Can you please look at the persons near you and say to that person, “God bless you!” The words “TO BLESS AND BLESSING” are mentioned in the Old Testament 552 times and 65 times in the New Testament. From the very beginning God blessed all his creatures. This is an evidence that God has blessed every day and every moment of our lives.
As we gathered today, we thank the Lord for the many blessings we have received. We also celebrate January 1 and begin a new year, we are filled with hope, new aspirations, and resolutions for the new year that has come that it may be favorable and bring more blessings to us.
For many centuries our Church designated the 1st day of the year with the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. Today’s solemnity invites us to capture the real hope and the great blessing that has come upon us, to each of us.
The Book of Numbers reminds us of God’s blessing being invoked upon his people. Moses is told by the Lord to convey to Aaron and his sons that the Lord blesses and protects them. This is God’s promise that shall never be forgotten.
God never forgets his promises. God is always true to his words. God’s great blessing is manifested in the birth of the Son of Mary. He is the promised savior of the world who brings peace in our hearts and homes. His name is Jesus, which means “Yahweh Saves.”
This blessing is brought to us through Mary. Her “Yes” to God makes it possible for us despite her many hardships. Mary from Nazareth knows no riches or privileges in her lifetime. Nobody has ever lived, suffered and died in greater simplicity, marked by a strong and simple faith. And amidst of these, she is the Theotokos¸ the mother and bearer of God to the world and to each of us.
What is also interesting in our Gospel is that, this great blessing was first received by people who were not so important in the Jewish society. They were at the lowest class, deprived of social recognition and poor. They were the shepherds yet have been blessed with the revelation from an angel. That revelation gave them the joy to knock every door in Bethlehem until they found the baby with Mary and Joseph. They have captured in their hearts the hope of salvation for they have seen the face of God.
With joy, the shepherds brought the blessing to others they met on the road. They became preachers and witnesses of God’s blessing.
It is only rightful also that as we hope for more blessings to come to us in this New Year, let this Solemnity of Mary’s motherhood be a reminder to each of us. God has already blessed us with good things and plenty. Count them!
As Mary is able to bring Jesus to us and the shepherd able to preach the blessing that they have received, we too are called to bring Jesus to others. To bring blessing and not curse. To hope for blessing not just for ourselves but especially for those who are most needy, to those whom we dislike and our enemies. So that in the days to come and in this whole year of 2020, we may always become a blessing to everyone. Hinaut pa.
I would like to ask you first to look at the person beside you now, on your right and on your left. Look at that person and say “thank you.”
The expression “thank you” can also be altered by saying, “I (really) appreciate you.” This means that the expression extends and recognizes not just the act or object given but also the giver himself/herself. This is a recognition of the presence of the person.
In Bahasa Indonesia, thank you is translated as “terimakasih.” This comes from two words, terima and kasih, which literally means “receive or accept and heart or love.” Saying terimakasih means I receive/accept your heart/love for me. This is basically saying that I accept the person or receive the person into my life. This does not just make the object/gift/action as part of the recipient but the giver too has become part of the recipient.
It is just fitting for us to say thank you to people around us; to be grateful to the people who have been part of our journey. And so please take time to express your gratitude to your friends and classmates, to your teachers and friends, to your parents and siblings, cousins and other relatives, and of course to God the source of all blessings.
Now, as we will be welcoming new year, there might be a new environment to explore, new people to meet and encounter, new experiences to behold, new realizations and discoveries that will mold us, and mistakes and failures that will teach us lessons.
As we go forward, I invite you that we remember always to have an attitude of gratefulness, of just being thankful as a person. So, if I would ask you, “With all the pains and joys, successes and failures, sins and graces of the past year 2019, how grateful am I? How grateful are you now?”
Gratefulness makes us see what surrounds us, both the good and the bad. Gratefulness allows us to be embracing and accepting of the things and people around us. It is when we are grateful too that we become joyful persons and will tend to see the goodness and uniqueness of others.
Through this joy within us, we also become aware of God’s tremendous generosity to us despite our weaknesses and sins. And when we become joyful, we also become generous of ourselves towards the people around us, no matter who they are, whether they are our friends or strangers.
However, if our heart is ungrateful, bitter and complaining, then, we become close-minded, rejecting, and even vicious in the way we relate others and with God.
We might find ourselves also worrying and becoming anxious of personal struggles such as our failures and unfulfilled desires, or the overwhelming loads of our work and business, or the issues that our relationships are facing today, or the great demands that your family life is requiring you to do, or the illness of a loved one that pains you. When we let these one or more issues to overwhelm us, then, we will certainly become disturbed.
When complaining and bitterness becomes an attitude or a habit, we are very difficult to live with. When we become like this, we tend to be negative with what surround us. We also tend to see what is ugly and imperfect. We become sensitive to failures and mistakes, with ourselves and with others. And because we seemed to seek perfection, then, we are also difficult to satisfy.
