Mary, the Mother of God, our Mother Too

A 34-year-old mother and her 3-year-old child were rescued by fishermen after three days of drifting at sea. They had been washed away with their house to the sea by a strong current of flood in Misamis Occidental in the eve of Christmas (2022). I saw the news on TV when the mother was interviewed.  I was moved by her courage to survive and her determination to save her 3-year-old child. The raft they used broke many times, so she desperately tried to look for other wood to cling on to. She took care of her child while adrift at the open sea for three days. She would look around for any edible item floating near her. They fed on fruits and fish.  When her child was thirsty she managed to reach for a coconut. I wonder how she was able to break it so that her child could drink from it. Well, a mother always finds a way to take care of the needs of her child even in the most desperate of times.

When our mother is around we feel safe. Even in difficult times, we still can have our sense of security because we know that our mother is there taking care of us. Our mother always finds a way… because she cares. She would do whatever it takes for our sake.

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary as Mother of God at the beginning of the New Year. Mary is the “Mother of God” because she is the mother of Jesus, the God-Man. You see, God himself needed a Mother! And how much more so do we!  Mary is our mother too. Jesus himself gave her to us, from the cross: “Behold your mother!” (Jn 19:27). He said this to the beloved disciple and to every disciple.

We begin our journey this New Year with a confidence that we are accompanied by our Mother.  No matter what happens, no matter what lies ahead, we feel safe; we walk unafraid because we have a Mother who cares. Life nowadays is becoming harder for most of us. Rising inflation coupled by frequent calamities! And there seems to be no clear plan how to get out of this as a people. We can easily feel orphaned, left to fend for ourselves. Yet today’s celebration invites us not to lose heart but to trust that we are guided and accompanied by a Mother who cares.

Mary, the Mother of God and our Mother too, can guide and accompany us in our difficult journey by strengthening our faith in God’s goodness despite the many and varied forms of suffering we experience each day. In today’s gospel reading (Lk 2:16-21), Mary illustrates for us the right attitude in facing difficult realities in life. Mary has to face her own difficulties but with the strength of a mature faith.  In the words of Pope Francis, Mary had to endure “the scandal of the manger.” What is this? This refers to the unexpected event of the Son of the Most High being born in the lowliness of a manger.  Mary had received the message of an angel, who spoke to her solemnly about the throne of David: “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David” (Lk 1:31-32). How come that Mary ended up giving birth to the Son of God in a crib for animals? How can Mary reconcile the glory of the Most High and the humility of a stable? As a mother, Mary would have wanted her child to be in a much better place. She could have complained. But we see in the Gospel reading that Mary remains silent and pensive:  Mary “kept all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Lk 2:19).

Mary teaches us to face our own troubling situations with this attitude: to keep and to ponder. When what we expect and maybe ardently prayed for turns out to be far from the reality, Mary our Mother invites us to profit from this discord and to grow more in faith by way of keeping and pondering. (The following beautiful explanation is taken from the words of Pope Francis).

First, Mary “keeps.” “She holds on to what happens; she does not forget or reject it. She keeps in her heart everything that she saw and heard. The beautiful things, like those spoken to her by the angel and the shepherds, but also the troubling things: the danger of being found pregnant before marriage and, now, the lowly stable where she has had to give birth. That is what Mary does. She does not pick and choose; she keeps. She accepts life as it comes, without trying to camouflage or embellish it; she keeps those things in her heart.”

Second, Mary “ponders.”  “The Gospel speaks of Mary “bringing together,” comparing, her different experiences and finding the hidden threads that connect them. In her heart, in her prayer, she does exactly that: She binds together the beautiful things and the unpleasant things. She does not keep them apart, but brings them together.  And in this way she discerns their greater meaning, from God’s perspective. In her mother’s heart, Mary comes to realize that the glory of the Most High appears in humility; she welcomes the plan of salvation whereby God must lie in a manger. She sees the divine Child frail and shivering, and she accepts the wondrous divine interplay between grandeur and littleness.”

Mary keeps and ponders.

Brothers and Sisters, we are at the threshold of a new year. Our Mother invites us to look back into the year we are bidding goodbye to. Surely, there were troubling experiences that we have faced. Maybe some of them still disturb us, maybe even challenging our faith. With Mary our Mother, we can review them with the same attitude she has illustrated in the gospel—keeping and pondering. This is the way to grow towards maturity of our faith.

As we cross the threshold to another year, we start our journey with confidence despite the glaring signs of a possibility of a hard and challenging life ahead. We are confident because we have Mary, Mother of God and our Mother too accompanying us and reminding us always not to be anxious but to trust in God’s wisdom and goodness.

And Dwelt Among Us (Christmas A)

I recall an anecdote about a helpless man in a pit:

A man fell into a dark, dirty pit, and he tried to climb out but he couldn't. A wise man of old came along. He saw the man in the pit and said, 'Poor fellow. If he had listened to what I have taught, he never would have fallen in.' And he left. Then a religious self-righteous man came along and saw the man in the pit and said, "Poor fellow.

  This certainly happens only to sinners. He deserves this after all." And he left. Soon after, a very spiritual man came along, saw the man in the pit and said, "Poor fellow. I'll certainly pray for him." And he too left. Then Jesus Christ came and said, 'Poor fellow!' And He jumped into the pit and showed him the way out.

Christmas is not simply the celebration of the birth of the baby Jesus, but the awesome mystery of the Incarnation of God. In the gospel reading today (Jn 1:1-18), which is the beginning of the gospel of John, we are told about this eternal Word who is God; and this Word became flesh and dwelt among us. In Jesus, God pitched his tent among us and remains among us as a human being forever. But why was it necessary for Jesus to come in the flesh? Why did the God who created the heavens and the earth have to take on human form?

Or as in the language of the story above, why did Jesus have to jump into the pit in order to save the helpless man? Let me reflect with you on three reasons:

“The Word became flesh” to reveal the Father. Today’s gospel reading ends with this passage: “No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, has revealed him” (v. 18).

Jesus is the Word of God. By becoming man, He has revealed to the world the character of God. God is our Father!  With this, Jesus has shown us the depth of God’s love and mercy. Before Christ’s revelation, the idea of seeing God in this familiar image of a Father was not easily accepted. In Old Testament times, God was seen as holy, almighty, and transcendent God.   But Jesus came and taught us to call God “Abba!”  This was definitely a paradigm shift.

This truth provides hope for the helpless man in the pit—us. God is the God of love and mercy! Salvation is the Father’s only desire for us.  Thanks to the Word-made-flesh, we have come to know God the Father who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son in order to save us from this dark and dirty pit of sin.

He “dwelt among us” to reveal who we are & how to live fully as human. “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God^,” (v. 12). 

Not only did Jesus reveal who God is, He revealed to us who we are—our identity. We are God’s children! The Word taking on our human form shared with us this same humanity. Jesus was and is part of this human fraternity. By becoming man, Jesus became our brother. In Jesus we have become adopted children of God, the Father.

And as such, we ought to live as God’s children. How? Through the example of our Lord: “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you” (Jn 13:15).  Jesus lived among us. He was born of a mother and grew up in a normal way—from childhood to a teenager then into adulthood.  He gave his life to his public ministry culminating to his death and resurrection.  In all these, he was setting an example for us to emulate.  He showed us the way to live fully for He was the Way-- He taught us how to pray, how to love, how to care, how to forgive, how to trust in God.   He had shown us everything we needed to see in order to live as children of God.    

The eternal Word became flesh to carry us out of the dark pit of sin.  ^“In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (vv. 4-5).

God has burst, in the person of Jesus as our light, into the darkness of our human condition, to lead all people back home to him. But getting out of the dark pit of sin requires a sacrifice for atonement.  In the Old Testament, the blood of animals was sacrificed on the altar for atonement.  But that was only for a temporary atonement and had no lasting eternal effect. What would be required for our definitive redemption was a greater sacrifice which is what Christ became. “He personally carried our sins in His body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness; for by His wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24). This is why the eternal Word had to take on human form. There was no other way he could carry our sins and carry us out of the dark pit of sin.
 

So, brothers and sisters, when we exchange gifts this Christmas, it ought to remind us of the greatest gift we have received: the eternal Word who became man to reveal to us the Father’s love and to redeem us from this dark pit of sin.

Joseph’s Magnanimous Heart (4th Sunday Advent A)

Joseph is another important Advent figure as attested to by today’s gospel account of “The annunciation to Joseph.” Let us train our gaze onto him and be edified by his display of a magnanimous heart as he participates in the preparation of the coming of the Messiah.

Let me recall first a romantic film, Till I Met You. In this movie, Gabriel (Robin Padilla) and Luisa (Regine Velasquez) meet in the hacienda of Señor Manuel (Eddie Garcia). Gabriel is the trusted right-hand man of the haciendero, Señor Manuel and he has only deep respect for the generous old man; he loves him as his own father because Manuel has supported him since his childhood. Now, Gabriel slowly falls in love with Luisa as he knows her better even her wounded past. But Luisa is staying there in the hacienda in preparation for her wedding with Señor Manuel. Should Gabriel fight for his love and pursue the lovable Luisa? Or should he forget about his feelings out of his deep respect for the old man?

In Filipino, we have a word for giving up something precious to oneself for the interest of someone else whom one deeply cares about—pagpaparaya. Of course, Gabriel cannot betray the old man whom he respects deeply. Kailangan niyang magparaya. So, he painfully decides not to get in the way between Luisa and Señor Manuel.

In today’s gospel (Mt 1:18-24), we can view Joseph’s reaction to his knowledge about Mary’s virginal conception as an act of “pagpaparaya”—giving up the love of his life out of deep reverence for God. Verse 19 states, “Joseph, being a just man… resolved to send her away quietly.” Joseph could not take as his wife a woman whom God had chosen to be his own. Fr. Nil Guillemette, SJ explains: The “justice” of Joseph is a religious justice and prevents him from stepping in uninvited into God’s plan of salvation by assuming the paternity of the Messiah.”

Yet, in a dream, Joseph got invited into this huge plan of salvation. The angel Gabriel announced to him the mystery of incarnation: “Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. She has conceived by the Holy Spirit, and now she will bear a son.” Part of this mystery was his role in this great plan: “You shall call him ‘Jesus’ for he will save his people from their sins” (v. 20-21). To this, Joseph responded with willingness.

What stands out in this gospel reading is Joseph’s magnanimous heart. This is shown in two ways: In his selfless love and in his committed love.

Joseph’s Selfless Love. Joseph loved Mary. His love for her was never possessive. When he learned of Mary’s pregnancy and, perhaps, of Mary’s own explanation even before the dream, Joseph was willing to let her go. Not with a bitter heart but a magnanimous heart seeking only whatever is good for his beloved and maintaining deep reverence for God’s plan. Handang magparaya. Letting go of something or someone very precious to oneself for a better cause calls for a magnanimous heart. It’s an act of selfless love.

Kaya ko bang magparaya? Do I have what it takes to give up something dear to me for a greater cause without turning bitter? We are all called to love. Loving in its essence is selfless. Yet, many a times we suffer from fixation to our childish neediness. To survive as a child, we necessarily demand attention and care for ourselves for we live in total dependence on others. But we need to outgrow the needy child in us; for we are called to become mature people capable of loving selflessly. This Advent season, try to think of yourself less and less and reach out to those who are in need. Give up something precious to you for the sake of another whom you care about. Pray for the grace of selfless love.

Joseph’s Committed Love. While Joseph was willing to let Mary go very carefully as not to disgrace her, he was magnanimous in yet another way as he manifested willingness to commit himself to God’s purpose. When the angel Gabriel announced to him his important role to be the legal father of Jesus by the act of naming him, He willingly obeyed. He saw his own purpose in life. God had chosen him for this. It was not a coincidence that he was a descendant of David; his acceptance conferred the same Davidic lineage to Jesus, thus, fulfilling what had been prophesied about the Messiah who was to come from the line of David.

Joseph is great because he embraced with a committed love his God-designated purpose in life. We are called to the same greatness too. To lead a great life is to live according to the purpose God has designated for each one of us. No one among us is an accident. God is not a clumsy Creator. He is the God of order and harmony and of wise designs. He has a purpose for his every act. He has a purpose for each one of us. Our task is to discern, by reflection, by self-examination, or even through our dreams, what on earth are we here for? And then like Joseph, may we have a big heart to embrace our own calling.

To end, let’s go back to the film: Señor Manuel and Luisa are preparing now for their wedding. Gabriel is willing to sacrifice his love for Luisa. Little did he know, Señor Manuel has known Gabriel’s feelings and the sacrifice he and Luisa are willing to take. The good old man, then, declares that there’s not going to be a wedding. He knows that Luisa and Gabriel, these two persons dear to him, will be much happier and fulfilled together. So the story ends with another person’s display of a magnanimous heart. It’s edifying to watch a great person.

This Advent season, let us aspire to be great, like Joseph, by cultivating a magnanimous heart—a heart willing to love and lose for a greater cause and a heart willing to love and embrace the purpose God has set for our lives.

The Joy of the Gospel (Gaudete Sunday A)

One day, I was home for a short break, my 5-year old nephew seemed to be restless moving around the house. Finally, he mustered his courage to approach me and whispered something to me. “What did you say?” I clarified. He said a bit louder, “tablet.” He was asking for a gift, and he wanted to have a Samsung tablet for him to play with! OMG! I explained to him that it was quite expensive, that I did not even have one for myself, and that I didn’t think he was ready for it. He seemed to have understood me and did not bother me anymore about it.

The following day my mother approached me and asked me, “what’s a tablet?” Apparently, my nephew had asked her too for the same gift and my mother, without thinking twice, said yes! So, the kid had been jumping for joy until he realized that my mother was taking him to Mercury Drug to grant his wish.

Are you one of those who seek joy in the thousand forms of pleasures offered by today’s technological smart gadgets? Here’s a better way of having joy in life: The joy of the gospel.

Gaudete Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent, invites us to rejoice and to experience what truly gives joy from within. Our liturgy bids us rejoice not because of any sophisticated gift that we received but because of the gift of the salvation that has come through and in Jesus Christ. The readings today remind us of the fulfillment of the prophetic promise of salvation in the person of Jesus Christ and the joy that accompanies this fulfillment.

The first reading for instance (Is 35:1-6a, 10), speaks of the salvation, comfort and healing that is promised to take place in the messianic era accompanied by everlasting joy for those who are ransomed:

“Be strong, fear not! Here is your God; he comes with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing. Those whom the Lord has ransomed will return and enter Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy” (v. 4-6, 10).

Moreover, the gospel reading (Mt 11:2-11) affirms the advent of the promised Messianic era in Jesus Christ.  Asked by John’s emissaries of his identity, i.e. whether or not he is the Messiah, Jesus in affirmation pointed them to the very signs which the Prophet Isaiah spoke of:

“Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them” (v. 5).

Clearly then our readings illustrate to us the fulfillment of the promise of salvation in Jesus Christ. This is the Good News. This is what brings joy to everyone.  This is the joy of the Gospel which Pope Francis speaks of in his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium. Inspired by this exhortation, allow me to offer three ways of experiencing true joy which our smart gadgets cannot give:

The joy of being loved and forgiven.  Experience will tell us that ultimately there is no joy in the path of consumerism. Pope Francis affirms this in his apostolic exhortation when he recognizes as a great danger in today’s world “the desolation and anguish born of a complacent yet covetous heart, the feverish pursuit of frivolous pleasures, and a blunted conscience.”  In such desolation, God is no longer heard, “the quiet joy of his love is no longer felt and the desire to do good fades” (EG, 2).

What brings back the joy is a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ.  In Jesus we experience the infinite love and mercy of God.  Even if we have shunned God’s love over and over again, the Lord awaits our return to him. He is never tired of forgiving us; His boundless and unfailing love restores our joy and makes it possible for us to lift up our heads and to start anew (EG, 3). Let us then hear God’s invitation and allow him to love us and to embrace us back in his mercy.

The joy of sharing the gospel.  This renewed encounter with God’s love liberates us from our narrowness and self-absorption. It propels us to offer our lives in the task of evangelization.  As Pope Francis explains, “For if we have received the love which restores meaning to our lives, how can we fail to share that love with others?” (EG, 8).

This is the joy of the mission to evangelize or to proclaim the good news of God’s love and mercy. And the Pope wishes that “the world of our time, which is searching, sometimes with anguish, sometimes with hope,l be enabled to receive the good news not from evangelizers who are dejected, discouraged, impatient or anxious, but from ministers of the Gospel whose lives glow with fervour, who have first received the joy of Christ” (EG, 10).

The joy of remembering. The joy of evangelizing always arises from grateful remembrance. The believer is essentially “one who remembers”. Hence, this invitation for the new zeal for evangelization does not mean forgetting our living history but returning to the source in order to recover the original freshness of the Gospel and to express it with more eloquent words with new meaning for today’s world (EG, 11).

Memory is an essential dimension of our faith.  Our celebration of the Eucharist is “the Church’s daily remembrance of, and deeper sharing in, the event of Jesus’ Passover” (EG, 13).  As we approach Christmas, let us bring our families together to experience the joy of remembering our Lord as we celebrate joyfully our Christmas liturgy.

Have you found joy in life? The search has probably been long and even frustrating especially if you have been religiously listening to advertisements. This consumerist formula for joy is not working. It brings all of us down including our dying planet. Gaudete Sunday, on the other hand, bids us to be joyful because of the good news of salvation in Christ. Let us embrace the Gospel and the joy that comes with it. And life will be different.

Maranatha! (2nd Sunday Advent A)

We look around and we see conflict and division. Oftentimes these are manifested through violent expressions. Harsh words... malicious accusations... killings... war... terrorism. We also experience so much injustice in society. The evildoers seem to have their way and even rewarded; while the good suffer and unjustly punished. We deeply wish that things aren't the way they are now. “There has to be an end to these.” This yearning is our own experience of the longing of advent.  We long for harmony, peace, and justice.  Just as the people of Israel cried out, "Maranatha!" (Aramaic for “Come, O Lord!”) as they long for the coming of our Lord, we too long to see an end to our many sufferings.  When we are at it, we may as well magnify this yearning as we journey into the season of Advent. 

Today’s readings afford us both a vision of what we are yearning for and the way towards such a vision.  I’m speaking of Isaiah’s vision of the Day of our Lord and John the Baptist’s way of repentance.

Isaiah’s Vision. Our first reading (Is 11:1-10) is Isaiah’s oracle depicting the era of the Messiah. For Isaiah, the prophet of Advent in the Old Testament, the eschatological era of the Messiah will be characterized by justice for the Anawim (the poor one’s of Yahweh) as the Lord “shall judge the poor with justice and decide aright for the land’s afflicted” (v. 4). Not only that justice will reign, there shall be harmony in this eschatological age as signified by these images: “Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them” (v. 6). There shall be peace in all the earth for “there shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord, as water covers the sea” (v. 9).

A vision provides hope. It is to where we are committed to journey no matter what. The vision is what we yearn to happen now. We long for justice, for peace and harmony.  Despite overwhelming obstacles to our efforts, despite the fact that we can reach a point of exasperation, we continue to cling to the vision.  We continue to hope. And more importantly, as we feel helpless many times, we have to learn to trust in the promise of the fulfillment of the Reign of God. We don’t fulfill the vision with pure human will and creativity; it is the Lord who ultimately brings fulfillment.

This is, then, at the heart of Advent: Our anticipation of the Lord’s coming, the fulfillment of the vision. So when we are down and discouraged, exasperated and feeling useless, there’s one more thing to do: Cry out with total dependence on the Lord, “Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!”

John’s Way of Repentance. Our efforts, all too often, are motivated by egoism or by a do-it-my-way arrogance. No wonder we fail many times and we don’t progress towards the vision. John the Baptist, in today’s gospel reading (Mt. 3:1-12), has taught us the way—Repentance. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (v. 2). For John, repentance is how we prepare for the coming of our Lord. For him, who is the Advent prophet of the era of fulfillment, repentance is both urgent and concrete.

The kingdom of heaven is at hand! The fulfillment of the vision is now! Repentance, then, must not be delayed. It has to be done now. It is urgent; it must be prioritized.

And repentance must be concrete; it has to “produce good fruits” as evidence (v. 8). It cannot simply be a sentimental remorse for sin or a spur-of-the-moment intention to be better. Remorse and good intentions are a good start but these have to lead to concrete changes. Repentance or “metanoia” involves three levels of changes: The change of mind which means a new way of thinking; the change of heart which means a new way of valuing; and the change of behavior which means a new way of acting. All these are the ways of Jesus Christ. To repent is to turn away from our egoistic self and embrace the ways of the Lord, in St. Paul’s language, “to put on Christ.”

When we truly repent then, we allow Jesus Christ, the Lord, to reign in our hearts. Then everything in the vision follows—justice, peace, harmony.

Christmas lights are, no doubt, delightful to behold. But, alas, when we ignore the Advent requirement of true repentance, they may end up just as a colorful cover-up of a frightening darkness that secretly lurks within us and hovers around us. And we continue with our exasperation and helplessness in the face of the worsening ills of society wondering why our vision, or Isaiah’s, remains elusive. We need to listen to John. Repent.