Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Category: Homilies

  • Uniquely Christian

    Uniquely Christian

    June 12, 2022 – Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061222.cfm)

    A group of mountain climbers found themselves stranded near the highest peak. As the air grew thin and the weather got colder, they started to feel cold and weak. One of them made a fire, that brought them to gather and contribute whatever they have, to sustain the fire. As they began to enjoy its heat & warmth, they pulled out and shared not only all the food that they have, but also their stories and dreams in life with one another. In effect, whatever they shared before the campfire sustain and inspire them anew to move on with their journey after rest. However, one of them decided to be on his own, took a stick with a fire, and isolated himself from the group. Eventually, being away from the group, his fire extinguished, that made him sleepy, cold and weak again.

    With the team, we get strength and inspiration. Away from the team, we get tired, weak, and dispirited in our life-journey.

    As Christians, we praise God in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. We give glory to God Father, Son, & the Holy Spirit. We proclaim our creed of faith: “I believe in God, the Father…in Jesus Christ… in the Holy Spirit.” At its very core, unlike any other religions, our Christian faith is Trinitarian, i.e. we uniquely believe in God, the Father-Son-Holy Spirit. As we honor today the Holy Trinity, perhaps now we consider what it means for us to believe in the Trinitarian God.

    First, the word covenant simply would mean, “coming together”. As God is making covenant with us, God wants to “come together for us/with us/in us”. In God the Father, we come to believe a “God-for us” who chooses us to be His own people. In God the Son, 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, 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 “come together” – to be in COVENANT with God, much as God is in covenant with us. 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. As today’s gospel reminds us, His mission of salvation for us is still a work-in progress, and is now a product of the concerted-effort, team work of the communion of the Holy Trinity. Our salvation is the dynamic 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 saving actions for our salvation. Thus, we not only give glory to them but also we are in sync 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, 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 Holy Trinity & church, we are strong and inspired. Without and apart from the Holy Trinity & church, we are weak and dispirited.  

    May we, as God’s own, not be isolated & 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, most especially during these new normal periods.

    So may it be. Kabay pa. Amen.

  • A WHISPERING SOUND

    June 10, 2022 – Friday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061022.cfm)

    Elijah realized that he missed so many things and was distracted by many overwhelming events in his life. Consequently, he failed to see and recognize God’s abiding presence revealed in the most ordinary ways. This tells us that in order for us to keep our focus on God and not on those overwhelming fears and threats that we may have at this moment, is to also keep a constant awareness of God’s presence. God reveals his divine presence in ordinary and simple ways. In ways, if we are not fully aware, we could just take for granted.

    Why? Because God does not come to threaten us with His presence or to threaten us with his power. The Lord comes “like a tiny whispering sound” to caress us and to comfort our troubled hearts. This was the experience of Elijah as he went out from his hiding place and encountered God, not in those imposing and overwhelming wind, earthquake and fire, but in that whispering sound.

    This invites us now that for us to welcome God also, then, like Elijah we have to do our part. We have to step forward or to go ahead of our fears, of our sins and failures, or our sadness and grief.

    The Gospel today describes this movement of welcoming God in an attitude that leads us to freedom by “tearing off and cutting off” those that are dragging us into the cave of our fear and selfishness. Remember, Elijah’s fears dragged him into the cave to hide. Yet, as God invited him, Elijah also has to cut off or to stop even for a moment those fears that dragged him deep into the cave of his fear. True enough, as Elijah did that, he too found courage to meet God who waited for him.

    The words of Jesus in the Gospel give a deeper meaning, “If your right eye causes you to sin, then, tear it out and throw it away,” or “if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.” Jesus wants us to tear off and cut off sin from our system that only separates us from God and from others. Jesus wants us to tear off and cut off our fears that are dragging us down to the cave to hide.

    May we have the courage then, to meet and encounter the Lord even in the most simple and ordinary ways so that God may also transform us, free and heal us today. Kabay pa.

  • BEYOND WHAT IS REQUIRED

    BEYOND WHAT IS REQUIRED

    June 9, 2022 – Thursday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/060922.cfm)

    The Lord calls us today, “unless you surpass the righteousness of the Lawyers and the Pharisees, then, you will not enter the kingdom of Heaven.”

    Without condemning the Jewish Lawyers and Pharisees at that time, Jesus wants us to realize something beyond the usual actions of these people and to become righteous beyond what is minimum, beyond what is only required.

    To set the context, scribes and Pharisees at that time were more inclined in focusing on the letters of the law. This means that these people were more concerned in following trivial things in the Jewish Law. However, this kind of attitude prevented them to be compassionate to others and more expressive of mercy to the sinners, the sick and the poor.

    Jesus gave a practical challenge to his disciples, an action that expresses mercy and compassion. Jesus calls for “Reconciliation” and “Reparation” of the damage we have caused to others. To be reconciled with the person whom we have hurt and those who have hurt us, expresses righteousness.

    Thus, the Gospel today invites us to look closely at our failures and sins and to recognize them. Yet, we do not stop at the recognition of sin but we step forward by making peace, by reconciling ourselves with others, by doing the right thing and doing what God desires us to do.

    God calls us to go beyond from what is only easy and comfortable for us. It is a temptation to settle to what is only minimal and become complacent and indifferent towards others. True enough, it is very easy  for us to continue what we are doing like going to mass, praying our rosary and novena, and going to confession regularly, but then, remaining unmoved by the many social issues that surround us, or remaining indifferent to the needs of people around.

    Jesus invites us now to be more expressive of our devotion by being honest and true in our words and actions and by seeking reconciliation and peace with our brothers and sisters. In these ways, then, we make a room for Jesus to renew our heart and to experience God’s mercy. Kabay pa.

  • LOL: Law Of Love

    LOL: Law Of Love

    June 8, 2022 – Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/060822.cfm)

    “Sa classroom may batas, bawal lumabas, oh bawal lumabas. Pero pag sinabi, pag nag-comply ka na bawal na lumabas… pero may ginawa ka sa pinagbabawal nila, inayos mo yong law ng classroom niyo at sinubmit mo ulit… ay pwede na pala ikaw lumabas.” Sounds familiar?

    While we earlier adjust to the constrains demanded of health protocols & restrictions of Covid-pandemic times – although subject to a lot of misinterpretations, somehow these words of Kim Chui particularly highlight our certain unhealthy attitudes towards observance of the law. It may sound clever & smart, but definitely there is something unhealthy & devious about such attitude towards laws & commandments. Yes, we do tend to fix, outwit, or by-passing the law (may ginawa, inayos at sinubmit) for our own convenience & advantages rather than abiding for common good.

    In our gospel today, Jesus said: “I have come not to abolish but to fulfill the laws or the prophets.” Though he was judged as trouble-maker and law-breaker of the established Jewish laws & traditions, Jesus is teaching us here that he is not into the business & attitude of fixing the law – not into deconstructing, downgrading or upgrading, reviewing, making or abolishing the law. But rather, Jesus is fulfilling the law – doing, observing, practicing & teaching the value & spirit of the law. His affairs are the fulfillment & observance, rather than fixing or circumventing God’s commandment of Love.

    In other words, in our loving God & others as we love ourselves, like Him Jesus wants us to be concerned more on WHAT should be done than on only HOW things should be done. Like Him, Jesus wants us to do & teach the RIGHT things rather than on how things done rightly or properly. Because experience teaches us that we can do wrong things in a right and proper way, and we can make mistake in doing the Right things. OR we can do the right things in love in a right way, like Jesus.

    As we receive anew the gift of the Holy Spirit after Easter Season, we are now back to Ordinary time in our Liturgical Year calendar. How to practice our faith life as Easter people, believers of the risen Lord, guided now by the Holy Spirit is the very challenge of Ordinary liturgical Time. And this is deeply reflected on our particular attitude towards God’s commandment of Love.

    Like Jesus, are we doing the Right things rightly and fulfilling the Law of Love? Or are we just rightly/properly doing right and wrong thing, and more like fixing & by-passing, outwitting, sidestepping the commandment to love?

    In our love and loving, Mother of Perpetual Help.. Mother ever Help us.

  • FINDING OUR FULFILLMENT 

    FINDING OUR FULFILLMENT 

    June 7, 2022 – Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/060822.cfm)

    In our search to what fulfills us, we could face many trials, challenges and battles which could give us failures, disappointments and frustrations. This process of finding our fulfillment not only strengthens us but also purifies our motivations and builds up our person. Thus, it is in finding our fulfillment in life that we also discover and understand better ourselves and our relationships with others.

    Speaking of such fulfillment, our readings today point us towards our greatest fulfillment in life. This is what we have heard in today’s first reading from the First Book of Kings. The many prophets who worshipped Baal must have been in search of what would hopefully fulfill their life. Yet, it was Elijah who challenged them to look and examine better what they were following. Indeed, though they were many, but then, they were wrong. Baal was not the fulfillment of their life. They realized that no matter how hard they called on Baal, there was no response at all. Baal was a false god, giving them false hopes.

    Elijah rather proved to them that the Lord is God. The Lord burnt the altar of sacrifice and that fire was the symbol that God indeed, is their fulfillment. This was expressed by all at the end of the reading, “The Lord is God! The Lord is God!”

    This fulfillment is reechoed in our Gospel today. The Gospel of Matthew reveals to us that Jesus is the fulfillment of our life. Jesus declares that he fulfills the law and the prophet. This became an argument between the Jewish leaders and Jesus. They thought that Jesus abolished the Law and Prophets, which composed the whole tradition of their people. For them, the Law and the Prophets, and all those teachings were the fundamentals of their faith. The commandments written in the scriptures motivated them to live as faithful Jews.

    However, Jesus himself denied that he abolished the law and the teachings of the prophets and the whole tradition of the Hebrew Scriptures. Jesus is actually the fulfillment of the promises in the whole Hebrew Scriptures. The person of Jesus is the very inspiration of the scriptures.

    But then, the Jewish leaders missed the whole point. They were not able to recognize Jesus, the true inspiration. They focused more on themselves, on what they can gain and on their privileged status.

    This will happen also to us when we think that our achievements, successes and titles are our main inspiration, and when we believe that pleasing people around us will make us fulfilled and happy. But we are wrong, these will only make us more anxious, fearful and unsatisfied.

    We are rather called to find our true fulfillment there in the most important part of our life, and that is, in our relationships. These include our relationship with God and with one another, with our family and friends. Yet, let us never forget that at the very center of all our relationships, is the person of Jesus, who is our true fulfillment. Kabay pa.