visible rhetoric

A handshake is done with the right hand clasping the right hand of the other and shaking it up and down as a greeting. Actually the handshake originated several thousands of years ago probably in the Middle East. It is given as a sign that one comes in peace. The right hand is the hand that holds the weapon and offering a handshake is like saying, look I have no weapon in my hand, I come in peace. The hands-up gesture is a later elaboration probably because a left-handed person came to shake the hands of an enemy with his right hand only to kill the other with a concealed weapon with his left hand. The latter is just a conjecture. But it sure does show what surrender and coming in peace means. With the right hand open or with both hands up in the air it means that the person is at the disposal of the other. With both hands seen, one is left defenseless and is therefore under the control of the other. The consequence of the gesture of surrender has the same connotation with t...

Jesus in the gospel said that he can be the very cause of dissension and disunity among peoples and even families. We are witnesses to that – from the dissension caused by laws like the reproductive health bill, to dissensions caused by the care for the environment, to dissensions caused among priest regarding reshuffling of assignments. Even in families this can very well happen as it has happened in the past. Examine for example some of the lives of the saints and you will find here and there saints whose beliefs and decisions for Jesus and what they thought then as the best way to serve him, have caused divisions not just in their families but even in society and the church itself – Sta. Barbara, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Francis Xavier and Teresa of Calcutta were not spared. You may even have your own little stories at home – with conflicts arising from decisions triggered by religion – conflicts between husband and wife, between parents and children. Je...

The prudent steward. What is prudence? Prudence is called the auriga virtutum – the charioteer of the virtues. It is called the charioteer or the carrier of the virtues because the cardinal virtue of prudence concerns itself with the action to be taken in a particular circumstance and how that particular action is to be carried out in that particular circumstance. Simply said it is doing the right thing, at the right time and in the correct manner – that is prudence. Going to church is good and admirable, but to go to church to the detriment of your other pressing responsibilities at a particular time you would like to go to church, may not be a virtue. Our desire to pray in the church must be carried so to say by the charioteer of the virtues called prudence – the right thing to do at the right time – to go to church at the more appropriate time. Prudence is the charioteer of the virtues because it concerns itself with the what, when, where and how of virtue. 

We all heard about original sin – that this sin came from our first parents, the this sin is taken away by baptism, that this sin leaves some traces of itself in us. But how do we know that there is original sin in us? How do we know that we are continually affected by the consequences of this sin? Proof is this: we are constantly hounded by an intense form of human desire – hounded by intense human desire. There is nothing wrong with human desire. In fact there will be something wrong if you don’t have human desires. When we are hungry we desire to eat. We need this to survive. When we are cold, we desire warmth, a blanket perhaps. When we are warm we desire ventilation, air, cool air. But concupiscence is not just human desire – it is intense human desire, a desire which becomes unreasonable. There is nothing wrong to desire to eat when you are hungry. By all means eat. But when that desire becomes overwhelming, so much so that when you see food you get everything, take...

I would like to continue where I left off the other week with the thoughts that come to mind as we approach the day of ordination of Rev. Peter Guarin and Rev. Michael Alquisada. When a young man decides to enter the seminary, feeling that he has a reason to believe that he is called to the priesthood, he has to pass two houses of formation before he could reach the priesthood. The first is the initial formation to the priesthood consisting of 8 years minimum (I shall explain later why I placed the word “minimum”) when one is entering High School (after graduating in the elementary), or 5 years minimum if one is entering via the pre-college (after having graduated in high school outside of the seminary), or two years minimum if one graduated from a major secular course and has worked for at least two years before deciding to enter the seminary.

This week we start our immediate and direct preparation for one of those important events in the life of a parish – the ordination to the priesthood. More specifically, starting this week, we are preparing for the ordination to the priesthood of the Reverend Deacons Michael Alquisada of Barangay Tabuc Suba Ilaya and Peter John Guarin of Barangay San Roque. This is one of the important events celebrated in the parish not just because of the rarity of such an event these days but because we feel particularly blessed on such an occasion. The priesthood as I always say, is the fruit of our faith-life as a parish. It is the fruit of our prayers, as individuals and as a community, the fruit of our constant visits to our Lord in the Adoration Chapel, it is the fruit of our Holy Hours. Remember what Jesus said in the gospel, “the harvest is great but the laborers are few . . . pray that the Lord of the Harvest will send laborers to his harvest.” Our prayers, our struggle for holiness a...

What is Halloween and where did it come from? Halloween is an October 31 event. It is the night before what was formerly called All Hallows Day. All hallows day is actually a two day affair with the celebration of All Saints Day in November 1 and All Souls Day in November 2. But both were then considered All Hallows Day. Hallow is an old English word which means to make holy as we say in the Our Father – “hallowed be thy name”. Hallow is similar in meaning to saints. Saints are people who were made holy, people who are holy – hallow. Halloween comes from this word. In fact it is an Irish word hallow e’en translated literally in modern English as Hallow eve which means the night before All Hallows Day. So there you are Halloween. So what about the souls, and ghosts and goblins and pranksters on this day, the eve of all hallows day or Halloween?

When Ron Michael and Peter threatened me with their resignation from the Commission on Liturgy if I would not accept to be their homilist this evening, and when this was seconded by their fellow ordinands, 8 of them, all wanting me, jokingly perhaps, to be their homilist, I know that they are up to something to get even with their former prefect of discipline. Well the table has just been turned and that is a fact of life I have to face today. Yesterday’s oppressed becomes today’s oppressors. Indeed I feel a little bit oppressed this past week not knowing what to say since most about the priesthood was already said and will be said in all 8 thanksgiving masses which these young men will have their ears full. But less your sinister smile of victory turn into a full blown laughter of triumph, let me warn you never again plan to get even with someone by making him your homilist, especially when that someone kept a detailed written record of all your secrets and private conversations ...