Photo by author, Laguna Lake, Los Baños, Laguna, 13 February 2020.
How often does it still happen today, Lord Jesus Christ, that like in our gospel today you would “sigh from the depth of your heart” after we, your people, would ask you for more signs from heaven?
Have mercy on us, Lord, for our lack of faith in you after all these years.
Forgive us for being “unstable in all our ways” with you, always “a man of two minds” as St. James would describe us (James 1:8) in seeking wisdom and things from you.
Forgive us for those moments we doubt your presence and power especially when we fail to win your favor, to get your blessings for our particular prayers and supplications.
The fault is really on us, Lord.
If sighing is your way of keeping your patience with our being so stubborn, teach us to reach out to you in the depths of our hearts, to remember those countless occasions you have saved us.
That instead of asking for signs from you, we may just sigh deep inside us to experience you again. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 16 February 2020
From Google.
I have always been a big fan of Rod Stewart since my elementary days when his 1977 hit “You’re In My Heart” was released. Since then I have followed his career, saving on my baon to buy some of his records and cassette tapes that some of my relatives doubted if I would ever become a priest with my kind of music!
But, when I entered the high school seminary in 1979 and heard our rector and spiritual director playing Rod Stewart’s music, that’s when I realized I could still become a priest with my kind of music.
And so, I finally became a priest in 1998 after leaving the seminary in 1982 – not because of rock music – that 21 years after, here still rockin’, now blogging to relate secular music with our Sunday gospel.
Pilgrims entering the Church of the Beatitudes with a painting of the Jesus giving his Sermon on the Mount. Photo by author, May 2019, the Holy Land.
This Sunday, Jesus continues his Sermon on the Mount, inviting us to look deeper into our hearts to see how much love and respect we have there for God and for others.
He cites four grave sins – murder, adultery, divorce, and lies – that all begin in our hearts.
Like what Jesus would later tell us, it is not what enters us that defile us but what comes from our hearts.
All troubles and sins outside like the wars and famines, the corruption and injustices that happen begin right inside our hearts.
And that is why we have chosen Rod Stewart’s classic “You’re In My Heart” that speaks of the great love – perhaps a crush or first love to a high school classmate.
Rod Stewart wrote this song and the lyrics are not only poetic but also playfully true that we can all identify with it, especially us men who have gone through the same feelings and experiences when we think of girls and sports at the same time while always lagging in our academics (LOL).
It is something like what our teachers used to tell us in elementary and high school: “boys will always be boys but girls turn into ladies and then into women”.
Have a heart, bask in the feeling of loving, and mature in our love in Christ!
You’re in my heart, you’re in my soul You’ll be my breath should I grow old You are my lover, you’re my best friend You’re in my soul
My love for you is immeasurable My respect for you immense You’re ageless, timeless, lace and fineness You’re beauty and elegance
You’re a rhapsody, a comedy You’re a symphony and a play You’re every love song ever written But honey, what do you see in me?
You’re in my heart, you’re in my soul You’ll be my breath should I grow old You are my lover, you’re my best friend You’re in my soul
You’re an essay in glamor Please pardon the grammar But you’re every schoolboy’s dream You’re Celtic, United, but baby I’ve decided You’re the best team I’ve ever seen
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul, Week VI-A, 16 February 2020
Sirach 15:15-20 ><)))*> 1 Corinthians 2:6-10 ><)))*> Matthew 5:17-37
Photo by author of pilgrims entering the Church of the Beatitudes with a painting of the Sermon on the Mount above the door, May 2019.
Jesus continues his Sermon on the Mount this Sunday, expounding the meaning of his teachings called the Beatitudes. As we have reflected last week, the Beatitudes tell us the person of Jesus Christ as being “poor, merciful, clean of heart” whom we must all imitate to become the salt and the light of the world.
Most important of all, Matthew presents to us at the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus is more than the new Moses as giver of laws like at Mt. Sinai in the Old Testament: Jesus himself is the Law, who is both our Teacher and Redeemer.
This we see in his teachings today when he claims to be the fulfillment of the Laws and the Prophets from God in the Old Testament.
Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill it. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.”
