visible rhetoric

For three days they could not find Jesus.  For three days they searched for Jesus.  They searched for him among his relatives and among his peers where normally boys at that age would gravitate.  But they could not find him there.  They searched for him among their neighbors who were with them on this pilgrimage.  They could not find him there either.  And so they decided to go back to Jerusalem and searched for him in the possible places they thought they would find him.  But he was not there.  Then on the third day, they finally found him in the temple among the elders and the learned.  Terribly exhausted, upset and probably even furious, Mary confronted the child and said, Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.”

Monet is the second classmate to die.  Si Paul Bacaling died last year after a bout with cancer.  This year it is Monet’s turn.  When a classmate dies one is also reminded of one’s mortality.  It is a reminder that I am not getting any younger.  (Actually there are already three - Lilen Peñasales was the first.) It is a reminder that things are not the way they used to be – ang akon panglakat, ang sarang ko madalagan, ang puede ko pa makaon kag ma-inom, ang sarang ko pa ma-obra kag ang mga bulong nga dapat ko na imnon.  Daw indi gid man ako sini mamag-o kay sa pagkamatuod indi gid man ini nga mga butang bag-o para sa akon.  Pero may isa gid ka butang nga para sa akon bag-o kag ako mismo daw nanimag-o. That as I grow older there are more and more significant people in my life who are now but memories of my past.  Matuod they still evoke nostalgia, they still evoke feelings, but as it is they are just memories now.

There are several episodes in our first reading today seemingly unconnected events that were narrated as if at random.  First Saul is introduced, his tribe, his father, even his profile.  Then a change of scenery, this time Saul is sent by his father to look for his lost asses.  Unknowingly the search for the asses will lead Saul to a lot of places and finally to the land of Benjamin.  That is where he came within sight of Samuel the prophet.  Samuel saw him and thus God reveals to Samuel his choice.  Then a change of scenery again – Samuel and Saul meet finally.  Saul asks Samuel if he knows where the seer is. Samuel said he is the seer.  Now why would Saul look for a seer – probably to help him find his lost asses.  Then Samuel anoints Saul as one who would govern God’s people. So did the losing of the asses actually lead to his vocation?  Did the the searching lead to his call?

Since you are having mass every day, I have used the readings of today instead of another reading for the dead.  This is not just for variety, but the choice comes from the belief that every time we attend the mass God meant that reading for us who are hearing it at that particular moment, with our particular needs and circumstances.  And so we allow God’s word to speak to us whatever that is, rather than simply choose what we want to hear from God. Today we read from the first book of Samuel a familiar story.  It is the story of the call of the prophet Samuel.  When I was a little kid 45 years ago I remember having a book full of pictures.  It was a bible.  And I remember this story not so much for what it said exactly but the pictures of a little boy awakened three times by a voice in the night calling out to him in his sleep, and each time the little boy would promptly stand up and go to Eli thinking that it was the priest who called him.  

Today we continue our reflection on our first reading, from the book of Samuel.  Today we find Hannah in Shiloh where the ark of covenant was.  The ark was still in a tent, God was living, so to say, in a tent.  There was no temple yet. Jerusalem was not even under the rule of the Israelites yet.  Hannah was barren.  It was a curse.  She prayed to God with an intensity which Eli the priest mistook as rumblings of a drunkard.  Hannah was asking God to remember her.  Remembering is not just a mental exercise nga nadumduman ka .  But it was a call to act, a call to do something to mend the situation.  IT is more or less the same when in our dialect we say especially after Christmas baw wala mo gid ako nadumduman .  It means that you never greeted me, including, and I would say more importantly, you have not yet given me a gift.  So when God remembered Hannah it means God took notice of her situation and God is moved to action on her behalf.  We also use the same word when we pray t

We reflect on our first reading today.   What is love.   Yesterday I read from some Jesuit priest what I think best defines love.   Love he said is a passionate desire for the well-being of the other.   Let’s try to look into this definition. First when something is fueled by passion or to be passionate, it means that the person is inflamed as it where, it means avid to the point of obsession, it means fervent to the point of adoring, it can even be fanatical, zealous and overly enthusiastic.   One thing that passion is not is indifference nga daw wala labot because passion is always accompanied by the adjective intense.

Today we continue to reflect on our first reading, this time from the first letter of John.  Once more John speaks of love.  He always does.  In fact there is a story recalled by St. Jerome that John when he was already very old and people were all so eager to listen to him since he was the last living apostle, would always speak only of one thing, “ My children, love one another!” One day he was asked why he kept on repeating the same message.  And he replied: ‘Because it is the Lord’s commandment, and if you keep just this commandment, it will suffice.”

These past days we have been bombarded with a reality in our faith which we beautifully wrap in theology calling it the incarnation; it is the same reality expressed more beautifully in poetry et verbum caro factum est ; still the same reality draped further in mystery calling it the kenosis , the self-emptying of God; and still the same reality this time revealed to all men and women calling it thus the Epiphany . This is the same reality expressed in so many ways, in its many different facets, many times in ways not so many could clearly understand.  And yet it expresses a very simple reality, the reality that Jesus came and was born into a human family.  He has a mother Mary, Joseph is known to be his father, he has grandparents, he has cousins and relatives which the gospel calls his brothers and sisters indicating that they are not just your usual pariente but persons he considers family, persons, we can say, he has strong feelings for.