via negativa Saturday 3rd week Lent

We are using the Saturday Gospel in this mass and this is still a mass on Saturday because I still want you to go to mass tomorrow in your own parish church.  There is no Sunday mass here. 

Our gospel today tells about the well-known gospel about the Pharisee and the Publican and how they prayed before God in the temple.  The Pharisee went to the Lord to brag about himself and what he has done for the Lord.  The Publican however went before God, and without even lifting his eyes acknowledge his sinfulness and humbly asked for forgiveness.  The publican, the sinner, Jesus said, went home justified, for everyone who humbles himself will be exalted and everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.

When we go to mass we always start with an acknowledgement of our limitations.  It is quite ironic that despite wearing our Sunday’s best and all the beautiful things which make us look and smell good on a Sunday, the first thing that we do in church as we start the mass is to acknowledge that we fall short, that we are not up to the standards and that we cannot even compare to the expectations of God.  The church since ancient times uses the via negativa approach in our relationship with God.  It uses the negative way.  Before we can approach God, before we can thank him and acknowledge his goodness to us, before we can even name the good that is in us because of his grace, we are enjoined to beat our breasts in acknowledgement of our limitations, we are enjoined to humbly bow and recall our faults, our weaknesses, our frailties.  We start our prayer saying sorry rather than brag about the things we achieved.  We start our prayer by acknowledging sins and mistakes, rather than acknowledging our virtues and meritorious qualities.  We start our prayer by beating our breasts humbly rather than lifting high our heads in pride of something that we did.

Many times people no longer acknowledge limitations.  Many times we even forget that we are in need, that we are in want, until we have a problem we could only solve with God. 

We need to recover a sense of want, we need to recover a healthy sensing and acceptance of limitations and inadequacies.  We still need the negative way otherwise we can never feel the need to be redeemed, the need to be saved and the need of a Savior.

Today is a special day because this is the day when she invited everyone including the nurses and aides in the hospital to come to her house and celebrate her homecoming together with Powie’s and Benedict’s birthdays, her two grandsons.

Powie is special to her lola not only because they live together in this house but also because he receives many times the consequences of her impatience and her struggle with her disabilities and should I say her inabilities because of old age.  When Powie would complain about these I would only smile and hope that he would learn how things work in this house.    In this house as I learned quite later, love and concern are expressed via negativa, in the negative way.  You are not properly dressed, you are doing it wrong, you are not eating right, you are not doing things as I told you, you are too slow, you are not this and not that.  That is how she expressed her care and concern.  It is not that she hates you.  Rather it is because she cares for you.  I remember one time nga gin-lekturan niya si Felix kay sobra ang kaon.  Sang malakat na ang isa puli sa tigbauan ginpauntat anay ang salakyan kay ginapaputsan pa niya sang dinuguan, ang manok, ang baboy nga ipadala kay Felix.    When you look at things differently things change.  Remember what the bible says about God’s love - he whom he loves he chastises. 

Look at things from that light and you will see things differently - the acknowledgment of limitations before is not simply an acknowledgement of weakness an but an acknowledgement of being loved and cared for, an acknowledgement that I can be forgiven.