Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Tag: Jesus

  • FREEDOM FROM OUR OWN PRISON CELLS

    FREEDOM FROM OUR OWN PRISON CELLS

    April 30, 2025 – Wednesday of the Second Week of Easter

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/043025.cfm)

    When I was a novice, there would be a day in a week when we would visit the city jail. In our weekly visits, as I have become comfortable making friends with the inmates, now called as, Persons Deprived of Liberty, I asked one of them who have become a close friend of mine. I asked how was he and his life inside the City Jail. Great was his dismay for the crime he did. He violated the law and so deserved to be punished. Because of this, he felt deep longing and loneliness. He had many fears but for him, he said, he had to face them because he had to pay the crime he did. He, together with the others, have been deprived of liberty because of a crime committed or suspected to have done a crime.

    Peter and John, as told to us by the Acts of the Apostles, were also deprived of liberty. This was, in fact, the second time that both were brought to the prison. They were deprived of liberty because of the jealousy of some leaders at that time. They were jealous of the many good things the apostles did. They were jealous because people believed more to Peter and John rather than to them.

    The Apostles preached Jesus and His resurrection from the dead. They too healed the sick. They helped the poor and the needy around them. They responded with generosity to those who needed their help. What the Apostles did were concrete expressions of what they believed and held in their hearts.  Their faith in the person of the Risen Jesus became their way of life.

    As both were imprisoned, surely, they too were afraid and worried on what will happen to them. However, this time, they had enough trust and faith in God. The constant invitation of Jesus, “Do not be afraid! Peace be with you!” has grown in their hearts.

    These are just two kinds of physical imprisonment. One is imprisoned because of a crime committed and the other because those in authorities were just filled with jealousy and malice towards those who did good and preached the Gospel.

    However, there is also another form of imprisonment which is not physical. This was the case of the authorities. The chief priest, Sadducees and Pharisees who continued to persecute the Apostles and felt jealous towards them, were truly imprisoned by their blindness and hardness of heart. They were imprisoned by their greed and envy, by their fear and doubts and by their refusal to believe in the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

    Thus, it was self-imprisoned caused by their own jealousy and unbelief. The Gospel portrays these kinds of people with those who preferred darkness than light, because their works were evil.

    We too examine ourselves today. In what way am I also being imprisoned? Or what is it that imprisons me today? What keeps and prevents me from bring free and to be truly I am? What are those that I consider as my prison cells that suffocate and limit the person I am called to be?

    Let us be more reflective and discerning of these things. Ask the grace from the Risen Christ to enlighten and to free us from our own prison cells.

    Pray, that we may be able to see and recognize areas of our life where we are being imprisoned.

    Pray, that we may be free and become the person and community that we are called to be, and that is to be a “light.”

    Hence, believe in the Risen Christ who brings us light. Jesus was sent by the Father to redeem us and not to condemn us to death. Let us also join our prayers to Mary, Our Mother of Perpetual Help so that she may help us in recognizing better ourselves and to see the light of the face of her Son, Jesus. Hinaut pa.

  • ONE HEART AND MIND

    ONE HEART AND MIND

    April 29, 2025 –  Tuesday of the Second Week of Easter

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042925.cfm)

    The joy of Easter caught the heart of the disciples of Jesus. The community of faith truly believe in the Risen Jesus and in God’s power that defeated death and darkness, forgiven sin and shame.  This is the liberating power of God’s mercy that gives freedom and peace to many hearts and minds.

    This was the very life of the early Christians. Their fears, guilt and shame were all replaced with joy, concern for one another, and hope. In fact, the joy and wonder of Easter was transformed into concrete resolutions and actions in living as a Christian community.

    The Acts of the Apostles showed to us Christians today how the gift of joy in the Resurrection of Christ could radically change the way we live our life. This is even manifested on how each one treated one another with fraternal concern, trust and charity. We have heard how the disciples of Jesus felt God’s assurance and security that went beyond material wealth. This was the reason why the disciples began to share generously their material wealth with those who have none and who were needy. Each member of the church had enough because each one contributed and shared.

