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Tag: Resurrection

  • There is Mercy and Fullness of Redemption

    There is Mercy and Fullness of Redemption

    March 26, 2023 – Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032623.cfm)

    Who among us here who have not yet felt or experienced disappointment? Or a failure or a heartbreak? Well, definitely, most of us have these experiences in one way or another. There might be some of us who have also experienced being humiliated, oppressed or abused. Or perhaps who are ill at the moment, or in trouble at work, perhaps lost a job, failure in business or failure in a relationship or having an overwhelming family problem, or who are in great sorrow for losing a loved one.

    These realities cause a person to suffer and make our day turn into darkness, our bright tomorrow into hopelessness and our life bitter and horrible. This was the case of Nanay Celia whom I met in Cebu City when I was in the college seminary. She suffered and died of breast cancer. But before she died I had a deep conversation with her. She shared that her husband left her for another woman. When she got sick and she was completely abandoned. She was all alone. She began to be angry with everything and everyone. She got angry with God and cursed God for such suffering she endured. Life was so bitter. She wanted to end everything because she was hopeless.

    Yet, not until a group of missionary sisters found her in her house. She was brought to the sisters’ institution. It was in that institution that I met her. She knew that she was about to die but before she died, something changed. The darkness of being abandoned turned into light. Her hopeless life turned into a life filled with hope. Her anger, disappointment and loneliness were all gone because she found love, acceptance and forgiveness through the sisters.

    This story is not far from our readings today that concretely portray to us these human realities of failure, disappointment, heartbreak, doubts, and even of being helpless and hopeless. This was how the people of Israel felt at the time of Prophet Ezekiel. The Hebrews were exiled. They were in a land they did not know, where there was no Temple and no God. As a people they were humiliated by their foreign captors. They had no identity and were doubtful of God’s presence in their life.

    The same expression was presented to us in the psalms. “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice!” It is a lament of a person who is in great misery, who felt that God seemed to be deaf of his/her pleas, who felt of a God who seemed so indifferent to his horrible situation.

    This is what we find also in the Gospel. Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus, were in great misery. They were inconsolable and heartbroken over the death of their brother. That is why Martha, in her sorrow said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died…” It was a statement of disappointment and even of anger. It was actually a statement of blaming God for not doing anything.

    But our readings also today reveal something very important to us. The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel conveys God’s promise of salvation where the Lord shall open the graves and shall have them rise as a people and will be restored to their homeland, Israel. This is entirely connected to our psalm that says, “With the Lord, there is mercy and fullness of redemption.” It means that God is indeed faithful to his promise, he is faithful to the covenant. God will never betray us. The Lord will never abandon us because God is forever with us and for us.

    These characteristics of God are most evident in our Gospel. Jesus reveals to us, not just to Martha and Mary but also to you and to me today, that God is never indifferent to our misery, to our feelings. Jesus reveals to us that he is a loving God and a merciful God. He is a God who feels like us who also feels lonely, feels afraid and even worried, anxious and sad. Yes, in the Gospel Jesus was described twice to have been perturbed. He was distressed and troubled because something happened to his dear friend Lazarus. And when he saw the dead Lazarus lying on the grave, (what happened to Jesus?), Jesus wept! He cried like us. He feels sad and in grief like you and me.

    What does that mean now? It means that our God is not a God who is so far away who cannot hear our cries or deaf to our prayers. God is not indifferent to our suffering, to our questions and doubts. God understands how it is to lose a loved one, or even to be humiliated, to be lonely and alone. God cries with us when we too are in deep trouble.

    This shows, then, the immensity and the greatness of God’s love for you and me. Jesus prayed to the Father to bring Lazarus back to life. Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” What do these words mean to us now? Jesus also wants us to come out from our own graves. That we too will be healed from our own experiences of pain, bitterness, hopelessness and loneliness where we too seemed to be lifeless in many ways, as expressed in our relationships with others. Coming out from our own graves also means being freed from our own selfishness, arrogance and sins that come in many forms.

    We will only be able to come out from our own graves and lifeless situations when we become like the sister of Lazarus, Martha. Jesus asked her, “Do you believe that I can bring your brother back to life?” Mary indeed believed. Each of us is being asked by Jesus, “Do you believe in me? That I am the resurrection and the life?” It is only when we come to realize and believe in the goodness and love of God that God also works wonders in us.

    It is only when we come to believe that God is the author of life that we will also value more our life and the lives of others. It is only when we come to believe that God is the God of our life, that we also see the many good things we enjoy in this life despite the many difficulties and hardships we encounter. When we truly believe that God is the resurrection and the life, that we begin to become true Christians who see light in the midst of darkness, who find joy in the midst of sorrow, who capture a smile in the midst of pain, who embrace hope in the midst of impossibility, who find healing in the midst of so much sickness and who find life in death. Kabay pa.

  • LIVING and DYING. LIFE and DEATH.

    LIVING and DYING. LIFE and DEATH.

    November 6, 2022 – 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/110622.cfm)

    Are you living to die? Or are you dying to live? Do we seek to give life? Or do we suck out life? We have just celebrated All Souls’ Day and remembered the lives of our departed loved ones.  We remember not just their life but also how they died. Some may have died in tragic and painful events. Some also may have died peacefully. Remembering their death and being aware also of our own, sooner or later, what gives us hope is the promise of the resurrection, a blessed life that we will share with Jesus.

    However, the promise of the resurrection is not just something that will be for the future alone. Its grace and mystery are so vast and beyond any boundaries that we are already being invited in the here-and-now. And so, as we are being invited to hold on to that promise and have a taste of that blessed life in our present context, allow me now to journey with you a bit deeper on this 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time.

    In 2019, I was in a funeral wake of a young professional in his mid-twenties. Because of much pain and hurts that he was experiencing in his young life, he couldn’t endure them. He was helpless and felt hopeless. He felt alone and lonely. All of these directed him to depression until his depression clouded his mind and heart which also led him to kill himself.

    Without judging him, such situation brought me to ask myself, how am I living my life right now? Am I letting hopelessness and despair to deprive me to live fully and meaningfully with others?

    Back in college, I met a leper in Cebu, an old woman in her 70s, abandoned by her family in her teen-age years when leprosy began to manifest in her body. Yet, despite being abandoned and left alone in the hospital for lepers, she remained hopeful in life by resisting to be eaten up by despair, by emotional hurts, by abandonment and by the very suffering she was enduring. Thus, she even adopted an abandoned baby girl with cerebral palsy whom she named Nancy. She found Nancy in a garbage bin in Cebu. Despite her poverty, she accepted Nancy in her life and let Nancy feel a mother’s love, affection and care. Yet, as Nancy grew up and due to her failing eyesight and old age, she has to let go of Nancy and bring her to a group of Sisters who could provide better the needs of Nancy. Despite the pain of separation and of the loneliness she would endure by losing Nancy beside her, she let her go. In that way, she gave life to Nancy even though she herself struggled to live. She died peacefully in the hospital for lepers knowing that she was capable of loving and being loved.

    With this encounter, I also asked myself, am I giving life? Have I tried to give myself in order to give life to others? Or am I just busy living only thinking of myself without any regard and care for others?

    In the second book of the Maccabees, we have heard the story of the seven brothers and their mother who were tortured and killed. The king wanted them to violate the law of God. Despite the trials and persecution, the reverence they gave to the law of God made them commit their whole life even up to death. This was their expression that there is more in this life, and that is, the resurrection.

    Their story tells us that suffering and persecution, trials even sickness and death are nothing because the righteous, those who are favored by God will be raised up.

    This is what Paul also tried to express in his second letter to the Thessalonians. Paul confessed, “The Lord is faithful.” This was his experience and his reminder to the Christians in Thessalonica that amidst trials and persecutions, they too will be confident in God’s faithfulness. Paul also asked for prayers and hoped that the Thessalonians, their hearts, will be directed to the love of God and to the endurance of Christ. Christ is therefore, our strength and confidence in times of trials and the fullness of our joy. This fullness of joy reminds us of the blessed life in the promise of the resurrection.

    But let us remember, this fullness of joy or blessed life or the promise of the resurrection begins to unfold today, in our present moment, in the quality of our life and relationships.

    This was the failure of the Sadducees, the fundamentalists at the time of Jesus categorically denied the promise of resurrection. For them, this was completely foolish because this was not clearly affirmed in the Pentateuch or the Torah. However, the situation they gave to Jesus of a woman marrying the brothers of her dead husband, one after another death, was a complete misunderstanding of life and the resurrection.

    Their denial of the resurrection was a denial of God’s power over death. Their misunderstanding of life that only ends in death expressed hopelessness. And their perversion of one’s life that remains the same if there is ever a resurrection, referring to their question to Jesus, is an insult to the fullness of joy in the resurrection. Resurrection, as Jesus said, is not a state of life that we have now but the fullness of joy and total blessed life shared with the God of hope and of life.

    How are we invited now so that the hope of the resurrection shall grow in our hearts, mold our faith and develop the quality of our life and relationships? There are three invitations for us now.

    First, live to share hope. This invites us that we ourselves will become an instrument of hope not discouragement or fear. Let our very person and our presence express hope for those friends who may be struggling now, needing support and understanding, company and acceptance.  Living to share hope is call from us that we are anchored and secured in our relationship with God, who is our hope.

    Second, live to share love. This calls us to go beyond ourselves and beyond our comforts in order to show concretely our love. Living to share love requires our commitment in our relationships which can be difficult, or even painful at times. Yet, it is in truly living to share love that we too experience what life is.

    Third, live to share life. This directs us to recognize that we can actually regenerate life, inspire life, defend life and motivate life. Indeed, this is an invitation to us not to suck the life of others, or to abuse, oppress and kill the life of others. All of these are not from the God of life but of evil. Like what Jesus did, this could be quite challenging because living to share life is giving totally our life for the sake of others.

    And so, as we are called to live to share hope, love and life, may the God of the Living and not of the dead, bless us with a joyful and blessed life today and tomorrow. Kabay pa.

  • Of Life Beyond

    Of Life Beyond

    November 6, 2022 – 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/110622.cfm)

    Last week and even week before last, we cannot help but find ourselves thinking about our experiences of death & life. Not only we were remembering our dearly beloved departed brothers & sister, we are also praying for the souls in purgatory & souls of those who have recently died of Covid pandemic, victims of natural disasters, & about all the 150 plus youth who died in Itaewon Stampede for a Halloween party in South Korea. Yes, we cannot help but reflect on such a waste of lives of many young people who are supposed to be enjoying & having fun on a costume party Halloween Event, which they don’t even believe, ending in tragedy on harrowing deaths of plenty.

    In such experiences of death, dying & waste of lives nowadays, yes indeed, we do find ourselves questioning about our life as it is & our life yet to come. Somehow, we ask ourselves what is life all about. “Is there a life after death? What happened to those who have died? Was their life sensible before their death? Is our lives now sensible before our death? Is there, are we living or do we have a life before death?”, are just but some questions we are confronted with, as we make sense & find meaning from our recent experiences of loss & grief.

    Somehow our readings today are offering us some perspectives as to how we grapple with these questions.

    By our faith in God, the witness of suffering & martyrdom of the Maccabeans testify to the reality that there is more to life & death than what we have and are experiencing it. For people of deep faith, there is resurrection, eternal life, and life-beyond life & death. Paul exhorts us faithful people to be steadfast & enduring in our faith in God who loves us dearly & in Jesus who journeys with us in life. And in our gospel today, Jesus is telling & teaching us that resurrection, eternal, life-beyond life & death is not all about who are we married to in life, but moreso about it is about how we have been faithful & fruitful to the life we have committed to in life, since our fullness of joy lies in the full glory of our Lord – not ours, as our Psalms proclaims.

    In our life as Christian believers then, we are called not only to be happy and successful, but above all to be faithful & fruitful. Faithfulness & fruitfulness then IS life-all about, and less on our happiness & successes. Our life here & now thus is all about fullness of God glory through the faithful & fruitful witness of all who believes in our Lord Jesus Christ.

    Beyond the questions about the meaning of our experiences of life & death while we are still alive here & now, lies the call & challenge for us to be faithful & fruitful in our faith in God. Eternal Life – Life Beyond then is all about God & about how we have been faithful & fruitful in life we are having now.

    As once penned by a modern-day spiritual guru Henri Nouwen: “The real question is: “How can I live so that my death will be fruitful for others?” Our life we have here & now then IS OUR CHANCE to do thing right before God & others.

    Perhaps while we are still now alive here in this life, consider these very words of St. Paul that inspired one of Pilipino church song entitled: “Pag-aalay ng Puso”:

    “I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now… for I shall not pass this way again….”

    Minsan lamang ako dadaan sa daigdig na ito, Kaya anumang Mabuti maaring gawin ko ngayon. O anumang kabutihan ang maari kong ipadama, itulot ninyong magawa ko ngayon ang mga bagay na to. Nawa’y hwag ko tong ipagpaliban, O ipagwalang-bahala, sapagkat di na ko muling dadaan sa ganitong mga landas.

  • GOING FORWARD AND TAKING RISKS

    GOING FORWARD AND TAKING RISKS

    April 9, 2021 – Friday within the Octave of Easter

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040921.cfm)

    Jesus who was thought to be the Messiah and Son of God was crucified and died on Friday. He was buried in a tomb but on Sunday morning Jesus resurrected. However, his disciples like Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathanael and other disciples did not know yet that the Lord is alive. These disciples only knew that their Lord was buried in a tomb. Because of this, their hearts were filled with pain, disappointment, with fear and doubts.

    When Jesus was there at their side, they were filled with enthusiasm and spirit but when Jesus was arrested they fled and when he was crucified, they hid themselves for fear of the Jews. Because of these negative experiences, they believed that they have failed the Lord, and so they themselves were failures.

    Their immediate response was to go back their old self, to retreat and not to go forward anymore. Because they believed that they were failures, they succumbed to the temptation to go back to their old ways and that was to fish. They have been called from being fishermen to become fishers of people, yet, having a painful and horrible experience on the death of Jesus, they retreated to go back to fishing. This was what Simon Peter and the rest did.

    However, all night they caught nothing. The “night” in the Gospel is very symbolic because it reveals to us that the disciples were in darkness and they couldn’t find light. They felt hopeless and even in a helpless situation. They wanted to give up. But, at dawn a stranger appeared on the shore and asked them if they have caught anything. They all answered, no, they caught nothing. That stranger said, “cast the net over the right side of the boat and you will find something.” And they did, they trusted that stranger and to their surprise, when they pulled the net they could barely pull it back because there were plenty of fish.

    Then, the “beloved disciple” recognized that it was the Lord Jesus. Jesus is alive and waiting on the shore. This prompted Peter to jump into the sea in order to meet the Lord with excitement and joy.

    This reminds us that there will be times of sorrow, of disappointment and discouragement, times of fear and failure. We might come into the point of our life where we feel hopeless and helpless because we have failed, because the situation is just too difficult, family problems are just horrifying, our poverty is just overwhelming, or our relationship with others have failed – and then, our immediate reaction is to retreat, to hide in our own failure and pain, to dwell so much on our problems, to go back to our old and bad habits, becoming fearful, anxious and mediocre – which means going into the darkness of depression rather into the light of hope and life.

    Indeed, this happened to the disciples and because they retreated into the night of fear, they caught nothing. They thought that they could catch fish by themselves alone. They believed that they could surpass that difficulty by being alone, but, no! Being alone and separated from God only brought them into a deeper disappointment in life. It is when we are with Jesus that we find meaning and joy even in the midst of pain, of failure and difficulties.

    The Risen Lord invites us today.

    First, when we meet failures and difficulties, do not go back to the old ways and old habits (which could be our addictions and depressive behaviors). This will only bring us into deeper darkness and hopelessness. Rather go forward and take the risk.

    Second, in taking the risk of going forward never take the road alone, or never think that we can do everything by ourselves. The journey is lighter when we are with somebody else whom we can trust, whom we can share our story. Find and build long lasting friendship, build a deeper family relationship, invest in your relationships. When we are told to cast our net, to change the course of our boat and to change our life – go for it and trust the Lord because it might be in that direction that we will find the abundance of love and life.

    Third, be always aware of God’s presence waiting for us on the shore. Just like the beloved disciple let us always be intimate with Jesus. It is only when we become intimate with Jesus in our prayer that we also become aware of his presence in everyone. Hinaut pa.

  • Please be patient. God is not finished with you and me yet

    Please be patient. God is not finished with you and me yet

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    April 26, 2020 – Third Sunday of Easter

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/042620.cfm)

    Perhaps the most sensible and wise advice I could give to myself and others at this time, as we grapple with the question: “Can I still live the life I left-behind?”

    It is almost a month now that we find ourselves on lockdown and quarantine due to COVID-19 pandemic. Ours now is a strange life. Almost abruptly, our normal lives had to shutdown for with the pandemic in our midst, our whole world is now rendered unhealthy, unusual, and unsafe. Our human race is under threat of disease, sickness and even death. Our lives will never be the same and as usual again. Worrisome as it is and maybe, we are confronted now with the question: “What now? What’s next? How will it be? How can we be? Will life be the same again or much better (or even worse) than before?” Whether we like it or not, we cannot help but adjust and discover new meanings in our changing world today.

    Somehow our gospel today mirrors and perhaps offers us some lessons as we lived by with our experience of our changing world today.

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    Two disciples were on their way back home – tired and weary souls, beaten in life, since their promised Messiah whom they followed ever since was now dead and gone. They had to socially distance, quarantine, lockdown themselves in hiding from others, since all now are suspects and symptomatic. They were hopeless, directionless, and in despair with life. But along the way, the risen Lord, though unrecognized, joined and journeyed with them on the road. They shared to Him their current life-story, and they also listened to His story. They invited Him into their own home for the night, and had meal with Him together. And eventually they recognized Him who was all along on the road and in life with them.

    Their experiences with life and with the Risen Lord along the road to Emmaus might post us some challenges & pointers now as we manage our lives in COVID-19 era.

    First, RECOGNIZE IMMANUEL. Always be sensitive and believe that the Lord is with us. The risen Lord is the Immanuel – the God with us, who lives in us. This the Gospel of the Lord – the good news of our salvation, even since before, until now and always. He is with us, here all along, along the way, on journey with our lives whatever, whenever, and however it is. And we have yet to recognize Him always.

    Second, INVITE HIM INTO OUR LIVES. Just as the two disciples invited Him, we too should call upon Him and say: “STAY WITH US, LORD”. Good News to us as He is, the Lord still needs our responsibility (our ability to respond to Him). He still needs our consent to Him, our acceptance and recognition of Him, our faith in Him and our relationship/collaboration with Him by inviting Him IN.

    Third, ALLOW HIM TO DO HIS WORK IN US.  Give Him and ourselves a chance to take care, protect and heal us. Along with Him, time now to treat our chronic spiritual disease, improve our spiritual hygiene and boost your spiritual immune system, and to tend now our tired and weary souls. In prayer and contemplation, share our story of faith-life journey to Him and allow His story be part of our story.  Have a meal-time and date with Him in Eucharistic Communion (when possible). And let him disappear once in awhile, (not to be so attached), for He also needs to be with those who needed Him most.

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    But above all, ADVISE YOURSELF AND OTHERS: “Please be PATIENT. GOD is not finished with me and you YET”, since, though His last words on the cross is “It is finished”, Jesus did not say,  “I am finished”, but rather He is just getting started. Our risen Lord Jesus has yet more and better great things to do, and more miracles yet to show us in life. So, be patient for God is yet unfinished with us.

    May we have a blessed Easter now and always despite (and even with) the pandemic in our midst. Amen.

    (By: Fr. Aphelie Mario Masangcay CSsR, a Filipino Redemptorist  Missionary stationed in Gwangju South Korea, though now still stranded in Cebu until further notice for available flights.)

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