February 28, 2022*Bagong-anyo at Balat-kayo

Rev. HazelJoyce-Salatan, AWIT-UTS

 

Lukas 9:28-36

https://twitter.com/altermidya/statu
s/1481511183731474433/photo/1

Ginugunita ang Linggo na ito bilang “Transfiguration Sunday”. Ito ang panahon kung saan nasaksihan ni Pedro, Juan at Santiago ang pagbabagong-anyo ng mukha at nagningning sa kaputian ang kasuotan ni Hesus habang Siya ay nananalangin. Nakita din nila si Moises at Elias. Sa hindi maipaliwanag na nasaksihan, nasambit ni Pedro “Panginoon, mabuti at andito kami.Gagawa kami  ng tatlong kubol para sainyo”. Ang sabi sa teksto ay hindi nalalaman ni Pedro ang kanyang sinasabi. Narinig nila ang tinig na nagsalita mula sa ulap, “Ito ang aking Anak, ang aking Pinili. Pakinggan ninyo siya!”

Mabigat ang mga nakaraang linggo at araw para sa mga piniling paglingkuran ang sambayanan. Ang piliin ang puspusang paglilingkod sa sambayanan habang payak ang maging pamumuhay ay isang dakilang desisyon nang pag-aalay ng buhay. Hindi ito nalalayo  sa sinabi ni Hesus sa Mateo 16:24, “ang sinumang nagnanais sumunod sa akin ay kinakailangang itakwil niya ang kanyang sarili, pasanin ang kanyang krus, at sumunod sa akin”.

Ang bunga ng pagbabagong-anyo ay mula sa pagkakahubog ng tao sa pakikipamuhay sa mga aba at mga bulnerableng mga komunidad. Ang makita at masaksihan ang tunay na kalagayan ng lipunan ang siyang magtutulak sa atin na tumindig para sa mga api at dukha. Hindi tayo magkakasya na panoorin na lamang ang iba’t-ibang uri ng pandarahas at panggigipit sa mamamayang isinasantabi ng mga nasa poder.

Madami ang sumagot sa tawag ng paglilingkod, madami ang piniling mag-alay ng buhay. Ngunit katulad ni Hesus, sila ay dinakip, pinatawan ng gawa-gawang kaso at pinatay.

Dinakip at pinatawan ng gawa-gawang kaso si Dr. Maria Natividad Marian “Natty” Castro, isang mabuting doktor at tapat na naglilingkod sa mga mahihirap na komunidad.

Marahas na demolisyon ang naranasan ng mga residente ng Patungan sa ngalan ng “development” para sa iilan. Habang madaming residente ang mawawalan ng tirahan at kabuhayan. Ilan din sa mga residente ang dinakip at pinatawan ng gawa-gawang kaso.

Pinatay ng mga militar ang mga guro ng Lumad Bakwit School, mga kabataan na piniling mag-alay ng buhay sa kanayunan at paglingkuran ang sambayanan.

Noong Biyernes ay naganap ang paggunita ng EDSA Revolution o kilala din na People Power I. Ito ay pag-alala ng tagumpay ng mga nagkaisang mga Pilipino para patalsikin ang diktaturang Marcos. Ito din ay pagkilos at pagpapakita na hindi kinalimutan ang mga Pilipino na nag-alay ng kanilang buhay sa panahon ng Martial Law.

Sa kabuuan ng kasaysayan, madami na ang pinatay na mga nagsusulong at nagtatanggol ng karapatang pantao. Madami pa ang desaparasido. Madami pa ang mga nakakulong at patuloy na pinagbabantaan ang buhay dahil sa patuloy ng pagkilos upang maisulong ang katarungan na nakabatay sa tunay na kapayapaan.

Ang pagbabagong-anyo o pagpapanibagong-hubog ay nagaganap sa tuwing pinipili natin na pumanig sa mga api, aba at mga bulnerable sa lipunan. Isang mataas na pagpupugay para sa lahat nang nag-alay ng kanilang mga buhay!

Kabalintunaan nito ay ang talamak na pagbabalat-kayo ng mga madami sa mga pulitiko ngayong panahon ng eleksyon. Ang balat-kayo ay uri  ng  pagkukunwari at panlilinlang. Sa likod ng mga pangakong plataporma ay ang nagtatagong mga pansariling interes. Sa ganda ng kanilang mga sinasabi ay madalas nagiging katulad tayo ni Pedro na hindi alam ang sinasabi at pinipili natin na manatili na lamang sa kasalukuyang kalagayan at hayaan tayong pagsamantalahan ng iilan.

Ang pagiging mapanuri at mapagmatyag sa panahon ngayon ang panawagan sa ating lahat. Piliin natin ang mga lider na pinipiling magbagong anyo tungo sa ikakabuti ng nakakarami at hindi ang nagbabalat-kayo na puro salita at punong-puno ng paglilinlang.

At kung ang katulad na pagpapanibagong-hubog na naganap kay Hesus ay magdudulot ng kamatayan para sa kaligtasan ng api at aba, araw-araw nating piliin na mag-alay ng buhay hanggang makamit ang buhay na ganap at kasiya-siya dito sa lupa gaya ng sa langit.

February 13,2022*6th Sunday in Ordinary Time *Friends and Enemies

Rev. Ariel Siagan, IEMELIF

https://www.twoinchbrush.com/originals/mbbrickner/blessed-are-the-poor

Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6

Jer 17:5-8

1 Cor 15:12, 16-20

Lk 6:17, 20-26

Jesus is found unapologetically stern in the Gospel lectionary reading today. I think Jesus doesn’t mean to portray an image of a cute Messiah nor an image of a friendly laughing Savior. In this passage, Jesus is dead serious.

After coming from visitations in communities, where he performed exorcisms and healing miracles, Jesus next speech states a manifesto of his political position. Perhaps he is triggered by physical exhaustion that comes from immersing in the situation of the poor and oppressed. After seeing them suffer, he was compelled to take side. He said blessed are the poor, the hungry, and those who are weeping now. This proclamation of blessedness to marginalized and suffering is comforting and, in a way, romantic. The proceeding statements are uncomforting and seemingly un-Christian. He said woe to the rich, the full now, and those who are laughing now. Jesus could have stopped his speech at part where he proclaimed the blessedness of the poor, but he went on lambasting the rich, without apologies. Perhaps, Jesus is showing to us a more nuanced way of being a disciple: It is not enough to receive the blessings, discipleship is more complete if we also advocate and become an ally to the poor and the oppressed by exposing the richness of the rich, the full, and the laughing now. Advocating for the poor requires the rebuke to the rich. An overemphasis on the poor may sound like they are the one to blame for their poverty. Rebuking the rich is also a part of the process.

Luke, the Gospel writer, has tendencies to distinguished between Jesus’ friends and enemies. In some other parts of the Gospel of Luke, he distinguished the rich man from the wound-laden Lazarus who eats the breadcrumbs falling from the rich man’s table. He also described the difficulty of a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, likening it to a camel entering a needle’s hole. Luke understands Jesus to be clear of who his friends are and who are his enemies. His depiction of Jesus is far from the reconciliatory Jesus that we would like to imagine.

What was Luke’s intention in portraying a seemingly a stern, hardliner Jesus? We may find answers by looking who are Luke’s intended audience. Luke’s intended audience, apparently and according to scholars (MacDonald 2003 2015, Alexander 2007) are the learned and the affluent in the society, evidenced by the fact that Luke addressed the Gospel to a man named Theophilus, probably a man schooled in exclusive education institutions. The stories that distinguished who Jesus’ friends and enemies is not to wage a killing spree against the rich, but an invitation to change one’s values. His speech has the effect of empowering the poor. Jesus is calling the rich to be converted, by giving a portion of their fortune to the poor.

The Duterte administration has been a cradle of the corrupt and the thieves. They have provided safe haven for those who accumulated a lot but stern to the working class people and the peasants. Remember Pharmally, remember ABS CBN’s closure, remember the selling of West Philippine Sea to Chinese government? Also, do you remember his hesitance to regularize workers, and do you remember him allowing imports of agricultural products to the detriment of farmers interests, and do you remember who were the victims of drug war? Clearly, he considered the poor Filipino people his enemies and rich his friends.

We Christians participate in national election as part of our democratic privilege and responsibility. We are told today who our enemies and friends are. Certainly Jesus sides with the poor and the oppressed in history. Unless the rich man had a change of mind and gave a portion of his wealth to the poor, and stand in solidarity with the poor, I think we know who our enemies are. At this time of intense climate of politicization, our task as Filipino Christians is to both to drumbeat the concerns that matter to the poor putting high in electoral agenda, and also to expose the real colors of those who pretend to stand with the poor. By doing this we declare the blessedness of the poor and the misery of the rich, that they may be pushed to conversion.

