Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Tag: Kingdom of Heaven

  • Our Capacity to Receive and Embrace

    Our Capacity to Receive and Embrace

    January 15, 2023 – Sunday, Feast of the Sto. Niño

    Is 9:1-6; Eph 1:3-6, 15-18; Mt 18:1-5,10

    A study by the Save the Children revealed that one in three households around the world reported violence during the Covid-19 pandemic.[1] The study also found that 1 in 6 children suffered violence at home. This study also said that there is an increase of negative feelings and psychological distress when lockdowns were imposed. This explains the significant cases of depression and suicide during this time as reported by Department of Health and World Health Organization.[2]

    Moreover, according to UNICEF Philippines Representative, “The Covid-19 pandemic is worsening the incidence of online sexual abuse and exploitation in the country. Children are increasingly becoming victims of circumstances that are harmful to their development and well-being.”[3]

    While I was stationed in Iligan City at the height of this pandemic, there were concerned neighbors who asked for help in our Church. They asked for a counseling and legal assistance for a girl who was raped at home. The parents were not that concerned on how to take care of their daughter because of poverty. Both parents lost their job when the lockdown was imposed in the city. It was the neighbors who responded and wanted to rescue and help the girl. But then, when the incident was reported, the police authorities even suggested not to pursue the case because it will only become troublesome to them and will cost them a lot of money. It was suggested to just settle it with some money and let it go.

    What have we become? Have we succumbed to darkness to abuse and oppress the weak among us?

    These situations are just few reported examples of rejecting, ignoring and hurting attitudes towards the small and the weak and to children particularly. No wonder why Jesus expressed indignation towards those who try to abuse the weak and try to promote themselves to be great.

    On this feast of the Sto. Niño, the Gospel of Matthew tells us how the disciples asked Jesus as to who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. Naturally, each of them must have been boasting one another about their closeness with Jesus, their great qualities, their faithfulness, on who was the first to be called and who was the favored one among them.

    At this point, the disciples must have thought that Jesus’ kingdom will be like those of kings sitting on a golden throne in the palace with a great army, a political king. They must have believed that Jesus will inherit political power and vast riches and material wealth. Thus, obtaining a position and having a closer relationship with Jesus will give them the security and assurance of a higher and influential position when Jesus reigns. What they aspired was to have power. This was their idea of greatness in the kingdom of heaven.

    As Jesus knew them, he had to teach them and to mold their hearts according to God’s desire. That’s why Jesus taught the disciples an important lesson through a child. Jesus took and placed the child in their midst and said, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

    Children, at the time of Jesus were considered not important because they were dependent, they have no rights and thus cannot be called as fully man at all. Jesus teaches us that in the Kingdom of heaven, greatness is measured in the capacity to receive God. To receive God is best expressed in welcoming, in embracing and in receiving the least in our community.

    We are called to receive God in the person of those who are the least in our church and society. We are called to aspire to be great but not in the way that we will be above others, or to seek a higher position at the expense of others, but in the way of embracing others.

    This capacity to embrace others and to embrace God fully is the message and call on this feast of the Sto. Niño. Jesus, the Prince of Peace, our God Almighty, has appeared to us as a child, who was born in a manger because through the image of a child, God shows us gentleness, not wrath and violence; the Lord embraces us with mercy, not anger and death.

    Hence, Jesus also calls us, “See that you never despise one of the these little ones.” On our part as a Church, as a community and you as parents and guardians, and all those in the position of authority and power, may we be instruments of protecting the weak in our communities. Let not our hearts be corrupted by our desire to be great and be above others by abusing the weak but we aspire to be great in the kingdom of heaven through our loving and life-giving service. Let our decisions and actions in life, let our relationships and our very person be filled with the grace of the Sto. Niño that brings freedom and the fullness of life. Kabay pa.

    [1] See https://www.rappler.com/world/global-affairs/one-third-households-globally-report-violence-home-during-coronavirus-pandemic-study

    [2] See report https://www.who.int/philippines/news/detail/10-09-2020-doh-and-who-promote-holistic-mental-health-wellness-in-light-of-world-suicide-prevention-day

    [3] See https://globalnation.inquirer.net/190923/unicef-pandemic-worsening-child-online-sexual-abuse-exploitation-in-ph#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20COVID%2D19%20pandemic%20is,their%20development%20and%20well%2Dbeing.&text=The%20child%20has%20no%20interest%20in%20school%20and%20friends.

  • 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