God’s Two Hands (6th Sunday Easter C)

The Father works with his two hands: the Word and the Spirit. It was Irenaeus of Lyons, one of the early Fathers of the Church, who expressed this Trinitarian understanding of God’s activity in salvation history. This Trinitarian outlook can help us approach the gospel reading today (Jn 14:23-29) with a keen awareness of the complimentary roles of Jesus, the Word of God, and of the Spirit, the Advocate, in making God present in our Christian living.

God is made present in our lives through the Word and the Spirit. Today’s gospel stresses this truth: God lives in us when we keep his Word and as we allow the Holy Spirit to empower us in our Christian witnessing. Let us have a word for each of these two agents of God’s indwelling in us.

Keeping the Word of God. Jesus is the Word of the Father. We can only come to know God through his Word, his self-revelation. No wonder, Jesus stresses, as part of his leave-taking discourse, the principle of the concurrence of the indwelling of God with the observance of his word. As we have it in the gospel today: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him” (v. 23).

To Keep the Word of God means getting to know Jesus, listening to him, and obeying his commandments. It means living out in our daily lives everything he has taught us. When we do this, God lives in us. Negatively expressed, today’s gospel reminds us of the incompatibility between living in God and disregarding his Word. No one can honestly claim loving God and living in him when one does not observe God’s will.

All too often, our Christian living suffers this incompatibility. We easily claim God being with us but we fail to show it in actual witnessing. How, for instance, can we claim to be followers of Jesus and at the same time be comfortably part of a culture of corruption that gnaws at every fibre of our social life like a silent cancer?

Today’s gospel then allows us to see the indispensability of knowing Jesus, the Word, and living by his precepts in order to enjoy the peace of God’s abiding presence. Without the Word becoming incarnate in our own lives, how then can we have God dwell in us?

Invoking the Holy Spirit. The Spirit works hand in hand with the Word. The Spirit, the Advocate, teaches and reminds us of everything Jesus, the Word, has told us (v. 26). The Spirit helps us understand God’s Word, shedding light on the salvific meaning of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. It is the Spirit that emboldens us to become fearless witnesses of Jesus. The Spirit empowers us to keep the word of God, hence, the Spirit ensures God’s abiding presence in us.

As a Christian, am I aware of this crucial role of the Spirit in my everyday witnessing? Do I invoke his empowering presence especially in moments when courage and conviction are called for in order to keep God’s word amidst a culture that jeers at the very core of the gospel values?

Left on our own devices, we always end up insecure and fearful about what we can do in terms of witnessing to the Word of God. My own feeling is that a great number of Christians have remained insecure as they honesty doubt their human capacity to keep the word of Jesus. They have forgotten to allow the Spirit to work through them, to embolden them, to assure them that, no matter what, it is God who is always in charge.

In the final analysis, God works with his two hands—the Word and the Spirit—in order to make sure that his love is effectively communicated and his Word kept that we may live in him and God may live in us now and forever.

We have just done our national and local elections, let us continue to invoke the power of the Holy Spirit to guide our nation into the path that God wills for us his people. We dream of a better nation, then let us listen to the Word in our consciences and allow the Spirit of God, the God who acts in history, to work through each of us and collectively, in our effort for nation-building. God does not leave us in the inadequacies of our own device. After all, He is the God of history; He acts in history, gently, mightily, with his two hands.

A Treasure that Gives Life (Corpus Christi Sunday A)

After almost three hours of exhausting walk to a far-flung barrio chapel, I and Alfonso, who graciously carried my things throughout the long trek, were at last met by the community.  There were only fifteen of them waiting to celebrate the Eucharist as we arrived!  While we rested, still catching our breath, Alfonso couldn’t hide his disappointment and asked me why must we travel on foot that far for only fifteen people.  Before I could offer a consoling answer, I was handed a pitcher of fresh Buko juice which I mercilessly gobbled down to the dregs.  After such a refreshing treat, I told Alfonso, “I know the answer to your question: The longer the walk, the sweeter the Buko juice becomes.”

In a more serious note, I wish to reflect on the question as we celebrate today the Solemnity of Corpus Christi.  The celebration, I believe, lends itself to our quest for meaning as regards our true Eucharistic piety.  My answer to Alfonso should have been: “Because the Eucharist is a treasure.  We have to go out of our way, cross the same river for over ten times under the scorching sun, brave the perils of the jungle, and pant for air to survive because we are up for a treasure—the pearl of great prize—long held by the Christian communities for generations.”

Pope John Paul II, in his spiritual reflection Ecclesia de Eucharistia, presents the Eucharist as our treasure as he says: “The treasure of the Eucharist... impels us towards the goal of full sharing with all our brothers and sisters to whom we are joined by our common baptism. But if this treasure is not to be squandered, we need to respect the demands which derive from its being the sacrament of communion in faith and in apostolic succession. By giving the Eucharist the prominence it deserves, and by being careful not to diminish any of its dimensions or demands, we show that we are truly conscious of the greatness of this gift.”

Source of communion as Brethren. In other words, the Pope reminds us of the greatness of the gift of the Eucharist and calls us to safeguard it as our treasure because it is in the Eucharist that we derive our life as Christian communities.  It is in the celebration of the Eucharist that we live out our communion as brothers and sisters in Christ sharing in the one and the same baptism as attested to by the second reading, 1 Cor. 10: 16-17—“We, many though we are, are one body for we all partake in one loaf.” In my pastoral experience, I can attest to the fact that the more a community gathers to celebrate the Eucharist, the more they burst with life with more and more people participating in the communal life and celebrating the diversity of their gifts as one community of faith.

Source of eternal life for Christ’s disciples. The Eucharist is a treasure because it is the source of the life of Christ’s disciples. The Body and Blood of Christ, in the humble signs of bread and wine, give life to those who receive them.  Our first reading (Dt. 8: 2-3, 14-16) reminds us that God’s people were fed with manna, a food unknown to them, in order to show them that man lives not by bread alone but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord (v. 3).  In the same vein, the Gospel of John (Jn. 6: 51-52) instructs us that it is Jesus who is the living bread that comes down from heaven.  The real manna of everlasting life. “He who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has life eternal (v. 54).

Source of perfect union with Christ.  The Eucharist is a treasure because it makes possible the unique experience of “mutual indwelling” of Christ and the disciple in each other.  It is through the reception of the body and blood of Christ that we experience Christ living in us and us living in Christ. “The man who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him” (v. 56). We can say therefore that through our participation in the Eucharist we attain life eternal. And this eternal life is not so much about the length of life (and one which we shall have in the hereafter) as it is about the quality of life that we possess in the here and now. We speak of the life of Christ in us. It is divine life throbbing in us, impelling us to live as Christ lived—a life of love. 

No wonder then, that a priest takes all the troubles in going to the far-off communities in order to share this treasure to them. No wonder then, I was often told, that our overseas Filipino workers hunger for the Eucharistic celebration in foreign lands where they are deprived of this treasure.  They are there to “eke out a living.” But only the Eucharist can grant them true life—the life with Christ.

As we celebrate, then, the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ today, let us approach the altar and feed on Christ in the signs of bread and wine turned to his body and blood. As we approach, let our hearts well up with gratitude for being so blessed as to receive this great gift of the source of eternal life. As we receive the Lord, let us do it with an interior devotion that shows how we truly treasure Jesus Christ who gives life by living in us.

Then, in silence, we pray for all Christians in foreign lands who are deprived of this great treasure—they may be your father or mother, husband or wife, brother or sister, or your friend. Pray also for all priests consecrated primarily for the celebration of the Eucharist, that they may draw their own life from it—from the treasure that gives life.

I Am With You Always (Ascension Sunday A)

Little Tonton was spending the weekend with his grandmother after a particularly trying week in kindergarten. His grandmother decided to take him to the park on Saturday morning. The weather was good and everything was beautiful.

His grandmother remarked, "Doesn't it look like an artist painted this scenery? Did you know God painted this just for you?"

Tonton said, "Yes, God did it and he did it left handed."

This confused his grandmother a bit, and she asked him, "What makes you say God did this with his left hand?"

"Well," said Tonton, "we learned at Sunday School last week that Jesus sits on God's right hand!"

Today is the Solemnity of the Lord’s Ascension.Indeed, we always profess that Jesus “ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.”

The gospel of Matthew, particularly today's reading (Mt. 28: 16-20), does not give an account of Jesus’ departure. What he does assert is that Jesus has been given “all power in heaven and on earth” (v. 18). Second, Jesus shares this authority to his disciples by commissioning them to make disciples of all nations through baptism; and third, Jesus assures his disciples of his presence at all times and until the end (v. 19-20).

Jesus' Victory. In the light of Matthew’s account, our belief in the ascension of our Lord is not so much about the “how” of this event as it is about the fact that the risen Jesus has now returned to the very life of God and hence, shares the omnipotence of the Father. This assures us that our humanity, in the person of Jesus, the God-Man, has now fulfilled its destiny, that is, to share in the very life of God. In Jesus, the human being has now been incorporated into the being of God. The ascension event is, therefore, the ultimate victory of Jesus, demolishing the distance wrought by sin between God and the human.

Jesus’ victory is ours too. We can now look forward to the day that we shall live in the very heart of God’s being... in perfect intimacy... forever and ever.

Our Mission. While looking forward to that day of salvation, we are commissioned by the Lord to make disciples of all nations. There is just so much good news here that we ought to announce. The Lord wants us to share this good news to all peoples by making them his disciples. We are to be his witnesses to the ends of the world. We are to invite people to participate in the victory that is stored for us by the Lord. Hence, the ascension event is not just about Jesus’ departure; more importantly on our part, it signals the passing on unto us of his mission of proclaiming God’s love to the world. In other words, we are sent to let people know that, in Jesus, the unifying love of God has triumphed over the alienating effect of sin; in Jesus, the human being is now reconciled with the loving God.

Let us then continue to tell the world of God’s love... even if it continues to reject God’s invitation.

The Lord's Intimate Presence. Again, the Ascension of our Lord is not really about his departure. On the contrary, it is the assurance that the risen Jesus is ever more present in us in the most intimate way. “I am with you always” (v. 20). The Ascension is not a moment of feeling orphaned. Our belief in this event instructs us not to keep on looking at the sky as if to hope for a last glance of the disappearing Lord; instead, it makes us train our senses into experiencing the intimate indwelling of God in us here and now.

Celebrating the solemnity of the Ascension of our Lord is an invitation for all of us, his disciples, to be ever more sensitive to the presence of God in every moment of our lives.

Lord, I thank you for assuring me that you’re with me always. Let my life be a proclamation of your love to those who feel empty, alone, and unloved.