Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Category: Sunday Homlies

  • MOVEMENTS LOVING AND SHARING LIFE

    MOVEMENTS LOVING AND SHARING LIFE

    June 2, 2024 – Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/060224.cfm)

    The Barrio Fiesta we had last May 15 was truly moving and meaningful for me. The participation of every GKS (Gagmay’ng Kristohanong Simbahan) and Barrio Chapels and the presence of each one made so much impact for me. The spirit of sharing in that celebration no matter how simple the food we have shared, reminds us that we are a community.

    This is what we also find in many banquets that have happened in our friends and family celebrations. The gathering together of people and the sharing of gifts to one another brings us closer together.

    Yet, more than the Barrio Fiesta, the Eucharist that we now celebrate and partake is the very image of God’s invitation for us to share in his life where we are also invited the embrace and learn the movement of loving and sharing life.

    And so, on this Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, let us explore and discern the readings today and see how the Lord calls us to respond.

    The first reading from the Book of Exodus brought us back to people’s action of renewing the covenant they have with God. They recognized that they have transgressed against God. This acknowledgement of human sin, led them to ask pardon. The blood of the sacrificial animals symbolized the cleansing and renewal of the people’s heart.

    At the end of the reading, we were also reminded that it was God who made such covenant, meaning, it’s God’s initiative to be reconciled and be closer to the people. The response of the people who were being renewed must be understood then as an act of thanksgiving because the Lord remains merciful and faithful.

    This is reechoed in today’s Psalm, “To you O Lord, I will offer sacrifice of thanksgiving and I will call upon the name of the Lord.” This is certainly a song of praise and thanksgiving because of God’s goodness and faithfulness. Indeed, the “cup of salvation” is the assurance and promise of a blessed life.

    The Letter to the Hebrews gives more light to this. Christ as our High Priest offered the ultimate sacrifice. The sacrifice was not anymore of the blood of animals but his own blood shed on the cross. The oblation of the life of Christ paid off every transgression that we have done so that we will be able to share that blessed life with God, our eternal inheritance.

    This very act is again, God’s initiative. This is how God’s faithfulness and goodness are concretely shown to us as God’s beloved people. This tells us now that God never stops and never tires to bring us closer to God’s holy and loving presence. The Lord even initiated to offer his life for our sake. No matter how difficult it is to understand and illogical it may sound, but this is how love can move the heart of God.

    That is why, in the Gospel of Mark, he recounted how Jesus did that Last Supper. Jesus must have done it many times before this. Yet, this time it was made extra especial because of what he was about to offer for us.

    Jesus with his powerful words says to us, “This is my body; This is my blood of the new covenant.” The Lord shares to us now his very life. His body and his blood means his very life, the very life of God.

    And this is how we find it more interesting and meaningful. What Jesus offered to us was first being blessed, then, given thanks, then, broken and then shared. These are movements of loving and movements of sharing life to the fullest.

    This is what we also do now in this Eucharist, this Holy Mass. What we do is not merely rituals of the past. What we do is not just some sort of ancient actions. What we do is a celebration of life and continual sharing of love and life to us who are all invited by the Lord.

    And since it is common in our culture to brings something after the banquet, there are three things that I would like you to bring. These are your bring-house or take-aways.

    First, be nourished by this celebration. This nourishment is not just limited physically but in all aspects of our life. Remember, what is being shared to us is the very life of Jesus. Let this nourishment make us more aware of God’s presence in our life and in the lives of others. Let Jesus nourish us as well that our actions and words may become more like him.

    Second, move to love. God’s initiative to be closer to us is God’s movement of loving. Let us be always conscious that our actions and decisions in life be our ways of loving and not ways of destroying or hurting others.

    Third, move to share. Do not be afraid or have doubts to be truly generous of your time, presence, talents or resources. The Lord has given his life and blessings to us, may our actions and words be truly generous. Thus, share without “strings attached,” without expectations and without payment. May we always have the courage and the desire to share our life to our communities. Hinaut pa.

  • Three-fold ONE

    Three-fold ONE

    May 26, 2024 – Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/052624.cfm)

    Once a team of mountain climbers were stranded almost near at the highest peak. As the air grew thin and weather got colder – that made them cold and weak, one of them made a fire. So, together they gather around the fire and contribute whatever they have to sustain the fire. As they started to enjoy the heat, they share food, as well as their stories and dreams with one another that in effect, sustain and inspire them again. One of them decided to be on his own. So, he took a fire of stick with him, and isolated himself from the group. Eventually, away from the group, his fire extinguished and he got sleepy and weak.

    With the team, we get strength and inspiration from one another. Away from the team, we get tired, weak, and dispirited.

    As Christians, we praise God in the name of  the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. We give glory to God Father, Son, Holy Spirit. We proclaim our creed of faith, saying: “I believe in God, the Father…in Jesus Christ… in the Holy Spirit.” At its very core, our Christian faith is Trinitarian – i.e. unlike any other religions, we uniquely believe in God, the Father-Son-Holy Spirit.

    As we honor today the Holy Trinity, perhaps now we ask: What does it mean to believe in the Trinitarian God?

    First, the word covenant simply would mean, “coming together”. As God making covenant with us, God wants to “come together for us/with us/in us”. In God the Father of Easter, we come to believe a “God-FOR us” who chooses us to be His own people. In God the Son of Christmas, we come to believe Emmanuel Jesus, a “God-WITH us” who makes known to us God’s love for us, and how to love God in return. In God the Holy Spirit of Pentecost, we come to believe a “God-IN us”, who inspires, directs, and sustains us in life of faith.

    To believe in the Holy Trinity then is to be in covenant with God, much as God is in covenant with us. Meaning, as God is for us/with us/in us, we must also be People for God, with God, and in God.

    Second, in the Lord’s ascension, we are reminded that the risen Lord is not-finished yet. His mission of salvation for us is still a work-in progress, and is now a product of the concerted-effort, teamwork of the communion of the Holy Trinity. Our salvation is the teamwork and actions OF our God, the Father who chooses us to be His own, THROUGH God the Son who is loving us always, and WITH the God the Holy Spirit who inspires, directs, and sustains us in life.

    To believe in the Holy Trinity is thus to be IN Communion with God. As God acts and works as one for our salvation, so also we must be in sync, in tune with God’s concerted teamwork for our salvation. Thus we not only to give glory to them but also we are to be in sync & teamwork  with the works OF the Father, THROUGH the Son, WITH the Holy Spirit for our salvation.

    Third, as the Lord mandated us to proclaim our faith to all nations, in our gospel today, he particularly challenges us to make disciples in the name of the Holy Trinity. Making disciples while proclaiming our faith to all nations would mean helping ourselves and one another to be in constant covenant with God, and in partnership-communion with God’s work of salvation for us.

    To believe in the Holy Trinity then is to lead our lives and faith as Church, a Community of faith. As God is and works as Community, we too must also be and acts as Church – a community of Christian faith, living and witnessing God’s being and acting in our lives.

    The Holy Trinity shows us as Church how to be and act as God’s own People. As much as God be and acts together, to have a Trinitarian faith we too must be and act in covenant, in communion and in community with God and one another.

    As Church then, we must be faithful people for God, with God, and in God – witnessing our faith in sync with the labor of the Father, through the Son, with the Holy, and living our lives as church community making disciples and proclaiming our faith.

    Remember “the community is the bearer of God’s Salvation”. Salvation thus happens in the context of the church, faith-community, and not of individuals. We are God’s own chosen PEOPLE, not chosen individual. We all are to be in covenant, in communion and in community with Him and His church.

    With the church, we are strong and inspired. Without and away from the church, we are weak and dispirited. We are to be with His TRIUNE, (Threefold ONE). As Pentecost marks the birth of our Church, be reminded that the Holy Trinity articulates what is & what our church should be.

    May we, as God’s own, not be separated from the Holy Trinity and God’s church, but instead always be connected and involved with God’s life and labors of salvation for all nations and peoples, now and always.

    So Be It. Amen.

  • TO BE CONTINUED ….

    TO BE CONTINUED ….

    May 12, 2024 – Solemnity of the Ascension of Jesus

    Click here for the readings(https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/051224-Ascension.cfm)

    On the cross before His death, Jesus did not said, “I am finished”, but rather he said, “It is finished”. Meaning Jesus is not finished yet, but rather, He is just getting started.

