Saturday, Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, 14 September 2019
Numbers 21:4-9 ><)))*> Philippians 2:6-11 ><)))*> John 3:13-17
The Brazen Serpent Monument on Mt. Nebo inside the Franciscan Monastery in Jordan, May 2019.
“We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you. Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.”
As we celebrate today the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, we widen our gaze on your holy cross, Lord Jesus, that remains standing to remind us of your love and mercy, of your abiding presence and light amidst the many darkness enveloping us today.
When we look around us, when we read the newspapers, watch the TV and listen to the radio, we cannot help but cry, even complain deep within like the Israelites in the wilderness why all the miseries still happening around us with all the killings and injustices going on.
Sometimes, Lord, the powers of evil and sin seem to prevail over the world cast in widespread darkness with all the chaos and confusions going on.
But here lies the beauty of your Cross, Jesus Christ: it does not deny the sufferings and pains caused by our sins that led to your death that still continue to this day and cause our grave sufferings; however, despite this gravity of our sins, your Cross reminds us too of your unending love and mercy.
More powerful than evil and darkness are your love and light, O sweet Jesus made manifest on your Cross.
Grant us that gaze of faith, the look of faith needed by so many of us travelling in this wilderness to always see you Lord who was sent by the Father because he so loved the world that whoever believes in you might not perish but gain eternal life. Amen.
1 Timothy 1: 1-2, 12-14 ><}}}*> ><}}}*> ><}}}*> Luke 6:39-42
From Google.
Thanks be to you, O God our loving Father for this merciful day of Friday. Today, the whole Church praises you with that beautiful Psalm 51, “The Miserere Nobis”.
Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness. In your compassion blot out my offense. O wash me more and more from my guilt and cleanse me from my sin.
My offenses truly I know them; my sin in always before me. Against you, you alone, have I sinned; what is evil in your sight I have done… O see, in guilt I was born, a sinner was I conceived.
From the Breviary
Like St. Paul in today’s first reading, give us the grace of having that “sense of sinfulness” within us, Lord.
So many times, we deny the presence of sin in our lives as we keep on justifying our actions, always having that feeling of uprightness, of never erring. Worst, we have become blind guides you have mentioned, O Lord, in the gospel today.
Give us the grace of a deep sense of sinfulness within us, Jesus, so that like St. Paul and all the other saints who were all sinners before, including Dimas the thief who died with you on the Cross on that Good Friday, we may also have that sense of the Father’s rich mercy.
Garden of Gethsemane, May 2019.
Let us not be blinded by our self-righteousness that make us deny the presence of sin in us that ultimately deny ourselves of your mercy. May we realise that only those who have been forgiven can understand what it means to receive the Father’s mercy. Amen.
Colossians 3:12-17 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 6:27-38
Sacred Heat Novitiate (Novaliches), July 2016.
It is only Thursday, Lord Jesus Christ, but suddenly your Most Sacred Heart came to mind, especially this beautiful hymn:
Heart of Jesus, meek and mild Hear, O hear, Thy feeble child, When the tempest’s most severe, Heart of Jesus, hear!
Sweetly we’ll rest on Thy Sacred Heart, Never from Thee, oh let us part, Hear then Thy loving children’s pray’r, O Heart of Jesus, Heart of Jesus, hear!
Everyday, Lord, we think of the clothes we would wear and too often, our choices seem endless, taking so much of our time so we would always look good to others.
Today, O Lord, I pray, you clothe me with your person: through your “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, may everything I do be done in your most holy name, O Jesus”, (Col. 3:12, 17).
From Google.
To be clothed in you, O Lord Jesus, means to see the good in others than to see myself as the only one good.
To be clothed in you, O Jesus, is to get into the very heart of your gospel message of “loving our enemies” (Lk.6:27). It is the most radical words in your preaching that seems so impossibly hard for us to follow – unless we are clothed in you, O Christ.
That is why it is very important for us to be clothed in you, Jesus, because loving our enemies is the clearest expression we are your disciples, that is, Christians in the truest sense.
Help us to take off our clothes of pride and selfishness, our clothes of greed and insecurities that make us want more than what we have and what we need, and thus lead to our making enemies because we try to possess and defend.
Instead, let us be clothed in you, Jesus, so that we become poor like you with nothing to keep except everything to give and share.
In that manner, we become open and hospitable instead of being hostile with others. Amen.
Colossians 3:1-11 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 6:20-26
Petra in Jordan. Photo by author, May 2019.
Lord Jesus Christ, today your apostle Paul calls us to “Think of what is above, not of what is on earth” (Col. 3: 2).
Then, in the gospel also today, you raised your eyes toward your disciples and began your “sermon on the plain” (Lk. 6:20)
What is up there, Lord Jesus, that we have to look up, that you have to raise your eyes looking at us?
When I was young, I was so afraid of heights but I have always wanted to be on top to see the beautiful sights that I did my best climbing trees and walls, even rooftops.
Now I am older, I still yearn to be on top to enjoy the sights but too weak to climb even the stairs.
All I can do now Lord is raise my eyes up to the skies, to treetops and mountains to enjoy the moments of looking up, and most of all, wondering at all your wonderful blessings to me — right here in my heart to find you and see you looking up at me!
What a beautiful lesson today of looking up, of seeing ourselves exalted by you despite our weaknesses and sinfulness. What a wonderful teaching about our new stature as your brothers and sisters, O Jesus, redeemed and loved. What a way of teaching us of our new life in you, dearest Christ and of the need to live accordingly as Christians!
So many times, we look down at ourselves, Lord, forgetting our blessedness in being poor and hungry, weeping and rejected in the name of your love and mercy.
Teach us to realise and value our being blessed in you so that our lives and actions may conform to your beatitudes. Amen.
Blessed Sacrament Chapel of the Sanctuary of San Pietro Pietrelcina-Nuovo Chiesa in Italy. Photo by Rev. Fr. Gerry Pascual, February 2019.
“Brothers and sisters: As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him, rooted in him and built upon him and established in the faith as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead… he brought you to life along with him.”
Colossians 2:6, 12, 13b
Praise and glory to you, our Lord Jesus Christ! Thank you for dying with us in our sins, forgiving us and raising us to new life in you in the sacrament of baptism!
Let us be immersed in you, Lord Jesus.
Let us claim our new life in you by walking with you who is our Way and Truth and Life.
To be immersed in you, O Christ, is to be free and faithful to lovingly serve you with all our mind, heart and soul. Being immersed in you is letting go of our pains and hurts in the past to start anew in you. To be immersed in you, O Christ, is to see more the goodness within each one of us because of you, the most holy one.
May we heed the call of St. Paul today not to be swayed by false beliefs and other philosophies not rooted in you, claiming elemental and dark powers here on earth.
You alone are the sovereign power here on earth and the entire universe, Lord Jesus.
And the good news is that through baptism, you have made us share in your “cosmic victory” of the Resurrection. More than a rite of initiation, our baptism is a sharing in your great power here on earth to conquer evil with good.
Let us be your modern “apostles” — an apostolein, someone sent ahead of you, someone with special relationship with you, someone truly immersed in you, very personal with you, Lord Jesus, who reign forever and ever. Amen.
What a wonderful way to start the week of work and school with you, O Lord Jesus Christ dwelling in me! St. Paul perfectly said it in today’s first reading:
“God chose to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; it is Christ in you, the hope for glory.”
Colossians 1:27
Inspire me, Jesus, like St. Paul not to be disheartened by suffering, to be filled with passion in proclaiming your gospel not only in words but most of all in deeds. Take away all the hurts and pains, insecurities and doubts within me that prevent you from reigning in me.
Remind me, Jesus, that your gospel is not a philosophy nor a collection of doctrines or of ethics but your very person so that in preaching and witnessing your gospel, I may lead others to a personal encounter with you, O Lord.
Dwell in me, Jesus Christ, and let me do something good today like what you did to the man with a withered hand on a sabbath day. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Music, 08 September 2019
Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte at Atok, Benguet, 01 September 2019
Our gospel today is so personal.
Sometimes, we have to be unreasonable — and be personal — when the only explanation and justification we can have for continuing to love and forgive, to care and accept people is “because of Jesus Christ”.
“If any one comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
Luke 14:26
There are times in our lives when we are so down and everything is so dark when all we need is the warmth of a loving heart and a loving face of another person. No ifs, no buts but just because of you.
This is the reason Jesus is very clear today with his words, “hate” one’s self as well as those closest to us to stress that when things get worst, our only reason is him alone. We love, we forgive, we care despite all the pains and hurts because of our communion in Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the only one who would really stand us, offering himself up on the Cross for you and for me.
That is why for this Sunday we have chosen Beng E. King’s 1961 hit “Stand By Me” that was rereleased in 1986 as theme of a movie with the same title.
The song speaks of the undying love and fidelity of a man to the woman he loves. It is partly the same story of the friendship of those for boys in the said movie.
King’s music has been covered by so many other artists over the years for its reflective music and poetry that evoke deep personal love that transcends reason and conventions. No wonder, it was sang at the wedding last year of Prince Harry and American Meghan Merkle, a true-to-life love story that seems can only happen in Hollywood.
But that is the beauty of the song and Christ’s gospel: everything can happen when we are willing to give up everything including our very selves in the name of love for another person.
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe, Week XXIII-C, 08 September 2019
Wisdom 9:13-18 ><)))*> Philemon 9-10, 12-17 ><)))*> Luke 14:25-33
Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte at Atok, Benguet, 01 September 2019
“A loveless world is a dead world, and always there comes an hour when one is weary of prisons, of one’s work, and of devotion to duty, and all one craves for is a loved face, the warmth and wonder of a loving heart.”
Albert Camus, “The Plague”
I always tell people not all days are bright and sunny but, there comes a time when we are so down, when all is so dark and even hopeless that the only thing left for us is to believe, to hope, and to love.
There is really nothing we can do except to patiently wait for the storm to pass while we suffer alone and cry alone. That is when we are surprised and even shocked at how the gospel of Jesus and the commandments of God can sometimes be so rigid that we want it modified even a little because we want to get even, we want to fight back. If we are not busy thinking of revenge, we complain, asking God why me who should suffer?
But, the more we pray and submit ourselves to God, the more we realise that God’s ways are not our ways. That despite the difficulties, we feel deep inside God is with us, guiding us, leading us to something better!
“Who can know God’s counsel, or who can conceive what our Lord intends? Or who ever knew your counsel, except you had given wisdom and sent your holy spirit from on high? And thus were the paths of those on earth made straight.”
Wisdom 9:13, 17-18
Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte at Atok, Benguet, 01 September 2019
Here we find the importance of Christ’s teaching last Sunday, of the need to be humble, to be our true selves by being where we should be for “those who humble themselves will be exalted and those who exalt themselves shall be humbled.”
It is in our poverty, in our weakness, even in our incomprehension when the Holy Spirit works well to reveal to us the higher realities of life often wrapped in every pain and suffering we go through. And that is why sometimes in life, it is best to be unreasonable when the only explanation and justification we can have in still being loving and forgiving, merciful and understanding, kind and patient is the person of Jesus Christ.
“If any one comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sister, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
Luke 14:26
Photo by the author, Holy Family Chapel, Sacred Heart Novitiate (Novaliches), July 2016.
Our gospel today is a continuation of last Sunday when Jesus was invited to a Sabbath dinner by a Pharisee. After giving them some “table talks”, Jesus told them another parable about the great feast to stress that God’s mercy is so vast that there is room for everyone in heaven.
People started to follow him after that meal and lesson on heaven, wanting to become his followers and disciples. To further motivate them in following him, Jesus challenged them with these powerful words using a figure of speech. The word “hate” may be too strong and harsh but such is the gravity of discipleship: we have to lose our very selves even those dearest to us when we have to see everything and everyone in the person of Jesus. To “resolutely follow Jesus in his journey to Jerusalem”, we must be ready to be totally his with him alone as the basis in every decision that can be sometimes foolish like St. Paul who claimed in one of his writings he was a fool for Christ!
See the “foolishness in Christ” of this great apostle: St. Paul was in prison at Rome awaiting trial and judgement. A slave named Onesimus escaped his Christian master named Philemon. It was definitely against the law to harbor escaped slaves yet St. Paul welcomed Onesimus in his prison as his companion and servant! More than that, without really knowing him well, St. Paul baptised Onesimus to become a Christian!
Imagine St. Paul’s adherence to the gospel of Christ even to the point of being unreasonable when he could have just told Onesimus to go back or go somewhere else and spare him all the troubles! But no. It was very clear with St. Paul in asking Philemon to receive Onesimus back that he was not sticking to any moral standards or laws but solely on the person of Jesus Christ, in our communion in him as brothers and sisters.
“Perhaps this is why he was away from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a brother, beloved especially to me, but even more so to you, as a man and in the Lord. So if you regard me as a partner, welcome him as you would me.”
Philemon 15-17
Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte at Atok, Benguet, 01 September 2019.
Next Sunday we shall hear the very long but beautiful parable of the merciful father also known as parable of the prodigal son. Like God our Father, the merciful father would reassure his two sons of his immense love for them despite their sins because of their very persons as his sons.
Today in our Sunday Eucharist, Jesus welcomes us all as persons, his brothers and sisters despite our sins and weaknesses. Like Mary whose birth we also celebrate today inspire us to receive Jesus our Savior in his total person in ourselves by receiving the persons around us in him. Amen.
Colossians 1:15-20 ><}}}*> ><}}}*> ><}}}*> Luke 5:33-39
Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte, Atok, Benguet, 01 September 2019.
Brothers and sisters, Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible… all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things for him, making peace by the Blood of his cross through him whether those on earth or those in heaven.
Colossians 1:15-16, 17, 19-20
What a lovely hymn in your honor, O Lord Jesus Christ! Truly in you we have experienced and proven indeed there is a God who loves us so much, and most of all, a personal God who relates with us, engages himself with us, one with us.
What a wonderful way to celebrate the first Friday of September 2019, a week of praying for important virtues we have forgotten in this modern world like the need to console those alone, to encourage so others may be whole again as a person, to be grateful for the person not the favor received, and to have knowledge to see God in everything by embracing the truths of faith.
In this age when God is just posited as a footnote in our daily lives, as a safety feature just in case things get off-hand or bad, you remind us to draw to you closer than ever in prayers, the Eucharist, and most of all, in fasting — something modern men and women frown upon and totally disregard.
Give us the grace O Lord Jesus to empty ourselves, to create a space within us for you to stay and dwell, and reign most of all.
We live today in the most trying times: everybody wants to be in control of everything, everybody wants to be heard and be seen alone as right with their twisted points of view about life and realities.
Bless us, Jesus, to find our way back to you, to be one with you again for you are the very reason why we are here. You are not just a person who had lived in the past we remember but the very reason of creation and redemption in whom the fullness of God is found. Amen.
Photo by Ms. Jo Villafuerte, Atok, Benguet, 01 September 2019.
Brothers and sisters: From the day we heard this, we do not cease praying for you and asking you that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, so as to be fully pleasing, in every good work bearing fruit and growing in the knowledge of God.
Colossians 1:9-10
Once again, you struck me today Lord through St. Paul’s letter to pray for another important grace we badly need these days — “knowledge”.
In this age of Google and Wikipedia, we have taken the gift of knowledge for granted, confusing it with information that often has no meaning and depth. As a result, we have “smart phones” and stupid people who justify everything without any qualms and sense of self-respect and decency!
Remind us, Lord, that knowledge is more than being reasonable and logical; knowledge is embracing the truths of faith, of seeing you in everything.
Like Simon Peter, bless us Lord with the gift of knowledge to enable us to make right judgments regarding earthly things and how they are related with eternal life and holiness.
Like Simon Peter, may we learn to set aside our human knowledge and expertise to take the leap of faith in casting the net into the deep upon your instructions after a night of catching nothing.
What a great gift of knowledge you have given Simon that day when he realised you are “Lord” and he is a “sinful man” (Lk. 5:8). Most of all, in obeying instructions from a carpenter like you, Lord!
Fill us with your knowledge, Lord, to realise the truth of Albert Einstein’s words that “everything in this life is a miracle”! Amen.
