visible rhetoric

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?