June 26, 2022*Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time* Be ready to speak the truth

Levi Viloria Albania, United Methodist Church

Ps 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11

http://www.bcartfarm.com/pp210.html

1 Kgs 19:16b, 19-21

Gal 5:1, 13-18

Lk 9:51-62

Luke 9: 51-62

Today’s Gospel narrates the story leading up to Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, death, and resurrection. Jesus and His disciples were set out to Jerusalem passing through villages. The narrative invites us to reflect on (1) the interaction with the Samaritans and (2) the cost of following Jesus.

As they were passing through the Samaritan village, the people did not welcome Jesus and his  disciples. I find it quite surprising because in the parable and other references, Samaritans were often associated with good qualities such as generosity, compassion, and gratitude. However, in today’s Gospel it is disappointing to hear that the Samaritans were not willing to accommodate Jesus and His disciples.

A part of me was quick to judge that like many people in society, these Samaritans rejected and discriminated those that were not their kind. Jesus is the Way, Truth, and Life, and people who have been accustomed to the ways of the world may easily reject the truth. In our context, many have been tolerating or believing fake news, and, corruption, dishonesty, injustice, and oppression have seemingly been the order of the day. Those who have been advocates of truth are oftentimes shamed, persecuted, and discriminated. For this, I ask myself, how many times have I been a “Samaritan” to my fellow?

On another hand, I believe Jesus understood the Samaritans’ reaction when He and His disciples reached the village. At the onset, Jesus was clear about His intention to proceed to Jerusalem. Perhaps, the Samaritans knew that holding him longer would waste His precious time to fulfill His purpose. The disciple’s reference of calling fire down from heaven like Elijah’s which was rejected by Jesus was a proof that Jesus was not there to prove anything to anyone. Rather, Jesus was focused on the task at hand. So, they set forth to other villages.

 As they proceeded to other villages, several men said that they will follow Him. His reply to the first was “foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.” which brings us the first character of discipleship. The world does not promise to reward us financially if we follow Jesus. Next, a person said that he will follow Jesus after burying his father. Jesus replied “let the dead bury their own dead…”. In many sermons I have heard growing up, it has been consistently preached that we should spend our time, talents, and treasure on  the living people, proclaiming the kingdom of God, rather than focusing time and effort on dead people. To the man who said he will follow Jesus after saying goodbye to his family, Jesus answered “no one puts a hand to the plow and looks back”. Anyone who is familiar with farming knows that if you look back, you may either swerve to the left or right which make the supposed straight line ahead crooked. In following God, we need to be focused on the ultimate goal that is His kingdom.

Today’s gospel provides us guidance on how to be disciples today. To be able to share the Good News, we must be ready to speak the truth. We should come prepared for some people to reject us because God’s ways are different. Do not expect royalties, retainers, commissions, and other rewards for it is not promised.

The only way to follow God is to live differently – to worship Him and follow His words, to serve God through His people, and be faithful stewards of God’s creation.  

Before we say our prayers today, may I invite you to for a short reflection?

1. How are we living our lives differently as followers of Christ?
2. Will the people of this generation see in us any evidence or manifestation of being Christians?
3. In what ways do we support others who are speaking that truth and advocating for a just and humane society?

Let us pray,

O Jesus, the Lord Almighty, we remember that we are in Your holy presence.

We come before You to praise you for the gift of life.

May how we live each day be our way of glorifying You.

Rebuke us like You did to Your followers when insist on our ways and not listen to Yours. Forgive us when we are quick to judge others without looking into our own sins and iniquities.

Guide us in understanding our purpose.

We lift up to you our fellow. Protect those who stand for truth as their way of glorifying You. Jehovah Jireh, we trust that You will provide. Make us instruments of your mercy and compassion.

Holy Spirit, remind us that we do all these good things for the greater glory of God who made Heaven and earth.

All these we ask in Your Holy Name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Live, Jesus, in our hearts forever! Amen.

