visible rhetoric

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...

Today we celebrate the memorial of St. Aloysius Gonzaga of the House of Gonzaga and a member of the nobility in Italy. He was trained to be a soldier but chose to be a priest missionary instead. His father became furious on hearing this but when they could no longer persuade him to abandon his desire to become a priest they tried to convince him to become a secular priest instead so that he could still inherit his father’s properties and at the same time they could look for a diocese for him so that he can become a bishop. But Aloysius instead chose to become a Jesuit where he renounced his inheritance and at the same time renounced the possibility of an ecclesiastical position in the hierarchy. Even at a young age he was afflicted with kidney problems and other ailments, thus when he was starting to study theology at the age of 23 he died not reaching his dream of becoming a priest. He is now named the patron of seminarians - thus the college dormitory is called, the St. Aloysius...

Today, as we start the year, we gather together for the first time by honoring the Lord who called each one of us, in his own unique way to this place of formation, the St. Vincent Ferrer Seminary. We gather today in this chapel, the very heart and center of our community. For many of you this will be the first among the very many times you will come to this place - some for months and others for as long as 8 years. First nights in the seminary as it has been and will always be are initially spent here to worship the Lord of our call. We present ourselves to the Lord who called, to the Lord whom we promise to follow, to the Lord whom we seek to serve, to the Lord who will be with us in our joys and fears, in our sadness and tears. After this benediction I would like us all to turn to the Blessed Mother on her altar to pray to her that she will bless our home and bless our endeavors to follow her son more closely and more dearly. That place there where she stand right now is a ...

Let me start this reflection with you on the day we commemorate the coming of the Holy Spirit by saying, I have reason to believe that we are not interpreting correctly the feast of the Pentecost, the feast of the coming of the Holy Spirit in our lives. I gathered two reasons. First, the Holy Spirit comes not to solve our problems but to create them. Think about it for a moment. The Holy Spirit comes not to solve our problems but to create them. If the Holy Spirit did not come to Peter, James and John everything would have ended up differently for them. Peter would have returned to the simple life of a fisherman, and James and John would have returned to inherit the fishing enterprise of their father Zebedee. But as it is, the Spirit came on Pentecost Day and from then on their lives and even their deaths took a different turn. Because of the Spirit in their lives these fishermen scouted the known world bringing the gospel message, braving the elements, hid from their persec...

Two points. The first point. Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and prayed. What is the best posture for prayer? Three preachers were discussing as to what was the best posture for prayer. One said, the best posture is kneeling down. The other replied, the best posture is the yoga position, sitting down on the floor cross-legged. But the other insisted, it should be like Jesus in the gospel with our eyes turned to Heaven. While they were discussing this, a painter overheard them and said, for all its worth the best prayer I ever prayed was in none of those postures. My best prayer happened when I was hanging upside down from a ladder with one leg after I fell down from the telephone pole – that was my best prayer position.

When we speak of the Ascension we have a big problem. Jesus ascended into heaven. In other words Jesus defied gravity and from our perspective went up to the skies. The problem is, where is up, and so where is heaven? The difficulty lies in the fact that we are using the language and the perspective of people who thought that the world was flat. If the earth is flat it is easier for us to explain that heaven is up there, earth is in the middle and hell is down there. Now, however, we have come to know that the earth is round. So from the perspective of one standing on a round object where is up, where is the middle and where is below? If Jesus went up where is up? Is it the up from the perspective of the Australians whose below is Scandinavia? Or is it up from the perspective of Scandinavia whose below is Australia? Confusing. So where is the heaven above and where is hell below?

On March 31, 1997, Newsweek magazine published the result of a survey on people’s prayer beliefs and habits. The title of the survey was “Is God Listening?” The survey says that 87% of the people believe that God answers prayers. But only 54% say they pray on a daily basis. So why is it that though 87 percent believe that God answers prayers, only 54 percent pray on a daily basis? The probable reasons are the following: First, they don’t have problems to pray for; second, they could not find a time to pray; third they don’t know how to pray; and fifth, they could not find a place to pray. The first reason why only 54 percent pray on a daily basis is they don’t have problems to pray for. There was this amusing cartoon. It showed a tiny insect peering up at a huge insect. After staring at the huge insect for a while the tiny insect said, “What kind of a bug are you?” “I’m a praying mantis,” came the reply. “That’s absurd,” said the tiny insect. “Bugs don’t pray.” With that the pr...

Amado Nervo, a Mexican poet wrote these lines which in a way demonstrate to us the event of the visitation and this beautiful exchange of songs which culminates in the Song of Mary in our gospel today. Amado Nervo wrote: I’m only a spark, make me a fire. I’m only a string, make me a lyre. I’m only an ant-hill, make me a mountain. I’m only a drop, make me a fountain. I’m only a feather, make me a wing. I’m only a beggar, make me a king. Mary conscious of her lowliness said, God has looked with favor on his lowly servant, the Lord has done great things for me. You will notice in the gospel that when something or someone comes into contact with the person of Christ that thing or that person comes out changed, comes out richer, comes out better. Two fishes and five loaves fed 5 thousand men; Peter and his companions were fishermen, but with Jesus they became fishers of men; the stormy sea beset by great waves became calm and placid; water was turned into the best wine; the sin...

In Latin we have this famous principle coming from Tertullian, one of the Fathers of Church, which says, caro salutis cardo. Caro which means flesh, salutis which means of salvation, and cardo which means the hinge, the pivot, the axis. Caro salutis cardo means the flesh is the hinge of salvation. How did God save us? God saved us by permitting his Son to suffer and die for our salvation. Jesus as the Son of God, Jesus as God is Spirit and as Spirit it could not suffer. Only the flesh can suffer. Jesus as Son of God is spirit and the spirit cannot die, only the flesh can die. By his incarnation however Jesus the Son of God became man, or as we say, the word became flesh, and by becoming flesh, by becoming man he suffered and died and we are saved. Caro salutis cardo - his flesh became the hinge of salvation. If Jesus did not become man, without the flesh we could not been saved. Caro salutis cardo.

It has been more than three months since I last wrote an article for Candle Light. It was an article of appeal, an appeal that has borne fruit ever since in the outpouring of concern that people lavished to the Seminary of St. Vincent Ferrer. After that appeal I felt that every day was really a day of grace. Now I understand what Jesus meant when he said, Blessed are the poor for theirs is the kingdom of God, for it is only they who stand before God in their need who experience miracles in daily doses. Permit me to narrate these miracles of a generous God through his people. Before I even came back from vacation to assume my new position in the seminary, the cathedral has already ironed out plans to support the seminary with the Seminary Sunday every 5th Sunday of the month wherein the seminary fathers are to celebrate all 9 Sunday masses in the cathedral, talk about the vocation to the priesthood and the need to support the seminary and its mission in the Archdiocese. And the...

What is the peace which the Lord is offering his disciples? What kind of peace is this peace of the Lord which the gospel is offering us today? Peace does not mean an absence of hostility - it does not mean I have no enemies and I don’t make any enemies at all. Having the peace of the Lord does not mean I please everybody and am pleasing to everybody. This is not the kind of peace which Jesus is offering us, for we know that there will be times when our preference for Christ will make us enemies. Living in the peace of the Lord does not mean that I will be free from all the problems that perfunctory mark every stage of our lives and even our relationships. This is not the peace which Jesus is giving for we know that life brings with it its own troubles which Christ calls the cross - a cross we must bear bravely. What then is the peace that Jesus is offering his disciples?

When we speak of janitors what comes to mind immediately is a man with a broom or a mop. We find him or her in the restrooms, in the garden, in the yard, in the classroom and offices but only after school and after office hours. A janitor is first to arrive and last to leave. But as always the janitor is one who is associated with the lowly broom or mop. But janitors have not been always like that. Janitors in the past take up the position of what we now call the custodian. He takes care of the buildings and homes, and he guards these by locking and unlocking the doors. In fact the word janitor comes from the roman god Janus, the double faced god of pagan Rome. Who is Janus? Janus is the Roman god of gates and doors, and the god of beginnings, endings and transitions. If he is depicted as the double faced god each facing the opposite direction, it is because he watches those who are about to enter the gate and takes note of those who leave, he is guardian of the past and ...

Our hiligaynon dialect is less specific when we refer to Christmas and Easter. We call both paskwa although the meaning we attribute to it leans heavily on Christmas. Thus when we say malipayon nga paskwa we refer to Christmas, and so as not to confuse both seasons, during easter we simply resort to the English greeting happy easter. But the real paskwa is Easter. It comes from the original word in Hebrew which is pesach. This was translated into Latin as transitus and later translated into English as the passing through or the passing over or simply the Passover. The Passover by the way does not just refer to the meal on the night the angel of death killed the first born of the Egyptians. The passover refers to the whole experience of Israel in the book of Exodus unto the book of Deuteronomy beginning with the passover meal. From that meal the passing over commences and would end only 40 years later when they crossed the river Jordan to enter into the land promised to Abrah...

Jesus makes himself known by eating; Jesus reveals himself while he is eating; and the disciples came to know Jesus while he was sitting for dinner and eating. In our gospel yesterday he was specifically recognized when he sat down to eat, when he broke the bread. And again in the gospel to prove that it was really him and that he was alive he ate a piece of baked fish which they offered him. Eating is a basic human instinct and it is not just human but a characteristic of all things living. A living thing and a person for that matter stops eating it also starts dying. The act of eating therefore symbolizes life. If you notice often times as proof that one is in near perfect health we often say maayo man ang panga-on niya – he eats well and therefore he is healthy, he is alive, and therefore he will live. On the contrary, a person who refuses to eat signifies his impending demise because without food the body beginning with its smallest members slowly die out.

Today, we commemorate he betrayal of Jesus by Judas and partially by Peter. Last night I got the dictionary and looked for the word betrayal. It has several meanings. One of the meanings stated in the dictionary is to lead astray and to deliver to an enemy by treachery. If you are familiar with Dante Alighieri’s book Divina Comedia he portrayed hell as consisting of 9 circles with the ninth as the deepest circle where the most sinful among men and women are confined for all eternity. The first seven circles of hell are reserved for those who committed sin considered as lesser crimes, so to say, because of our natural human instincts - sexual sins or lust, gluttony, our tendency to commit acts of violence to one another. But the last two are reserved for those who deserved to be in the bowels of hell, in the deepest recesses of hell. Why? Because they abused the unique gift given to man and man alone - they abused the gift of the intellect, they abused the gift of reason through...

Today we start the holy week, the highest and holiest of weeks in the year, the week wherein we will commemorate the anniversary of the paschal mystery, the anniversary of the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord. Tomorrow April 18 is the day of the full moon. This is the moon that marks this anniversary, the first full moon of spring, the moon that also marks the Passover which the Jews celebrate to mark their freedom, their crossing over from the land of slavery to the land of the free, from the slavery of Egypt to the promised land of the free. This too is our anniversary, the anniversary of our crossing over from the slavery and bondage of sin to the freedom of the sons and daughters of God, and we are freed because of the blood of the lamb who took away the sins of the world, the blood whose shedding is celebrated yearly in an anniversary which coincides with the full moon of spring. Tomorrow I want you to go out of your houses, make an abstinence of not watching your f...

There is an old story you might have heard more than once already, a Chinese story of a farmer who used an old horse to till his fields. One day, the horse escaped into the hills and when the farmer's neighbors sympathized with the old man over his bad luck, the farmer replied, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?" A week later, the horse returned with a herd of horses from the hills and this time the neighbors congratulated the farmer on his good luck. His reply was, "Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?" Then, when the farmer's son was attempting to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg. Everyone thought this very bad luck. Not the farmer, whose only reaction was, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?" Some weeks later, the army marched into the village and conscripted every able-bodied youth they found there. When they saw the farmer's son with his broken leg, they let him off. Now was that good luck or bad luck? Who k...

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Vincent Ferrer – the patron of our seminary. Now since I am the rector of the seminary, celebrating my only mass for the day, and since the colecta for this mass, in case you forgot, is intended for the formation of future priests in the seminary, it would be rude of us if we do not celebrate the feast of our patron or on my part at least speak of him in my homily. I would base my homily today on the most often asked question about St. Vincent Ferrer. Father, why does St. Vincent Ferrer have wings? Is he an angel? Well the church thinks of him as an angel. He is likened to an angel - a very important angel in fact. He is called the angel of the apocalypse, the angel of the end times. In the bible, in the book of Revelation, you will see an angel– the angel who reveals to John everything that will happen on the last day, or specifically the angel who announces the four last things. This angel is called the angel of the apocalypse and he anno...

If you don’t have a permanent stiff neck like me, you can most probably still look up towards the dome. So please look up. It is the color of the sky, it is the sky when evening starts. The color and imagery draws inspiration from the ancient fathers of the church who said that every time we celebrate the liturgy “we stand in the evening of time.” Why evening? Why do the ancients refer to the celebration of the liturgy as a standing in evening of time. Evening of time because the day’s work is done, the work is finished and it is now evening. Evening because the morning has not yet come, evening because we await the morning. So when we celebrate the liturgy we stand in the evening of time - we stand at the evening of time when the work of Christ during the day has been completed and we stand in the evening of time as we await its fulfilment in the coming new day. That is why Matthew would preface our gospel today with the word six days later - six days later is the seventh ...