Sixth Sunday of Easter

Dear friends in Christ, today is the Sixth Sunday of Easter and our Gospel is from John 15: 9-17. Here, we learn that Jesus said, "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” With these, I ask, can we force ourselves to love someone? If not, then why Jesus has to command us to love one another? Well, in this Gospel, Jesus has revealed to us that love is not just a mere feeling or emotion as we usually believe it to be. He has qualified love when He commanded as to love one another as an act of the will. It means then that when we love, it is not based on just our feeling although it is accompanied with our feelings. When we love, it shall be rooted in our will which we submit to Jesus who wills us to love one another. Such kind of love is what everybody needs and everybody must have. For married couples, they sometimes experience a lull or dull moments in their married life. They think they have lost their love. Well, it may happen that between the husband and wife, their romantic feelings may have been gone, but it is their will to love each other that matters in order to keep their marriage. For some children, they think their parents do not love them. Well, it is possible that parents have not shown a loving gesture toward their children but we can sense their will to love them. Why should their parents send them to school? Why do their parents scold them when they become unruly? On the part of the parents, there is the will to love. With this kind of love, Jesus then has given us what it can do by saying, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lays down his life for his friends.” It is an act of the will in accordance to the will of God that one can give his/her life for the sake of another. It is an act of the will for a husband or a wife to spend all his/her life with his/her spouse. It is an act of the will to obey and respect one’s parents too. This act of the will in accordance with the will of God is called love. It is loving the other even if he/she feels hurt for being unloved in return.

To end, I remember sometime in 2004, I was bombarded with a series of problems. Intrigues and false accusations were thrown against me inside and outside the church arena. I admit, I made many mistakes in the past that hurt many. All the problems then were just part of the consequences of my good and bad actions toward those people. (Note: Even until now I believe I commit more mistakes.) It was the time when I felt I could not defend myself because I could not see the attacks coming. During those times I hid myself in pain. I only had the chance to stand again when in one occasion, I learned that my best friend Fr. Glenn told one person who brought him some bad news about me with these words, “I know Jude, and I love him.” In another occasion, I regained my confidence when Fr. Kenn, my long-time best friend, told me with these similar wordings, “Jude, I could not see what they have seen against you.” These experience of being loved by a friend brought me to the place where I am now. Their love is not based on feelings but on their will to accept me as who I am and not as what people expect me to be. It is with this experience that I understand why Jesus has to command us all to love one another because love can make a difference in our lives. Amen.             

Fourth Sunday of Easter

Today is the Good Shepherd Sunday; this is based on the Gospel of John 10: 11-18 where Jesus made Himself known to His followers as a good shepherd. Now I ask, what qualifies a shepherd to consider him good? What is this goodness in a shepherd? According to Jesus, He is the good shepherd because He is willing to lay down His life for his sheep. Not only that He mentioned this –to lay down His life for the sheep, but also He mentioned this line several times in the said Gospel. We cannot fully understand why Jesus said this for several times unless we relate this with the Gospel of John 15: 13 which states: “Greater love has no one than this; to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” In line with this thought, we can now fully appreciate that Jesus is a good shepherd because He loves His sheep so much that He is willing to lay His life for them. It is the quality of His love that makes Him a good shepherd. In other words, with the quality of His love, everything is good. And for us who follow Jesus, love means to give up one’s life for the good of the other. Moreover, Jesus is willing to give up His life not only for the good sheep who listen to Him. Rather, He also loves those sheep who have not listened to Him as He said in the Gospel: “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd.” With His words, Jesus assures us that because of His great love, His priority is to give what is good for us and not what can condemn us.

My dear friends in Christ, today we are called to listen to Jesus. We know if we have listened to Jesus if we are confident that despite the problems or crisis we face in life, there is something good to happen because Jesus is willing to lay down His life for us. If we listen to Jesus, we do not compare our life with others, rather we learn to follow Jesus by giving up our life for the good of the other. For those who are married, it is somehow very difficult to be faithful to each other, but if you listen to Jesus as your good shepherd, you know you have to do what is good for your spouse. You do not seek his/her condemnation but his/her salvation i.e., for the good of each other’s soul. You have promised to love each other until death, then fulfil it. For your children, teach them to love Jesus so that they will love you with the love of Jesus. You will know if your children listen to Jesus as their good shepherd if they will take care of you as parents when you grow old, sick and dying, without resentments. For those who are alone in life, you know you are not really alone if you listen to Jesus as a good shepherd.  

My dear friends, let me end my homily by telling you my experience. Since June 19, 2012, I have been assigned as a parish priest of San Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila in a remote barangay of Batan, Aklan. The parish is used to be known as a poor parish if not the poorest in the diocese. I knew what my life would be so I prepared everything I believed I needed for my survival. I brought with me some sacks of rice, canned goods and other ready-to-cook food. But as the days went by, I ran out of resources. My car broke down. There was no more rice to cook. There were even no canned goods left except for the empty cans. I could not pay for the electric and water bills of the parish. I really worried too much what would happen to me then. So, I prayed before the altar and cried. I said, “Lord, why do you allow me to suffer? I accepted this parish and I believe I am doing what is good for the parish but what is happening to me right now?” Of course, I did not hear God answering me when I was praying. But really I could not imagine how good Jesus is as a shepherd. When I began saying our monthly mass in four public elementary schools within my parish, each child would offer me a handful of rice which they wrapped using a cellophane. Believe it or not, when we collected the handful of rice they offered, I have more than enough rice to sustain us every month. How about our food? Believe it or not, although our parishioners are mostly tenants or workers in a fishpond if not fishermen, every Sunday before or after the mass, they would bring me some milk fish, king crabs, lobsters, sugpo, talaba, hipon, my favourite ghost shrimps (kamantaha), etc. Truly I can say that Jesus will always do good for us if we listen to Him as our shepherd. In fact, I was only 120 pounds when I first arrived in the parish. But now I am 185 pounds. My dear friends, Jesus loves us so much that He will do everything that is good for us. Amen.

Third Sunday of Easter (Revised)

Our gospel for today is taken from Luke 24:35-48. This Gospel reminds us that even the apostles or followers of Jesus experienced how their expectations caused them their frustration. Being with Jesus for almost three years, the apostles expected Jesus to be the king of Israel with all His glory and fame. They expected that if Jesus would be a king one day, they could also have a better place in His kingdom. They expected that as the Public Satisfaction Rating of Jesus grew higher, they too could enjoy the privilege of being popular as His friends or companions. But in just a second, every expectation they had sunk with them when Jesus was crucified and eventually died on the cross. Prior to this, Judas betrayed Jesus. Peter denied Jesus three times. Then after Jesus was buried, all the other disciples hid themselves with shame and fear. They lived in frustration. I say they lived in frustration because when a person is frustrated, he/she has a hard time to listen and believe. He/she refuses to hear some good news from anyone including his friends. He/she is impervious or callous, showing no concern of what is happening about the world. Is this not the experience of a woman who faithfully loves her man who is unfaithful to her? Is this not the experience of the parents who thought their children were good yet they ended in jail because of drugs? Is this not the experience of children who are abandoned by their parents as they decided to separate ways? With all these analogies, I say the apostles lived in frustration when they knew they could not reach anymore their expectations. Yet the Gospel does not end in the apostles ' frustration. It tells us how Jesus came to change the ending, from the tone of frustration to the recognition of a divine expectation. The Gospel tells us that Jesus came before the apostles and greeted them saying "Peace be with you!" Then He began to explain everything to them. He said -- "Thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things." These words of Jesus simply mean that the apostles should not dwell on their frustration but to rise up from such situation in order to meet God's expectation; It is the time for them to ask what God wants them to do and not what God must do for them. This is also the message that we must get from this Gospel: though we fail in many ways, we fall on our knees due to our broken dreams, we become frustrated and irritated, still God has a divine plan for us and He expects us to fulfill it. We have to testify that in our failure, God is still successful. We have to testify that even in the midst of frustration, we can pursue God's divine expectation -to keep our faith.

