visible rhetoric

Tonight we are celebrating Christmas, so Merry Christmas. I just want to emphasize this point because starting this night, it is officially Christmas. I say officially because some of us have already started greeting each other Merry Christmas way back November, and even as early as September we have already begun putting up our Christmas Trees and lanterns. That was the unofficial Christmas, otherwise known as the Filipino Christmas. Today it is officially Christmas and we are celebrating it after almost all our Christmas parties are over. We are after all a people known for postponing our grief, and anticipating our joys. Tonight if the calculations in the Mayan Calendar proved true, this will be our last Christmas. Do you know that? So you are not watching National Geographic. December 21, 2012, the next winter solstice, will also be the last for it will be the day when the world ends. Yes you heard me right. The world as we know it will end next year, 4 days short o...

I have a child. His name is Lorenzo Esperancilla. Now since I got your attention I would like to tell you that since I cannot bear a child, because obviously I do not have a womb, my only experience of a child leaping for joy was when I was carrying Lorenzo Esperancilla one day. While we were moving happily along we saw a butterfly, and immediately his gaze was transfixed at the butterfly jumping from one flower to the other. With him on my arms we ran after it trying to catch it. When the butterfly alighted on a flower we slowly sneaked behind it, and Lorenzo would reach out his arms to attempt to hold it. But every time his hand was just a few inches away, the butterfly would fly away. This would then excite him so much his whole body would quiver as he made some kind of a quick jump and squeal in excitement and joy. It seemed that every part of his body moved, then, a swift kick would follow. This happened three times and that joy was just so infectious even to me, an ad...

I have been speaking for at least three times now about the impossibilities surrounding the birth of the God made man. In our Christmas greetings with the bishops I spoke about the impossibilities of the incarnation in the sense that it is easier to believe that a God can raise his dead body to life, than to believe that a God, a pure spirit can become a body, a man. The mystery of the incarnation is just too amazing, too impossible a fact. Last Friday I talked about the impossibilities of the prophecy of Isaiah - how can a little child lead a young lion and a calf to graze together in the field, how can a lion eat grass with a cow - it is not just a lion eating grass but with a cow? The impossibilities presented by the season of advent are building up as we move on towards Christmas and I am afraid this might turn out into another Lito Lapid movie or Mission Impossible itself. Now these impossibilities are today acknowledged by Mary herself in our gospel. When the angel annou...

I was asked by his grace, the Archbishop to give the homily this morning. Specifically I was asked to say something about the man. Who was Msgr. Piamonte for me, how have I come to know him as a person? Let me start by saying that he was a real human person. He was a human person who gave me all the reasons to act towards him also in a humanly fashion. He gave me a reason to be proud of him, to be proud of my bishop especially after I read the first five pages of his voluminous dissertation of which I did not understand anything. It was all in Latin. He gave me a reason to fear him when at one point I was scolded right in front of the congregation who were singing the Gloria. I made the mistake of telling the people to remain standing while singing the Gloria when he wanted them and of course himself, to sit down because of his arthritis. He was really mad at me but in a very controlled way, but I can sense that he was almost shouting. All the while I was there standing in...

I chose our reading today to mark the end of our year together as family in the intimacy of this chapel. It is a reading that is echoed and re-echoed all throughout advent. It is a reading which begins and ends with a very important phrase which we should take to heart, a phrase which encapsulates the message of advent. The phrase is - on that day. This is a Christmas party and I would have wanted to speak about Christmas with its message of joy but I would like to resist the temptation and stick instead to the message of advent and recover its meaning for us in our Christian lives and most especially in our vocation as formators and teachers and in a special way in your life as seminarians, young as you are. On that day. What would life be for us without this perspective? What would life be without this manner of looking at our day to day life? What would life be for a formator who would only think of this year for example, or a teacher who would only consider this week in ...

Your Grace, your Excellency.   We come before you today as a community who rejoice at the coming of our Lord. We celebrate his coming not just in spirit, not in a burning bush, not in a pillar of fire and cloud mighty they might sound but we celebrate him as one coming to us in the flesh. This is the greatest of all miracles, a miracle greater than the resurrection itself. God can raise dead bodies to life, much more his own dead body to life. That is a miracle in itself but it is understandable from one who is the creator of life. If he can turn clay to life, why not a dead body? But a God, a pure spirit to become man - that is amazing to behold, too marvelous to comprehend, too sublime to fully fathom. This is what our greeting is all about. We express in songs and poetry, we express in drama and dance the joy which the mystery of the incarnation brings us. We are the community of St. Vincent Ferrer. We were established and sustained by your predece...

