visible rhetoric

The third article of Faith teaches us that Jesus was “conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.” Indi bala sang una kon ang imo ngalan si Jose ang imo ayo Pepe?  Kon diminutive ginatawag ta Pepito.  Ngaa Pepe?  It refers to the Spanish letter P pronounced as pe – “doble P”, or in English letter letters P and P.  Pepe is an acronym or an abbreviation of Padre Putativo .  Putativo means the reputed – so the reputed father, ang ginakilala nga amay ni Jesus – ginakilala kon sayuron indi sia tuod nga amay ni Jesus .  Mary is the true Mother of Jesus because she conceived him in her womb, but Joseph is only the Pepe, the reputed father, but not the true father, for Jesus was not formed in the womb of Mary because of Joseph but by the Holy Spirit.  That is why the creed says that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary.  Mary was and remained a virgin because there was no intervention by Joseph.

Today, the 4 th Sunday of Easter, is called the Good Shepherd Sunday because it is the Sunday when the gospel about the Good Shepherd is read, the Sunday when in the gospel Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd.  Traditionally this is also the Sunday when priests are asked to include in their homilies an invitation especially to the young people of the parish to consider the religious vocation – the vocation to the priesthood and the vocation to the religious life.  Thus logically this is the Sunday which the venerable Pope Paul VI declared fifty years ago as the World Day of Prayer for Vocations.  This is the Sunday in the year set aside by parishes and religious communities all over the archdiocese as the Sunday where we gather to pray for the increase of vocations to the priesthood and the religious life.  That is why after this mass, for those of you who may not have any appointments, those of you who have time to spare, are invited to join our archbishop an...

In our common reflection on the creed we come now to the third article of faith which says that Jesus “was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and was born of the Virgin Mary.”  Beginning today we reflect on the mystery of the incarnation, the mystery when the Son of God became flesh, the mystery of the faith which professes that the second person of the Blessed Trinity though true God became true man for our salvation, the mystery that attest that God became man.  This is the mystery of the incarnation – in carne, in the flesh.

This morning at 6:30 I concelebrated in a mass to celebrate a birthday.  Then at 9:30 I again concelebrated in a mass that celebrated a golden jubilee to the priesthood.  These are anniversaries, celebrations that mark points of time in the lives of people.  Now in this my last mass for the day I celebrate a mass with you no longer to mark a point in time but to mark an entry into timelessness – an entry into eternity.

The resurrected Jesus reveals himself once more to his disciples, this time in Lake Tiberias.  They went fishing in the night and caught nothing.  However, towards dawn, Jesus appeared to them and commanded them to cast out their nets for a catch.  Indeed it was a great catch and they were astounded.  They realized that it was Jesus. Two realizations here.

As I said in this morning’s mass Jesus revealed his resurrection often times in the context of the meal.  When he appeared to his disciples he would ask if they have anything to eat and he would eat with them.  As I said this is to prove to them that he is not a ghost, indi murto ang nakita nila kay ang murto wala nagakaon.   Jesus however ate and there he really resurrected, he really has a body that was risen from the dead.

Our gospel today speaks of Jesus revealing himself once more in a meal, specifically by asking for a meal from the apostles – “have you anything here to eat?”  I said “once more” because this would not just be the first or the second time that the resurrected Lord appeared to his apostles in the context of a meal.  And this is also not the only time when the apostles shall recognize Jesus in the context of eating. 

We continue with our reflection on the second article of faith, “I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord,” and last week we meditated on the name Jesus which means savior and the title Christ which means the anointed one, the messiah. Now we turn our eyes on the title Son of God.  When the Old Testament speaks of the son of God it conveys the sense of intimacy in the relationship with God – a special friendship with God.  So it is a title given to angels, to the chosen people, and to the kings of Israel.  To be called a son of God in the bible means one has a special relationship with God as manifested perhaps by their holiness or by their office.    But when the title Son of God was used by Peter in Gospel when he said “your are the Christ, the Son of the living God,”  that title is different from that of the Old Testament.  It means that Jesus is eternal, he existed before time, he is like God, he is the Son of God, in fact He is ...

Mary Magdalene thought she was speaking to a gardener.  She did not recognize Jesus immediately.  It was only when Jesus called out her name that she finally recognized that it is the risen Lord.  Jesus revealed the resurrection to her.  She did not discover it herself.  Though she searched for him, she did not find him.  In fact in her despair she came up with a wrong conclusion about the empty tomb.  She thought that since the tomb is empty the body of Jesus must have been stolen.  She did not even recognize him who was standing beside her.  She talked to somebody she thought was a gardener, and she even thought that the gardener was the grave robber. The resurrection was revealed to Mary Magdalene.  Jesus revealed it to her.  For this Mary Magdalene would be called the Apostle of the resurrection for it was to her that the resurrection was first revealed and it was through her that that fact was to be made known to others....

Holy Thursday With this mass we end the season of Lent and start the very purpose of Lent.  This feast is called the Paschal Triduum.  The Paschal Triduum is the feast of all feasts.  It is the solemnity of all solemnities.  In fact it is so great a feast that it took us 40 days to prepare for it in Lent, and now it will take us 3 days to commemorate, and it will take us another 50 days to celebrate it in Easter.  That is how big the paschal triduum is - imagine a feast that will take us three days to finish from Holy Thursday and Good Friday, from Good Friday to Black Saturday and from the vigil of Black Saturday flowing unto  Easter Sunday.  Thus, it is called the Triduum. It is also called paschal.  Paschal comes from the Greek word pesach or pascha in Latin ukon sa binisaya, paskwa .  Ugaling ang bisaya daw nag-lain ang kahulugan.  Kon si maninoy wala nagapamaskwa sia bagit.  Kon fiesta nila mamaskwa kita.  Howev...

Today we focus our reflection on the second article of faith:  I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, Our Lord.  Who is Jesus?  Names, or at least those we find in the bible are carefully chosen because they reflect one’s understanding of who one is for the community.  Why did your parents name you as such?  Biblical names reveal the person, they reveal our understanding of the person, not just the identity but event he mission. So be careful with how you choose the names of your children.  And so in our reflection on the second article of faith we will use for our understanding the names of Jesus – Jesus, Christ, Son of God and Lord.  Unique to Jesus is that his various names and designation were not given by his parents or by men and women.  Jesus was the name given by the angel in the annunciation to Mary; Christ is the name given by an angel when he announced his birth to the shepherds; Son is a designation again given by an angel in the a...

What would happen if we have no long term memories, if like the goldfish in an aquarium we have only three minutes of memory, meaning the farthest we can remember in our lives are the events that happened 3 minutes ago.  But we are not gold fishes.  We are persons of memories and memories are important for us.  In fact memories are instruments by which the actions of God are recalled and renewed.  That is why we celebrate the Eucharist because we remember, we are capable of remembering, and our remembering can be very powerful.    What has happened in the past continue to happen in the present because of our remembering.  To remember is to prolong the action.

St. Paul sensing that he may not be able to make it out of prison, and sensing that the torch must now be passed to the younger generation, wrote a letter to Timothy.  In this letter, a portion of which we have just read, Paul is comparing his journey as an apostle serving the Lord to several things one could find in an athletic competition.  First, he said that it was a good fight.  The word fight refers to an athletic competition that was well played, where the athlete has given his all and his best.  He may have lost the competition, but it was a fight where an athlete can still talk proudly about.  The Greek word which is translated as “fight” is agon and this word is the source of our English word agony .  Here is a good fight - an athlete seemingly reaching for his last breath, full of perspiration, wet all over, his senses all alert, his eyes wide open, the holes of the nose are so wide open you can almost peer inside and the mouth and the nose ...

Before I go to the second article of faith which is our belief in Jesus Christ, I would like to dwell first on the very reason why we need Jesus, why we need a savior.  And what is that?  Sin.  Man sinned.  We have all sinned.  We all have the tendency to sin. One of the classic Tagalog songs entitled Sapagkat kami ay tao lamang is a popular song, well at least in our time (at kung yan man ang kasalanan, ay sapagkat kami, ay tao lamang, I would like to hear Pilita Corales sing that again) but it is a popular song then which I believe has also contributed to a popular misconception of sin.  Tawo man lang ako . Why?  Let me explain.

What did Jesus write?  While the Pharisees and scribes waited for his answer, he bent down and wrote something on the ground.  Then when they persisted in forcing him to answer their question he bent down the second time and wrote something on the ground.  So what did Jesus write? We really do not know.  And we will have no way of knowing definitely what he wrote.  But through these years there were speculations and I would like to rediscover these speculations.  The first speculation comes from the retort where Jesus said, let him who is without sin cast the first stone.  They said that Jesus wrote the names of the persons on the ground and the corresponding sins they committed.  That is why one by one they left beginning with the oldest among them.  This speculation is greatly affirmed by the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah when he wrote that the Lord said, “they that depart from me shall be written in the earth,” their names shall be wr...

Last week we asked ourselves, is God really almighty as the creed professes?  Is God all powerful?  Is God in control?  Then why, we ask, does evil exist?  Why is it that God seems not to be in control of things, there is a seeming absence, and in the words of the former pope, God seems to be asleep at times.  May ginatawag kita nga physical evil – ang mga kakulangan sa aton pagkatawo katulad abi sang balati-an, mga disabilities, ukon mga kalamidad kag iban pa nga mga kalainan nga wala kita sing control.  Kag may ara man nga moral evil nga bunga sang aton mga choices, ginpili naton ini, and therefore we are in control of this kind of evil.  So going back to the question, if God created everything good, why is there evil in the world? The catechesis provides two answers.

Today’s gospel is a popular gospel.  It is popularly known as the parable of the prodigal son.  But it has other titles too depending on what angle one would like to look at this story.  For example it has also been called the parable of the forgiving and loving father.  So also, the parable of the two lost sons.  I won’t be surprised if in the coming years somebody would come up with a reflection on the parable of the fattened calf.  I would like to listen to that homily. Today I would like to focus my reflection on the anger of the elder brother.  You can hear the anger in his voice. “Look, he said, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends.” But this is not just ordinary anger.  It is called a resentment – a persistent ill-will harbored in the heart for a long time.  It is prolonged anger which found its way out of the elder brother upon...

In this parable Jesus is teaching us about prayer, about how to pray.  First, he is teaching us that a proud man cannot pray or more specifically a proud man is not actually praying.  When we insist on what we want, we are not actually praying.  Prayer is submission to God.  In prayer we have the tendency to manipulate God, to control God, to win him over.  But in real prayer we put ourselves in the hands of God.  And only the humble can learn to willingly submit.  So, a proud person does not really pray even if he is praying, for prayer is first and foremost a disposition of the heart, a heart that opens itself to the direction and guidance of God.

To love your neighbors as yourself.  Jesus starts with a reference to self-love.  Self-love is not something taught to you.  It comes naturally.  We long for food, we long for the comfort of a home, you want people to like you, you want protection and security, you want to be happy, you want to be healthy, you want to be warm in the cold.  This is self-love and it is something inborn and natural to us.  Jesus used this inborn and human quality in us to teach us how to love our neighbor.  Love your neighbor as yourself.  As you love yourself, love your neighbor.  As you long for food when you are hungry, so you should also long to feed your neighbor when he is hungry.  As you long for the comfort of a home, so also long and work for the comfort of a home for your neighbor.  You want to be happy, so you should also want for your neighbors to be happy.  You desire to be healthy...

In the first article of faith, “I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth,” we affirmed three things.  First, our origin is God – we all have come from God, we did not exist because of some molecular changes or some chemical reaction to this and that.  God is our origin – we were planned by God and purposely made by God.  Second, our end and our goal is God – we were not made for this world, we were not meant to be in this world only, we are all called to live in God.  Earth is just a means and not an end, our life now is just a means and not an end.  We were made for God.  And lastly our relationships with others, and that includes people and even the things around us, are defined by our belief and relationship with God.  When we call God Father we define our relationship as brothers and sisters whether we are black, white or brown, whether we have blue, brown, black or chinky eyes.  Since God created all things for ou...

Today we gather to offer this mass in thanksgiving to God for the person of Pope Benedict XVI who served the church as Pope, the successor of Peter for seven years, ten months and ten days.  Elected to the papacy after the death of Pope John Paul II, and after only four rounds of voting, Pope Benedict tendered his resignation last February 11 effective February 28 at 8 PM.  In Philippine time that would mean Pope Benedict XVI would no longer be pope starting tomorrow at 3:30 AM.  From that time on he will be called His Holiness Benedict the XVI, the Pope Emeritus.  He will still wear the white cassock but without the cape.  And he will no longer wear his signature red shoes but he will wear the brown shoes which were given to him by the people of Mexico during his visit there. 

Today let us reflect on the first article of faith.  There are twelve articles of faith and legend says that each article is authored by an apostle.  I don’t think it would be accurate to say that the apostles met one day and Peter said, "I believe in God the Father almighty;" and another stood up and said, "I believe in Jesus his only begotten Son."  That may not have been the case.  But the point is this: the creed is apostolic in origin.  Its source is the twelve apostles.  This is the reason why the Catholic Church is called “one, holy, catholic and apostolic church.”  Our faith is apostolic, meaning it was handed down from the apostles.  That is the truth.  Our faith has its origin from the twelve apostles.  Our faith came from the twelve apostles, thus there are twelve articles of the faith.

After reflecting with you on the Eucharist every Tuesday for the past five months, beginning today, because we are celebrating the year of faith, I would like to reflect with you the Creed, specifically the Apostles’ Creed, consisting of twelve articles of faith.  I am doing this not because I know a lot and I have so much to impart.  No, that is not the case.  If I am again venturing into a series of homilies on the creed it is because I want to review my faith, I want to study it again, to open the pages of my catechism once more so that I can re-appreciate the faith I have received in baptism.  In sharing with you these series of reflections on the creed I am learning again, I am permitting myself to be taught again, to be catechized again so that I may more and more appreciate this great gift faith that was carefully handed down to me, and to all of us by the Church. I am revisiting my faith, and this time I am going to do it with you.  

To be called repairer of the breach, and restorer of ruined homesteads in our first reading today works on the presumption that something got ruined that has to be repaired, and something has to be restored to its former magnificence.  So the process is like this - good, ruined, repaired.  This was originally good, it was eventually broken, then finally it was restored to its original quality. This process also follows the action of God in salvation history.  God created us and pronounced us very good.  But then man disobeyed God and fell into sin – starting with the murder of Abel by his brother Cain, to the murderous spree of Lamech who boasted of killing hundreds.  But then God intervened, sending flood and ruin to the earth, thus eventually renewing everything once more with Noah in the ark and his sons and daughters.