Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Category: Ordinary Time

  • We all have been Graced

    We all have been Graced

    October 22, 2022 – Saturday 29th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102222.cfm)

    Do I feel inadequate? Do I feel insecure in one or many aspects of my life? Do I feel lacking in confidence and self-trust? Do I feel lacking in faith? The feelings of insecurities and insufficiencies from ourself could have come from our tendency to compare oneself from what others have and dwelling so much to the things we do not have. We could also have this belief when we too are constantly told that we are hopeless and that nothing is good about us. This can be very true to people especially with those who were subjected to humiliation and abuse that happened at home, at school, at work or even in our communities.

    This affects so much a person to the point that he/she can no longer see and recognize anything good in himself/herself or even outside the self. Certainly, when we fall into this trap, there is a need for us to be helped and to be reminded of who we are really. This is an invitation to discover and re-claim our person and the graces that we all have according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

    This is the good news for us today. St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians, addressed and reminded the Christian in the city of Ephesus of the graces they have received from the Lord. Christ who is the source of gifts, graces us individually. St. Paul described it further, “he (Christ) gave gifts to all… that he might fill all things.”

    What Paul tells us is God’s desire that we may all be filled through his gifts. This is something we can discover and ought to recognize and claim. We have been graced indeed, particularly of God’s presence, of the gift of faith and of the gift of friends and community.

    Hence, Paul reminds us also to grow in our knowledge of the Son of God, in Jesus. In knowing Jesus and recognizing how the Lord works in us, then, the more we shall also discover his gifts, his invitations for growth and come to know more ourselves. Knowing Jesus then, is also an invitation to our self-maturity, to our own growth in mind, in heart and in spirit. This is the significance of Paul’s hope, that we may not remain infants who are easily carried away by human trickery, deceit and abuse.

    The hope to fully grow and therefore, become fruitful is the invitation that we also have in today’s Gospel parable of the fig tree. The owner who expressed hopelessness in the fruitless tree wanted it to be cut down. Yet, in the person of the gardener, he intervened and promised to cultivate the tree. The gardener saw hope in the fig tree. Indeed, there was still hope for the fruitless tree. Perhaps, the tree was not taken care of in the past many years. It was left uncultivated and unfertilized. The promise of the gardener is an act of giving more attention to the tree, of taking care of it and of not giving up on it.

    This is also an invitation for us. We may come to give more attention to the gifts the Christ has given us, to cultivate, nourish and develop our gifts, whatever they are. We may also consciously know Christ more and encounter the Lord in our life and in the life of others so that we may grow in our knowledge of him and in our knowledge of ourselves so that we may have our fill and the fullness and fruitfulness of life. Kabay pa.

  • UNITY: How are we called to unite in the Spirit?

    UNITY: How are we called to unite in the Spirit?

    October 21, 2022 – Friday 29th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102122.cfm)

    Is unity in itself a good thing? Unity in itself is something neutral and it depends on how such unity is to serve its purpose. When thieves, corrupt leaders, those who want to advance their self-interest and people with evil intentions unite, then, this will surely be a bad thing. Such unity will bring destruction, violence and death. When people who desire to serve others, those who dream for a better world, people who work hard to earn an honest living and people who have faith in the Lord unite, then, this will bring goodness, abundance, hope and peace.

    Thus, it is also not enough to call and invite Christians to simply have unity because this can be for evil or for God. Just like what the Pharisees and lawyers at that time of Jesus, despite being faithful to their religious traditions and practices even to minutest details, their unity was nothing before God. Jesus confronted their hypocrisy because within their hearts lie the evil intentions of self-interest, of seeking power and influence, of indifference and corruption.

    So, what kind of unity then, are we called to have? St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians expressed this kind of unity and the intentions behind the call to unite.

    Paul called the Ephesians and calls us as well today, to “strive to preserve the unity of the Sprit through the bond of peace.” This is an invitation to be conscious and to seek the gift of unity that comes from the Holy Spirit manifested in peace. This can be experienced within the context of our families, organizations, communities, nations and the whole Church.

    The unity that the Spirit brings will surely flourish when we also lived fully what God called us to be. And this is how Paul invites us further today so that we will be united in the Spirit, to become one body and one spirit.

    First, to be humble. Grace is received by a humble heart not with an arrogant heart that only thinks of the self.

    Second, to be gentle. It is in gentleness that we are able to nurture affection and closer relationship with one another for it makes us understanding. Therefore, true unity of the spirit is not achieved through violence, cruelty or deception.

    Third, to be patient. This allow us to let God work in us, and allow our natural process of growing in the spirit by being able to discern, to listen to God and each other. Unity of the spirit is not being fostered by being impulsive and having no time to discern and listen.

    Fourth, to be loving. Love and its concrete expressions through self-scarifying service to others and to God that unity of the spirit is being given a face. Thus, it is not in indifference, not in being distanced and unconcerned that we become loving and united in the spirit.

    Kabay pa.

  • ROOTED AND GROUNDED IN LOVE

    ROOTED AND GROUNDED IN LOVE

    October 20, 2022 – Thursday 29th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102022.cfm)

    Do we long to be confident, to have a strong inner-self and to be stable in our relationships? We know that we all experience different hardships and difficulties that could shake us, terrify us and bring us into desperation. Aside from family problems, internal-personal conflicts, love-life heartbreaks, work-related issues, we could also suffer from societal concerns such poverty, injustice, abuses, corruption, persecution and oppression. As we experience one or more of these issues and concerns, we desire to overcome and outgrow these. Such desire must have come also from our inner desire to live life well and fully with our community.

    This was the prayer and the longing for Paul expressed in his letter to the Ephesians. To be confident, to be secured in our relationships and to have a strong inner self, is to be rooted and grounded in love, as Paul has told us. Yes, Paul reminded and called the Christians in Ephesus because of the threat of being carried away by the evils and corruption of the political powers in the city of Ephesus. The Christians seemed to be overwhelmed by this problem in their community. Thus, Paul’s intervention was to bring them closer again to that love of Christ who is their true power and strength as a Christian community. Indeed, it is only in being rooted and grounded in the love of Christ and for one another, that each one’s inner self is to be filled with all the fullness of God.

    What does Paul mean then of being rooted? Paul used this image that we find in nature as the roots of a tree makes one to find nourishment, stability, and source of abundance. This is how Paul invites us to be rooted in the love of Christ so that we may take root in that love and find what truly nourishes us, what is truly constant as well as finding abundance of grace.

    As roots take time to go deeper into the soil and find the abundance of life, let us also allow ourselves to take our roots in our relationship with Christ by being faithful in our prayers, by seeking the grace in our sacraments, and by being supported by the company of our friends and community.

    What does Paul also mean of being grounded? Paul employed the image like that of a building that finds strength and balance by being grounded on a firm foundation. Paul reminds us also to make the love of Christ as the very foundation of our inner self, of our relationships and of everything that we do and we have.

    As a good building grounds itself on a good foundation, let us also allow ourselves to be grounded in that constant and unconditional love of Jesus for us. Though we are all underserving, yet, the Lord desires to love us that we may have the fullness of God in our life. Let us be grounded in the love of Christ by being fully embracing that love and not doubting it, by being loving ourselves and not just murmur about it, and by being convinced of this love and not just thinking about it intellectually. Kabay pa.

  • God’s Surprise Visits 

    God’s Surprise Visits 

    October 19, 2022 – Wednesday, 29th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101922.cfm)

    God loves surprises and loves to surprise us in a very special way. The Gospel proclaimed to us today is certainly not just limited in God’s final judgment and delivering punishment for those who are wicked and rewarding the righteous. The Gospel invites us also to be more attentive of God’s surprise visits.

    God comes and reveals the Divine Presence to us in the way we would not expect it to be. St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians gave us the hint on how he experienced such a surprise from Jesus. The Lord revealed himself to Paul on the road to Damascus when he was in search of Christians to persecute. That surprise from Jesus changed the whole life of Paul. It was in that surprise that Paul truly encountered the Lord and was converted to Jesus. That encounter and the revelation Paul received was the grace that he shared with others. Paul expressed it this way, “of this I became a minister by the gift of God’s grace” because the mystery of God was made known to him by revelation.

    This is the invitation for us today. We are called to be attentive and to make ourselves available to the many surprise visits and revelations of God. We need the eyes of faith to believe in the God of surprises.

    God may call us to serve and love Him in the way we have never thought about or to do something which was unthinkable before. God may reveal His presence to us in the most ordinary ways and to ordinary persons who are already familiar to us. The Lord may tell us something and reveal his wondrous presence in our life through the work we do or through the responsibilities we have at home. God may answer our prayer through the help and generosity of an unexpected friend or even through a stranger. God may bring us joy through a simple gift from a person we love or through reconciliation and peace offered to us by the person we have hurt or those who have hurt us.

    There are many possibilities for God’s surprise visits. Allow, then, the Lord to surprise us today. It would be very good to grasp and grab those surprises from God. Having those experiences will make us confident in our relationship with God.

    It would be good for us then also, to spend a time of recollection or of silence each day even in a short moment of 5 to 10 minutes before bedtime. Spend this time to recollect on how God has given us the grace of surprise visit during the day. Thank the Lord for the grace and never forget to share your grace also to others so that we too shall be God’s surprise for other people. Kabay pa.

  • UNDERSERVING yet Graced and Loved

    UNDERSERVING yet Graced and Loved

    October 17, 2022 – Monday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101722.cfm)

    This is who we are – UNDERSERVING yet we are graced and loved by God who would do everything to liberate and empower us from whatever that is preventing us to live life to the full. This is how Paul captured such image of ours before God in his letter to the Ephesians, “you were dead in your transgressions and sins… but God who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us… brought us to life with Christ (by grace you have been saved).”

    Let us become more conscious of this and claim such grace from the Lord. This act is indeed God’s initiative, out of that great love we are shown mercy and brought to life. We realize how each of us matters in God even though we are not deserving in anyway. Paul further tells us, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast.”

    Yes, it is a sheer gift of God! A gift that offers us freedom and peace, reconciliation and the fullness of life with Christ.

    This is how we also understand the parable of Jesus in today’s Gospel from Luke. Jesus did not condemn people who are rich materially. The warning of Jesus is directed towards a heart that has become dependent on possessions to the point that greed consumes the person. Total dependence on material possessions or whatever possessions we may have or “things that possessed us,” lead our hearts to greed. Greed keeps us away from others and from God because it worships not the Lord but something and someone else. Greed corrupts the hearts and destroys our relationships.

    This makes any person to be distanced from the grace of God, away from the company of true friendship and love from the community because the person grows to be vicious and self-centered. This is what the Lord wants anyone to be free from. When we become dependent and totally occupied by something else rather than by our relationship with God and with one another, then, we become prisoners of our own human desires and selfish tendencies. This is the transgressions and sins that Paul tells us.

    Jesus invites us to invest and be rich in what matters to God. This means that as God has shown us mercy because of his great love for us, we are offered and given life with Christ. This is the fullness of life.

    Thus, what matters to God is for us to replicate what we have received, that is, to show mercy to our brothers and sisters, to express concretely our love for each other and to God and to become life-giving persons. The fullness of life is not being experienced alone but can only be experienced within the context of our community. Hence, it is by being able to give life, inspire life and heal life in our families, group of friends, workplaces, organizations and communities that we shall also truly experience the fullness of life with Christ. Kabay pa.