In the parable today Jesus is not praising or putting up as an example any of the two sons. The parable is merely showing us two very imperfect sons. Though one of the sons did better than the other, both of them did not bring joy to the father. The first son made a promise he did not meet. The other saddened his father when he denied immediately the latter’s request. However the message of the gospel can be found not only in what it mentions. It is also there on what it does not mention. The third son is never mentioned in this passage, but it is the son who said yes and did what he promised to do. He is the ideal son. Jesus is the obedient son, in whom the Father was well pleased. In the letter to the Hebrews, the author had quoted from the Psalm 40, which says, “a body you have prepared for me.” If it was a direct quotation it would have been, “an open ear you have given me.” But instead of saying and open ear, to signify God’s desire for obedience, he said, “a bod...

Today is G audete Sunday, a rest from the tediousness of a penitential season. It is called Gaudete Sunday because the Opening Antiphon or the Introit says, Gaudete, in Domino semper , rejoice in the Lord always. The liturgical color is rose to be precise, not pink, because rose is supposedly a combination of two colors, namely, violet and gold. Violet represents penance and gold represents joy. As we come closer to Christmas we keep the penitential spirit, the violet color of penance to prepare the way of the Lord, but beneath this penance is the excitement and joy of meeting the Lord represented by gold. The hiligaynon description for this day is more poetic and appropriate - tago nga kalipay - represented by the color rose, in contrast to hayag nga kalipay . But this joy will slowly reveal itself this week. In the universal church it will start on the 17th of December with the O Antiphons and in the Philippine Church it will start on the 16th with the Aguinaldo masses. ...

If there is one thing my father told me which I have not forgotten, it is a quotation. I don’t know whether he this made up himself or he borrowed it from somebody else, but one day he told us something like this, “if you cannot find a solution to the problem, then change the problem and if you cannot find an answer to the question, then change the question.” Last night this piece of wisdom came in handy. I was reflecting on our readings today which speak of rejoicing and of being joyful. In fact the readings on this third Sunday of Advent are not just asking us to rejoice but seem to compel us, force us to rejoice. And so I asked myself, what makes me happy, and what made me happy in life. To make it a little more relevant and interesting I asked myself, what were the things which made me happy when I was studying in Assumption. First, it made me terribly unhappy then that I wore a locally made Edwardson tennis shoes for school when my classmates were wearing imported Ad...

I would like to do some Catechesis today. Today we are celebrating the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, that is, we celebrate and express or proclaim joyfully our belief that Mary the Mother of our Savior was conceived without original sin. Mary was uniquely preserved by the grace of God, by the merits of her future Son, from the harm of original sin that affects all of us. So we ask, what is original sin of which Mary was preserved but which continues to affect us even now? What is this kind of sin which we call original? Many people today deny the presence of original sin, they do not believe in original sin anymore, or if they believe it, they take it for granted. But G.K. Chesterton said that this is one Christian doctrine that is most obvious - kabudlay tuod i-explain ang original sin, pero tam-an ka klaro nga ara ini sa aton kabuhi. The symptoms, the signs of the presence of this type of sin can be clearly seen in our thoughts, in our actions and in our relationsh...

The one sheep is always a dilemma in life. In today’s gospel the shepherd leaves the ninety nine in search of one lost sheep. He leaves the ninety nine by themselves and goes in search of the one that was lost. The 99 has to wait. The 99 has to be left behind. The 99 has to suffer the anxiety of being left without a shepherd in his effort to look for that one stupid sheep. This is the solution of Jesus and it is a hard act to follow. For in effect Jesus is teaching us that the community or family must always show willingness to suffer for the sake of an individual. That most often the community should be allowed to suffer for the sake of the individual. Think about this for a moment. This is not the way of the world, isn’t it? For the way of the world is this, the individual is expendable. We stay guard over the ninety nine and treat that one stupid sheep that strayed as a casualty of life, sometimes even a necessary casualty of life. For a fact, this is the way of the bu...

I would like to reflect on the prophet Isaiah, our first reading today. The prophecy of Isaiah begins with the words, on that day. On that day according to the estimation of biblical experts would be about 750 years more or less, the years spanning the time of Isaiah and Jesus. On that day, Isaiah said, a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse. Jesse is the father of David, the first king of Israel, and the grandfather of Solomon, the son of David through Bathsheba, the second king. These were the best years of Israel, the years when Israel experienced prosperity, the years when the temple was built, the year when the territory of Israel reached its zenith. These were the years spanning the reign of Kings David and Solomon. And people in the time of Isaiah were longing for those good old days, the good old days which, in the time of Isaiah had become a mere stump - the stump of a once powerful, gigantic tree. What was once a great kingdom is nothing more than a stump - is...

I would like to reflect with you today on the word the end, tapos na, bow, the end. Jesus in our gospel talks about the time that will come. In greek this time that will come is called the eschaton, the end of time. For the seminarians, if you will reach theology you will have an interesting subject called eschatology, a subject which is very hard to spell but nevertheless interesting. There you will study our catholic beliefs on death, death and the beyond, you will study that phrase in the creed which says he will come again to judge the living and the dead, you will learn what heaven is, what hell is, and what purgatory is all about. In short you will talk about the end. In life we experience that there is always an end to everything that we do and even to everything that we love. During recreation we may still want to go on playing football, we are about to shoot the ball into the basket, but then the whistle of the referee blows, the bell ringer rings the bell for showers -...

I believe you must have remembered a peculiar story going around after that dreaded flooding brought about by typhoon Frank. For the sake of those who have not heard this story permit me to narrate it for you. Just a few days before typhoon Frank, a strange little boy went to a home in particular village in the city to ask for a drink of water. Since the boy was unfamiliar, a complete stranger in fact, the woman ignored him and sent him away. As the boy was leaving the woman thought she heard the boy say something about sending the village lots of water in the coming days because of her refusal to give him even just a glass. The woman however ignored the strange little boy. A few days later, so the story goes, the woman, realized to her surprise the meaning of the words she heard from the boy who came from nowhere, for true enough water came and it overwhelmed the city in a deluge few of us will ever forget. Frankly I do not believe the tale. But I just want to use the stor...

Our catholic faith teaches us that the bread consecrated in the mass becomes the body of Christ. Jesus becomes truly present in the bread that we consecrate, that the bread we receive in Holy Communion is really and truly Jesus. We call this the doctrine of the real presence - Christ is truly present. For as long as we are here on earth this is how real Christ can become for us. More than this however, our catholic faith also teaches us that this real presence of Jesus in the bread is not just real but also continuing. The presence of Jesus becomes so to say permanent in the bread. The bread which became of the body of Jesus does not turn back to bread after the mass - no, it continues to be the body of Christ. These are the two catholic doctrines that distinguish us from other Christian groups. We believe in the real presence of Jesus in the bread. And we believe in the continuing presence of Jesus in the bread. His presence is real. His real presence is permanent. This...

“If I have cheated anybody I will pay him back four times the amount.” This is what justice is all about. When we have sinned against justice we are required to make a restitution, we have to pay back what we owe. If I stole ten pesos, I have to pay back the ten pesos I stole, either outright to the person himself or secretly. If I defrauded someone, if I did not give somebody what is due to him, I am required by justice, I am required by morality to pay back what is due to the person I defrauded. Justice demands restitution. It is not enough that we confess our sins to the priest and receive absolution from him. It is not enough that we are sorry for the sins we have committed against justice. We have to pay it back. This is something we often forget in morality. Justice demands a restitution.

When I was first assigned by Msgr. Gamboa to the Seminary way back 1997, he specifically assigned me as the inspector. He called me an inspector. It was the old name of the prefect of discipline and it speaks very well of the nature of my work. As you very well know in some countries a policeman is also called an inspector and that I said is the nature of my work. I was to become the policeman of the seminarians who was expected to prevent crime, catch the criminals, interrogate suspect, send them to jail, in the case of the seminary, send them out, and I should see to it that the laws are observed with rigor. I was the seminary policeman and true enough, in time, some priests began calling me SPO1 Esperancilla. The work of a seminary inspector is practically second nature to me. People fear me and it comes quiet naturally. When the lectors of the cathedral at one time complained that they were afraid of me and they get nervous every time I said mass and they did the reading...

I have been assigned to a parish before I was told to go back to the seminary. One of the challenging things I have to do in that parish was to convince people that they are getting old. Imagine that! Some people just can’t realize by themselves that they are getting old. And I tell you it was difficult. So one time in a meeting of one of the religious organizations which I attended I told them quite frankly that almost all of the members are in their 70’s and 80’s, that some of them could no longer participate in the many processions that they were organizing and directing because they could no longer walk, that in five years time the organization will dwindle to half its present membership, and in ten years time their religious organization will go the way of the dinosaurs - extinction. So quite sternly I warned them that in their next monthly meeting, if they could not bring in new recruits and young blood in their organization, our opening prayer for the meeting will be the p...

At the end of the first semester and as we are about to start the second in two weeks time I would like to remind us all of the injunction of Christ to guard carefully our treasures lest a thief would come and carry off what we have so painstakingly worked for. Guard well the treasures of our house, of our community. You will ask, what are these treasures we have to guard so carefully, treasures we have so painstakingly worked for? There are three. First, guard the treasure of our brotherhood, this new sense of brotherhood.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Luke. He was a doctor by profession before he became a companion of St. Paul during his many journeys. That is why St. Luke is the patron saint of doctors. He is also the patron saint of artists most especially of painters because legend says that he was the first to have painted an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Most of all St. Luke is known because he wrote two books in the bible, in the new testament, the Gospel according to Luke and the Acts of the apostles. His version of the life of Jesus is unique. His is the Gospel which cites the most instances of the Blessed Virgin Mary – the annunciation, the birth of Jesus and many others. Thus if you want to know more about Mary, you have to read among others the gospel of Luke. This I believe might be the reason why legend would point to him as a painter, one who depicted in vivid detail the Blessed Mother.

