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Tag: Hope

  • EASTER HOPE AND ASPIRATIONS

    EASTER HOPE AND ASPIRATIONS

    I always find writing my reflection for “A Dose of God Today” therapeutic and invigorating. Earlier, after praying the rosary as a family, I was led to pause and ponder on the beauty and meaning of the Easter season. I then jotted some key words in one of my favorite notebooks. Mind you, at 51, I still love to collect note pads and notebooks. These are very handy in keeping myself organized amidst a hectic schedule as a counselor-educator with an admin role in the Graduate School. Perhaps, my desire to be a true witness of the Risen Christ inspired me to share my third article in this valuable and beautiful blog of Fr. Jom, CSsR.

    The Easter season reminds us that HOPE should never be lost. The road that we may have taken is rough and bumpy, yet surely we will reach our destination. With the Risen Christ as our companion and guide, it will be a joyful and interesting ride. We simply have to allow Him to accompany us in our journey. How do we do that?

    Possibly, sharing my personal encounter with a faithful God may shed light to this. My daily travel to and from my workplace is an opportunity for me to commune with God in prayer. Riding in a taxi, bus or public utility jeep seems challenging given the traffic jam in the major roads going to the city and heading back home. Passing by the scenic view of the sea and looking up at the skies – I always feel that God is present in His beautiful creation. This allows me to whisper a prayer in silence, entrusting my day to Him. Most of the time, I just close my eyes so that my mind will be attuned to God’s message for me. I know God speaks volumes in the silence of my heart.

    During evenings, I take this opportunity to review what transpires during the day. A moment to say my thanksgiving to Him for staying close to me and for sending people who are constant in my life – my family and close friends who love me unconditionally; to repent for my flaws and shortcomings during the day and to think of ways on how to become better the next day. This, I may say, becomes a habit of mine. This practice will surely be carried out throughout this Easter Season and beyond.

    This is my first and major ASPIRATION during this meaningful season. To continue to commune with God most of the time – to take time to listen to Him in the midst of our daily struggles to fulfill our role and responsibilities – to carry out our vocation and mission in life.  

    For me, the best time for new beginnings is during this Season of Easter. We used to make New Year’s resolution at the start of a new year so why not formulate them right now? For this season is also known as the Season of New Birth.

    Earlier, I said that my major yearning is to be in touch with God most of the time. This may be difficult to do at first, and with constant practice, this will surely be a second nature to us. Being prayerful and highly spiritual made wonders in my life. It allowed me to trust fully in God’s will and the Holy Spirit promptings.

    In moments of despair and confusion and in arriving at a crucial decision, my deep faith expressed through prayer and communion with a loving and faithful God is my first recourse. This greatest gift God has bestowed upon me –  my FAITH propels me to walk my talk and be a dedicated, loving and compassionate public servant – being a counselor educator in a state university.

    my FAITH propels me to walk my talk and be a dedicated, loving and compassionate public servant

    This brings me to my second aspiration during this Easter Season. Some people seem not to like me and my dealings with them, yet deep in my heart I know I am trying to be empathetic and loving so that many people may experience the unconditional love of God through me. When one is in the position of authority and influence, one will gain more friends and haters alike. Implementing the graduate school policies fairly is no easy job. Yet, in my desire to treat each student equally, I have encountered a lot of challenges. Nevertheless, deep in my heart I know that I have done my best to practice fairness and justice. I may have my lapses, but with God’s grace, I will try my best to be a living witness of Christ’s resurrection. That He is truly RISEN and ALIVE!

    I have shared my two major aspirations during this important Liturgical Season in the Church. These may be GRAND yet these are attainable. With my deep faith in a LOVING, FAITHFUL RISEN CHRIST, I have nothing to FEAR.

    Surely, my longing to be attuned to God’s will for me will be realized for I always believe in a God of surprises. I simply have to clasp my hands in PRAYER, in JOYFUL HOPE and celebration that God is truly risen. He is alive and present within us, among us and amidst us.  And YOU? What’s your Easter hope and aspirations?

    Sending my fervent prayers and love to all readers of this blog who need these most.  May all your prayers and aspirations be fulfilled. A blessed Easter Season to all!!!

  • A Defiant Hope

    A Defiant Hope

    April 9, 2023 – The Resurrection of the Lord

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040923.cfm)

    In the popular Netflix Series, The Sandman, an episode portrays how the Lord of Endless Dreams (Morpheus) went to Hell to retrieve his tools. In Hell, Morpheus faced Lucifer in the duel through the “Oldest Game” where each one has a turn to use a concept from their imagination to defeat the other. As each one used a concept, Lucifer at the end, used Anti-Life. In this, Morpheus was down and weak. He was asked by Lucifer, “What can survive the anti-life?” Yet, slowly, Morpheus tried to speak, until he was able to utter, “I AM HOPE.” With hope, Lucifer was defeated for nothing kills hope.

    On this Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of Jesus, we are reminded of HOPE. However, we as Christians now, do we really believe in the resurrection?

    Well, on that Sunday morning, as the Gospel of John told us, when the women wanted to visit the tomb of the dead Jesus, his body was nowhere to be found. They believed that the body was stolen. However, the other disciples whom Jesus loved, when he saw the cloth that covered the head of Jesus was rolled up in a separate place, HE SAW AND BELIEVED! The Lord indeed, rose from the dead!

    Jesus’ resurrection sums up everything in the Sacred Scriptures. The resurrection of Jesus is the very essence why the Church continues to live until today. If not because of the resurrection, there is nothing to believe, nothing to hope for. Hence, the resurrection of Jesus is the “DEFIANT HOPE, a hope, hoping against hope.”

    With all those suffering and gruesome death of Jesus, the disciples ran away, hid and believed that that was the end, and there was nothing more. However, the Lord is more powerful than death, more powerful than our frustration and disappointments, or of our failures, more powerful than human sin, more powerful than human violence and greed.

    God’s commitment to us and his love for you and me is so great that it makes the dead back to life, to the glory of resurrection, to new life, to a blessed and joyful life.

    Thus, friends, remember too, if you find yourself at the brink of giving up, or at the edge of losing your desire to live and to dream, or when you are at the end of hopelessness and despair, God will never let go of us. God will never surrender on us. Remember that! Believe in that!

    Jesus went through all those suffering and even the loneliness on the cross, because Jesus believed that there is more in you and in me, in each of us, and that there is more in our broken and wounded world caused by human sin of greed and indifference. We may also consider ourselves as terrible sinners, or others may condemn and think that we are hopeless and worthless, but the Lord will always see hope in us. God sees a joyful and blessed life in each of us, in all of us, as a community.

    Thus, the power of the resurrection tells us now of the Church’s mission and commitment to life and to freedom. The Church, and that is US, is a believing community who is being moved, touched and taught by the Lord.

    As the Lord dwells in each of us and in our community, we are now called to become EASTER PEOPLE or PEOPLE OF THE RESURRECTION. This means that what we preach and what we live is the joy and hope that the resurrection brings. But, remember too, that to be become a people of the resurrection, we also become a contradiction to those who want to act like God and become like God and those who are anti-life, like Lucifer. Just as Jesus was a threat to them, we too shall be. Yet, the glory of the resurrection will bring us into hope and joy which can be experienced not just after our death but can be tasted, felt and lived even today.

    How would that be possible? By becoming the presence of Jesus today to people around us through our very life that gives and expresses hope for others. Kabay pa.

  • LONGING AND HOPING IN OUR EVERYDAY LIFE

    LONGING AND HOPING IN OUR EVERYDAY LIFE

    November 27, 2022 – First Sunday of Advent

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112722.cfm)

    Have you been so overwhelmed by your issues and enormous problems at the moment? Or by the tragedies and traumas in your life? Or are you simply so caught up with the demands of work, family life, studies and in reaching out your dreams that you seemed to be always running out of time; so engrossed with the expectations that you begin to stress out; feeling terribly anxious and pressured that you forget other important aspects of your life?

    However, in realizing such situations we are in, we also begin longing and hoping for peace, reconciliation, healing and freedom. We have begun the first day of the new Liturgical Calendar in our Church today and we are being reminded to refocus our gaze, our longing and our hope to the Lord. Hence, those aspects of our life that would incline us to lose our awareness and sensitivity of the Lord’s presence are the very areas where we are invited to grow. So, allow me now to draw out God’s call for us on this First Sunday of Advent through the Scripture readings we have heard.

    In the first reading from the Book of Isaiah, the prophet expressed wonderfully the longing of the people for the coming of the Lord. This book was written at the time when the people have suffered from being exiled in Babylon. While being captured and made into slaves, they longed for the time when all of them will come home and will be reunited. They longed for that time of peace where there will be no more wars but abundance and joy.

    Isaiah expressed this hope for the people which was meant to uplift the spirit of the people. This reminds us of the significance of the first candle that we have lighted on this first Sunday of Advent. That candle symbolizes hope. This hope is what the prophets of the Old Testament have told us. Thus, the candle is also called as the Candle of the Prophets.

    This hope as told by the prophets is reechoed in our Psalm today, “Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.” This is an expression of a longing to be in the presence of God. Yet, let us also not forget our human tendency to lose hope particularly when things become overwhelming for us. Because of so much pain and of the suffering we endure, we too might feel of losing hope and forgetting our desire for God.

    This is what St. Paul in his letter to the Romans reminds us. Paul tells to be awake from sleep because of the discouraging and disappointing events that had happened in our life. We could have fallen asleep because we have become so tired from waiting for the Lord, because our prayers remain unanswered, because we have already failed several times in spite of our efforts, or your partner or a family member remains problematic despite your prayers, or until now you are not yet healed from your illness which gives you suffering, or your loved one was taken away from you because of a sudden death. Because these are discouraging, we would feel the absence of God just as the Hebrews felt when they were exiled. We could declare that we have lost our faith, because God seemed not to care for us. But, this is not true because God’s remains faithful to us and remains ever present in us. We are not just sensitive!

    Likewise, aside from the trials in life, there is another reason in losing our focus of God’s presence in life. This is basically the business of our usual days, of the demands of our everyday life, of our work, family responsibilities, studies, and everyday endeavors. This is the tendency of many who are occupied all day with many things. Indeed, the demands of everyday life are merciless. There is always more to do and not enough time to do it.[1]

    This is how Jesus reminds us today in the Gospel, “to stay awake.” This is the Lord’s invitation for us to grow in our longing and hoping for God’s presence in our everyday life. Jesus wants us to be always attentive of his presence and attentive to his everyday coming in our daily life – at home, at work or at school.

    Hence, as St. Paul teaches us in “conducting ourselves properly,” we are called to be more selfless by expressing our love for one another. When we become less self-centered, then, we also begin to recognize others and recognize God. By showing our concern for one another, we also become more aware of God. When we begin to build intimate connections with our family and friends by opening up ourselves to them, then, we also begin to open up ourselves for God. Our intimacy with others brings us, actually, into the intimacy we have with God. In other words, our closeness with those who are around us brings us into closeness with God.

    And when our routinary days are filled with demands, may we not tend to forget the Lord and lose our gaze on him and become indifferent of his presence. Thus, in the midst of our busy routinary life, let our awareness of God’s presence be intertwined in our work, in our studies, and in our activities. Therefore, it is still possible to become awake and aware of the movements of God and his invitations for us while we are working or doing something as long as we allow the Lord to be with us wherever we are. Let those moments of our awareness of God and encounters with God bring us to peace, to reconciliation, to healing, to freedom and to the fullness of life. Kabay pa.

    [1] John Shea, On Earth as it is in Heaven (Asia Trading Corporation: India, 2010), 28.

  • What gives you hope?

    What gives you hope?

    November 24, 2022 – Thursday of the 34th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112422.cfm)

    It’s gloomy and depressing, filled with death and destruction. Chaos is overwhelming and seems to be there is nowhere to go but a horrifying end. These are the images that we could imagine as the Book of Revelations and the Gospel of Luke describe today the end of time, the time of punishment and wrathful judgment, a time of horror and deadly calamities.

    John, in his visions, foretold the end of a great ancient nations of Babylon, who indeed, was once the superpower of the world. Babylon conquered many nations and peoples, plundered and exhausted their wealth. However, Babylon will end. It will be destroyed. Luke spoke as well of the end and destruction of Jerusalem, a great city, whose temple was adorned with gold and precious stones. The city will also be destroyed and its people will be scattered. Indeed, these happened and what history tells us. Babylon is nowhere to be found again. Jerusalem and its temple was destroyed. And those Christians during the time of Luke, witnessed this. With these images of death and punishments, horror and chaos, where shall we draw courage to hold on to faith? What shall give us hope, then?

    Though John and Luke began with those terrifying events and scenarios yet, both also gave a glimpse of hope and salvation. John, in his vision again said, “Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” This is the prayer that the priest pronounces as we are about the receive the Body of Christ in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. The Lord destroys evil and all those that corrupts life, yet, God through Christ, welcomes us into his presence. This is salvation!

    Luke, further, reminds us in the Gospel, “stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.” Again, the Lord shall judge and bring to an end what is evil and all those who rejected God and claimed to be god. The Lord shall come to rescue His people and bring them to safety and peace. This is hope!

    Indeed, as the readings today seemed to be dark and terrifying, yet, the Lord gives us hope that the end is something not to be afraid of. The Lord in his faithfulness remains for us and with us.

    This is the spirit that St. Andrew Dung-Lac and his companions showed us, whose memorial we also celebrate today. This Vietnamese priest and all those who together with him never gave up that hope to be taken away from them. Even in the midst of evil, persecution and death, they remained steadfast in their faith because they truly believed in God’s faithfulness.

    Let this give us courage. Let this inspire in us, hope. Even when we are facing so much difficulties in our life, in our relationships and in reaching out our dreams in life, may we find comfort in the presence of God who abides in us. When we are persecuted, hated and misunderstood, may we find courage and hope in the Lord who promised not leave us alone. Kabay pa.

  • CHALLENGE TO US FILIPINO REDEMPTORISTS FOR THE 2023-2028 SEXENNIUM

    CHALLENGE TO US FILIPINO REDEMPTORISTS FOR THE 2023-2028 SEXENNIUM

     

    The XXVI General Chapter of the Redemptorists recently concluded its deliberations on October 7, 2022 after it convened on September 11 in Rome. Three statements were given during and after the Chapter which should make us Filipino Redemptorists reflect on where we are today and the challenges we face in the future which we should face squarely during our incoming Provincial Chapters.

               First was that of Pope Francis.  On the first of October, Pope Francis addressed the delegates and he offered to them these words of inspiration and exhortation:

    “Do not be afraid to tread new paths, to dialogue with the world, in the light of your rich tradition of moral theology. Do not be afraid to get your hands dirty in the service of those most in need and of the people who do not count…

    In your Constitutions there is a very fine expression, where it says that the Redemptorists are available to face any trial to bring Christ’s redemption to all.  Availability. Let us not take this word for granted! It means giving oneself entirely to the mission, with all one’s heart, dies impendere pro redemptis, unto the final consequences, with a gaze fixed on Jesus.

    The Church and consecrated life are living a unique historical moment, in which they have the possibility of renewing themselves to respond with creative fidelity to the mission of Christ. This renewal passes through a process of conversion of the heart and mind, of intense metanoia, and also through a change of structures. At times we need to break the old pots, inherited from our traditions, which have carried a great deal of water but have now fulfilled their purpose. And breaking our pots, full of affections, of cultural customs, of histories, is not an easy task; it is painful, but it is necessary if we want to drink the new water that comes from the wellspring of the Holy Spirit, the source of all renewal.”

              After reading his statement, he had an impromptu address in which he said:

    Photo from http://www.catholicnewsworld.com/

    “I was struck by a phrase your group said: ‘Leave your comfort zones and go out on the mission.’ I wonder, what are the comfort zones that a congregation has, that a province has, that a community has and that each one of us has? Ask yourselves that question, because it was said that each person accommodates the vows as he pleases. And so, you can practice poverty with a bank account, you can practice chastity with a companion, and you can practice obedience by talking and deciding what you want. These are very distorted forms. But the one that always produces a distortion in the three vows is comfort. That is where the evil comes in, in trying to be comfortable, to be at ease, to live a bourgeois life, without going out, and going out on the mission…Each one of us must analyze our own temptation to be comfortable. We all have that temptation; we all face that temptation.”

               

    From such statements, clearly Pope Francis is exhorting all of us to reflect on where we are today in terms of our mission and lifestyle and to be engaged missionaries truly immersed among  “those in need and the people who do not count.” 

                Second was the statement of Fr. Rogerio Gomez CSsR, our new Superior General who sent this to the Union of Redemptorists of Brazil on October 12. While this statement is meant for his confreres in Brazil, it might as well be addressed to all of us Redemptorists, for in the document, he highlights the complex and challenging times in which we live and asks for courage from all of us:

    “We are experiencing a phenomenon to which we must be very attentive: the erosion of democracy, the use of religion to manipulate reality and to impose fear and exclusion on the poor. This reality should make us think. We must be wise as children of light,’ says one of the excerpts from the letter.

    The spread of fake news can be related to the sin against the eighth commandment: ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness!’ It is an enormous disservice to the truth.”

    “How can we believe in the true God and defend weapons, persecute traditional religions, destroy Mother Nature, and not invest in public health, education, science and social policies for the benefit of the poorest and the country’s development? How can we believe in the motto ‘the truth that sets us free’ (Jn 8:32)? However, we live with the flood of lies that deceive people and create reality.

    How is it possible to speak out against abortion yet advocate the death of blacks, indigenous people, homosexuals, and women, the death penalty, cover up domestic violence, reaffirm machismo, promote prejudice against northerners and minorities, and cause social mistreatment? The teaching of the Church is evident in affirming ‘the inviolability and dignity of life from conception to natural death (JPII Evangelium vitae, 2)’.”

             Third is the recent letter of Fr. Gomez to all Redemptorists around the world, issued on the Feast of St. Gerard last October 16 addressed to everyone in the congregation from superiors to Council members, Secretariats to Formation Teams, professed and lay missionaries and even the formandi. In this letter he affirms the important role of the Brothers in the congregation, but is in crisis owing to lack of promotion and attention and calling on everyone to find creative ways to recruit and form Brothers to reverse the present reality of their dwindling numbers.

                All these are framed within the call for the coming sexennium, namely that we all strive to be missionaries of hope in the footsteps of the Redeemer. There are many reasons why sometimes we feel discouraged owing to the sad global realities (the impact of climate change, the repercussions of the pandemic, wars and conflicts, consumerism, secularism, individualism, etc.), the national situation (return of dictatorship, unchecked corruption, patronage politics, inflation, rising prices, etc.) and even dynamics within our own congregation.

    But we are supposed to be children of the light, filled with hope that God never abandons His people. However, that hope can only be nurtured if – through following in Jesus’ footsteps – we are truly able to witness to plentiful redemption which is reflected in our faithfulness to the mission of serving the most abandoned, and sharing a community life lived not in affluent comfort but following the model of Jesus and his disciples.

                 We pray that the Provincial Chapters that will be unfolding in our two units would lead us to the path earlier taken by St. Alphonsus, St. Clement, St. Gerard and all our confreres who through the years since we were founded followed in the Redeemer’s footsteps!