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Tag: Creation

  • IN GIVING AND HEALING LIFE

    IN GIVING AND HEALING LIFE

    February 13, 2024 – Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021325.cfm)

    Ikaw ba’y nag-iisa at nalulungkot? (Alone and lonely?) Naghahanap ng makakasama at may kayakap? (Looking for a companion and someone to embrace?) When loneliness kicks in, no matter how we surround ourselves with many things or distract our heart and mind with other things, it penetrates the soul and make us anxious and disturbed.

    God saw this and realized how the heart of the man grew lonely despite the many creatures that surround him. The longing for companionship and friendship, for community, is indeed, innate to us humanity. Thus, the creation of another human being, of another human life was designed by God in order to bring companionship and to grow in that community.

    Hence, as the Lord God gives new life, it also heals the loneliness of man. This second creation story in the Book of Genesis not only refers to the Sacrament of Marriage between man and woman. The creation of another human being is not a matter as to who is superior of the two or which gender is better but of our capacity to share and heal life, to bring comfort and healing.

    This is the beauty and wonder that God designed which grows in human friendship and companionship. It heals loneliness. It eases our anxiety. It comforts our broken and troubled heart. It heals division.

    This very relationship is what we have also heard in today’s Gospel healing story. The Syrophoenician woman, a non-Jew, therefore, a pagan, begged the Lord for the gift of healing. This woman, a mother, was longing for healing not for herself but for her daughter who was sick because a demonic possession. The seemingly cold response of Jesus was melted at the humility and daring faith of this mother. That relationship between the mother and her daughter made Jesus to look at her from the perspective of compassion and mercy. From that relationship, the mother’s love and care for her daughter became a channel of the Lord’s gift of healing. Indeed, her daughter recovered, was healed and freed as she went home.

    The faith showed by the mother to believe in Jesus in spite of all odds and rejections became an opportunity for Jesus to teach his disciples that God’s creative and healing power transcends human differences.

    What binds us together is the reality that we are all made by God, brothers and sisters, friends and as a community. This very relationship we have should heal any division and hatred among ourselves. This was very important for Jesus to make his disciples realize this. This was the reason too why Jesus entertained this Greek woman, a Syrophoenician by birth.

    The invitation for us now is to realize how our relationship with one another whether as friends, as a couple or lovers, or as a community can be a space of giving and healing life. Let us be more nurturing and inspiring in our relationships that we may not be the cause of pain, division and violence.

    It is a call for us also to allow Jesus to take a big space in our relationships because we realize  that in Him and through Him, we shall find healing and freedom. Hinaut pa.

  • TO GIVE, CREATE AND HEAL LIFE WITH GOD

    TO GIVE, CREATE AND HEAL LIFE WITH GOD

    February 11, 2021 – Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

    Memorial of the Our Lady of Lourdes; World Day of the Sick

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021121.cfm)

    Even God realized that it is not good for a human being to be alone. Though God is portrayed in an anthropomorphic way (in a human character) but the story itself behind this second account of the creation story tells us of our human nature. Our soul and our heart longs for companionship and for friendship with another person. This proves and tells us that we find not just our identity but also our meaning and our being within our community.

    What has been revealed to us today in the first reading from the Book of Genesis is not only referring to the Sacrament of Marriage between a man and a woman, but also of the human community. It is not merely about who is superior and who is inferior in the order of creation, but in our capacity to give life, create life and heal life with God.

    If we would become more conscious of that power to give, create and heal life with God, the world and our local communities will always be celebrating life and having the abundance of life. To give and create life is not just even limited in physical birthing of another human being but also in nurturing another life. This is the wonder that each of us can do within the limits of our influence and capacities and in the abundance of our generosity.

    The many areas of pain and fear around us can become life-threatening and life-paralyzing to others especially those who are afraid and do not know how to respond in difficult situations. This pandemic reveals to us that there are many helpless individuals who struggled to live. The many forms of injustice and oppression that also happen in our society are evidences that many have been deprived of life and to live life fully. Yet, when one becomes convinced and confident of the gift of his or her person, this can be a blessing to another.

    This is what Jesus showed us in today’s another healing story. A Syrophoenician woman whose daughter was possessed and controlled by a demon, had been deprived to live life fully. The mother knowing that it was beyond her capacity, begged Jesus to be that very gift to her daughter. She knew that Jesus has the power to give and renew the life of her daughter.

    Moreover, as Jesus granted the request, Jesus redirected such power to bring life into the person of the mother. The daughter was actually healed through the faith and love of her mother. The seemingly cold response of Jesus was received in humility by the mother. She was willing to bow down not for her sake but for the sake of her child. This was how Jesus worked miracle with the mother and brought new life to the daughter.

    This is also the invitation in today’s memorial of the Our Lady of Lourdes. The Church even celebrate today as the World Day of the Sick to remind us to pray for all the sick and to be life-giving and to be healing channels of God’s grace to each other. The very person of Mary is gift and a blessing to the Church. She has been an instrument of giving life, creating life and healing life because of her generous response to God and to the world.

    May our words and actions then, our concern and love, our commitment and dedication and our very person become the very channel of God in order to give, create and heal life. Hinaut pa.

  • GOD’S BREATH WITHIN US

    GOD’S BREATH WITHIN US

    February 10, 2021 – Wednesday  Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

    Memorial of St. Scholastica

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021021.cfm)

    There are people who are fond of paying more attention to trivial things and minutest details. When artists show this to their work of art, the result would really be stunning. However, when a friend or a colleague does this to us, he or she can be irritating. When we also become a person who is obsessed of paying more attention to small things and minutest details, things and people can be stressful to us as we would always find mistakes and failures.

    This can also be true in the way we practice our faith and move to the tendency to give more emphasis on structures, physical elements and regulations. This is not surprising as others would always find themselves feel guilty when their prayers or devotional practices were not done properly. Thus, a person would already feel a terrible guilt because he/she fall asleep while praying the rosary. Another, would feel sinful because he/she was not able to go to a Sunday mass while being sick. Some may even judge others for not observing the proper ways of praying, in receiving communion and observing religious practices.

    While it is also important to pay attention to what is physical and to structures, there is also a need to find balance. Today, Jesus reminds us to be not so over conscious and obsessed of what is merely external. Jesus invites us rather to draw our attention deeper into our hearts and minds where our intentions and motivations are to be found.

    The Gospel of Mark was actually addressed to a community of Jews and non-Jews who became Christians. As these two groups of people lived together as a community, the Jews became imposing to non-Jewish Christians by controlling them to follow their ways, and I mean, external ways of doing things. To follow strictly the external practices became a controversy then. This was how Mark reminded them of the teaching of Jesus.

    Jesus reminds us that what comes out from within us, matters most. Jesus pointed this out on how our evil intentions and motivations can be kept hidden within our hearts.

    We might be too focused on trivial and external things in the practice our faith but then our attitude towards others is filled with insults and malice, envy and lust, or anger and hatred. Jesus wants us to examine our own motivations and intentions in the way we relate with others, in the way we perform our duties as parents, workers, leaders, professionals or as students. Jesus wants us to bring us closer to ourselves and that is to our hearts and minds so that we will also discover God within us.

    Let us remember that though evil intentions and motivations can be kept hidden within our hearts, however, our hearts are also capable of nurturing goodness and kindness. Our first reading from the Book of Genesis reminds us of this today. The second account of the creation tells us that as God created us, God blew into our nostrils the breath of life. That breath of life was God’s breath of the Spirit. What gives us life and what makes us alive is God’s Spirit within us.

    God is truly alive in each of us. Every time we breath in, may we remember how God breath his Spirit into us. Every time we breath out, we may also realize that we can give life to others through our sincere devotions and practice of the faith founded in God’s goodness and kindness. Hinaut pa.

  • 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.