Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Category: Weekday Homilies

  • BREATH GOD

    BREATH GOD

    February 9, 2021 – Tuesday of the 5th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/020921.cfm)

    O, Kamusta na? Nakakahinga pa? Ginhawa pa? Still breathing?

    With a lot of things happening & going on, to say the least, life nowadays is and can be suffocating. We do find ourselves at times breathless & drowning with a lot of restrictions & limitations that even it takes a lot of effort for us to do simple things as natural as breathing. Wearing face masks & shields outdoor limits us to breath naturally & renders us at times gasping for our breath. So, Jal Jineazoyo? How are you? Are you well, okay? Still breathing?

    After putting order into chaos, through his breath, God in our first reading creates life. Yes, by means of his “pneuma” – His breath, God has created, creates, & will continue to create life. All the blessings, graces, & good we have always in life are created by God through His breath. When God breathes, life is created, nourished, protected & sustained.  And through the Pneuma – the Spirit of His resurrected Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, God continues to create & renew our Life now & always.

    As God continues to do so, however, His creative & creating actions are also hindered by our human ways & traditions.

    From our gospel today, we get a sense of how limited & limiting it is for Jesus to continue to God’s work of creation in our lives. While Jesus proclaims & partakes God’s blessing of creation and redemption for all, people then were only concerned about limits, boundaries & restriction as to the proper norms & practices based on traditions. Here we get a glimpse of the tension between God’s offer of fullness of Life and the restrictions of our human ways & standards. Somehow God is giving us His breath – air to breath & live, but we are still struggling on how to breath naturally. We concern ourselves as to how to control our breathing that we are missing & wasting the air, breath, life being given us. That is why Jesus cannot help but to complain: “You nullify God’s word (ways & means) in favor of your tradition you have handed on.” Instead of cooperating in God’s creation, we try to program, limit, control, & restrict His offer of life by our handed-on traditions & practices. Thus, when God breathes, life is created & given us.  But when we program & control our breathing, we limit & restrict life and creation.

    Be conscious then of our handed-on traditions & standards we expect from life itself for it might not be of God’s life-giving Breath but of our own self-imposed impaling restrictions & limitations. And then, when things are suffocating & breathless, don’t forget to breath. Breath in God’s offer of life to us. Let His Pneuma, breath, Spirit flow into our whole being. Allow it to transform & renew us, rather than be restricted, drowned & strangled by our human traditions & standards.

    So Help us God. So may it be.

  • EXPRESS THE DIVINE IMAGE IN US

    EXPRESS THE DIVINE IMAGE IN US

    February 9, 2021 – Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for thre readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/020921.cfm)

    The Pharisees were known in the Jewish society at that time of Jesus to observe strictly the traditional and written law of Moses. They too were known to follow the law up to its most trivial like practices of washing before meal, washing the dishes and even the beds. With such strict observance of the laws, these people seemed to be filled with pretentions and feeling of superiority.

    However, the integrity of their faith was in question. The sincerity of their action was doubtful. This was something that Jesus wanted them to realize. Jesus wanted this people to see that our relationship with God is not tied up in following the minutest detail of the law. Having faith is not about making others look us up because of the many rituals we do. To have faith is never about becoming self-righteous and superior from others.

    Hence, Jesus confronted the Pharisees and some of those scribes with them because Jesus knew their hearts. Citing Prophet Isaiah, Jesus said referring to them, “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.”

    This was how Jesus pointed out the plunder and evil in the heart of these people. This means that what they were really after was not to please and worship God but to make people worship them. Again, Jesus said about them, “You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”

    Thus, what is more important, then, is not our good image before the public or the praise that we get by being righteous and upright in front of the people but our heart that expresses our goodness, generosity and love.

    This is what our first reading reminds us today. As God created every creature on earth, God created us in his own image and likeness. We, certainly, possess the divine image of God. Hence, suppressing or hiding those qualities given to us would be a form of injustice to the giver.

    Therefore, Jesus calls us today to express the divine image in us by participating in the on-going work of God in us and in the world. Express freely the divine image in us that gives life, inspires life and creates life. In this way, we will be able to worship God truly and every day. Hinaut pa.

  • LET THERE BE LIGHT

    LET THERE BE LIGHT

    February 8, 2021 – Monday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

    Click her for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/020821.cfm)

    “Let there be light.” This was the first command of God in order to bring light to earth covered with darkness. Even until now, there are also dark spots in our life that need to be lightened. We experience pain of loss and rejection, of sickness and fear, of injustice and oppression. These areas are what we seek to be illuminated. This is the reason why we do things to overcome the pain of loss and rejection. We seek the comfort of friends when we are afraid. We seek the expertise of doctors to bring us into health. We fight and confront the unjust and oppressive to bring justice and compassion.

    These desires to be in the light, to be illumined and to experience that grace of God, are being portrayed to us also in the Gospel of Mark. People followed Jesus wherever he went because they have recognized him to be that person who can bring light into the darkness they experienced in life.

    That desire gave them the hope that there was something better for them that God offers to them. People wanted to touch Jesus, then, even just the tassel of his cloak. They believed that even in that small way, God shall bring them the hope they have been waiting for. True, indeed, all those who were sick who touched it were healed. At last, the darkness in their heart and soul disappeared because of God’s creative work in the world.

    In the same way, Jesus invites us today to also have that desire in our heart, that we may always recognize his presence and seek to touch God. Jesus as well calls us today to become his tassels in our homes and communities where those who are in need shall also experience light and healing through our kindness and generosity, through our words that bring consolation and encouragement, through our presence that gives assurance and confidence. Hinaut pa.

  • COME AND REST A WHILE

    COME AND REST A WHILE

    February 6, 2021 – Saturday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/020621.cfm)

    Take a deep breath and begin to take this short exercise for today. Inhale God’s Spirit. Exhale your fear and negative emotions. Inhale God’s assurance of love. Exhale your doubts and anxieties of tomorrow. Inhale the gift of the present moment. Exhale the pains of the past.

    To do this would be very helpful in order to gather our mind, see clearly things in life and re-balance ourselves. There could be many things going on in our mind and heart from the concerns at home that we carry in our work that we also bring into our relationships. Things can be complicated when we do not see the direction of each aspect of our life. Home, work, friendship, love-life and other extra-curricular activities when they come together, our hands will be full. When one or two aspects become overwhelming, others will be affected. From all the stress and burdens that one experience every day, there is really a need to take a break, to take a deep breath and re-balance life.

    Such invitation and to dwell into that call is as much as important as eating and taking exercise. To take a break or to take a rest is a human need that must be taken into consideration and given much importance. For the sake of wellness not just physically but also emotionally and spiritually, we are called to come away by ourselves and rest a while.

    This is what we have heard in today’s Gospel of Mark.  Jesus said to his apostles after all they had done and taught, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” The work that they have done must have been not just tiring physically but also in other aspects of their life. The apostles, when they faced sick people must have also encountered rejections and angry reactions from Jewish authorities and other people who refused to accept Jesus’ message and call to repentance.

    Jesus was very aware on how work for the kingdom of God can also be straining and draining to a person. Even the most energetic and most joyful person will also feel tired and need to rest.

    With that awareness, Jesus invited the apostles to grab that opportunity to rest, to pray, to relax, to take a deep breath and re-balance life according to God’s desire for them. Jesus himself would even take this opportunity. In all Gospels, Jesus would take time to go to a deserted place alone and pray in order to commune with his Father in heaven. 

    In fact, our Psalm today also proclaims to us how God desires to lead us to a place of rest and renewal. It says wonderfully, “the Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want. In verdant pastures he gives me repose. Beside restful waters he leads me, he refreshes my soul.”

    This attitude allows us to be in touched with ourselves and in touched with God’s daily invitations for us. As we find our personal deserted places to be alone, spend it with quality by devoting that time to be enmeshed in God’s assuring presence that we may be refreshed, renewed, recharged and once again find balance and peace in life. Hinaut pa.

  • CONTENTMENT OF WHAT WE HAVE

    CONTENTMENT OF WHAT WE HAVE

    February 5, 2021 – Friday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/020521.cfm)

    A Relational Psychologist, Neil Clark Warren wrote in his book Finding Contentment, “that many people are desperately in search for immediate and rapid-fire happiness surges that has become an obsession.” Because of what he called as the happiness highs, a person may continually seek what only brings a momentary happiness. And because it is momentary that it may drain and prevent a person to seek what is lasting and enduring. Such attitude of the heart may also lead the soul to restlessness and emptiness.

    What Dr. Warren proposes is to find contentment in life, a lasting and enduring contentment that will free us from the burden and slavery of pretensions, of anxiety and fear. He further suggests that one will be able to overcome and transcend oneself by walking in the path of authenticity, that we become authentic persons. This means that we will not be dictated of what others wants us to be, or of merely driven by our selfish desires, or to become who we are not but to be who we truly are. To put this in our Christian belief, what Dr. Warren also says is basically, that we become the person God wants us to be. God desires the full realization of ourselves where we can find freedom and fullness of life.

    Dr. Warren’s Finding Contentment is what the Letter to the Hebrews also invites us today, “be content with what you have.” This letter was addressed to the Christian Hebrews to always have the attitude and spirit of hospitality. One becomes hospitable by being attentive to the needs of others, sensitive to their situations, by being faithful and committed in one’s relationship and by being content with life. All these bring us into the invitation to fully trust the providence and generosity of God who will never make us destitute and who will never abandon us.

    However, when the heart becomes unfriendly and unwelcoming of others, then, it makes the heart insensitive, ungrateful and uncontented with life. The person lives in fear and insecurity because he/she does not trust what God will give him or her. And worst, because of such attitude of the heart, the person will tend to blame God for giving him or her so little and for being unfair.

    This kind of attitude is what we have heard in the today’s Gospel of Mark. Mark tells us about King Herod and his mistress, Herodias. Both of them grew uncontented with life. They were more after of momentary happiness to the point of losing their direction from recognizing what is wrong and what is right, what is just and unjust. Consequently, they became obsessed that made them destructive and corrupt.

    King Herod, however, seemed to have some hope because of the disturbance he felt in his heart when he listened to John the Baptist. Yet, he did not have the courage to confront himself. Thus, the King was eaten by his obsession to have more and to express his violent authority. As a result his actions became destructive and oppressive to others. It was not hospitality. It was not kindness. This was how the life of a prophet was ended coldly.

    This tells us how it becomes destructive to ourselves and to others when we remain seeking what only gives us momentary happiness. Hence, God calls us today to become contented of what we have. God has certainly blessed us with many things. We do not have to have everything too. Having everything will only give us headache and constant worries. What we need rather is the right attitude to be contented of God’s blessings and graces. In this way, we become more confident and assured of what we possess and also of who we are. Hinaut pa.