Matthew 5:17-18
Essence of the Laws: reflection of God, the good of man
Today, Jesus is teaching us to see the laws in the right perspectives, in the light of the will of God for the good of every person. Throughout his ministry, Jesus has always been consistent in reminding everyone that the laws were made for man, not the other way around.
During Christ’s time, people have lost the real meaning of the Commandments of God as priests and religious leaders focused more on its letters than in its essence and spirit that in the process, the laws have become burdensome. It has continued in our own generation with laws taking precedence over God and persons.
Photo by author of the Church of the Beatitudes at the Holy Land, May 2019.
At the Sermon on the Mount, we find Jesus restoring and recalibrating the laws so that these become more relevant and powerful as reflections of God in the service of man.
Jesus “relectures” us the laws in this part of his Sermon on the Mount by adding more righteousness (holiness), declaring that,
“I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 5:20
By using a pattern where he would cite Laws, saying, “You have heard that it was said”– Jesus shows us his fidelity and obedience to Judaism, contrary to his enemies’ accusations that he had abolished their laws. Moreover, in fulfilling the laws, Jesus put himself in the midst of every law and precept by declaring, “Amen, I say to you” or “but I say to you”.
In following that formula, Jesus gave the laws with a human face and a human heart in himself as its fulfillment so that from then on at his Sermon on the Mount, Christ made every law, every tradition, everything else to be seen always in his person.
Black and white photo by Mr. Jay Javier in Quiapo, 09 January 2020.
Performative powers of the laws in Jesus Christ
With Jesus in the midst of every law and precept as its fulfillment, God’s laws then become not only informative but most of all, performative to borrow one of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s favorite expression. This we find Jesus teaching us in three stages in our long gospel this Sunday.
Education of the heart.
The first two laws cited by Jesus in this long list of commandments are “You shall not kill” and “you shall not commit adultery”. Both laws bring us to the very core of our personhood, of what is in our hearts and in our minds. The Lord explains that being angry as well as saying bad words against another person is like murder while looking lustfully at a woman is a form of adultery because in both cases, we have ceased to regard the other individuals as persons to be loved and respected, created in the image and likeness of God.
From Google.
It is an invitation for us to purify our hearts and minds for what defiles man is not what enters him but what comes out from him (Mt.15:11). Whatever is within us will always have an effect in all of our actions, for better or for worse.
What a tragedy that right here in the middle of our wired world of social media and instant communications, we have actually grown apart than together in the last 35 year with so much animosities fed on by lies and misinformation.
How ironic also that despite the information explosion from the Net, we have more benighted souls today than ever before who have actually gone to schools who know nothing of our history and geography?!
Education of the heart is formation of the whole person, not just a training of skills. One problem we have these days is when information is geared on data and facts without integration that we forget our relationships as well as the values we keep like respect, kindness, and dedication. Unless we have an education of the heart, a wholistic and integral formation, we can never be transformed into like Jesus Christ.
2. Get into the roots of our sins.
In telling us to pluck out our right eye or cut off our right hand if these cause us to sin, Jesus is inviting us again to probe deep into our hearts and being to understand what causes us to sin.
Photo by author, water plants in my room at the Fatima Parish and National Shrine, Valenzuela City, 2010.
The key here is to be totally free. In the first reading, Ben Sirach counsels us to “choose” rightly what is good and avoid what is evil.
We can only exercise our true freedom when we have clearer knowledge and understanding of ourselves and of things within us. We fall into vices and sins because we do not know what is going on inside us; hence, we are enslaved by our desires and sins to be not free at all.
Once we understand our sins, we commit them less often. Most of all, when we understand our sins, our struggles against committing these become more persevering, resulting to more triumphs than defeats.
The Season of Lent is near. Once again, we shall be busy with fasting and abstinence, contrition and confession of sins, almsgiving and other spiritual works that make us holy. But too often, these acts become mechanical that sooner, we sometimes reach that point when we cannot find meaning in doing them anymore that we sink deeper into sins and evil.
This happens when we get focused with letters of the laws and we forget its spirit that we become mechanical because we have failed to understand our very selves as well as our sins.
