The Gospel of Matthew tells us this attitude of Jesus to commune with his Father. After his busy schedule, overwhelming encounter with the sick, heavy loads in teaching, Jesus would find time to be alone and to pray.
This is an attitude that shows us the importance of prayer life, to gather our thoughts, to reflect and relax after a busy and tiring day, and to be more intimate with God. The Gospel would always tell us about this attitude in Jesus. He would always find time to be alone in order to give a space for himself and for his Father in heaven. This is an intimate expression of love and confidence. Prayer then, is that intimate expression of love and confidence with God.
In a concrete way, this love and confidence heightens ones awareness of the needs others.
Again, the Gospel of Matthew tells us how the prayer of Jesus made him aware of the difficulties of his disciples. Jesus sensed that they needed his help. The disciples who were on the boat, crossing the sea, experienced a storm. They were frightened and terrified. Though most of them were fishermen and had experienced before that kind of danger, but they were still afraid.
They must have been terrified because the source of their confidence was not with them at that time. Jesus was not with them on the boat. They were alone in the midst of that storm.
However, the prayer of Jesus made him aware of this fear and need of the disciples. Jesus went and made himself present in that moment of fear of the disciples. He made himself present to assure and give confidence. The words of Jesus are indeed both an assurance and an invitation, he said, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”
Indeed, this is an assurance that God comes and meets us where we are at the moment even in our darkest and most fearful moment in life. God comes to make himself present in our life. This is also an invitation to recognize the Lord in those trying times and not to let our fear overwhelm us.
The invitation for us today is this – that like Jesus our prayer also should lead us to become aware of the needs of others and move us to respond. This is an active prayer and a life-giving prayer.
Prayer then, is not meant to be mechanical and a mere ritual. Prayer in itself is an invitation for us, that as we become more aware of God’s presence in us, we too become more aware of the presence of people around us. Prayer bears fruit then, when we make ourselves be moved to the needs around us in order to give life. In this way, our prayer becomes life-giving.
This is how true prayer and communion with God transforms us because it moves us to give our a person and very presence to those who are distressed and afraid today. Hinaut pa.
Who among us here who have not yet experienced hunger? I am sure each of us have experienced that feeling of being hungry since we were babies. Babies especially would always cry when they are hungry. A parent’s automatic response to a crying baby is to feed the baby with milk. When the baby starts sucking, the baby also stops from crying. When we become adults, we continue such behavior though we do not cry anymore but feed ourselves with food that can satisfy our physical hunger.
At the beginning of this quarantine and lockdowns, we have also experienced how we have become anxious from running out of food during this pandemic. News reports all over the world told us of panic buying. People were fighting over some supplies, and many essential goods also run out of supply. People bought many things to satisfy not their hunger, but their anxiety of what is to come tomorrow.
Aside from this, there are also many other forms of hunger in us, such us our hunger for acceptance, for recognition, for friendship, for love and intimacy, for justice, for peace and reconciliation.
And in our search to satisfy those longings and hungers, we are sometimes led to resort to the promises of “instant satisfaction” and to an “immediate result.”
Their consequences become destructive, unhelpful and the corruption of life. Addictions such as in alcohol, drugs, sex or food are ways to satisfy our deepest hunger. Yet, because they only promise an instant gratification and so we hold on to those addictions to numb our hunger for love, for attention and intimacy.
Our obsessive fixations in spending too much time in social media, or online games or with gadgets, can remove us from the true and personal encounter with people. Because of the lack of human connection, we divert our need into what is temporary, virtual and not real.
Our compulsive behaviors in gossiping, in defaming people and in finding the faults and weaknesses of others seemingly give us the image of a good person, righteous than others. However, these behaviors only blind us of our true longing to be recognized and be appreciated.
Our obsession to be powerful, to exercise dominance and control over the weak and to resort to violent and aggressive actions apparently make us confident, independent and strong willed. However, they too blind us from that hunger to find our true self and our true potentials.
That’s why, God in his goodness would always invite us to come to him so that our hunger will be satisfied and our longing will be fulfilled. This is what our first reading told us today. The Book of Isaiah tells us of God’s invitation to come, to eat and be satisfied. God invites his people to come to him, to recognize God as the source and fountain of good and wonderful things in life. This is an assurance of God to the people that indeed, in God they shall be satisfied. Yet, there is something interesting behind this invitation.