June 19,2022*The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ*

Fr. Joey Ganio Evangelista, MJ

https://sacredheartfla.org/tag/eucharist/

Ps 110:1, 2, 3, 4

Gn 14:18-20

1 Cor 11:23-26

Lk 9:11b-17

We live in an age where there is a plethora of “truths.” It is an oxymoron but the idea of having an “alternative truth” has become part of human discourse today. This phenomenon is symptomatic of a society where people insist on their right to be heard while denying others that same right. Social media, while providing a platform for the voiceless to be heard, has also become an avenue for people to say whatever they want whenever they want while confusing license with freedom. Zooming out of this current reality, we see a trend where people tend to focus more on themselves: what they think; what they wear; what they eat; the places they go to; the people they are with, and less on others. The overriding message people get today seems to be, “There are many versions of the truth and mine is better!”

The action of God in the history of humanity has always been toward the other. In our Judeo-Christian tradition, this action of God was not just toward the other but toward those in the periphery. God chose the scattered tribes of Israel to become her people. God took the side of slaves over the powerful Egyptians and led them to the promised land. God chose insignificant people to become the parents of the Son of God. Jesus chose fisher folks and sinners to be his disciples. In his ministry, he first went to the sick, the poor, and the sinners to proclaim the kingdom of God. At his resurrection, he chose to show himself first to his women disciples. God chose to go toward others. In the words of Jesus, he had come to serve and not to be served. In the gospel reading today, Jesus shows his disciples and  the people who had listened to him that this action of God continues in them even in the midst of scarcity. What is needed is to be open to God and to allow her to move with and in us. This is how five thousand people can be fed with five loaves of bread and two fish. This is what the Eucharist is.

In a world where selfishness is parodied as a higher good, the Eucharist reveals to us that this is a sham. The Eucharist shows us that the real good is to strive to be like Jesus. Like the five loaves and two fish, we are meant to be God’s gifts to be shared to others who have less in the world. We are not an end in ourselves but conduits of God’s grace in order that the world we live in be transformed into a place where God’s goodness reigns in the hearts of people and become the paradigm after which all our social and political relations are patterned. This, too, is the real presence of Christ in the Church.

The Philippine Church today is struggling to find its direction in the tumultuous sea of change. The series of global and local events have battered the shores of our islands like a relentless storm surge: the Covid-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Duterte presidency, the recent Philippine elections and the sky rocketing prices of petrol and consumer goods. Resilient as we are as a people, we can only take so much. There are those who are scared and confused like the disciples on the Mount of Olives during the arrest of Jesus. And there is the majority just struggling to make it to the end of each day.

On the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, the Eucharist shows us that the way forward is not to focus on ourselves and on our “truths” but to move toward others, especially those who are in need, as Jesus Christ had shown us in his life, ministry, passion and resurrection. There are no alternative truths and we cannot own the truth. We should, instead, be possessed by the truth. The Eucharist teaches us that a life that is blessed, broken and shared is not only a life that is worth living but, more importantly, a life that is life-giving. This truth of God’s love that we live, celebrate and share in the Eucharist can only be shared to others through a life of selfless service in the way of Jesus with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In these trying times, the Eucharist reminds us that we are meant to live for others and that the way for us to overcome the innumerable crises that we face as individuals and as a nation is to live a life that is blessed, broken and shared.

Joey Ganio Evangelista, MJ

Malita Tagakaulo Mission

Malita, Davao Occidental

June 12, 2022*The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity*Radical love within the Triune God

Rev. Berlin Guerrero, PCPR-Australia  

Ps 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9

https://stpetersrockland.org/trinity-sunday/

Prv 8:22-31

Rom 5:1-5

Jn 16:12-15

The Psalmist says: What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor. (Ps 8:4 and 5).

We have a unique set of beliefs of a very complex Divinity, and very mysterious at that. But it is so wonderful to know that at the heart of the Triune God is a longing for freedom and liberation for all of  humankind and all creation! God so loved the world…(John 3:16).

When humankind was brought into being, they were not just any kind of creatures, but beings created in God’s likeness. God wants to share something of the Divinity, something within the Triune God which seeks to be expressed and can only be expressed by bringing into being humankind and the whole creation.

