visible rhetoric

I chose our first reading today from the book of Job to mark the passage of Ruby from this world to the next.  I chose this reading because I believe this passage appropriately describes my one and only meeting with her, my struggle to understand with her what she was going through.  Our meeting in her home was not a confession although we ended with the anointing of the sick by laying our hands on her and praying over her and by giving her the viaticum.  It was not a confession for she said she already did.  Rather it was a consultation, a consultation she deems very important in her experience of sickness, “Can I pray to God for death, can I ask God to take away my life, can I, is it a sin?”  These questions were not asked in some emotionally charged exchange we often see in teleseryes.  No.  These were straightforward questions, an attempt I believe to deal with what she was going through as rationally as possible – typical I guess of Ruby....

Today we reflect on St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. Paul says towards the end of our reading, “I say this not by way of command, but to test the genuineness of your love by your concern for others.”  Genuineness of love is tested by your concern for others.  How did Paul come to this conclusion. Paul is presenting the example of generosity of the Macedonians to the people of Corinth.  The Christians in Macedonia were poor unlike the people of cosmopolitan Corinth.  Not only are they poor, they are also troubled at that moment with what Paul called a severe test of affliction.   And yet despite this affliction there was abundance of joy among the Christians of Macedonia and despite what Paul calls a profound poverty there was overflowing generosity among them.  In fact Paul had to tell them to stop giving many of whom are giving beyond their means.  And yet they did the unexpected - they begged him, they insisted that they too...

What is an irony?  An irony is a contrast between expectations and what really occurs.  It is an irony for example when they invented the mobile phone which was supposed to encourage communication.  But look at how we used it at times.  We cannot talk anymore because we are all busy texting.  The internet is in the same vein, it is an irony.  A Chinese alchemist was intently looking for what he called “elixir for immortality,” a medicine that would make us live forever.   Doing so, he accidentally invented the gun powder, the same invention that would eventually kill millions, even now.  It’s an irony – a contrast between your expectations and what really occurs.

There is always that part in us which crave for answers and resolutions.  There is always that part in us which wants to know how things would end.  This is the reason why we get glued to the cinema screen to get to the bottom of the story, this is the reason why we get the urge to go back to our TV sets at a particular time every night so that we will know the ending of the tele-serye we started weeks before, that is why we can’t put a good back down for hours on end.  We have to get to the bottom of the story. And sometimes to do so quickly we fast-forward things.  We speed up the story taking it out of its timeline by going to a point in the future.  In our musical play Isko we have done something like this when we created three Iskos in rapid succession singing kontani lang .

We reflect now on the book of Tobit.  You cannot find this book in a protestant bible because they consider this an apocrypha and therefore not part of the bible.  But we catholics have recognized since the 4 th century that Tobit is part of the bible, it is inspired, it is God’s word that teaches us.  This is the reason why we read it today in the mass. The book of Tobit is not a historical book though it has some historical content.  Its main purpose is to instruct us how to live godly lives through the examples of the characters in the story.

Today, as in the days before, I would like to reflect on our first reading from the book of Sirach.  In our reading today Joshua Ben Sirach speaks of the preoccupation of being remembered – who will be remembered, who will be forgotten.  For Ben Sirach only those who are godly will be remembered, but for others, when they cease, they cease, for them there is no memory.  We all want to be remembered.  I remember crying at the Doctors’ Hospital Cafeteria last year when I realized that my mother could no longer remember me.  I never thought that it would come to a point that a mother could no longer remember her son.  But it happened and it hurt.

We focus our reflection on our first reading, from the book of Sirach.  The other name for the book is Ecclesiasticus.  The Book of Sirach was written by a Jewish scribe by the name of Joshua ben Sirach in Jerusalem.  The book is written in a way that it sounds like a father giving advice to his son and because of this it was thought that the book was used to train young Jewish men for positions of leadership.  The reading today can best be summarized by what PCP II said about our life of worship - life must become worship.  Worship is not just going to church and celebrating masses and doing novenas.  Worship is not just going to church at a prescribed day of the week and saying the prescribed formulas for prayers.  The whole of life can become worship.  The way we live our lives can become an offering of praise and reverence to God.  Sirach says: “he who observes the commandments sacrifices a peace offering;  in works of charity...

Today we end the Acts of the Apostles.  It is only during the season of Easter that we go through the salient points of the entire book.  For 7 weeks we read from the Acts of the Apostles.  Tomorrow with Pentecost we end the season of Easter and so it is during this last weekday of Easter that we also end the book.  I hope we have paid attention to this book knowing that this part of the New Testament written by Luke narrates to us the early history of Christianity through the two ministries of the two great apostles – Peter and Paul.  And yet this book is not entirely history.  This book narrates to us the workings of the Holy Spirit in the church, aiding it as it expanded from Jerusalem, to the surrounding areas in Damascus and in Antioch, then slowly expanding until it reached Greece, and then expanding further until it reached Spain, and eventually Rome the capital of the great Roman Empire. This is where the book ends – Rome.  With this nar...

Paul is now in jail for two years.  He was imprisoned by the procurator Felix and after two years his successor, the procurator Festus, was wondering what to do with Paul.  So Paul as a Roman citizen used his right as a citizen to appeal his case directly to Caesar.  As a Roman Citizen he can present his case directly to the emperor, this time to Emperor Nero and plead for his judgement.  The procurator can only agree to it because that is the Roman law of which Paul as a Roman citizen is entitled.  And so Paul was sent to Rome as a prisoner.  There he will await an audience to emperor Nero and then wait for his judgement. Paul’s imprisonment started because of his assertion the Jesus rose from the dead.  And for that the Jews wanted him condemned to death. 

In our first reading today we now find St. Paul back to Jerusalem after saying goodbye to the elders of the church of Ephesus.  And there in Jerusalem the Jews plotted against him.  In fact while Paul was in the temple he was attacked and almost killed by a mob.  But a Roman soldier, a centurion, got hold of him.  He had asked the ruling council of the Jews, the Sanhedrin to meet, so that Paul can defend himself before them.  And so they met, both Pharisees and Sadducees in council. 

Here again we read the last part of the long farewell discourse of Paul to the elders of the church in Ephesus. There are several things which Paul reminded the leaders of the church as he leaves them behind.  Paul never requires things from others which he does not require first from himself.  Kon ano ang gina-obligar niya sa iban, ina tungod kay gin-obligar niya ina antes sa iya kaugalingon.   First he told them that he never did things for money.  He said, “I have never wanted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. You know well that these very hands have served my needs and my companions.”  Even if a minister has the right to be compensated for his work in the service of the Lord, Paul did not demand for that right.  Instead he worked with his own hands doing extra labor probably as a tent maker in order to earn his keep.

Today in our first reading Paul gives his last farewell to the elders of the Church of Ephesus.  Paul at the outset speaks of his dedication to his work in the church.  He speaks of what he has done, what he has undergone for the sake of the gospel, what he went through, including the suffering and trials because of his service to the gospel.  Paul is one person who is never embarrassed in pointing to himself and his life as an example in serving God.   “You know how I lived among you the whole time,” he said in this his last farewell.  In his first letter to the Corinthians he was even clearer when he said, “be imitators of me.” 

Today we read from the Acts of the Apostles and it narrates to us the ministry of Paul in Ephesus. If you were listening closely Paul distinguishes two kinds of baptism – the baptism of John and the baptism of Jesus. What is the baptism of John.  The baptism of John is a baptism of repentance.  According to St. Thomas Aquinas this kind of baptism did not give grace.  The baptism of John did not cleanse the soul, it did not make men the children of God, it did not give new life in the person.  Rather it merely prepared the way for grace because grace can only come through Jesus.  Thus Paul felt the need to baptize again these 12 Ephesians he met on the road.  Then after baptizing them Paul laid his hands on them so as confer on them the Holy Spirit.  This laying on of hands to confer the Holy Spirit is something distinct from baptism and this will later become the basis of the sacrament of confirmation.

Today Jesus ascended into heaven.  To ascend means to go up and indeed that was what the disciples saw – Jesus went up to the heavens.    This is a way of expressing that belief that Jesus, after his mission here on earth, went back to his Father, he now goes back from where he came from and he now sits at the right hand of his Father.  Jesus has to go.  He has to leave behind his disciples.  He himself said so.  Unless I go, he said, the Spirit cannot come. There are two things I would like us all to reflect on the ascension of the Lord. First, absence and presence are intimately connected.  We can truly see the value and importance of each others presence when that presence is taken away, when that presence is withdrawn from us. 

The first reading tells of the imprisonment of Paul and Silas in Philippi and how in the middle of the night, while they were praying and singing, there was an earthquake and the doors of the jails flew open.  When the jailer saw that the jail doors were opened he drew his sword to kill himself for his failure, thinking that the prisoners escaped under his watch.  But Paul told him that they were all there and that there was nothing to fear.  Because of this the jailer knelt before Paul and asked, what must I do in order to be saved? Paul said to him, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you and your household will be saved.”  And so the jailer brought Paul and Silas to his house, and his household were all baptized, and they rejoiced at having come to the faith. There are instances when the most difficult persons to convince and bring to the faith are the members of our family.  There are instances when the parents can be so devoted, they are daily mass goers...

When I was assigned in the cathedral as a young priest we have this pastoral program of celebrating mass for the dead in their homes during the wake.  No stipend is required.  The mass was rendered freely by the parish for the family of the bereaved.  This program was borne out of a seeming injustice when only the rich, those who can afford and those with priest-friends, have masses held in their homes during the wake.  So in the parish of Jaro, rich or poor you have a mass celebrated during the wake.  I have to admit that saying masses on those occasions were not always a duty I would happily and enthusiastically respond to, especially when there were several wakes in a week.  Many times I would silently complain and grumble, but I would always make it a point to go even with a heavy heart.  But then I noticed that every time I finished the mass, after the merienda and the small conversation with the family, I would always go back home to th...