Sunday Gospel Reflection : For whoever is not against us is for us

https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=joey+velasco&biw=1366&bih=610&site=wSept. 27,2015 

Numbers 11:25-29
Psalms 19:8, 10, 12-13, 14
James 5:1-6

Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48

The disciples of Jesus have been with him for a long time and often times they fail to truly understand the message of their Master.  In today’s gospel, John (unexpectedly, it is John, the beloved who approaches Jesus on this matter) said“we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.“  Jesus replied, “Do not stop him, For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me,for whoever is not against us is for us.” The motivation of the disciples to stop the man was most likely jealousy or rivalry.  In fact, among them, they were discussing who is greater and better in doing this or that.

Jesus has bigger, better perspective. He teaches humility, openness of heart to his disciples.  Why prevent someone doing healing to those who have been suffering a lot invoking his name and share his healing power?  Remember, there were so many people at that time being possessed by such malady.  Jesus probably sensed the faith of this man that after invoking his name the sick was cured. Surely, then he cannot just speak ill of Jesus.   The disciples ought to allow goodness and healing to spread, it is not exclusive for them to do healing using Jesus’ power.

In our present times, how often we experience this in our parish, communities, work place. We are not ready to welcome others who can be better or more successful, as if we are the only one who can do it.  While we take pride in contributing to spread the Kingdom of God, let us respect others as well, no matter what denomination they belong, to share in spreading God’s love and message of healing to our world.

Jesus spoke further, “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.⁴³ If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off.”Some other passages in scriptures remind me of this message.Be careful not put a stumbling block on other people’s road to faith. Let not our life be scandalous to cause discouragement.  Let not our pride, egoism and materialism cause young people of today to seek what is most valuable in life.  I think of religious life today, how few are the number of young men and women who are willing to dedicate their lives in commitment and follow Jesus.  Good examples are needed to attract people to follow Jesus.

“And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off… or if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell.”

 Here, Jesus is direct to the point:  very clear that whatever causes you to sin,  remove or prevent it from causing more harm to one’s life or to others.  Otherwise, one has to face the terrible consequences.

How many times in our daily life we experience the harm caused by our wrong decisions to our self and to others.The politicians’ or a manager’s  greed, selfishness and wrong motivations, for example, can be very detrimental to the constituents’ well-being.  Even our own pride as religious  can be very costly for others.  Thus, our greed must turn into generosity, selfishness to altruism and pride to humility. All of us are challenged to understand and live the message of this Gospel today.##

Sept 26,2015

Sr. Eloisa A. Holdiem, SDS

Salvatorian Pastoral Care for Children – National Capital Region (SPCC-NCR)

c/o Sisters of the Divine Savior (SALVATORIAN SISTERS)

Sunday Gospel Reflection :The Greatest Of Them All

 

BalikTanaw Sunday  Gospel Reflection

Sept. 20,2015

Psalms 54:3-4, 5, 6-8

Wisdom 2:17-20

James 3:16–4:3

Mark 9:30-37

The Greatest Of Them All

The Gospel of Mark portrays Jesus Christ as someone who is self-aware of his own impending death in the hands of the elders, chief priests, and military of the Roman empire. In many instances, Jesus would declare to his disciples the inevitability of his suffering, death, and resurrection. The disciples were not too keen on this troubling announcement, “they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to ask him”.  On the story, Mark reveals the preoccupation of their minds, they were discussing who among them is the greatest.

While Jesus’ contemplation is on the cross and his eventual death, the disciples brew in their hearts the way to greatness. The story, in juxtapose, tells the contents of the heart of Jesus against with that of the disciples.

Why would the disciples shrugged off the announcement of death and feed the egoistic feeling of greatness? Why were they afraid to ask Jesus and clarify the matters of his death, and resurrection? Why was greatness juxtaposes with death? Is death the path to greatness? What is behind the silence of the disciples about the topic of their discussion?

