PRESENTING: ANDREW!

Feast of St. Andrew, Apostle
Mt 4:18-22

Today is the feast of St. Andrew, an apostle of the Lord. Brother of Simon Peter, a native of Bethsaida, a disciple of John the Baptist before becoming an apostle of Jesus, preached the Gospel, and later martyred by crucifixion in Achaia – these are commonly known details in the life of Andrew. But when I remember Andrew, I think of him as one who always presents to the Lord.

In the Gospel of John, there are three occasions John is mentioned presenting someone to Jesus.

In Jn 1:41-42: “The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus.”

Jn 6:8-9: “Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, ‘Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?’"

Jn 12:20-22: “Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the Feast. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘we would like to see Jesus.’ Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.”

In the first citation, Andrew introduced to the Lord he who would become the Prince of the Apostles, the first pope, the Vicar of Christ on earth, the rock on which Jesus would build His Church. In the second, he brought to Jesus the agent for the miraculous multiplication of loaves and fish. In the third, he made it possible for pagans to encounter the Lord. All three presentations are important even for us today.

But these three presentations happened because it was himself that Andrew first presented to the Lord. In Jn 1:35-40: “The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God!’ When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, ‘What do you want?’ They said, ‘Rabbi’ (which means Teacher), ‘where are you live?’ Jesus said, ‘Come and see.’ So they went and saw where He was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour. Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus.”
We cannot present anyone to the Lord unless we present our selves to Him first. We cannot bring anyone to the Lord unless we bring our selves to Him first. False apostle is the man who says, “I lead people closer to Jesus” unless his heart belongs to Jesus first.

A STORY TO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND

Tuesday in the 1st Week of Advent
Lk 10:21-24

Not everything we know we understand. There are many things we know and yet we do not really understand them.

Knowledge is not the same as wisdom. Knowledge is in stored in the mind. Wisdom dwells in the heart. But both are among the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Both can be present in any individual, but not all individuals possess both.

Knowledge is achieved through thorough study. Wisdom is received through sheer grace. Knowledge of things are often easily and immediately seen and rewarded. Wisdom takes some time to be revealed and acknowledged. Having both, knowledge and wisdom, is always desirable. Let us study to know and pray to be wise.

In this season of Advent, let us realize that it is not enough to know about the Christmas story. We need to understand the reason why Jesus was born. Let us pass to our children not only the beautiful story of Jesus’ birth. Let us, more importantly, help them understand by His birth is beautiful. When we put up the Belen, the Christmas tableau, once again, it will be more than nice to allow our children assist us as we help them know the details of the story and understand it well.

MORE THAN HEALING

Monday in the 1st Week of Advent
Mt 5:8-11

The word “Advent” came from the Latin words, “Ad venire”; meaning, “to come to”. It is a special time of grace for us to prepare for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord came two thousand years ago when He was born in Bethlehem. He will come again at the end of time. But between His birth and return, He comes to us through the Word and the Sacraments. Do we prepare ourselves to welcome the Lord each day? How do we prepare for it?

Because the favor he requested from the Lord was special and important to him, the centurion in the Gospel today must have prepared well for his meeting with the Lord. But despite his preparation, still he felt unworthy to welcome the Lord under his roof. He felt unworthy despite his great faith in the Lord. We may have greater faith than this pagan centurion had, but are we more prepared than he in welcoming the Lord?

The Lord wishes to come into our life as much as He wanted to enter into the house of this centurion. While faith is the key that unlocks the door to Jesus, faith is useless unless we put it into sincere practice. The centurion used his faith in Jesus; thus, though Jesus did not physically go into his house, the centurion got what he wanted: healing for his servant.

It is more than healing that is coming to us. It is the Healer Himself! Certainly, we should prepare well. Let faith lead us to prayer. Let faith move us to conversion from sin. Let faith hasten the coming of Jesus into our life. Let faith unlock the door of our hearts. Let faith bring us the Healer. Let faith make Advent indeed a special time of grace.

KAIROS

1st Sunday of Advent
Mk 13:33-37

Today is the First Sunday Advent. It is New Year in the Church. Happy New Year!

But the choice to make this New Liturgical Year truly happy is yours to make. Choose to make this New Liturgical Year really happy, really blest, really grace-filled by living through it and living by it. Live it! Celebrate every moment. Savor every grace. Benefit lavishly from all the sacraments. Ponder on the God’s Word each day. God gives us every means to make the liturgical year overflow with His blessings. But to use it or not depends totally on us. Use it and make this New Year truly happy.

As the Church begins another year, the first four weeks carry the theme of waiting. I find this rather interesting, do you not? Why not start the year with the main event immediately? Why not begin with the Birth of the Lord at once? After all, is it not the Birth of the Lord that determines the start of the present Common Era? So, why start the year with a period of waiting? And four weeks of waiting! What can you say?

We begin the Church’s New Year with a period of waiting because waiting is very important. The best things in life normally come after a period of waiting. Rushing and forcing yield to blunders and even tragedies. A new human life needs nine months inside a human womb. Relationships are stronger when time-tested. Fruits are best when picked ripen from their trees, vines or bushes. Victory is sweetest when achieved by patient endurance. Everything in life needs some period of waiting. Everything, including our redemption from sin and death.

While we commonly associate Advent with our waiting for the Lord’s coming, it may do us well to reflect on Advent also as the Lord’s waiting for His arrival. He too needed to wait before He was born in Bethlehem two thousand years ago. He waits each day to give Himself to us in the Holy Eucharist. And He continues waiting when the Father will tell Him, “It’s time, My Son. Your Second Coming has come. Go and wield the sickle. Gather the harvest of the Kingdom.”

Waiting is also very important even to the Lord. He is ever patient with us. He is unlike the elder brother in the Parable of the Prodigal Son; He waits with the Father for us to come to our senses, for us to come home, and jump with joy with the idea of throwing a lavish party at our return. He compares our faith with a mustard seed that, though smallest, can grow into the biggest of shrubs. He does not force Himself on us as He patiently invites us to belong to His Kingdom. He waits for us. He waits for the right time. He waits for the time of grace, the kairos. That is why every time for the Lord is a time of grace.

But as He waits for the kairos, the time of grace, the Lord is not idle. He continues showering us with expressions of His amazing love for us. He cares for us even as He waits for us. Not a few of us can say that the Lord keeps on making a way for us where there is no way. Daily He prepares a banquet for us in the Eucharist to nourish us in our journey unto our final rendezvous with Him. He never tires in forgiving us from every sin we confess to Him through the Sacrament. He works for us, works through us, and works in us by His Word and Sacraments. He supplies us with every means to keep us vigilant and prepared when at last He comes again. In a word, the Lord is not idle even as He waits. Jesus is busy waiting for His Second Coming. He is busy loving us.

How about us? How do we wait for the Lord? How do we wait not only for His Second Coming but also for His coming into our life each day? Are we idle as we wait so that no matter how we much wait for His Second Coming, we will still be caught surprised by His sudden arrival? Idleness is a cousin of slumber and a mother of many sins.

We begin another liturgical year. As always, we start it with the Advent Season. However, the main event is yet four weeks away, when we commemorate the Lord’s Birth. Or the main event perhaps is who-knows-how-many-years away, when the Lord comes at the end of the world. Meanwhile the perennial theme of our life is “Waiting”. But ours, as it is with the Lord’s, is not idle waiting. We wait for the Lord’s coming as the Lord waits for His arrival: laboring as He labors for the Kingdom, loving as He loves. The love of the Lord is at work in and through us as we wait for His coming: we feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, welcome the homeless, nurse the sick, visit the imprisoned, reconcile with the enemy, do corporal works of mercy even as we strive to grow in holiness.

Advent is not only a matter of us waiting for the Lord; it is also a matter of the Lord waiting for us. But between His first coming and His final return, we meet the Lord in the Eucharist and in one another even as we wait for Him. When we meet Him in the Eucharist and in one another and not stand idle but allow His love to work in and through us, it is a time of grace. It is kairos. That is what Christmas is all about, is it not? A time of grace-made-flesh: kairos. And it is kairos that makes every liturgical year happy and blest.

STAY AWAKE!

Saturday of the 34th Week in Ordinary Time

Lk 21:34-36

This is the last day of the year as far as the Church’s calendar is concerned. Tomorrow is the First Sunday of Advent and we begin another liturgical year. As the Church’s ends and begins another year, she once again sounds her call for us to be always vigilant, for we know neither the day nor the hour when the Lord will come again.

During the time of St. Paul the Apostle, the early Christians thought that the Lord would come back in their lifetime, that the end of the world would occur not when they would have passed away but while they were still living. But the Lord did not come back and certainly all those who were contemporaries of St. Paul are now demised. And we continue to wait for the Lord in our days. Not because the Lord has not been coming back, it means that He will never do. Not because the end of the world has not happened yet, it will never happen. Not because Judgment Day did not come during the lifetime of our ancestors, it may not come during ours.

Be vigilant! Be watchful! Be ready!

As we go about our daily chores and advance in age, let us always keep in mind three things. First, nothing lasts in this lifetime except love on which the final judgment on us will be based. Second, the Lord will come again to take us with Him but we cannot go with Him if we consciously refuse to do so. Third, the end, no matter what we do, will surprise us.

Stay awake! The Lord’s return is not a dream. It is for real.

HIS WORD

Friday of the 34th Week in Ordinary Time

Lk 21:29-33

Today is exactly a month away from Christmas Day. Although the Advent season has not started yet, it already feels like Christmas. The usual decors, songs, and sights of the yuletide season are too big and loud for us to ignore. Christmas is just around the corner! The signs around us are clear.

Jesus tells us that there are tell-tales about the coming of God’s Kingdom. Its signs are around us. We can only choose to be blind not to see them.

What are the signs of God’s Kingdom around us? What are the signs of God’s Kingdom in us? See them. Reflect on them. Live by them. Share them.

Jesus ends the Gospel today with by telling us: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” Indeed, it never will. Each day, we hunger for His word. Without it, we will pass away. With it, the Kingdom of God is around us and is in us.

F-E-A-R

Thursday of the 34th Week in Ordinary Time
Lk 21:20-28

There is something strange about the Gospel today. After painting for us things that can make us cow in fear, Jesus admonishes us to stand erect and hold our heads high. Practically, Jesus is telling us not to be frightened by the horror that the last things will certainly bring upon the world. We know that following His advice goes against human nature. When scared, we normally take the fetal posture; we cow in fear.

As we are in the last days of the present liturgical year, the readings of the entire week remind us of two things. First, all things will pass, except the sovereignty of Jesus. Second, we therefore should remain in Jesus until the end. Even when in fear, let us remain in the Lord. The Lord is stronger than our fears.

Let F-E-A-R mean:

F – freeing our selves from all inordinate attachments.

E – embracing Jesus with all our heart

A – accepting the rule of God in our life

R – reconciling with God, with others, and with the self

Let us stand erect and hold our heads high, for our salvation is at hand!

WINNERS

Wednesday of the 34th Week in Ordinary Time

Lk 21:12-19

Jesus will never win a presidential election. He paints a rather blight, not bright, future: “Men will seize you and persecute you; they will hand you over to the synagogues and to imprisonment and bring you before kings and governors because of my name. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relations and friends, and some of you will be put to death. You will be hated by all men on account of my name.” Who will vote for such a candidate?

But Jesus is not running for any elected position. He is not a contender for any temporal power neither is He a mere nuisance candidate. He is already a winner. Rallying behind Him, we do not increase His supremacy. Running away from Him, we do not decrease His power. But choosing Him makes us winners, too, while abandoning Him makes us losers.

Jesus is not one of the choices for us. He is our one and only choice. When He became human like us in all things but sin, it was Jesus who already voted for us. And we all became winners, don’t you think so?

GREATEST PERFORMANCE

Memorial of St. Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr
Mt 25:1-13

We celebrate today the blessed memory of the popular Patron of Musicians, St. Cecilia. Cecilia is one of the seven women mentioned in the First Eucharistic Prayer of the Mass or officially called, the Roman Canon. She lived in the 3rd century and was a virgin until her martyrdom. Because she refused to sacrifice to the idols, Cecilia was beheaded. According to the accounts of witnesses, when Cecilia was beheaded the sword used to decapitate her was not sharp enough to severe her head from her body with one blow. Cecilia, with her head dangling from her neck, was left in the street, and died after a few days only. Her suffering was so great and yet she was heard singing songs to God as she laid there on the road waiting for death. When she finally died, her fingers were found to be arranged thus: the index of her left hand pointing outward signifying that there is only one God while the ring, middle, and index fingers of her right stretched out representing the three persons in one God. She is popularly claimed to be the patron of musicians because she literally sang her way through death for the greater glory of the one and true God.

Most probably, because Cecilia is a virgin-martyr, the Gospel specifically prescribed today by the liturgy is the Parable of the Ten Virgins. Certainly, Cecilia falls under the category of the wise virgins. She was ready when the time came and went with the bridegroom inside the wedding banquet. Her witness to the Faith was a shining lamp that kept burning until finally the exact time when her Bridegroom, Jesus, took her by the hand and led her to the eternal wedding feast in heaven. The songs she sang in praise of God while waiting for death, as she laid on the road with her head dangling from her neck, kept the people around her awake in the Faith. It was the greatest performance of her life.

Our life may also be our greatest performance when it is lived for God. However, our greatest performance is not for a show that people may applaud us for. It is for the love of Jesus, our Spouse, who deserves always our best.

In all things we do, may the glory be to the Father, through Jesus, His Son, in union with the Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever. Amen.

PRESENTED BEFORE, NOW A PRESENT

Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Mt 12:46-50

For us, Filipinos, who are very much attached to our mothers, the reaction of Jesus today in the Gospel may sound rather disconcerting. Was Jesus disrespectful or at least unappreciative of Mary, His mother? Was He against giving Mary utmost veneration despite Mary’s being His mother? Do the anti-Marians find an ally in Jesus in their crusade against Mary?

No, Jesus was not neither disrespectful nor unappreciative of Mary, His mother in the Gospel today. He was not against venerating Mary as His mother. Jesus is not ally of anti-Marians. He never will be.

When Jesus seemed to give no particular attention about the presence of His mother and instead threw the question on the floor “And who is my mother”, Jesus was actually putting Mary right at the center as an example for all of us. They who hear the word of God and keep it are Jesus’ mother, brothers, and sisters. They who listen to God and obey His will are the ones truly related to Jesus. And Mary, more than anyone, next only to Jesus her Son, is the epitome of faithful obedience to God. First among equals, Mary shows us the real meaning of being related to Jesus: becoming like Jesus Himself who is the Father’s obedient Son.

Two thousand years ago, the Blessed Virgin Mary was presented to God in the temple. Today, she is presented to us by Jesus not only for veneration but for emulation as well. Mary is God’s present to us. She is Jesus’ gift to us.

SURPRISES

Solemnity of Christ the King

Mt 25:31-46

Jesus is fond of surprises. The circumstances of His personal life were full of surprises. He was conceived and delivered into the world by a virgin. A star in the east and a host of angels announced His birth, bringing to His otherwise infantile presence both shepherds and wise men. His parents lost Him for three days when He was twelve years old; to be found later discussing with the scholars of the law and answering their questions. He mingled with public sinners and gathered a band of twelve men who were mostly illiterate. He claimed divine mandate to redeem the world yet He waited until He was thirty before He began His public ministry that was to last for only three years as it ended with His horrifying death on the cross. Three days after His death, the news of resurrection spread like wild fire.

Not only were the circumstances of Jesus’ life surprising, His teachings, too, were full of surprises. He preached a kingdom where the first will be last and the last will be first. He used parables that often shook or shock His listeners, like the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and many others. He taught that the person who has more will be given more while the person who has none even the little he has will be taken away from him. He considered the least to be the greatest in the eyes of God and took aside a child to illustrate His point. He said that the secret of gaining life is losing it. Surprises…surprises…surprises.

Today, as we end another liturgical year, Jesus springs His last and probably greatest surprise. The scene is Judgment Day, when all peoples – both living and dead – will be gathered and separated between the blessed and the condemned. When Jesus comes again at the end of time, clothed in His glory as King of the universe and Judge of all humankind, there will be three more surprises.

The first surprise will be that Jesus will not give particular attention to what we consider to be shining moments in human history. There will be no special mentioning of the grand achievements of humankind that are normally found in the annals of world history. No extraordinary interest on His part in man’s conquering the outer space, developing medical science and information technology, toppling dictators and political regimes, coming together for war against terrorism, and alike. There will be no special mention of the genius of Galileo Galilei, Copernicus, Albert Eistein, Isaac Newton, and alike. Rather, the focus will be on what seems to be ordinary deeds for most of us: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, attending to the sick, visiting the inmate, welcoming strangers.

The second surprise will be that in the end, both the blessed and the accursed will grapple with the same problem: “Lord, when did we see You?” He will have only one answer as well: “Whatever you did to the least of my brethren, you did it for Me. Whatever you did not do to the least of my brethren , you did not do for Me.” The surprise is a matter of Jesus revealing Himself in the distressing disguise of the poor. This means that if an alien from outer space were to come to earth and inquire from us where Jesus lives, we would have to take it to some strange sanctuaries and not to basilicas, shrines, cathedrals, and churches only. We would have to take that alien to the slums, to refugee camps, to hospitals, to orphanages, to homes for the aged, to prisons, to back alleys and tell it that Jesus is to be found somewhere in these places. Then we might as well inform that alien, too, that the blessed of God are likewise to be found there, feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, nursing the sick, visiting the inmate, welcoming the stranger, and attending to those who are in anyway in need. While in many of our churches we see engraved in stone the words, Domus Dei et Porta Caeli (“House of God and Gate of Heaven”), we meet Jesus everyday, every moment, and everywhere, in people, most especially the least, the last, and the lost. Jesus’ favorite dwelling places are not the churches we build, no matter how beautiful they are. His address is the human person; and “To love another person,” as the song says, “is to see the face of God.”

The third surprise will come as something rather disturbing for many of us. The weight of guilt that will make the accursed deserving of eternal punishment will not be measured by the evil they have done but by the good they have failed to do. Those who were condemned in the Parable of the Last Judgment must have done something evil for them to be thrown into the everlasting flames, but notice that the Lord did not mention the evil they did but the good they failed to do: “When I was hungry, you did not feed me; when I was thirsty, you did not give me drink; when I was naked, you did not clothe me; when I was sick and imprison, you did not visit me; when I was a stranger, you did not welcome me.” It was on the basis of the good they failed to do that the accursed were condemned to hell. Surely, both the blessed and the accursed were guilty of doing something bad, but it was those who did not do the good they were supposed to do in the face of any human need who were punished in hell.

Now that these three surprises are out in the open, they should not surprise us anymore. We must be ready, as we have been warned about the things that really matter in the end. When Jesus, whom we acclaim today as King, comes as Judge on the Last Day, may the only surprise to catch us be said in these words, “Come, blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you even before the foundation of the world.”

THE OTHER SIDE

Saturday of the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lk 20:27-40

The last days of the present liturgical year are upon us. The Gospel reminds us, however, that there are no last days for God. In God, all are alive; they never die. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the God of the living, not of the dead. He is our God, too. There is no other in fact.

The Filipino language has a very beautiful word to refer to the dead: sumakabilang-buhay. Sumakabilang-buhay literally means, “Gone to the other side of life”. The closest English word to it is “passed away”, as when we say, “He passed away today,” to mean that he died today.

Sumakabilang-buhay expresses the Filipino’s innate belief that dead are alive and the hope that death is not the end of everything. Jesus confirms that belief today. In Him, sumakabilang-buhay is no longer an object of our hope, but the reality of life for us. Our God is the God of the living, not of the dead.

However, while death does not cut life, life after death is not a mere continuation of how things are before death. At the other side, everything is perfect. While marriage is never a bad thing, we do not need to be married at the other side of life. Our whole being is totally focused on God after death. We have no need for any other.

Let us live our lives here on this side as best as we can, but let us not forget that when we cross to the other side we will leave everything behind here and cling totally – without distractions or any attachments – to God. Thus, the woman in the Gospel today who was married to seven men will never marry again. She had had enough!

NOT WORTHY

Memorial of the Dedication of the Basilicas of Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles

Mt14:22-23

Today we remember the dedication of two of the four major basilicas of the Catholic Church. St. Peter’s Basilica, the present residence of the pope, is located at the Vatican while the Basilica of St. Paul is in the Ostian Way. Both completed in the 4th century, the dedication of these two basilicas were already annually celebrated as early as the 12th century. They were both built atop the tomb of the two great apostles after whom they were named: St. Peter’s Basilica over the tomb of St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and the Basilica of St. Paul on top of the tomb of St. Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles.

Peter and Paul are the two greatest apostles of the Lord. The credit, however, is not theirs, but the Lord’s. Peter expressed it very well when he said once to Jesus, “Depart from me, Lord; I am a sinful man.” Just like the rest of us, both Peter and Paul, and all the other apostles for that matter, were sinners. They were not worthy of the Lord, but the love of the Lord made them worthy anyway. Had they not welcomed the love of the Lord, they would have not been great apostles.

There are times when the feeling of unworthiness overwhelms us so much so that we refuse, or at least hesitate, to answer the call of the Lord. If we want to be worthy first before answering the call of the Lord, then we will never answer His call. We cannot and will never be worthy. I heard this lesson for the first time from the lady I once loved and loved me in return. When I wanted to go back to the seminar to pursue my priestly studies, I confided to her the greatest of my difficulties: I felt I was not worthy to become a priest anymore. As we were inside the car and she was driving, she pulled over, stopped the engine, looked straight to my eyes, and said, “You are a proud man!” I asked her why she thought I was a proud man. Her reply was straight, simple, and true: “You want to be worthy first before you say ‘yes’ to God. You will never answer His call at all because no one is worthy anyway.” I was taken aback by such wisdom; my mind was opened and so did my heart follow. I returned to the seminary and became a priest ten years after.

Not worthy? Who is?

REAL AND ACTIVE LOVE

Memorial of St. Elizabeth of Hungary

1 Jn 3:14-18

Born in 1207, Elizabeth was the beautiful daughter of King Andrew of Hungary. At a very young age, she married Louis of Thuringia and had three children. Her husband, a good man himself, however died in one of the crusades. Thereupon, her brother-in-law evicted her and her children from the castle. After securing provision for her children, she renounced everything she had and joined the Third Order of St. Francis.

Elizabeth is remembered for her lifelong friendship with the poor and care for the hungry. She had one of her castles converted into a hospital in which she herself attended to the sick. She gave generously to the needy in all the territories of her husband’s empire. According to the testimony given by her spiritual director, Conrad of Marburg, Elizabeth would go twice a day to visit the sick and personally served those who were particularly repulsive. In a hospice she built in Marburg herself attended the most wretched and contemptible at her own table.

At her deathbed, after receiving the last sacraments, when asked what should be done with whatever goods and possessions that remained in her name, she replied that whatever that seemed to belong to her belonged to the poor. Thus, except one worn out dress for her burial, she requested that all her properties be distributed to the poor. Then as if falling into a gentle sleep, Elizabeth, at the age of 24 years old only, passed away in Marburg in the year 1231.

The life of Elizabeth of Hungary was a shining example of what the Apostle John says in the First Reading of today’s Mass in her blessed memory: “My children, our love is not to be just words or mere talk, but something real and active.” Elizabeth’s love for the poor, the sick, and the needy was actual and true. Today, her kind of love continues to challenge the love we profess for the least, the last, and the lost. Elizabeth is an inspiration to us to love not only in word but, most especially, in deed.

However, we do not have to be kings and queens, princes and princesses, powerful and mighty, for our love to be actual and real. It was not her royal status that made Elizabeth’s love active and true; rather, it was her heart ever loyal to Christ.

RISK!

Wednesday of the 33rd Week in Ordinary Time

Lk 19:11-28

As if to emphasize more the point of last Sunday’s Gospel, Luke tells us again what Matthew narrated to us: The Parable of the Talents.

The third servant in the parable, who is punished by his master for not making an interest out of what is entrusted to him, is not a hardened criminal or a notorious sinner. He is punished not for anything bad he did, but for the good he did not do. His reason: fear.

The third servant in the parable fears his master very much. He is afraid to invest the money given him because he is afraid of his master who may punish him just the same in case he does not only not make interest but, worse, lose the whole amount entrusted to him. He is afraid to risk. But unless he risks, he will not make any profit. Thus, he did nothing evil by hiding his master’s money in a linen for safety, but by doing so, he likewise did not do anything good with what has been entrusted to him.

In the same way, fear is our greatest enemy in living our lives to the full. Fear, likewise, will bring upon us our own perdition if we allow it to rule our lives. Fear harms us, paralyzes us, and kills us.

What is the antidote to fear?

Love is the antidote to fear. St. Paul wrote, “Perfect love drives away all fears.” When we love somebody, we are not afraid to risk everything, including life, for him. When we are assured that the other loves us, we are not afraid to risk as well. Taking risks is inevitably essential to loving. And love is the antidote to fear.

The king in the parable today appears to be an unlovable and unloving person. That is the main difficulty of the third servant. He is ruled by fear of his master because he has little love for him and apparently vice-versa. The king in the parable today obviously does not stand for God. Parables are not meant to make direct analogies.

God is ever lovable and loving. So, why be afraid of Him? Risk!

THAT SYCAMORE TREE

Tuesday of the 33rd Week in Ordinary Time

Lk 19:1-10

He wanted to see Jesus, but Jesus, instead, came to meet him. He merely wanted a glimpse of Jesus, but Jesus, instead, meant to stay in his house that day. He was looked down upon by the people, for he was a tax collector, a public sinner, but Jesus looked up to him on the tree to invite Himself into his house. He went up the sycamore tree many inches smaller, but he came down from it many inches taller than the rest who were there. He was a man of small stature in many aspects, not only height, but Jesus bent down to make him rise. His name was Zacchaeus. He climbed a sycamore tree.

Who would not love Zacchaeus? No one because he represents anyone, including you and me. His story is our story. Jesus finds us; we do not find Him. His is the love that finds us.

Many times in life, when we feel we are not worthy of Jesus, let us remember the story of Zacchaeus. When people look down upon us because of our physical, spiritual, moral, and financial handicap – any handicap, for that matter – let us remember the story of Zacchaeus. When we experience being lost and cannot find our way back to God, let us remember Jesus. Jesus means to stay in our hearts.

The visit of Jesus in the house of Zacchaeus was the coming of salvation into the life of the former tax collector. Jesus’ presence in his house made a difference in the life of Zacchaeus: it made him a different man. What does it mean for us to have Jesus in our hearts? What difference does His presence in our life make?

While I often identify with Zacchaeus, I also wish that I were the sycamore tree he climbed to see Jesus if I were to be part of the Gospel today. That sycamore tree helped him to see Jesus and made Jesus notice him. That sycamore tree was a meeting place of sin and grace. I wish to be a means for others and Jesus to meet. And when the blessed rendezvous is over, let there be no eulogies for me, just a simple “that sycamore tree”.

BLIND BUT NOT MUTE

Monday of the 33rd Week in Ordinary Time

Lk 18:35-43

The beggar in the Gospel today was blind but he was no mute. He called out to Jesus for healing; and the people in front scolded him, he shouted even louder, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me.”

It is striking to note that while the beggar already could not see, the people around him seemed to have wanted him unable to speak too. They wanted him both blind and mute. But Jesus heard and saw him.

One lesson we can learn from this blind beggar was his determination to obtain from Jesus what he wanted. The people around him were not able to deter him from catching Jesus’ attention. Blind that he was, he could not see his way to Jesus. Thus, he shouted. Annoyed by his shouting, the people rebuked him. But he was not intimidated. Such was his faith, not on himself but on Jesus. He believed that Jesus cared for him as much as Jesus had the power to restore His sight. His faith has saved him.

We may not be blind, but sometimes when we cannot see things clearly. Other times, we cannot see at all. Let no nothing intimidate us from calling out to Jesus and telling Him what we really want. He notices us. He hears us. He can and he cares.

We may not be blind, but others may be. Let us not be the block between them and Jesus. They do not need to shout and annoy us with their shouting if only we try to be their eyes to see the way to Jesus. When the blind beggar shouted to Jesus, Jesus ordered the people who scolded the beggar to bring the blind man to Him. They who stood between the blind beggar and Jesus became the means for them to meet.

Do we hear a blind man shouting today?

AFRAID TO COMMIT SIN BUT NOT AFRAID TO OMIT GOOD?

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mt 25:14-30

The 25th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew is divided into three parables. The first, which was the Gospel Reading last Sunday, is the Parable of the Ten Virgins. The second, which is the Gospel this Sunday, is the Parable of the Talents. And the third, which will be the Gospel next Sunday, the Solemnity of Christ the King of the Universe, is the Parable of the Last Judgment. Evidently, this chapter of Matthew reminds us of three things: first, that the Lord Jesus will come again at the end of time; second, that we shall give an accounting of the lives to the Lord when He comes again on the Last Day; third, that the Lord will judge us according to our deeds.

But what seems to be striking about the three parables that constitute the 25th chapter of Matthew is that those who are condemned in all three parables are not explicitly described as wicked, immoral, sinful people. The five virgins in the first parable are simply foolish. The third servant in the parable today, who goes off after being entrusted with one talent by his master and digs a hole on the ground where he buried the talent, is simply lazy and afraid of his master. And the Parable of the Last Judgment does not paint the condemned as a gang of notorious people. In the third parable, it is very clear that the focus is not on the bad deeds committed but on the good deeds omitted.

As regards the parable today, we may ask, “What immoral thing the third servant did to deserve the punishment he got from his master? Is burying his talent under the ground for safekeeping sinful? What wicked deed did he do to be so severely penalized?” The answers are clear. The third servant did nothing immoral. No, burying his talent under the ground for safekeeping is not sinful. He did nothing evil. But the problem is that he also did nothing good. For fear of his master, the third servant failed to do the good he is supposed to do: invest the talent entrusted to him. The message relative to the final judgment is clear: we shall be judged not only based on the evil we do but also equally, if not more heavily, on the basis of the good we fail, or worse, refuse, to do.

As far as sin is concerned, there are two kinds. One is the sin of commission where we actually do something evil. The other is the sin of omission where we omit doing the good we are supposed to do. Thus, in the final analysis, salvation is not merely a matter of avoiding evil. It is also very much a matter of doing good.

Let us avoid doing evil. But let us not forget doing good. If we fear committing sin, should we not also be equally, if not more, afraid omitting good?

HUGS AND KISSES

Saturday of the 32nd Week in Ordinary Time

Lk 18:1-8

Children have a way of getting what they want from their elders. Children have their antics to lure their elders into giving in to what they solicit from them. Some children suddenly stage a spontaneous sing and dance concert. Others suddenly become overly zealous to accomplish what their elders order them to do. Still others pamper their elders with tight hugs and warm kisses, saying, “I love you.” Not that they do not mean what they say and do, but children seem to be more expressive of their love for their elders when they need something from them. My own little adopted boy, Pipo, is not an exemption to this rule. He showers me with expressions of his filial affection when he wants something for me and I am playing “hard-to-get”.

God does not play “hard-to-get” when we need something from Him. He is an ever-solicitous father to us. He does not only know what we need even before we ask it from Him, He is also always willing to give it to us, if it will be for our good.

Prayer does not change God. Prayer rather changes us. God is not an unjust judge before we pray then suddenly becomes a merciful father after we pray.

Prayer makes us grow into the knowledge that we are God’s children, that there is nothing we should be shy to confide to God, that there is nothing we cannot request from Him, save anything evil. Prayer opens our minds with the idea of a Father-God even before it opens our lips with a plea to a God who is our Father.

Prayer makes us grow into the attitude of God’s children. God wants us to ask from Him what we need even though He already knows what we need even before we ask Him because He wants to develop in us filial attitude toward Him. Even our parents, even we before we tell them, somehow know what we need; but they, at times, wait for us to speak to them about it. In that way, we learn what it means to be their children.

Prayer makes us grow into our choice of God. When we approach God during difficult times and present our needs to Him, we affirm our fundamental choice: God. We choose God, not any other. We choose God alone, not among many others. We choose God; and the more we pray – for whatever reason we have – the more we affirm that fundamental choice.

In the parable today, it is the unjust judge that was changed by the persistence of the widow. In real life, it is we, not God, who are changed by our fervent prayer.

As we grow more mature in the faith, we realize that we do not need to play our tricks or antics on God to get what we want from Him. We simply hug Him tightly and kiss Him softly… And that in itself is a beautiful prayer.

THE CLOAK

Memorial of St. Martin of Tours

Mt 25:31-40

We celebrate today the blessed memory of St. Martin of Tours who lived around the year 400. He was a very popular saint during the middle ages. He was a soldier who became a monk and eventually bishop of Tours, France. Around 4,000 churches in France are dedicated to him.

The Gospel today is very fitting for the memorial of St. Martin of Tours. Almost everyone who knows this saint remembers the story about his splitting his cloak with a beggar he met along the way. On the night of the same day, Martin dreamt about the Lord. Noticing that the Lord was wearing part of his cloak which he gave to the beggar he met that day, Martin inquired from the Lord where the Lord got the cloak He was wearing. The Lord smiled at Martin and said that He was the beggar Martin met along the way. When Martin gave part of his cloak to the beggar, it was actually to the Lord that he gave it. The claim that the Gospel today makes was proven true: “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren, you do it unto me.”

The same Gospel declaration remains true up until today and always. Whatever we do to anyone, most especially the least, the last, and the lost, we do it to Jesus. The reverse is likewise true: whatever good we deny to others we deny to Jesus. Let each day be a shining proof of this Gospel claim.

Quite often, it is easier to share our blessings with people we like and love, people who remember and are grateful, and people who are not choosy and pleasing to be benevolent to. The challenge always for us is to be kind to the uncaring, to be generous to the ungrateful, to be loving to the unlovable, to be compassionate to the unlikable, to be caring to the forgetful, to do good to those who cannot return our goodness. Let us pray not only to see Jesus in the distressing disguise of the poor, but also to actually love Jesus in them.

Caritas Manila has an advertisement that says, “Charity changes not only the receiver but also the giver.” In the same advertisement, a man is shown approaching a beggar whose face changed into the face of Jesus. When the man reaches the beggar sitting on the pavement, he hands him a pouch of food. Thereupon, the camera focuses on the man and his face changed into the face of Jesus too. We become more like Jesus even as we recognize and love Jesus in the needy. This indeed is what it means to become a saint: to become more and more like Jesus. Come to think of it, the poor and the needy that we help are actually the ones helping us. They help us become saints. They help us get to heaven. They help us become more and more like Jesus.

The Latin word for “cloak” is capella. The piece of cloak that Martin of Tours shared with the beggar he met along the way was preserved in a place that eventually was called “chapel”. Where charity reigns that is a “chapel”, a house of God. Ubi caritas Deus est! (“Where charity is, God is!”)

HE SUPPLIES THE GRACE

Memorial of St. Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church

Mt 16:13-10

The word “Peter” is not originally a name of a person. The word “Peter” is the Latin translation of the Greek word “Cephas” which means “rock”. “Peter” is originally a word for a thing not a person. Remember that the apostle whom we commonly refer to today as “Peter” is actually Simon, the brother of Andrew, another apostle, who were both fishermen from Galilee.

When Jesus called Simon “Peter”, Jesus gave him more than a new name. Jesus actually instructed Simon about his new role and duty. Simon was to be the “rock” on which Jesus was to build His Church over which even the jaws of hell cannot prevail. The word “Peter” is therefore more of a title of an office than a personal name for Simon. Anyone who succeeds Simon in his role and duty for the Church of Christ is a “Peter”.

Today we remember in the liturgy the blessed memory of one who became a “Peter”, too. Pope Leo was not only given the honorific title of “The Great” but was also raised by the Church to the honorable status of a saint. He proved himself to be a “rock” during the time when the Church was threatened to be divided and crushed. The Church of Pope Leo’s time was threatened to be divided by the wrong teachings of the Pelegians, Arians, and the Manichaeans. At the same time, it was during his pontificate as well that the barbarians, led by Attila the Hun, threatened the sovereignty of the Church.

As “Peter”, Pope Leo defended the divinity of Christ and elaborated on the mystery of the two natures in the one person of Jesus. In 451, the Council of Chalcedon adopted his explanation on the divinity and humanity simultaneously and fully present in Jesus as the official teaching of the Church regarding the mystery of the two natures in the one person of Christ. We all grew up always knowing about and professing faith in this mystery. We owe our understanding of this mystery from Pope Leo the Great.

Unshakeable as a rock on which the Church is founded, Pope Leo the Great likewise defended Rome from the attack of Attila the Hun. He saved Rome from the onrush of the barbarians; thereby, protecting and preserving the sovereignty of the Church.

His name was Leo but he was very much “Peter” too. He was “rock”. And like Simon the first “Peter”, the strength of this “rock” came from God, not from man. For when God chooses, God supplies the grace as well.

SERVANTS -- NOTHING MORE, NOTHING LESS, NOTHING ELSE

Tuesday of the 32nd Week in Ordinary Time

Lk 17:7-10

Today’s Gospel is always a timely reminder for us all. We have but one Master, Jesus Christ, and we are all His servants. We are not the masters; we are the servants. We are not called to lord it over one another; instead, our vocation is to serve God in one another. How often, we easily forget this truth.

The higher our positions become, the heavier our responsibilities weigh, and the more our duties increase, the greater is our tendency to at least expect a higher compensation, a heavier emphasis on our self-importance, and more privileges granted to us. This should not be so for a true servant of God. When all is said and done, Jesus admonishes us, we cannot claim to have rendered more than what we are supposed to give as servants of God. Our accomplishments for God does not entitle us to anything except the pure joy of being able to serve Him, for serving Him is in itself a reward.

Let us pause today from our daily routine, let us come down from our pedestals that others or we ourselves have built, and examine our motives for doing what we call “service to God”. Do we serve for the sheer privilege of serving God or for any reward other than being able to give Him honor by our service?

As I have been assigned to several parishes already, I already heard many comments from parish-servants that redound to exacting from God what they have given Him. They call their service “volunteerism” but they actually expect something in return for it.

Will God ever owe us anything?

BELIEVE FORGIVENESS

7 November 2005
Monday of the 32nd Week in Ordinary Time

BELIEVE FORGIVENESS
Lk 17:1-6

Today may well be a special day for us to offer a Mass for people we have hurt and people who have hurt us.

We hurt one another not only by hitting one another with an object or with our fists. Hurting one another is not only physical. But the deepest hurt we inflict on one another is leading one another to sin. Sin separates us from God. That is the most unbearable pain a soul can be made to suffer. When we cause others to sin, when we ourselves are temptations for others to sin, and when we keep a record of sins made against us by others, we hurt one another. Let us put a stop to this kind of hurting. Today, let us pray for this one beautiful resolution.

Very often, we do not forget the people who hurt us while we easily forget people we hurt. It is when we are the ones who suffer that we our memories very reliable but when we are the ones who make others suffer we have memory gap. Let us pray for healing. Today, we forgive those who hurt us and ask forgiveness from those we hurt.

This resolution demands faith. We cannot forgive unless we have faith in the Lord who always forgives us. We cannot ask for forgiveness if we lack faith in the Lord who loves us more than we know. Let us have faith even the size of a mustard seed. Today, let us make our mustard-seed faith grow.

Believe you can forgive. Believe you can be forgiven.

NOT BAD BUT FOOLISH

6 November 2005
32 Sunday in Ordinary Time

NOT BAD BUT FOOLISH
Mt 25:1-13

Do you notice that the five virgins who were not admitted into the wedding feast were not bad, immoral, or sinful virgins? They were simply foolish. The Parable of the Ten Virgins is not about holiness. It is about wisdom. While, indeed, only those justified by God’s mercy will enter the Kingdom of God, wisdom is essential in being admitted into the wedding banquet in heaven. Thus, the First Reading today also speaks about wisdom-personified.

The five virgins were foolish not because they brought no oil for their lamps. They did bring oil for their lamps, but what they brought was not enough to last until the delayed arrival of the bridegroom.

The five virgins were foolish not because they fell asleep while waiting for the bridegroom to come. All the ten virgins, according to the parable, fell asleep. And when the bridegroom arrived, all ten likewise woke up to welcome him.

The five virgins were foolish not because did not try to buy extra oil for their lamps. They did try to buy extra oil for their lamps but it was already too late because the bridegroom was already there. Their task is to wait for the bridegroom, not to make the bridegroom wait for them.

To be foolish is not to use our heads. God gave us intellect so that we may make decisions that eventually shape our lives. We are what we decide. Not to decide in itself is foolishness. Decide for God always.

To be foolish is shortsightedness. We are always given a choice between satisfying our selves now and delaying our gratification for the sake of a higher value. We fall into sin because we easily give in to our basic instinct that craves for self-gratification at any cost, at anytime, and at anywhere. Gratify God, not the self.

To be foolish is not to be caught unaware. Repeatedly, Jesus warns us: “You do not know the day or the hour when the Son of Man will come again. Be vigilant therefore and keep watch! Blest is the servant whom his master finds him waiting when he comes!” Wait for the Lord.

Let us not be foolish. Let us be holy and wise. Let us always keep our lamps burning and make sure they will never run out of oil. The Lord, our Bridegroom, will come. When, where, and how the Lord will come, we do not know. No one knows. However, we all know and are certain that He will come because He said so. The Lord promised to come back for us and take us with Him so that as He said, “Where I am so will my servant be.”

A man may have the highest educational attainment but still be foolish. A man may have studied in the best universities in the world but still be foolish. A man may have graduated summa cum laude but still be foolish. A man may have acquired knowledge but still starves for wisdom. Wisdom is not gained by reading books. Wisdom is not testified by honorable citations in diplomas. Wisdom is gained from daily prayer, deepened by discernment, and manifested in a life that is ever focused on the Kingdom of God. In that Kingdom, even the summa cum laude here on earth can flank, and flank miserably.

It is not enough not to be bad to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The five virgins failed to get there not because they were bad, but because they were simply foolish.

NOT EVIL

5 November 2005
Saturday of the 31st Week in Ordinary Time

NOT EVIL
Lk 16:9-15

Money is not the root of all evil. The love of money is! It is not money that creates evil. Love for it does.

It is not a sin to wish to become rich. But to become rich at all cost, even to the point of selling our souls to Satan, is evil.

The rich are not automatically excluded from the Kingdom of God. There are many well-to-do people and royalties who are included in the list of the Church’s canonized saints. Wealth does not say anything about the holiness of an individual. How he or she uses his wealth does.

We cannot serve both God and money. We serve God and use money instead. There is so much good we can do by using money for the greater glory of God. But there is so much evil we can create when we make money our god.

How do we use money? Or should we ask our selves instead, how does money use us?

A SHEPHERD ACCORDING TO HIS HEART

4 November 2005
Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo, Bishop

A SHEPHERD ACCORDING TO HIS HEART
Jn 10:11-16

The Gospel Reading today is about the Good Shepherd. It is a reading specially assigned for today’s Mass because today is the Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, who lived from 1538 through 1584.

The Gospel Reading on the Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo is about the Good Shepherd because of three reasons.

First, Charles was a bishop. At age 22, his uncle, Pope Pius IV, created him a cardinal. As Archbishop of Milan, he was zealous in applying the reforms of the Council of Trent – in which he was an active participant – to his diocese. Tireless in his efforts, Charles likewise established Sunday schools, houses for the poor and the orphan, initiated record-keeping in parishes, taught the Catechism of the Council of Trent, convoked diocesan synods, and promulgated regulations intended to promote the Church’s mission. He was a true pastor to his flock. He was a good shepherd to his diocese as every bishop should be.

Second, responding to the need for a well-formed clergy, Charles was responsible for the introduction of seminary life for those who wanted to become priests. Charles lived in a time when the Church suffered great and many scandals, of which ill-trained clergy caused most. He addressed the problem by formulating a model for seminary formation of the clergy. In the seminary of the Archdiocese of Manila (Philippines) is named after St. Charles Borromeo; a fitting reminder not of the valuable contribution of the saint to the training of priests but also of the perennial need for clergy who are spiritually adept, morally upright, intellectually competent, and zealously engaged in the apostolic mission of the Church. We owe from Charles the idea of how to produce good shepherds for God’s People.

Third, in his outstanding quality as pastor of his diocese and in his intense desire to provide the Church priests of sterling qualities, Charles reminds us of Jesus Christ who is the Good Shepherd. Jesus loved those who were His own in the world. Jesus prayed that the Harvest-Master send more laborers into His harvest.

On this Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo, we are grateful for the shepherds of the Church who strive to reflect to us the life and love of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, and pray that the Lord may continue to give us shepherds according to His heart.

LOST BECAUSE LOVED

3 November 2005
Thursday of the 31st Week in Ordinary Time

LOST BECAUSE LOVED
Lk 15:1-10

We lose only people we love. People we do not love, we do not notice when they are present or absent. Worse, to people we do not love, we sometimes say, “Get lost!”

It is love that gives value to people we are related to in one way or another. Without love, no one and nothing have value. We do not lose people who or things that we consider not valuable. This is the difference between Jesus and His critics today.

The scribes and the Pharisees complain that Jesus welcomes sinners and eats with them because the scribes and the Pharisees have no love for lawbreakers. The scribes and the Pharisees, instead, love the law. Jesus, however, loves even the lawbreakers even as He loves the law too.

Jesus loses us because He loves us. When we sin, Jesus loses us because He loves us. That is why He comes looking for us. When He finds us, He carries us on His shoulders as a shepherd carries his once-lost-but-now-found sheep.

Who are the people you lost? You lost them because you love them. Have you no love for them, you will not even notice that you lost them.

Are there people in your life now to whom you say, “Get lost!” Why?

Love indeed is the answer to so many questions because it is love that gives value to all.

Do not let Jesus lose you. He loves you more than you know. Do not let Jesus lose the others too. He loves them as much as He loves you, you know. For the love of Jesus, let us seek the lost. Let us be another “Jesus” to all.

SILENCE NOT FROM THE GRAVE

2 November 2005
Commemoration Of All The Faithful Departed

SILENCE NOT FROM THE GRAVE
Mt 11:25-30

The silence that pervades today’s commemoration of all the faithful departed is not the silence of the grave. It is rather the silence of the Lord’s Resurrection, evoking from the deepest recesses of our hearts respect and wonder. Today is not the feast of the dead, but of the living. It is not the victory of death that we celebrate, but the glorification of life in and through Jesus Christ.

The silence that engulfs our hearts today invites us all to reflect on three things.

First, death is not a curse. Death is not the punishment for our sins. When St. Paul wrote that the wage of sin is death, he meant death to be the total and eternal separation from God. Indeed, the consequence of sin is eternal death. However, the death of our bodies is neither a curse nor a penalty for our iniquities. Rather, our bodies, made from the dust of the earth, are truly destined to die and disintegrate; returning to what it is made of. Even if our first parents did not sin, our bodies will still die someday simply because our earthly bodies are not meant to be eternal. When the Lord comes at the end of time, He will give us glorified bodies like that of His own resurrected (not resuscitated) body. The death of our earthly bodies, therefore, is our birth unto eternal life and the beginning of our glorious existence.

Second, death is not powerful at all. Death does not break the bond that exists between us. We are related to one another even after the death of our earthly bodies. Our union with Christ and with one another is even more strengthened and highlighted by death. Yesterday’s solemnity and today’s commemoration very well express the communion that prevails in the church, a communion that persists beyond the grave and is fully enjoyed in heaven.

Moreover, death does not hinder us from helping one another. This is the reason why though already demised, our dearly departed can and continue to benefit from the prayers and sacrifices we offer in their behalf. For their turn, once in heaven, their prayers help and guide us too. Thus, we, the Church militant, pray for the souls in purgatory, the Church suffering, while the saints (whether canonized or not), the Church triumphant, pray for us. Death cannot destroy this communion and block this economy of spiritual benefit.

The Resurrection of Christ rendered death powerless so that St. Paul would say, “O death, where is thy sting?”

Third, because death is not a curse for the wicked or a punishment for the sinner, and though death is powerful, death is for all of us. We all die. They for whom we now pray and whose grave we visit today have gone ahead of us. We will surely follow them someday. For some of us, perhaps, soon while for others, perhaps, later. But whether soon or later, it is certain that we are always next in line. We do not know when, we do not know where, and we do not know how but we will surely die. We should therefore keep our selves prepared for death anytime, anywhere, and anyhow.

Do you hear a voice that speaks to you today in silence? That is not the voice of the dead. It is the voice of the Risen Lord assuring you, “If you remain in me, you will live forever.”

GOD'S DREAM -- JUST A BREATH AWAY

1 November 2005
Solemnity of All Saints

GOD’S DREAM – JUST A BREATH AWAY
Mt 5:1-12

When I was a little boy, I had a very high ambition. Literally high! Please, do not laugh: I dreamt of becoming an astronaut! But I became a priest instead. God’s ambition for me, I realized later on, was higher.

Nowadays, we seldom hear a little boy declares, “When I grow up, I want to become a priest!” Or a little girl announces, “When I grow up, I want to be a nun!” More seldom do we hear children say, “When I grow up, I want to be a saint.” Almost everybody wants to become anything except a priest, a nun, or a saint. Not that becoming other than a priest, a nun, or a saint is something bad, but that we seem to be too focused on this world that we greatly desire what this world offers: wealth, power, and fame.

We need to pause each day and in silence reflect what God wants for us instead. And what does God want us to become? He wants us to become saints. He desires that we become holy whatever state in life we are in. Today’s Solemnity of All Saints shows us that God’s ambition for us may be too high but it is more within reach than I becoming an astronaut.

We honor today the many holy men and women from all times and places. They are not only the canonized saints. They may also be our own dearly departed whose name may not even reach the Pope’s ears. They do not have statues in our churches or official feastdays in the liturgical calendar, but they are certainly with God and enjoying eternal bliss in heaven. Quite often, we may be praying for their souls, but the truth is that they are praying for our final salvation. We should be praying to them instead after all.

Let me not go too far. Please allow me to share with you my own father who passed away in 1998. He was a poor man who never held a college degree. Despite his educational handicap, he was able to raise four children and gave them good education. Of his four children, one even became a priest.

Like any human being, Dad had his share of human imperfections. I saw him blew his top just like any normal person. He had his stories of conflicts with other people, too. Questions about God were questions he also wrestled with.

When he converted from the Aglipayan Church (the local version of the Anglican Church), it was initially really more for convenience rather than out of a deep-seated faith. Mom would not marry him if he were not a Catholic. Perhaps because it was more of a conversion for convenience, that it took him a long while to own the Catholic faith. He missed many Sunday Masses, would work even on Sundays, had negative comments about priests, and never went to confession. But God patiently waited for Dad when he was ready to take his newfound faith to heart.

God used so many events in Dad’s life to make him realize that God loved him so much and desired for nothing else but the same love from him in return. God courted Dad as it were: first there was the Cursillo, then the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, then the Parish Renewal Experience, then the Marriage Encounter Movement, and lastly, as if a joke on him who used to criticize the clergy, a priest-son. Very slowly, and oftentimes very painfully, too, Dad’s life made a complete turn from his old ways and became a new man in Christ. He started going to Mass regularly, joined us in praying the daily rosary, began to be generous to the church, started to have a positive view on priests, and developed a very deep devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Ten years before Dad passed away, he had a nearly fatal illness. He was operated on and was unconscious until he opened his eyes after a few days. When he was already able to converse, I ask him about his experience during the days he was in coma. He narrated to me that from a distance he saw Jesus praying for him. He called out to the Lord but the Lord continued praying. Despite what seemed to be the Lord’s inattentiveness to him, Dad still spoke out saying, “Lord, please give me another chance. I just want to see my son become a priest; then you may take me right there and then after he says his first Mass.” Then, slowly, Dad said, the Lord turned His head, smiled at him as He looked at him in the eye. The next thing Dad remembered was opening his eyes inside the intensive care unit of the St. Luke’s Medical Center. Dad survived and lived on for three more years after my ordination to the priesthood. He made his last confession to me – his son and his priest. As I lean on his bed, after hearing his last confession, I was teary eyed and yet managed to say, “Dad, you are a very good man. You are precious to the Lord. We love you but the Lord loves you even more. We want to take good care of you but the Lord can take care of you even better. I know He can and He does. The Lord has always been generous to you. We have seen that for ourselves. You only wanted to see me become a priest, remember? The Lord granted your request even with a bonus: I am now three years old as priest. Be at peace, Dad. We love you very much, but if you have to go now, go with God. I know, He will never forsake you.” Still only after a month did Dad pass away. On the day he left, it was a First Friday, at 3:00 in the afternoon, after praying the rosary with my Mom and while reciting the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy. His last words were “They are here! They are here! Don’t block their way. They are here now!”

Yes, they were there. They were already there. They – the angels and the saints. They – Dad’s own parents, siblings, relatives and friends who had gone ahead of him to eternity. They – the countless men and women who see the face of God forever. They – most importantly, the Lord who promised that whosoever devotes himself to His Most Sacred Heart will receive final consolation and the Blessed Mother who likewise promised to her devotees powerful assistance at the hour of death. They were all there to pick up Dad and bring him home to heaven.

During his Mass at Dad’s wake, Bishop Soc Villegas said in his homily that Dad was surely with God already, for God cannot be outdone in expressing gratitude. When I celebrate Mass, Bishop Soc explained further, I say over the bread, “This is My Body” and over the cup of wine, “This is My Blood”, then the bread becomes the Body of Christ and the wine becomes the Blood of Christ; they do not become my body and blood. But each time I lift the Body and Blood of Christ in the Mass, Dad prays to God and says, “That is my body; that is my blood”, pointing to me, his son, who offers the Body and Blood of Christ to both God and man. And God, said Bishop Soc, cannot but say, “Thank you for giving your son.”

My father is not a canonized saint. And I think he will never be. But I believe that Dad is in heaven, praying not only for me but for all of us. It is for him and for your own dearly departed whose faith is known to God alone but whose heroic love continues to guide you in your own struggles in life that we celebrate today the festival of saints.

Someday they will also come to pick us up, together with Jesus and Mama Mary, to bring us not only beyond the stars where astronauts go but to heaven where the “Blesseds” dwell forever, in that state of unending joy reserved for those who may be wounded here on earth but nonetheless have fought a good fight, there where the impossible dream becomes possible. Our celebration today tells us that a breath away is not far to where they are.