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Tag: Sunday

  • Remembering, Reconnecting, Responding

    Remembering, Reconnecting, Responding

    April 2, 2023 – Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040223.cfm)

    On this Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, we blessed our palms to remind us of Jesus’ triumphant entry in Jerusalem, only to be handed over to death. He was arrested, tortured, abused and humiliated, carried his own cross to Calvary, crucified while onlookers waited for him to die hanging on that cross. The palms that symbolized Jesus, revered to be king, but riding on a donkey, culminated in that shameful and painful death on the cross.

    Thus, as we enter the Holy Week and being reminded fn the story of the suffering and death of Jesus, there are three invitations that I would like to share with you today. These three invitations will hopefully guide us in our journey in life with Jesus.

    First, REMEMBERING. To remember a painful memory is not easy. When we do this even with our painful memories in the past, of the trauma, shame and guilt that happened to us, we feel discomfort. Some may even try to escape to forget that painful memory. Yet, this is what we do now as we remember, recall and recover the story of Jesus who after preaching to the people the Kingdom of God and making difference into lives of the distressed, the sick, the lonely, the sinners and abandoned, was being betrayed by his own disciple, denied by a friend, and left alone on the cross.

    In our remembering, we honor the pain, the shame and the guilt that surround in the story of Jesus as well as in our own stories. As Jesus struggled to find meaning in his suffering as expressed in his words, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” let us also find meaning and God’s presence in our own painful and shameful stories.

    Despite the pain and the seemingly absentee-God as we face our own suffering as individuals and as a people, let us also allow the Spirit to bring us further in this journey. This is the second invitation.

    The second is RECONNECTING. In remembering the passion and death of Jesus it also allows us to remember our own stories, we may realize how far we gone away from our painful past. In our attempt to forget, cover and bury what was shameful and filled with guilt, we could have pretend as if nothing was wrong or nothing happened.

    We let the words of Prophet Isaiah be our prayer, “Morning after morning, he opens my ear that I may hear,” so that we may be able to listen well to the voice of God speaking within us and through our human experiences. As we reconnect with the past, we also reconnect with our emotions that may still be overwhelming for us. We reconnect with ourselves and find our re-connection with God who has been with us all along even in our darkest moments in life.

    Photo from JerryTreñasOfficial Facebook

    In reconnecting, we bring our heart and mind into prayer, into contemplation even when we are faced with difficult life experiences and situations that may be challenging to comprehend. In prayer and contemplation, we give ourselves to God just as Jesus gave up his spirit to the Father. This is where we are called to grow in our confidence and faith in the Lord who promised to be with us always and who shall never ever leave our side. And this confidence brings us into the third invitation.

    The third is RESPONDING. Jesus even at his death proved that God’s power of love and mercy outdone human sin and death. Even in death, Jesus responded to bring life and freedom. The Gospel described that “the veil in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn into two from top to bottom. The earth quaked, rocks were split, tombs were opened, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised.” This was how the death of Jesus made the heaven opened for all and brought hope to the dead.

    Hence, as we remember and reconnect, let our heart be filled with God’s presence to empower us by finding healing and freedom, life and renewal. This only means that we won’t allow any painful or shameful memory to dampen our spirit into hiding and pretensions. Do not settle to seek temporary comforts but rather go beyond and seek the Lord. The Lord desires our reconciliation and healing and so let us embrace that grace offered by the Lord to us, as Jesus gave up his spirit for us.

    To respond then, is to be able to get out beyond ourselves and become life-giving, spirit-inspiring and heart-renewing. Kabay pa.

  • 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.

  • Blessing-in Disguise

    Blessing-in Disguise

    March 26, 2023 – Fifth Sunday of Lent

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

    So angry, disappointed, and frustrated with God for letting his mother get seriously sick, a seminarian once was about to leave to seminary. In prayer, he said to God, “Lord, I have been your obedient follower. I’ve taken care of your people, but how could you let my mother get seriously sick?” And in response, he heard God saying: “Son, I know how you love your mother, it’s good that you have been so concerned about your mother’s health. But can you please give a chance to heal her? She is also my concern. Did I not tell you to have faith? My plans for her are much better than yours, same as my plans for you are much better than yours.”

