Chewing the Almonds When Your Teeth Are Aching (21st Sunday Ordinary B)

A tour bus driver drives with a bus full of seniors down a highway, when a little old lady taps him on his shoulder. She offers him a handful of almonds, which he gratefully munches up. After approximately 15 minutes, she taps him on his shoulder again and she hands him another handful of almonds. She repeats this gesture about eight times.

At the ninth time he asks the little old lady why they don't eat the almonds themselves, whereupon she replies that it is not possible because of their old teeth, they are not able to chew them. "Why do you buy them then?" he asks puzzled. Whereupon the old lady answers, "We just love the chocolate around them."

The chocolate around the almonds may stand for the spiritual high and, perhaps, the prestige, or any perks, for that matter, which Christians love about in following Christ. The almonds may represent the hard and difficult core of our Christian faith—the cross and all its implications! Today’s Gospel would have us reflect on our tendency to enjoy only the ‘chocolate’ and to reject the ‘almonds’ of discipleship.

“This saying is hard; who can accept it” (Jn. 6:60)? This was the murmur of many disciples who were listening to Jesus and who found his words difficult to accept. Many of these gave up following Jesus and “returned to their former way of life” (v. 66); after all, they were following Jesus to get what they had been expecting from him—bread and political liberation. But Jesus refused to be the Messiah of their expectations. So when they had enjoyed the chocolate, they threw the almonds away.

The Twelve disciples, however, did not follow suit. When asked if they would want to leave, Peter answered that they had nowhere else to go but to Jesus who had the words of eternal life (v.68). The twelve disciples are the exemplar of a committed discipleship—accepting even the cross of following Jesus. Later on, their own lives as martyrs would become powerful testimonies of their faith in Jesus!

This reality of the two types of disciples in Jesus’ time invites us to examine the quality of our own brand of discipleship today. This allows us to speak of ‘cheap’ discipleship on the one hand and, on the other, of ‘costly’ discipleship-- or for fun, 'chocolate discipleship' and 'almonds discipleship' respectively.

Cheap discipleship means following Jesus to satisfy our personal needs and agenda. This is the kind of discipleship that enjoys only the chocolate but rejects the almonds because they are difficult to chew. It is following the Jesus of our expectations but not the real Jesus who demands conversion and transformation. Disciples of this kind will readily leave Jesus and his values behind when confronted with difficult demands of faith. Or at most, this kind of Christians will be good at compromising the faith with other perceived values of their own interest. In other words, cheap discipleship is one that does not involved self-sacrifice, only self-nurturance. A very good example perhaps are Christians who ride on the crest of ‘spiritual high’ but who never come down to see the real demands of faith in working for social charity and justice.

Costly discipleship, on the other hand, means following Jesus despite the difficult demands of faith. This is chewing the almonds when your teeth are aching. This means a hundred percent commitment to the person of Jesus and the values of the Kingdom he announced. This means not taking the easy way out when things get rough and tough. Like the twelve apostles, the disciples of this kind believe that only Jesus possesses the words of eternal life.

Hence, the Christians who manifest this brand of costly discipleship maintain their fidelity in their married life despite the convenient options of the culture of divorce or culture of ‘kabit’ in society. These Christians find joy and even pride in being chaste in this age that glorify sexual promiscuity or, at the least, sexual permissiveness. They live a simple lifestyle or even a contemporary form of asceticism precisely as a counterculture to a mindless consumerist society of today. They manifest respect for integrity of creation and even fight for it against the onslaught of exploitative development purportedly pushed for economic gains for the sake of the poor. In this country, these followers of ‘costly discipleship’ strive to be honest when the norm is becoming more and more that of corruption.

Our country is in dire need of people who would embrace this ‘costly discipleship’ in order to transform our society according to the values of God’s Kingdom. This is not an easy task. This calls for a lot of self-sacrifice… for a hundred percent commitment to the words of Jesus… for hope when it seems impossible to change things for the better… for the courage to chew the almonds when your teeth are aching.

This calls for a brave and honest answer to Jesus’ question in today’s gospel: “Do you also want to leave?”

Cravings and Satisfaction (18th Sunday Ordinary B)

Down South, Bubba called his attorney and asked, "Is it true they're suin' the cigarette companies for causing people to get cancer?

"Yes, Bubba, sure is true,” responded the lawyer.

"And now someone's suin' them fast food restaurants for making 'em fat and cloggin' their hearts with all them burgers and fries, is that true mister lawyer?"

"Sure is Bubba. But why you asking?"

"Cause what I want to know is, I was thinkin' can I sue Budweiser for all them ugly women I've slept with?"

We may take offense at Bubba’s sexist undertones but more to the point is how the conversation reveals the folly of indulging in our cravings and then blaming others for the harm and meaninglessness it brings to our life.

This generation that pampers and glorifies the body is more likely a reaction to the generation of ascetics. While the generations before exercised self-denial, lived an austere lifestyle, and even “punished” the body for greater spiritual freedom, today, our generation has developed a proclivity to bodily pleasure and physical satisfaction. We eat, drink, smoke, and indulge in sex to our heart’s content. Or the more health conscious among us show extra care for the body by taking whatever food supplements available. The vain among us, moreover, are just happy to spend their fortune for cosmetic applications and procedures if only to enhance and maintain their beautiful looks. We search for satisfaction and we seem to hope to find it by way of physical gratification.

But the fact is we are never satisfied. We end up feeling emptier despite the clutter with which we have bombarded our selves, more hungry and enslaved by stronger cravings than when we started out the quest for satisfaction.

Jesus, in today’s gospel (Jn 6: 24-35), chided the crowd that have been following him. They were following him for the wrong reason--for satisfaction of bodily hunger. They had partaken of the loaves miraculously multiplied by Jesus. Now they were following him for more bread! Jesus pointed this out to them as he said, “You are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled” (v. 26).

Jesus, wishing to lead them to the real meaning of the signs, continued addressing them and said, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger” (v. 35). Jesus is the bread who truly satisfies us. This is the meaning of the miracle. It is He, Jesus, who satisfies not just our physical hunger but more deeply our spiritual hunger. Jesus is asking us to follow him not for more miracles of bread for the hungry stomach. He is asking us to follow HIM, the bread of life. His way of life is what satisfies our human existence truly. Discipleship offers us true meaning in life.

Our problem today is much similar to that of the crowd following Jesus. We don’t take notice of our spiritual hunger as much as we do our physical cravings. We spend our money, energy, and time much on food, drinks, sex, cosmetics, food supplements and whatever gives us immediate but temporary gratification. But how much do we invest for our spiritual needs and longing?

What is tricky though is that even when we believe we are into spiritual things we may still be suffering from profound spiritual handicap. For instance, as Charles Ringma noted (in the Dare to Journey with Henri Nouwen) many of the renewal movements that offer a ‘life in the Spirit’ do not produce “a depth of spirituality with a vision for God, a strength of personal character, a passion for God’s Kingdom of justice and mercy, and a prayer life which expresses itself in costly discipleship and servanthood. Life in the Spirit has often become a comfortable self-seeking and ‘me-centered’ form of spirituality which emphasizes joy, but knows little about growth through trial and difficulty.”

Hence, while we think we are spiritually filled, we may in fact be empty-handed much like the crowd following Jesus for the sake of self-interested blessings. Our spiritual hunger persists because we are fed with bread other than Jesus himself.

What’s the invitation then? It is to attend to our spiritual longing by ‘feeding’ on the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ. This of course reminds us of our participation in the sacrament of the Eucharist where we receive Jesus, the Lord, through the signs of the bread and wine. Do we nourish our spiritual hunger by our meaningful celebration of the Eucharist?

But beyond the sacramental celebration though, the invitation is for us to allow Jesus to dwell in us and let our lives be transformed into the kind that Jesus demands of us. In other words, beyond the sacramental participation, or more appropriately, along with it, is the invitation to real discipleship.

A satisfying life necessarily has to move beyond physical and temporary gratification of our hungers which paradoxically leads to a deeper emptiness. A fully satisfying life is that which is driven by a spirituality—one that is God-centered, passionate for God’s Kingdom of justice, peace and love. It is a spirituality of ‘costly discipleship’—following not merely for the bread and for the sake of the blessings but following Jesus HIMSELF, his way of life characterized by service and self-giving.

Unless We Die (5th Sunday Lent B)

Our natural instinct is self-preservation.  We protect ourselves from harm and, as much as possible, from death.  Dying is something we avoid thinking about. We dread it because it is destructive.  But much as we want to deny it, death is a process we will certainly all go through. The death of Jesus Christ on the cross, when we give it a serious look, transforms our attitude and the meaning we give to death. 

The story of Richie Fernando, a young Filipino Jesuit missionary in Cambodia, can help us gain an insight into this Christ-transformed understanding of death.  Before ordination to the priesthood, Richie was sent to Cambodia and worked as a teacher in a technical school for the handicapped.  He loved his students and allowed them to share with him their stories. He would write to a friend in the Philippines and express his joy in giving his life in the service of the handicapped:  “I know where my heart is, It is with Jesus Christ, who gave his all for the poor, the sick, the orphan ...I am confident that God never forgets his people: our disabled brothers and sisters. And I am glad that God has been using me to make sure that our brothers and sisters know this fact. I am convinced that this is my vocation.”

On October 17, 1996, one of Richie’s students, Sarom, a landmine victim who had been feared because of his disruptive behaviour and had been asked to leave by the school authorities, came to the school for a meeting.  Out of anger, he pulled out a grenade from his bag and moved towards a classroom full of students. Richie came up behind Sarom and restrained him. While struggling, Sarom dropped the grenade behind Richie and that instance spelled the death of the young missionary.  In trying to save the lives of others, Richie gave up his own.  

Richie’s life, I believe, was characterized by self-giving.  Before his untimely death, he had been dying every day to self with his decision to give his life in the service of the poor and the handicapped of Cambodia.  His death was a culmination of a life totally given to others and to Jesus.

Today’s gospel reading (Jn 12:20-33) offers us the clearest illustration of the relationship between dying and attaining new life: “Unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat. But if it dies, it produces much fruit.” Dying and rising to new life is central to our Lenten celebration which allows us to reflect on the paschal mystery of Christ. Jesus Christ is the grain of wheat.  He has to submit himself to death that he may conquer it by his resurrection. This is at the heart of Lent.

A disciple of Christ has to be like him, a grain of wheat ready to give up everything in dying in order to usher in the fullness of life.  The true following of Christ is not easy.  Real discipleship is not cheap. The way is costly. Discipleship requires our dying to oneself every day. Following Christ does not right away mean offering one’s life big time on the cross. The magnanimity and courage of the heart to give up everything in death do not come to us automatically as part of our nature.  What is natural to us is self-preservation. Self-sacrifice is transcending what is natural with the aid of grace. It has to be nurtured by our decisions to die a little each day by way of our acts of self-denial.  When we forget ourselves because our concern is the welfare of those who need our service and love, we have died to our selfishness.

Death for a believer, therefore, is already a consummation of a life spent in daily self-offering.  The destructive nature of death then, as in the destructiveness of the cross of Christ, is overcome by freely embracing death in self-giving just as Jesus Christ embraced his death in total surrender to the will of the Father. 

Our Lenten journey to Easter reminds us that there is no escaping the process of dying in our way to everlasting life.  We cannot eliminate the cross on our way to glory. There is no such thing as Christianity without the cross.  In fact, the way of the cross is the only way Christ has chosen to take in order to bring new life to all. The way of the cross is the Christian way of life and the way to life.

Richie Fernando gave up his life that all those whom he loved, his handicapped students, may have life.  His death culminated his earthly life characterized by daily self-giving.  He has lived the fullness of life that a faithful disciple could wish for.  Like Richie, we are invited to go beyond our self-preserving instinct.  We are called to transcend our self-love.  Dying each day to our selfishness and egoism liberates us to care for and serve others.  This is, perhaps, the greatest paradox in life: When we die each day in self-giving, it is when we gain the freedom to live our lives to the full. And when in death, we surrender humbly and trustingly everything to God, death loses its sting and eternal life shines brightly.

“The man who loves his life loses it, while the man who hates his life in this world preserves it to life eternal.”

Paper Roses, Paper Crosses (22nd Sunday Ordinary A)

I heard this song reverberating from a videoke stall:

Paper roses, paper roses,
Oh, how real those roses seem to be;
But they're only imitation,
Like your imitation love for me.

Paper roses are symbols of fake love. Such a love may seem to be the real thing; but it’s not. It’s a lie. In Christian living too, we may alarmingly live comfortably in a lie by carrying “paper crosses.”

Paper roses...  paper crosses. O, how they blend and rhyme!

I recall a story about paper crosses:  One day, Satan heard a Christian grumbling about his heavy cross. “O, how I wish I don’t have to carry this load!” 

As what Satan does best, he offered the man with an attractive option. 

“Well, well, well... You really don’t have to carry that cross, you idiot!”

“But I want to follow Christ.  Jesus told us to carry our cross to follow him.”

“Well then, I’m gonna give you a cross that looks exactly the same as the one you’re carrying. No one can tell that you’re carrying a paper cross!”

“Sounds good to me.  I’m sick and tired of this heavy burden. Give me that paper cross.”

So it came to pass, that Christian lived his life carrying paper crosses.  When he died, he was met with an angel and he was led to his heavenly abode, a beautiful mansion.  He smiled with relief thinking that his paper crosses were not noticed after all.  When he was about to open the door of his mansion, a strong wind blew and buffeted the house away.  The angel looked at him, winked, and said, “Paper crosses deserve paper mansions.”

As Christians, the most effective deceit that we can be led to believe as true is that we can follow Christ without the cross! Ah, Christianity without the cross! Wouldn’t it be more liveable?

Human nature tends to ward off difficulties, pain, suffering, and all inconveniences for that matter.  We even don’t want to think or talk about death despite its inevitability.

In today’s gospel (Mt. 16: 21-27) for instance, Peter thinks as human does when he opposes Jesus’ prediction of his passion and death in the city of Jerusalem. “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you” (v. 22).

I think we cannot fault Peter in thinking that way.  We all are just like him when we think humanly. We definitely would like to fend off anything that would cause us and our loved ones suffering.

Jesus’ reply is worth our deep reflection: “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do” (v. 23).

Peter, the Rock, the solid foundation of Jesus’ Church, is addressed by our Lord in this instance as Satan!  Unbelievable! But this is because Peter does sound like Satan in talking Jesus out of his destined path as a Suffering Messiah.  Peter is like Satan offering Jesus a paper cross!

I believe that Jesus has to effectively rebuke Satan as the latter’s tactics unfold.  Satan’s option will always be attractive.  To dwell in it a little longer could weaken our human resolve to follow the will of God.  In the Garden of Gethsemane for example, Jesus admits of his human tendency to wish away his suffering; but thank God, he’s just too conformed to his Father to turn his back to His will. He must not give room for the tempter to weaken his resolve.  “Get behind me, Satan!”

So it is with us, followers of Christ.  We will be relentlessly offered an attractive lie:  “You don’t have to carry your cross, idiot! You can live as a king and pamper yourself.  Never mind your neighbour.  Forget about self-giving. Take care of yourself instead.  Enjoy your wealth, your fame, your power.  And don’t you let anyone take these away from you! You’re the man!”

Christ was rejected by the world represented then by the city of Jerusalem.  Christ’s message of God’s love and mercy and the reversal of values He preached on the mount will always be jeered at by this sinful world.  Love and humility will be seen as a weakness in this ego-fixated world.  Christ's sacrificial love on the cross will be regarded as foolishness.  Therefore, anyone who follows Jesus will have to contend with the taunts and rejection.  Here, we see clearly what Jesus means then when He says:  “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (v. 24).  The cross is inevitable to an authentic Christian witnessing amid today’s narcissistic tendencies.

Paper crosses are as much of a lie as paper roses.

A preacher’s greatest temptation, in his ardent will to gain significant following, is to offer paper crosses to suffering people.  By nature, we don’t want inconveniences.  Christ’s demand for self-denial and sacrifice is unattractive.  Let’s face it. In today’s culture of self-glorification and ego-tripping which is a reaction to the previous generation’s ascetic disciplines, the cross of Christ is even more repelling.  We all want easy life. Quick and instant results.  Superb health.  Money... lots of it.  No wonder, preachers would harp on the promise of material prosperity, blessings, miracles.  And somehow, afraid to turn off the increasing horde of people, never mentions the cross... the demanding commitment of self-giving for others, for a just and humane society...  the call for a magnanimous acts of self-denial for the sake of the planet’s survival.  No. No mention about the cross.

Paper roses... paper crosses... How long should we be contented in living in the world of lies?

The Cost of Discipleship (23rd Sunday Ordinary C)

What do you hold as the most valuable thing in your life?

Most of us would not think twice in saying it’s our life and well-being that we value most and, perhaps, equally, our family and its security. In a survey done among the devotees of the Black Nazarene about what they pray for, the following are the top three: First, personal health (or well-being); second, family;  and third, work (or wealth). We pray and work hard in order to take care of ourselves and of our family and loved ones. These are of highest importance to us. Everything else comes next.

It would not be surprising, then, for us to find today’s gospel (Lk 14:25-33) really disturbing. Employing Semitic emphasis in conveying his point on discipleship, Jesus says to the crowd travelling with him: “If anyone comes to me without hating his father, and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (v. 25). I bet a significant portion of the crowd started to leave as they heard this hard teaching. And even today, many Christians would rather ignore this difficult teaching and selectively enjoy listening only to those themes that promise material prosperity, abundance of blessings and the grace of salvation. Many of us follow Christ because we want to get something from him. We want security and blessings for ourselves and our loved ones here on earth and in heaven. We miss seeing many times that discipleship is demanding as it is rewarding.

The demand for total commitment. Jesus makes it clear in the gospel reading today that to follow him is costly. He demands as a price nothing less than what we deem as most important to us, our lives and loved ones.  “Hating” our loved ones and even our own life is a Semitic literary expression that conveys strongly the necessary readiness to give up these great human values in favor of a greater one, or, more appropriately, in favor of the greatest of all values-- Jesus Christ and everything that He stands for. Discipleship is choosing to follow Christ and embracing everything that He represents with total commitment and dedication. Everything else is secondary, i.e., our lives and personal comfort, our family and loved ones, our possessions, etc.

 Jesus demands that He be the center of a follower’s life. A disciple who loves Jesus less than he does his own life and family is not a serious follower. His brand of discipleship will not make a difference in this broken and sinful world. His will be a kind of discipleship that easily settles with compromises and, hence, cannot accomplish anything for the kingdom of God. It is like someone who begins to build a tower but cannot finish it because of lack of resources or like a king who decides to oppose the twenty thousand troops of another king without considering first his own military strength which is actually only half as strong as the advancing troops and is bound for defeat.

The challenge posed by Filipino strong family orientation. Philippine society is characterized by a strong family-centered orientation. This means that for Filipinos the love of and loyalty to the family comes first. Family concerns and the security of its members, as well as the respect for the elderly and authority, are important. These are beautiful values, of course. But as the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines admitted, the excessive attachment to this family-centered orientation results in a particularistic values that focus only on small groups like family and clan and are less concerned about universal or common good. Some social ills are based on this exaggerated concern for the family, like the case of political dynasties and economic inequalities due to the concentration of the resources in relatively few Filipino families.

This is what happens when we cannot “hate” our family members and our very own self for the sake of Christ.  If we continue to place Christ next only to the love of family and self, nothing will change. We will all continue to pursue what is good only for our families and ignore the inequalities and injustices that cause the suffering of the poor. We will only be very much concerned about protecting our personal interests. Again, a brand of Christian discipleship that does not have Christ at the center of its commitment is a sham. It’s a lame duck. It’s good for nothing. It cannot witness. It cannot proclaim the good news of God’s kingdom, much less, denounce the structure of sin within which it finds itself complicit and trapped.

Invitation to a discipleship that transforms. The gospel today therefore rightly comes with a strong Semitic way of expression so that we may not fail to see the point.  For a nation that holds the family so dearly in our hearts, we are invited not so much to literally despise our family and self as to move beyond this clannish and particularistic love and self-centeredness. We are invited to become true followers of Christ by committing our lives to a cause greater than just our immediate family and personal concerns. We are called to become committed and active member of the wider family of God where equality and justice abide. We are called to a total commitment and dedication to Jesus Christ and the values of the kingdom of God.

Total dedication is difficult. It calls for great sacrifice, giving up what we deem most important to our personal lives. This is the high cost of discipleship. But this is the only kind that liberates and transforms.