The caress of a mother or even of someone who is motherly to us, would always bring comfort and healing to an injured knee from running around to a broken-heart because of failures and hurts in our relationships and dreams. In fact, when we are caressed by our mother or by someone who is motherly to us, it soothes us and relaxes us. This is the wonder and the power of a motherly caress, loving and caring.
Today, just after celebrating the Solemnity of Pentecost, the Church celebrates and honors Mary, as the Mother of Church. The Gospel of John tells us how the crucified Jesus gives assurance to his disciples through the presence of Mary, as a mother. There at the cross, Mary, his mother stood and was in pain seeing how his son suffered and was about to die. Yet, that very moment also became an opportunity for Jesus to declare that presence of Mary as a mother to all disciples as he said, “Woman, behold your son.”
Indeed, the presence of Mary becomes also an assurance of that comfort and healing to the terrified disciples. Her caress as a mother to the disciples must have also given them the confidence. This is what we celebrate now!
Hence, in today’s feast of Mary, as our mother, our devotion to her also calls us now first, to be a comforting presence to one another, to our friends, family and people we shall meet. Second, that our touch may always be a caress that shall bring healingand life and will not become a violent touch that only bring pain, destruction and death. Kabay pa.
How fascinating it is to see two or more pregnant women meet. Familiar or stranger they might be to one another, whenever pregnant women cross path with each other, we could readily sense their excitement & anticipation of their coming child birthing. Regardless of the circumstances of their pregnancy, whether of teenage, out of wedlock, menopausal or planned pregnancy, pregnant women by instinct know not only the difficulties & challenges but also the great promise pregnancy can bring into their very lives. Deep inside, pregnant women know how blessed they are to bear & rear a child, and sense their joys & blessing are not only for them to keep, but is to be shared to everybody and all. That is why how infecting and life-giving it is for us to see meetings of pregnant women.
This is what happened to Mary & Elizabeth in our gospel today. Under questionable situation, Mary on teenage pregnancy & out of wedlock, & her cousin Elizabeth, barren for many years, now pregnant on her old age met & shared their joys & gratitude as they found themselves on the way pregnant. They both cannot contain themselves to be happy for each other & to praise God in thanksgiving for the blessing of the promise of a new & better life ahead, not only for themselves, but for all humanity. Whatever their circumstance they are in, pregnant as they are, they believe that through their pregnancy, great grace & blessings are in store ahead for all of us.
Be as it may. While we are dealing nowadays with increasing numbers of casualties due to death & sickness during these pandemic times, we cannot help but wonder about our life now & hereafter. While we are still in our survival mode, coping with large amounts of uncertainties & insecurities, somehow we ponder not only on the sense & meaning of what is happening in our lives now, but also on what our future will be. We have already loss and still losing number of lives in these pandemic times, and we do find ourselves asking these hard questions: What’s next? To those who have gone before us, what happen to them next? And what’s next for us who are still here? Is there Life after Death? If death is upon us, what’s the point of life then? Is there a life here-after?
In God’s plan of salvation – our history of salvation, we Christian faithful followers believe in the resurrection of the body & life everlasting. By His death & resurrection, our Lord Jesus Christ has offered us the promise & given us the hope for eternal life with our Father. For us who believes Jesus as our resurrection & life, our life in faith with God is not ended but transformed, improved, upgraded, & above all eternal. Thus we believe that there is more to life for us Christian, than what we are going through now & even more than our inevitable death. In other words, we believe that our faith in Jesus Christ has given us meaning & purpose in life here & now & life here-after.
For us believers, there is life after death for our faith life in Christ now is pregnant with life eternal. By faith, we believe that our life now can be better & sacred at present & hereafter. And whenever God & us cooperate and collaborate, salvation is assured and heaven-life eternal is possible for us now & always.
Today we celebrate the solemnity of the Assumption of our Blessed Virgin Mary. Today the whole church gives importance to the entry of the BVM into heaven at the end of her life on earth. We recognize that through her assumption, Mary is the forerunner and archetype of our faith journey in life. Salvation begun when Mary took responsibility for God’s word into our lives. Human life is now pregnant with God’s salvation, as Mary collaborated and journey with God’s will for humanity. As Mary’s faith in God assured her of eternal life, we now also assured that at the end of our life-journey, with God there is the promise of life hereafter & eternal.
The assumption of our Blessed Virgin Mary simply reminds us that there is life after death & there is life before death as well, whenever like Mary, we consent & participate in God’s will of salvation for us. Our life now & hereafter is pregnant with God’s salvation…And that is how Blessed are we, and how joyful & grateful we should be.
With Mary, in this Eucharist, we praise the Almighty God for He has done great things for us. Holy is His Name. May we always be blessed in Life same way as Mary has been blessed now and forever. Amen.
When I was growing up, I was taught to fear God because He brings punishment to disobedient children. I was taught to be good and to follow my parents and elders so that God won’t be angry at me and condemn me in hell. Somehow, I developed dependence on rules and regulations, at home and at school. I tended to be hard on myself and on others whenever rules were broken. Yet, I was also inclined to feel righteous by being an obedient boy but condemning to those who did not follow the rules.
Such upbringing made me believe that God was like an old grandfather always holding a stick and whose eyes were always angry, ready to strike a naughty boy.
However, this belief in God made me distant from God. Faith and my relationship with the Lord was motivated by fear of punishment. Is this the kind of faith that God wants us to develop, then? Does God want us to relate with Him through fear?
Surely, this is not what God wants. God’s self-revelation in our history tells us that God is our creator, defender, savior, a parent, a friend, and a companion because his love is everlasting, as what the Psalm proclaimed today. Indeed, in Jesus, God tells us that He is with us, he brings good news, freedom and salvation.
This is the very image that has been revealed to us in today’s Gospel. The disciples who were terrified by the storm thought that Jesus was indifferent to the dangers they were facing. Yet, they were wrong. Jesus was entirely confident in the Father. This is what Jesus showed to them as he calmed the storm and brought peace. Having these images and experiences of God, should we be afraid of Him which could prevent us to develop an intimate relationship with God?
God desires us that we love Him. He constantly invites us to come closer to Him because through Him, then, we shall find the fullness of our life. Jesus desires that we grow in gratitude to God for not giving up on us and for being always with us. In fact, St. Paul told us in his letter to the Corinthians, “Christ died for all” – for each of us no matter how underserving we are.
We find this in the life of Mary, Our Mother of Perpetual Help. Mary is motivated by love and gratitude to God. Despite the fear that she felt at the announcement of Angel Gabriel to carry in her womb the presence of God, love and gratitude also must have filled her heart to respond to God.
Her constant listening to God allowed her to understand more fully the identity and mission of her Son and Lord. Because of this, Mary must have discovered herself in God’s plan of salvation. And Mary responded to Gabriel saying, “I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done according to your word,” because the love and gratitude in her heart made her more confident not just with herself, with her ability and strength but most especially, she has become totally confident to God who loves her.
Indeed, Mary, our Mother, brings inspiration to us now that our God, certainly, desires that we become grateful to Him because it is when we become grateful that we become confident. By being grateful to God, our insecurities will certainly lessen and our fears will be transformed into faith. This is how we become a new creation, as what St. Paul told us, because gratitude brings us closer to Christ and whoever is in Christ is a new creation.
Let us also remember that when we become grateful, we also become joyful because we will be able to recognize how blessed we are. This is also how the old things in us, (our old hatred and grudges, anger and insecurities) shall pass away so that new things will come.
Mary, as a new creation, is certainly a joyful woman, and no wonder, she is blessed among women because with her is the presence of God.
This gratitude and joy will move us also to recognize ultimately the source of blessings. When we are able to recognize God then, it also follows that we will be moved to respond to Him in love.
The Book of Deuteronomy (6:5) tells us to love the Lord God with all our heart, whole being and strength. Loving the Lord then, is our expression, not of fear, but of our deep gratitude to God.
Moreover, Jesus reminds us of the immediate result of loving the Lord. The love of neighbor is the concrete manifestation of loving the Lord. Remember, God’s image is in each of us. Therefore, if we love God, then, it also means that our love is being expressed towards ourselves and with our brothers and sisters who are created in God’s image and likeness.
Thus, we should be very careful when we tend to become so stiff with our religious practices but having a growing indifference towards people around us, then, our devotion to God is empty and merely motivated by fear. Our religiosity can be a mere appearance of our arrogant devotion when we also refuse to see and recognize the abuses in our community and choose to be silent amidst oppression and injustice committed against the powerless and the weak.
To love God calls us then, to love one another. And we can begin and renew our commitment today by being grateful to God which would hopefully make us joyful persons like Mary. When we are joyful, God transforms us to be generous to others, both in our words and deeds. Thus, joyful and grateful persons are truly generous because true generosity springs forth from those attitudes of gratitude and joy. However, when we pretend to be generous but having an impure motive, just to advance our personal interests, then, this is not a true expression of love towards others, but selfishness.
Hopefully, we will be constantly reminded through our devotion to Mary, Our Mother of Perpetual Help to grow not in fear but in gratitude and that Jesus invites us to love our God and our neighbors, regardless of our differences. Hinaut pa.
“The love of Christ impels us.” Paul reminds us in his Second Letter to the Corinthians. This means that this love indeed urges and motivates us to go beyond and become the person God wants us to be. Hence, Paul also says, “whoever is in Christ is a new creation. The old things have passed away and new things have come.” This has been made possible because of God who came and initiated that we become reconciled with Him.
Certainly, reconciliation with God transforms us from old into new, from death to life. Such transformation urges, impels and moves us to become a reconciling presence in our communities, in our Church and in the world.
However, how does a reconciling presence influence others and bring change? Our Responsorial Psalm proclaims today of four main points.
First, it gives pardon to all our iniquities.
Second, it heals all our ills.
Third, it redeems our life from destruction.
And fourth, it crowns us with kindness and compassion.
This is the experience of the Hebrew Community of which the Psalm speaks about. God’s presence in the midst of His people is a reconciling presence because the “Lord is kind and merciful.”
Such confidence and faith in God must have filled the heart of Mary, whose Immaculate Heart we celebrate today. Her heart is immaculate because what we find there is the Lord who is kind of merciful made into man like us. Yes, the heart of Mary is filled with Jesus.
This is the reason why Mary remained calm and at peace despite the fear and confusion she felt at the announcement of the Angel Gabriel to her, during the arrival of the shepherds when Jesus was born and now of being baffled and anxious when Jesus was lost but finding him in the Temple.
Though she did not understand fully everything at an instant but Mary would always “keep everything in her heart.” With all the complexities, strangeness and difficulty to understand the situation, Mary keeps the Lord close to her heart. She keeps all those revelations from the Lord close to her heart that she may be able to understand them in the way God desires them to be understood.
This was how Mary would always find wisdom and strength because with the many events that happened in her life, she might not be able to bear them all. Mary will surely remain confused, afraid and unable to decide and do anything if she chose to distance herself from the Lord by reacting out of impulse or mere emotions.
“Keeping all those things in her heart” really means that she tried to understand how God was uncovering and revealing to her the plan of salvation. Mary realized that God reveals Himself every day. Mary did not want to miss all of them.
Mary was able to do that because within her heart, God is already there. She has welcomed the Lord and allowed the Lord to be always in her heart. This led her into understanding from God’s perspective and so she responded to every invitation of God for her, willingly and lovingly.
This is how we find Mary’s presence reconciling in our Christian faith because her life is an example of a perfect communion with God. We now find comfort in her, as a mother, because her human heart is touched by the Lord who is kind and merciful. Mary, indeed, has become a reconciling presence to us because we find in heart Jesus, the Lord.
In the same way, we are called today that our hearts be also touched by the Lord, that we become more welcoming to the Lord and allow the Lord to be in our heart. Like Mary, as we allow the love of Christ to touch our hearts, it may impel us to become a reconciling presence in our homes, communities and in our beloved country, the Philippines. Hinaut pa.
As we say our goodbye to 2020 and welcome a New Year of 2021, there is something I want you to do. I invite you to think, remember and recognize those many things that you have lost during this year of 2020 especially as Covid-19 Pandemic began to create chaos and significant changes into our lives. Those things that you have lost may include opportunities at school, at work or your business, relationships, family, or losing a loved one or anything that were significant to you.
I am giving you now 60 seconds to remember, recognize and count each of them. Are you ready? Timer starts now.
Losing something especially when that was significant or losing someone whom you love, creates deep pain in our heart. We become sad and even depressed. Others were even stunned and petrified when they realized that they have lost something special and important in their life.
I know several friends who until now are carrying that deep sorrow and grief over the loss of a loved one during this pandemic. It was too much to bear and the memory of it would always bring sadness.
Many medical front-liners also suffer emotional stress and physical fatigue in responding to the crisis. Many of them got infected and were deprived to be with their families.
Indeed, it is very important to recognize what we have lost. Many writers and social media influencers called us to always be positive and exercise “optimism” in midst of this depressive and life-altering challenges of the pandemic. Yet, optimism without a realistic recognition of what happened in our surrounding can be a blind spot. To be optimistic but denying the existence of our difficulties has no ground at all.
Our difficulties, our issues and problems both personal and of our community must always be considered in our search to go forward and to be hopeful. Thus, with this exercise to remember and recognize what we have lost brings us into the awareness of concrete and realistic situations that need mature and responsible response.
A responsible response may require to be reconciled with what happened, to ask forgiveness for our failures and sins and to let go of those that may burden us from going forward. All of these will only be possible when we recognize what we have lost as well as our failures.
From here, this calls us now to step forward. This is the invitation that I would like you now to dwell deeper – “the invitation to find great blessings in simple and small things.”
I would like to invite you again for another 60 seconds. This time, I would like you think and recognize those blessings that you have received this year especially as we are all going through this world wide crisis. Remember, blessings are not just limited with material things. They also include people or relationships, opportunities being offered in your work or business, or even events. So, begin now recognizing your blessings. And your 60 seconds starts now.
A mother shared to me how she found wonders in the middle of this difficult and depressive time of the pandemic. Because of the home quarantine, she found changes in the attitude of her children and even grandchildren and her husband. At the beginning, each one seemed to enjoy their gadgets. They were in one home but almost not talking to each other. Yet, when one family member got sick, and was suspected of Covid-19, everybody slowly changed their attitude. Her children, grandchildren and husband began to join her in her daily rosary. Slowly, each one would sit around the altar to pray. But more than this, the quality of the presence of each one, was being shared to all the members of the family.
What she found and became more grateful was the gift of presence of her family members. Each one also realized the importance of that gift and became more conscious of each one’s needs. This, certainly, is a great blessing. Easily taken for granted but when we become more conscious of it, presence becomes a powerful gift we can share to a loved one who is suffering and afraid.
As we are about to close this year and welcome the New Year, we are indeed invited to find great blessings in small and simple things in life. They may be small but they can be powerful and wonderful when we become conscious of them.
This is what we have heard in tonight’s readings. Our Scriptures proclaimed to us God’s blessings. And so, I would like to invite you again that we now turn our attention to what was proclaimed to us in the Sacred Scriptures.
The First reading from the Book of Numbers gives us the assurance of God’s blessing. God blesses and loves to bless us. Moses was told by the Lord to convey to Aaron and his sons that the Lord blesses and protects them. God’s blessing is to make God’s face shine upon the people God loves.
In the same way, our Psalm also proclaims this hope. It says, “May God have pity on us and bless us, may he let his face shine upon us.” Accordingly, St. Paul told us in his letter to the Galatians that, “when the fullness of time has come, God sent his soe, born of a woman.” This fullness is the fulfillment of God’s promise which we have been reflecting during the Season of Advent.
This fullness of time was also received by a woman who was full of grace. This is why we celebrate the first day of the year in honor of Mary, the Mother of God because through her fullness, Mary brought to us God’s greatest blessing. Mary reminds us on this first day of the year that no matter how difficult life is, no matter what kind of challenges we are facing right at this very moment, we are blessed.
May I ask you now, that you say it confidently to yourself, “I AM BLESSED.” Please repeat, “I AM BLESSED!” Yes, we are blessed because God has come to us and his name is Jesus, our God who saves us.
"I AM BLESSED"
This Gospel of Luke also described to us this wonder in finding great blessing in small and simple things. The shepherds who were considered at that time as stateless, nameless and insignificant people in their society must have been looking and searching for something that will affirm their worth. People who were abandoned and not recognized by the community carry a deep pain in their heart and deep longing to be understood and to be loved. These shepherds must have been looking for this, deep in their hearts.
God is not blind to this. God shows his mercy. God comes to bless us. Indeed, those deprived shepherds, as St. Luke told us, went in haste to Bethlehem in search of a child after an Angel told them of the great news. In their search, what they found was an infant lying in a manger with Mary and Joseph. Yes, they found this family and an infant in unadorned manger which was intended only for animals’ food.
Can we not see it? God’s greatest blessing to us rests in a poor, simple and unadorned manger. As God promised to let his face shine on us, God fulfills it in a simple and humble way. This is what Mary, the Mother of God reminds us today. Mary brought to us the Lord Jesus not in a majestic or spectacular or extravagant way where people will be crowding to see and be amazed of what happened. No! There was no big crowd. There were no dignitaries! There was no presence of important people in the society. Only the stateless, insignificant, nameless, and unimportant shepherds and perhaps some animals to see and behold the face of God.
Why is that? We can only wonder. Those important and big people could have been too busy and too occupied with their ego. When we turn like this, we will be more concerned in big and spectacular things for ourselves. We will be overwhelmed by our desire to have more for ourselves that our heart became indifferent to the simple invitation of God.
What does it tell us now? As this New Year of 2021 is about to unfold, never ever take for granted the small, the least, the simple and the ordinary in our life. History tells us that God comes and shines his face upon us through the simple and small things, through ordinary events, through our familiar friends, through the least of our brothers and sisters.
Look and find God and His great blessings in the small and the simple. Never forget that because like the shepherds, when we begin to recognize God and his blessings to us in the small and simple things, it will move us to joy and to gratitude. Look at what happened to the shepherds. When at last they have received God’s blessing brought by Mary, they began glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.
The shepherds became the first preachers of joy. Everyone they met on the road, they shared the joy that they have felt. That joy in them became more infectious that any disease or virus. With that blessing they received, they began to look at their life and look at the world at a very different perspective from before. They now look at life and the world through the lens of blessing because God is here with us.
Life becomes more wonderful despite its challenges. The world though it was night, but there was a glimmer of hope that the sun will surely shine. All these have become possible because like Mary and Joseph, the shepherds also received the carried the Lord in their hearts. Now, as we welcome 2021 in few more ours, let us also receive and always allow the Lord to be with us.
For us to remember God’s invitations tonight, let me remind you again of your “take aways.”
Recognize what you have lost as well as your failures. Be reconciled and let go.
Recognize your blessings even in the small and simple things in life. And be grateful.
Preach joy and live in joy.
Hinaut pa. Have a Merry Christmas and a Grace-filled New Year everyone.
A DOSE OF GOD TODAY 