1 John 3:22-4:6 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Matthew 4:12-17, 23-25
A blessed Monday morning, dear Lord Jesus Christ!
Thank you for the gift of this first day of work and school after a very long Christmas vacation – even if many of us did not spend time with you nor even remembered you on your birthday.
Bless us this first week of work and study in this new year of 2020.
Guide us in testing every spirit that try to lead us in the choices and decisions we make, the course of actions we take.
So many times, we have always been misled away from you, Lord, especially when we are lured into taking shortcuts in many aspects of life.
Most of all, very often we choose to be blind and deaf, speaking no more when the world denies your presence, your teachings, your truth. There are times we get carried away into believing that you have left us, that you are not involved in our affairs in the world.
This is how you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the antichrist who, as you heard, is to come, but in fact is already in the world.
1 John 4:2-3
Let us always seek your light, Lord Jesus for you alone are the true light of the world.
Let us lead our lives in such a way that proves, that witnesses to your abiding love and presence among us especially in times of darkness.
Enlighten us Lord, our Light to be your light to guide others to you. Amen.
The Lord Is My Chef Recipe for the Soul, 01 January 2020
Wednesday, Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God
Numbers 6:22-27 ><}}}*> Galatians 4:4-7 ><}}}*> Luke 2:16-21
Photo by Rev. Fr. Gerry Pascual, Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Washington DC, 2017.
Today marks the octave or eighth day of Christmas when we celebrate the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God.
Octave means we extend the celebration of Christmas Day into eight days because one day – December 25 – is not enough to reflect on the meaning and mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God.
The eighth day also signifies eternity which comes next after the seven days of the week.
Hence, whenever people greet me on this day with a “Happy New Year”, I just say “thank you” and then greet them too with “a blessed Christmas to you” or the usual “Merry Christmas”!
I am not disturbing your peace this Christmas and it is more than my being a “language nerd” – but, if you really want to appreciate more and experience the depth and the joy of Jesus Christ’s birth, stop that happy new year greeting.
The more proper and perfect greeting this January 2020 is still “blessed Christmas” or “Merry Christmas” because it is another year in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And here we find the very important and deeper meaning of Christmas: do not ever forget it is about Jesus Christ. Christmas is not about gifts and bonus, it is not about food and merry making, it is not about vacation and long weekends.
Christmas is all about Jesus Christ, the Son of God who became human like us in everything except sin in order to save us and bring us back to the Father in heaven. In his coming, it is not only us who were made holy but even our time that became “his story”.
Indeed, Jesus Christ is the reason of the Season. Let us maximize in greeting “Merry Christmas” and stop its abrupt ending with the coming of the new year that after all, is based on his birth that is why we call it “Anno Domini” (AD) or “year of the Lord”.
Nativity Scene at the National Shrine of the Minor Basilica of the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Quezon City. Photo by author, 30 December 2019.
Why stop greeting everyone with a happy new year
Keep greeting everyone with “a blessed Christmas” or a “Merry Christmas” until January 12, last day of our Christmas Season with the Baptism of the Lord.
In the Philippines, you may continue greeting people with Merry Christmas until January 19, Feast of the Sto. Nino which is an extension of the Christmas Season in our country granted by Rome.
Furthermore, for the lazy among you, you can have the excuse of not removing your Christmas decors until February 02, Feast of the Presentation at the Temple because chronologically, that is the precise moment when Christmas Season ends. That is why, the giant Christmas Tree at the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Square is traditionally removed only on this date.
Also, please stop announcing in churches about the Mass tonight and tomorrow as “New Year’s Mass” because there is no Mass for New Year.
Though our Sacramentary offers prayers for Mass at New Year, the same book stipulates that “this cannot be celebrated on January 1 because it is the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God.”
Basic reason why we should not be greeting one another with a happy new year on January 1st is the fact that we celebrated our New Year in the Church during the First Sunday of Advent, that Season of four Sundays when we prepare for Christmas.
Remember, Advent has two aspects: from First Sunday of Advent until December 16, our focus is on the Second Coming of Christ or Parousia at the end of time. Nobody knows when it will be, not even Jesus Christ except the Father in Heaven. Then, from December 17 to 24, we enter the second aspect of Advent which is the focus on the first coming of Jesus when he was born in Bethlehem more than 2000 years ago. All the readings on these days center on the events and stories leading to Christ’s birth.
So my dear reader and follower, we start each year in the Church preparing for the coming of the King of kings and we end the year with Solemnity of Christ the King.
To be exact, we start and end each year in Jesus Christ, not in numbers.
Every day of the year is a Christmas in essence, a coming of Jesus Christ.
And for us to continue this beautiful story of Christmas especially on these first 19 days of 2020, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ who is true God and true Man, teaches us the way to keep this spirit of bringing the Savior into the world even beyond December 25 and January 1.
The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.
Luke 2:16-19
Shepherds approaching the Nativity Scene at the National Shrine of the Basilica of Mt. Carmel, Quezon City. Photo by author, 30 December 2019.
Mary to guide us through another year closer to Jesus
A natural reason we have for cutting short our greetings of Merry Christmas to one another is the very close proximity of December 25 with the New Year. Though the civil calendar also came from the Church, in a sense the start of the year has been made holy by its closeness with Christmas.
Rightly then, all the more we find the reason to keep on greeting Merry Christmas than happy new year!
Notice the sudden shift from the holy and transcendent so evident in just a span of one week that personally, I feel we have to promote all the more a stop in this greeting of happy new year at Christmas Season.
How easily we can forget the wonder and awe of Christ’s birth!
See how from our rich liturgical celebrations of Advent and Christmas then suddenly this last seven days of the year, we turn to pagan practices to usher in the new year?
Have we become like the shepherds who came to Jesus only at his brith and never to be mentioned again in the entire account of St. Luke?
What happened?
A shepherd near the Nativity Scene at the National Shrine and Basilica of Our Lady of Mat. Carmel in Quezon City. Photo by author, 30 December 2019.
Mary guides us to the true meaning of Christ’s birth and of the new year that closely comes after Christmas. See how St. Luke narrated the attitude and disposition of Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ our Lord and God:
And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.
That’s the problem with our Christmas celebrations: after December 25, we go back to “normal lives” which is more of living without Jesus, of getting into the daily grind of life away from Jesus.
Like us, Mary did not know what was really ahead of her with the birth of Jesus: she had no idea about his being lost at the temple, of his being tempted by the devil, of his being rejected and killed by his own people despite his many healings and other miracles.
Mary simply believed in Jesus. And that is why she is blessed according to Elizabeth, because she believed the words spoken to her would be fulfilled.
Mary had nothing certain about her coming year, of her life except the name to be given to her Son, Jesus which means “God is my Savior”.
The same is true with us! We do not know if we will still be together until December or at least in January 2021. We do not know who would get married this year, who would be migrating to another country, who will hit it big time in business or whatever.
Stop consulting fortune tellers because they know nothing about the future! Only the Father of Jesus knows everything that is going to happen. And he had sent us his Son Jesus to make sure that through everything that is going to happen, none of us would ever be lost (Jn.6:39).
Like Mary, we have only one surety and security this 2020: Jesus Christ, our Lord and God living with us!
Let us focus this year in Jesus Christ and his words of salvation.
And that is the challenge of Christmas of the new year 2020: that every day, despite all the good news and bad news we hear and encounter in life, we make that conscious decision to trust in Jesus that good is coming to us for his name means God is my Savior.
Like Mary, let us lose ourselves every day in this wonderful moment of Christmas of looking at the child Jesus inviting us to be caught up in his joy of coming, to fear not of the new year ahead for he has come precisely to be one with us.
May we stay with him, keep his words in our hearts like Mary by reflecting on their meaning trusting and awaiting their fulfillment.
Let us not leave Jesus like the shepherds, though, they were the first to see the Lord at Christmas, they missed his full glory of resurrection because they never went back to him again.
Have a blessed and Merry Christmas!
From the inside of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the small doors that require pilgrims to humbly bow first to enter the church and find Jesus. Photo by author, May 2019.
Isaiah 40:25-31 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Matthew 11:28-30
Eagle, the symbol of our Patron Saint, John the Evangelist, Advent 2018.
What makes Advent so wonderful, Lord, is the fervent hope your words instill in us to persevere in believing and serving you.
Though young men faint and grow weary, and youths stagger and fall, they that hope in the Lord will renew their strength, they will soar as with eagles’ wings; they will run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint.
Isaiah 40:30-31
Teach us to trust you more, to always walk in firm faith in you because you always keep your promise.
Enlighten us, Lord, that you never promised to take away our cross; let us realize the great comfort you offer us in helping us carry our cross.
Enough to comfort us and assure us is your gentle mastery, Lord Jesus Christ.
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest yourselves. For my yoke is easy and my burden light.”
Matthew 11:28-30
Thank you, dear Jesus, for these kind words today, enough for us to forge on in life’s many trials.
We pray for those having some form of crisis in life today, enlighten their minds and their hearts in making the right choices in life. We pray for those who are very sick and those taking care of them in this most trying time of their life. We also pray especially those who lost a loved one, feeling guilty in the process. Please assure them Lord of your gentle presence, that they are cared for, and most of all, loved. Amen.
Isaiah 2:1-5 ><}}}*> Romans 13:11-14 ><}}}*> Matthew 24:37-44
From Google.
A blessed first Sunday of Advent to you my dear reader and follower! Today we begin another new year in our Church calendar with this season of Advent. Both the word “Advent” and its concept were borrowed from ancient Rome when provinces prepared for the coming, or “adventus” of the emperor to visit the occupied territories of his empire.
But, Jesus is more than any emperor of the world for he is true God and King of kings, the one who had come, always comes, and will be coming again at the end of time to judge us, both the living and the dead. This Season of Advent gives us the opportunities to intensely prepare for the Lord’s adventus that always begins in our hearts.
Advent has a two-fold character: beginning today until December 16, the readings and prayers set our sights to the Second Coming of Christ at the end of time or the parousia. From December 17-24, focus shifts to the first Christmas when Jesus was born in Bethlehem more than 2000 years ago.
According to St. Bernard of Clairvaux, between these two comings of Christ is his third coming that happens daily in our lives, so ordinary but very sudden like in the time of Noah.
Photo by author, sacristy of our Parish, Advent 2018.
Jesus said to his disciples: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. In those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be also at the coming of the Son of Man.
Matthew 24:37-39
Staying awake, actively waiting for the Lord.
Jesus is definitely coming at the end of time. It is useless to be concerned when that would be because it will be sudden and unexpected. What matters most is our attitude of “staying awake, actively waiting” for the Lord’s coming again.
The Lord cites to us the example of Noah whom God had instructed to build an ark in the Old Testament for the coming great flood meant to cleanse the earth of sins and evil.
To actively wait for the Lord’s parousia means to be a sign of contradiction like Noah who faithfully obeyed God’s will in building an ark and later gathering into it all the animal species of earth.
Imagine the insults Noah had to endure from people laughing at him while building the ark. Yet, he never wavered and faithfully fulfilled his task before the Lord.
From Google.
Jesus cites three other instances of displaying the right attitude in actively waiting for his Second Coming: the two men out in the field, the two women grinding, and the master of the house.
One of the two men in the field was taken while one of the two women grinding was also taken because they were responsibly fulfilling their tasks when the parousia comes; their respective counterparts were most likely doing nothing or very lazy that they were left behind.
The mini parable Jesus inserted at the end shows us the imagery of the master of the house staying awake to keep the thief from breaking into the house in the middle of the night.
These are all about having the right attitude as disciples of Jesus actively awaiting his return. From Noah to the other man in the field, the other woman grinding, and the master of the house, we find from their attitudes of active waiting budding forth their hope in God.
Generally speaking, the way we live our lives determines also how we hope in the Lord.
And this we find in St.Paul’s exhortation to the Christians of Rome:
Brothers and sisters: you know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed; the night is advanced, the day is at hand. Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and lust, not in rivalry and jealous. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provisions for the desires of the flesh.
Romans 13:11-14
Altar table at the Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Bagbaguin, Santa Maria, Bulacan, Advent 2018.
Putting on Christ to show his light to dispel darkness.
St. Paul wrote the Christians in Rome more than 2000 years ago to remind them of the fierce spiritual warfare between good and evil, light and darkness while they were living in the midst of a pagan world and culture.
It was a very difficult time to be truly Christians but St. Paul felt the need to remind everyone of the ever-present reality of the parousia. Like in most of his letters, he captured by the grace of the Holy Spirit the beautiful imagery of disciples with the right attitude awaiting the Second Coming as “putting on the Lord Jesus Christ”.
Putting on our Lord Jesus Christ is not just a mere call to be morally perfect persons but for us to strive in making the light of Christ shine on us so that we may manifest Jesus more in us and in our lives.
Simply put, it is becoming “Christ-like”, a true Christian who is “dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11), one who lives differently by making Jesus more present especially in these difficult and troublesome times.
The time of St. Paul was no different with our present age with growing materialism and consumerism among peoples, including Christians afflicted with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s “dictatorship of relativism” that have removed God from every aspect of human life, including Christmas itself!
See how we are so focused on Christmas countdowns than with the very reason of the Season, Jesus Christ. See how the media equate Christmas with material things, sugarcoating it with sentimental feelings as most Christmas songs nowadays indicate.
Advent is seeing more of Jesus, than of time.
On this first Sunday of Advent, our sights are redirected anew into Christ’s Second Coming with our important task of making him present in our very selves.
As children of the light, we slowly discover and realize how our definitive salvation is slowly moving towards its fullness in Christ’s parousia when everything is totally changed by God with peace finally reigning supreme over all.
Violets on the pedestal of our Patron Saint, John the Evangelist.
This was the vision of Isaiah a long, long time ago.
It had been fulfilled in Christ’s first coming in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago and it is being fulfilled daily through people filled with hope in God’s justice and love.
In the days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills. All nations shall stream toward it; many people shall come and say: “Come, let us climb the Lord’s mountain…” They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. O God of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
Isaiah 2:2-3, 4-5
People who keep on wondering and asking when will Jesus come again are not really interested with the Lord’s Second Coming but only with themselves like the people during the time of Noah – oblivious to anything else and busy with their own pursuits.
The more we think of the WHEN, the less we think of the WHO of Advent. Let us put on the Lord Jesus Christ to be filled with his light until all darkness in life is dispelled. Amen.
Daniel 7:2-14 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 21:29-33
Praise and glory to you, O God! Thank for this blessed Friday, the last working day of November 2019. Most of all, thank you for keeping us safe always in your protection despite our sins and being stubborn.
Like the vision of Prophet Daniel in the first reading, so many “beasts” have tried destroying us. In fact, these “beasts” are so “horrible” that so many people have come to believe them, accepting them and all their lies and malice.
Red Wednesday 2019, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Bagbaguin, Santa Maria, Bulacan.
There are times that we lose hope, fearing that everything is going to nothing.
Sometimes, it is so difficult to find meaning in life at all amidst all the sufferings and miseries around us and even within us!
May we always trust in your Word, Jesus Christ who became flesh to be with us.
In the many trials and tribulations that come our way, may we always hold on to his assurance:
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
The Cross is the throne of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. It is also a lesson in itself, the most profound Jesus has given us that continues to unfold and unravel the “depth and breath” of God’s love for each of us.
Through his Cross, Jesus did not only enter humanity but also allowed humanity to enter him by putting into his heart its very symbolism which is death we all deny and are afraid of. By dying on the Cross, Jesus turned it into a blessing to now become the symbol of life.
Let’s make an illustration.
Yes, it is Bruce Willis from a scene in one of his popular series, “Die Hard” which I continue to watch whenever possible.
What I like most with Bruce Willis in all of his movies is his being so “human” – very vulnerable physically, emotionally and even psychologically. His roles never hide his being a frail human being despite his muscular strength and tactical acumen. Bruce never hides his weaknesses that he can get shot and wounded, dumped and divorced or cheated by his wife like in “The Last Boy Scout”, making him more believable than the other action stars.
And that’s our point here: Jesus never hid his humanity from us. The all-powerful God on whose everything was created according to St. Paul in the second reading became human like us in every aspect except sin.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth… He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he himself might be preeminent. 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 1:15-19
Carmelite Monastery, Guiguinto, Bulacan, 12 November 2019.
In becoming human like us, Jesus entered our humanity. He who is the Son of God became an infant and child so weak, entrusting himself to us humans.
And when he had grown into a man, he experienced leaving home and family to fulfill his mission like almost everybody. He had friends, some eventually became faithful while another had betrayed him.
Jesus went to almost every gathering like weddings and banquets, met everybody from the “who’s who” to the nobody like sinners and marginalized. He was manly enough to relate with every kind of people, be they children or women, rich and poor alike.
He had wept at the death of a good friend and the impending destruction of his beloved city of Jerusalem, felt hunger and thirst, got angry and was surprised in some occasions.
Jesus is truly human that we can also identify with him but in his dying on the cross, we were able to enter him to become like him when on his Resurrection, he took away the curse of death and turned it into pure grace in him.
Cross at the Dominican Hill in Baguio City, January 2019.
A very unique characteristic of Jesus as a human is his being a radical in its truest essence and meaning. From the Latin word “radix” that means roots, Jesus brought us back to our very roots, to our grounding of being who is God himself.
Too often, we think of radical people as rebels and revolutionaries leading movements and many changes in the society. They are the “game changers” because they radically change things to show us the more essential.
But in reality, radicals do not change things: they restore things to its original state and being. They get into the roots or “radix” of things to bring out its true meanings by doing away with the unimportant accidentals that have taken over the realities.
That is why Jesus is a radical: by dying on the Cross, he firmly reestablished his throne as King of the Universe because that is where evil ended and death is conquered.
It is on the Cross his throne where every new life begins because it is our very rootedness and “grounding of being” as beloved children of God in him.
Most of all, it is on the Cross his throne, our root and grounding from which comes our sole focus and attention in life – God in Christ Jesus.
The rulers sneered at Jesus… even the soldiers jeered at him. Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us.” The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, “Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied to him, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
Luke 23:35, 36, 39-43
We have a beautiful expression in Filipino about a person described as “malalim” or deep. A radical is the truly deep person because he is rooted and grounded in his being who is God!
Anyone who truly recognizes Jesus Christ becomes a radical person too, a person of depth because he is rooted in God like the other thief hanging on the cross with Jesus.
See how the rulers or the elite like the priests and elders of Israel who sneered at Jesus: the more they poked fun on him as “the Christ of God”, the more they indict themselves of the grave crime of putting Jesus to death. Eventually at the death of Jesus, the Temple curtain would be torn from top to bottom to signal the end of temple worship and the start of worshipping God in “truth and spirit” in Christ.
The soldiers jeered Jesus too because they “know not what they were doing” because they were all pagans. But again, upon Christ’s death, we find one soldier there at the scene declaring “truly this is the Son of God.”
In any case, some members of Israel’s rulers and Roman soldiers eventually followed Jesus after the Resurrection to show us how the Cross is indeed the throne of Christ the King: it is also a door that opens anyone to conversion, to accept his reign and kingdom!
Most of all, the “good thief”, usually referred to as Dimas, shows us how at the cross any one can become radical like the Lord. While agonizing with Jesus on the cross, Dimas must have examined his life and got into his very core, his roots and realized that basic truth inside him was right there suffering also with him — Jesus whose name means “Yahweh saves”.
What is so surprising with his request from Jesus “to remember him he gets into his kingdom” is the fact that in the Old Testament, it is God who always remembers his people, remembers his promise, remembers his covenant.
Man always forgets God and his covenant that we always turn away from him to live in sin. But at the cross, the throne of Jesus our King, he enables us to remember our roots, our being children of God, our being loved and forgiven that we finally find our way back home.
And that home is God in eternity: “Today you shall be with me in Paradise.”
Every time we are at the cross, when we are getting through so many pains and sufferings, failures and disappointments, even darkness and sin, get into your roots – Jesus Christ – and you will never get lost.
Long before we got into all these crosses in life, remember Jesus was there first for us to suffer and die on his Cross. And that is why he is our King for he rose again so we can become like him in eternity. Amen.
Monday, Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo, 04 November 2019
Romans 11:29-36 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 14:12-14
Sculpture of a homeless man sleeping on a bench fronting the Franciscan Fathers’ Residence in Capernaum, the Holy Land. On closer examination of the sculpture, one realises it is in fact Jesus Christ living in our midst! Photo by the author, May 2019.
Praise and glory to you, our heavenly Father!
Thank you very much for never changing your mind regarding your gifts and call to us as St. Paul reminds us today in our first reading:
Brothers and sisters: The gifts and call of God are irrevocable.
Romans 11:29
It is always a struggle with us to come to grip with this truth and reality.
Very often, we tend to forget your gifts and call to us to be holy, to be like you in Christ Jesus, always kind and loving, forgiving and merciful, just and understanding.
There is always that inner temptation within us to think too much of ourselves, to have our rewards or share of the fruits of our labor.
Help us to keep in mind like St. Charles Borromeo, who despite his very colourful and illustrious background, he lived out his call and vocation to the priesthood exactly as your servant, Lord.
Help us to forget our selves so we may always see you, Lord, among the poor and needy, the ones who cannot pay us back, or invite us to dinner. Amen.
Monday, Feast of St. Simon and St. Jude, Apostles, 28 October 2019
Ephesians 2:19-22 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 6:12-16
From Google
What a glorious Monday, O Lord, we have today with the Feast of your Apostles St. Simon and St. Jude!
Whenever I think of your Apostles, O sweet Jesus, I am always filled with hope and love because they show us how you are interested with people, not with social classes or labels.
Jesus went to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God. When day came, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
Luke 6:12-16
How amazing you have called and gathered these people of different backgrounds and temperament.
Like St. Simon described as “the Zealot” who must be so passionate with his Jewish identity advocating independence yet working with the former Roman collaborator, St. Matthew the tax collector.
How they were able to overcome their many differences is a wonderful lesson for us all who tend to highlight our polarities and contrasts, forgetting that in you, Lord Jesus, we are given the grace to overcome our many conflicts in life.
But, at the same time, you call us to be men and women of integrity like St. Jude Thaddeus who minced no words in his letter against some Christians who “pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and who deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (v.4) by sowing divisions through their erroneous teachings.
May we have the courage of St. Jude to defend your teachings Lord strongly especially in this age when we try to tolerate everything for the sake of pluralism and openness and acceptance.
May St. Simon the Zealot and St. Jude Thaddeus help us rediscover the beauty of Christian faith to live it without tiring, knowing how to bear a strong and yet peaceful witness to it in Christ our Good Shepherd. Amen.
Romans 6:19-23 ><)))*> ><)))*> ><)))*> Luke 12:49-53
The late Joey Velasco at work. From Google.
As I prayed today’s gospel, Lord Jesus, I remembered the late painter Joey Velasco who is best known for his “Hapag ng Pag-Asa”.
Joey portrayed you in a very unique way that is very disturbing, even harsh just like the way you spoke in today’s gospel.
Jesus said to his disciples: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished! Do you think I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.”
Luke 12:49-51
Why did I feel that way, Lord?
It seems I have been so conditioned to your image of being “meek and humble”, so gentle like Isaiah’s Suffering Servant who bore all pains and insults.
But more than that imagery that we have nurtured of you like a “baby” within us, Joey’s paintings of you among the poor and suffering disturb us because we are so detached from you.
Yes, we are disturbed and even pained because we have refused to follow you closer among the poor and suffering.
So often, your words shock us and actually bring us back to life because we have actually been dead to sin and evil or the “wages of sin” according to St. Paul in our first reading today.
“That All May Be One” painting by Joey Velasco. Photo from Google.
We are disturbed because our silence in reaching out to the poor and oppressed is more harsh than your words.
Your words are “harsh” because they are so radical in the truest sense, from the Latin radix or roots – you are shaking us down into our inner core and being to set the earth out on fire with your love!
Your words disturb us because they call us to leave our comfort zones and sidewalks to follow you right onto the dirty road of pain and suffering with the poor.
Yes, you have come Jesus to bring divisions, but not out of our petty quarrels and whims and fanaticisms.
Let us be divided for what is true and good, for what is just and fair.
Let us be divided, Lord, by choosing your side, by standing by your side at the foot of cross with the wounded and unaccepted.
Open our hearts, O Jesus, to the truest sense and meaning of your words to reawaken in us your fire and spirit of loving service for the less fortunate. 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.
lordmychef.com 