Bako Katoninongan Kundi Pagkabaranga

Giya sa Prayer-Meeting nin mga Saradit na Komunidad nin Pagtubód (SAKOP) para sa semana kan Agosto 14-20, 2022. Basahon an Evangelio gikan sa Lucas 12,49-53 (Ika-20 Domingo sa Ordinariong Panahon - C)

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Si Jesu Cristo an Prinsipe nin Katoninongan sa profesía. An Saiyang katoninongan an bendicion na hinihiras niato sa lambang sarô sa cada Misa. Kayâ kan sinabi ni Jesus sa Evangelio na napadigdi Siya sa kinàban sa pagdará bakô nin katoninongan kundi pagkabarangâ, mapapahapót kita kun ano an boot Niyang sabihon.

Puede ining profesía ni Cristo dapit sa maabot na makuring persekusyon na sasaparón kan suanoy na Simbahan. Alagad ining mensahe katotoohan man na kaipohan madangog sa gabos na panahon.

An pagigin Cristiano bakô para sa mga maluya an boot o sa mga naghahanap nin facil na buhay. Nin huli ta an pagigin Cristiano siguradong may aagihan na oposisyon, kadificilan, asin violencia pa nganì minsan.

An pinakaenot na makontra sato sa dalan nin pagsunód ki Cristo iyo an satong sadiri. Nin huli ta an mga kasâlan na tinòdan niato pirming maghahagad na sinda balikán. Siring kaini an namamatean nin mga recovering addict asin alcoholic.

Kayâ an enot na gawè nin pagsunod ki Cristo iyo an pagbaklè sa mga kasâlan, asin an pagpadagos sa dalan nangangaipo nin pagsayuma sa sadiri asin pagpàsan kan sadiring cruz. Sabi sa Hebreo 12,1: “haleon ta na an gabós na bagay na nakakaoláng, saka an kasâlan na nakakapuropot sato, dangan padagos tang dalaganon na daing ontok an ipinapadalagan sato.”

Sunod an oposisyon hale sa sadiring pamilya asin mga kaugós. Nin huli ta sinda halóy nang midbid kita kayâ tibaad dai tulos makatubód kun mahiling an satong mga paghingowa na magbàgong-buhay ki Cristo.

An mas hararom na kahulugan kaini iyo an sinabi ni Jesus sa Lucas 14,26: “An magdolok Sako dai magigin disipulo Ko kun oróg na namomòtan niya kisa Sako an saiyang ama, ina, agom, mga aki, mga tugang, asin an sadiri niyang buhay.”

Kun kita Cristiano si Cristo an pinakaoróg sa gabos niatong pagkamoot. Siya an basehán asin sukulán kan pagkamoot ta sa sadiring tawo, tanganing mapakarhay an mga saláng gawè sa laog nin pamilya, mabulóng an mga lugad nin iriwal asin abuso, asin mapatawad tanganing mabàgo an mga kasâlan na ginibo sa ngaran nin pamilya.

Dangan may oposisyon man sa halè sa kinàban. Sabi ni Jesus sa Saiyang mga disipulos sa Juan 15,19: “Kun kamo taga kinàban, mamomòtan kamo kan kinàban bilang sadiri kaiyan. Alagad pinilì Ko kamo hale sa kinàban, kayâ bakô na kamong sadiri kaiyan. Ini an dahilan kun natà kinakaongís kamo kan kinàban.”

Kun magsaksi kita sa Evangelio asin manindogan kita para sa buhay, derechos humanos, katotoohan, asin katanosan sa panahon ngonian, makakamatè kita nin oposisyon hale sa mga pwersa nin panggagadan, violencia, kaputikan, asin korupsyon. Alagad ining aktibong paghirò na nakagamót sa Evangelio an kaipohan nanggad kan satong kinàban sa ngonian.

Ginamit ni Jesus an imahe nin pagdará nin kalayo sa kinàban – kayâ an Saiyang mahal na Pusò asin an Espiritu Santo parehong nagkakalayo, tandà nin labi-labing pagkamoot asin sacrificio. Makabaing man lugod an satong puso sa Puso ni Jesus, asin magin bukás sa Espiritu Santo na nagdadara sa tunay na pagbabago kan satong sadiri, pamilya, sociedad, asin bilog na kinàban.

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GIYA SA PAGHIRÁS SA SADÍT NA KOMUNIDAD O PAMILYA • Maghiras nin experiencia nin oposisyon o kadificilan sa saimong paghingowa na magbàgo o magsabuhay kan Evangelio.

PASUNOD-SUNOD KAN WEEKLY SAKOP/FAMILY PRAYER-MEETING • Kumustahan/Pamiridbidan • Disposition to Prayer / Silence • Gathering Song • Opening Prayer • Gospel Reading • Reflection • Sharing • Scripture Response • Prayers of the Faithful • Closing Prayer (Spontaneous and Our Father) • Closing Song

senti

Today it has been 1 year, 1 week & 2 days since I got ordained as a deacon.

