Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Category: Liturgical Year C

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    August 21, 2022 – 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082122.cfm)

    In a dream, once an old lady found herself at the heaven’s door. Confidently she  knocks at the door and demands admittance. And she heard God’s loud voice asking, “who are you?” She then replied, “My Gosh, You don’t know me. I am most influential person in our town. I am the mother of our town’s mayor. I have been known for my generosity, an elder of the church’s lay organization and have sponsored the education of your seminarians and ordination of your priests. I even spearheaded the construction of your cathedral in our town”. God replied, “Sorry, I don’t know you”. Angry and disgusted with God, she just stayed outside, grumbling at the doorsteps, while seeing others being admitted inside. Coming to her senses, she once again knocks at the door and now requests for admittance. She said, “Lord, actually, my life has been a failure. I am separated from my husband. My children have been involved with a lot of questionable activities. I have been an oppressive landlord, abusive lady and known gambler. I am a sinner and have caused other’s to sin. I am sorry, Lord”. God replied, “But still I don’t know you, who are you?” Confused and ashamed of herself, she again stayed outside and pondered who she really is before God. Then something dawned in her that made her stand, knocks at the door and humbly admits “Now I know who I am, Lord. Regardless of what happened to me in life, I am still your beloved child.” The door then opened widely and God’s voice joyfully proclaimed “Welcome back, my daughter. Come in.”

    Along our desire to explore life, there is always a deep longing for us to be at home, and be reunited home. Even for those who have already settled in foreign lands, there is always the strong desire to come back home. Same way with those who have settled abroad, there is always a desire to go back homeland – Bohol, Siquijor, Cebu or Luzon.

    For home is more than place where you live. Home is the place where it feels right to walk around without shoes, where people understand you, where when you go there, people have to take you in. Home is where you are accepted, understood, welcomed, belonged and loved.

    Jesus has always preached to us the kingdom of God is our heavenly home, and the Reign of God’s Kingdom is like homecoming and reunion. Like a fiesta, salvation is the moment where everyone is joyfully welcome and celebrating in God’s Kingdom – the occasion where and when we are at home and re-united with God. Particularly in our gospel today, when asked about who are saved, Jesus emphasizes that salvation is not for the few but for everyone – everyone is welcome in God’s kingdom.

    However, in our journey back to our heavenly home, Jesus directs us to strive and be strong enough to enter through the narrow gate. What Jesus meant here is that in life, we must realize that we are just but pilgrims and migrants in this life that we have now. We are here but not from here. As we live & journey with the life we have now, we must do our best to be more at ease and at home with our identity as God’s children.

    For Him, welcomed, saved and redeemed are those who are at Home with their identity as a Child of God. Meaning, it is not what we have done and achieved in life, or even what happened to us in life, but who we are before Him, as His children that matters most. Welcome and Worthy are we of eternal life in God’s kingdom when we are strong and discipline enough to accept and be at home with our identity as God’s Children. As Henry Nouwen would say, “We are not what we do, we are not what we have, we are not others think of us. Coming home is claiming the truth that – I am the beloved child of God.”

    Remember what Jesus said: “the last will be first, first will be last”. Those we consider to be first in life may perhaps be the last one to realize and accept their identity; and those we consider to be last-lost-least in life maybe the first one to realize and accept their identity as Children of God. Question now and still remains, is : “now who am I, who are you before God?…….

    As our recent experiences of the challenges of Covid pandemic times do make us realize & think of death, life, & meaning of all these things, we pray then that we may consistently be & becoming more worthy beloved children of God in faith & life now & always. So May It be. Amen.

  • Not Peace but Fire and Division

    Not Peace but Fire and Division

    August 14, 2022 – 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081422.cfm)

    It is confusing or even to some perhaps terrifying. We certainly want peace. We want unity. We want prosperity. Yet, Jesus asked us today, “Do you think that I have come to establish peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” He even said earlier, “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!”

