Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Tag: Ordinary Time

  • Be united in prayer because Christ is in the midst of us

    Be united in prayer because Christ is in the midst of us

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    September 6, 2020 –  23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090620.cfm)

    Homily

    Who wants to be corrected? Who wants to be criticized? Being with our friends, with our family or with a community, we cannot really avoid conflicts and tensions. However, a particular difficult situation can be more problematic when we become unwelcoming to corrections and to criticism.

    Jesus, in today’s Gospel offers us practical steps to overcome such situations in order to arrive in a mature way of attaining peace and reconciliation.

    Let us also bear in mind that because of the biases and discriminations that have been built up in us, we can become vicious when we are confronted by others because of our faults. That’s why, Jesus told us how to approach gently a person when we confront them of their faults or when we are being confronted. Yet, knowing that we can exercise forms of denial and refusal to admit our mistakes, then, Jesus affirms the need of the participation of the community. The Lord affirms this as he told us, “for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

    Before I proceed deeper into the participation of the community, I would like to invite you that we look first and remind ourselves of our tendency to deny and refuse to be confronted and criticized of our sins and failures.

    Thus, I would like to share with you the two forms of denial that may become our attitude when confronted by others.

    First, when confronted, we might tend to overemphasize the faults of others yet; there will be no acknowledgement of our personal defects and sinfulness. This overemphasis of the faults of others is a mere cover up of one’s skeletons hidden in the closet. It is a way of taking revenge cruelly.

    Second, when confronted, we could display an air of self-righteousness and arrogance in our hearts; claiming that we are always right and good and never committed any mistake. As a result, we could become violent to our critics and would even seek to destroy them. This kind of attitude boasts oneself of his or her good image but hungry of recognition and praise from people around him or her.

    Moreover, there is actually wisdom and goodness in criticism in itself and by being confronted by others. This is how others, friends, family members and our community play a big role  in conversion and transformation.

    Nevertheless, we also remind ourselves also of these two kinds of criticism. There is a constructive criticism and destructive criticism.

    A constructive criticism seeks the good of my brother and sister. In this criticism, we do not seek to ridicule the person but to help the person to grow and learn from mistakes and failures. It gives both positive and negative feedbacks. This is done with honesty and sincerity. St Paul in his letter to the Romans reminded us too to express our love for one another. Indeed, in this way we express it concretely because this seeks the good of the others. We fulfill, then, the law, because it does no evil to our neighbor, but goodness and love.

    This is basically what Jesus offers us in the Gospel today.

    Jesus offers us to do it intimately and confront the person personally. If this will not work, then, Jesus suggests to bring a common friend to serve as a mediator. Yet, if the two will not work and the person continues to refuse, then we seek the judgment of the community or of the Church.

    On the other hand, what we avoid and what Jesus does not want to happen is when we choose the destructive criticism, which is hateful because it desires damage to my brother and sister. It is destructive because it puts down and humiliates the person and has no desire to help the person to grow and to learn. Destructive criticism is a mere accusation that is filled with bitterness and hate.

    Thus, this is done with evil intent. It is usually done when we talk behind the person in initiating, perpetrating and joining others to destroy the image of a person, like in gossiping.

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    Jesus does not want us to be that bitter and hateful accuser of our brothers and sisters but rather disciples of him who are humble enough to recognize our wrongdoings, and courageous enough to speak what is unjust and oppressive around us. Jesus desires that each of us becomes free by being able to recognize our sins so that transformation of hearts will be possible. It is in this way that we become a help to one another, so that as parents, leaders, mentors and authority figures, we will not be leading others blindly but with humility and willingness to be corrected, affirmed and challenged.

    This is where we can find the need of the participation of the community, and that is to be united in prayer. To be united in prayer is to become discerning both in our words and actions. To be united in prayer also practically suggests that we are in a community, and we are a community. When we become united in prayer, then, we allow the Lord to be present in us.

    Thus, to be able to truly confront the sins and failures present in our community, we are called also that we unite in prayer. This also include that we bring, in the spirit of prayer, our effort to confront and correct one another so that we will grow and become the persons God wants us to be.

    To be united in prayer is not just about asking God’s favor to grant our petitions. To be united in prayer then, is to pray in the name of Jesus and that is according to the mind, heart and will of the Lord.

    To be united in prayer also means to change our hearts and minds according to the will of God and not changing God’s mind and heart according to our own desires. As a community, this will help us to be able to trust in God and to give our hearts to God so that we can grow according to God’s desire for us. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

  • The Challenges and graces of what is New

    The Challenges and graces of what is New

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    September 4, 2020 – Friday of the 22nd Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090420.cfm)

    Homily

    By this time, most of us have already adjusted with the “new normal.” The change of lifestyle and adopting to new ways of doing things in this time of pandemic must have gradually taken roots into our way of life. Others must have struggled because of this change yet, we have to because it is needed and it is important.

    However, there are many things in our life too that remains unchanged and might not be helpful at all in our relationships. These may include our attitudes, perspective in life and certain beliefs. This could have come from our desire to be secured and assured of today and of what lies ahead of us. Thus, we develop or make a routine so that we become familiar and comfortable in doing things.

    This is the reason why we also settle and become comfortable with traditions. We do familiar things, thinking of the same ideas, having the same perspective, meet familiar people and create familiar events because we have been doing them in the past. In the same way, we also form habitual activities and attitudes.

    However, when we become so absorbed and concerned in doing, thinking, seeing and feeling with what is only familiar, then, there is a danger that we might also resist any changes and to be surprised with what is new. Because we are comfortable of the things of the past, we might believe that invitations of change are threats to our desire to be secured, to be certain and to be in controlled.

    With this kind of attitude towards change and new things, we could also become rigid, close-minded and even unwelcoming to what is new and unfamiliar to us. Yet, God’s invitation to us is always new and geared towards change and transformation of our heart, mind and of our total person.

    In our Gospel today, Jesus tells the Scribes and the Pharisees that “No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined. Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins.”

    Jesus is actually inviting us to welcome what is new and unfamiliar to us and also to be surprised by the challenges and the graces it brings. Again, this is what he means to the Scribes and Pharisees who complained that while the disciples of John the Baptist and the disciples of the Pharisees fast often and offer prayers, his disciples eat and drink with him.

    Indeed, they wondered why his disciples were not following the old practices of the Jews. However, Jesus was not making an excuse for not doing the tradition. Jesus wanted them to realize that there was greater than the tradition and that was Him. Jesus did not reject what was taught and had been practiced for a long time, but to be more welcoming of the new things that have come. His person and very presence among them was something new and something that everyone should capture and cherish.

    Definitely, the Spirit of God brings freshness in us and God’s invitations may become uncomfortable for us because God inspires change and renewal. Jesus calls us today to be willing and welcoming to his surprises and invitations of change and renewal because he wants us to be renewed and be restored from our old, broken, sinful and habitual ways.

    Thus, I invite you to pause for a moment today, then, reflect and discern this question, “What are those old ways, attitudes, beliefs and habits that I have developed which do not help me, and do not help in building healthy relationships with others and with God?

    As we identify them, let us also ask the grace from the Lord that we may have the courage to face them. Allow also the Lord to change and renew us by embracing the challenges and graces to what new perspective and new life bring. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

  • When Jesus got into the boat of failures and frustrations

    When Jesus got into the boat of failures and frustrations

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    September 3, 2020 – Thursday of the 22nd Week in Ordinary Time; Memorial St Gregory, the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090320.cfm)

    Homily

    It must have been disappointing and at the same time tiring. Simon and his group caught nothing despite working all night to catch fish. Yet, there was nothing Simon can do. He and his group had to go back to the shore and wash their nets.

    Have you ever been so disappointed with life? You felt tired and exhausted and there were many failures around your life. In spite of your efforts, the enthusiasm and the passion you have shown, yet, life seemed to be so unfair. It was just too overwhelming and you felt surrendering.

    This must have been the feeling of Simon too as he led a group of fishermen. There was nothing, not even a single catch of fish. It was not just a failure but a disaster for a fisherman like him.

    However, it was in this low moment of Simon that someone got into his boat. Jesus got into his boat and began teaching the people. Through that very boat of failure and disappointment of Simon, the Lord transformed it into something wonderful and beyond Simon’s expectation.

    After teaching, Jesus told Simon something, that could have made Simon to wonder, “Put out into the deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” In Simon’s mind, it was completely absurd as human wisdom and knowledge would tell him that. They had been working all night but caught nothing. However, because it was the Lord who said, Simon trusted the words of Jesus.

    This is what St. Paul said in the first reading, “if anyone among you considers himself wise in this age, let him become a fool, so as to become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of God…” Indeed, by trusting the wise words of Jesus, Simon found something wonderful and life-changing.

    This all started when Simon let Jesus be in the boat of his failures and frustrations. The very presence of God became an assurance to Simon in the midst of the troubles in his life and in the midst of his search of something big in his life. The invitation of Jesus to him was call of faith. To go into the deep water and to lower down the nets was an invitation to dwell deeper into the most essentials in Simon’s life, to lower down his comforts and even pretentions, and to leave behind at the shore his uncertainties, fears, failures, guilt and sins.

    When Simon did all these, what he found was God’s tremendous goodness, deep love and generosity to him symbolized by the great catch of fish. This moved Simon to beg Jesus to depart from him because Simon had become aware of his sins, failures, fears and insecurities. However, this realization became the entry point of Jesus to make more wonderful things in the life Simon.

    Simon was called for a bigger purpose, to a mission where his participation became an important part in the ministry of Jesus. All of these happened because Simon let the Lord to be in his boat, allowed Jesus to challenge him and to change his life.

    This story of encounter with God led to chance and to a mission. Indeed, a real encounter with God or to allow God to be with us in our boats of frustrations and guilt, strips us from our pretentions and masks. Such encounter makes us bare to see how sinful and unworthy we are before God.

    Yet, it is in this moment of humility and honesty that we find God more merciful, loving and forgiving to us.  Once we lay down our guards that God comes to us to make miracles in us – to free and to give a true fulfilling life.

    It is when we own and claim our weaknesses, sinfulness and failures to God that we are also being strengthened, forgiven and empowered by the Lord.

    Thus, these are the invitations for us today.

    • First, allow the Lord to be with us even in our frustrations and failures in life, in our guilt and shame. Never be ashamed to allow Jesus to be in our boats. Let him teach us, to reminds us how much we are being loved.
    • Second, allow the Lord to challenge us and to shake our pretensions for us to discover more ourselves before the presence of God.
    • Third, allow God to bring changes in our life and to make wonderful things even out of our messy and troubled life story.

    May this encounter with Jesus empower us to go on mission by becoming His own instruments of mercy, love, peace and forgiveness. 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

  • God satisfies our deepest hunger

    God satisfies our deepest hunger

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    August 2, 2020 – 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/080220.cfm)

    Homily

    Who among us here who have not yet experienced hunger? I am sure each of us have experienced that feeling of being hungry since we were babies. Babies especially would always cry when they are hungry. A parent’s automatic response to a crying baby is to feed the baby with milk. When the baby starts sucking, the baby also stops from crying. When we become adults, we continue such behavior though we do not cry anymore but feed ourselves with food that can satisfy our physical hunger.

    At the beginning of this quarantine and lockdowns, we have also experienced how we have become anxious from running out of food during this pandemic. News reports all over the world told us of panic buying. People were fighting over some supplies, and many essential goods also run out of supply. People bought many things to satisfy not their hunger, but their anxiety of what is to come tomorrow.

    Aside from this, there are also many other forms of hunger in us, such us our hunger for acceptance, for recognition, for friendship, for love and intimacy, for justice, for peace and reconciliation.

    And in our search to satisfy those longings and hungers, we are sometimes led to resort to the promises of “instant satisfaction” and to an “immediate result.”

    Their consequences become destructive, unhelpful and the corruption of life. Addictions such as in alcohol, drugs, sex or food are ways to satisfy our deepest hunger. Yet, because they only promise an instant gratification and so we hold on to those addictions to numb our hunger for love, for attention and intimacy.

    Our obsessive fixations in spending too much time in social media, or online games or with gadgets, can remove us from the true and personal encounter with people. Because of the lack of human connection, we divert our need into what is temporary, virtual and not real.

    Our compulsive behaviors in gossiping, in defaming people and in finding the faults and weaknesses of others seemingly give us the image of a good person, righteous than others. However, these behaviors only blind us of our true longing to be recognized and be appreciated.

    Our obsession to be powerful, to exercise dominance and control over the weak and to resort to violent and aggressive actions apparently make us confident, independent and strong willed. However, they too blind us from that hunger to find our true self and our true potentials.

    That’s why, God in his goodness would always invite us to come to him so that our hunger will be satisfied and our longing will be fulfilled. This is what our first reading told us today. The Book of Isaiah tells us of God’s invitation to come, to eat and be satisfied. God invites his people to come to him, to recognize God as the source and fountain of good and wonderful things in life. This is an assurance of God to the people that indeed, in God they shall be satisfied. Yet, there is something interesting behind this invitation.

    This particular verses in the Book of Isaiah were addressed to the people of Israel who were exiled in a foreign land. And a time has come that they will be restored and will be brought home. However, many of them seemed not to be moved by God’s invitation. People have become comfortable with their life while at exile. They were able to adjust and adopted to a new way of life. Thus, when God’s promise was fulfilled, they have become indifferent, not wanting to be moved by God anymore.

    Thus, this invitation to come to God and be satisfied is also at the same time a challenge and an assurance to us who have become indifferent, complacent but remain anxious of what will happen tomorrow. This is God’s assurance also affirmed in today’s Psalm, “The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.”

    This is what we find in today’s Gospel. Jesus became aware of the needs of the people who followed him on foot. This moved the heart of Jesus with pity that prompted him to respond. Jesus cured the sick and also provided them with food for their empty stomach. This is the great miracle of the feeding of thousands of people. This became possible through the participation of people who were close to Jesus. This is where we discover how God gives us the opportunity to be part of the miracle.

    However, we also see how the disciples expressed their anxiety over their food supply. There were more than five thousand people around and Jesus told them to feed the people themselves. All they had were five loaves and two fish, which might not be enough also for 13 adult men. The disciples must have felt that deep anxiety and confusion if they have to share the little that they had for the people. Surely, what they had in mind was, “these are not enough, so we better keep the food for ourselves.”

    Yet, the miracle happened when those five loaves and two fish were brought generously to Jesus so that others may eat. We are invited by Jesus to offer sincerely the little that we have. We might be thinking that the world’s problem on hunger is too big for us to respond and our share will only be insignificant. But let us remember, the five loaves and two fish were actually insignificant compared to the thousands of people. However, the disciples did not hide the little that they had, but offered generously to the Lord.

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    This action tells us of our own vulnerability and weakness and at the same time the power behind a generous action. To give away the little that we have, makes us insecure, yet, it is actually through the little that we possess that the Lord can work wonderfully. When we give something and then we feel vulnerable, because that was all we have, no matter how small, is actually the fruit of our generosity. Remember, true generous people will always feel helpless because what they give to others is not something that is only an excess of their possession.

    Jesus invites us to recognize him, that is, to recognize God, His love and friendship with us as our food that will satisfy our hunger. He is the bread that gives us life. This Eucharist is the gift and our food that should satisfy our deepest human hunger. That is why, this Eucharist is more than what we think. This is not simply prayers and readings, standing and kneeling, singing and saying amen. This Eucharist is our very relationship with God and with one another. This is all about us and God, you and me and Jesus.

    And so, I would like to invite you then, so that we will be able to make this Eucharist truly life-giving.

    First, ask the Lord to help us recognize our different hungers. Be mindful, then, of our compulsive actions, fixations and some forms of addictions because those behaviors in us will tell us of our own hungers and needs. When we become conscious of those, hopefully, it will lead us to seek to what will last, to what is more essential in our relationships and to what will truly satisfy us.

    Second, be moved to open up and to become generous of ourselves to the needs and hungers of others. Remember, we too are being satisfied and become fulfilled when we ourselves become instruments of God’s action in satisfying and fulfilling the life of those in need. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR