Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Category: Liturgical Year A

  • Of Being Social-Distanced

    Of Being Social-Distanced

    July 2, 2023 – 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070223.cfm)

    During these past few years, we come to experience and be familiar with the term: “social distancing”. To protect ourselves from Corona Virus infection, nowadays we normally resort to social distancing. To avoid being infected by others or possibly infect others as well, we now set apart and maintain a safe distance from others as we assume that the world around us is still sick, and we can easily get sick. Safe and practical it is and would be, social distancing is never been that easy as observed and practiced. Simply because social distancing is particularly painful to us  for it requires of us not only the physical bodily distance but also the  experience of being and feeling isolated, lonely and cast-out/cast-off from one another. Being physically quarantined, isolated, set apart, distanced, marginalized, suspected, and monitored could make us also personally feel marginalized, segregated, ostrasized, stigmatized, outcasted, feared, unwelcome, abandoned, lost and forgotten. With or without viral pandemic, physical and social distancing has always been painful and difficult (even traumatic) experience for all of us for it deprives us of our need for personal intimacy, closeness and relationships. In other words, social distancing hurts because it is not only physical but also personal.

    It is but natural and life-giving for us to connect, relate and interact as persons. More just being social animals, social inter-actions and interpersonal relationships are very important dimension of our lives. And a song would insist, “No man is an island.. No one stands alone.” We are not just being with others but we are human PERSONS with others. We grow, live and thrive in life as community of persons: Persons related and relating with others personally. That is why to live life alone, distance, and isolated is difficult, painful and discouraging indeed.

    Our readings today reminds of the great value of our interpersonal relationships both in life and faith. Jesus in our gospel today appeals for us to “receive me”, “love me”, “follow me”. He invites us to have a personal intimate relationship with Him. Like any of us, he wants us to be close to Him as much as He wants to be close with us personally. Being Christian, as Paul emphasized, we are WITH Christ: personally related with Jesus in death, life and resurrection. And like in the first reading, to be personally welcoming  and hospitable host to our guests would blessed and graced us with the gifts of their person, to receive and love the person Jesus in our lives personally is to personally be with and share with His divine life with our Father.

    Personal intimacy, closeness and connected with Jesus and with one another as community is indeed promising and life-giving. While social distancing and isolation is sickening and life-threatening indeed.

    While we suffer physically and personally with social distancing  for safety and protection from infection, we may take this trying times as opportunity for us to review, reflect and renew the quality of our personal relationships with God, with our family and friends and our community. Just because we are physically constrained and apart, it does not mean we are not and cannot anymore be connected with one another personally. Distancing thus could also be a chance to improve the quality of our faith, personal life and inter-personal relationships.

    For instance, social distancing may had deprived of us then to celebrate Sunday Eucharist and worship as community of faith, but it could also make us improve the quality of our Spiritual Communion with Jesus and our participation as we hope and look forward to the coming opportune time for celebration. We also may find more quantity and quality time and improved lifestyle with our own selves and with our loved ones now, and thus be in touch with most essential and important in ones life.

    In other words, since social distancing is personal, so let us make it more personal, let us get more and Better Personal…. And improve the Quality of our personal, social and spiritual life during this time.

    On my fifty-ish age and have gone thru my silver years as Redemptorist missionary priests, perhaps my musings below could be of assistance in reflecting about our experience of social distancing nowadays:

    “Paradox of being with others”

    Along the way, we suffer two things being with others: too much & too little – of closeness and distance. Too much and too little Closeness & too much and too little Distance. Coping with these both blocks our growth in relationships as well as forms and sharpens us to be better person for and with others. Ultimately it moves us to be intimately independent as well as independently intimate with one another.

    As we are personally in faith with the Lord, may we communally not be separated from Him and one another,  and  may we not lose life but rather find Life meaningfully. Amen.

  • LORD, IN YOUR GREAT LOVE ANSWER ME

    LORD, IN YOUR GREAT LOVE ANSWER ME

    June 25, 2023 – 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062523.cfm)

    Have you been so angry with a person that you imagine how you would take your revenge? You thirst for justice, you seek for vengeance because you were so hurt, insulted or humiliated. Yet, you are powerless. You feel desperate because there seemed to be no justice. There seemed to be no one to stand and fight with you.

    Such was the feeling of Prophet Jeremiah. The first reading tells us about this kind of desperation. The prophet portrays to us a turbulent time in the City of Jerusalem because a powerful nation was about to invade them. Though there was a resistance to it but it was not enough. People were afraid.

    Thus, the Book of Jeremiah confirms that there was terror all around! People were aware of it but many chose to whisper it only. They did not want to stand up and fight. As people, they were afraid of this powerful nation. It was too overwhelming for them. This was perhaps the reason why they only whispered about it.

    This prophet among the people could not just stand and passively see it unfolding. Jeremiah stood up for them with all his might. However, at his back, his enemies were also plotting on how to bring him down. Even his friends betrayed him and wanted his destruction.

    These were the situations surrounding the life of Prophet Jeremiah, that is why, we also find his prayer quite aggressive. Jeremiah prayed for revenge to be delivered by God. He prayed for the destruction of the enemies. Jeremiah prayed, “let me witness the vengeance you take on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause.” Indeed, this is a prayer born out of desperation and hunger for justice and freedom.

    The same plea we can also find in today’s Psalm, “Lord, in your great love, answer me.” There is so much terror in life. So much fear and anxiety that has caused our life to be disturbed. This is the same feeling that we too might be are experiencing now especially as we face conflicts and problems in our life. Thus, the Psalm, is indeed, our prayer also.

    In the midst of many threats in our life perpetrated by the those with wealth and in power, or by those who wished for our destruction and defamation, the words of Jeremiah in the first reading reechoes, “The Lord shall rescue the life of the poor from the power of the wicked.” This is hope, not an empty promise of God.

    Moreover, in the Letter of Paul to the Romans, the apostle reminds us of the great grace, a gift from God that we have received. The gracious gift is Jesus. Through Jesus, grace overflows for the many. He light in the midst of darkness. He is grace in the midst of sin. He is hope in the midst of desperation.

    Let that grace, then, to overflow from our heart to those in need. Let our devotion, our faith to overflow through our generous actions and words. The Gospel of Matthew speaks to us of this. “What I say to you in darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.” Meaning, as God comes to rescue us in our difficulties, as God gives us enough grace as we face our own battles whatever that be, as God reveals his presence in our desperate moments – we are called to share them to others too. As we encounter God in those dark moments of our life, let us also bring God with us in the light.

    Remember also, Jesus reminds us three times in the Gospel today not to be afraid. As we are called to translate our Christian faith in concrete ways, never hesitate and be afraid to stand up for what is right and just, to show your kindness to others and to express boldly your faith through your generosity to those in need. Hinaut pa.

  • GLOCAL

    GLOCAL

    June 18, 2023 – Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061823.cfm)

    In our gospel today, Jesus summoned his disciples, and gave them authority to heal every disease and sickness. He made his disciples share his authority and mission to preach the good news of salvation to all. He commissioned them and gave them the tasks to be preachers and evangelizers of God’s kingdom. Jesus added however that they should start, not elsewhere, but at home.

    Since then and until now, as followers of Christ, we share the same authority and commission with the disciples to preach and witness the reign of God’s kingdom to all in our world today. And in the same way, we are to establish & begin in our own homes, families, and communities.

    Start locally and then… globally. Or we may say…. Go GLOCAL.

    Considering that in doing our tasks and mission as evangelizers and preachers of God’s kingdom, there is always a tendency or even a temptation for us to blame the evil in the world on others, and to reach out for our poor brothers and sisters in need who are far-away from us. But as Jesus would insist, we start to live our faith and practice what we preach in our own homes, in our own neighborhood and communities. As he said to “go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel…for the Kingdom of heaven IS AT HAND”, Jesus thus requires us to perform our mission to – our people nearby, rather than pagan territory, because the Kingdom – the Good News is up and coming available right here right now. In other words, Charity begins locally at home.

    For who are our neighbors? Our neighbor is the immediate person we live with, who needs our immediate attention and care. We don’t have to go out to help others far from us. We start with our kasambahay, kapamilya, family, relatives, friends & associates. We start to correct and clean the evils and sinfulness in our homes before we deal with our world outside. We try to witness our faith with people nearby by making our lives now better to live in.

    Remember it was only later, during Jesus’ ascension that the disciples were sent to all the nations of the world. Start locally and then globally. Begin in your own homes nearby and then, expand & extend into the world.

    Being called & sent to be His missionaries today, with Our Mother of Perpetual Help, let this be our prayer : “Lord, grant me the grace to be what You want me to be, and to do what You want me to do, not there & later, but here & now at this very moment.” Amen.

  • Banquet

    Banquet

    June 11, 2023 – Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061123.cfm)

    In almost all of Filipino houses there is a picture of Last Supper near their dining table. Have you ever wondered why in all places such picture of the Lord’s last supper is hanged near the dining table?

    This is because we, Filipinos love celebrations. We like to be part of big party or fiesta. Basically, we are meal-oriented people. We like to eat, and mealtimes are important and meaningful activity for us. Yes, we like to eat, but we like to eat together. We eat not only for nourishment but for companionship as well. For us, eating is not only a usual routine of nourishing our own physical body, but also a common activity of strengthening relationship and bonding. That is why we eat together not for the food, but for the companionship and covenant it brings. Mealtime for us is not only the time to eat, but also the opportunity to encounter – to experience one another.  This is why we don’t like to eat alone. We like to eat with companion, because for us, meals, eating, tables would mean celebrations, table-fellowship, sharing, bonding, rituals, and communion.

    The word ‘companion’ is a lovely word. It comes from two Latin words: cum which means “with”, and panis which means bread. So a ‘companion’ literally means someone whom I share bread with. And it is not everyone that you enjoy having meal with. There has to a bonding – a relationship first, which is deepened by the sharing of food and drink. Usually, by inviting a person to a meal, we seal our contracts, we show acceptance and approval. We know that once you are invited to take part in their table – to eat with them, it would mean that you are already accepted.  You become one of them. You belong to them.

    This is why we like the picture of the Last Supper hanging on near our dinner table because we want to be part of Lord’s celebration of life.  Taking our meals in front of the picture of the Last Supper, whatever the food is, whether lechon or bulad or ginamos, would mean we want to be a companion of Jesus and his disciples in their party celebration. Meaning, we like to renew and strength our faith-relationship with him. We want to be accepted and belong to His community. We like to be part of His family-banquet, His party. And All of these are greatly done and signified until now in our table-fellowship in the Lord’s Eucharist, in our celebration of the Holy Mass. 

    Today, we celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Christ. Today, we recognize and celebrate Christ’s continuing Presence and His binding promise of love and redemption to us, through His gift of Himself in a form of bread and wine.

    Our readings today remind us that as in life we feed ourselves with food, the Lord also feed us with His food, not only to nourish us but also to strengthen our covenant relationship with Him. Jesus in our gospel today specially has offered us His body and blood, as our inheritance of God’s manna in the Holy Eucharist. By sharing us Himself in body and blood, Jesus sealed us new covenant-relationship with God.

    And because of this, we are continually nourished by God’s graces and we are in communion with Christ’s eternal life. In other words, through His body and blood, Jesus is offering us not only God’s food for our faith-life journey but also a meal-time party (or a food trip) with God. That is why every time we celebrate the Holy Eucharist, we are in covenant or in companionship with God, with Jesus, and with one another. Thus, through our table-fellowship as family and community in our celebrations of the Lord’s Eucharist every Sunday and also as Filipino in front of the picture of the Lord’s Supper, we are united with the Lord and we take part with His glory and work of redemption. 

    Perhaps if we say nowadays, “We are what we eat and who we eat with” (Anong kinain at sino ang kasama ay Tayo), in attending Eucharist, we as Christian proclaim that through the body and blood of Jesus we are having party-meal (food trip/ breaking bread) with God now and always.

    Today is a great celebration, a great salu-salo, kainan or fiesta party in the whole Church. This is the day that we, as Church renew and strengthen our covenant-relationship, our companionship with God by breaking and sharing God’s manna, the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ with one another. May we as community of Christ-believers always be nourished by God and remained bonded with God through the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

  • As ONE

    As ONE

    June 4, 2023 – Solemnity of the Holy Trinity

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/060423.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. We are in this together. We heal as One.

    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. “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn 3:16)

    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. Jesus gifted us with such communion with God as our pathways to our redemption.

    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 – not of individuals, but of our families & faith-communities – our BECs (Basic Ecclessial communities). We are God’s own chosen People, not chosen individuals. 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. Again, we are all in these together. We heal as ONE.

    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. Hinaut pa unta. Kabay pa. Amen.