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Tag: Power of God

  • The Power of the Washing of the Feet and of the Shared Meal

    The Power of the Washing of the Feet and of the Shared Meal

    April 6, 2023 – Mass of the Lord’s Last Supper and Washing of Feet

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040623-Supper.cfm)

    Power is an ability to influence, to create and transform. It can be either positive or negative. When power is expressed as a positive force via affirmation, then, power builds respect. When is expressed through love, then, power transforms into service and giving of oneself. However, when power is expressed as a negative force, it leads to coercion, manipulation, abuse, exploitation and even to death

    Each of us is a bundle of energy, of power. We possess power as long as we live with others because power can only exist and be exercised in the context of community. Hence, power is entirely about relationship because power is an exercise of influence, which can be realized only in the context of community.

    We remind ourselves that it is also in the context of our relationships that we discover who we are, our talents and capacities, strengths and potentials, as well as our weaknesses and limitations. It is in the community that we also understand ourselves the “I am.” I am – is the uniqueness of the person whatever his or her status in life. Our person regardless of our social standing, sexual orientation, age, educational attainment or role in the family or community, is called by the Lord to share in God’s fullness of life, living in a community. Our person also is gifted with THINKING, FEELING, and ACTING. These are forms of power which can be expressed positively or negatively within our community

    Our thinking, feeling and acting can, indeed, influence others. Through thinking we create ideas, we make plans and decisions. Through feeling or emotions, our thinking and acting can be influenced. Our feeling may dictate our thinking and in the process also affect our actions. Through our actions we initiate movements that may directly and indirectly affect our environment, which include the people around us.

    Thus, when we become anxious of ourselves and less aware and knowledgeable of who we are, there is a tendency of insecurity. Insecurity leads us to compensations, which means that what is lacking in us, we try to compensate in other forms. For example, a child who is abused physically or verbally at home, may tend to be a bully at school to exercise dominance. Or a person who is deprived of things, like food, toys, and clothes at home may tend to become a hoarder later on. The person will try to collect and possess more, to feel some sense of security. While trying to satisfy himself/herself, the person may in turn deprive others too.

    These are expressions of power that are also being unfolded as we begin the Paschal Triduum of Christ beginning today and will culminate in the Resurrection of Christ. Yet, for now, what I want to focus more is on how power in its positive and negative forms give influence to people and transform us. It is good then, that we become aware on how the power of Satan suppresses life and how the Power of God gives life.

    Let us look first at the power of Satan and on how it controls and brings death. The Gospel of John clearly tells us that the devil had already induced Judas, to hand Jesus over (John 13:2). In the same Gospel, it was also described that as soon as Judas took the morsel, Satan entered him (John 13:27). The intentions of the heart and actions of Judas were already leaning towards the evil spirit, hence, it was easy for Satan to get hold of Judas and bring him deeper into darkness and sin. This was how the devil influenced the mind, decisions and actions of Judas.

    Judas must have thought that his desires and longings will be fulfilled through these actions and decisions of him. Yet, he was wrong. He was controlled and manipulated. He was not himself anymore. Judas was in total darkness. Satan was controlling him, perhaps, even without fully realizing that the evil spirit was already manipulating him farther away from the grace and light of Jesus and closer to darkness and death. This led him to his pitiful death. This is how the power of Satan controls us and brings us farther away from the grace of God.

    However, let us also not forget how Jesus turned upside down this terrible event. Even though that happened to Judas, but Jesus turned that night of betrayal and pain through the power of love and mercy.

    This was described to us as Jesus assumed the humble position of washing the feet of his disciples. It was power expressed through service and humility. Jesus tells us that being a person with power as an authority figure or leader is not about controlling others or manipulating others.

    As Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, he gives a model of a life-giving way of expressing power and that is through service and love. This tells us too that the power of being a Christian is having the capacity to serve and love without pretention, without manipulation and that does not count the cost. Christian Discipleship is indeed a form of power, a life-giving power.

    This call and invitation to exercise power as a Christian Disciple applies to all, regardless of our age, gender and sexual orientation, social status, educational attainment or state in life. Indeed, to be a disciple of Christ is to give life just as Jesus gives his life for us. And this is the true expression of power which is sacramentally given to us through the shared meal on that Last Supper of Jesus. This is what we powerfully remember today.

    It cannot be denied that at the Last Supper of Jesus, his Body and Blood were given also to a disciple, a friend and a companion who betrayed him on that night. Yes, even Judas was in that meal. He too received the body and blood of Jesus even though he was not in the “state of grace.” Jesus gave and offered his body and blood for Judas and for us who are also potential Judases[1] today. This is the power of forgiveness, the power of unconditional love, the power self-giving. This is the power of God.

    As we enter into the Paschal Triduum, let us also allow the power of serving, of loving, of caring and of compassion to be the very power we express in our relationships, in our roles and leadership, and in our life through our thinking, feeling and acting. Let the power of God transform any forms of control, manipulation, and abuse into life and into love. Kabay pa.

    [1] In the words of Bishop Pablo David, DD, Bishop of Kalookan.

  • Power that gives life and heals

    Power that gives life and heals

    January 13, 2021 – Wednesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/011321.cfm)

    How do we imagine a person having power? We usually understand that a person who has power over others exercises control and dominance. 

    In a community or society, people who have the power rule others into submission. People who are powerful are believed to have wealth which gives them influence, entitlements and high positions. Consequently, these powerful people may also tend to relate with those who are under them as their mere subordinates. Manipulation to advance the self-interest of the powerful and to stay in power is very tempting in this kind of relationship. When a powerful person submits to this temptation, then, most likely the powerful will use force, violence and incite fear towards others in order to preserve and even consolidate his or her power.

    Among couples, a husband who plays powerful may most probably relate with his wife in terms of control. It commonly happens in abusive relationships where a partner places the other into submission through manipulation, deceit, pretension and fear.

    However, all these forms of exercising power are filled with so much insecurity and evil. This kind of power destroys relationships and life of people. This is the power of death, of the devil that the Letter to the Hebrews was telling us about. This is also the power that Jesus destroyed in order to free us from fear and from slavery.

    Moreover, in today’s Gospel, Mark proclaimed to us the life-giving and healing power of Jesus. This power that Jesus showed us transforms life, heals the broken and frees the troubled. This was described to us in that scene when Jesus healed Simon’s mother-in-law. The power of Jesus was described to us three actions.

    The first action was when Jesus approached her. Jesus and his friends were received into the house of Simon and Andrew. By welcoming the Lord into their home, Jesus was also made aware of the sickness of Simon’s mother-in-law. With this awareness in Jesus, he approached the sick woman. This action of Jesus to approach the sick has the intention to manifest God’s presence.

    The second action was when Jesus grasped her hand. Jesus has manifested God’s presence, with this, Jesus also brought God’s touch to the sick woman. God touching her meant God’s compassion towards her. The touch of Jesus was God’s most abiding presence giving her the strength.

    And the third action was when Jesus helped her up. The strength from God was the gift of healing granted to the sick mother-in-law. Because she was lying down and her fever overpowers her, she needed help from another. This very action of Jesus helping her up tells us that God supplements and journeys with us towards our freedom and healing.

    From these three actions, Jesus showed us how our presence, our touch and our concrete action in helping another will manifest power that brings comfort, compassion, healing and even life.

    This is the very reason why after the healing of Simon’s mother-in-law, people with various diseases and those who are ill or possessed by demons flocked towards Jesus. Because the power of Jesus is not of force and violence, people begin to recognize God’s power. In Jesus what we really see is God’s power who wills our joy and desires our healing and to experience the fullness of life.

    For us today, let these three actions of Jesus be our invitations in our relationships. But first, let us welcome the Lord to come to us, to welcome him in our hearts. Then, let us allow the Lord through his instruments to approach us, to hold us, and to help us. They may be our friends or family members or even strangers who have the intention to love us.

    With that, we may also become God’s instruments who will manifest his power in our homes, workplaces and communities by approaching, holding and helping those who are sick, weak and vulnerable.

    May God’s life-giving and healing power dispel every fear, insecurity, selfishness, illness and evil in our hearts, through the intercession of Mary, Our Mother of Perpetual Help. Hinaut pa.