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Tag: A Dose of God Today

  • Faith Working Through Love

    Faith Working Through Love

    October 13, 2020 – Tuesday of the 28th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here fore the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101320.cfm)

    Homily

    As a human response of love, FAITH, (see https://adoseofgodtoday.com/2020/10/09/faith-a-human-response-of-love/) goes beyond obligation or from the letters of the law. What does it mean? To understand this better, let us see a bit deeper the encounter of Jesus with the Pharisee.

    In the today’s Gospel passage, Luke tells us that a Pharisee invited Jesus to dine with him in his house. This Pharisee must have heard a lot about Jesus, his preaching and miracles. He wanted to see Jesus personally and to see the ways of Jesus. However, these group of people, Pharisees, were hostile to Jesus. They were always looking for faults in Jesus that they can use against him.

    The Pharisees were known in the Jewish society at that time of Jesus who observed strictly the traditional and written law of Moses. Indeed, they were known to follow the law up to its most trivial law like in washing before meal and of the dishes. However, these people were filled with pretentions and superiority. They developed such practices to be praised and recognized by the people.

    Thus, 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 trivial rituals we do. To have faith is never about becoming self-righteous and superior from others.

    Hence, Jesus confronted the Pharisee because Jesus knew his heart. The amazement of the Pharisee when Jesus did not observed the prescribed washing before the meal, was born out of disgust to a person who did not follow the law like him. However, this was the chance of Jesus to teach the Pharisee an important lesson.

    Jesus pointed out the plunder and evil in the heart of these people while making themselves good and honorable in front of the public. This means that what they were after was not to please and worship God but to make people worship them.

    What is more important is not our good image before the public but our heart that expresses our goodness, generosity and love.

    This is basically what St. Paul is telling us in his letter to the Galatians. Similar to the Pharisee, the Jewish Christians wanted to retain the law of circumcision for the non-Jewish Christians. They wanted the non-Jewish to submit to this law because they believed that they can only be a true believer if they observe such law like them. This became a conflict in the early Christian Community to which Paul intervened.

    Paul reminded them that “in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.”

    Only faith working through love! If faith does not do good to others but suppresses and restricts a person to become life-giving, then, it is not faith at all, but a self-serving belief. Because faith is a human response of love to God who first loved us, then, faith naturally expresses love to God and to others. When our actions and thoughts would only serve our ego, for the preservation of our good-image, to seek praise and approval from others, then, it is surely not of faith.

    This is what Jesus calls us today. Let our faith in Jesus express love and only love. Never be afraid to express love because when it is expressed it is surely liberating for us and for others. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

  • To see and hear God everyday

    To see and hear God everyday

    October 12, 2020 – Monday of the 28th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101220.cfm)

    Homily

    Will it be possible to see and hear God every day? God’s manifestation in the world and in our life is constant. God may not appear before us, as Jesus did walk among the people before, but God’s presence continues to abide with us.

    St. Ignatius of Loyola believed that we could find God in all things. God in His great and profound love reflects His divine presence in all things, even in events and in our experiences both in sad and joyful moments. Life, then, despite its everyday challenges, is brighter and more wonderful when one finds God in the simple and ordinary.

    Indeed, when we become more conscious of God every single day and in every moment of our life, we become friendlier and gentle. This makes our activities, our daily struggles and demands less stressful because we find delight in small and simple things.

    However, the more we also become anxious, find life stressful and disappointing, when we tend to focus on big and extraordinary things to happen. To become indifferent to what is simple and ordinary, makes us dismissive of God’s every action.

    This is something that Jesus criticized among the people in today’s Gospel. This particular passage in Luke, recounts how Jesus frankly told the people of their indifferent and dismissive attitude towards God’s presence. The people were looking and only after of spectacular signs that Jesus would do. They were more focused on extra-ordinary things to appear and to happen. They actually wanted Jesus to become like a magician.

    Nevertheless, such attitude missed the very presence of God. The people did not recognize the greatest sign who was standing in front of them. Hence, curse to these people because God has already lived among them, yet, did not see and hear the greatest sign.

    The Ninevites whom Jonah hated because they were enemies, believed in him and recognized the many signs, he brought to them. Thus, the people repented and believed in God. The same with another non-believer, the queen of the south also recognized God’s wisdom through Solomon and believed in God.