The love within the Triune God is poured upon humankind through the Father’s perfect love for the Son, the perfect love of the Son for the Father and the abiding love of the Spirit – shared to the created being that has become the most imperfect, and most unlovable, of all – us.

When humanity is debased, it is God’s image that is debased. When creation suffers, God suffers. So God entrusts the project of liberation to humankind itself as begun by Jesus the Christ, God’s Son, and through the Holy Spirit which animates and empowers.

Pentecost: The Sending of the Holy Spirit

When Jesus said, “I still have many things to say to you”, it perhaps meant that there are still a lot of things that need to be revealed.  And there are two things that can be considered why it wasn’t  time for those things to be said or revealed. One is that the listeners are not ready to hear the words or may not be able to bear the implications of the words. The other consideration is that the speaker (Jesus) has in mind, another way of revealing that which ought to be known. I believe the two considerations are at play.

The disciples had shown that they are slow-learners. There are many instances they missed the point Jesus was teaching them. Like you and me, there are things that do not dawn on us instantly and new things will take certain amount of time for us to understand. This is what we are as human beings, we learn slowly. And this is true to our understanding of God and our Christian faith. No one can claim full knowledge of God. We are in constant process of learning, discovering and understanding the world around us and the unseen God who is with us.

There are other things which are intentionally not revealed to us specially when these matters can hurt us or we’re simply not ready yet. We do this sometimes. To protect a loved one, we momentarily keep the truth to ourselves and wait for a proper time before we break our silence.

This time, Jesus chose not to tell the disciples those things that can be made known to them in the future in another way, or another medium. In this case, it is the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Triune God, who will lead them to new revelations.

According to the Text, the Spirit will do many things such as guide believers into all the truth; speak but not on its own; declare what is to come, glorify the Son of God, and take what is Jesus’ and declare it to the disciples (John 16:13 and 14).

The Spirit becomes Jesus’ continuation of further revealing and leading believers into the reality of a loving and liberating God. The Spirit is that member of the Triune God now tasked in revealing God and in guiding the body of believers to understand what God is doing in the world, and animate believers into taking part in God’s work.

What will be of Jesus when the Spirit comes? Jesus said: ¹⁴He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. ¹⁵All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. “Mine” connotes “possession”.

In paraphrasing, God will take what is the Son’s and declare it to the believers. As a divine being, what Jesus had in the world was the body of a human being. Jesus’ only possession in this world was his body and those who abide in him (John 15). God takes Jesus’ body and declare it to us. “Declare it to you” means “to formally and firmly turn over a possession or a property to another party or person. When God declares Christ’s body to us, it means that Christ’s body is given to us. Through the Holy Spirit, Christ’s body becomes “our possession”. In receiving Christ we become Christ’s body and we become Christ’s own.

The People of God

As Christ is declared to us by God, it is important to know that we did not only receive Christ body but also inherited Christ’s mission in the world. We become God’s people for the purpose of establishing God’s reign on earth. However, there is opposition. Earthly empires which lord over the nations of the world are keen to keep this oppressive and exploitative arrangement for as long as they can.

For the early church, particularly the church in Rome, Paul assures them that amidst persecution and suffering, the presence of the Spirit gives them a different kind of peace. He enjoins them to boast in their hope of being able to share God’s glory, and also to boast of their suffering believing that suffering produces endurance, character, and hope.

Paul’s words sound sweet and appeasing. Yet, when we look at the context where the believers were found, they were actually living in fear and in danger under Pax Romana (Roman Peace). Pax Romana was pacification through perpetuation of suppression and state violence. Rome was at war with other empires in the quest of subjugation of peoples and nations.

Paul uses the language of peace and war to present an alternative vision of peace made possible through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

In this present age, we are under Pax Americana. Direct and indirect control of weaker countries by US imperialism through wars of aggression using the most advanced war technology and weapons, overt and covert operations, treaty organizations and war coalitions, regime change, and so on. Pax Americana assures US and its allies  unhampered extraction of natural resources by multinational corporations for profit at the cost of enslaved peoples and nations and destruction of natural environment. The world is in a continuous state of conflict and violence as a result of the destructive competition between world superpowers.

