Roadmap to True Happiness (4th Sunday Ordinary A)

The pursuit of true happiness is every human being's concern. Since time immemorial philosophers have grappled with the question of happiness— what makes the human being happy? There has to be an answer to this quest lest human life would be nothing but a cruel existence. Humanity has tried several roadmaps that are hoped to lead towards the answer: The worldly roadmaps and the Christian roadmap.

Worldly Roadmaps . Several principles have been espoused in relation to this pursuit. To be happy, the Hedonists proposed the pleasure principle: "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you will die." Those who subscribe to this principle have given themselves to indulgence in many and varied forms of pleasure in order to be happy. Many others have tried the materialistic principle: "I shop therefore I am." Their aim in life is to have more and more of the goods of this world. Wealth and comfort become for them the secret to a happy and contented life. Another road taken by some is guided by the power principle: "Might is right." To be happy in this life, one has to make sure of one's control and dominance over other people; even force, violence, and manipulation are necessary to maintain being on top. Still others go by the celebrity principle: "Fame is the name of the game." Happiness is when one is idolized by millions of fans who buy just anything one endorses.  

Apparently these principles or the combination of some of these have become the standard roadmaps to happiness in this world. Yet experience teaches us that these roadmaps fail to truly provide the true happiness our hearts are seeking for. We try any of these principles; live by it religiously; and end up still wanting more... and more. Still unhappy.   Why? What, then, is lacking in all these?

GOD. God is forgotten in these worldly pursuits. In Matthew 16:26, Jesus tells the crowd, "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?" Here Jesus points out that our worldly pursuit surely does not guarantee our happiness. In earlier chapter, He teaches that God's Kingdom is everything we have to seek: "For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well" (Mt 6:32-33).

Christian Roadmap . In today's gospel (Mt. 5:1-12), Jesus reveals the secret to blessedness or happiness: It is the disposition of an interior freedom for God and his Kingdom. And this disposition is expressed by way of the eight beatitudes that Jesus lays down in this Gospel passage—poverty in spirit, mourning, meekness, hunger for righteousness, being merciful, purity of heart, being peacemaker, being persecuted for righteousness. Each of these inclines a person's heart away from the deceptive glitters of the world and, more importantly, towards God and his Kingdom—the true source of blessedness. And it is important to note that all these are but aspects of Jesus' own life. When He speaks of blessedness, He speaks from experience. He is the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, the pure of heart, the persecuted, etc. The beatitudes are not a bunch of abstract principles; they are the concrete manifestation of Jesus' own blessedness and total openness to God the Father. Jesus is the first Blessed One. As such, He reveals to us how to be fully human and truly blessed.

What makes us happy? Jesus provides us with the concrete answer. He is the answer. He is the truly blessed One, our roadmap to true happiness. Our contemplation of the person of Jesus Christ, as a way of searching for the answer, has to lead us to the imitation of him.  We need to change our roadmap and adopt Jesus' roadmap. We need to resolve to adopt the standards that Jesus sets before us. We have to embrace his beatitudes as our very own standards for life, if we are serious about being truly happy like Him.

What roadmap must we choose? The philosopher Nietzsche wrongly accused Christianity of espousing values ​​which are but "consolation prizes" for the unfortunate of this world. No. Christianity invites a person to imitate the most fortunate and blessed man who ever lived: Jesus Christ. Hence, as Jesus has shown us, between the choice of basking in worldly pomp and striving for spiritual poverty, we choose the latter for it ushers us to the greatest treasure, the Kingdom of God. 

Between having control of power and working for justice, between wallowing in insatiable forms of pleasure and being pure of heart, between enjoying our accolade in this world and being persecuted for Christ, we know the latter is the choice of Christ as it is in accordance to the standard of God's kingdom and, therefore, our own choice too. Jesus is the Blessed One; and as we live according to his values, his blessedness is surely ours too.

Which roadmap to happiness would you commit to? That of the world? Or the beatitudes laid out by Jesus Christ? Of course, we are Christ's disciples, our option is clear. We are invited by the Lord to lead a truly blessed life. It is the life He has shown us.  

Wanted: Missionary Disciples (3rd Sunday Ordinary A)

“We are all missionary disciples.” Pope Francis stresses in his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, that by virtue of baptism, “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).

We are always missionary disciples. We are called so that we might be sent. We are invited to a deeper friendship with the Lord so that we can go forth to share the joy of that fellowship to all. Discipleship is not just following the Lord. It also means being sent just as today’s gospel recounts how the Lord called his first disciples who were fishermen so that they might become fishers of men: “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Mt 4:19).

Let us reflect then deeper on the meaning and implications of this calling in the light of today’s gospel (Mt 4:12-23). First, we may ask, “What does it take to be a disciple of Christ?” What does it require of me to follow Christ? And second, how should we understand the missionary nature of discipleship?

Discipleship and its Cost. Spiritual writers and theologians have been using the phrase, “the cost of discipleship,” or “costly discipleship” as opposed to “cheap discipleship.” These refer to the fact that when we decide to follow Christ, such a decision is never easy because there is a high cost to it. Discipleship is demanding. When it does not require something great from us, chances are it is unauthentic discipleship; it is cheap as it is empty. 

In the light of today’s gospel reading, it is discernible that the cost of discipleship is high indeed. When the Lord, walking by the Sea of Galilee, invited some fishermen—Simon (Peter) and his brother Andrew—to come after him, “at once they left their nets and followed him” (v. 20).  Walking further along, the Lord saw two other brothers in a boat, James and John, the sons of Zebedee. The Lord called them and “immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him” (v. 22).

If we were fishermen, what would the fishing net and boat mean to us? Of course, these would be very important to us as these could mean more than just things; the net and the boat could well represent our means of living, our very way of life which most probably has been handed down to us by our parents.  Hence, today’s gospel is illustrating to us that to follow the Lord, to be his disciple requires leaving behind a way of life—nets, boats, fathers included! No mean feat indeed.

To turn away from all that we have clung to in life is also a process called conversion, in Greek, metanoia, which means a change of heart.  In today’s gospel, as Jesus begins his public ministry, he calls for metanoia for the sake of God’s Kingdom: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (v. 17). As he calls his disciples, he invites them to a change of heart. To be able to follow him in the path of the kingdom of God, those called have to leave behind the life they have gotten used to otherwise they would not be able to embrace the new life offered by the Lord. They have to turn away from an old value system that they may embrace the new values of Christ and the Kingdom.

Discipleship demands conversion. When we don’t take this demand seriously, when we prefer not to be disturbed as we follow the Lord, our discipleship is a sham because, for all we know, we have not actually left our boats and nets.  We may just be fooling ourselves.

What stands as our fishing net or boat? To follow the Lord more truthfully, what do we need to let go of? A meaningless work? A destructive relationship? Attachment to things? Addictions? Materialistic and narcissistic lifestyle?

Missionary Option.  To use the term of Pope Francis, “missionary option” may mean for us as our decision to be always in a state of mission. Discipleship always implies a missionary option.  Whoever the Lord calls to come after him is in not only for friendship with him but precisely for a mission: “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” It is not for nothing that we leave behind our nets and boats and fathers. When we courageously choose to follow the Lord, we experience the infinite love and mercy of God; we experience the reign of God in our lives. We experience total salvation. It is this tremendous goodness of God that propels us with joy to become fishers of men. We go forth and share to all people this joy of being loved and saved.

We are always missionary disciples. Discipleship is not only following the Lord and enjoying fellowship with him and with the other disciples; it is also being sent to the lost, the least, and the last that they too may also hear, through us, the good news of the saving love of God, that they too may choose to belong to the kingdom of God.

To whom are we sent? Who are the lost, the least, and the last in our community? An aging parent? A wayward sibling? Uncatechized children? A hungry neighbor?  An unwed couple? A destroyed environment?

All too often we tend to choose to be safe and comfortable with our old fishing nets and boats. Courtesy, perhaps, of our protective parents.  But when we remain always in our safe and comfort zones we do not grow much. We end up bored and unhappy. Life is robbed of joy. Or as disciples, we may just choose to stay in the consoling fellowship of the Lord with the exclusive elect without reaching out to others; such discipleship is narcissistic.   

The true disciples of Christ are daring. Risk-takers. Courageous.  They leave behind their comfort zones--nets, boats, and fathers--to reach out to others and proclaim the saving love of God. Their lives are never boring but are always filled with joy.  Such is the beautiful invitation to become fishers of men, to become missionary disciples.

God is carrying us (Santo Niño)

Today we gather in joy, color, and song. We carry the image of the Santo Niño, we dance, we shout “Pit Señor!”, and we fill our streets and churches with faith. But before anything else, let us pause and ask: Why are we really here?

We are here because we are grateful. As we carry the image of the Santo Niño, we are reminded of a deeper truth: long before we carried Him, God has been carrying us. Through poverty and sickness, through disasters and disappointments, through family struggles and personal failures—we are still here because we are beloved children of God.

Our gathering today is not only a celebration; it is a thanksgiving of survivors, of people who have been held by God even when life was heavy. Like children in the arms of a loving parent, we come before the Santo Niño with grateful hearts.

Three invitations for us in this celebration:

Invitation to Humility: Surrender and Trust in the God Who Cares

In the Gospel, Jesus places a child in the center and says: “Unless you change and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 18:3).

A child is humble—not because he is weak, but because he trusts completely. A child knows he depends on another.

Many of our struggles as Filipinos come from carrying burdens alone:
• worrying endlessly about tomorrow, about health, about work...

The Santo Niño teaches us humility, not as shame, but as surrender—the courage to place our lives again in God’s hands.

To be childlike is to say:
“Lord, You know my struggles. I trust You. I surrender.” This fiesta invites us to return to that trust, to kneel again, and to believe that the God who carried us before will carry us still.

Invitation to Responsibility: Caring for Children in Today’s Difficult World

Jesus continues: “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me” (Mt 18:5).

To honor the Santo Niño is not only to honor an image, but to protect real children—especially today, when they face so many dangers:
• hunger and lack of education,
• broken families and absent parents,
• confusion from social media, violence, and false values.

In our devotion, Jesus reminds us: How we treat children reveals how we receive Him.

This is a call to parents, families, communities, and the Church: a call to listen more, to guide patiently, to create safe homes and spaces of faith.

A society that truly loves the Santo Niño must also defend the dignity, innocence, and future of its children.

Invitation to Maturity of Faith: Beyond Sinulog, Toward Daily Witness

Finally, Jesus’ call to become childlike is not a call to remain immature. Our devotion must grow.

The Santo Niño invites us to a faith that matures— from celebration to conversion,.from dance to daily discipleship.

Sinulog is beautiful. Our dances are prayers. But the Santo Niño also asks:

• How do you live after the music stops?
• How do you witness in your workplace, family, and community?
• Do you choose honesty over corruption, forgiveness over anger, love over sin?

A mature faith is seen not only in fiestas, but in faithfulness— when we choose what is right, even when it is hard.

Conclusion: Today, as we carry the image of the Santo Niño, let us remember that we gather in gratitude because God has first carried us. Beyond our sinulog dances we are called to humble trust in His loving care, we are entrusted with the responsibility of caring for the young, and we are invited to a faith that grows and witnesses daily.

May our cry “Pit Señor!” not end today, but echo in the way we live, love, and hope.

Viva Santo Niño! Pit Señor!