too familiar - 4th Sunday C 2013
If you notice around the Cathedral
yesterday and even today there are several vendors selling clothes for the Sto.
Nino. It is not just several clothes to
choose from, but it is a rack three layers high of clothes for the Sto. Nino. It is like the Children’s Section in a
department store where you can choose a variety of clothes in different styles
in different sizes for a child.
If there are sellers there are
definitely buyers for this type of merchandise.
In other words there are people who like to dress up their Sto. Nino
like dolls little girls play with.
The Candelaria used to be dressed yearly
like this too. Every year there are
different sponsors and a new set costing thousands of pesos, will always be made
on time for the fiesta. A lady from
Davao would come here yearly just to dress up the Candelaria. And she designs the gowns, the dress of the
Blessed Mother who, she insists, designs her gowns and even selects the type of
cloth to use, and communicates this to her in her dreams.
This attitude has some similarity to our
gospel today. For the people of Nazareth
Jesus was a familiar figure. He was somebody
just like them, who acts like them, who thinks like them because after all he
grew up in Nazareth, they knew his family and they knew who he was. And because he was somebody like them, they
presumed to know him thoroughly, they thought they knew what he was about to
do, and they presumed to know what he was thinking even. The adverse reaction of Jesus balances this
over familiarity or this presumption of familiarity that the people of Nazareth
have with him. Just because I am from
Nazareth does not mean that I am going to do more curing more healing here than
the rest of the country. No. God, who so favored Israel, did not heal any
leper from Israel but from Syria during the time of Elisha. And God, who so loved Israel, did not do any
miracle for the famished people of Israel during the time of Elijah but only to
a gentile woman of Zarepath. So do not
presume that you can read the mind of God, do not presume that God works with
the same logic that we use, that God has the same priorities and values that we
have. But this is precisely what this gospel is challenging us. We think God thinks like us. We think God does things the way we do
things. We think God sees things the way
we see things. But no. Jesus is not just man. He is also God. He is totally other. God said, as far as the heavens is above the
earth, so far are my ways above your ways.
In three weeks time you will be made to
pass your application letter if you still wish to continue here next year or
for the 4th year college if they wish to continue to theology next
year. Before you write this letter to me
I would like to ask you to discern if God indeed wants you to be here or to
proceed to college or theology. In your
discernment it is important to be aware of the reality that the gospel is telling
us. Discernment is about what God wants?
That is why I am asking you to discern and not just to think for
yourself but to discern what God wants for you.
And since this is a discernment, since this is asking if this is what
God wants, it is important to see your spiritual director.
The spiritual director is somebody who
helps the individual decipher the signs of the call, it is important that you
seek the honest opinion of your SD, his honest reading of what he sees in
you. Be interested with that. Why?
Because you want to do what God wants for you.
From the outset I would like to tell you
that I will not accept application letters which were not consulted with your
SD and that include, even if you are deciding to leave.
God does not think the way you
think. Don’t presume that you know the
will of God. Discern this with your SD
so that together you can read or at the very least, be given a glimpse of the
mind of God.
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