visible rhetoric

Given the chance, and especially the courage, I would be handing a letter of protest to Matthew and Luke objecting to the manner they told the story of Christmas and the many seeming contradictions and inconsistencies their stories portrayed. How could you say it’s all planned out from the neat arrangement of the ancestry of Jesus reaching as far as Abraham and even as far as Adam and Eve, how can you say it’s all planned out when on the night he was to be born they could not figure out where Mary would give birth because there was no vacancy in all the inns and lodging houses of Bethlehem.   How can they say God had it all figured out when in the middle of the night Joseph, Mary and the new born child had to flee to Egypt just in time when the soldiers of Herod began killing innocent children in the hope of killing the newborn king. Is this what you call all planned out, all foreseen as promised?   Then when the Holy family finally got the green light to go back to Israel they

Permit me to give you a very short summary just before this song of Zechariah was sung to celebrate the birth of his son John.  The last prophet of the Old Testament was the prophet Malachi.  In the last prophesy uttered by Malachi, the last prophet of the Old Testament, he foretold the birth of John the Baptist who like Elijah will bring people back to God and prepare the way of the Lord.  After this prophesy it would seem that God became silent.  For 400 years God did not send any prophet, God did not utter a word, God did not do any marvelous works.  God kept quiet.  In fact some people say that God fell asleep.  And for four hundred years God slept. Then after 400 years the angel Gabriel was sent to the temple one day to announce to Zechariah that his wife though old will give birth to a son who like Elijah will bring people back to God and prepare the way of the Lord.  Zechariah could not believe what he heard.  He even asked Gabriel for proof.  This angered the angel Gab

Each culture has a way of naming their children.   We Filipinos have our own way of naming children.   In fact our way of naming is so uniquely Filipino, it cannot be found in any other, and because it is so uniquely Filipino chances are you’re a Filipino if you are named as such. There are three Filipino characteristics in naming.   One is a portmanteau, the combination of two names to form another name.   So if your mother is Anna Maria and your father is Joseph you can be named Anjo; Juliana and Manuel named their son Julman; Ramon and Elsie had a daughter named Monelle. Another Filipino hallmark in naming children are the unnecessary h we place in names like Dhan with an h and Mhark and Ghirlie with an h.   And lastly people will know you are a Filipino if your name is repeated twice –Junjun, Dangdang, Pekpek, and Bongbong.

Daan na ini nga joke.  Ginahambalan ko na kamo nga daan para kadlawan nyo man. There was a man who asked the Lord this question, Lord what is a million pesos for you? And sure enough God replied, One peso.  Lord, the man asked further, what is a million years for you?  And God replied, A minute.  Lord, the man said, can you give me one peso?  And the Lord replied, Ok, wait a minute. Sang wala gid may nagkadlaw sini nga joke kaina sang Aguinaldo kay daw medyo natuyo ang tanan, ang mga seminarista nga nagsimba nagsiling sa akon, der daan na gid man ang joke mo – but anyway I would like to use this to illustrate something in our gospel today. 

For two months now, Yolanda, it seems, is directing and even determining most of our decisions and actions.   We have to postpone this because of Yolanda, we will put this off because of Yolanda, we are going to halve what we will spend in this affair because of Yolanda, instead of doing this we will do this because of Yolanda.  It’s all Yolanda, Yolanda, Yolanda.

Persian rugs are very costly because only an expert can make a Persian rug.  It is done manually, usually with the assistance of a child.  The rug is made to drape like a curtain tapos ang expert nga mananahi is on one side and the assistant child is on the other side.  The expert can only shout out instructions to the child according to the pattern and the design she planned to do.  P ero sa madamo nga bes sala ang tublok sang bata sala, ukon kabos and the pattern would change.  Ano karon ang obrahon sang mananahi?  Puede niya matastas but it would be taxing and laborious.  So instead of repeating the project the expert would work through the mistake and make a new pattern.  It will not turn out according to plan but it would always come out as an extraordinary and unique work.  It is said that this is what makes a Persian rug costly – its unique pattern borne out because of a mistake that was reworked by a gifted artisan to become a beautiful work of art.

Today I am assigned to the most boring day in this 9 day Aguinaldo masses.  This day has the most boring gospel.  I have just read a lot of names.  In fact the gospel is nothing but names.  Many are difficult to pronounce and some I mispronounced but you never even noticed, and I think you would not even care, because you are not also familiar with them.  So what does the gospel teach us with all these names?  Let me just present some of the lessons in random.

