March 31, 2019, 4th Sunday of Lent *Seeking and Welcoming The Lost

Levi V. Albania, United Methodist Church

Associate Dean of Student Life, DLS-CSB

 

Ehttps://www.pinterest.ph/pin/60869032437857950/?lp=truenter a caption

Ps 34:2-7

Joshua 5:9, 10-12

2Cor 5:17-21

Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

Bunso is what my family calls me. Admittedly, this term of endearment caused a certain level of entitlement in me as a young kid. I knew that I was favored. One summer afternoon while on vacation, without permission, I took my dad’s motorbike for a spin. This red bike of his was just recently repainted and accessorized. After a few minutes of riding, I invited my young uncle to go around the barrio (village). At one point, I told him that he could drive while I ride at his back. Losing control of the bike, we rammed a wooden fence and damaged the bike. At that point, I did not know what to do and had no control of my emotions. That evening, dad learned about the accident but, instead of getting angry at me, he got worried. Despite the damage to his bike and the trouble we caused by taking the bike without his permission, Dad was just glad that I did not suffer any injury and hugged me tight. Such is the love of a father.

 

The Gospel that we are all too familiar with tells of a similar story. Jesus gives us an example of God’s love by making up the parable about the Lost Son or the Prodigal Son. We have heard of similar parables told by Jesus that refer to losing and finding (e.g. lost coin, lost sheep) in the hope of explaining God’s great love for humanity.

 

Many of us can probably relate and recall a particular point in our lives that we have felt lost, too. We begin to question what’s wrong with us or why do we experience such adversities. Neglect, deprivation, marginalization, discrimination, involuntary disappearances, abandonment, poverty and other forms of structural violence – these are just few of the many examples of being lost. Lost are: our brothers and sisters who continue to till the land, to provide us crops to eat, yet have little or none to share with their own families; our workers who have difficulty finding work locally and displaced by foreign counterparts, they seek jobs abroad only to be abused and discriminated; our young kids, who should enjoy education as a right, go through a lot of difficulties just to get an education; people of diverse SOGIE, who are met with indifference by those who claim to be modern-day disciples or those who use the Bible to their convenience; and, orphaned kids of those killed in various conflicts and the all-out war on drugs. Contemporary issues like these are overwhelming.

 

The Season of Lent invites to sit and reflect on the Gospel and the values it teaches for us to navigate through life’s difficulties. The Gospel today provides us a reason to rejoice and hope. It reveals God’s great love for us through Jesus His Son. His passion, death on the cross, and the triumphant resurrection winning over death and sin, Jesus Christ has reconnected us, reconciled us with God and the rest of humanity.

 

Today, encourage someone who may feel lost, least, or last.

Live Jesus in our hearts, forever!##

 

Levi V. Albania

Finance Chair and Church Historian, The Lord Almighty United Methodist Church

Associate Dean of Student Life, DLS-CSB

 

3rd Sunday of Lent 24 March 2019*LENT: A Season for Fresh New Ways of Seeing

Weena Salvador Meily, Association of Women in Theology

https://tillchrist.wordpress.com/tag/parable-of-barren-fig-tree/

Ps 103 or Ps 103:1-11

Exodus 3:1-15

1Cor 10:1-13

Luke 13:1-9

Is it possible to read the Bible through a (queer) woman’s lens?  I mean another way, or a new way of seeing or reading.  A fresh perspective perhaps?  To read the scriptures with my uterus,  with my menopausal experience, my dry season, for younger ones to read through menstruation, through women’s cycles, and conceiving, babies gestating, and finally to read through the experience of giving birth.  What is God saying in all of these?  Yes, it is still March and it is Lent and we are celebrating the Month of Women.  Thus, the tone of my pleading.