    The apostles, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, distributed what had been shared “to each according to need.” Selfishness and self-interest were gone. Greed and corruption have no more space. Abuse of power vanished. Indeed, as the Acts of Apostles reminded us, “the community of believers was of one heart and mind.”

    This is the spirit of Easter that tells us how the Christians believed in Christ’s presence among them. Faith in the Risen Jesus when truly lived and manifested in our words and actions would transform us, our community inside and out.

    However, this kind of attitude and culture of sharing and letting go of possessions did not last long. We realize that selfishness and insecurities came into the picture again. People began to advance their personal interest over the others and have taken advantage at the expense of the needy and the poor. We are indeed fickle and can be easily tempted and driven away from God and from others. Yet, despite the life that we live now as Christians of the 21st Century we are still called to re-live the way the first Christian lived out their faith.

    Certainly, as a Christian community today, we are still called to live the spirit of Easter by generously sharing what we have to those who are in need. Letting go of all our material wealth at this present age would be next impossible. Yet, to joyfully give and share our resources, talents, our presence and capacities are what the Risen Jesus calls us today.

    And again, we gain the courage to live out such faith in us when we too welcome and embrace the Spirit of God. This is what Jesus expressed to Nicodemus in today’s Gospel. “To be born from above” or “to be born of the Spirit” is to allow the Lord to transform us from within. A heart that is gripped with hatred or resentment, or with selfishness and greed, with shame and guilt – is not hopeless at all. God’s mercy and offer of the fullness of life bring freedom and life to us.

    Let our hearts, then, be filled with the joy and wonder of Easter. Let our hearts be filled with gratitude to God who has been so good to us. And may the peace the Christ brings to us this Easter, make us joyful and generous givers in our community. Hinaut pa.

  • What makes our heart unbelieving and hardened?

    What makes our heart unbelieving and hardened?

    April 26, 2025 – Saturday in the Octave of Easter

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042625.cfm)

    When a terrifying and agonizing event happen in our life, it overwhelms our heart and mind. Such a horrible experience brings us into a state of shock, confusion and disbelief. Persons who are recently in a traumatizing experience may manifest anxiety and fear and other spontaneous strong emotional outbursts. There may be flashbacks of that terrifying event and thus make the person to withdraw and isolate from others.

    To protect oneself, a possible coping is to shut down that memory of the past. Hence, it makes the heart unbelieving and hardened towards others.

    Such human experience was the very state that the disciples of Jesus went through. They were in a state of shock and disbelief after the horrible event that happened to Jesus. And so, they retreated and hid themselves because of fear. They locked themselves in a room to protect themselves. Yet, when Jesus fulfilled his promise to be with them through the gift of his resurrection, their hearts remained closed.

    Indeed, they could not believe it. They could not even accept what has been reported by Mary Magdalene. They would not even accept the testimony of the two disciples who went to Emmaus and reported that the Lord appeared to them.

    The disciples must have been filled with guilt. They were ashamed for fleeing and hiding when Jesus was arrested, tortured, and killed. Peter denied Jesus who earlier said he won’t. The very experience and those days were just disheartening. They too must have felt that there was no more hope for them. Their courage was gone. Their spirits dampened. These were devastating, and so, they became unbelieving and their hearts hardened.

    The terrible death of Jesus, killed in the most shameful and painful way, was beyond their expectation. Yet, it happened. The Lord told them he would suffer and die. He also told them he would be raised on the third day. Despite this, they were all unprepared.

    And when Jesus was raised and appeared to other disciples, their minds and hearts were closed because they were too afraid. They stayed in their grief and sorrow, nursing their fear and shame.

    However, the Lord appeared to them all and confronted them. As the Gospel of Mark told us, “Jesus appeared to them and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart.” Yes, the Lord confronted and challenged them by rebuking them. It was the Lord’s way of making them wake up and move forward. They have been staying in that disposition and attitude that was already unhealthy and unhelpful for them and for others.

    We too could find ourselves having such kind of disposition and attitude. When we stay too long in our grief, we nurture our own emotional wounds. Feeding our fears with anxiety further escalates the issue. Such dispositions of the heart and mind make us more submerged into fear and anxiety, leading into sin and darkness.

    We remind ourselves, it is okay to grieve. It is okay to be afraid after a painful experience. It is okay to feel down and discouraged after a failure. It is okay to feel lonely and alone. It is okay to be sad and not feeling okay.

    However, when we are already staying too much in these human emotions and even reinforcing these emotions with our unhealthy coping and nursing them. Then, that is not okay. It is not alright. These attitudes would lead us farther from others. We would move even farther from our true selves and the grace of God.

    Today, the Risen Jesus, through the gift of His Resurrection, we are called to confront ourselves, to confront our friends and one another when we are going in those unhealthy and life-sucking state of life. Let us allow the grace of the resurrection to give us hope, courage and a new way of looking at things and looking at our life.

    We move forward and move on, knowing that the grace of God is with us, and that the presence of Jesus assures us that there is life, and that there is hope, always. Hinaut pa.

  • FINDING SOMETHING

    FINDING SOMETHING

    April 25, 2025 – Friday in the Octave of Easter

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042525.cfm)

    When we face overwhelming realities in life like failures, disappointments, hatred, pain, trauma or broken relationships, we might find ourselves escaping, hiding, or retreating. We try to escape from our realities and develop a way of forgetting. Some would develop unhealthy coping or attitudes that lead towards more difficulties.

    Indeed, these are some of our possible reactions when we face these realities in life. This may happen to us because we don’t know what to do and where to go. This was also the situation of the disciples of Jesus. Their hearts were filled with pain, disappointment, frustrations and doubts.

    The arrest of Jesus, his suffering and his death were so shameful and terrifying that they also hid themselves for fear of the Jews.

    Their immediate response was to go back their old self, to retreat and not to confront anymore what they were going through. Because they believed that they were failures, they succumbed to the temptation to go back to their old ways and that was to fish. Having a painful and horrible experience, they retreated. They were giving up. They were losing hope.

    However, all night they caught nothing. The “night” in the Gospel is very symbolic because it reveals to us that the disciples were in darkness and they couldn’t find light. They were hopeless. They wanted to give up. But, at dawn a stranger appeared on the shore and said, “cast the net over the right side of the boat and you will find something.” And they did, they trusted that stranger and to their surprise, when they pulled the net they could barely pull it back because there were plenty of fish. Indeed, they found something.

    Then, the “beloved disciple” recognized that it was the Lord Jesus. This tells us that once we have become intimate with Jesus, our heart will always desire for Jesus.

    This inspired Peter to respond immediately and to come near to Jesus. Again, this was symbolically done. Peter let go again of his boat, that is, his old self. He jumped confidently into the sea of his past failures and frustrations because he knew that Jesus was waiting for him.

    In this way, Jesus calls us to we find something even in the midst of pain, failures and difficulties. Hence, the Risen Lord invites us today.

    First, when we meet failures and difficulties, do not go back to the old unhealthy ways and old habits, which could only be our emotional reactions. Rather, pray and ask the Spirit of the Lord to give us courage and patience to confront what we are going through.

    Second, as we face them, never think that you can do everything alone. The journey is lighter when we are with somebody whom we can trust, whom we can share our story. Find and build lasting friendship, build a deeper family relationship, invest in your relationships. When we are told to cast our net, to change the course of our boat and to change our life – go for it and trust the Lord because it might be in that direction that we will find the abundance of love and life.

    Third, be always aware of God’s presence. Just like the beloved disciple let us always be intimate with Jesus. It is when we become more familiar with Jesus that we also become aware of his presence in everyone. Hinaut pa.

  • 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.