Category: Year 2

January 15, 2020 – Wednesday of the 1^st Week in Ordinary Time

Click here for the readings http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/011520.cfm

Homily

Have you been so busy these days? Or are you expecting a busy schedule in the coming days because of your upcoming exams, reports to present, business engagements, and overwhelming workloads?

Sometimes these things consume us. We become tensed and even anxious because of a busy schedule. We tend to forget other important aspects in our life such as our personal care and relationship with our family and friends. When we are overwhelmed, we also tend to lose our balance, thus, we also need to re-balance our life. As a response, we initiate recreations to make ourselves grounded and sane.

Some of these recreations may take in the forms of spending time in a spa, in a beach, cinemas, mobile games, or even in eating, smoking and drinking alcohol, etc. However, some may be healthy and beneficial but some may be not. 

What is interesting in today’s Gospel is how Jesus teaches us something that would really make our life regain our balance in the midst of overwhelming days and even in the midst of a struggling and problematic life. 

Jesus has begun his public ministry. The Gospel of Mark described to us how busy Jesus was. Jesus had been from one town to another to proclaim God’s kingdom and heal the sick. People from all over the place too have sought Jesus. They have brought with them their varied concerns and wanted to be near to Jesus to have a solution to their individual struggles and concerns. Everyone was looking for him. We can also imagine how overwhelmed Jesus was.

Yet, with all of these, Jesus remained and kept his balance, he remained grounded and fully aware of what was happening around him. As a way of unwinding, Jesus got up very early and went to a quite place in order to RELAX and PRAY. 

Jesus’ way of releasing the bodily, mental or emotional tensions was through prayer. His prayer was his way of reconnecting to his Father. Prayer was his way of listening carefully to the will of his father. It was his way of making his life grounded, balanced and centred.

Prayer is not a mere distraction to what is routine and ordinary. Prayer is not a way of diverting ourselves from what is going on with our life. However, prayer brings us into the experience of our life, by becoming more aware of ourselves, of our thoughts and actions and most importantly, a way of being aware of God’s invitation for us at the very moment.

This is the invitation for us today. Are you having a heavy and busy day? Or will the coming days be overwhelming for you? Then, do not distract yourself from other forms of diversion, but rather, allow yourself to RELAX by PRAYING so that you may be grounded, connected and balanced by spending a quality time with the Lord. And it is free of charge, and we will rather be re-charged. We don’t have to make a lot of words in our prayer too. Silence is enough. Being aware of God’s presence is enough. Hinuat pa.

Jom Baring, CSsR

January 14, 2020 – Tuesday 1^st Week in Ordinary Time

Click here for the readings http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/011420.cfm

Homily

During my elementary even up to my college days, I tended to fear authority figures. I followed rules and regulations because of fear of being punished by the authorities. In fact, I experienced being punished and shamed in front of others because I had been naughty. Those accumulated experiences of being punished and shamed created painful experiences and even traumatic for me. I have experienced this, both at home and at school.

Thus, my relationship with authority figures was grounded on that fear. I saw them as punishers. Unconsciously, this was how I also related with God. I was afraid of God and afraid to commit sin because of fear of being punished and not because I love God. I realized that this attitude towards my relationship with authorities and with God does not do good to me. In fact, it only prevented me in expressing myself and being true to myself because I began to please authorities.

This experience of mine brought me to the Gospel proclaimed to us today. Jesus appeared before the people and spoke with authority. This means that the words of Jesus contain weight. He commands and people listened and followed. What they felt and saw in Jesus was sincerity and honesty unlike the teachers of the law who merely mumbled the words of God but without life.

Hence, from the very experience of the people they were able to differentiate the authority exercised by Jesus and the teachers of the law. It would be good then for us to look at this briefly and see how God invites us today.

Jesus spoke with authority and the people felt that. Jesus even commanded an evil spirit to come out from a man, and so the man was freed. This tells us that the authority exercised by Jesus gives life and freedom, inspires and motivates the Spirit within us. This means that the authority of Jesus does not condemn but saves.

However, the authority exercised by the teachers of the law condemns and incites fear to the people. They felt that the teachers of the law merely murmured the law for their own benefit but to the disadvantage of the common people. They had created many laws to dominate, manipulate and burden the people. Thus, the authority exercised by them prevented life and placed one person to slavery.

This kind of manipulating and enslaving authority was portrayed through that man possessed by an evil spirit. It is loud, violent yet very fearful. The man was not himself but manipulated by someone else. Thus, in this kind of authority, it takes away the person to experience the grace of life and to be himself freely.

Yet, with the compassionate authority of Jesus, the man was liberated and was given a chance to experience life.

This is the invitation for us today. As we carry our duties and responsibilities every day, as parents, as elder siblings, as seniors to our colleagues at work, as teachers and mentors, as superiors  to your subordinates or even just as student leaders at school, we may ask ourselves, how do I exercise authority in my scope of influence? Do I give and inspire life, or do I dominate and manipulate others to incite fear and insecurity? 

As Christians, we are invited by the Lord to follow him, and that is to exercise in our own capacity the authority given to us in order to bring life and freedom to others, to inspire and encourage others. Hinaut pa.

Jom Baring, CSsR

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