Just last September 1,  Emirito Samarca, Dionel Campos, and  Datu Jovillo Sinzo- were brutally massacred in Surigao del Sur. Their principles and their life stories imply that they are self-aware of an impending death in the hands of the military men, and the government who have veered away from the mandate of the people they have vowed to serve. Emirito Samarca is the executive director of Lumad school, ALCADEV. Dionel Campos was the chairman of Lumad community organization Malahutayong Pakigbusog Alang sa Sumusunod (MAPASU), Persevering Struggle for the Next Generation. Jovillo Sinzo was the tribal leader Sitio Kiwagan, Baranggay San Isidro. They are  active in  the struggle for Lumad’s self-determination and in the resistance against foreign destructive mining companies.  Their lives narrate a story of struggling against powers who are ready to steal, kill, and destroy their cherished ancestral land, culture, and a sustainable future. Whereas, the  power that  vests  in violence and super profit-oriented business   are driven by insatiable greed.

According to KARAPATAN there were 68 Lumads killed under the Pres.  Aquino regime. Sprawling in the heart of Mindanao are numerous applications of foreign companies for mining. It should not be taken as a surprise since the country has a wealth of natural resources, albeit unequally distributed. The government are selling the lands of Lumad at the expense of its people. Trump up charges were filed against leaders and people subversive to their evil ways and intentions. Death always chases them who are unwilling to yield to the whims and wills of the greedy.

This happened while politicians are now campaigning for the upcoming election, projecting their greatness in the midst of the lowly majority.

Then Jesus who knows what it means to be great said “If anyone would be greatest among, he must be last of all and servant of all.” When it is popularly understood that greatness is enjoying a good life, leading a pack, and receiving patronage from ordinary people, Jesus radically reverses the meaning to infuse a fresh wind of life for us. Greatness would now mean servanthood, being the last person among everybody, it could also mean death.

To illustrate the radial reversal of meaning of the concept of greatness, “he took a child, and put him in the midst of them”.   The child, a metaphor of godly innocence, the least among, us becomes a symbol of greatness. The smallness of a child is contrasted with the bigness of egos of the disciples who thinks of themselves as great.

Jesus’ greatness is not about a person’s laurels, it is not even about living a financially, and politically stable life. Far from those things. Greatness is about laying down your own life for others so that they may have life, even to the point of your own death.

Jesus died on the cross, exemplifying greatness, not for personal gains, but for the gain of the whole humanity. But he rose again to shame the “wise”. His story did not end in death. It continues to fight the forces of death who deface the image of God in every human being.

Emirito Samarca, Dionel Campos, and Jovillo Sinzo may have died a martyrs death. But their principles, causes, and examples has incarnated to us and with the Lumad people who are struggling to make just and lasting peace an experienced reality. Their humility and their readiness to be in unity with the people even up to the point of death is a clear manifestation of their greatness.

Furthermore, their death is an indication of the decaying system that considers the Lumads indispensable just to get the wealth underneath their lands. Human beings created in the image of God, a stature slightly lower than angels, is now located at the bottom of the hierarchy in which gold and other minerals is on top.

Our willingness, as Christians, to be in unity with the struggling Lumad people, is a breath of life to the least of our sisters and brothers. When we prevent the killings of Lumad we are witnessing to the Christ whose resurrection would mean fullness of life for all.   ##

Pastor Ariel Siagan

Iglesia Evangelica Metodista en las Islas Filipinas(IEMELIF)

WHO DO PEOPLE SAY THAT I AM?

Sept.13,2015
Isaiah 50:4-9
Psalms 116:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9
James 2:14-18
Mark 8:27-35

Jesus called his disciples and revealed to them who HE WAS and WHAT HE WAS ABOUT. He taught them as they went along their journey to the villages. The story of Peter’s confession of faith is one of those moments.
Jesus must have been well pleased with Peter who spoke up and professed, “You are the Christ” Mk. 8:29b, when He asked his disciples, “But you, who do you say I am?” Mk. 8:29a
But, why did Jesus however, strongly reproach Peter soon after his profession of faith?
Peter took aside Jesus to rebuke him for quite openly saying to his disciples that “…the Son of Man was destined to suffer grievously, and to be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and scribes, and to be put to death, and after three days to rise again.” Mk. 8:31
For doing so, Jesus reprimanded Peter, “Get behind me Satan! You are thinking not as God thinks, but as human beings do”. Mk: 8: 33b.
Jesus taught his disciples the mystery of HIS PERSON, the paradox of HIMSELF, the SON OF GOD who was to suffer, be rejected and put to death and after three days to rise again.
Let us allow JESUS to ask YOU and ME today “WHO DO YOU SAY I AM?”
I believe Jesus is GOD MADE FLESH, EMMANUEL, God with us.

