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Category: Weekday Homilies

  • Let God Surprise You With His Nearness

    Let God Surprise You With His Nearness

    December 12, 2025 – Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121225.cfm)

    (A homily given to a group of Philippine Army.)

    The Season of Advent always carries with it a gentle sense of surprise. It is the kind of surprise you feel when something good happens in a place you never expected, or when someone shows up at a moment you had already resigned yourself to being alone. Advent tells us that God’s coming is never loud, never forced, but always unexpected but gentle. And that is the greatest surprise that the Almighty choosing to come close, choosing humility, choosing to enter our ordinary days, choosing to be within our human history.

    This is exactly what we hear in our Gospel today. Elizabeth did not expect a visit. She was living her normal, hidden life, bearing both her age and her long years of waiting. Then one day, Mary walks in simplicity, young, carrying not only her presence but the very presence of God Himself dwelling in her womb. The surprise was so overwhelming that even the child in Elizabeth’s womb leapt for joy. John recognized what words could not yet express because God had visited them through Mary.

    Our Lady of Guadalupe is another moment in history when God surprised His people. This is the feast we celebrate today. Through Mary’s appearance to Juan Diego, God showed the tender concern for the poor, the oppressed, and the overlooked. It was God’s way of saying, “I have not forgotten you. I see your suffering. And I come close to you.” Every true surprise from God is like this, it reveals God’s heart, especially God’s love for the weak and the powerless.

    This is what the prophet Zechariah announces in the first reading. The Prophet said, “Sing and rejoice, daughter Zion! See, I am coming to dwell among you.” Not from afar. Not in theory. But to dwell among us. The reading emphasizes that God does not live distant from the anxieties of His people. His promise is always presence which is also the gift to us.

    Brothers and sisters in uniform, this message is especially for you. Many of you will spend Christmas far from home, far from family, children, parents, and your familiar traditions. Some of you may have already spent many Christmases this way. And it is never easy. There is a loneliness in that kind of sacrifice that most people will never see. But the Lord sees it. And today, through this Gospel and through the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, God tells us: “I come to visit you where you are.”

    Perhaps the surprise of God this Christmas is not that you will be home because of you won’t. The surprise may simply be this: that even in a distant assignment, even in quiet duty posts or long night watches, God draws near. God dwells with you. God visits you through moments of peace, through your camaraderie with one another, through unexpected strength that rises when you feel tired, through simple joys that you recognize in the middle of your routine.

    But for God’s surprise to reach us, our hearts must learn to be less guarded. Advent invites us to put down our judgments, our suspicions, our indifference, our anger and hatred. This also includes even our inner defenses that we think can protect us. Sometimes we are too careful, too defensive, too close-minded or too hardened by life. And that prevents God from entering. When we allow ourselves to admit our limitations, our sins, our failures, our woundedness that is when God can finally surprise us with healing, joy and freedom.

    And when God surprises us, like John in the womb, may our hearts also learn to leap with joy. May that joy not end with us. If God surprises us with His kindness, may we then become a surprise of kindness to others especially in a season when compassion and understanding is needed most.

    I leave you now with two simple invitations which you can do concretely in the coming days.

    First, make one small gesture of kindness to someone in your unit. You can expressed this through a word of thanks, an apology, an offer to help, or a listening ear. Surprise someone with kindness.

    Second, spend five quiet minutes each day asking only one prayer: “Lord, surprise me with Your nearness today.” Let that simple prayer open your eyes to how God visits you. Hinaut pa.

  • Fear not, I will help you.

    Fear not, I will help you.

    December 11, 2025 – Thursday of the Second Week of Advent

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121125.cfm)

    This season of Advent draws us once more into a kind of waiting. Yet, this is not just any kind of waiting but waiting filled with hope, longing, and readiness.

    In today’s reading from the Prophet Isaiah we hear the Lord say, “Fear not, I will help you.” This is not a distant promise, far removed from our lives but a personal and present invitation. Indeed, God does not speak to crowds only. The Lord reaches out to you, to me, to us, holding out His hand in love and assurance.

    Imagine a world shaped by God’s promise where deserts are turned into springs, where dry places become alive into gardens with trees uncorrupted by human greed for power and profit.

    This is God’s divine plan not only for the world but for each heart parched by fear, pain, loneliness, or doubt. God says to us, “I will help you. I will bring life where there seems to be no life.”

    Yet taking that divine help means also trusting. It means accepting that yes, certainly, we may feel like “worms” and “maggots,” as Isaiah says. We may feel unworthy, frail, and small but God promised and said, “Your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, will not abandon you.”

    What Isaiah proclaimed was set in a context when Israel felt being abandoned and discouraged. The people were exiled into Babylon after the war. They lost many things in their life including loved ones. This is how war create deep pain and anguish in the human heart. Yet, the Lord has promised salvation and freedom.

    And so for us today, as we also prepare for the coming of our Lord both in the memory of His Nativity, and in the hope of His coming again, God whispers to us, “Fear not, I will help you.” This is the heartbeat of Advent, a God who draws near, who rescues, who renews us.

    Indeed, we may be filled with uncertainty, anxiety, and suffering, yet the words in the Bible are not just ancient. These words give us a living hope. Each of us may know weariness, struggle with relationships, health, finances, and loss. Some may have felt like giving up. Some may have felt unseen and forgotten by friends and family. But God sees, God knows and God promises help.

    This means that advent invites us to trust again. To believe that even in our deserts, God can make springs. Even in our fears, God is our help and refuge.

    I leave to you now two simple and doable invitations for this Advent season.

    First, pause each day for a moment of quiet trust. Set aside few minutes maybe early in the morning or late at night and pray quietly: “Lord, I trust in You. I open my heart to Your help.” Let this be a daily turning toward God, especially in moments of fear or worry.

    Second, reach out and share hope. Choose one person, a friend, a neighbor, a colleague, or a family member who may be hurting or alone. Send a message, give a call, or visit if possible. Remind them that “God has not forgotten you and you are not alone.” In doing this, we become signs of God’s help to someone else.

    And so, may this Advent be for each of us a season of deep trust, renewed hope, and courageous faith. May we step forward not in fear, but in light because our God is our Helper, our Redeemer, our constant companion. Hinaut pa.

  • Jesus Restores Us    

    Jesus Restores Us    

    December 5, 2025 – Friday of the First Week of Advent

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120525.cfm)

    As we journey through this first week of Advent, our hearts turn toward the birth of our Savior. Today’s readings from the Book of Isaiah and the Gospel of Matthew fill us with a beautiful promise: God is bringing light into our darkness, healing into our brokenness, and hope into our waiting hearts. Hence, let us open our minds and hearts to this message of restoration through faith.

    In the first reading, prophet Isaiah painted a vivid picture of God’s transforming power. He spoke of a time when the ancient land of Lebanon (which Pope Leo has just visited this week), once wild and untamed, will become a fruitful garden.

    The prophet told us that the deaf will hear the words of a book, and the blind will see clearly, free from gloom. The humble and the poor will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. Meanwhile, the ruthless and the arrogant will vanish.

    This may sound poetic but this is not just poetry. This is God’s promise to transform the sorrows of His people. Isaiah speaking to a nation weary from exile and injustice, reminded them that God will lift up the lowly and bring justice for them. It is a prophecy of renewal, where what seems barren and hopeless bursts into life, and despair gives way to joy.

    This very promise finds its fulfillment in the Gospel, where two blind men cried out to Jesus, “Son of David, have pity on us!” They followed Him persistently, believing Jesus as the Messiah foretold by the prophets. And so Jesus touched their eyes and said, “Let it be done for you according to your faith.”

    Instantly, their sight was restored. Here, Matthew showed us faith in action and not as a magic trick, but as trust that opens us to God’s healing. These men, once trapped in physical and spiritual blindness, now see the world anew. Though Jesus asked them to keep it quiet, yet their joy overflowed. This moved them to proclaim God’s goodness everywhere they go.

    Together, these readings have woven one powerful message that indeed, God restores us through faith in His Son.

    Isaiah’s vision of a transformed world echoed in Jesus’ miracle. This showed us now that Advent is about waiting with hope for this restoration and transformation in ourselves and in the world.

    In our own very lives, we too all face blindness. Certainly, we may be blind to God’s love, to others’ needs, or to our own wounds. We too could stumble in the darkness of our worries, fears, illness, loneliness, or sin.

    However, Jesus, the light of the world, invites us to cry out like those blind men. Jesus also asks us, “Do you believe that I can do this?” And our “yes” opens the grace to Jesus healing touch.

    This hope moves us deeply because it is real, not an empty hope. Think of a friend who found peace and healing after loss or a community rebuilt after hardship and trauma. These are glimpses of God’s kingdom breaking in.

    In Advent, we prepare not just for Christmas lights and other glittering decorations, but for the eternal light that banishes all darkness.

    Remember this, God is faithful. And the Lord will turn our deserts into gardens and our tears into joy. So, let us live this hope today. Reach out to someone hurting, pray with deeper trust, and watch for God’s miracles in the ordinary. Hinaut pa.

  • LIVING HOPE AMIDST SUFFERING

    LIVING HOPE AMIDST SUFFERING

    November 26, 2025 – Red Wednesday; Wednesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112625.cfm)

    Today we celebrate Red Wednesday, a day when we remember, honor, and stand in solidarity with Christians around the world who suffer for their faith. We remember and pray for those who are silenced, displaced, threatened, and even killed because they follow Jesus. For most communities, Red Wednesday is a solemn reminder of a suffering happening “somewhere else.” But for us, this day carries a deeper weight and meaning.

    We do not remember persecution as something distant. We remember it as something you have survived. You carry scars in your minds, in your bodies, and in your hearts. These are the scars of the 2017 Marawi Siege, and more recently, the 2023 bombing, when violence interrupted our prayer, our peace, our Advent hope.

    And yet, here you are. Still praying. Still gathering. Still believing. And still choosing Christ. If the color red symbolizes the blood of martyrs, then the red we wear today also symbolizes your courage, your endurance, and your unbroken faith.

    Hence, we are all here because hope, no matter how wounded we are. This is what today’s theme proclaims, “Living Hope Amidst Suffering.”

    In the first reading from Prophet Daniel, King Belshazzar holds a feast of arrogance and disrespect. In the middle of his pride and extravagance, a mysterious hand appears and writes on the wall,
    “You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.” Belshazzar used sacred things for selfish purposes. He mocked what was holy. He exalted himself instead of God.

    Indeed, persecution anywhere in the world often comes from the same attitude. This is the arrogance that refuses to respect human dignity, a pride that rejects God, and a heart that worships violence more than life. And this may come politically and ideologically motivated.

    But while Belshazzar was “found wanting,” you, the people of faith, the survivors, the steadfast disciples, you have been weighed in the balance and found faithful.

    You did not give up your faith, even when fear tried to choke it. You did not stop praying, even when prayer became dangerous. You did not stop loving, even when hatred and suspicion tried us.

    If the writing on the wall declared judgment on Belshazzar, the writing on your lives declares something else entirely that “You have stood firm in the Lord.”This is hope found alive in us, in each of you.

    Moreover, in the Gospel, Jesus warns His disciples that persecution will come. Not “maybe,” not “possibly,” but certainly.

    Jesus said, “They will seize you.” “They will hand you over.” “You will be hated because of my name.” Jesus does not sugarcoat discipleship. He does not hide the cost of faith. He does not pretend Christianity as a path of comfort and power.

    Indeed, these words are not theoretical for you. You know their truth. Yet, Jesus is not giving this warning to frighten us. The Lord gives it to strengthen us. And so, Jesus now gives us two promises. These promises are born from His own suffering love.

    The First Promise is “I will give you words and wisdom.” Jesus assures us that in difficult times, we are never alone in our fear. The Holy Spirit is with us, guiding, strengthening, whispering courage into our trembling hearts. And indeed, this community has spoken words of hope when silence seemed safer. You have shown kindness when anger felt easier. You have extended forgiveness when hatred tried to dominate. You have lived this promise.

    The Second Promise is “By your perseverance you will secure your lives.” Perseverance, that quiet, stubborn faith that refuses to give up, is what saves us. Not the absence of suffering, not forgetting of memory, but the courage to rise again despite everything.

    The siege tried to break us, but you stood. The bombing tried to silence worship, but you returned. Fear tried to isolate you, but you gathered again at the table of Christ.

    This is what living hope looks like. A hope that limps but keeps walking. A hope that trembles but keeps believing. And a hope that cries but keeps loving.

    Today, Red Wednesday invites us not only to remember suffering, but to remember how God works inside our own suffering.

    Hope is not pretending everything is fine. This is merely optimism. Yet, hope is not about being optimistic. Hope is believing that God is working, even when nothing feels fine. Hope does not erase ours tears. It accompanies them. Hope does not deny wounds. It transforms them. And hope does not avoid danger. It gives courage to stand, to remain and be still before the presence of God.

    And so, this day is more than commemoration. It is a call to deepen our faith, to widen our compassion, and to strengthen our mission as disciples of the Crucified and Risen Christ.

    Because those who have suffered greatly are the very people that God sends to become witnesses of hope for the world. And you, brothers and sisters, are living proof that the Christian story is not a story of defeat, but of resurrection. Our Christian story is not a story of darkness, but of dawn. Not a story of violence, but of victory. This is the victory of love.

    Now, Red Wednesday does not simply ask us to remember. It rather invites us to respond. We are asked…

    How will we honor the suffering of others if we do not let our own suffering teach us compassion?

    How will we carry the memory of our wounds if they do not lead us to deepen our prayer, widen our love, and strengthen our commitment to peace?

    How can we claim to follow a crucified King if we refuse the path of forgiveness, reconciliation, and hope?

    Indeed, suffering can make us bitter or better. It can harden our hearts or open them. It can close our hands or make them instruments of healing. Being persecuted, certainly, does not give us permission to hate. It gives us a mission to love even more dearly. Being hurt does not give us the right to close our hearts. It gives us the grace to open them wider. Being attacked does not mean our story ends in fear and trauma. It means Christ calls us towards courage, healing, unity, and peace.

