AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM

Memorial of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Priest
Lk 14:25-33

Today is the memorial of St. Ignatius of Loyola. I am particularly biased to this memorial. I consider it special because I spent more than a third of my life studying under the Jesuits, the religious congregation founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola. Today, I thank all my Jesuit mentors for sharing with me the Ignatian spirit.

Ignatius of Loyola lived during the time of the Reformation. There was then a great call to renewal in the spiritual life of the Church. Ignatius, with companions he gathered, launched a crusade different from that of the Middle Ages. Instead of fleeing the world, he and his followers embraced the world without being worldly. The Society he founded was not confined in monasteries. It walked and worked with men in the world, emphasizing the call to find God in all things and do all things “ad majorem Dei gloriam” (“for the greater glory of God”). Thus, its members were not only priests and brothers but are also practicing professionals while devoted religious priests and brothers at the same time. Today the Philippine Church is blest with Jesuit missionaries who are not only priests and brothers but are also known men in their particular fields. Fr. Nebres, a constitutional commissioner, and Fr. Intengan, once the youngest Filipino neuro-surgeon, are only two of them. Renowned bishops and priests of the Philippine Church are also Jesuit-trained and are, therefore, extensions, as it were, of the Ignatian charism: Bishop Teodoro Bacani, Jr., a constitutionalist himself, Bishop Luis Antonio Tagle, a member of the International Theological Commission of the Holy See, and Manila’s Archbishop, Gaudencio B. Cardinal Rosales are among them.

Let us find God in all things and do all things for the greater glory of God. That is best way to reform and renew the Church.

NOT ALL HUNGERS

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Jn 6:1-15

Jesus is the Bread of Life. He satisfies our hungers. But not all our hungers, mind you.

In the Gospel today, Jesus is pleased to satisfy the hunger of the crowd by offering them the bread of the poor; he is not, however, pleased to satisfy their hunger for power by approving to become their king. Jesus is the Bread of Life. He satisfies our hungers. But not all our hungers, mind you again.

Many subscribe to the claim, “Vox populi vox Dei”. However, we have today a case where the voice of the people is certainly not the voice of God. Let us be careful in quickly believing that the voice of God is always manifested by the clamor of the people. “Vox populi vox Dei” is reduced from a proverb worth believing to a cliché worth avoiding by the fact that there are occasions when the people are already adversely affected by their hungers that their voice no longer echoes the voice of God. Beware of self-serving politicians who parrot this cliché in favor of their own hunger and greed for power.

If Jesus obliges to the people’s clamor that He be their king because He has miraculously fed them, then it would be clear that Jesus is hungrier than the people themselves are. It would appear then that as Jesus feeds the multitude, He is actually feeding Himself. It would seem that in satisfying the hungry crowd, Jesus is actually satisfying His own hunger for power.

But Jesus is in our midst not to be fed. He is with us to feed us. He Himself is the food that He gives. He comes not to be served but to serve. He serves us His life. And what an immensely generous serving He gives us.

The human hunger to lord over others is never Jesus’ hunger. Thus, He refuses to satisfy any hunger for domination. Jesus believes that the power that lords it over others is precisely the one that keeps bread from the hungry, a power that steals the community’s resources to secure its own superiority, a power that sustains itself by manipulating the hunger of the people.

Thus, Jesus offers Himself instead as the Bread of life by making Himself the servant of all. His lordship is a lordship of caring for others, of serving others, of laying down one’s life so that others may live. He who is the Lord of all is actually the servant of all. We see in His humble, loving, and truly life-giving servanthood the most distinct sign of God’s ultimate reign when all will be satisfied and no one languishes in the painful curse of any form of hunger. Jesus has nothing to do with the lordship of domination. The destructive power of domination over others and the manipulative scheme of self-serving benevolence can never be reconciled with Jesus who is the Bread for the life of the world. The same holds true for those who call themselves “Christians”.

John has a very interesting way of presenting to us the three temptations of Jesus that Matthew and Luke narrate in their Gospels. While Matthew and Luke have Jesus fighting the temptation to power in the wilderness, John has Jesus fighting the same temptation in the midst of His followers. In Matthew and Luke, it is the devil that tempts Jesus. In John, the temptation comes not from the devil but from a crowd of hungry Galileans. In all cases, however, Jesus wins the battle. He does not give in to the people’s clamor for Him to be a king, a political leader, just as He does not make stones into bread. He refuses to make benevolence a bait to catch hungry mouths that can assure Him votes come election day.

Scores of reflections have already been written and countless homilies have already been delivered regarding the Gospel today. Most of them, if not all, focus on the miraculous feeding of the multitude. But the Gospel does not end with the feeding or with the collecting of the leftovers into twelve hampers. The Gospel ends with Jesus’ refusal to be made king. To miss this point is to fail to understand the entire miracle that the Gospel recounts to us. The point is not the feeding. The point is the serving. It is not the food multiplied that fed the hungry crowd. It is the service rendered that fed them. The miracle is not when people are fed. The miracle is when people allow themselves to be bread broken for others, after the example of Him who came that we may have life and life in abundance (cf. Jn 10:10).

MEETING JESUS

Memorial of St. Martha
Jn 11:19-27

When Martha heard that Jesus had come she went to meet Him. “Meet” is one word that can be meaningfully associated with Martha whose blessed memory we celebrate today. She would always do anything to meet the needs of Jesus. The home she shared with Mary and Lazarus, her siblings, was like a home-away-from-home for Jesus. Today, in the Gospel, she went to meet not Jesus’ needs but Jesus Himself. And she met Life Himself.

Martha reminds us that while what we do for the Lord, no matter how little it may seem, is significant, what the Lord does for us and in us is far more valuable. Whenever Jesus would be in Martha’s house, Martha would meet Jesus’ needs. This time, Jesus met Martha’s need as Martha met Him. Their rendezvous brought the much-needed consolation that Martha had over the death of her bother. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.

To meet Jesus is to meet Life in itself. Jesus is the Life of the world. As we strive to meet the needs of Jesus in the modern world, let us not forget to meet Jesus Himself. Unless we meet Jesus, meeting His needs may only drain us of the life we have.

JESUS -- WE KNOW BUT DO WE UNDERSTAND?

Friday of the 16th Week in Ordinary Time
Mt 13:18-23

It is clear that “understanding” is the key word in the Gospel today. It is understanding the Word of God that makes the difference and yields a rich harvest. It is not enough to simply receive the Word of God. We have to understand it as well.

To receive the Word of God is to know it. Knowing it, however, is not the same as understanding it. We know many things in life, but we do not necessarily understand them. Understanding does not come from mere knowing. Knowing, however, is a prerequisite to understanding.

Let us know the Word of God. Let us understand it. Let us receive the Word of God and study it.

Understanding comes from studying. Studying here means more than what we normally do in school. Studying here goes beyond reading and research. Studying here means living the Word of God. This way of studying resonates well with the Jewish concept of being a disciple, a student.

The rabbinic method of teaching is for the teacher to take in into his care his student. Through this method, the student lives with his teacher. Studying then becomes learning the ways of the master. After years of living with his teacher, the disciple eventually lives the life of his master.

Jesus is Word of God. To know Him is to receive Him into our life. To understand Him is to live His life.

We measure a student’s knowledge and understanding of what has been taught him through an exam. Our way of life reveals our knowledge and understanding of Jesus, the Word of God. And the revelation may surprise us with some discrepancies between what we know and what we understand about Him.

BETTER VIEW

Thursday of the 16th Week in Ordinary Time
Mt 13:10-17

We are blest indeed! We have an advantage over the People of the Old Testament. We can look and understand the meaning of life and humanity in the light of God’s revelation in His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the key to understanding all of creation because He is God’s final, complete, definitive revelation of God.

Because they lived prior to the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the People of the Old Testament, as it were, grope in the dark with only the light of faith to rely on. Their faith is even more heroic because they believed not after the final, complete, and definitive revelation of God in Jesus Christ but before. Their heroic faith is manifested even more heroically by the unwavering hope they had in the fidelity of God.

We are blest because we, as it were, stand on the shoulders of the People of God in the Old Testament. We have a better view. But do we have better lives?

HOW WILL WE BE REMEMBERED?

Memorial of Sts. Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Mt 13:16-17

The names of the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and, therefore, grandparents of the Lord Jesus, Joachim and Anne, are not found in the four Gospels we have. The “Protoevangelium” of James, a devotional tract revered in the second century A.D., provides them. Veneration of St. Anne began in the sixth century A.D. while the devotion to St. Joachim originated in the eighth century A.D.

The Gospel today praises the faith of the Old Testament figures, Joachim and Anne included. They remained faithful to God though all they had were His promises. Their physical eyes did not see the fulfillment of what they hoped for – the coming of the Messiah – yet they believed in the word that God gave them. Such a faith is always worth emulating. Such a hope is heroic. May we have the same faith and hope always.

The world says, “To see is to believe.” But authentic faith in God says, “To believe is to see.” There are things in life we reach only by faith, which means that we can only see them if we first believe in them. The parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Old Testament figures believed in the Messiah though they did not see him. Because they believed, they contributed to the fulfillment of what they hoped for, and we benefit greatly from their fidelity.

The memorial of Sts. Joachim and Anne moves us to express our gratitude to our ancestors in the faith. These ancestors are not only God’s People in the Old Testament who remained steadfast in their faith and hope in God. They include also God’s People in the New Testament who passed on to us the faith, hope, and love they have in and for God. These include our own parents, grandparents, great grandparents, and all who constitute our genealogy. Some of them may have already gone ahead of us into God’s Kingdom. Others may still be living with us. For the departed, let us offer our loving pray. For the living, let us give our loving care.

We, too, will someday be, if not already are, grandparents to a long list of progeny. What kind of faith, hope, and love will we, or do we pass, on to our descendants? Nothing compares to the pride and joy of being remembered by our children for the steadfast faith, unwavering hope, and heroic love we had in our lifetime.

How do we wish to be remembered?

YOU KNOW THE BEST?

Feast of St. James, Apostle
Mt 20:20-28

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

What do you wish for your children? What do you work hard for on their behalf? Are you the first and best supporters of your children?

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

The mother of James and John mustered all courage to beg from Jesus what she thought to be the best for her sons. We should not despise her. She was a mother, you know.

Jesus, however, had something else for James and John. He also had their best future in mind though. Nevertheless, the best for James and John was not what mother wished but what God willed.

God willed that James and John fix their eyes on Jesus rather than on the seats at His right and left. God willed that James and John drink from the cup that Jesus would drink from. God willed that James and John, and all those who follow Jesus, serve and not be served. And God’s will is always the best, you know.

What do you think is best for your children? An easy life? A life surrounded by servants? A wealthy life similar to that of the rich and the famous? Think again. Pray again. Your best may not be good enough. For God’s will is always the best, you know.

What then is God’s will for your children? Only God has the answer. And His answer should be what you must beg from Jesus for your children, not seats of power, fame or fortune, not seats at His right or left. God can take care of your children better than you can. For God is the best, you know.

And, by the way, God is a Father, too.

JESUS ON THE WITNESS STAND

Monday of the 16th Week in Ordinary Time
Mt 12:38-42

I often wonder why we need to swear in a courtroom each time we stand on the witness stand. Not that we may not swear inside a courtroom. Not that we cannot swear while standing on the witness stand. Rather that we need not swear at all. If only we were always truthful! Is it the courtroom that makes us truthful? Is it the witness stand that makes us believable? Is it our oath that makes us credible?

Because experience has shown us that we are capable of deceiving and being deceived, we were given a reason to swear even in the most august chamber of justice. Had not the human race learned to fabricate stories, submit false evidence, falsely accuse anyone, make dishonest claims, twist the truth, present half-truths, we would not have resorted to oaths to be worthy of trust and belief. Instead, we would be able to make our word stand on its own.

Jesus alone can make His word stand on its own. He is His word. Jesus alone consistently and constantly stands by His word. He is His word. Jesus alone is worth the word He gives. He is His very word.

No sign is needed to prove that He is what He claims He is: the Son of God. No sign is needed to prove that He is what He does: the Messiah. No sign is needed to prove that He is what He promises Himself to be: the Resurrection and the Life.

Jesus is both the reality that signifies and the signified reality. He is the sign and the signified all together at the same time. He is the sign of God’s love for us but He Himself is God’s love for us made visible. He is the sign of God’s presence but He Himself is the presence of God made tangible to us. He is the sign of God’s power but He Himself is the power of God at work in us. So what else is left to signify when He who is signified is already revealed?

This is the first problematic about the demand of the Pharisees: they wanted a sign from Jesus for Jesus. They required Him to prove Himself when He Himself was already the proof. Thus, there was no sign given them by Jesus except Himself. Take Him or leave Him? Take Him.

The second problematic is that the Pharisees asked for a sign to test Jesus. They were doubtful of Him because He did not belong to their clique nor did He fit into their expectation of what the Christ should be. Against whose standard should the credibility of Jesus be measured then? By whose sector should the validity of Jesus be judged then? Into whose expectations should Jesus then fit Himself? Trust Him or test Him? Trust Him.

The third problematic is that it was not really a sign that the Pharisees wanted from Jesus. What they wanted was a proof against which they may test Jesus. A proof may be a sign but a sign is not necessarily a proof. Smoke signifies a fire but a fire does not prove smoke. A fire instead produces smoke and smoke testifies to a fire. The Pharisees were not at all candid about their demand. They looked at Jesus through their colored glasses. They really did not need a sign; they were aching to have a proof by which they could dismiss Jesus altogether, once and for all. For those who believe, no sign is needed; for those who do not believe, no sign will be enough. Believe.

Ask not for a sign from Jesus. It has already been given. Search for it. Demand not a proof from Jesus. It has already been provided. Discern it.

If Jesus were to stand on the witness stand and swear, indeed His words would be: “I promise to tell the truth and nothing but the truth. So help me, Me.”

WORK WITH JESUS, REST IN JESUS

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mark 6: 30-34

We often hear it said, “There is just too much work to do.” We often say it ourselves, “I have so little time for so many a task.” But will there really be a time when we have enough time to work? Will there really be work enough for the time we have?

“Time is of essence,” so says a proverb. Indeed, it is! We have only twenty-four hours of it in a day. Just when we say, “I will find time to do this or that,” we do not find the time we need. We make it. But making time only means setting our priorities right not setting our watches with an additional hour or two.

Very few people realize that we can only do so much. So much can be done if more people realize that.

The same is true with our apostolates, our ministries and our work for the Church. After we have done our best, we must submit to the grace of God at work in everything and everyone. Let God be in control, He knows what He is doing. Let God be in full control, He knows better than what we ourselves think we are doing best.

So long as we give it our best, our work is worth the time we have and our time is worth the work we do for the Lord. Just give it our best always. Afterall, we are not the messiah. Jesus is. We are here not to save the world. It has already been saved. By Jesus, not by us.

Therefore, we should not be discouraged when we fail after you have given our best. Move on. What we cannot do, Jesus can do better. Whom we cannot save, Jesus can save. There will always be imperfect situations, imperfect people, imperfect ways, imperfect steps, imperfect time. We, ourselves, are imperfect, are we not? Only Jesus is perfect. We, ourselves, need a savior; only Jesus does not need one.

So, in the midst of too much work with too little time, still make time to rest. We need to rest so that we may work better. Quite often we miss His point: what Jesus wants is not that we work more but that we work better. What we can do is not the same with how we do it; both considerations are important but the second has greater weight than the first. Resting better always preconditions us to working better, and even, to working more.

The people will remain miserable as when Jesus saw them two thousand years ago, if we do not rest. They were like sheep without a shepherd when Jesus saw them. They will lose their shepherd if their shepherd does not rest. Worse, the sheep very often suffer from a burnt-out shepherd. The people are already in a pitiable state; they can appear more miserable in the care of a workaholic shepherd.

How do we work? More or better? How do we rest? Better or more?

Work with Jesus. Rest in Jesus.

NOTHING SECRET ABOUT THEIR LOVE AFFAIR

Memorial of St. Mary Magdalene
Jn 20:1-2, 11-18

Today we commemorate the blessed memory of St. Mary Magdalene, a disciple of the Lord. St. Mary Magdalene is one of my favorite saints.

At the outset, let us erase from your minds the common notion that Mary of Magdala was a prostitute. Nowhere in the Scripture can we find a description that Mary Magdalene was a loose woman. She was a troubled woman though. Luke 8:2 tells us that the Lord freed her from seven demons. Bible scholars tell us that during Jesus’ time being possessed by demons, whether one or seven demons, did not necessarily mean being sexually permissive. Even what appears today as simple illness was looked upon as being possessed by the devil during the time of Christ. That she was afflicted by seven demons could have meant that Mary Magdalene was very sick, even fatally ill. The Lord, however, healed her and set her free.

It seems that Mary Magdalene is now commonly associated with prostitution because of the arrangement of the narratives in the Lucan Gospel. In Luke 8:1-3, the list of the women who followed Jesus and attended to his needs and that of His disciples includes the name of Mary Magdalene. It is unfortunate that these verses immediately follow the story of an unnamed woman who suddenly came in while Jesus was dining in the house of one of the Pharisees. That woman was said to have a bad name in the town. When she heard that Jesus was dining in the Pharisee’s house, she gatecrashed the party, washed the feet of the Lord with her tears, and wiped them with her hair. Then she covered His feet with kisses and anointed them with expensive, aromatic oil. For such an expression of love, Jesus forgave that unnamed woman of ill repute all her sins and used the occasion to teach His host and the other guests the lesson that he who has been forgiven little shows little love while he who has been forgiven more shows greater love. That woman remains unnamed up until today, but popular piety, without any biblical basis, named her Mary Magdalene.

Too bad for Mary Magdalene, for the Lord had freed her from seven demons but we seem to have chained her to a prostitute’s bed. Today, the highly popular book, “The Da Vinci Code” even proposes that she was the wife of Jesus and sired Him a daughter and that the Church intentionally kept this secret through the years while Leonardo Da Vinci encoded this juicy item in his obra maestra, “The Last Supper”. How trivial!

But Mary Magdalene’s love for Jesus was far from being trivial. She loved Him more than she loved her self. She was there, attending to His needs while He went about with the work of the ministry. She was there with Jesus’ mother, standing at the foot of the cross while He sealed His ministry with His own Blood. She was there, weeping outside the tomb while He called out her name and sent her to be an “apostle to the apostles”. Hers was a love that served the Lord, a love that consoled His mother, a love that was given a new way of looking at events in life to recognize Jesus, and a love that proclaimed Him already risen from the dead.

She loved Jesus so much because Jesus loved her more than she knew. This is what should happen to us, too. The tremendous love of the Lord should make us love the Lord more and more each day. Our grateful love for the Lord should make us rise each time we fall, wipe the tears we wept over our broken dreams, and move on in our Easter mandate to bear witness that the love of the Lord is stronger than death, stronger even than hell.

This love is not kept hidden by the Church from the knowledge of the faithful. This love is not encoded in some work of art. This love is far beyond marital relationship. It is the love of a disciple for her Master. It is the love that we should discover, learn, and emulate, not decode, trivialize, and generate money from through either a book publication or a movie production.

HUNGER IS NOT ONLY HAVING NO FOOD

Friday of the 15th Week in Ordinary Time
Mt 12:1-8

Jesus quotes for the second time the Prophet Hosea in the Gospel today. Defending His disciples from the criticism of the Pharisees, Jesus says, “It is mercy I desire, not sacrifice….”

Hosea 6:6 is Jesus’ favorite passage in the Sacred Scripture. This is the only verse in the Old Testament that Jesus quotes more than once. By doing so, Jesus reveals to us what truly pleases God.

God is not a supreme being that we should appease by sacrifices. While He accepts our sacrifices, sacrifices do not touch His heart as much as mercy does. “Mercy,” says St. Fautina Kowalska, “is God’s greatest attribute.” Thus, mercy, too, is God’s only weakness. He makes His love for us tangible by being merciful to us. He searches in our hearts for our mercy towards others. If love begets love, mercy should beget mercy, too.

Many of the Pharisees have little sense of God’s mercy because many of them are self-righteous. They do not see their need to repent and beg for forgiveness from God because they are blind to their own sins. They are more attentive to the demands of the Law, which, in their own claim, they satisfy to the minutest detail. Following the strict requirements of the Law is a sacrifice for them. We can recall here the example of the self-righteous Pharisees who went to the temple to pray, bragging before God how rigidly he observed the Law, making God appear indebted to him for his sacrifices. Worse, however, is when self-righteous Pharisees sacrifice others in the name of the Law. Come to think of it, in the Gospel today, they rather have the disciples starve if it fulfills the Sabbath law rather than allow the disciples satisfy their hunger even if it breaks the Sabbath.

It is not only the absence of food that explains why people hunger. The absence of mercy is the worse explanation hunger can ever have.

YOKED TO JESUS

Thursday of the 15th Week in Ordinary Time
Mt 11:28-30

To get the whole picture of what Jesus means today in His invitation to us, we need to consider how oxen are yoked together in Palestine. Two animals, not one, pull a very heavy load together. When Jesus invites us, “Shoulder My yoke and learn from me…,” He, therefore, is not giving His yoke to us. Jesus is sharing His yoke with us.

Who says that Jesus is passing His burden to us? Who says that Jesus wants us to carry His burden for Him? Who says that Jesus commands us to pull the load alone? Whoever says so is gravely mistaken.

When we accept Jesus’ invitation, we are yoked to Him. We are to “carry the weight” together with Jesus, not for Jesus, and much less without Jesus. Not to be yoked to Jesus as we “carry the weight” means disaster and even death for us. Never “carry the weight” alone. No one asks us to do so.

Being yoked to Jesus gives us the blessed assurance that Jesus is right there with us when we become tired and weak. His strength can “pull the weight” for us. His strength can give us rest. We can depend on Jesus as His strength strengthens us.

Sometimes, we get our selves yoked to other than Jesus. We get entangled to so many attachments, both people and things. When we are yoked to people or things, we do not find rest. We become weaker instead.

Get yoked to Jesus!

NOT AN ACADEME BUT A HOME

Wednesday of the 15th Week in Ordinary Time
Mt 11:25-27

Simple heartedness is not simple mindedness. Simple mindedness is not naiveté.

Simple heartedness is humility. Simple mindedness is childlikeness.

The Father reveals the secret of the Kingdom to the simple hearted and the simple minded. Humility and childlikeness are two indispensable requirements to know the things that the Father reveals. A degree in theology is not even required!

Heaven is not an academe. Heaven is a home.

NO AMOUNT OF MIRACLES WILL DO

Tuesday of the 15th Week in Ordinary Time
Mt 11:20-24

A saying goes, “For those who believe no miracle is needed. For those who do not believe, no amount of miracles will do.” The Gospel today is a good example of this.

The Galilean towns mentioned in the Gospel today witnessed the many miracles of Jesus. The miracles, however, failed to move many of the people to conversion of mind and heart to God. There was only one reason for the failure: pride.

The people from the towns where Jesus worked many of His miracles lacked the humility to accept that they need to repent from their sinful ways. Unrepentant, the people saw no reason to convert.

Pride is the enemy of salvation. How can the proud accept their need to be saved?

Miracles do not guarantee faith.

NOT PEACE BUT DIVISION

Monday of the 15th Week in Ordinary Time
Mt 10:34-11:1

The Lord’s words to us today are quite disturbing. Sometimes, we do need to be disturbed. A disturbance coming from the Lord is always a welcome experience because we know that the Lord disturbs us always and only for something better.

We can be complacent. We need the Lord to shake us from our complacency. Complacency leads to mediocrity. The Lord hates mediocrity.

Complacency can give a false sense of peace. The peace of the complacent is the peace six-feet below. It is the peace of the dead.

Complacency can create a wrong sense of priority. Such kind of peace is the deceitful feeling of security derived from inordinate attachments. It is the peace of the lost.

Complacency can disguise itself as diplomacy. Diplomacy is not complacency. The peace of a complacent diplomat is cowardice.

Jesus came not to bring peace but division. He is the Lord of the living, not of the dead. He is the Good Shepherd who searches for even one lost sheep. He is not coward. If peace means complacency, then Jesus indeed came not to bring peace. If peace results to mediocrity, then Jesus creates division.

Jesus Himself is our peace. May He dwell in our hearts.

DO NOT FORGET

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mark 6: 7-13

Jesus gathers in order to scatter. He welcomes so that He may send. He chooses so that He may let go.

Jesus is not a matinee idol; He is a Master who gathers, forms and sends disciples on a mission. He is not an employer; He is a leader of a crusade for the Kingdom of God. He is not a dictator; He is the Lord who came not to be served but to serve and to give His life for the ransom of many.

Thus, we are not meant to be His fans; we are His disciples. We are not His employees; we are His team. We are not His slaves; we are His servants according to His own example of service.

The purpose of our coming is in our going. Jesus calls us so that He may send us forth. Between the calling and the sending, something happens, many a time in the silence of our staying with Him but sometimes in the sound of His voice. Jesus forms us. But we can only be formed according to His purpose if we stay with Him. Do we persevere? Are we present to Him? Do we stay?

While He forms us as individuals, Jesus forms us within a particular community: a religious congregation, a diocese, a seminary, a prayer group, a covenanted fellowship, a parish, a family. Jesus sends us to communities, but from communities we also go forth. Should we not be a team for Him? Can we work together for Him? Are we a family?

Freely He chooses, freely we join Him. In choosing us, Jesus was not coerced by anyone or anything. In joining Him, we are not pushed against our will. Both Jesus and us are free. No one is forced. When forced, we work for any reason except love. When free, love is not seen as work. When forced, the task is seen as enslaving. When free, it becomes service. Are we free? Do we free? Where is our freedom coming from?

We are not meant to save the world. Jesus already accomplished that. We are sharers of His mission. In us, Jesus brings into fruition the salvation He once and for all achieved on the cross. Through us, Jesus brings to the fore the effects of the same mission in all of creation.

The Eucharist reminds us of these truths each day. It gathers us, it sends us forth and it liberates us. We do not forget. Or do we?

BUENA VENTURA

Memorial of St. Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Mt 23:8-12

The Dominicans have St. Thomas Aquinas while the Franciscans have St. Bonaventure. While St. Thomas Aquinas plotted the way of the intellect to God, St. Bonaventure considered the heart as the path that leads to God. In his famous book, “Journey of the Mind to God,” Bonaventure wrote, “If you ask how mystical experience is possible, look to the grace of God and not to doctrine, to the thrust of the heart and not the intellect, to prayer and not to research, seek the Lover and not the Teacher…look not to the light of the intellect but to the burning fire that carries the soul to God.” Bonaventure looked at the world as filled with vestiges of God. A heart that loves God so intensely sees God in everything as it is God Himself who enables us to think about Him.

Bonaventure was born in 1218 in Italy. He joined the Franciscan and, even today, is sometimes called the “second founder of the Franciscan Order”. While lecturing at the University of Paris, he met Thomas Aquinas. Later on, he became Minister General of the Franciscan Order and a Cardinal of the Church. Bonaventure lived during the Middle Ages, also called “The Dark Ages”. It was a turbulent time and various theological systems flourished. With wisdom and holiness, Bonaventure, however, kept the torch burning brightly. He passed away in 1274. Considered as the greatest exponent of mystical theology in the Middle Ages, Bonaventure is referred to as the “Seraphic Doctor” of the Church.

Our saint for today has a name composed of two words: bona and ventura. Literally, his name may be translated as “good venture”. Rightly, by the holiness of his life and the wisdom of his teachings, Bonaventure ventured into something truly good. He devoted his genius to the holy endeavor of serving God as a Franciscan, a bishop, a cardinal, and a teacher of the things of God. Love of God and of the Church was the lifelong project he ventured into. His name described his life: a good venture, una buena ventura, bona ventura.

The Gospel on his memorial reminds us of the undertaking we, as disciples of Jesus, are called to venture into. We must be humble servants of God through one another. The greatest among us should serve all, but most especially the least, for with the least God identifies Himself intimately. The service required must always be humble, mindful of the humility of our Lord Himself who came to serve and not to be served and to give His life for the ransom of the many. People are God’s most especial vestiges. To serve them humbly is the thrust of the heart that St. Bonaventure continues advising those who wish to attain mystical experience. What better venture can there be for us?

THE GAMBLING SAINT

Memorial of St. Camillus de Lellis, Priest
Jn 15:9-17

The feast of St. Camillus de Lellis is an optional memorial in the liturgy of the Church. It is worth celebrating it however. His life is an outstanding example for all of us.

Camillus came from a noble family of Chieti in Abruzzi, Italy. He was born in 1550. He entered military service. In 1582, he founded a religious society dedicated to the care of the sick. When he passed away in 1614, his followers continued his work and established hospitals. Today, there are more than one thousand members of the order he founded, calling themselves “Camillians” and persevering in his charism.

One secret though! Camillus was a hopeless gambler. He was addicted to gambling before he was converted. After conversion, he left military service and eventually became saintly.

My description of Camillus’ conversion and rise to sanctity is over simplified. Certainly, his conversion and holiness did not happen overnight. But the fact remains: he was a gambler who was converted and became a saint.

Gambling becomes a vice when one is addicted to it. When gambling becomes an addiction, it becomes immoral. And like all forms of addiction, gambling is based on a lie. The lie that many gamblers realize quite too late in their addiction is that gambling does not give true joy, lasting joy, genuine joy.

The Gospel prescribed for the memorial of St. Camillus today reveals to us the secret of authentic joy. It is the kind of joy that the world can neither give nor take away. Love is the other name of that kind of joy. To know that we are loved by Jesus as much as the Father loves Him and to remain in that love by loving others as much as Jesus loves us is the only joy that makes us all winners. Anyone who has this kind of love never loses; unlike in the love of gambling where one loses more often than wins or wins but only to lose the next bet. Camillus faced the deceiving secret of his gambling and learned to live according to the secret of Christ’s love. He stopped placing his stakes on a game of chance and bet his whole life instead in a “match” called “loving”. And never did he lose again.

GIVE AS YOU RECEIVE

Thursday of the14th Week in Ordinary Time
Mt 10:7-15

Taking the demands of discipleship very seriously, a man prays to the Lord each day saying, “Lord, please help me to give.” However, the more he prays for generosity everyday, the more difficult for him to give everyday. This saddens him very much.

One day, an angel appears to the man while he prays. The angel asks him, “Why are you sad?” The man answers the angel, “Tell me, when the Lord told His disciples to give, did He mean they should give and give and give and give and give and give?”

The angel smiles at the man and says, “Good heavens! No. When the Lord told His disciples to give, He meant that they should give only as much as they receive.”

In the First Reading today, the prophet Hosea reminds God’s People how God loves them very dearly. He is a Father to them. The same love is extended to us, for we are God’s People too. Because we are loved, love is expected from us. Jesus, the Son of God, commands us to love one another as much as He loves us. When asked if love can be commanded, Pope Benedict XVI replied, “Love can be commanded because it has first been given.” The Lord commands us to give love to others because He has given us love first. He commands us to give much love because much love He continues giving us each day.

Following the same logic, Jesus tells the apostles in the Gospel today, “You received without charge, give without charge.” The Twelve are instructed to give because they first received. Not only that! They are ordered to give freely because freely they have been given. The apostles, therefore, are to become, as it were, conduits of the Lord’s favor upon others as they heal, preach, restore, and spread the blessing of God’s Kingdom here on earth.

The same instruction is given us because we, too, have been given. We are to be channels of God’s graces even as we strive to be God’s graces ourselves. Give only as much as we receive. But, how much does the Lord really gives us? “Too much” is not an accurate answer.

GOD'S BUSINESS

Wednesday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time
Mt 10:1-7

Matthew gives us today the official list of the twelve closest associates of Jesus. The list is not very impressive. By what we know about the men behind the names listed, they are ordinary people for so extraordinary a mission. Matthew is a tax collector. Simon of the Zealot party is a troublemaker. I am not very sure about Judas Iscariot; some say he is the most educated but nothing in the Bible says exactly that. And the rest are smelly fishermen.

I recall a tongue-in-cheek remark made by the English humorist G. K. Chesterton in paying tribute to England’s 12-person jury system. Chesterton said, “For easy jobs, like exploring outer space, we choose extraordinary scientists. But for difficult jobs, like deciding if someone is guilty or innocent, we choose ordinary citizens.”

Sometimes the most extraordinary mission does not require extraordinary men and women. It is the mission that is extraordinary, not the missionary.

The twelve apostles are witnesses to the fact that God is in the business of doing extraordinary things through ordinary people.

NO CRYSTAL-CLEAR ANSWERS FOR NOW

Memorial of St. Benedict, Abbot
Mt 19:27-29

Today is the memorial of St. Benedict, Abbot. He is the Father of Western Monasticism. He authored the monastic rule “Ora et Labora” (“Prayer and Work”). From him, our present Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, takes his name. Waging a battle against relativism, which he says threatens most particularly Europe. Benedict XVI wishes to follow the example of his saintly namesake who saved European civilization.

When I was younger, I wanted to become a Benedictine monk. I attended a live-in seminar in the Monastery of Our Lady of Montserrat. I was only seventeen years old then. Thus, I did not immediately apply for admission after the live-in seminar. As years went by, my love for the monastic life did not fade. While in Bukidnon for my rural exposure, I would often spend days with the Benedictines of the Monastery of the Transfiguration. Perhaps, becoming a monk was my desire, but I discerned more deeply if it were also God’s desire for me.

My desire is one thing; God’s is another. Between the two, it is what God desires that counts most.

I have already met and counseled quite a number of people who were seriously considering leaving everything behind to enter a monastic order. Quite often, one of the most important issues that bother them is whether becoming a monk is also God’s will for them or not. They wanted to be crystal-clear with God’s will before they take any step towards monastic life. I do not blame them because I, too, once asked an elder priest if it was God’s will for me to become a priest. “There are signs along the way, Bob, but you cannot get a crystal-clear answer about your question,” the elder priest told me.

It will only be in heaven where we can finally have the crystal-clear answers to our questions regarding our vocation. What matters now is that we strive to persevere in fidelity to the life that the signs God sends us are pointing to. After all, as Bl. Teresa of Calcutta said, “God does not expect us to be successful but to be faithful.” For now, only two are required: ora et labora (pray and work)!

WHEN FAITH COMES NOT ONLY HANDY

Monday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time
Mt 9:18-26

Our Gospel today has a parallel with Mark. But there is a big difference as regards the daughter of the official who approached Jesus at the beginning of both Gospels. In the Gospel of Mark, the daughter is desperately ill but still alive. In Matthew, however, the same daughter is already dead. In both cases, nonetheless, the father, forgetting for a while his high status as a synagogue official, kneels before Jesus and begs for the life of his daughter.

Is it really faith in Jesus or love for his daughter that made the official do the unexpected? There seems to be a thin line here that divides faith in Jesus and love for another person. Love motivates faith. And when love for someone requires to do the impossible, the unthinkable, the unimaginable, faith in the Lord very often comes not only handy but naturally. But most importantly, it saves, if not restores, life.

HIS FAVORITE PASSAGE

Friday of the 13th Week in Ordinary Time
Mt 9:9-13

Jesus has a favorite passage from the Old Testament. His favorite passage, written in Hos 6:6, “It is mercy I desire, not sacrifice.” Jesus quotes this scriptural passage more than once. Twice, He makes the same claim. The fist instance is in today’s Gospel. The second is in Mt 12:7, defending His disciples against the accusation of breaking the Sabbath Law.

This is Jesus’ favorite scriptural passage because it tells who He really is. Jesus is God’s mercy. Mercy is Jesus’ very life. In the crucified Christ, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), once said, we see God turning against Himself and how His mercy overcame His justice. Indeed, as St. Faustina Kowalska wrote in her diary, “Mercy is God’s greatest attribute,” because God’s mercy is Jesus Himself.

Jesus invites us to follow Him just as He invites Levi, in the Gospel today, to follow Him. He means more than just going where He goes. Following Jesus means, most importantly, becoming like Him. As Jesus is mercy in itself, so must we be mercy-incarnate. We follow Him best by doing our best to become like Him. Let us be His mercy to others. Let us strive to be His favorites.

TRUE LOVE

Memorial of St. Maria Goretti, Martyr
Jn 12:24-26

She was only twelve years old when she died. She was only fourteen years old when she became pregnant. Obviously, I am not referring to the same girl.

The first, who died when she was only twelve years old, was Maria Goretti. She was born to a poor family. She never went to school and never learned to read or write. At age twelve, not long before her death, she received her First Holy Communion. She died at the hands of Alessandro Serenelli, a lad of eighteen, who tried to force himself on her. She refused the advances of Alessandro, saying that she would rather die than submit to him. “No, God does not wish it. It is a sin. You would go to hell for it,” told Alessandro before he stabbed her blindly with a long dagger. She died about twenty-four hours after the attack, with words of forgiveness on her lips for Alessandro.

The second, who became pregnant when she was only fourteen years old, was a girl who barely finished High School. She grew up in the city and enjoyed the benefit of a Catholic education. When asked why she was pregnant at fourteen years old, all she could say was, “I love the man whose child I bear.”

Which of the two really knew love?

THREAT TO STATUS QUO

Wednesday of the 13th Week in Ordinary Time
Mt 8:28-34

After Jesus freed the town from the menace of two demoniacs, the people asked Jesus to leave the town. But why? Should the people not ask Jesus to stay with them instead?

The people of that town seemed to be both ungrateful and rude to Jesus.

Could it be that people of that town saw Jesus as a threat to the status quo?

Yes, they actually did. Jesus disturbed the town from its complacency to having two demoniacs in the neighborhood.

LEARN FROM HIS DOUBTING

Feast of St. Thomas, Apostle
Jn 20:24-29

We celebrate today the feast of St. Thomas, Apostle. It is unfortunate that the word “doubt” is almost synonymous with the name of this apostle. Thus, we have “Doubting Thomas”.

Yes, Thomas doubted that the Lord truly rose from the dead. Yes, he needed proof before believing in the resurrection. Yes, he refused to believe until he touched the nail marks on the hands of Jesus and put his hand inside His pierced side. But there are three things we can learn from this apostle whom the world judges to be too doubtful.

First, Thomas was sincere. He was honest about his disbelief. He doubted but his doubt was truthful. His was not a doubtful not simply to be different from the rest of the apostles. He simply could not believe. He was honest.

Second, Thomas was not a crowd pleaser. While he could not bring himself to believe in the Lord’s resurrection without having proofs, he did not say he believes just because the others believed. Thus, while he did not want to be different from the rest, he was not afraid to be different from the others if it meant accepting something he could not really accept. He was principled.

Third, Thomas knew how to accept mistakes. When given the proofs he required, Thomas believed indeed and uttered his famous proclamation, “My Lord and my God.” He doubted, but he believed. His faith in the resurrected Lord was sealed by his labors in preaching the Gospel to as far as he could go and, eventually, by his martyrdom.

No problem with doubting, you see. The problem is when we doubt simply because we want to be different, when we do not doubt because we short-change our principles, and when we refuse to accept our mistakes when we are finally shown the proofs we require.

Doubting Thomas? No problem with that, provided that we do not forget that he believed and learn the lesson his doubt teaches us.

THE POWER OF TOUCH

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mk 5:21-43

Touch is very important for us, humans. Atoms collide. Plants are grafted. Animals bump into each other. But only humans touch. Because we touch, we connect with one another in a way that only humans do. Our touch is an expression of emotions, a proof of relationships, an agent of communication, a channel of grace.

People were touching Jesus, the Gospel tells us. Yet in the midst of a crowd Jesus took notice of one touch among so many. Why? Was it because it was a soft touch or a firm one? Was it because it was a familiar touch or an unfamiliar one? Was it because the touch was actually a push or a pull? We can only guess. Yet the Gospel tells us something important. Jesus inquired who touched Him even as He was in the midst of a crowd because He felt that power had gone out of Him. It must, therefore, be a touch so powerful that it caused power to come out of Jesus. Such a touch is the touch of faith.

Because she believed that Jesus could cure her, the woman bleeding for twelve years came behind Jesus. Because she believed so strongly in Jesus, the woman bleeding for twelve years touched the cloak of Jesus, and she was healed. Notice that she touched not Jesus Himself but just His cloak. That woman must have had a tremendous faith.

She had tremendous faith; He had fullness of life. She touched with faith, He with life. She was healed; He brought back a little girl to life. All these by one powerful, faith-filled touch.

Whatever pain you suffer, whatever loss you go through, whatever wounds you endure and whatever sins you are guilty of, reach out to Jesus and touch Him. Yes, even just the end of His cloak or the strap of His sandals. But never touch Him without faith. Touch Jesus by your faith.

In your agony, in your sorrow, in your sufferings, and even in your dying, allow Jesus to touch you. He is reaching out to you. Always with life. Be touched by the life of Jesus.

Have you touched someone lately? Have you been touched by someone lately? Was it a touch of tremendous faith? Was it a touch of the fullness of life? Was it a touch that caused healing power? Was it a touch that healing power caused? Was it a touch that life gave? Was it a touch that gave life?

CARING

Saturday of the 12th Week in Ordinary Time
Mt 8: 5-17

I am sick as I write and post this reflection on CRUMBS. The Gospel today seems to be especially written for me because it narrates to us two healings in a row. The centurion servant is lying at home paralyzed, and in great pain, while Peter’s mother-in-law is in bed with fever. Both, Jesus heals.

The first healing is on account of the centurion’s faith in Jesus. The second is a prelude to the woman’s serving the Lord. Both remind us not only about faith but also about care.

The centurion cares for his servant as a father cares for his son. Thus, he sheds off all his military pride and pleads with Jesus. Peter’s mother-in-law, for her part, shows us that care is the best token of gratitude for healing.

It is care that heals just as it is faith that moves the Lord. When we care enough for others, no one will be too sick to be far from healing. I know it that is why am sick today.

Pipo, my 5-year-old adopted son, was sick since Tuesday. He got well last Thursday. He had tonsillitis, cough, and fever. As I father myself, I get so worried when my dear Pipo is sick. He complains about headache and about his tonsil. His being asthmatic adds to my worry. Very often, when he has cough or cold, he gets an attack. Have you seen anyone suffering from asthma attack?

Because I care more than the world for my little son, I prayed to the Lord last Wednesday, “Lord, please spare Pipo. Let me have his sickness instead.” Lo and behold, Thursday came and Pipo got well while I started to be sick.

Sometimes, caring can mean taking the other’s place.