3. Be true.
Jesus said it perfectly well at the end of his teachings today,
“Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one.”
Matthew 5:37
In this last installment of reviewing the laws, Jesus underscored the problems with divorce as well as with lies that continue to this day because we always choose not to be true at all with ourselves, with God, and with others.
Photo by author of the last two Stations of the Cross at the chapel of my niece Ms. Babs Sison in Los Baños, Laguna 13 February 2020.
See the wisdom of Jesus in putting together divorce and oaths, the two great lies that until now continue to mislead so many among us who refuse to accept and carry the cross of Christ, preferring only the Easter Sunday minus the Good Friday.
Being true is embracing the Cross of Jesus Christ like St. Paul in the second reading. It is something we cannot deny in this life. There will always be pain and sufferings. As Dr. Scott Peck put it in his book The Road Less Travelled, “life is difficult.”
At his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus clearly showed in his Beatitudes that he and his values are in sharp contrast to the wisdom of the world. And this wisdom is only accessible to those willing to embrace the crucified Christ and the scandal of the cross.
It is there on the Cross with Jesus Christ we truly find the fulfillment of the laws as well as our fullness as persons. Amen.
1 Kings 12:26-32; 13:33-34 ><)))*> 0 <*(((>< Mark 8:1-10
Photo by author of a wood carving of the Last Supper from Paete, Laguna at a relative’s residence in Collegeville Subd., Los Baños, Laguna, 13 February 2020.
Lord Jesus Christ, you have come to always remind us to remember your great sign of presence, the Holy Eucharist when you told us “Do this in memory of me.”
That is why in our gospel today, you have again another scene where you miraculously fed more than 4000 people from just seven pieces of bread.
Such miracles of yo feeding the people, healing them of their many sickness are properly called as “signs” of your saving and loving presence.
They are meant to be remembered always of how much you love us.
Keep us to be faithful to keep on remembering your works so we may also remind others to remember your love and mercy for us all.
Help us not to be not like Jeroboam who diverted the attention of people away from you by building altar to false gods and initiating celebrations to idols that led others into sin against you.
May we bring people closer to you, not away from you with our life of witnessing especially in practicing our faith in the sacraments. Amen.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nick F. Lalog II, 13 February 2020
Photo by author, Mt. St. Paul, Trinidad, Benguet, 04 February 2020.
At the Ascension of the Lord, St. Luke tells us something very unique and unusual: the disciples returned to Jerusalem filled with joy.
Unusual and unique because when someone leaves us, either permanently like death or temporarily due to change of residence or jobs, we always feel sad.
But not the Apostles of Jesus along with the other disciples including Mary who were filled joy!
And so are we today because when someone dies, the person or our beloved does not leave us entirely. Though we do not see and feel them physically anymore, we continue to experience them personally.
Sometimes, we even grow more personal that there are people we feel getting closer with them after they have died.
Photo by author, Mt. St. Paul, Trinidad, Benguet, 05 February 2020
As I have been telling you, 2020 for me is tough with so many deaths in our Parish, in my family, and among my friends. Since last week of Christmas until the other week, I have been praying and celebrating funeral Masses almost everywhere.
This week, funeral Masses continue while at the same time, I have started celebrating the 40th days of those relatives and friends who have died last month.
In 1995, my father’s younger sister was stricken with pancreatic cancer. Being the eldest at that time among his nine surviving siblings, another aunt called me to ask my dad’s decision regarding their sick sister, if she would still go through surgery and just go home to Los Banos and wait for the inevitable.
He simply told me, “tell your Tita to just bring home Tita Rose; she had suffered enough and had lived a full life.”
Photo by author, Los Banos, Laguna, 13 February 2020.
That is when I realized that coming to terms with death iscoming toterms with life, and vice versa.
I know it is easier to say but that is how life is: we are often afraid to die because we know we have not fulfilled something yet, a mission or a promise made.
People who enjoy life, people with a sense of contentment are always the ones without regrets, always fulfilled, and ready to go.
And always, they are the ones who truly love that is why they live fullest, Valentine’s day or not.
God bless you and keep loving!
Photo by author, Collegeville Subd., Los Banos, Laguna, 13 February 2020.
Thank you for coming to us, Lord Jesus Christ, to save us, to cleanse us of our sins. What a tremendous grace and gift from you who are sinless to own up and wash away our sins!
Long before Mari Kondo had come advocating decluttering and tidying our homes, you were there first, O Lord, spiritually cleansing us, our inner selves in order to experience your peace and wisdom like King Solomon.
What must have impressed the Queen of Sheba in meeting King Solomon was more of his inner peace and stability, sincerity and honesty in answering all her questions: he was not hiding anything negative inside himself as he exuded with positive vibrations.
Precisely what Jesus was telling the people of his time and us today:
“Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile… From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.”
Mark 7:14-15, 21-23
From Google.
Cleanse our hearts, our inner selves, Lord Jesus Christ.
Please do some spiritual “Mari Kondo-ing” into our souls to discard all filth and negative vibes we have been senselessly keeping, even nurturing, holding on in the hope of avenging for the wrongs done against us.
Cleanse us inside, Lord, so we may be filled with your light of reason and sparks of joy. Amen.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Ika-11 ng Pebrero 2020
Larawan kuha ni G. Jay Javier, 09 Enero 2020 sa Quiapo, Maynila.
Deboto ang tawag sa isang tao
na malapit at namimintuho
Kay Kristong Nazareno o Sto. Niño
kasama na mga Santo at Santa
sa pangunguna ng Birheng Maria.
Kaya dapat bawat deboto totoo
uliran at huwaran sa pamumuhay
taglay ay kabanalan nang sa kanya'y
mabanaagan larawan ng kabutihan
ng Diyos sa kanyang kadakilaan.
Kay laking katatawanan at kahangalan
kung ang debosyon ng sino man
ay haggang simbahan lamang
nakikita paminsan-minsan
tuwing kapistahan at mga prusisyon sa lansangan.
Larawan kuha ni G. Jay Javier, 09 Enero 2020 sa Quiapo, Maynila.
Anong kahulugan at saysay
ng mga pagpupugay
sa Diyos at kanyang mga banal
kung sa kapwa nama'y manhid
walang malasakit at pakialam?
Nag-aalaga ng mga Poon
binibihisan tila laruan
ngunit pag-uugali at katauhan
malayo sa katuwiran at katarungan
ganyang debosyon dapat tigilan!
Ang tunay na deboto
puso ay malapit kay Kristo
at sa kanyang Ina at mga Santo
may pagmamahal, malasakit
sa kapwa tao na kanyang nirerespeto.
Larawan kuha ni G. Jay Javier, 09 Enero 2016 sa Quiapo, Maynila.
Ano mang debosyon
iyong nakagawian o nakahiligan
araw-araw itong sinasabuhay
pinaninindigan at tinutularan
aral at buhay ng sinusundang banal.
Sa dami ng mga deboto
bakit ganito pa rin tayo
walang pag-asenso
buhay ay kasing gulo
ng eksena sa senakulo.
Ay naku!
Ano nga ba tayo,
mga deboto o debobo
asal demonyo, sobrang gulo
pinapako nating muli si Kristo!
Tuesday, Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, World Day of the Sick, 11 February 2020
Isaiah 66:10-14 ><)))*> 0 <*(((>< John 2:1-11
Photo of Our Lady of Lourdes in France by Arch. Philip Santiago, September 2018.
Praise and glory to you O God, our loving and merciful Father who has given us a wonderful and most kind mother in the Blessed Virgin Mary through Jesus Christ your Son.
Through Mary, your abundant blessings, O God, have flowed and continue to overflow upon us even with the completion of her mission here on earth as Mother of Jesus.
How true were your words to the Prophet Isaiah that you shall send Israel a mother who shall comfort us, a mother in whom you shall spread prosperity and blessings upon us (Isaiah 66:10-14).
When Mary came into the scene when she was conceived without original sin, through her came our Savior Jesus Christ. From the very start, she worked to be the vessel of your blessings, God.
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.” Jesus told them, “Fill the jars wit water.”
