Category: Weekday Homilies

June 14, 2022 – Tuesday Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061422.cfm)

To hit back when we are hurt can sometimes be our immediate response. Even without thinking, a child may hit a playmate when he or she is hurt. Among us adults, this kind of attitude is also evident, as a simple misunderstanding would lead to endless quarrels, lawsuits and even violence. This sounds actually simple and natural yet this has big implications in our relationships.

Yet, Jesus taught his disciples to “love your enemies and pray those who persecute you.” Is it not ridiculous? Our natural response is to hit back thinking that hitting back takes away our pain and anger. However, Jesus teaches the other way around, to love our enemies and pray for those who have hurt us.

But, how could we love those who have hurt us, those who have abused us, those who betrayed us and caused us pain in our life? Our immediate response is to take our revenge. If we cannot express physical violence against them, then, we express it in our words and on how we treat others and ourselves. But most of all, we linger to hatred, to pain and anger.

We do not realize that once we let aggression, violence, hatred and anger to dominate in our hearts and minds, we become prisoners of our own pain. Then, the pain that we endure leads us to feelings of more anger, hatred and bitterness. When we linger to these they will lead us to a heart that seeks only revenge.

However, we when find love and forgiveness in our hearts that begins with accepting and embracing those painful experiences and go on with life, then, we will be free. Loving one’s enemies or those whom we hate is an expression of mercy and forgiveness that will make us free. It will not erase the scar of betrayal or abuse or pain that we endure but we will be able to stand up, to wipe our tears, go on with life and transform pain into kindness.

Thus, for us who have done wrong to others and caused damage, Jesus also calls us to humble ourselves and acknowledge our sins. Our Psalm expresses today a humble heart that fully recognizes ones sins and evil done to others. In recognizing our sins, this also entails responsibility to what we have done. Hence, this how justice and mercy shall meet.

Certainly, the Lord desires that each of us becomes free of guilt so that peace and reconciliation shall be in us. The Lord wants us to be free and not to be prisoners of anger, hatred, bitterness, guilt and violence.

Showing love then, is not about telling the person, that what he/she did was okay and pretend as if nothing happens. No!  Of course not. If we have caused pain and damage, then, that really happened and there is a need for us to acknowledge and take responsibility from such action.

Love and prayer, then, bring us towards reconciliation and healing to our wounded heart so that we will be free and at peace. This means that we choose love and not anger and hatred and we choose God and not evil. Kabay pa.

June 13, 2022 – Monday of the 11^th Week in Ordinary Time

Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061322.cfm)

It was violent, cruel, brutal and merciless. These are some of the words one could describe on what happened with Naboth the Jezreelite. He refused to give up his ancestral heritage but was falsely accused. He was treated with so much brutality, viciously framed for a crime he did not commit and murdered in daylight by the minions of Jezebel.

And no one stood for Naboth. Nobody dared to defend him. King Ahab, on the other hand, though did not commit the crime directly but played passively. He was passive because he did not want to be involved himself. Yet, he did not also choose to stop Jezebel because he knew he would be able to benefit from such corrupt and murderous act of her wife.

This tells us really that no matter how much possessions we may have or no matter how secured we can be materially, or no matter how much power and influence we may possess, it does not mean that we will be satisfied. This has been shown already by Ahab even before the murder. Ahab was disturbed and angry because he did not get what he wanted despite he did not need it. Because of that greed of Ahab through the cunning and vicious plans and actions of Jezebel, the little possession of Naboth was taken away from him including his life.

Is God then, blind to this kind of crime committed against the weak and powerless? Our Psalm proclaims to us today the prayer of a man like Naboth, “Lord, listen to my groaning.” This is an appeal to the Lord to listen to that groan filled with pain. It is a cry for help from a person who find life too much to bear because of the exploitation and abuse from others.

The author of the Psalm also recognized that indeed, the Lord is not blind or deaf to that painful groan for the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and the deceitful. This is the very image that Jezebel gained after that murderous act, bloodthirsty and deceitful.

However, what is more puzzling in today’s invitation from the Lord for us is this, “offer no resistance to one who is evil.”

Does it mean that we become passive to the abuses committed against us, against the weak and the powerless? In the case of Naboth, it was perhaps even impossible to resist because the evil scheme against him was just too overwhelming. He was alone.

However, to offer no resistance to one who is evil has a deeper meaning. Not to resist to one who is evil, is not allowing evil to control us. Meaning, once we fight back to one who is evil it may bring us into the same position of the one who is evil. We shall tend to resort to the same violence. Hence, responding evil with evil or responding to violence with violence will only bring us into an endless cycle of evil and violence.

The wisdom of Jesus lies in the offer of peace. To offer the other cheek when someone strikes us on the right cheek, though this sounds ridiculous for many of us, is an opportunity for the one who hurt us to embrace peace and reconciliation. Peace and reconciliation is truly a difficult path. A very unpopular one. However, this is the only way to end the cycle violence and evil.

Moreover, this is not an excuse to just remain passive to the abuses and other forms of oppression. It does not mean that when your spouse physically abuse you, or a family member is sexually abusing you, or a friend or colleague is exploiting your goodness and generosity, or a powerful and influential person oppressed the weak in the society that we remain passive and indifferent. The teaching of Jesus is meant to keep violence at the minimum and not to escalate more violence towards others and ourselves. In such situations, we are called to get out from the abusive relationship, to demand justice and reparation and show mercy.

To demand justice then is to make the perpetrator take the responsibility and the consequences. To show mercy is to get rid of hatred and anger within our hearts for us to live freely by offering peace and reconciliation towards those who have wronged us.

Therefore, God invites us today to live freely by not allowing evil to control us or to have an access into our hearts by holding on to grudges, hatred, anger and selfishness. God calls us to be more satisfied with what we have and to be grateful of the blessing God gave to us so that unlike Ahab, our hearts won’t grow ungrateful and corrupt. God calls us too that in the event when an evil act is committed against us, do not give a chance to evil to have a control over us by resorting to evil also. Jesus calls us to offer peace, not violence, not anger, not hatred, and not also indifference in the face of evil and violence. Offer peace that gives and promotes life. Kabay pa.

June 9, 2022 – Thursday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/060922.cfm)

The Lord calls us today, “unless you surpass the righteousness of the Lawyers and the Pharisees, then, you will not enter the kingdom of Heaven.”

Without condemning the Jewish Lawyers and Pharisees at that time, Jesus wants us to realize something beyond the usual actions of these people and to become righteous beyond what is minimum, beyond what is only required.

To set the context, scribes and Pharisees at that time were more inclined in focusing on the letters of the law. This means that these people were more concerned in following trivial things in the Jewish Law. However, this kind of attitude prevented them to be compassionate to others and more expressive of mercy to the sinners, the sick and the poor.

Jesus gave a practical challenge to his disciples, an action that expresses mercy and compassion. Jesus calls for “Reconciliation” and “Reparation” of the damage we have caused to others. To be reconciled with the person whom we have hurt and those who have hurt us, expresses righteousness.

Thus, the Gospel today invites us to look closely at our failures and sins and to recognize them. Yet, we do not stop at the recognition of sin but we step forward by making peace, by reconciling ourselves with others, by doing the right thing and doing what God desires us to do.

God calls us to go beyond from what is only easy and comfortable for us. It is a temptation to settle to what is only minimal and become complacent and indifferent towards others. True enough, it is very easy  for us to continue what we are doing like going to mass, praying our rosary and novena, and going to confession regularly, but then, remaining unmoved by the many social issues that surround us, or remaining indifferent to the needs of people around.

Jesus invites us now to be more expressive of our devotion by being honest and true in our words and actions and by seeking reconciliation and peace with our brothers and sisters. In these ways, then, we make a room for Jesus to renew our heart and to experience God’s mercy. Kabay pa.