    Somehow these insights and thoughts offer us much deeper meaning and appreciation of our faith in the Lord’s resurrection. Easter proclaims the Lord has indeed risen. And this would mean that our risen Lord is not only alive in us but also He is not finished yet.

    After his death, then, and in His resurrection, His mission for our salvation is just getting started, not yet finished, and is still work in-progress. His suffering and death must have finished already, but our salvation through Him is still going & continuing on.

    Ours is a salvation story with the risen Lord, not of sad “endings and goodbyes” but rather of hopeful “beginning and to be continued”. Easter thus proclaims the risen Lord is not finished yet, and still just getting started. So Abangan, Be ready. There are yet more to happen and much better to yet to come in our Christian lives from now on and beyond.

    Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Lord’s Ascension during Easter season. As what was described in our readings today, church tradition has it that forty days after the risen Christ have made Himself known appeared to the Apostles and stayed with them, given them many proofs of the resurrection, worked many miracles and had spoken to them and taught them of the Kingdom of God, the risen Lord now brought them into a high mountain.

    There, Jesus gave them his last words, blessed them, and he was lifted before their eyes, and a cloud received Him taken out of their sight. Such event is now what we Christians believe and proclaim the second glorious mystery: the Ascension of the Lord – the risen Jesus Christ has ascended into heaven, and seated at the right hand of the Father.

    Perhaps the best way to appreciate its meaning is to see the Lord’s Ascension, not from what had happened to Jesus and his disciples but from what Jesus said to his disciples.

    As our gospel suggests the Lord’s Ascension is the moment when the risen Lord blessed and commissioned His disciples to be his witnesses to the world and to continue on the Mission he had begun.

    In the Lord’s Ascension, we remember then the event when Jesus has now entrusted to His disciples all the good things he had begun. In other words, Jesus was handing down the responsibilities and sharing on the task of proclaiming the Good News to us, His disciples. It is just like Jesus saying in these words, “Guys, I have already done my part. This time, rise up to the occasion and do your part. Go now, go ahead, move on to the world and proclaim that you are my witnesses and that I have given you the authority to share what you have experienced and learned from me, so that others may also enjoy what have you have enjoyed with me. By the way, don’t forget to believe that I chose, trusted, and have sent you, for we can continue to do great things, if you believe in me and remain in my love. Go now and do your part, for I have already done and yet still doing my part.”

    Like Easter message, Lord’s ascension is about our Salvation not as a story of sad “endings and goodbyes” but rather of “beginnings and to be continued.” It is also about not mission-accomplished, but rather “mission still-on going in us & through us”, and “mission-delegated to us” as well. Remember as the risen Lord ascended, the disciples went forth to do their tasks to preach everywhere while the Lord worked with them. Our salvation then is not a one-man operation but rather a joint-team effort, community-endeavor and church mission. And Lord’s ascension also reminds us that our collaborative mission with the risen Lord is not all about looking at the sky but rather about working with our Lord in lifting up our endeavors to our Father.

    During Easter season, we are called to believe in the Good News of Lord’s resurrection. Now, as we celebrate His Ascension, we are called to witness our faith in the risen Lord. Now is the time for us,

    Christians, not to look up but stand up and rise into the occasion and do our part in sharing and living our lives as witnesses to the Good News of Christ’s Redemption. As Christians, we are and to be God’s gospel to be preached to all nation. Each one of us do have our own special mission in life. It is our responsibility to be what God has intended us to be here in this life now. Do our part in fulfilling our life-mission God called us to be. So, rise up to the occasion, be responsible Christians for our salvation, work with the risen Lord, take all our chances to preach our gospel of Christ to all nation, and do our part for the future of our salvation in our church nations and the world. Only then that our Salvation Saga with Christ lives on.

    So be it. Hinaut pa unta. Kabay pa. Siya nawa. Amen.

  • Pruned yet Producing

    Pruned yet Producing

    April 28, 2024 – Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042824.cfm)

    Plant-lovers – (plantitos & plantitas) know that for a banana shrub to grow and bear much fruit, it has to go against the natural process of growth through pruning or trimming. Meaning, for new shoots to bud and sprout, and more fruits to bear, planters have to prune, i.e., cut-off dried leaves, trim, or peel off the dried skins of the banana shrub. Otherwise, we got more dried leaves and skins, but undernourished sprouting shoots and bud, and in effect little or no fruit at all.

    Jesus in our gospel today describes our faith relationship with Him, akin to relationship of plant’s vine & branches. He reminds us that while He is the vine and we are His Branches, Our Vine grower – our plantito, “the father takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does, he prunes so that it bears more fruit.”

    In other words, for us to be His good disciples we must not only remain connected, loyal and steadfast in Jesus, but we also have to experience & go through pruning & trimming in life for us to bear much fruit.

    Spiritually, sometimes that is what God our Father does to us. Sometimes God prunes or trims us, make us experience suffering, sickness and trials not for its own sake but for us to grow and bear much fruits. Sometimes we do need to experience our limits so that we may be open to receive God’s abounding blessing.

    Why? Because sometimes somehow we grow comfortable and complacent in our spiritual life that we become naturally content with our routine of personal prayers, devotions, personal salvation – trying to lead healthy spiritual life, but we fail to bear fruits of spiritual life for others. Remember: A healthy branch, plant or tree is useless – is nothing, if it does not bear flowers and fruits for others to taste and see.

    So often we view religion as merely our personal relationship with God that exists as though a plant in a vacuum. Yes, we acknowledge a connection with others and the need for community, but so often we see the community merely as a support to have a healthy relationship with God.

    There is something critically missing here. Where is the fruit? The Lord wants us to build up the community by producing more and more Christians followers & believers, i.e. how we can increase the Christian population & the spiritual life of the world. Our goal in life then is to bear and produce fruit, His fruits – fruit for our lives now & His Kingdom.

    In one way or another, pandemic times made us experience sufferings then with a lot of trials, problems, restrictions, and difficulties in life. Somehow God was unusually & especially pruning us then. Perhaps we have been pruned or trimmed by God not only to be healthy in our spiritual life but for us also to bear much fruit for others & for our life now.

    Definitely we experienced a lot of losses during pandemic that still affects & hurting us. But perhaps at this stage, hopefully new buds are getting to sprout, new flowers are starting to bloom & some signs are growing of life in us.

    Saint Teresa of Calcutta is wise enough to remind & advice us that “God did not call us to be successful in life, but rather calls us to be faithful & fruitful in life.” Thus, the Lord places upon us the mission & responsibility for the growth of the kingdom of God. He uses us to call & invite other people to Himself.

    And above all, He longs not for our success, but for our faith & fruits in life. Consider then, at the end of our lives we have to stand before the Lord showing him what our lives produced. He is not going to be interested in our bank accounts, our homes, our athletic, intellectual, or artistic exploits & accomplishments. He is going to consider how well we loved others. He is going to count fruits of our faithfulness. He is going to look to see if we did all we could to bear & produce the fruits of His salvation to everyone.

    Remember, Jesus is concerned not only with the plant but also with good fruits. He wants us His disciples not only to be healthy plants but moreso to become fruit-bearing & producing plant for life & God’s Kingdom.

    And so, if we want to do our best in bearing fruit for Him, we need to stay united to the vine, united to Christ. We need to have His Life flowing through us – which at times needs the Father’s pruning. We received His life at baptism, but if we cut ourselves off & distance from His life by ignoring the vine, by slacking off from our worship of God, by allowing ourselves to be untended & unpruned, then we will have no fruit to bring before God’s presence. It is not enough to say we are people of faith, to say we are Catholic. We ought to practice our faith. We ought to stay united to the vine. We ought to bear & produce fruits for God’s kingdom in our lives.

    Being Christian, being Filipino Catholics is indeed not easy vocation & mission. It means dedication, sacrifice, determination to live as Christ called us. It demands being pruned by God & having to produce for the Kingdom – something to show & contribute for our lives. But we can do this, and we will do this, as long as we are stay connected & united to the Lord, to the vine whose life flows in us & through us.

    In this mass, we pray then that as the Lord’s branches being pruned & trimmed by God, we Christians may all have the spiritual courage & perseverance to remain united and connected onto Christ, our true Vine Jesus, so that we may bear fruit for our life & His kingdom now & forever.

    So Help Us God, So May it Be. Amen.

