Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Category: Weekday Homilies

  • Following the Lord closely

    Following the Lord closely

    January 13, 2020 – Monday First Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/011320.cfm

    Homily

    Christmas Season is over. Christmas songs have stopped playing. Christmas decorations were all kept and hidden. However, the spirit of Christmas lives on and this is what our liturgy is portraying us today as we also begin the first week of Ordinary Time.

    The Gospel of Mark tells us how the Emmanuel, the Word-made-flesh, who is Jesus walks and encounters people as he goes along. In those encounters of Jesus, he also calls and invites people to follow him.

    We might have wondered also if those men, Simon and Andrew as well as James and John followed Jesus immediately without any difficulty. Mark only described to us symbolically the change of ways in following Jesus. We have been told in other Gospel stories, that these men had previous encounters with Jesus and even with John the Baptist as they first knew the Baptizer.

    However, what Mark was trying to tell us here is the attitude of these men of being able to change their way of life. This is what Jesus preached, “Change your ways and believe in the Good News.”

    And so this was what these men did. They changed their ways by becoming fishers of men and women from being previously fishermen.

    They have abandoned their comfort zones in order to go beyond from themselves. They gave up their old attitudes that prevented them to go forward. These include accepting their sins and failures and accepting too that they were in need of God’s mercy.

    Their personal encounter with Jesus made all of these brighter for them. They had been given the courage as well as with the faith to believe in their capacities and potentials and to believe in God’s tremendous love for them.

    This is the invitation for us today also. The Christmas Season was an opportunity for us to encounter the Lord intimately in our life through our families and friends and through our Church. We went through advent to joyfully wait for his coming and to be more vigilant of God’s revelations. We have celebrated the Birth of Jesus to affirm that we are indeed loved beyond our expectation despite being unworthy. 

    Hopefully, our Christmas experience had really given us that opportunity of intimate encounter with Jesus. Our encounter with Jesus, just like the first disciples, allows us to be more attuned to Jesus’ voice to follow him wherever he may lead us. 

    Thus, allow Jesus to call you today, to motivate you, to inspire you, to give you courage and faith so that he may lead us too to change our old ways that only prevent us from going forward. Allow the Lord to challenge you and lead you to go out from your comfort zones that we may be able to go beyond from ourselves.

    In this way, we may discover more and more who Jesus is in our life and who we are before God. This is discipleship. This is following the Lord closely. In this journey, we may find more adventures and wonder to un-learn our selfish human ways in order to learn God’s ways. Hinaut pa. 

    Jom Baring, CSsR

  • Allowing the Lord to look at us intimately

    Allowing the Lord to look at us intimately

    January 4, 2020 – Saturday before Epiphany

    Click here for the readings http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/010420.cfm

    Homily

    Jesus began to call his first disciples. The first two of them were John (the beloved) and Andrew who later introduced his brother Simon to Jesus. Simon has been called by Jesus as Cephas or Peter, which means the rock.

    John and Andrew were disciples of John the Baptist. Hence, because of John, the two have been hearing about John’s prophecy of the Messiah who is to come. They have actually been waiting for him to arrive.  Perhaps, when they finally met Jesus, they too were astonished at the appearance of Jesus. They were surprised not because of the grandiosity of Jesus but because of his simplicity. Jesus was just an ordinary Jew, dressed in an ordinary way as common people did at that time. His physical feature was not that astounding, like a “model or artista,” no! However, there was something in Jesus that they have deeply felt.

    Jesus was a man who when he looks at you, you will be captivated by him. Yes, when Jesus looked at them, he did not just look at them in the eyes but through their heart too. When Jesus looks, it is nothing casual because he looks at us with love and concern.

    This experience of the two led them to see and recognize the Messiah! And this prompted them to follow Jesus. 

    Each of us also is invited to look at Jesus, look at his eyes, and also allow the Lord to look at us so that we may see how he loves us so much. The look of Jesus is neither condemning nor terrifying because of the sins we have committed. Jesus’ look will always be loving and merciful, inviting us to come closer to him. Thus, let Jesus look at us intimately today.

    When we are able to do that, surely Jesus will also say to us, “Come!” –that is to follow the Lord in the way we live our lives and perform our duties as parents, as children, as students, as professionals, as workers and as person. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

  • Bringing others to Jesus through us

    Bringing others to Jesus through us

    January 3, 2020 – Friday before Epiphany – Memorial of the Most Holy name of Jesus

    Click here for the readings http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/010320.cfm

    Homily

    At first, John the Baptist was not actually aware that it was his cousin Jesus who was the Messiah. Before the appearance of Jesus to the public, John has become popular among the people. He already had followers with him. People gathered wherever he went. People were amazed at what he proclaimed and were captured by his own charisma as a prophet. And so people flocked to be baptized by John.

    John had all the fame if we would look at it in modern times. He had followers or likers. Yet, the fame that he was gaining from the people did not distract John. He remained humble and continued to seek the one greater than him, who was ahead of him for he was before him . The humility of John, his self-awareness and confidence in God actually led him to recognize God in Jesus, and recognized him as the Lamb of God.  

    If John had been self-absorbed, insecure and self-assuming, he could have claimed that he was the Messiah that the people had been waiting for. But no, John was faithful to his mission and was ready to disappear from the picture once the Messiah would reveal himself to the public.

    Indeed, this was how John brought the people around him to also recognize God. As we have celebrated the birth of our Lord, hopefully, our Christmas has become an encounter with God. And in that encounter, we are called to bring God to others, to let others recognize God too through us.

    This is the invitation for us today, that through us, our brothers and sisters, will recognize God’s presence in our life. That through us, people will feel God’s presence; through our actions and words people will be drawn not to us but to God.

    And so like John, let us always be aware of ourselves. Let us be conscious when we turn to be selfish and self-absorbed because that will only reveal how insecure we are with ourselves. Let us be confident in God instead and recognize that what we have and that what we enjoy in this life are all coming from God.

    Our mission as Christians, like John the Baptist, is to be the herald or the messenger of God to others – to bring others to Christ. So it means that we too first should be close to God by being sincere, humble, compassionate and loving to others even to those we do not like and people we hate. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

  • Knowing who we truly are

    Knowing who we truly are

    January 2, 2020 – Thursday before Epiphany – Memorial of Sts Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzen

    Click here for the readings http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/010220.cfm

    Homily

    What is easier? To pretend who we are not or to be who we are truly? 

    With the phenomenon of social media sites, it has become easier to pretend who we are not and to portray to others a self filled with icing. A person can just create multiple accounts on Facebook or Instagram and portray a different image of himself or herself. Others also can just display an image of himself or herself on social media sites different from what is real. 

    Why is that? This comes from a deep longing of fulfilling a person’s desire to be recognized or praised by others. The space provided by the social media allowed such persons to be recognized and praised, that is, in gaining likes or shares and followers. Others would portray happy occasions through their pictures and videos to hide a painful and traumatic background of their life. Others would show how affluent and comfortable they are in life to hide their insecurity due to poverty. However, such attitude can also become problematic. Portraying to others whom we are not, distances us from our real self and thus, from recognizing who we are before God.

    In today’s Gospel, John reminded us of the importance of recognizing our true self before God and before others. People were asking John if he was the Messiah or Elijah or some great prophets from the Old Testament. John could just easily pretend that he was someone else of great importance. However, John was honest enough to say that he is not God nor a great prophet. He was just a simple and humble friend of God, whose voice cries out in the dessert to bring people closer to God.

    Thus, we are called today to be more accepting of ourselves with all our weaknesses and problems as well as our strengths and potentials. Being honest with ourselves is also being honest with God and with others. In that way, we become an authentic person who is not bothered of any pretension and insecurity. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

  • For all that has been, thank you Lord

    For all that has been, thank you Lord

    December 31, 2019 – 7th Day of the Octave of Christmas and last day of 2019

    Click here for the readings http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/123119.cfm

    Homily

    Today is the last day of this year 2019. I am sure that each of us here have many stories to tell of what happened the past year. There must be difficulties and sorrows, problems and struggles that you have to wrestle. However, at the same time also, there must be blessings and graces that we have received from the Lord. I am sure too that there were many encounters with other people that made our year 2019 memorable and wonderful.

    And so, for all that has been, I would like to invite you now that we observe a minute of silence and close our eyes to thank the Lord for his grace and favor upon us. 

    (A minute silence)

    Let us remember, that before God spoke to create the world, there was only the silence of God. It was from that silence of God also, that God speaks. In the Gospel of John, we are reminded that “in the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God.” And this Word became flesh who made his dwelling among us.

    God invites us that as we are about to close 2019, let us also be more receptive of God’s Word, of allowing God to speak to us through the many experiences we have in this year 2019. We can only be more receptive of God’s word and of his voice when we also choose consciously to be silent.

    Thus,  in the few hours before the closing of 2019 and beginning of 2020, stay in silence for a while for 10 minutes or more. You do not have to say your memorized prayers on your mind. No need for words. No need for mental prayers. Just allow yourself to be embraced by silence and allow God to speak to you through your experiences in this past year.

    As we allow God to speak to us, we may be assured of His presence as we also welcome a new year. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR