visible rhetoric

With all its appeal to reason and logic there are actually many things unreasonable, and should I say, even nonsensical in our relationship with God, don’t you think?  I mean we are a practical people here but why do we have to get up early in the morning to attend the aguinaldo mass at 4:30 in the morning when there are other masses conveniently timed during the day.  Why get up at 4 then and then feel drowsy and yawn the whole day?  And except for the songs, it’s practically the same mass.

How do we speak of death when the dead are members of the so called Religious Life? I am asking this question because by its nature and purpose the religious are living out or are beginning to live out the values of the kingdom of God in its fulfilment.  Do you know this?  Supposedly they pre-figure, they already give us a glimpse of how life should be and what life would be when the kingdom of God find its fulfilment in the final days. (Last I heard, this fulfilment would be on Dec. 21 - 2 days from now.) That is why the religious live the evangelical vows of celibacy, obedience and poverty.  These are values of the kingdom, these values make us look forward, it make us strain for the fulfilment of the Kingdom. 

Last week we begun talking about the words of consecration and we called this the very heart, the very center of the Mass.  This is the reason why we gather for the mass, this is why scriptures have to be read before we reach this point, this is one of the reasons why I was ordained by the bishop as a priest, this is the reason why we come every Sunday.  The consecration is central to the mass. Today we reflect on the third point, the third and most important change in the words of the consecration of the wine.   TAKE THIS, ALL OF YOU, AND DRINK FROM IT, FOR THIS IS THE CHALICE OF MY BLOOD, THE BLOOD OF THE NEW AND ETERNAL COVENANT, WHICH WILL BE POURED OUT FOR YOU AND FOR MANY FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS.

What then should we do?  This is the question of the people John was preaching to.  They came from all walks of life - the poor crowd, the tax collectors, even the soldiers were there and they listened to John as he preached.  Then somebody brave enough probably raised his hands and asked, “what then should we do?” You have been talking about the need for repentance, you have asked us to prepare for the coming of the messiah, now we ask you, what shall we do?” 

Greeting the bishops for Christmas is a practice dictated not just by an age-old tradition but even more so by simple basic courtesy.  We come to greet them just as we visit and greet members of our family.  The church through the ages has always been looked upon as a family - we are not comrades united by an ideal, we are not partners united by a common interest, we are not colleagues bounded together by a working relationship.  No, we are family bound together under a paterfamilias.  Even the liturgy calls us famulus or famula for feminine.  Though it means servants we are not referred to as servus or even the ancilla to which Mary referred to herself in relation to God.  We are famuli - we are household servants, and though we are servants we are members of the family. This is my point then when we couple this greeting with the poem by GK Chesterton which I read - It is not He, but we. It is not that he has more to gain but we have more to lose.

Introduction: Tonight my dear friends as we gather to celebrate together as a community the presence of the word incarnate in our world, we meditate on the mystery of the Lord’s birth.   It is said the mystery of the incarnation is greater than the mystery of the Resurrection.   For it is not that hard to believe and even imagine a God resurrecting from the dead, but it is difficult and therefore amazing to believe that a God is made man, a Spirit is made a body, the word is made flesh.

Today we celebrate the memorial of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  She is the Patroness of Mexico, and because we were part of the Archdiocese of Mexico then and because of our trade links with Mexico also known as the Manila Acapulco Route, Our Lady of Guadalupe became the patroness of the Philippines also.  This was later changed to the Immaculate Conception and our Lady of Guadalupe was relegated to the second patron.  Anyway it is the same Blessed Virgin Mary.  But this shows our close historical link with Mexico. It all started in the morning of Dec. 9 1531 when Juan Diego, an Indian, saw on the hill of Tepeyac and young woman surrounded by light.   Speaking to him the woman asked that he tell the authorities to build a church in her honor in the site where Juan Diego was standing.   Recognizing that it was the Blessed Virgin Mary, Juan Diego hurried to the Archbishop Juan de Zummaraga, the Archbishop of Mexico City, who was himself a protector of the Indi...

Our lex orandi today is the very words of the consecration itself.  In the past when the liturgy was too strict and the interpretation of every rule too rigid, whenever a priest mispronounces or omits a word in the consecration, he commits mortal sin.  It’s not for anything but to emphasize the sacredness of the words themselves.  These are sacred words, these are the words which consecrates the bread.  These are the words whose effects on the bread and wine distinguish lay persons from priests.  Only an ordained priest can say these words because it is through the power of these words that the bread becomes the body of Christ and the wine becomes the blood of Christ. 

Today if all goes well according to our calendarium this will be the last Benediction for the year.  This is the last time we will gather as a community in prayer before the Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament for this year 2012.  The next time we will gather again in the same setting and with the same intent and purpose will already be next year in 2013.  Tempus fugit - time flies.  We started with 127 seminarians, now we are down to 120 even before the school year is over.  As far as I can remember this is one of the smallest number of seminarians this institution ever had in many years.  Despite all these the problem regarding finances continues and there seems to be no permanent solution in sight.  We live on a daily basis.  If we sit down and make financial projections for the coming months and the coming years we would end up closing this school overwhelmed by the thought about where the money would come.  We have many difficulties i...

Last first Monday of December we had this recollection about this year which was marked by the Pope as the Year of Faith.  So after this whole day affair, just before we left, the Archbishop addressed us by asking, what is faith then?  We fell silent.  Then he said.  "What is faith?  Faith is when you pray for rain and you bring with you an umbrella.  When you pray for rain you already bring with you an umbrella.  That is faith."  Well, we smiled.

One of the biblical basis for the doctrine that Mary was conceived immaculately by her mother St. Anne is the greeting of the angel in our gospel today.  The angel Gabriel in greeting Mary said, hail Mary, full of grace or in our gospel today hail full of grace, the Lord is with you.  The Greek word that was used by Luke was kecharitomene .  This word comes from verb charitoo which means “to fill with grace”. Kecharitomene is perfect passive.  When we say “perfect tense” it means the verb or the action was done in the past but its effects are there even in the present.  So if kecharitomene is perfect passive then it means that Mary was filled with grace in the distant past and the effect of this grace continues even now.  So Mary was full of grace not just during the annunciation when the angel visited her.  No.  She was full of grace even before that.  She was filled with grace in fact at the time of her conception.  That is why t...

Our responsorial Psalm today is the famous Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd with the response made appropriately for advent - I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.  This is a looking forward to the time when we too will reach our heavenly home, and home is not just a place to dwell in but the fulfilment of everything.  This would then be affirmed by today’s gospel where Jesus, concerned for the situation of the hungry crowd that followed him, fed 4,000 with just seven loaves and a few fishes.  It is Jesus who alone can feed us, who alone can satiate our hunger, and fulfil our needs.

Today our lex orandi is Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of hosts. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.   In the past we were used to say, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of power and might.   Now it is Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of hosts.   This is song comes from the vision of Isaiah when he saw God surrounded by throngs upon throngs of angels singing in the divine presence Holy, Holy, Holy Lord Sabaoth.   The Greek Church would call this hymn the trisagion - or the thrice holy.   The Hebrew does not have an adverb to signify a superlative.   There is no Hebrew for “very holy”.   When it says that God is “very holy” it simply repeats the holy three times - holy, holy, holy.   Daw pareho man na bala kon magsiling kita, baw ka guapa, guapa-guapa gid ya, nami-nami gid ya ukon major-major.    God is the holiest, the most holy, nothi...

Our first reading sounds fantastic. T he wolf shall be a guest of the lamb.  How do you make of that?   Why would the lamb invite the wolf as a guest?   Would it serve the wolf lamb chops?   And when did the lion become a vegetarian that now it grazes grass and hay   with the cow and its calf?   Can you imagine a little child made to play at the den of the cobra?   These are all fantastic.   It is out of this world, it is unbelievable, it is too good to be true.   It is not something you see every day, or even once in your lifetime.  This is what this season is all about - its about faantastic things - a virgin having a child, three kings coming from the east, angels hovering in the sky, shepherds adoring a future king - fantastic.  Not content we even added still another fantastic persona - Santa Claus.  Then we get to remember that Christ will come again - he will come in the clouds, and again angels will appear holding, bl...

Karon nga adlaw ginasaulog naton ang kapiestahan ni San Francisco Javier.  Sang High School kami ginsugid sa amon sang mga tigulang nga pari yadtong adlaw nga ang relic ni San Francisco Javier nagtener diri sing isa ka gab-i sa kapilya sang seminaryo.  Ang kapilya sadto anay didto pa sa music room sa kilid sang auditorium, siling nila.  Kag ang nag-abot nga relic amo ang naghalin mismo sa simbahan sang Gesu sa Roma - ang iya tuo nga kamot nga nagbunyag sang linibo ka mga tawo sa India ilabi na gid sa Goa kag sa iban nga bahin sang Asia lakip ang pungsod Japan.  Ginasiling nga basi nakahapit sia diri sa Manila pero tam-an ini ka labo tungod kay si St. Francis Xavier isa man ka representante sang hari Portugal kag sa sadto nga tion indi mayuhay ang pungsod Espana kag Portugal, kag subong man indi mayuhay ang mga Heswita kag mga Dominicano nga nagadumala sadto anay sang Pilipinas upod sa mga Prayle Agostino.  Ulihi na lang magaabot diri ang Heswita nga amo ang ...

