psalm 80: even if all else fails. jack and katrina anniversary

In this double celebration, the 5^th wedding anniversary of Jack and Katrina, and the baptism of Vic Florenz and Maria Katarina Elia, I invite you to reflect with me on God's word, specifically on our responsorial psalm today Psalm 80.  This is basically a psalm of lament and it calls on God to do two things – to restore and to shine.

First, the psalm calls on God to restore.  To restore means to ask God to change the circumstances of his people, to change the bad to good, the unhappy to a more happy situation, the imperfect to something more perfect.  And more than just simply pleading for help from God, the word restore speaks of an incapacity on the part of man to do something about his situation.  There are situations in man's life in which man despite his power cannot do anything about.  Only God can do something about them, only God can restore.

In the bible it is said that there are three things that God alone can do.  These three things are referred to the three keys God alone holds and controls.  The first key is the key of a woman giving birth – only God can grant or withhold birth.  The second key is the key of the resurrection – only God can make the dead rise, only God can grant life.  And lastly, the third key, the key of rain; Rain is the key of creation for without rain there can only be destruction.  Only God can give or withhold rain. 

I believe Jack and Katrina called for this special mass and thanksgiving because they themselves with knew first hand that despite their power and the many resources at their disposal, they knew first hand who holds the keys to what they think are essential, more essential in their live.  Today God has restored something to them.  They came from circumstances beyond their power to change, something beyond their control and with so much pleading God came to them to restore them.

Second, the psalm calls on God to shine.  O shepherd of Israel, hearken, from your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth.  If Israel is a vine then it needs the sun to shine on it.  The vine cannot grow without the sun, useless is our efforts without the sun.  The soil might be fertile, the rain may be substantial, but without the sun that shines all these good things are rendered useless.

Just this morning I talked to the seminarians and I believe Jack is familiar with this refrain.  They were working so hard in order to deliver a beautiful stage play, a musical play in order to please what has been a fully packed auditorium yesterday and today.  But many times they forget something very essential in the equation of things and I feel the need to remind them time and again.  And so I told them, "In the past days I have been insistent that in everything that we do we should put God as a priority and at the center of things.  It is not right to sing beautifully on stage while we sing lousily at mass; it is a misplaced when priority when we can render wonderful things for people to see and yet offer so little for God.  Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you."

Remember the words of blessing said on you every new year's mass to bless the start of each year, May God let his face shine on you and be gracious to you. You need God's face to shine on you.

Yes you must rely on your strength and effort but you must also rely on God's grace and power.  Yes you must trust yourself and your abilities, but you must also trust God who cares about you even better than you.  You must do your very best but you must also depend on God who provides. Yes you must act, but you must also remember to pray always. 

There is a problem when we take away God and detach ourselves from his influence and teachings, when we rely too much and even solely on our strength and resources. Take for example the importance we place or the lack of it in the sacrament of baptism.

Many times we adults define our children by what they do.  Who they are becomes what they do; how good they are becomes what we expect them to do or to become.  And so affirmation from us becomes external, love becomes conditional, acceptance becomes qualified.  Ay kanami sang akon apo kay kabalo na sia mag count, kabalo na sia mag-ABC.  And then later ay kanami sang akon bata kay 95 iya grade, best in PE sia.  And then later ay kanami sang akon bata kay number sia sa klase, valedictorian sia, ukon valaedictorian sia tani kon wala gindayaan sang principal.  And then later ay kanami sang akon bata kay doctor sia, engineer sia.  Ay ano na ya imo man automotive ka lang, 2 year course ka lang.  So good ka lang kon nagsanto ka sa expectation sang iban And so we end up with the concept that You are good if... you are a star if... I love you if....

You know, lain iya ang Dios.  God is different. In baptism in particular God is different.  St. Paul would say, God loved us even while we were yet unlovable.  In the book of Genesis God looked at everything that he created and he pronounced them very good.  Even before man did something, he was already very good.  When Jeremiah argued before God that he was not qualified for anything which God is asking him to do, God told him, Jeremiah before I formed you in the womb I knew you and before you were born I consecrated you, so do not be afraid for I am always with you.

What I am presenting is the most basic affirmation which everyone of us must have and it is also the affirmation of last appeal when all else fails.  Let us not pretend.  We are older now, I have fifty years of experience in the world.  Some of you here have more.  And we all know what it is and how it is out there.  We fail in many ways and when our self-esteem and self-concept is dependent on the externals, on what we do, on what others think about us, on what others expect from us, then we will have a very hard time in life.  We must acquire this core belief, this deeper self-concept which nobody can steal from us, which nobody can take always from us, that no matter what we are loved, that no matter what we are very good, no matter what we are the apple of God's eyes – even if all else fails.  Jacka nd Katrina teach that to Vic Florenz and Maria Katarina Elia. Don't fail to teach this to your children.  Baptism is the kiss of God to Vic and Elia.  It spells the difference between the beast transformed by beauty's love and first kiss in the Beauty and the Beast, and between the creature so unloved even by its creator Dr. Victor Frankenstein and became the monster that he is now known as Frankenstein's.

Value your baptism – it is God's first kiss, it is God's first hug.  It is enduring love, enduring affirmation, constant and true, even if all else fails.