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.