Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Category: Ordinary Time

  • Allowing Jesus to be part of our every decision and action

    Allowing Jesus to be part of our every decision and action

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    June 25, 2020 – Thursday of the 12th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/062520.cfm)

    Reflection

    Jerusalem fell, trampled upon and destroyed. A powerful nation invaded the Kingdom, trampled the holy objects for the Sanctuary of Yahweh, officials and the people were exiled to Babylon.

    Was this God’s desire that Jerusalem will be destroyed? That the Temple will be blasphemed? That that people will be slaughtered and many exiled to a foreign land as prisoners?

    No. Of course not. This was not God’s desire. In fact, at the very beginning of the foundation of the kingdom of Israel the Lord guided the people to abide in the covenant and in the words of the Lord. Yahweh sent prophets to become heralds and to remind the people and leaders to live according to God’s desire. Thus, through the covenant and the commandments of God the people shall find the fullness of life.

    However, history tells us how the people and their leaders turned their back against God when they have become rich and powerful. They forgot that God gave them those blessings. Jehoiachin, the king of Jerusalem just like his predecessors turned against God also. History described Jehoiachin as a godless tyrant. He completely abandoned the covenant and trampled the commandments of God in the way he lived his life as a man and as a king.

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    Jehoiachin was portrayed to have an incestuous relationship with his mother, even daughter-in-law and with his step-mother. He was into a habit of murdering his men for pleasure and later just to violate their wives and grab their properties.

    Thus, instead of strengthening his army, instead of caring and providing better opportunities for his people, and asking the guidance from the Lord to lead the kingdom, he was rather busy pleasuring himself at the expense of his own people. As a result, when an enemy attacked them, he was completely overwhelmed because he was not prepared.

    Although God was all along with his people, yet, the people left the Lord out of their lives. Hence, what happened in Jerusalem was not merely a punishment but a result of complacency, corruption and unfaithfulness.

    All kinds of threats and dangers will always be in our lives. Big and small. Surprising and overwhelming. Just like this Corona Virus Pandemic. It is a big threat, a surprising and an overwhelming one that many countries now find it difficult to defeat.

    In our individual lives too there are threats and dangers. And what we are invited to do is to invest into something that will somehow prepare us or at least to have a good ground in case the worst will hit.

    This is what Jesus told us in the Gospel today.  “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.”

    Jesus speaks of having a good foundation like building a house on rock rather than on sand. What does it mean? Building a house on rock means making myself founded on Jesus. Jesus is the rock, the very foundation of our person and of our faith. Jesus will also be our foundation once we are also ready to accept him and allow him to transform our life.

    How do we do it?

    It is by listening to his words, living his words and holding on to his promises that we become solid. By listening to God’s words and wisdom then, the more we also become aware of God’s desire for us. This will always assure us because God’s desire for us is always good and will always give life to us.

    However, if we decide to build our life on mere human understanding, mere human desires and wants, then, we are like building our house on sand. To settle on these weak foundations, means putting trust on our human inclinations to sin. We know that we are weak and we can easily be driven by our selfish desires and wants. This is the story of Jehoiachin who distanced himself from the Lord and submerged himself into what he only wanted that affected the lives of many.

    The Lord invites us today to claim Him as the very foundation of our whole life. The Lord will be our best investment in life who shall deliver and protect us even when the worst will hit us. This also means that Jesus wants us to make him part of our every decision and action. We are being assured by Jesus that when the storms of failures, losses, death, illness, pain, injury, worries and doubts in life will come, then, we have Jesus to hold on and to lean on and his words which will guide us. Thus, if we have Jesus in our life, we will certainly be fine. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

  • Mary, Source of Help to the Young

    Mary, Source of Help to the Young

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    June 22, 2020 – Monday 12th Week in Ordinary Time

    5th day of Novena in preparation for the feast of Our Mother of Perpetual Help

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/062220.cfm)

    A week ago I met few members of the Redemptorist Youth Ministry here in our Parish to review our youth programs and align them to adapt in this current situation. It was a moment of reconnecting with them as this Corona Virus Disease brought disorder to our lives. Somehow meeting them gave me also an opportunity as a pastor to realize how they have been coping and adjusting themselves in this “new normal.”

    They have learned a lot and made more connections with their families as the quarantine gave more chances to them to be with their families. Sadly, because also of the lockdowns and quarantines some of those who are working among them have lost their jobs, their business and felt uncertain of their employment status.