John 2:1-3, 5, 7
How wonderful to recall and meditate on this first miracle of Jesus of turning water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana through the intercession of his Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary.
How lovely it is that more than 1800 years, another miracle would happen again from you, O God, at a grotto in Lourdes, France involving water through the Blessed Virgin Mary again!
Thank you dearest Jesus for the gift of water, the gift of life in you. Water is the primordial element of life, and water is also one of the primordial symbols of humanity. How amazing that since the miracle at Cana, your life continues to overflow upon us, Lord Jesus Christ, through Mary especially at Lourdes, France.
There are at Lourdes, Mary told the young St. Bernadette to dig on earth where water burst forth a spring, like life coming out of the womb of the earth. Until now, that spring is the origin and beginning of many healings and other miracles among generations of different peoples from all walks of life and nation, including to those who have not been there in Lourdes, France!
The waters of Lourdes remain a symbol of fruitfulness and of healing, of maternity in Mary who cares most to us and the sick next to Jesus our Lord and Savior..
Give us the grace, O God, the gift of purity, of cleanliness in our hearts so that we may become like Mary at Lourdes as a vessel of your healing and compassion especially for the sick of the world. Amen.
Photo of a cross of atop the church of Our Lady of Lourdes in France by Arch. Philip Santiago during his pilgrimage, September 2018.
Monday, St. Scholastica, Week V, Year II, 10 February 2020
1 Kings 8:1-7, 9-13 ><)))*> 0 <*(((>< Mark 6:53-56
Photo by author of a pilgrim writing prayer petitions in a Marian room of Greek Orthodox Basilica of St. George in Madaba, Jordan, May 2019.
Praise and glory to you O Lord for the gifts of church buildings where we can gather in your name especially on Sundays to praise and worship you. Thank you for the religious articles and images we have that also remind us of your being with us.
They all remind us of the relationships we keep with you our God expressed through our brothers and sisters around us.
Like the Ark of the Covenant and the Temple of Jerusalem mentioned today in the first reading, may your Holy Spirit dwell in us through these religious things to remind us of your presence in us and among us so that we may strive to live harmoniously as brothers and sisters in Christ.
May we have that kind of faith and trust in you like those crowds who followed Jesus everywhere in the gospel just to touch his cloak so they may be healed of their afflictions.
And like St. Scholastica whose feast we celebrate today, may we cultivate the relationships we keep in you and with one another through our actual presence. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Recipe for the Soul, Sunday Week V-A, 09 February 2020
Isaiah 58:7-10 ><)))*> 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 ><)))*> Matthew 5:13-16
Our parish cross at night, taken with my camera phone, 02 February 2020.
For most of us, 2020 is a very tough year with all the dark clouds that have come to hover above us in January remain in this month of February.
Threats from the corona virus are growing especially in our country. And while the alert level at Taal Volcano had gone down, dangers of its major eruption remain while volcanologists observed last week a “crater glow” on Mayon Volcano, indicating a possible rising of magma in the world’s most perfect cone.
Elsewhere, more bad news are happening like the sudden deaths this week of healing priest Fr. Fernando Suarez and of our very own and beloved Fr. Danny Bermudo, just 24 hours apart due to heart attacks.
In our own circles of family and relatives, friends and colleagues are also dark clouds covering us while we go through our many trials and tests in life that seem to eclipse this early the many gains we have achieved in the whole of 2019.
Indeed, year 2020 shows us in “perfect vision” the sad realities of dark spots in life that behoove us more to heed Christ’s call to be the light of the world.
Jesus said to his disciples: “You are the light of the world. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Heavenly Father.”
Matthew 5:14, 16
Photo by author, frost on petals, Baguio City, 04 February 2020.
Jesus is the light of the world, not us
Our gospel this Sunday follows immediately the inaugural preaching of Jesus called “the Sermon on the Mount” with the Beatitudes at its centerpiece. We have skipped that part of the gospel last Sunday due to the celebration of the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.
For us to better appreciate this Sunday’s gospel, let us keep in mind that for Matthew, the Sermon on the Mount is the great discourse of Jesus Christ that depicts his image not only as the new Moses but as the Law himself, being both our Teacher and Savior as well.
Jesus shows us a picture of his person in the Beatitudes as someone we must imitate in being “poor in spirit, meek, and merciful” so we can follow his path to the Father. After all, as the Son of God, Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn. 14:6).
Hence, after enumerating the nine Beatitudes, Jesus followed up his Sermon on Mount with a call for us to be the salt and the light of the world: as salt, we merely bring out the Christ or the taste in every person and as light, it is the light of Christ that we share.
Focus remains in being like Jesus, not in replacing him who is our Savior. That is why he tells us clearly before shifting to another lesson in his Sermon that “your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Heavenly Father” (Mt.5:16).
Sharing Christ’s light with our good deeds as a community
So, how do we share the light of Jesus Christ in this age when so many others are claiming to be the light that will dispel all darkness in our lives?
As early as during the darkest period in the history of Israel in the Old Testament called the “Babylonian Captivity (or Exile)”, God had taught his people how to become light for one another during trials and sufferings.
Christ Light of the World, Red Wednesday, 27 November 2019. Photo by author.
Thus says the Lord: Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless; clothe the naked when you see them, and do not turn your back on your own. Then your light shall break forth like the dawn… if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday.
Isaiah 58:7-8, 10
To share one’s bread with the hungry, to welcome the homeless, to clothe the hungry are some of the most concrete demands placed by God to his people since he had freed them from slavery in Egypt and later in Babylonia (Iraq today) when the third part of the Book of Isaiah was written.
Eventually, this prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus Christ who also preached exactly the same things shortly before fulfilling his mission in Jerusalem when he stressed the need to do good to one another because “whatsoever we do to one another, especially to the least among us, we also do unto him” (Mt.25:31-40).
We shall hear this part of Matthew’s gospel at the end of our current liturgical year on November 22, 2020 in the celebration of the Solemnity of Christ the King.
These instructions became the basis of our catechism’s “spiritual and corporal works of mercy” that Pope Francis stressed in 2016 during the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.
From fathersofmercy.com
By saying “you are the light of the world”, Jesus is telling us that to fulfill this mission, we have to do it together as a community, as his Body, the Church!
No matter how good and holy we are, none of us is the “light of the world” on our own.
One candle or lamp, or even a light bulb today cannot produce enough light to brighten a whole town or community. But, if one Christian will be lighting just one little candle in the dark, he or she can encourage others especially those who are timid, hesitant, and indifferent until they finally set the world ablaze with Christ’s light.
Christ’s call to be the light of the world is also a call for us to be united as one community, one family, one faithful couple with all our imperfections and sinfulness. What matters is our striving to be good disciples, always charitable to one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Here we find the direct relationship of mission and community: every mission given by Jesus is also a call to become a community because without it, it soon becomes a cult centered on the disciple than the Lord.
Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, 2018.
The example of St. Paul in sharing Christ’s light
St. Paul shows us the best example of being a light of Jesus is to always have it done and fulfilled in the context of a community, of the Church as the Body of Christ, avoiding chances of grabbing the light from him for personal gains.
“I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of Spirit and power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.”
1 Corinthians 2:3-5
It has always happened especially for us serving in the Church that in sharing the light of Christ, we get carried by our ministry and apostolate that we forget him until we claim being the light ourselves.
Sometimes, we consciously or unconsciously create clouts and personality cults for ourselves for being the best, the brightest, even the holiest and most humble of all!
We foolishly brag the great buildings and edifices we have built or the countless malnourished kids we have fed or sent to school for free through college, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera without being bothered at all where is Jesus Christ in all our efforts and projects!
How sad when we forget that what matters most in life is not what we have done or what we have achieved but what have we become as bearers of the light of Christ like St. Paul.
My dear friend, if you are going through many darkness in life today, simply be good, think only of Jesus Christ in everybody you meet and deal with. That is actually when you shine brightest as the light of Christ because people will be surprised at how calmly and gracefully you carry your cross.
In that way, you encourage others living in darkness to let their little sparks of light come out too without realizing how in their own darkness and limitations they have made Christ’s light seen. Amen.
Have a bright and blessed Sunday with your loved ones!
