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.
The human heart, though in medical science, is made up of muscle and tissue responsible for pumping blood to flow in our entire body. Yet, the human heart since the ancient times is understood spiritually as the person’s inner core. The Holy Scriptures teach us that our human heart symbolizes our inner self, the totality of our person that includes our mind, spirit and emotions. It is in our heart that we too find our hopes and dreams, our desires and passions. And it is in our heart that we encounter God, who gives us the breath of life.
Moreover, as Jesus reminds us today in the Gospel of Mark, from our heart we also shall find our selfish desires and wicked intentions from which our actions and words can bring harm, evil, and corruption to what surrounds us. This is something that the Lord wants us to realize today so that we may be able to see and discern better on what values, beliefs and spirit should we foster in our hearts.
The Book of Genesis presents to us the second account of the creation story. In this account we are reminded how the Lord created the world and us humans, particularly. The Lord God being portrayed like a potter, formed us out of the clay and blew into us the “breath of life.” That breath indeed, gives us life and it comes from the Lord. That breath still remains with us, a reminder that God’s spirit is within us.
In God’s divine wisdom, the trees of life and of the knowledge of good and evil were planted. The man was expected to exercise discernment, self-control and respect to what God has commanded. In that garden, the man was settled in order “to cultivate and care for it.” This expresses the creative power given to man, that certainly, we have the capacity to nurture and care what has been entrusted to us.
Yet, when we also choose to separate from the grace of God and forget that we are indeed given the breath of life, evil begins to consume us. We shall become dissatisfied with what we have even when we have enough. We become entitled, ungrateful and self-centered as if we are the creator and the giver of life. As the heart distances from the grace of God, the more we become indifferent from others.
This is what Jesus affirmed in today’s Gospel. Jesus said, “From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.”
What makes us unclean, therefore, are not those from the outside but those from within our heart. Jesus particularly refutes the belief of the Pharisees and scribes who developed restrictions on what to eat and what not to eat. Every creature that has been made by God is good.
It is rather that comes out from our heart is what would defile us and would bring corruption and evil around us. It is a call, then, for us to watch out on what we nurture and foster deep within our hearts.
What kind of intentions and motivations do we have then? What desires and passions that fuel our heart? What thoughts and aspirations that have become important for us?
As we bring ourselves to reflect on these matters, let us also remind ourselves that at the very beginning, God gave us the breath of life. Deep within us, God resides; with us, God recreates; and through us, God manifests the divine.
Let us retrieve and reclaim that creative power of the Lord so that our hearts will rather be more attuned and at home with God’s presence. This may hopefully constantly transform our actions and words to become more like Jesus so that we too will be able to bring goodness and kindness into our homes and communities. Hinaut pa.
Have you experienced of having the thought of “I might need this… I might need that”? And because this can grow into a form of anxiety, this could develop to be a kind of compulsion in us. We could experience it when we are about to travel to somewhere else. Just because there are many things that we thought might be useful for us, then, we realize that we are being burdened by many things that are not useful at all. We also experience it even just by staying at home or in our own rooms and personal space.
Indeed, things would clutter from small things to big things. Perhaps from small old toys, papers, clothes, shoes, plastics, containers and many other things. And having the thought of “I might need this… I might need that” would make us accumulate more to the point that we find it difficult to let of things even when those are not essentials.
I also had a similar experience like this. Years ago, during my theological studies, I was sent abroad for a mission exposure. Few nights before my flight, I had my inventory on what I should bring for the one year mission experience in Indonesia. I kept looking at my things worried that I might forget something important and something that “I might need.”
So aside from clothes, I prepared small things, vitamins and preventive medicines against malaria, books, camping and survival kit, treats and sweets for my sweet tooth and many other small things. Expectedly, my luggage was overweight and so I had to pay a few thousand pesos for the excess weight.
However, when I was already in the mission area, there were many things that I brought but I was not able to use. I realized I had more than enough.
And again, such a situation can also be true in other aspects of our life. One could be overburdened in his or her relationship because of the emotional baggage the person brings into that relationship. Trauma from the past, or guilt, shame, fear, anger, hatred or other insecurities could make our life more difficult and at times overwhelming and suffocating.
Realizing this attitude which may be present in us, Jesus in the Gospel today offers us a different approach. As Jesus gathered his disciples he began to send out the Twelve, two by two.
They were given power to cast out unclean spirits and heal the sick. Though, in their journey, Jesus instructed them “to bring nothing except a walking stick.” They were “allowed to wear sandals but not a second tunic.” This means that there were no other things to be brought by them, only the most essentials in the journey.
And looking at it at a very human perspective, the journey sounds a quite harsh and difficult. A disciple could feel so vulnerable and insecure for not having other things in the journey. Yet, Jesus “gave them authority.” That authority is power. And that power is to bring blessing, healing and peace.
Despite the poverty they had, the small things they possessed, the very presence of God among them and the power given to them suffice what they need.
The same spirit and attitude of the heart has been shown by St. Paul Miki and his many companions. This Japanese Jesuit Priest together with his friends continued to bring blessing even to their persecutors until their death. Paul Miki was from an affluent family but left influence and comfort to embrace Christianity and a missionary. In the midst of Christian persecution in his own land in Japan, Paul Miki and his companions remained steadfast and committed to bring blessing to people.
This tells us now that true power does not rest in our capacity to destroy others but in our capacity to give life, to heal, to bless and make peace even in the midst of poverty, persecutions and insecurities.
There are two essentials now that we are invited to bring.
First, to trust God’s generosity and power. The Lord provides the needs of His friends and this is experienced by us through the generosity of people around us. The abiding presence of God is with us. And to fully trust in God’s Providence is an act of faith. This is the reason why the twelve were to bring nothing. It was to allow themselves to become companions and friends of the people whom they were to encounter. They may have the power given by God, yet, they were not above the people or apart from the people. They were equal in status as companions and friends. They were to live among the people and be immersed in the life of the people.
Second, to carry and give blessing, always. This makes the Kingdom of God to grow more in our hearts, homes and communities. As we carry and give blessing, the more we also receive blessing because we become more conscious of the essentials and able to let go what prevents us. Even in the midst of our poverty or persecution may we remain blessed. Hinaut pa.
When the brain is deprived of oxygen, medical science tells us that it can lead us to loss of consciousness. And longer deprivation of oxygen as in the case of drowning can lead to more damage to the brain and even death. When we too are being deprived of essentials in our relationships like love and acceptance, it also leads us to confusion, depression and even in losing ourselves.
In matters of faith, depriving oneself of the grace of God will lead us to hopelessness and misery in this life. Yet the Holy Scriptures teach us that God always gives life, blesses life and renews our life. God never stops that.
In fact, this is the reason why grace overflows so that no one will be deprived of the grace of God. The first reading from Letter to the Hebrews reminds us of this. We were reminded to strive for peace with everyone because without it, we shall have troubles and bitterness in our hearts. As the grace of God overflows, the Letter also invites all Christian believers to “see to it that no one is deprived of the grace of God.”
This tells us that our participation has an effect in making God’s grace to truly overflow and be experienced by all. However, one can actually deprive oneself or others of the grace of God when the heart refuses God’s grace.
Yet, why would a person refuse to welcome and accept something that is so wonderful like the grace of God? Is this even possible? Indeed, this is very possible that a person will refuse to accept God’s grace because of a heart hardened by jealousy, false judgment, bitterness and hatred. This is a heart seeks no peace.
This is what we have heard in today’s Gospel. As Jesus went home, he was welcomed with bitterness and hatred by his own neighbors. Jesus did many miracles in other places but was questioned and judged by the people who knew him. Their thoughts were merely based on the familiar background of Jesus of being a carpenter, being a son of Mary, being a brother to his cousins. Outside of these, they failed to see that there was more in the life of Jesus. The people failed to see the overflowing grace in the life of Jesus. As a result, the people took offence at him.
They felt offended because they could not accept the opportunity of being graced by the life of Jesus who was only ordinary for them. This is how a bitter and hateful heart affects our relationship with others. All Jesus could do was to heal few sick people. And it was not that Jesus did not want to do any miracle because of their bitterness towards him. Jesus just couldn’t because the people did not cooperate with the grace of God. The bitterness in their hearts made them refuse and be deprived of God’s grace.
Indeed, God can only work when we allow God to work miracles. The lack of faith of the people is a way of refusal of God’s grace. This tells us that God, though all-powerful, does not impose the Divine power on us. God would rather invite us to allow Him to work miracles for us.