The Philippine society, as a product of protracted direct Spanish colonial rule and US neocolonial rule, has seen the worst of human suffering and depravation. With sovereignty and freedom taken away, where lies the people’s redemption?

The Filipino people’s hope for a better future is in God’s divine plan  for God’s people to carry out Christ’s mission on earth. God’s love is expressed in God’s liberating action in the world carried out by the people of God, empowered by the Spirit.

June 5, 2022 *Pentecost Sunday *” Uncertainties, Division and Spirit God Different” Pentecost Musings…

Ms. Weena Meiley, Association of Women in Theology (AWIT)

https://www.bobcornwall.com/2014/04/evidence-enough-john-2019-31-lectionary.html

Ps 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34

Acts 2:1-11

1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13

Jn 20:19-23

I’d returned to Manila for some other reasons I can’t understand.  One thing is clear though, the reality of my situation.  But first, let me begin with the fact that this is my childhood place. The place where I was born.  Opo,  Batang Maynila ako.  Batang Santa Mesa to be exact.  Sta. Mesa is a district in Manila.  Here’s something I lifted from Wikipedia and just plain confirms what my Lola Josefa Manuel Meily  told us, her apos.  I was baptized in the Sacred Heart Parish, Sta Mesa in June 17, 1961.  

The district’s name comes from the Jesuits, who christened the area Hermanidad de Santa Mesa de la Misericordia (“Brotherhood of the Holy Table of Mercy”)… The local parish church had for its titular the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which formed part of the phrase the “Center of the Table is the Sacred Heart which all Graces and Mercy flowed down.”…A more popular folk etymology is that the name is a corruption of the Spanish term Santa Misa (“Holy Mass“).

It could be both a relief and comfort  to reminisce our days in Sta Mesa.  My childhood friend, Noemi Reyes-Prado and I are still friends to this very day.  I guess BFF is true.  She was  two years old and I was four. You can just imagine the many stories we have archived and treasured to this day!  Is this a full circle journey?  I’d planned a backpack trip to significant spots in Manila on my 60^th season of life. And here I am.  Not in Sta Mesa, but in Malate, Manila.

The Center of the Table is the Sacred Heart from which all Graces flowed.  When I read it slowly, slowly, tears flowed. Are these tears the graces?  Years back when I was in graduate school, in my Liturgy course (thank you Rev. Tom Maddela ECP!)  I came to a realization about the meaning of the “table of fellowship” at the celebration of the Eucharist, or thanksgiving.  I believed in the heart of me, that at the table of God where SHe celebrates and presides, ALL are welcome.  Unfortunately, I do not come from a family where people are welcomed.  My family was a family that “exclusivized” their way of living.  Exclusion was the norm.  Servants (called muchachas and muchachos at the time) had their place, women (and children) did not take part in table conversations, needy people who knocked at the gate were not opened,  homosexuality was either laughed at or were just taboo.  I was much younger at that time, but I knew in my heart there was something wrong.  And fast-forward to today…

There may be no room in any place where I could have knocked, last year in November, when I realized I was soon to be homeless.  But there is always that space in the heart of God that welcomed me. And here was  Nazareth House –catholic Worker, Manila.  It was difficult. There were many crying moments. Giving up so much.  In these looming twilight years, how can I be so alone?  So many uncertainties lie ahead.  Is this what God is teaching me about “unconditional love”?  Is this the answer to the community life I needed that I prayed for?   There I was, moving into my little room in December 17, with only 4 boxes of significant possessions (including clothes and books).  A Catholic Worker house is a hospitality house, where the poor, the neglected and rejected of society are welcomed.  I am so blessed, I thought.  What can a group of persons living with HIV-AIDS possibly teach me?  As a teacher all my life, I have always been taught by my craft to learn from others, no matter who they are or what the circumstances in life.  Turned out,  they are teaching me big time!  Life can be very difficult as we age, but sometimes, we can only have complete faith, hope and trust in God’s sustenance.  

Here is where  I am learning what the French theologian, Louis-Marie Chauvet suggests “…that The Spirit is God Different …. [A]t the same time, [the Spirit] is God closest to humankind, to the point of inscribing God’s very self into our corporality in order to divinize it.” (lifted from M.Shawn Copeland’s reflections on Pentecost, in her text published in “Catholic Women Preach”; citing Chauvet, in Symbol and Sacrament: A Sacramental Reinterpretation of Christian Existence)  Then Copeland continues, and this I wonderfully relish, “If  Spirit God Different  inscribes the Divine Self into (or divinizes) our human bodies, integrates and embraces all God’s human creatures, then affirmation and embrace of embodied or fleshly human difference is the mission of Spirit God Different. Indeed, from the beginning, Spirit God Different moves among all God’s human creatures––drawing us together, inspiring, prompting, prodding, exhorting, reproving, animating, empowering us to defy disunity and division, rupture and separation.

How easy it is in this present times that we are confronted with lies, disinformation, and fake news that can destroy the very fabric  of the beauty of our humanity.  We are confronted by the dynamics of neo-liberal capitalism that oppresses and reduces the dignity of the people including indigenous peoples.  We are facing the dangers of placing in power the political dynastic family whom we have toppled 36 years ago because of the atrocities they have committed against the Filipino people. I strongly feel that there is no other period in my lifetime where we need a more renewed understanding of the Holy Spirit. Spirit God Different moves into the soul of every human being  that upholds and works for peace based on justice, promotes the dignity of human persons, and walks in the light of truth.  Spirit God Different upholds the integrity of Creation.  Spirit God Different restores in us our fight for equality, life-giving values, peace based on justice, compassion for the helpless, a voice for the voiceless.

And so, with this piece of reflection let me share a timely prayer as we continue to come together and wave the banner of truth…

Spirit God Different,  we come to you confused and aching to our very bones at the happenings unfolding before us…

Spirit God Different, hear our cry of lamentation… Until when are we, as a people, to suffer our oppression in our own land; as tillers of the soil that gave birth to us, as people indigenous to the land, where is justice?

Spirit God Different, hear the groans of the wombs of women, trapped in the deception of domestic violence;  hear the groans of the little bodies of children, entangled into the cycle of abuse of elders.

Spirit God Different, hear the voice of our LGBTQ+ communities, hear the song of their struggle for equality, the music of their dance, the symphony of their life in their fight for justice.  

Spirit God Different, hear the sighs and cries of workers chained in oppressive working conditions, in factories, rice fields, in the streets as riders and drivers of public commute, in food service industries,  in hospitals,  and other frontliners giving their bodies in service to others; many below- and minimum wage earners, struggling everyday to make ends meet.

Spirit God Different hear the deafening silence of the aching hearts of mothers, daughters, grand-daughters of victims of this senseless war on drugs, hear the whispers of souls of the dead, aching for justice!

Spirit God Different, hear the cries of Creation; of forests, oceans, lakes, rivers, fishes, land animals, birds of the air, entire ecosystems suffering from greedy hearts; their hearts of stone and souls of steel, their minds corrupt, their hands of filth; they live in mansions and eat of the profits gained from the suffering Earth and humankind.

Gather us, O Spirit God Different, gather us your people, whose lamentation you never fail to hear.  Your faithfulness to heed our pain-filled call, we cling to.

Gather us O Spirit God Different , gather us your people whose experiences of being different, small, weak, and helpless  have been objectified, commodified, and wrecked by wicked hearts.

Gather us O Spirit God Different, gather us your People-You-Call-Your-Own.  Gather us to your  Center of the Table where your Heart resides and from which all Graces and Mercy flows. Gather us, your suffering people into the Table where we all will eat of the fruits of your love, compassion, truth, justice and peace.

AMEN.