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Category: Misa de Aguinaldo

  • GOSPEL INFLUENCERS

    GOSPEL INFLUENCERS

    December 16, 2022 – Misa de Aguinaldo, National Youth Day 2022

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121622.cfm)

    Today, on this first day of Misa de Aguinaldo, the Philippine Church also dedicates this day as the National Youth Day with its theme: “Mary Arose and Went with Haste.”

    With this emphasis of the gift of the young, I would like to invite you now that we listen to personal faith story from one of our Youth Animators. He serves as an Altar Server in our Parish and a member of the Human Formation Committee of RYM-Iloilo. Let us welcome, Carl Joseph Cajaban.

    As a server and youth member of this parish for the past 6 years, there are various values that I have learned from this church community. I actually started my journey of emptiness not really knowing the significant roles and importance of being a servant of the Lord.

    I felt, that there was a time when the Lord Jesus made his way so that I get close to him. Even though I am not worthy to be a servant of our Lord, but gradually I developed my relationship with him through the people who have become significant in my faith-journey. Nanay Ledia is one of the devotees of this parish who has become significant for me as young Catholic. She is the one who initiated and encouraged me to serve Jesus Christ in my youth. She dedicated her time and presence to me to help me be enlightened and know God better.

    She once said to me, “Tanan na bagay na madako, naga umpisa sa gamay na butang.” What she said seemed to be very short and simple yet for me, he words meant a lot and filled with meaning. Through her, I realized that there is a God who guides me in the way of sending his instruments to awaken my soul. This has kept committed in the ministries I am involved now in our parish.

    However, due to some circumstances in my life, sometimes I feel that I am worthless, pity-worthy, and a useless person. Yet for these reasons as well, I joined this ministry to develop my self-confidence and to be a socially responsible person.

    Honestly, this parish community helps me a lot, which is why I continue to serve and praise our God. Moreover, this is how I also realized my relationship with our mother Mary, from whom I have experienced her caring and precious heart. This shows me a mother’s concern who continually guided me to be closer to Jesus.

    As I close this short reflection of mine, I would like to encourage other young people to join us in the ministry or in any Church ministry that will bring us closer to Jesus. May our act of service to the Lord and to the Church allow us to grow and become mature.

    What we have heard from Carl’s faith story was the wonder of having people and even recognizing ordinary events in life that have directed us towards the Lord.

    The experiences of Carl remind us of the readings we have heard today. The Book of Prophet Isaiah tells us of the presence of the foreigners. These foreigners have joined themselves to the Lord. They too have recognized the goodness of the Lord God. This tells us that the Hebrew people who have become their friends created a huge impact in their life because through them, they were led to the one True God.

    Indeed, it was the joy that they have experienced from the believers of God that they too were assisted to know God. God even promised in the Book of Isaiah that through the presence of the many peoples, there will be joy in the house of prayer, in the community.

    This is what we also find in the Gospel. Jesus recognized the person of John the Baptist, his cousin who became that person for others to know Jesus. John the Baptist led the people to recognize God in the person of Jesus by preparing their hearts and minds. This is how John had become a reflection of the True Light. John never assumed that he was the source of Light. John knew very well who the light was. That is why, through his preaching and way of life, he reflected the light that came from Jesus. John, indeed, is the burning and shining lamp for the people.

    On this first day of Misa de Gallo, we are reminded too of the person of Mary who through her, God entered in our human history physically. Through her, Jesus was born for us. Mary too is the shining lamp that leads us to Jesus. This is the reason why we have this 9-day Misa de Gallo in honor of Mary because she leads us to Jesus. She brings us closer to Jesus just as how Mary arose and went with haste to visit and help her old cousin Elizabeth.

    With that, today our liturgy is also centered on the theme, “Mary arose and went with haste.” This was after the annunciation of the angel to Mary. Even when Mary knew already that she was pregnant, that did not limit her to only look after herself. Mary saw the need of an old cousin and so she arose from her comfort and went with haste without any doubt or hesitation. What Mary brought was only love and commitment to share the fullness of heart to others.

    What Mary showed is a movement of encounter. And in every encounter we share life and stories of encounters with God and on how God manifests the divine presence in us and among us. This must be the event as well as Mary dared to encounter her cousin and her husband.

    In a way, the faith-sharing of Carl and his story tell us of his encounters with people who have become significant in his faith-journey. Those foreigners in the Book of Isaiah also were able to encounter and know God through their encounter with the Hebrews. The Jewish people who came to believe Jesus, had their first encounter with John the Baptist that also paved the way for them to encounter Jesus ultimately. Such movement of encounter now became the very opportunity for more encounters between a person and Jesus.

