Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time*July 30,2023*Of Treasures and Salvation: How Costly is to Aspire for God’s Kingdom?

Jimarie Snap Talingdan Mabanta, NCCP

Vicente Manansala/https://www.mutualart.com/
Artwork/Caraboa/9DFD966F58EE193B

1 Kgs 3:5, 7-12

Ps 119:57, 72, 76-77, 127-128, 129-130

Rom 8:28-30

Mt 13:44-52

Baka adda Apo maal-alaw yu nga kastoy nga baka, (photo uploaded), paki-pm dak wennu ni Manong ko XXX. Isu laeng ti didan masapulan, ta uray data lang kuma met iti maaka-surviven, kasi diyay 3 natayen. (crying, praying emojies)

(Anyone, if incidentally you have seen this cow (photo uploaded), please send me or my brother XXX a message. We hope that this is still alive, the other two were found dead. )

In the midst of the onslaught of Typhoon Egay (Doksuri) that hit tremendously the northern provinces of the Philippines, I saw this FB post from a high school batchmate. As I continue to browse the social media, she posted another another one, lamenting and telling to God to hug her as she feels weak. Apparently, the 3 cows she owned have been missing as the typhoon begun to strike our home province Abra.  My friend is currently in Hong Kong, serving as a domestic worker for the past several years. I would have a glimpse of her life on social media as she is fond of sharing life events there. She has managed to send her children in school and has been able to sustain her family by working overseas. In her posts, I also know that the cows are her investment to help her in school expenses of her children in the near future. In our high batch facebook group, another friend working overseas also posted a video of how her newly built house is ravaged by the same typhoon. The house is barely finished.

Both my friends speak about something that they treasure most. The properties taken away by the destruction of the typhoon were acquired through hard-earned money by working overseas. I’ve seen their excitement and pride in the past as they try to acquire these for years. They do not belong to upper middle-class families, and the houses and animals are their investment through the years. They had to work for months and years, giving up every single chance for vacation to see their families at home just so they can save for these properties.

The short parables that Jesus used to describe the Kingdom of God evoked a mixture of emotions   -of questions, sense of justice for those persecuted, but of discomfort on one hand. I knew that Jesus was not only being imaginative in His teachings. During his time, facing the ruling empire must have been difficult, just as how the vocal critics today are persecuted. Then and now, confronting powers that be does not come are without a cost.

I would like to imagine a God’s kingdom that exists here on Earth, just as how my faith is teaching me to believe. A kingdom that is experienced by many, especially the poor majority. A kingdom where we all experience the promise of life’s fullness and abundance while we are still alive and breathing, while we are still able to grasp life.  

The first parable illustrates the Kingdom of God as a hidden treasure, which when found, buried on fields, and the keeper is willing to buy the field to own the treasure. The second teaches us the value of the Kingdom. Just like the pearls, it is costly.  The merchant who finds it will be willing to sell all that he has to buy the most valuable pearls.

For my friends whose animals were dead and missing, and whose house is being submerged in the floodwater during the typhoon, they try to aspire God’s kingdom through a better life for their families. For years, they have been working abroad to sustain their families. They have worked so hard, away from their homes to provide for their families. They endure years of separation just to fulfill their dreams. What has been taken away from them are their treasures. The great deals they’ve found, the treasures that should make them experience a feel of God’s kingdom in the very near future, here on Earth.

This aspiration of God’s Kingdom on Earth is shared by many others, especially the needy. During the recent State of the Nation Address of Pres. Bongbong Marcos, people from different basic sectors – women, youth, peasants, workers, urban poor,  together with advocates and solidarity group converged near Batasan along Commonwealth to launch a so-called People’s SONA. The people spoke about their punctuated realities, their conditions on the ground, in parallel to what the President is telling the public about the state of the nation. The workers talked about their aspiration of a more decent wages. The farmers talked about their assertion to own the land they till. The urban poor talked about how they long for basic social services from the government. As I listen to them speak, I see in them a God’s people, who work tirelessly to experience better condition in life. All of them aspire to find the greatest treasure, the greatest deal, and ultimately, the Kingdom of God here on Earth.

