Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Category: Homilies

  • Spending the night in Prayer to God

    Spending the night in Prayer to God

    October 28, 2022 – Feast of St. Simon and St. Jude Thaddeus, Apostles

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102822.cfm)

    Simon and Jude are two interesting characters among the chosen twelve apostles of Jesus. These two, Simon and Jude proved that their encounter with Jesus changed their entire life. Their ordinary life became extra-ordinarily wonderful though challenging.

    Simon who was called “Zealot,” believed strongly in the importance of following the Jewish law. In his search and endeavor to become righteous and to stand for what is right and just, he encountered Jesus and realized that the Lord is the very fulfillment of what he was trying to follow and hoping for. Jude or Judas the son of James, also known as Thaddeus, is patron saint of desperate people, of those who feel that 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 learn from him, and be touched by the life of Jesus. These two, like many of those people longed for the presence of God to fulfill the desires of their hearts. This desire reveals to us of the human longing to be connected, be supported and be healed by God.

    This longing is what Paul also trying to tell us in his letter to the Ephesians, he said, “you are no longer strangers or sojourners but fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God.” Paul expressed here the intimacy and closeness shared by people like Simon and Jude with God.

    This intimacy and closeness with God is what Jesus also showed to us in today’s Gospel. Luke recounts that as Jesus called his disciples and from them chose Twelve Apostles, Jesus spent a night in prayer to God. Jesus commune with his Father in heaven.

    Prayer, indeed, is a foundation of our relationship with God. Having a capacity and time to spend in prayer to God would allow us to see and recognize God’s heart and mind in the things that we want to pursue and to do. Jesus expressed this for he chose the twelve not just out of random, but Jesus must have built relationship with them, knew them by heart, and made them his very close friends. Thus, as Jesus spend a night in prayer to God, he also wants us to learn from him.

    In prayer, let us allow the Lord to touch us and to encounter him just as Simon and Jude encountered the Lord. In prayer, let us allow ourselves to consciously spend a time with God to express to the Lord our thoughts and also to listen to Him. In prayer, let us also allow the Lord to shape and purify our decisions and actions. And in prayer, we may grow more intimate with Jesus, day by day. Kabay pa.

  • Is the gate to heaven really narrow?

    Is the gate to heaven really narrow?

    October 26, 2022 – Wednesday 30th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102622.cfm)

    Paul in his letter to the Ephesians gave his instructions on how our relationship with the Lord can mold our human relationships and lead us to share Christ’s presence in heaven. Hence, it is in a family relationship that respect, care and concern, responsibility and love must grow as an expression of our Christian faith. Paul also mentioned in master-slave relationship the values of service, devotion, respect and sincerity. However, such relationship must be understood within the context of Paul’s time and culture. Later, we know and realize that no human being must be a slave to another human being. This is a call to give our utmost respect and love to the human person and human dignity, who is created in God’s image and likeness.

    Indeed, these instructions of Paul tell us that faith in the Risen Christ, therefore being a believer, should also mold our relationships with one another. It is very important to remember then, that giving and showing respect, no matter what our status is, to each one, is an expression of our true concern and love. Paul wrote earlier, reminding us to live in love, because living in love is living in Christ.

    Thus, faith in Jesus is not merely expressed in our religious practices. Faith is not even enough to declare that we have faith, or observance of the minimum days in praying or worshipping. Being a believer entails our total commitment to Jesus that requires a constant change of heart and mind according to the way of life of Jesus.

    This is the reason why a man asked Jesus, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” Jesus’ teaching and way of life seemed to be too difficult to accept and follow. Thus, it is unpopular and out of trend.

    The people believed in a distant, angry and vengeful God. Yet, Jesus introduced to us a God who dwells among us, whom we can intimately call Abba-Father, who offers us friendship, a God who forgives and gives hope to the sinners and the hopeless, who touches the sick and the embraces the despised,  and a God who finds delight with the humble and unassuming.

    Such teaching must be very difficult to accept because people were used to believe in a distant and vengeful God that would also justify their way of life, culture and traditions – that favor the arrogant and powerful, the corrupt and the bullies.

    The gate of heaven seemed to be “narrow” then, because it demands a change of lifestyle, culture, tradition and belief, hence, a change of heart and mind. It seemed to be narrow because Jesus’s way of life disturbs our complacency and arrogance, and his way of loving destroys indifference and anger in our heart.

    That is why, the Lord never tires to call us and never stops to desire that we join with Him. And as God calls us, we too are invited to let our faith-relationship with God mold our person and human relationships with one another that will lead us to God’s presence. Kabay pa.

  • Let it grow… let it grow…

    Let it grow… let it grow…

    October 25, 2022 – Tuesday of the 30th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102522.cfm)

    “Being in a society which justice system works for the benefit of the common good, that protects the weak and powerless and the rights of all citizens and not easily intimated and influenced by the rich, powerful and bullies, or to see how a community expresses concern and care to a person in need of help or a neighbor who offers financial assistance to a sick friend, having a co-worker asking how are we and expressing support in times of stress in work, and seeing a couple who after their disagreement ends the day in embracing one another” – are true expressions of the Kingdom of God that is silently growing in us.

    It is our call to make sure that the Kingdom of God will grow in us and among us by nourishing and cherishing the values of the kingdom. And where should it begin? AT HOME, among husbands and wives, their children and the whole family.

    St. Paul expressed this in his letter to the Ephesians, yet, what Paul said about the subordination of wives to their husbands is not meant to be understood that husbands are masters over their wives who are like slaves. No. Wives are not left without rights and independence, and losing their person and individuality for being a subordinate.

    Paul’s expression of marriage here is to be understood in the context of Christ’s relationship with the Church. The sacrament of marriage is the image that we have between Christ and the church. This is even already present in the Old Testament. The covenant between God and the people is to be understood like that of husband and wife.

    This is where we could also find today’s invitation. We are called to let the kingdom of God grow in us, starting in our very homes, with husbands and wives, the whole family from which God relates to us in the most intimate way.

    Hence, by giving respect to each one, by nourishing, cherishing and taking care of our relationship, by expressing concretely our concern and love for each one at home, by making Christ as the very center of our family life, then, surely like that of a small mustard seed and a small amount of yeast in the dough, the Kingdom will grow silently in our homes.

    Yes, the Kingdom of God will certainly manifest in our hearts and homes where we shall also experience joy, peace, safety, confidence, respect, love and concern. Thus, let it grow… let it grow… don’t hold it back anymore… Kabay pa.

  • Imitating God by living in love

    Imitating God by living in love

    October 24, 2022 – Monday 30th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102422.cfm)

    We constantly hear that God is love and that through love we are all created in God’s image and likeness. Also through love, God sent His only Son to redeem the world. Though we often read or listen about this fundamental grace of love in our faith to the point that it is somehow treated like a cliché, the grace of love and the act of loving remain constant call for us.

    This is what Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians, reminding and calling the believers in that city to “be imitators of God and to live in love.” What Paul means about imitating God is not in the way of becoming “like god” or “being god” which may connote “domination, overpowering and subjugating” others.

    Rather, what we are all called to imitate is the way of LOVING, hence, Paul said, “live in love.” What kind of love is this then?

    This is love that sacrifices one’s life for the sake of others. Such love never corrupts others or brings others to danger or to evil. This love has the capacity to offer life so that others may also have life.

    This is love that generates life and does not suppress the life of others. This means that this way of loving brings inspiration and motivation for others to live fully because of the love they receive.

    This is love that frees or unburdens others because such love only desires freedom, peace, reconciliation and the fullness of life. This also means that this way of loving forgives and heals.

    These are all God’s way of loving of which the Responsorial Psalm also calls us today, to behave like God and that is to be able to learn love-sacrificing, love-generating and love-freeing ways of God.

    In fact, in today’s Gospel, Jesus showed this to us as he healed a woman. Thus, Jesus showed kindness and compassion to the woman who was suffering for 18 long years. Jesus’ kindness and compassion went beyond the restrictions of human law. Though, the local leader of the synagogue was indignant to Jesus’ way of loving, yet, this did not stop Jesus to truly express his love so that the woman may have life.

    With that, Jesus freed her from that suffering by touching her. Through his touch, an expression of his way of loving, he freed the woman from the spirit that crippled her over those many years.

    By this way of loving of Jesus, the Lord restored her hope to live by giving her the fullness of life expressed in the way the woman responded to Jesus. The woman got up, stoop up straight and was glorifying God. This was an act of thanksgiving from a heart filled with so much love.

    However, the people who were indignant to Jesus and furious over his actions of loving, never understood how love works and manifests in the life of those who love and in need of love.

    Therefore, this is how we are called today, and that is by concretely expressing our way of loving, by not being afraid and not hesitating to love. In this way, we may truly imitate God who is all love. Kabay pa.

  • Jesus Prayer

    Jesus Prayer

    October 23, 2022 – 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102322.cfm)

    A story once told about two robbers were caught stealing. While trying to evade the chasing police and dogs, one of them said to the other: “Pray”. But the other snapped back in reply: “I don’t know how to pray”. Then, the first one persisted on: “Just pray any prayers you know, anyway, your God will listen”. The second wondered: “Any prayer will do?”. The first pushed: “Ya, any prayer”. So the second prayed the only prayer he knows, this way: “Bless us, O Lord, for these thy gifts, which we are about to receive from your goodness through Christ’s our Lord. Amen”.

    Here, they are. Chased by the dogs and police. About to be apprehended and punished for stealing. And the only prayer, one could think of is the formula-Prayer before Meal. Well, nice words, but surely not the right & appropriate prayer for that very moment.   

    Prayer is our Chat-talk with God – our exchange of words with God. Praying then is more than just mumbling words from subscribed formula or -prayer-format, because it is the opportunity for us to be who we are before God and to express our hearts’ desires to our Father. Better then for us, in praying before God – to say what we mean, and mean what we say, than just reciting formulas which we don’t really mean and thus does not say who we really are and what we really mean before God. Meaning, pray your heart’s desire before the Lord in you own words.

    Perhaps this is what Jesus is teaching us today about prayer. Through the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, Jesus teaches us that in prayer, God listens to us. God hears our cries and satisfies our heart’s desires. What is required of us, however, is our real selves humbly longing for Him – saying what we mean and meaning what we say to Him. Unlike the Pharisee, we should pray not for what we have done and what we have been doing, but pray instead in humility for what we need before God and for what God can do for us. Prayer is not our exhortations and exaltations of what we have done for God but our humble supplication before God’s presence for what He can do to us better & further in life.

    We also hear in our gospel today, the simple humble prayer of the tax collector: “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner”. This is the simple prayer-words that God as well as Jesus approves, for these words profoundly express who we humbly are before God, and what we mean, say, and desire from Him.

    “Lord, Have Mercy on me a sinner”. Perhaps the simplest yet most effective prayer words in our Christian life are these words: “Lord, Have Mercy on us” “Ginoo, kaluy-I kami”, “Panginoon, Maawa ka sa Amin”. Junim, Jabirul Bepusoso.” These words, (traditionally also  known as “Jesus prayer”) are not only prayed by the tax-collector in our gospel today, but also in the Scripture, as cried out in prayer by the ten lepers, the blind Lazarus, and others. These people were all healed, forgiven, and redeemed for they have prayed to Jesus: “Lord, Have Mercy.”

    To pray then the Jesus prayer: “Lord, have mercy on me” means and says a lot. It reveals our very identity of who-I-am or who-we-are before God. First, it is a Cry for God’s Help, that is, it is our way of saying: “I need God’s help”. To ask for help today is considered as weakness and dependence. To pray then for God’s mercy is to rely not on our own but to depend on God’s strength and power. Second, it is a declaration of faith, i.e. our way of saying: “I believe in God’s will and I trust in God’s way”. In our world of distrust and unbelief, and toppled with individualism, to pray for God’s mercy is to believe and trust in an-other greater authority/power than ourselves. And lastly, to pray, “Lord, have mercy” is our humble obedience to God, i.e. it is our way of saying: Lord, I rest my case. I now listen to you. It’s now, not mine, but your will be done. Bahala na. Kabay pa. Siya Nawa.” This means that finally, after all has been said and done, prayer leads us into total respect and reverence to divine will & providence as well as peaceful silence before God’s presence.

    Remember then that God rejects the prayer of self-righteous persons, but listens to the prayer of sinners who are aware of their inner poverty. God hears the prayer of the humble who are aware of how poor they are before God for “the Lord hears the cry of the poor.”

    Perhaps we ask ourselves now, when was the last time we utter those words: “Lord, Have Mercy on Us” Panginoon, Maawa ka sa Amin; Ginoo, Kaluy-I kami; “Junim, chabirul bepusoso”? Did we say what we mean? Did we mean what we say? Are we saying those words, as a Cry for His Help in our lives, as declaration of our faith and trust in Him, and as our humble obedience to His plans and will for our lives? OR we said those words, like any prescribed formula-prayer inappropriately and without meaning it?

    Before God then, to pray the simple words of Jesus prayer, said with meaning and humility – is but enough and appropriate at all times.

    Whatsoever then happened, is happening and will happen at every moments of our lives, we own up our humble poverty before Him, and pray with full consent and intent the Jesus prayer: – “Lord, Have Mercy on Us sinners.” Amen.