This anniversary fact first came last 16 September when I went to the ordination to the diaconate of some members of the batch next to us at San Jose.

It was a bright Saturday morning. The ordinandi were visibly beaming as well. Their family and friends were present. Bp. Bacani was the ordaining prelate. Loyola House's St. Ignatius Oratory turned smaller with all the guests who came to witness the ordination, some of them spilling to the side corridors. A few happy tears too were spilled at certain high moments of the rite: 5 young men prostrated on the sanctuary's marble floor as the congregation invoke the intercession of the saints; Bp. Bacani laying his hands on each of them, one after the other, to confer the Sacred Order of the Diaconate; the newly-ordained vesting for the first time the deacon's stole and the dalmatic, assisted by their parish priest, another priest-friend and their parents.

Aside from the obvious remembrance of a similar event which happened 1 day shy of a year ago, suddenly it came to me: I was back again at San Jose, back to its familiar familial atmosphere, back once more to the company of people whom I shared space and life with just a few eternal months ago. Words like magis, cura personalis, familiaritas cum Deo, et al. rushed back and claimed their lost meanings. Even the old oft-quoted words appeared with the freshness of a just-heard thing: “Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you will do with your evenings, how you will spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love and it will decide everything.”

Amen to that and to all such Jesuit/Ignatian words, even if today they are no longer confidently attributed to the saintly Pedro Arrupe, S.J. It was an ordination, a most fitting time to hear once more those words in the homily, in the words of thanks, in conversations – including the one which I and a classmate had as we did a celebration of sorts for our ordination anniversary the next day, Sunday.

I can’t help but compare. I’ve only been in my diocese since April, a little less than six months, yet it seemed I have acquired a new epistemology, a new set of things to learn and live with: the literature of pastoral bulletins and circulars; the unique sociology of a provincial presbyterium; the psychology of clerical age-groups; the economics of remittances; the mathematics of bination, trination, quaternation and pluri-intention Masses; the politics of social action; the different management styles of pastors; the procedural arcana of our general assembly; an alternate philology for words like: prayer, dialogue, support system, on-going formation, simplicity of lifestyle, and especially, Church of the Poor.

Limited experience and viewpoint notwithstanding, it seems to me rather strong, this seeing of varied levels of dissatisfaction and dissipation among our clergy. There seems to exist among us a heady mix of several coping/escape mechanisms: a groping for direction, a desperate clinging to the stability of the status quo, a nostalgia for real/imagined better by-gone days. Yet in all this, the Word of God continues to be preached, the work of evangelization proceeds at a certain pace, the People of God have not been relatively led astray. Our situation sometimes gives new dimensions to St. Therese of Lisieux’s “everything is grace”.

If I were fatalistic I would say I sense, as I sometimes do, an imminent time for reaping the rewards of all our blunders and good intentions, of our denials and discernments, of our failings and excesses, of our diligence and fidelity – in short and in Gospel-speak, a day of harvest both of those wheat and weeds we have so (choose your adverb) planted. But I am not.

I am just a transitional deacon, 1 year, 1 week & 2 days older.

Ora pro nobis.

an auspicious beginning

an arsonist is haunting legazpi city these days.
last week he razed the b.u. little theater to the ground.
before that, a portion of aquinas hospital,
as well as some other hospitals.
two attempts were made at st. raphael's church,
both of them frustrated by timely discovery
of small starting fires - fire on a pew; burning jacket
draped on the church's sound system controls.
yesterday i saw a portion of divine word,
thick smokes billowing from windows, firetrucks all over,
onlookers, students & employees waiting outside.
it was the school's a.v. room that got gutted.
is he just a single individual or does he work with a team of sorts?
some eyewitness accounts describe a 40-something
male, average height, relatively stocky.
is he a pyromaniac? or simply part of a grand scam
to boost sales of fire prevention tools or the security business?
i don't know. & authorities are mum about the matter,
presumably they're doing something about it, considering
the high profile institutions the arsonist has been targetting.

an auspicious beginning for a pretentious,
a bit self-conscious, little blog. this blogger
though vows no relation or complicity
whatsoever to the legazpi arsonist.
why firesetter news? for various reasons
but mainly because this blogger hopes
to set a different sort of fire. the one that brings about
meaningful change, and such other big and vague things as
renewal, recovery, reducing extreme poverty
and, let's not forget, world peace.
i hope to do more than just 'light a candle & stop cursing
the darkness' or to simply 'keep the flame burning'.
the ideal is to start & keep nothing less than a conflagration.
more like, a hip & driven, pro-active 'voice in the wilderness'.

this is the blog of a young deacon starting public ministry,
with as much fire and fear as could be decently expected, as an
office drone, a glorified assistant to the assistant to the boss-man.
this is me: transitional deacon, occassional cynic, aspiring firesetter.