The SPIRIT of JESUS who proclaimed good news to the afflicted, liberty to captives, sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed, was nailed on the cross and rose again DWELLS in each one, among God’s people and the whole of creation.

I believe the INDWELLING SPIRIT OF JESUS moves us to acknowledge the freeing presence of our merciful and loving GOD, in our courage and collective wisdom, joys and victories, cries and anguish, hopes and aspirations.

I believe the Spirit of New LIFE active in our lives as it was in the life of Jesus enables and inspires us to create the reign of God in our work for justice and peace, holding on to Jesus’ promise “I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS; YES TO THE END OF TIME.” Mt.28:20b

May the Breath of the Spirit of New Life free us to seek for those whose lives are most threatened so that we together may live life in all its fullness.
May we allow the Breath of the Spirit of New Life move us out of compassion to break bread, to connect with and support the demands for justice of the LUMAD communities whose lives have been in constant threat of displacement, harassment and killings in the guise of development, of mining, massive plantations and in the name of profit.
I believe that Jesus who died for what He believed, died in defeat and failure but rose to new life will, in love, gather all of us His disciples today, to act freely and joyfully on our convictions for it is by our deeds that we show our faith.##

Sr. Rebecca D. Pacete, mms
Religious Discernment Group

The Healing of a Deaf Man

September 6, 2015
23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Healing of a Deaf Man

Isaiah 35:4-7
Psalm 146:7-10
James 2:1-5
Mark 7:31-37

*Tulong, tulong mga Kababayan at Kapatid! Nais kong
Ipahayag ng matuwid ang aking damdamin at paghanga sa

kagandahan ng ating makulay na mundo at nais ko ring
marinig ang inyong mga tinig; huni ng mga ibon pati ang
lawiswis ng mga puno at kawayan.Iyan ang Nakakabagbag
ng damdaming sigaw ng isang bingi at utal na dininig
naman ng bayang may maawaing puso at ni Kristong
Mahal na Kapatid ,*

Our Gospel this Sunday brings to our consciousness several good and inspiring news worth emulating. People responding to an urgent need of a helpless man deprived of his capacity to hear and shut off from the world of sound was not only entertained and helped by the townsfolk that patiently brought him to the spot but was promptly favored and lovingly received by the Master Healer. The deaf humbly asked the Master to simply lay His hand on him, which is a show of his full trust in the healing power of Jesus. But Jesus “took him off by himself away from the crowd , put his finger into the man’s ears , and spitting touched his tongue, then He looked up to Heaven and groaned and said to him, Ephphata which means “Be Opened.”

Without an inch of hesitation Jesus responded right away to the call of the deaf man,’ to lay His hand on him.”We keenly observe here the listening fervor of Jesus that will vanish all our fear and hesitancy to approach the powerful Son of God. For any need that we may have. The art of listening which is being remarkably practiced by our beloved Pope Francis brings him and our Catholic Church closer and closer to people of all walks of life obviously reviving its original status as a Universal Church welcoming everyone without exclusion to the Fold. Quite unique, also, in this miracle performance of Jesus is the different minor processes he adopted before restoring the man’s hearing capacity and correcting his speech deficiency that involves a holy touch from Him.

It is very important for us too, to take notice, I believe, of Jesus’ quiet setting of an example for us His followers that after He has opened the ears of the deaf man and unleashing his tongue, His first order is to be quiet about it. In the side of the performer and in this case it happens to be Jesus, we can very well see that He wants to convey to us that trumpeting ourselves our own achievement specially in an arrogant and haughty manner does not conform with the spirit of humility and simplicity- the virtues that shape a Christ like personality.

On the other hand, as witnesses and recipients of the good that has been done, we are expected to proclaim and appreciate in private as well as in public the good that has been produced. It is certainly part of an evangelizing act if we make known the good that should be emulated and multiplied for others to share and enjoy and provide an opportunity for everyone to grow and develop.

In the time of Christ, great number of people followed Him, many of them, I suppose were sincere and true but He had also many detractors whose aim is to destroy Him and to make void the good that He was doing specially for the poor and the lowly.

“ How is my personal thermometer in relating with the deaf and the blind and all our powerless marginalized brothers and sisters that we meet in our streets and elsewhere that cross our way?

Prepared by: Sister Agneta L.Lauzon, sfic
La Verna Franciscan Sisters of Marikina City