    This is the invitation for us today particularly to all young people. Considering the way of life of the many young people today, the internet has become a space for encounter, though virtual. In fact, our country Philippines has been branded as the Social Media Capital of the World. As of January 2022, there are about 76.01 millions of Filipinos who social media users.[1] The most active among us are those ages between 25 to 34 years old. Unsurprisingly, the Senior Citizens or those 65 years old and above are part of the 6.5 million social media users. That means, the seniors are not that far behind us!

    Again, according to the survey, out of the total population of our country, 82.4% have social media accounts or equivalent to 92.5 million. Majority of us, spend as much as 4 hours and 6 minutes on Facebook daily. But, there is a total of 10 hours and 27 minutes of time being spent by the 76.01 millions of Filipinos on the internet.

    I am sure that in this mass, there are also many of you scanning right now, at this very moment, your social media sites through your mobile phones. That only tells us that our mobile/smartphones have become part of our identity, of who we are. Our smartphone, regardless of our socio-economic status, is an extension of ourselves and our connection to the world.[2]

    Yet, let us not allow that these will be the cause of indifference among us. Let us not allow that these gadgets will prevent us to become more human and more loving. Do not allow the use of Social Media to make us bitter, pretentious, and source of disinformation and fake news in order to deceive many. Rather, let us maximize the gift of technology by bringing people closer to Jesus through the very gadget in our hands and through the media that we are very familiar with. Indeed, the Lord invites us today, especially the young to be “Gospel Influencers” (to influence through the Gospel) in our own group of friends on Facebook or Instagram or TikTok.

    Create encounters with your friends and followers by sharing your God experiences in your social media sites. This include also sharing on how God shows his goodness and generosity to you and your family. Preach to others how God changed your life. Share with others how you have experienced love and forgiveness. Share with your friends the Word of God that has struck you. Share the good news rather than your hatred and bitterness towards others, rather than fake news and misinformation.

    Thus, even as young persons, we can be an instrument of hope and love, of transformation and peace by bringing people closer to Jesus. Let us flood the Social Media with love and hope by actively preaching our Christian faith.

    But friends, may I also remind you, as we maximize the gift of technology, never forget also the gift of your presence in making physical and personal encounters with people around you, with your family and friends. With that, be a Gospel Influencer by being physically present to people around you just as Mary, our Mother, arose and went with haste to encounter her cousin and to bring the presence of the Lord through her very person.

    Lastly, I would like to invite all of you who have your phones right now, after this mass, please take a selfie or grofie with your friends in our Church and share to others the good news that you have received and please use these hashtags, #NYDPh2022  #MaryAroseAndWentWithHaste #FilipinoYouth #StClements #RYMIloilo. Ok lang? Sana all.

    [1] https://www.meltwater.com/en/blog/social-media-statistics-philippines

    [2] Ibid.

  • Unboxing the Gift

    Unboxing the Gift

    December 24, 2020 – Ninth Day of Misa de Aguinaldo

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122420.cfm)

    Homily

    Our traumatic experiences, unexpected and painful events that have happened in our life could be our heavy reasons to retreat into sadness and desperation. Sometimes, we could not help it because what has occurred to us was just too much to bear, and too overwhelming. Such experience can be likened to darkness where every gleam of the light of joy and comfort was deprived from us.

    However, there are many of us also who despite those painful, traumatic and heartbreaking experiences in their life, they persisted to hope again and too see something beyond the darkness that had befallen into their life.

    For us to have a better understanding on this and a better realization on the wonder of seeing beyond darkness and hoping beyond pain and sadness, let us rediscover God’s invitation for us today and see how the three gifts of presence, of light and of life were slowly being unboxed in today’s readings.

    In the Second Book of Samuel, the prophet proclaimed the gift of presence to be given to David. David who thought that he should build a house for God, was promised by the Lord to be given a house that will last forever.  This is the covenant so dear to the people because God will be a father.

    Besides, the Psalm also expressed a similar hope. Because of the suffering endured by the people of this time, they longed to that promise of God who shall show an everlasting kindness. What kept them hopeful was their confidence in God’s faithfulness because God is our Father. This confidence in God as Father, is the gift of the presence of God being unboxed slowly throughout the history of Israel.

    In the Gospel of Luke, what has been proclaimed to us today is the Song of Zechariah. Remember, before he was able to sing this, Zechariah was muted by God. Because of his unbelief to God’s gift to him, Zechariah was silenced. He did not listen and believe in God’s revelation.

    Remember again, Zechariah’s unbelieving response was a bitter reaction to God. Zechariah must have believed that God had forgotten him and abandoned him. The shame that he endured for being childless for many years must have brought him to hopelessness. He forgot that God was faithful. Yet, despite this reaction of Zechariah towards the gift of God, John was given to him and to his wife. The birth of John, was a gift of light. The dark shame and guilt of Zechariah was removed because of this gift of light. John was a light to him and to people who came to be baptized by John. John also led people to see the true light. John as the prophet of the Most High, himself unboxed the gift of light for people to see and be illuminated. He unboxed that gift through his preaching of the coming of the Messiah, the Lamb of God who was in their midst.

    This is how Zechariah recalled the covenant of God and the fulfillment of the promise of a mighty Savior. In his song, he also recounted how his eyes have seen clearly that promise being unfolded through the birth of his son. John will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of sins. The song of Zechariah itself is the unboxing of the gift of life.

    The Song of Zechariah proclaims to us the abundance of life coming into us now and that we too, each of us, is unboxing this gift of life.

    With all of these, how do we unbox the gifts given to us by the Lord?

    We unbox the gift of presence of God by becoming confident in God’s presence. Both the Second Book of Samuel and the Psalm tell us that God is our Father. Take confidence in this. It is because that God is a Father to us, God will always be for us. We may have not so nice experiences with our earthly fathers, but God as our Father, will never hurt and will never leave us.

    We unbox the gift of light when we also accept and confront our own blindness and our own darkness. Like Zechariah, he was confronted by the Angel of his unbelief. Let us also confront ourselves and challenge ourselves not to succumb to what is dark and to what is evil. Only then, also that we will be able to confront the darkness and the evil around us when we are confident that we have unboxed the gift of light, who is Jesus.

    We also unbox the gift of life when we learn to embrace the beauty and the wonder of every form of life. God is about to be born like us, and God chooses to be born because God is life and God is for life. When we learn to show respect to all life, cherish all life and protect all life, then we unbox this gift and be gifted with eternal life.

    The gifts of presence, of light and life is Jesus himself. Remember that. Hinaut pa.

  • God is gracious and fills us with gifts

    God is gracious and fills us with gifts

    December 23, 2020 – Eight Day of Misa de Aguinaldo

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122320.cfm)

    Homily

    Who was the person who taught you to pray? Who was that important person in your life who brought you to the church and to develop your personal relationship with God? I am sure that we have our own share of stories and memories of those persons who were significant in the formation of our faith. They may be our grandparents or parents, siblings or relatives or others because of their friends. Others also only began going to the church and learned how to pray and became closer to God because they were following their girlfriend or boyfriend in the Church.

    Well, I want you to remember that person and please, thank the person. If the person is sitting near you, say thank you. If the person is not around with you anymore, then, in remembrance of that person, say thank you also as you imagine the face of that person.

    I want you now to listen a story of real struggle that happened very recently who despite the pain and overwhelming confusion, she is able to realize the gift of persons in her life during these trying times. Let us listen to Mildred Taño Tocao (Ate Neneng) short story.

    The bitterness and the difficulty of losing your beloved in life, is truly painful to accept. My husband had been ill for many months yet, he kept his illness to himself. He never asked for help perhaps because he did not want to be troubled.

    I was only able to bring him to the hospital when he had the difficulty in breathings. When I brought him to the hospital, I had many fears since I easily get scared. I am scared of seeing dead people. I am scared of patients who are gravely ill. However, at that time, I was able to overcome to those fears because I wanted my husband to be healed and to live.

    Yet, when he was brought to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), I was prevented to be with him. I went home but I isolated myself from my children and grandchildren since I was exposed to the hospital. I was very confused and very anxious. I was all alone in the room. I was paranoid and would easily get scared every time I would hear my phone ringing. I was scared that the hospital might give me some sad news. Yet, the time really came when I was informed that my husband died alone, away from us.

    The pain in my heart was overwhelming. I lost my husband. I have never even seen him just for once before he was buried. What I can do was to cry. Moreover, because of the mandatory 14 days quarantine imposed on me, I could not embrace my two grandchildren. I can only hear their cried looking for me. I was grieving and deeply sorrowful.

    However, despite all these, “God is gracious and fills us with gifts.”

    “I am still thankful to you Lord for the gift of life and for the gift of presence of my husband, Tata. You have awakened my husband to praise and thank you. Although, he rarely went to Church, but my husband slowly came back to you and realized the importance of going to the Church. There were even times when it would be him waking me up early and reminding me to go to Church and pray. It is still painful to think that he is no longer with us. What I can do now is to remember him and cherish our memories with him especially as we are about to celebrate Christmas and New Year.”

    Despite all these painful events in our life, I am really grateful to the Lord because God has given us many gifts. Our children and our grandchildren are the most wonderful gifts we have received. Now, they are the source my strength and of my inspiration in the midst of this painful event of losing my beloved husband.

    Ate Neneng and the whole family had been a subject of discrimination and because of the surrounding fear during this pandemic, they too were deprived to see and bury their beloved dead. However, the painful experience of Ate Neneng and of the whole family leads us to this wonder to see beyond darkness and to hope beyond pain and sadness.

    What helped Ate Neneng to see beyond are the very presence of those people who love her and whom she loves. Her children and grandchildren, as she shared, became the very source of comfort and strength to her in these very difficult times. In this way, God reveals His graciousness and gifts to us with those people who are near to us, particularly our family. This is what Ate Neneng also realized as she struggled to discover hope and find light in this heartbreaking point of her life.

    To consciously remember and recognize the people in our life and in the story of our faith, we too are being reminded of God’s action within our history. God called messengers or heralds to lead us and gather us into the presence of God. With this, let us also discover how God worked in our history and reveal His graciousness to us through the Sacred Scriptures.

    In the prophecy from the Book of Malachi, we have heard of God’s herald who shall lead and gather the people to see God. He is like a refiner’s fire who will teach and correct the wrong of the people. The herald leads the people to repentance to fully welcome the Lord. And the very life of this person is the message of God to make the people prepare themselves for God’s coming. This is God’s promise that is to be first fulfilled through the participation of humanity, through us.

    The person of this herald is truly a gift because his presence means bringing us into preparation. This is how God’s graciousness is also revealed because what God desires is our salvation and our freedom. The role of the herald becomes our link with God.

    The author of the Psalm expressed the desire to be taught by the Lord and to be led to the truth. This is the role of the herald in the first reading and the herald in the Gospel of Luke who teaches, leads and gathers the people to recognize God’s graciousness.

    What is more interesting about the herald was how he was conceived in his mother’s womb. In the Gospel of Luke, which tells us of the birth of John, the herald of God was surrounded by a story of surprise and of God’s graciousness. The Lord continued the revelation of this plan through the old childless couple, Zechariah and Elizabeth.

    Indeed, to the surprise of this old couple an angel announced that they will have a son.  Elizabeth welcomed the message from God, but her husband, because it was too much to believe, could not accept God’s gift. That is why, Zechariah was silenced by God. He only recovered his voice when his son was born. It was when he gave the name John to his son that the Lord opened his mouth again because the Lord is gracious.

    The name John literally means, God is Gracious. The birth of John the Baptist is a testimony of God’s graciousness not just to the old couple, Zechariah and Elizabeth but to the whole humanity. The couple is an image of the people who longed to be taught and to be led to God. As John was a gift to his parents, John also points to God’s graciousness who is about to come in its fullness. Zechariah also realized that his son is God’s message to him. With the birth of his son John, Zechariah was filled with God’s gift which made him to speak again because of so much joy and gratitude to the Lord.

    Yes, Zechariah spoke and regained his voice because of so much joy in his heart, because of so much gratitude in his spirit. The birth of John is a divine manifestation that God is gracious and faithful despite our unbelief and doubts. God continues to reveal himself to us even though we may refuse to believe.

    This was the role of John and that was to bring people again to believe that God has never abandoned us. God remembers and He is here with us. This made John a great and important prophet because he made people recognize God and brought them closer to God. He was a refiner’s fire because he challenged the people’s way of life and called them to get out from their comfort zones of power, influence, abuse, sin and corruption.  Yet, because of this role of John, it caused John’s life. He was martyred, beheaded actually, because of this cause to make people recognize that God is gracious.

    This is the invitation for us today – to be a herald of God. Each of us was led and taught by significant people in our life. Now, it is our time to be one, to become God’s herald today, to become like John the Baptist who will also lead others to God, who will point to others how God is so gracious to us.

    How do we become a herald today?

    You as parents, you are in the best position to lead your children to God. You are there to prepare the way of the Lord in the hearts of your children – not through indifference and irresponsibility but through your love and understanding, through your loving presence and affection.

    Teachers, educators and persons who are in authority, you too are in the position to influence your students, mentees and subjects to discover God through your authority – not through dominance and control but through your loving care and gentleness.

    As friends, co-workers, and classmates we too are in the position to let those people around us to realize that God is in us – not through manipulation and deceit but through our kindness and generosity. Through us, people around us may discover and be led closer to God. Hinaut pa.

  • Gratitude to the Gifts of the Lord

    Gratitude to the Gifts of the Lord

    December 22, 2020 – Seventh day of the Misa de Aguinaldo

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122220.cfm)

    Homily

    How grateful am I today? Gratitude makes us recognize the many things that surround us in a manner of being appreciative and positive. Gratitude 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 because we see the goodness and uniqueness of others.

    The joy that comes from being grateful leads us to be more aware of God’s tremendous generosity to us despite our weaknesses and sins. When we become joyful, we also become generous towards the people around us, no matter who they are, whether they are friends or strangers.

    Such character in us that is being nurtured because of gratitude, calls us now on this Seventh Day of our Misa de Aguinaldo to be more conscious of God’s gift to us and to grow in gratitude. For us to recognize the gifts in us, let us see first how gifts of the Lord were also being revealed in today’s readings.

    In the First Book of Samuel, we heard the story of Hannah. Hannah had been into humiliation and shame because of being infertile. She could not bear a son which gave her so much anguish. Being the second wife of Elkanah, Hannah was always humiliated by Peninnah, the first wife. Yet, through the prophet Eli, Hannah’s prayers were answered. She bore a son, Samuel.

    Through the gift of Samuel to Hannah, she realized how faithful God is to her. Through this gift, she also realized the other gift she received, through her friendship with Prophet Eli. The presence of Eli to Hannah was a reminder that there was hope. That friendship, made Hannah to be comforted when she was humiliated. Eli was Hannah’s prayer warrior. This made Hannah to be ever grateful to God. Because of her gratitude to God’s blessing and saving her from humiliation, she dedicated her son to God. In fact, because of this offering, Hannah had been blessed also to have 5 more children after Samuel. Hannah’s story is a testament that when we become generous, God’s blesses us more.

    The Responsorial Psalm, which was also taken from the same Book of Samuel, expressed the experiences of the people and particularly of Hannah in the first reading. God comes to rescue his people who were oppressed, humiliated and broken. The response, “My heart exults in the Lord my savior,” expressed that deep gratitude to God who is not indifferent to the suffering of the people. A heart that exults God is joyful and grateful. Thus, to praise and truly worship God is to have a heart filled with joy and gratitude.

    To both, we are reminded of God who comes to bless us in order to save us, to liberate us and to empower us. This character of God has been the experience of Mary. Her song famously called as the Magnificat expressed also that deep gratitude to the Lord.

    God is indeed great for he has done many great things to the lowly ones. This recalls and recognizes the action of God where the powerful, the arrogant and the corrupt are brought to shame while the lowly, the poor and the hungry are raised and satisfied. This song depicts how God favored and blessed those who call him God and those who remain faithful. Mary’s song is certainly a song of gratitude to God.

    Everything that we have heard in the readings tell us that when a person grows to be grateful, the person also becomes more aware of the presence of God, the giver of blessings and gifts. This reminds us too that everything is a gift.

    God calls us today to be more grateful of the gifts and blessings that we have received each day, no matter how small that would be. But if we have received so much, be more thankful and be more generous too. 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.

    In a concrete way, let us begin today in recognizing every gift we have received from God, not just our material things, but also the gift of persons of our friends and family, of faith and community. As we recognize them, let our hearts be filled with gratitude to the Lord and gratitude to people around us. Let that gratitude express the joy in us, to dispel our anxieties and fears, our guilt and shame, our indifference and sin. Hinaut pa.

  • The Gift of Presence

    The Gift of Presence

    December 21, 2020 – Sixth Day of Misa de Aguinaldo

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122120.cfm)

    Homily

    “What an honor this is, that the mother of my Lord shall visit me?” (Lk. 1: 43, LAB)

    Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth provides a positive energy of affirmation and encouragement for the both of them. Affirmation, because both Mary and Elizabeth witnessed God’s promise came to fruition. Encouragement, because they needed each other who both experienced God’s marvelous works in human faculties which only the two of them could understand.

    Mary’s presence during this time of Elizabeth’s life is Mary’s way of sharing the joy of Elizabeth and her gesture of support to her pregnant relative. For the Lord removed the bitter experience of Elizabeth and heal her from the pain of disgrace. Thus, her presence showed that she is with Elizabeth and committed to accompany her in this journey.

    However, God used this encounter between these two blessed women as a privilege locus to highlight the special role of Mary in the economy of salvation. And Elizabeth recognized that, saying: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”

    Thus, the Church, the Christian faithful, continues to honor Mary with utmost gratitude for saying “Yes” to the will of God, for which we benefited from. For through her, God commenced his plan of renewing the face of the earth and gathering us all into his Kingdom.

    See, what difference presence can do to others! And so, what about calling a family member or a relative or a friend? What about letting them know that you care about them, and that they can count on you? The time is now! Seize it!

    Gibo Dandoy, CSsR