And so when President Bongbong Marcos spoke about how the government has done well in the past year, it was too contrasting to what I’ve heard from the basic sectors. Too far that I’ve gotten dissonance. He claimed about lowering inflation rate in the past months, better employment rates, better conditions and services for migrant workers, and promises of foreign investments as a result of his numerous foreign trips, among others ‘achievements’ that he mentioned.

I would tend to believe what the People’s SONA would be saying. Currently, the inflation rate in the country is the highest in SouthEast Asia, making it difficult for the poor to keep up with the unbelievably high prices of basic commodities. The quality of available jobs, which are often irregular and insecure, still pushes our people to find more decent jobs overseas. And our overseas Filipino workers still remain to be among the most neglected sector. This is not the Kingdom that God promised us to have.

Yet, God’ people continue to work for, or even demand for the reign of God’s Kingdom on Earth.  But this is not without a cost. Just as how it was difficult for Jesus to stand against the abuses and wickedness of the Roman empire to the people then, the same is true today. The people’s aspiration for better life is not easily provided. It is never without a struggle. The people have learned to organize themselves in collective bodies or groups to demand for what is rightfully theirs. Oftentimes, these collective actions are met with persecution from the state. People are labelled as ‘terrorist’ when they start negotiating for better jobs, services, and rights. Right now, there is a whole state machinery to quell the voices of the people as they demand better conditions – there is the Anti-Terrorism Act that unjustly and unilaterally designates people as terrorists, the NTF -ELCAC and the Executive Order 70 that perpetuates red tagging among civilians, outspoken critics and progressive groups. These led to even more difficult time for us, people of faith, to work for the establishment of God’s Kingdom on Earth.

The last parable gives me the assurance that in the end, God will keep His people, and a Kingdom on earth is possible.  It is eschatological in a sense that judgment will be done to the wicked who have done wrong to God’s poor people. God will choose His people, and will throw the abusers and perpetrators to a blazing furnace. There will be judgment, and justice will be served to those who has been unjustly deprived, arrested, or even killed, for working courageously so that God’s Kingdom will reign on Earth and will be experienced by many. And so we will continue the work, until the Anawim finds their greatest treasure.  

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time July 23, 2023*Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Rev. .Niza Joy Santiago, PCPR Europe

https://thesongofsongsblog.files.wordpress.com/
2013/09/leaven.jpg

Wis 12:13, 16-19              

Ps 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16  

Rom 8:26-27      

Mt 13:24-43       

Growing up in the land, hearing stories of animals, trees, spirit beings, and people from my grandmother have been a huge part of my childhood. Though they may be somewhat far from my reality at that time, they for sure spoke of a reality at a certain period that has been passed down through generations. I could still remember my grandmother’s silky, long, silver hair that smelled like coconut oil, her sagging skin that provided me such comfort, and her voice that is filled with wisdom accumulated through the years. 

Wisdom personified as woman has been one of the most common themes across the Old and New Testaments. The book of Wisdom spoke of the interdependent relationship of the Woman Wisdom and God. The Woman Wisdom (chapters 6-10) is presented as, like God, being sought by humankind for prosperity and victory, active in the act of protection, reconciliation and salvation of her people from their enemies, and present in the lives of peoples even across cultures (i.e., Hellenistic and Egyptian cultures). But just like majority of the books in the Bible, the book of Wisdom of Solomon is a male-dominated text. Woman Wisdom has been mentioned having powerful role, but in the end, the one who rescues is not the Woman Wisdom but God. 

Jesus also takes on the role of the Wisdom (Gk. sophia) by teaching in parables. One interesting parable is a short one that speaks of the Basileia (Gk. for kingdom but is feminine in gender) of the Heavens (Mt 13:33). “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.” Leaven or yeast generally symbolizes a spreading nature of evil in the NT that corrupts the whole, but here is an exception, where Jesus used it to describe the Basileiaof the Heavens.  More than the redemption of the yeast from being a symbol of evilness, Jesus also redeems the woman in personifying the basileia to a woman baker (see Gospel of Thomas 96). Woman being passive and subject of male dominance in the male-dominated culture, Jesus redeems the woman as an active agent of change, subversion, and therefore liberation of the people. 

