Peace! Kalilintad! Shalom!

Tag: Weekday

  • Our Everyday Waiting

    Our Everyday Waiting

    October 22, 2024 – Tuesday 29th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102224.cfm)

    What kind of attitude do we show when we wait for something or someone? It might depend on the situation, the urgency and of our inner desire and need. A friend told me that as he waited for his wife to labor and give birth to their first child, he was anxious but also excited. When the baby came and his wife was also safe, he was filled with joy. A patient who has been waiting for the biopsy result may be overwhelmed with anxiety and fear when the result may not be favorable. Once, when I was in an airport for a domestic flight and waiting for the boarding, the airline announce that the flight was delayed by 4 hours. I was mad and demanded that I will be rebooked to the next earliest flight to catch up for my connecting flight. A parent waiting late in the evening for the return of his/her child to come home may feel worried.

    There are also other small waiting that we experience daily like waiting for our parcel to arrive and be delivered by the rider. We delight when we like what we have ordered or feel deceived when it is not what we expect. We also wait on the road when there is a heavy traffic and even feel exhausted. We wait for the long queue at the supermarket and has to extend our patience when the counter seems to be so slow.

    These are indeed, just some experiences of waiting. There are those that are simple and routinary for us. There are also those waiting that can be long, exhausting and tiring. There are even those kinds of waiting that takes for a lifetime.

    However, let us also warn ourselves of “waiting in vain” especially of some other things in our life. Waiting in vain is waiting for nothing. This kind of waiting leads us to misery and hopelessness. This actually happens when we immersed ourselves in those waiting that are purely with selfish intentions, waiting based on our impulses, compulsions and whims.

    True enough, waiting is part of our life and it is even very important to us as Christians. The parable that Jesus told us in today’s Gospel basically reminds us of the value and the grace in and while waiting. Jesus said, “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.” Jesus teaches us that in “waiting patiently” we are already blessed. No matter how long or tiring that waiting can be, we are called to patiently wait and exercise vigilance. Meaning, to become passive or indifferent will make lose the opportunity of welcoming fully what the Lord has prepared for us.

    Jesus expressed this promised clearly in the parable. It is the master himself who finds his servant waiting for him who will prepare the table and serve the servants who becomes his friends. The servants receives the presence of their master who brings peace and friendship with them.

    This is also revealed to us in Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. Jesus who came and gave his life to us “broke down the dividing wall of enmity,” “for he is our peace.” This is again reechoed in Psalm, “The Lord speaks of peace to his people.”

    This brings us now that God’s coming, and we who waits for it will surely be graced by this peace. This peace shall fade our fear and anxieties, our worries and tears, forgives our sins and failures and unites those that have been divided and broken because of hatred, violence and indifference.

    Certainly, the Lord calls us today to be more patient and pro-active in our waiting especially in our waiting of God’s coming and visits. Jesus comes and visits us in simple and ordinary ways even through familiar people or events and places around us. The very presence of God that brings us peace will surely give us as well a dose of surprise and joy. Thus, let us also be more attentive, more sensitive and discerning of the Lord’s countless manifestations and revelations in our life. Hinaut pa.

  • The Lord Confronts our Unbelief and Hardness of Heart

    The Lord Confronts our Unbelief and Hardness of Heart

    April 15, 2023 – Saturday in the Octave of Easter

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041523.cfm)

    They could not believe it. They could not accept what has been reported by Mary Magdalene. They would not even accept the testimony of the two disciples who went to Emmaus and reported that the Lord appeared to them. The eleven disciples, who were the closest circle of Jesus, did not believe because their hearts were hardened.

    We could just imagine the very dispositions and attitudes of the eleven disciples. They must have been filled with guilt and shame for fleeing away and hiding when Jesus, their Lord and Teacher, was arrested, tortured and killed. Peter denied Jesus who previously said he won’t. The very experience and those days were just disheartening. They too must have felt that there was no more hope for them. Their courage was gone. Their spirits dampened.

    The terrible death of Jesus, killed in the most shameful and painful way, was beyond their expectation. Yet, it happened. The Lord told them that he would suffer and die and be raised on the third day, yet, they were all unprepared for that. They clearly did not understand what Jesus was teaching them at that time. And when Jesus was raised and appeared to other disciples, their minds and hearts were closed because they were too afraid. And they stayed in their grief and sorrow, nursing their fear and shame.

    However, the Lord appeared to them all and confronted them. As the Gospel of Mark told us, “Jesus appeared to them and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart.” Yes, the Lord confronted and challenged them by rebuking them. It was the Lord’s way of making them wake up and move forward. They have been staying in that disposition and attitude that was already unhealthy and unhelpful for them and for others.

    We too could find ourselves having such kind of disposition and attitude. When we are staying too much in our grief and sorrow, when we are already nurturing our own emotional wounds, and feeding our fears with our anxiety, then, such disposition of the heart and mind will only make us more submerged into fear and anxiety or into sin and darkness.

    Indeed, it is okay to grieve. It is okay to be afraid after a painful experience. It is okay to feel down and discouraged after a failure. It is okay to feel lonely and alone. It is okay to be sad and not feeling okay. However, when we are already staying too much in these human emotions and even reinforcing these emotions with our unhealthy coping and nursing them. Then, that is not okay. It is not alright because such attitudes would only lead us farther from others or even farther from our true selves and farther from the grace of God.

    We are rather called to confront ourselves, confront our friends and allow the Lord to confront us when we are going in that state just as Jesus rebuked the disciples whose hearts were hardened. This is the invitation for us today and that is to allow the grace of the resurrection to give us hope, courage and new way of looking at things and looking at our life. We move forward and move on, knowing that the grace of God is with us, and that the presence of Jesus assures us that there is life, that there is hope.

    As we allow the Lord to confront us, may our hearts be filled with confidence and gratitude to proclaim and share to our friends, families and communities the goodness that the Lord has done to us. Hinaut pa.

  • God is a Loving Parent

    God is a Loving Parent

    March 22, 2023 – Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032223.cfm)

    Each of us has a father. Biologically, we need a father and a mother for a child is only born out of a male and female. As we grow up, we have different experiences with our parents and with our fathers especially. Not all of us have experienced a very good father who spends enough time to be with us, who will support us constantly as a child.

    Some of us even may have painful memories particularly when we talk about experiences with our fathers. Others might have actually experienced being abandoned by their father that caused them pain. Others might have fathers who were always away because of work that made a deep longing of their father’s presence. Others might have experienced also with a father who was abusive and irresponsible giving them deep emotional wound.

    Unconsciously, our experiences with our father has a connection on how we relate with God whom we believe as a Father to us. If we have a very good experience with our biological father, then, it might be easy for us to believe in a loving and merciful Father in heaven. However, if we have painful and traumatic experiences with our biological father then, sometimes that create doubts and hesitations to truly believe in God the Father who is loving and forgiving.

    Personally, though my father was indeed responsible, he too was quite strict when I was growing up. That experience of mine was carried on as I related with God. I too believed that God was like my father who was very strict. I should always be a good boy or else I will be punished. This means that our own experiences especially our negative and painful experiences with our fathers can sometimes prevent us to recognize God’s true character as a father to us.

    It is good for us, then, to reflect on the readings today as they reveal God’s true character as a parent to us.

    The Book of Isaiah tells us about a God who is so passionate about us. Isaiah tells us that God is like a parent who brings comfort to us, who is there to flatten the mountains so that life won’t be too difficult for us. Isaiah uses the image of a mother who carries her baby in the womb. A mother is always connected with her baby. However, a mother may forget about her baby but God will never forget us. God remembers us because God always carries us.

    This confidence to a loving and passionate God is expressed in today’s Gospel. Jesus tells us about how he loves his Father so much. Jesus shows his affection to the Father who will never leave him alone. This expression of Jesus is just a confirmation of that passion of God the Father to Jesus.

    Thus, this is the invitation for us today as revealed in the scriptures. Though we might have painful experiences with our own Fathers or mothers or with those who became our parents in the absence of our biological parents, the readings call us to be confident in God as a loving parent to us.

    Just like Jesus, let us take confidence in God who is both a Loving Father and Mother to us, who promised to be with us, who will never leave us and will always be there for us. This is how God is so passionate to you and to me. We may come to believe in this.

    When we ourselves are parents or standing as a foster parent to a child, may our parenting be an image of God’s unconditional love to that child and to our whole family. Kabay pa.

  • PRAY AND LISTEN

    PRAY AND LISTEN

    February 18, 2023 – Saturday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021823.cfm)

    Faith, as the late Pope Benedict XVI said, is a human response of love to the Lord who first loved us. The Letter to the Hebrews reminded us of this as well. We were reminded on how those Biblical personalities responded to God’s invitations for them. Faith has become a way of life of those who are close and deeply in love with God. This way of life led them to pay more attention to the divine presence of God who surrounds them. Thus, praying and listening are two essential attitudes of the heart as we nurture our faith-relationship with God.

    In today’s Gospel of Mark, we are brought to the experience of the disciples who witnessed the transfiguration of Jesus. Going up and coming down from mountain is an expression of journeying with God. And in journeying with God, it is very essential that WE LISTEN TO GOD, of God’s action in our life, of God’s Word in the Holy Bible and of God’s presence in our sacraments in the Church.

    To “pray and listen” is Jesus’ invitation for us today as we are reminded to grow in our faith-relationship. Remember, Jesus went up to the mountain to pray and through prayer he was transfigured. The disciples too where praying and it was through their prayer that they were made aware of that mysterious event in their lives.

    So it means that we too, are called to “pray and to listen,” to commune with God and to relate with God more intimately through our prayer. It is only when we become reflective and prayerful that we also become aware of other people around us. We become more connected with God and with others.

    Transfiguration becomes a reality in us when we see and recognize the face of God in our brothers and sisters, when we learn and take the courage to watch out for those who feel unrecognized, to give a room for the stranger, to listen to those who are troubled and hear the cry of those who are desperate in life, to walk with those who are afraid and those whose hearts are broken and to give a helping hand to those who stumbled.

    Through these, we become a community centered on the Eucharist that is welcoming, embracing, loving and forgiving that may hopefully move to gradually transform ourselves into the way God wants us to be. Hinaut pa.

  • The Tower of Babel

    The Tower of Babel

    February 17, 2023 – Friday 6th week Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021723.cfm)

    The Book of Genesis speak of the human tendency to be proud and arrogant. And the tower of Babel tells us of this human aspiration to be powerful and become like God, as people said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and  tower with its top in the sky, and so make a name for ourselves.” Yet, this made the people to be exclusive and arrogant.

    Indeed, the tower of Babel expressed earthly power and riches. Humanity believed that these things were enough for them to make a name for themselves and become powerful like God who created the world. Hence, as those who built the city and the tower, became exclusive, they also refused God’s command to fill the earth. The people decided to just stay in that place, in that city and not anymore share their knowledge, experiences, graces and riches in other parts of the earth. They have become comfortable there to the point that they did not want to go out from their comforts.

    However, it was said that the Lord had seen this and realized as well the evil intentions in the hearts of the people. This was the reason why the Lord scattered them by confusing and dividing them. When they spoke differently, people did not understand and did not care to understand each other.

    From here, we realize that our human efforts and aspirations when they only come from greed, pride and arrogance to become great and powerful like God, are certainly worthless. Our mere human success, wealth and power are not the keys to be great in the eyes of God.

    This realization brings us then into the message of our Gospel today. Jesus expressed a way of life that was different from the people who tried to build a city and the tower of Babel. Jesus tells us that to be a true disciple of him is not about boasting oneself, of our successes in life, of our influence and power over others. A true disciple, rather, is a person who denies himself for the sake of others, who carries his own cross and follows Jesus. A true Christian then is a person who remains humble before God, who recognizes his/her smallness and dependence, yet, also embraces the presence of God who gives him/her the strength to carry the cross.

    Let us remember, that human effort and strength and our successes in life are not evil. In fact, these are gifts from the Lord and not reasons that we become greedy and self-righteous people. What we have received, achieved or accumulated in this life give us the opportunities to be able to share our gifts, our talents and ourselves to our community.

    This calls us now that our families, groups, organizations, and communities become inclusive and welcoming. Indeed, to be inclusive and to be hospitable are natural to a Christian home, to a Christian organization or community. May that spirit lead us to give, to share and to reach out even to those who are different from us. Hinaut pa.