    We now realize that living hope amidst suffering is not passive. It is a choice. A daily, brave, exhausting, and holy choice. And so, I leave you now three takeaways to make hope alive in us.

    First, pray intentionally this week for those who have hurt you. Even a simple prayer: “Lord, bless them. Heal them. Change their hearts.” This maybe a difficult prayer to make for those who have hurt us but also powerful in transforming our hearts.

    Second, reach out to someone who suffers in silence. A neighbor who is afraid. A young student who is traumatized. A parent who is struggling or sick. Sit with them. Listen to them. And be a small beam of Christ’s light and love.

    Third, commit one concrete act of peace-building. Repair a relationship. Start a dialogue. Help rebuild a broken community bond.

    Friends, you have passed through fire,  but the fire has not consumed you. Let is refine you. On this Red Wednesday, may your courage shine, your wounds speak truth, and your faith stand as a beacon of hope for a world that desperately needs it.

    May this Red Wednesday remind you that you are not just survivors, you are now bearers of living hope. Hinaut pa.

  • Building Life on what Lasts

    Building Life on what Lasts

    November 25, 2025 – Tuesday of the 34th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112525.cfm)

    Tomas loved collecting shiny things. He had always new gadgets, loud toys, and flashy decorations. His small house sparkled with many things, but nothing he owned actually ever lasted. One day, his old neighbor Nanay Cita invited him for snacks. He saw how her house was plain. Yet, something was different. It was rather filled with laughter, stories, and warmth from her family members and other neighbors. Tomas realized that her joy came not from flashy material things, but from people and moments lovingly shared.

    Recently, when a typhoon hit and flooded their community, his many shiny items broke and gone. While he felt devastated, Nanay Cita and other neighbors came to help and brought hope to others. This was how Tomas finally understood that what truly lasts are relationships, kindness and simple joys.

    Today, in our first reading, Prophet Daniel interpreted the vision of King Nebuchadnezzar. It was a dream of a great statue made of different materials. Yet, all of which eventually crumbled when struck by a small stone. Daniel told us that this stone represented the Kingdom of God. It seemed small and humble. Though it was unnoticed by the world, it was the only thing that lasts forever. Indeed, kingdoms rise and fall, powers come and go, but the Kingdom of God stands firm through all ages.

    Jesus, in today’s Gospel, echoed this truth. While the disciples admired the beauty of the Temple, Jesus reminded them of an important lesson. Even the most impressive earthly things will one day pass away. What endures, Jesus said, is not the expensive stones of the Temple. What lasts is the steadfast trust of those who remain faithful. They stay committed in the midst of trials, challenges, and uncertainties in life.

    Today these readings also speak deeply to my heart as I celebrate my 8th Anniversary of Priesthood. As I look back, I see many moments of weakness. There were many moments of unworthiness. I felt pains and hurts. There were times when I felt like that fragile statue in the king’s dream. It was easily shaken and easily broken.

    And yet, by the grace of God, I remain and still finding joy. Not because of my strength, not because of my abilities and potentials but because of God’s faithfulness. The stone that never crumbles is the unwavering goodness of God to me and to everyone whom I have encountered in my journey as a priest. This has been the foundation of my priesthood.

    If there is anything my eight years have taught me, it is this – God uses weak instruments. He chooses broken vessels. He works through imperfect servants so that His glory and not ours, may shine and bring life. This is what I witnessed, every time I felt tired, God renewed me. Every time I felt unworthy, God reminded me that the call is His, not mine. Every time I doubted, God remained faithful.

    I realized that certainly, this is not just my story. It is the story of every believer who tries, fails, rises and hopes again, and continues to walk with God.

    In fact, the world tells us that we must be strong. We must be impressive. We must be powerful like the mighty statue in the vision of the King Nebuchadnezzar. However, God tells us, “Just stand on the Rock. Stand on Me.” This is an invitation to find God as our true strength, our refuge and our security.

    Now, as we near the end of the liturgical year, these readings invite us to reflect: What in our lives is temporary, and what truly lasts? Are we building a kingdom that will one day crumble? Or do we place our trust in the Kingdom of God that cannot be shaken?

    Today, I thank God for eight years of priesthood, not as a journey of perfection, but a journey of God’s unwavering mercy. I ask you to continue praying for me. Please pray that I remain faithful to the Kingdom of God that lasts forever. May I always find joy in my ministry and bring life to others.

    May the Lord strengthen all of us to trust not in the passing things of this world, but in the enduring goodness of God.  I leave you now two simple and practical takeaways.

    First, build your life on what lasts. Spend more time each day on prayer, kindness, forgiveness, and love. These are the things that remain.

    Second, trust God even in your weaknesses. Whenever you feel unworthy or discouraged, whisper a simple prayer, “Lord, You are my strength. I stand on You.” Hinaut pa.