It is important to note that the woman took and hid yeast in the three measures of flour. One measure is equivalent to nearly three gallons which means that bread produced out of the three measures of flour with yeast, could feed a whole village. This imagery implies hard work and exaggerated hospitality. Another theme present is the secrecy with the use of “hid” instead of “mix” in the Greek text (krypto). In this secrecy brings in a sense of subversiveness and resistance in the simple act of making bread that is enough to feed a whole village. 

The social, cultural, and political realities of the time of Jesus under the colonial Roman Empire speaks of the suffering of the Jewish people. They don’t have their own land to till and produce food for themselves. The colonial system makes the rich richer and the poor poorer. The people who have had enough were already beginning to resist against the oppressive Empire. The reason why bandits, robbers, and thieves were seen as a problem by the Roman Empire and therefore branded them as such and criminalized their acts of resistance and works of justice. A simple act of feeding the hungry people has become an act of resistance. Though the yeast has been used as a symbol of spread of evil and corruption, Jesus used the same symbol to turn the tide, and teach the people about the wisdom of the Basileia of the Heavens, on the subversive power of exaggerated hospitality. 

The voice of the Woman Wisdom in the male-dominated Bible may be small and rare, but it is there. We just need to carefully listen and hear her. As Jesus has also demonstrated through the Gospels, the voice of the Wisdom, of Sophia, is not just in the holy scriptures, but is present in the stories and realities of the oppressed – the people and nature. Let us own our agency in hearing them out and work for justice and peace. Jesus, Sophia commands us: Let anyone with ears listen!

July 16, 2023*Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time* The Regenerative Word of God

                                 Sr. Eleanor LLanes, ICM

Artwork by Sr. Eleanor LLanes, ICM

Is 55:10-11

Ps 65:10, 11, 12-13, 14       

Rom 8:18-23

Mt 13:1-23     

Isaiah 55: 10-11

Second Isaiah created a synthesis: uniting into one, Israelites beliefs in creation, in the Divine government of history, and Divine will to save. Yahweh is creator. Even the greatest powers are insignificant before him. We know how Israel was conquered by world powers, then transferred from its own soil to another. Within this reality, Second Isaiah’s concept of God evolved. He perceived that Yahweh’s promise of life is as broad as his creative acts.” I will open up streams over the barren heights and let the rivers flow through all the valleys; I will turn the deserts into lakes and brooks and the thirsty earth into a land of springs…that all may see and know, consider and understand that the hand of Yahweh has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.” (Isaiah 41:18-20) The land of Judah will be regenerated, and restored Jerusalem will exhibit the grandeur which befits the city where Yahweh dwells. (49:18-23; 52:1f; 54:1f,11-14) 

According to Second Isaiah, Yahweh is tender love and compassion. Yahweh’s Word renews, restores to life and has power to transform the world: “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the Sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55: 10-11) This text invites us to contemplate an image of abundance, engaging our senses: cool dampness of the rain water, the greenness of the landscape, the taste of the bread in our mouths… The prophet / poet tells us what God’s word is like. Refreshing. Restoring. Abundant. Life-giving. The water imagery illustrates the power and beauty in God’s word.  Water, divine gift in the desert, was a symbol of God’s regenerative, gracious, flowing presence. Water is symbol of God’s nourishing word…

Matthew 13:3-9

“A Sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep, and when the sun rose it was scorched, and it withered for lack of roots. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it. But some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit, a hundred- or sixty- or thirty-fold. Whoever has ears ought to hear”.

Like the prophet Isaiah, Jesus used agricultural imagery to tell a parable: “Sower” “seed” and “soil”. Jesus and his audience knew the agricultural system of first century Galilee. The diversity of soil was good for different crops. Given the right conditions, they knew the prolific nature of their grains. They are also aware of the desired harvest within Roman taxation on a small farmer’s grain or soil. Listeners would also have been aware of the image captured on a coin of Agrippa I governed Judea in the first century (AΓPIΠA BACIΛEWC -King Agrippa, umbrella-like canopy with fringes; reverse three heads of barley between two leaves). This coin proclaimed the emperor, as the source of abundance.