    How much of us here, have not been frustrated with God? Yes, in one way of another, we have sometimes experienced how it is to be frustrated & disappointed with God. There are times or moments in our lives that we have felt angry, disappointed, and frustrated with God, especially at times when we were helpless in life, needing His presence, but instead we experience His absence and seeming darkness or dryness in life. Yes, like sometimes we are disappointed and frustrated with our parent, sometimes we are also disappointed and frustrated with God, whether we like it or not.

    Like here in our gospel today, people were disappointed with our Lord Jesus. Mary and Martha, his friends were also frustrated with Jesus, saying “Lord, if you have here, my brother could have been saved”. Consider that days even before Lazarus died, they have already informed Jesus how sickly Lazarus, his friend who lived nearby, has been. But Jesus seemingly did not respond or did not care. Only four days after Lazarus death, that Jesus went to visit. Who would not be disappointed and frustrated with Jesus not able to respond to a family crisis?

    People might be disappointed or frustrated with Jesus then, same way, that we might have been disappointed or frustrated with God now.

    However, our gospel today reminds us again that God has a different view of life than the way we see things. For God, our experiences, perceptions and understanding of sufferings, deaths, problems, and crises in life – frustrating and painful they might be, play a great part or role in God’s plans. Jesus’ seeming passivity or insensitivity toward Lazarus was his way of teaching us to let God be God in our lives.

    When he learned that Lazarus was sick, Jesus said: “This sickness will end not in death but in God’s glory”. And when he performed the miracle of resuscitating Lazarus, he said: “so that they may believe it was you who sent.” Meaning, for Jesus, there is more to sickness and dying or more to illness and death. For Jesus, sickness and health, life in its greatness and sufferings are opportunities for us to witness God’s graces working in us – a chance for God to heal us or revive us not only from physical but also spiritual sickness or spiritual death, and to offer us fullness of life with Him. It is a chance for God to show us His divine Glory and Mercy and for us to benefit from it, and to know that He is the Lord. In other words, not misfortunes but blessings-in disguise.

    As one wise guru would say, “Being sick is an opportunity to experience yourself and God in a new way. It is the chance to teach the mind and the soul to remain independent from the body and so connect with your inner resources of peace and silence in God.”

    So whenever we get sick or have experienced death in our family, or is frustrated with God, let Him say to you…”Give up, Surrender, Let me Be God to You. Give me a chance to be God, not as you want me to be but as I choose to be. My plans, my ways, my glory are much greater than yours. So that you may have not only life, but life to its fullness with Me.” Consider then that whatever & however circumstances we may find ourself – whether in sickness, sinfulness, despair, desperations & sufferings, could be blessings-in disguise – great opportunities for God’s grace be known in us & God’s glory be revealed through us, and for ours to rise into the occasion to witness & proclaim our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, His son to others.

    While we grapple with life’s questions, frustrations, and challenges, may Thomas Merton’s prayer of abandonment express our true heart’s desire before our Lord whom we believe most….

    My Lord God,
    I have no idea where I am going.
    I do not see the road ahead of me.
    I cannot know for certain where it will end.
    nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.

    But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.

    I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it.

    Therefore will I trust you always though
    I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
    and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

    So May it Be. Amen.

  • Satisfying our Thirst

    Satisfying our Thirst

    March 12, 2022 – Third Sunday of Lent

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031223.cfm)

    Kyle (not his real name) seemed to be so kind and warmhearted around his friends. He would always be there when someone would be in need of help. He was always filled with smiles. He was generous of his resources and time. Yet, he also tended to just please everyone around but very afraid of any conflict and tension. As a result, his pleasing personality would turn to become submissive to his friends and family members.

    Deep within, Kyle was filled with insecurities and fear of being left alone and abandoned by people whom he valued. Kyle, at a very young age was abandoned by his mother and left by his father at the care of their relatives. Kyle grew up believing that he has to earn the love of people around him so that he would never be lonely and alone again. This was the reason why Kyle would do anything, overly pleasing his friends, earn their approval and acceptance and as much as possible cling on them. However, his goodness and kindness, his very person was easily abused by opportunists.

    Kyle actually experienced a deep longing of love and acceptance because of an emptiness in his heart caused by that deprivation in the past. This is, indeed, a form of thirst, emotionally and spiritually. His ways, beliefs, attitudes and relationships followed the pattern of “people-pleasing” because he was in search of fulfillment, to quench that emptiness within. Yet, because he did not know at that time, what and why he was doing such things, he too experienced more hurts and pains.

    Like Kyle, we too might have our own thirsts and ways of quenching those thirsts for love and acceptance, for healing and reconciliation, for independence and freedom, for justice and peace. And so, on this Third Sunday of Lent, this is something I want to expound and share with you, as the readings evoked the symbolism of water and the need to be fulfilled and satisfied by the Living Water.

    Hence, in the Book of Exodus, the people became thirsty while they were in the desert. They became desperate. They began to complain and become bitter of their situation. They also began to blame Moses and God for bringing them out of Egypt. Moses had become desperate too and afraid of what the people might do to him. Moses pleaded with God.

    However, despite the ingratitude of the people to God for saving them from slavery in Egypt, the Lord responded generously to them. Striking the rock implied trust in God. The rock is hard and empty of water but out of that emptiness, God brings forth abundance, life and assurance of God’s love. There was flowing water. In the words of St. Paul in his letter to the Romans, he said, “the love of God has been poured out into our hearts.”

    In the Gospel, the Samaritan Woman, who experienced deep thirst in her soul, had a dialogue with Jesus. This was something that was forbidden at that time. But then, this was the initiative of Jesus to meet the woman “where she was at that moment.” This tells us that God meets us where we are too. She had been with different men, and with this, people around her must have condemned and judged her.

    “Give me a drink,” was an invitation of Jesus to allow him to dialogue with her and to know her deepest longing in her heart. Jesus wanted her to allow God to feel her thirst for love and acceptance. The woman was indeed thirsty for such love and acceptance.

    This encounter with Jesus allowed her to look deeper into her life, into her many experiences of thirsts for love, for acceptance, for true friendship, for true and lasting intimacy with people whom she loved and those who loved her.

    Her dialogue with Jesus turned her bitterness, desperation and sadness into hope and joy. At the end, the words of Jesus, “Give me a drink,” had become her words too, she said, “Give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty again or have to keep coming here to draw water.”Such statement is very deep. This does not only mean to the water itself, but to the deepest thirst and longing of the woman. What she was asking was freedom and comfort from her sadness, desperation, and bitterness from those negative or traumatic experiences in her life that have made her constantly seek what was only temporary.Hence, she realized and found that the “Living Water” is in Jesus, in a person, in God who showed true compassion to her, lasting friendship with her and acceptance of her painful and sinful life.

    This is the invitation for us also on this Third Sunday of Lent. Jesus invites us to dialogue with him, because it is in dialoguing with God, is expressing our heart to God and listening to God that we begin to dig deeper into our own well, to recognize the dryness and thirst that we experience in life. Moreover, this will allow us to discover the abundance of God’s love and forgiveness for us.

    When we begin to recognize and own fears and failures, sinfulness and weaknesses that we also ask God to fill us, to love us, to forgive us, to give us peace and freedom, to give us life.

    We are not called to bury ourselves in fear and anxiety, or in shame and guilt when difficulties come in our life, or to turn towards bitterness and complaints when our struggles become confusing and overwhelming. Like Moses and the Samaritan Woman, let us turn towards God who shall direct us to that Living Water, to life itself, to our life’s contentment and joy with Jesus.

    As an exercise for this week, I invite you also to find time of at least 10 to 15 minutes every day, spend those moments in silence. You do not have to say your memorized prayers, but just stay in silence and be comfortable with that. Allow ourselves for self-examination and self-listening and to dialogue, to express to God what is in our heart, to listen to what God would like to tell us, and to allow the Lord to satisfy our thirst. Kabay pa.

    Guide Questions:

                How have you experienced “thirst” or deep longing in your life? How did you seek to be satisfied?

                In searching to be satisfied, how have you encountered and dialogued with Jesus, the true living water in your life?

  • Meeting Jesus

    Meeting Jesus

    March 12, 2023 – Third Sunday of Lent

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031223.cfm)

    Common rural village people teach us a simple wisdom: “If and when the well runs dry, dig deeper. (Kon ang atabay mahubsan, palawoman: Pag ang balon natuyo, hukayin ng malalim.) If we reflect on this deeper, these practical words tell us more about waters or wells but also offers meaning and wisdom about life, relationships, and even faith in God.

    We do know how important water is in our life. Water is our basic human need and our life-giving source itself. Our physical body as well as our world is mostly composed of water. Life without water is no life at all. Because of our need for water, wells and springs are also important in life as sources of life-giving water.  Unlike now in urban cities where it is enjoyed conveniently at home with tap water on the faucet, usually in rural villages, people have to go and gather in wells and springs just in order get and have water.

    In and through wells and springs, we get access to natural water that offers life not only to individuals but to the whole community, as well. Water from the wells and springs bring us together before God’s life-giving water and with one another.

    Usually wells and springs of the village is the best place to meet people in the village. Whenever I am on mission in rural areas, I usually go to the wells or springs in the village for meeting and integrating with people. Not only there where I could clean myself and drink water – satisfy my need, there I could also come to experience and know the people’s lives and faith more.  Simply put, water wells and springs bring about meeting, encounter, well-being, relationship, community, and communion. For us then, to have an access to and get in touch into God’s life-giving water, we must also go and gather together before God’s wells and springs.

    In life we also do experience dryness. Like wellsprings atabay, there are moments in our lives that we feel dry and thirsty in life and in our relationships with God, others and even oneself. There are periods in our life that like the Israelites, we grumble before the Lord about our life-miseries, challenges, and problems, doubting “Is the really Lord with us or not?” Yes, we do have moments of spiritual & personal dryness in our relationship with ourselves, others & God in life.

    However, experiences of dryness in life and in our relationships could be an invitation and opportunity to go and be connected with God himself, the source of life. In our experiences of life’s dryness and thirst, As the saying goes “If & when the well runs dry, dig deeper” “Kon ang atabay mahubsan, palawoman. Pag ang balon natuyo, hukayin ng malalim.  Thirst for God’s love and/or Dryness in our life and relationships could also be the opportunity to dig deeper, which is, the right time and place to examine our life and relationship, be in touch with our realities and ideals, at the same time deepen our relationships and commitments. In other words, dryness in life are moments of encounters or meeting points where we can experience for ourselves our relationship and commitment with others and with God.

    The gospel we have just heard is an account of the meeting of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. This is one of the most touching encounters in the gospels which pictures God’s love and human conversion : a story of God reaching out to us and Us reaching back to God through the person of Jesus.

    At Jacob’s well, Jesus expressed God’s thirst for our faith and love for Him as well as offered us God’s life-giving or love-giving life. At Jacob’s well, the Samaritan woman became in touch with her own dryness and thirst, her need for God’s eternal life at the same time quenched her thirst in her encounter-meeting with Jesus. As she met Jesus at Jacob’s well, the Samaritan woman began to know and accept herself deeply (from being a Samaritan, descendant of Jacob, a divorcee to a believer) as well as she began to know and accept Jesus deeply (from a Jew, Sir, Prophet, Christ). At the Jacob’s well, Jesus recognized and satisfied the woman’s need for God’s love, and the woman recognized and fulfilled Jesus’ need for our faith in Him. 

    In dryness and abundance of water, there may be a lot of positive things will happen at wellsprings of life. Usually at the wellsprings of our life we experience, renew, and deepen our life-commitments and relationships with one another and our faith in God through Jesus. 

    The season of Lent is also the wellsprings of our Christian life. It is the appropriate place and time to once again in encounter and experience God’s life-giving saving act through the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ.

    So again, If and when the well runs dry, don’t look and no need to dig for another well. Just dig your own wellspring deeper and be in touch and be quench once again with your original life-giving water.

    We pray then that the Lord may grant us the grace to know you deeply, love you more dearly and follow you closely during this another new Lenten Season of our Christian faith & life. Amen.