This particular verses in the Book of Isaiah were addressed to the people of Israel who were exiled in a foreign land. And a time has come that they will be restored and will be brought home. However, many of them seemed not to be moved by God’s invitation. People have become comfortable with their life while at exile. They were able to adjust and adopted to a new way of life. Thus, when God’s promise was fulfilled, they have become indifferent, not wanting to be moved by God anymore.
Thus, this invitation to come to God and be satisfied is also at the same time a challenge and an assurance to us who have become indifferent, complacent but remain anxious of what will happen tomorrow. This is God’s assurance also affirmed in today’s Psalm, “The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.”
This is what we find in today’s Gospel. Jesus became aware of the needs of the people who followed him on foot. This moved the heart of Jesus with pity that prompted him to respond. Jesus cured the sick and also provided them with food for their empty stomach. This is the great miracle of the feeding of thousands of people. This became possible through the participation of people who were close to Jesus. This is where we discover how God gives us the opportunity to be part of the miracle.
However, we also see how the disciples expressed their anxiety over their food supply. There were more than five thousand people around and Jesus told them to feed the people themselves. All they had were five loaves and two fish, which might not be enough also for 13 adult men. The disciples must have felt that deep anxiety and confusion if they have to share the little that they had for the people. Surely, what they had in mind was, “these are not enough, so we better keep the food for ourselves.”
Yet, the miracle happened when those five loaves and two fish were brought generously to Jesus so that others may eat. We are invited by Jesus to offer sincerely the little that we have. We might be thinking that the world’s problem on hunger is too big for us to respond and our share will only be insignificant. But let us remember, the five loaves and two fish were actually insignificant compared to the thousands of people. However, the disciples did not hide the little that they had, but offered generously to the Lord.
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This action tells us of our own vulnerability and weakness and at the same time the power behind a generous action. To give away the little that we have, makes us insecure, yet, it is actually through the little that we possess that the Lord can work wonderfully. When we give something and then we feel vulnerable, because that was all we have, no matter how small, is actually the fruit of our generosity. Remember, true generous people will always feel helpless because what they give to others is not something that is only an excess of their possession.
Jesus invites us to recognize him, that is, to recognize God, His love and friendship with us as our food that will satisfy our hunger. He is the bread that gives us life. This Eucharist is the gift and our food that should satisfy our deepest human hunger. That is why, this Eucharist is more than what we think. This is not simply prayers and readings, standing and kneeling, singing and saying amen. This Eucharist is our very relationship with God and with one another. This is all about us and God, you and me and Jesus.
And so, I would like to invite you then, so that we will be able to make this Eucharist truly life-giving.
First, ask the Lord to help us recognize our different hungers. Be mindful, then, of our compulsive actions, fixations and some forms of addictions because those behaviors in us will tell us of our own hungers and needs. When we become conscious of those, hopefully, it will lead us to seek to what will last, to what is more essential in our relationships and to what will truly satisfy us.
Second, be moved to open up and to become generous of ourselves to the needs and hungers of others. Remember, we too are being satisfied and become fulfilled when we ourselves become instruments of God’s action in satisfying and fulfilling the life of those in need. Hinaut pa.
Have you experienced being judged by friends or family members because of your past sins, weaknesses or failures and because you are just too familiar and ordinary for them? Or have you ever judged others too because of their past sins and failures and because they also are very familiar and ordinary to you?
Though Jesus never failed and sinned, yet, he too experienced judgment and bitterness from people around him. When Jesus went home to Nazareth, he was treated badly by his own people. The good news that he preached and God’s power that he revealed to his neighbors were treated with cruelty and insecurity.
When Jesus stood in their midst, the people merely saw a carpenter and an ordinary man who once played and worked with them. The people limited Jesus by what he was used to do, in doing carpentry, nothing more and nothing less. They couldn’t accept that there was actually MORE in Jesus.
Thus, instead of welcoming the power and wisdom that Jesus shared with grace and faith, the people refused to accept because of their insecurities and bitterness. They rejected Jesus because they could not accept that this ordinary carpenter brings God’s presence to them. They questioned him, “Who is this man? Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary?”
The too-ordinary life of Jesus prevented them to welcome him as God’s revelation to them. Resentment and hate overwhelmed the people which made their hearts, unbelieving. This was the reason why Jesus was not able to perform many mighty deeds for them because God’s grace will only work when it is received with faith. Jesus is after all, not a magician who will attract people’s attention for a short span of time. Jesus reveals God’s presence and power through ordinary means.
And this is not far from our own experiences too. Many times we may reject what is ordinary and familiar. We ignore God’s grace and invitation to us because we are busy looking for extra-ordinary things, for a magic to appear. That instead of recognizing God’s power in an ordinary sunrise and sunset, we busy ourselves looking for a “dancing sun” or “falling petals from heaven.” Thus, we refuse to believe that there is MORE in the ordinary.
St. Ignatius de Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus
St. Ignatius de Loyola, whose feast we celebrate today, believed that God is always present with us, in all our human experiences. This conviction in Ignatius is found in his deep realization that God works in all things and in all lives, no matter how simple or ordinary it can in the eyes of others. Thus, we can indeed find God, realize God and embrace God when we too have made ourselves more open and welcoming to God’s presence.
Indeed, miracles happen every day in its most ordinary way even amidst this pandemic. God’s grace is being unfolded even in our everyday experiences. God’s healing power is also revealed to us through our familiar sacraments in the church and through the embrace of people who love us like our parents, siblings, relatives and friends.
This is the invitation now for us today – that is, to make ourselves more aware of God’s work even in the most ordinary way, to recognize God even among the familiar people, places and events. When we are able to learn this kind of awareness, then, we too shall discover the wonders that God gives us every day, and we shall realize that there is MORE in every ordinary experience, and in every ordinary and familiar person we meet.
This calls us not to judge quickly to what is familiar and to what is seemingly ordinary, but, to be more welcoming of God’s grace. This reminds us now to be more open to the many potentials of those people who are familiar to us, and not to limit them to their past failures and sins. This calls us too to recognize how God unfolds his grace and his gift of healing through those people who love us. This calls us also to listen to God’s message and invitation through our present situation and through the people who might be God’s prophet today even though they look so familiar and ordinary for us, because there is always more that God offers us today. Hinaut pa.
How recipient am I of God and of His invitations? How welcoming and nurturing is my heart for God?
The parable of the sower speaks to us of the different attitudes of human hearts in welcoming and accepting God and God’s living word in us. This was portrayed on how the seeds fell into the different parts of the field.
Certainly, from this parable, this tell us too that we are God’s field. As a field where the seeds are planted, God desires that we become fruitful by allowing what God has planted in us to grow.
As God’s field, how do we make ourselves a rich soil then, good for planting and growing? How do we also maintain a welcoming and nurturing heart?
As in real planting, the soil should be filled with what is natural and organic, with real soil. When our field is filled with rocks, plastics and dangerous chemicals then it would not be good for plants to grow. We have to take away the rocks and plastics that may hinder the growth of the seeds, and the dangerous chemicals that may poison the plants.
Thus, our heart can also be filled with our pretensions, our masks and our self-serving attitudes that serve rocks and plastics in the field that will hinder our faith to grow and mature. Our heart can also be filled with anxieties, excessive attachments to things, uncontrollable desires and addictions. These surely are dangerous chemicals that will poison our hearts. These lead us away from God and away from others and even away from our true selves.
For us to have a welcoming and nurturing heart, we need to empty ourselves from our insecurities and anger, from hate and aggression. Without these, then we can be filled with love, with forgiveness, with faith and hope, with compassion and mercy, with tenderness and peace.
Moreover, we can only accommodate God and others when we are not filled with ourselves. Yes, when we are filled with ourselves, with our arrogance and pride, with our bitterness and guilt, then, we won’t be able to welcome and give space for God and for his invitations to grow and bear fruit in our hearts. In the same way, we will not be able to welcome others to take part in our life.
Thus, the invitation for us today is to seek understanding and wisdom from God that we may be able to recognize the way God is leading us today. To seek understanding will help us to take away at least two poisonous tendencies of our heart.
First, is our tendency to accept what we only like to believe. This is a tendency that only seeks comfort and does not want to be challenged. Such tendency in us will make us dismissive of the Word of God that gives discomfort.
Second, is our tendency to believe to what is only beneficial for the sake of our personal interest. This tendency expresses aggression when confronted with the truth. Such tendency will also make us narrow-minded because it is fixed to what is only good for our sake.
However, such attitudes of the heart make us stagnant. This is not what God wants us. God desires always that we become individuals and a community that bears fruit for others and that we will be able to share and give life.
Therefore, to seek understanding from God is to constantly challenge our hearts and confront our selfish desires. To be able to maintain a rich soil then, is to receive the word of God organically, without any color from our selfish intentions and self-serving interests. In this way, we could make our heart welcoming and nurturing, not for our sake, but for our community. Hinaut pa.
How do you live your life? Are living in your past? Then, that makes you a prisoner of the past. Are you living in the future and of what is to come? Then, that makes you live in anxiety because of uncertainty.
The only way we could live a life that is fulfilled and contented even in the midst of trials and sufferings is to live in our present. To live in the past whether because of a painful or joyful memory is a baggage that we carry in the present. This distracts us to be more aware of our present moment because we are occupied with what happened with us in the past. When we continue to hold on to what was already past, then we also become bitter and angry in the present. This happens because we prevent new people, new ideas or new invitations to disturb us to move forward.
Moreover, when we are also overwhelmed with expectations and with what we want to have for tomorrow, we also become restless in our present moment. Our anxieties and insecurities may control how we relate with people and with God. As a result, we could become impatient because we want immediate satisfaction and instant results.
The woman, whose feast we celebrate today, reminds me of the importance to live in the present, to capture the moment and to be ever grateful of what is here and now. Mary Magdalene, portrayed for many centuries as dirty and sinful woman, never allowed her dark past to control on how she lived with the present. She never let herself be overwhelmed of her future and to be anxious of what was to come next. She was just contented and fulfilled with what God gave her in every moment of her life.
This made Mary Magdalene to be a dear disciple of Jesus and called as the woman apostle to the apostles. I want to invite you now that we bring ourselves into her story as told to us in the Gospel of John.
The Gospel on her feast tells us of Mary’s encounter with the risen Jesus. There are three interesting events here that I would like to highlight.
First, John tells us that Mary went to the tomb early in the morning while it was still dark. This is very symbolic of Mary’s emotional and spiritual state. The dawn was breaking, an image where darkness is conquered by light. Indeed, Mary who developed a special friendship with Jesus was in grief and deep sorrow because of the death of her Lord and friend. What Mary did was to confront her grief and sorrow with hope, that beyond this overwhelming suffering and death, there is life; and beyond her sinful and dark past, there is hope and mercy.
Second, as Mary searched for her Lord, she discovered an empty tomb. As she confronted her grief and sorrow, her pain and loss, her sins and failures, she discovered emptiness. This made Mary felt confused. However, it was in that emptiness that she was being filled with God. As she accepted her emptiness, Jesus filled her empty heart with the mystery of Resurrection, with love.
Third, Mary’s close relationship with Jesus helped her to find herself when she was overwhelmed with pain and confusion. This was manifested as Mary recognized the presence of the Lord in the way Jesus called her name, “Mary!” This brought her into reality and to recognize her dearest friend, Jesus at that moment. And the reality is that Jesus never left her. Indeed, Mary has a special place in the heart of God. No matter what others would think about the sinful past of Mary, God did not condemn her and left her in misery. The Lord came to rescue her and transformed her in the way God wanted her to be. This shows us too how our friendship with Jesus could transform us.
With this encounter of Mary with Jesus, this made her to proclaim, “I have seen the Lord.” It was because that Mary confronted her darkness, accepted her emptiness and the Lord’s desire to transform Mary, that she was able to see clearly the presence of God working in her life. this made her a witness, a faith-sharer and an apostle to all of us.
These are the invitations for us today on this feast of Mary Magdalene that we may live in the present moment with joy and peace.
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So I would like you now to remember these three points for today.
First, in order for us not to burdened with our past, then confront the darkness in us and seek the light of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Second,never be afraid to embrace our emptiness and to acknowledge our vulnerability. The Lord comes to us when our heart has a space for him. The Lord fills us with his graces and blessings when we empty ourselves from distractions of our bad habits and selfishness.
Third, develop a deeper friendship with Jesus. We can only do this when we also develop the habit of prayer of talking our concerns to God but also listening to God’s desire for us. This involves an awareness of the presence of God in my brothers and sisters for they too are reflections of who God is.
Hopefully, in these ways then, we too in our own ways will be able to proclaim to others, that, certainly, we have seen the Lord. Hinaut pa.
A DOSE OF GOD TODAY 