    These people recognized God though they were non-believers of God. They were, certainly, more inclined to God’s presence than those who claimed were believers.

    Jesus called the people to really “see and hear him” for through him, God walks and teaches them. In the same way, Jesus also calls us today, to see and hear him clearly in our life.

    Our demands coming from school, work, home, and in our relationships should not keep us from recognizing the Lord who constantly work through us. God has many wonderful things prepared for us. Life will be more wonderful too when we learn how to see and hear God everyday.

    For us to learn the way of seeing and hearing God even in simple and ordinary things, I suggest these three simple steps.

    First, pause once in a while and listen. The many inputs from all aspects of our life can crowd our heart and mind. Taking many things at a time could grip us to the point of not being able to respond well. Thus, pause for few minutes to just listen to yourself, to what surrounds you and to God. We can only truly listen too, once we take time to pause. Surely, we will discover more wonders in life when we learn how to pause and listen.

    Second, be surprised to experience simple joys. The routine that we go through every single day could prevent us from becoming more welcoming to the many surprises of God for us. Do not allow your routine to dictate you and get hold of you. The more we bury ourselves with our routine, the more we find life stressful and boring. Yet, let us not be distressed to wait for spectacular signs to happen. Rather, be surprised even with simple gestures of love and affection from your loved ones. Be surprised even with the small creatures around you, with the rain, with the wind, with sunrise and sunset. When we learn this, then, the more we also make ourselves open to God’s many surprises for us.

    Third, record your day. To learn the habit of recording what happened with our day could help us to see and hear more on how God reveals His presence. Yet, this might be too demanding for you to make a journal and write about what transpired during the day, but then, we can still make memories preserved through our smartphone. One can record those simple surprises through photos and videos saved in your smartphones. Thus, if you cannot write, then, take a photo of that something that caught your attention. To be able to do this, allows us to see and hear once again those simple surprises.

    May these simple steps make us more welcoming and open to the Lord’s everyday revelation in us. We may allow God then, to touch us that we may see and hear Him everyday. Hinaut pa

    Jom Baring, CSsR

  • Proper Attendance?

    Proper Attendance?

    October 11, 2020 – 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101120.cfm)

    Homily

    We, Filipinos love fiesta. We do anything just to attend a fiesta celebration. Fiestas are special occasions for the whole family and community to celebrate, rejoice, and renew relationships. For us, it means solidarity, bonding, fellowship and community.

    In our gospel today, Jesus compared the Kingdom of God to a very important fiesta where everybody is invited to take part in the celebration – where everybody is invited to attend in the banquet. Jesus also here identifies three kinds of invited guests. They are 1). The absentee, those who did not come to attend; 2) the attendee, those who come and attend, good or bad they may be; and 3) the unruly “the bastos”, those who come but behave improperly.

    Every Sunday, there is a Big and Important Fiesta for all Catholics. Everybody is an invited guest to our Holy Eucharist. Our Sunday celebration of the Holy Mass is the Lord’s feast day where all of us are invited to come, attend, partake and celebrate. It is the Lord’s fellowship with us – His Day with us and our Day with Him.

    Like in our gospel, we can also discern three kinds of invited guest Catholic in relation to our attendance of the Holy Eucharist. But before I say this, (spoiler alert) let me say, “Bato-bato sa langit, matamaan huwag magalit” o in our modern lingo, “Walang pikunan, Ispup lang.” Don’t get angry if you are disturbed by this – no pun intended.

    First, the ABSENTEE guests, those who are invited but did not come, with a lot of excuses or balidad, such as, “I’m busy. I have a lot of things to do… except attend the mass. I have no time.” “I’m too tired. I’m sick (esp. during Sundays); I need rest from staying overnite.” Some would excuse, “Well, what is in it, for me? Wala man koy mapupo niana. The Lord is not worth it” or “I’m not worth of such invitation, anyway I’m a hopeless sinner.”

    Second, the ATTENDEE guests, those who are invited and come unworthy they may be. Recognizing their own sinfulness but at the same time their goodness, they feel honored, privileged and grateful to attend and celebrate with the Lord’s fiesta. They actively and attentively participate in the celebration with great respect to the celebrant and other guests. That is why they are called the “Chosen Few” for they willingly respond to the Lord’s invitation.

