Burning Our Boats (13th Sunday Ordinary C)

The world has known Alexander the Great and his powerful army for their fierceness in battles and awesome victories.  For years, they had confidently overcome opposing armies in their conquests.  Legend has it that when Alexander and his men disembarked on the shores of Persia they realized that they were outnumbered. Feeling less confident because they were clearly outmanned, Alexander’s army pleaded to retreat in order to get more men.  But Alexander’s response was quite the opposite of their plea.  He ordered his men to burn their boats! And when their boats, their only means of retreat, went up in flames, Alexander turned to his men and said, “We go home in Persian ships, or we die!”

This is an awesome display of unwavering determination.  To burn one’s boat signifies total commitment to one’s purpose—No more turning back. No more other options to consider. One must go ahead, come hell or high water, and fulfill to the best of one’s ability what one has set out to do. No retreat, no surrender. Do or die!

Today’s gospel reading (Lk 9:51-62) depicts this same unwavering determination on the part of Jesus as He decides to begin his journey to Jerusalem.  And in this context too, the Lord reveals what is demanded of those who wish to follow him in this journey.  Hence, today’s gospel reading is an invitation for us to reflect on the demands of discipleship. Let us bring out, then, and reflect on three demands that the Lord clearly put forth for those who muster their courage to follow the Lord.

Sacrifice.  “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head” (v. 58). This Semitic expression used by the Lord as his reply to the one who wish to follow him means that the disciple must be ready to sacrifice his own comfort and security. Discipleship is a journey. No one sets out on a journey with the Lord without leaving his own comfort zone. One has to let go of his security and face the uncertainties and the element of the unknown inherent in the journey.  Jesus’ own journey to Jerusalem is not a leisurely walk of a tourist in vacation.  In Jesus’ case, Jerusalem is not a tourist destination; rather, it represents his suffering and death as fulfillment of his saving mission. Every step he takes is a confirmation of his willingness to sacrifice everything, even his life, in order to fulfill his mission.

Do we have the courage to sacrifice our own comfort and security in order to follow Christ? Can we forget ourselves in order to take care of those who are suffering, the sick, the elderly, and the orphaned? Can we sacrifice what we have in order to share to those in need? Can we give up our precious time in order to lend an ear to those who are lonely and grieving?

Prioritization of the Kingdom of God. “Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God” (v. 60). We do have valid human concerns and we do value our relationships and family ties. But even these should not hinder us from doing our mission. The proclamation of the reign of God must be the priority of a disciple of Christ. Our human concerns and relationships take a secondary value. Jesus himself was consumed by nothing else but his passion for the reign of God. Everything for him, his family, his own personal concerns, was secondary. It is the proclamation of the reign of God that was central to his mission and gave direction to his own life.

In the face of growing secularization today, do we still see, in our lives, the values of the Kingdom God taking precedence over the values of this world? In the moments of significant decision-making in life, do we decide in favor of and in accordance with the values of God’s Kingdom? Or have we now put on the securalist mindset subscribing to the values of this world which seem to be more practical and attractive?

Single-minded Commitment. “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God” (v. 62). In other words, a disciple must make an unswerving commitment to his mission. Discipleship demands this single-mindedness. The Lord asks his followers to “burn their boats” as they disembark onto the shore of discipleship.  Like Alexander’s army, the Lord’s disciples have to face the challenges ahead unfazed and with a resolute commitment to win the battle. There is no turning back. Jesus himself has shown in today’s gospel that he was “resolutely determined” to journey to Jerusalem where the paschal mystery, his death and resurrection, was to happen.

Today we all deem it wise and practical to always have a back-up plan for any kind of engagement we enter into. In effect, we have wired failure into our subconscious.  We put forward one foot but we keep the other foot on safer ground “just in case.” We have become half-hearted in our commitments. We easily back off when the going gets rough and tough; hence, all the more that we experience failure.  The Lord sees a half-hearted disciple unfit for the kingdom of God. The Lord wants us to journey with him wholeheartedly. Single-mindedly.  In our journey with the Lord, are we keeping some back-up plans? Are we still vacillating? The gospel today asks us that, once and for all, we follow the Lord with undivided commitment. We are asked, as Alexander the Great asked his men, to burn our boats.