    However, despite these challenges many of them also found ways on how to go beyond from themselves and be in service of others. This is what I find wonderful because the present difficulties did not prevent them to be for others. Thus, they volunteered in their Barangay to distribute the relief goods and the Social Amelioration Program from the government. Though they received ungrateful responses and offensive reactions and complaints from people, with those whom they served, these did not stop them to volunteer.

    During the Enhanced Community Quarantine also, a friend asked me to pray for a young person who is suffering from depression. She seemed to be so sad that her suicidal thoughts became frequent. People around her became disturbed and anxious of her situation because her posts in Social Media reveal her consciousness of ending her life.

    A week ago also, one of my Redemptorist brothers shared with me how one of his former students ended his life by hanging himself. He remembered his student very well but did not see any hint that this would happen to him.

    Few year ago also, when I was barely a year-old ordained priest, a father brought to me her daughter to help her. His college student daughter according to him was possessed by an evil spirit. She changed voices and seemed to be so angry. She also claimed to see ghosts around that haunted her day and night. However, when I talked to her personally without the presence of her father, everything was revealed. She was in depression. She was bullied at school. She was traumatized by the separation of her parents and was in deep pain for being left behind by her mother.

    These are just my few encounters with my co-young people who are facing with issues and challenges in their life.

    On this fifth day of our Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help, we are invited to reflect with the young people today with our theme, “Our Mother of Perpetual Help: Source of Help to the Youth of today confronted with so many issues and challenges.”

    There are countless students who come to the novena on Wednesdays and offer their prayers before the Icon of Our Mother. I witnessed this, not just here in Davao but also in Cebu, in Iloilo and most especially in Baclaran. Students would write their petitions to the Mother to help them find ways to pay for the tuition fees, or their rent, or to pass their board exams. Many also would go to the Mother as they were in trouble with their love life, friends and family or when they experience anxiety at school and at home. Many also would ask petitions to the Mother to help them find a job, for material blessings and courage as they embark into another phase of their life.

    What is it that draws these young people to Our Mother of Perpetual Help?

    Many times the young are misunderstood by those people around them. This misunderstanding must be rooted from the gap between generations where the older ones insist that the young is so much different from their ways when these older generation were ones young. Thus, there is always a tendency among the older generations to impose their ways to the young. Hence, in such situation there will be no room anymore for a young person to be himself or herself. This become a source tension, a source of misunderstanding and a source of judging.

    Moreover, young people who are at the comfort of their families would sometimes find home to be unwelcoming. Home is supposed to be where we can really be, where we feel most secured, loved and cherished. Yet, many of our homes are broken and wounded. Parents who became irresponsible and abusive cause so much pain, anxiety and hopelessness to the young. Family members who have grown to become indifferent to one another could sometimes bring a confused and traumatized young person into desperation. These unwelcoming situations at home do not provide opportunities for a young person to be listened to, to be heard and to be understood.

    Last December during Christmas day, my niece shared to me how a friend of her spent the Christmas Eve at 7/11 because her home was not anymore a home. Despite the presence of others at home, she felt alone. While we were enjoying the company of our loved ones at home in that most joyful night, a young person spent the night alone.

    That is why, Mary’s presence is so captivating because she listens. She does not react out of impulse or emotion. Mary does not judge.  She understands because she discerns. The Gospels would tell us that Mary would keep everything in her heart. The very presence of Mary is a comfort and a source of help indeed.

    Jesus, in our Gospel today, reminds us not to pass quick judgments but rather to be more discerning. To be discerning is to be welcoming because we allow God to be part on how we approach a person or a situation by also looking at ourselves. Jesus warns us when we become self-righteous, an attitude that believes that we are exempted of any fault and failures. Thus, to discern then is a humble way of acknowledging our own shortcomings and failures so that we will be able to relate with others in a loving and compassionate way.

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    Our devotion to Mary, then, calls us also to become more discerning in our relationships. Parents are called especially to be more discerning of their words and actions as they provide opportunities for growth to the young. Relate with them as friends not as superiors who will impose your ways to them. Caress them with your comfort and avoid judging quickly their ways and actions.

    Thus, as a community devoted to Mary, let us be more discerning that we may become more understanding and compassionate to the young who are especially confronted with so many issues and challenges.

    Hopefully, in this way then, we as devotees of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, we too will become a source of help to the young. Hinaut pa. Viva Maria! Viva Hesus!

    Jom Baring, CSsR

  • “What are your plans? What’s next?”

    “What are your plans? What’s next?”

    June 21, 2020 – 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/062120.cfm)

    “What are your plans? What’s next?”

    Perhaps nowadays we find ourselves confronted quite frequently with these questions about our near future, as raised to us by others and/or even we ask personally ourselves. However, unlike before when it was easy to see opportunities ahead, today’s quarantined and lockdown world during pandemic times renders our foreseeable future bleak and unpredictable. Wherever, whatever, whenever and however we find ourselves now, to plan ahead for what we want to happen next is quite difficult and challenging. This is not only because possible opportunities for our future can be impossible to discern and predict, but also the normal lives we used to live with have to adjust and adapt to the new and unfamiliar realities of the pandemic world and times we now live in. Whether we like it or not, our life is changing. Our world is changing, We are changing. Challenging it is to deal with and manage our present realities, how much more difficult than it is to foresee and make  plans for the near future.

    And it is and would be difficult and challenging for everybody. Making plans would surely be difficult for people who know what they want, for they also see how limited and constricted they can now be, considering available resources, mobility, programs, systems and schedules. It would also be much challenging for people who does not know readily what they want because they have to tend first to the immediate needs of others. We think here of people who are in helping professions, those who are in the frontlines of public services, medical-mental-spiritual health, education, and above all our parents who have to postpone, numb and even forego their own personal plans just to accommodate and address other people’s needs while also worrying about available resources and possibilities. We could understand then that raising the question now about future plans can be difficult and challenging, if not, already distressing and depressing. How game-changing indeed our world  now we live in.

    Somehow however, we may also wander what would Jesus say about our plans. What would Jesus say about our difficult and challenging realities now and ahead?

    Like a teacher giving pointers to students before an exam or a coach giving advices to players during the game, we hear Jesus in our gospel today telling His disciples and us now words like: “Fear no one… do not be afraid… worry not… you are worthy… acknowledge me… have faith.” As we struggle with our present life and worry about our future, Jesus is saying us here words of assurance, encouragement, affirmation, faith and confidence on us, as His on-going guidance and directives for us. Moreover, Jeremiah & our Psalm today also reminded us how God protects and answers those who remain faithful and loyal to Him in the midst of life-adversities, same way as Paul wants us to recognize the promise of God’s grace and Christ’s gift that “overflow for the many”. What is very important here is that God has a plan in Jesus; and we are to acknowledge, believe and trust in it. Somehow in our game of life – stable or changing it might be, we need to believe and trust that “God got our backs for He has a plan for us”.

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    It is once said: “When we get what we want, that is God’s Direction. When we don’t get what we want, that is God’s Protection.” True indeed, when our wants and plans are in sync with God’s plan, we are being directed on the right track.  But when our plans and wants are not in sync with God’s plan, we are being protected for we are off the tracks. This is not about us  surrendering to fate or have an irresponsible “do or die, que sera sera” attitude towards life, but is all about doing our part, involving with and being responsible not only for our own actions and plans but moreso, in God’s grand plans and ways of being in life. Not getting what we want while also not knowing and unsure of what our next plans then is perhaps God’s way of protecting us from possible failure and death, and His constant invitation to believe in Him and trust in His plans for us.

    So, what’s the next plan?

    Since God got and has a plan for us in Christ, we abide and trust in His plans, His directions, and His protection…. That’s the Plan. In other words, Be part of God’s plan.

    And may this be our prayer to Him: “As we abide in Your plans during these trying times, Thanks you, Lord for protecting us from what we thought we wanted, and for blessing us with what we don’t know we needed.” Siya nawa. Hinaut pa unta. Kabay pa. Amen.

    (By: Fr. Aphelie Mario Masangcay CSsR, a Filipino Redemptorist  Missionary stationed in Gwangju South Korea, though now still stranded in Cebu until further notice for available flights.)

  • Keeping God in our Heart

    Keeping God in our Heart

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    June 20, 2020 – Saturday, Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/060820.cfm)

    What is it that you consider as the dearest for you? Or who is it that you consider as the closest to your heart?

    Yesterday, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and today, the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, his mother. The Sacred Heart of Jesus reminds us that God is indeed loving and forging, compassionate and merciful. And in that heart, we are the closest to God. We are God’s dearest people.