Besides, the people expressed their non-cooperation with the grace of God through their lack of faith. And Mark tells us that Jesus was amazed of their lack of faith. It was just amazing for the Lord because the people have witnessed how the grace of Jesus’ life could do for them yet they still refused. The lack of faith in them was even reinforced because their hearts were filled with jealousy, false judgment, bitterness and hatred.
Yet, as the Letter to the Hebrews calls us, “see to it that no one is deprived of the grace of God.” This is the call for us today. Let us not deprive ourselves of the grace of God or deprive others. Let God’s grace overflow then, through us and through the gift of persons of one another, like St. Agatha whose feast we celebrate today.
St. Agatha though was subjected to suffering because of a sexual desire of a Roman governor, grew more in her faith in God. In the midst of torture, even when her breast was torn off and later was burned alive, the grace of God flowed through her. Her commitment to Christ and through her martyrdom, she became a channel of miracles of healing.
And so, with St. Agatha’s intercession, let not our hearts nurture bitterness, hatred, jealousy and false judgment on others in order not to deprive ourselves or others of the grace of God. Let us rather nurture an attitude that welcomes the grace of God through the gift of our persons. And we can do this by striving for peace. Hinaut pa.
(A Moment of Reflection: A Talk – with Christ the King College de Maranding, Campus Ministry Office)
There are three important words that I want you first to remember as we reflect today the message of Pope Francis on the occasion of the World Day of Peace published on January 1, 2025.
First, FORGIVENESS. Second, PEACE. And third, HOPE.
These three words served as the central theme of the message of Pope Francis addressed to world leaders and to all people of good will, including you and me. We have to understand then that the challenges and invitations set by Pope Francis are not only applicable to people who play important role in political, economic and cultural arena of our society. The call towards the path of peace is call to all.
Hence, the theme of Pope Francis’ message reminds us now, “FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES: GRANT US YOUR PEACE.”
As I join you in this short recollection, watch first this short video of the message of Pope Francis.
From that short video presentation, it tells that Pope Francis invites us to look at the challenges that our world is facing today. These challenges are particularly those that endanger the survival of humanity and the whole creation because of human greed and manipulation for power, wealth and control.
But how shall we look at these realities?
We can actually look at it from the perspective of anger and hatred because of the injustices yet, that will only lead us to the cycle of violence. We can end up towards arm struggle and rebellion. Nevertheless, it will not lead us to peace but only towards more suffering and despair.
We can also look at it with apathy and indifference. Well, the many issues and realities happening around the world are not directly experienced by us. Each of you here is not living on a war zone. You are not unemployed. You don’t have children who are undernourished, experiencing severe hunger on a daily basis. You don’t have overwhelming debt that will take you more than a lifetime to pay. And so, passivity and looking at these realities with indifference would be very easy for us to do. Yet, such attitude would only make our hearts calloused and numbed at suffering of others even with those who are nearest to us.
Pope Francis proposes to look at the realities of the world, as well as of our own experiences of suffering from the perspective of hope, of having a heart full of hope.
Now, for us to better understand and have a good grasped of what the Pope reminds us, let’s have a step by step moments of reflection of his message. The entire message is actually divided into four sections. In each section, let us also recognize its relevance in us, in our own context, work and status especially to you as a team of Campus Ministry in your college.
Going back to that proposal of Pope Francis to look at the realities of the world from the perspective of hope, it triggers us to also ask, how? How do we look? And where should we start? This brings us into the first section of the message.
The First Section
LISTENING TO THE PLEA OF AN ENDANGERED HUMANITY (A CALL TO LISTEN)
Pope Francis brings to our awareness as he greets every man and woman, and especially to those whom felt more connected – the downtrodden, those burdened by their past mistakes, those oppressed because of being judged by others, those who are desperate and hopeless.
This is each of us! These are the experiences of many and perhaps of those students under your care. The many burdens they carry and issues they face in their own lives. This means that suffering is experienced by everyone. This is the significance of the sound of a ram’s horn (in Hebrew, jobel) calls us to listen.
This is why the Jubilee Year of Hope becomes more relevant to each of us, individuals and as a community of faith. This is an invitation again for us that our hearts be filled with hope. This hope leads us and moves us to aspire and work for forgiveness and reconciliation, for freedom and healing.
That is why, the Jubilee Year of Hope is meant to echo throughout the land (cf. Lev 25:9 – to every hearts and to every homes and communities) so that God’s justice will be restored in every aspect of life.
We are called to listen and recognize now the many “desperate plea for help.” These include the exploitation of our natural and human resources in the guise of progress and profit. Pope Francis affirmed what St. Pope John Paul II called as “structures of sin” committed not only by principal agents but also by many of us who participate indirectly because of our support or because of our indifference.
Indeed, this is a call for us to listen – to heed the plea for help of the suffering humanity for example the “inhuman treatment towards migrants, environmental decay, confusion caused by disinformation, refusal to engage in any form of dialogue, and the immense resources spent on the industry of war.” These are all “distinct yet interconnected” to each other. Do we also find these in our context? Maybe not all, but perhaps some of these.
By acknowledging the forms of suffering in our own context, then, it calls us to work for justice. And what Pope Francis wants us to realize as well is “the cultural and structural changes” from us so that change will endure and will not be passive. This brings us now to the second section.
Second section
2. A CULTURAL CHANGE: ALL OF US ARE DEBTORS (A CALL TO HUMILITY)
After looking and recognizing at the many realities present in our communities, Pope Francis leads us to also realize the many gifts that are already in us. Yet, the many resources that we enjoy are not meant for us alone or for the “privileged few” in the case of the those whose hearts have become so wealthy and entitled.
Pope Francis wants us to grow in gratitude, he said, “without gratitude, we are unable to recognize God’s gifts.” Certainly, we won’t be convinced as well that we are actually gifted. We will not be confident of what we have, as well of the potentials and talents that we already have. Meaning, without gratitude, it leads us to bitterness and despair. Look at how a person, you might have encountered one already, whose heart have grown ungrateful – the person becomes so stingy of many things and so mean to people around him or her.
Indeed, when we become ungrateful this also leads us to easily get irritated or even feel unfair at the blessings of others. It makes us entitled but corrupt, even when we have received so much, in our practices because our heart is not convinced that what we have are God’s grace.
We have to understand then, that God’s grace cannot be earned. It is a pure gift not because of our good deeds and qualities but undeserved and unmerited. That is why, the Lord would not abandon the sinful humanity, or no matter how sinful we have become, because God’s infinite mercy is a gift. In fact, God reaffirmed this “gift of life by the saving forgiveness offered to all through Jesus Christ.”
This is how we discover the central teaching of the “Our Father.” As Jesus told us to pray : “Forgive us of our trespasses,” the Pope reminds us to recognize our collective sins that we are all indebted to the Father and with one another.
Hence, we rely now on the mercy of God who forgave our debts, through Jesus. And through him, the gift of life, being renewed gives us hope for one another. In consequence, Pope Francis appeal echoes to every heart – “the appeal for solidarity, but above all for justice.”
Hope becomes more alive in us now because it opens us up and lead us towards that cultural and structural change. The cultural change happens in our way of life, in the way we relate with one another and in the way we look at the world from the perspective of hope. Eventually, through this cultural change then structural change happen and begin to recognize that we are all brothers and sisters, we have a shared and diversified responsibilities and that we are not enemies or business competitors.
This leads us now to the third section.
Third Section
3. A JOURNEY OF HOPE: THREE PROPOSALS (Call to Action)
This change in us begins in our hearts. This also fuels and renews our hope, of our journey of hope, as being emphasized in this Jubilee 2025. Acknowledging God’s constant grace and mercy to all, makes us again realize God’s infinite generosity and love because we are forgiven.
Yet, let us not also forget the challenging words in the Lord’s Prayer, “as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Forgiveness becomes a reality in us as we also learn to forgive others. From such grace, hope and peace shall overflow in our hearts. That overflow will only become concrete from our own experience of forgiveness and generosity,
In fact, Pope Francis also said, and I quote, “Hope overflows in generosity; it is free of calculation, makes no hidden demands, unconcerned with gain, but aims at one thing alone: to raise up those who have fallen, to heal hearts that are broken and to set us free from every kind of bondage,” end of quote.
This is the best gauge for us as we express our generosity to others. And so let us be mindful also of our attitude when our generous actions (things that we give like of materials resources, presence, our personal time and talents) are fueled by our personal agenda or selfishness then, our generosity is not from hope. Rather, it is from corruption.
From here Pope Francis leads us to the path of peace with three proposals as our call to action.
First, Forgiveness of International Debt. “Reducing substantially, if not canceling outright, the international debt which seriously threatens the future of many nations”, said Pope Francis. This is a call to world leaders especially of rich countries to be in solidarity with neighboring nations.
Second, Abolition of Death Penalty. This means that we are called to have a firm commitment to respect for the dignity of human life from conception to natural death. Through this commitment, we promote a culture of life that gives every man and woman the hope of forgiveness and rehabilitation, freedom and healing.
Third, To Establish a World Fund aimed at Eliminating Hunger. This is to use a “fixed percentage from armament investments to establish a global fund to eradicate hunger, facilitate educational activities in poorer countries to promote sustainable development, and to combat climate change.” This means that, certainly, war is for profit, for business and thus, it is an industry. Political conflicts or ideological beliefs or territorial disputes can easily be manipulated by profit-oriented groups in order to create war and so gain immense profits. Yet, what the world needs are not bullets but food and water, education and home.
These three proposals though aimed at the world leaders and all those who play significant role in our global village, however, ourselves and those at the grassroots remain significant so that we may be able “to pave new paths of peace together in our communities.”
This brings us to the final section.
Final Section
4. THE GOAL OF PEACE (Towards Freedom)
Pope Francis quoted Saint John XXIII who convened the Second Vatican Council in 1962, “true peace can be born only from a heart ‘disarmed’ of anxiety and the fear of war.”
This means that the goal towards peace is first directed at our own hearts that are perhaps trapped in despair and hopelessness because of our failures, or hearts thickened by indifference and selfishness, or hearts traumatized by abuse and oppression, or hearts covered with pretensions that everything is okay but not realizing the realities around, or hearts filled with worries and anxieties because of the thought of “nothing might be left for me, then I have to accumulate more” or the thought of “nothing is for me, I am pitiful” or having a heart that is constantly threatened by tensions, conflicts and wars. Then, our hearts are indeed troubled.
Yet, know that the Lord brings us peace, grants us pardon and gives us freedom. What we are called to do now is to disarm our heart from whatever shackles of pain, trauma and imprisonment it is suffering from.
Pope Francis wonderfully expressed the call towards freedom in these words, and I quote, “May we seek the true peace that is granted by God to hearts disarmed: hearts not set on calculating what is mine and what is yours; hearts that turn selfishness into readiness to reach out to others; hearts that see themselves as indebted to God and thus prepared to forgive the debts that oppress others; hearts that replace anxiety about the future with the hope that every individual can be a resource for the building of a better world.”
Indeed, each of us now is a resource in building a better world. Your position as educators puts you now at the pedestal in your own context to realize peace. Pope Francis even continued to express that “disarming hearts is a job for everyone.” So that, as we heed the call to disarm our hearts, then, it will inspire us and give us hope to also become a catalyst in disarming the hearts of people around us even through our simple gestures “such as a smile, a small gesture of friendship, a kind look, a ready ear, a good deed” or having an understanding heart over a troubled student, or having a welcoming hand shake for anxious new students, or un-judging (without judgment) attitude towards a colleague who is emotionally sensitive.
These are small steps, simple gestures yet will also become powerful and effective as we hope to build a community in loved with peace.
And so as I end this reflection let us pray together the prayer for peace composed by Pope Francis at the end of his message.
PRAYER FOR PEACE by Pope Francis
Lord, grant us your peace!
Forgive us our trespasses, Lord,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
In this cycle of forgiveness, grant us your peace,
the peace that you alone can give
to those who let themselves be disarmed in heart,
to those who choose in hope to forgive the debts of their brothers and sisters,
to those who are unafraid to confess their debt to you,
and to those who do not close their ears to the cry of the poor.
Amen.
Points for Reflection towards the Path of Peace
Look and Listen: Recognizing the Cry for Help in my own context
As an educator/religious/seminarian – what are the different pleas/cry for help that I can identify which I encounter with myself, with my students or community?
Embracing our Gifts leads us to Gratitude and Generosity
What resources/gifts/talents do I have that I can offer for others and for my community?
Call to Action: A Commitment to make
What do I need to change in me? What do I need to disarm from my heart? (attitudes, beliefs or perspectives)What concrete actions I can commit to promote peace?
A DOSE OF GOD TODAY 