  • EASTER’s WITNESSes

    EASTER’s WITNESSes

    March 31, 2024 – Easter Sunday

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/033124.cfm)

    Today Christians proclaim to the whole world: “Alleluia, the Lord has risen, indeed. Alleluia.”

    Our gospel today proclaims that on that Easter morning, the apostles found the tomb where Jesus was buried, open and empty. Inside the burial tomb, though the burial cloths are still around, the dead body of Jesus is not there and nowhere to be found.  Strange it may be, finding the tomb open and empty, for the apostles it means that what Jesus preached them are true indeed: “Jesus Christ has risen”.

    On that very Easter morning, they gladly witness for themselves the Lord’s resurrection. There and then, they have seen and believed in Jesus’ promise and message of Hope to Life with God. On that day, they became dedicated believers and migrant missionary messengers of God’s offer of resurrection to life.  In effect, their very lives and our lives now change for the better.

    Easter always announces to the whole world a message of hope in life. Through the resurrection of our Lord, God has given and offers us anew Holiness of LIFE with Him. Easter proclaims that our life in the world today is and can be better and meaningful as we believe in the Good News that our Lord Jesus Christ has risen again into our lives today and always.

    There is hope then for a much better and meaningful life for the world now, as we Christians live our lives in faith with the risen Lord.

    Also for this message of Hope in Life to grow and flourish in our lives today, we Christians are challenged to bear witness and share our faith in the risen Lord to all nations. Like the disciples, our Christian witness of faith in the risen Lord makes us also migrant sharers and messengers of resurrection in life with God to all.

    As Peter proclaims, our witness of faith compels us Christians as chosen and commissioned by God to preach and testify to all nations God’s offer of new risen life with Him through Christ.  By our Christian faith-witness, we offer and share to our world today a message of hope for life with our risen Lord Jesus Christ.

    In one of his early homilies, Pope Francis once said: “Today’s world stands in great need of witnesses. It is not so much about speaking but rather speaking with our whole lives”. Here our Holy Father Pope Francis gives importance for us today’s Christians to be witnesses and messengers of Christ’s resurrection to today’s world.

    While in the midst of the world’s widespread culture of despair & death, we, Christians are blessed to have our faith in the resurrection of the Lord for us to share and offer to the world as alternative better way for the world and people’s life. Thus, it is our moral mandate and responsibility as Christian witness to share God’s offer of hope to life in our world today. 

    To be and have Migrant Filipino Catholics here & abroad today brings great opportunity for the world to witness (to taste and see) God’s offer of life with the risen Lord. While others may perceived it as social issue or concern, the reality of migrants and refugees in the world can be the chance for us Filipino Catholics to do our part in proclaiming and sharing our faith in the Lord’s resurrection to our world today.

    Same way as church persecution brought the Lord’s disciples to become migrant missionary messengers of Lord’s good news of salvation to all nations, our experience of migrations and refugees in today’s world gives us Christians also a chance to share our Christian faith to the world and with one another.

    Again Pope Francis appreciates the great potential of having and being migrants in our midst may offer to our world today. He said: “We ourselves need to see, and then to enable others to see that migrants and refugees do not represent a problem to be solved, but brothers and sisters to be welcomed, respected and loved.” Instead of dealing the reality as social concern or problem, Pope Francis invites us here to realize that having and being migrants and refugees with our lives can bring about a time of grace for inculturation and evangelization – for exchanging our faith with one another and sharing such Christian faith with others and to the whole world.

    Thus, having migrants and refugees with us obliges us to make Christ known to them by our welcome, love, and concern through our unique life of faith & culture. As well as being Christian migrants and refugees in a foreign culture calls for testifying and sharing one’s unique Christian faith to the new culture. And such sharing of faith and life-witness among us Christian both migrant and resident, make other non-Christians also witness (taste and see) the risen Lord in their own lives and our world today.

    Brothers and Sister, Christians as we are – resident or migrant we may be, we have a message of hope to share to the whole world. We proclaim to the whole world today: “Alleluia. The Lord has risen, indeed. Alleluia.

    May we never grow tired but be inspired and empowered to become migrant missionary messengers of God’s offer of meaningful life to our world today with the risen Lord. Amen.