    In this feast, the Gospel of Luke tells us who is the dearest and closest in the heart of Mary. This is where we could also find the strength of Mary. Just look at the image of Our Mother of Perpetual Help. Her son Jesus carried by her left arm also rests on her chest where her heart is.

    Mary had been confused and afraid at the annunciation of the Angel. At that moment she too must have felt overwhelmed at God’s unfolding in her life. The events surrounding the birth of her son must have made her more confused at the amazement and joy she experienced. There were many events there that must be beyond her expectation.

    In today’s Gospel, we were told how the young boy Jesus spent his days in the temple sitting among the teachers. But the words of the young boy Jesus, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” has left Mary and Joseph baffled. They must have felt the pain of the seemingly indifferent words of Jesus after their days of anxious finding of him. Those words were difficult to understand at that time.

    However, just like at the annunciation, at the visitation of the Shepherds in the manger and now here, she kept all these things in her heart.

    With all the complexities, strangeness and difficulty to understand the situation, Mary has kept the Lord close to her heart. She kept all those revelations from the Lord close to her heart that she may be able to understand them in the way God desires them to be understood.

    This was how Mary would always find wisdom and strength because with the many events that happened in her life, she might not be able to bear them all. Mary will surely remained confused, afraid and unable to decide and do anything if she chose to distance herself from the Lord by reacting out of impulse or mere emotions.

    “Keeping all those things in her heart” really means that she tried to understand how God was uncovering and revealing to her the plan of salvation. Mary realized that God reveals Himself every day. Mary did not want to miss all of them. Consequently, she sought the best way of understanding them by not reacting to every event through mere emotion or just out of compulsion.

    Hence, Mary did not react out of anger or even disappointment in front of the young Jesus. Though she did not understand his words, but she must have felt that there was something deeper in there. God must be behind it. Thus, in her confusion, she kept all those things in her heart, to ponder them, to seek wisdom and understanding in the way God wants her to understand them.

    But most of all, Mary was able to do that because within her heart, God is there already. She has welcomed the Lord and allowed the Lord to be always in her heart. This led her into that kind of understanding from God’s perspective and so she responded to every invitation of God for her, willingly and lovingly.

    This is how we find Mary’s presence captivating in our Christian faith because her very life is an example of a perfect communion with God. This how we also find comfort in her, as a mother, because her human heart is touched by God’s heart.

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    Today’s feast, God’s invitation for us also is to grow in that area, that like Mary, our heart too will be more welcoming to the Lord and to allow the Lord to be in our heart. This is an invitation to make God as the closest and dearest in our heart. It is in this way that we shall also find understating, wisdom and strength in the many infoldings of events that happen to us everyday.

    In particular, these days of the pandemic has made us feel uncertain of the coming days and anxious of the present. Many of us felt insecure materially, emotionally and perhaps also spiritually by now. However, do not waiver, do not remain stunned by these difficult days, remain vigilant instead by pondering and keeping all the things in our hearts.

    May I invite you then, as we find our ways on how to live and adjust ourselves with the “New Normal” set aside a time to ponder, to listen deeper and carefully to the many events and circumstances happening in our life now. As we allow God to be closer to our heart and seek the Divine wisdom, we may also become more welcoming of the presence of others, more connected with people around us as Mary is to us. Hinaut pa.

    Jomil Baring, CSsR

  • How do I pray?

    How do I pray?

    June 18, 2020 – Thursday 11th Week in OT – First day of Novena

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/061820.cfm)

    How do I pray? What are those that I usually ask from the Lord?

    Others usually pray spontaneously asking what they want and desire for themselves and for their loved ones. Others also are more comfortable of using the memorized prayers as forms of meditation and deeper reflection of the mystery of God. We usually ask many things from the Lord. Others would even have a litany of requests and petitions. And as a form of asking God’s favor others would even observe number of days of prayer, like observing 9 days novena, or the 9 days Misa de Gallo during December, believing that God would grant ones desires and prayers.

    Well, today we are starting the first day of our novena in preparation for the feast of our mother. I am sure all of us, devotees of our mother have countless petitions these days especially as we are now experiencing a very difficult time. People get sick of corona virus that has no vaccine yet. As a result, our movement has been limited to stay at home. People are having so much difficulty with the status of their jobs and businesses. Others get paranoid of getting sick and some have become anxious of what lies ahead and on what the coming months are offering us. We might have friends and family members too who have become desperate while waiting for their turn to come home as thousands of OFWs and migrant workers were left at the mercy of their Local Government. Thus, the environment itself that we have now has become gloomy and stressful.

    Our theme for today’s novena really speaks of this recent experiences we have now, “OMPH: Source of Help for Families Fragmented for Various Reasons.” Even before this lockdowns and quarantines, we come and ask the help of Mary for our families suffering and being tried from various reasons. Hence, our own family might be wounded by broken relationships, by unfaithfulness and betrayal, poverty, sickness and death. Moreover, covid-19 joined and added to these current concerns we have and has made more difficulties in our families.

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    Thus, we, as devotees would always find comfort and recourse to Mary, Our Mother of Perpetual Help. I have witnessed it myself recently also. The gate of our parish is left open at some certain time of the day to welcome people to pray in the Church. One afternoon as I was walking in the Church grounds, a woman caught my attention as she prayed before the Icon of Our Mother displayed at the entrance. She stayed there gazing at the icon long enough for me to notice her. Perhaps, she too has been carrying so many burdens and has ran to Mary to ask for help. For many of us, that has been our experience too.

    As many concerns are brought into our prayers it would be good also to take a look in the way we do our prayer, of the intentions we make in our prayer and of the consciousness that we have in our prayer. This is something very important too because this will help us to evaluate our personal relationship with God and with others.

    Now, in today’s Gospel Jesus reminds his disciples of the importance of prayer and also of the importance of the kind of consciousness in their prayer.

    Jesus mentions about the way the pagans pray. These pagans love to use many words in their prayers because they believed that it was in that way that they would be able to get the attention of their gods and goddesses. They believed that these gods and goddesses were unforgiving, impulsive and frightening. These pagans babbled in their prayers in order to get the favor from these difficult and terrifying deities.

    However, Jesus reminds his disciples that our God is not like that. God is not vengeful, not inconsistent or terrifying but rather God is loving and forgiving. Hence, to use many words would not be necessary because God knows the desires of our heart.

    Moreover, as Jesus reminds his disciples, he also tells us now that our prayers are not meant to appease an angry and hateful god or to gain favor from a terrifying God. This also means that the content of our prayers should not be self-centered. To pray is not just to ask something for ourselves but also for others. That is why Jesus taught us his own prayer.

    This prayer starts with these two words, OUR FATHER. It did not say My Father and not even Their Father. This tells us that when we pray we always remember others. We are always together as people. Our relationship with God though can be personal but it is also founded in our community. That is why it starts with “OUR” because this includes you and me and everyone else.

    This prayer (Our Father/Lord’s Prayer) tells us that God is a Father. This means that God relates to us personally. God is not somewhere out there who is so far away from us but God is here with us. This means also that we are invited to seek God’s will and God’s desire not just our desire. Most of the time, when we pray we only think of what we want and desire but we forget to ask, what is it that you desire for me Lord?

    It invites us also to become dependent to God because God is generous and faithful to us. To pray, give us this day our daily bread, means to be more focused of today, this day not tomorrow because tomorrow has not yet come. Indeed, we can be too anxious of what will happen tomorrow that it will prevent us to see what is more important today. Thus, Jesus invites us to be more contented of today and to ask sustenance enough for today also.

    Notice also that in this prayer, it recognizes our sinfulness and need to be forgiven. It is necessary that we become humble and ask God’s mercy because this is the way that we make ourselves open to God’s grace. When we remain arrogant and unrepentant of our sins, then we prevent God to transform us and prevent others to come into our life.

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    And finally, we make ourselves aware that there is also the presence of the evil one around us. The evil one constantly tempts us to move away from God and to cut our relationship from the Lord. The evil will always try to allure us to think that it is better not to pray and that we do not need God. The evil will seduce us to think that we can do everything in our power without the help of God and that we do no need to think of others but ourselves alone.

    In this seemingly hopeless situations, the evil one may tempt us also to believe that we are beyond hope, beyond salvation and beyond the grace of God. Thus, the evil one may bring us into a hopeless scenario to bury ourselves into self-doubt and guilt, into depression and death. Be careful then of these temptations.

    So hopefully, being made aware of the consciousness behind the Lord’s Prayer, we too shall grow in our relationship with God and with one another, that we may become less self-centered and self-serving but to become self-sacrificing and life-giving as God desires us to be.

    May our devotion then to Mary, Our Mother of Perpetual Help, bring us closer to the real source of our hope and help, to Jesus. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR