visible rhetoric

          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 ...