To end, I would like to share to you the story about St. Alphonsus de Liguori. 

St. Alphonsus was born of noble parents, near Naples, in 1696. His spiritual training was entrusted to the Fathers of the Oratory in that city, and from his boyhood Alphonsus was known as a most devout Brother of the Little Oratory. At the early age of sixteen he was made doctor in law, and he threw himself into this career with ardor and success. He was one of the best lawyers. A mistake, by which he lost an important cause, showed him the vanity of human fame, and determined him to labor only for the glory of God. He entered the priesthood, devoting himself to the most neglected souls; and to carry on this work he founded later the missionary Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. My dear friends, St. Alphonsus's experience of failure and then frustration did not prevent him to do great things for the glory of God. So I encourage you to meet God's expectation for us to be His living witnesses. Let us keep the faith. Amen.

Third Sunday of Easter

When expectation becomes a frustration

Our gospel for today is taken from Luke 24:35-48. This Gospel reminds us that even the apostles or followers of Jesus experienced how their expectations caused them their frustration. Being with Jesus for almost three years, the apostles expected Jesus to be the king of Israel with all His glory and fame. They expected that if Jesus would be a king one day, they could also have a better place in His kingdom. They expected that as the Public Satisfaction Rating of Jesus grew higher, they too could enjoy the privilege of being popular as His friends or companions. But in just a second, every expectation they had sunk with them when Jesus was crucified and eventually died on the cross. Prior to this, Judas betrayed Jesus. Peter denied Jesus three times. Then after Jesus was buried, all the other disciples hid themselves with shame and fear. They lived in frustration. I say they lived in frustration because when a person is frustrated, he/she has a hard time to listen and believe. He/she refuses to hear some good news from anyone including his friends. He/she is impervious or callous, showing no concern of what is happening about the world. Is this not the experience of a woman who faithfully loves her man who is unfaithful to her? Is this not the experience of the parents who thought their children were good yet they ended in jail because of drugs? Is this not the experience of children who are abandoned by their parents as they decided to separate ways? With all these analogies, I say the apostles lived in frustration when they knew they could not reach anymore their expectations. Yet the Gospel does not end in the apostles ' frustration. It tells us how Jesus came to change the ending, from the tone of frustration to a real and divine expectation. The Gospel tells us that Jesus came before the apostles and greeted them saying "Peace be with you!" Then He began to explain everything to them. He said -- "Thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things." These words of Jesus simply mean that the apostles should not dwell on their frustration but to rise up from such situation in order to meet God's expectation from them. It is the time for them to ask what God wants them to do and not what God must do for them. This is also the message that we must get from this Gospel: though we fail in many ways, we fall on our knees due to our broken dreams, we become frustrated and irritated, still God has a plan for us and He expects us to fulfill it. We have to testify that in our failure, God is still successful. 

To end, I would like to share you the story about St. Alphonsus de Liguori. 

St. Alphonsus was born of noble parents, near Naples, in 1696. His spiritual training was entrusted to the Fathers of the Oratory in that city, and from his boyhood Alphonsus was known as a most devout Brother of the Little Oratory. At the early age of sixteen he was made doctor in law, and he threw himself into this career with ardor and success. He was one of the best lawyers. A mistake, by which he lost an important cause, showed him the vanity of human fame, and determined him to labor only for the glory of God. He entered the priesthood, devoting himself to the most neglected souls; and to carry on this work he founded later the missionary Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. My dear friends, St. Alphonsus's experience of failure and frustration did not prevent him to do great things for the glory of God. Amen.