Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Tag: Jesus

  • Satisfying our Thirst

    Satisfying our Thirst

    March 12, 2022 – Third Sunday of Lent

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031223.cfm)

    Kyle (not his real name) seemed to be so kind and warmhearted around his friends. He would always be there when someone would be in need of help. He was always filled with smiles. He was generous of his resources and time. Yet, he also tended to just please everyone around but very afraid of any conflict and tension. As a result, his pleasing personality would turn to become submissive to his friends and family members.

    Deep within, Kyle was filled with insecurities and fear of being left alone and abandoned by people whom he valued. Kyle, at a very young age was abandoned by his mother and left by his father at the care of their relatives. Kyle grew up believing that he has to earn the love of people around him so that he would never be lonely and alone again. This was the reason why Kyle would do anything, overly pleasing his friends, earn their approval and acceptance and as much as possible cling on them. However, his goodness and kindness, his very person was easily abused by opportunists.

    Kyle actually experienced a deep longing of love and acceptance because of an emptiness in his heart caused by that deprivation in the past. This is, indeed, a form of thirst, emotionally and spiritually. His ways, beliefs, attitudes and relationships followed the pattern of “people-pleasing” because he was in search of fulfillment, to quench that emptiness within. Yet, because he did not know at that time, what and why he was doing such things, he too experienced more hurts and pains.

    Like Kyle, we too might have our own thirsts and ways of quenching those thirsts for love and acceptance, for healing and reconciliation, for independence and freedom, for justice and peace. And so, on this Third Sunday of Lent, this is something I want to expound and share with you, as the readings evoked the symbolism of water and the need to be fulfilled and satisfied by the Living Water.

    Hence, in the Book of Exodus, the people became thirsty while they were in the desert. They became desperate. They began to complain and become bitter of their situation. They also began to blame Moses and God for bringing them out of Egypt. Moses had become desperate too and afraid of what the people might do to him. Moses pleaded with God.

    However, despite the ingratitude of the people to God for saving them from slavery in Egypt, the Lord responded generously to them. Striking the rock implied trust in God. The rock is hard and empty of water but out of that emptiness, God brings forth abundance, life and assurance of God’s love. There was flowing water. In the words of St. Paul in his letter to the Romans, he said, “the love of God has been poured out into our hearts.”

    In the Gospel, the Samaritan Woman, who experienced deep thirst in her soul, had a dialogue with Jesus. This was something that was forbidden at that time. But then, this was the initiative of Jesus to meet the woman “where she was at that moment.” This tells us that God meets us where we are too. She had been with different men, and with this, people around her must have condemned and judged her.

    “Give me a drink,” was an invitation of Jesus to allow him to dialogue with her and to know her deepest longing in her heart. Jesus wanted her to allow God to feel her thirst for love and acceptance. The woman was indeed thirsty for such love and acceptance.

    This encounter with Jesus allowed her to look deeper into her life, into her many experiences of thirsts for love, for acceptance, for true friendship, for true and lasting intimacy with people whom she loved and those who loved her.

    Her dialogue with Jesus turned her bitterness, desperation and sadness into hope and joy. At the end, the words of Jesus, “Give me a drink,” had become her words too, she said, “Give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty again or have to keep coming here to draw water.”Such statement is very deep. This does not only mean to the water itself, but to the deepest thirst and longing of the woman. What she was asking was freedom and comfort from her sadness, desperation, and bitterness from those negative or traumatic experiences in her life that have made her constantly seek what was only temporary.Hence, she realized and found that the “Living Water” is in Jesus, in a person, in God who showed true compassion to her, lasting friendship with her and acceptance of her painful and sinful life.

    This is the invitation for us also on this Third Sunday of Lent. Jesus invites us to dialogue with him, because it is in dialoguing with God, is expressing our heart to God and listening to God that we begin to dig deeper into our own well, to recognize the dryness and thirst that we experience in life. Moreover, this will allow us to discover the abundance of God’s love and forgiveness for us.

