Burning Our Boats (13th Sunday Ordinary C)

The world has known Alexander the Great and his powerful army for their fierceness in battles and awesome victories.  For years, they had confidently overcome opposing armies in their conquests.  Legend has it that when Alexander and his men disembarked on the shores of Persia they realized that they were outnumbered. Feeling less confident because they were clearly outmanned, Alexander’s army pleaded to retreat in order to get more men.  But Alexander’s response was quite the opposite of their plea.  He ordered his men to burn their boats! And when their boats, their only means of retreat, went up in flames, Alexander turned to his men and said, “We go home in Persian ships, or we die!”

This is an awesome display of unwavering determination.  To burn one’s boat signifies total commitment to one’s purpose—No more turning back. No more other options to consider. One must go ahead, come hell or high water, and fulfill to the best of one’s ability what one has set out to do. No retreat, no surrender. Do or die!

Today’s gospel reading (Lk 9:51-62) depicts this same unwavering determination on the part of Jesus as He decides to begin his journey to Jerusalem.  And in this context too, the Lord reveals what is demanded of those who wish to follow him in this journey.  Hence, today’s gospel reading is an invitation for us to reflect on the demands of discipleship. Let us bring out, then, and reflect on three demands that the Lord clearly put forth for those who muster their courage to follow the Lord.

Sacrifice.  “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head” (v. 58). This Semitic expression used by the Lord as his reply to the one who wish to follow him means that the disciple must be ready to sacrifice his own comfort and security. Discipleship is a journey. No one sets out on a journey with the Lord without leaving his own comfort zone. One has to let go of his security and face the uncertainties and the element of the unknown inherent in the journey.  Jesus’ own journey to Jerusalem is not a leisurely walk of a tourist in vacation.  In Jesus’ case, Jerusalem is not a tourist destination; rather, it represents his suffering and death as fulfillment of his saving mission. Every step he takes is a confirmation of his willingness to sacrifice everything, even his life, in order to fulfill his mission.

Do we have the courage to sacrifice our own comfort and security in order to follow Christ? Can we forget ourselves in order to take care of those who are suffering, the sick, the elderly, and the orphaned? Can we sacrifice what we have in order to share to those in need? Can we give up our precious time in order to lend an ear to those who are lonely and grieving?

Prioritization of the Kingdom of God. “Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God” (v. 60). We do have valid human concerns and we do value our relationships and family ties. But even these should not hinder us from doing our mission. The proclamation of the reign of God must be the priority of a disciple of Christ. Our human concerns and relationships take a secondary value. Jesus himself was consumed by nothing else but his passion for the reign of God. Everything for him, his family, his own personal concerns, was secondary. It is the proclamation of the reign of God that was central to his mission and gave direction to his own life.

In the face of growing secularization today, do we still see, in our lives, the values of the Kingdom God taking precedence over the values of this world? In the moments of significant decision-making in life, do we decide in favor of and in accordance with the values of God’s Kingdom? Or have we now put on the securalist mindset subscribing to the values of this world which seem to be more practical and attractive?

Single-minded Commitment. “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God” (v. 62). In other words, a disciple must make an unswerving commitment to his mission. Discipleship demands this single-mindedness. The Lord asks his followers to “burn their boats” as they disembark onto the shore of discipleship.  Like Alexander’s army, the Lord’s disciples have to face the challenges ahead unfazed and with a resolute commitment to win the battle. There is no turning back. Jesus himself has shown in today’s gospel that he was “resolutely determined” to journey to Jerusalem where the paschal mystery, his death and resurrection, was to happen.

Today we all deem it wise and practical to always have a back-up plan for any kind of engagement we enter into. In effect, we have wired failure into our subconscious.  We put forward one foot but we keep the other foot on safer ground “just in case.” We have become half-hearted in our commitments. We easily back off when the going gets rough and tough; hence, all the more that we experience failure.  The Lord sees a half-hearted disciple unfit for the kingdom of God. The Lord wants us to journey with him wholeheartedly. Single-mindedly.  In our journey with the Lord, are we keeping some back-up plans? Are we still vacillating? The gospel today asks us that, once and for all, we follow the Lord with undivided commitment. We are asked, as Alexander the Great asked his men, to burn our boats.

Sharing Even the Last Bread (Corpus Christi C)

What can five loaves and two fish do? How can these ever satisfy the hunger of the multitude? Five loaves and two fish for the five thousand men?!  Not to mention women and children who were most likely among the crowd! Impossible!

This must have been the thoughts of the apostles in today’s gospel (Lk 9: 11b-17) as they counselled Jesus to dismiss the crowd that they might find their own lodging and provisions.  The feeling of helplessness and resignation must have dominated the apostles’ attitude:  Helplessness because of the obvious poverty of resources in the face of so great a need; and resignation because they felt no longer capable of addressing the crowd’s hunger. The need was simply beyond what they thought they could handle, so they opted for the easy solution—“dismiss the crowd” (v. 12).

This temptation to feel helpless and resigned is indeed very strong whenever we are confronted with the problem of having to come to terms with so little resources for so great a need.  I had the opportunity to start a parish from out of a rural chapel community. Right away as I began the journey with the people, I was made aware of so many things to be done which required, of course, resources.  Indeed, there were times when we were tempted to feel helpless whenever we realized we have very little to start with.  It wasn’t difficult to wonder, as the Lord’s apostles did, what can five loaves and two fish do in the face of all the needs.

Sharing overcomes poverty. But the gospel today not only assures us that we are not left alone in our poverty but also shows us the secret to overcoming the needs of the community.  As an assurance, Jesus does not dismiss the hungry crowd to fend for themselves. Rather, the gospel recounts that after gathering the people, Jesus takes, blesses, breaks, and gives the five loaves and two fish to the crowd to satisfy everyone present and even amazes them with the abundant surplus afterwards. Jesus takes whatever we can offer even out of our poverty, blesses them and does his marvelous works out of them.  Jesus brings us out of the helplessness of our poverty and assures us of the unlimited abundance that he offers. The secret: He starts by asking what we have to offer. The secret to abundance is sharing even whatever little we have.

Are we willing to offer him the last bread and fish that we have? Or do we hold on to our limited resources to make sure we have something left for ourselves albeit little?

I am more and more convinced that any form of poverty in any community is fundamentally rooted in the unwillingness of the individuals to share what they are keeping for themselves. There’s a lot of wisdom in our erstwhile national slogan, “Bayan muna bago sarili.” We could have been enjoying in abundance now had we truly lived by the maxim. Instead, starting from our public leaders down to the hoi poloi, what we tend to do is to make sure that we get for ourselves or our families and clan whatever is up for grabs.  “Sarili muna bago ang bayan.” Isn't this complete disregard of the common good in favor of our selfish agenda which serves as the sturdy backbone of the poverty in many of our communities?

Becoming a Eucharistic Community. The gospel today recounting the multiplication of bread and fish alludes to the last supper event when Jesus instituted the Eucharist.  His four acts, taking, blessing, breaking, and giving are common to these two events. So more than just a recounting of Jesus’ miraculous acts of multiplication of the bread, the gospel today is a catechesis on the Eucharist. The community that Jesus founded is essentially a Eucharistic community. A community that gathers, celebrates, and makes present the self-sacrificing act of Jesus at the last supper. Jesus offered to the Father not just any bread. What He took, blessed, broke, and gave was no longer an ordinary bread but the bread of life—his body, his very self.

What do we have to offer? Jesus wants us to offer even the last bread that we keep. It is little for sure. But it doesn't matter. What matters is that we offer the little that we have for the good of the community we belong to just as He offered himself for the sake of the many.

A Eucharistic community will always be one that transcends self-centeredness, one whose members are willing to do some acts of self-sacrifice... of “breaking” oneself to be “given” to others.

Hence, the Solemnity of Corpus Christi today is a renewal of our commitment as a Eucharistic community where the miracle of our Lord continues to happen. And the miracle is this: that each one of us is willing to give whatever one has, even one’s very self, for the good of the community just as Jesus does.  Then, we can be the joyful witnesses of the amazing left-over and abundance of God’s grace more than enough to dispel our sense of helplessness and our defeatist resignation.

A Trying-Hard God (Trinity Sunday C)

Reciprocity is an essential element in loving. Love cannot thrive in isolation. It naturally transcends itself and seeks and reaches out to a beloved and yearns for reciprocity for its fulfillment.  An unreciprocated love grieves in pain and may eventually perish; if not, it endures the agony of rejection in silence like a mother weeping in secret because of her ungrateful child. But when love is reciprocated, it celebrates with joy.  It throbs with life. It turns itself into a powerful creative force. It becomes life-giving.

God as Trinity of Love.  God is love; and the best way to appreciate this truth is to see it in terms of a dynamic reciprocity of loving within God’s self. One of the analogies presented by St. Augustine for an understanding of the mystery of the Trinity, albeit not his favorite, is the analogy of interpersonal love.  Love requires a Lover, a beloved, and the reciprocal bond of love that unites them. The Infinite Lover, whom we call in human language, Father, reaches out to the object of his self-transcending love, the Beloved whom we call Son. The Son, in turn, eternally reciprocates the Father’s love, hence, giving rise to the mutual love that unites them. We understand this bond of love as the Holy Spirit. Thus, God is a Trinity of love. As such, God’s love is not static. It is dynamic as it is an eternal movement of reciprocal loving.

God’s dynamic self-transcending love provides the ground for God’s creative act and God’s self-revelation. Simply put, God created us and revealed God’s self to us because He is love, because it is love’s greatest joy and desire to share and care for another. Today’s readings point to these two acts of the Triune God-- creation and revelation.

Trinity’s Creative Act and Self-Revelation. The first reading (Prov 8:22-31) alludes to the eternal presence and role of the Holy Spirit in God’s creative act.  Proverb’s personification of wisdom finds her present with God in the entire process of creation. As the wisdom of God, in the language of the Old Testament, the Spirit was with God before the creation of the earth, water, mountains and hills. When the Lord established the heavens, made firm the skies, fixed the foundations of the earth, and set the limits of the sea, the Spirit was there “beside” the Lord as his craftsman (v. 30).

The gospel reading (Jn 16: 12-15), on the other hand, illustrates the Trinitarian act of revelation.  Jesus, the Son, is the Father’s revelation. Everything that the Father has is possessed by the Son.  It is this “truth” that Jesus has spoken of and nothing more.  The Holy Spirit, the Advocate, as promised by the Lord, serves two important functions: to enlighten the disciples in the fuller understanding of Jesus and his revelation; second, to glorify Christ as the sole mediator, the “truth” of God.

Solemnity of the Most Blessed Trinity.  Today’s solemnity allows us to appreciate the truth that God is a Trinity of Love.  And out of love, God acts as a Trinity first in creating the world, the universe, and us. And as if it were not enough, He not only created us, He revealed Himself to us through God’s Word, Jesus Christ, and through the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit.

What I see amazes me tremendously.  God has gone out of his way creating us and revealing Himself to us because He is love. His desire is to reach out to us and share God’s life.  God desires to be in relationship with us his people because it is love’s nature. In the book of John, God always does the initiative in loving. God has loved us first. He is a God who offers his love and He is really trying hard.  We probably believe that God does not need us because He is self-sufficient.  So, all too often, we don’t’ take seriously his offer of love.  On this Trinity Sunday, we see a trying-hard God, a God who has done everything in his power to manifest his love to us. We ought to understand, as God’s image and likeness, that when love is offered, it longs for reciprocity.  When it is reciprocated, it rejoices; when ignored or rejected, it grieves. God, I believe, longs for all creation to accept and respond to his offer of love.  No wonder that the Lord Jesus always exclaim that there is much rejoicing in the heavens when a sinner comes back to God’s embrace.

No wonder, too, from among the hundreds of commandments, Jesus points quite easily to the most important of all to guide us: First, love of God and, second, love of neighbor.   The Kingdom of God in its fulfillment is undoubtedly characterized by this dynamic reciprocity of loving, which is, after all, the very nature of the Triune God.

This Sunday, let us heighten our awareness of God’s offer of love.  Our God, the Triune God, longs that we love him in return.  When we are not ready, know that He, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, will do everything to draw us close to Him until we love him freely.  He is a God who really tries hard.