This has been my experience this year. I have realized that I have become rejecting, complaining and bitter. Early this year, I was very excited to be transferred from my previous assignment in Iloilo to another place. I have planned on what to do in my next assignment. I have longed for it and prepared myself for it. But then, a day before I was supposed to bring my things for my new assignment, I was told that something has changed. I was re-assigned to a different place in order to fill up an empty position. And so here I am in Davao, the least of the areas that I wanted to be assigned. Deep inside, I was rejecting this assignment. In my first months, I was restless and always felt bored. I did not see any reason for being here. I was not happy. I had a heavy and resisting heart.
Moreover, the night before my flight for Davao to take over my assignment, my father died. I felt guilty and in pain for not being able to embrace papa and to assure him that I love him while he was still alive. My flight to my next assignment was very painful. I could not stop but cry during that flight.
I asked God why would he be so ungenerous this time for not extending the life of papa even for few days. I asked God, but it seemed that he did not listen to me that time. I was hurt and so questioned him in my heart.
All of these clouded my heart and rather turned ungrateful and bitter. I have realized that when we become ungrateful we also take for granted the giver of gifts, and thus, the presence of God in our life and we refuse to recognize that everything we have is a gift.
Moreover, I have come to realize also that God has been so good to me despite my ingratitude. My present assignment is after all a blessing in disguise. Being here allowed me to be near my family and to be with them especially in times of our grief for losing papa.
Thus, God calls us today to be more grateful of the gifts and blessings that we have received each day, no matter how small would that be. But if we have received so much also, be more thankful and be more generous. Remember, a grateful person is a person who goes forward, because when we are grateful we also become contented of the present, whatever there is. We also become reconciled with the past, whatever that was. And we become hopeful and positive of the future, whatever there will be.
So, may I ask you again, What are the gifts/blessings that you are grateful for?
I want you to recognize individually your gifts/blessings that you have received. Remember, gifts/graces/blessings are not just limited with material things but also people or relationships, events and experiences in your life. So, as an exercise, I want you now to count your blessings in 60 seconds. Are you ready?
60 seconds countdown.
God visits us in surprising ways. And God’s visit will bring us blessings. Thus, it is also important that we remain welcoming and accepting of God’s surprises for us. God may also may visit us not just through strangers but also though ordinary people or even those to whom we are familiar with. This is the story that we have heard in the Gospel today.
There are two visits that we can find in the Gospel, first, God’s visit upon his people. Jesus was born in a family of Mary and Joseph. God is telling us that he dwells in our families. The second visit is the shepherds visiting God. The shepherds have visited Jesus, Mary and Joseph and what they found was great joy. Despite the difficulty of their life, they have seen how God has shown his faithfulness and love to them.
It is only rightful also that as we hope for more blessings to come in this New Year, let this Solemnity of Mary’s motherhood be a reminder to each of us. God has already blessed us with good things and plenty, let us be grateful then. Hinaut pa.
Today is the last day of this year 2019. I am sure that each of us here have many stories to tell of what happened the past year. There must be difficulties and sorrows, problems and struggles that you have to wrestle. However, at the same time also, there must be blessings and graces that we have received from the Lord. I am sure too that there were many encounters with other people that made our year 2019 memorable and wonderful.
And so, for all that has been, I would like to invite you now that we observe a minute of silence and close our eyes to thank the Lord for his grace and favor upon us.
(A minute silence)
Let us remember, that before God spoke to create the world, there was only the silence of God. It was from that silence of God also, that God speaks. In the Gospel of John, we are reminded that “in the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God.” And this Word became flesh who made his dwelling among us.
God invites us that as we are about to close 2019, let us also be more receptive of God’s Word, of allowing God to speak to us through the many experiences we have in this year 2019. We can only be more receptive of God’s word and of his voice when we also choose consciously to be silent.
Thus, in the few hours before the closing of 2019 and beginning of 2020, stay in silence for a while for 10 minutes or more. You do not have to say your memorized prayers on your mind. No need for words. No need for mental prayers. Just allow yourself to be embraced by silence and allow God to speak to you through your experiences in this past year.
As we allow God to speak to us, we may be assured of His presence as we also welcome a new year. Hinaut pa.
The life of the Prophetess Anna in the Gospel of Luke, reminds me of our grandmothers and fathers who come to Church often or even daily. These people are most of the time, the first ones to arrive and to sit in front or at least near the altar.
It is a contrast that I see between the old and us, young people because the young would usually sit at the back or even stay outside the church. I know, that because of the physical limitations, our grandmothers and fathers would choose to be near the altar so that they can hear well and receive communion easily. The young ones also would choose the back, perhaps so that it would be easier to chat with a friend and make an easy exit after the mass or more comfortable to sit there rather than in front. 🙂
Anna, in the Gospel of Luke, would always go to the Temple because she was desiring of seeing and meeting the Messiah. For many years, she persisted despite the dull and boring days that she had to spend while waiting for the Messiah to come. However, her faith bore fruit when Jesus arrived. At last, Anna met and encountered the Messiah.
It was not difficult for her to recognize Jesus because her heart was ready and open for his coming. Thus, she immediately recognized the Lord and was delighted for that encounter. That encounter too changed her life completely.
On this sixth day of the Octave of Christmas, let us also make our hearts and minds always open and welcoming to God’s presence. Like Anna, we may also desire in meeting the Lord in ways that could be beyond our expectation. As we meet and encounter Jesus through the presence of our brothers and sisters, we may also praise God by telling others how good God is to us. Hinaut pa.
We, Filipinos are known to have a culture that values very much our family. Indeed, we have a family-centered culture. Family is always the top priority. This is manifested how a simple celebration becomes crowded and loud.
Yet, through the years, as time has changed, our families also face different challenges. It would be good for us, then, to look at the challenges of Filipino families as we also celebrate today the Feast of the Holy Family.
There are 3 challenges that I want to highlight today. The first two came out when I gave a retreat to grade 6 pupils and divided them into 5 groups. I asked them to portray and dramatize the joys and blessings as well as issues and problems present in their families. Surprisingly, all the 5 groups in that retreat revealed the first two issues that I am going to point out.
First, the Filipino families are “forced” to separate due to migration. This is because of the current trend of OFW families. Parents would choose to work abroad in order to provide better opportunities for their children. As a result, children are left behind to relatives or to their grandparents. Absentee parents could sometimes create deep longing to their children. This longing sometimes generate emotional distance or indifference between parents and children.
Second, “Irregular” relationships or extra-marital relationships have left families broken and deeply wounded. Unfaithfulness between spouses brings traumatic experiences to children because it also leads to neglect and abuses. The family especially the young children are exposed to depression, confusion, insecurity and loneliness. Because of this, physical, mental or even sexual abuse happen in this domestic environment
Third, poverty affects families the most. The third quarter of SWS survey last September found that 42% or an estimated 10.3 million of families considered themselves as Poor. This has already gone down from 45% last June. The survey also found a 35% or about 8.5 million of families rated their FOOD or access to food as POOR. This is as of June 2019. There are also thousands of families who have been affected by the earthquakes here in Mindanao and recently by the typhoon Ursula that left them at the mercy of relief goods from different organizations.
These are just three of the many challenges that millions of Filipino families are facing today. Our own families might also have particular struggles and difficulties. These concerns are most of the time what consume us.
Being made aware of our family struggles, we may also ask, what is the Lord inviting us to reflect? It is good then for us to look closely at the life of the Holy Family, of Mary, Joseph and Jesus.
This family is not exempted of struggles and problems. The holy family had been a refugee. Joseph has to bring Mary and Jesus out of Israel and went to Egypt to seek for a safer environment for their baby.
There seemed to be constant threat in the life of the young Jesus, yet, that did not discourage Joseph and Mary to abandon the child. Joseph particularly was always conscious of God’s presence. This was the reason also why Joseph would always receive instructions from God on what to do. The awareness of Joseph that God is with them made him more familiar with God’s voice.
Joseph has pointed out to us the priority of being with God and of being constantly conscious of God’s presence in our family. Indeed, through Jesus, he made God’s presence ever present in that family of Joseph and Mary. And yes, God dwells in every family too, in our families.
This is the invitation for us – to make God our priority in the family. Just like the Holy Family, make our families closer to God by praying together, like by going to the Church.
But of course, as the Holy Family also faced difficulties, our own families too have experience trials and challenges like financial crisis or poverty, sickness, death, separations and conflicts. But God assures as now, that as long as we remain in Him, and trust Him, God shall always be with us to keep us together, to strengthen us in the midst of trials.
It means that if we will only allow God to dwell in our family and allow him to be part of our family, God’s favor shall be with us, His blessings shall be with our families. And so I would like to invite you then with these two simple actions.
First, spend enough quality time together… what I mean is… let us not be distracted with our latest gadgets. Our smartphones, tablets and ipads are meant to bring us closer together but they can be means also to bring us farther from each other. Remember this, real conversation is what the family keeps together. Do not let our gadgets keep us apart. Do not just allow your children and yourself to be so absorbed with gadgets. Talk with one another and play!
Second, pray together! Bring what you have received during the mass to your home. Extend your religious expression, your faith in God at your family table by encouraging your children lead the prayer before meals. But at first, they need to have an example, and it is through you, parents.
In these ways, we make a room for God to enter and dwell in our families. We are assured that God is with us, that we are not alone in facing the challenges that are to come. Hinaut pa.
A DOSE OF GOD TODAY 