In the simplicity of this parable, Jesus presents to us the context of his time: the complex socio-economic-political-cultural- ecological reality. There is that of the emperor and his representatives, Herodian king in Galilee or landowners supporting the imperial system. They are identified as the source of abundance, when in fact, the real source of abundance is the Divine gift: the Sower, seed, soil, water and in the other life-giving elements of nature! Jesus also calls our attention to the complex ecological system expressed in the process of sowing seed – the regenerative process of mother nature that can generously produce abundance.

You have visited the land and watered it;

greatly have you enriched it.

God’s watercourses are filled; you have prepared the grain.

Thus, have you prepared the land: drenching its furrows,

breaking up its clods, softening it with showers, blessing its yield…

Psalms 65:10, 11, 12-13, 14

We are disturbed by the message of God in the Sower, soil, seed, water, woman giving birth… We ask for grace that the Word of God, in the energy of these images be enfleshed in us. That the reign of Justice, peace and integrity of creation happen sooner…But we are called to pause… these images are showing us that God’s action, like giving birth, like sowing seeds, happen in a process, within the contrasting complex realities of the signs of the times: Desert and verdant pastures. Lights and shadows. Pains and joys. Communion and fragmentation. Injustices and solidarity. Inequality and sharing… We are being challenged to be mindful and be present to the now… to persevere, to wait patiently…God’s Word works discreetly, in subtle, unobservable ways…. 

Jesus, Second Isaiah, the Psalmist, and St. Paul are challenging us: “Let anyone with ears, listen!”.  Listen to the deep groanings of the whole of creation: the groaning of the poor and the Earth!  Proclaim and live the regenerative Word of God!

“We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. Romans 8:18-23

July 9, 2023 * Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time * REST

Dss. Norma P. Dollaga, KASIMBAYAN

Photo: Ben Cabrera, Mga Manggagawa (the workers)

Zec 9:9-10
Ps 145:1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13-14
Rom 8:9, 11-13
Mt 11:25-30

Nag-aawitan ang mga magsasaka
Nagsasalitan ng tula at kanta
Naghihiyawan ang tagadalampasigan
Nagsasayawan ang mga mangingisda
Ang namamasukan sa mga pagawaan
Naglalabasan at sila’y tuwangtuwa

Palubog na, palubog na
Ang haring araw sa kanluran
Pauwi na, pauwi na
Ang haring lawin sa kanluran

Nagsasayahan ang mga may kapansanan
Kababaihan at mga mag-aaral
Ang mga kawal at alagad ng Sambahan
Ang makasining at mga makaagham
Ang mangangalakal, guro at lingkod ng bayan
Nagkakaisa sa iisang inaasam

Palubog na, palubog na…

Kanluran (Garry Granada)

The setting of the sun signals the time to come home, a time for rest from the daily toils. But for the poor workers in highly urbanized areas rest is a luxury. The none-stop rotation of work propagated by capitalism, rest is counter-productive. There is no rest for the weary. A worker will go home after his laborious and intensive job, he will be catching up his ride home, squeezed their way into jam-packed buses or jeepneys during the rush hour trapped in heat of the city traffic, and the crowd’s lot. There is no such thing as rest in a third world-capitalist laden society. Without rest, we are just like machines, devoid of meaning. Tired and weary, the workers will arrive too late in the evening, have dinner to whatever is the cheapest available meal- worth the budget they can get from having to receive a minimum wage of P570. They will wake up very early in the morning, to queue on the toilet shared with neighborhood, and make it sure to use only one pail of water, as it costs them P2.00 per bucket. Having breakfast of cheaply sold noodles with coffee is a luxury…only to find themselves going back to work again, to be a slave for another day. A day-to-day grind to push through another day.

There is no rest. No weekend to look forward to. Up until today, it makes them wonder what “Happy weekend” is all about. No summer vacation for sea, sand or sun, for theirs is indebtedness.
There is no rest for the weary.

“I believe in God. In the midst of hardship and constant threats of demolition, I ask God, ‘Where were you when our house was being demolished? Are you really accompanying us?’ Then I looked up the sky, I saw high rising buildings that prevent me from seeing heaven” say Nanay Inday, an urban poor leader.

There is no rest.

Yet, here comes Jesus, promising rest, his yoke is easy and his burden is light.

He knows. He believes when the poor cry or is in grief. He knows their thirst and hunger. He knows when they could not raise their heads and pray.

