God's Disappointment (27th Sunday Ordinary A)

As a young priest then, I had been given a rare opportunity to start a parish out of a rural community. The enthusiasm of the parishioners was its greatest asset.  But the material and financial resources needed to begin though gave me anxious and sleepless nights. I wrote to friends asking for help and, you see, the blessings came in pouring! Hence, the parish gradually took off quite decently. This privileged experience of being blessed with supportive friends awakened in me a deep sense of gratitude and faith in the abiding presence of God. Once in the silence of the night, I prayed in tears thanking God for the privilege.

Blessings are meant to stir up in us the sense of gratitude, service and worship. But I am aware too that blessings and privileges can lead us to opposite directions. They can be intoxicating like any other good things in life.  They can lead us to a sense of entitlement instead of gratitude. When this happens we begin to demand rather than serve; we crave for more blessings and privileges no longer as a gift but as a matter of right. We enjoy and love them even more than we enjoy and love the Giver Himself, the God of providence. If we allow this to happen, we end up a real disappointment to God.

Jesus, in today’s gospel (Mt. 21:33-43), narrates another parable to express his disappointment with the religious leaders and elders of the people of Israel.  The Parable of the Tenants is a criticism of their leadership. Symbolized by the tenants, they were the ones entrusted with the care of “the vineyard”-- the chosen people of God.  The privilege of being the guardian of the elect people of God intoxicated them.  They began to act as if they own the vineyard. They refused to give an accounting of their produce to the owner and worse, they rejected and killed the owner’s emissaries and even the Son himself.  The parable shows the fact that the Jewish religious leaders forgot their true mandate—to bring the people of God to authentic worship and fidelity to God’s covenant with them. They were so blinded by their revered religious position that they rejected the prophets’ call for reform. They rejected even Jesus and his proclamation of the Kingdom of God. In short, they were a real disappointment.  The privileges given them ought to be revoked: “Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit” (v. 43).

The privilege of the special election of the people of Israel was supposedly a blessing that ought to bring out a grateful response that leads to faithfulness in God’s will.  But, alas, this did not transpire. They were so engrossed with the privilege and their sense of entitlement that they grew oblivious of the God who elected them and made them special.

Moving beyond the original intent of the parable, I believe we can appropriate its challenge for us today.  Are we not disappointing God with how we manage every form of blessing and privilege he has entrusted to us? Looking around, I’m afraid I have to say that God must be disappointed.

God shares with us his abundance.  Wealth is a gift and a blessing. It ensures that we all live in dignity. But people tend to hoard this blessing only for the elite few. The gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen. So that some are living in luxury while others are subjected to subhuman conditions for want of basic necessities in life.  God’s abundance is also manifested in creation. If we look at our natural resources, we have exploited it without qualms. Our unbridled consumerism and wasteful lifestyle are taking their toll on the sustainability of creation. Did we not hear it said that we need four planets like Earth for us to catch up with the on-going feverish demand of our consumption?

God shares with us his power and authority.  These are necessary for the service of the common good. But look how we have been misusing these blessings as the very force that sustains and builds up the culture of corruption in every nook and cranny of the corridors of power. See how we have transformed these very blessings into a Machiavellian principle of oppressing the weak in order to perpetuate self-aggrandizement. 

God gives us the blessing of human sexuality that we may have the capacity for intimate relationship and to be God’s co-creator.  But we have allowed this sacred gift to deteriorate into a lucrative commodity in pornography and prostitution.  We want to enjoy the pleasure it brings but we deliberately avoid the procreative responsibility for which it is naturally meant. And what more, our societies have enshrined into law the basis for contraceptive mentality and culture of “safe sex” in the guise of concern for the plight of the poor!  

We can go on and on with a litany of blessings and privileges God has conferred on us and come to an honest assessment that God is most likely disappointed with us. It’s good to ask this on a personal level:  What are the blessings and privileges that I am enjoying in life? Have these led me to a grateful disposition and hence to a loving service of God’s people and intimate relationship with God?

Let us not push God to the end of his rope.  When God is disappointed with us, we ought to remember that He who confers can take back the blessings and privileges when these no longer serve their rightful purpose.

Winning Over A Brother (23rd Sunday Ordinary A)



In 1983, just two days after Christmas, Pope John Paul II visited his would-be assassin in prison and spoke privately with him for about twenty minutes.  The Pontiff later declined to mention what was discussed, and said, "What we talked about will have to remain a secret between him and me.  I spoke to him as a brother whom I have pardoned and who has my complete trust."
(Image and caption from polishgreatness.blogspot.com)

How do we actually respond to situations when a brother or a sister or a member of a community goes wayward or does something that offends us?



One approach that many of us easily subscribe to is the mind-your-own-business approach.  We have allowed the spirit of laissez faire to expand its influence from politico-economic sphere to our personal and social life.  We don’t want to have anything to do with whatever smacks of “meddling” with another’s life.  “Walang pakialaman pare!”  We have grown to become individualists imbued with a misleading philosophy of freedom synonymous to licentiousness. “Bahala siya sa buhay nya. Diskarte nya yan!”  In the same token, somehow deep within us we also wish to be left alone with our own business.  So, we build sturdy and high walls around our homes and strong divisions within, perhaps, in order to let one another just be.

Another favourite approach is the seemingly concerned non-confrontational tell-the-neighbours approach. In short and in my dialect, the libak approach.  Not a single soul in the whole barangay remains uninformed regarding the hottest issue except the person concerned.  Is this because of the daunting task inherent in the duty to correct the wrong doer? Or is it the passive-aggressive psychological make-up we all seem to grow up with given our authoritarian family dynamics? Or perhaps the highly valued cultural Smooth Interpersonal Relationship (SIR)?  Whatever underlies the town’s favourite gossip approach one thing is sure: It does not help.

This Sunday readings offer us a helpful approach.  May I call it the my-brother’s-keeper approach?  This one is imbued with the spirit of love and care clearly espoused by the second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans (13: 8-10). “Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” (v. 8).  Paul’s reminder is the underlying motive of my-brother’s-keeper approach.  Love, and not the cold spirit of laissez faire or the burning passion for gossip, should be the inspiration behind our effort to win over an errant family or community member.  We always have to be aware that our Christian communities are communities of the loving Covenant between God and his people. We are the communities of the Kingdom of God.  The bond that ties us together is not any social ideology or a common psychological idiosyncrasy but love.

In such a communitarian context, each is endowed with a prophetic vocation to remind, to warn, to reprimand a member whenever he or she turns away from the spirit of the covenant and the values of God’s Kingdom.   The prophet Ezekiel, in the first reading (Ez. 33:7-9), is given this responsibility to “dissuade the wicked man from his way.”  Failure to act on this responsibility holds the prophet liable to the evil that befalls the man in question.  “If... you do not speak out to dissuade the wicked man from his way, he shall die for his guilt, but I will hold you responsible for his death” (v. 8).  This reminds all of us of our social responsibility to take care of one another by reprimanding or gently reminding each one whenever we are in error or in sin.

In the community of God’s Kingdom, it is not very responsible to say “Walang pakialaman pare!” nor it is with love and concern that we say “Bahala siya sa buhay niya.”  As children of God, we are always our brother’s keeper. We should constantly act out of love by reaching out to a community member who has gone wayward.

The gospel today (Mt. 18:15-20) prescribes some helpful steps to a genuine process of fraternal correction.  Again, in each step, the objective is to win your brother over (v. 15). This is real concern and love. And how lovely it is to live in such a community!

The first step is person to person confrontation.  Confrontation is not a very good word. I think a better expression is heart-to-heart talk!  I am convinced that if this is done with love and care there’s no need for another step.  Most will end up shaking hands or even embracing each other with a resolve to become better friends, better lovers.

Should there be a need for another step anyhow, Jesus instructs us to move to the second step:  To win over the brother or sister in the presence of two or three other witnesses.  Sometimes, one may be wrong about the accusation against another.  The presence of other witnesses establishes objectivity and certainty about the moral issue and strengthens the invitation for the erring party to consider reconciliation.

Should that fail too, the conflict has to be brought to the attention now of the community of the Church as the third step. In this level, failure on the part of the erring party to listen and to be humble enough to amend his ways may invoke the right of the Church to expel such an obstinate unloving member from the community. But even here, to treat such a member as a gentile or a tax collector, as the gospel instructs, is to leave an open door, an open invitation for an eventual conversion of heart.  Such is the magnanimity of Christian charity!

Again, what a lovely community we are called to be.  Is there someone in particular you ought to reach out to in the spirit of fraternal correction? Go, go, go! Win that brother or sister over.

A Million Dollar Question (21st Sunday Ordinary A)

The great Fr. Juan Sanz, who was a very patient spiritual director to me and was many other things to countless other people when he was alive, would remind me again and again of a basic Ignatian principle.  “If you were to serve God joyfully, you’ve gotta love Him most dearly. Okay? But if you were to love God dearly, you’ve gotta know Him first intimately.  Clear?”  This is the simplest and maybe the clearest way of explaining what St. Ignatius believed as the purpose of man’s life:  To know, to serve, and to love God. In this triadic calling, one element is foundational to the other; of all three, the most basic is to know God.

Do you know God intimately?

Today’s gospel reading (Mt. 16: 13-20) recounts a very significant moment in the life of Jesus’ disciples especially Peter and in the life of what was to become the Church.  In this gospel episode that transpired in the region of Caesaria Philippi, Jesus fires the million dollar question:  Who do you say I am? Maybe we can paraphrase this with “Do you really know me?”

But first, Jesus asks the disciples the easier question, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  The disciples are very quick to answer, most probably even in chorus trying to be the first to reply, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets” (v. 14).

It’s quite easy for the disciples to report to Jesus how people perceive him.  But Jesus’ real concern is not the opinion of other people.  If his disciples were to be the foundation of his Church, it is of utmost importance that they know him intimately and personally.  So Jesus fires the million dollar question.

“But who do YOU say that I am?”  This time no one answers... except the great Simon Peter. “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”   Correct!  Jesus affirms Peter by assuring him that it is God the Father who reveals this truth to him for no “flesh and blood” (which means human power) can do it. On the basis of Peter’s profession, Jesus calls him “Peter,” the rock, who, right there and then, is designated as the foundation of the Church: “...and upon this rock I will build my church” (v. 18).

Peter’s intimate knowledge of Jesus is the very foundation of loving and serving God all throughout the centuries as the Church headed by Peter and his successors do what she is sent to do.

Again we can never overemphasize this crucial fact:  To know God intimately is of utmost significance to our relationship with God be it on the level of personal and individual or of collective and ecclesial.

Today, we may do well to allow the scripture to confront us too. “Who do you say I am?” What is our response to this? We probably notice that, as in the case of Jesus’ disciples, it is easier for us to describe God according to what we have heard, read, and seen from external sources.  We have plenty of opinions about God. Opinions from our parents, catechists, preachers, pastors, retreat directors, etc.  It would be a real tragedy in our spiritual and ecclesial life if for long we have been maintaining a relationship to an opinion of God.  God is not an opinion. God is not an important piece of information, a fact that our head considers.  God is not even a doctrine that we debate about or wish to memorize in an orthodox formula.

God is someone who loves us personally. God is someone who reveals himself to us inviting us to love him in return. To know this God is to encounter him in our life. Knowing him means experiencing him in quite a personal way.  For God, this is what matters and not so much our ideas and concepts about him. 

Again, the million dollar question: Who do you say I am? Like Peter, are we ready to give an answer to this yet?

Fr. Sanz taught me a secret:  “If you wish to know God intimately, ask for the grace.”  We can only know God as He allows it. We can only experience God as He reveals himself. No amount of unaided human insight can truly realize whom we are dealing with.  Peter knew who Jesus was because the Father revealed to him. The other disciples listened to the voices around them; hence, got the opinions of other people about Jesus.  Peter, however, listened to the voice inside him—the voice of God who reveals.

God is constantly communicating with us. He is a God who relates. In Trinitarian theology, some theologians propose that “relations” is an ontological property of God, meaning, God’s very being is relationship.  And indeed, the scripture reveals that God is love. Love cannot be in isolation. Hence, we can correctly assume that God constantly relates with us.  The only venue for such relationship to be meaningful is our human experience.  Therefore, to know God is to encounter him in our daily experiences.  Do we have time to examine where God is working in our life?  Do we find deeper meaning in our otherwise ordinary routine in life? Do we encounter God in what we do in life? What kind of a God does my life reveal to me? 

Again, the million dollar question: Who do you say I am?

Lord, give me the grace to know you intimately and personally so that, in knowing you, I can love you most dearly, and in loving you, I can serve you joyfully.