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Tag: Homilies

  • Life Again OR Anew? Normal Life OR New Life?

    Life Again OR Anew? Normal Life OR New Life?

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    August 30, 2020 – 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/083020.cfm)

    Homily

    How are you coping lately with the New normal life pandemic times has put us up? Whether we like it or not, pandemic reality has changed, is changing, and will change our lives. For better for worse, our life ahead will never be normal back again. Rather than hoping to regain back the normal good old times, we cannot help but accept that we are now at the dawn of the New life ahead and cope with its demands.

    Challenging at this early stage is our grieving over our losses – be it relationships, work opportunities, privileges, lifestyle and above all our usual normal life back then. Many have resorted to anger and blame-game (blaming government, civic and church leaders, & even God and themselves) while others succumbed to bargaining (selling themselves short) and denial & depression – a great danger to mental health. That is why at the dawn of a new life before us now it is important for us nowadays to check and be aware of how we are grieving over our losses and coping with its demands, and above all discern our proper attitude and approach towards the dawn of  new normal life ahead.

    And perhaps we could ask the question: WWJS? “What Would Jesus Say” about our experience of New Normal? How should we approach and what should be our attitude to this New life with Him being offered before us now?

    We remember that for deciding and professing Jesus as his Christ, and as confirmed by Jesus, Peter gained a new identity, role and faith in life as the “Rock”. Because of his inspired new faith in Jesus as the Messiah, Peter plays now an important mission as the foundation stone in the New life Jesus is offering all. However, the same Peter in our gospel today is called by Jesus as stumbling block because he hinders Jesus from the coming suffering and persecution New life entails. For Jesus, the way to redemption is not through our normal way but through the suffering of the way of the cross that requires “deny oneself, take up your cross & follow me.” Meaning, newness also brings along death of our normal lives and loosening of our usual ways. Peter here becomes  an obstacle – a stumbling block to the New  because though he chooses the New but not at the cost of his usual old Normal but corrupted life and ways. Peter do believe in the promise of the New life with Christ but not at the expense of his usual but limited  normal life. Meaning, for listening and being inspired by God, Peter becomes the foundation stone to the promise of a New Life; but for clinging on to his usual Normal human ways, Peter becomes its stumbling block.  

    Thus amidst the New Life being offered us now during this pandemic times, as Jesus directs us through Peter, we may choose now whether to be a foundation stone OR a stumbling block to the New life with Christ. We may open and be inspired to welcome and adapt with the New ways OR we may remain with our usual limited normal life.

    And we also know that for the inspired New to come and grow in our lives now, we have to loose and give up our corrupted normal life. New wine requires new (not normal old) wineskin. New (not the usual) vine for new branches. New updated (not old outdated) system version for new programs. Updates are and should not be same but much better than the usual. And all these new lifestyle requires rebooting, reformatting, and reprogramming, i.e. in religious lingo, the way of the cross towards resurrection and the sorrowful mystery towards the glorious mystery. As Albert Einstein would say: “We cannot solve our problem with the same thinking we used when we created them”, we do need something new and above us (difficult it may be), and cannot remain with the same usual normal thinking, approach or attitude to deal and live with the new offer of life before us now. Same with Peter, we cannot BE Fishers of men by simply just doing our usual normal way of fishing fishes.

    Perhaps we ponder on these questions: “When given another chance now, would you do it Again OR Anew? Would you do it same as before OR better than before? Would you live now as usual as before OR as New as it can & will be?” And now we are given another Chance, so what’s it’s gonna be? Lord, as we, your followers cope with the challenges of our pandemic reality,  guide us to be a foundation stone, rather than a stumbling block to Your promise and offer of New Life with us now and always. 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).

  • Unlocking our hearts for God

    Unlocking our hearts for God

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    August 23, 2020 – 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082320.cfm)

    Homily

    Do you use passwords or codes for your smartphones? I am sure most of us have done this. Others might have used a simple code to easily unlock their phone. Others must have used a complicated combination of numbers. Others could have also used the “touch ID” using the finger prints. There are also other systems that use face recognition where one has just to face the camera to unlock.

    Having passwords or codes are true not just with our smartphones. We also have passwords, key cards or just the traditional keys for our cars, doors of our rooms and offices. Every day we use them and they have become part of our way of life.

    Keys and passwords are indeed very important because aside from having access to most personal and confidential things, we have the assurance of security and at the same time a reminder of our responsibilities.

    Aside from these, however, there are also aspects in our life that we choose to close and lock perhaps as our way of protecting ourselves or from distancing from others.