February 13,2022*6th Sunday in Ordinary Time *A new way of reflecting on the Beatitudes

Weena Salvador Meily – AWIT, catholic interspiritual

Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6

Jer 17:5-8

1 Cor 15:12, 16-20

Lk 6:17, 20-26

Blessings on the Earth-healers, Peacemakers, Workers for Equality and Justice 

(A new way of reflecting on the Beatitudes )

( My apologies to Starhawk for loving her life-giving words excerpted from The Earth Path; here, I tweaked what was her blessing for earth-healers and added what I deemed necessary for us to read the signs of life-changing times and symptoms of a dis-eased Cosmos.)

I weave all that I have heard. I connect to these all that I have read. And I weave more, reflect deeply and taste the goodness of blessings I have received.  I danced to beautiful music, like birds on water. I sang a song and played music in my heart.  The song and music I have been singing and playing all my life. The music of hurt and pain, of woundedness  and  broken hearts.  The music of healing, lovingkindness  and peace.  

This is how I write.  I look, seek, discover and find pieces of life in every work.  The fragments of living life to the full but not yet to the full.  Only fragments scattered in a field of dreams.  But I give thanks again and again.  And always remember and never forget.  The Cosmos is ailing, and yet there are carers.  It is groaning and yet, there are comforters.  Part of it is dying and yet the mourners are transforming their grief into joy. For it is not yet the end.  We can rise and give thanks, and bless the healers, the workers for peace, justice and equality.  AND SO…

We give thanks for all those who are moved, in their lives, to heal and protect the earth, in small ways and in large, for all those whose lives are offered for the good of others, for all those who work for equality, justice, and peace…

Blessings on the composter, the gardeners, the breeders of worms and mushrooms, the soil-builders, those who cleanse the waters and purify the air, all those who clean up the messes others have made.  We pray too, for those who messed up the Earth, for one day, they shall face accountability.

Blessings on those who defend trees and who plant trees, who guard the forests and who renew the forests.  We pray for those who have raped and messed up the forests, for one day they shall be judged  by the standard of justice and accountability .They shall  cry  and weep until they  ask for forgiveness and make up for what they have done.

Blessings on those who prevent erosion, who restore the salmon and the fisheries, who guard the healing herbs and who know the lore of the wild plants.  We pray and demand accountability  for those who overfish, who engage in death-dealing practices, who hunt down the medicine people, those who trample on the wild plants, for one day they will know what they have done.

Blessings on those who heal the cities and bring them alive again with excitement and creativity and love.  We pray too, for those who live in cities and see them as mere sources of profits and consider cities as a large garbage dumping site, so that  one day , they shall make up for their wrongdoing.

Gratitude and blessings to all who stand against greed, who risk themselves, to those who have bled and been wounded, and to those who have given their lives in service of the earth and its people suffering.  We pray too, for those who kill, exploit and oppress that  one day they will be in tears and be filled with remorse and will look back and see that their hearts have been steeped in greed. That when they look back, they have to pay for their  sins.

Gratitude and blessings to all who work for openness, acceptance and welcoming with open arms all genders and respect their choices and preferences; all races, religions,beliefs whose differences give meaning, joy and life to living.   We pray too for those who hate the Other, that one day they will learn to love deeply and walk humbly, hand-in-hand with all of Creation.

Peace, comfort and blessings to the healers of the Cosmos, for they will find their healing. May they be fueled by a passionate love for all of Creation.

Peace, comfort and blessings to those who know their fear, may they not be stopped by fear.

Peace, comfort and blessings to those who feel their anger, may they not be ruled by rage.

May they honor their grief but not be paralyzed by sorrow.

May they transform fear, rage, and grief into compassion and the inspiration to act in service of what they love.

May they find the help, the resources, the courage, the luck, the strength, the love, the health, the joy that they need to do the work.

May they bring alive a great awakening, open a listening ear to hear the Cosmic’ voice, transform imbalance to balance, hate and greed to love.

Blessed be all who love the Cosmos, peace, justice and equality.

