JESUS TIME

Friday in the 4th Week of Lent
Jn 7:1-2.10.25-30

No one laid a hand upon Jesus because His hour had not yet come. Even Jesus, who is Lord Himself, submitted to life’s timetable.

There are things in life that cannot happen overnight. There are no great changes in life that takes effect in a day. There are no stages in life that must not come through a process. Everything has its time. And everything has its time not only for us but also for Jesus, the Son of God.

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8 reminds us, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to sow;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to let go;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.”

There is no mission greater than the mission of Jesus. Yet Jesus did not begin His public ministry until he reached thirty years old. The merits of the passion and death of Jesus were immensely valuable for our salvation. Yet Jesus died only when it was time for Him to die, no sooner, no later. The resurrection of Jesus is infinitely indispensable for our redemption. Yet Jesus laid in the tomb three days before rising to life.

There is wisdom in waiting. There is virtue in waiting patiently. There is grace in waiting with Jesus.

Advent and Lent are seasons of waiting not only for Jesus, but also very much with Jesus. During Advent, we wait with Jesus to be born just as we wait for Him to come. During Lent we wait with Jesus to die and rise again just as we wait for Him accomplish the mystery of our redemption from sin and death.

Let us wait FOR Jesus; let us wait WITH Jesus. And when we are with Jesus, when it is not yet the time, it is not yet the time. For Jesus time is always the right time.

HIS CHOICE

Thursday in the 4th Week of Lent
John 5: 31-47

Jesus is very familiar with God. Is it His fault? No, it is not His fault; God is His Father.

Jesus is very vocal about the Father. Is it His fault? No, it is not His fault; He is the Eternal Word of the Father.

Jesus is very close to the Father. Is it His fault? No, it is not His fault; He is the Way to the Father.

Jesus is familiar with God because He is His Son. He is vocal about the Father because He is the Eternal Word of the Father. He is close to the Father because He leads us to the Father.

Jesus died on account of His relationship with the Father, a relationship that His persecutors failed to recognize and accept. We are also children of the Father of Jesus. Are we also willing to die on account of our relationship with Him? All of us are children of the Father of Jesus. Do we recognize and accept one another as such?

If we are willing to die on account of our relationship with God our Father, then we are like Jesus. If we do not recognize and accept one another as children of God our Father, then we are like those who nailed Jesus to the cross. Either we are ready to give our lives for the Father or we are willing to crucify Jesus again in the person of our brethren. There is no halfway; there is no compromise. What is your choice?

The choice of Jesus: not only to offer His life to the Father, but to offer His life for the Father. May His choice be also ours at all times.

COULD IT BE ENVY?

Wednesday in the 4th Week of Lent
Jn 5:17-30

Lucifer rallied a host of angels against God because he himself wanted to be god. Together with his cohorts, Lucifer was defeated and became the anti-thesis of God. Lucifer, who once was the most beautiful of the angels, became the ugly face of evil. He, whose name meant ‘light’, became the prince of darkness. Envy darkened the angel of light.

Perhaps, those who persecute Jesus were envious of Him for calling God His Father. Behind their accusations of blasphemy could really be envy. For why should they persecute someone who regarded God as a Father?

Jesus was too original for His persecutors. No one referred to God as “Father” before Jesus called Him “Abba”. Jesus openly expressed what His persecutors had long wanted to say: “God is a Father.” Jesus said the prayer that His persecutors had long wanted to pray: “Our Father.”

There are times when we find ourselves suspicious of others even when they do nothing wrong at all. There are times when we exert effort in finding fault in others even when their motives are pure. There are times when we persecute others even when they are good. Why? Could it be because we are envious?

When we are envious, let us remember Lucifer. He was an angel of light but, because of envy, he became the prince of darkness. When we are envious, let us remember those who put Jesus to death. They could have been among His first disciples but, because of envy, they became His persecutors. When we are envious, let us remember Jesus. He could have kept the Father to Himself but, because of love, He shared His very own Father with us.

God is not only for Jesus. He is for us, too. God is a Father not only to Jesus. He is our Father, too. God is a Father not only to us. He is a Father even for those who refuse to be His children.

That Jesus was condemned to death because He called God “Father” is the height of envy, if not insanity. Every human soul cries out to God to be its Father. And that includes the souls of those who persecute Jesus. Should Jesus be persecuted for revealing the innermost desire of every heart? Should Jesus be condemned for calling God “Father” and sharing His Father with us? Should Jesus be crucified for living His life as an obedient Son of so loving a Father? He should not be! And yet He was.
Every time we envy others, we persecute Jesus. Every time we act on our envy towards others, we condemn Jesus. Every time we stubbornly persist with our envy towards others, we crucify Jesus. We are no better than Lucifer. We are no better than those who put Jesus to death.

If we are no better than Lucifer, how can we live with God forever? If we are no better than those who put Jesus to death, how can we come to know the joy He brings? If we are envious of others, how can we belong to the family of God’s children?

THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS...COULD HAVE BEEN MORE

Tuesday in the 4th Week of Lent
Jn 5:1-16

If we were Jesus, would we dare break the Sabbath in favor of healing the man who was sick for thirty-eight years? Perhaps, we would. However, would we not question those who frequent the pool of Bethesda why not one among them dared to help that poor, sick man prior to the Sabbath so that we would not have to break the Sabbath law anymore?

His persecutors were rather quick to accuse Jesus of breaking the Sabbath rest when He healed the sick man on the Sabbath, but they were totally neglectful of the fact that had they helped that sick man earlier, Jesus would not need to heal him on the Sabbath. Who therefore was more guilty, Jesus or His persecutors? Certainly, His persecutors. His critics were not be guilty of breaking the Sabbath rest but they were very much guilty of neglecting to extend charity to that man who was sick for thirty-eight years.

There are times when we are like those who persecute Jesus. We adhere to the law and obey every detail of tradition, but we are not sensitive to the urgent needs of our brethren. Worse, while we do not immediately help those in need, we even criticize those who help them.

Had Jesus not helped that sick man on the very instance He met him, the suffering of that man could have been a day more. And a day added to his suffering is a day added to the guilt of those who neglect charity to him. Because Jesus healed that man as soon as He met him, the suffering of that man was one day less and those who neglect charity to him were a day less guilty.

When we are insensitive to the needs of our brethren, let us not find fault in the goodness of those who are sensitive to their needs. When we are not ready to help our needy brethren, why be ready to find fault in those who help them? When we cannot be part of the solution, please let us not be part of the problem.

Our brethren may have some needs that are not only great but are also urgent. Some of their needs cannot wait for the Sabbath to end. The longer they suffer, the more we become guilty of our neglect, if not of our indifference.

Let us make the sufferings of any person a day less. It may be a day less but it means so much after their suffering for thirty-eight years.

I am thirty-nine years old now. I cannot help consider that if I had been that man Jesus healed in the Gospel today, I would have been suffering all my life until now had Jesus not dared break the Sabbath. Imagine, THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS! And could have been more.

THE EUCHARIST: HEALING AND THE HEALER HIMSELF

Monday in the 4th Week of Lent
Jn 4:43-54

Jesus comes to heal us. His whole mission may be summarized as a mission of integral healing. He heals both our bodies and souls.

Through offering His life on the cross, Jesus heals us from our broken relationship with the Father. Through His public ministry, Jesus heals people from their broken bodies. Through the Holy Eucharist, the broken body of Jesus heals us and makes us whole again.

Because all of us are broken in either body or soul, we all need the healing that Jesus brings. Because our bodies and souls are broken every so often, we need not only healing; we need the Healer Himself – Jesus. Let us pray not for healing; let us ask for the Healer Himself. Why be contented with healing when we can have the Healer Himself?

Jesus is the Healer Himself. Jesus is in the Holy Eucharist. Jesus is the Holy Eucharist Himself. The Holy Eucharist, therefore, is THE source and summit of healing. It is the Healer Himself.

Let us receive the Holy Eucharist worthily so that we may be truly healed from our spiritual and physical brokenness. When we receive the Holy Eucharist in the state of mortal sin, we receive Jesus unworthily. St. Paul says that when we receive the Body and Blood of Jesus unworthily, we bring judgment upon ourselves (cf. I Corinthians 11: 29).

The Holy Eucharist is not magic. Rather, the Holy Eucharist is grace. It is not magic that heals us; it is grace. Receive the grace worthily; receive healing fully.

SNAKEBITES

4th Sunday of Lent
John 3: 14-21

Fr. Robert Reyes, more popularly known as “The Running Priest”, once told me that while not all snakes are venomous. He said that there are only very few snakes whose bite is fatal. Known for his collection of exotic animals, including various reptiles, Fr. Reyes also said that several snakes have bitten him already. Fr. Reyes is still up and about despite the snakebites. He still runs for a cause until today.

Fr. Reyes is himself the proof of what he claims: not all snakes are venomous. He sounds very convincing when he told me that very few snakes are deadly. But still, I will never have a snake for a pet. Will you?

If each time we sin against God and against one another, a snake would bite us, we would have died long time ago, if not by the venom of very few deadly snakes, at least by infection because of snakebites. We could have also been squeezed to death or eaten alive by some of them already. But because no snake appears each time we sin, the fear of sinning could be remote to many of us.

Sin is like venom. It is fatal. It kills. Once it spreads, there is not stopping to its deadly consequences.

Scripture tells us, “The wage of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). Death is not a punishment for sin. It is its natural consequence. As death is inevitable when venom flows freely through a person’s bloodstream so is death inescapable for a person living in sin. Allow any poisonous substance to travel towards a person’s heart, that person expires. Let sin reign in the heart, that heart dies. Death is the ultimate result of acute poisoning. It is likewise the natural consequence of sin. And I mean here, as the Apostle Paul refers to in Romans 6:23, not only physical demise but spiritual and eternal death as well.

The death of Jesus on the cross is the antidote for the poison of sin because sin is disobedience to God while the death of Jesus is obedience to Him. To someone bitten by a snake, we apply medical remedy. To someone afflicted by sin, only the merits of Jesus apply themselves.

Very few among us, if any, have already been bitten by a snake. But “we have all fallen short of the grace of God” (Romans 3:23). Very few among us need an antidote for snakebites. But we all need the merits of Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins.
While effective antidote for snakebites may not be always within our reach, the merits of Jesus are always available to us. The merits of Jesus are for free. The merits of Jesus are constantly available. The merits of Jesus are for everyone. The merits of Jesus are consistently effective, for He is the same yesterday, today and forever. But the merits of Jesus must be consciously and sincerely accepted. St. Augustine said, “God who created you without asking you will not save you without consulting you.”

Now, God consults us. Do we want to be saved? If we do, then we must believe in Jesus the Savior. Do we want to be healed? If we do, then we must receive not healing but the Jesus, the Healer Himself. Do we want to be forgiven? Then we must accept Jesus – He is God’s loving forgiveness to us.

But how can we believe in Jesus when we do not read the Scripture? Read the Scripture. Believe what we read and practice what we believe. How can we receive Jesus when we do not pray? Pray. I mean, really pray. Commune with the Father who, the Gospel today tells us, gave us His only Son so that we may not perish but may have eternal life. How can we accept Jesus when we do not frequent the sacraments? The sacraments were not only instituted by Christ; they are divine actions of Christ Himself through His Church and ministers.

Unless we believe in Jesus, we cannot be saved. Unless we receive Jesus, we cannot be healed. Unless we accept Jesus, we cannot be forgiven and made whole again.

Be not afraid; God loves us more than we know. The darkness of our past may be large, the wounds of our bodies may be deep, the sins of our souls may be great, but God’s love for us is always larger, deeper and greater. Be not afraid; God loves us more than we know. No matter how many our sins are, no matter how great they are, no matter how many times we fall into sin, no matter how many times we fall even into the same sins, God will forgive us through Jesus His Son each time we confess our guilt from our hearts and beg for His loving mercy. Be not afraid; God loves us more than we know.

God waits. What is our response? The Lenten refrain sounds even louder, “If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts” (Ps. 95:8). Do not delay, for the more we delay the more the venom of sin spreads. When the venom reaches the heart of any person, it is really fatal. And the death it inflicts is eternal.

NEWS

Solemnity of the Lord’s Annunciation
Luke 1: 26-38

Today we celebrate a news. That is news indeed! For not every news is worth celebrating. Not every news is good news.

Today is the solemnity of the Best News! We are overjoyed at the news that that the Eternal Word of God became flesh, that God kept His promise, that God became human like us in all things, but sin. This news is THE Good News. It is THE Best News! We pray that all news could be as good as this one.

When we give flesh to our words – that is good news. When we keep our promises – that is good news, too. When man reflects the image of God – no doubt, that is a very good news.

Have you heard the news today? Is it good or bad? Do you have a news today? Is it good or bad?

In the midst of all the unpleasant, horrifying and bad news that we hear each day, there will always be this good news for us to hear and celebrate: Jesus became human like us in all things, but sin, because he loves us more than we know. But His Incarnation is not only an event in the past. Everyday, Jesus becomes flesh in the Eucharist; we feed on Him. Everyday, Jesus becomes human, most especially in the person of the poor; we serve Him. Jesus becomes a neighbor in our own persons; we manifest Him. Jesus becomes tangible in all of creation; we touch Him and He touches us. Everyday is a day of the Lord’s Incarnation; let us be the presence of Jesus in the world today. Everyday is the day of the Lord’s Annunciation; let us proclaim Jesus in the world today. Everyday is the day when the Word becomes flesh; let us be Jesus in the world today.

How?

Let us begin by following the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She gave her ‘yes’ to God: “Fiat mihi in secundum verbum tuum” (“Be it done to me according to your word”). Whose word? God’s word as announced by the angel Gabriel.

It is not enough to answer God’s call. We need to answer God’s call according to God’s terms, not ours. And when that happens, that indeed is good news because not all who answer God’s call answer it in God’s terms.

To answer God’s call according to His terms is very much different from simply answering God’s call. When we answer God’s call according to His terms, our resignation to His will in our lives is not only total; it is also radical. Our self-donation comes not only from our generosity to God but from our authentic, lifelong and actual experience of personal conversion to God. When we answer God’s call we do not only turn to God, we set ourselves rooted in Him so much so that we purge ourselves from everything that is contrary to God and God becomes our everything. Our love for God is then made our first priority in life, without which we have no personal life to talk about at all. Our response to His call is not simply one of the aspects of our lives, among many others. Our response to His call is in itself our life. Sounds beautiful, but it is not at all that easy when done.

Mary said ‘yes’ to God according to God’s terms. She responded to God’s call in full, personal freedom. Yet her response was truly radical so much so that she submitted to God’s will even the very freedom with which she said ‘yes’. Her fiat was a ‘yes’ that came from the very roots of her being. Thus, she proclaims, “My being magnifies the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.”

Because her response to God’s call came from the very roots of her being, everything she thought about, said and did were fruits produced by those roots. It all begins there – at the roots. It should always begin there – at the very roots. It may never begin elsewhere except there – at the roots of one’s being.

Today, as we celebrate the Solemnity of the Lord’s Annunciation, we have come together in this Eucharist to pray that our lives may always be Good News to others. Together let us help one another prolong the Incarnation of Jesus in the world today. Though our lives may be likened to crooked lines, may God write straight with them the news whose headline always reads: “Jesus: Always and Only.”

NOT FAR BUT NOT YET IN

Friday in the 3rd Week of Lent
Mark 12: 28-34

Jesus said to the scribe who questioned Him about the greatest of commandments, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” The scribe received a high score because he agreed with Jesus that the greatest of commandments is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength” and to “love your neighbor as yourself.” The scribe, according to Jesus, was not “far from the kingdom of God.”

The scribe got a high score but he could still get a higher mark. Notice, Jesus said of him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” Jesus implied that the scribe, despite his good understanding of the commandments, was not yet in the kingdom of God. He was just near it, but still he was not in it. Perhaps, it was like five or two points away from the perfect score.

Why was the scribe not in the kingdom of God yet and was just not far from it? What else should he do to be in that kingdom? What is that kingdom anyway?

What really matters in life is not what we know but what we understand. We may know a lot of things but we perhaps understand only very little even of the things we know. But it is useless to know something but not understand it, is it not? Understanding without knowing is never possible. But knowing without understanding, while possible, is always very dangerous.

Knowing the law is good. Understanding the law is better. Living by the spirit of the law is best.

Obedience to the law is possible without understanding the law at all. All one needs to obey is to know what the law demands. Such is blind obedience. And blind obedience is always harmful to either body or soul or both.

The essence of obedience to the law is the wisdom of living by the spirit of the law. It is the spirit of the law that orients one’s life to the demands of the law. Obedience then becomes not simply a fulfillment of requirements but a development of a positive lifestyle guided by the spirit of the law. And a positive lifestyle is always good to both body and soul.

The scribe who understood the law was not far from the kingdom. He was, of course, better than one who simply knew the law. But he who lives by the spirit of the law, which this scribe both knew and understood, is best. He gets the highest score.

Jesus teaches us that the spirit of the law is love. The source and summit of all the commandments is in loving. Without love, the faithfulness to the law is enslaving. Without love, obedience to the law is an obsession. Without love, any law is an oppression.

God is love. His kingdom, therefore, is a kingdom of love. When we know love, we know where God is. Ubi caritas, ibi Deus est (“Where there is love, there is God). When we understand love, we are close to God. But when we actually love, we live with God, we are in God and God is in us.

Let us not be happy with just being close to the Kingdom of heaven. Let us strive to actually get in there before the gates close.

HOLINESS IS WHOLENESS

Thursday in the 3rd Week of Lent
Luke 11: 14-23

Do you feel scattered, fragmented, diffused? Jesus holds the answer to your ailment. Gather with Jesus. Gather in Jesus. Gather through Jesus.

There are many times when even in the midst of all the good things we do, we feel unhappy. What is the source of our happiness? In the good things we do? If so, then we will really be unhappy because Jesus, not the good things we do, is the one and only source of happiness and joy. Gather with Jesus.

We join so many church organizations and movements, but we are so heavily burdened. Have we not yet learned from the mistake of spreading ourselves too thin? The quantity of our commitments is far lesser important than their quality. Better for us to belong to one than to a hundred groups than belong to a hundred groups but never be committed to one. Jesus, not the organizations and movements we belong to, makes us valuable. Gather in Jesus.

We have many valid concerns, but only one is important. What is important is what is important for Jesus. We must learn and actually practice the way of spiritual discernment to recognize the values of Jesus. In doing so we can focus ourselves on what is important for Jesus and orient everything to it. Through Jesus, we avoid being fragmented in paying attention to our many concerns. Gather through Jesus.

A divided community is bad. A divided household is worse. But an individual divided in himself or herself is worst. Only with Jesus can we arrive at wholeness again. Only in Jesus can we be whole again. Only through Jesus can wholeness really be holiness.

It is not by Beelzebul that Jesus drives out demons, for by driving demons out of the afflicted Jesus makes the afflicted whole again. Jesus drives out demons by the power of God that is inherent in Him because the power of God is a power that gathers, not scatters, a power that unites, not divides, a power that makes whole again.

We are all busy, who is not? We are all burdened, who is not? We are all pulled towards opposite direction, who is not? But our preoccupations, our burdens, and everything that demands our attention need not ruin us, unless we do not gather with, in and through Jesus.

Do you feel scattered, fragmented, diffused? Talk to Jesus. He has the cure.

DO NOT BE A TEMPTER

Wednesday in the 3rd Week of Lent
Mt 5:17-19

Let it be a part of our Lenten piety to repent from leading others away from God. Let us ask forgiveness for causing others to sin. Then, let it be a part of our everyday lives to lead back to God anyone astray.

Just as we lead others away from God through words and deeds, so too must we lead them back to God through words and deeds. We have to be models of godliness. We should be examples of true Christian living. We are witnesses of Christ.

Our prayers may bring others closer to God but our lives can lead others far away from Him if our prayers do not mold us unto the likeness of Jesus. It is never enough to pray and live our lives in any way we want. While we bring others closer to God by our prayers, let us lead them closer to Him by our lives as well.

Beware not to directly tempt others to sin. But beware, too, that we do not give others any reason to sin. Let us help one another to remain faithful to God instead.

Next time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, let us listen with our hearts to the words, “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil”. Are we the temptation we ask the Father to lead us not into? We may be the evil we are praying our selves not to be delivered from.

THE MODEL OF OUR RELATIONSHIP

Tuesday in the 3rd Week of Lent
Mt 18:21-35

If we really read the Bible, we know that forgiveness is a perennial theme. The Bible-story is a love story, clearly marked by a history of forgiveness. While God, in His faithful love, did everything for His people (cf Is 5:4), His people kept on prostituting themselves to false gods, ultimately to evil. God, however, is unbelievably so tenderhearted and mercy is His greatest attribute. Thus, countless times God forgave His people whenever they would return to Him. Madly in loved with His people, God finally sent them His own Son, not to count their transgressions against them, but so that He may reconcile them to Himself in Christ, His Son (cf 2 Cor 5:19). But still, His people rejected and crucified God’s own Son. Yet, on the cross, echoed the words of the dying Son of God: “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they do.”

Today, Jesus turns our attention to the basic point of our lives as His followers: the model of our relationship with our fellow human being is God’s relationship with us. We ought to be merciful to others as God is ever merciful to us. Just as God forgives us so should we forgive others. Our relationship with our fellow human being should flow from God’s goodness to us.

So that we relate with others the way God relates with us, we must never forget how God deals with us. We must always remember how merciful God is to us. We must not forget that we ourselves have been forgiven by God countless times and are still forgiven each time we ask for His mercy.

Each day, let us learn more and more to practice what we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” Let the Bible-story continue in our lives. Let our lives be love stories, clearly marked by a history of forgiveness, between not only God and each one of us but also between our selves and everyone. Let us forgive from our hearts. Let the Bible be written in our hearts.

HE SAID NOTHING BUT SAID EVERYTHING

Solemnity of St. Joseph, the Husband of Mary
Matthew 1: 16.18-21.24

The Solemnity of St. Joseph, the husband of Mary, is celebrated annually on March 19. This year, however, we celebrate the foster father of Jesus today, March 20, because March 19, yesterday, fell on the Third Sunday of Lent. The Sundays of Lent cannot be superseded by any liturgical feast.

I also wish to mention that today’s solemnity is personally very special for me because I studied for the priesthood at San Jose Seminary, run by the Society of Jesus for the formation of diocesan clergy. When I reflect on the precious of gift of the priesthood entrusted gratuitously to my unworthy self, the lyrics of our song, “Father of Priestly Sons”, keep on ringing in my heart. Please allow me to share it with the world:

“Father of priestly sons, oh noble San Jose!
Great teacher, whose counsel’s wise,
guide us on our way.
Foster our golden dreams,
those dreams inspired by you:
strengthen our youthful hearts,
imparting youth ever new.
May love ever keep our hearts as
fully pledged as when
God called us to your side and called us His men.
Father of priestly sons, we shall be true as then.

“Father of priestly sons, oh noble San Jose!
This charge you have given us, gladly we obey
Christ and His Mother to take into our care:
Christ and His Mother to herald everywhere.
May our poor faltering love
at their warm hearts inflame.
Always to hold God’s cause alone as our aim.
Father of priestly sons, we venerate your name.

“Father of priestly sons, oh noble San Jose!
This day our filial hearts tribute to you pay.
Bless our priestly dreams,
the dreams you kindled when
dawn of our boyish years
you brought to days of men.

O pray that our priestly years,
And life’s evening, too.
Father of priestly sons, keep all our hearts with you.”

Jesus is the Word of God. Joseph is the foster father of Jesus. Joseph is the foster father of the Word of God. No wonder, in the Gospels, Joseph said nothing at all. He said everything when Jesus became his foster Son. Jesus is the Eternal, Incarnated Word of God. Because the Incarnated Word of God were for Joseph to take care of and bring to manhood, what else is there be for him to say anyway? Such a Son says everything.

Joseph, however, could have said something. Instead, Joseph said nothing. Because he said nothing, God was able to say everything. Very often, we need to say nothing so that God may be able to say everything.

Joseph could have said, “No.” Joseph instead said, “Yes.” Because Joseph said, “Yes,” God was able to speak through Jesus. God always needs our ‘yes’ so that Jesus may speak through us.

Joseph could have said, “Thanks but no thanks. Try another man, not me.” Instead Joseph, by cooperating with God’s will, said, “I am not worthy but I trust you.” Because Joseph trusted God, God was able to accomplish what He said. There is never a time when our trust in God is not required for God to accomplish what He promises us.

Joseph could have taken Jesus but not Mary. However, Joseph took Mary, and Jesus as well. When we accept Mary, we accept Jesus, too.

May we follow the example of Joseph who was silent yet said ‘yes’ and trusted God. May we love Mary more and more so that we may love Jesus more and more, too. May we devote our selves to Joseph so that we may love Mary and Jesus better.

A PASSIONATE LOVER

3rd Sunday of Lent
John 2: 13-25

Lent focuses our attention on the passion of Jesus Christ. Almost exclusively, “passion” in this sense is regarded as the agony and sufferings of Jesus. Almost totally, we forget that “passion” originally means “strong feelings towards something or someone”. Thus, we have a passion for basketball, a passion for food, a passion for music, a passion for peace, a passion for religion, a passion for humanity, a passion for God. We have an impassioned speech, an impassioned homily, an impassioned quest for the truth, an impassioned struggle for justice, an impassioned thirst for wisdom, an impassioned religious belief. And of course, we can be passionate lovers.

Are you a passionate lover?

Love without passion is boring. Passion without love is dangerous. Love with very little passion is weak, but passion with very little love is violent. Love with no passion must be healed. Passion with no love must be tamed.

Jesus is a passionate lover. He loves with His whole being. His whole being is involved with the one He loves. Loving is not just one of the many concerns of Jesus. Loving, rather, is the foundation of everything He is and He has. It is for love and of love that He thinks, speaks and acts. It is for the same reason that He receives and gives. His passion for love is the very soul of His being. The key to understanding the person of Jesus is the experience of passionate love. Jesus is passionate love personified.

Jesus is a passionate lover of God. No wonder, He is consumed with zeal for the house of God. No doubt, He totally and radically obeys God’s will even when His obedience entails undeserved suffering and violent death. It is no surprise that God, whom He loves passionately, raises Him back to life to the shame and horror of His enemies.

Jesus is a passionate lover of us all. He never forgets us even when we forget Him. He cannot deny us even when we deny Him. “He laid down His life for us,” St. Paul says, “not when we were His friends but when we were His enemies” (cf Rom 5:10).

Because Jesus is a passionate lover, He always finds Himself in conflict with cold-hearted people and structures made of hard cement. Because Jesus is a passionate lover, He is never satisfied with mere observance of the law. Because Jesus is a passionate lover, He is ready to die even a cross. Because Jesus is a passionate lover, death could not hold Him from rising back to life for those whom He loves.

Are you a passionate lover of God? Are you a passionate lover of all humankind?

In the Gospel today, Jesus is angry. He is angry at the crass display of irreverence right at the very house of God, His Father. The temple, a place of worship, has become a marketplace instead. The house of God is a house of prayer, but it has become a den of thieves instead. And in the Temple where sacrifices are offered to God, God Himself is sacrificed in favor of the sales in the Temple. Jesus’ command is clear: “Take all these out of here and stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace.”

The image of Jesus in today’s Gospel is a world away from the storybook caricature of Jesus, the meek and mild Jesus who seemed to be weak, if not comic. Jesus is angry today. And He does not mind at all being seen angry. He is angry because He loves. Because He loves, there are times when He has to be angry. He is angry because He is passionately in loved with God. His love for God consumes Him.

Jesus is angry because God’s house is desecrated. The mundane concern for profit even at the expense of sacred worship is a sacrilege against Him who is worshipped. While heads are bowed down in adoration to God, some hands strike God right on His face. And if we were in Jesus’ shoes, we cannot be less angry, too.

Are we bothered when we come to Mass not properly dressed and yet go to parties in the latest fashion? Are we slow to see anything wrong when we gossip during the Holy Eucharist and yet quick to teach others to make a double genuflection when the Blessed Sacrament is exposed? Is it sinful for us to pray in church and yet cheat in our places of work? Do we recognize the horror of supporting the Church with wealth illegally or immorally amassed?

May Jesus cleanse God’s holy temple.

Jesus’ anger is not only caused by the irreverence committed against God in His very house. Jesus’ anger is ignited by the injustice done to others right in the very house of the just God. We are the temples of God’s Spirit, and Jesus’ anger is fanned into fire each time we show irreverence to ourselves and commit injustice against one another. If we were in Jesus’ shoes, we cannot be less angry.

When we indulge ourselves in vices that kill the body and condemn the soul, do we feel guilty? When we exploit the weak for our personal gain, do we have remorse? When we are indifferent to the sufferings of others as long as we are not the ones who are suffering, do we feel contrite? When we tolerate a culture of sin and death but claim ourselves to be Christians, do we recognize our need for conversion? When we say that we love God and yet hate our neighbors, do we realize the fundamental lie on which our lives are based?

May Jesus cleanse us, God’s holy temple.

The passion of Jesus is not just His suffering and death. The passion of Jesus is, first, His immense and genuine love for God and for us all. That kind of love made Jesus endure suffering and death. So passionate is His love for God and for us that He endured His passion. It is precisely the passionate love in His heart that led Him to His passion on the cross. And His passion cleanses God’s temple -- the one that is made of stones and the one that is made of human hearts.

After Jesus clears out the temple, the place is reclaimed for the worship of God. After Jesus rises from the grave, Jesus becomes the new sanctuary of God that is just within our reach. After Jesus cleanses us, we are restored so that God’s Spirit may dwell in us. And when God’s Spirit dwells in us, we cannot but be passionate lovers of God and of one another, too.

Lent focuses our attention on the passion of Jesus. Just as the suffering and death of Jesus move our inner most beings to conversion, may the love of Jesus transform us, from the deepest recesses of our hearts, so that our love may be passionate and our passion may always be for true love.

THE ELDEST SON

Saturday in the 2nd Week of Lent
Lk 15:1-3.11-32

The Gospel today, The Parable of the Prodigal Son, is a gem among all the parables of Jesus. Many commentaries have already been written and homilies preached about this parable. Let us focus on only one point in our reflection.

Very often, we easily identify our selves with the prodigal son, the youngest of the father in the parable. But many times, we are also the elder son who refused to go inside the house and celebrate with his father.

The elder son, at the height of his fury, revealed to his father the reason of his refusal: “All this years, I have slaved for you and never once disobeyed your orders, yet you never offered me so much as a kid for me to celebrate with my friends. But, for this son of yours, when he comes back after swallowing up your property – he and his women – you kill the calf we had been fattening.” What a revelation! All the while, without leaving his father’s side, this man was a son the father really never had. He did not consider himself a son, but a slave! And while obedient to his father, this eldest son actually moved about in his shackles not in loving freedom. Thus, he could not even call “this son of yours” as “this brother of mine” because he was a slave as far as his view of himself was concerned. What a pity! What a loser he was!

In the father’s house, there are no slaves; only children. “My son, you are with me always and all I have is yours. But it is only right we should celebrate and rejoice because your brother was dead and has come to life; he was lost and is found,” the father said, hoping that his eldest would remember his rightful place in the house. The eldest was not a slave, but a son!

Too sad, for the father because he lost both his sons: the youngest when it went away, the eldest even while remaining by the father’s side. But the youngest has returned already while the eldest has not yet.

Could we be the eldest son?

DOMESTICATED JESUS

Friday in the 2nd Week of Lent
Mt 21:33-43.45-46

Jesus is the cornerstone on whom we should build our lives. But what if we fail to recognize and accept Jesus because we have a different kind of Jesus in mind? On whom would we build our lives then?

We may fail to recognize Jesus because He can be very radically different from our expectations. We may refuse to accept Jesus because He can be very demanding on us. We may be not succeed in encountering Jesus because we search for Him not where He wants us to find Him but where we want to find Him instead.

There are times though when we do recognize Jesus but we turn our gaze away from Him because we cannot look straight to His eyes; we are guilty of many sins. There are times though when we accept Jesus but we are too quick to compromise Him because we are burdened with many worries and fears.

It can be that recognizing Jesus is easy for us and accepting Him is no big deal because the truth is that we have actually molded Jesus into an image we want Him to have. Instead of becoming more and more like Him, we seem to have made Him more and more like us. We have domesticated Jesus. Or have we?

GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY?

Thursday in the 2nd Week of Lent
Luke 16: 19-31

Guilty or not guilty? How do we plead?

The rich man in the parable today, was he guilty or not guilty? How should he plead?

The parable neither categorically states nor implies that the rich man amassed his wealth unjustly. It does not also mention the rich man being uncharitable to Lazarus who sits by his door. On the contrary, he was even kind enough to allow Lazarus, and his miserable sight, to stay at his door so that Lazarus could eat the scraps that fell from his table. The rich man was not guilty of anything against Lazarus. He was innocent but it was precisely his innocence that brought him to hell.

It does not mean that because we are not guilty of anything wrong done to others, we are safe from damnation. There are many times when our own innocence itself pleads our guilt. We are guilty not because of anything evil we did but because of something good we refused, or at least failed, to do. It is not only our guilt that judges us; our innocence may also condemn us.

When we think of our sins against our neighbor, do we focus only on the evil we have committed and neglect the good we have omitted? When we examine our conscience, do we consider as sins only the wrong we have done to others and brush aside the good we have withheld from them? When we are sorry for our sins, are we sorry because we have hurt others but not as sorry because we were indifferent to them? Do we mean what we say when we pray, “I confess to Almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, for I have sinned through my own fault in what I have done and IN WHAT I HAVE FAILED TO DO?”

What have we failed to do? We have failed to work against poverty even as we have given dole outs to the poor. We have failed to place our lives on the line even as we have been vocal against injustice done to the poor. We have failed to use our influence and resources to ease the pain of the suffering even as we have been praying for them. We have failed to listen to the marginalized even as we have always been ready to speak for them. We have failed to support the Church in her needs even as we have always professed faith in her. We have failed in many aspects, though we may have not been guilty on several counts.

Do we need Abraham to send Lazarus back from the dead to warn us and convince us that our innocence is precisely our guilt? But if we do not listen to the living, are we sure we will listen to the dead? And if someone rises from the dead, will that someone not rise to convict us instead?

Someone already came back from the dead. His name is Jesus. But have we already seriously considered His warning?

HER DREAMS VERSUS GOD'S WILL

Wednesday in the 2nd Week of Lent
Mt 20:17-28

Parents wish the best for their children. Normally, they do not simply wish for it; they work hard for it. They are the first and best supporters of their children.

The mother of James and John wanted to secure the best future for her boys. She asked Jesus to reserve the seats on His right and left for her sons, James and John. We cannot blame her. She was a mother.

However, Jesus had something else for James and John. He still had their best future in mind, but the best for James and John was not what mother wished for them but what God wanted from them.

God wanted that James and John fix their eyes on Jesus and not on the seats at His either side. God wanted James and John to follow Jesus even unto death. He wanted them, and all who follow Jesus, to serve as Jesus served. And God’s will is always the best for anyone.

There are times when our dreams for our loved ones are confronted by God’s will for each of them. When those times come, do we force our dreams on them or do we help them recognize and fulfill God’s will for them? When it is a battle between our will and God’s will, whose will prevails? Let us not forget, sometimes the battleground is the life of a loved one or two.

NOT WITH WORDS BUT WITH DEEDS

Tuesday in the 2nd Week of Lent
Mt 23:1-12

The best preacher is the best witness. The best homily is the preacher’s life. The best pulpit is the here and now. In “Evangelium Nuntiandi”, Pope Paul VI wrote, “Modern man no longer listens to teachers but to witnesses. And if he listens to teachers, it is because they are first witnesses.”

The perennial challenge for us who call our selves “Christians” is to maintain a positive relationship between our preaching and our living. We cannot expect others to believe what we preach when our lives do not reflect what we teach. We cannot lead others by mere words, no matter how inspiring, eloquent, and truthful they are. We lead others by the lives we lead. One of the sharpest blows we, Christians, received from a non-believer came from a man we greatly admire, Mohandas K. Gandhi. Once, when asked by a member of the press why he did not convert to Christianity, Gandhi replied, “If you, Christians, would live like Christ, then I would have been a Christian myself.”

A woman came to me one day, worried over her friend’s joining a non-Catholic group. “What must I do to save my friend,” she consulted me. I said, “You see, the more essential question is not what you must do but what you must be.” Seemingly puzzled, she asked, “You mean to say, I should not do anything to save my friend?” I answered, “Christ already save your friend. What you must be is a good practicing Catholic in word and deed. It is not a matter of what you do but what you are.”

We are prophets by virtue of baptism. We are meant to preach. But the best preaching we do is not with words but with deeds. Have we preached to someone today? How?

WHERE SIN AND MERCY MEET

Monday in the 2nd Week of Lent
Lk 6:36-38

Lent is a special time for us to examine our conscience. We place ourselves before the crucifix – not before the cross only – to review our life. As we do so, we see our personal story, a story where sin and mercy meet. It is a story of grace.

Before the crucifix, we see that we are not in anyway superior or inferior to others. There is no other standard we must gauge our self than Jesus Himself. He died for each of us no matter how undeserving we are. Indeed, as St. Faustina said, mercy is God’s attribute.

We resolve not to compare our selves with one another. Let us, instead, continue striving to be like the Lord. Let us make the lives of many others stories of grace, stories where sin and mercy meet.

DO NOT SETTLE FOR ANYTHING LESS

2nd Sunday of Lent
Mk 9:2-10

Today is the Second Sunday of Lent. We continue reading from the Gospel of Mark.

Last Sunday, the First Sunday of Lent, Mark told us that Jesus was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness, where He fasted and was tempted by Satan for forty days and forty nights. Mark informed us that during that 40-day retreat in the wilderness, Jesus had wild beasts and angels for a company. The Gospel last Sunday was very short. It ran for only four verses. Brevity is characteristic of the Markan Gospel.

Matthew, Luke, and Mark give us an account of the Lord’s temptation in the desert. However, while Matthew and Luke report it in a very detailed fashion, Mark seems to mention it only in passing. He does not tell us how many times Satan tempted Jesus or if Satan left Jesus alone after his antics failed on Him. Mark simply says that Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness. He leaves us hanging. Or does he?

I cannot speak for Mark. But I think it is significant that Mark does not mention whether Satan left Jesus alone after tempting Him in the wilderness or not because the fact of the matter is that Satan never left Jesus alone. From the wilderness through Calvary, Satan tagged along Jesus. Satan used every opportunity and every person possible in his desperate move to tempt Jesus against doing the Father’s will according to the Father’s way. He did not want Jesus to obey the will of God. Or, given that Jesus would never be allured into disobeying God, Satan hoped he could at least make Jesus obey God’s will but not according to God’s way. This is the perennial temptation of Jesus, who is like us in all things but sin.

It is within this context that I suggest we reflect on the Gospel today. Mark is still our storyteller this Sunday. He narrates to us what we have entitled as “The Lord’s Transfiguration”. Interestingly, he recounts to us something about he was not a first-hand witness to. He himself says, only Peter, James, and John were with Jesus when He went up on a mountain and was transfigured while conversing with Moses and Elijah. Being a disciple of Peter, we can safely conclude that Mark is relating to us today a story he himself received from Peter. In a sense, Peter is our real resource speaker today.

We have already heard many homilies and read many reflections regarding the Lord’s Transfiguration. We are familiar with the usual explanation that Jesus was transfigured in the presence of Peter, James, and John in order to prepare His three closest apostles for His impending death in Jerusalem. We also already know that the appearance of Moses, Israel’s Lawgiver, and Elijah, the greatest Jewish prophet, conversing with Jesus signifies that Jesus is the fulfillment of all that is written in both the Law and the prophetic pronouncements. There is, however, a particular Markan nuancing that is worth mentioning here.

As mentioned earlier, Mark does not tell us that Satan left Jesus after failing in his attempts to make Him fall into his devilish suggestions because Satan did not really leave Jesus alone. The Lord’s temptation changed addresses every so often. This Sunday it happens very subtly on top of the mountain where He was transfigured.

“Rabbi,” Peter said, “it is good for us to be here; let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”. If we can converse with Peter face-to-face now, perhaps, not a few among us may say, “Yes, Peter, it is good for Jesus, your two other associates, and you to be there, but is that the best? And what can be better, Peter, than your proposed housing project: one for the Lord, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. But again, is that the best?”

I caught my self smiling when Mark seems to be saying, “Oh, well, Peter did not know what to say; they were so frightened.” Just a few verses away in the preceding chapter of Mark, Jesus rebuked Peter and called him Satan because Peter was trying to dissuade Jesus from going to Jerusalem because Jesus told them that in Jerusalem the chief priests and the elders of the people would arrest Him and crucify Him, but on the third day He would rise again (cf Mk 8:31-33). Peter seems to be Satan’s favorite. Satan would use him to tempt Jesus. It seems that the higher you up in the ladder, the more likely Satan would use you. Beware!

Peter’s proposal to Jesus was good but not the best because Jesus had to go down the mountain and enter Jerusalem where He must face His destiny. Jesus had to fulfill God’s will according to God’s terms. Yes, it is good to stay and perhaps reside on top of the mountain where Jesus was transfigured, safe from His enemies who would put Him to death, but it was not the best. If Jesus were not to go to Jerusalem and there die in the hands of His enemies, He would not also rise after three days and be able to give us the same glorious end. The best is always in doing God’s will according to God’s terms. And to pitch a tent for Jesus, which in Hebrew means “to dwell or to reside”, up on the mountain was not doing God’s will according to God’s terms. It was simply not the best.

The two readings that precede the Gospel today, each gives us an example.

In the First Reading (Gen 22:1-2.9.10-13.15-18), to keep Isaac alive was certainly good not only for Isaac himself but for his father, Abraham, as well. Who will question a father’s love for his son? But when God tested Abraham’s faith, it became best to offer Isaac as a holocaust to God. Though in the deepest pain that could strike a father dead, Abraham was obedient to God. The killing of Isaac that was not what was best; rather, it was obedience to God’s will according to God’s terms. Thus, God Himself provided a ram, in lieu of Isaac, for Abraham to sacrifice as a burnt offering.

In the Second Reading (Rom 8:31-34), we may conclude that while the slaughter of Isaac was not all right with God, the death of His Son for our sake was totally acceptable to Him. Jesus could have complained though, protesting, “But why Me? Of all men, why Me, when I am Your own Son? You did not allow Abraham to lay his hand on his son, Isaac, but why do You permit Me to die? I who am Your only Begotten?” Nonetheless, Jesus did not question His Father’s strange ways but, like “a lamb led to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is silent” (Is 53:7), Jesus was “obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:8)!

Thus we on Easter Vigil, we sing:

““Father, how wonderful your care for us!
How boundless your merciful love!
To ransom a slave
you gave away your Son.

“O happy fault (felix culpa), O necessary sin of Adam,
which gained for us so great a Redeemer!” (Exultet, The Roman Misal).


Both the First and Second Readings teach us that whatever God’s will is and fulfilling it according to His terms was, is, and will always be the best. And the Gospel today mirrors to us our perennial temptation to allow the good to grab the place of the best.

The enemy of the best is not the worst. The enemy of the best is the good. We always have good reasons why we fail to do the best. We find good reasons why we miss Sunday Mass, why we forget our daily prayers, why we do not frequent the sacraments, why we give sparingly to the needs of the Church, why we hesitate to get involved in the plight of the poor and the oppressed, why we rather be on top of our mountains and not down them where we must live through our own Paschal Mystery each day. We have good excuses, good grounds, good basis, good justification, good explanation, and good defense. But they are not the best.

The Lenten season should move us deeply to honestly examine our selves and see if, indeed, we have allowed the good to grab the place of the best. What are our good reasons for not giving God the first, the most, and the best? May we be sincere in our examination of conscience and strong in our resolve never to settle with only the good but always with only the best for God who loves us more than we know.

The Markan Gospel is the Gospel of discipleship. It teaches us how to be a true follower of Jesus. Interestingly, if the Gospel of Mark is an apple and you want to slice it equally into two, you will have to slice it through the chapter and verses of today’s Gospel. The Lord’s Transfiguration is right at the center of the sixteen chapters of the Gospel of Mark. From chapters one through eight, Jesus travels around until He reaches the peak of the mountain where we find Him today. From the ninth chapter onwards, His journey takes a very clear and definite direction: Jerusalem. After the transfiguration account, Jesus goes down from the mountain with His three disciples and turns toward Jerusalem, the place of His death and resurrection. If we are truly His disciples, we will never dare stay behind on top of the mountain but will faithfully follow Him all the way by choosing always the best over the good. Lent should not bring out the good in us, but the best. Let us not settle for anything less.

LOVING BETTER

Saturday in the 1st Week of Lent
Mt 5:43-48

Here are three illusions about love.

The first and greatest illusion is that we really love when we feel like loving. Certainly, loving needs a lot of feeling, but loving is more than just mushy romance. Love is a decision. It is a steady movement of the will, desiring the good of the beloved. It is not an emotional appetite. To love is to decide to love; thus, loving involves more than the hypothalamus (the center of human emotion, not really the heart). It engages the whole person who decides to love, not just the person’s feelings. Because it loving does not depend on the one to be loved, but on the one who decides to love no matter what, it is indeed possible to love even the unlovable.

The second illusion is that loving means liking. To unmask the lie behind this illusion, one must understand the first and greatest illusion. To love is not to like because love is not a mere emotional appetite. The person to be loved is not similar with a food that we may like to eat today but no more tomorrow. When Jesus gave us the commandment to love our enemies, He was not out of His mind in admonishing us thus because He knew that loving is not the same as liking. He said, “Love your enemies” and not “Like your enemies”. It is very impossible to like every person that comes our way, much less, our enemies. But it is indeed feasible to love any one we decide to love.

The third illusion is that love begets love. We certainly hope it does, but love does not always beget love. There are many times, we know by experience, when our love is not reciprocated by love. On the contrary, we may suffer for our love. Worse, the people we love may even be the ones to cause our sufferings. Thus, love does not beget love. Well, not always at least. Loving our enemies may not necessarily make them love us in return. But still, we may love them precisely because we may decide to love no matter it entails for us.

Lent is a time to learn loving better. Loving better means deciding to love.

A BETTER SACRIFICE

Friday in the 1st Week of Lent
Mt 5:20-26

Jesus says today, “Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that YOUR BROTHER HAS ANYTHING AGAINST YOU, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” Do you notice anything particular with the admonition of the Lord to us?

While the subject of the Lord’s sentence is “you”, the important reference it makes is “your brother”. The Lord, very clearly, does not say, “Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that YOU have anything against your brother, leave your gift to the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” We often overlook this nuance in the Lord’s words.

The Lord’s words beg the question: “Does my brother have anything against me?” They do not ask the question: “Do I have anything against my brother?” That my brother has anything against me is enough to make me unworthy to offer my gift. If we bear this in mind always, we would be extra careful not to give our brethren any reason to have anything against us. We would be more loving of one another even as we are already very loving of God.

It is always the case that we remember the hurts others inflict on us but we forget the hurts we inflict on them. We hardly forget the transgressions of others against us but we easily commit to oblivion our sins against them. We are rather fast in pointing an accusing finger on others but we are quite slow in striking our breast to confess, “mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa” (“my sin, my sin, my greatest sin”). If we are quick in offering our gifts to God but are dawdling in offering the hand of reconciliation to others, then we are guilty of hypocrisy and our offering redounds to no good.

Sacrifice is one of the three essential components of Lent. This holy season should teach us that the best sacrifice we can offer to God is the offering of reconciliation with those we have wronged and those who have wronged us. That is what I mean when I sound like a broken record in saying that Lent is not about sacrificing more but about sacrificing better.

PRAY BETTER, NOT MORE

Thursday in the 1st Week of Lent
Mt 7:7-12

The Lord assures us in the Gospel today, “Ask and you shall receive.” But what do we ask from Him? “Seek and you shall find,” He promises. But what do we seek? “Knock and the door will be opened,” He guarantees us. Jesus hears every plea of our hearts. He answers every request we make on Him. But Jesus grants our prayers according to His own will. We do not dictate on Him. Praying is not demanding.

Lent is not a matter of praying more, but praying better. It should teach us how to pray better. As self-surrendering to the will of God is an integral part of the Lenten theme, this holy season should help us to be able to resign our selves more and more to Divine Providence.

This life of the Lord was well summarized by His final prayer to the Father. Before He breathed His last from the cross, He cried out in a loud voice, “Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit.” Lent is not only about preparing for Holy Week. It is about preparing us for the same final plea of Jesus. And that happens not when we multiply our prayers but when we mean every prayer we say. Pray better, not more.

THE PATTERN OF OUR LIFE

Memorial of St. John of God, Religious
Lk 11:29-32

Today is my birthday. Let me speak to you about my patron saint, St. John of God. We celebrate today his blessed memory.

As the Gospel today mentions the sign of Jonah, this reflection also wishes to direct our attention to three signs. I refer to them as the Three Signs of John of God. They are events in the life of John of God that point to three realities that every disciple of Christ must consider.

The first sign points to the day of John’s birth and death. The day John of God was born and the day he died fell on the same day and month, with fifty-five years between them. Born in Portugal on March 8, 1495, John died in Granada, Spain, on March 8, 1550.

That the days of their birth and death fall on the same day, whether in the same year or not, happens to very few people. But the reality to which this first sign of John of God points is true to every man and woman: here on earth, the beginning of life is also the beginning of death. We took our first step towards death on the very day we were born. We do not know how many steps we have to take to reach the final one, but it is certain that our birthday is always the first step. To be born is to die. To die, we must first be born.

Our Faith, however, tells us that death in this life means birth unto eternal life. St. Francis of Assisi said, “It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.” In the First Preface for Christian Death, the priest says, “Lord, for your faithful people, life is changed, not ended. When our earthly dwelling lies in death, we gain an everlasting dwelling place in heaven.” Each time we remember our birthday, we should also be reminded that we are another step closer to the day to eternal life. Celebrating a birthday here on earth is really anticipating our birthday in heaven. If all that a birthday commemoration does is celebrate an earthly life, what is there to rejoice about when earthly life ends nonetheless after so and so years? No, we celebrate our birthday because we are getting closer to eternal life. Thus, our birthday should also be a special time for us to examine how well we are preparing for our birthday in heaven.

The second sign of John of God is best expressed by a cliché: Life begins at forty. John of God was successively a farmer, a soldier, and a merchant. When he heeded God’s call to the religious life, John was already forty years old. He spent thirty-nine years of his life for himself. But when he finally responded to that restless call within him, he spent all of himself for God. From forty years old onwards, he literally became John of God as he allowed himself to be totally owned and used by God. God used him to show his preferential love for the poor and the sick. Eventually, he founded the Order of Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God that is devoted to the care of those who are infirmed in body and soul. He spent only fifteen of his fifty-five earthly years in the service of God who was in the distressing disguise of the poor and the sick, but he found his greatest joy in those years compared to the forty-years he spent all for himself. When he was born, life began for him, but at forty, he began living his life because he committed himself to a cause greater than himself, greater even than life itself; he became a sign of God’s preferential love for the sick and the poor.

Unless we commit our selves to a good greater than our selves, we have not yet lived our lives to the fullest. If our life is all about self-preservation, self-advancement, and self-fulfillment, it is not a life worth living. A life finds its worth in others as it is spent for them for love of God.

The third sign of John of God is rather uniquely dramatic. On the day he was to pass from this life to the next, the brother attending to him left the room to get something. John of God, very sick though he was, managed to kneel before a crucifix to pray. While on his knees, absorbed in prayer, John of God breathed his last. When the brother returned, he found Bro. John still kneeling before the crucifix, with hands folded in prayer, motionless. He came into the world crying as a baby, he left it praying as a servant of God. He was delivered from his mother’s womb, he returned to God on his knees.

When people die, they are normally lying down or else they fall down on the floor. John, however, died on his knees. His manner of dying ran counter to the normal way death comes to any man or woman. In itself, the posture he took in death was a sign that contradicted the logic of the human body. It points to the reality that every Christian, like Christ, is a sign of contradiction against the usual and convenient ways of the world. That reality manifests itself in various manners not only as the Christian lives but also as he dies and even beyond.

Moreover, John’s leaving earthly life and entering eternal life while on his knees signified the lesson that we must never unlearn: There is no other way by which we can approach God except on our knees. This does not mean that we go to a church and walk on our knees from its main door to its sanctuary. This means more and beyond a particular body posture. To bend our knees means to live our lives humbly and in complete surrender to the loving mercy of God. It was John’s final act of self-resignation to God. It is our daily struggle yet. And my experience tells me that as you advance in age and your desires are tamed, your pride mellows, and your view widens, God has His unique ways of bending your knees, many times excruciating but always loving.

These are the three signs of St. John of God. Like Jonah’s sign as mentioned in the Gospel today, these three signs point to the reality of the Lord’s Paschal Mystery. The reality behind these signs is the Lord’s passion, death, and resurrection. Because the Lord is central to us and His Paschal Mystery is central to the Lord, our life is likewise a series of dying and rising again for the life of the many. This is our Paschal Mystery. This is the pattern of our Christian life.

JESUS, BE OUR PRAYER

Tuesday in the 1st Week of Lent
Mt 6:7-15

Lord Jesus, teach us to pray. Pray with us. Pray in us. Pray through us.

Our. God is ours, not only mine, not only yours, not only his, not only hers, and not only theirs.

Forgive me, God, for making You mine only.

Father. He is not only God. He is also Father to us. We are His children.

Forgive us, Father, for not living as You children.

In heaven. Because He dwells in heaven and we are His children, heaven is also our true home. We strive to be good not to gain heaven, but because heaven is already ours. We do good deeds not for the heavenly prize, but because our price is heavenly.

Forgive us, Father, when we try to “buy” heaven from You.

Holy be Your name. Because He is our Father and we are His children, He has given us His name. He did not only call us by name; He gave us His name.

Forgive us, Father, because by our sins we bring disgrace to Your Holy name.

Your kingdom come. His Kingdom is already in our midst, but it has yet to come in its fullness. By loving as Jesus loves, we make His Kingdom present. We make His Kingdom come.

Forgive us, Father, we delay the coming of Your Kingdom when we do not love.

Your will be done on earth as in heaven. The Kingdom of God is the reign of God in our lives. The more we obedient to Him, the more His Kingdom come.

Forgive us, Father, we fail to do Your will.

Give us today our daily bread. We ask for our needs for today only. Tomorrow, we ask from Him again. We do the asking daily. We do not pray for our wants but for our needs. He takes care of us each day.

Forgive us, Father, when we are gluttons and when we hoard.

And forgive us our sins. The Father loves us more than we know. What do we give Him in return? Our sins.

Forgive us, Father, for our indifference to Your love.

As we forgive those who sinned against us. We often either overlook or water down this requirement. We will be forgiven only inasmuch as we forgive others. We have no right to expect forgiveness from the Father if we do not forgive our brothers and sisters.

Forgive us, Father, for our one-sided view on forgiveness.

Do not bring us to the test. The Father does not allow us to be tested beyond our ability to endure. Every trial can be a blessing, too, if it brings out the best in us and makes us more and more like Jesus. Gold is tested in fire. A diamond begins as dirt of the earth. Silver shines when polished by rubbing.

Forgive us, Father, when we run away from our crosses.

But deliver us from evil. We do not want to be tempted yet we do not stay away from the tempter. We do not wish evil for our selves, but do we also not bring evil to others?

Forgive us, Father, for not seeing evil as it is.

Amen. So be it. Yes, it will be!

Forgive us, Father, when we pray and yet do not believe.

Lord Jesus, teach us to pray. Pray with us. Pray in us. Pray through us. Be our prayer.

BE A BLESSING

Monday in the 1st Week of Lent
Mt 25:31-46

There are six blessings in the Parable of the Last Judgment.

The first blessing is that Jesus does not consider us as servants, neither as slaves nor as employees. Jesus claims us as His own brothers and sisters. He is our Big Brother. Do we live as His brothers and sisters?

The second blessing is implied by the first. Because Jesus is our Big Brother and He is the Son of God, we are therefore also sons and daughters of God, His Father. Do we live as God’s children?

The third blessing is implied by the first and the second, but, sadly, is often overlooked. Because Jesus is our Big Brother and God is Father to us all, we are therefore brothers and sisters to one another. Do we live as brothers and sisters to one another?

The fourth blessing is that Jesus identifies Himself so closely with us. It is therefore truly physically possible for us to meet, to encounter, to serve, and to love Jesus in the person of one another. Do we see and recognize Him in one another?

The fifth blessing is that being the least among us is not a curse or a punishment. Being the least among us is a special privilege because whatever is done to the least of His brethren is done to Jesus. To be least among us is to be a sacrament of Jesus. Do we aspire to be the greatest or the least?

The sixth blessing is that while our sincere, humble, and loving service to others may not be appreciated by others, even by those whom we actually serve, it does not escape the mind of God. God remembers. God is grateful. Do we remember God’s goodness to us?

With these six blessing comes one judgment. We must do everything to turn that one irreversible judgment to our favor: Let us be a blessing to others always by living out the six blessings of the Parable of the Last Judgment.

FEAR NOT THE WILDERNESS: FACE THE ISSUE

1st Sunday of Lent
Mk 1:12-15

Sometimes when political leaders are confronted with some upheaval, they have the habit of diverting the people’s attention from the obvious crisis. When their hold to power is challenged, they tell the people that it is the republic that is threatened by terrorism, if not communism. When their mandate is questioned, they pick up the oppositionists for questioning. When the people cry for truth, they shake hands with the masses to show that they are the ones who are truly for the people. When soldiers are disgruntled because of corruption and compromised integrity in the military and civil leadership, they distribute houses to the armed forces. Distracting the people’s focus on the real issues they should face has always been an easy recourse for leaders.

Take the emperor Nero, for example. When Rome faced economic collapse during his governance in 64 A.D., he burnt the city to divert the people’s attention. The weeklong fire reduced half of the city into ashes. If modern day leaders have their oppositionists to blame any turmoil of the day, Nero had the Christians for his scapegoat. Thus, the financial status of the imperial city in 64 A.D. did not rise; rather hatred for Christians spread like wildfire. An era of persecution began. It became a crime to be a Christian. Followers of Jesus were beheaded, skinned alive, stoned to death, and crucified. But the most entertaining for the angry Romans was the most cruel of all: Christians were thrown alive to wild beasts in the coliseum. Certainly, Nero failed to salvage the dying economy of the imperial city but he succeeded in arresting the people’s unrest. The problem, however, was the innocents paid the price.

Our Gospel today was written by St. Mark. It was the first Gospel to be written. Mark wrote it for the persecuted Christians in Rome, who struggled each day with the fear of being thrown to wild beasts. With this in mind, it is easy for us to understand why Mark begins his story with Jesus in the midst of wild beasts in the desert where He was fasting for forty days and forty nights. What a strange and frightening company to have while doing your 40-day retreat! But from our vantage point now, we can see that Jesus, in the midst of wild beasts in the desert, was like the innocent Christians who were thrown to the wild beasts. Though innocent, Jesus was vulnerable to conflict, to test, to distress, to suffering, to facing the adversary. Mark teaches us an important lesson today: Innocence does not necessarily protect us from adversaries. Moreover, instead of shielding us from persecutions, innocence seems to bring us closer to them instead. On this First Sunday of Lent, the Gospel paints for us how Jesus began his ministry by facing trial in the wilderness. Prior to mission, the resolve of the innocent One is tested.

St. Matthew and St. Luke also wrote about this very important test. The two are more detailed in their narration of how it actually took place while St. Mark simply mentioned it in passing. However, all three agree that it was the Spirit that caused Jesus to be in the wilderness. While in the Matthean and Lucan accounts the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness, in the Gospel of Mark the Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness. Being led denotes a gentle gesture but being driven implies some force exerted upon Jesus. In the account of Mark, Jesus was as if thrown into the wilderness. Perhaps, not that He was unwilling to go into the wilderness but that He saw that it was necessary for Him to face His adversary, Satan, in his favorite arena, the wilderness. Jesus would conquer His tempter right in His tempter’s fortress. The horn of His victory would sound from the very camp of His enemy.

But what was the victory all about? We cannot answer this question unless we know what the battle was. Mark is silent about details of the Lord’s temptation in the desert. Matthew and Luke, however, provide us the information. Though they differ in the order that Satan presented them to Jesus, there were three temptations, according to both Matthew and Luke. One temptation was about making half-hearted commitment to God. By proposing to the hungry Jesus that He change stones into bread, Satan challenged Jesus if He could be hungry and at the same time still trust God, if Jesus would still follow God even when He was aware of an emptiness inside Him despite it all. Another temptation was to go to any lengths to get power. By offering to give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, provided that Jesus would worship him, Satan tested Jesus if He truly loved God with all His might or was it might that He truly loved. Still another temptation to Jesus was to take the easy way. By suggesting to Jesus that He do a swan dive from the parapet of the Temple and land without a scratch, Satan proposed to Jesus a painless, no risk, self-preserving, and, not to mention, spectacular way of accomplishing His mission.

In the face of all these temptations, Jesus, however, took the road less traveled and was never distracted from the real issue. The real issue was not hunger, not power, and not self-preservation. The real issue was doing the will of God. The same issue is ours as well. Is doing God’s will the food that satisfies our hunger? Is doing God’s will the power we wield? Is doing God’s will the path we tread on?

In the classic play, “Murder At The Cathedral”, St. Thomas Becket says, “Nothing would be more tragic than to do the right thing for the wrong reasons; to do what is noble for reasons that are vain.” Threatened by the prospect of being assassinated by the cronies of King Henry II, Thomas Becket, then Archbishop of Canterbury from 1160-1170, feared not death but the possibility of not having the correct motive for his willingness to lay down his life for the Lord and His Church. There was only one correct motive behind Thomas Becket’s readiness to die a martyr’s death: Doing the will of God. As it was with him so it is with us, we may do the right thing but unless we do it for God’s will, nothing awaits us but tragedy. Our deeds may be noble but unless our motives are honestly rooted in fulfilling what God desires, tragic would be our end. There is always only one correct motive for us: Doing God’s will according to God’s terms.

When Satan finished tempting Jesus, interestingly, Mark does not say the Satan left Jesus. For, indeed, Satan did not leave Jesus alone. Satan kept on trying to divert Jesus’ attention from the real issue of doing what God desires according to the terms set by God. But Jesus was never distracted from His focus.

I remember the controversial film entitled, “The Last Temptation of Jesus”. The movie seems to trivialize the real issue concerning Jesus’ humanity. On the cross, as He hangs, the real last temptation of Jesus had nothing to do about sex and romance, but about obedience to the will of His Father. From the wilderness of today’s Gospel through the Calvary of Good Friday, Satan would tag along with Jesus to distract Him and divert His attention from doing the will of God. But Satan never succeeded.

May we never be distracted from the real issue of our personal, communal, and even national life. The real issue is always the issue whether we are doing the will of God according to His terms or whether we are doing our will, or even worse, whether we are doing God’s will according to our terms. Lent is a special time for us to re-focus our selves on the real issue. May we not fear the wilderness and the beasts that prowl around because as in the case of Jesus, according to Mark in the Gospel today, angels are also looking after us.

A "LEVI" IN EACH OF US

Saturday after Ash Wednesday
Lk 5:27-32

“I will never go back to that church again, mother!” said a man. “Son,” his mother said, “I understand your disappointment with that parish church, but you have to go back to that church.” “But why?” the man protested. “What ‘why’? You must return to that church for two reasons,” replied his mother. “First,” she continued, you are already in your fifties. You are already old not to go to church. And second, you moron, you are the parish priest of that church!”

Are we disappointed with our Christian community because it is not perfect? Why, are we ourselves perfect? Do we refuse to join parish organizations because too many personalities with questionable morality already belong to them? Why, are we morally unblemished? Do we stay away from the Church because she “cuddles” sinners? Why, are we not sinners?

If we say that we are perfect, then are led to believe that we do not need anyone anymore. If we believe that we are morally unblemished, then we easily deceive our selves that we do not need the Church. If we say that we do not sin, then we are also saying that we do not need Jesus.

To belong to the Church of the perfect and the imperfect, of the righteous and the unrighteous, of saints and sinners is to recognize the indispensable need for Jesus who alone is perfect, is righteous, and is holy. To be part of this kind of Church is to have a part in Jesus, the only One who saves.

When we refuse to welcome sinners into our fold, we should provide an honest answer why we ourselves are welcomed in the same fold. There is a “Levi” in each of us.

ARE WE THE REAL ISSUE HERE?

Friday after Ash Wednesday
Mt 9:14-15

Last Wednesday we entered into the sober but joyful season of Lent. It was Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are the only two days left when we, as Catholics, upon reaching 18 years old and until 59 years old, unless we are sick or under medication, are strictly required to fast.

Fasting means having only one full meal a day. In the early Church, the link between fasting and almsgiving was more highlighted. St. Augustine said, “Do you wish your prayer to fly toward God? Give it two wings: fasting and almsgiving. Christians would fast and therefore saved the amount of money they would have spent for food. Then, they would donate to the Church the money they saved. The Church then would use the donation for the needs of the poor. Clearly, here it is seen that fasting is oriented towards charity. Fasting is not postponing: we do not fast today then feast tomorrow. Fasting is not postponing spending money today so that we may splurge tomorrow. The money we save through fasting should be given to the poor, either directly or through the Church. The money from our fasting is no longer our savings; it is the savings for the poor. When we use the money we save from fasting for our selves, we are guilty of stealing from the poor.

The Gospel today takes up the issue of fasting. If we do not really understand why we fast, then the issue is actually on us. If we fast but we steal from the poor, then the real big issue is we.

BE BETTER

Thursday after Ash Wednesday
Lk 9:22-25

We hear the message, but we listen to the Messenger. We obey the message, but we follow the Messenger. We proclaim the message; we give witness to the Messenger.

The message is the Word of the Lord. The Messenger is the Lord of the Word. Because Jesus Christ is the Lord of the Word and the very Word Himself, the message and the Messenger are one in Him. He is the Messenger and the message Himself.

We do not profess faith in a set of theological doctrines only. Doctrines guide us, but it is Jesus who is the Way. We do not place our hope in a combination of holy words. Holy words inspire us, but it is Jesus who is the Truth. We do not give our love on a mere list of commandments, no matter how godly the commandments are. God’s commandments give life, but it is Jesus who is the Life. We believe in, we hope in, and we love a Person whose name is Jesus. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. It is Him whom we follow.

To follow Jesus is to become another Jesus. To follow Him means to have His mind, His heart, and His Spirit. We follow Jesus when we live His life, we share His death, and we proclaim His resurrection by words and deeds. It means that we have to go through our own paschal mystery in life as Jesus went through His.

What is the center of our faith? The Paschal Mystery of Christ is the core of our faith: “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” This is the heart of Christian discipleship. We must, therefore, die and rise again until we meet the Lord when He returns. This is what the Lenten season means.

Lent is not about self-mortification per se. Lent involves self-mortification only insofar as self-mortification renews the life of Christ within us through our authentic conversion from sin.

Yes, the Lenten season calls us to pray, to do penance, and to give alms or to perform charitable acts. But we get it all wrong if all we do during Lent is pray more, sacrifice more, and give more alms. It is not the “more” that converts us and therefore renews us. Rather, it is praying better, sacrificing better, and giving better that Lent should teach us. It is the “better” that converts us and renews the life of Christ that is already in us through baptism.

When Easter comes, we will be happy to have more Christians. But having better Christians will make us happier. Better Christians are those in whom, like Jesus, the message and the Messenger are one.

ASHES

Ash Wednesday
Mt 6: 1-6, 16-18

Today is Ash Wednesday. The holy season of Lent begins today. We start our forty days of preparation for the celebration of the greatest mystery of our faith: the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus through which we have been redeemed from sin and death.

Lent is not originally a Christian practice. We borrowed it from the pagans. In the olden days, pagans would practice self-mortification during the month of February, the month that is not only the shortest but the coldest as well. During this coldest month of the year, pagans would make themselves so miserable so as not to feel so much how miserable they were with the severely cold weather.

Today we observe Lent not to make our selves feel miserable but because we wish to make our hearts ignite even more for love of Him who loves us more than we know, who proves to us that we, sinners though we are, are worth dying for and are worth rising for as well. Perhaps the coldness of our hearts is more severe than the severest winter. We need to examine our hearts rather than sharpen our tools of self-mortification. We need to rend our hearts, not our garments. We need to change our hearts from being hearts of stone to being hearts of flesh, capable of loving as much as capable of being loved. We need not feel miserable. Rather, we need to recapture our lost sense of inexpressible gratitude by experiencing again and again the Father’s welcoming embrace at our return after squandering His wealth with dissolute living. We need to rediscover our lost sense of childlike joy, too, at the return of the prodigal child of the Father, of each and every prodigal brother or sister of ours.

We mark the beginning of our Lenten observance with the imposition of ashes. This we do even as the Lord admonishes us in the Gospel today not to be showy with our righteous deeds, our prayer habits and our fasting. However, the ashes we impose on our foreheads are not meant to advertise our piety and self-sacrifice. If you, when you fall in line today to receive the ashes from the ministers, catch your self taking pride in having the largest cross on your forehead, in having the darkest mark of ashes on your forehead, better fall out of line and return to your seat. You get it all wrong and no amount of ashes will correct your misunderstanding.

We impose ashes on our foreheads today not for others but for our selves. We need to remember that we are ashes and to ashes, we shall return. We need to remember that we are also stained like the rest who, perhaps, we disdain. We need to remember that we need God’s forgiveness as much as, if not more than, others. As we remember, we are told, “Repent and believe in the Good News.” for remembering should lead us to repentance, and repentance to a renewed faith in the Gospel of joy, peace, love, forgiveness, and salvation in Christ.

But why ashes? Why not impose other elements on our forehead as we begin Lent?

Three reasons.

First, ashes are clean. That which goes through fire is purified. When we burnt the palms we used last year, fire gave us these ashes. These ashes are pure elements of the otherwise old palm branches. When we impose these ashes on our foreheads, we should be reminded of the purity to which we are all called. We must strive to live holy lives. Moreover, in our pilgrimage of faith, we have to pass through many baptisms of fire so that we may be purified and sanctified. Ashes are not symbols of sin. They are reminders of purity. Let us be pure.

Second, while the ashes themselves are symbols of purity, their color, ironically, reminds us of the darkness of sin as well. Black is traditionally the color of evil. When we sin, we live in darkness. Darkness hides the purity in us. However, if you look closely on the ashes to be blest in this Mass, you may notice that they are not totally black. They are grayish. The white of purity, as if, fights the black of impurity. Because the original purity of the human heart, created in the image and likeness of God, cannot be totally defeated, the grayish color remains. But gray is gray. Though not black, it is still not white. In our commitment to follow Jesus, we fight a battle within our selves even as we wrestle with the dark forces outside our selves. In this spiritual warfare, we should not surrender. We have to be resolute in our fight against the evil one. But just as the ashes on our forehead are in the form of a cross, we hear an echo of the advice, legend says, once given to Constantine on his way to a battle: “By this sign you shall conquer.” By the cross and only by the cross of Christ can we be saved. By and only by the redemptive grace of Jesus can we be victorious over the dark forces of evil.

Third, ash is a biblical sign for mourning. Particularly in the Old Testament, we read about people rending their garments, putting on sackcloth and ashes to express their grief over their misfortune or sins. The ashes on our foreheads are signs of our sorrow for hurting God and one another by our sins. Words are not enough to express our deep sorrow. We turn to ashes to express the inexpressible. Thus, if we are not sorry for our sins and are sincere in making amends for them, we better not receive ashes today less we become of hypocrisy.

The call to purity, the power of the cross and the sincerity of our contrition are the reasons why we use ashes to mark the beginning of Lent. But these reasons are for our consideration not only in the next forty days. They should be our concern all throughout our lives as we strive to die and rise with the Lord.

Before we impose ashes on our foreheads, let us enter into the silence of this holy season and ask our selves three questions: Do we strive to remain pure? Do we fight my battles with the power of the cross of Jesus and not surrender our selves to the darkness of sin? Are we sincere in our contrition? Only we can answer. The ashes on our foreheads cannot. Only Jesus knows. The ministers who impose the ashes on our foreheads do not.