Let me attempt to interpret what I could not do in this morning’s mass. Jesus said, give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give back to God what is God’s. Before saying this Jesus asked for a coin and he asked whose image and inscription is in the coin. The image they said is that of Tiberius with an inscription, "Tiberius Caesar, August Son of the Divine Augustus," and on the other side the inscription "Pontifex Maximus," meaning high priest, can be found. Whose image can be found in it? Then give it back to him. Who’s the authority that minted the coin? Then give it back to them. It is an acknowledgement that the state, our rulers have power of us. Indeed to a certain extent they have. Some of you might not feel it yet but we do. Do you know for example that our seminary has to pay tax? Yes we pay our taxes even though we are losing money every month and every year. And though we pay our teachers a pittance compared to what other schools pay their...

Jesus said, give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give back to God what is God’s. The real question however is, what is Caesar’s? Then another real question follows, what is God’s? Indeed the reply of Jesus was a clever one, a clever reply to a very tricky question. And the gospel described the reaction of the listeners as one of amazement. They were amazed at his reply. They were amazed at Jesus for evading a tricky question by producing an equally tricky reply. But the question is what did Jesus mean specifically? What is Caesar’s that I should render back to Caesar, and what is God’s that I should render back to God? The problem is Jesus did not go to the specifics, he did not elaborate, and I can only guess.

I would like to propose for our reflection today, not mainly the gospel but our responsorial Psalm. We have just read Psalm 23, the most famous, and I believe the most familiar psalm. “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. In verdant pastures he gives me repose, beside restful waters he leads me, he refreshes my soul.” Most often than not this psalm is read in funeral masses or in masses for the dead? Some even refer to it as a funeral psalm. But I believe Psalm 23 is more than just a Funeral Psalm. So I think it would be good to hear it before we die, or better still to be guided by it every day of our lives before our funeral.

Our gospel today is full of crazy people. It is a parable full of crazy people. We have a crazy landlord, sending crazy servants to deal with crazy tenants. And it came to the point when this crazy landlord sent his crazy son to deal one last time with the crazy tenants. And these crazy tenants, crazy as they are, killed the crazy son of the crazy landlord. That’s the crazy story we hear today. Permit me to justify my contention that this parable read to us this morning is full of crazy people. First, the landlord who sent his servants to get his part of the produce. These servants were beaten up. So again he sent another batch of servants to insist on his part of the produce on these tenants. Again they beat them up - some they even killed. Crazy landlord. After the first batch he could have sent the police. But what did he send instead - a second delegation of unarmed servants. And as if this is not crazy enough, he sent his son, immediately after the second batch were b...

Let me start by quoting from Pope Benedict’s sermon in a gathering with seminarians. He said, “It is right for the seminarians to remember that if the church demands much from them it is because they are to care for those whom Christ ransomed at such a high price.” You are to care for those whom Christ ransomed at such a high price, the price which was his own life. This is where our theme panaw, baligya, bakal get its meaning. This the raison d’être of seminary formation and the process one has to undergo to become a minister of the church. Why do I have to go through the process of panaw, baligya, bakal in my seminary formation? Why do I have to go through the cutting off, the leaving behind, and the sacrificing? Because you are to care for those whom Christ ransomed at such a high price. Why can’t I be allowed to do what I want like the rest of the young people my age? Why can’t they just let me be? Why do I always have to think of the community above my own, why do I have ...

Today we end the Literary Musical Contests and tomorrow we will begin the sporting events to complete this week of intramural contests. Shamcey Supsup was lauded for her so called brains, talent and beauty, which are characteristics imposed by culture to what it considers women of substance. In the seminary however our vision simply describes these as integral persons, a person who possesses developed and acquired skills, virtue and the love for service. Note what I have said - developed and acquired. It may not even be a given, it may be just an iota of skills. But these became things of consequence because of the work of formation.

Good morning. So, how are you today? Kamusta? Actually this question is just a formality needing a positive reply. One does not even need to tell the truth in answering this question because courteous behavior demands that you just say fine or good or at the very least OK lang. So when you are asked the question, don’t talk about your arthritis or whatever disease you have at the moment. That would be considered rude. Convention demands that it be answered in the positive just as you say good morning even if there is nothing really good in it.

I would like to explore another angle in our gospel today. With this gospel I know that you are expecting me to say something about the connection between word and action. Well we have truisms which say, “Talk is cheap, it’s actions that count.” “You have to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.” “Actions speak louder than words.” These oft repeated statements insist on integrity or honest sincerity - that words correspond to our actions - to say yes when we mean yes and say no when we mean no.

Today I would like to reflect with you on the martyrdom of Fr. Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasang and companions. Actually they are 98 martyrs in all - 3 French missionaries, 47 laywomen and 45 laymen. But one cannot tell their lives without telling the whole story of Catholicism in Korea. Korea is the only nation where Christianity came to be without the help of foreign missionaries. There are different versions. Some say it was Catholic Japanese soldiers who brought Christianity around the 1500’s, baptizing several who converted. Others say it was the Koreans themselves coming home from China. One thing however is clear, the first Catholics in Korea were baptized by lay men, that is without priests or missionaries, and it is also said that for their knowledge of the faith, they relied on books supposedly authored by Jesuits in China and smuggled to Korea, and they used these to educate themselves in the catholic faith. Lay persons making the rounds teaching the faith t...

In my almost twelve year stint as formator in this seminary, I was never ever asked to celebrate mass in order to open the week of intramurals. This is the first time. The reason I believe is quiet obvious to all. Nobody in his right mind wants someone who can hardly carry his legs and stand erect to open an athletic competition unless he would be somebody like Muhammad Ali, one of the greatest in the world of boxing, who at the time when he opened the Los Angeles Olympics was suffering from Parkinson’s disease. I have admit that in my reflective moments, I too would look with envy at how Fr. Julius Revesencio, or Fr. Dennis, or Fr. Marvin who despite his weight, can still perform flawless lay-ups and make perfect shots in a basketball game. How I wish I could be like them. Or Fr. Doming who at his age can still run around the football field and kick the ball effortlessly like a teenager. But alas my desire to be really good in something requiring physical strength died out a...

Today the gospel speaks of forgiveness; that we have to learn to forgive each other not just seven times but seventy times seven times which in common expression means always. You see it is easy to say I forgive. It is easy to say napatawad ko na sia. But have we ever asked, what is forgiveness? What does forgiveness consists of? What do I feel and what do I do when I say I have forgiven? Today let us dissect forgiveness, let us consider its characteristics, and see its features, what it creates in us and what it creates in the other. This way, after dissecting, after knowing what forgiveness is, we can surely judge whether we have really forgiven. What is forgiveness? Forgiveness has three characteristics.

The names are just too many, too difficult to read and much more difficult to pronounce. Actually, if you are listening to me intently you would find out that I was not reading some of the names properly. Ginpalagpatan ko na lang ang iban sa pagpronounce, total indi nyo gid man ini sila kilala kag gani kon nagsala gid man ako, ti ako man lang kabalo. This is one gospel nobody wants to make a homily from and this is a gospel people should not expect to hear a decent homily. Ano abi ang i-sermon mo nahanungod sa ebanghelyo nga puro ngalan – halin sa puno hasta sa punta ngalan lang tanan? Indi bala? Now since I have made a very clear excuse let me now begin my homily.

In the seminary we always come to that point where I will have to direct the seminarians to discern their vocation, to discern whether God is indeed calling them to the priesthood or not. Oftentimes we will hit a snag in defining what discernment is. What is discernment? What is the focus of discernment? Is it focussed simply in what I want, in what I desire, in my dreams? Is the discernment focussed solely on me or is it focused more on God? Many times I would have to remind them again and again that in the discernment process, especially in an important thing as knowing ones vocation in life, it is important that we take nothing with us in the discernment process except our love for God and our desire to do his will. Take away your desires, take away the expectations of other people, take away even the advantages and the practicality which accompanies the choice being considered - bring only your love for God and your desire to do his will. Why? Because discernment is not ab...

At the outset, let me assure you that I am not your head nurse or your nurse in-charge and neither is this another class in nursing which you have happily and, I should add, even gladly graduated from several years ago. But I would like to ask permission if you could allow me some unsolicited advice. Frankly I could not help it but if you don’t like what I am about to say don’t blame me. Blame rather the gospel today which speaks about the fever of Peter’s mother in law and the many people in need of care and healing. I have never heard of dengue fever in the Middle East although the carrier, the aedes aegypti, is named after a nation in that area. Nevertheless it is told that she is sick and needs immediate care and attention. The disciples pleaded to Jesus asking him to heal her. And Jesus, it is told, stood over her and rebuked the fever, and miraculously, the fever left her.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Rose of Lima, secondary patroness of the Philippines. The primary patroness of the Philippines is Mary in her Immaculate Conception, but the secondary patroness is St. Rose of Lima. St. Rose was born in Lima, Peru in the year 1586. She is the contemporary and friend of St. Martin de Porres, St. John Macias and and San Toribio de Mongrovejo - all of them from Lima, Peru. When I was younger St. Rose was one of those saints whom I came to know of. And I remember quite fondly now, that time when my grandmother told me her story. Actually I forgot everything she told me except the fact that she came to be called Rose because of her beauty, a beauty she would later see as an obstacle in her desire to love and serve God. And so, she one day got some pepper and lye and rubbed these on her face to make her less beautiful. That’s all I can remember actually from the stories of my grandmother. Later my knowledge of her would be augmented by reading he...

I would like to reflect on the consequences of holding the keys, the consequence of binding and losing in the formation of seminarians, and eventually in our ordination as priests. The key symbolizes authority. He who holds the key, is given the authority; he has the power of the keys. This authority does not come from anyone else but from God. In the mass this morning we heard from our first reading God taking away the kingship from Shebnah and giving this to Eliakim saying, on his shoulder I will put the keys of the House of David - when he opens, no one shall shut; when he shuts, no one shall open. The same is true with Peter. Jesus gives the keys to Peter so that whatever he binds on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever he sets loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." A position of authority in the church comes from God. What then is its implication to our seminary formation and to your desire to become priests? First, to become a priest one is to be calle...

Sometimes, especially on a Sunday like this, you will find yourself grasping for answers to questions like, why do I have to go to church, I can pray anywhere I like, after all God is everywhere, isn’t he? Now how do you answer that? Or try answering questions like this, why do I have to attend mass and receive holy communion? I can very well commune with God in the beach, or in a quiet place by myself? Why do I have to go to church? Again, how do we answer that? Or try these questions you often hear nowadays, Why do I have to go to a priest and confess my sins in order to receive God’s forgiveness? Why can’t I go to Jesus directly? Why does a priest stand between God and me? Isn’t the Church sticking its nose into my private, personal relationship with God? Now how do we answer these questions? The problem with these questions is about their direction. All of these questions basically asks, what do we want to do in order to get to God. What do we want to do in order that w...

After that grand day last year, exactly a day from now, and after the scuffle that immediately followed it, which was never anyone’s idea of the fruit of a hundred years, I have to tell you frankly that I dreaded the coming of this day. For one I may be asked to say mass on this day and be forced to leave the security of standing on the sidelines during the scuffle. But as it is, and as it was before this, in all our annual gatherings, I always find myself with no reason believable enough to justify my absence. So now the day of dread has finally come upon me and I have nowhere else to turn to but the Lord. And so taking my cue from the Canaanite woman I now plunge myself on the feet of Jesus entreating him, Lord have mercy on me, my daughters are tormented by demons.(There is a footnote attached to this last statement and it says here, daughters should also include old boys as well, pro and con.) I know there is still some uneasiness in most of us in talking about this, an unea...

What’s in it for us? What do I get in return? In business you have what you call your ROI, your return on investment. Good economics require that your gain should yield more than your capital investment. You do not invest on something that yields a negative return rather you invest on something that will not only give you a positive return but also the highest return. Kon patas man lang ano gid da ang imo. Indi makabayad sa imo pangabudlay. In making an investment you should be conscious and aware of the return on investment or the ROI. Years back I wanted to save a seminarian who had lost his desire for the priesthood. He was going out on a date for valentine’s day. So I offered him a deal. I told him, if you forgo the date, I would treat you to a restaurant of your choice. I won, or so I thought. He let go of the date on Valentine’s Day and so I treated him out in a restaurant which cost me to shelve out a thousand pesos. This only proves my theory that the shortest way to a semi...

Let me start by quoting from Pope Benedict’s sermon in a gathering with seminarians. He said, “It is right for the seminarians to remember that if the church demands much from them it is because they are to care for those whom Christ ransomed at such a high price.” You are to care for those whom Christ ransomed at such a high price, the price which was his own life. This is where our theme panaw, baligya, bakal get its meaning. This the raison d’être of seminary formation and the process one has to undergo to become a minister of the church. Why do I have to go through the process of panaw, baligya, bakal in my seminary formation? Why do I have to go through the cutting off, the leaving behind, and the sacrificing? Because you are to care for those whom Christ ransomed at such a high price. Why can’t I be allowed to do what I want like the rest of the young people my age? Why can’t they just let me be? Why do I always have to think of the community above my own, why do I have ...

Do you believe that everything in us is grace? Do you believe that everything that happens to us is an opportunity for grace? If you do then you will also agree with me when I call sickness a grace and old age as a grace from God. So we call them the grace of old age, the grace of senility, the grace of sickness, the grace of being hospitalized, the grace of being confined to the care of a caregiver, the grace of being left alone? I believe it would take us a leap of faith to do so. This is my reflection while I was contemplating the situation of our old priests right in front of the St. Vincent Ferrer Seminary in a house which we call home sweet home. When I was young (and I am not that old), I used to go to the Home sweet Home. There were at least 5 priests there. One was a regular confessor of seminarians so I tried him once. When I confessed my sins to him he told me to get out of the seminary and for my penance, 3 via crucis. I could not remember now what I confessed t...

I already missed the star wars saga and one of the characters I truly like is Yoda with his brand of English which many now call Yoda-Speak or Yodish. Try this for example, the Chosen One, the boy may be. Nevertheless, grave danger I fear in his training; or try this, Named must your fear be, before banish it you can. You must have also remembered the misgivings of Yoda in accepting and training Anakin to become a Jedi knight. Yoda said, Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. Fear brings anger and anger breeds hate and hate brings suffering. There is so much truth in this statement for indeed when one is fearful, one becomes angry and this anger coming from that fear breeds hatred and from hatred comes a lot of suffering. I hate dogs not for anything but because I am afraid of them. I was bitten once by a dog I tried to feed, and I never learned to climb a tree not until dogs ran after me. My hatred came from an...

The miracle of the multiplication of the five loaves and two fishes is the only miracle that is recorded in all four gospels. It was therefore a miracle well remembered, a miracle which all four writers of the gospel remembered quite well. For how can one forget such miracle - people ate the bread and the fish, they saw where these came from - from five loaves and two fishes, and there were 5 thousand men who can attest to this. I remember also this story the first time it was narrated to us by my grandmother. In fact I remember even the little details not mentioned in this narrative from Matthew. In the gospel of John for example a little boy was mentioned as the source of the bread and fish. In fact outside the bible there was a legend circulating around about the story of this boy.

Again I would like to take this opportunity to thank the parishioners of Jaro for the 9 mass collections that you have given to the St. Vincent Ferrer Seminary last May 29, the fifth Sunday for the month of May, which you designated as Seminary Sunday. The collection amounted to a hundred thousand pesos and we have used this amount as a reserve for our scholarship program starting school year 2012-2013. We have purposely called this program the Eskolar sang Kristianong Katilingban (EKK) because it is a joint scholarship program participated by members of the Christian communities in our parishes beginning with the parish priests (who will contribute PhP1,000.00 per month for 12 months); the religious organizations of the parish (who will contribute PhP1,500.00 per month for 12 months); the family of the scholar (PhP500.00 per month for 12 months); the seminary benefactors (who will contribute PhP2,000.00 per month for 12 months); and lastly, a foundation who will shoulder the bulk ...

Success is relative, they say, success is relative, because the more successful you are, the more relatives you have. It is an observable human behavior that people affiliate themselves more closely to successful people. If you won’t believe me, try winning the lotto today, and tomorrow you will discover to your surprise that you have so many relatives, parientes. This particular attitude is also related to other human reactions to success. When a person becomes successful, people will begin to realize the early signs that brought about the success. People will begin to recollect the signs early on that portend the triumph, signs that show that the success was really meant to be.

There was a man one time who had a huge block of marble. His friend asked him what he intended to do with it, and he said that he was going to sculptor an elephant. 'But you are not a sculptor', said his friend. 'I know that, he said, but I thought if I chisel off every¬thing that doesn't look like an elephant, I might succeed.' If we are searching for the pearl of great price, it might be good to ask, how does the pearl of great price look like? How does it differ from the other pearls that I may see? If we are looking for a buried treasure, what does this treasure consist of? How does this treasure differ from the other buried treasures that I may run across? Indeed in searching for something, it is necessary to have some idea of what it looks like! It is necessary to know what we are looking for. Today we go via negativa - to know what it is not, so that like the sculptor in the story we may succeed in sculpting an elephant by chiselling off from the stone ...

We just heard the word woe from the mouth of Jesus. Woe is a translation of the Greek word ouai (aw-ay). In hiligaynon we translate woe as kailo - Kailo ka man Corazin! Kailo ka man Betsaida! Both the English and the Hiligaynon translations seem not to capture the real emotions that accompany these statements of Jesus. I think, and this is just my opinion, this would be better translated in hiligaynon as haaaay Corazin, haaay Bethsaida. But alas this expression which we call panghay-hay is not properly speaking a word but more of an emotional outburst. But the long haaaay, ang malawig nga panghay-hay captures and expresses more accurately the emotions of Jesus in this particular passage - an expression of exasperation, an expression of sadness - the expression of one who has offered everything and yet was disregarded. If there is anger here it is not the anger of one who was slighted or insulted, it is not the anger of one whose pride was wounded, but it is an anger of one wh...

There are two important solemnities of Mary in the liturgy namely, the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption, both of which are dogmas of faith. Mary was conceived without sin in view of her role as the Mother of God and Mary was assumed into heaven body and soul again in consideration of her role the Mother of God. These solemnities play a very unique role in our pilgrimage as Christians, in our struggle to become holy, and in our aim to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. And what is this unique role - Mary is the icon of hope for she reveals to us what we will later become. Like Mary we will one day become sinless and like Mary we will one day be assumed into heaven body and soul. Thus, in the words of the preface of the Assumption, these privileges of Mary are the beginning and pattern of the church in its perfection, and they are signs of hope and comfort for us who are on our pilgrim way. I have taken these dogmas of our faith as a starting point because I w...

Let’s face it, life is burdensome. I can very well attest to that. Sometimes I would find myself dreaming of being assigned to some faraway parish with mountains on my right and the beach on my left - the simple life with simple concerns. Sometimes I would dream of just sleeping all day with no concern whatsoever even just for one day. When Fr. Doming, our principal said that we are required by law to use up our 15 day sick leave every year from school work, I heard what I thought was the first piece of good news ever since I was transferred in the seminary. Life is burdensome. Most of you here can attest to that. Most of the people I know are carrying burdens - the burden of making both ends meet with their salary, the burden of waiting for a biopsy, the burden of trying to figure out how to save a marriage that is about to break, the burden of figuring out what’s best for our children in a world that has lost what is good in our values, the burden of grief, the burden of guilt...

In some parts of Africa they believed that the seat of love is the liver. So probably during valentines day they give each other a card shaped like a liver with a note, I love you with all my liver. Actually scientists today would say that the seat of emotions including love is the mid-brain. But of course even these same scientists today would still follow the traditional line by saying I love you with all my heart and when they are busted by their girlfriends they would still consider themselves heartbroken and not mid-brain broken. This is so because traditionally we believe that the center of emotions and most especially of love is the heart. Regardless whether this comes from the liver of the mid-brain or the heart, the heart for us has symbolized love everything else that this loving entails.

I thought I have saved myself from an embarrassing position where I will have to talk about myself and the priesthood by accepting a wedding last June 15 on the day of my anniversary, and added to that I also saved myself from buying ice cream to delight 129 growing kids on the same day. Now I am forced to face it with the anniversary of the ordination to the priesthood of Fr. Boboy Palencia - his 23rd anniversary - 23 years a priest and still a priest. Last June 15 somebody texted me saying that on my 18th year as a priest I deserved a cotillion . . . and 18 crosses. I thought then that it was a cute and totally appropriate greeting on a debut anniversary - a cotillion and 18 crosses instead of roses. But how do I greet Fr. Boboy in his 23rd anniversary? Frankly I don’t know. He is almost silver but not yet. And so today I shall stick to the readings of our mass and try as much as I can to make the reading significant to the occasion. The first reading unluckily for him and for...

At every benediction we have decided to talk to you about the priesthood, and the great need of the world for priests like you in the future. Today on the feast of the Corpus Christi we ask: Why do seminarians celebrate mass daily? Even in the parish why are they encouraged to go to daily mass? Why do we have benediction every Sunday? Why do we have visits to the Blessed Sacrament everyday at noontime? Why? Because the Eucharist and the priesthood are so interconnected with one another one cannot exists without the other. Remember Jesus Christ instituted the Eucharist and the Priesthood together - together, not apart from but together on the evening of Holy Thursday when Christ with his disciples gathered in a large room. Jesus took bread and wine and said, this is my body, this is my blood, do this in remembrance of me. From then on the Eucharist and the priesthood moved on to perpetuate the memory of Jesus, with the Eucharist so dependent of the priesthood and the priest...

I don’t know what got into my mind yesterday, but today on the feast of the body and blood of Christ, the corpus Christi, I would like to reflect with you on the origin and meaning of the Christmas tree. So how is the feast of the Corpus Christi related to the Christmas tree? If you will be patient, I will get into that later. But first the origin of the Christmas Tree. The Christmas Tree started in the 11th century when it became popular to stage what they called then the Paradise Play. The Paradise Play is a simple play wherein they dramatized on the 24th of December, the life of Adam and Eve. The 24th of December by the way was celebrated in some churches then as the feast of Adam and Eve. In this drama they would re-enact what happened to Adam and Eve, how they were created, how they lived happily and contentedly in paradise, how one day they were tempted, how they fell into sin, how they were punished, and how they were banished from paradise with God promising that he wi...

As we begin summer solstice we celebrate the birth of John the Baptist. It is not the exact date of his birth, something which we cannot really know, but it is placed in summer solstice because this is the day when daylight begins to shorten, in the same way that the birth of Christ was placed in winter solstice when daylight begins to lengthen and increase. In the birth of Christ the darkness is conquered. In the birth of John the light decreases for as John has said himself Christ must increase while he John must decrease. This is John’s personal stand and should I also say, this is his personal statement. This is how he came to know himself - a mere precursor of the messiah, one who prepared the way. This might be in conflict with how Jesus perceived him to be. For Jesus, John was the greatest prophet born of a woman. But this is how John came to know himself - he has to decrease. His greatness lies in his personal stand to decrease so as to pave the way for Christ who mus...

Even when we were little children our mothers and grandmothers have already readied us to listen and to accept this gospel passage – the way to heaven is a narrow gate. It might be good to reiterate once more this passage now that we are older and more experienced. First, the way to heaven is a narrow gate. This implies struggling with some difficulty. In fact Jesus would emphasize the word strive: strive to enter through he narrow gate. To strive means to do all we can and make every effort to go through it with all the means at our disposal to attain it. It entails effort. It entails sacrifices. Experience for example has taught us by now that it is not easy to pray, much more to be consistent in prayer or even just to stay awake (as some of you must be experiencing right now), it will take some effort to be consistent, even just to be consistent in going to mass. It is not easy to be patient and it is not easy to persevere in our service more so if our efforts seem to prod...