Come to Jesus. He believes when the poor cry or is in grief. When the poor longs for rest, he knows. Who would not aspire and dream for rest from oppression, exploitation and denial of rights and dignity? Who would not long for a rest from hunger, disease and thirst?

Jesus’ platform and mission includes a life of healthy living – we need rest, to be renewed and to be restored. But until such a system of exploitation exists, REST becomes a privilege of the few. Rest should be for everybody. We must resist to rest. To resist from oppression, is also to receive abundant life—where burden is shared.

“Everyone will find rest beneath their own fig trees or grapevines, and they will live in pace. This is a solemn promise of the Lord All-Powerful.” Micah 4:4 (CEV).

July 2, 2023*Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time*Extended Families, Extending Solidarity: An Open Letter to Fellow Missionaries

Luke Gealogo, CssR postulant

Long Journey- Bert Monterona https://bertmonterona.com/portfolios/long-journey/

2 Kgs 4:8-11, 14-16a

Ps 89:2-3, 16-17, 18-19

Rom 6:3-4, 8-11

Mt 10:37-42

“We are tribeless and all tribes are ours.

We are homeless and all homes are ours.

We are nameless and all names are ours…”*

One of the things that I am grateful for as someone being formed into becoming a missionary is the expansion and deepening of my notion of “home” and “family”. Before, these are all about Mama, Papa, my two brothers and some other blood relatives all living in our neighborhood in Laguna. Fast forward to my entry into the seminary, where I had new “brothers” all coming from different provinces, cultures, and faith experiences, yet are bound by a common calling to follow Jesus the Redeemer in proclaiming the “Good News to the poor”.

And eventually, delving further into the pastoral-missionary aspect of our formation, I got to encounter, integrate, and be “at home” as well with the wider People of God from the many walks of life — that includes the homeless and street-dwellers we have sheltered in Tayuman (Manila) ; the Lumad and other displaced indigenous peoples whom we have accompanied with in seeking sanctuary and in fighting for their rights to land and self-determination; communities in rural and mountainous areas who have no easy access to the basic social and religious/spiritual services; urban poor areas in the Metro who are threatened by news of demolitions or extrajudicial killings.

During those experiences, I felt the warmth of being welcomed into their homes, communities, and most especially into their lives as they shared with us not only the simple things that they have, but their stories and prayers of joy, worry, and defiant hope: That a bigger “Family” — with God as Father/Mother and people in solidarity as their “brothers and sisters” — is always there with and for them as they struggle for a meaningful life of human dignity.

Such, perhaps, is the radically inclusive and liberating perspective Jesus wants his disciples to bring as they are being sent by him to mission: To go beyond blood relations and comfort zones. To welcome and embrace, and “be welcomed and embraced” by others, especially those in the social and existential peripheries of today. To recognize the Divine that resides, moves with/in, and connects us with one another.

This liberating essence is etched in the lives of the many modern-day prophets like Elijah and Elisha — the human rights advocates, environmentalists, community and sectoral leaders — who for their dedication to the truth are being chased and hunted down by forces of the status quo, seeking sanctuary into the homes and lives especially of the common people. This also includes today’s “little ones” who are being deprived not only of a cup of water, but of their dreams to live in a society of justice and peace.

And such radical calls to a life of mission, to a deeper sense of “Home” and “Family” with/in God and the People, calls one to be ready  (as the Second Reading puts it) to “die, be buried, and be raised” with Christ that is very much alive and “at home” with/in them. With God who became Flesh and dwelt with/in all People and Creation.  

As the poet crafts his words into poems so does the missionary serves the people of God. The mission is home, the people our brothers and sisters. As God-With-Us dwells amongst the people’s hearts, so does the missionary’s heart dwells in the hearts of the people served. And f we choose the road less traveled, the  missionary life becomes  God’s indwelling, God’s inloving, God’s in becoming…

“The road less traveled by we’ve taken-

And that has made all the difference:

The barefoot army of the wilderness

We all should be in time. Awakened, the masses are Messiah.

Here among workers and peasants our lost

Generation has found its true, its only home.”*

*Excerpts are taken from Open Letters to Filipino Artists by Emmanuel Lacaba — poet, freedom fighter, and martyr.