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Tag: Peter

  • 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

  • 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

  • Ho me 2 U?

    Ho me 2 U?

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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

    How are you holding on these days? We are now already almost fast approaching  the sixth month of living life in pandemic times. We already have gone through a lot and still going through a lot these days. Things seem to be getting worse than getting better. Perhaps at this stage most of us (if not all) have experienced and still grieving over some loss of someone and/or something important in ones life – be it a beloved family and friends, work, opportunities, and/or lifestyle. And we cannot help but ponder about what all these happenings now mean and got to do with our life and faith.   

    “Your decision today is the statement of who you are and declaration of who you choose to be”, said  Neal Donald Walsch in his book Conversation with God. True indeed for experience teaches us that whatever our decisions-made somehow and someway reflect our own identity, our own responsibility and even our faith (of what we believe) as well.

    For  instance, whenever a young couple decides to commit into Christian married life through the Sacrament of Matrimony, both of them receives a new identity and responsibility as follower of Christ in life and faith. In their exchange of marital vows before God’s altar they become not anymore just any other couple but now a Christian married couple forever in life. They remain not anymore as children of their parents but now as Christian husband and wife for life. Through their exchange of vows before God and His Church, their love for each other and their following of Jesus now becomes a Sacrament – sign and instruments of God’s continuing love and presence in our own lives. As they decide and resolve to live life in Christian marriage, the couple’s life now is and will never be the same as before but is now of God, and for God’s grace in life.

    In our gospel today, as he asked his disciple “who do you say I am”, Jesus did not ask just to test them or to probe what others say of Him. Jesus is basically asking: “who am I to you? – inviting them to make a decision for Him – an option in favor of Jesus. He wants them to make a proclamation of their faith in Jesus into their own lives. And as we have heard, Peter professed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”. And because of this, Simon receives a new identity and responsibility in life and faith. Before he was just Simon, son of Jonah, but now he is Peter “the rock” as foundation stone of the church and the key bearer of God’s kingdom in heaven.

    Like Eliakim in our first reading, because of his faith in Jesus as Christ, Peter now is entrusted, blessed and given the authority and power in the church by Jesus. Through his witness of his faith in Jesus, the life of Peter and our lives now changed for the better – not anymore as before but now as life in Jesus, with Jesus and for Jesus.

    Until now, perhaps especially now during pandemic times, Jesus is asking us the same question: “Who am I to you?” Ho me 2 U?  Again this is not to test us or survey opinions of Him or to parrot what others taught us about Him, but a challenge to make a decision – a stance for Him. Meaning: Is Jesus your beloved whom you promise to live life with OR is He but just your convenient partner who comes handy when needed? Are all things from Him, through Him & for Him to you? Our response is our proclamation of our faith, and statement of our identity and a declaration of our responsibility in life. Like Peter then and us today’s Christians, our life-options/ decisions  for Jesus Christ, (limited & imperfect it maybe) is our proclamation and witness of our faith that make and build us as Church – a sacrament of God’s continuing blessings and grace.

    Remember then how blessed are you Christian married couples. Blessed are you not only because through your marriage, your heritage and bloodlines lives on, but also through your marriage – lived for the sake of Christ, God continues to make miracles in our lives today. Forget not what the evangelist John told us, the first miracle-performed by the Lord Jesus happened during the wedding in Cana. Meaning, through marital vows and married life – imperfect or lacking it may be, the Lord began and will continue to produce miracles – continually partaking God’s blessing to us. That’s how blessed and fortunate  you are now Christian married couples.

    The faith of Peter gains him a new identity and responsibility in life and in  God’s glory and graces. Our life-decisions and options for Christ ensure us a definite identity, dignity and responsibility in life as Christian, and offer us a blessed and promising life now and in God’s glory. That is why Your decision today is a statement of your identity, a declaration of your responsibility in life, and a proclamation of faith. In other words, remember always that whatever our decision today reflect who we are now, who we choose to be, and what we believe.

    While always hoping for the better, holding on as things get worse these days, may we not lose track, but instead be steadfast of our basic identity, responsibility and faith before God and others, so that we may be guided now with whatever decisions we have to make ahead. Amen.

    By  Fr. Aphelie Mario Masangcay, CSsR (a former Filipino Redemptorist Missionary for Filipino Migrants in South Korea who, due to immune compromised diabetic condition, stationed back home  in the Philippines for now).