Category: Liturgical Year A

October 15, 2023 – 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101523.cfm)

Imagine that a big event is about to happen within your company of work. And many are especially invited & one of them is you. How would you respond to this special occasion in your company? Are you going to attend or not? If not, what are your reasons & excuses for not going? Perhaps conflict of schedule, you don’t like the host & other invited guests, other so-called important commitments than the event itself, simply distaste of the company & crowd, among others. And if you are going, how would you attend? Are you going to dress up for the occasion, enjoy the program & party, meet old & new friends, stay-on until it ends, honor the host & honorees, and others? Or are you just going to show up on jeans, shirt or shorts, eat-drink & mingle a little, sit at the back, perhaps do some sideline business, meet possible contacts & clients, try to leave early as possible (BH) bringing along some food & drinks from the event for the after-party with friends? 😉

Guilty or not guilty?, but Sounds familiar. We do have seen, heard & even experienced for ourselves the same situation. This is the very experience that Jesus is telling us in the parable of wedding guests in our gospel today. It plainly begs the question: “What kind of invited guests am I, are you, are we?”

Are we the “excusing” (balidad) guests who find a lot of alibis & reasons not to attend? Or are we the “worthy” (angayan) guests who willingly choose to attend & enjoy the occasion? Or are we the “unworthy” (bastos) guests who unwillingly attend for the sake of obligation & personal interests?

In our gospel today, we hear Jesus ends the parable with the words; “Many are invited, but few are chosen.” It feels great to know that “many are invited” for it assures us that all those who believe in Jesus are invited to be part of God’s salvation in life – that into Christ, we are God’s invited guests. However, “few are chosen” not because only few are worthy to be invited, but moreso, few have chosen to be a worthy guests (naging karapatdapat/nipiling angayan) of the invitation & the occasion.

Remember the lesson about invitation & choice is not about discrimination & exclusivity (who is invited & chosen or not to attend), but all about our choice-response to God’s invitation for all. Yes, we are all invited to attend, but how we respond to the invitation greatly matters. In other words, “Many are called but few are chosen” because few have chosen to respond worthily – few have chosen to be worthy of the invitation & occasion. We also note here that the invitation is not only a Gift from God, but also our choice to respond to his invitation. Righteousness (having right relationship with God) & worthiness of God’s blessings then are both God’s gift and our willing response to it.

Perhaps we beg the question now to ourselves, after pandemic times where & when we experienced how it is to be distant & restricted to attend Sunday Eucharist for quite some times: “What kind of Sunday Eucharist invited guest I have been lately? What kind of Sunday Eucharist invited guest I choose to be from now on? Will I remain be the “excusing” (balidad) guests who find a lot of alibis & reasons not to attend? Or will I remain to be the “worthy” (angayan) guests who willingly choose to attend & enjoy the Eucharist? Or Will I remain be the “unworthy” (bastos) guests who unwillingly attend for the sake of obligation & personal interests?

As per experience, one of the topmost sins confessed during confessions is for failing & missing to attend Sunday Eucharist with corresponding alibis & excuses. As per advice, I usually suggest to the penitent that before coming to attend Mass for the next time, recognize & count first the special & ordinary blessings (all God has done to you & through you), that you have received from God during the week, and bring all these to the Eucharist in praise & thanksgiving for His love & goodness; rather than going to mass only with your wants & needs, merely asking for all that you want/need Him to do for you. Simply put, Come & attend in thanksgiving for what you already received than just begging for what you want & need. Kay Ang Misa Bangkete/Punsyon, ug dili feeding program o paghatag og hinabang. 😉

Worthy or unworthy we may be, thank you, Lord for inviting us always to be part of your blessings & life-celebration. May we willingly choose to attend & be present to be With you always for we know that apart from you we can do nothing, & we believe that away from you are nothing.

So May It Be. Amen.

October 8, 2023 – 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100823.cfm)

For pasalubong, a monsignor once bought a box of munchkins from Dunkin Doughnut. While waiting for their flight, a family sat beside him at the pre-departure area. Giving in to his cravings for sweets, the monsignor took a munchkin from the box, and enjoyed eating it. Suddenly, from the same box a little boy also took and ate one. He did not mine at first, thinking the boy must be hungry. But then, the elder sister of the boy also took and ate one. This has upset the monsignor but he just ignored it and took one for himself. But then so did the parent of the children. This really irritated the monsignor that he glared at the family who was consuming the rest of the munchkins. But what really made him angry was when the mother took the last munchkin and offered it to him. Now indignant and so enraged, the monsignor stood up and changed his seat. But later on, when his opened his tote bag to get his ticket, he saw, much to his embarrassment and shame that inside his bag was his own box of munchkins unopened. “Opps, hindi pala kanya yon.”

Surely we are familiar with these experiences. We do hear, seen & have even experienced moments like these ourselves. Young people nowadays would call these moments slangly & pejoratively as “Karen or Ken Moments” where & when we experience people who asserting  their entitlements & demanding their privileges that they are not rightly to claim.

Perhaps sometimes it is good to examine and ask ourselves: “What are the things that we claim as being rightly ours and yet are not truly ours?” This may not only be material possessions but could also be our status in society used to lord over others… titles used for personal advantages, prejudices and biases harbored towards others… or self-righteous behaviors that makes us feel morally better or more privilege or important than others. Sometimes, we admit that we are not different from that monsignor. We sometimes claim these privileges, that do not really belong to us, but we come to think and believe that they are only ours to own. Worse, we are sometimes greedy enough to claim that we are the rightful owners of the munchkins and it is only us to have and enjoy. Yes, at times we become Karen & Ken. We do have our Karen & Ken moments.

Certainly Jesus would not tolerate our being Karen or Ken and justify such behavior of distinctiveness, self-righteousness, greed and conceit. This is what Jesus criticizes here in our gospel today. 

By telling us the parable of Ungrateful Tenants, he reminds us that God has already done His part for our salvation, and that we should also do our part. And our part is not to hoard, accumulate and own all the blessings He has given us but to produce its fruits and share it to others. Here, Jesus strongly condemned the Pharisees and scribes of his time and warns us of our tendency to be so preoccupied & obsessed with honor, recognition, privileges, titles, and social status – thinking and claiming that we are greater compared to others, and much worse, even resorting to greed, fraud, and murder, in order to protect and maintain such claim.

For Jesus, the Kingdom of God is wider than our human standards of social status and privileges. He reminds us today that we are not the rightful owners but mere tenants, sharers, benefactors or stewards of God’s graces. We cannot exclusively claim ownership and privilege for what we have, because everything we have is a gift from God.  For Him, God’s Kingdom is more like a big farm where all of us participates and shares in the production and fruits of the bounty, where each of us has something to contribute and benefit from, since no one is too poor who cannot share with others and no one is too rich who does not need others. (Sa Hiligaynon pa, walay kubos nga indi makahatag, walay adunuhan nga wala nagkinahanglan.)

Our Eucharist today has a simple message: What you enjoy now are not only fruits of your labor but most of all, God’s gifts.  All of these are God’s blessings to you and for all of us to enjoy. Accept the Gift, but don’t forget to acknowledge and thank the Giver. Be fruitful and share the fruits of God’s kingdom to others, for all these are not ours, but His.

Be reminded that our recent experience of Pandemic times do make us reflect and realize that our life is essentially on-loan, a God-given chance by God to live and create this life anew & better. What we have now are just but borrowed time, talents and talents to make life fruitful and bountiful for all. Somehow pandemic times is God’s way of pruning and forming us to be who we are and we should be – His stewards, mere tenants, and not the so-called “Karen & Ken” of His creation & redemption. 

Grant us, O Lord the humility to trust your Ways of creating anew our lives according to your Will. Amen.

September 24, 2023 – 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092423.cfm)

Don’t know if we hear it right. Jesus’ parable today tells us of an owner who paid the same amount of wages to laborers who came first and last. Do you think the owner has been just and fair? Has he paid for what we call today just-wage for an honest day’s work? And Jesus even ends the gospel with a completely non-sense statement: “the last will be first, and the first will be last” simply because for us the first is first, and the last should be last?

For us today, paying same amount of salary to first and last, simply doesn’t seem to be just and fair. Maybe our gospel today is one of those written in the Scripture which is good to hear, but doesn’t make sense, so we don’t bother to follow. This is because we nowadays follow a very different work ethics. First, we always think that there should be seniority in workplace – those who are more senior, experienced, talented should deserve and enjoy more privilege than those who are young, inexperienced and still learning laborers. And, we recon that the more you work the more salary or wage you deserve than those who have less work. That is why we think that our parable today is not fair because we usually connect wage, salary, reward and payment with work…. and work with wage, salary, rewards and privileges. We usually equate work for the money, wage or reward. Everything has its prize. Nothing is free anymore. If you don’t work, you don’t earn. No work, no pay. No pay, no work. And if what you do is not considered as work or labor – like the work of a mother at home – you are  not and should not be paid either.

This is what Jesus is trying to teach us today in our gospel. Work is not necessarily and always connected with wage or money. Work is more than just receiving or deserving a just payment or wage. There is more value in our human work and labor than just earning money or wage for it. To equate and limit work with wage undermines the dignity of work of God and man. Take for example, the work of mother at home, the work of a priest, a teacher to educate, a doctor to heal, a farmer, a fisherman, and a public servant. Deep inside, we know that the work we do is more than just the wage we receive because we dignify our human labor as our vocation and mission in participation with God’s work.

Although our capitalistic and consumeristic world today promotes otherwise, Jesus reminds us that human labor is dignified – it is our participation and contribution in God’s work for our redemption and salvation. Perhaps we better reexamine our work ethics – are we in for the money or for the betterment of human world? One thing for sure, in doing God’s work or working with Jesus, there is no seniority, no privileges, no prizes, bonus and rewards, no earlycomers or latecomers, no DTR – daily time record. But everyone receives equally more than what each of us deserved, for what we receives is not Salary or Wage but God’s overflowing Gift and grace of His Redemption and Love, coming out of His generosity.

Jesus reveals us here the Generous nature of our God and Father whose thoughts and ways are beyond ours. He is a God we are to discover in our daily work with Him, and not in our thoughts and ways. Ours is a Generous God who always provides us with much graces and blessings we need, and through our dignified work we participate and contribute in His work of blessing us all always. God indeed works in His own unique work-ethics – different and beyond our own.

Which reminds of a story about a bishop who went for a surprised visit to a newly-built chapel “kapilya”. While appreciating the kapilya, a little girl of ten came and asked the bishop: “How do you like our new kapilya?”. The bishop replied, “It’s very nice.” The girl then said, “You know what? I am part of its construction.” Surprised the bishop asked: “How could you?” The girl proudly responded: “When my father, the head carpenter built this kapilya, I brought him “Lunch”. So I’m part of its construction.

Perhaps we learn something from the work-ethics of the girl. In building God’s Kingdom, Are we part of the construction and harvest, OR are we just hired-paid laborers? Regardless what, when – be it first or last, senior or neophytes, or where we work – be office or home, we better ask ourselves what are we working FOR?

Pandemic times have rendered much life-challenges. A number of people lose their own jobs, careers & opportunities. Difficult it may be, perhaps this can also be ample time for all of us to review our work-ethics, reevaluate our present jobs, and reconsider some career-shifts that would improve & be more in line with one’s own life-vocation & mission. Grant us, O Lord the grace to discern Your will for us now as we take part in Your better plan always for our best. Amen.