Writer’s Notes:

1. You may find the original piece of Blessings of Earth-Healers in https://starhawk.org
2. Starhawk is an American feminist and author. She is known as a theorist of feminist Neopaganism and ecofeminism. She is a columnist for Beliefnet.com and for On Faith, the Newsweek/Washington Post online forum on religion. Her book The Spiral Dance was one of the main inspirations behind the Goddess movement.  In 2013, she was listed in Watkins’ Mind Body Spirit magazine as one of the 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People.
3. I personally consider her my mentor.  She has influenced me a lot since my Graduate School Theology days,  especially in the areas of the Feminine Divine, the true Self, acknowledging and loving  the Goddess, etc.  

Feb 6, 2022 Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time*Pagiging Alagad

Rev. Mary Grace E. Masegman, IFI

https://musingsandwonderment.blog/2021/03/04/the-call-of-the-disciples-luke-51-11/

Ps 138:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 7-8         

Is 6:1-2a, 3-8  

1 Cor 15:1-11

Lk 5:1-11

Lukas 5:1-11 Ang pagtawag sa Unang Apat na alagad ng Panginoon.

Ang ebanghelyo sa linggong ito ay patungkol sa pagtawag ni Jesus sa kanyang unang apat na alagad. Matatagpuan din ang salaysay na ito sa dalawang pang ebanghelyo, sa Mateo 4:18-22 at Marcos 1:16-20.

Sa tatlong nabanggit na ebanghelyo, ang salaysay ayon kay san Lucas ang may pinakamahaba. Masusing inilarawan ng may akda kung paano ang mga nasabing alagad ng Panginoon- Andres, Simon, Santiago at Juan ay walang pasubaling iniwan nila ang lahat at sumunod kay Jesus. (v. 11). Ito ay matapos nilang masaksihan ang kadakilaan ni Jesus ng mapuno ng isda ang mga bangka na kanilang sinasakyan sa kabila na noong una ay wala silang mahuli ni isang isda. (v.5-7). Nang makita ito ni Simon Pedro ay buong kababaang loob siyang lumuhod at kinilala ang kanyang mga pagkakasala sa harapan ni Jesus. “Lumayo kayo sa akin, Panginoon, sapagkat akoý isang makasalanan” (v.8) Tinugon siya ng Panginoon ng ganito, “Huwag kang matakot, mula ngayon ay mga tao na sa halip na mga isda ang iyong huhulihin” ( “Sumunod kayo sa akin at gagawin ko kayong mangingisda ng mga tao” – Mc. 1:17; “Sumunod kayo sa akin at gagawin ko kayong mangingisda ng mga tao”- Mateo 4: 19).

Ang lahat ng tatlong salaysay ay nagwakas sa pagsunod ng apat na alagad kay Jesus, iniwan nila ang lahat- ang kanilang ama at ang kanilang bangka. Iniwan nila ang kanilang pamilya at ang kanilang kabuhayan at sumunod sa tawag ng paglilingkod.

Madaling maging Kristiyano, pero ang magpaka-kristiyano ay paano? Marami sa atin naging kristiyano lamang sa papel, pero hindi nakikita na isinasabuhay ang ating pagiging mga binyagan.

Ano ang mga bagay na kaya nating isakripisyo? Ano ang kaya nating ipagkaloob sa tawag ng tapat at wagas na paglilingkod sa Diyos?

Ang paglilingkod sa Diyos ay hindi dapat natatali sa gawain sa loob lamang ng ating mga bahay dalanginan. Ang pagiging kristiyano ay hindi lamang dapat nakikita sa loob ng apat na sulok ng ating mga simbahan. Ang paglilingkod sa Diyos ay nasasalamin sa ating pakikipamuhay, pakikilahok at pagbibigay ng halaga sa buhay at dignidad ng ating kapwa. Sapagkat ang naglilingkod sa kanyang kapwa ay naglilingkod sa Diyos.

Sa panahon ngayon na tayo ay dumaranas ng ibat-ibang krisis, dagdag pa ang maingay na bangayan sa politika dahil sa nalalapit na eleksyon. Paano natin maipakikita ang pagiging mga lingkod ng Diyos?

Bilang mga binyagan at tagasunod ng ating Panginoong Hesukristo, tungkulin natin na ipahayag at bigyang buhay ang Mabuting Balita at itakwil ang anumang uri o porma ng kasamaan sa lipunan. Ang ating pananahimik ay pagsang-ayon sa mga taong gumagawa at lumalabag sa ating mga karapatan. Maipakita nawa natin sa gawa at hindi lamang sa salita ang ating pagliligkod ng tapat sa Diyos.