X-RAY VISION

Monday of the 31st Week in Ordinary

Lk14:12-14

When I was a kid, Superman fascinated me a lot. I often wondered how it was to have his superpowers and what I would do if I had them. One of his superpowers that intrigued me a lot was his x-ray vision. Superman could see through walls with his naked eyes.

But as I grew older and continued watching my favorite superhero, I noticed that his x-ray vision was limited after all. He could see though closed doors and thick walls, but Superman could not see through a person’s heart. His x-ray vision was simply just that – an x-ray vision – as an x-ray machine reveals a person’s bones but not a person’s bone marrow.

I wonder what would happen if we were all gifted with an x-ray vision that makes us see not only that lies behind closed doors but also within closed hearts. What would happen if, through our naked eyes, we could perceive the motives of every person for every thing he or she does? Everything revealed; nothing concealed. Then we would know why we are invited to a party and others would also know why we invited them to ours. Motives would be clear like never before. The revelation might really be surprising!

Superman had his x-ray vision but still could not see people’s motives crystal-clear because x-rays do not reveal a person’s intention and the eyes can be deceived so easily. But God can see the heart and all that is in it. And God cannot be deceived.

THE IMAGE OF THE MASTER

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mt 23:1-12

PR or Public Relation is very important. Equally important is PI or Public Image. Politicians and celebrities even spend a lot of money trying to build a very good PI and PR. Quite often, however, the PR and PI do not reflect the RR or Real Relations and TI or True Image of the individual.

The Lord is not concerned with PR or PI. He values the RR and TI of every person instead. The Gospel today shows us that very clearly. He knows what hides behind the masks of many, not all however, scribes and Pharisees. Many scribes and Pharisees are guilty of hypocrisy. They appear to be righteous but they are actually self-righteous. They project themselves to be good religious leaders but they do not lead by example. Thus, Jesus tells the people and His disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees occupy the chair of Moses. You must therefore do what they tell you and listen to what they say; but do not be guided by what they do: since they do not practice what they preach.”

The Gospel today is an obligatory reading for both leaders and followers. Leaders should always lead by the shining example of their lives while followers should never encourage their leaders to create false images of themselves. Leading by example means that leaders should be the first and best models of what they preach. Discouraging leaders to create false images of themselves means that followers should never adulate leaders who do not practice what they preach. It always takes two to tango. If we are the followers, we deserve the leaders we get. If we are the leaders, we create the followers we have. Both leaders and followers are often guilty of promoting deceit in any affairs.

The Word of God today convicts us all. Not even one of us is spared from its double-edged sword. Leaders or followers, we can only bow our heads and strike our breast saying, “Mea culpa. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.”

But the Word of God does not only convict us. It is also our hope and salvation. Thus, it teaches us that if we want to be great we must be the servant of all.

A leader leads best when he serves best. There is no other option for a Christian leader than servant-leadership. This is the example given to us by Jesus who came not to be served but to serve. Jesus leads us not by making us His servants but by serving us.

A follower follows best when he serves. There is no other way to follow but the path of an authentic servant-leader. That is the reason why we are followers of Jesus Christ, not of anybody else. And we follow our human leaders only as far as they carry in themselves the very image of Jesus the Servant.

Let us carry in us the image of Jesus the Servant. Let us be conformed to His image. Let Jesus be our image builder. Let our lives reflect His life always. He alone is our Master. And the ultimate joy of any disciple is to become like the Master.

THE HANDS THAT NEVER DEPART

Saturday of the 30th Week in Ordinary Time

Rom 11:1-2, 11-12, 25-29

Whenever I talk about my life and ministry as a priest, I cannot help but echo the words of the very deeply respected theologian, Fr. Karl Rahner. It is said that on the eve of his ordination, Fr. Rahner prayed to the Lord in similar words: “Lord, tomorrow I will become a priest when the bishop lays his hands on me. Then after a short while he will withdraw his hands, but Yours will remain.” I often quote this prayer of Fr. Rahner because it expresses very well my personal sentiments and experience after 10 years in the ministry.

The Lord does not revoke His promise. We may be unfaithful, but He remains faithful. We may forget, but He always remembers. We may stumble, but He stands indomitable so that He helps us rise each time we fall. Our shortcomings, weaknesses, and sins cannot alter His word, His promise, His choice. So great is His love for us, and His mercy endures forever!

St. Paul gives us today one of his most consoling words: “God never takes back His gifts or revokes His choice.” Let this statement ring always in our hearts and minds.

When misfortunes befall us because of our infidelity to God, God is not punishing us. When great trials come our way when we disobey God, God is not abandoning us. When because of our sins we suffer, God is not unfaithful to us. Misfortunes, trials, and sufferings doest not say anything about God’s infidelity to us; rather, they speak about our unfaithfulness to Him.

Next time we are tempted to blame God for our disasters in life and call Him “unfaithful”, let us look into our hearts. God never breaks His word. His Word rather broke Himself for us. The Eucharist is the living manifestation of that.

A bishop’s hands may not have been laid on your head as it is done when a man is ordained to the priesthood, but, surely, the hands of the Lord have never been withdrawn from you. See for yourself, they are always there to hold you tight…especially when you lose your grip.

COUSINS

Feast of Sts. Simon and Jude, Apostles
Lk 6:12-19

Simon was a “brother” of Jesus, as the ancients called one’s close relatives — aunts, uncles, first cousins. He was one of the Savior’s cousins mentioned in the New Testament. The other three were James, Jude and Joseph. They all grew up together in Nazareth (Cf. Mat 13:53-58). Of the four men, Simon, Jude and James became apostles of Jesus while Joseph remained His loyal disciple.

Simon belonged to the Zealot Party that struggled for the freedom of Israel from colonial rule. He preached the Gospel in Egypt, Mauritania (Spain), and Libya. He later rejoined his brother, Jude, in Persia, where they labored and died together as martyrs. However, at first Simon and Jude enjoyed the favor of the Persian king because they miraculously overpowered two ferocious tigers who used to cause terror among his subjects. Sixty thousand Persians became Christians with the Persian king himself included, and the pagan temples were replaced by Christian churches.

When Simon and Jude, however, went to other Persian territories the pagans commanded them to sacrifice to the sun god. Thus, the idolaters fell on the two and massacred them. They died praising God and forgiving their murderers.

Simon did not leave us with anything written but Jude gave us a short but powerful epistle where he warns the new converts against false brethren and heretics.

The fact that the Apostles Simon and Jude were cousins of the Lord makes me think about my own kindred. How many of them have I brought closer to Jesus? Have I inspired any of them to follow the Lord, too? Together with James, their other cousin who also became an apostle, Simon and Jude must have been so captivated not only by the message of Jesus, but by Jesus, their Cousin, Himself for them to leave everything behind and walk His way. All three of them, like the rest of the apostles except John, suffered martyrdom.

How privileged Simon, Jude, and James to be cousins of Jesus! Can my kindred also say, “How blest we are to be your relatives, Fr. Bob!”?

MORE THAN WE KNOW

Thursday of the 30th Week in Ordinary Time

Rom 8:31-39

God is infinite. Therefore, all His attributes are infinite too. His goodness, His holiness, His power, His love, etc are all infinite. When He loves, He loves infinitely too. He loves us infinitely.

We are finite. No matter what we do, we cannot contain God in our finite being. He is always more and greater than we can contain. Despite all our efforts, we cannot fully comprehend His love for us. God loves us more than we know.

“Nothing can separate us from the love of God,” says St. Paul today. Even sin cannot hinder God from reconciling us with Him. In the Easter proclamation, we sing: “O happy fault! O necessary sin of Adam that gained for us so great a Redeemer!”

The Triune God, by His most gracious design and will, made it so that we are intimately related to Him. While maintaining the unity of the Three Persons in One God, the Father is “God-for-us”, the Son is “God-with-us”, and the Holy Spirit is “God-in-us”. The Father is Abba, the Son is Emmanuel, and the Spirit is Ruah Yahweh (“Breath of God”). God has united Himself with us in a bond that is most intimate and strong. His love for us stands as the sole motive behind His being for us, being with us, and being in us.

Who then should we fear? What then are we frightened of? “If God is for us,” St. Paul questions us, “who can be against us?” Indeed, we are more than conquerors because of Him who has loved us.

Let us not be losers. Let us be winners in our day-to-day battles in life. We already won even before the fight begins, for God loves us more than we know.

IN OR OUT?

Wednesday of the 30th Week in Ordinary Time

Lk 13:22-30

The Gospel today opens with “Through towns and villages Jesus went teaching, making His way to Jerusalem.” Immediately, Luke zeroes in at two important aspects about Jesus.

First, Jesus is a teacher. However, unlike the meaning of the word “teacher” today, He is not attached to any school or college, has no regular class schedule, and does not have a fixed roster of students. Jesus, Palestine’s most popular itinerant teacher, stops at any field or hilltop or sits in a boat from where He teaches whoever wishes to listen. And the course He teaches is more important than what any university at all times ever offer. His course description reads: “Salvation: How to Enter Heaven”.

Second, even as He teaches, Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem. Jesus does not travel aimlessly. He is making a specific journey to a specific place for a specific purpose. And He is well aware of what awaits Him in Jerusalem: death on a cross and resurrection after three days. Jesus is not contented with teaching us how to get to heaven. He knows He has to open the gate for us Himself which means He must pay the price. His death on the cross just outside Jerusalem is the price He pays.

Like any good teacher, Jesus spends much of His time answering questions. As all teachers who deserve the title, Jesus knows that the most interesting moments in teaching is when students fire questions from the floor. Today, Jesus fields a question that certainly keeps His students, who are serious about His course of salvation, at the edge of their seats: Will there be only a few saved? In the final tally, will hell be more jam-packed than heaven? Are we in or are we out?

Those who are listening to Jesus are expecting an answer that is radically different from what their religious leaders usually give. Many scribes and scholars of the Mosaic Law teach that not only Gentiles but even pure-blooded Israelites will not enter the kingdom of God. Salvation, according to them, comes only from strict observance of the 248 positive prescriptions and 365 negative prohibitions that these religious leaders developed from the Ten Commandments. These 613 prescriptive and prohibitive rules are burdensome for most of the Jews. If the scribes and the scholars of the law were right, then only a few would be saved. But after hearing Jesus many times in disagreement with their religious leaders, the Jews are hoping for a lenient answer from Jesus. After all, Jesus appears to be spending much of His energy toppling the edifice of scribal law. But the Jews are disappointed. Jesus does condemn the rules of the scribal law as inhumane and, thus, not from God, but He is not building a cream-puff religion as its substitute.

Jesus answers with a direct challenge: “Try to enter by the narrow door.” Clearly, Jesus does not answer the question regarding final demography in relation to salvation. In His view, the question misses the point because the point is not how many will enter heaven but whether we will make it there ourselves. Instead of inquiring as to how many will be saved, we should rather ask our selves: Are we in or are we out? And without any blinking of the eye, Jesus warns us that it is not that easy to be in after all, for “many will try to enter and will not succeed”.

If we think that being baptized and going to church on Sunday already assure us of a ticket to heaven, think again. After challenging and warning us, Jesus paints for us a nightmare scene: a terrified, hysterical crowd pounding in terror at the door of heaven, begging admittance. And with icy words, Jesus greets this frightened crowd, “I do not know where you come from.” Then the people in the crowd with faces lined with dreadfulness manage to explain yet, “But, Lord, don’t You know us? We once ate and drank with You. You even taught in our streets.” Then the words of Jesus will send chilling spells down their spines, “Away from me, all you wicked people!” But who are these door-bangers? They are not the common delinquents of society. They are not the drug-pushers, gunslingers, and child-molesters whom the world calls “evildoers”, but it appears that they are good people, respectable citizens, and even churchgoers.

Among them are countless contemporaries of Jesus, who first heard Him and saw Him in flesh and blood, but refused to accept Him. Mere blood ties with Abraham nor rigorous observance of the law cannot save them. Among them too, however, are those living today and those yet to come who fail to internalize the grace they receive and share the blessings that come their way.

Certainly, in the end, heaven will surprise us because “there are those now last who will be first, and those now first who will be last.” The question should therefore not be “Are you in or are you out?” but “Am I in or am I out?”

SMALL BUT WONDERFUL

Tuesday of the 30th Week in Ordinary Time

Lk 13:18-21

“Small but terrible,” we heard it many times. And quite often it is true! A small tooth cavity can become a terrible tooth ache. A small splinter in the hand can mean a terrible pain. A small pebble inside the shoe is a terrible inconvenience. A small mischief can yield into a terrible disaster. A small persistent voice can be a terrible annoyance. A small ill-behaved kid is a terrible nuisance. So many other small that are however terrible.

But not all small are terrible. Today, Jesus tells us about something that is small but not terrible. The kingdom of God is small but wonderful!

The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed that is the smallest of all seeds, but when planted becomes a tree that provides a home for the birds of the air. The kingdom of God is like yeast that makes the dough rise. Small? Yes. But terrible? No. Rather, the kingdom of God is small but wonderful.

We do not have to be big to be wonderful. Jesus is big but He chose to be small for us. Like a mustard seed, when He is planted in our hearts, our hearts can be a life-giving tree. Like yeast, when He is in us, we shall rise. Jesus is God’s kingdom in person. We do not only arrive at the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God arrives in us. When we have Jesus in our hearts, our hearts in themselves become the kingdom of God. When Jesus is in our life, we ourselves become God’s kingdom. And we do not have to be big for that.

SABBATH: THE TOUCH OF GOD

Monday of the 30th Week in Ordinary Time

Lk 13:10-17

We do not only have the power to touch. Our touch in itself is powerful. For example, scientific studies confirm that touch plays a significant role in the healthy development of children. Children who enjoy a high degree of physical contact with their parents are healthier than those who are denied such contact. Infants who are always touched walk sooner, talk sooner, and develop higher IQs.

I remember my adopted son, Pipo, when he was a baby. He was only 1.8 kilos when he came to our family. Certainly, he was undernourished. But because he was the apple of everybody’s eyes, he was often caressed and carried. He is now a very healthy 5-year old boy. When he was an infant, I would often take his tiny hands and make them touch my face, from the forehead to my chin; and when his hands would touch my lips, I would hold them right there as I say, “Abba…Abba…Abba.” Lo and behold, the first word he uttered before he turned 1 year old was “Abba”, the Hebrew word for “Daddy” with which he now addresses me.

If human touch is powerful, think of the power that the touch of Jesus must have had and continues to have. Today, His touch makes a woman, tormented by a spirit for eighteen years, finally free.

But the official of the synagogue in which Jesus’ touch healed this woman raised a criticism because the healing touch was given on the Sabbath. As far as he is concerned, healing on the Sabbath breaks the God’s law. For him, freedom from any torment can wait but observance of the Sabbath law cannot. This synagogue official does not deserve to be a synagogue official at all because he fails to see that the synagogue should always be a place where God touches people not only on the Sabbath, but most especially on the Sabbath.

The Sabbath is God’s blessing for His people. It is one of His many special ways to touch those who call on Him. The Sabbath is God’s touch on His people. The Sabbath is God touching man. When Jesus gives God’s loving and healing touch to anyone, He does not break the Sabbath; He fulfills it.

The Lord continues to touch many others through us. We cannot have any excuse to refuse touching anyone who needs the touch of God from us. No matter what day it is, Sabbath or otherwise, we are called to touch others with the power of Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath.

EARTHEN VESSELS

Memorial of Sts. John de Brebeuf and Isaac Jogues, priests and martyrs, and Companions, martyrs

2 Cor 4:7-15

Between the years 1642 and 1649 eight Jesuit missionaries were martyred in North America. They were subjected to horrifying tortures before put to death by members of the Huron and Iroquois tribes. Led by the priests, John de Brebeuf and Isaac Jogues, among those martyred were Jean Lalande, Gabriel Lalemant, Charles Garnier, Noel Chabanel, Rene Goupil and Anthony Daniel. They worked tirelessly to bring the true faith in North America which eventually gave them the crown of martyrdom.

Martyrdom is a crown, not a cross. Consider it a prize won, not a price to pay, when on account of the Gospel, we are persecuted and even killed. It is the highest honor to carry in our bodies both the death and life of Jesus. By our patient endurance and, if needed, by the shedding of our blood for the Gospel we preach, our preaching takes upon itself an eloquence that words cannot achieve. Martyrdom is the most convincing sign of our message. It is when we are ready to suffer and die for what we preach that our missionary commitment becomes life-giving.

Like earthen vessels, indeed, we carry the treasure of the Gospel. Like earthen jars, we are fragile. But our fragility is never a liability because it is in our weakness that the surpassing power in us is clearly manifested to be God’s not ours.

Martyrs are not made of steel. Their faith is unbreakable, unshakeable, and unfathomable. But like the rest of humanity, they ache, they bleed, they shudder too. It is the power of God that makes martyrs out of frail humanity. It is not human will power. After all, the Gospel is not about the power of man but about the power of God.

Each day, let us allow the surpassing power of God to shine forth from us, men and women made of dust and clay. Let God evangelize His people. Through our faithful witnessing to Him despite persecution and even death, God delivers a moving homily to the world, entitled “Treasure in Earthen Vessels”.

HAVE WE WRITTEN THE GOSPEL?

Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist

Lk 10:1-9

We can know a man by what he writes. This is true of Luke whose feast we celebrate today. Being a physician from Antioch who was converted to the Christian faith and became a disciple of Paul, we know very little about Luke. And the very little we know about him comes from what, how, and for whom he wrote.

Luke wrote the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. His message is plain and simple: Jesus is for all – Jews and Gentiles alike, and saints and sinners as well. Because Jesus is for all, salvation in and through Him is universal and not an exclusive gift to the Israelites and to a particular breed of righteous people. The Parable of the Good Samaritan and the Parable of the Prodigal Son, both written by Luke and are not found in the other three Gospels, highlight this specific bent in what he wrote.

Luke was not only a physician; he was a good writer too. He healed not only the body but likewise soothed the soul by the eloquence and creativity with which he wrote his version of the Good News. He restored health to the spiritually sick or handicapped with the medicine of Jesus administered with the sweetness and effectiveness of his literary style.

Because Luke’s message is that Jesus and salvation are for all, he wrote for every man and woman. He wanted to reach the ends of the earth with the message and person of Jesus the Christ. Though written thousands of years ago, Luke’s Gospel still addresses us and his parables seem to be the stories of our lives as well. Why? Simply because his Gospel and his parables were written for us.

We know Luke by what he wrote. But when we read and reflect on what Luke wrote, we come to know more about Jesus and His unconditional love for us.

How are we known? If we were to write the Gospel, what, how, and for whom would we write it? And when what we would have written is read, who and what do our readers come to know more about? If our readers come to know more about us than about Jesus, then we have not written the Gospel.

SIGNED BY BLOOD

Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr

Jn 12:24-26

Born around the later part of the first century, Ignatius succeeded Peter as Bishop of Antioch. He suffered martyrdom in Rome during the Trajan persecution in the year 107. Ignatius wrote seven famous letters to various churches. He taught about the need for sound doctrine and the unity of every Christian community around its bishop as a corporate way of imaging Christ to the world.

Among other things about the writings of Ignatius, it is worth noting that he wrote them while he was being transported to the place of his execution. Thus, Christians of his time celebrated his journey to the place of his martyrdom as a triumphal voyage more than a death march. Today we celebrate the memorial of his martyrdom.

If we were being transported to the place of our death, would we still be writing letters about God? Perhaps, even if we do have the desire to do so, we would not have enough energy to scribble anything. Maybe we would already be too focused on dying that we writing would appear too trivial a thing to waste our last days on.

But not Ignatius of Antioch. He went to his appointment with death still proclaiming his love for God through the letters he wrote to various churches. We can say that he literally wrote his way to death.

I wonder what we would be doing to pass away time as time passes away from us. If we were to write something as we travel to the place of our execution, given that we could write something, what would we write about? Who would we write to?

With his martyrdom at the end of his journey where he wrote his seven famous letters, we may say that Ignatius of Antioch signed his letters with his own blood. How will we sign ours?

STOLEN FROM GOD AND GIVEN TO CAESAR?

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mt 22:15-21

The enigmatic saying of Jesus in the Gospel today, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s”, is often quoted to defend the principle of separation between the Church and the State. Doing so, Jesus is gravely misquoted. Jesus did not mean to separate the Church from the State. He did not mean that the Church must confine herself within the spiritual realm only while the State must attend to the temporal affairs of men and women.

When we hear Jesus say, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God”, do we not also hear our selves asking the question, “And what really belongs to Caesar that does not belong to God?” Our question will yield only one simple answer: nothing except one. All things that belong to Caesar came from God, except Caesar’s sins. Inversely, all that belongs to Caesar, save his sins, belongs to God, too. But not everything that belongs to God belongs to Caesar.

Therefore Jesus is far from making a declaration that separates the Church from the State. When we invoke His words today to hinder the Church from doing her pastoral duty to safeguard morality in politics, we are misquoting Jesus. Do we not find it funny, to say the least, when at election time, political candidates are seen courting the support of religious leaders but the same politicians, after being elected into office, call the same religious leaders names if the latter raise their voices against an immoral governance or against policies that run counter to the values of God? It seems that, for those politicians, the principle of separation between Church and State depends on what side the Church takes on particular issues.

Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. All things belong to God, including Caesar. Anything we hold from God, our sins not counted, is something we steal from God.

Have we stolen from God something we give to our “Caesars”?

FEEL GOOD

Memorial of St. Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

Jn 15:1-8

Have you experienced prolonged dryness in your prayer life? Have you known the aridity of spiritual wilderness? Good news: you are not alone. Many saints, if not all, went through this kind of spiritual pruning. To name a few: St. John of the Cross, Bl. Teresa of Calcutta, and, our saint for today, St. Teresa of Jesus, commonly called “Teresa of Avila”.

Born in 1515 in Avila, Spain, to a well-to-do family, Teresa, however, chose to enter the Carmelite monastery. Together with St. John of the Cross, she later on reformed the Discalced Carmelites for which she suffered many hardships because pervasive laxity and politicking permeated the Spanish religious orders of her time. Faithful to the Church, her contribution to the renewal of the entire ecclesiastical community is far from being minor. Her written works, among which the most famous is the “Interior Castle”, give us a glimpse to the beautiful soul of this mystic and serve even until today as guides to asceticism and intimate union with God. Teresa passed away in 1582 and was declared Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI in 1970.

She who went through a prolonged spiritual dryness is after all a mystic. According to Teresa herself, she experienced deep desolation, even in the midst of her faithfulness to prayer and spiritual discipline, for eighteen years! But she turned out to be a genius of mysticism.

When we find our selves going through a wilderness in our spiritual life, may Teresa remind us that prayer is not about feeling good as it is first of all becoming good. May she inspire us to remain faithful to our prayer and spiritual discipline even, and most of all, when there seems to nothing happening. For it is when nothing seems to be happening because we are not in control of what happens that God is actually doing something in us. He is pruning us so that we may bear the sweet fruit of spiritual growth.

Solo Dios basta was St. Teresa’s motto in life. And indeed, God alone is enough. The rest are distractions…yes, sometimes even including feeling good…when feeling good does not come from our greatest Good – God.

TRUST GOD

Friday of the 28th Week in Ordinary Time
Lk 12:1-7

I heard this joke first from our dear and good Bishop Ted Bacani. What is the difference between a man with hair and a man with no hair? Bishop Bacani quipped, “When God created men, He created them bald and perfect. Those who were not perfect, He covered them with hair.”

According to the joke, I am not perfect. But it is no joke that I am not perfect. It is the truth.

Today, Jesus assures us that God knows even the number of our hairs. Well, with some, He does not really have much difficulty. They have very few hairs left on their heads. But with some, He really has to be God to count every hair on their heads. I read somewhere that blonds have around 150,000 hairs, brunettes have about 125,000, and redheads, around 100,000. Wow! Even if I could count every strand of hair on anyone’s head, I think that I do not have the patience neither the interest counting them. What with every hair on the head of every person, living and dead! But I am not God.

I am not God. My patience runs out. My interest wanes. My ability is limited.

But the Father of Jesus will never fail us. His patience does not run out. His interest in us does not wane. His ability is unlimited and His power is infinite. Most of all, His love for us will never end. Let us put our trust in Him and Him alone.

Of course, we put our trust in God. But we must constantly make a conscious act of putting our trust in Him. Perhaps, we do in our minds. But where really are our hearts?

God accepts our minds. But He wants our hearts. This is something that the Pharisees perhaps forgot. They obey every minute detail of the law but their hearts were still far from God. In their rigid obedience to the dictates of the law without opening their hearts to God’s call to conversion, their hearts became bloated with self-righteousness which is the yeast that Jesus warns us about today.

Trust God, not our selves. Better yet, trust God more than we trust our selves. Rely on Him completely, not on our selves. He knows every hair on our head; so does He know everything in our hearts. And we may lose our hairs, but not our hearts.

NOT LEARNING FROM THE PAST

Thursday of the 28th Week in Ordinary Time

Lk 11:47-54

I cannot help it, the Gospel today reminds me of Joan of Arc. She was burnt at stake after Church officials of her time condemned her as a witch. Years later she was canonized and made patron saint of France. The Church that burnt her at stake is the same Church that exalted her as a saint!

Jesus condemned the religious leaders and scholars of the law of His time for their hypocrisy. His righteous anger against them seemed unending as it has been the topic of the Gospel since Monday this week. Today, He lambasted the Pharisees and the lawyers for murdering the prophets only to build monuments for them later on. Not that those who stood before Him were the ones who actually slaughtered the prophets, but that their ancestors did the killing while they did the building. The Pharisees and lawyers of His time shared the guilt of their ancestors, yet they acted as if their hands were clean. In their self-righteousness, they regarded some people as unclean. In their hypocrisy, they regarded themselves “holier than thou”. In their blindness, they failed to see their own need for repentance, forgiveness, and conversion of life.

Feodor Dostoevski, a great novelist, wrote in his book “The Brothers Karamazov”, “Men reject their prophets and slay them, but they love their martyrs and honor those whom they have slain.” What the Church did to St. Joan of Arc proved this observation to be correct. What the Pharisees and the lawyers of Jesus’ time and their ancestors did to the prophets confirmed this declaration. What we and our ancestors did to Jesus verified this claim.

One of the greatest and humble acts that the late Pope John Paul II did at the turn of the millennium was to ask forgiveness in behalf of us all, Catholics, for the sins committed by the Church. Among many others, that included persecuting and killing some of the men and women we now venerate as saints.

One of the greatest mistakes of the Pharisees and the lawyers of Jesus’ time was not rejecting Jesus. It was their failure to heed the call to conversion where forgiveness readily awaited them.

We cannot repeat the past, but we can certainly learn from its mistakes so as not to repeat them, can we not? Otherwise, be careful because we certainly shall fall into the same trap that the religious leaders and scholars of the law during the time of Jesus fell into: hypocrisy, among many others.

ARE WE REALLY HIS?

Wednesday of the 28th Week in Ordinary Time

Lk 11:42-46

One day, Satan was admitted into the presence of Jesus.

“How are you, Satan?” the Lord asked him.

“I’m in the best of everything, Jesus. Gaining recruits more than ever!” said Satan. “Have you heard the news?” he asked Jesus.

“What about, Satan?” asked Jesus.

“Well, according to the latest survey, I already have more friends than you do,” replied a proud Satan.

“Are you sure, Satan?” questioned Jesus.

“Can’t be more certain, Jesus” came the reply.

“Very well then, Satan, let’s stroll around the earth and prove me your claim,” challenged Jesus.

And so Satan and Jesus went around the earth. Their first stop was in a marketplace.

“See those vendors who cheat their customers and those customers who cheat the vendors? They are all mine!” Satan told Jesus.

Next they went to a government office.

“You got to be blind not to see the corruption going on here, Jesus. But were you blind, you could even smell there’s something fishy in those deals these public officials are making. All of these crooks and their cronies are mine!” Satan bragged.

The third place they visited was a school.

“This is where they start, Jesus,” said Satan. “They cheat, lie and steal while in school; they will cheat, lie, steal in offices later. These brats are already mine!” Satan said with a loud, horrifying laugh.

Then they entered a house.

“Quiet, peaceful house, huh!” spoofed Satan. “No wonder, Jesus, because there is no one here. Papa is with his mistress. Mama is with her lover. Son is having sex with his girlfriend. Daughter is in an abortion clinic today,” continued Satan. “This is a jackpot, I got the whole family, Jesus!” boasted Satan.

Meanwhile, all throughout their visits, Jesus remained silent and sad. But suddenly, His face beamed and He said, “Satan, let’s go to the nearest church. I know that churches here in the Philippines are always jam packed…especially on Sundays and, like today, Wednesdays.”

Thus, to a nearby church, Jesus and Satan went. They arrived while a Mass was going on. And true enough, the church was bursting with people.

“Look, Satan! Look! Hundreds, no, thousands of people in the Mass! Multiply this by the number of churches in the Philippines; and you will know that I still have more friends than you do,” declared Jesus.

“Take it easy, Jesus. Slow down,” said Satan, see that man at the back, with head bowed down and hands folded in deep prayer?”

“I do. What about him?” asked Jesus.

“He is the corrupt government official we saw awhile ago,” said Satan. “And notice those fruits offered during the offertory? They came from the vendor we saw cheating a customer this morning at the marketplace. The man who is first in line for communion is the same customer who cheated the same vendor. And the members of the choir serving in the Mass are the students in the school we visited,” continued Satan. “You see, Jesus,” Satan went on saying as his hand makes a sweeping move across the church while letting out his trademark laughter, “not because they are here, they are really yours.”

ARE WE CLEANSED BY WHAT WE GIVE?

Tuesday of the 28th Week in Ordinary Time

Lk 11:37-41

“How do the rich justify their illegally gotten wealth? By supporting seminarians!” These were the famous words of Fr. Gerald Healy, my very kind and competent Jesuit professor in Moral Theology. It was the years immediately following the fall of the conjugal dictatorship of the Marcoses when Fr. Healy taught us Moral Theology, and the issue on the illegally gotten wealth of the Marcoses and their cronies was almost the daily headline then. Those words of Fr. Healy kept ringing in my ears when I read this last sentence of today’s Gospel: “Instead, give alms from what you have and then indeed everything will be clean for you.”

Almsgiving when done with love can really be a form of penance and therefore cleanse us from our sins. Love does not only cast out all fears; indeed, as the Apostle Paul mentioned in one of his Epistles, it can also cover a multitude of sins.

But what we give must come from what is truly ours, not from what we falsely own because we have stolen from someone. Otherwise, Fr. Healy, who passed away early this year, might rise from his grave and haunt us in the middle of the night, saying, “You see! I told you! How do the rich justify their illegally gotten wealth?” And embarrassed, more than just frightened, we can only answer, “By supporting seminarians, Father.”

By the way, the answer to Fr. Healy’s question can also be “By supporting the Church” or “By supporting charitable projects and institutions” or “By supporting nuns” or “By supporting priests and bishops” or “By supporting poor students” or “By supporting less fortunate families” or “By supporting the sick and the handicapped” etc…. Choose the best answer!

Yes, we do give alms, do we not? But are we cleansed from sin?

WHAT WILL WE SAY?

Monday of the 28th Week in Ordinary Time

Rom 1:1-7

I read a prediction made by an American news columnist which says, “Someday we will be able to talk to our audience from any place in the world almost any time we want. When that day comes, what will we say?” This news columnist had the name Edward Murrow and the year he made this prediction was 1950. Murrow’s prediction already came true in our age of radio, television, and the internet. But have really already figured out what to say?

Ironically, even before Murrow made his prediction, a man named Paul already knew what to say to the world. Summarizing the First Reading today, this is what Paul would say: “Jesus Christ is Lord who calls us all to be saints together.” Sadly, it is seldom that the power of today’s modern means of communication is being employed for this message. Instead of untiringly proclaiming that Jesus is Lord, mass media suggest other demigods. Instead of sounding the call to holiness of life, radio, television and the internet are used to promote permissiveness and licentiousness. Make a very keen survey of what we hear, see, and read through the modern means of social communication and you will readily agree that these claims are not over exaggerations.

If the Apostle Paul were still living in our world today, it would not be a big surprise for us to see him deeply involved in the mass media ministry. He would use every modern means of social communication to announce the lordship of Jesus Christ and to remind us all of our common vocation to holiness. He was able to make this announcement and reminder without the availability of the tools we have in mass media, and yet he accomplished a lot. Now that more powerful and more extensive technology in mass communication is at our disposal, should we not be able to accomplish more than he was able to do?

Moreover, when we claim that we finally figure out what to say, we say the wrong things. Too bad, wrong things are continuously being said, wrong acts are unceasingly being shown, and wrong values are incessantly being fed to us, most especially to the young, by mass media for the simple reason that we continuously, unceasingly, and incessantly patronize them.

St. Paul the Apostle knew how to use a blessing he never had – the modern means of social communication -- while we misuse the power we have at our disposal. We are now able to talk to an audience from any place in the world at any time we want, but quite often we talk nonsense. And we have been talking for a long time now.

THE GOOD NEWS AND THE WARNING OF A WEDDING

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mt 22:1-14

In the Gospel of every Mass, seldom do we have two parables. Today we have two. The first is the Parable of the Wedding Banquet while the second is the Parable of the Wedding Garment. The first is good news; the second is a warning. Let us heed both.

The Gospel today opens on a banquet scene. It opens not on any ordinary meal, but on a banquet. The king, representing God, celebrates the wedding of his son and invites his subjects to sit at table with him.

This idea of God inviting men to His table is an image unique to Christianity. In other religions, God is often pictured as an omnipotent being, quite remote from humanity, and welcomes people in His presence like well-schooled courtiers only. In that concept of God, one enters God’s presence in a rigid standing to attention manner. With that idea of God, it is totally unthinkable for God to throw a party, much less to invite people to partake of His banquet. But our understanding of God is different. Our God enjoys inviting us to share His table. And His meal is not stingy. It is a banquet. God, from our Christian point of view, not only delights in us but is also ever generous to us. Lavishness is second nature to God’s love for us.

The banquet God prepares for us is no ordinary banquet. It is a wedding banquet. God is our lover. And He is madly in loved with us. In the Old Testament we see God as a suitor trying to win over Israel. He desires to marry her. But Israel keeps on prostituting herself. Nonetheless, God constantly offers a covenant that is bridal in character: “For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is His name” (Is 54:5). In the New Testament, this love story continues in and through the very person of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though rejected by His own people, “has become the corner stone” (Mt 21:42).

Our relationship with God is therefore a love story. In Jer 31:3, God confides to us the inner recesses of His heart: “I love you with an everlasting love”. All He asks of us is to live by His commandments, foremost of which is “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart” (Dt 6:5).

Our God is not a complicated God. All He wants is to love us and all He desires for is our love.

Only a fool will reject an invitation to such a wedding banquet, to such an offer of everlasting and lavish love, from an unchanging God. He who prostitutes himself to other gods misses this good news very badly.

What is further striking about God’s loving invitation for us to enter into marriage with Him is that the call is extended to all and not only to a chosen few. “Go therefore,” says the king to his servants in the parable, “to the main crossroads and invite to the banquet whomever you might find there” (Mt 22:9). And the servants went to the thoroughfares and there gathered all those they found, the bad and the good alike.

Have we never ever wondered why no testimonial of good behavior is required of us for us to become Christians? One can have been the worst criminal, and yet receive the same baptism as that of a newly-born infant. The same invitation to the loving relationship with God is offered to all, saints and sinners, pure and blemished, innocent and guilty. The only condition imposed is that he who says yes to God’s love should turn his back to his sinful past. God’s love is never a reward, but a gratuitous gift to all, without distinction of merits or virtues.

A warning though!

Many are called but few are chosen. While all are called to share God’s table, not all will be chosen to sit at table with Him. It is not enough to accept God’s invitation to enter into marriage with Him. While His marriage proposal is a gratuitous gift to all, each must strive to make himself ready for the eternal embrace of the Divine Bridegroom.

In the Gospel today, the king is greatly dismayed to see a man not properly dressed for the wedding banquet. There is no excuse, not even the surprised invitation from the king. The man could have told the king’s servants, “I accept the king’s gracious invitation and I am deeply humbled by his great kindness. Let me therefore make my self less unworthy of so undeserved an offer.” But this man remained the same man that he was before he entered the wedding banquet. Thus, though he accepted the invitation, he was nonetheless thrown out of the banquet hall.

It is important therefore that we wear the right wedding garment always as we have already been “married” to God. In his letter to the Colossians, St. Paul describes this garment thus, “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. And over all these put on love, that is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body. And be thankful” (Col 3:12-5).

We were called, we responded, but are we rightly garbed?

BLEST INDEED

Saturday of the 27th Week in Ordinary Time

Lk 11:27-28

With the Gospel today we can almost hear St. Augustine speak what he once wrote: “Mary is blest among women because she has first conceived the Word in her womb before she conceived It in her heart.” While being the mother of the Lord Jesus made Mary singularly privileged, her faithful and loving obedience to the will of God was what truly made her first among equals.

It seems that I often hear that woman in the Gospel who praised the womb that bore Jesus. People always tell me, “Ang suwerte-suwerte naman ng nanay mo, Father; may anak siyang pari” (“Your mother is so fortunate, Father; she has a priest-son”). Indeed, my mother – and all mothers of priests – are blest for having priest-sons, but still more blest are those who hear the word of God and keep it. Having a priest-son is not a guarantee in entering the Kingdom of Heaven; doing God’s will is.

Mary is truly blest because she is both the mother of the Word and the Word’s first and perfect disciple. Jesus did not disagree with that woman in the crowd who praised His mother; rather, He praised His mother even more, for she conceived Him in both her heart and her womb. The woman focused on Mary’s womb but failed to see Mary’s heart.

We will never have Mary’s womb. But we can have a heart like Mary’s.

SWEET DEFEAT

Memorial of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary

Acts 1:12-14

Today we celebrate the miraculous victory of Christians against Muslims in the Battle of Lepanto. The Muslims were Turks who were ready to attack Central Europe. They were poised only about a hundred miles from Vienna. The Holy Father then, Pius V organized the Catholic League to oppose them. During the great naval battle in the Gulf of Lepanto on October 7, 1571, Pope Pius V ordered the recitation of the Holy Rosary; and the Christian forces, under the command of Don John of Austria, with eight thousand Turks and seven thousand Christians as fatalities, won over the Turkish militia. Pope Pius V, attributing the victory of the Catholic League to the recitation of the Holy Rosary, therefore instituted today’s feast. This feast was originally called Our Lady of Victory but was later changed to Our Lady of the Rosary to emphasize that the Battle of Lepanto was won by the Christian forces not so much by their weapons and valor but by the arm of the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

It is fitting that the First Reading today paints for us the beautiful picture of the first Christian community gathered together with the Blessed Mother as they wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit. This is one of the beautiful images of the Church. The Church prays with Mary, the Mother of the Lord. If we were to explain the Holy Rosary through a drawing, we should draw Acts 1:12-14, the First Reading today.

The Holy Rosary is a prayer to Jesus, the One Mediator, not to Mary. As evident in Marian apparitions, the Blessed Virgin Mary herself prays the rosary. Certainly, she does not pray to her self. In the rosary, the Blessed Mother prays with us to Jesus, her Son.

When we pray the rosary, we contemplate the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord and the beginnings of the Church with Mary. The Holy Rosary is looking at Jesus with the eyes of Mary, loving Jesus with the heart of Mary, praising Jesus with the lips of Mary, and following Jesus with the soul of Mary. While having a Marian bent, the Holy Rosary is a Christocentric prayer.

The Holy Rosary is a spirituality, more than a prayer. Its ultimate goal is to help us become more and more like Jesus by contemplating on the events in His life, with Mary, the first and perfect disciple of her own Son. It is therefore not the mere recitation of the rosary that we should strive to do each day, but the daily imitation of Mary’s participation in the life of her Son. As we pray the rosary, Mary leads us closer to her Son until we become one with Him.

I confess that I am uncomfortable with making the Christian victory at the Battle of Lepanto the point of reference for today’s feast of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary. Though the Turks did not share my Catholic Faith, I hesitate to rejoice at their defeat that was marked by the shedding of blood. If the battle is attributed to the intercession of the Blessed Mother, is it the same as saying that the Blessed Mother had a hand in the death of so many Turkish Muslims? I am not comfortable with that idea.

I need to conquer my self more than anyone. I have to win my battle against my self more than against anyone. I should triumph over my own weaknesses rather than over anyone’s religious persuasion. Praying the Holy Rosary is winning my battle against my self as Mary prays not only for me, but most importantly with me. And if it is Mary who wins over me, that indeed is sweet defeat!

WE CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT IT

6 October 2005
Thursday of the 27th Week in Ordinary Time

WE CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT IT
Lk 11:5-13

When I was younger I used to wonder why we still need to beg from God the things we need when He is all-knowing and therefore always knows what we need even before we ask it from Him. As I grew up, I learned four reasons why we still have to pray even when God already knows what we need.

First, prayer is in itself our need. We need to pray. It is our direct line to God. It keeps our relationship with Him going and going deeper. We cannot live as we should without praying just as we cannot survive a day without God.

Second, prayer is not only asking God to give us what we need. We thank God, we praise Him, adore Him, glorify him, and apologize to Him, too, when we pray. If the content of our prayer is always and only petitions, then we really do not know how to pray.

Third, when we tell God what we need despite His already knowing it even before we confide to Him, we acknowledge God to be the source of what we need. We affirm God. Not that God needs our affirmation to be God; rather we need to affirm God to be who we are – His creatures.

Fourth, confiding to God what we need develops in us an attitude that makes us belong to His kingdom: childlike trust. As a child confidently tells his father what he needs so too should we have the faith to ask from God what we need. Prayer does not change God. Prayer changes us. It makes us children of so loving a Father.

Of course, telling God our Father what we need does not always mean that we get what we want. God is a Father, not a vending machine that gives exactly what we program it to deliver. God knows what is best for us and always does it for us. Because I have an adopted son, I know this very well. My little boy asks for many things and even tries convincing me that he really needs them. But for now, I know better than him. I am his “father”. What my little boy thinks he needs is not always what is best for him. I give him only the best. Later in life, he will understand better.

“Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened for you,” says the Lord. But we ask and receive not always what we ask; we seek and find not always what we seek; and we knock and the door that opens for us is not always what we knock on. Sometimes we understand why. Sometimes we don’t. Meanwhile, we continue praying because cannot live without it.

THE JONAH COMPLEX

Wednesday of the 27th Week in Ordinary Time

Jon 4:1-11

God called Jonah to warn the Ninevites that unless they repent, God would punish them. Jonah fled from God and took a ship bound for Tarshish instead. God overtook Jonah by sending a great storm. Jonah was found sleeping by the others who were with him in the ship in the midst of the violent storm. The boatswain ordered Jonah to get up and pray to his God. The rest suggested that they cast lots and the lots fell on Jonah. Asked what they were to do with him, Jonah proposed that they throw him overboard the ship. At first they refused; instead, they rowed harder to reach the shore but to no avail. Thus, after praying that they be not held accountable of Jonah’s life, they threw Jonah into the sea; and the sea grew calm again. Jonah meanwhile was swallowed by a very large fish. After three days in its belly, the large fish vomited Jonah right on the very shore of Nineveh. Jonah had no choice but deliver God’s message to the Ninevites who subsequently repented and was spared from punishment.

Jonah accomplished what God wanted but Jonah was not happy. He wanted to see the Ninevites punished for their wickedness. He explained to God that it was precisely because he knew that God would show mercy to the Ninevites that he did not want to go and preach there in the first place. He was indignant about the happy turn of events for the Ninevites so much so that he asked God to take his life. He went out of the city and sat under a shelter at the east of the city, waiting to see what would happen to Nineveh.

Thereupon, God made a castor-oil plant to grow up over Jonah to give him shade and soothe his ill-humor. But God caused a worm to attack the plant that soon withered. When the sun rose, God made it beat down so hard on Jonah’s head that he was furthered infuriated and begged for death.

God questioned Jonah why he was so upset about the castor-oil plant which cost him no labor and yet not rejoice with Him over the repentance of the Ninevites who, like everyone else, were God’s creatures. God confronted Jonah’s attitude towards the Ninevites with these words: “…am I not to feel sorry for Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, to say nothing of all the animals?”

We have many lessons to learn from Jonah.

First, we cannot escape from God. When He calls and chooses us for a mission, He always finds a way to overtake us if we run away from Him.

Second, God does not wish the death of a sinner. He sends His prophets then and today to warn the sinner, not to condemn and punish them. He hates sin but loves the sinner. He does not delight in seeing the wicked suffer because He is a loving Father to both saints and sinners.

Third, we accomplish our mission when we have led a sinner back to God, not when we have implemented God’s punishment on him. We are called to be agents of God’s love and mercy, not to be instruments of God’s wrath.

Fourth, because we are called to be channels of God’s mercy and not of His just anger, we should learn to rejoice with God when the people we preach to are converted from their sinful ways. This lesson is echoed by the father in the Parable of the Prodigal Son when he says to the elder son, “My son, you are with me always and all that I have is yours. But we have to rejoice and celebrate because this brother of yours was lost and now is found, was dead and has come back to life.” If we find our selves indignant when a repentant sinner is spared by God from the punishment he deserves, we have to examine our motives and honestly answer the disturbing question “Why?”.

Fifth, no one – yes, even the prophets – can claim righteousness before God. We – yes, even God’s chosen ones – deserve punishment for our sins but we have been so undeservedly treated with unfathomable and inexhaustible mercy by a loving God.

Psychologist Abraham Maslow said that most of us suffer from the Jonah Complex. He explained that we are afflicted with this psychological disease when we flee from responsibilities we regard to be beyond our grasp because we suffer from inferiority complex. In the light of today’s First Reading, I add that Jonah Complex is also when we refuse to rejoice with God over the conversion of those to whom He sends us to lead to repentance from their wicked ways.

Are you suffering from the Jonah Complex? There is only one remedy. The Gospel gives us the cure: “The Lord’s Prayer” (Lk 11:1-4). Pray it and live it out!

We do not want to stay in the belly of a large fish for three days only to end up indignant and wanting to die. Do we?

THE MARKS OF THE MASTER

Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi, Deacon and Religious

Gal 6:14-18

Francis of Assisi, whose blessed memory we celebrate today, is one saint who needs no introduction. He is one of the popular and well loved saints of all time. In life, he had friends who did not share his Catholic Faith. In death, he has devotees not only among Christians but also people from various religious persuasions. He personified detachment from worldly things, simplicity of life, humility of spirit, love of people and nature, and complete dedication to the cause of peace. Thus, he is the favorite saint of many, Christians and otherwise.

“…the marks on my body are those of Jesus,” says the letter of St. Paul to the Galatians today. Privileged to bear the five wounds of Jesus in his body, Francis of Assisi can very well claim these words. His love for Jesus Crucified was so intense that Francis was eventually given a visible share in the sufferings of the Lord. Having stripped himself of all things, Francis became empty for God. And God filled him up to the brim and made him very much like Jesus not only in spirit but even in body as he received the stigmata.

Like Francis, we are disciples of Jesus. We, too, should have on our bodies the marks of Jesus. Perhaps, we are not as privileged as Francis to have the stigmata on our bodies; but the marks of Jesus are more than just the marks of His wounds. Unconditional love and obedience to God, sincere love for others, respect for the dignity of every individual and of the whole creation, simplicity of life, humble endurance, and desire for true and lasting peace are also marks of Jesus. Are these marks found in our lives as well?

The ultimate joy of any disciple is to become like his master. When we remember Francis of Assisi, we imagine a smiling saint. He is never pictured as a melancholic, long-faced, holy man. He is always remembered as a person dressed in a poor man’s clothing of his time, singing praises to God in harmony with nature, talking to birds, fish, and even beasts, or deeply absorbed in prayer. He radiates peace. There is only one reason for this. All through his life, Francis strove to imitate his Master even to the minutest detail of his Master’s life. He has achieved the ultimate joy of a disciple because he became like his Master, Jesus.

With the help of God’s grace, let us always strive to become like Jesus. Let the marks on our bodies be the marks of Jesus, our Master. All other marks are blemishes, stains, and dirt. Bear the marks of Jesus; bear the marks of true joy.

MADLY IN LOVED

2 October 2005
27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

MADLY IN LOVED
Mt 21:33-43

There are three things we can say about the landowner in the parable today.

First, the landowner is a very patient man. He keeps on sending servants to his tenants over and over again. This he does despite the tenants’ persistent, even violent, refusal to welcome his emissaries. His decision to send them ambassadors is totally unaffected by their foul attitude. He deals with his tenants not on the basis of what his tenants actually deserve. He is free from whatever action they take against him. And precisely because he is truly free that he is very patient.

Second, the landowner is very optimistic fellow. Verse 37 of today’s parable says, “Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’” Despite seizing the emissaries, thrashing them, killing them and stoning them, the tenants still find a good regard from their landowner: “They will respect my son.” The landowner refuses to surrender his hope in his ungrateful tenants. Wicked though they are, the tenants cannot conquer their landowner’s hope. They may kill his emissaries but they cannot kill his hope. He believes they will respect his son. He believes in his tenants even when we ourselves cannot believe in any shade of goodness in them. He believes even when we think it is pure and simple naiveté on his part to hope in his tenants.

Third, the landowner is a very silly guy. How else can you describe a man who sends his own son to violent men? It is like feeding a hungry pack of dogs with the flesh of your own begotten. Is it not utterly foolish, if not careless, to risk the life of your own child? No human father will put his own son in danger as this landowner does. The landowner in the parable today must be out of his mind. He is a dangerous decision-maker in whose hands one might never want to be. He is a father no son may want to have.

The landowner is like God. The landowner is very patient, so is God with us. He always gives us the chance to repent from our wicked ways and return to His embrace. The landowner is a very optimistic fellow and so is God. He believes in us no matter if everybody thinks it is foolish for God to do so, and even if we ourselves do not and can no longer believe in our selves. The landowner is a very silly guy and, yes, so is God a mad lover. He does not stop at anything in loving us.

In Jn 3:16, we read, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.” It is His tremendous love for us that makes Him very patient with us. It is His undying love for us that makes Him believe in us. It is unconditional love for us that makes Him crazy with us. He is lovingly patient with us. He is unbelievably hopeful in us. He is madly in loved with us.

Interestingly about the parable today, the son of the landowner does not speak. He does not complain about his father’s long patience with their tenants. He does not even protest when he himself is sent by the father in the end. He is silent over his father’s seeming madness. He is given no speaking lines in the parable. All he does is act upon the word of his father. His part in the story is to accomplish his father’s will; thus, he simply readily obeys and willingly goes to the vineyard where death waits for him.

Jesus is like that son of the landowner in the parable today. He obeys His Father without any question. As the Father is madly in loved with us, Jesus is madly in loved with the Father. And like His Father, Jesus is madly in loved with us.

Their love for us is stronger than death. Thus, death itself could hold Jesus forever. He rose from the dead. Jesus uttered seven last words from the cross, but the cross is not the last word on Jesus and His Father’s love for us. Love, tremendous love, is the first word on Jesus. Love, undying love, is the last word on Jesus. Love, unconditional love, is always the word on Jesus.

We look on Jesus whom we have pierced because He is the stone rejected by men that has become the cornerstone of our lives. Our lives are founded on the inexhaustible love of the Father. That love is Jesus. He is our cornerstone.

Let us keep our selves founded on Jesus. Build our lives on that love of God – once rejected but has become the cornerstone.

Do not fear! God loves you more than you know. He is madly in loved with you.

A LITTLE FLOWER SHOWED US HOW

1 October 2005
Memorial of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face,
Virgin and Doctor of the Church

A LITTLE FLOWER SHOWED US HOW
Mt 18:1-5

Theresa Martin was born in Alencon, France in the year 1873. Her father was a watchmaker and her mother was a housewife who passed away while Theresa was still a little child. Obtaining a dispensation from the Holy See, Theresa entered the Carmelite monastery at Lisieux at a very young age of 15 years old only. She never stepped out of the same monastery from then on.

Inside the monastery, she lived a life of humility, simplicity and trust in God even as she served as sacristan and novice mistress. While she was looked up to by her fellow sisters, some among them also ridiculed her. While Theresa was lying in her deathbed, one sister was overheard saying to a fellow sister, “I wonder what Mother Abbess would write about Sour Therese. She has not done anything extraordinary.”

Indeed, Theresa did nothing but ordinary things inside the Carmelite monastery. But she did ordinary things extraordinarily well for love of God. She offered everything she did – no matter how simple and ordinary it was – for the salvation of souls and the growth of the Church. She would always pray for and sacrifice for priests and the missions.

After long and painful days of suffering tuberculosis of the bones, Theresa passed away on September 30, 1897, at the very young age of 24 years old. She left us with a beautiful and inspiring autobiography – written under obedience to the order of her Abbess – entitled “The Story of A Soul”. Though she was not a priest herself, she is patroness of priests. Though she did not go to the missions, she is patroness of the missions. And though she did not write other than her autobiography, she was declared by Pope John Paul II “Doctor of the Church”, the third woman to be given that title. Theresa is Doctor of Divine Love.

Theresa was a woman of great dreams, high ambition, and intense desire. Even as a child, she prayed to become a saint someday. Moreover, she wrote that she wanted to become three things: a priest, a missionary, and a martyr in some foreign land. All three things, God did not grant her. She could not become a priest because she was a woman. Instead of going to the missions, she lived most of her life secluded inside a monastery. She was not martyred in some distant land but she suffered the ridicule of her fellow sisters and a debilitating illness until she died. “Man proposes but God disposes” – we see this saying come alive in the life of Theresa. But through it all, she remained not only loveable but loving as well. She discovered the real essence of our vocation in life. Thus, she wrote in her autobiography: “Then, nearly ecstatic with the supreme joy in my soul, I proclaimed: O Jesus, my love, at last I have found my calling: my call is love. Certainly I have found my proper place in the Church, and you gave me that very place, my God. In the heart of the Church, my mother, I will be love, and thus I will be all things, as my desire finds its direction.”

Theresa never got what she wanted. But she got what she prayed for: she became a saint. In God’s heavenly garden, Theresa was a little flower but certainly a big saint. Love makes little flowers big saints, for it is the perfection of love that makes people holy.

We learn three lessons from St. Theresa’s life:

First, we may have great dreams for our selves that are not necessarily unbecoming of a child of God. But God’s plans for us are always the best. We propose while God disposes; and we find joy in that. Our fulfillment in life is not in the fulfillment of our ambitions but in the fulfillment of God’s dreams for us. Like St. Theresa, we obey God’s will with childlike trust because we know and are convinced that God is our Father. He wants and does what is only best for us.

Second, holiness is for everyone. Holiness is not beyond our reach. Holiness is the perfection of love. The more loving we are the holier we become. When we do things with great love, ordinary things become extraordinary. When we do ordinary things extraordinarily well for love of God, we sanctify not only what we do but our selves as well. Whoever we are, whatever we do, wherever we go, doing things extraordinarily well for love of God is always possible because love knows no boundaries; and therefore holiness is always within our reach. We can become saints if we dream of becoming one. We can become saints if we love greatly. We can become saints because God wants us to become saints.

Third, as holiness is our common vocation, and holiness is the perfection of love, it is love that spells our greatness before God and men. Titles are very deceiving. They do not guarantee holiness of life. Priests are not first class citizens in the Kingdom of God. Lay people are not lesser in dignity compared with the ordained ministers. Our greatness is measured by our love. Are we priests who are loving or are we priest who simply enjoy being loved and adulated? Are lay persons who are loving or are we simply a loveable lay person? In the heart of the Church, our mother, let us be love, not only loved.

There is nothing wrong about desiring to be great. But, as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, our greatness is already found in our being a child of God. What can be greater than being a child of God? Nothing. St. Theresa showed us that by her childlike confidence in God.