. They wanted to rule, gain control and power for themselves. Yet, at the end, when the king finally returned they were slayed and died.

    This tells us that our total rejection of God’s friendship and salvation and of our desire to become like “god” means death to us. It is only in embracing the Lord who has come to be with us that we also find the fullness of life and not in being separated from God and from others.

    The second are the servants who responded well to the king. They listened and did what the king commanded them. As a result, they became fruitful and were rewarded generously by the king. These servants proved that even in small matters they can be trusted.

    This is a response that comes from faith and of the awareness of God’s generosity in us. Each of us is gifted and a steward of God’s gifts. Our faith as well as our person must also grow and become mature that we may become fruitful and productive. This will be evident in our relationships and in our way of life as Christians who invest in kindness and goodness, in concern and love, in understanding and community building.

    The third were those who retreated in fear but indifferent. They were represented by the servant who did nothing after receiving the gold coin. He rather retreated in fear and hid. Indeed, the servant showed no response, unmotivated, unenthusiastic and unchallenged. His reason was fear of losing yet he also remained unproductive and un-creative.

    Fear is therefore not the right attitude towards God and faith. The spirit of God gives us the confidence and strength yet when fear paralyzes us to become the person God wants us to be, then, this is not from God. The Lord continually calls us to overcome that fear and embrace rather the confidence and strength that God gives us.

    We now ask ourselves, how do I respond to God? What do I make of my faith? How do I relate with people? What do I do with the talents, potentials and responsibilities I have?

    As we are led today to see and recognize our failures, we may also come closer to the Lord who calls us to be productive, to become mature and to become more welcoming of his many invitations for us. Kabay pa.

  • The Call of Duty

    The Call of Duty

    November 7, 2022 – 32nd Week in ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/110722.cfm)

    It must have been difficulty and almost an impossible task to do what Jesus said to his disciples. Not to cause another to sin and to forgive one’s brother or sister many times are reasons why the Apostles of Jesus asked him, “Increase our faith.”

    The weight of the call of duty of being a believer is so great for it requires commitment of oneself to the Lord and to what the Lord asks us to do and to be. Faith is therefore neither an affiliation to some group or organization nor to be partially accepted and practiced in one’s life. This reminds us again, that faith, is basically our relationship with the Lord who has called us. It is our response to the Lord who first loved us, as Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said. Thus, faith molds our way of life, our way of thoughts and actions and affects significantly our relationships with each one as a community and those outside of our community.

    What the Apostles asked of Jesus to increase their faith is a prayer to grow deeper, closer and more intimately in their relationship with Jesus that will make them more like him.

    In a way, Paul expressed this in his letter to Titus. He directed Titus on what qualities to look for in appointing presbyters or elders and bishops in those Christian Communities. These people who shall be God’s steward are called to be Christ-centered and faith-oriented for they represent God and lead God’s people closer to the Risen Christ. This is their call of duty as leaders and as Christians. Hence, being a person that causes people to sin and becoming unforgiving is tantamount to being unchristian, being an unbeliever.

    This is the very invitation for us today, that like the Apostles we may also ask the Lord to increase our faith. When we are tempted to give in to our selfish desires that may lead others to also sin, we pray, increase our faith Lord. When we are tempted to resort to violence because of our frustrations, failures and unfulfilled hopes which will affect our relationships with people, we pray, increase our faith Lord. When we are overwhelmed by our anger and hatred that our hearts become unforgiving, we pray, increase our faith Lord. When our heart will also tend to choose to be indifferent, cold and unconcerned of others, not wanting to relate and be involved in the struggles of others, we pray, increase our faith Lord. Kabay pa.

  • LIVING and DYING. LIFE and DEATH.

    LIVING and DYING. LIFE and DEATH.

    November 6, 2022 – 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/110622.cfm)

    Are you living to die? Or are you dying to live? Do we seek to give life? Or do we suck out life? We have just celebrated All Souls’ Day and remembered the lives of our departed loved ones.  We remember not just their life but also how they died. Some may have died in tragic and painful events. Some also may have died peacefully. Remembering their death and being aware also of our own, sooner or later, what gives us hope is the promise of the resurrection, a blessed life that we will share with Jesus.

