MASTER OF MY FATE, CAPTAIN OF MY SOUL

4^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dt 18:15-20/Ps 95/1 Cor 7:32-36/Mk 1:21-28

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul

This poem, entitled “Invictus”, is said to have inspired the first black president of South Africa, Mr. Nelson Mandela who, like Moses, led his people unto freedom.  Thus, it is said that the same poem inspired a nation that for so long suffered from the curse of apartheid.  “I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul,” said William Ernest Henley who wrote “Invictus”.

Some people live their lives in the victim mode: they willingly but unwittingly consign themselves to fate.  This tendency is very strong in many of us, Filipinos.  We say, “Iginuhit ng tadhana.”  “Wala tayong magagawa dahil ‘yan ang nakatadhana.”  Evidenced by the seeming addiction to soap operas or “teleserye”, many of us apparently go through life as helpless slaves of circumstances.  Some even mistake this as resiliency – said to be one of our best Filipino traits.  But people who have this wrong kind of resiliency are, in truth, losers and have no one to blame for their miserable lives but themselves only.  They are neither behind bars nor under any tyrant, but, just the same, they are not really free.

However, there are also many among us who rise above setbacks in the journey called life.  They refuse to be slaves of the circumstances of their birth, of their past, and of the misfortunes of the present.  They are not even dictated upon by a future painted for them by others.  No, they are the masters of their fates and the captains of their souls.  These people are called “survivors” and their resiliency is the true virtue.  They are the real winners in life.  More importantly, they are truly free.

With the many angles from which we may look at the readings for this 4^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, I propose the viewpoint of our genuine freedom in Christ Jesus.  St. Paul the Apostle wrote in Gal 5:1, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.”  We, therefore, owe it to Christ Himself to preserve that freedom He won for us by His own blood.

The first reading today, taken from the book of Deuteronomy (which literally means, “the second law”, coming from the Greek words, nomos, meaning “law”, and deutero, “second”), brings us back to the founding days of Israel.  If the Jews thought that freedom from their Egyptian taskmasters meant no more laws to follow, they were certainly mistaken.  Freedom rather meant obedience to the law of Yahweh who, with signs and wonders, freed them from slavery in Egypt.  Thus, Yahweh, forming a people peculiarly His own, gave them instead the Ten Commandments through Moses.  The Ten Commandments, which later the book of Deuteronomy elaborates, appears to be, even until today, the very foundation of the free nation of Israel.  Without it, the Jews simply changed address – from Egypt to the Promised Land – but remained slaves of a different master nonetheless.  In the first reading today, Moses announces to the people God’s pleasure: He will raise, from among them, a prophet who will not be a fortuneteller (as many think prophets are), but, acting as God’s spokesperson, will guide them in fulfilling the Law.  Listening to God’s prophet is listening to God.  Refusing to heed the message of His prophet is disobedience, if not indifference, to God.  Either way has its own consequences: listening and obedience mean more freedom while indifference and disobedience cause enslavement in many and various ways.

Thus, with Psalm 95, with which we respond to the first reading today, we do well in reminding our selves: “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”  Hearing with our ears is not yet listening.  It is with our hearts that we listen!  And for the Jews, listening is synonymous with obeying because taking to heart what is said is already the beginning of fulfilling the message conveyed.  Interestingly, the Hebrew language does not have a word of its own for “obey”.  When a Jew wants to say “obey”, he uses the word for “listen” which is shema plus a prefix le; thus, leshemoa.  For indeed, for a Hebrew, to listen is to obey.

Do I simply hear God or do I really listen to Him?  I may well ask my self, too: Who are the people I hear and who are the people I listen to?  Why?  And, one thing more: Do people hear me or do they listen to me?  Why?

In the second reading, the Apostle Paul teaches us that freedom is committing one’s self.  Thus, a person has to choose what his commitment will be: should he or she be married or unmarried, an example that the second reading uses.  Commitment presupposes our freedom but freedom is likewise enhanced by our commitment.

Commitment concentrates a person’s freedom and makes it even stronger.  It focuses his or her freedom and provides his or her life a clear and worthwhile orientation.  Without commitment, freedom is like water that has no shape of its own.  The fear to commit one’s self renders one’s freedom useless and even chaotic.  Those who think that they are more free by remaining single, for example, are actually misled by a childish, if not totally naïve, understanding of freedom as not being committed to a spouse.  Celibates, for that matter, are free not because they are unmarried but because they exercise their freedom in committing themselves to a life of total availability to the cause of God’s kingdom.  Be what it may – married or unmarried – St. Paul admonishes us to use our freedom in making our commitment so that our commitment may make us truly free.  In fact, he begins his letter by saying that he should like us to be free from anxieties.

Am I afraid to commit my self?  To whom?  To what?  Why?  Using my freedom, how is my commitment?

Finally, in the Gospel, Jesus encounters a man who, instead of possessing himself, is possessed by an unclean spirit.  Clearly, that man is not the master of his fate neither is he the captain of his soul.  He is not free.  But Jesus frees him by simply commanding the unclean spirit to be quiet and to come out of him.  Then the story shifts its focus from the man once possessed by an unclean spirit to those who now are possessed by Jesus.  The people are not only astonished at the power of His teaching, they are also amazed at its authority because even unclean spirits obey Him.  As a result, Jesus becomes more famous.  Fanatics, not necessarily disciples, track Him everywhere He goes.  But Jesus wants disciples, not fanatics.  He desires obedience, not platitudes; obedience that, as we realized earlier, separates the hearers from the listeners of the Word of God.  The amazement of the people in the Gospel today will fade and turn to hatred, with their cheers becoming jeers of “Crucify Him!  Crucify Him!”

What interests me further though is the once possessed man now healed.  What happens to him?  After his freedom from the unclean spirit, where goes and what does he?  Will he use his newfound freedom to commit himself to Jesus?  Or will he fall a prisoner to another unclean or even worse spirit only?  For what will he use his new freedom?  Will he finally be the master of his fate and the captain of his soul?  Unfortunately, he is not mentioned again in any part of the Gospel.

Perhaps, that man in the Gospel may very well stand for me.  And the answers to my questions can be read in the strokes that my life makes in the world.

I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.  I place my fate in the hands of Jesus.  He is the captain of my soul.


How about you?

BITIW

Ikatlong Linggo sa Karaniwang Panahon

Jon 3:1-5, 10 / Slm 25 / 1 Cor 7:29-31 / Mk 1:14-20

Pagkapit ang una nating natututunan sa buhay.  Mga punla pa lang tayo sa sinapupunan ng ating kani-kaniyang ina, naghanap na agad tayo ng makakapitan.  Kaya nga po tayo nabuo kasi nakakapit tayo sa bahay-bata ni inay.

Pagkatapos nating matutong kumapit, napilitan naman tayong matutong bumitiw.  Siyam na buwan tayong nakakapit sa bahay-bata ng ating ina, pero kinailangan nating bumitiw, sa ayaw nati’t sa gusto, kundi’y mamamatay naman tayo sa sobrang pagkapit.  At dahil tila mas likas nga sa atin ang pagkapit kaysa pagbitiw, napakasakit na karanasan para sa atin ang bumitiw: samantalang binati tayo ng malaking tuwa ng mga sumalubong sa atin, umiiyak naman tayong dumating.

Tapos, tuturuan tayong kumapit ulit.  Dapat tayong kumapit sa kumakarga sa atin kundi ay baka mahulog tayo at madisgrasya.  Kailangan nating kapitan ang bote ng gatas nang makadede tayong mabuti.  Gagabayan tayong kumapit sa kuna, sa andador, at sa kung anumang puwede nating makapitan habang nag-aaral tayong tumayo at maglakad.  Tuturuan tayong kumapit nang mabuti sa kutsara at tinidor nang makakain tayong mag-isa.  At marami pang mga pagkapit ang matututunan natin.  Kung hindi nga tayo maingat baka akalain nating hindi natin kayang lumago, umunlad, at mamuhay nang hindi nakakapit sa kung anu-ano at kung sinu-sino.

Hindi nakapagtataka na natututunan din nating humanap ng kapit sa kompanyang gusto nating mapagtrabahuhan.  Minsan suspetsa ng iba: “Siguro kaya na-promote kasi malakas ang kapit.”  At meron pang kahit panahon na para bumaba sa puwesto, kapit-tuko pa rin sa kapangyarihan.

Tutoong sadyang napakahalaga para sa atin ang kumapit.  At dahil sindak ang unang karanasan natin sa pagbitiw, kinalimutan nating mahalaga rin pala ang bumitiw.  Sa katunayan, nasa pagbitiw ang buhay; wala sa pagkapit.

Isipin po ninyo, ano kaya ang buhay natin kung hindi tayo marunong bumitiw?  Ano kaya ang buhay natin kung ayaw nating bumitiw.  Ano kaya ang itsura natin kung kapit lang tayo nang kapit at hindi tayo makabitiw-bitiw?  Makasusubo nga tayo ng pagkain pero pati kamay natin ay mangunguya natin.  Makahahawak nga tayo ng pera pero hindi naman natin ito magagasta.  Makatatanggap nga tayo ng mga biyayang materyal pero hindi rin naman natin ito magagamit sa mga pangangailangan natin o sa pagtulong kaya sa kapwa.  Matanganan man natin ang mahal natin sa buhay, hindi magtatagal ay masisira ang ating mabuting ugnayan: lagi kasi tayong nakakapit sa kanya.  At paano na po kapag marami na tayong nahawakan, nadampot, natanganan, natanggap?  Paano na nga po kapag marami na tayong kinakapitan at hindi tayo makabitiw?  Paano na kung marami na ring nakakapit sa atin at ayaw bumitiw sa atin?

May malaking karunungan sa pagbitiw, hindi po ba?  Kung tutuusin, hindi lang duwag ang ayaw bumitiw.  Tanga rin siya.

Hinahamon tayo ng Salita ng Diyos ngayong Linggong ito na bumitiw sa tatlong bagay: sa kasalanan, sa mundo, at sa mga hadlang sa ating pagsunod kay Jesus.

Isinasalamin ng kuwento ng mga taga-Nineveh ang kuwento natin.  Katulad nila, namumuhay tayo sa iba’t ibang anyo at antas ng pagkakasala.  Ang panawagan sa kanilang magsisi at magbalik-loob sa Diyos ay panawagan din sa atin.  Gaya nila, dapat din tayong bumitiw sa makasalanang pamumuhay kung gusto nating tutoong mabuhay.  Ang pagkapit sa makasalanang pamumuhay ay panliligaw sa kapahamakan.  “Ang kabayaran ng kasalanan ay kamatayan” (Rom 6:23).  Nasa pagbitiw natin sa makasalanang pamumuhay ang ating kaligtasan. 

Napakahalaga naman ng paalala sa atin ni San Pablo Apostol ngayong araw na ito.  Sa pamamagitan ng kanyang unang sulat sa mga taga-Corinto, binabalaan tayo ng Apostol na ang lahat sa mundo, pati na ang mundo mismo, ay lumilipas.  Ang kumapit sa mga bagay-bagay sa mundong lumilipas ay lilipas kasama nito.  Ang magtiwala sa mga iniaalok ng mundong ito, sa kahuli-hulihan, ay mabibigo.  Masahol pa, ang magpaalipin sa kamunduhan, kapahamakan ang kahahantungan.

Gayunpaman, hindi naman sinasabi ni San Pablo na bale-walain na lang natin ang mundo.  Sa halip, dapat nga nating gamitin ang mundo para sa ikasusulong ng paghahari ng Diyos.  Pinag-iingat lamang tayo ni San Pablo at baka mamaya, hindi na natin namamalayan, tayo na pala ang ginagamit ng mundo.

Tanungin natin ang ating sarili.  Ano ba ang hindi ko kayang bitiwan sa mundong ito?  Meron ba sa mundong ito ang hindi ko kayang ipaubaya sa Diyos?  Bakit hindi ko ito mabitiw-bitiwan?  Bakit iyon kaya kong ipaubaya sa Diyos pero ito hindi?  At huwag po nating kalilimutan, puwede ring “sino” sa halip na “ano” ang tinutukoy ng mga katanungang ito.

Malinaw kung bakit tayo dapat bumitiw sa makasalanang pamumuhay.  Nauunawaan natin ang bilin ni San Pablo Apostol tungkol sa pagbitiw sa mundo.  Pero iba na ang usapan kapag pati ba naman ang ating payak na kabuhayan at ang ating mga mahal sa buhay ay hingin sa ating bitiwan. 

Sa kuwento ng Ebanghelyo ngayong Linggong ito, tila napakadali lang para sa magkapatid na Simon at Andres at kay Santiago at Juan na magkapatid din ang bitiwan ang lahat para sumunod kay Jesus.  Palagay ko po, short-cut version ang kuwentong ito.  Palagay ko, hindi ganoong ka-eksakto ang mga detalye ng pagtawag at pagtugon ng apat na apostol na ito.  Iisa lang naman kasi, sa tingin ko, ang pakay hindi ng kuwento kundi ng nagkuwento: ang ikintal sa isip nating lahat na hinahamon tayong bumitiw sa lahat-lahat na at buung-buo nating itaya ang sarili, pagkatao, at buhay; na wala tayong dapat ipagdamot sa Diyos; na dapat ay walang karibal ang Diyos sa buhay natin.  Naku po, napakahirap!  Madalas ay hindi naman natin sinasadya, madalas ay hindi rin natin namamalayan, pero sa tutoo lang may kasosyo ang Diyos sa puso natin.

Napakahirap bitiwan ang lahat.  E iyon nga lang pong dating nabalitang panukalang ipatupad ang pag-iikapo ay naging malaki at mainit nang debate sa ating mga Katoliko, iyon pa kayang tutoong pagpapaubaya ng lahat-lahat sa Diyos?  Siguro po kung tingi-tingi lang, kung ‘yung mga labis lang, kung ‘yung mga ayaw na natin, kung ‘yung malapit nang ma-expire, ayos lang.  Pero kapag lahat na ang pinag-usapan, ibang usapan na ‘yan.  Kung tayo ang susulat sa tseke kung magkano ang gusto lang nating i-abuloy sa Diyos, okay lang.  Pero kung tsekeng blangko ang ibibigay natin sa Diyos, bitiwan kaya natin?

Isang kahangalan nga itinuturing ng mundo ang bitiwan ang lahat.  Sukdulan na ang talikuran ang lahat-lahat.  Isa itong kabaliwan sa paningin ng karamihan.  Ngunit ganyan nga po ang ginawa ni San Franciso ng Assisi, hindi ba?  Kung sabagay, noong bumitiw siya sa marangya niyang pamumuhay, noong hubarin niya hindi lamang ang kasuotang mula sa kanyang ama kundi pati rin ang kaugnayan niya sa kanyang ama, noong talikuran niya ang lahat ng mga ipinapangako ng isang mariwasang kinabukasan, nakala rin ng marami, pati ng kanyang sariling ama’t ina, na nawawala siya sa kanyang katinuan.  Pero ngayon, hindi po ba, hangang-hanga ang lahat kay San Francisco at hindi mabilang ang mga nagnanais tumulad sa kanyang pamumuhay ng payak, mapayapa, at maligaya?  Kung hindi siya bumitiw noon, palagay ko po baka walang San Francisco ng Assisi ngayon.

May pinabibitiwan ba ang Diyos sa iyo ngayon?  Bukod sa makasalanang pamumuhay at sa mga pagkakatali mo sa mundong ito, ano pa kaya?  Sino pa kaya?  Handa ka bang bumitiw?  Handa ka bang maging baliw para sa Diyos?

Sa aking palagay, higit na napakahirap ang bumitiw kung wala kang kakapitan.  Hindi naman po kasi kailanman hiningi ni Jesus na bumitiw tayo sa kung sino o kung ano nang hindi Niya tayo hinihiling na kumapit naman sa Kanya.  Ang pagbitiw natin ay para sa pagkapit pa rin – pagkapit sa tunay na dapat nating kapitan: si Jesus, tanging si Jesus, laging si Jesus.  Siya ang ating kapitan dahil Siya dapat ang Kapitan ng ating buhay!

BELONGING TO GOD’S KINGDOM

3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jon 3:1-5, 10 / Ps 25 / 1 Cor 7:29-31 / Mk 1:14-20

If we think that the Word of God this Sunday speaks to priests and those in the religious life only, we are gravely mistaken.  The mere mention of four of the twelve apostles of Jesus and the genesis of their vocation story do not in any way limit the Word of God today.  God speaks to us all – priests and lay people, religious men and women as well as married couples.  God challenges us to venture into something greater than our selves: His kingdom.

The kingdom of God is not only for priests and those who said ‘yes’ to the religious life.  God wants all peoples to belong to His kingdom, regardless of their states in life.  For there is but one vocation – the vocation to holiness of life – while, true, there are many paths to thread towards it.  For a great majority, the married life.  For some, the priestly or religious life.  And still for a few, the life of single blessedness.  Yet, still, all are called to be holy (Cf. 1 Pt 2:9).

To be holy is to belong to God’s kingdom.  Holiness is not necessarily belonging to the Church.  Holiness is much wider than belonging to an institution, if Church means mere institution in this sense.  The Church, as an institution, rather is an important aid for people to be holy.  But belong to the Church does not in any way automatically makes one holy.

The kingdom of God is likewise greater than the Church.  Remember, Jesus came not to establish a particular church.  He did gather people to be church, i.e., an assembly convoked by God.  But it is the kingdom of God that Jesus ushered in into the world.  The fact is, Jesus Himself is the in-breaking of God’s kingdom in our midst and, yes, in our individual lives as well.  The Church, for her part, is the sacrament of that kingdom.  That means that she makes present in the world and to the world the very kingdom of God.  Thus, we can say, as we do in theology, the kingdom of God is already here but not yet.  The kingdom is indeed greater than the Church but the kingdom of God subsists in the Church.  While here on earth we can have a foretaste of the kingdom of God by belonging to the Church.  And while some elements of the truth of salvation may be found existent in other Christian churches, the fullness of that truth subsist in the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.

Now that we have established the premise, it is in this context of our being Church, i.e., the sacrament of the kingdom of God in the world and the assembly convoked by God to be holy as He is holy (Cf. Lev 20:26 and Mt 5:48), that I wish to propose the following points for our consideration in the light of the readings today.

The Prophet Jonah preaches to the people of Nineveh in the first reading today.  The great city is threatened by the wrath of God for prevalent immoral living of its people.  Jonah, reluctant though he was at first, turns out to be a successful preacher, for at his preaching the Ninevites repented and converted from their sins.  From the king down to it lowliest citizen, Nineveh goes into forty days of fasting, with everyone wearing sackcloth, as a sign of mourning.  Thanks be to God, Nineveh is spared from the destruction.

As Church, we, too, are called to convert from our sins.  The task of renewal, which necessarily includes conversion of life, is a perennial concern for God’s people.  Ecclesia semper reformanda.  We cannot be holy unless we repent just as renewal is merely skin-deep, if not totally nil, without conversion of life.  The Word of God today exhorts us to repent and be converted as individual disciples but also as Church.

Do we answer the call to conversion of life?  In what aspects of our life – as Church and as individuals – do we need conversion?  Do we humbly accept our sins and even more humbly repent from them?  But, since repentance is not sentimentalism, do we set aright what our sins have rendered wrong?  Moreover, do we discern and actually employ necessary structures to assist us in our conversion and in avoiding the sins we already repented from?  Unless we are honest with the painful but liberating questions on conversion of life, we cannot be holy no matter what particular state in life we are in.

St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians today reminds us that belonging to God’s kingdom takes more than just conversion of life.  It demands conversion of values.  The truth is one cannot convert from his or her sins while persisting in his or her values that are contrary to the Gospel of Christ.  The life of every Christian is a constant decision-making between the world and God’s kingdom.  Christian discipleship is a series of choices – done in freedom and prayerful discernment – for the sake of the values that Jesus preached about, lived by, and offered His life for.

However, it is not the teaching of the Church to hate the world and consider it the work of the devil.  No, we are rather challenged to embrace the world – with all its flaws, wounds, and dirt – and re-create it with the paschal mystery of Jesus.  Yes, we are not of the world, but we are in the world now, for this is where God has placed us to be its stewards.  It is an essential component of the spirituality of this stewardship that we use the world, with utmost respect, for the advancement of God’s kingdom, i.e., for the victory of good over evil.  The world is passing away indeed.  We are to use it then properly.  Moreover, we should never allow it to use us.  There is no other proper way to us it except for the greater glory of God and the full establishment of the kingdom inaugurated by His Son, Jesus the Christ.  With God alone as our hope and strength, we do not place our trust in the world, but God does entrust the world to us.

How do we regard the world in the light of our being sons and daughters of God whose kingdom we are co-heirs with Christ?  Do we use the world for God’s kingdom or do we patronize the world at the expense of that kingdom?  Can the world be the locus of our holiness, even with all the temptations and actual sins prevalent in it?  For, after all, as St. Paul said, “Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more” (Rom 6:20).  What kind of Christ’s disciples are we in, to, and for the world?

Indeed how we relate not only in the world but with the world expresses our holiness.  Fuga mundi or “flee the world” used to be the mode of holiness in ancient days but no longer now.  Helping the world rediscover its innate goodness is necessarily consequential to discovering one’s holiness in the world.

But our world is not only the physical world we live in.  While we do have our common world, we also have our unique, personal, and individual worlds.  World for us is not only planet earth.  Our family is our little world and so is our friends, our career, our priorities, our concerns, and still many others, including our attachments.  Anything and anyone we are in anyway attached is world for us.  Thus, we talk of many worlds.

The Gospel today tells us about how the brothers Simon and Andrew, and James and John consider their personal, unique, and individual worlds in relation to the kingdom whose imminent coming Jesus preaches about.  Upon the call of Jesus – “Come after Me, and I will make you fishers of men” – the four, in the strong words of the Gospel, abandon their worlds to follow Him.  They exchange their worlds with the world of Jesus.  Detaching themselves from their former worlds, they now attach themselves to Jesus and become part of His kingdom.

Let us not, even for a sigh, think that such a decision on the part of the four and the rest of the Twelve is made without an ounce of pain.  Leaving our comfort zones is always discomforting.  Abandoning the familiar for the unknown can be very frightening.  Detachment is always a dying to one’s self.  Following Jesus demands taking risks.  Becoming like Jesus requires so much love.  Discipleship is no joke.

As we profess our selves to be disciples of Jesus and, thus, continue to follow Him by living according to the values of His kingdom, our conversion of life and proper relation to the world must lead us into honestly recognizing our other “worlds”.  Can we identify our unique, personal, and individual worlds with the kingdom already given to us by the Father or not?  What and who are our inordinate attachments?  Are we willing to let go of our own worlds so as to allow Jesus to lead us to the kingdom?  Do we create our own worlds and impose them on others rather than give witness to God’s kingdom and help others belong to it?

The Word of God today certainly addresses its self not only to us all – priests, religious, married, and single.  We, after all, should belong to only one kingdom really – the kingdom where the Word of God is not only preached and listened to but, most importantly, lived out by all.

GROW UP LIKE JESUS

Feast of the Sto. Niño (Proper the Philippines)

Is 9:1-6/Ps 98/Eph 1:3-6, 15-18/Mk 10:13-16

We celebrate today a feast proper only to the Philippines: the Feast of the Sto. Niño.  This feast is celebrated nowhere else but here.  In the other parts of the Catholic world, the prayers and readings for today are taken from the 2^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time.  But the Holy See has granted to us, Filipino Catholics, the privilege to celebrate the 3^rd Sunday of January, which this year falls on the 2^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, as the feast of the Sto. Niño.  This feast has its own readings and principal prayers for the Holy Mass.

As young as when we were in elementary school, we already learned from Social Studies classes that when the king and queen of Cebu were converted to Christianity and were baptized by the friar missionaries, who, with Ferdinand Magellan, arrived at our shores in 1521, they received as gift from the Portuguese explorer an image of the Sto. Niño.  Thus, from then on, the devotion to the Sto. Niño signifies very well the beginnings of Christianity in the Philippines.

The Philippines is Christianity’s first-born in this part of the world.  For centuries, our country has been referred to as the only Christian nation in the Far East.  Today, however, with East Timor, the youngest sovereign nation in this part of the globe, whose population is predominantly Christians, too, the Philippines, while no longer called as the only Christian nation in the Far East, is still looked up to as the oldest Christian nation in the region.  Christianity, particularly, the Roman Catholic Church, is already four hundred years old in the Philippines.  But the image of the Sto. Niño remains a little child – an infantile image for a very old religion.

No problem with the infantile image of the Sto. Niño, provided that we, Filipino Catholics, are not as infantile in the Christian Faith.  After all, Jesus did not remain a toddler all His earthly life.  Yes, He was born in a manger but He did not make a stable His permanent address.  Jesus went down, with His parents, Mary and Joseph, to Nazareth, and there at Nazareth, Lk 2:40 and 52 say, He grew up in wisdom, in age, and in grace.  If devotion is configuration, then authentic devotion to the Sto. Niño must necessarily include growing up, as it were, with Jesus.  Have we, as a nation that is predominantly Christian, grown up with Jesus?  Are we growing up with Him?  Individually, do we, with Jesus and like Jesus, also advance in wisdom and in grace, not only in age, before God and men?  If the honest answers to these questions are ‘no’, there must be something wrong not only in our devotion to the Sto. Niño but also to our practice of the Faith as well.  The Feast of the Sto. Niño, therefore, gives us more than the necessary occasion to thank God for the gift of coming to a knowledge of and faith in Him and to celebrate its four hundred years in our shores.  It must also be an opportune time for us to seriously examine our selves and see how much we have or have not grown with Jesus.

Our readings today, which, as I said at the start of our reflection, are proper to this local feast and not to the universal liturgy this Sunday, give us signs of growing with Jesus.  Can we identify these signs to be present in our life, in our spirituality, in our kind of Christianity as individual and as a nation?

The first reading today sounds very much as an echo of the recently concluded Christmas season.  Once again, we are reminded that the fulfillment of God’s promise of salvation to His People came in the person of a fragile Baby Boy: Jesus Christ.  It should surprise us, to say the least, that God became little.  The helplessness of a child revealed to us the might of God.  God became a baby.

The second reading sings of the great mystery finally revealed to us in and through Christ Jesus.  God predestined us, in Christ, to be His sons and daughters.  In the person of Jesus, His Son and our Lord, God came to share in our humanity so that we might come to share in His divinity.  God is not only the Father of Jesus, He also wanted to be our Father, too.

The Gospel, for its part, brings the two readings together.  On the one hand, because God became little – not only in size and age, but also in social standing – He has so intimately identified Himself with the little ones of this world.  Therefore, if we want to find God, our destination is no longer Bethlehem but the streets, the byways, the alleys, the orphanages, the hospitals, the slums of this world.  Where there is “littleness” in its many forms, God is there, and we can adore Him there by lovingly serving, accompanying, and empowering the little ones.  On the other hand, the clearest proof of our being sons and daughters of God is in our own littleness, too.  We may not be socially disadvantaged or physically handicapped or culturally marginalized or politically oppressed or suffering in any way, but the expression of our littleness is in the kind of life we live.  Is our lifestyle humble, simple, and thankful, like that of a child’s?  Do we really allow God to be Father to us and so we place all our trust in Him?  With all our confidence in God, we cannot but be humble, simple, and thankful always.

Thus, the signs of growing with and like Jesus, as proposed to us by the readings today are: one, accepting the littleness of God and finding Him in the little ones; two, allowing God to be Father to us in concrete episodes in our life that really demand absolute trust in Him; and three, being childlike and never childish not only in our particular practice of the Christian Faith but also in the living of our life in general.

The Feast of the Sto. Niño is a liturgy proper to the Philippine Church.  But come to think of it, the Sto. Niño Himself is a challenge to all Christians: grow up with Jesus, grow up like Jesus!  Such is the essence of devotion.  Such is the ultimate joy of a disciple.  May we all become more and more like Jesus.

CONTINUING EPIPHANIES OF THE LORD

Solemnity of the Lord’s Epiphany

Is 60:1-6/Ps 72/Eph 3:2-3, 5-6/Mt 2:1-12

Today is the Solemnity of the Lord’s Epiphany, but many prefer to greet one another, “Happy Three Kings!”  The world focuses on the visitors from the East and calls them with a confusing title: kings.  The Gospel, however, speaks not of three kings, but of two: Herod and Jesus – the first is an envious-turned-crazy king while the second is the King of Kings Himself.  The visitors from the East, as the Gospel introduces them to us, were magi, i.e., “wise men”.  They were astrologers who did not make a living by fortune-telling but lived by discerning the signs from the heavens.  They knew about the prophecy concerning the birth of Jesus and came to worship Him by the aid of celestial movements.  The focus of today’s feast is not these wise men but the Wisdom-of-God-incarnate, Jesus Christ the Lord.  Today, we, as Church, solemnly celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord.

“Epiphany” comes from the Greek verb, epiphainein, which means “to manifest or to display”.  Epiphaneia – an overwhelming manifestation, a striking appearance – is its noun form.

I propose for our reflection three striking manifestations from the solemnity we celebrate today.

First, God Himself.  While from ancient days, people already knew that God would send the world a savior, no one expected that that Savior would be His own Son Himself.  Given that it was His very own Son whom God gave us, this Son, while remaining divine, took upon Himself our frail nature and became human like us except sin.  No one even imagine that God would become human.  And because human, God’s Son, Jesus, did not appear as a grown-up right away.  Instead, He went through the normal process of coming into the world: He was conceived and gradually formed in the womb until Mary delivered Him into the world.  God manifested Himself to us in utter humility and poverty.  For a world accustomed to royalties being addressed with titles, placed on pedestals, and served by attendants on tip toes, God who became little is a shocking revelation, to say the least.

Second, the will of God.  While the Jews thought that they alone belong to the People of God, God disclosed His desire that all peoples be gathered into His kingdom – Jews and Gentiles alike.  The visitors from the East were non-Jewish and, therefore, Gentiles.  They represent all of us who are not Israelites.  That the blessed birth of the Savior of the world was also made known to them underlines the fact that, from the very beginning, God wills that all men and women be saved.  Yes, salvation came from the Jews, but it did not come for them only.  In the person of Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, God made clear that He is for all and that salvation is offered to all.  The Holy Child destined to be the very salvation of the world was visited not only by shepherds who were Jews, but uneducated and, obviously, poor but also by magi from the East who were non-Jewish, but educated and, probably, rich.  Celebrating the Solemnity of the Lord’s Epiphany is celebrating the beginning of the fulfillment the Prophet Isaiah’s vision in the first reading today: not only does the glory of the Lord already shines upon Jerusalem but nations also walk by that same glorious light.  In the second reading, St. Paul the Apostle explains, in brief, what this epiphany of God’s will means: we, who were once gentiles, are now co-heirs with the Jews, members of the same People of God, and collaborators of Christ Jesus.  God has disclosed His salvific will and continues to offer to all peoples the one and only Savior of the world: Jesus the Christ.

Third, finding God.  The irony of the story in today’s Gospel is that those who were supposed to know did not know that the Promised One was already born while those who were supposed to know not actually knew!  King Herod, the chief priests, the scribes, and all Jerusalem, with the benefit of the writings of the prophets, should be among the first to have visited Jesus, the newborn King of the Jews, shouldn’t they?  As far as availability of information was concerned, the data were already at their fingertips.  As regards geography, the birthplace of Jesus was right there in their midst.  Yet, visitors from faraway origins, whose great desire was to pay homage to Jesus, surprised them so much so that they were greatly troubled.  The magi were greatly overjoyed at seeing the star while Herod, and all Jerusalem, the Gospel today says, were greatly troubled.  For the magi, with their selves passionately involved, really waited for the birth of the Christ, but Herod and all Jerusalem, with their knowledge of the prophecies concerning the same birth, did not bother at all to find Him themselves.  I am quite amused that while the magi arrived in Jerusalem not because someone sent them there but because they themselves initiated the quest in search for Jesus, there seems to be a funny twist in verse eight of the Gospel today.  In verse eight, Herod now sends the magi to Bethlehem, with the instruction, “Go and search diligently for the child.  When you have found Him, bring me word, that I too may go and do Him homage.”  Funny, if not tragic, is it not?  Herod had the chance to join the quest for the Holy Child, but, no, he didn’t bother stepping out of the comforts of his palace to go through the trouble of finding Jesus for Himself.  With the information supplied by his chief priests and scribes, Herod knew but did not go.  With the same information, the magi now knew and so they went.  Herod did not even need to send them on their way with his sinister plan.  But apparently, verse eight says that King Herod sent the magi to Bethlehem; thereby giving its readers a comical image of the mad king.  Herod was a fool but the magi were truly wise.  Unlike Herod, those visitors from the East were not kings but they were wisemen indeed.

The challenge of today’s solemnity is for us to be wise, too.  Be wise in the ways of God.  On the one hand, His ways challenge us to recognize Him in the little, the humble, and the poor.  On the other hand, we are likewise challenged to be little, humble, and poor.  Jesus, the God who became little, would eventually declare in His teachings that whoever accepts a little child in His name welcomes Him and that unless we become like little children we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.

Because God disclosed His desire that all peoples belong to His kingdom, we also need to exercise greater inclusivity rather than exclusivity in our desire for the good of others.  God does not form cliques, much less ghettoes.  He gathers people and calls them ekklesia, i.e., church, the body whose head is Christ Jesus Himself.  The challenge for us is to continue reaching out to others and to include everyone in the gathering that God convokes.

And finally, knowing all that needs to know does not make one a wise fellow.  Putting into practice what one knows does show the wisdom of that person.  Faith is not a matter of knowing; faith is a matter of living.  If we want to find the Lord in all things and in all peoples, then it certainly takes more than knowing even just a little theology.  Finding the Jesus is searching for Jesus.  Meeting Jesus happens only in seeking Jesus.  Encountering Jesus is not only knowing Jesus; it is, most of all, living with Jesus, living for Jesus, and living like Jesus.

As we celebrate the Solemnity of the Lord’s Epiphany today, let us pray for one another so that the unfathomable grace of this Holy Eucharist transforms us and helps us become continuing epiphanies of the Lord.  Let us live simply and humbly.  Let us be inclusive not exclusive.  Let us live the Faith, not only know it.  In all these, may we always be wise in the ways of the Lord.