As I write this piece, I am doing things at the same time.  I am cooking my rice, just enough for the day, checking my cat from time-to-time since I feel he is overwhelmed by the heat of the day, checking out the laundry as they dry out, AND, the issue of the day, FILLING UP MY STORAGE FOR WATER.  I suppose a lot of us would resonate with my chores of the day, women and men alike. I always like to think there are a lot of men out there who are beginning to see themselves as equal with women, particularly in the battlefield  of house chores!

And it is in this context, about that time when I was in College in the early 80s, when I asked my question I owned for such a long, long time, and which will only be quenched through my pursuit of an adult education program for theology studies. How did the women of Bible times live then?  How did they live with taboos?  I mean, menstruating was inevitable and dysmenorrhea must have been part of this.  How did they live through all that?  And conceiving and giving birth and caring for babies?!  A woman in the time of the Bible was a part of possessions of a man, and so is considered part of animals, land, and children owned by the patriarch.  In fact there were many unnamed women in the Bible.  No name women.  They’re not important anyway.  I can just imagine the struggles.

 

I started reading Exodus Chapter 3: 1-8; 13-15,  the highlight of which is God’s compassion for those pushed to the edges of society so that God has seen their humiliation, hears their cry when humiliated, he knows their suffering, and behold, he has come down to free them.  In other words, God sees, hears, knows and then he acts. God does something, he frees His people, His beloved people. No matter how vulnerable and weak, God sees and knows their suffering, and liberates them.

And then, enter the Good News. The verse in the Gospel talks of “unless you repent, you will be cut off from the rest.”  How harsh you may say.  It is not that I do not want to repent.  Sometimes understanding the message of God’s Word may be inviting us to tweak what we superficially read.  And so I invite you now to turn the other way around.   Turn your lens about 180 degrees and see what you can see.  How can I relate to verses like these in the New Testament, when I can strongly feel and can almost smell male hormones exuding from every letter of every verse! How can I read from within the life of a woman?

Truly, truly I tell you, this verse speaks to us, women, inviting us to practice our prophetic call, by reading the signs of the times. If you haven’t been able to read the signs of the times, well now is the time, the time to turn around, to speak out, to have a voice. By asking a question  “ How can I invite these oppressors, to repent of their sins of oppression, suppression, injustice?”  Today I reclaim my voice, after years of silence. This is my repentance.  This is the repentance of many women.  A turnabout of perspectives. A conversion of life from death-dealing to life-giving.   A new way of how to live my life. How do I see myself?  Never again will I allow others to abuse me.  Never again.   And this Gospel I am reflecting on now, may be considered a connecting tool to the rest of the verses (Lk 13:10-13), the important image of Jesus as healer.  So that understanding cutting off or letting go, or letting loose may be in the context of healing. Or in the context of transformation, so that even if there is a letting go, change happens and we always hope for the better.  To understand ourselves being women, the Gospel continuously calls us to be prophetic.  We are the generation not of the subservient Mary but the subversive Mary, the Mary of the Magnificat.   Where according to Prof. and Dr. Sr Mary John Mananzan OSB says, “ ’God shall put down the mighty from their seat.’  That’s revolutionary.  God will send away the rich empty and feed the poor.  That is very social justice, hindi ba?”

 

Today let us, as women (and men too!), reclaim our liberation.  Let us read the Gospel, as Good News for us.  It may be heavy in patriarchal characters and stories.  However, we can read it through a new pair of lenses.  The Exodus story of God’s compassion, of hearing our cry of oppression, of suffering, and freeing us is life-giving realization.  To trust in this promise may be a challenge or even terribly difficult.  But we have to start from somewhere to help us walk the path of freedom from oppressive structures.  It takes determination, a strong will, and a deep love for friendship and community.

 

I see three things here.  One is, the challenge of God’s compassion of hearing the cry of the poor.  How do we, as women (and men too!) hear the cry of our poor in our midst?  Today, you don’t have to go far, to see poverty.  Two, to read “repent” as  “prophetic call”.  I was voiceless and now I speak, I was silent and now I shout!  And the third, is to join hands and take action.  Gather together as women collectively, and tell our leaders that enough is enough.  Let’s renew mathematics here.  One + one million = One Voice.  Many voices is equal to ONE.  With many we become one.

 

The Bible as the Word of God is indeed salvation. Reading its poetry, prose, chronicles, songs, stories and parables – its words have a certain saving power.   Its promises are intact and enfleshed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  Reading it through a different way and in the context particularly of the women, the poor and marginalized of society, reveals a liberating message. It becomes comfort for the afflicted, medicine for the ill, joy for the grieving, life for all.  Always, we are invited to renew our ways of seeing, looking, reading, ministering, even our ways of loving are challenged by this liberating message of our God of history, our Divine Mother.  The invitation continues as a river flows into the sea.  May we, in this season of Lent, nurture a renewed love for the Word birthed unto us by Divine Mother, whose love is unsurpassed.##

 

 

 

 

March 17, 2019: SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT *Transfiguration: A Glimpse How Good And Loving We Can Become

Noy Loyola,  Redemptorist Lay Missionary

https://www.google.com/search?q=meditation&tbm=isch&tbs=rimg:CSByPtfFgfMFIjiA2hj6zXNDqiiPFJkimaGpDSjnPWvus9glycOf0C7KeXlBWXCTw473UxY-

Genesis 15:5-12,17-18

Psalm 27:1,7-8,8-9,13-14

Philippians 3:17-4:1

Luke 9:28-36

 

The gospel today is actually a happy note to bolster our courage and to dispel our fears after Jesus foretold of his upcoming severe rejection, suffering, and death, but on the third day, he will be raised to life again (Lk 9:22). Nonetheless, as always, Luke presents Jesus addressing every difficulty with prayer, and thus sets the context and event of the transfiguration.

We had been encountering the story of transfiguration year after year, and we may ponder upon, what could be its meaning every time we reread it?  Could there be  a revelation, new one or something to be re-affirmed?. In this age of science and technology, any person with a lot of money can literally transform oneself into anything as one wishes. If you are sixty years old, you can make yourself look like sixteen again. With proper skill, diligence and monetary back-up,  we can go wherever and can become whatever our hearts desire. Although there is always a limit to what we want to accomplish. Hence, the lesson of last Sunday’s gospel regarding our need to resist temptations, which are usually about fame, power and fortune continue. That is why God warns us this time, don’t listen to temptations (don’t dwell on them for too long) but pay attention to the voice of God who says, This is my chosen Son, listen to him (Lk 9:35).

This is easier said than done. There are distractions in our way as we focus ourselves towards our aim. For instance, our propensity for relaxation and entertainment had actually developed our capacity to endure annoying  TV commercials that keep us from listening to God. Everyday  is an opportunity to hear God’s word. By tradition,  Sundays  become the celebrative summing up of week ’s recognition of God’ might revelation.

We, can observe, however, that for the week-days (working and school days) we seem to get entertainment through the boob tubes and consider it as a  moment of relaxation. We become the hostage of advertisements.  We are flooded with marketing strategies of capitalists and tempt us to acquire new gadgets and purchase online latest digital games. When we get tired of watching TV we tune in to online music or our favorite radio station. Do they become instruments of God’s message? Can we listen to God’s voice through those moments of entertainment? What message do we hear beneath those marketing strategies?

Pope Francis offers us practical advice on how to go about this season of Lent. Indeed, we need to double our efforts in praying. And the way to do that is by way of ascending and descending movements[1]. By ascending movement he means that we go to a quiet place, like “mountains,” to get closer to God.  We can choose our own “mountains” to get closer to God.  It is in places where we can see and listen to what God is about to reveal. After praying we also need to descend “from the mountain” and face reality once again. We must continue our mission of announcing God’s love especially to the poor.

Prayer reinforces our loving relationship with God. This is precisely the content of Genesis 15:5-12,17-18. God has shown his love for Abraham and Sarah who were childless. God promised them descendants as numerous as the stars of the evening sky, and the condition to raise those descendants by giving them a land of their own.

David also recalls God’s goodness and love in Psalm 27:1,7-8,8-9,13-14. It is God’s love that kept him alive despite the fact that his enemies had already surrounded him.  It is also God’s love that he refused to take Kings Saul’s life even if twice he was given the opportunity to kill him. David’s secret of keeping himself in moral high ground and self-control is being close to God in prayer.

St. Paul in his letter to the Philippians 3:17-4:1, speaks of our citizenship in heaven. He instructs his readers to stand firm in their relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. Meaning, we should abide in a loving relationship with God and with one another. St. Paul mentions that he is in tears knowing other members of the church opposes the way of the cross demonstrated by Jesus – and of how the cross becomes the ultimate measure of unconditional love.

Pope Benedict XVI asserts that our relationship with God is the basic condition for peace in the world. He says, “Only the man who is reconciled with God can also be reconciled and in harmony with himself, and only the man who is reconciled with God and with himself can establish peace around him and throughout the world.”[2]

The way for our own transfiguration is our continuous descent (going down from prayer) in the form of self-emptying. Instead of accumulating fortune, fame, and power for ourselves, we divest our life in service for others, especially for the poor. This descent is to be continued in making ourselves servants and purveyors of care and nurture in order to deliver the maximum impact of unconditional love for others. Meantime, let us continue with that cleansing and purifying work of God in our lives this Lenten season. Amen.  ##

 

 

[1] Pope Francis’ Angelus Message on the Transfiguration — Second Sunday of Lent — March 16, 2014, https://www.missionsandiego.org/pope-francis-2014-angelus-message-on-the-transfiguration/.

[2] Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth from the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration, http://my.ilstu.edu/~jguegu/BenedictXVIPart2.pdf.

March 10, 2019, 1st Sunday of Lent*No, Its Not All About Heavens and Glory

Ms. Snap Mabanta, IFI

Ps 27: 1, 7-9, 13-14

Gen 15:5-12, 17-18

Phil 3:17-4:1

Luke 9:28-36

 ²⁸ About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. ²⁹ As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. ³⁰ Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. ³¹ They spoke about his departure,^[a] which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. ³² Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. ³³ As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.)

³⁴ While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. ³⁵ A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” ³⁶ When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen.

Transfiguration would often be narrated as one moment when Jesus’s ‘divine’ side is revealed. There were clouds enveloping Jesus, Peter, John and James. Jesus’ face changing, and his clothes so bright and shining, while talking to the prophets of long time ago  (what we know as characters in the Old Testament). And yes, they were somewhere up in the mountains. Indeed, it was a glorious moment for the three disciples who have witnessed and experienced Jesus’ transfiguration.

But there is more to this experience of heavenly realm than what it appears.

The ‘This’ As Context

²⁸ About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray.

It was interesting that the transfiguration story started with ‘this’. And one has to go to the verses shortly before this text in order to make sense, and get the context before the transfiguration occurred. In the whole of Chapter 9, Jesus was seen sending out his disciples to do what they had to do. It was told that he gave them power and authority to cure the sick, cast out demons, and proclaim the good news to the people (Lk. 9:1-5). At some point of doing their work, they needed to feed more than 5,000 people in the mountain, because people who have heard of him and their missionary work kept on following them (Lk 9:10-17).

In verse 18-20, Peter called him as God’s Messiah, the one who would fulfill God’s promise here on earth.

All of these have gotten the attention of  King Herod (Lk 9:7-9), the ruler in Galilee and Jerusalem, who at a slight provocation, would feel threatened by anyone who becomes influential to the public.

