1st Night of Simbang Gabi 2017

There was a man who amassed his fortune by producing explosives and became more popular when he invented the dynamite. When his brother passed away, it was his name and not of his brother which was listed in the obituary of a newspaper, believing that it was he who died. What he read brought him disturbance because the newspaper described him as “The Merchant of Death”.  At that moment, he realized that this was how he was going to be remembered. Of course, he did not want to be remembered this way. So he decided to dedicate his fortune in rewarding those who have done something good for humanity. The award is known to us as the Nobel Prize, one of the world’s most famous prestigious prizes. The said prize was created to make people forget Alfred Nobel as the Merchant of Death and to remember him for his good works.

My dear friends in Christ, our deeds reveal who we are. Our actions or inactions speak louder than our words. Just like Alfred Nobel, we have the chance to ask ourselves today, how do we want to be remembered when someone mentions our name? It is mostly through our works that we are remembered. Our works may testify for us or against us. Our works may show to others if we are truly good Christians or not. Although, we can fake our actions or make a disguise with ourselves, still our actions can tell us who we are.

In our Gospel (John 5:33-36), Jesus said that the very works He is doing testify that the Father has sent Him. It means that His works reveal that He is the Son of God. His “doing” is connected to His “being”. The works of Jesus is enough to serve as evidence that He is indeed the saviour of the world. Therefore, there is no need for Him to be introduced by somebody so that people might believe in Him. His works are more than enough to make us recognize Him as the Son of God. This is why we celebrate Christmas. This is why we have our Simbang Gabi or Misa de Gallo: we declare to the whole world that we acknowledge and accept Jesus, the Son of God, as our Saviour. We rejoice because by His birth, Jesus became one of us. In remembering the day He was born make us aware that God is with us and He loves us. Amen.