At the Foot of the Cross

Mondays and Tuesdays are low days in the Bilibid prisons because no visitors are allowed on these days. The prison camps come back to life starting Wednesdays up until Sundays when visitors are again given permission to enter the camps, the cells and the holes of the prisoners. Amidst the hardships and diffculties of life in prison, the presence of the visitors, especially of the inmates' wives and mothers, is the source of consolation and strength of the prisoners.

Mary at the foot of the cross certainly provided Jesus with the strength and courage which he badly needed during the hours of his ordeal on the cross. A mother's presence, even without words being uttered or lullabies being sung, is enough to make a son sturdy as steel and brave as a beast to endure the terrible sufferings he has to go through.

May we, too, be encouraged by the Blessed Mother's constant and consoling presence at the foot of our respective crosses.

The Way God Thinks

The Gospel contrasts God's way of thinking with (wo)man's way of thinking. What is the difference between the two? At issue in this Sunday's Gospel passage is the value of suffering. While for humans, suffering is a dead-end, in which there is no way out, for God, suffering is an opening that leads to something greater, something bigger. But since that "something" is not readily experienced, it is difficult to believe in it. Here is where "faith that does good works" is necessary, as the second reading emphasizes.

My 3 months experience in prison ministry (National Bilibid Prisons, Muntinlupa City) has taught me to believe in this promise. The prison is a place of suffering: physical, psychological, spiritual, for the inmates, and for us who minister to them, who journey with them. But our daily celebration of the Eucharist, most often with utmost fervor and devotion, and the real felt need for God's mercy and hope, awakens in us the conviction that beyond, and even in the midst of the suffering they are going through, an opening towards a new life is showing forth. And this new life can begin not only after they have served their sentence, but and even during the time they are in prison.

Hence, our church volunteers: sacristans, readers, eucharistic lay ministers, and others, are all inmates. Many of them have seen that "opening' and have entered through it. Some are still stumbling along the way in search of the way to it. You and I may think they won't find the way. But God thinks otherwise, and that makes the big difference.

The Gateway

For Manila and Quezon City dwellers, the word "Gateway" refers to the mall in Araneta Center in Cubao that links the Cubao stations of the 2 train systems in Metro Manila, the MRT3 Edsa Line and the LRT2A. Gateway, therefore, serves not just as a mall where people do shopping or watch movies, but also a bridge through which passengers can cross from one train system to the another.

Gateway comes to mind because today, birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary, our parish celebrates this feast under her title, Nuestra Senora de la Porteria, Our Lady of the Gate. Mary, indeed, is the Gate, since it was through her that Jesus our Savior, Word made flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit, entered our world. And it is through her, again, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that we enter the Kingdom of her Son. Mary is Christ's Gate, and ours, too.

Dear Mother Mary, we thank you for allowing your Son Jesus to pass through you that he may come to us. May you let pass us through you to your Son Jesus, our Lord, our Heaven, for you truly are the Gate of Heaven. Amen.

in AND out

What the best way to worship God? Today's readings answers this question. The first readings simply says, "Obey the commandments of God." The Pharisees of Jesus' time did follow the commandments. And this they did to the smallest detail, but they seemed to have confined themselves to the externals: the rituals and customs of religion. In the mind of Jesus, however, this is not enough. They have to take notice, too, of the internal requirements of purity. This means avoiding the acts enumerated in the Gospel: fornication, adultery, greed etc.

But for a more complete picture, we have to turn to the second reading and the psalm: it is not just a matter of performing rituals and customs scrupulously, not or not doing this or that act of impurity. Rather, it is acting on the Word, proactively doing something, especially, for the poor, such as the widows and orphans. The psalm response summarizes the message: "He who DOES JUSTICE will live in the presence of the Lord."

To whom have we gone?

At the end of the Bread of Life Discourse in John 6, many of the Jews abandoned Jesus because they could not believe in what he was saying: that He is the Bread from Heaven, that His flesh is real food and his blood real drink unto life eternal. It was just too much for them to accept. Turning to his disciples, he asks, "Are you also leaving?" Peter replies,"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of everlasting life!"

But perhaps, if we were to be the ones to reply to Jesus, ours would be,"Lord, to whom have we gone? Even if we knew that you have the words of everlasting life, still we chose to listen to the words of other people, many of them, words of discouragement, words of darkness and despair. Sometimes the voices are coming from within ourselves, our inner shadows, and have drowned the still small voice deeper within calling us to hope, to love, to faith.

Draw us back to you, O Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.

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.

Fixing One's Gaze on Jerusalem

How did Jesus feel while entering Jerusalem? Did he indeed feel like a King triumphantly entering his city after a victory at battle? Did He rejoice at the sight of all the people acclaiming Him as Son of David, laying their garments on his way?

Probably not, because He knew at that point that death was already a real and inevitable possibility. And anyone confronted with death trembles
at that the sight.

But going to Jerusalem is something he has firmly decided on much earlier, in Luke's Gospel, as early as Chapter 9. V. 51: "and he has set his face to go to Jerusalem". Jesus enters Jerusalem, then, with determination and firmness, albeit certainly with the usual human fear and anxiety before an impending suffering and possible death.

May we, too, enter our own Jerusalems with the same firmness as Jesus did.

Testing the Faith, Risking the Friendship

The readings for today mention Abraham, whom the Jews claim as their father, the father of believers. The first thing that most people remember about Abraham is his prompt obedience in carrying out God's will to sacrifice his son, Isaac. They take note of how it must have been very painful for Abraham to lose his only son who was the most precious treasure he had. The Genesis account does not bother to tell the reader about how Abraham felt. It leaves to the reader's imagination or contemplation to enter the mind and heart of Abraham and feel the suffering and dilemma, probably confusion and frustration at such a brutal demand from God.

What if we enter the mind and heart of God?... and try to discover, at least in our imagination and contemplation, how he felt as he placed Abraham in such a difficult situation. Could it be that God himself was suffering, feeling the same dilemma and confusion as Abraham did, first because He himself is a Father (and would in fact undergo the same experience when He will have to sacrifice His own Son for our sake). And also because Abraham is not just any creature or person to Him. Abraham is His friend, to whom He has revealed Himself, whom He allowed to have an intimate relationship with Him, to whom He promised the very same son He now is asking for from Him. Who would want to hurt a friend?

Whatever pain or suffering Abraham went through in obeying God's will, God, too, felt in His own heart. If the risk on Abraham's part was big enough, the risk on God's part was even greater. For what was at stake was the faith, and the friendship, the relationship which has already been established between the two of them. But God was not afraid to risk. And so was Abraham. They tested each other. The proved each other worthy of faith, of trust, of friendship.

Rejoice in the Love of God

The fourth Sunday of Lent is also called Laetare Sunday. In the middle of Lent, we are asked to look forward with joyful expectation to that day when the angels will sing "Gaudete at laetare, resurrexit sicut dixit" Rejoice and be glad. He has risen as he said. At the cause for rejoicing is the love with which God did not spare His only Son from death to give us life. The love of God which loves us to the end is indeed a cause for rejoicing. As Pope Benedict said in Spe Salvi, "He who has experienced this love of God is the person who has hope."

Yes, in the midst of all the paperworks and reports and requirements that await completion as the school year comes to a close, let us quietly rejoice for we are loved, to the full, to the end.

If You Love Him, Set Him Free

This is the advise usually given to someone who has difficulty giving up a loved one... a boyfriend who's got a new girl, a son wanting to enter the seminary, a friend who died to suddenly. We have to let go, but we won't, we can't,,, because it can be very painful, because we so love that person.

But that is not the case with Abraham. He loved his Son, but there was a love in his heart which was greater than his love for his Son, His love, His reverence for Yahweh. But love for God does not cancel out love for neighbor. In fact, the first leads to the other. Can't we say that precisely because of his love for his Son, he wanted him to be with God the soonest possible. Hence, paradoxically, it is in giving up that we truly know we are. When we give of ourselves, we know we are Christians indeed.

In the Gospel it is very clear. Jesus is proclaimed as Son of God. He is the beloved Son of God, who precisely bec of His being the beloved, He is given up to be delivered unto death. Because of God's love for Him, He allowed Him to explore the greatness, the depths and beauty of humaity and of the world. God has "set him free" "to humanize world." A tall order indeed. And that is the meaning of the Resurrection.

That We may Feel our Deepest Hunger

In his message for Lent, 2009, Pope Benedict talks about fasting, one of the 3 pillars of Lenten observance. He shows how fasting is grounded in Scriptures, and how it goes all the way back to the creation of man/ woman. In this message, the Pope continues/ reiterates the point he made in his homily for last Sunday, where he talked about the absence of God as man's deepest illness. Of fasting, he says:

Denying material food, which nourishes our body, nurtures an interior disposition to listen to Christ and be fed by His saving word. Through fasting and praying, we allow Him to come and satisfy the deepest hunger that we experience in the depths of our being: the hunger and thirst for God.”

May this season of Lent and our joyful observance of fasting truly allow us to feel the God alone can satisfy our deepest hunger.

Our Deepest Illness

The first 2 chapters of Mark presents Jesus as a healer, a miracle worker. People flock to him from all sides. This last couple of Sundays, we heard Jesus expelling the demon, healing Simon's mother in-law, cleansing the leper, and now, healing the paralytic, and forgives his sins. Pope Benedict follows the Scriptural understanding of these miracles as "signs"... signs of what?

"I refer to these healings as signs: They guide toward the message of Christ, they guide us toward God and make us understand that man's truest and deepest illness is the absence of God, who is the fount of truth and love. And only reconciliation with God can give us true healing, true life, because a life without love and without truth would not be a true life. The Kingdom of God is precisely the presence of truth and love, and thus it is healing in the depths of our being" (Angelus Message, Feb, 8, 2009).*

May the healing love of God touch us through Jesus that we may truly be healed from the depths of our hearts, and be fully reconciled with God.

*cf. http://www.zenit.org/article-25037?l=english

AS YOU ARE!

Jesus' healing of the leper brought him not only physical cleansing and restoration, but also, and primarily, psychological and spiritual healing, because the leprosy ate up and destroyed not only the physical body, but more so, the dignity and sense of self of the leper. The first reading illustrates how the early Jewish society imposed restrictions on the lepers' movements and isolate them from the community.

But Jesus act of touching the leper and curing him of his leprosy restored to him his dignity and sense of wholeness, and reunites him back to the community. This is the reason why he needed to show himself to the priests and make the necessary offerings.

Jesus comes close to us and touches us as we are. We only have to be humble enough to admit our sickness and therefore our need for healing. "If you wish, you can cure me."

Let Your Servant Go In Peace!

Since the examen serves as the night prayer of Jesuits, I did not develop the habit of praying the Night Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours. But I recently realized how beautiful a prayer it is, especially the canticle of Simeon, which he recited (or sang) upon receiving the baby Jesus in his arms when the latter was presented in the temple:

Lord, let your servant go in peace

For your Word has been fulfilled.

My eyes have seen the salvation

you have promised to your all peoples,

a light of revelation to the Gentiles,

and glory for your people Israel.

How consoling is the thought that at the end of each day, we can indeed pray wholeheartedly this song of Simeon. Or at least, as a reminder that each night we close our eyes, we might not be able to open it again, that is, in this world. That would not be a frightening thought if and only if we are ready to face the Lord the next time we open our eyes... in the next life.

God's Blinding Light

The conversion of St Paul (celebrated on 25th January) after his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus reminds us of the famous lines from the Confessions of St Augustine, where Augustine speaks of the light that shone on us and shattered his blindness, thus giving him a totally new sight, enabling him to see things from the perspective of God. This is the same experience St Paul went through in his conversion...

Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new late have I loved you. You were within me, but I was without. Unlovely, I rushed onto the lovely things you have made. You were with me, but I was not with you... You called and cried aloud, and forced open my blindness. You gleamed and shone and cahse away my blindness. You breathed fragrant odors, and I drew in my breath, and now I pant for thee. I tasted, and now I hunger and thirst. You touched me and I burnt for yoru peace! (Book 9, Chap 27).

God of New Beginnings

Each year we celebrate the feast of Sto Nino, we reflect on the God coming down to earth as a human being, as an infant. The coming of a child to a family always signals the beginning of a new chapter in that family's life. Routines change; the sleeping patterns and arrangements change; budget change. New schedules and patterns and attitudes are begun. A child brings new beginnings.

The prophet Isaiah proclaims: "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; Upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone. You have brought them abundant joy and great rejoicing.... For a child is born to us, a son is given us..."

The feast of Sto Nino, the feast of the Christ Child reveals to us who our God is... a God of new beginnings... a God who always begins anew. Once upon a time, He began creation, but continues, or begins each day. By the incarnation, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, He began a new covenant, He re-created the world, He renewed humanity. Many times, we tried to end our relationship with God. But He always takes the initiative to begin anew.

May this feast of Sto Nino, on this New Year, inspire us to begin a new, to start a new chapter in our lives, full of hope and trust in the God of new beginnings.