    For instance, a person who had a painful memory in the past may choose to lock that painful past because it was too much to bear. We suppress the memory in forgetfulness yet it comes up when we are triggered. However, what actually happens when we do this to ourselves, is that, we become prisoners of our painful past.

    Moreover, our heart is the entry point of all our relationships. When we experience pain, the more we close our hearts and restrictive in opening up for others to come. Like for example, a person who experienced the pain of betrayal from a loved one may become suspicious and untrusting the next time the person develops another relationship. This is a kind of defense mechanism to people who have been hurt and so made the heart closed and restrictive.

    The key to a memory overwhelmed trauma and to a bruised heart because of betrayal is healing from the pain through forgiveness and reconciliation.

    Having this in mind, allow me to bring you deeper that we may discover together how God invites us this Sunday by reminding us of the simple things that we have, the keys to lock and unlock things.

    In today’s Gospel, we have heard Jesus telling Simon, son of Jonah, that he has been given the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. Simon has been given the role to lock and unlock the gates of the kingdom.

    As Jesus entrusted to Simon the keys, let us first see a bit deeper the event and the very circumstance that led us to the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.

    The gospel of Matthew told us that Jesus asked his disciples personal questions. The first question was on the perceptions of the people about him, the Son of Man. The disciples told Jesus that the people believed that he was the resurrected John the Baptist, or Elijah, or Jeremiah or just one of the prophets. These answers revealed that despite the miracles done by Jesus, the people perceived him as a different person. The people in many ways did not understand yet the very identity of Jesus.

    Thus, Jesus reformulated the question and directed it to his disciples. It was Simon, speaking in behalf of the group, who answered Jesus. Simon here is the image of all other disciples, including us today.

    As the Gospels tell us, the person of Simon was characterized by being hesitant, doubtful, fearful and sometimes inconsistent. In the scriptures, we find him having doubts as he was invited by Jesus to walk on water. He was also called by Jesus to get behind him because he refused to believe that Jesus should undergo suffering. He ran and hid himself when Jesus was arrested and even denied him three times when he was questioned by the people.

    However, what was redeeming for Simon was his “openness” to the invitations of God. This explains to us why he immediately followed the Lord when his brother Andrew brought him to Jesus. This openness of Simon allowed him also to intimately recognize and know Jesus in the most profound way. That is why, when Jesus asked his disciples about their perception of him, Simon boldly professed that Jesus is the “Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

    Simon did not depend on the perception of others about Jesus, who thought that Jesus was merely a teacher or some sort of a magician or a resurrected old prophet. No! Simon, like the rest of the disciples, had a personal encounter with Jesus and thus, he recognized the Lord.

    Though Simon was an imperfect disciple but God revealed himself to him because Simon was open to God. This tells us that knowing Jesus does not rely on human reason but through divine revelation. But remember also, this divine revelation unfolds through our human experience and personal encounter with Jesus.

    And thus, Jesus called Simon to follow and to serve in the best way Simon could serve God. This call from Jesus has two important points.

    First, through the openness of Simon, Jesus gave him another name, Kephas or Rock or Peter. This means a responsibility has been given by the Lord to Simon Peter to lead the Church.

    Second, through the personal encounter of Simon Peter with Jesus and that deep relationship with God, Simon Peter was entrusted with the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. This tells us of the authority given to Simon Peter who is considered as our first Pope, to unlock and lock, to grant access and prohibit the doors of heaven.

    This tells us too that Peter holds not just the key of God’s house, but of God’s heart. Jesus is telling us today that through the person of Simon Peter, we are also called to see ourselves in him and find God’s invitation of us today.

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    Thus, many times, we will find ourselves hesitant, doubtful, fearful and inconsistent. These attitudes would surely make our hearts locked and disallowing God to come and to transform us.

    Like Peter, we are called today to go beyond from these restricting attitudes of our hearts and begin to open up for God and for others. We can only do this when we also acknowledge that we are weak, inadequate and sinful. Then, we too acknowledge that we need help and we need God to transform and renew us.

    Like Peter too, we shall be transformed and renewed as we develop a deeper relationship with God through personal encounters with Him in the scriptures, through our sacraments, and through the people around us.

    In this way, we may courageously unlocked our closed hearts for others to come and bring more joy in us and for God to transform and renew and bring more life to us. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

  • Ho me 2 U?

    Ho me 2 U?

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    August 23, 2020 – 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082320.cfm)

    Homily

    How are you holding on these days? We are now already almost fast approaching  the sixth month of living life in pandemic times. We already have gone through a lot and still going through a lot these days. Things seem to be getting worse than getting better. Perhaps at this stage most of us (if not all) have experienced and still grieving over some loss of someone and/or something important in ones life – be it a beloved family and friends, work, opportunities, and/or lifestyle. And we cannot help but ponder about what all these happenings now mean and got to do with our life and faith.   

    “Your decision today is the statement of who you are and declaration of who you choose to be”, said  Neal Donald Walsch in his book Conversation with God. True indeed for experience teaches us that whatever our decisions-made somehow and someway reflect our own identity, our own responsibility and even our faith (of what we believe) as well.

    For  instance, whenever a young couple decides to commit into Christian married life through the Sacrament of Matrimony, both of them receives a new identity and responsibility as follower of Christ in life and faith. In their exchange of marital vows before God’s altar they become not anymore just any other couple but now a Christian married couple forever in life. They remain not anymore as children of their parents but now as Christian husband and wife for life. Through their exchange of vows before God and His Church, their love for each other and their following of Jesus now becomes a Sacrament – sign and instruments of God’s continuing love and presence in our own lives. As they decide and resolve to live life in Christian marriage, the couple’s life now is and will never be the same as before but is now of God, and for God’s grace in life.

    In our gospel today, as he asked his disciple “who do you say I am”, Jesus did not ask just to test them or to probe what others say of Him. Jesus is basically asking: “who am I to you? – inviting them to make a decision for Him – an option in favor of Jesus. He wants them to make a proclamation of their faith in Jesus into their own lives. And as we have heard, Peter professed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”. And because of this, Simon receives a new identity and responsibility in life and faith. Before he was just Simon, son of Jonah, but now he is Peter “the rock” as foundation stone of the church and the key bearer of God’s kingdom in heaven.

    Like Eliakim in our first reading, because of his faith in Jesus as Christ, Peter now is entrusted, blessed and given the authority and power in the church by Jesus. Through his witness of his faith in Jesus, the life of Peter and our lives now changed for the better – not anymore as before but now as life in Jesus, with Jesus and for Jesus.

    Until now, perhaps especially now during pandemic times, Jesus is asking us the same question: “Who am I to you?” Ho me 2 U?  Again this is not to test us or survey opinions of Him or to parrot what others taught us about Him, but a challenge to make a decision – a stance for Him. Meaning: Is Jesus your beloved whom you promise to live life with OR is He but just your convenient partner who comes handy when needed? Are all things from Him, through Him & for Him to you? Our response is our proclamation of our faith, and statement of our identity and a declaration of our responsibility in life. Like Peter then and us today’s Christians, our life-options/ decisions  for Jesus Christ, (limited & imperfect it maybe) is our proclamation and witness of our faith that make and build us as Church – a sacrament of God’s continuing blessings and grace.

    Remember then how blessed are you Christian married couples. Blessed are you not only because through your marriage, your heritage and bloodlines lives on, but also through your marriage – lived for the sake of Christ, God continues to make miracles in our lives today. Forget not what the evangelist John told us, the first miracle-performed by the Lord Jesus happened during the wedding in Cana. Meaning, through marital vows and married life – imperfect or lacking it may be, the Lord began and will continue to produce miracles – continually partaking God’s blessing to us. That’s how blessed and fortunate  you are now Christian married couples.

    The faith of Peter gains him a new identity and responsibility in life and in  God’s glory and graces. Our life-decisions and options for Christ ensure us a definite identity, dignity and responsibility in life as Christian, and offer us a blessed and promising life now and in God’s glory. That is why Your decision today is a statement of your identity, a declaration of your responsibility in life, and a proclamation of faith. In other words, remember always that whatever our decision today reflect who we are now, who we choose to be, and what we believe.

    While always hoping for the better, holding on as things get worse these days, may we not lose track, but instead be steadfast of our basic identity, responsibility and faith before God and others, so that we may be guided now with whatever decisions we have to make ahead. 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).

  • On Denial and Denial of Oneself

    On Denial and Denial of Oneself

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    August 7, 2020 – Friday of the 18th Week in Ordinary Time

    First Friday: Votive Mass of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/080720.cfm)

    Homily

    What’s the difference between ON DENIAL and DENIAL OF ONESELF?

    Being ON DENIAL is non-acknowledgement of the self. It neither recognizes nor own the self. It does not recognize ones failures and sins and so the person refuses to change and be converted. It is also the same as one denies his or her illness and so refuses any form of treatment or medication.

    Thus, to be ON DENIAL is also a way of denying our responsibility over the wrong that we have done. We are on denial because we do not want our responsibility and take the consequences. This might be because of fear of punishment and/or because of shame that we will endure upon admitting.

    A person who is on denial of one’s failures and sins could respond in two different ways. The person may project those failures and sins to others by making false accusations of people around him or her. One the other hand, a person may put the blame on others for such failures and sins while maintaining a self-righteous attitude.

    We find ourselves in this kind of situation of being “on denial” through our explicit reactions when we are being confronted. When confronted we become angry and irritable, aggressive and reactive. In this way, the self tries to exercise control and dominance and when opposed, the person becomes aggressive. Or we may express a passive attitude and an indifferent response to confrontation. This is expressed in hiding or retreating from confrontation. Therefore, no matter how people around us would bring to our attention those failures and sins we committed, we are not moved because we have just lost our conscience.

    Being on denial, then, is a hopeless effort to save and secure oneself, yet, in the long run we lose ourselves and others because we distance from the grace of God.

    However, this is not what the Lord wants us to be. The Gospel today invites us to learn the attitude of the “DENIAL OF ONESELF.”

    Before we can deny ourselves, there is a need first to acknowledge, recognize and own ourselves. This includes recognition of both weaknesses and strengths, of failures and successes, of sins and graces in us, as well as our needs, wants and desires.

    Denial of oneself then, is an act of love, a responsible action and a life-giving response.

    Think of what parents can do. When parents think more of the welfare and well-being of their children, in a way, they exercise self-denial for the sake of those whom they love. Parents find more life and happiness as they deny their personal satisfaction and wants for the sake of their children.

    Think of the many medical front liners today also. Despite the danger of getting infected and being separated from their families, they endure such responsibility for the sake of others and for the good of our community. This is how self-sacrificing people find fulfillment in life despite the challenges in their profession or field of work.

    Think of those who offered and volunteered themselves in both civic and  Church organizations, not because of the benefits they receive but to serve the community and the Church in their own capacity. These people find more meaning in life as they encounter and share their life with others.

    These are expressions of the “Denial of Oneself.” To deny oneself allows us to bring ourselves before others, to make our personal satisfaction and wants as lesser priority for the sake of others. It allows us to make a self-sacrifice for the good and welfare of those whom we love.

    Denial of oneself assumes responsibility and does things not just out of duty, but out of love, out of concern, out of kindness and generosity. This is how we find the Gospel message truly liberating, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

    Therefore, we discover more ourselves by relating with others. We begin to appreciate and love more ourselves by appreciating and loving others too because as we encounter others and let them be part of our life, then, we also begin to recognize the presence of the Lord in them and among us.

    This is how we find “more life and lasting happiness” because we find God in the lives of others. Hinaut pa.                                          

    Jom Baring, CSsR

  • Prayer leads us to respond

    Prayer leads us to respond

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    August 3, 2020 – 18th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/080320.cfm)

    Homily

    The Gospel of Matthew tells us this attitude of Jesus to commune with his Father. After his busy schedule, overwhelming encounter with the sick, heavy loads in teaching, Jesus would find time to be alone and to pray.

    This is an attitude that shows us the importance of prayer life, to gather our thoughts, to reflect and relax after a busy and tiring day, and to be more intimate with God. The Gospel would always tell us about this attitude in Jesus. He would always find time to be alone in order to give a space for himself and for his Father in heaven. This is an intimate expression of love and confidence. Prayer then, is that intimate expression of love and confidence with God.

    In a concrete way, this love and confidence heightens ones awareness of the needs others.

    Again, the Gospel of Matthew tells us how the prayer of Jesus made him aware of the difficulties of his disciples. Jesus sensed that they needed his help. The disciples who were on the boat, crossing the sea, experienced a storm. They were frightened and terrified. Though most of them were fishermen and had experienced before that kind of danger, but they were still afraid.

    They must have been terrified because the source of their confidence was not with them at that time. Jesus was not with them on the boat. They were alone in the midst of that storm.

    However, the prayer of Jesus made him aware of this fear and need of the disciples. Jesus went and made himself present in that moment of fear of the disciples. He made himself present to assure and give confidence. The words of Jesus are indeed both an assurance and an invitation, he said, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”

    Indeed, this is an assurance that God comes and meets us where we are at the moment even in our darkest and most fearful moment in life. God comes to make himself present in our life. This is also an invitation to recognize the Lord in those trying times and not to let our fear overwhelm us.

    The invitation for us today is this – that like Jesus our prayer also should lead us to become aware of the needs of others and move us to respond. This is an active prayer and a life-giving prayer.

    Prayer then, is not meant to be mechanical and a mere ritual. Prayer in itself is an invitation for us, that as we become more aware of God’s presence in us, we too become more aware of the presence of people around us. Prayer bears fruit then, when we make ourselves be moved to the needs around us in order to give life. In this way, our prayer becomes life-giving.

    This is how true prayer and communion with God transforms us because it moves us to give our a person and very presence to those who are distressed and afraid today. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR