LET GO, LET GOD!

11TH SUNDAY  IN ORDINARY TIME – B

Mark 4:26-34

         Because of the breakthroughs and advancements in science, medicine and technology, some people think the world depends upon them.  This is also true to those who control the global economy, world trade and down to the ranks of the heads of governments, CEO’s of companies and those who hold authority in different forms.   This power-play in the world is about control hence the difficulty to let go and let God!

         The gospel this Sunday reminds us that God is in control and not us.  The Kingdom of God is likened to the seed growing by itself and a tiny mustard seed.  It is true that man plants the seed but he does not have the power to interfere with its growth. Come to think how the Catholic Church considered as a subversive religion within the powerful  Roman Empire and whose leaders were simple and uneducated fishermen was able to triumph and survive in the midst of continuous persecutions.   The Roman Empire and many world empires have long been gone and yet the Catholic Church is still here to stay.

         That seed of faith was sown in our hearts when we were baptized so we can say that the seed of the Kingdom is within each one of us.  Just like an ordinary seed, it has an inherent power that given the right atmosphere can grow into a tree.  That “energy” within the seed is called grace!  Because of the movement of grace, God is silently working within us to make it grow and bloom and bear fruit.  Of course God needs our cooperation because He does not want to impose on us and He respects our freedom of the will.  When we are able to work hand in hand with God, we cannot but see the blossoming of a beautiful tree within ourselves.  St. Therese of Liseux, St. Faustina, St. Francis of Assisi are just some of our saints who were unknown to the world during their time and yet they became bigger than themselves.  They are examples of little seeds  who revolutionized and transformed the world. 

        

In this world of ATM’s, fast food chains and internet, when was the last time we sit in silence?   Watch a sunset?  Touch a flower and contemplate on its wonder?    Who would want to do that?  That is why our generation is losing the sense of mystery, contemplation, mysticism and in the eyes of a child the wonder of magic.   Faith, prayer, religion are passé in a world that allures our minds into a labyrinth of unquenchable pleasures.

Let us ask ourselves: Are we control-freaks? Are we indispensable that we think the world totally depend on us?  Do we feel agitated just because things are not running the way we want them?  When was the last time when at the end of the rope, we simply entrust everything to God.

At the end of the day when we go to bed, a seed somewhere is breaking through the darkness of the soil.  It continues to grow through the power deep within.   We don’t have to look for that seed anywhere because that mystery is happening in our own hearts.   We have that seed of the Kingdom in all of us; we just have to cooperate and trust in God as it grows into something great and beautiful!

          

BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST

CORPUS CHRISTI  

Mark 14: 12-16, 22-26

         Since time immemorial, blood has been the symbol of life!  It is the innermost red river that flows in the very depth of  every man and woman.  In many ancient worships and religions, shedding of blood expresses the highest form of sacrifice.  In covenant ceremonies, blood is sacrificed by cutting an animal into halves to show the seriousness of the obligation.  The  partners in the covenant take an oath to be faithful by marching between the halves lest they also be cut in halves should they be unfaithful.

         Jesus initiated the New Covenant with us through His blood.    He did this by giving a new meaning to the Jewish Passover by transforming it into the Eucharist which henceforth will be the new salvific event for all peoples.   We may say that the Last Supper is the “blood compact” of Jesus which makes us one with Him, with God and with one another.  We all become “blood-related” hence our unity being symbolized by the crushed wheat and grapes in the Eucharist.  The wine transformed into blood by the words of Jesus “This is my blood of the covenant” and the bread into  His body “This is my body” during the Last Supper would be the prefiguration of the ultimate sacrifice on the Cross.

         Unlike other sacrifices, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross was perfect and unrepeatable being the High Priest of the New Covenant.  When we offer the Mass, the priest does not repeat the sacrifice of Jesus but rather he re-lives it and makes it present together with the community that celebrates it.  The sacrifice offered by the faithful transforms them into the mystery they celebrate, namely they become the visible manifestation of the Mystical Body of Christ which is the Church.

         The sacrifice is not just an offering of worship to God but God accepting that sacrifice and transforming it and given back to us as food.   God takes what we offer and makes it alive; it becomes His Body and Blood served in a banquet.  Like the Last Supper, it is a meal that we share together as covenanted friends.   And because we partake in the cup of the blood of Christ, we renew that blood-compact which is our covenant with God and with each other.  The blood of Christ which is mixed with our human blood makes us all together sacred because His blood is running through our veins.  And because we partake in the flesh of Christ our bodies are transformed into the temples of God.  This divine life which is given to us through Baptism grows as we eat the Eucharistic food again and again.

         This is the beauty and the grandeur of the Eucharist.  That is why Vatican II proclaims that the Eucharist is the apex of the Christian life. 

        

        

        

        

ONE IN THREE

THE MOST HOLY TRINITY – B

Mt. 28:16-20

         The liturgical celebration of the Trinity is based more on a doctrine rather than an event in the history of salvation.  The Trinitarian doctrine that we have now comes from the Greek philosophy expressed in the scholastic theological understanding of persons and essence.  We therefore try to understand the doctrine of the Trinity as the belief in one God with one divine nature in three divine persons. These three persons are distinct yet they co-exist in unity, are co-equal, co-eternal and con-substantial. Our understanding may sound metaphysical because of the aide of philosophy nevertheless we do not undermine the revelation of the Trinity in the history of salvation through the biblical tradition.  In fact, it is through the unfolding of the three Persons of the Trinity in the bible that inspired the biblical authors and subsequent thinkers and theologians to define the doctrine the way we understand it now. Thanks to the inspirations of Origen, Tertullian, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas and Karl Rahner (to name a few), now we can at understand a bit the most fundamental of all the Christian doctrines which still remains an elusive and absolute mystery.

         The immanent Trinity which is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as they are related to themselves becomes the economic Trinity when they entered into the history of salvation through revelation.  In fact we could say that the history of salvation is nothing but the unfolding or the manifestation of the three Persons of the Trinity who became a Pilgrim-God leading humanity in a pilgrimage towards Himself.  The Old Testament records the beginning of what we may call the “footprints of the Trinity” as the three Divine Persons walked through and with the people He loved.  But the fullness of the unfolding of those imprints came in the New Testament when the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, became man and literally walked together with His people.

         In Jesus we do not just see the revelation of the Trinity but rather He invites humanity to enter into the life of the Trinity.  He did not just reveal God as a Father, but our own Father who we can call “Abba”; He did not just reveal the Holy Spirit but was given to us as the “Paraclete”, and Jesus did not just reveal Himself as the savior but our friend.    This is quite revolutionary in a sense that finally a religion is here whose God is not just immanent but a real person whom we can relate with.   The gospel this Sunday reminds us the mission of Jesus entrusted to the Church: “Go therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptize them in the name of the Father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit.” Our mission is to let the whole world know the presence of God as the Trinity and to bring all peoples into this Trinitarian life: that God is our Father; Jesus is our Savior and friend and the Holy Spirit is our sanctifier.

         Unless we enter into a personal relationship with the Father, with Jesus and with the Holy Spirit, the Trinity will remain a boggling mystery which is confined only to the domain of the mind.  As this Trinitarian life penetrates every stratum of our being, we are challenged to translate it to make a difference in the lives of other people and eventually the world! 

Through us and with us, the Trinity  continues to walk as a Pilgrim-God until He brings all His sons and daughters back to His womb.

BREATH & FIRE

 PENTECOST

John 20:19-23

Podcast: Australian Catholic Radio Online http://cradio.org.au/talks-and-resources/homilies/fr-vladimir-echalas-solt/pentecost/

          The Pentecost is the birthday of the Church! The coming of the Holy Spirit marked a new milieu in the history of salvation which we call the Era of the Holy Spirit.  There are many different traditions that describe the outpouring of the Holy Spirit:  St. Luke based on the charismatic tradition, places the event fifty days after Easter  (hence the root word penta which is 50) and dramatizes it in the external giving of gifts to the disciples as reflected in the tongues of fire (the first reading this Sunday: Acts 2).  On the other hand, St. John presents the Pentecost on the basis of the wisdom tradition right after the Resurrection.  Symbolically it happened when the side of Jesus was pierced with a lance and blood and water comes out (Jn 19:31-37).  Both St. Luke and St. John are describing the same event in different perspectives with different details but the same theology.

         Originally the Pentecost was a Jewish feast which was the grain harvest celebrated on the fiftieth day  after the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai.  St. Luke places the Pentecost on the same day  replacing the Jewish feast now with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And because the Pentecost was one of the Jewish feasts wherein a Jew should go to the Temple in Jerusalem, there were thousands who witnessed the Pentecost.

         St. Luke symbolizes the coming of the Holy Spirit with tongues of fire that lodged on the head of the disciples.  We use fire (or light) to symbolize a beginning: the creation of light in Genesis, blessing of new fire on Easter Vigil, a lit candle on the cake during birthdays, etc.  The Pentecost was the beginning of the new creation which started with the Church represented by the disciples.  The tongues of fire also meant the enlightenment of disciples with infused gifts in order to proclaim the Gospel to all the nations.  The mission of Jesus has been entrusted anew to the Church to make disciples of all peoples.

         St. John symbolizes the Holy Spirit with breath both on the cross and the Pentecost.   Just as God blew His divine breath on the lump of clay in Genesis in creating man, so now Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit on the disciples to usher in the creation of the New Humanity which is the Church.  Since after the creation of the first man, sin came and humanity fell, this time Christ empowers the Church to re-create man if ever he falls again in sin.  This is why Christ instituted the Sacrament of  Reconciliation (Confession) as a gift during the Pentecost.

         The Holy Spirit was given to us when we were baptized and we were fortified with the gifts of the same Spirit when we were confirmed. Two signs that the Holy Spirit is with us are our breath (He continues to breathe His divine breath on us hence he continues to re-create us.) and the warmth of our bodies (He empowers us with His fire hence we continue to live.) 

         To those who find it hard to understand the Holy Spirit, take  some few moments of silence and feel Him in our breath and in our warm bodies.  Truly we are the temples of the Holy Spirit.

        

        

GRAND HOMECOMING

ASCENSION – B

Mk. 16:15-20

Podcast: http://cradio.org.au/shows-and-audio/ascension-sunday/

  GRAND HOMECOMING

         After a day’s work, a trip or a journey, a holiday, we always long for home.  When we reach home, we say “home sweet home.”  Home is not just where our heart is, but where we can be ourselves and with our loved ones, our family or our beloved!

          Ascension is Jesus’ grand homecoming!  In the mystery of the Incarnation we could say that like a “prodigal son” “He left His Father’s House” and by becoming man like us, He entered into time and space.  In His condescension as a human being the Creator experienced how to be a creature.  He did all these because of a mission: to inaugurate the Kingdom of God and to let man know that he is heir to that Kingdom.   Since the beginning of the existence of man, he did not know for sure where he was going after death.  The religions before Christianity could only offer some directions towards the after-life.  Some of the beliefs in the after-life are manifested in the creation of the Great Pyramids of Egypt, the terracotta warriors in China, the temples in South America and many others.  Some religions propose a transformation of being like becoming part of the cosmos, reincarnation, or simply going into a state of pure consciousness. 

         Jesus’ Ascension was both an historical and a transcendental event.  It is historical because it happened in a specific time in history; transcendental because it is an event that pierces beyond time.  Historical in a sense that it was the end of His life as a human being; transcendental in a sense that it was the beginning of another kind of time which we call Kairos (a blessed time)!

         Ascension was the final exaltation of Jesus after fulfilling the mission given Him by His Father. He could say “Father, mission accomplished!”  In the same way before His Ascension, He also gave the same mission to His apostles: “Proclaim the Gospel to all the nations!”  This mission will be accompanied by signs which we call charisms.  It is through these charisms that the giftedness of the Church will be manifested through the Holy Spirit in the work of the believers. This is the reason why each one of us has been gifted with charisms, some have more, others have less, depending on the mission entrusted to the person.  They are gifts to us but they are meant to be shared. It is only by fulfilling this mission that a disciple will be able to prove himself worthy of being an heir of the Kingdom.

         The first lesson I learned in my catechesis class when I was seven years old was: Why did God create me?  There are three reasons:  1) To know God 2) To love Him and 3) To be with Him forever.

         When our timeline is over, it is not the end but just the beginning of life beyond time where we can be truly home with God who is our Father.  But just like Jesus, we still have to fulfill our mission after which we could also say “Mission accomplished!”  And we will hear the Father say “Welcome home!”