visible rhetoric

We continue to reflect on the psalms, this time psalm 96. Psalm 96 has several things to teach us.  First.  It is not just the people or the nations that are praising God.  Nature is also praising God, the very fabric of creation praises God. The sky, the earth, the seas, the field are all commanded to praise the Lord.  In the bible nature, the things around us, has sacred meaning.  For example, the mountain because of its height and grandeur symbolizes the place of divine encounter.  The rain symbolizes God's care for the earth.  The oceans speak of God's immensity and vastness.  The waves of the ocean and the roar when it reaches the shore or smashes on the rocks and outcrops, these waves speak of God's power and might.  The clouds speak of God's presence, as light also does, as its opposite, darkness, speaks of God's absence. I happened to go to a place where the mountains are so high and so big and the forest so vast they advertise t...

I have been reflecting on the responsorial psalms of the mass these past few months now and I would like to continue doing so today on the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Today we reflect on beauty, specifically on the beautiful bride praised exceedingly by the equally dashing bridegroom in psalm 45.  I believe I have enough credentials to speak on beauty.  For one I was exposed early in life to the beautiful.  After all my elementary years were spent in Assumption with so many beautiful classmates and schoolmates.  I was also voted last year as outstanding teacher in Philosophy.  I am teaching Aesthetics, the Philosophy of Beauty.  And I would always tell the seminarians that if ever they leave the seminary for good they should show me at least the reason why, so that I could judge whether she is indeed worth leaving behind the priesthood.  After all I am an authority on beauty. Seriously now.  Since I am surrou...

Today we read Psalm 119.  It is the longest psalm with 176 verses, and therefore it is also the longest chapter in the bible.  In the bible length is always an indication that something is very important.  If you have listened carefully in the reading of the psalm you will hear different words but always referring to the same thing - decrees, laws, commands, promises.  These words refer only to one thing - God's word, as we read these in scriptures, in our bibles.  And the words used to describe the feeling that accompanies reading or hearing God's words are – they are riches, delights, precious like gold and silver, sweet to the palate, sweeter than honey, they are my inheritance, the joy of my heart, to yearn for it with open mouth.  This psalm is praise of God's instructions, a praise of the torah, a praise of God's word.  Let's do some reality check:  do you long for God's word like the psalmist who describes his desire for it as a yearni...

Jesus tells us to take up our crosses and follow him.  What are the crosses that we need to take up daily?  The cross is not a difficulty.  Whether we like it or not, Christian or not, life will always be difficult.  But to take up the cross means to die to something – to be willing to put to death your plans, to put to death your desires, to set aside what you want for the sake of following Jesus.   If you want to become a priest you better get used to dying to what you want.  As a priest formator I entered the seminary in 1997.  I stayed here until 2008.  For the meantime I was temporarily assigned in the cathedral.  I applied to become parish priest somewhere in a rural area – I really wanted to be assigned in a rural area – tak-an na ako sa ciudad.  But instead I was assigned back to the seminary.  I pleaded to the bishop pero wala – go to the seminary.  Again after 5 years I applied again.  And again h...

St. Vincent Ferrer explained this gospel by telling of a good soldier well-loved by the general.  This soldier went to the general to ask for an apple, a sweet apple.  But the general did not give him the apple but instead gave him a fortress.  And still the soldier asked for the apple but the general gave him a big and beautiful war horse.  The gift was received but the soldier kept insisting on the apple.  Again the general ignored him and gave him a beautiful armor.  Again the gift was received but the soldier asked for the apple.  Finally, the general gave in and gave him the apple.  Lesson:  if the apple was given immediately upon the request of the soldier, the soldier would not have the other gifts because he would have stopped asking.  He would have no fortress, he would not have a beautiful and powerful war horse and he would not have a beautiful and strong armor. This according to St. Vincent is the lesson of our gospel...

We continue to reflect on our Responsorial Psalm – this time Psalm 102.  The description given to Psalm 102 is “A prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed and pours out his complaint before the LORD."  Here we can therefore sense that the person who prayed this psalm was in great difficulty.  And what is the affliction about?  What is the source of his difficulty?  At the beginning one can sense that the affliction is somewhat physical, probably a sickness.  But as one goes along in the psalm, the affliction seems to be not just physical and it is not even personal but a national affliction – it was something that affected the country, something that brought distress to God's people. "The nations shall revere your name, O LORD, when the LORD has rebuilt Zion, when he has regarded the prayer of the destitute, and not despised their prayer." 

Peter was invited by the Lord to walk on the water with him.  Peter did.  But in the middle he doubted and when he doubted he sank.  Many times we doubt.  I remember I doubted twice whether I was meant for the priesthood or not.  The first doubt was after college.  As I was about to leave some seminarian friends who were there already in theology invited me to go to pastoral with them.  I really enjoyed the pastoral and the seminarians were very supportive.  So siling ko, bisan budlay gali magproceed sa theology damo man ako friend nga magabulig sa akon.   So I proceeded to theology.

Today we read Psalm 119.  It is the longest psalm with 176 verses, and therefore it is also the longest chapter in the bible.  In the bible length is always an indication that something is very important.  If you have listened carefully in the reading of the psalm you will hear words of almost identical meaning repeated – statutes, law, word of truth, ordinances, decrees, and verbs like teach, instruct, pay heed.  And if we continue further we will have words like keep, understand, learn, meditate, observe. This psalm is praise of God's instructions, a praise of the torah, a praise of God's word.  The psalm prays to God that God will instill in our hearts a love for his word, a love for the bible, a love for reading, studying, understanding the bible. A love for observing, taking to hearty, doing what the word of God instructs us.  I remember when I was in high school during that time when study period was really very, very strict – you cannot talk...

Two brothers were fighting over inheritance.  One of the brothers went to Jesus in the hope that Jesus would probably side with him or at the very least act as a go between in order to settle things amicably.  But Jesus would have none of it.  Instead he told them a parable. Now there are 3 very curious things about this parable.  First, there is only one person in the parable.  Not even his family is allowed in the picture, not even the workers.  Not even God.  If God appeared in the story God appeared at the last part to pass judgment.  The point is, the man is all alone.  Second, this one person in the parable talks to himself, he dialogues with himself.  He asks a question which he himself answers: He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’  And he answered his question saying, ‘This is what I shall do." Strange man, isn't he? And the third curious thing in this parable is, in...

Psalm 69 is a prayer of David as an afflicted man, a man suffering tremendously because of the cruelty of his enemies.  He describes his pains like that of a man overwhelmed because he is sinking in mud, or drowned by floodwaters – "Let not the flood-waters overwhelm me, nor the abyss swallow me up, nor the pit close its mouth over me."  But David was not suffering because of his sins or because of some injustice that he has done in the past.  No.  Rather he is suffering because of his zeal for the glory of God. It is different when suffering is brought upon you because you did not study for the exams, or you defy your superiors, or you are obese which consequently brought upon you high blood pressure, difficulty in breathing beside being ugly, because you cannot control food.  Psalm 69 is different – it is a cry of someone who suffer so much because in his life he only sought the glory of God.