The Test of Love (2nd Sunday Lent B)

Sacrifice is the test of love.  It is only when we have the capacity not to withhold for ourselves our most precious possession for the sake of another, only when we can give up even that which is most important to us for the good of the beloved, only then that we truly love.

Abraham’s devotion to God was tested.  The first reading today (Gn 22: 1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18) recounts the chilling moment when Abraham was about to offer up his beloved son, Isaac, as a holocaust.  Isaac was everything to Abraham.  Precisely because of Abraham’s love for his son that God asked him to offer up his beloved son as a sacrifice. Could he give up his son and everything that his son meant to him? Abraham proved his utmost devotion to God when he obeyed without questions God’s command and kept within himself the pain of having to sacrifice his own son.

We know the rest of the story of course.  God’s messenger stopped Abraham from slaying his son.  The messenger said: “I know now how devoted you are to God, since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son.”  A ram caught in the thicket was offered up as a holocaust instead of Isaac.

God could not allow Abraham to harm Isaac, much less to sacrifice him, his own beloved son, as a holocaust.  God certainly knew how excruciating the pain would be for a father to lose a beloved son by giving him up.  So, God spared the life of Isaac. God spared Abraham from the most unbearable pain a father may experience.

The ultimate test of God's love. But this test of Abraham’s devotion through an act of sacrifice somehow prefigures God’s own act of manifesting his love for his people—for all of us.  God, whom Jesus called his Father, would come to the point when He would allow his own beloved Son to be sacrificed on the cross for our sake.  God, the loving Father, the same God who spared Abraham and Isaac, kept within himself the unbearable pain when He did not spare his own Son in order to save us!  God remained silent, and He must be in great pain, when Jesus was about to die on the cross calling on his name, asking him, “Why have you abandoned me?”

St. Paul’s insight into the greatness of this sacrificial love is expressed in his assuring letter to the Romans:  “He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?” (Rom 8: 32).

What else can God refuse to do for our sake after having gone through the ultimate test of his love for us—giving up his own beloved Son?  What more can we ask for from this loving God who has given up everything for our sake?

And yet, the cruelest fact of our human insensitivity, we continue to doubt the love of God at some dark hours of our lives!

Invitation to confidence in the love of God. This second Sunday of Lent invites us to have confidence in God’s love for us.  The message of our readings is crystal clear:  God’s love is beyond doubt.  God’s love will see us through thick and thin, through floods and droughts.

Jesus’ transfiguration in today’s gospel reading (Mk. 9: 2-10) is meant to build the confidence of the followers who witnessed the event—Peter, James, and John.  Jesus’ awesome appearance with Moses and Elijah at his sides is an assurance, a preview of his glorious resurrection, which the apostles would hang onto when the darkest hour of Jesus’ passion and death comes.   The transfiguration event boosts the confidence that God’s love will ultimately triumph even if for the moment there are seemingly contrary evidences.

Reflection: Sacrifice is the test of love.  Have we made it through the test?  Do we really love? Can we bear silently our suffering when it is for the good of the people dear to us? Our reflection today has shown us that we can share in God’s salvific act of love whenever we embrace any suffering brought about by our decision to love.

Let us allow this blessed season of Lent to help us see clearly the greatness of God’s love for us and hence grow in the confidence that we are truly loved. Whenever we see the image of Jesus being offered up on the cross, may we perceive through it the love of the Father who has nothing more to withhold as he has offered up for our sakes the one he calls “my beloved Son.” 

Springtime of Renewal (1st Sunday Lent B)

Lent is from an old English word Lencten meaning “spring”—a season when days are lengthen and all of nature comes alive after the sleep of winter. Lent is a springtime, a period of renewal and growth in the life of the spirit.

Three images—desert, flood, rainbow—in today’s readings will show us why. The “desert” experience brings intimacy with God; the “flood” experience brings conversion and new life; and the “rainbow” experience brings hope and confidence in God’s victory. Let us reflect on these three images and allow our Lenten journey to be as flourishing as the spring.

The “desert” experience brings intimacy with God.  The first image is that of the desert. In today’s gospel (Mk. 1:12-15), we see Jesus, after his baptism and before beginning his years of public ministry, being led by the Spirit “into the desert," where he is tempted by Satan. All throughout the Scriptures, the desert is often referred to as a place of trials and of purification from all idols. The Israelites lived in the desert for forty years in order to be tested and purified of their idolatrous habits. Jesus is also tested in the desert and offered the idols of power, wealth and fame. But he passed all trials by his fidelity to the Father. 

The desert is a place where our illusions of self-sufficiency and comfort fade away. When we are in the desert we quickly realize that we need God. Lent is our desert experience too. For forty days our minds and hearts are trained to be faithful to and intimate with God. The three traditional disciplines of Lent help us towards self-emptying and intimacy with God: Fasting sets us free from self-centeredness; our works of mercy lead us to serve and love our neighbors in need; and the discipline of prayer brings intimacy with God whom we choose to be the center of our lives.

Let us allow this season and its disciplines to lead us into greater intimacy with God. What would represent the desert experience for my journey this season of Lent?

The “flood” experience brings conversion and new life. The second image in today's first and second readings is the flood.  The 40-day flood in Noah’s time was God’s act of washing away sin and evil from the earth in order to forge a new beginning.  That ancient flood of water foreshadowed Christian baptism.  In the second reading (1 Pt 3: 18-22), Peter tells us that we are now saved by a baptismal bath which corresponds to the great flood: the waters of baptism washed away all that is sinful in us and we enter into a new life, a new covenant relationship with God.

Lent is our “flood experience”—our opportunity for repentance and conversion as the Gospel reading today calls forth: “Change your ways and believe the Good News” (Mk 1:15). Our Lenten journey looks forward to the renewal of our baptismal promises on Easter and invites us to accompany those who will receive the gift of new life through baptism.

We ardently pray therefore for the grace of a life-changing repentance and the joyful appreciation of our new life in baptism.

The “rainbow” experience brings hope and confidence in God’s victory. The third image is the rainbow. In the first reading (Gen. 9:8-15), the rainbow is a symbol of God covenant with Noah. We can grant that Noah had completely no idea about the prismatic refraction of light in a rainbow as its scientific explanation, but he did understand its spiritual meaning. The rainbow stands for God’s covenant with him—God’s promise of victory over the destructive power of sin. In Jesus Christ God fulfilled this promise.

Life on earth is difficult. We still experience the oppressive power of sin and the suffering it brings. Lent offers us our “rainbow” experience. Lent helps us anticipate the glorious victory of Christ on Easter Sunday. Lent allows us to remember even in the face of unspeakable sufferings that there is always hope and we can be confident that Jesus, who himself was crucified, will not let us down as He has overcome the destructive power of sin in his resurrection.  

Can I also be a “rainbow” to others who are experiencing defeat in life? Can I share to them my hope and confidence in the victory of God?

Indeed, Lent is a springtime, a season when our spiritual life blossoms as we experience intimacy, renewal, and hope.

Touched by God (6th Sunday Ordinary B)

A friend in Facebook once posted this interesting information: We need 4 hugs a day for survival. We need 8 hugs a day for maintenance. We need 12 hugs a day for growth (attributed to Virginia Satir, family therapist). To which I commented: If this were true, I would be in real bad shape now suffering from a severe hug deficiency!

Leo Buscaglia, the author of Living, Loving and Learning and a dozen more inspiring books was also known as Dr. Hug. He once said, “Everybody needs a hug. It changes your metabolism.” He is remembered as a passionate inspirational speaker who talked endlessly, without apologies, about love and authentic loving relationship. At the end of his every talk, he would spend time going to the audience and hug each of them (or at least those who wanted it). Those who were watching on TV could only wish to be a part of the audience and experience hugging this man who was bringing great inspiration into the world.

As relational beings, we do need to be physically connected to others, to feel that we are accepted and that we belong. The saddest and gruelling human experience, perhaps, is to be isolated from our loved ones, to be rejected as an outcast, to be reduced to nothing.

Dr. Hug, as he was fondly called, would always insist to go out and be connected with people, to reach out and touch them. An often quoted line from one of Buscaglia’s books comes to mind: “Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”

In today’s gospel (Mk. 1: 40-45), Jesus turns a leper’s life around by reaching out to him and actually touching him—an unthinkable gesture then. Jesus’ touch is all that matters to this social and religious outcast.

As a leper, this man is a social outcast. He has been consigned to the margins of society having to live outside the town away from people in order not to contaminate others with his dreadful skin disease. He has to take it upon himself to make sure that people shy away from him should he enter the town: He “shall keep his garments rent and his head bare, and shall muffle his beard; he shall cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’” (Lv. 13: 45). He is not just a social outcast but a religious outcast too. His ailment is seen as a curse from God on account of his grievous sins. The people of Israel are designated as “the Holy People;” hence a leper, unclean as he is, has no place in this religious community. He is barred from worshipping God in the temple. Therefore, to be a leper means to be absolutely rejected—by people, by your loved ones, by God.

In the gospel reading, the leper musters all his courage to approach Jesus who is his only hope to become clean again and become a person again. Jesus is moved with pity; He stretches out his hand and touches the outcast! Jesus speaks to him and proclaims the leper’s salvation: “I do will it. Be made clean.”

How I love to contemplate on this scene using my imagination taking on the personality of the leper, approaching Jesus with my every filth and experiencing firsthand the compassion and love of God through the tender look of Jesus, his reassuring touch, and his kind words of salvation.

Jesus respects the Mosaic Law. He has come not to abolish it but to perfect it. In reaching out and touching the leper, however, He has demonstrated the primacy of the worth and dignity of every person over social and religious mores. The law should not kill but save the person for he is a child of God. Jesus’ touch reminds everyone that no matter how sin spoils a child of God, he retains his worth in the eyes of God.

We are a people touched by God in Jesus Christ. Through his passion and death, Jesus definitively revealed the worth of every person. We are worth sacrificing and dying for! In His resurrection, He has given us the assurance that sin has been vanquished and we can all have new life; never again will anyone who comes to the Lord be unclean and be declared an outcast. In our baptism, we have a sacramental experience of this powerful and saving touch of God cleansing us and giving us new life in Christ. What a gift!

The leper in the gospel has been warned not to tell anyone about his cure. But it is not difficult to understand him when he defies this warning and starts to dance around with joy proclaiming the saving deeds of God in his life. Do we exude such joy that only a people touched by God can have? Do we extend to others this beautiful blessing of being touched by God?

Again in the words of Dr. Hug: Let us not “underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”

Our Only Hope (5th Sunday Ordinary B)

“Life is difficult.”  This is the first sentence of Dr. M. Scott Peck’s bestseller, The Road Less Travelled. Life is filled with problems and pain. Many people attempt to avoid problems and suffering instead of dealing with them because most of the time people cannot understand what’s going on. The story of Job, a portion of which is in our first reading (Jb. 7:1-4, 6-7), tackles the seeming meaninglessness of life in the face of unexplainable suffering.  Job speaks: “Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery?” (v. 1) “Remember that my life is like a wind; I shall not see happiness again” (v. 7).

Most part of our lives may indeed be without rhyme or reason.  Today you’re doing fine, feeling strong and invincible, relishing at last the confidence of being on the top of the world; but tomorrow you’re suddenly down and out despite the fact that, like Job, you’ve played it fair and square.  Is not life pointless? Both the bestseller, The Road Less Travelled, and the story of Job develop and come to an end with the conviction that there are ways of responsibly facing and resolving our problems and beyond our self-discipline and loving response there is a force which we can’t fully explain but effectively works to bring us to wholeness. Dr. Scott Peck identifies it with grace. The author of Job identifies it with God who restores everything that has been lost.

