very good gid ya - 20th week Tuesday 2013

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.

In my class with seminarians last time we were studying the first chapter of the book of Genesis how God after creating every looked back to the things he created and pronounced them very good.  It was not just ay kanami, it was not just good.  But God in the sixth day looked back at everything that he has created and said – very good.

Ti paano na bi kon maksasala ka, ti paano na bi kon indi ka maayo nga bana, indi ka maayo nga asawa, kon indi ka maayo nga pari, ti paano na bi kon amo ka sini kag amo ka sina – very good ka pa?  Originally all of us are very good, even now, at the core of our being we are all very good.  Pero ambot kon ano na ang mga nagsampaw-sampaw nga mga eksperyesniya sa aton kabuhi, kon ano na nga mga panan-aw ang nagtubo sa aton, ambot kon ano na nga paminsaron ang nagpangi-babaw sa aton panghunahuna sa bagay nga naglaw-ay ang aton panulok sa aton kaugalingon kag sa isa kag isa.  But originally this is not the case.  Originally when God created us we were pronounced very good, indi lang good, indi lang nice kundi nami-nami gid ya.  We are already holy, we were made so by God.  Holiness does not mean that we have to put in something.  No, holiness is to get into the core of our being and recover what is already there.  To be conscious that there is so much goodness, so much holiness already there apang ginsampawan sang aton kadalok, ginsampawan sang aton kaakig, ginasampawan sang aton kasakon, ginsampawan sang aton mga kahadlok, ginsampawan sang aton mga insecurities.  There is so much good in our persons, there is so much good in our relationship, there is so much good in your being a parent, in your being a person nga kon kaisa wala ta lang gintugtan nga magguwa kag magpamukadkad.  Antes kita nakasala, very good na kita.  Antes kita nagpakasala, holy na kita and we were made so because of God, because of God’s action in our lives.  The church is holy, we are holy – we have to learn to discover that essential holiness in us, that essential goodness already in us, we have to recover it in our lives.

In the gospel it is the giving up, the trimming down, the leaving behind that makes us holy.  We are not adding anything, we are simply trimming down, cutting up, excising what prevents us, what obstructs us in our relationship with God.  It is the cutting off of those things and attitudes that prevents us from living the holiness, the goodness that was originally ours.  Jesus in the gospel points out how our attitude towards wealth can prevent us from entering into the eye of the needle which was a small gate – budlay magsulod kay man damo dala, damo excess baggage –too many priorities, too many excess cares, too many biases, too may insecurities.  We have only to recover that which is actually, really ours from the start.