Dec 25, 2021

Christmas and Families (Feast of the Holy Family)


You’ll agree with me when I say that the most ideal celebration of Christmas for Filipinos, and perhaps for other cultures too, is to be with our families on this great festivity. I bet many have shed tears on Christmas day because they are away from their beloved families. “Many” could mean millions of Filipinos… those working abroad, for instance.

A friend’s post on her facebook account made me realize this most remarkably. She said something like this: “This Christmas is gonna be all work for me here in this foreign land. I miss home. I miss watching everyone decorate the house… with Christmas tree… with lanterns… with mistletoes… I miss cooking for noche buena. I miss my palangga. I miss papa and mama. I miss friends dropping by and share the spirit of Christmas. I miss the carolers that come one after the other. I miss home. Terribly. But this Christmas is gonna be all work for me.”

There is indeed a profound link between Christmas and family. After all, the first Christmas is a family affair—the birth of God into a human family. The holy family has an indispensable role in the fulfillment of the prophetic promise that God is going to be among us, God-with-us, even if the world turns a cold shoulder to God’s initiative.

The “Panunuluyan” or “Posadas” reenacts the journey of Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem for the census decreed by the King. In this reenactment, one is easily led to see how the holy family ended up in a manger. The world has been too preoccupied with other concerns to have room for the child to be born. This prefigures the world’s rejection of Jesus and all that he stands for.

Here’s then the central role of the holy family: even if the world rejects God, the family of Joseph and Mary guarantees the provision of the warmth which the chilling baby Jesus needs to survive. The holy family is Jesus’ security. The Holy family ensures the fulfillment of God’s promise in Jesus. The Holy Family accepts, nurtures, and supports Jesus’ vocation and mission in contradistinction to the mockery and derision that Jesus receives from the faithless world.

Today’s gospel (Lk 2:41-52), which is the account of the losing and finding of Jesus in the temple, dramatizes the supporting role of the family of Jesus in relation to his calling. Jesus stayed in the temple listening and asking question, and maybe, even discussing among the teachers; while his parents were worried searching for him for three days! When finally his parents found him and slightly chided him, he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Do you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

Another translation puts it this way: “Do you not know that I must be in my Father’s business?” This means that Jesus was beginning to be aware of his identity and calling. He has to be about what the Father has sent him for. While Joseph and Mary did not understand Jesus’ remark, they nevertheless continued to support Jesus as he grew in wisdom and age.

The holy family is indispensable for the birth, the growth, and vocation and mission of Jesus who became one of us. This holds true then to the role of our families in our lives. We need our families in order to survive and to become persons with meaningful purpose in life. Without a sound family to support us, we can hardly realize our potentials and fulfill our calling.

On this Feast of the Holy Family then, it is fitting to assess our own families. How have our families measured up to their task of forming us into becoming responsible persons? Our families are surely imperfect. But what can still be done to make our families work as the “cradle of life and love” and as the community within which we grow in wisdom and understanding of who we are and what God wants us to do in life?

Our families today are undeniable facing crisis and innumerable threats: To name just a few: High rate of divorce in many nations, stronger assertion of independence of spouses, single-parenting, weakening of parents’ authority, step-parenting, non-marital unions, and particularly for us Filipinos, the breaking of our families because of financial necessity that forces parents to work abroad leaving their growing children to guardians.

There is no one answer to these problems and it is not my purpose to offer one. Maybe the gospel today is a wake up call. It raises the question. It reminds us of the irreplaceable role of our families and therefore challenges us, each of our families and our family ministry, to look seriously into these situations which undermine the health of our families.

When the world rejected Jesus, it is his human family who accepted him, nurtured him, and supported him in what he was called to do. The world continues to be cruel especially for us today and for our children. This is the question we have to face: Where should our children run to for shelter, for understanding, for strength, and for direction if we have allowed our families to disintegrate?

Dec 18, 2021

Getting Up Close and Personal (4th Sunday Advent C)


I’ve watched Bruce Willis’ film Surrogates. Since his Die Hard in 1988, I have been a fan. I’ve seen through the thinning and graying of his hair. So I was kind of shock to see a young and perfectly fit Bruce Willis as Agent Greer in the early scenes of Surrogates. But the movie unfolded and revealed that what I was seeing was Greer’s surrogate—a mechanical representative of the real person. The movie explores a future in which humans live in isolation while only communicating with their fellow man through robots that serve as social surrogates and are better-looking versions of their human counterparts. In other words, this is a future when mechanical interaction substitutes the excitement of getting up close and personal.

This seems farfetched at first glance. But a keen observation of how we interact today would reveal such substituting as already happening. Not with surrogates though.

In a restaurant, I’ve watched four fellows seated at one table. For the most part, they were silent because each was busy sending text messages. Isn’t it alarming that they have one another yet they prefer to ignore one another’s presence in favor of a mechanical interaction with somebody out there who, most probably, ignores the company of his own friends too?

Another phenomenon that reveals this is the ‘facebook addiction.’ It is not uncommon now to see people spending most of their time interacting through these internet social networks. A mother recounted to me her bewilderment at her observation that her children dislike playing with other kids. They hole up in their rooms and interact instead with cyber friends via the internet.

Once, a mixture of amusement and feeling of alarm overtook me when someone asked me if I would do counseling by texting! Imagine! I was even advised to enroll to ‘unli-texting.’

Today’s gospel recounts the Visitation—Mary visits Elizabeth (Lk 1:39-45). The event is charged with so much joy. Even the infant in Elizabeth’s womb leaped for joy at Mary’s greeting. It is in this event too that Mary herself utters her Magnificat, saying: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit exults in God my savior.” (This is read in the succeeding verses though).

I would like to submit that today’s gospel reading is a good reminder that while technology increases our efficiency in communications, among other things, it cannot substitute the joy brought by the old fashion personal presence and encounter with real people—as in the encounter between Mary and Elizabeth.


In the light of the visitation, the joy generated by such a personal encounter may be understood in two levels: as the joy of caring and as the joy of celebration.

The Joy of Caring. Mary travelled (for four days, according to scholars) in order to take care of her cousin Elizabeth who in her old age was about to give birth to John. Mary’s visit to Elizabeth displays the deep and loving concern that bonds those whom God calls. In demonstrating this loving concern, joy is a natural product. There is joy in serving and caring for one another even though and precisely because this requires personal self-sacrifice and self-giving. I think, this is what is threatened when people settle with the convenient mechanical interaction.

The Joy of Celebration. The people of Israel has been longing for the Messiah to liberate them. There is so much suffering and oppression. Their only hope is the coming of the Messiah. Mary and Elizabeth know what’s going on. They both carry in their womb the fulfillment of the hope of Israel. Their joy then is the joy of celebration. Mary’s visit is meant, more than just to serve her cousin, to celebrate with her the fulfillment of their hope and to share with each other their faith in God’s faithfulness.

The joy of caring and of celebration of hope and faith is at the heart of such a meaningful personal human encounter between Mary and Elizabeth. This is what is lacking in an easy, “safe,” and convenient mechanical interaction of today’s technological era.

I am realizing how little time I have spent visiting families. To care and to celebrate with them. I would have brought more joy to people’s lives and to my own, had I been more up close and personal with people.

How about you? Would you prefer the easy, convenient, mechanical interaction to a real and personal encounter with people and friends? Well, since we all desire true joy in life, it is good to listen to this advent message of joy: the joy of caring and the joy of celebration which can only be had by not being afraid of brushing elbows with real people and getting involve in and identifying with their hopes and prayers.

May our Christmas reunions, with family or with old and new friends, be our own way of doing the visitation. May it all generate much joy as we come together and care for one another and celebrate God’s faithfulness in our lives. Amen.

Dec 11, 2021

The Advent Secret (Gaudete Sunday C)


Do you want to know a secret? How can one truly attain joy? Check this out: JOY means J-esus first, O-thers next, Y-ourself last. Let this “advent secret” be our reflection today, the third Sunday of Advent known as Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete means rejoice. It is from the Latin word gaudium which means joy.

How can we truly rejoice? How can we sing with conviction the popular song that we fondly croon as Christmas arrives-- “Joy to the World”? Let’s try to unravel the secret.

Jesus First. Our hearts are always searching for that which gives joy. Often we look for it in the wrong places and in our passing fancies. We strive hard to gain almost everything the world has to offer: power, honor, riches, pleasure, and what not. Experience will tell that these cannot guarantee a joyful life. We may have gained the whole world but may still feel lost all the more, still wondering about this unexplainable restlessness inside. Great theologians have given an explanation to this: We are created with an inherent orientation towards God. Our hearts are deeply longing for God. Hence, unless Jesus is first in our prioritizing in life, we will never attain joy completely. There will always be a gaping hole in our hearts.

John the Baptist proclaimed the coming of Jesus and God’s Kingdom. In today’s gospel (Lk. 3:10-18), he points to Jesus as the Messiah. “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming…” (v. 16). For John, Jesus is first. John is only the precursor. He does not claim for himself the honor and reverence proper to the Messiah. “I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals” (v. 16). John’s life is at the service of Jesus. He humbly prepares for Jesus’ coming. His whole life points to Jesus. Jesus for John is first.

In this advent season, do we long for Jesus? Should we not re-examine our priorities in life? Do our lives point to Jesus as John’s life did? If our lives do not have joy despite our successes, great are the odds that it is because Jesus does not figure first in our priorities.

Others Next. The joy of having Jesus in our lives has practical implications. Such joy invites us to reach out to others. We are confronted with this question: “What ought we to do?” The crowds asked John the same question, “What then should we do?” (v.10). John’s reply indicates a moral obligation towards others. To the crowds, he gave the instruction to share their clothes and food to those who have none; to the tax collector, to refrain from collecting taxes more than what is prescribed; to the soldiers, to stop extorting and accusing others falsely (v. 11-14).

The world today is teeming with poor and hungry people. Yet the few filthy rich people are wallowing in luxury! Graft and corruption too has become a culture in almost all institutions and politico-economic systems. Abuse of power, be it by public officials or by military around the world, continue to wreak havoc on the life of peoples. John’s message has never been more relevant than today. For this world to find joy, it needs transformation. John’s call is for us to become agents of this change by taking seriously our moral obligation to take care of one another in solidarity and in the spirit of justice and love, respecting each other’s dignity with a special concern for the downtrodden.

Can we truly sing “Joy to the World”? Won’t it be just a wishful thinking? How have we been accomplice to the perpetuation of the suffering of many? Can we then make this season of advent a time to be truly concerned about the needs of others? After all, the joy of having Jesus compels us to share it with one another in solidarity.

Yourself Last. Another clear implication of having Jesus as the priority of our lives has to do with our very own selves. Another question confronts us. After asking “What should we do?” we need to ask, “What should we become?” Being last in the priority does not mean we stop caring about ourselves. No. It means we stop being self-centered which is the root of the world’s misery and, ironically, of our own desolation too. “What should we become?” is a question that compels us to discern God’s intention for our being. Instead of being self-centered, we need to find the center of our being. It is only when we are in touch with the core of ourselves that we know who we really are and hence capable of celebrating true joy—one that runs deep and not just the cheap thrill of our superficial ego trips.

John the Baptist knew who he was. Hence, he saved himself from the illusion of usurping for himself what belonged to the true messiah. With joy he served and died as the humble precursor for that was what God called him to become.

In this season of advent, let us unmask our self-centeredness and courageously embrace our real vocation.

Again to have joy, deep, deep down in our hearts, we have to work on this advent secret: Jesus first, Others next, and Yourself last.

Dec 4, 2021

Preparing for True Christmas (2nd Sunday Advent C)

We are yet into the second week of advent but already some signs of Christmas festivities are starting to be felt early on. Somehow I feel we are cutting short our preparations for the Christmas season. Or more alarmingly perhaps we are losing sight of the true meaning of Christmas. Let me expound this point in the light of the voice in the desert in today’s gospel boldly crying out: “Prepare the way of the Lord.”

I was in a mall for some things I needed. A very familiar song was wafting in the air and caught my attention: “People making list, buying special gifts, taking time to be kind to one and all…” I suddenly missed Michael Jackson. Also, something inside of me was awakened. I began worrying about goodies and stuff to buy as Christmas presents for my family and friends! Then all of a sudden I was made aware of the many attractive gift packages already displayed in every nook and cranny of the mall. I checked them out and they were beckoning me… enticing me… whispering to me… “Buy me.” When I mustered all the remaining courage to resist, a beautiful saleslady approached me. I was afraid she might whisper too. Luckily this time my remaining wits got me off the hook. I managed to quickly compliment her. “Miss, it’s a beautiful hat you’re wearing, huh.” It was Santa’s red hat.

I remember a missionary friend stationed in China. Once he told me how surprised he was to discover one store in the midst of a communist and Buddhist society selling Christmas decorations and stuff. He entered the store. Curiously he looked for a “Belen.” There was none. He approached the store owner and asked for it. “What’s a Belen?” the store owner asked (of course in mandarin). “It’s a manger where Jesus Christ is born.” “Sorry, we don’t have it. Why don’t you buy this stuff instead; I think this is the reason behind Christmas celebration, isn’t it?” The store owner was pointing at the image of Santa Claus and the cute reindeer pulling his sleigh.

This is the problem when we cut short the season of advent. We are bound to fail to heed the voice in the desert shouting: “Prepare the way of the Lord.” We lose sight of the Lord Jesus Christ and all he stands for. We unwittingly welcome Santa Claus and his reindeer instead.

Hence, preparations for Christmas become a matter of putting up external decorations, installing intricate series of lights that beguile us enough to forget the shooting up of our electric bills afterwards. Moreover, preparing for Christmas means shopping! So we demand bonuses as our right, only to spend those in buying things we falsely believe to bring home the spirit of Christmas.

If we don’t take Advent seriously, we uncritically fall into the trap set by the commercial traders who are all too happy to turn this great feast into a materialistic perversion.

I find resonance in the words of the Columban Missionary, Fr. Shay Cullen, in one of his articles: “Many people wrongly measure themselves by what they own, possess and control rather than measuring themselves by their commitment and action in doing good for others. Christmas has become the worship of prancing reindeer and an obese man with a beard rather than the heroic self-sacrificing Jesus of Nazareth and all he stands for.”

We need to recapture the true meaning of Christmas, lest we all condone its degeneration into another of those consumerist festivals. Would you be happy to revise Christmas and call it “consumeristmas” instead?

We see then the import of Advent. The season calls for authentic preparation: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The winding roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Lk 3:4-6).

These are words of the prophet Isaiah which the gospel of today links with John the Baptist’s proclamation of a baptism of repentance. The prophets and John were incessant in their reminder of the need to prepare for the Lord’s coming. They called for repentance.

Hence, preparation during advent, for the people of this generation, is not so much about possession of new things or participation in the consumerist festival. Precisely, it is turning our back to this materialistic propensity. This is the meaning of repentance. It is turning towards Jesus and embracing his values. This is how we prepare the way of the Lord.

Again, in the words of Fr. Shay Cullen:

“Jesus brought into the world a whole new way of viewing the purpose and meaning of human life. It is a challenge for us to choose to serve others, to forget self and worldly ambition, throw aside the perverting desire for wealth, power, riches and to live with simplicity, compassion and care for those in dire need and not do it for a reward in this life or the next. Jesus called for the world to turn from oppressing and exploiting the poor and the weak and to do good, oppose evil ambitions, war, violence and the violation of people's rights.”

Such is what Christmas truly stands for.

So this second Sunday of Advent we may do well to prepare the way of the Lord by examining our uncritical attitude towards the consumerism that’s scandalously undermining the true meaning of Christmas. Well, in simple and direct terms, this means less shopping and buying unnecessary things; but more time for interior readiness to embrace the Lord and serve Him in one another especially in the poor of today.

How have you celebrated Christmas before? Was it Christ-centered or Santa Claus-inspired? Which festival would you want to participate in? Christmas? Or Consumeristmas?

Nov 20, 2021

Allegiance of the Heart (Christ the King B)


Today we give honor to the King of kings—Jesus Christ. On this Feast of Christ the King which signals the end of the liturgical year, it’s fitting to reflect on how we have given honor to him. How have we shown allegiance to our King?

It is one thing to profess in words that Christ is the King; it’s quite another to sincerely order our lives according to what pleases the King. The former act may well be fulfilled by lip-servicing as many of us do actually; the latter requires a great deal of trust and surrender to God’s will. The former may not transform our self-centeredness; the latter can change our value system and way of life, the will of God being at the center.

Have we allowed Jesus to be truly the King of our lives?  And what might this act of surrender imply?

In today’s gospel (Jn 18:33-37) Jesus is in trial in front of Pilate. The exchange between them unfolds the nature of Jesus’ Kingship. “Are you the king of the Jews?” is the question thrown by Pilate to Jesus. The answer to which determines whether or not Jesus is guilty of treason as charged. And Jesus answers obliquely that his “kingdom does not belong to this world.” This implies of course that indeed he is a king but of a different order.

All earthly kings rule in the external public forum--the socio-economic and political affairs-- which is configured by men and governed by them. No. Jesus is King not of that order. His kingdom does not rely on military strategies, or on economic systems, or on political power.

Instead, Jesus is king of the internal forum—the affairs of the heart, the arena of conscience—where the deepest spiritual strivings and the search for the truth transpire. As such, this arena is far superior to the former. The allegiance of the heart is immeasurably more profound than any external public adherence, say, to a political party. Thomas More, for instance, is remembered by his remarks just before his execution: “I die as the king’s true servant, but God’s first.”

Ultimately, the interior adherence to Jesus in faith ought to influence the way we conduct even our external public affairs. This is why even without military personnel and political machinery, Jesus’ kingship is radically transformative—the very reason why the revered people in the corridors of power in his time wanted to get rid of him!

“Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice” (v. 37). This is the statement of our King. Listening to his voice is how we show our allegiance to him. This means allowing Jesus to rule the affairs of our hearts and letting his truth reverberate in every nook and cranny of our conscience. To accept Jesus as king, then, is to be aware of the interior adherence of faith he demands and to actually live by it each day.

But how do we grow in this “interior allegiance of the heart?” How can we truly discern the voice of the King in our lives? Let me suggest three elements adapted from the thoughts of Fr. Thomas Green, SJ, a spiritual director and writer:

A desire to do God’s will. To grow in this interior allegiance to Christ, we ought to cultivate this desire to do his will and to let go of our self-centered whims and caprices. We should desire to accomplish God’s work in our lives. This means that what the Lord wants is more important to us than what we want. If we honestly do not have this desire to do his will, how else can we profess that He is our King other than by lip-servicing?

Openness to God. To genuinely desire God’s will, we must be open to God as he reveals himself in his mysterious, surprising, and even disturbing ways. We must be open to be taught and be led the by the Lord. We must let him be the boss. Isn’t it true that often we approach God with all our preconceptions of him? And we even place him within the limiting confines of our expectations! If the Lord’s will matters to us the most, then these limited and limiting notions of him must give way to openness, letting God be God and truly our King.

A Knowledge of God. We can only know what pleases the Lord when we have known him. This knowledge is not just information about God but our lived experience of him. If we lack this personal and experiential knowledge of God, then we need to grow in this by the help of a spiritual guide or the support of a community who has grown in intimacy with the Lord. Hence, it is essential that we continue to ask the grace of intimacy with the Lord as it is impossible to surrender our lives to a King whom we do not know and care about.

We end this liturgical year with this Feast of Christ the King. Let us strive then, with God’s enabling grace, to listen to God’s voice in the deepest recesses of our hearts and, guided by it, lead a life that is truly pleasing to him.

Nov 1, 2021

Love and Imperfections (All Soul’s Day)

Valentino, my dad, was a good man. He was well known in our town for his availability to serve people in many and varied ways. He was the town's jack-of-all-trades. And he was really good at fixing a lot of things. A Jesuit priest fondly called him “MacGyver” after a TV series character who possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of the physical sciences and solves complex problems with everyday materials he finds at hand. When there was drought in our place, my dad fixed his tractor and with a trailer he would fetch water from a source and deliver some to those who badly needed it. He was everyone's friend, even the kids. He had a heart for the poor; many times, out of compassion, he would secretly give away the medicines from my mother's pharmacy. He was not as religious as many of us, but he trusted in God and feared Him. Later in his life, he devoted some of his time reading the Bible. In no time, he read it from cover to cover! 

But he had his flaws too. He could be impatient and could allow his temper to get the better of him. When he was in the throes of his anger, he could hurt his loved ones with his scathing words. He would not listen and could be unrelenting when he felt he was right.

In short, my father was a good man. But like everyone else, he was not perfect.  He had his share of human faults and weaknesses. Today, on All Soul’s Day, I remember him in a very special way. And I thank God for this day of grace. In a way, the message of today’s feast is that despite our imperfections God’s grace continues to draw everyone to his love.  The Good News we are proclaiming today is that God loves us warts and all and that the love of God does not forsake our departed brothers and sisters even when they somehow failed to measure up to the ideals of Christian perfection.

Some Christians refuse to accept the Catholic teaching on purgatory—because the word does not appear in the Bible! Let us not be trapped in fundamentalism.  The teaching on purgatory is a comforting doctrine and perfectly consistent with the biblical message of God’s mercy and love.  As Catholics we speak of Purgatory as a state of being in which the faithful departed undergo the process of purification, purging away the imperfections and some selfish tendencies due to sin that hinder them from completely embracing God. In this process of purification, the benevolent God responds to the prayers of many to receive all his beloved children into his heavenly banquet.

It is with this belief that we offer our prayers and the celebration of the holy sacrifice of the Mass for our departed loved ones. This practice of praying for the dead has been done already by the early Christians. In his essay on this particular feast, Fr. Eugene Lobo S.J. has this to say: “Tradition tells us that Christians have always been praying for their departed brothers and sisters to remain in communion with them. Early liturgies and inscriptions on catacomb walls attest to the ancientness of prayers for the dead, even if the Church needed more time to develop a substantial theology behind this practice. Praying for the dead is actually borrowed from Judaism, as indicated in the second book of Maccabees.  In the New Testament, St Paul prays for his departed friend Onesiphorus to receive divine mercy as we read in second Timothy. Early Christian writers Tertullian and St. Cyprian testify to the regular practice of praying for the souls of the departed. Tertullian justified the practice based on custom and Tradition, and not on explicit scriptural teaching. The Christians always believed that their prayers could somehow have a positive effect on the souls of departed believers.”

The Benedictine communities during the 6th century held commemorations for the departed on the feast of Pentecost. Later in the year 998, All Souls’ Day became a universal festival because of the influence of Odilo of Cluny who commanded its annual celebration in the Benedictine houses of his congregation. This practice soon spread to the Carthusian congregations as well.   Today all Western Catholics celebrate All Souls’ Day on November 2.

Today, as we join billions of our brothers and sisters in the faith in prayers for the faithful departed, we thank God for the assurance that His love always awaits them our departed loved ones. We thank God for his love and mercy. Today’s celebration is also a reminder for us who are still on our pilgrimage that God offers his love and  awaits our total and complete response.  While on earth, as a pilgrim Church, God invites us to love him and the quality of our response to that love will have significant relevance on Judgment day.

Our gospel reading today (Mt. 25:31-46) reveals to us the standard by which we shall be judged on that day. To those who have proven their love of God by loving and serving the least of our brothers and sisters, the Kingdom of heaven awaits. “Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me” (v.34-36). We do all these acts of love and mercy for God whenever we do these for one of our least brothers and sisters.

God loves us and He invites us to respond to him in love. Yes, we are not perfect but, with God's grace, we can grow towards maturity and perfection as we love God through the least of our neighbors. Let us continue to pray for another and for our departed brothers and sisters. Our prayers testify to our faith in the power of God's grace. It is God's grace that allows us to grow in perfection so that we may all deserve to come to see Him face to face in the heavenly banquet.



Jul 24, 2021

The Lonely God of Miracles (17th Sunday Ordinary B)



I recall a story in my childhood. It’s about the lonely God whose love and friendship was unrequited. The story goes something like this:

Upon a mountain top there lived a kind and gentle God.  He was lonely because people down the village did not mind him. They were all too busy and preoccupied with their books, their many games, and endless meetings.

Day by day the lonely God looked down upon the villagers wanting very much to be their friend. He thought one day, “I must let them know I care.” So each day, he sent a messenger to the village, a pack upon his back, and in the pack are special gifts for every people in the village.

Each day the people ran with open arms to gather the gifts. But soon they grew quite used to being gifted. Some began to grab gifts from the pack, and some even took more than they were meant to have.  Later, people grabbed their gifts and started comparing with one another and complained: “Why is his gift better than mine?!” “This is unfair!” They quarreled over the gifts and, at last, no one remembered from where the gifts had come.

Far up on his mountain top sat God. Day after lonely day he waited for a friendly word, a sign of thanks, a gesture of acknowledgment that he is remembered. But nothing came.  The people waited and quarreled over the gifts but not a single villager ever remembered the God who cared and loved them.

Such is the parable of the lonely God.  In my childhood, with misty eyes I listened to the story wanting so much to go up to the mountain top and give him a hug.

Many times we receive the gift but lose sight of the Giver. This is sad and tragic. God is a God of relationship. He offers his friendship to us. All He desires is for us to experience his great love in that loving relationship with him.  But all too often we get attached to the created things and love these blessings instead of the Creator who offers his love.

Already in the Old Testament, God is revealed as the God of the covenant: “I am your God and you will be my people.” He is a God whose primary concern is to forge a loving relationship with his people. In the New Testament, Jesus manifests the ultimate love of God for his people. He affirms the covenant in an absolute way: “This is my body… This is my blood… the cup of the new and everlasting covenant… Take this… When you do this, remember me.” In Jesus, God gives himself. Not just any other gifts.

Today’s gospel (Jn 6: 1-15) depicts Jesus being followed by a vast crowd because of his power to do miracles. In this gospel episode, Jesus multiplies the five loaves of bread and two fish in order to feed five thousand people. But right after the apostles collected the left over, Jesus withdraws to the mountain alone because the crowd are coming to him to carry him off and make him their king (vv.13-15).

Why does Jesus withdraw? Because the people are after the gifts and not the Giver. They are after the benefits of the miracle and not the God who loves them. Or at most, they want the god of their expectations—the god who will provide for their needs according to their own terms. The god they can manipulate to their advantage.

To hold the people spellbound and astounded by some magical display of power is not the reason why Jesus has performed miracles. His miracles are meant to reveal the love of God—the God who cares… the God who longs to be loved in return.

Now that people seek the benefits of the miracles oblivious of the great love of God for them, Jesus withdraws to the mountain alone. Maybe, shaking his head and feeling lonely.

How often do we also fall into the same trap of wanting the gift and not the giver… of worshiping the god of our expectations and not the God of love himself!

How often we tend to experience a sudden surge of faith in the face of miracles but fail to notice the constant love of God in ordinary events of life!

How much of our prayers is the sort that twists God’s arm for things we need? How less and less do we spend time praying just to be in the loving presence of God? No words… no things to ask… no agenda to advocate… just to “be…” relishing God’s love and responding to it in our hearts.

Next time we pray, let us see to it that we express our love to God. Or maybe, in a contemplative mood, imagine giving God a hug.


Jan 23, 2021

Change of Heart and Mind (3rd Sunday Ordinary B)


One Sunday afternoon, a wife was startled with what she was seeing at home. Her husband was all geared up repainting their house!

“Honey, what are you doing?”  She asked rather tentatively.
“Well, you see, I’m painting our house.”  
“I can see that.  But why? I mean, why this sudden decision to repaint?”
“Well, I figured the preacher at the Church this morning made sense. Don’t you agree with what he said?”
“What part?”
“How could you miss that! He kept on repeating his point: ‘Repaint! The Kingdom of God is at hand!’”

We do have a sense of the imperative to prepare when we are expecting important and great events to come to pass.  Often we tend to bring our full attention to things external to us, keeping them spick and span as much as possible.  Maybe because that’s easier.  But we are missing the point.  We don’t see that what need real change are ourselves and not the color of our walls.  This is all the more true in our social life; we can easily point an accusing finger to others as if to say that there is nothing wrong with us and everything has got to be their fault.  Often we uncritically take it for granted that we are fine; it’s them who need a lot of changing to do.

Today’s readings zero in on the urgent call to repentance.  We may do well to look within us this time and open our hearts to the invitation to a real change in our lives.   

The call to repentance is an invitation to a change of heart and mind. There’s a lot in this line. In the first reading (Jon 3: 1-5, 10), we hear the story of Jonah who was sent by God to the enormous city of Nineveh in order to warn them of an impending destruction.  The Ninevites, who were considered enemies by the Israelites, believed in God and responded to Jonah’s call with penance, fasting, and mortification (v. 5).   Thus, the Lord extended forgiveness to these people as they had manifested what the Lord wished to see, a change of heart.

No matter what our past is, we can find favour with God when He sees our resolve to change our ways. 

The gospel reading (Mk. 1:14-20), allows us to understand what this repentance really means and show us how we can truly change.  The word for repentance in Greek is metanoia which means change of heart and mind. This is not cosmetic change which deals only with the superficial. This is neither selective change which allows only one or more aspects of ourselves, a bad habit for instance, to change and all the rest remain to constitute the same old unhappy self.  

Jesus said, “Repent, and believe in the gospel” (v. 15).  This means two movements: One is to turn away from sin.  “Sin,” in the singular, represents not just one sinful act, but everything that it stands for, in a word, the rejection of God’s love and the mindset and structures that support such a rejection.  This radical turning away is only possible when we embrace the second movement which is the turning toward God.  This means embracing the gospel of love. 

Existentially, we can even say that the turning toward God and his love is the first impulse of change.  Only when we experience and realize first the great value of God’s love and the incomparable joy that the Good News brings that we are empowered to leave behind whatever we have gotten used to as our way of life in this imperfect world. That means, in simple terms, that we abhor our sinful ways only when we discover first the beauty of God’s love.

The first disciples of the Lord were fishermen (v. 16-20).  Fishing was their means of living. They surely lived in such a world—the mindset and value system of fishermen.  But they decided to leave this world behind, the world they were very familiar with, only because the Lord manifested to them a far greater value, a better world where they would no longer be catching fish... but men and women for the Kingdom of God.

In the best-selling Seven Habits of Effective People, Steven Covey’s presentation of his concept of “paradigm shifts” resonates well with the gospel’s radical change of heart and mind. Paradigms are models of our worldviews.  We think and act, or even feel, according to this encompassing mould or map.  Real change happens when we finally change our paradigms.  Covey explains that “if you want to make small improvements, work on your behaviour and attitudes; if you want to make major improvements, shift your paradigm.”

Hence, we can see the call to repentance as an invitation to a paradigm shift in our lives.  Real change happens when we decide with God’s grace to put on the worldview of the gospel and leave behind the seemingly attractive way of life espoused by this sinful world.  Once we do that, our lives, like those of the first disciple of Christ, will never be the same again.

Again, today’s readings invite us to a real change in our lives.  But nothing really changes in us when what we can dare are only the cosmetic and selective changes.  We need to have the courage to surrender ourselves to God’s grace so that we can have a change of heart and mind. The call to repentance can well be our invitation to take a leap from one paradigm to another—from the paradigm of sin to the paradigm of God’s grace.

Jan 16, 2021

Gratitude for our Giftedness (Santo Niño)

This year 2021 we are celebrating a great jubilee for the Church in the Philippines—the 500th year of the coming of Christianity to our beloved land! Already in 2012, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines issued a pastoral letter on the new evangelization to help prepare Catholics for this jubilee year.

“We look forward with gratitude and joy to March 16, 2021, the fifth centenary of the coming of Christianity to our beloved land,” the bishops said in their July 9 letter. “We remember with thanksgiving the first Mass celebrated in Limasawa Island on Easter Sunday March 31 that same blessed year. We remember the baptism of Rajah Humabon who was given his Christian name Carlos and his wife Hara Amihan who was baptized Juana in 1521. Our eyes gaze on the Santo Niño de Cebu, the oldest religious icon in the Philippines, gift of Ferdinand Magellan to the first Filipino Catholics that same year. Indeed the year 2021 will be a year of great jubilee for the Church in the Philippines.”

To prepare the faithful for this year, the bishops announced “a nine-year journey for the New Evangelization,” with a different theme for each year: Integral Faith Formation (2013), The Laity (2014), The Poor (2015), The Eucharist and the Family (2016), The Parish as a Communion of Communities (2017), The Clergy and Consecrated Persons (2018), The Youth (2019), Ecumenism and Inter-Religious Dialogue (2020), and Missio ad gentes [mission to the nations] (2021)

This year then is dedicated as the Year of “Missio ad Gentes”, the Latin for “mission to the nations”.  And we have as an over-all theme during this 500th anniversary celebration—“Gifted to Give,” which recalls the mandate of Jesus: “What you have received as a gift, give as a gift” (Mt 10:8).  This “giftedness” had motivated the missionaries over the centuries to share the gift of faith to us. This same experience of giftedness should also inspire all of us today to engage in mission.

Given this context, the Feast of Santo Nino this year takes on a very special flavour and poses a great challenge to our devotion. In the light of this theme, “Gifted to gift”, let me suggests three invitations for all of us: Gratitude for the gift of faith, Growth in maturity of Faith, Becoming a Missionary in Sharing the gift of faith.

Gratitude for the gift of faith. Today’s second reading (Eph 1:3-6, 15-18) should inspire us to be grateful because of the faith we received. St. Paul writes: “Therefore, I, too, hearing of your faith in the Lord Jesus..., do not cease in giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him” (v.15-17).

Our devotion to the child Jesus has to nurture our gratitude for the gift of faith. The feast of the Santo Niño is particularly significant to us Filipinos because it was the image of the child Jesus that was first instrumental to the introduction of Christian faith to us. When we dance the sinulog step, we recall the joy of Hara Amihan, wife of Rajah Humabon, the ruler of Cebu in 1521, as she danced upon receiving the image of the Santo Niño as baptismal gift from Magellan.

We are celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Christian faith this year! How can this realization not move us to heartfelt thanksgiving? Let our celebration of the Feast of the Santo Niño, then, express our gratitude to God for the gift of our faith.  Gratitude is a sign that we just don’t take our faith for granted but we appreciate it and we are conscious of its value and influence in our personal and communal lives. Gratitude for the gift of faith is recognizing the gratuitousness of God in loving us sinners. When we thank God for the gift of faith, we thank Him because we have Him in our lives. Let our devotion to the child Jesus remind us of this.

Growth in Maturity of faith.  Since the first Holy Mass and baptism in 1521, the seed of Christian faith has blossomed into a strong and gigantic tree of faith.  This year, there are 80+ million Catholics in 16 Archdioceses, 72 Dioceses, 7 apostolic vicariates, 1 Military Ordinariate, and 2,127 parishes!  What a blessing! Yet we continue to take on the challenge of cultivating a mature Christian faith by purifying our popular piety.  Popular piety may have led some people to flock to the image of the Santo Niño for its supposed ‘lucky charm,’ or ‘miraculous powers.’ While it’s a function of faith to trust in God’s providence to answer our human needs, it is bordering onto fanaticism to assign the divine power to the image of a divinity. While we love the image of the child Jesus, for whatever reasons, it is perhaps a form of fixation to see the person of Jesus only as a child.

Our devotion to the Santo Niño has to help us encounter the whole person of Jesus.  In Luke 2: 41-52, the incident of the losing and finding of Jesus reveals that, as a child, Jesus is already concerned about his relationship with his Father. “Why are you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”   His concern as a child to be in His Father’s house tells a lot about Jesus’ commitment to do his Father’s will.  When we see the child Jesus asserting the utmost importance of doing His Father’s work, it should not be difficult for us to see that this is the same person who reaches out to serve the poor, the destitute, and the oppressed.  He is the teacher who teaches us to love one another and instructs us to forgive as the Father in heaven forgives, i.e., seventy times seven times. He is the same person who agonizes in the garden of Gethsemane as He chooses the path of self-sacrifice that His Father’s design may be accomplished. The child Jesus whom we love so much is the Jesus who has saved us through his total obedience unto death on the cross and His glorification in the resurrection.

Beyond the excitement of dancing the Sinulog steps, our devotion to the Santo Niño has to lead us to the joy of mature discipleship and the challenge of being his witnesses in this changed and increasingly secularized milieu.

Becoming a Missionary in Sharing the Gift of Faith. “The Christian faith arrived and prospered in our land through the dedication and heroic sacrifices of thousands of men and women missionaries from various parts of the world. They treasured the gift of faith they had received and desired to share this gift with others. As the theme chosen by the Catholic Bishops‟ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) for this fifth centennial notes: all Christians are “gifted to give.” This “giftedness” motivated generous missionaries over the centuries; it must also enflame the hearts of all of us today to engage in mission here at home and in other countries (mission ad gentes). Indeed, this is part of Jesus‟ mission mandate to his disciples: “What you have received as a gift, give as a gift” (Mt 10:8). We pray for a missionary renewal of our Church—both at home (ad intra) and beyond our borders (ad extra) during our celebration of the 500 years—and into the future! (excerpt from CBCP Pastoral Letter, BECOMING MISSIONARY DISCIPLES).

We are challenged to a heightened awareness of and commitment to our 3-fold mission: prophetic, priestly, and kingly. Let us be missionary in the family, in our neighbourhood and BECs, in our parishes, offices, institutions we are serving either in private or public service, in our businesses and even in the market place.

We recall the challenge of Pope John Paul II during his 1981 visit to our Church: “I wish to tell you of my special desire: that the Filipinos will become the foremost missionaries of the Church in Asia.” This is a clear invitation to engage in missio ad gentes!

May this year of Missio ad Gentes bring us all into a deeper commitment to becoming missionaries. As Pope Francis exhorts: “Every Christian is a missionary to the extent that he or she has encountered the love of God in Christ Jesus: we no longer say that we are “disciples‟ and “missionaries,‟ but rather that we are always “missionary disciples‟” (EG 120).

Jan 9, 2021

Identity and Mission (Baptism of our Lord B)


(grabbed from http://elcaandy.blogspot.com)
After an exhausting hectic schedule of activities during the Christmas season, a parish priest and his parochial vicar felt they needed a break like going, perhaps, to a place where they can enjoy their peace and quiet. So, they talked about their options. To cut the story short, they ended up in Boracay! Not bad. To maximize their resting experience, they decided to be anonymous. So they sported clothes usually worn by tourists. When they were there lying on the beach with their sunglasses on, a gorgeous lady in a sexy two-piece red bikini was passing by. But they were surprised because the lady hesitated but greeted them: “Hello there, good morning… enjoy the day… FATHERS.” They were taken aback! How did this lady recognize them as priests! They thought of changing their outfits. So they rushed to the nearest store to buy new sets of more daring clothes! The next morning they were again seated on the sand enjoying the lovely view. Again this same sexy lady was passing by. The two priests were confident that they would no longer be recognized. The lady passed by. Greeted them: “Have a nice day… FATHERS!” The parish priest called out: “Hey, miss. Yes, we are priests but how on earth did you recognize us?” The lady smiled. Took off her sunglasses and said, “Oh… Fathers… you didn’t recognize me… I’m Sister Rebecca.”

Where does our identity lie? Is it in the clothes we wear? Or more precisely to the point I would like to make, where does our Christian identity lie? Is it in the Christian name we carry? Is it in the documents we bring along with us? Perhaps the baptismal certificate?  Or in the fact that we are present in the festive church activities like the Misa de Gallo perhaps? Or later, holy week activities?

Several years ago, I participated in the tabulation and analysis of the result of the survey done in Mindanao in preparation for the Mindanao-Sulu Pastoral Conference (MSPC). And one of the significant observations that came out of the survey was the phenomenon which had been brought out by PCP II already in 1991-- the phenomenon of nominal Catholicism. Nominal. Nombre. Name. In other words, Catholics in name only! These are baptized Catholics. They are baptized but, alas, not evangelized. They bear Christian names and documents but they have not allowed the euangelion--- the gospel-- to shape their lives. No wonder, the Philippines enjoys the dignity of being the only Christian country in Asia, while all at the same time topping the ranks of the most corrupt ones!

The Feast of the Baptism of our Lord today allows us to realize that there is more to baptism than just receiving a name and that if we just all understood the meaning of our baptism and we live by it, we would not be confronted with this phenomenon of nominal Catholicism.  Let us then examine the event of the baptism of our Lord and see what it teaches us as regards our own baptism and identity as Christians.

In today’s gospel (Mk. 1:7-11), Jesus was baptized by John and a voice was heard from the heavens, “You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (v. 11). This is a confirmation of Jesus’ own discernment about who he is. In Mark's gospel, which does not have Jesus' infancy narrative, it is on Jesus' baptism that Jesus' divine sonship is manifested for the first time. His baptism. therefore, is the moment of revelation about his true identity. On his baptism, Jesus confirms that He is the Son of God.

Connected to this identity is his mission as the Messiah.  On this same event of his baptism, Jesus was anointed by the Spirit who descended upon Him like a dove (v. 10).    He was anointed as the Messiah who would bring the good news of the Kingdom of God. In Luke's gospel, after Jesus' baptism, Jesus would stand in the synagogue and proclaim that the Spirit of the Lord is upon him and anointed him to bring good news to the poor. To give sight to the blind, to set the captives free… (Lk 4: 18).

Jesus baptism reveals to him both his identity and his mission. My dear friends, our baptism is a baptism after that of the Lord’s. Hence, like the baptism of our Lord, our baptism confers us with identity and mission. In baptism, we become sons and daughters of God in Christ. What a great dignity! An identity that will always be there whether we are on vacation or not. Have we lived up to such greatness of dignity? Do I show in my way of living the fact that I am God’s son or daughter?

Connected to this dignified identity is the Christian mission. Our baptism confers us with the threefold mission of Christ--priestly, prophetic, and kingly missions. As priests, we are sent to sanctify our families and communities through our prayer and worship, As prophets, we are sent to proclaim with joy to the whole world the Good News of God’s love and to denounce with courage the destructive influence of evil. As kings, we are sent as humble servants to journey with the poor, to help provide for the deprived, and to work for the empowerment of the oppressed. Have I embraced my mission with joy and dedication?

Today we start the first week in ordinary time. I think this is the real challenge: Our baptism has to be lived out not just in the peak moments of our Church life. We have to be faithful to our identity and mission day after day! And this is because our Christian faith does not take a leave. Christian faith is not contained in papers. Christian faith is a lifestyle. It is a way of life--whether we are at work or we are enjoying our peace and quiet in some exotic place.