    And lastly, the RUDE and Impolite Guests, those who are invited and came but out of obligation and not fully attentive to the celebration. Again, no pun intended. “Bato-bato sa langit, mataman huwag magalit. Because we may know these guests by the way they improperly dressed for the occasion. Some come on beachware or sportsware: shorts, slippers, sando, sleeveless shirts, sneakers, et al. Some come for fashion show, to show off their latest style with revealing curves, cuts, make-up, hairstyle, beads and even tattoo. Some are ready for “suroy” or “malling” with their low waist & battered jeans and hanging blouses. Some also attend with their cellphones open, maybe they are VIPs, who needs to be updated anytime and they are free to be disturbed anytime, anywhere especially during mass. Some prefers to stay outside the church, who wants to run and escape as soon as the ceremony ends.

    I wonder how would you feel if the priests behave the same way. Like, if I stand before you celebrating mass on my shorts or jogging pants and sando, interrupted with a noisy cellphone, mumbling thru the prayers and finished it after 20 minutes?

    Pandemic times have somehow deprived us of attending and participating in Sunday Eucharist. The more we are limited in attending Eucharist nowadays, the more we also become conscious of the importance of the Eucharist in our faith and life. Jesus said: ‘Many are called, but few are chosen.” All of us are always invited but few have chosen to come and be worthy guests. Every Sunday, we are all invited guests in the Lord’s fiesta. But we do have our own unique of responding to that invitation.

    As we prepare to regularly come and fully participate once again soon the Lord’s Eucharist with us,   perhaps we should try to reflect what type of Invited guest you and I have been, and in what way we can be more worthy guest  and properly attend His celebration.

    Thanks you, Lord, for always inviting us to participate with you in the celebration of life God offers us now and forever. Amen.

    By  Fr. Aphelie Mario Masangcay, CSsR (a former Filipino Redemptorist Missionary for Filipino Migrants in South Korea who, due to immune compromised diabetic condition, stationed back home  in the Philippines for now).

  • God invites us today, come!

    God invites us today, come!

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    October 11, 2020 – 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101120.cfm)

    Homily

    A friend of mine once posted of his Facebook account his thoughts, he said, “I am so tired of searching for God.” From his post, it somehow suggested that God seemed not to be found. He was searching for God, and as I asked him about it, he said that he felt empty within, he felt that he could not find joy. And God seemed to have lost his way!

    How could that be possible? That was what I thought when he said that God seemed not to be found! I heard this many times not just to that friend of mine. We have this belief that it is us, that we are the one searching for God, that we have been looking for Him. However, in our search for God, at the end, we surrender because we have never found God in our life. indeed, a person who searches  God will surely not find God.

    The difficulty lies in the fact that we have been looking and searching for something or someone that has never been lost. With this fact, I remembered my grandmother who at one time, was looking for her eye-glasses. She began to complain that her glasses were lost. When she seemed to become desperate, she looked at us, grandchildren and suspected that one of us might have hidden her glasses on purpose. However, looking at her, we were giggling. Well, the more she became irritated because she felt that we were joking around. Yet, one of my cousins told her to touch her head first. Then, that was how she realized that her glasses were never been lost. She was carrying the glasses with her on her head but forgot that those were there.

    And this is very true with God. God has never lost his way. God stays with us and is always with us. Yet, there might be point in our life when we begin to claim that we are looking for him but cannot find him.

    We naturally look and search for something or someone that we have lost. But how could we find something if it is not lost after all? In fact, our search for God is useless because we tend to search God outside instead of recognizing Him in our very life.

    The parable that we have heard presents to us an image of Godthat Jesus wants to show to us today. It was the King who had the initiative to invite the people. He sent his servants to summon the invited guests not just once but twice so that the invited guests may also share in that joyful celebration. Prophet Isaiah also mentioned about this joyful feast in our first reading. The prophet described to us that promise of Yahweh of having a big celebration, the greatest party of all parties. That feast was an invitation meant for everyone. It would be a joyful one.

    Now, this Sunday is also called as Extreme Poverty Day. With God’s promise and invitation to the heavenly banquet, we are also reminded of those who are dying because of poverty. People are dying because of lack opportunities to proper education, to a good healthcare system, access to food and clean water. While we are enjoying the comfort of our homes while in quarantine, many are suffering because they have no roof on their head or even a bed to rest at night and food to eat. And because of the comfort that we enjoy, we could become dismissive and indifferent to the suffering of others.

