Readings: Is 2:1-5; Ps 122: 1-2, 3-4, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9; Rom 13:11-14; Mt 24:37-44
Preparing for Christmas. The season of Advent is a time of preparation. We prepare for the season of Christmas, the birth of our Lord. Because of the secular influences and commercialism that pervade the season nowadays, we need to be reminded that it is a religious celebration. That is why we call Christmas, a holy day, though secularism has reduced it to the ambivalent "holidays". Advent is our spiritual preparation to ready ourselves for the grace of the Christmas celebration.
Lord, have mercy - Lord, have mercy
Christ, have mercy - Christ, have mercy
Lord, have mercy - Lord, have mercy
Christ hear us - Christ, graciously hear us
PRAYER FOR THE FIRST LEGAZPI DIOCESAN PASTORAL ASSEMBLY
Loving Father, we thank you for the gift of faith
handed down by the Apostles to generations.
We thank you for the gift of the community of the faithful
that nourishes our growth in Christian life.
As we prepare for our First Diocesan Pastoral Assembly,
HOMILY
Solemnity of Christ the King – C – 21 November 2010
Readings: 2 Sam 5:1-3; Ps 122:1-2, 3-4, 4-5 ; Col 1:12-20; Lk 23:35-43
On the last Sunday of the liturgical calendar, we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King. The timing brings to the fore the message of Rev 1,8: “He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end.” He is the Lord of time and eternity, He is King of all.
1. Christ is the King of the Universe
Col 1,16-20 describes Christ’s dominion and kingship: “All things were created through him and for him. 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.”
A friend asked recently: "So, how are you? Are you happy with being a priest?" I gave her this roundabout answer about this video on Youtube I recently watched. This one was about what motivates people and gives them self-satisfaction.
Dan Pink, the speaker, proposes three factors: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Autonomy is our desire to be self-directed. Mastery is our urge to get better at stuff. Purpose is about making a contribution in a trascendent way. I have the good fortune of having those three in my line of work. So, short answer: Yes, I am happy. Thank God for that.
This doesn't mean that everything is perfect or that ministry is easy. In fact, these past few years, I have been made quite painfully aware of the flawed realities of the Church, and my own frailties as well. To be able to recognize them is both a humbling and liberating experience. For in spite of our weakness, God still chooses us to carry His mission in the world, or in our little corner of the earth.
Here is one more thing that keeps me happy: being able to take part in the great enterprise that is Church-building. I spent my birthday this year on the very first day of our annual retreat in Cebu. This year, the priests of our diocese reflected on the theme of the Church as "communion-in-mission". For me, it means dreaming of a Church that builds itself into a community of witnesses, one that reaches out to the depths of each one, and to all -- especially the poor and those in the margins. The hard and exciting part of the job is turning those dreams and plans into reality. I am just glad to be part of it.
What does it mean to be a priest at 32? Without ambition or agenda in mind, I like to think I found the best answer from among the birthday greetings and well-wishes of friends on Facebook, one of them posted: "I'm certain that your best years are still ahead". To which I replied: "May your certainty be proven true, may our best years be laid down for the Lord and His Church."
A big thanks to all those who sent their greetings and well-wishes. May the Lord grant you twice the share of what you prayed for me. Oremus pro invicem!
The Gospel passage this Sunday was a message of reassurance to the persecuted members of the early Christian communities. Jesus' prediction of wars, insurrection and persecution was already a real life experience for them. Even the prophesied destruction of the magnificent Temple of Jerusalem might be taken literally for it did happen in 70 AD during the seige of Jerusalem by the Romans.
Yet there is also a timeless relevance to its message, especially for us today. After making a reference to the passing nature of worldly things, Jesus was asked by the disciples to give them a sign. Instead He prophesied various events that would happen before the end comes. The end here apparently refers not just to the seige of Jerusalem but to a universal end times.
However, amidst the gloom and doom, comes the assurance: God is with us. Be not afraid. He will even take care of our defense. He also puts a word of caution: beware of false prophets. "See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, 'I am he,’ and 'The time has come.’ Do not follow them!"
As we come nearer to Advent, the readings talk about the “last things”, eschaton in Greek: death, after life, heaven, hell, purgatory, judgment day, the resurrection. Both the first and Gospel readings teach about the promise of the resurrection.
But before we come to that, let us first reflect on realities closer to home…
1. Life and Death
The two different stories in the first and Gospel readings start with the theme of life, especially a blessed life, as symbolically underscored by the number 7, the number of God, the perfect number. Both stories feature seven brothers. The mother in 2 Maccabees would be considered in those times to be blessed for having seven boys, her pride and joy, and her life support later in life. The first brother in the Sadducees‘ story, though dying early and childless, could count on the next eligible brother among his six siblings to take his widow as wife and “raise descendants in his name”. In the tradition of the Jews, having one’s lineage grow to generations counts as fullness of life.
Imagine a barangay named Jericho. It was big and prosperous, and has just received news that the Lord Jesus was set to pass through its main road. The barangay chairman was one named Zaccheus, a man of small stature in more ways than one, with a reputation for being corrupt and greedy. He was not generally well-liked but he always won the election because he simply bribed the voters more than his rivals.
DIOCESE OF LEGAZPI
PASTORAL BULLETIN NO. 03, Series of 2010
To: Clergy, Religious, Lay Faithful
Re: Corrupting our Minors, Corrupting the Future
"Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”(Mt 18,16)
Reports coming from all over leave no doubt as to the scope and magnitude of corruption and cheating in the recent Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections. During our Clergy General Assembly held last Tuesday, every priest present said that vote-buying and selling were rampant in their respective places of assignment and home towns. Radyo Veritas Legazpi and other local radio stations, as well as our local PPCRV units also confirmed this widespread terrible state of affairs.
The Gospel parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector begins and ends with the lesson clearly articulated. It begins with the purpose of the parable: “Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else.” And ends with the saying: “whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
It is a commentary against self-righteousness. However, to label the Pharisees as a bunch of self-righteous zealots and tax collectors as misunderstood sinners would be to miss the point.
Once again, Fr. Robert Barron writes an article as insightful in identifying the Church's problems as in suggesting directions for the Church's future.
Vatican II, has occasioned both a culture of ressourcement, a rediscovery and renewed appreciation and usage of Sacred Scriptures, patristic traditions, and historical research; and aggiornamento, a bringing up to date, a greater sensitivity to the call of the times. However, perhaps a reaction to the stifling conservatism of the past, the council's aftermath has tilted more towards the latter, spawning a culture of too much accomodation with the world and too dogged a pursuit of modernity. The renewed appreciation of our rich cultural and intellectual heritage has been engulfed in the tide of accomodation.
Now there are calls for a return to traditionalism, a tough reform of the reform. While I am all for reform, I am also for caution with this reactionary-looking return to conservatism, which in many cases expresses a heavily glossed-over nostalgia for the eras of Vatican 1 and Modern Roman Catholicism. For reform to be truly reflective, and not merely cause a tilt from one side to the other, a careful balancing act must be exercised. Our Church needs the graced balance between ressourcement and aggiornamento, for this state of things provides the Church both the stability and dynamism she needs to effectively pursue her mission to the world.
God is not like a vending machine, promptly dispensing blessings as soon as we asked for them, in the way we expect them to be. That is, unless if vending machines were all like these one. God's blessings may not always come the way we expect them to be, rather they are more like surprises from a loved one who knows more about us than we know ourselves.
HOMILY
29th Sunday in Ordinary Time – C – 17 October 2010
Readings: Ex 17:8-13; Ps 121:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8; 2 Tim 3:14-4:2; Lk 18:1-8
The moral lesson of this Sunday’s Gospel parable is quite clear from the start. “Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary.”
1. Pray always and without ceasing.
Here is a judge who couldn’t care less about God or other human beings, basically a bad person. Then here is a widow, penniless, powerless but for her persistence to get a fair judgment from the judge. Eventually, the judge relented and gave her what she asked for.
If bad people can be influenced to grant favors to less privileged supplicants, how much more will it be with God? “Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them?”
Parable said, moral lesson delivered, thus end of the story? Not quite. For at the end of the passage, Jesus gave a thought-provoking question: “but when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” What does this mean? Clue: Prayer is not just about getting what we want.
At long last, a saner, more nuanced approach to the RH bill issue. To be clear, its position is not a middleground between pro-life and pro-RH/death/quality of life camps. Rather, it provides talking points, identifying both the good intentions of the bill and its contentious provisions. It is a position that is decidedly pro-life and Catholic -- and Jesuit.
