Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Tag: Healing

  • SCARRED YET GRACED

    SCARRED YET GRACED

    April 24, 2025 – Thursday within the Octave of Easter

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042425.cfm)

    With those of you who were present at the bombing and were wounded, I am sure those wounds left a scar on you. Those scars are remnant of that horrifying incident for our community. Others may also have scars in their bodies perhaps because of accidents that happened in the past or a surgery that they went through.

    Yet, how about scars that we don’t see? These are the scars in our hearts. They are emotional scars caused by psychological trauma, broken relationships, and experiences of rejection. They also stem from depression and shame. We don’t see them but they too tell stories of the past. These scars may appear in how we relate with others. They can also surface in how we view our life and the world. Sometimes, they manifest in how we express ourselves.

    Every scar that we have would surely remind us of pain or even of joy. Some scars may become insignificant through time. Other scars especially the big and serious ones may remain bothersome to us even though the pains were gone. The trauma that we have been through in the past could sometimes still shaken us at present or would even shape us as to who we are today.

    Emotional scars compared to the physical ones are heavier and take longer time to reconcile and heal. The stories behind our emotional scars can also sometimes bring back old memories of pain and sadness. Yet, it is also possible that those scars we have, whether physical or emotional, can become signs of victory. They can also represent growth, wonder, beauty, and even grace.

    Finding grace in our scars is what has been told to us in today’s Gospel. Jesus appeared before his disciples. He greeted them with peace because their hearts were filled with fears. The very thought of the death of Jesus brought so much sadness and fear into the hearts of the disciples. Because of this, they could not believe that Jesus is alive and in front of them.

    With that disbelief, Jesus rather invited them, to look at his hands and feet. Jesus said, “touch me and see.” Jesus wanted the disciples to touch and see. He wanted them to know that he bore the scars from the wounds he endured at his crucifixion. To touch and see the scars of Jesus, those signs of wounds and of his death, means to be able to behold the grace of God.

    This tells us that the resurrection of Jesus has made those scars, now, as signs of victory, of wonder and of grace. Those scars remind us that Jesus went through suffering and he knows very much the feeling of being in pain, being humiliated, being abused and being maltreated. Those scars revealed the cruelty of sin and evil, of human hatred and indifference. Yet, beyond those scars also is the grace of God that brings new life and new hope for all.

    Thus, as the disciples were invited by Jesus to touch and see the scars in his body, the Lord also calls us to look at our own scars. We do have our own scars. Do not deny or hide in forgetfulness those scars in us. The very scars we have, can become opportunities where God shall bring graces to us. Through our own scars, we shall also find healing and life, transformation and hope. This tells us that we may be scarred yet we are graced.

    Hiding in forgetfulness and denying that we are scarred and broken will not help us. These attitudes will only bring us into more fear and sadness. Our heart will remain fearful and troubled like the disciples who were in hiding.

    As we allow the Lord to work wonders in us and make his grace be revealed through our own scars, may we also experience today the grace of new life through his resurrection. Hinaut pa.

  • BY THE FINGER OF GOD

    BY THE FINGER OF GOD

    March 27, 2025 – Thursday of the Third Week of Lent

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032725.cfm)

    It would be very easy to take for granted God’s manifestations. The Lord bestows graces in the most ordinary and simple ways. More so, when our heart is filled with selfishness, then, we tend to only see ourselves and not the Lord God who is at work in our lives and in the lives of others.

    This was the very situation that Jesus found himself as he was surrounded by people who were filled with selfishness. They refused to believe in God’s power working in Jesus and thus failed to recognize the wonder that the finger of God has done.

    This where we shall also find the difference between those who said that Jesus drives out demons by the power of Beelzebul and those who were possessed by the evil spirits.

    Those who said that Jesus worked with Beelzebul were the ones who did not recognize God in the person of Jesus. Their arrogance blinded them from acknowledging that God liberates those who were distressed and suffering. The arrogance in them came from the “self that was filled of themselves.”

    This means that some of those Pharisees and teachers of the law had no room for God. They seemed to believe in God because of their elaborate prayers and meticulous observance of the law. Yet, what mattered most for them was for the people to recognize them and praise their self-righteousness. They also looked at and treated those who were suffering and possessed by evil spirits as completely hopeless.

    In that way, Jesus cannot work in them. No matter how Jesus would desire conversion from them but their denial of God’s presence and power prevented them. Their arrogance truly blinds and also paralyzes them making them unaware of God’s liberating presence in their midst.

    However, those who were suffering and in pain were restored by Jesus. Those who were possessed were liberated and healed “by the finger of God.” These kind of people recognized their need of healing and freedom, thus, of their need of God. Through their suffering, they humbled themselves. Through their humility, they recognized God in the person of Jesus. Jesus, therefore, was allowed to work in them, to heal them and to free them from whatever burden and suffering they had.

    This tells us that Jesus is indeed more powerful than any evil spirit. Yet, Jesus can only work also if we would allow Jesus to heal us. Our arrogance and denial of our issues and problems would do us no good.

    The Gospel reminds us too that we do not need to seek “signs from heaven” or any extra-ordinary events to happen, before we believe. Jesus works in us and brings healing in us even through ordinary means.

    So, be mindful of the goodness and kindness of the people around you. Affirm and appreciate the ordinary expressions of love and affection from your loved ones and friends. Never underestimate the power of silent prayers of those who support you. The Lord is also truly present with those people and in those moments. Never miss, then, the encouraging and healing presence of the Lord in those familiar and ordinary expressions from our relationships. Hinaut pa.

  • Seeing but not Recognizing

    Seeing but not Recognizing

    February 19, 2024 – Wednesday Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021925.cfm)

    Have you ever experienced searching for something yet could not find it? After a while, that object was actually right in front of you. You must have seen it but was not able to recognize that it is was what you were looking for. Perhaps, as you were walking on a street, a friend met you and greeted you, yet, you were unresponsive. You’ve seen the person but was not able to recognize that it was a friend of yours.

    In medical term, it is called as “agnosia.” This is a disorder of which a person sees an object despite the normal vision but cannot identify what the object is. In particular, this is called as “visual agnosia.” There is also so called “auditory agnosia” of which we heard something but cannot recognize what it was.

    In psychology, this is referred to as “inattentional blindness.” This means that we fail to notice or see something within our visual field because our attention or consciousness is so focused on something or somewhere else. This also applies to our hearing. As a result, we become absent-minded and out-of-focused.

    In our Christian faith, this can also happen. And this is best described in today’s healing story of the blind man in the Gospel of Mark. Jesus who took the blind man by the hand and brought him outside of the village performed the healing. Jesus has to do it twice for the person to see and recognize clearly. The man’s eyes were healed at the fist attempt yet, cannot distinguish between people and trees, thus, a “spiritual agnosia”. And so, for the second time, Jesus touched his eyes then his sight was completely restored.

    What the man received was not only physical healing but also spiritual healing. This means that he was both blind physically and spiritually. As he was healed and restored completely only then that he recognized the Lord’s face in front of him. Then, he was told not to go back to the village of Bethsaida.

    The actions in this healing story are filled with spiritual insights and so, let us take them one by one. Jesus needed to take the blind man out of the village and later told him not to go back. Bethsaida was a symbol of a place of evil, sin and rejection of God’s presence. Jesus was not accepted there.

    Hence, in order for the man to be freed from his illness, he too needed to be freed from that place that made him blind. He was told not to go back but to go home, so that he won’t be able to go back to his old cycle of darkness and sin.

    Jesus also allowed his disciples to witness this event to make them realize of the importance not just of our physical sight but also of our spiritual insight. The disciples actually struggled and found difficulty at recognizing of the wonders that Jesus did. They remained anxious on what to eat even though Jesus fed five thousand people. They were troubled when things got rough and difficult even when Jesus was with them in the boat. At this time, they were still figuring out who Jesus really was. Indeed, they too were blind, spiritually blind because their hearts were still filled with fear, anxieties and doubts. Hence, they too had spiritual agnosia.

    Yet, Jesus remained patient just like with the blind man, until such a time they too received the spiritual insight and recognized that God was with them all along.

    This calls us now to ask for the grace of spiritual insight. This begins by humble owning and acknowledging the beliefs, attitudes or experiences that continually bring us into darkness and sin.

    Indeed, we may have a perfect physical vision and some may have blurred vision and so the need of eye glasses, but most importantly, may we too have a perfect spiritual sight to see and recognize the Lord, his gifts and manifestations. Hinaut pa.

  • 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.

  • THE LORD HEALS OUR BLINDNESS

    THE LORD HEALS OUR BLINDNESS

    December 6, 2024 – Friday of the First Week of Advent

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120624.cfm)

    When a person is blind physically, usually, other senses of the body are being enhanced and are more developed. Like for example, the sense of touch or hearing and smell are all heightened to also compensate the deprived sense of seeing. This makes a blind person to be able to recognize things and people and go one with life. However, when we pretend to be blind, not being able to see and recognize what surrounds us, nothing is heightened but in fact we only deteriorate. And it is more difficult to cure this kind of blindness.

    Having such two kinds of blindness, our readings today give us the insight and the humility to recognize our own blindness and to ask the Lord for the grace of healing. Indeed, the miracle of making the blind see was foretold by the prophets. This is a recurring theme the whole Bible.

    Prophet Isaiah in the first reading told us that the Messiah shall open the eyes of the blind. The prophet foretold, “And out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see.” God grants healing to our blindness and insights to our spirit. This gives us joy in the Lord because God shall also bring the tyrant, the arrogant and all those that oppress us to their end. Those were the very people who cannot and even refused to recognize their own blindness.

    In the Gospel of Matthew the two blind men presented to us their interesting encounter with Jesus. They followed Jesus, cried and shouted, “SON OF DAVID, HAVE PITY ON US!”

    Though they were blind physically, but they were one of those who truly recognized Jesus as the Messiah. These men did not see physically the face of Jesus or the miracles done by Jesus. They were only dependent on others who conveyed to them the person of Jesus.

    And despite that Jesus seemed not to hear them when they first cried out, the two persisted and still followed the Lord and begged him. When Jesus was about to enter a house, they were able to catch up with him, and the two seized that opportunity.

    That was their moment of encounter with Jesus. Jesus himself asked them, “DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT I CAN HEAL YOU?” Jesus asked because without their complete trust, Jesus cannot do anything.  And both of them eagerly responded, “YES, LORD!”

    The trust of these blind men allowed Jesus to TOUCH them gently and lovingly. And their eyes were opened. The opening of their eyes was more than physical sight, they gained insight as well as they saw the face of God.

    This very encounter with Jesus overwhelmed their hearts with joy and gratitude. Despite the command of Jesus not to tell others about what happened, they cannot but share to others what they have experienced.

    Jesus indeed is the Messiah and the two blind men taught us that we will only recognize the Lord through the eyes of faith, of complete trust in the Lord even when the Lord seems not to hear our prayers or seems to have not seen our difficulty in life.

    However, with fervent prayer and unwavering trust in God who loves us, God will also ask us, “Do you believe in me?” It is only when we put our complete trust in the Lord, that we allow him to touch and to heal us.

    And so for today, we are called to recognize our own blindness, or areas of blindness in our lives that need healing. Let us recognize that we too struggle with weaknesses and disabilities of one kind or another.

    These areas in our life can be in terms of our own relationships with our friends, family members or co-workers and even within ourselves. It is good then, that we own our blindness and ask the Lord to touch and heal us.

    In this Season of Advent, let this be our prayer too, that the Lord will heal our own blindness so that we will see him more clearly, follow him more closely and love him more dearly. Hinaut pa.