LISTEN TO YOUR HEART, BUT USE YOUR HEAD!

A former Jesuit is known to have said, "Huh! Feelings-feelings ka diyan, magtrabaho ka!" That was the time when the Jesuits under formation were being taught to be aware and appreciate the role of feelings in humna and spiritual development. For him, feelings are not important. What should be done is to work and work because that is how we give greater glory to God. That is magis. That Jesuit had to eat his words when he was supposedly overcame by his feelings for a woman and eventually left the Society.

But for St. Ignatius, feelings/ emotions play a very important role in finding the will of God. While he was recuperating, he listened to what he was feeling and he gave them a deep thought. When he was thinking of his former life, he would feel happy, but it would die out soon after that. He would be left sad. But when he thought of Christ and the saints, he would feel excited, and this would last with him for some time. To name his feelings, he used the words consolation and desolation. Indeed, Ignatius listened to his heart, but he used his head.

May we who are sometimes afraid of our feelings learn to befriend them and listen to them and use our reason to think about what God may be saying to us through them.

AT HOME WITH CHRIST

Martha, Mary and Lazarus are considered the closest friends of Jesus. In his journey to Jerusalem, when he passed by Bethany, He dropped by the their house perhaps to relax a bit before he continued with his journey. The episode in which Jesus seems to have reprimanded Martha for being busy about so many things is sometimes taken to be a lack of appreciation on Jesus' part of Martha's anxiety over details.

But some people have noted that the exchange between Jesus and Martha shows that it is not Jesus alone who is "at home" in Martha's house. Martha, too, is "at home" with Jesus. She is comfortable and familiar with Him that she can speak to Him that way ("Are you not bothered...?" , and Jesus answer her that way ("Martha, Martha...". It is an exchange between two close friends who can speak out frankly their minds and hearts.

How we wish we can also be as comfortable and familiar with Christ as Martha was! And whether we believe it or not, Jesus allows us to do so. Let us then open our hearts and pour out our anxieties and worries to Him. And let us allow Him to give us a friendly reprimand,

too =)

Loving Unto Death and Beyond

The phrase "till death do us part" is usually associated with weddings because it concludes the prayer of the married couple after they have pronounced their vows. But this phrase can very well be uttered by friends to each other, because true friendship is one that lasts until death. In the case of Mary Magdalene and Jesus, their friendship is unto death and beyond... into the risen life.

The story of St. Mary Magdalene is a very inspiring one in many ways because it shows one woman's capacity to be loyal to someone whom she considers her friend, someone who must have given meaning to her otherwise wayward existence, someone whom she must have wanted to keep for herself, but could not. Yet she remained on his side until his death on the cross.

The appearance of the Risen Christ to Mary Magdalene shows Our Lord returning the love and loyalty of Mary Magdalene. She who was (among) the last to leave his side was given the privilege to be (among) the first to encounter Him in His Risen Life. The death and resurrection of Our Lord, which we take to be one single event/ mystery shows both Jesus and Mary as friends whose friendship has remained warm and tender despite death's attempt to break and bury it cold and numb in its grave.

Indeed, for friends, the last word is not "goodbye" but "hello".

I HAVE ENOUGH

When we were students, some of us were forced to be thrifty because we only had a small amount of money to spend for our needs. We lived on a limited allowance and tight budget. We just had enough for our fare, snacks, projects and a weekend movie, if there is extra. Our needs were many, our wants were few. But when we started to have a job and to earn our own money, suddenly we realized that our wants became as many as our needs, even more than our needs. And we wonder how our hard-earned money simply leaves our pockets, disappearing in a few moments, just as fast as it came.

Having bought our personal necessities and finding out there is some extra cash, we think of something we have not had before (example, a cellphone or a branded pair of shoes); we buy it, but in a few days, there is a new model that is marketed as more efficient, more durable than what we have, and we buy. And the cycle continues, to the delight of the multi-millionaire owners of these products and services, to our regretful dismay.

This Sunday's psalm says: "The Lord is my shepherd. There is nothing I shall want.' Will I mean this if I say this?

HANDLING REJECTION

"Fear of rejection" is a very common reason why people hesitate to venture into a new relationship, to apply for a new job, to submit a new proposal. We could not stand the pain of being rejected, especially if it will be for the nth time.

Jesus was not spared that feeling of being rejected. It must have been doubly painful because it was his own people who did not accept him. Instead of being proud of the good works he was doing, they looked down on him as a carpenter's son, as someone too familiar to them to be able to do such marvelous works.

But the Gospel does not report Jesus sulking in one corner and wallowing in His pain. Surely he must have been pained and must have dealt with it in prayer when he would retreat to a quiet place. But He did not allow the rejection of people to get in the way of His mission.

May we find in Christ the strength to move on after being rejected, even by people most dear to us.