    When we begin to recognize and own fears and failures, sinfulness and weaknesses that we also ask God to fill us, to love us, to forgive us, to give us peace and freedom, to give us life.

    We are not called to bury ourselves in fear and anxiety, or in shame and guilt when difficulties come in our life, or to turn towards bitterness and complaints when our struggles become confusing and overwhelming. Like Moses and the Samaritan Woman, let us turn towards God who shall direct us to that Living Water, to life itself, to our life’s contentment and joy with Jesus.

    As an exercise for this week, I invite you also to find time of at least 10 to 15 minutes every day, spend those moments in silence. You do not have to say your memorized prayers, but just stay in silence and be comfortable with that. Allow ourselves for self-examination and self-listening and to dialogue, to express to God what is in our heart, to listen to what God would like to tell us, and to allow the Lord to satisfy our thirst. Kabay pa.

    Guide Questions:

                How have you experienced “thirst” or deep longing in your life? How did you seek to be satisfied?

                In searching to be satisfied, how have you encountered and dialogued with Jesus, the true living water in your life?

  • Jesus touched for the second time

    Jesus touched for the second time

    February 15, 2023 – Wednesday of the Sixth Week  in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021523.cfm)

    For the second time, Jesus has to do it again. The blind man still could not see clearly when Jesus touched his eyes the first time. Yet, another interesting part of this healing story was on how Jesus brought the blind man away from people and out of the village and then told the man to go home but not to go back to the same village where he had been.

    This tells us that healing may not be instant and that it takes patience because healing is a process. Hence, the man was healed not just with his physical blindness but also of his spiritual blindness. The darkness that covered his eyes prevented him to not just see but also not to recognize. Hence, Jesus told him not to go back to the village of Bethsaida. That village became a symbol of unbelief, sin and rejection of God’s presence. Jesus was not welcomed there because people wanted to remain  in their wicked way of life. The people did not want Jesus to change them, to heal them and to renew their life. Thus, going back in that village would only make the man go back to the same cycle of darkness in his life.

    Indeed, the healing of this blind man tells something about the disciples and about us today. Jesus has to take the man outside the village with his disciples so that they may see and realize their blindness. The disciples have been with Jesus and have seen great things that Jesus did to the people. Yet, the disciples remained spiritually blind. Their minds were still clouded with doubts and fears. They could have seen something about Jesus but could not see it clearly.

    This blind man represented the disciples, no doubt. As Jesus did the healing, notice, that the man was not immediately healed. We may wonder, why was he not healed immediately and completely? Was it because the man doubted Jesus? Or was it because of his lack of faith?

    What was only certain was that the eyes of that man were still prevented by some darkness. He still could not see clearly. However, Jesus remained patient with the man. He did not condemn the man for having a lack of faith. Jesus has to do it again so that the man could see clearly and to take away the darkness that covered his eyes.

    Jesus was doing the same thing also with his disciples. The disciples were spiritually blind because they have not yet figured out at this moment who Jesus really was. They were still anxious of what to eat and what to do even though Jesus was with them. Hence, Jesus taught something to them through the healing of this blind man.

    We too are just like the disciples and that blind man. We could have claimed that we have seen and understood something about our faith, about the Church, about Jesus or even about other people and ourselves, yet, not completely. Not completely and not clearly because we might be prevented by our fears, anxieties, by our pain and trauma or even biases. We might also be trapped in the cycle of self-pity or self-righteousness and arrogance, in the cycle of blaming others over our failures or in bitterness and hatred, or in the cycle of habitual sins, addictions or unhealthy coping mechanisms because we find life already dark and hopeless.

    It would be good for us today to identify and recognize aspects and areas in our life that prevent us from truly believing in Jesus, from truly believing that we can be healed, be at peace and reconciled, be free and truthful about ourselves and to what surrounds us today.

    Let us be assured also that Jesus will be patient with us. So, let us allow him to touch us even for a second time so that any forms of darkness in our eyes and hearts may disappear and that we may see Jesus clearly among our sisters and brothers, no matter who they may be. Let us allow Jesus to challenge and to bring us out of those unhealthy cycles that only bring us to darkness and blindness. May the grace of healing grant us freedom, peace and life. Hinaut pa.                 

  • Be Influenced by Love and Concern

    Be Influenced by Love and Concern

    February 14, 2023 – Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021523.cfm)

    What and who is it that can easily influence you? Indeed, each of us can be easily influenced by many things and people around us. Sometimes, we may not be aware what really influences our thoughts and hearts because we are not aware of our environment. The popularity of the Social Media, of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram bring so much influence into our individual lives and even into the consciousness of the society. This is how these social media platforms crept and reshaped cultures, social status, gender, age, even beliefs and values.

    However, when one is not also aware of the kind of influences that he or she is welcoming, those influences may bring the person into better or into worst. Moreover, even our own words, spoken or written, can also influence others to become better or to become worst. The rise of fake news and disinformation entertained by many has been very damaging into our culture and relationships. People who are not aware of the sources and the credibility of the reports, are being deceived and in effect brought more damage to the community by spreading them.

    Such is the warning that Jesus reminded to his disciples. The Lord firmly warned his friends, “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” The leaven being used to make the dough to rise, was used as an image by Jesus to depict the silent but cunning influence of the Pharisees and of Herod. The passive yet indifferent, aggressive and oppressive attitudes of the Pharisees and of Herod can become attractive to people who tend to seek recognition and praise and those who tend to worship the powerful and the corrupt, the arrogant and the aggressive.

    These tendencies were also present among the disciples. This was the reason why Jesus reminded them when they began to worry of having not enough bread. Even until that moment, they did not yet recognize that the Lord was with them and had already worked wonders by feeding thousands of people. This prompted Jesus to ask them, “Are your hearts hardened?”

    Moreover, The Book of Genesis reminds us also of a disheartening event as God regretted and his heart was grieved. God found evil in the hearts of humanity. The hearts has been influenced and consumed by wickedness and evil that God decided to wipe out the earth and reshape it. Yet, Noah found favor with the Lord. Noah was neither influenced nor consumed by evil, but by love and concern. This was how the Lord found hope in us to reshape the earth and renew our hearts.

    Today, like the disciples and like what happed in the story of the Book of Genesis, the Lord also calls us to watch out of those distractions that may lead us away from the grace of God and from God’s presence. We may always realize that God is working wonders in us and through us.

    Thus, recognize today those wonders that God is doing to you. Let not our hearts be influenced by passivity, by indifference, by arrogance, by aggression or by any fake news about God, about ourselves and about others. Rather, look always of those many wonders that God is doing in our lives. Be influenced by God’s grace in our sacraments. Be influenced by His words in the bible. Be influenced by the Holy Spirit. And as this Valentine’s Day reminds also, be influenced by love and concern and not by hatred and indifference.  Kabay pa.

  • Our Defining Moment

    Our Defining Moment

    February 2, 2023 – Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/020223.cfm)

    Usually every Sunday some families gather together in the church not only to celebrate Eucharist but also to attend and witness the baptism of children to become new members of their respective family, parish and of the church. Yes, during Sundays, countless children are also being baptized in the church while being witnessed by their parents and family with relatives and friends. For us priest, Sunday children’s baptism is just part of our duty and extra job besides the hectic Sunday Masses schedules. For others, it might be a usual Sunday occurrence, but for the child’s respective parents, godparent and families, the baptism of their child can be, is and should be the defining moments of their own lives as well as of the child.

    Yes, defining moments for all involved with the child. Because during baptism, the child does not only take on the identity and dignity of being Christian, the young parents of the child have suddenly grown up as well from just being two people in love to being parent to the child with a lot of responsibility for the future of the child. Along the parents, the child’s godparents, maninoy and maninay, extended families, relatives and friends also take on the responsibility and mission to help and support in the growth in Christian faith and life of the child. It is indeed, defining moments for everybody for as the child is being consecrated, the parents, godparents, families and the Christian community and the Church are commissioned to be responsible caretakers and formators-parent of the Christian life and faith-growth of the child.  

    Mary and Joseph as well as Simeon and Anna must have experienced and felt the same during the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple, same as young parents and families during child baptism. Here they are, presenting and consecrating the child Jesus in the temple as required by their Jewish religious tradition, conscious of the tasks, responsibility as well as the still-unknown and yet-to-be-revealed promise the child Jesus may offer to our lives. Joseph and Mary not only became the parent of the child Jesus, but through their testimony, Simeon and Anna also became the caretaker, formator & godparents of God’s light and glory for all. Same way as Joseph and Mary consecrated the child Jesus, Simeon and Anna became not anymore passive-expectators but now active-witnesses of God’s light and glory being revealed before them.  

    The Presentation of the Lord in the temple is indeed defining moments for Mary and Joseph as well as Simeon and Anna for they take on the responsibility before God for the child Jesus. In the same manner, the baptism of a child is the defining moments for the young parents, godparents, families and the whole church for we all take responsibility for the formation and growth of the faith and life of the child.

    Our celebration today of the Presentation of the Lord is more than just about having our candles blessed. It is actually more so about ourselves as Christians especially during our celebration of Sacrament of Baptism. When we were baptized as a child, like the child Jesus, we were presented and consecrated (made holy) to God by our Christian family and the church to be God’s children. And whenever we attend and witness child baptism, we make holy ourselves to be responsible parents and formators-witnesses for the faith-growth of the child.

    Today’s celebration and our celebration of children’s baptism are all a reminder that each and every one of us, baptized Christians are lighted candles, taking on the light of Christ, the Christian dignity and responsibility for the fulfillment of God’s promise of salvation in our lives forever in our children now and for the future Christian generation.

    Taking on the dignity and mission to be parents and witnesses of God’s salvation as revealed to us always through Jesus and our today’s Christian children are and remain to be our defining moments as Christians. God is already doing his part for our salvation by revealing us his glory through his Son, now we have to do our part by making and remaining true to our defining moments of becoming blessed lighted candles – taking part to be active parents and witnesses for the growth of the Christian life and faith of our baptized children.

    Now, when was the last time you become a witness to a Child’s baptism? When was the last time you light a candle publicly and privately? Be reminded Jesus said: “You are the light of the world”.

    May we, as today God’s lighted and blessed candle, be always responsible parents and witnesses of God’s light to our world now and forever. Amen.

  • Being Blessed from God’s Perspective     

    Being Blessed from God’s Perspective     

    January 29, 2023 – Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/012923.cfm)

    How do we understand being Blessed? We usually think of a life that is blessed on the level of having material wealth, success, prosperity – like having a good family, a prosperous business, a successful career or a good paying job, or having a good health. We also believe that being blessed has something to do with having power and influence that a person possesses, with privileges and perks that we enjoy.

    Thus, as it was in the ancient times and until today, poverty is never a blessing, being in sorrow and in grief is never a blessing. Being powerless and oppressed, being sick, being rejected and persecuted is never a blessing. If we are experiencing such life, we consider ourselves to be cursed, weak and insignificant.

    However, the readings this Sunday are quite opposite from the standard of being blessed that we usually believe. Our human understanding of being blessed is different from God. Indeed, there is a need for us to understand being blessed and our life as Christians from Jesus’ perspective.

    The Gospel of Matthew gave us that perspective of Jesus that the Lord wants us to recognize and to learn. Matthew tells us that Jesus saw the crowds. Not just a crowd but crowds of people composed of groups of poor and rich, Pharisees, Sadducees and common Jews, sick and old, men, women, children, beggars, merchants, pickpockets and spectators, his own disciples and others who followed him faithfully.

    And Jesus saw the many realities of the people of his time. What he saw was not just limited with what can be seen from the outside. Jesus saw and realized the anguish of the people and the cause of their miseries perpetrated by those who took advantage of the weak and powerless. Jesus saw and realized how the social evils of greed, hatred, and indifference contributed to the senseless sufferings of the people. Jesus saw and realized how the people felt abandoned, in need of mercy and love, in search of justice and salvation, longing for a blessed life.

    This prompted Jesus to express what he saw and what was in the heart of God for His people. Jesus began to teach while sitting on a mountain which gave him the perspective of the Father. This Sermon on the Mount, as this is commonly called, is indeed quite symbolic. From this symbolism of Jesus teaching from the mount, the Lord evokes a different perspective of being blessed. Not anymore from our human perspective and standard, but from God’s eyes.

    In God’s perspective, the blessed ones are those who are poor, who are mourning and sick, the humble and unassuming, the powerless and merciful, those who are contented in life and those who are persecuted. But why? It is because in their poverty and difficulty, in their powerlessness and nothingness that they also realize their dependence and need of God. Indeed, such insecurities in life bring us to understand that we are so small in this world and we are in need of God’s grace. That is why, Jesus addressed these Beatitudes to the people, assuring them of his presence and assuring them of a blessed life in the Kingdom of Heaven. Though the Kingdom is to be fully manifested later, yet, being blessed is already experienced in the here and now.

    Thus, the very presence of God in our life is what makes us “blessed.” Since God favors those who are weak, poor, suffering, the sick and struggling in life, they are the ones who are blessed because they understand their dependence and need of God. God comes to us when we are ready to accept God in our life and to let God be our God there in our poverty and weaknesses.

    This is what Prophet Zephaniah reminds us in the first reading to seek the Lord which can only be possible through a humble heart that recognizes God’s presence and power. An arrogant and self-satisfied heart will never acknowledge God and thus, can be very vicious to people around.

    “God comes to us when we are ready to accept God in our life and to let God be our God there in our poverty and weaknesses.”

    Moreover, Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians expressed powerfully the wisdom and favor of God. He says to us, “God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something.”

    This indeed is a warning to those who in the standard of the world are blessed such as the self-satisfied and self-absorbed, the corruption-driven-rich, the powerful, the popular and the influential. Why? It is because the danger lies in the attitude of the heart that becomes independent from God, a heart that rejects God’s mercy and love. In fact, the Lord warns us when we tend to accumulate more wealth for ourselves at the expense of the poor, or when we gather fame and influence at the expense of others.

    Such attitude of the heart is filled with arrogance and self-centeredness that has no need of God. True enough, when we are so filled with ourselves and too satisfied of what we have gained and achieved, we don’t need God anymore. Our successes and we, ourselves, have become ‘gods.’ This leads us to worship our achievements, wealth, our power and ourselves. But then, all of these will corrupt us because we will never be satisfied. We will thirst and hunger for more wealth, recognition and fame which will also lead to our own destruction and those who are around us and those blocking our way to gain for more.

    Thus, through these Beatitudes, God invites us to claim that we are blessed and can bless others even when we are poor and insecure, in grief and in search for justice, in need of mercy and in showing mercy.

    This also calls us that as we understand being blessed in God’s perspective, then, the material wealth that we have gained, the influence and fame that we have received and the successes that we have achieved are signs of God’s grace and generosity. When we have these, may it lead us to humble ourselves and to recognize that these are gifts and we ought to share them to others. Thus, if you have received much, share the blessing to those who are in need. If you are enjoying success in life, share the experience with those who failed. If you have power and influence over others, then, use them to liberate the oppressed and to work for justice. If you have been shown mercy despite your sins, then, let that mercy flow in your relationships by becoming merciful to others. It is in this way that the Kingdom of Heaven will truly be present among us, and that we ourselves will not just be blessed but will also be a blessing to our community. Kabay pa.