If you are familiar with psychology, then you may have encountered the importance of attention, the capacity to pay attention.  The first sign that a child’s mind is working is when he seems to pay attention to something sa bagay nga kon kaisa gina-ignore niya ikaw, ukon wala sia nagasapak sa imo mga utis-utis.   The child is paying attention to something and that is a very good sign because that is the first indication of the child’s capacity for consciousness – he is trying to focus on something.  We can learn only when we are able to focus.  We can relate with one another when we are able to focus, when we are able to give our full attention to something or to someone.  Actually most abnormalities are had k on makadto ini sa extremes - either w ala sang focus ukon amo lang ina ang focus niya sa bagay nga naga-withdraw na sia sa mga kinahanglanon sa kabuhi.   An abnormality may at times be a deficiency of focus or it may be when there is too much focus on only one thing.

The other year in my reflection on the Immaculate Conception of our Blessed Mother I said that the usual image we have to represent the Immaculate Conception is the image painted by the Spanish painter Murillo.  That is what we have here – the woman clothed with the sun with the moon under her feet, the imagery narrated to us by the Book of Revelation.  But there are two other purported images of the Immaculate Conception and they are first, the image of Our Lady of Lourdes for in that apparition to St Bernadette Soubirous the beautiful lady when asked what her name was answered, I am the Immaculate Conception.  And the other image which appeared this time to St. Catherine Laboure is the image of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, where, engraved in that medal is an inscription “O Mary conceived without sin; pray for us who have recourse to thee.”  In this second image one can see not only the image of Mary and the inscription, but also a green snake stepped upon, underneath the

Yesterday in my dialogue with our grade seven in the seminary I was trying to explain to them the meaning of advent.  Advent, I said, is about looking forward, advent is about being hopeful, it is expecting the good that is to come, it is about anticipating the joy that will gladden our lives, it is waiting with patience at the light that would brighten our darkness, it is looking forward to the happiness that God will bring to our lives, it is about fulfillment, it is about perfection, it is about completion and the realization of every good desire.  Look at the reading, I added, Isaiah would want us to strain our eyes forward telling us on that day, on that day, on that day when all expectations and dreams will be fulfilled. 

Today we start advent – our time of preparation for the two comings of our Lord.  His coming on the last day when he will judge the living and the dead and his coming on Christmas, his first coming to redeem the world.  The message of today’s gospel fits well the first preparation – the preparation for the final judgment.  On that night the gospel says there will be two men in one bed; one will be taken and the other left.  Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left. 

When I was in my elementary years I was actively involved in the Flores de Mayo in our Barangay, in the barangay sang Birhen with the estandarte or banner transferred every evening from one house to the other after praying the rosary, and also in the urna of the miraculous medal which came to our house once a month.   There was also that yearly rosary rally which I remember also attending – one in San Agustin for which Fr. Peyton himself came, the priest who coined the family that prays together stays together.   And the other rosary rally was in the Sports Complex which was attended I remember by the Archbishop – it was Archbishop Casas.   I can still picture out the car coming to the stadium – it was an impala with green curtains at the back. I can still picture that out because I could see it clearly from where I was standing in the bleachers.    I also remember walking from Oton to the San Agustin and we were led by our parish priest Msgr. Calvo who was the same parish priest

Today is the fiesta of Leon with her patroness St. Catherine of Alexandria.  Catherine is also the patroness of Philosophers and Preachers because of her great learning and her eloquence. Catherine was of noble birth by King Costus and Queen Sabinella, who governed Alexandria in Egypt.  Kag tungod sini nahatagan sia sing kahigayunan nga makatuon sing maayo.  Her superior intelligence combined with diligent study left her exceedingly well-versed in all the arts and sciences , and in philosophy .  And this brought her to Christianity.  She was converted and baptized.  When the Roman Emperor Maxentius persecuted the Christians this brave young lady went up to the emperor and denounced him for his cruelty.  He even challenge the emperor for a debate on the superiority of the Christian faith against the pagan religion.  The emperor called the best pagan philosophers and orators to dispute with her, hoping that they would refute her pro-Christian arguments, but Catherine won th

If you follow carefully the gospel the reward given to those who have worked hard, the reward for those who invested time, effort and sweat is quiet intriguing.  The reward for their work is more work, the reward for a work well done is still more work to do.  It is quiet ironic but true.  The king never said – now because you have worked so hard, you can relax, have a free day, drink at Bavaria.  The king did not say that.  Instead he gave them more work.  This is not mine.  This is the gospel.  But isn’t it true?

What is the symbolism behind Zacheus climbing a Sycamore tree?   Zacheus could have climbed other trees but why a sycamore?   Or Matthew could have just mentioned Zacheus climbing a tree but why did he have to identify it as a Sycamore?   What is so important about a Sycamore tree that it is mentioned by name?

A virtue becomes a virtue because it is done habitually, a firm disposition in the person to do good.  It is not a virtue when it is done once in a while.  It is not a virtue when we do things because at the moment we are so fired up to do good or at the moment we are bombarded situations of pity.  Virtue is habitual, it is persistent, it is a firm disposition to pursue the good at all times.  In other words it is the good that perseveres to the end.

The message of today’s gospel is as simple as it sounds but the hardest to face.  On that night there will be two men in one bed; one will be taken and the other left.  Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.  What is the message of today’s gospel?  It is this:  there will be times in my life when I have to face things alone.  There will be times in my life when somebody will say to me, from now on you are on your own.  There will be times in my life when my very own survival will not depend on anybody else but me.  There will be times in my life when I will have to single handedly, unaided by anybody, fight for what I believe.  Finally there will be times in my life when I have to face the consequences, when I have to stop blaming anyone for what ails my life, when I have no one to blame but myself. 

Many times when we think of the kingdom of God what comes to mind is a beautiful, serene and peaceful place, a place quiet repose, a place of beauty and tranquility.   Suffering can never be a characteristic of the kingdom of God.   It cannot be a place of conflict, of devastation, of danger and human misery.   These are characteristics opposed to our concept of the kingdom of God.   But are they really opposite of God’s kingdom?   Can we not find God in human misery, in squalor, in destruction and calamities?

There was this unnatural scene in National Geographic when animals who would have ordinarily fought each other to the death and animals who would have stalked and eaten the other are seen together on a hill surrounded by flood water.  They were not killing each other, and nobody was eating the other.  They were there standing saving themselves from the flood and waiting for the waters to recede.  So lions and cheetahs stood together and so were the zebras and the gazelles.  It was an unnatural scene created by a supernatural circumstance.  If the circumstance were natural, they would be meters and even miles apart from each other.

Christianity is a divided church.   Christianity in the world today is composed of 63 percent Catholics, 13 percent Eastern Churches, that includes the Greek Orthodox Churches, and 23 percent Protestants.   But all in all Christianity is just 29 percent of the world population because 71 percent is non-Christian.   In the 1500’s Christians were literally at war with each other.   Europe was aflame because of Catholics and Protestants.   And in Russia and in the Baltic Nations   Catholics were at war with Orthodox churches.   It is a scandal even until now that the followers of Jesus cannot see eye to eye.

There was some debate which raged in Facebook recently about celebrating Halloween with ugly masks and horrible makeup.  But since I joined Facebook with the sole purpose of updating myself as to what is happening around, I just listened and read comments as they came which turned quite nasty at some point.  But this is my two cents worth opinion.  Every culture in the world has its share of ghosts and ghost stories.  I for one thought that white ladies are residents of Iloilo or at least the Philippines until I saw in Discovery Channel that they also have a white lady in Vietnam and Thailand.  This preoccupation with Aswang I believe comes from our innate struggle to understand or even to find a solution on the problem of death, to come to terms with death.  Since day one in the womb of our mothers there has always been a preoccupation to survive, to want to hold on to life, to want to live as long as it takes.  Nevertheless someway, somehow we will definitely meet the way of a

I would like to emphasize two things in these closing remarks.   First, there is a need to balance things and in the seminary program this is helped by identifying the different dimensions of formation which are CASA and the activities that fall underneath each dimension.   This balance is further made practicable by our schedule – there is a time for the activities falling under spiritual life, there is a time for academic life, for activities falling under apostolic life and there is a time for community life.   The dimensions establish balance and the daily schedule makes this balance concrete.   Individuals in our community become sick when they lose balance.   Our community becomes sick when a large part of individuals in our community loses their balance.   When you spend the whole night until the wee hours of the morning doing an assignment, and in the process miss your prayers in the morning or spend most of it asleep, then you lose balance.   When several in the community

Invitations were sent out but what came back were excuses.  What is an excuse?  An excuse means to justify and defend, to reason and to explain for the purpose of mitigating a fault or justifying a decision.  The people who were invited to the banquet have to find reasons for refusing the invitation.  They felt somehow that they need to justify their absence.  They felt somehow that they would certainly offend the king and so they have to provide reasons to justify their absence and therefore mitigate or lessen the kings anger, and therefore also lessen their guilt.  Only a person, a human person can do this, only a person can make excuses and only a person in fact feels obliged to make excuses.  Why, because when we were created our nature is such that we cannot do anything unreasonable, specifically we cannot do anything that is not reasonably good.  Antes kita magbuhat sang isa ka butang may rason gid kita kag ina nga rason sa aton panan-aw kag paghangop maayo.  Indi kita mak

Today we come to celebrate enduring fruits and to consecrate enduring endeavours.   What do anniversaries celebrate?   What do we affirm when we celebrate anniversaries?   In anniversaries we celebrate enduring values, we affirm enduring commitments, we renew enduring struggles.   There is a big difference between a contract and a covenant. In a contract, the terms are no longer binding when one party fails in his obligations.   A covenant is different however.   In a covenant when one party fails, the other party continues to remain faithful.   This is our relationship with God.   It is enduring no matter what.

I have seen your Facebook and your campaign against Halloween which nowadays seem to glorify evil and its minions including ghosts, zombies, vampires, Frankensteins, tamawo, mantyo, capri, mananangal, aswang, bagat and the like.  Actually every culture in the world has its share of ghost and ghost stories.  I for one thought that white ladies are residents of Iloilo or at least the Philippines until I saw in Discovery Channel that they also have a white lady in Vietnam and Thailand.  This preoccupation with aswang I believe comes from our innate struggle to understand or even to find a solution on the problem of death, to come to terms with death.  Since day one in the womb of our mothers there has always been a preoccupation to survive, to want to hold on to life, to want to live as long as it takes.  Nevertheless someway, somehow we will definitely meet the way of all mankind in our own time, in our own death.  For as long as we could not come into terms with our mortality,

We come now to the second to the last article of the faith, the eleventh article which says, I believe in the resurrection of the body. When we die, and we will all die, our souls will be separated from our bodies.  But with the resurrection, our bodies and souls will be reunited again forever.

Have you done something unusual in your life in order to do what you believe Jesus is asking from you?   Have you done something unusual or even something outrageous for what you believe is the right things, for what you believe that wants you to do?   Recently there has been a barrage of unique, unusual and even outrageous things people do to propose a marriage – some popped the question, “will you marry me” in the middle of a busy airport, some did it by proposing 20,000 feet in the air, some did it by buying ads on TV and others did it on billboards, some asked Tom Cruise to do it for them and some have even proposed by making a privilege speech in the august halls of congress.   The crazy things we do for love. But back to the question – have you done something unusual for God, something ridiculous even, something people don’t expect you to do?

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.  When he arrived in Rome escorted by soldiers he was led to the amphitheater where he was devoured by two fierce lions.

Last week we began reflecting on the tenth article of the faith which says, I believe in the forgiveness of sins.  And I invited you to reflect silently on this article of our faith and its implication in us.  Do you really believe that sins can be forgiven?  Do you believe in your heart that God can change his mind about you and about everyone else?  Do you believe that God is more powerful than all the sins in the world?

In our gospel today the ten lepers shouted to Jesus their plea, Jesus have pity on us; Master, have mercy on us.  To ask for mercy is more than just to beg for a feeling of compassion.  Mercy is not just heartfelt sorrow, mercy is not just an empathy for the suffering.  Mercy goes further.  Mercy seeks to remove suffering.  When a person asks for mercy he is asking that his suffering be taken out, that his suffering be removed.  A merciful person shares in the suffering of another and he will do everything in his power to take away the misery of the other, even to take it upon himself.  This is what the ten lepers begged from Jesus.  By saying, “Lord have mercy,” they were begging Jesus, they were begging God to remove their pain.  Only God can dispense mercy, and mercy can be asked only from God, for only God can remove suffering. 

We continue our reflection on the 12 articles of the creed and we are now on the tenth article where in we profess saying, I believe in the forgiveness of sins.   We believe in the forgiveness of sins.   Have you ever spent time just reflecting silently on this article of the faith?   Did you ever ask yourself the question, do I believe that my sins are forgiven, do I believe, really believe that God forgives my sins, Do I believe that God forgive also the sins of others?   Sometimes we take it for granted perhaps, that God forgives us.   But many times it may be a scandal to us that God forgives others too especially those we find difficult forgiving.

In a bible class once, a participant asked me, did God stop doing miracles?  Why I asked?  Because, he said, in the bible we always find God doing miracles. He would fight for them in their battles, he will send rain why the earth is dry, God will cause a spring of water to rise when they are thirsty, he will rain bread to feed them when they are hungry, he even set water aside so that his people can cross the sea by walking on dry land.  Even in the time of Jesus he did a lot of miracles.  He cast out evil spirits, he straightened hands withered by abnormality, he multiplied bread and fish, not just once but twice, he calmed the sea and commanded the wind to die down, he even raised the dead to life.  So many miracles.  But now no more.  Did God stop doing miracles?  This is also the cry of the prophet Habakuk. “I cry for help,” he said, “but you do not listen.” Is this the result of what Jesus in the gospel is saying?  Are there no more miracles because of our lack of faith?

“Do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” The disciples were returning from their apostolate and they were happy with what they did, they were satisfied with the people they have helped, and they came back rejoicing and Jesus rejoiced with them.  But Jesus took this occasion to remind them the real source of joy.  It is not on what they did, it is not on the powers they possessed, it is not on miracles they performed.  Rather Jesus said, rejoice because your names are written in heaven.

Two lessons: First, today Chorazin and Bethsaida were condemned because they did not believe, and much worst, they did not see the miracles performed by Jesus in their midst.  I think this is also our difficulty today, the difficulty to believe and the difficulty to even see miracles.  Why is it difficult to believe in the mighty deeds of the Lord?  Why is there difficulty in seeing his miracles?

Today we celebrate the feast of our guardian angels. Angels are real.  They are not just figments of our imagination.  They may not always look the way we expect angels to look like – dressed in dazzling white and with pure white wings but their presence in our lives speak to us about God.

Last week we started our reflection on the 10 th article of the faith which is, I believe in the communion of the saints, and we talked about its implication particularly in our view of death, asserting the fact that we are spirits who happen to have bodies and thus we live forever.   We also asserted that   in life and in death we are a communion, we are one body under Christ and the only thing that can separate us, the only thing that excludes us from this communion is sin.   That is why when we commit a grave sin we are excommunicated, excommunio, we are excluded, we are expelled from the communion, sin expels us, sin cuts us out.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus.  Supposedly today is your fiesta because Assumption is part of the parish of Sta. Teresita.  The point is St. Therese is a patron and we entrust ourselves to her prayers and protection.  More than this however we look to her as a teacher of holiness.  Last night I have shown seminarians the book History of Spirituality , a thick book composed of two volumes and it narrates the history of spirituality from the start of Christianity until now.  It can be mind-boggling studying these two volumes.  But St. Therese simplified all of that with her childhood spirituality.  There are a lot of simple things that can become a path to holiness for us – simple things.  Today I would like to reflect on one path dear to the heart of St. Therese.  It is the virtue of obedience.  For Therese obedience is not just obedience which means to obey, to sacrifice one’s will, to bow down to the will of the superior, to go where you do not

Humility is the root of all virtues, as its opposite, pride, is the root of all sin.  When a person is not humble, when a person is full of himself he cannot truly serve others for he will always be thinking about what’s in it for him.  When a person is full of himself he cannot truly love others because he will always prioritize his desires rather than sacrifice for the sake of the other.  When a person is not humble, when a person is full of himself he cannot tell the truth except when the truth is to his advantage.  Otherwise he lies.  When a person is full of himself he cannot have real friends.  He will try to buy them, he will try to bribe them but they will not stay for long, for real friendship requires an emptying of self, when a person begins to think of the good of the other. 

Humility is the root of all virtues, as its opposite, pride, is the root of all sin.  When a person is not humble, when a person is full of himself he cannot truly serve others for he will always be thinking about what’s in it for him.  When a person is full of himself he cannot truly love others because he will always prioritize his desires rather than sacrifice for the sake of the other.  When a person is not humble, when a person is full of himself he cannot tell the truth except when the truth is to his advantage.  Otherwise he lies.  When a person is full of himself he cannot have real friends.  He will try to buy them, he will try to bribe them but they will not stay for long, for real friendship requires an emptying of self, when a person begins to think of the good of the other. 

Humility is the root of all virtues as its opposite pride is the root of all vices.   When a person is not humble, when a person is full of himself he cannot truly serve others for he will always be thinking about what’s in it for him.   When a person is full of himself he cannot truly love others because he will always prioritize his desires rather than sacrifice for the sake of the other.   When a person is not humble, when a person is full of himself he cannot tell the truth except when the truth is to his advantage.   Otherwise he lies.   When a person is full of himself he cannot have real friends.   He will try to buy them, he will try to bribe them but they will not stay for long, for real friendship requires an emptying of self, when a person begins to think of the good of the other.  

The issue at hand in our gospel today is not simply that the man is rich or that he has no compassion for the poor man.  The issue at hand is that the wealth of the rich man is preventing him from seeing or relating to Lazarus as a fellow child of God.  If you notice even if he was already in the afterlife, his status as the rich man made him assume that he can order around those at the lower economic bracket – he told Abraham to tell Lazarus to do this and that for him.  He could not even talk directly to Lazarus but he assumed he could talk directly with Abraham.  Ka-level sila ni Abraham, pero indi sila ka-level ni Lazaro.

          The Literary Musical Contests which we do yearly in the seminary is a means to an end.  If these are ends in themselves we would have contented ourselves with forming better musicians, better orators, better dancers and better artists.  But no, they are means to an end.  These means to an end are done in the context of a contest because many times competitions bring out the best in people, competitions make people work harder, competitions can motivate people to give their best if not their all.  But again who comes first and who comes second is beside the point.

In the tenth article of the faith we affirm that we believe in the communion of the saints.  The catholic church is a communion of the saints and each one of us is part of this communion.  What then is the communion of the saints?  It is “the spiritual solidarity that binds the faithful here on earth, the souls in purgatory and the saints in heaven” in the one body of Christ.  In traditional catholic teaching we identify three states of the one body of Christ, three states of the one church of Christ. 

“The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones;   and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones. ” Here’s a poem by Cindy Tuttle entitled, “It's the little things that matter,” and I think it speaks about what Jesus is saying in the gospel today.  We prepare for crisis by learning how to handle the small problems We learn to pray by noticing the little miracles of God's creation We grow in faith by showing love in little ways We appreciate life by noticing the so called little things that we take for granted Yes, it's the little things in life that matter.

Summarizing into a statement our readings today most especially our seemingly complicated gospel, we can come up with this: How do you use, how do you make use of the resources, the gifts, the responsibility given to each one of us.  Paano mo gina-usar ang mga butang ukon bagay-bagay nga yara sa imo.  Paano mo ini ginagamit?  Given his precarious situation, the dishonest steward in our gospel today taught of something ingenious so that he can use money to his advantage, so that he can use his position in order to engender good relationships with others and thus bring security to himself.  This is not about holding a high position, this is not about the amount of wealth one has accumulated, it is not about the number of talents one has, it’s not even about what you have.  Rather it is how you use the things that you have, it is how you use the things you already have.

We are not really sinners in the sense that we are prodigal sons and daughters who squander our inheritance and thus need to return to the father humble and contrite.  We are not really wayward and delinquent like lost sheep which did not follow the flock as they were herded into the pen.  Well at least most of us are not.  In fact many of us are among the ninety nine sheep, most of us if not all are the elder son, and many of us, I am sure are normally righteous, people who are trying to do good and become good everyday of their lives.

The ninth article of the faith says that we are a catholic church because among others we have means available to us – we just don’t have the Word of God or the bible, we have also the sacraments to make things complete; we just don’t rely on faith in order to be saved, we also have to do good, to make a difference in this world in order to be saved.  I call this the catholic attitude.  It is the attitude of doing more for God, the attitude of walking the extra mile for God, the readiness to go anywhere, the readiness to do anything depending on the call of God, it is the capacity to re-adjust our routine when God calls us to a certain endeavor .   

Parables are stories that are told to capture a particular moment in our life when we were touched by grace.   Parables are stories that bring us back to a particular moment in our lives so that we can reappraise what happened, perhaps re-appreciate it, and even more to learn from the same experience again.  Parables evoke an experience. Today the Lord tells us a parable and to profit from this story we have to ask ourselves what particular moment in our lives, what particular experience, what grace-filled moment would the Lord want us to go back to, to look back into and to learn from?  Ano ang mga hitabo sa aton kabuhi, mga grasya nga ginapadumdum sa aton sang sini nga istorya nga ginasaysay ni Jesus.

The ninth article of the faith affirms that we are a church, that this church is holy and this church is catholic.  Catholic, why do we call ourselves catholic?  What do we mean when we say catholic?  Catholic literally means “about the whole,” “on the whole” or “in general” or we can just simply say “yara ang kabug-osan.”  Yara dira ang tanan, indi ang isa lang ka bahin, indi ang tunga lang, ukon ang gabang lang, ukon ang pila lang ka nahot, kundi ang kabug-osan, ang kabilogan, ang bug-os nga pamaagi agod maagum ang kaluwasan. A former catholic who converted to another Christian sect decided to go back again to the church.  She said, I love their emphasis on the bible, I love their fellowship but there are times that I hunger, I crave for the Eucharist which they do not have.  May kulang, indi bug-os, indi kompleto.  

We continue reflecting on the ninth article of faith, I believe in the holy catholic church.  We are a church, we are called to become a community, not individuals serving the Lord but a community serving the Lord, and a community serving each other in the Lord.  Beginning today let us make two very important reality checks in us because of our belief in the Church. First that this church, this people gathered by the Lord is holy.  We are holy not because of what we did.  We are holy not because none of us are sinners.  Rather we are holy, each of us are holy, because of who Christ is for us and what Christ has done for us.  But this holiness is still imperfect.  We are all called to perfect this holiness which is already in us like a seed, we are all tasked to perfect this holiness implanted in us by Christ, to make it grow, to nurture it.

Today we proclaim the ninth article of the faith saying, I believe in the Holy Catholic Church.  We know what holy is, we probably have an inkling what catholic means, but first let us ask ourselves, what is a church?  The word church comes from the Hebrew word, qahal , translated to Greek as Ekklesia , translated to Latin as Ecclesia and translated into Spanish as Iglesia .  Santa Iglesya means a people gathered, called out to an assembly – ang gintawag kag gintipon .  The word church is a reference to this kind of assembly – what kind of assembly, and therefore who assembles this people.  The word church comes from the Greek word Kyriake, Kirche in German and Church in English and the word means “that which belongs to the Lord.”  So this gathering, this assembly is not just any assembly, it is not just any gathering – it is a gathering of all that belongs to the Lord.  So we believe in the church that we are a people called together, called to gather, called to become one bo

I came tonight and people did not have a hard time convincing me to celebrate this mass because I can claim that I was once a heir, I was once an heredero.  I say it in the past tense because it happened 3 years ago when she sold her house in Comision Civil and she realized she could not bring everything with her to her new but much smaller residence.  For the record in the more than 30 boxes I received for the seminary and the countless cabinets, and the hundreds of figurines and objects nothing is really of value if value is measured monetarily.  If I decided to accept these from her, especially the bound literary works of Magdalena Jalandoni, it is because of the heritage and cultural value these things have for future generations.  

The 8 th article of the faith says, We believe in the Holy Spirit.  What is the Holy Spirit?  The Hebrew word for spirit is ruah , meaning breath – the holy spirit is the breath of God.  Remember when God created Adam and Eve, when God created us, human beings.  God got clay and breathed on it.  We have life because of the Spirit of God, we are created because of the Holy Spirit.  Without the breath of God we are nothing but dust or earth. 

What is the source of our greed?  What makes us greedy?  What makes us accumulate more than we can use?  What drives this insatiable feeling of never having enough?  What is it in our life that seduces us, like the farmer in the gospel, to want to build ever bigger bodegas to hoard, to amass, to grab what we can?

Your Excellency, on this feast of St. John Marie Vianney, we are with you today our parish priest to celebrate your birthday and the anniversary of your ordination to the episcopate.  By celebrating your birthday we affirm not just the fact of your existence but we celebrate who you are to us, your existence in relation to us.  In other words we celebrate your purpose, the reason why God created you in love.  In the bible, particularly in the book of Genesis, the holy authors affirmed that each one of us is created on purpose and with love.  That when God creates a human life it is not some machinery that creates in random, that it is not some haphazard or arbitrary setup that creates accidents and indiscriminate results.  Each one of us is created on purpose.  Each one of us has been prepared for.  Each one of us has a reason.  This is what we celebrate today in our seminary community – who you are for us, what you are for our community, who you are in our calling to become priests

As we gather this afternoon to commemorate the martyrdom of St. Pedro Poveda in this Eucharist, we reflect together on the importance and necessity of prayer – “prayer as the only strength.”  St. Pedro said that if any one of you places her trust in something other than prayer – “if our strength is rooted in talent, or in status or in something merely human - she does not know the work, she does not possess its spirit.”  And so today we make the prayer of the disciples in our gospel our own – Lord, teach us how to pray.  We ask the Lord to teach us how, to show us the way, to give us a sample, a pattern, perhaps; to discover what attitudes to bring in prayer, what words to use, what emotions to arouse, what values to keep in our hearts when we pray.

After God gave the ten commandments and after Israel agreed to observe them, God made a covenant with Israel symbolized by the blood of young bulls.  A covenant is unlike a contract.  In a contract when one party violates the terms, this violation frees the other party from his obligations.  A covenant however is different. 

Today in our first reading we read the ten commandments.  These commandments are very short and yet they can be expanded to mean and imply a lot of things.  It came to be written in stone but they expressed what is already written first in our hearts.  Thus it is called the natural law for everyone of us, believer or not, Christian or pagan, sophisticated or primitive, take these as laws to be followed.  We don’t have to be told that taking what is not ours is wrong, we don’t have to be taught that we should honor father and mother.  These are already written in our hearts.  In fact in the book of Deuteronomy Moses would tell the people that these things are already written in our hearts, that all we have to do is to carry them out.

Our gospel in this feast of St. James the Greater tells us three things about how Jesus reacts to our prayers and petitions.  First Jesus is very interested in what we would have him do for us, even, as in the case of James and John outrageous things, or things we would be too embarrassed for other people to hear.  Just the same Jesus is interested with them. 

The exodus experience of Israel goes deeper now.  In our first reading today the Israelites are made to confront a stronger temptation in their journey to God – the temptation that is intrinsically connected with the basic needs of a human person – in our reading it is about food, but it can also be about health, and it can even be about companionship.  Unlike the other temptations these kinds of temptations are stronger.  They are not easily shaken off. Remember, when Jesus was tempted the first assault by the devil was immediately a temptation on food. The devil probably thought that Jesus would fall prey with one easy swoop when you tempt him on something as basic as food.   Because when somebody is deprived of something as basic as food, it is easy also to take away hope and sow despair in the heart of the person.  That is why during lent part of the Lenten exercise is to say no to food – through fasting and abstinence.

In the eighth article of the faith we profess our faith, saying, I believe in the Holy Spirit.  We believe in the third person of the Blessed Trinity.  We believe in the Spirit or the breadth of God, the giver of life, the advocate, the helper, the comforter.  The Spirit goes with so many names, in so many descriptions.  The Spirit cannot be seen but he makes his presence known by the gifts he bestows on us and by the fruits of his presence in us.  There are seven gifts of the Spirit and there are 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  It might be good to dwell and reflect on each of these in the future.  But for purposes of our reflection today I would like to cite just one proof that the Spirit dwells in us.  St. Paul says that it is the Spirit dwelling in us that makes us cry out “Abba,” which means “father.”  Abba is an Aramaic word for Father but used only as a term of endearment.  In other words it is not the formal, the reserved, the prim and proper term “father” or in Hi

The experience of Israel at the time of the exodus, when they journeyed from Egypt to the land of promise, has always been used as an image of our own journey to God.  Our first reading for example is required reading for the vigil of Easter, for the crossing of the Red Sea is an image of baptism.  To cross from the slavery of sin to the land of freedom we have to cross the water, meaning we have to be baptized.  The crossing is an image of our baptism. 

The Egyptians were in pursuit and the Israelites where in a state of panic.  They even blamed Moses for bringing them out of Egypt. They even taunted him saying, “Were there no burial places in Egypt that you had to bring us out here to die in the desert?”  But Moses answered them saying, “fear not, stand your ground.”

In Rome almost all religious congregations honor their founders with a monument usually by erecting images of their founders.  The Carmelites also honor theirs with an image, underneath of which one can read the words of dedication saying: “The entire Carmelite Order erected this statue to its founder.”  And who is the founder?  The Prophet Elijah, aka St. Elijah whose feast Carmel celebrates every 20 th of July.  That is one claim to fame of the Carmelite Order – having Elijah as its founder . . . unless of course some Jesuit or Mill Hill father can also come up with a story that would relate them to Joshua or Solomon or to Moses perhaps.  As it is, the Carmelites are unbeaten in this regard.