The ‘this’ comes in chapter verses 21-27, immediately before the said Jesus’ transfiguration. He predicted his own passion and death. Turning to his disciples and to a crowd, he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected…and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life…Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me…”

Jesus in the whole narrative in Luke 9 was doing his earthy missions together with his disciples.  He organized and sent out his disciples. He was healing the sick and casting out demons as earlier said. He was proclaiming the good news particularly to the poor people. In the same synoptic gospel in Mark (chapters 7 and 8), he was seen curing a blind man in Bethsaida, healed a deaf and a mute man, casting the demon from the body of the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter, and challenging traditions that he thought were hypocritical and does not follow God’s commandments.

The ‘this’ was therefore a premonition from Jesus that while he is faithfully doing his mission, it will not be easy. The road to Jerusalem after the transfiguration before the glorious resurrection will be rocky, dangerous, and challenging. It is taking up the cross.

Transfiguration: The Call to take up the cross, and the not-so-easy journey to Jerusalem

Pasanin mo ang krus

Landasin ang kalbaryo

Itayo ang bantayog ng tao

Damahin mo ang hirap

Alamin ang liwanag

At sa bukas ang bago’y masdan.

 

These lyrics of a song would probably summarize the spirit of the text. This is what Jesus is telling us in the story. He knew he was getting the ire of rulers for challenging the way they govern the people. He was speaking against what wasn’t right, he radically questions the systems that kings and ruler (Herod, Julius Cesar, and others, for that matter) instituted that oppressed people.

When Elijah and Moses appeared to Jesus in the text, they talked about departure, which will come full circle in Jerusalem. Also, towards the end of the chapter (Lk 9:51), Jesus is said to be heading to Jerusalem with his disciples.

For Luke, the mission of Jesus is a type of exodus.  As Moses led the people from slavery into freedom, so Jesus would do likewise.[1]

And it wouldn’t be easy. The departure to Jerusalem wouldn’t be easy. He knew he will be killed. Enough proof to say is his prediction of his own death twice just in this chapter (Verses 21-27, 44-50). But he will resurrect there also, giving the story of transfiguration significant imperative to Jesus’ association to Jerusalem.

As they are traversing the road to Jerusalem, Jesus challenge his disciples, that whoever wishes to follow him must be willing to take up the cross. They must be willing to suffer, and take whatever risks that may come along the way.

This text is so timely and fitting when at present an increasing number of church leaders are publicly vilified, shamed, and even openly harassed. They are targets just because they speak up the truth, and dare to announce the good news of salvation and deliverance of the suffering masses. Our Church leaders are speaking up against government policies that do not serve the interest of the people . Jesus experienced the same in Jerusalem.  Our churches’ call to stop the bloody war on drug that killed thousands of the poor, and the abhorrence to gruesome corruption in the bureaucracy that takes away development  opportunities for the least are  the stance our church leaders took that resulted to their persecution by the powers that be. Some are tagged as terrorists, some would receive direct death threats for doing so. Bp. Ambo David of the Diocese of Novaliches, Bp. Felixberto Calang (IFI), Bp. Antonio Ablon (IFI), the Rural Missionaries in the Philippines are just some of those publicly vilified for challenging the current administration. And what do they do? Like Jesus, they announce the deliverance of the people from suffering. They announce that there is something not right in the way government is treating its people today.

But, just like Jesus, in no way that these church leaders will be silenced and stopped from doing their mission. These state vilification only strengthen the resolved of the people.

 

The promised of God stands.

The transfiguration experience for the three disciples was glorious and mystical, yes. There was mountain, clouds, Jesus’ changing appearance, there was shining light. But most importantly, it prepared the disciples to the reality of suffering they are going to experience on their way to Jerusalem, in following Jesus. But the transfiguration also taught them that the suffering, passion and death won’t be the end of the story. As the ‘departure’ (exodus) will be fulfilled in Jerusalem, there is a story of resurrection, another mystical experience that will happen. Jesus will soon rise from death.