This morning we have been talking about faith.  I am glad that we did before we read and before we reflect on our gospel today, the first Sunday of Advent.  I am glad that we talked about faith before reading a gospel that really sounds fantastic. Why did I say it sounds fantastic?   Listen to the gospel again - Jesus is telling the disciples of the great trial that is about to come, people he said will even die of fright, people will be tested, the world would undergo great tribulations, wars insurrections, and persecutions but amidst all these, the Son of Man, Jesus will come in a cloud with power and great glory.  

Two months ago we, the alumni of St. Vincent Ferrer have finally registered ourselves officially as Angkan ni Vicente, Inc.  We are now a juridical person and we have formally established ourselves as a real and legal organization.  Though this is in itself an achievement, I would like to believe that the real achievement lies elsewhere, specifically in your newfound enthusiasm to prop up an alumni organization that comes alive every tenth year and dies out even before the dust of the celebration settles down.  I was a seminarian in the 120 th celebration which saw an enthusiastic gathering of the alumni.  It stayed for a while then it died out. 

Today we celebrate the feast of the Apostle Andrew.  Peculiar with this apostle is the fact that he is always depicted in the gospels as one who introduced people to Jesus.  The first incident happened when he introduced his brother Simon who was later called Peter to Jesus.  Another was during the feeding of the five thousand.  When Jesus asked them to get food to feed five thousand men Philip, another apostle gave up, but Andrew found a solution.  He found a boy who had five loaves a few fish to Jesus.  He brought the boy to Jesus, introduced him and the rest is history.  Another incident was the meeting with the Greeks.  The Greeks wanted to meet Jesus but they were afraid to come near him for fear that Jesus might reject them.  Again Andrew came to the rescue and introduced the Greeks to Jesus.  That is the apostle Andrew.

Why are seminarians cloistered?  Why can’t they, like students outside, go home to their families every after class?  Why do we keep them apart and separated? Why are we not allowing cell phones?   If students outside, students who go home every night at that, need cell phones, how much more seminarians who need to communicate their needs to their parents who are living apart from them, and considering especially that those two pay phones we have are always out of order?   Can we allow them cell phones?   Shall we allow them ready access to facebook?   Shall we encourage them to have girlfriends?

What would life be without a sense of expectation?  Imagine how life would be without a sense of expectation.  It would be a life with no unplanned stops, like a drama plot with no twists, no turns, no surprises.  It would be a life without longing.  It would be a life without visions and dreams.  Without a sense of expectation people will begin to say, nothing good will come out of this.   Yes, the saint may no longer have the chance to become a sinner, but the sinner may never have the chance to become a saint.   It will be a world without mercy – no second chances, no hope for conversion, no chance to make up and do good.   It would be a world without room for mistakes.  

In life there will always be a time when your resolve will be tested.  There will be times when you will be tempted to give up on the good that you have started.  There will be times when you will feel discouraged because of so many obstacles, so many trials, so many things to endure and you will begin thinking of giving up.  It is in this context that the Lord is telling us today, by your perseverance you will secure your lives. 

Last week we talked about the word sacrifice - that the mass is not just a mass but the holy sacrifice of the mass.  This is because the mass is the sacrifice of Jesus in Calvary and it is made present today for our benefit.  But joined to this sacrifice of Jesus are our own sacrifices, that this, too, is my sacrifice and yours, for when we join our sacrifices as parents, as children, as husbands and wives, as priests and religious, when we join our sacrifices in life with that of Jesus, these too become acceptable to God the Father almighty.  That is why it is recommended that in every altar there is a relic of a martyr.  I do not know if our altar has a relic, but, although not required, it is something recommended. 

Today as we celebrate the feast of Christ the King, as we affirm that Jesus is King, we reflect on the gospel where he was presented before Pilate to be judged.  In reality, however, it was Pilate who felt judged as he goes from the praetorium and then out, then again inside the praetorium and then out again.  If you care counting the coming in and out of Pilate in this particular episode alone, he went in and out not twice, not thrice, not even four times, but seven times.  Why was Pilate going back and forth?  Why was Pilate doing this?  Because he has two things in his head pushing him back and forth.  And what are these two things in his head.  First, Pilate knew what was right.  And second, Pilate also knew what was easy.  If he only knew what was right, then no problem.  He will be forced to do what is right despite the difficulty.  If he only knew what was easy, then there would be no problem.  As some people would s...

Last week we reflected on the first person singular personal pronoun I and its implications on our life when we profess the faith saying the lex orandi, I believe.  Today we now make the jump to the second part of the mass, from the liturgy of the word, we now go to the liturgy of the Eucharist.   The Liturgy of the Eucharist starts with the offertory, the so called preparation of the gifts.   We prepare the gifts to be offered by bringing in the bread and wine mixed with a little water.   Then the priest washes his hands and invites one and all to pray that the Lord will make this sacrifice acceptable.   The exact words are: Pray brethren that my sacrifice and yours may become acceptable to God the almighty Father.   We are reminded that what we are doing is a sacrifice.   Many times we forget this.   Sometimes we just say ma-attend ako misa , but we have to remember that this mass is not just a mass but the sacrifice of the mass.

Last week we reflected on two things in the mass.  First, the collect and we said that these are opening prayer which are general in characteristic because it gathers all our prayers and intentions into on.  Through the collect we become one community, we become the ekklesia, a sambayanan, a people gathered to offer worship and prayers to God.  In the mass we do not pray alone - we pray as one community.  In the mass we become more clearly the church.  Second, we reflected on the importance of the word in our lives - that though these were written thousands of years ago it is ever new, it is ever relevant, it continues to nourish us. To uplift us, to console us and it continues even to pass judgement on our actions.   Jesus is present to us in his word.

Last week we reflected on the Gloria, the ancient pryer, Glory to God int he highest.  In particular we reflected on the greeting of the angel peace to men of good will, and we said that the gift of the incarnation was not because we deserved it, nor did God owe it to us, but that all these are divine initiative.  It is God who loved us first. He has given us graces although these are undeserved.  And finally he will grant us heaven not because we are worthy of heaven but because of his mercy.

Last week in reflecting on the confiteor or on the prayer “I confess,” specifically on reflecting on the words “through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault, I emphasized personal responsibility - sin is an act of choice and it is done with free consent.  In moral theology, the commission of mortal sin has three requirements - the act is grievous, there is full knowledge meaning you know that doing this is a sin, and lastly there is free consent, knowing that it is a grievous sin still one chose to do it. But there is one other thing I would like to emphasize in this lex orandi.   The prayer I confess is personal, but it is done in community even begging the other “to pray for me to the Lord our God.”   Through this prayer we are made to realize that the sin of one, harms others in the same way that the goodness of one enriches also others.   When a person is greedy for profit that he destroys the environment, his sin does not just affect...

I would have wanted, if you asked and insisted on it, that we do our evening prayers in the cemetery.  When I was in the FY in Mandurriao then and when morning prayers were individual, I would almost always do my morning prayers in the cemetery.  I would sit in one of the tombs and pray my morning prayer.  Yes I am a little morbid, I have a skull in my room, I am fascinated by the requiem and the dies irae of Mozart, Lully and Verdi and I recommend that you listen to the funeral songs of the Russian Orthodox church especially the litany - a sampler would be the funeral of Boris Yeltsin, once the president of Russia.  These songs are beautiful, heavenly in fact. But why label this preoccupation as morbid, and why present it as fearful, with howling dogs at the background, and creaking doors, and macabre music and pipe organs? This bias comes from western movies probably.   It is not Filipino.   Filipino tradition is to invite the souls, to invite the...

Last week we reflected on our response to the greeting and with your spirit and we saw the importance of this response especially in our faith, that the priest, despite his unworthiness, celebrates the sacraments in persona Christi - not in his person but in the person of Christ.  Thus it is Christ who baptizes, it is Christ who offers the mass, it is Christ who anoints.  Now we proceed to the confiteor, to the prayer “I confess to almighty God.”   This is part of the Penitential Act and the most obvious change in our new translation is not really surprising because we have been using this in the Hiligaynon translation - sa akon sala, sa akon sala, sa akon daku nga tuod nga sala - through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault.   Dala ang pokpok sang dughan .  

This is the second time this year that I am celebrating mass for an octogenarian who is celebrating his birthday.  First it was my mother’s 80 th birthday, now it’s Tay Badal’s 81 st birthday.  I am fascinated by this age for two reasons.  First, the book of psalms says that “our lifespan is 70 years old,” and it hurriedly adds “or 80 for those who are strong.”   To have reached 80 therefore is to reach the fullness of age, and since it is a fullness, it is an age where one can say, I have nothing more to ask.   Here, age and the things closely associated with age, like time, the succession of day and night, health, sight, great grandchildren, can truly be called and appreciated as gifts - something freely given, something extra even, something we can even call underserved.   Not all of us will be given this grace, not all of us are and will be given these extras in life.   It must be very beautiful and I am one with Tay Badal in saying thank you...

Pedro Calungsod is our second saint and all of them are martyrs - St. Lorenzo Ruiz was our proto-martyr or our first martyr who was killed because of his faith in Nagasaki in Japan.  Our second saint is St. Pedro Calunsod who was martyred in Guam in the Marianas Islands in the year 1672.  It is with excitement that we approach the Sunday when he will be canonized by Pope Benedict himself at St. Peter;s Square on Sunday. It could take several years, even decades to investigate the martyrdom and heroic virtue of Pedro.   He was beatified in the year 2000 at St. Peter’s Basilica by Pope John Paul II.   By beatification a person’s life is recognized as exemplary.   So the experts, priest, bishops and cardinals would investigate if indeed he has lived a heroic virtue.   Then if he is beatified he is given the title Blessed.  

Jesus is telling us that man, the person is composed of body and soul.  All of us have a body and a soul.  If you are body without a soul then you are dead because the soul gives life to the body.  The soul however can live even without the body.  Our souls are eternal.  We cannot kill it.  It will live forever no matter what we do.

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. 

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Ignatius, bishop of Antioch who was martyred in the year 107.  The church remembers him very well for he was the successor of St. Peter in the church of Antioch where for the first time the followers of Jesus were called Christians.  St. Ignatius became also the first to refer to the Christian community as catholic by calling it the Catholic Church.  St. Ignatius is well remembered because while he was being brought to Rome to be executed he wrote letters to different churches along the way.  He wrote seven letters in all, all of which have become part of the office of readings in our breviary.  When he arrived in Rome escorted by soldiers he was led to the amphitheater where he was devoured by two fierce lions.

And in true Daquilanea fashion, within an hour of leaving the hospital after Tatay's body was sent off to the funeral parlor, we were already laughing (albeit a little sadly), mocking and enjoying each other's company.  And I'm pretty sure Tatay was doing that very same thing with my mother and all other family and friends who have passed on in the afterlife. This is Roy’s narrative of the event as told in Facebook.   What Roy did not include in this narrative, which he entitled, “The House of Basoy", was the hour after that hour after they brought Tay Basoy to the funeral parlor.   I would like to continue where Roy left off.   This is how “the two hours later” went if it was written on Facebook.

Last week we talked about the sign of the cross symbolizing the two great tenets of the Christian religion namely the Holy Trinity, and secondly the Redemption brought about by the death of Jesus on a cross.  We also reflected on the meaning of the greeting “the Lord be with you,” and why good morning or good evening used as a greeting in the liturgy may sound bland and I should say, out of place inside the mass; and why the greeting the Lord be with you is such a profound and beautiful greeting.  Today we reflect on the meaning of our response to the greeting the Lord be with you.   Your response is, “and with your spirit.”   It is a direct and literal translation of the Latin response et cum spiritu tuo. At present when the priest says the Lord be with, we all respond “and also with you.”   In December, we will start using, “and with your spirit.”   This is our lex orandi, this is the rule of prayer which we should follow, at least in English. ...

Today we reflect on the attitude of Jesus towards money because the exchange in the dialogue between the young man and Jesus shows that Jesus cares about how we use our money.  A priest would always feel some degree of discomfort whenever he talks about money in the pulpit.  It would always be viewed as self serving.  Why?  Because after his sermon, the colecta takes place. But I would like to talk about it anyway.   After all there is no colecta after this homily although there will be some pressure on you this week with the signing of clearances and the settling of accounts because of the finals on Monday next week. So what is the attitude of Jesus towards money, how does he want us to use our money?

I would surmise that whoever chose the date for this convention did not consider our readings today, because if they did, they would have moved this convention a week earlier or a week later.  Since I presume that they didn’t know, I am now forced to talk this early about a naked man and a naked woman roaming around a garden, I am going to discuss adultery in a convention hall full of women, and I am going to speak about sex before some of us have even drunk our first cup of coffee.  And believe it or not, all these I would do over the microphone.  If you think these things shock your fine morning, consider how I felt last night, after living alone in my room for the past 19 long years, I came upon this passage which says, “and God said, It is not good for man to be alone.”   Then why the hell am I living alone?   You could have told me earlier that it is not good for man to be alone!   So there you go. Whoever chose the date for this convention is gi...

In our reflection on the liturgy we will use the age old principle which I discussed with you last week as our pattern of explaining what we do in the mass.  The principle is lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi - the way of praying lex orandi comes from our believing lex credendi and thus influence our way of living lex vivendi.  This is how we pray because this is what we believe and thus this is the way we act and live. Let us start with the sign of the cross and the invocation of the Trinity.   Our Lex orandi is In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit while we make the sign of the cross from our forehead to our navel, then to our left shoulder and to our right shoulder.   This is how we pray.   Why?   Because of our Lex Credendi, the rule of faith.   By making the sign of the cross we are starting the mass by affirming two very important tenets of our faith.   Without these two tenets of the faith we cannot be calle...

      It is with great excitement that the disciples reported back to Jesus after being sent to their mission. It was successful and they came back triumphant. At your name, they said, even the demons are subject to us. They realized that they had power, they can do miracles in his name. They can heal and drive away evil spirits from people afflicted in any way. They were happy and probably even proud. Thus Jesus said, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. It can mean that Satan’s kingdom is beginning to crumble because of what the disciples did in their mission. But it could also mean another thing. It can mean beware of the sin of Lucifer, beware of the sin of pride. The sin that makes us think that we can do things on our own and by our own power, and that we don’t need God nor do we need to obey.

We attribute greater responsibility to those who have greater privileges.  We may be tolerant when a child makes noises and plays out loud when mass is going on, but we will not be amused when an adult does the same in church.  We allow a child to do certain things in a formal occasion which we find intolerable and inexcusable for an adult to do the same.  This is the reason why the application of laws is different from a juvenile offender to an adult offender - because we attribute greater responsibility to those who have greater privileges.

What makes St. Francis popular even in our age? Several things come to mind.   Probably because he was a lover of nature.   He talked to birds and trees.   He was even seen preaching to the fishes in the pond.   Holiness does not mean being in the chapel or praying before the Blessed Sacrament.   St. Francis taught us what real holiness means, and it means to live constantly in the presence of God.   Whether we are in the chapel or in the classroom or gardening or working or playing, God is there and to be aware of his presence is to be holy; to live in his presences is holiness.

One of the criteria for discipleship is detachment.  Detachment means the willingness to cut relationships for something which we realize is of higher importance; the readiness to leave behind the things we value for the sake of the call. The willingness to cut, the readiness to leave behind – this is what detachment is all about and time and again this will be demanded from somebody who intends to follow Jesus in a more intimate way.

Today we celebrate the feast of our guardian angels.  In our gospel today, the disciples were warned not to despise children, for as Jesus said, their angels in heaven always look upon the face of the father.  It is an assertion by Jesus himself that angels are watching us, protecting us, and offering prayers to the Father for each one of us.  At times they are depicted as messengers from God.  That is why angels or aggelos in Greek means a messenger, a messenger from God.  Other times, however, they are also depicted to be praying for us to the Father, for as the bible says, they stand in God’s presence day and night.

Scandal comes from the Greek word skandalon which means an obstacle, an obstacle that makes people trip over.  The sin of scandal of which the gospel today speaks of, recognizes therefore several things in our faith and moral life. First we affect one another.   Whether we intend to or not, whether we accept it or not, there are people affected by what we say and what we do.   That is why there is a sin of scandal because people may lose faith because of what they see in us, people may be led to sin because of what they know about us, and people may be led away from the church because of what we do and how we treat others.   There is such a sin as scandal because we affect one another.

Last two weeks ago, we reflected on liturgy as prayer, that when we come to celebrate the mass, when we come to have our child baptized or confirmed or when we go to confession or get married, we come primarily to pray.  We affirmed that liturgy is not a performance but prayer, that whatever we do in the liturgy, whether it is in the selection of the songs we will sing, or in the ritual actions that we perform, or in the pakulo that we do in weddings for example, may mga bubbles-bubbles, may sira-sira puerta, the question is, do these things enhance prayer, that after all these things are done, can we say, I have prayed?  Again let me remind you liturgy is prayer. Our second point for this week in our consideration of the liturgy is this - liturgy is not just prayer but it is our prayer - not just my prayer, or his prayer, or your prayer, or her prayer or their prayer but, but our prayer.   The liturgy is the prayer of the church.

Today we read the very middle of Mark’s Gospel.  This passage is located at the very center of the gospel.  It is at the center because it separates the first part from the second part of Mark’s Gospel.  And more importantly it provides the transition from the first part to the second part. The first part is about the ministry of Jesus, the ministry of liberating men and women from the bondages of oppression - freeing them from diseases and sicknesses that enslave the body; freeing them from the evil spirits that take hold and control the soul; liberating them from ignorance that stifles the spirit and the mind.   These, Jesus did as he went all over Galilee healing the sick, casting out devils and demons and teaching the people the truth about God.

Not all values are the same.   Not all values are equal.   There is what we call a hierarchy of values.   When we say there is a hierarchy of values we recognize that in a particular context there is a prior value and a value of lesser degree.   We recognize that in a particular situation, there is a more pressing value and there is a less pressing issue.   The Sabbath rest is a value.  

The Greek word used to describe the debt of the servant to his master is huge, and the Greek word used is really huge, some say it is a hundred thousand days’ wages.  In other words it is so huge one cannot pay it.  And yet what did the servant say - "just give me time and I will pay you in full."  How can he pay the master in full?  It was huge, so huge he cannot repay it in his lifetime even if he tried.  That is why the master did not bite the offer, and instead told his servant that he has written off the debt.  It was too big, the master had it all erased.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe.  He was a priest in Poland when World War II started.  Like many Catholic priests in German-occupied Poland, together with the Jews, Fr. Kolbe was led to concentration camps by the soldiers of Nazi Germany.  He was imprisoned in the now infamous camp called Auschwitz .  As a matter of policy in this camp, every time a prisoner escaped nine people were to be executed in his place.  So from the group of Fr. Kolbe nine were chosen to die because one from their number escaped.  However one of those chosen to be executed was so afraid to die pleading with the Germans that he still has a family to take care.  When Fr. Kolbe heard this, he immediately volunteered to take the place of the prisoner.  The Germans consented and that prisoner was spared for Fr. Kolbe took his place.  They were herded in one room and they were made to die by starvation – no water and no food.  One by one they ...

For the Jews, a person who can solve intricate problems, a person who can come up with solutions to difficulties, is oftentimes called an up-rooter of mountains or one who pulverizes the mountains.  It is an expression used by Jews in Jesus’ time to describe one who removes difficulties. In our gospel today Jesus says that faith even the size of a mustard seed can resolve even the most complicated issues, it can find solutions to difficulties, and it can straighten out problems.  Faith in God is the instrument which enables men and women to remove the difficulties that block their way.

How do we teach a child to ride a bicycle?  If you keep on holding the bike chances are he will never fall and hurt himself, but he will also never learn to ride a bike.  A good bicycle teacher is somebody who would content himself by just running behind the bike, sometimes shouting out instructions, sometimes holding the bike to steady it, but most of the time he lets go of the bike to make the kid learn for himself, to permit the child to learn from his mistakes, to help the child respond to his sense of balance, which obviously he can only do by himself and not through another.  That was the way I learned to ride a bike, and I only learned to ride the bike because they did that to me, and though I hurt myself some time, I finally got the feel of it and learned to ride on it by myself.

After telling his disciples that he has to suffer and die and after a squabble with Peter who was so disturbed by the prediction of his passion, Jesus felt it necessary to show them his glory in the mountain of Tabor.  We call this event in the transfiguration.  After being permitted to see his humanity with its accompanying suffering and death, Jesus allowed them to see his divinity with its accompanying glory.  But with this order of revelation Jesus is telling them that the cross will precede the glory.  This too is our destiny.

I would like to propose two lessons.  The first lesson is from our first reading today.  We can call it "the failure to see the grander design of things; the failure to see the bigger purpose, or should we say the failure to see that the purpose is bigger than ourselves." The first reading tells of difficulty of the Israelites just freed from the bondage of Egypt.  They had no food, they had no drink and so they blamed Moses.  Well, in reality we grumble sometimes, for as long as it is not within hearing distance of the superior or the person concerned.  But this grumbling was quiet different.   It was downright insulting and rude, something which smacks of pride and so lacking in sensitivity and real appreciation.  "Would that we had died at the LORD's hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!   But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!"  Well it i...

The parable of the wheat and the weeds reveal to us the patience of God.  At the same time it also reveals to us our reality - the reality of our community, that we are wheat and weeds, the reality of our church and its history, that we were and are wheat and weeds, but above all it reveals to us our own reality, the reality about ourselves, that we are wheat and weeds. The master however was adamant to pull out the weeds because he said that in pulling out the weeds they also might pull out the wheat.  The master would not permit them to pull out the weeds because they might pull out not the weeds but the wheat. Why can’t they distinguish the wheat from the weeds?    Are they hard to distinguish?  Is it possible that what we thought are weeds are in reality wheat?  Can the master not trust the eyes of his slaves and their judgment?

When I go home, which is rather infrequent, the people in the house know already what to serve.  You might think that since my brother is a caterer I would be so fond of eating food with foreign sounding names.  At home even during fiesta my menu will be brought in only stealthily upon my arrival even if the buffet table is full of a great variety of food.  Home would always be grilled fish, fresh tomatoes, and dried salted squid.  The fish is ordinary, not the lapu-lapu or tuna types but something you can buy fresh in the wet market a few kilometers away.  If there is soup, the simple fish broth or the simple vegetables is preferred.  If fancy cooking is served, I prefer those accompanied with memories.  Sotanghon chicken soup and pork barbecue with sauce consisting of vinegar and ginamos, garlic and onion, are always associated with birthdays at home.  Pressured cook chicken with pineapple and mushrooms are always associated with excursion...

This is one of the few gospel passages quoted by Protestants to prove that Mary had others sons and daughters, that Jesus had brothers and sisters and that Mary was therefore not as we call her ever-virgin.  Some Protestants believe that Mary was only a virgin during the conception and birth of Jesus, but she did not remain a virgin after that.  She would have other sons by Joseph. But we Catholics believe that Mary was a virgin and is ever-virgin.  We believe that by saying “how can this be since I do not know man,” was already an indication as well as a resolve that she intend to remain a virgin.  That her consciousness of the sacredness of her womb where the Son of God dwelt for 9 months, made her consecrate this to God so that no other human being was ever allowed to touch and dwell in it again.  This is our belief - we believe in the Blessed Virgin Mary, ever Virgin.

Our gospel today is supposedly a long gospel which started with a discussion on parables.  In fact the gospel we read this morning is the culmination of this discussion about why Jesus was speaking in parables.  Why speak in parables, why not speak plainly, the disciples asked?  And Jesus explained his use of parables by saying, “because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted.” In other texts, this is translated as, “To you, it has been given to know the secrets of the Kingdom, which only a disciple can understand, but to them it has not been so given ” - secrets of the kingdom known only to a disciple; sometimes they are referred to as mysteries of the kingdom granted only to a disciple.

What does it feel like to be 80 years old?  No, I’m not asking how does it feel like to have arthritis and a gait slowed by age.  I believe I know the answers to those already.  But I am more curious about what does it feel like to have so many years in your life, with a memory still able to recall the good and the bad that transpired?  What does it feel like to have so many years in your life with a still vivid remembrance of the beautiful and the ugly, the triumphs and defeats, the successes and mistakes, the achievements and the regrets?  What does it feel like holding all the memories of those long years?

Let us talk about the subject I teach in the seminary for more than ten years now, the philosophy of beauty, or philosophical aesthetics.  What makes a thing beautiful, is it in the thing itself or is it in the way I see things?  Each philosopher has his or her own view why things are pleasing to a person while others are not.  In studying beauty St. Thomas Aquinas, the great catholic philosopher is a consolation for many of us.  He is a consolation because he said that all beings, all creatures, all men and women are beautiful in themselves.  Each of us is beautiful, he said, for each of us is created according to our nature and form. However, St. Thomas said, the problem comes in when a thing or person is seen in relation to another.  In itself you are beautiful but in relation to me, a thing or person can be ugly.  Kon ikaw lang, you are beautiful - kon ikaw lang.  Pero kon may iban nga nagalantaw, ti magadepende na ina sa ila.  Yo...

In reading the gospel today, an important question comes to mind.  It may sound funny, a mere cerebral exercise, but nevertheless it is an important question which may help us understand our gospel today.  The question is, what are the things God cannot do?  Have you ever wondered about that?  We have called God all-powerful, we have characterized God as omnipotent, in fact we pray, we come to Carmel to pray because we believe that he can do things, he can do all things for us.  But have we ever asked ourselves the question what are the things God cannot do? Philosophers have struggled with the question for centuries starting way back during the time of St. Augustine and even beyond.  They have asked questions like:  can God create a rock so huge he could not carry it?  Kon makaobra sia sang daku daku nga bato nga madala niya, puwes indi sia makagagahom kay ang maobra lang niya nga bato amo lang ang iya madala.  Kon maka-obra sia sang ...