    However, the promise of the resurrection is not just something that will be for the future alone. Its grace and mystery are so vast and beyond any boundaries that we are already being invited in the here-and-now. And so, as we are being invited to hold on to that promise and have a taste of that blessed life in our present context, allow me now to journey with you a bit deeper on this 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time.

    In 2019, I was in a funeral wake of a young professional in his mid-twenties. Because of much pain and hurts that he was experiencing in his young life, he couldn’t endure them. He was helpless and felt hopeless. He felt alone and lonely. All of these directed him to depression until his depression clouded his mind and heart which also led him to kill himself.

    Without judging him, such situation brought me to ask myself, how am I living my life right now? Am I letting hopelessness and despair to deprive me to live fully and meaningfully with others?

    Back in college, I met a leper in Cebu, an old woman in her 70s, abandoned by her family in her teen-age years when leprosy began to manifest in her body. Yet, despite being abandoned and left alone in the hospital for lepers, she remained hopeful in life by resisting to be eaten up by despair, by emotional hurts, by abandonment and by the very suffering she was enduring. Thus, she even adopted an abandoned baby girl with cerebral palsy whom she named Nancy. She found Nancy in a garbage bin in Cebu. Despite her poverty, she accepted Nancy in her life and let Nancy feel a mother’s love, affection and care. Yet, as Nancy grew up and due to her failing eyesight and old age, she has to let go of Nancy and bring her to a group of Sisters who could provide better the needs of Nancy. Despite the pain of separation and of the loneliness she would endure by losing Nancy beside her, she let her go. In that way, she gave life to Nancy even though she herself struggled to live. She died peacefully in the hospital for lepers knowing that she was capable of loving and being loved.

    With this encounter, I also asked myself, am I giving life? Have I tried to give myself in order to give life to others? Or am I just busy living only thinking of myself without any regard and care for others?

    In the second book of the Maccabees, we have heard the story of the seven brothers and their mother who were tortured and killed. The king wanted them to violate the law of God. Despite the trials and persecution, the reverence they gave to the law of God made them commit their whole life even up to death. This was their expression that there is more in this life, and that is, the resurrection.

    Their story tells us that suffering and persecution, trials even sickness and death are nothing because the righteous, those who are favored by God will be raised up.

    This is what Paul also tried to express in his second letter to the Thessalonians. Paul confessed, “The Lord is faithful.” This was his experience and his reminder to the Christians in Thessalonica that amidst trials and persecutions, they too will be confident in God’s faithfulness. Paul also asked for prayers and hoped that the Thessalonians, their hearts, will be directed to the love of God and to the endurance of Christ. Christ is therefore, our strength and confidence in times of trials and the fullness of our joy. This fullness of joy reminds us of the blessed life in the promise of the resurrection.

    But let us remember, this fullness of joy or blessed life or the promise of the resurrection begins to unfold today, in our present moment, in the quality of our life and relationships.

    This was the failure of the Sadducees, the fundamentalists at the time of Jesus categorically denied the promise of resurrection. For them, this was completely foolish because this was not clearly affirmed in the Pentateuch or the Torah. However, the situation they gave to Jesus of a woman marrying the brothers of her dead husband, one after another death, was a complete misunderstanding of life and the resurrection.

    Their denial of the resurrection was a denial of God’s power over death. Their misunderstanding of life that only ends in death expressed hopelessness. And their perversion of one’s life that remains the same if there is ever a resurrection, referring to their question to Jesus, is an insult to the fullness of joy in the resurrection. Resurrection, as Jesus said, is not a state of life that we have now but the fullness of joy and total blessed life shared with the God of hope and of life.

    How are we invited now so that the hope of the resurrection shall grow in our hearts, mold our faith and develop the quality of our life and relationships? There are three invitations for us now.