Transfiguration promises God’s love and compassion. The triumph of life over death, of light over darkness, and of goodness over evil.

May this promise of assurance embrace us this Season of Lent.##

 

 

 

 

[1] https://www.progressiveinvolvement.com/progressive_involvement/2019/02/transfiguration-of-our-lord-luke-9-28-36.html

March 3* The Things That Blind Us

Wing  Garibay

Psalm 92: 2-3, 13-16

Sirach 27: 5-8

Philippians 2: 15d, 16a

Luke 6: 39-45

 

The Gospel for today reminds us the power and importance of sight. The Book of Luke Chapter 6 presented three powerful imageries: first was the parable of a blind person leading another blind person; second was the parable of the sawdust and plank; and the parable of the fruit-bearing tree. These are some passages that came from the discourse which Jesus Christ pronounced on the plains after spending a night in prayer and after calling the twelve to be his apostles.

The first parable of the blind person who leads another blind person. Will they fall? Absolutely. This one-line parable is quite similar to the Gospel of Matthew that addressed Pharisees: “Alas for you, blind guides!” (Matthew 23: 16, 17, 19, 24, 26). Here in the context of the Gospel of Luke, this parable is addressed to the leaders of the communities who consider themselves the lords of the truth and superior to others. And because of this, they are blind guides to a fault.

But why are they blind? And what is it that they couldn’t see? From the context of Matthew, these leaders are blinded by greed that came from their abuse of power. I can’t help but be reminded of my country wherein the leaders are so blinded by their greed and lust for power that they fail to see and attend to the Filipino’s woes. Perhaps this neglect or blindness is what made them more powerful. Perhaps their blindness is deliberate. They turn their backs to the legitimate calls and needs of the Filipino masses and make use of the government bureaucracy to milk profit and power off the Filipinos. And now, as the national mid-term elections come to close, our surroundings, that still reeks of abuse, impunity and violence, is slowly being filled by the campaign air. With blood on their hands, they are slowly turning again this time to face the masses — the ones they have been neglecting and whose rights they have been violating – to court for re-election.

The second parable speaks blind spots, the splinters large and small that prevent us from seeing. Too often we cannot see our own blind spots, simply because they are our blind spots. Jesus is asking us for an attitude which will make us capable to go and actually reach out with to our kapwa with openness, just as he did. This splinter, or plank, that burdens us blind is our apathy, individualism, self-interest, and anything that prevents us from being compassionate and feel the burdens of our kapwa. Every day as we turn the pages of our newspapers, as we flick through television channels, and scroll through our social media timelines, we see stories of violence against women and children, hunger among farmers, bombings in ancestral lands, attacks against the church people, among many other forms of injustices. We see these, but we are not moving. Jesus reminds us, his kapwa, that there’s another form of blindness that may even be more dangerous than what he previously described. He reminds us that we may be seeing, but we may not actually be seeing. And this splinter, in our very eyes (our blind spots), is what keeps us from moving towards the fullness of life that was promised.

The gospel later unveiled the mystery of the origin of these blindness, and it is right beneath and among us: these are bad fruits of a rotten tree. This secular, materialistic, and market-oriented system breeds these bad fruits that blind us in order to preserve itself. We are being blinded to pacify our thirst for a just peace and sustainable community. This is why it is important to remove the splinters that blind us, personally and collectively. We need to actually see and feel for our surroundings; discern what is evil; and unite for truth, justice, and peace.

At the end of the chapter was an encouragement and an invitation for us to fight off this blindness and more importantly, pursue the mission of Christ. He is challenging us to hear his words and put them into practice. These are the words that spoke truth to the poor and afflicted, and ignited them to move in unity amid the oppressive and tyrannical Roman Empire. This is the mission of Christ to introduce the kingdom of God and the fullness of life, in sharp contrast with the selfish and violent kingdom that we have. This is the mission that we are called to pursue now. Amen.