Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Tag: The Lord is Risen

  • How often do you worry?

    How often do you worry?

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    May 12, 2020 – Tuesday 5th Week of Easter

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/051220.cfm)

    How often do you worry?

    I am sure that we would find ourselves worrying about many things in life, almost everyday. You worry about your husband or your wife, or your growing children and the failing health of your parents. Or we worry about the demands of our job or the difficulties in our business, or about your new relationships, and newfound friends. We might also find ourselves worrying about our tomorrow, of what is to come the next day because of the uncertainties brought by the pandemic. Or worrying also about our unfulfilled dreams and unsatisfied desires.

    Our worries and anxieties may prevent us from seeing things as they are because our minds and hearts are already troubled. When worries and anxieties overwhelm us too, we might not be able to respond properly and responsibly because we are internally disturbed. 

    Indeed, excessive worrying may lead us to high anxiety, which may cause us physical and mental illness. When this comes, our decision making process is also affected and our relationships with others and even with God will suffer.

    That is why; it is very important that we remain calm and at peace with ourselves and with what surrounds us. It is in this way that we will be able to move forward with our life and will be able to respond generously to what God calls us to be.

    Today, the Risen Jesus invites us to be confident with the gift that his resurrection brings to us. Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you but not as the world gives, do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.”

    It would be good for us to see and understand what Jesus was saying about the peace that he gives and the peace that the world gives.

    Let us see first to what Jesus said about the peace that the world gives. We may understand that what the world tells us about peace is the normalcy of life or ‘business-as-usual.’ This means that we go and proceed to what we usually do in life by doing what we want and by satisfying our needs and desires. But is it really peace at all?

    The peace that the world gives is shallow and remains self-centered. This peace focuses on our ego. But then, when the ego is not satisfied then the promised peace is lost because worries and anxieties will overwhelm us again.

    However, the peace Jesus gives is something different. This peace is growing in confidence with God, with my brothers and sisters no matter who they are. Thus, this peace allows us to see and recognize our brothers and sisters. This peace breaks any form of division, discrimination and indifference.

    This goes beyond to what is physical but into our hearts, in believing and becoming confident that God is with us and that God never abandons us. This peace sips through our troubled life, even into our stressful work or ministry, and into our un-reconciled relationships, into our danger-filled surrounding brought by covid-19, into the many displacements and halting of our so-called normal life before the Covid-19,  and into our anxieties of what is to come tomorrow.

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    Jesus gives us His Peace! This is Jesus’ gift to us. Are we ready to accept it? Are we willing to embrace it? Or do we prefer to just do our normal and usual things in life? To continue making ourselves submerged in worries and anxieties of life?

    Jesus wants us to be free from the troubles of worries and anxieties, to be free from fears and hesitations. This is the reason why the Lord gives Himself to us so that we will have him and enjoy his peace.

    Be confident that the Lord is with us; the Holy Spirit is among us and within us. By becoming confident in Jesus, we may also recognize the peace that others may bring into our lives. Hence, be welcoming also of the peace that our brothers and sisters may bring into our life.

    Peace be with you always. Hinaut pa. 

    Jom Baring, CSsR

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  • Time-check. When are we in life Now?

    Time-check. When are we in life Now?

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    May 10, 2020 – Fifth Sunday of Easter

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/051020.cfm)

    Not only we are already almost half way through the month but also already half way through the year. And we are yet far from what we have initially planned early for this year 2020. Our global reality of viral pandemic has rendered our initial plans and programs for this year on-hold, hanging and at the verge of scrapping down the drain. Worse, nowadays ours is confusing and ground-shaking times since we find our “life-givens” – our basic presumptions and systems now unreliable (if not crashed).

    Moreover we find ourselves in a situation where and when “no possible way to know what is going to happen tomorrow, we never know”. During these trying times in our lives, as we struggle daily with the “What’s now? What’s next” of our limited, constricted, and uncertain reality, we grapple also for the “Why? How come? What for?”, that could somehow provide us some sense, meaning, and direction to our lives today.

    Corrie ten Boom once said in her book, The Hiding Place: “Every experience God gives us, every person He puts into our lives is the perfect preparation for the future only He can see.” Somehow these words of wisdom could provide us a perspective as to how we can view what we are going through and happening to us these days.

    These words are based on Corrie’s experience of being a Dutch Christian survivor of the horrors of Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust. In her experience of the worse of human disaster and cruelty as well as the best of Christian faith, Corrie came to realize and believe that as Christian believers, our LIFE now is and can be  God’s preparation of us for the New Life He promised us. Understanding then our present Now as God’s preparation may provide us a much-wider perspective, allow us to go beyond and find meaning to what is happening and we are going through now.  

    Based  on her experiences of the challenges of living life in faith, here she is counselling us now that whatever happens and is happening to us, what we have gone and going through (however it may be) are just but mere  God’s PREPARATIONS for His promise of our much better tomorrow than what we envision to be. In other words, there is more to life than just what we have Now, for Now is just but a preparation for God’s promise of more abundant and better life ahead and anew for us. And we are now just being prepared by God, and God is preparing us for something greater than these things we have now.

    Somehow Jesus has the same message for us in our gospel today. In admitting that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, Jesus is preparing us His disciples for the coming life ahead. Jesus said: “I am going now to prepare a place for you”. He is preparing us and we are being prepared by Him. And this is not just about the place prepared for us out “there and after”, but all about ourselves, (you and I, here & now) being prepared for a role, task and mission – a responsibility in God’s plan of more abundant life for all.

    In Jesus, God thus is  preparing us according to His plans and purpose for us. In Jesus, God is calling, forming, training, retooling, and redesigning us now to be suited for the promise of our new life with Him.  

    Jesus as our “Way, Truth and Life” is God’s signs, guidelines, and means of preparing us. The witness of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection with us prepared and still preparing us for the promise of eternal life. And as we, believers of Jesus and our Father are being prepared, the challenges of living life in faith we Christians are going through now may be lived, not as it is, but as a preparation to a witness of better future for the world now and beyond.

    In other words, our experience of Christian life now is and should be lived same way as in holding pre-departure areas in airports and terminal or bus stops’ waiting sheds  in preparation for a journey to a better future destination God is offering us anew, along with the conviction that God and Jesus is not finish with us yet. The journey is not yet over. There is more yet to come for us with God.

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    So for now, take heed Jesus’ advice: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Have faith in God and in Me also”, since we are being PREPARED for something anew. BRACE ourselves  therefore, for we are part of the preparation in God’s grand plan of things in life.

    May we have the patience and faith to endure and persevere more with what we are going through Now, so that we may be worthy and  better prepared for our responsibility to a much better world ahead, God offering us now. 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.)

  • Finding Jesus

    Finding Jesus

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    May 9, 2020 – Saturday of the 4th Week of Easter

    Click here for the reading (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/050920.cfm)

    One day, a boy opened their fridge and got two cupcakes and two small bottles of orange juice. When his mother saw this, she asked him, “Are you going out to play?” The boy replied, “I am going out, Mom, to find God.” “Well, good luck son. Tell me, then, when you find Him,” said the mother.

                So, the boy set on his journey to find God. He was walking and walking. He saw trees and birds and flowers everywhere. He reached the tall buildings in their city, saw the busy traffic and the crowd of people crossing the street. Yet, not a single person noticed him.

                It was about snack time that he went to a park and found a bench where a homeless woman sat. The woman looked very sad, looking aimlessly. And since the boy was quite tired, he decided to sit and have his snacks. Sitting on that bench, he opened his bag and got his two cupcakes and two small bottles of orange juice.

                The boy, then, shared his cupcakes and orange juice to the homeless woman. The woman accepted his offer gladly, and looked at the boy with a big smile on her face. The boy, then, looked into the eyes of the woman and saw happiness in her. 

                The homeless woman, grateful to this boy, found tremendous generosity from him. While enjoying their snacks the two shared stories and laughed together.

                After the snacks, the boy said his goodbye to the homeless woman and went home. When the boy arrived home carrying a smile on his face, was greeted by his mother. She said, “How was your day, son? Have you met Him (God)?”

                The boy answered joyfully, “God is a woman, mom, and she has the most beautiful smile I have ever seen.”

                Meanwhile, the homeless woman wearing a smile that she couldn’t hide decided to take her walk. Along the way she met an old homeless man. The old man was intrigued as the woman could not hide her joy reflected on her face. So, he asked, “What’s with your smile? You seemed to be filled with joy today.” The woman replied with cheerfulness, “Oh, I just met God today. He was a boy, much younger than I expected.”

    This story shows us an encounter with God, in finding and meeting God in our human and ordinary experiences. This story may bring us into that experience of surprise from God because God reveals his presence in ways we do not expect.

    Our readings today, both in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Gospel of John tell us of this story of the revelation of God in unexpected yet ordinary ways. Consequently, because of such simplicity, people found it difficult to recognize God. Moreover, many refused to recognize God’s presence because of its apparently unadorned and simple God’s self-revelation.

    Let us look at the Gospel of John, Philip, who had been with Jesus for long, impatiently asked the Lord, “Lord, show us the Father, and that it enough.” As if Jesus was not really enough. With this, Jesus had to be honest to Philip, “You still do not know me, Philip, though I have been with you,” Jesus said.

    In a way, we are told that even a close  a disciple of Jesus found it difficult to recognize and to be convinced that the Father is in Jesus, and that they are one. Philip must have been expecting a magical revelation or any spectacular manifestation of God’s presence. However, God’s self-revelation was manifested through the person of Jesus, the Word-made-flesh.

     In the same way, the Jewish people found it ridiculous as the Apostles preached to them the person of Jesus, as God-made-flesh. Jesus was too ordinary, too simple to be believed as God. Yet, they still found his death and resurrection as offensive or a stumbling block. This was how the people showed insults to Paul.

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    This happens to us when our hearts also grow tired and weary. When we are overwhelmed with our anxieties and worries of the situation around us. Then, we might be looking for some spectacular thing to happen and for a magic to appear. But then, we might also lose the opportunity of recognizing God, of the revelation of God’s presence in the most ordinary way.

    This is the call from the story of the boy looking for God. He found God not in a magical way but through a homeless woman who showed the most beautiful smile he has ever seen. Moreover, the woman also met God in a surprising way, in the person of a boy who showed tremendous generosity to her by sharing his snacks and presence with her on that bench.

    Thus, what we are invited today is to see Jesus clearly, to recognize God who is very much involved in our daily life. To see Jesus clearly is to know God dearly. This will help us then, to follow Jesus closely. This is what has been proclaimed to us in the Acts of the Apostles commanded by Jesus, “I have set you as a light, so that you may bring my salvation.”

    We are invited to see Jesus in every person no matter how ordinary they may look like, or how familiar or strange they may be to us. It is in this way that we too shall be able to bring light to them. Again, as it was in the story, the boy experienced the light through the person and the smile of the woman. The woman too, experienced the light trough the presence and the generosity showed by the boy to her.

     Today, as we continue to live and find our way in this age of the pandemic, this may become an opportunity for us also to see Jesus clearly in the person of our brothers and sisters. May we truly become the light that shines in the darkness through our generosity and kindness to those in need, through our sincere and honest words to people around us, and through the gift of our presence to those who need comfort and a friend. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

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  • BE PATIENT IN SUFFERING AS WE DO WHAT IS RIGHT

    BE PATIENT IN SUFFERING AS WE DO WHAT IS RIGHT

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    May 3, 2020 – Fourth Sunday of Easter

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/050320.cfm)

    The Jewish converts asked Peter and other apostles in our first reading, “What are we to do, brothers?”

    As today’s Easter people – baptized, repenting and receiving the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we Christian find ourselves confronted still with the same question: “what should we do?” especially now in today’s pandemic times. We do wonder what would be our Christian forefathers advice and say to us now as we deal with our life in today’s changing world.

    Somehow St. Peter offers us words of wisdom and guidance as to how we can and should adjust and adapt with our changing realities. He said to us today: “If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good, this is a grace before God”. Meaning, “Grace before God” is what we seek in life, as well as what God offers us in life. Jesus in our gospel today reminded us that He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly before God. In Jesus, God thus promises us and wills for us betterment and well being in life. And for St. Paul then, we as God’s children and followers of Christ, to share with God’s grace, we must be PATIENT IN SUFFERING AS WE DO WHAT IS GOOD.

    In other words, as we navigate with our changing world of pandemic, distancing and quarantine along with God’s grace and our Christian faith, our forefathers in faith would advice us today to:

    First, continue to DO GOOD and BE GOOD before God. Jesus in describing us the good shepherd implicitly inviting us to be His good sheep who hears and recognizes His voice, follows Him obediently as He dearly calls us by our name. As Good shepherd, Jesus knows His sheep and we, His sheep knows (should know) Him. Goodness is thus reflected in our intimate, respectful, and responsible relationship with our risen Lord. Same as, Good trees are known by its fruits, Good parents, teachers, coaches, doctors and pastors are also known through their good children, students, players, patients, and faithful. So, do good and be a good Christian, citizen, God’s child, and person before the Lord. 

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    Second, do right and be right in SUFFERING before others.  In today’s high tech, globalized, fast-pacing world, we tend to do things haphazardly. We want things done instantly, rendering us chronically living a stressful, high-strunged & addictive life-style. However, we do need to do right things rightly. This would mean we don’t just do THINGS right, but we have to do the RIGHT things. Here we need to prioritize what is RIGHT essential things and learn to do away with non-essential things in life. And in doing so, we need to contend with the natural painstaking slow-pacing process of things. Meaning, go back to and learn the basics of things, no more shortcuts, palakas, excuses, and to non-essentials. In other words, do RIGHT things rightly and suffer along with it.

    And again, BE PATIENT with Oneself and Others. Nowadays, we suffer a lot in patience. As our world today stood still, slowed-down, and quarantined, we are painstakingly waiting back for our normal active life. But our situation now might be teaching us to learn again and anew how to be and why we need to be patient with ourselves and others in life. In better and worse times, we do need to learn to be patiently waiting in life.

    Why? Because God is not finished with us yet. As promised, Jesus has more abundant life in store for us. God prepares everything for us … in His own pace and timing (not ours). This might entail us a lot of patience and deep faith, BUT God’s life-offer is worth the WAIT.

    So, what can, should, are we to do, during these trying times? BE PATIENT IN SUFFERING AS WE DO WHAT IS RIGHT…. For God is not finished with us YET as well as God’s promise of abundant life is worth OUR WAIT.

    May we always have a patiently waiting and faith-filled Easter-resolved during these pandemic times. 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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  • Will you also leave? : A plea from Jesus

    Will you also leave? : A plea from Jesus

    May 2, 2020 – Saturday of the Third Week of Easter

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/050220.cfm)

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    When you want to buy something, how do you choose that thing (cloths, accessories, or gadgets) which you want to buy? Some wise buyers would go through into a selection process before buying. They would consider the quality, its practicality, the price, the evaluation of other buyers, and the specifications of the item.

    However, there are also some of us who actually don’t mind all these steps but would only consider if it is “sabay sa uso” or #trending or popular, used and promoted by famous personalities. Even though they may not be so practical for us but because it’s the trend, we go into that.

    This is not far from what we believe and sometimes spread. I am talking with the fake news that surround us. People tend to believe, spread and adhere to fake news because they have become popular and because many have come to believe in them. We should be very careful then because a popular opinion or belief does not always hold the truth.

    These situations tell us of our tendency to favor and choose things, people, beliefs and principles according to their popularity. The number of people who tend to favor such thing is very influential for us.

    However, this is not the case that happened in the Gospel. Jesus who became popular because of his mighty deeds by healing the sick and multiplying the bread, was becoming unpopular to the people.

    Jesus taught the people that He is the Bread of Life that came down from heaven. Through him, by eating his body and drinking his blood, eternal life will be attained. Yet, the people around him found this teaching difficult to accept and offensive. The teaching of Jesus implied that they were to follow Jesus in his ways and to let go of their old ways. 

    This teaching was understood to be taken with commitment to Jesus. Jesus’ teaching asked them to let go of their old beliefs and renew themselves in God. Yet, they could not let go and accept Jesus fully in their life. They could not believe that God became man and He is with us. They could not believe that God desires mercy and forgiveness of all. Thus, they left Jesus and “returned to their former way of life” because his teachings were unpopular for them.

    Jesus confronted his disciples, “do you also want to leave?” In a similar way, Jesus also asks each of us, “Will you also leave? Will you choose me or return to your former way of life?”

    This is certainly a plea from Jesus to us, not to leave him because he has so many good things for us. Thus, be careful then, when we also start to murmur just like the disciples of Jesus because our murmurs may lead us farther from the Lord. Our murmurs can become bitter complaints that will drag us back to our former way of life, again just like the many disciples of Jesus who no longer walked with him but succumbed to false gods.

    These murmurs in us may tempt us to worship those false gods rather than God, to believe in them rather than in the Word of God, to hold on them rather than trusting in Jesus. These false gods could be our desire to gain power and control, to manipulate and use others. These could also be our own unhealthy behaviors or addictions that we continually keep.

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    We are challenged and called today to choose and commit ourselves in serving and loving the Lord. Choosing Jesus and committing our work, studies, dreams, hopes and our whole life to Jesus may not be the popular thing to do today. Choosing Jesus and following faithfully his teachings is truly difficult as the people complained. Thus, this Eucharist is our way now to renew once again our commitment as we receive the Lord spiritually and sacramentally. This is our opportunity to choose Jesus today! 

    Choose Jesus today then, which means to choose life not death, to choose hope not despair, to chose mercy and love not anger and hatred, to choose humility not aggression and to choose warmth and concern not indifference. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

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