Tag: sunday homily

Giving Jesus

MaiShowaKinen2
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe, Week XXXII-B, 11 November 2018
1Kings 17:10-16///Hebrews 9:24-28///Mark 12:38-44

            Maybe you have heard the story of how the chicken and the cow argued who between them gives the most to their master.  The cow said she gives the most because from her supply of milk, the farmer is able to have cheese as well.  But the chicken argued that their master have to go through tedious work in milking the cow unlike with her when she simply has to lay eggs in her nest that can be easily obtained every day.  The pig heard their discussion, praised them both for their daily supply of milk and eggs to their master but reminded them that for her to give ham and bacon, she has to die first by offering her whole life as food.

            Jesus is still in the temple area teaching the people and His disciples some important lessons before His coming Passion, Death, and Resurrection.  Last week He had taught us of asking questions of the above and higher things that is actually a search for God which is the most essential in life.  Today, Jesus deepens this search for God by reminding us of the need to give our total selves to Him in order to find and have Him.  First we ask Jesus, and now we give our total selves to Jesus.

            In the course of his teaching, Jesus said to the crowds, “Beware of the scribes, who like to go around in long robes and accept greetings in the marketplaces, seats of honor in synagogues, and places of honor in banquets.” (Mk.12:38-39)

            The first step in giving our total selves to God and to others is to go back to what I call as our “hallowed hiddenness” in God.  We now live in the midst of social media where everything is “exposed” with nothing hidden from us anymore.  Everyone is either a “bida” or in a “pabida” mode.  Bida is the star or lead character in a movie or a TV show.  It is from the Spanish word vida that means life (contravida is the villain, the opposite of life).  Jesus was attacking here the scribes for being so “pabida”, always seeking popularity and admiration from the people.  They have entirely forgotten God and most likely must have thought of themselves as God Himself.  Sad to say, this continues to our own time.  Check Facebook and you see what I mean.  We have become a clapping generation because everybody is a bida.  Even in church where solemnity of the Mass is sacrificed on the pretext of making it more celebratory and participative that priests encourage so much clapping of hands.  How sad that some Masses have become a variety show with the priest becoming a celebrity that in the process, Jesus is forgotten.  Today’s warning by Jesus is personally directed to us who have become the modern scribes, reminding us how we must present ourselves more before God than before humans.   There is always this danger of hypocrisy and showmanship in every kind of service especially in the Church which is also the reason why laypeople quarrel among themselves on who is the real bida.  When this happens especially in the Church, we all become a kontrabida of the real and only bida, Jesus Christ.

            CNN reported recently that amid South Korea’s being the most wired country in the world with the fastest internet speed, it is now building many public libraries and centers where people can relax minus the ubiquitous smartphones and other gadgets.  The report says how the Koreans have realized the need for silence and stillness to truly progress.  Likewise, many companies and offices in Silicon Valley are reportedly encouraging their people to drop all gadgets once in a while during work to recharge and be refreshed in silence to discover new ideas.  Some tech companies there have even encouraged their workers to go hiking without bringing their gadgets to reconnect with self, others and nature.  Even the latest top of the line model of the iPhone is said to have a built-in monitor that reminds a user for being too focused with the gadget for a certain period of time.  These are all wonderful developments of how people are slowly rediscovering anew the need to be alone, to be still, and be silent.  We need to recapture our “hallowed hiddenness” with God so we can be whole again as a person.  The problem with too much exposure like in FB where even coffee breaks are posted is not only the growth of narcissism and superficiality among us but the grave mistake that one’s meaning in life is measured with the number of likes or followers one gets.  Unknown to us, the more we become visible and popular, the more we also become dependent on others for having meaning in life.  We can only find our true selves and meaning of life in God, the root of our being.  God is always found in emptiness and nothingness, not in abundance of the world.

            In the first reading we find this hallowed hiddenness in God in the beautiful story of the faith of Elijah and of that pagan widow of Zarephath.  Elijah was fleeing from the soldiers sent to kill him after telling King Ahab and his queen Jezebel that there would be drought in Israel due to their worship of baal.  He was first directed to a mountain stream where ravens brought him bread daily.  When the stream ran dry, God told Elijah to hide in Zarephath near Sidon in the home of a pagan widow.  This story of Elijah obeying God in a land of scarcity and danger (Zarephath was under the rule of Jezebel’s father) shows us his complete faith in God, of abandoning himself entirely with God.  The same is true with the pagan widow who gave everything to Elijah, believing in the promise of God told by the prophet.  In their hiddenness in God, relying solely on Him alone than with themselves and with others, Elijah and the pagan widow along with her son never went hungry until the rains came.  When we try to spend some hallowed hiddenness with God daily, taking a break from our busy schedules and social media, that is when we are purified to become better persons filled with the Spirit and substance.

            This is also the point of Jesus in calling His disciples to tell them later while seated opposite the treasury that the poor widow who put in two small coins worth a few cents gave more than the others for she “has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.” (Mk.12:44)  The issue at hand is not about big money and little coins or amount of contributions but the spirit behind the act of giving.  Jesus was evoking here His coming total gift of self on the Cross that would soon take place which the author of the Letter to the Hebrews underscored in today’s second reading.  According to Pope Francis, “Giving and forgiving means reproducing in our lives some small measure of God’s perfection, which gives and forgives superabundantly” (Gaudete et Exsultate, 81).  Indeed, God has given us with so much but we have given so little.  May we learn to give more of ourselves and more of Jesus in us with others.  AMEN. Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.  Email:  lordmychef@gmail.com   

*Photo by Dra. Mai B. Dela Pena, Showa Kinen Garden in Japan, 2018.  Used with permission.

Jesus Calls Us In Our Blindness

RaffySunset3
The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe, Week XXX-B, 28 October 2018
Jeremiah 31:7-9///Hebrews 5:1-6///Mark 10:46-52

           After my Mass last Sunday evening, a friend sent me a text message about their janitor who had committed suicide at the top floor of their new school building that afternoon.  She had sought my opinion a few weeks ago about that janitor suffering from depression, and later brought him to a professional for evaluation and counselling by personally paying for it.  But his condition deteriorated until he hanged himself that Sunday afternoon.  What is very disturbing with the suicide story is the seeming lack of support for the victim by their school officials.  And, as if to rub salt on his wounds, an HR officer of the school went to see the janitor at their home Friday before the suicide to serve his termination paper after going on AWOL for several weeks.  It seemed to be the final straw that hit the camel’s back, so to speak, that the poor janitor had totally lost all hopes in life that led to his tragic end Sunday afternoon.  My friend was very sad, deeply pained – and rightly so! – as it happened in their Catholic school run by religious priests and brothers.  Suicides do happen especially these days and there is no need to blame or pin on anybody, but to hear stories of neglect and lack of concern is another thing. One life is always too many to lose in senseless deaths like suicide.  As I prayed over today’s gospel, I cannot resist seeing in that school janitor the blind Bartimaeus, begging and shouting for attention, seeking compassion but alas, many in the crowd were so blind that they ignored him, except maybe Jesus, who knows might be passing by that Sunday afternoon and stopped for another lost soul in our modern Jericho.

         As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizeable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging.  On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.”  And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.  But he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me.”  Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”  So they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage; get up, he is calling you.”  He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.  Jesus said to him in reply, “What do you want me to do for you?”  The blind man replied to him, “Master, I want to see.”  Jesus told him, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.”  Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way. (Mk.10:46-52)

          Last Sunday we reflected how Jesus wanted us to be radical in following Him by going back to the roots (radix in Latin) of our discipleship which is His Cross of suffering and death.  To be radical disciples of Jesus, we also reflected of the need to subvert or overturn our secular ideas of leadership based on power and position by imitating Christ’s kind of loving service that is always hidden in humility.  Today’s gospel is more than a story of the healing of Bartimaeus but also of responding to Jesus’ call for us to remove our different kinds of blindness that prevent us from closely following Him on the road to Jerusalem.  And the first step healing our blindness is deepening our faith in Jesus as the Christ.  Recall that the journey of Jesus back to Jerusalem started at Caesarea Philippi last month when He asked the fundamental question every disciple must personally answer, “who do you say that I am?” (Mk.8:29) 

          Bartimaeus was physically blind but it was very clear with him that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the “Son of David” who would save Israel.  Despite his blindness, Bartimaeus “saw” in Jesus through the many stories he must have heard about Him that He is the fulfillment of God’s promise that Jeremiah prophesied in our first reading, “the Lord shall deliver Israel and bring her back from exile, gathering them all especially the blind and the lame, consoling them and guiding them to brooks of water, on a level road, so that none shall stumble.” (Jer.31:7-9)   His physical disability did not hinder Bartimaeus in growing in faith, “seeing” God as a loving Father who looks after His children especially the sick like him, healing and consoling them that he shouted “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me.”  Observe that despite his being a blind beggar, Bartimaeus neither asked for his sight nor for any money or material thing except for God Himself.  When he told Jesus that he wanted to see, it was actually a plea for deeper faith in God!  Contrast this with the request of the “seeing” Twelve who were all blinded with ambitions, always debating who among them is the greatest, always seeing selves but not God and others.

          In my 20 years of priesthood, I have realized that most people who come for help are more in need of spiritual things like the warmth of friendship, a pair of listening ears for their many burdens with some sprinklings of humor, a lot of affirmation, prayers and compassion.  Faith in God always leads to faith with others who are also looking for someone to encourage and guide them to grow and mature in that faith.  In our modern Jericho of today, may we share Jesus to the many Bartimaeus longing for that warm and loving human face who can recognize and smile at them, pat their shoulders, and soothe their souls by accompanying them in their journey in life that is often filled with many pains and hurts.  Let us not be blinded with life’s many pursuits where there are no real winners that later in life would fill us with many regrets that make us wish to have loved and smiled more, have been more forgiving, kinder or crazier and funnier.

          Being healed of our blindness to mature in deep faith in Christ is a long process.  This is why Jesus is always passing by, calling us in spite of our blindness for He knows so well our weaknesses.  He is willing to stop to heal us so we could regain our sight, asking us with the same question He had asked Bartimaeus and the brothers James and John last week, “What do you want me to do for you?”  Like Bartimaeus, we can only answer that question truthfully if we are willing to leave the roadside to follow Jesus on the middle of the road that is always filled with danger and difficulties.  Like Bartimaeus, we can only answer that question truthfully if we can throw aside our cloaks, to strip ourselves naked of the many false securities we rely on that hamper us in our journey to Jerusalem.  Trust only in Jesus the Christ like Bartimaeus, following Him every Sunday in the Eucharist where He, as our High Priest (second reading) gives us His Body and Blood to restore our sight and strength in this journey.  Amen.  A blessed Sunday to you!Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan 3022.  Email:  lordmychef@gmail.com

*Photo by Mr. Raffy Tima of GMA-7 News, sunset in Dubai, October 2018.  Used with permission.