Let Love Alone Speak (5th Sunday Easter C)

I have a missionary friend who is stationed in China. There his identity as a priest is not publicly known. To reveal his identity as a Christian missionary will have serious and dangerous repercussions to his missionary work in a communist country. So he opts to be incognito. Curiously I asked him once about how he does his work of evangelization in a hostile environment when in fact he cannot openly preach the Gospel as I freely do here in the Philippines. I remember him answering, “I proclaim the Gospel by my way of living among the people there. I hope that through my witnessing, they will come to know Christ.”

Ahhh... that’s difficult, huh! It’s a lot easier to deliver eloquent homilies in our large cathedrals here! But my missionary friend is absolutely right. The gospel reading (Jn 13:31-33a, 34-35) today reminds us that essentially we announce to the world our relationship with Christ by the way we live. Or more particularly, by the way we love. Love is our mark as Christ’s disciples. In Jesus’ own words: “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (v. 35). Charity then is our identity. Exercising charity in the manner we live is therefore our most essential proclamation of who we are and of our loving relationship with Christ.

I’m reminded of Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, which tackles quite extensively the theology on love and the Church’s responsibility to be a community of love. Paragraph no. 31 expresses beautifully the very point of my missionary friend and of today’s gospel: “Those who practise charity in the Church's name will never seek to impose the Church's faith upon others. They realize that a pure and generous love is the best witness to the God in whom we believe and by whom we are driven to love. A Christian knows when it is time to speak of God and when it is better to say nothing and to let love alone speak. He knows that God is love (cf. 1 Jn 4:8) and that God's presence is felt at the very time when the only thing we do is to love.”

Ah... beautiful and inspiring words! Let love alone speak! I’m honestly wondering, should I lose all these words I’m using, would I still be able to evangelize? Would love be visible in my life? When words fail, will my way of living still has the power to tell the world of God’s love?

A very important question for us to answer then is this: “How do we love?”

Oftentimes we love by giving gifts external to us like these four successful brothers who felt they needed to express their love and care for their elderly mother.  They discussed the gifts that they were able to give to her who lived far away in another city:

The first said, "I had a big house built for Mama."
The second said, "I had a hundred thousand dollar theater built in the house."
The third said, "I had my Mercedes dealer deliver her an SL600."
The fourth said, "Listen to this. You know how Mama loved reading the Bible and you know she can't read it anymore because she can't see very well. I met this priest who told me about a parrot that can recite the entire Bible. It took twenty priests and 12 years to teach him. I had to pledge to contribute $100,000 a year for twenty years to the church, but it was worth it. Mama just has to name the chapter and verse and the parrot will recite it."

The other brothers were impressed. After the holidays Mom sent out her thank you notes.  She wrote: 

"Milton, the house you built is so huge. I live in only one room, but I have to clean the whole house. Thanks anyway."

"Marvin, I am too old to travel. I stay home, I have my groceries delivered, so I never use the Mercedes. The thought was good. Thanks."

"Michael, you give me an expensive theatre with Dolby sound, it could hold 50 people, but all my friends are dead, I've lost my hearing and I'm nearly blind. I'll never use it. Thank you for the gesture just the same."

"Dearest Melvin, you were the only son to have the good sense to give a little thought to your gift. The chicken was delicious. Thank you."

External gifts can be symbolic of our love but essentially love can only be effectively expressed through the gift of self. Our model in loving is Jesus himself. He instructs us to love one another AS HE HAS LOVED US. Jesus has given us not just any other gift but the gift of himself. He offered his life on the cross the day after he instructed his disciples of this commandment to love. This same self-sacrificial love will be the mark of his true disciples.

Today’s gospel then invites us to be faithful to our Christian identity and responsibility, i.e., charity. May the way we live be the way of love. In this world of secularism and materialism, may we continue to be the source of the spirit of love. May our day-to-day loving witness and self-giving proclaim to the world the love of God and attract many who are in search for meaningful lives to join the community of love which the Lord wants us to build. Let love alone speak.

Easter Beatitude (2nd Sunday Easter C)

The gospel today (Jn 20:19-31) proclaims, as it were, the Easter beatitude: “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed” (v. 29). Clearly this speaks of Christian believers who have not been eyewitnesses to the marvellous event of Jesus’ resurrection but have, nonetheless, demonstrated an unwavering faith in Him as Lord and God.  This speaks about us who, despite our many struggles in life and obstacles to the joy of believing in this increasingly secularized society, continue to live in faith and proclaim the goodness and mercy of God.

Today, the Divine Mercy Sunday is an invitation for us to put our trust in the infinite mercy of our loving God and experience the blessedness that the Lord has promised to those who believe in Him. Let us allow God’s mercy to lead us into the three significant interior movements that the disciples experienced as they encounter the Risen Lord in the gospel account today.

The movement from fear to joy.  The death of the Master on the cross on Good Friday sent the disciples to hiding. Out of fear, they holed up in a room afraid of a possible crack down on the followers of the crucified Messiah. Today’s gospel, however, recounts how Jesus dispels their fear by offering them his peace: “Peace be with you.” Jesus’ appearance throws away the paralysis caused by fear and, once again, enables them to rejoice in freedom. Then Jesus, after overcoming the obstacle of fear, sends them to the mission of proclaiming the gospel. The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 5:12-16) tells us that the apostles become the adhesive force of the community, gaining respect from people, and attracting a great number of converts.  

What are my fears? Is it fear of rejection? Or of pain? Suffering? Persecution? When we live in fear, we back off and hide in order to protect ourselves from harm.  But the price of maintaining this false security is high. We lose the joy of spontaneity, the freedom to be sent and proclaim the love and mercy of God.  Hence, let us allow the Risen Lord to allay our fears and to lead us to the joyful conviction that God is always on our side.

The movement from guilt to the peace of forgiveness.  Another very likely disposition of the disciples following the horror of Good Friday is guilt. Judas’ guilt has led him to despair; and we can just imagine the angst of Peter for having denied the Lord three times!  Yet, Jesus greets them with the Easter gift of peace.  No mention of their betrayal and cowardice. And not only has he forgiven them, He makes them instruments of God’s forgiveness.  He breathes on them and says: “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained” (v. 22-23).  Jesus empowers the apostles to overcome the anguish of guilt by forgiveness. Hereafter, the apostles and their successors will be Jesus’ representatives in the world to impart his peace by absolving the sins of those who repent.

What have I done that continues to haunt me and imprisons me? Or what have I failed to do for people I love and for God? Our guilt imprisons us. It can rob us of our peace of mind and continue to torment us. To experience the Easter beatitude, we need to allow the Risen Lord to grant us peace and experience that deep sense of being forgiven. Only when we accept the boundless mercy of God that we can truly live with the Easter happiness.

The movement from doubt to faith.  Another obstacle to Easter faith is doubt. The encounter between Jesus and Thomas in today’s gospel demonstrates how Jesus overcomes doubt. Jesus yields to Thomas’ obstinacy showing the latter the evidence he is looking for as a requirement for his belief. Thomas goes down in history as the doubting apostle; yet when we come to think of it, his skepticism saves us from our own doubts. Thomas has disproved any theories that suggest the resurrection as mere hallucination on the part of the apostles. He has seen the Risen Lord in his own eyes in the very terms he demanded. Hence, his proclamation of faith, “My Lord and my God!” can also be ours.  

Does the joy of believing manifest in my life? The societies we find ourselves in are subscribing more and more to secular philosophies which belittle and ignore the truth of our Christian faith. Many times, unawares we allow this worldview to be our own too as we face life and make decisions. This slowly jeopardizes our joyful witnessing to our faith. Like Thomas, let us allow the Risen Lord to come to us and overcome our lack of faith.

On this Divine Mercy Sunday, let us come to Jesus, bringing with us our fears, our guilt, and our lack of faith but trusting in the transforming power of his mercy. Let us allow his infinite mercy to open the locked doors of our hiding place and invite us to come out into the open with joy instead of fear, with peace instead of guilt, with faith instead of unbelief.