    What Jesus actually means about this peace is the peace that the world knows. This peace is about the comfort and routine of life or of ‘business-as-usual.’ This means that we go and proceed to what we usually do in life by doing what we want and by satisfying our needs and desires, from mere complacency. This peace only knows about maintaining the status quo, that we are comfortable with and preserving an environment that will not disturb us. Yet, this peace is shallow and remains self-centered. It focuses on our ego.

    However, Jesus is not bringing this kind of peace but fire and division that will disturb us. This includes disturbing our comfort, our current situation, our complacency, passivity and routine.

    This is what we have also heard in the first reading from the Book of Jeremiah. Prophet Jeremiah by being true to the mission God gave him, disturbed the comfort and complacency of those in power and influence. By reminding the people of their covenant with God, “I am your God and you are my people,” they too were reminded that this covenant was bounded in fidelity and receptivity of God’s commands and of giving oneself for others. This role of the prophet includes the denouncement of the misdeeds and unfaithfulness committed especially by those in power and authority.

    But then, Jeremiah’s presence in constantly calling the people to repent, became a sore and threat to those who were in power. This was the reason why they wanted to silence and eliminate him by killing him. Yet, Jeremiah was rescued by a foreigner, Ebed-melech, who realized that Jeremiah was a prophet of God.

    This experience of Jeremiah must have made him realized too that indeed, it is dangerous to believe in God. Believing in God and committing to be faithful to the Lord is dangerous because we shall become a “sign of contradiction” to what is popular, to the comfortable and to the powerful.

    This brings us again to what Jesus said in today’s Gospel that “he has come to set the earth on fire, that he brings not peace but division.”

    Indeed, the Lord comes to disturb us when we have grown so attached with our comforts and when we are so caught up with maintaining to what is only beneficial for us.

    Thus, when we become passive, we do not want to be challenged, we do not want to go beyond and become life-giving. We do not want to confront ourselves and others because it might cost us conflict and division or to sacrifice the contentment that we apparently enjoy. But, God does not want us to become a person who becomes a prisoner of his/her own selfish desires. We will become abusive and corrupt yet the most insecure of all.

    Jesus does not want us also to just go with the flow and remain passive. We might find ourselves to settle to what is only easy, comfortable and beneficial by doing the same things, thinking the same thoughts and imagining the same ideas to the point that we refuse to do more and give more.

    This happens to us when we are trapped in our routine and comfort. We might go to mass every day, receive communion, say our prayers, doing the same sin again, do our work and struggle with the same problems without any change in our thoughts and actions as we relate with others. Or we might just bury ourselves in the same addiction, fall into the same bad habits and then feel guilty but later do the usual things again. Or in dipping ourselves into our abusive practices in our work, business or profession in order to advance our selfish and self-serving tendencies.

    It would be good, then, to ask ourselves, “What are the burdens that I am carrying? What are the sins that prevent me to go forward?”

    If we are able to ask ourselves these questions, then, this will help us to be open to the presence of Jesus. This presence of Jesus will disturb us because it will make us recognize our selfish desires. He disturbs us because he challenges us to go beyond, to go forward and not to settle to what is only comfortable for us. He disturbs us so that he will be able to bring true peace in us and in our community.

    The Lord wants us to find freedom. Jesus is not in favor in making ourselves passive, complacent, self-contained and self-satisfied yet stagnant. Jesus wants us to grow, to be mature and to become the person and community He wants us to be.

    This means that our relationship with God is not limited with what we are doing now, by just attending this Eucharist and that’s it. This Eucharist and the presence of Jesus in this celebration is not to be taken so lightly then.

    The invitation for us is to allow the Lord to touch and to disturb our complacency, passivity and routine so that we will be able to see things differently and wonderfully.

    Hopefully, as we allow the Lord to disturb us, we may be able to see new perspectives in life despite its monotony, more dynamic and life-giving ways of relating with people around us, and a deeper and a life-changing encounter with God through the ordinary expressions of our faith. And remember, this calls us to become “a sign of contradiction” to what is evil, abusive and oppressive by being pro-active, honest and courageous in expressing our faith and the values that we believe as Christians. Kabay pa.

  • Being WITH our LORD

    Being WITH our LORD

    August 14, 2022 – 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081422.cfm)

    “The Lord be with you” and we normally nowadays reply: “And also with your spirit”, – where decades ago we used to reply: “And also with you.” As Christians, we usually use these words of greetings as our recognition & faith of God’s presence in our midst & in one another.

    A priest once celebrated Eucharist in his own parish church. As he was about to greet these words to the people, he was not able to broadcast, because there is something wrong with the microphone’s connections. While tapping its cord, he eventually regains contact. But unfortunately, instead of the usual “the Lord be with you”, he loudly broadcasts to the people: “There is something wrong with the microphone”. And the people reply: “And also with your spirit”.

    Funny story it might be, but it is also telling us something – that sometimes we need to hear the words differently for us to fully appreciate and understand its meanings. This is what Jesus is also doing when he said the disturbing message in our gospel today, “I have come to set the earth on fire and I wish it were already blazing; I have come not to establish peace but division.” For the apostles and to us to fully understand  the value and consequences of discipleship – of following Him, Jesus has to present us the Good News differently  – somewhat off and disturbing so that we may fathom the height, width and depth of its meaning.

    Like “The Lord be with you. And also with you” greeting.  Surely we are familiar with those words. But come to think of it, though mistakenly said, but somehow it is not totally false that we may also say that there is something wrong with us & with our spirit. Yes, in almost all liturgies and prayers we celebrate, we hear and speak those words. But what does it really mean?

    First, It’s a great Honor and Privilege. We should feel then happy and great that the Lord is here with you and I, with us. Remember the first and primary good news of peace, love and hope ever preached are those words: “the Lord is with You”. But do we really feel great and honored hearing and speaking those words? Are we excited to hear and proclaim it? Or upon hearing and saying those words, we only say: “OK lang”, like “Ya, sounds familiar – We have heard it before, so what’s the fuss?” Like youngsters nowadays might say: “the Lord be with you? OK, fine, whatever”.

    Second, It’s personal and intimate. The Lord is WITH YOU. He is with you near – up close and personal. But do you really want Him to be nearby and near with you — OR would rather have Him far and away from you, who comes in handy when needed only? Would you rather Him as your buddy companion KASAMA, OR your usual “suking” gasoline station, handy only when empty & needed?

    Third, It’s communal. He is not only with You but with all of Us. He dwells amongst us, and lives and stays with Us. He is with and in each and everyone of us, good and bad alike. But do we want Him to be with others & respect His presence with other than ourselves -OR do we prefer that he is exclusively  with you and your family or group but not with the outcasts and rejected or your competitors or enemies?

    Fourth, It’s a Great Task and Responsibility. To welcome Him into our lives demands responsibility and total dedication. Meaning to accept, recognize and believe in the Good News that “the Lord is with you” is to be converted – to completely change your own ways and style of life and be patterned into His own faith and life. This is the cost of welcoming and following Jesus into our lives. Christian Discipleship would cost us a lot, for life will be different & never be the same again. Once you recognize & welcome Him to be with You, you cannot but change your ways & lifestyle. Perhaps that’s the reason why sometimes we don’t take those words: “the Lord be with you” seriously for we know that if we do so, there will division, tensions, disharmony and conflict within ourselves and with others, for all the changes it entails following Jesus demands of us.

    For those who have seen the movie Spiderman 1, its simple message is “Great power comes with great responsibility”. In the same way, to believe in Jesus Christ – The Lord with Us, to follow Him is a Great personal and communal Power, Honor and Privilege but also comes with Great Responsibility. Somehow this is what Jesus is trying to say to us when he said: “I have come to set fire on earth, and how I wish it where already blazing.”

    Indeed, there might be at times something wrong with us in life & spirit; both as the announcer/proclaimer (priest broadcasting: there is something wrong…) & listeners/receivers (people responding: and with your spirit)  of the message. But the good news and message remain always the same: EMMANUEL – the Lord with us… was with us, is with us and will always be with us – whatever, however, whoever & whenever we might be.

    We pray then that we Christians may remain be shaken & disturbed by the deeper meaning of Lord’s gospel, so that we may be more Jesus-like in being passionately responsible for the Good News of Emmanuel- God being with us. Amen.

  • Attentive To God’s Presence

    Attentive To God’s Presence

    August 7, 2020 – 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/080722.cfm)

    Who among you here have dogs at home? Are you also aware on how your dogs would react whenever you come home? Once the dogs are left at home they can be anxious without the presence of their humans. Yet, dogs display patience and attention to wait for their humans to return home. Their attentiveness allows them to be more conscious of their surroundings. And when our dogs would sense our coming and smell our presence even at a distance, they begin to get excited. Dogs would wiggle their tails as a sign of excitement. And when they finally see us, they would make terrible sounds as their expression of joy, or lick us, jump on us and run around us. This shows us how our dogs can be intimately connected with us. Moreover, the attentiveness of our dogs to our presence has something to teach us on this 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

    The first reading from the Book of Wisdom tells us how the people patiently waited and hoped for the coming of the Lord. They had been suffering for many years from the Egyptians. Their children were massacred, properties confiscated, and they were made slaves until their death.

    We could imagine their fears and anxieties, as well as the feeling of being abandoned by God. But through the presence of Moses, the people realized God’s presence among them. God’s promise was to be fulfilled after all. As a result, we were told how the people prepared themselves for the Lord’s coming who shall free them from that suffering. As a community, they became more attentive to God’s presence.

    In the same way, the second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews allows us to recall the attitude of our grandfathers in the faith particularly of Abraham. Abraham was indeed a man who put his trust and faith completely to God. Abraham left the comfort of his family and friends, to journey to a land that God promised to him.

    Certainly, Abraham also felt anxiety and insecurity as he journeyed with God especially when God gave him Isaac and later demanded that Abraham should sacrifice his son. That was Abraham’s most vulnerable moment in his life. Yet, he realized too that everything he had were all from God. With that, he was grateful to God. That gratitude made his faith even stronger, despite the pain of sacrificing his son. Indeed, he allowed God to surprise him and to unfold God’s plan by completely trusting the wisdom of God.

    The surprise was to receive Isaac back and to become our father in faith today. His close relationship with God allowed him to go beyond his fears and anxieties by making him more attentive to God’s presence and invitations.

    This is what Jesus taught to his disciples in today’s Gospel of Luke. Jesus reminds us to grow in our attentiveness of his presence. The parable in the Gospel is an affirmation to a person who consciously makes himself/herself familiar to God’s presence. It is when we are attuned to God’s presence that we also become aware of the presence of other people around us. As a result, this makes our faith active and alive by being able to give life.

    However, the parable is also a warning to those who have become mediocre, complacent and procrastinator. These are attitudes of a person who is not attentive to God’s presence and has taken advantage the gifts given by the Lord. Therefore, the person is only concerned of himself/herself. This person would become the most insecure, most anxious and at the same time can also be the most vicious and abusive to others.

    Hence, a mediocre or complacent person is only contented in doing things below his/her potentials. It means that we do not really give the best in us but we settle to what is only lesser and comfortable for us.

    Thus, when we become so caught up with our comforts but then we refuse to go beyond by giving ourselves for others, when we refuse to let go of our grudges and hatred, and when we refuse to actively oppose the evils and unjust systems in the community, then, we have surely grown to become mediocre and complacent. We do not want to be challenged because we do not what to make a stand. We do not want to go beyond from ourselves and to give our full potentials for God and for others. We only give what is small and minimal. However, this is a life that refuses to recognize God’s presence and invitations.

    Moreover, a person who procrastinates loves to delay things like in making decisions and actions. This person does not see the need to respond because he/she is caught up with his/her own mood. Consequently, when we procrastinate in our faith, we feel bored, we feel empty, and we feel lifeless and so we see no reason at all to become life-giving.

    What is common with these attitudes is the fear to take risks. Remember, trusting God and believing in Him requires risks. Faith is to take risks as what the Hebrew people showed in waiting for God to free them and for Abraham to journey outside his comforts and in sacrificing Isaac. Yet, it is in taking risks that God makes wonders through us and in us. It is in taking risks that we grow in our consciousness of God’ presence in our life. And it is also in taking risks that we grow deeper in our relationships.

    Our dogs who patiently await for our coming every time we leave home, put their trust on us and so have taken the risk to trust us in providing them an emotional assurance. Hopefully, we too in our journey with God will grow in our attentiveness to God’s presence by taking the risk in believing in him and trusting God’s wisdom by avoiding from our tendency to become mediocre, complacent and procrastinator in our Christian faith. Kabay pa.

  • OUR LIFE TO-BE

    OUR LIFE TO-BE

    August 7, 2022 – 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/080722.cfm)

    Once in a dream, a rich man found himself at the heaven’s door and welcomed with VIP treatment by two nice angels. As he was about to be brought to his house in heaven, he was fetched by a long white limousine with all the amenities, and was driven through a high-class subdivision. Along the way, he saw that his once-poor squatter neighbors are now living in big nice houses in heaven. Like, his laundry woman resides in a nice cozy house, his gardener has a big lawn, his former driver lives on a bungalow, and his maid now lives on a condominium. Thinking these poor neighbors have made well in heaven, he also thought that his home in heaven would be a big mansion, since he has been their master and better off than them.

    As they arrived, they stopped in front of a very big nice mansion.  The rich man, however was led thru the mansion’s side gate, and eventually into cardboard box shanty at the back of the big mansion. The angels then said: “Welcome to your home in heaven”. He was so disappointed and disgusted to a point that he yelled at them, “What? A cardboard box shanty? I don’t deserve this.” The angels replied, “Sorry, Sir, this shanty is only what we can prepare for you from the materials and contributions you have sent here”.

    Deep inside, yes, we do long to be reunited with God. We hope, and it is our heart’s desire that one day we will be one and at home with our Heavenly Father sharing with Him eternal life in our heavenly home. But while we are still here in this earthly life, like that rich man and that foolish maidservant in our gospel, it is easy for us to enjoy and be contented – or be more anxious and occupied with life here and now that we tend to forget what we really hope and long for in life.

    Because of our life-concerns in the here and now, it is easy for us to be more confident only with ourselves, forgetting God, even acting like-God, doesn’t anymore care of others except oneself, and fully enjoying the pleasures of earthly life. Meaning, we become more concern and greedy in amassing earthly treasures that we don’t anymore recognize and value heavenly treasures. 

    Here in our gospel today, Jesus reminds us of what really matters to God and the true treasures in life, and that is our life to be with Him – our everlasting life with Him in God’s Kingdom. He challenges us to “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven”, that is, to seek and strive for the true treasures in heaven…for where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.” This would mean that, rather than amassing earthly treasures in life, we must value and be concerned in preparation about our heavenly treasures in the here and now.

    For Jesus, our life now and our life to-be is not about building up our status and wealth in life, but it is about building up our faith relationship with God. Like the faith of Abraham and Sarah, our faith in God, our faith-relationship with God is our true treasures – our true heart’s desire. Such faith in Him will surely bring us into our salvation, into our heavenly home, for God loves to share His graces to all, especially those who have faith in Him.

    As we are still living on this life while hoping for eternal life, our nearest experiences of heaven here on earth are moments when we love and serve those who are in need, and when we trustingly fulfill what God entrusted and required of us in life. For he said, “much will be required of the person entrusted with much and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more”. Yes, God gives each of us a required-task to fulfill, an entrusted-mission to accomplish in life. And doing our part in fulfilling our life-tasks and life missions here and now, with love and service of others is our contribution in building up our home and treasures in heaven.

    We are called Christians because of our faith in Jesus Christ. We are Christians with faith in Jesus Christ, not only because we recognize and believe in Him, but also because we long and hope for the fulfillment of His message and promise of God’s Salvation into our lives. And as we long for the true treasures in life – our heavenly home, let us be vigilant and prepare for the fulfillment of His promise and learn how to build up, nurture and share our faith and blessings with others.

    As pandemic times compel us nowadays to think about the meaning & value of life, may we never separated from what is most important and valuable in life – our faith in God, and may we never be wearied in accomplishing our missions in life – building up our home with God. Amen.