Good News Proclaimed to the Poor ( Gaudete Sunday A)

On this Gaudete Sunday, we are invited to rejoice—not with shallow optimism, but with a joy rooted in this Advent recognition: the Lord is near! Isaiah dares us to imagine deserts in bloom and bodies restored. The Psalm sings of a God who “secures justice for the oppressed… sets captives free… sustains the orphan and the widow” (Ps 146). And Jesus confirms the hour of salvation: “the poor have the good news proclaimed to them” (Mt 11:5). Could there be a more compelling reason to rejoice than this—God’s nearness made visible in mercy and justice? This is our joy, and this is our mission.

Allow me to reflect on this call to rejoice and, by implication, on the invitation to embrace with joy the challenge of a synodal conversion within the national synodal framework—Tinig-Tawag, Tawid-Tanaw, TapakTindig, and Tipan—so that the Church may become ever more Good News for the poor. 

Rejoice! The Lord Is Near to the Poor.

We rejoice because God draws near to those who are last, least, and lost. Isaiah announces God’s saving nearness to the frightened and the frail: “Be strong, fear not! Here is your God… he comes to save you” (Is 35:4). Jesus confirms this promise by his deeds: “the blind regain their sight, the lame walk… and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them” (Mt 11:5). 

Salvation is not an idea; it is the Lord drawing close to restore dignity and hope. If God draws near to the poor, can we, as the Church, do anything less?

(Tinig-Tawag): Are we truly listening to God by listening to the cries of the poor, the migrants, farmers, fisherfolk, and creation? Joy deepens where the Church cultivates spaces of listening—such as parish circles, barrio visits, and shared discernment—where the poor speak and help shape the agenda. Perhaps our parish could form a small “Tinig Team” to host regular listening moments with those in poverty—letting their voices be heard in our gatherings.

Rejoice! The Kingdom Breaks in as Justice Is Done

We rejoice because the Lord’s reign already breaks in where sight is restored, bodies stand, and communities cross from indifference to conversion. Jesus points to these concrete signs that fulfill the promise of Isaiah. These are personal and social liberations - healing, cleansing, raising, evangelizing - that reveal the breaking in of God’s reign. Good news to the poor looks like access to healing, protection from exploitation, and pathways out of debt and hunger—signs that “God is here… to save you” (Is 35:4) and that in Jesus this saving nearness is already at work among the least (Mt 11:2–6, 11). 

(Tawid-Tanaw): The Spirit invites us to cross over from sympathy to structural charity and justice. Imagine our parishes as “Isaiah outposts”: providing legal aid, livelihood support, education scholarships, care for creation, and safe spaces for women and children. From time to time, we might try a simple “Justice Examen” as a community—looking at our budgets and ministries through the lens of the poor, and discerning whether a modest portion could be reoriented toward justice-focused initiatives.

Rejoice! Mercy Walks with Us.

We rejoice because God’s mercy is steadfast. The joy of waiting deepens not in haste but in humble companionship—precisely the path Micah commends: to “love mercy” and “walk humbly with your God” (Mi 6:8).

Mercy is not mere sentiment; it is faithful presence with families in crisis; it is accompaniment of the youth on the margins, the elderly, and those burdened by sin or shame. In this journeying together, the poor encounter Christ’s nearness through the nearness of his Church. Will we walk at the pace of the most vulnerable?

(Tapak-Tindig): We are invited to a pastoral stance that moves at the pace of the vulnerable. Some communities have found it life-giving to form “Mercy Circles” that accompany specific families or sectors over several months offering monthly visits, shared prayer, concrete support, and reflective listening. If this resonates with our parish rhythm, it could be a simple way for mercy to take one step, then another.

Conclusion: 

(Tipan): The covenant--Becoming a Synodal Church for the Poor. The call to rejoice is not naïveté; it is recognition. The Lord is near, and the poor are hearing the Good News where the Church listens, does justice, loves mercy, and walks humbly. 

Let us rejoice and become the sign we proclaim: deserts bloom, burdens lift, and hope finds a home among the poor. Perhaps this is what it means to be a synodal Church for the poor.

Visit to the Bajao Community

Sulong. Padayon.

Preparation (1st Sunday Advent A)

In November of 2013, the monster typhoon Yolanda devastated the portion of Central Philippines. In the face of the rising casualties of the strongest typhoon ever recorded in history and the apparent initial lack of efficiency in responding to the needs of the survivors, it was said that no amount of preparation could have forestalled the magnitude of the impact of the supertyphoon.  So that even if the supertyphoon was rightly predicted to be one of the strongest in history and warnings had been alarmed, when it actually landed, the people and the government just the same were ill-prepared for its monstrosity. In the aftermath, rescue and relief operations struggled to get through the wreckage causing great delay in responding to the emergency needs of cities and towns directly hit. This meant more deaths and more suffering.

Whether we bought such assessment or not, still the lesson was clear: We cannot belittle the value of preparation.  Now that we had a taste of the wrath of a cataclysmic typhoon, we have to learn how to prepare better.

Our gospel reading (Mt. 24:37-44), on this first Sunday of Advent, has a clear single theme—preparation. “Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come” (v. 42-44).

Advent is a season of preparation for the coming of our Lord.  We understand the coming of our Lord in three ways:  First, historically. Jesus came to us at a specific point in history at Bethlehem about 2000 years ago.  Second, majestically. The Lord, Alpha and Omega, will come to judge the living and the dead in the Second Coming.  And third, mystically. The Redeemer comes to us in grace. He speaks to us in our consciences; he comes to us in the Eucharist and in the Word of God proclaimed. He arrives in the person of the beggar, the needy, the suffering, the oppressed, and the imprisoned.

Our advent preparations, then, may be expressed in three distinct characteristics—that of a joyful commemoration of Christ’s incarnation, that of a hopeful anticipation of the glory of the Lord, and that of a faithful daily commitment to the Lord’s presence.

Joyful Commemoration.  Advent is preparation for Christmas. As such, it leads us to look back to the time in history when the longing of the people for the Messiah was finally answered. The Savior was born. Joy to the world! The season of Advent commemorates that sense of longing and the joy of the fulfillment of God’s promise.  This preparation is an act of remembering and of keeping alive such longing for the Lord and such joy of having the Lord with us.  Therefore, despite our present hardships in life, the season of Advent reminds us to give room for joy in our hearts as we keep alive our memories of the Lord’s birth.

Hopeful Anticipation. Advent is preparation not only for Christmas. As today’s gospel reminds us, we need to “stay awake” and “be prepared” for the coming of the Son of Man. This particularly alludes to the glorious Second coming of our Lord. This preparation ought not to be out of fear but out of hope. The Day of the Lord is God’s justice and God’s justice is the vindication of those who have been faithful to his words. As hopeful anticipation, Advent reminds us that there is sense in being faithful to God despite increasing lack of faith around us; there is value in always choosing the good amid the predominance of sinful situations we find ourselves in; there is a point in upholding the truth even if I sacrifice my life in the process. These are all meaningful because we trust in the majestic coming of the Lord; we anticipate his justice with hope.

Faithful Daily Commitment.  Advent invites us not only to look back with joy and to look ahead with hope; it also allows us to prepare for the Lord’s coming each day.  I believe that this is the key to authentic preparation: Our faithfulness to our daily Christian commitments. When the gospel calls for vigilance in preparation for the unknown hour of the Lord’s coming, in effect it calls for moral alertness every single day of our lives.  As for St. Paul in the second reading (Rom 13:11-14), he has this to say:  “It is the hour now for you to awake from sleep… let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and lust, not in rivalry and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.” Advent invites us to be faithful to Jesus each day.

Today, we start another liturgical year with the first Sunday of Advent. Both our traumatic experience and the season of Advent teach us an important thing:  the value of preparation.  May this grace-filled season of Advent, indeed, be for us a meaningful preparation for the coming of the Lord whom we welcome with joy, with hope, and fidelity.

The Day of the Lord (33rd Sunday Ordinary C)

The Dome of the Rock

The oracle of the Lukan Jesus in today’s gospel foretold the destruction of the Holy Temple of Jerusalem: “All that you see here—the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down” (Lk 21:6).  Indeed today in Jerusalem, what stands very proudly on the very site of the glorious temple is a Muslim mosque with an eye-catching golden dome that stands out when one takes a panoramic view of the city from afar. It’s the “Dome of the Rock” which now houses the foundational stone of the Jerusalem temple where the Jews used to worship God. What remains of the temple is the Western Wall. It is on this site now that the religious Jews pray. On this wall, also called the Wailing Wall, they continue to mourn and weep over the loss of the temple of God.

In today’s gospel reading (Lk 21: 5-19), Luke blends the historical event of the temple’s destruction and the apocalyptic description of the end times. The Lukan Jesus pronounces the oracle and, when asked about the time of its happening, responds with the description of the end times and what will presage the end—calamities, wars, and persecutions. Likewise, the first reading (Mal 3:19-20a) describes the end time as the day of the justice of God.

Each time we come to the end of the liturgical year our readings are those of the apocalyptic writings describing the end times. This is not to frighten us but to give us the opportunity to set our sight beyond the present concerns in this earthly life. We may have been too engrossed with either the pains of our life struggles or the joys of our temporal successes, too enmeshed in the magnitude of our contemporary concerns to see with hope what lies beyond this earthly pilgrimage.

Reflecting on the end times is not meant to scare us or to lose heart; it is not meant to paralyze us with fear. Today’s readings in particular allow us to face the end of time well prepared by heeding these two calling: The call to repentance and the call to steadfastness in faith.

The call to repentance. The first reading describes the end as the day of God’s justice. It is a day “blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble” and will be set on fire. But for those who fear the name of God, “there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays” (Mal 3:19-20a).  

The end is when we experience the definitive justice of God. While on earth, life seems to be unfair many times. Evil doers seem to prosper while good people suffer persecutions. But when the day of the Lord comes, God will set all things straight. Indeed, our moral life has repercussions on the afterlife. We cannot do evil and not be held responsible for it.

We may do well then to heed the invitation to repent and to “fear the name of God.” This can mean rising up from our complacency and self-centered way of living. This can also mean shaking ourselves out of our pride and conceited sense of self-sufficiency as if we do not need God. Repentance can also take the form of turning away from our evil deeds by committing ourselves to actively help dismantle the structures of sins which we may have participated in.

The "Wailing Wall"

The call to steadfastness in faith. It is very easy to create our own wailing walls where we can continue to mourn and weep for our losses. With the super typhoons mercilessly buffeting our cities and towns, with the earthquakes leaving our homes, churches, offices, bridges, and other infrastructures in ruins, with wars dashing our hopes for harmony and peace among peoples and cultures, it is very easy to lose heart, to doubt in God’s goodness, to be paralyzed by hopelessness, and to give in to evil means of survival.

Yet the message of Luke to his people then is the same message we need to listen to now. The apocalyptic writings of Luke in today’s gospel, announces hardships, sufferings, calamities, and tribulations as presage to the coming of the end. While there is no telling of the definite time of the end, we are called to face whatever hardships and tribulations with steadfastness in faith.

To be steadfast in our faith is to have the courage to give testimony to the goodness of God amidst seeming contrary evidences of destructions around us because we know that it is sin that causes these havoc and not God. God only has grace to see us through all the sufferings.

To be steadfast in faith is to persevere in the face of hatred and looming death because we trust that God will protect us as he has promised: “not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives” (Lk 21: 18). Even death cannot harm those who have been faithful to God.

As we come to the end of our liturgical year, let us see our lives, our important commitments, our endless concerns, our joys and sorrows, our successes and failures in the light of our eternal destiny. Everything will pass away. Great temples we have built can easily crumble leaving us only ruins where we can lament and wail. We look beyond this earthly life without relinquishing our responsibility to make this a beautiful place to live in. As we do, let us always be reminded of our call—to repent and to be steadfast in our faith.