    First, live to share hope. This invites us that we ourselves will become an instrument of hope not discouragement or fear. Let our very person and our presence express hope for those friends who may be struggling now, needing support and understanding, company and acceptance.  Living to share hope is call from us that we are anchored and secured in our relationship with God, who is our hope.

    Second, live to share love. This calls us to go beyond ourselves and beyond our comforts in order to show concretely our love. Living to share love requires our commitment in our relationships which can be difficult, or even painful at times. Yet, it is in truly living to share love that we too experience what life is.

    Third, live to share life. This directs us to recognize that we can actually regenerate life, inspire life, defend life and motivate life. Indeed, this is an invitation to us not to suck the life of others, or to abuse, oppress and kill the life of others. All of these are not from the God of life but of evil. Like what Jesus did, this could be quite challenging because living to share life is giving totally our life for the sake of others.

    And so, as we are called to live to share hope, love and life, may the God of the Living and not of the dead, bless us with a joyful and blessed life today and tomorrow. Kabay pa.

  • Of Life Beyond

    Of Life Beyond

    November 6, 2022 – 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/110622.cfm)

    Last week and even week before last, we cannot help but find ourselves thinking about our experiences of death & life. Not only we were remembering our dearly beloved departed brothers & sister, we are also praying for the souls in purgatory & souls of those who have recently died of Covid pandemic, victims of natural disasters, & about all the 150 plus youth who died in Itaewon Stampede for a Halloween party in South Korea. Yes, we cannot help but reflect on such a waste of lives of many young people who are supposed to be enjoying & having fun on a costume party Halloween Event, which they don’t even believe, ending in tragedy on harrowing deaths of plenty.

    In such experiences of death, dying & waste of lives nowadays, yes indeed, we do find ourselves questioning about our life as it is & our life yet to come. Somehow, we ask ourselves what is life all about. “Is there a life after death? What happened to those who have died? Was their life sensible before their death? Is our lives now sensible before our death? Is there, are we living or do we have a life before death?”, are just but some questions we are confronted with, as we make sense & find meaning from our recent experiences of loss & grief.

    Somehow our readings today are offering us some perspectives as to how we grapple with these questions.

    By our faith in God, the witness of suffering & martyrdom of the Maccabeans testify to the reality that there is more to life & death than what we have and are experiencing it. For people of deep faith, there is resurrection, eternal life, and life-beyond life & death. Paul exhorts us faithful people to be steadfast & enduring in our faith in God who loves us dearly & in Jesus who journeys with us in life. And in our gospel today, Jesus is telling & teaching us that resurrection, eternal, life-beyond life & death is not all about who are we married to in life, but moreso about it is about how we have been faithful & fruitful to the life we have committed to in life, since our fullness of joy lies in the full glory of our Lord – not ours, as our Psalms proclaims.

    In our life as Christian believers then, we are called not only to be happy and successful, but above all to be faithful & fruitful. Faithfulness & fruitfulness then IS life-all about, and less on our happiness & successes. Our life here & now thus is all about fullness of God glory through the faithful & fruitful witness of all who believes in our Lord Jesus Christ.

    Beyond the questions about the meaning of our experiences of life & death while we are still alive here & now, lies the call & challenge for us to be faithful & fruitful in our faith in God. Eternal Life – Life Beyond then is all about God & about how we have been faithful & fruitful in life we are having now.

    As once penned by a modern-day spiritual guru Henri Nouwen: “The real question is: “How can I live so that my death will be fruitful for others?” Our life we have here & now then IS OUR CHANCE to do thing right before God & others.

    Perhaps while we are still now alive here in this life, consider these very words of St. Paul that inspired one of Pilipino church song entitled: “Pag-aalay ng Puso”:

    “I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now… for I shall not pass this way again….”

    Minsan lamang ako dadaan sa daigdig na ito, Kaya anumang Mabuti maaring gawin ko ngayon. O anumang kabutihan ang maari kong ipadama, itulot ninyong magawa ko ngayon ang mga bagay na to. Nawa’y hwag ko tong ipagpaliban, O ipagwalang-bahala, sapagkat di na ko muling dadaan sa ganitong mga landas.