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!

Baptized into Communion, Participation, and Mission (Baptism of the Lord A)

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.  Let us take this as an opportunity for the appreciation of our own baptism in our call to journey as a synodal Church.

In today's Gospel (Mt 3:13-17), Jesus comes to John at the Jordan. John hesitates, saying he is unworthy. Yet Jesus insists: "Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness" (v. 15 ). Jesus enters the waters not because He needs repentance, but because He chooses to stand with us—sharing our human condition and embracing the Father's saving will.

And then something beautiful happens. "The heavens were opened, the Spirit of God descended like a dove, and a voice came from heaven, 'This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased'" (vv. 16-17 ).

What happens to Jesus at the Jordan reveals what baptism means—for Him and for us. From this flow the three pillars of synodality: communion, participation, and mission .

Baptism draws us into COMMUNION: We are God's beloved sons and daughters

When Jesus rises from the waters, the Father declares: "This is my beloved Son" (v. 17).    Before Jesus performs a miracle or preaches a sermon, He is first affirmed in love.

Have we ever paused to ask: Who am I, really, in the eyes of God? Before our titles, professions, or roles in the Church—do we remember that we are first God's beloved?

In baptism, we are given a new identity. We are no longer strangers or outsiders. We become sons and daughters of God, members of one Body in Christ (cf. Rom 6:3-5). This is the foundation of communion .

Synodality begins here. A Church that walks together is possible only when we truly believe that we belong to one another. There is no "us" and "them" in the Church—only the baptized journeying together.

If we truly live our baptismal communion, then we must ask: Do I see others in the Church as brothers and sisters, or as rivals and outsiders? Communion calls us to overcome division, listen with respect, and build unity—starting in our families, parishes, and communities.

Baptism calls us to PARTICIPATION: All are given a voice and a role

After Jesus' baptism,"the Spirit of God descended upon him"(Mt. 3:16). This moment marks the beginning of His public ministry. The Spirit does not come for decoration—but for mission.

So let us ask: If we have received the same Spirit in baptism and confirmation, why do we sometimes act as if the Church belongs only to a few? Why do some remain silent, while others carry everything?

Through baptism, every believer is anointed by the Spirit and gifted with charisms for the good of all (cf. 1 Cor 12:4-7) Participation is not a privilege; it is a baptismal responsibility.

This is why synodality insists on listening—especially to voices often unheard. The Church walks together when all are allowed to speak, discern, and serve according to the gifts God has given them.

Participation invites us to ask: Where is God calling me to be involved? It may mean offering time, talent, or wisdom—joining parish ministries, engaging in formation, or simply speaking with honesty and love when discernment is needed.

Baptism sends us on MISSION: We are co-responsible for God's saving work

After the Jordan, Jesus does not remain by the river. He goes out—to proclaim the Kingdom, heal the broken, and lay down His life. Baptism always leads outward.

By baptism, all of us share in Christ's priestly, prophetic, and kingly mission (cf. 1 Pet 2:9).  Mission is not reserved for clergy or religious. The laity, too, are missionaries—in homes, workplaces, schools, and society. A synodal Church does not walk together for comfort. It walks together so that together it may be sent.

Mission challenges us to ask: Where am I sent today?  It may be in caring for the poor, witnessing to honesty at work, nurturing faith at home, or standing for truth in society. Living our baptism means allowing our faith to shape how we live and serve.

Conclusion. Today the heavens open once more—not only over the Jordan, but over our lives. At our baptism, God spoke our name and called us beloved.

May we never forget that  synodality begins at the baptismal font —where communion is born, participation is entrusted, and mission is ignited. Renewed by our baptism, may we truly walk together as a Church that listens, serves, and goes forth with joy.

Star of Hope (Epiphany Sunday A)

When did giving hope become wrong?

I recall an episode of the TV series Honesto . In one powerful scene, Lourdes—the adoptive mother—is anxious because her son longs to know his real father. She is disturbed that people around the child are giving him hope. Then her old father, Lemuel, gently but firmly confronts her and asks: "When did it become bad to give hope?" Lourdes answers defensively, "When you know there is no hope!" But Lemuel looks at her and says with wisdom: "There is always hope. Just be afraid of losing the child."

That question echoes in our hearts today: When did hope become something to fear?

The Feast of the Epiphany gives us a clear answer: it is never wrong to give hope. What is wrong is extinguishing hope out of fear, insecurity, or selfishness.

Star of Hope in a Dark World. In today's Gospel (Mt 2:1-12), a star appears—a star of hope . It leads the wise men through darkness, uncertainty, and long journeys until they find the Child, Jesus. This star announces that God has entered history , that light has broken into the night, and that salvation is not only for Israel but for all nations .

Yet not everyone welcomed this hope.

King Herod, the most powerful man in the land, was deeply troubled. Why? Because hope threatens those who cling to power, control, and fear. What was good news for the poor and the searching became a danger for the insecure. So Herod plotted death instead of welcoming life.

Here we see a painful truth: hope can be resisted —especially by those who benefit from darkness.

The Enemies of Hope: Fear, Resignation, and Pessimism. If we are honest, sometimes we are like Herod . Sometimes we are like Lourdes before her awakening. We hesitate to allow others to hope.

What are the enemies of hope today?

Fatalistic resignation : "This is just life." We tell ourselves and others that poverty, corruption, injustice, and violence are unchangeable—that this is our destiny.

Defeatist pessimism : We no longer believe that honesty can triumph, that leaders can be accountable, that peace is possible. Everything is mocked, doubted, and dismissed.

Crab mentality and fear of being left behind : When someone tries to rise, to change, to dream, we pull them down—because their hope exposes our own fear.

These attitudes become especially dangerous amid the current struggles of our country--- corruption that steals from the future of our children;  workers and farmers barely surviving;  families burdened by rising prices and job insecurity;  young people tempted to leave the country—or worse, to give up on life.

When hope is crushed, despair grows. And despair is not from God.

Becoming Missionaries and Stars of Hope. The Epiphany invites us to make a choice: Will we be Herods—or wise men?

The wise men did not stop at darkness. They journeyed . They searched . They trusted the light they were given , even if it was just a star.
Hope is not passive. Hope walks. Hope seeks. Hope believes that God is already at work, even when we do not yet see the full picture.

Pope Francis, in his Bull for the Jubilee of Hope, reminds us: "Hope does not disappoint, because it is born of love and grounded in the love that flows from the pierced heart of Jesus." This is why Christian hope survives corruption, poverty, and suffering—because it is anchored not in politics or power, but in Christ.

To be Christians today is to be missionaries of hope : In our families, by refusing to give up on one another; in our communities, by choosing honesty over convenience; in our nation, by believing that change is possible and working for it; in our Church, by pointing people not to ourselves, but to Christ.

When we carry Christ in our hearts, we ourselves become stars —guiding those who are lost, comforting those who are tired, and reminding those in darkness that God has not abandoned them.

It is never wrong to give hope. Hope is lost only when we surrender to fear and despair. As we celebrate this Epiphany, may we seek the Lord like the wise men and dare to become bearers of hope in a wounded world. To those walking in darkness today, may they find light in us.

When did it become a bad thing to give hope? Never. Because our hope is the Lord.