Only God brings hope to this otherwise unexplainable and pointless struggle we call life.  Today’s gospel reading (Mk. 1: 29-39) presents to us Jesus Christ and his ministry of hope.  The whole town gather around him in search of answers to their various sufferings. Here one can perhaps visualize the crowd that gather during the feast of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo.  There is just so much pain and suffering among the people.  Maybe out of desperation, they would push and shove just to be near the source of miracles, Jesus Christ, who for them certainly stands for their only hope.

The author's first charcoal painting some time in 1994.

We can bring out and reflect on the three approaches of Jesus in his ministry of hope in today’s gospel—his ministry of healing, praying, and preaching.

Jesus, the Healer.  The gospel depicts Jesus’ healing ministry.  He has gone to the house of Simon’s mother-in-law and cured her of her illness. After sunset, the whole town gathered at the door and he cured many of them of their various diseases and freed many from the possession of the evil spirits. Jesus brings hope to these suffering people through his healing ministry.  He sets them free from both physical and spiritual alienation. He restores what is taken away by the power of sin.

We can extend this ministry of hope. Our sacramental life offers us the sacraments of reconciliation and the anointing of the sick. These are the sacraments of healing that restore our wholeness.  To some extent, each of us shares in Jesus’ healing ministry. We can overcome the spiritual alienation wrought by sin when we learn how to forgive one another.  When we forgive, we heal broken relationships. We can overcome the physical alienation of people suffering from diseases when we truly care for them.  Mother Teresa, for instance, made this her ministry. She didn’t have the miraculous power to cure a terminal illness. But she did have the power of love to make sure that the dying would have their last breath knowing that they were loved and cared for.  Caring is our power to heal the broken-hearted and the physically ill. To forgive and to “caregive” is to bring hope to much of our suffering in life.

Jesus, the Pray-er.  Jesus reveals in this gospel that praying keeps the fire of hope burning.  The suffering and pain He encounters in the life of the people can be overwhelming.  He who ministers can be exhausted and can end up burned out even before he sees all the needs answered. Jesus’ practice of spending time in solitude, in His case early before dawn (v. 35), reveals the source of his sustenance in keeping up hope in the ministry. For Jesus, and for His followers, life only finds its direction, strength, and meaning in God.  Jesus’ solitude is not loneliness. It is intimacy with His Father in heaven. The Father’s will is always Jesus’ point of reference in everything He does.

Life can be burdensome, a drudgery, in Job’s language.  What is the point of all our endeavours in life? What is the meaning of our endless activities? When life is un-reflected, we only see the superficial.  All the happenings are like series of disconnected activities that randomly comes one after the other.  And when life brings suffering, all the more that we fail to see its meaning.  It is the time we spend in silent prayer that offers us a new perspective in life... a new way of seeing... a new meaning.  Again, the text message sent to me by a victim of typhoon Sendong is worth remembering here: “Even in the worst of times, there are a lot of reasons to be thankful for.”  I bet that person draws such a hopeful disposition from her silent moments of prayer. Prayer brings hope. Jesus has shown us that.

Jesus, the Preacher.  “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come” (v. 38), Jesus tells his disciples. It is when the Lord preaches that He enkindles the hope in the hearts of the people; most of them have been downtrodden.  Jesus’ preaching announces the Good News of the reign of God. The God of love reigns! The evil one is cast out. Repent! Believe in the Good News! Jesus’ preaching assures all of us that God has not left us in the hands of the evil one to suffer and rot. He assures us that salvation is ours for God is always a faithful God; He will always be on our side. God is doing just everything to bring back his oppressed people to his fold. In Jesus all these have come to fulfilment.

We can bring hope to the downtrodden.  Every time we proclaim the goodness of God in our lives, we continue the preaching ministry of Jesus.  Whenever we share to others how God has worked marvellous deeds in us, we lift up the spirit of those burdened by life’s misery.  And there are just thousands of them and more. 

Life is difficult. Jesus shows us the way to hope. God is our only hope.