Category: English

Dearest sisters and brothers, today, the second Sunday of Easter, we celebrate the feast of Divine Mercy.  Peter in the second reading says that God in his mercy gave us a new birth through Christ’s resurrection.  As Pope Francis reminds us in the bull, Misericordia Vultus, “Jesus Christ is the face of the Father’s mercy and God’s mercy is the bridge that connects us to God.  It opens our hearts to the hope of being loved forever despite our sinfulness.”

The mercy of God shown to us in Jesus Christ makes demands from us.  Just like Christ told his apostles today, “as the Father has sent me, so I send you”.  We are being sent today to be the face of God’s mercy to our troubled world.  Christ in the Gospel today showed an example of his merciful heart when he invited Thomas to touch his wounds to be convinced it was him.  Like he did to Thomas, He does to every one of us showing us his compassionate heart despite our weaknesses, foibles, and failings.

Dearest sisters and brothers, today there is so much fear and doubt among many, as it was with the apostles who in the Gospel locked their doors because of their fear of the Jews.  Many people presently have locked Christ out because of fear and worry of the present Coronavirus.  Christ, out of his mercy, wants to come to you in this time of fear now.  He wants to strengthen you so that you can be the face of God’s mercy to others who are in fear as well.

First reading provides us the way to come to Christ today through the example of early Christians.  One is by listening to the teaching of the apostles and remaining faithful to the truth of our faith.  The other, is by sharing in communal life, breaking bread together, and prayer.  Our communal relationships call us to be our brother’s keeper, especially in this time of uncertainty.

We can do that by providing material benefits to them, giving cash gifts to our less privileged one’s, offering even to grocery for the elderly, reaching out to friends and neighbors through phone calls and so forth.  Above all, we are to pray for all which is the best gift we can give to others now.  Being at home provides us with more time to pray while we may not visit others, let us at least pray for them.

Dearest sisters and brothers, today we celebrate the Resurrection of Our Lord from the dead, let us rejoice and be glad!  While we rejoice at our risen Lord, our empty Church and empty pews staring at me now is still a reminder of the sadness enveloping our hearts and minds in our homes now.  As we reflect on the Gospel today, it is the same sadness that filled Mary of Magdala and Christ’s apostles as they were going to the empty tomb.  Yet, the empty tomb meant that Jesus is risen and no more there.

In the same way, our empty Church today, though sad, reminds us that the risen Lord is not restricted by the four walls of our Church.  The risen Lord wants first and foremost to reign in our hearts and souls.  Are we ready to give him a chance?  Do we want to give witness to his risen power beginning from where we are now in our homes?  The risen Jesus wants us to be people of hope allowing his risen power to reign in our society through us despite our present ordeal.  He wants to lift our despairing society through us.  He wants our neighbors to feel the impact of his resurrection through us.

Peter in the first reading was not afraid to speak about the risen Lord, proclaiming that he is anointed with the Holy Spirit and Power.  Remember, it was the same Peter that could not stand a little Jewish girl two days ago when asked whether he knew Jesus.  So, what happened to Peter?  Why the transformation?  Where did this new boldness come from?  The answer to our question is that it is the power of the risen Lord has begun to manifest itself in Peter.

Dearest ones, it is in the same way that the power of the risen Jesus wants to work now in your life.  He wants to take over your whole life so that no power, not even that of sickness, can have the last word in your life.  It is important to remember that for the power of risen Christ to work in our lives, we need to leave behind sin, signified today by the burial cloth that Christ left behind in his tomb.

Like Jesus, we must leave behind all the garments of death that has been holding us captive in our lives. May the power of our risen Lord be your protector and that of your family in this period of uncertainty.  Amen!

Today, we celebrate the Palm/Passion Sunday that begins Holy Week.  In the gospel that introduces us to the celebration, “Jesus rode on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden”.  Jesus, in choosing to enter the city of Jerusalem today upon an ass, contrasts his humility with that of the Roman occupiers of Jerusalem at that time who ride horses as symbol of their oppressive and imperial power.  Though Jesus is God, St. Paul in the second reading tells us that he chose the way of humility to die on the cross.

Dearest sisters and brothers, in the face of this Covid-19 ravaging our world presently, we are also being called to humility in the face of this unexplained tragedy inflicting much pain on our communities.  Today, many people have assumed to know the “reason” and “why” of the disease, claiming in their warped prognosis that Covid-19 is a divine punishment upon the world because of our sin.

Without denying our sinfulness, it is important to remark that with regard to this present challenge facing our world, none of us knows and will ever know the why of it.  We can only be humble to accept our human limitations before this apparent human disaster.

Reflecting on our situation, a phrase that comes to mind is W. B. Yeat’s poem—The Second Coming, that states:  “Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world”.  While the aforementioned phrase describes perfectly our present ordeal, it is important to remind ourselves that it was also to this kind of world that Jesus came into.

During the time of Jesus, the life of every average Jew was worth nothing before their brutal Roman oppressors who ravaged their communities like the Coronavirus is doing to us now.  It was to such a world that Jesus triumphantly entered today.  He went into Jerusalem to suffer and to die for his brothers and sisters in the same way he wants to die for love of you and me, saving us from this present trial.

Perhaps, the question each of us must ask oneself today is; what lesson can one learn from Jesus triumphant entry into Jerusalem?  The most important one is the truth that Jesus is still the king of the world and no amount of suffering can deny that truth.  His rulership over the earth extends to this present sickness and he is always there to guide us throughout our entire life.

In our conception of time, it is important to remember that there are two senses in which time can be conceived—the sense of “now” and sense of the “future”.  While Coronavirus, in the present with its devastating effects, is baring its fang, we cannot sacrifice our entire life at the altar of our present fear.  It is pertinent to remind ourselves that the fears to which we succumb today will deny us the glories of tomorrow.  While we cannot remove entirely the trepidation that has enveloped our present psyche, it is important still to keep in mind the global picture of our entire life which is in the hands of God.

Today, Jesus, by his suffering and death, transformed all our human sufferings and as we confront our present confinement and a Holy Week that has no fixed Easter community celebration to look forward to, let Jesus’ suffering be our hope.  As we read the story of his pain on the cross today, let us come face to face with our pains knowing that he experienced pain and suffering before us and will surely show us how to get through this one.

As we recall Jesus suffering for us on the cross today, let us attune our attention to other people who may be suffering more than we are.  Think about all those at the frontline of the present fight; those already infected; and, our medical professionals and others helping them.  If we cannot do anything more to help, can we pray for them as I invite each of you to spread your heart like the Jews who spread their cloaks, so that Jesus can pass through.  Jesus wants you to be the “new donkey” that will lead him into our present world that has been invaded by this “corona soldier of death”.

Dearest brothers and sisters, today is the 5^th Sunday of Lent.  While we continue to hunker down in our homes without any idea of what next, God, in today’s readings, brings us hope.  In the first reading, through the prophet Ezekiel, God tells us:  “I will open your graves and have you rise from them”.  This message of hope given to the Israelites while in exile is being addressed to us today as well.  As Richard Murphy remarks, “this vision fanned the flame of hope among the exiles . . . and the vision speaks to us too.  Our world, (presently) is full of shattered hopes, disillusionment, and disappointments” as a result of the Coronavirus.

It is true that presently, there is an intense feeling of exile in many who are unable to receive the Lord in the Eucharist again this Sunday due to Coronavirus lockdown.  This sadness can only be imagined and while there is nothing comparable to it from our human perspective, from a faith dimension, so much can be learned from it.  The paradox of the moment can be expressed with the opening words of Charles Dickens’ Tale of two Cities:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,…

it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,

it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.

Assessing the moment, everything is dependent on how one perceives and hears God through it.  In the Gospel, despite Lazarus’ four days in the grave, Jesus still raised his friend from the dead reminding us that nothing is impossible for God.  While Lazarus’ death and entombment were worst of times for his sisters, the visit of Christ, as we read in today’s Gospel, and his accompanying miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead were their best of times.

Presently, while debate about the best course of action to end this pandemic ravaging our world continues to rage, one thing that is clear is that there is no easy way out of the situation.  Our best shot is to find out what God is calling us to do.  As St. Leo the Great admonishes us, we “shall not stand by idly when our neighbor’s life is at stake”.  Perhaps, one can only hope to see the present shutdown in that light.  As Christians, we are called to offer up our present inconveniences for the spiritual regeneration of the world, good of our brothers and sisters, and perhaps, the extirpation of the virus from our midst.

While our Sunday Eucharistic Communion is presently not feasible, our communion with the Lord extends to our care for others.  It is important to remind ourselves that Jesus did not just come down to dwell in the Eucharistic bread for its sake but to dwell in our hearts.  Today, our access to the Lord is mainly through our family and, perhaps, our neighbors.  St. Leo the Great reminds us, “No act of devotion on the part of the faithful gives God more pleasure than that which is lavished on his poor”.

And when we ask the question, “who are the poor in our present circumstance?”, it is that family member or neighbor who is presently paralyzed by the fear of the virus though he or she is healthy; it is that one who has contracted the virus; it is your neighbor who has been laid off by his or her company; it is that family member or neighbor who is unhappy about how his or her life has been temporarily shut down by the government and the Church.  All the aforementioned and many more are our poor neighbors and it is to them that we are to bring Christ’s love now.

The Italian priest, Rev. Giuseppe Berardelli from Bergamo diocese in Northern Italy, who gave up his ventilator machine to a younger patient while succumbing to the mortal blow of this virus has shown us the practical way of bringing Christ to others.  Though we may not have been called to his level of heroism, the present difficult circumstance created by the virus is calling us to give up “our little ventilators” in our own little ways.  Each of us knows how best to do that!

Dearest sisters and brothers, greetings to each of you in this strange time of our life.  The chaos and the confusion that has been brought upon our spiritual and parish life in this most important spiritual season of Lent can only be imagined.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has temporary altered our way of life in such a way that we cannot gather as brothers and sisters this Sunday to celebrate the Lord’s presence in our midst in the Holy Mass.

At this moment, many of us are taken up by emotions of frustration, sadness, and bewilderment.  We, like the Psalmist, are asking, “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  When shall I come and behold the face of God” in his Church?

Despite the sadness we feel about our current situation, today’s first reading and the Gospel, is reminding us that the world still belongs to God and He is still in charge.

In the first reading, Samuel thought that the choice God will make in choosing a king from the sons of Jesse will be based on human appearance.  That is why when he saw Eliab, he said, “surely the Lord’s anointed is here before him”.  God reminded him that he does not see as humans do.  He rather chose David.

Dearest ones, it is in light of above that God is calling us to look at our present situation. Today, the Lord is offering us a new opportunity to see through the present “coronavirus winter” the larger picture of our oneness as brothers and sisters in the Him beyond our little inconveniences.

Perhaps, one message we can already glean from our inability to have the Eucharist celebrated today is to be in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who for most parts of their lives have been unable to celebrate the Eucharist due to circumstances of war, terrorism, etc.  It is also a moment to remember our brothers and sisters who are living in missionary areas that rarely have the opportunities we have to celebrate the Eucharist every Sunday.

Finally, in this moment, in a mysterious way, the Lord is offering us the true meaning of Lent, which, while being a time of human lack, is a time of absolute trust in God.  The desert, which is the place where Our Lord lived out the first Lent, is a place of lack.  Our present circumstance is both a physical and spiritual desert for each and every one of us.

Our Lord is calling us today to place our whole trust in him.  He healed the blind man in the gospel today. He will also heal us from our infirmities including this new virus that is ravaging our entire humanity.

May the Lord help us in this, our time of need.

God bless you!

At this moment when most of us are afraid of the coronavirus, many are asking like the Israelites at Meribah, “is the Lord (still) in our midst?”.  Today, the Lord is answering us in the gospel, yes, He is still with us as the living water from heaven.  In the gospel, He tells us, “whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life”.

It is this living water that all of us who are here are searching for.  In the gospel, the drama that played out between the Samaritan woman and Jesus also happens in our lives.  While Jesus, through a request for water, reaches out to her, she resists Jesus’ invitation, by being judgmental and defensive.  Jesus was patient with her until she learned that, despite her sinfulness, she too is a beloved child of God.

Dearest sisters and brothers, it is the same invitation of love, “I thirst for you”, that the Lord extends to us this third Sunday of Lent.  As St. Theresa of Lisieux tells us, “when Jesus says ‘give me a drink’ it was the love of his poor creature that the Creator of the universe was seeking.  He was thirsty for love”.

In every invitation of Christ to us, he wants to quench all our material and spiritual thirst.  Many a time, we reject all his love and that is why we grumble and complain like the Israelites.  The devil even tries to sow doubts in our hearts about whether God really loves us.  He makes us see God as so demanding, as trying to deny us our freedom to enjoy life.  He makes us see God’s call to forgiveness, for example, as making us to appear weak and stupid when we forgive others and so forth.

It is important to remind ourselves that through these prejudices created by the devil in our hearts, God’s invitation of love is judged through our selfishness.  Today, we saw how the Samaritan woman’s prejudice kept her away initially from encountering Christ’s love.  It is, many a time, exactly the same thing in our lives.  Through our human prejudices we make things difficult in our relationship with God.  Today, God is challenging us to leave all prejudices aside and accept his invitation of love.

In the first reading, God commanded Abraham to leave his land of birth; while in the second reading, Paul encourages Timothy to bear whatever hardship he meets on the way with the strength that comes from God.  From these two readings, filial trust in God amidst the hardships of life is emphasized.

Dearest sisters and brothers, it is important to remind ourselves that absolute trust in God is what we are meant to build in this time of Lent.  We to are to imitate Christ’s filial trust in his father which enabled him to defeat the devil when tempted in the desert.  Today, we live in a world that wants us to trust only in our personal power, success, or science rather than in God.

A few days ago, a friend sent me a note which says, “where do you keep your problems?  Is it in your head?  If you do so, you will go mad.  Is it in your heart?  If you do so, you will have heart attack.  If in your mouth, you will talk always about them and get more depressed.  If in your house, you will have a broken home.  If to yourself, you will die soon with them.

If with your neighbors, you become the object of their gossip.  If with relatives, they will mock you.  If you ignore them, you prolong the evil day.  If with your friends, your trust may be betrayed.  If you carry them in your face, you will look ugly.  If you disclose them in the office, co-workers may avoid you.  If in your bed, you will have nightmares without sleep.  If to school, you will fail.  If to Satan, it will become worse.  He suggested that the only solution is to put them in a bag and hang them on the cross of Jesus Christ since he is the only one who can solve them.

That is what we saw in the Gospel story today at Christ’s Transfiguration where God directed us to listen to His beloved Son.  Just like Jesus told his disciples today in the Gospel, he tells us now, do not be afraid, trust in me.  Can we begin to trust in him?  Remember, Lent is not meant “to test the strength or the weakness of our will, but rather to allow the glory of God to shine forth from us into the world”. It can only happen when we entrust ourselves into Jesus hand and allow him to work through us.

Today’s Gospel reading is about Jesus’ temptation in the desert.  Lent for us is a reliving of Christ’s experience.  Jesus, before he began his public ministry after baptism, went to the desert to pray for forty days.  He was tempted by the devil three times.  In the first temptation, the devil was asking Jesus to command stones into bread.  Satan knew that hunger was a weak spot and wanted him to gratify it instantly.

Dearest sisters and brothers, when we reflect about our life’s struggles, that is the same tactic that devil uses today.  He always tries to get to us through our weak spots.  Can we identity those weak spots in order to guard against them?  That is what our fasting in Lent is meant to do; reminding us that life is not simply about gratifying our desires and wants.

Our society teaches us that instant gratification of our wants and desires is the best way to enjoy life.  Yet, rather than keeping us satisfied, they lead us to becoming slaves to our passions and desires.  Today, many are enslaved to their different evil habits:  gossiping; being jealous of others; consumption of delicacies of all types; buying things when they do not need them, becoming shopaholics; power to control others; slaves to work, drugs, sex, alcohol, and so forth.

The second and third temptation,was along the same line:  power and wealth. The devil wanted him to show his miraculous power by falling down the parapet and promised Jesus all the kingdoms of the world.  It is all the same lies that our society is repackaging to us today telling us that whatever we want or desire we can have. Yet, the problem is that we are never be satisfied.  We keep wanting more and more until we become addicted.

It is these temptations that our Lenten penance is meant to help us to overcome.  Lent is like a trumpet blast calling us back to the basics of the spiritual life:  penance, almsgiving, fasting, and prayer which are meant to reconnect us with God.  We saw how Adam and Eve rejected God by wanting to become like God. Christ on the other hand, accepted in obedience his humanity even when the devil wanted him to do otherwise.  Lent is a call for us to imitate Christ’s absolute obedience to his Father.

In the first reading, God, through Moses, says:  “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” while, in the Gospel, Jesus says:  “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”.  Dearest sisters and brothers, today’s readings challenge us to examine our lives with the yardstick of love.  As Catholics, love is our passport and anyone who does not possess it is not a Christian.  As St. Paul reminds us, we are God’s temple and we cannot be truly that if our hearts are not filled with God’s love.

But what is love?  It is important to note that when Jesus talks about love, he doesn’t just refer to emotions that surge in our hearts towards our friends; otherwise, he would not command us to love our enemies.  Remember, we do not always have wonderful emotions towards our enemies; yet, we are commanded to love them.

Love, therefore, far from an instinctive emotion, is a conscious decision of the will to draw close to other people irrespective of who they are.  In Moses’ statement, this love must begin from ourselves.  It does not say:  “You should deny yourself and exist only for the other or that you must be less concerned about yourself and more about the other.”  No, it says “as you love yourself”.  Not more, not less.

It is important to remind ourselves that if we are not at peace with ourselves, we cannot really love anyone else.  If we cannot accept ourselves, we will also reject others.  If you are frustrated with yourself, you will be frustrated with others.  The first thing is to be happy in your skin and then you will be able to love others.

Love means praying for the other, taking a risk for the sake of the other, always being there for the other, thinking well of the other, being truthful to the other even when it hurts him or her.  Love, as someone says, is like a chain of gold that links together the hearts of the lover and the loved.  Many saints have shown practical examples of love.  Maximillian Kolbe gave up his life for the sake of another prisoner in the concentration camp.

Corrie Ten Boom’s family were all tortured and killed by Nazis because they were saving Jews in Hitler’s Germany as recounted in her book, The Hiding Place.  It is to this kind of love that each of us is being called today by Christ.  As Corrie reminds us, “it is not on our love that the world’s healing hinges, but on Christ’s.  When Christ tells us to love our enemies, he gives along with that command, the gift of love itself.”  May Christ teach us how to love!

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus says: “You are the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world”.  He admonishes us to make sure that our light always shines before others.  In the first reading, Isaiah showed us the practical ways of being the light and the salt of the earth by sharing our bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and homeless, clothing the naked, etc.  Salt adds flavor to all our cooking and in the same way, we are to add flavor to our world attracting people to Christ through our good deeds of compassion and charity.

Salt preserves, purifies and cleanses and like it, we are to purify our society through our faithfulness to God.  While salt does not send out an aroma like other seasonings and ingredients, without it, food is tasteless.  Like it, we are to be silent workers in God’s world.  Only our good works are to speak for us.  The importance of salt comes from the fact that even the word salary is derived from it in reference to payments made to Roman soldiers in the past.  Its universality challenges us to be open minded in bringing Christ’s love to everyone.

Remember, the easiest way for salt to lose its taste is to get mixed up with other things.  In the same way, mixing our lives with things contrary to God will surely destroy our effectiveness before the world.  That is the problem we the clergy are suffering today.  Being faithful to God is the only way we can show light.  Light brings safety, security and warmth. As lights, we are to bring warmth and God’s assurance to family, friends and neighbors.

To be light, our lives only need to be filled with God’s presence and the little things we do will continue to shine out.  Think for example, the kind of light we will bring if, in the course of a discussion, because of our love for the other we change the subject if it starts veering into gossip, rather than straining our ears to say, “tell me more”.

Think about how a prayer before meal in the midst of friends can bring light to them.  One day, a non-Catholic member of a tour group said, “every one of us has talked about the church we attend.  But only you Catholics have given thanks to God at each meal.”  That is how we show light by being the instrument of God’s presence!