    Indifference was the attitude shown by the people who refused God’s invitation. People refused and ignored that wonderful invitation because they had other priorities. That invitation was rejected because it was not considered as something important.

    Certainly, this parable reminds us of our passive and complacent attitudes towards the needs of others and of the many invitations of God. God invites us first to be with Him, to join with Him and enjoy His abiding presence in our sacraments, here in our liturgy and in our daily prayers, etc. but then, we find ourselves also to have many excuses. We claim that we have been so busy with life and work and we have been bombarded by personal and family problems, and with different demands. Consequently, God remains the least priority.

    But then, Jesus teaches us of an image of God who invites us, who asks and proposes to us not just once but in every opportunity of our life. God invites us to be with him and to trust in him not just in times of sorrows and pain but also in times of joy and laughter, and even in the most ordinary times.

    And this is the truth; it is God who has been searching and inviting us. He has been looking for us and he patiently waits for us to allow him to find us. Yes, it is actually God who always initiates. God takes the risk of being rejected. But though God has been rejected many times, God never lost the confidence to invite us again and again. God always searches for the human heart and once God finds us, He invites us to come to him.

    “Thus, we don’t search for God because it is Him who has been searching for us. We are not the first one to invite God to come to us because God invited first to be with Him.”

    This is the call for us now this Sunday. “Allow God to search for us and to allow him to invite us.”

    It is in this attitude that we will be able to listen to his many invitations and will inspire us to say YES to God. This is an affirmation to his invitation to recognize his presence in our life and with others.

    That’s why, the special celebration of the Church today in remembering the Indigenous Peoples calls us too to acknowledge their presence in our church and society. To acknowledge their presence is to give due respect to their culture and rights, and that as a Christian community, we too have the responsibility to help our Indigenous brothers and sisters to join us in our every celebration. With this, we will truly become a community that embraces one another, making our hearts be filled with joy and contentment, with confidence and love. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

  • Faith: A Human Response of Love

    Faith: A Human Response of Love

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    October 10, 2020 – Saturday of the 27th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101020.cfm)

    Homily

    Faith, as Pope-Emeritus Benedict XVI said, is a human response of love to God who first loved us. This human response is neither bound to obligation nor a mandate because of law as what St. Paul told us in his letter to the Galatians. He said, “through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus.” We become God’s children because we have opened ourselves to God’s offer of life and freedom. We become children because we too are made heirs of the kingdom of God.

    Moreover, faith is not something that is abstract or a mere allegiance to God. Since faith is a human response of love, it is alive, active and life-giving.

    Thus, the Gospel tells us how faith transforms a person. And so, the woman in the gospel praised Mary, the mother of Jesus for having a great son like him. Likewise, Jesus even praised Mary not just on this basis of her motherhood, but rather for being able to listen to the Word of God, pondering upon it and observing it.

    St. Anselm even affirmed that because of the great devotion of Mary to the Word of God in listening and pondering everything in her heart, the Word was made flesh within her.

    This tells us that Mary’s devotion to the Word of God did not only stop in mere hearing but the word spoken by God transformed Mary herself. Accordingly, Mary has become our best example of a person who did listen, accept and embrace God’s word. It was in that way that Mary found her joy, her peace and her freedom as a person, as a woman, as a wife and as a mother.

    Today, we, who received the gift of faith and the Word of God, through the Holy Scriptures, through the Sacraments, through our community, are also being invited that our devotion to the Word of God will not just remain a mere obligation or not just a part of our speech but will also transform us. Like Mary, let the Word of God and (faith) our human response of love to God become concrete and life-giving.

    let the Word of God and (faith) our human response of love to God become concrete and life-giving.

    Jesus invites us that as we listen to him, who is speaking to us now, we too will be able to accept and embrace His words. His words may become difficult and challenging, risky and time-consuming but also comforting and inspiring, life-changing and liberating. We will surely then find that as we listen and ponder the Word of God in our heart, our actions, thoughts and speech and our person will also be transformed into what God desires us to be.

    Let our experiences of difficulties, anxieties, confusion and fear in this age of pandemic lead us to listen more and deeper to God’s word and to God’s everyday invitations for us.

    Let us be conscious about to the Word of God revealed in this Eucharist and in the Holy Scriptures so that its inspiration, its warmth and power will give light and life in our relationships with our families and friends, and in the many efforts that we make in our studies and in our work. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR