The First of the Nine Days before Christmas (December 16)

Story:
There was once a man who didn't believe in God. One snowy Christmas Eve, his wife was taking their children to a Christmas Eve service in the farm community in which they lived. She asked him to come, but he refused. "That story is nonsense!" he said. "Why would God lower Himself to come to Earth as a man? So she and the children left, and he stayed home. He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening. Then he heard a loud thump. Something had hit the window.
In the field near his house he saw a flock of wild geese. Apparently they had been flying south for the winter when they got caught in the snowstorm and could not go on. They were lost and stranded on his farm, with no food or shelter. They just flapped their wings and flew around the field in low circles, blindly and aimlessly. A couple of them had flown into his window, it seemed. The man felt sorry for the geese and wanted to help them. The barn would be a great place for them to stay, he thought. It is warm and safe; surely they could spend the night and wait out the storm. So he walked over to the barn and opened the doors wide, then watched and waited, hoping they would notice the open barn and go inside. But the geese just fluttered around aimlessly and did not seem to notice the barn or realize what it could mean for them. The man tried to get their attention, but that just seemed to scare them and they moved further away. "Why don't they follow me?!" he exclaimed. "Can't they see this is the only place where they can survive the storm?" He thought for a moment and realized that they just wouldn't follow a human. "If only I were a goose, then I could save them," he said out loud. Then he thought about what he had said to his wife earlier. "Why would God want to be like us?
That's ridiculous!" Suddenly it all made sense. That is what God had done. God had His Son become like us so He could show us the way and save us.

Today is the first day of our Simbang Gabi (Night Worship) and we are here this early hour in the church to prepare spiritually for Christmas. We have come to know and to believe in the love of God has for us. We have come to express our faith that Jesus is the Son of God who became man. In expressing the truth of our faith in God today, we are also called to examine ourselves and renew ourselves before God by being baptized with the baptism of John i.e., the baptism of repentance so as to wash away our sins. Our repentance is our response to the love of God which He has bestowed on us.

Scripture:
When they heard this all the people and the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John; but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God themselves, not having been baptized (Luke 7: 24-30).

Study:
My dear fellow believers, on this first day of our Simbang Gabi, it is not important whether you can complete the novena masses that we have before Christmas, what matters is your disposition to offer yourself –your body and soul, as a gift for Jesus this Christmas. A person who does not repent and change his or her evil ways rejects the purpose of God for him or her.

3rd Sunday of Advent Year A

There was a girl whose father was working abroad. She knew her father loves her as he would always send her gifts whenever there were special occasions. During Christmas, her father would send her whatever toys, chocolates, etc. she requested from him. But one Christmas eve, her mother noticed that the girl was sad though she had many gifts from her father. So she asked the little girl why. The girl replied, “Mom, I don’t need those gifts which daddy bought me for Christmas. All I want now is that he goes home and be with us.”

Today is Gaudete Sunday and we are invited by the Church to rejoice! But what would be our reason to rejoice? For some kids, they rejoice when they receive toys and food. For some adults, they rejoice when they receive their Christmas bonus or they have enough money to buy something for Christmas. But what if there were neither toys nor food to receive this Christmas? What if there were neither Christmas bonuses nor money to buy something this Christmas? Could one still rejoice?

Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew 11: 2-11
Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

On this third Sunday of Advent, we are not only called to rejoice but also to identify the reason of our rejoicing. John the Baptist was in prison, yet his situation never made him feel bitter or desperate. He sent his disciples to ask Jesus if He is indeed the messiah. Jesus sent His response to John’s disciples by enumerating all the miracles He did. In so doing, Jesus gave John the reason to rejoice though he was stuck in prison. Likewise, Jesus is our reason to rejoice during this season. Although we may be facing some difficulties and problems right now, these would not hinder us to rejoice because we believe that Jesus is with us. Jesus makes us see that amidst the shadow of our problems, we can still see His light. We can feel His presence and experience His miracles. He gives us then the reason to rejoice. My dear friends, let us find our consolation with Jesus, the God who is always with us.

2nd Sunday of Advent Year A

There were two monks clearing the weeds out of a field. One monk was going at it non stop, he did not take a break, he just kept going and going. There were times when he felt weary, but he just kept at it. The other monk stopped every hour for fifteen minutes. At the end of the day, the monk who did not take a break, was so tired and weak. He could not believe his eyes, when he saw how much the other monk accomplished. He was very upset, so he asked the monk. "I have been going at it all day, I did not take a break, I'm exhausted. You took a fifteen minute break every hour, and you got more accomplished, and you are not as tired, how could that be?" The monk replied, "Every time you saw me take a break, I stopped to sharpen my blade."

This is what the Gospel reminds us today; to sharpen our blade so as to clear the weeds of sin out of our heart. In so doing, we need to stop for a moment from all our worldly activities especially during this season of advent and prepare ourselves, our soul for the Lord.

Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew 3:1-12“A voice of one crying out in the desert prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.”

On this second Sunday of Advent, we are called to “prepare for the Lord.” In some sense it means, we prepare ourselves for Christmas. Some prepare gifts for their kids, others prepare food. Still others prepare themselves for the Christmas party, for Christmas sale, for Christmas bonus and all others about Christmas. These are worthy of our preparations yet these are just external preparations. Hopefully we do not miss the interior preparation which is more important than the external i.e., to prepare ourselves for the Lord. Just like what John the Baptist desired for the people according to our Gospel: we have to repent, we have to renew our baptismal promises and confess our sins. We have to produce good fruits as evidence of our preparation for the Lord this Christmas. These are the ways we prepare the way for the Lord so that on Christmas day, our clean heart, our clean soul is our gift for Jesus.

1st Sunday of Advent Year A

I remember the poem NO TIME. It says:
I knelt to pray but not for long
I had too much to do
I had to hurry and get to work
For bills would soon be due.
So I knelt and said a hurried prayer
And jumped up off my knees.
My Christian duty was now done
My soul could rest at ease.
All day long I had no time
To spread a word of cheer
No time to speak of Christ to friends,
They'd laugh at me I'd fear.
No time, no time, too much to do,
That was my constant cry.
No time to give to souls in need,
But at last.....the time to die.

I went before the Lord,
I came, I stood with downcast eyes,
For in His hands God held a book,
It was the book of life.

God looked into his book and said,
"Your name I cannot find,
I once was going to write it down...
But never found the time."
This is what the Gospel reminds us today; to give time for God. In the days of Noah, people did not give time to God. They missed the message God relayed to Noah regarding the flood.
Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew 24:37-44.
For as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
In (those) days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark.
They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be (also) at the coming of the Son of Man… Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.
On this first Sunday of Advent, we are called to “stay awake.” In other words, “Do not sleep!” We have to give time for God. We have to spend times for prayers. Praying means staying awake. On one hand, it means we have to give God our time until we meet Him face to face. On the other hand, we have to give time for God in remembering and reliving the Lord’s First Coming –which we call Christmas day. We have to be conscious and aware of renewing our warm welcome to Jesus once again. We prepare our Christmas decorations, our Christmas gifts, our Christmas carols, etc. While doing this, we shall rejoice. However, our rejoicing is different from such rejoicing of the people during the days of Noah. They rejoiced too much that they forgot about God. They never gave time for God. But for us, we shall rejoice because we remember everything about God who sent His only Son, Jesus Christ. We rejoice because we have time to show to God we celebrate this season not for any other reason but for Jesus.

Feast of Christ the King (November 21, 2010)

A story:
Thomas More was a brilliant lawyer and diplomat in 16th century England. His patriotism and loyalty to the throne attracted the attention of King Henry VIII who made him Lord Chancellor of England. When Henry VIII decided to divorce his wife Catherine of Aragon, marry Anne Boleyn, and make himself head of the Church of England, More thought this was not right. Rather than approve what he believed to be against the divine will, he resigned from his prestigious and wealthy position as Lord Chancellor. Because he would not give his support to the king, More was arrested, convicted of treason, imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1534 and beheaded in July of the following year. On his way to public execution, More encouraged the people to remain steadfast in the faith. His last recorded words were: "I die the king's good servant, but God's first." Henry VIII then later did know was that loyal as More was to him, his first loyalty was to Christ, the king of kings.
A Gospel:
Luke 23:35-43 –Jesus was crucified and above Him there was an inscription: “This is the King of the Jews”. The inscription was placed to add insult to an injury. It was not meant to express faith in Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God, or the King of kings.
A Reflection:
Today, we celebrate the feast of Christ the King. Just like St. Thomas More, we believe that Jesus is indeed our King. But going back to the Gospel, what sort of a king do we find in Jesus? He was a helpless King! The soldiers jeered at Him calling out, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself.” He was not a celebrated kind of a king. His crown was thorn; not a golden crown. He was naked; no royal robe. He was forced to drink some vinegar; not a fine wine for a king. How come we call Him a King then?
Jesus is a King but not the way we usually describe a king is. We have to give up our preconceived ideas of a king so as to understand why Jesus is the King.
Jesus said, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here" (John 18:36). It is Jesus Himself who claimed He is a King. Jesus who can neither deceive nor be deceived declared it. Being a King, He ruled with humility and refused to wear the golden crown, a symbol of pride and power. Being a King, He sacrificed Himself for His people and refused to wear a royal robe, a symbol of comfort. Being a King, He denied Himself of worldly pleasure as He did not drink wine of self-indulgence. Being a King, He opened His arms on the cross to welcome His people and did not sit down on a throne to scare His people. Being a King, His kingdom is not of this world, but in the hearts of men who believe in Him. Being our King, He commands us to love one another, to take up our cross and follow Him. If we choose Him as our King, then we should not entertain other kings. Viva! Cristo Rey!

“Survival of the fittest” –we heard this phrase in the classroom, in the government office and all other places. This phrase is most often connected to Charles Darwin though it was one of sociology’s pioneers, Herbert Spencer who coined these words. Herbert Spencer was fascinated by the work of the natural scientist, Charles Darwin whose theory of biological evolution held that a species changes physically over many generations as it adapts to the natural environment. Thus leveling sociology as “Science of Society”, Herbert Spencer used to describe society as an “organism”, with an idea of “social evolution”. Society is a jungle with the “fittest people rising to wealth and the deficient gradually sinking into miserable poverty”. Spencer as we can see distorted Charles’ theory by applying it to the operation of society as well as using it in the same situation with natural science. It seemed that it justified the plight of the poor that they deserve it because they are unfit. Their poverty shows that they do not measure up in the social evolution –in competition like other unfit organisms. With this, it is easy to conclude that people get more or less what they deserve in life.
In our current social reality, we heard many rich people make discriminatory remarks to poor people. They have this prejudice that the poor becomes poor and poorer because they have many children. They say they deserve their situation because they never join in the struggle created by social evolution –the fight for survival. In order for poor people to survive, they should stop growing in numbers. They should limit giving birth and resort to contraceptives. On one hand, wealth serves to be the basis of being fit in the society, the people’s way to survive. On the other hand, poverty is a sign of weakness; poor people cannot control themselves in having many children and such “out of control birth-giving” is a withdrawal to take the course of being fit. If this is the case, and if this idea will continue to widespread, then it takes out sympathy from the people’s vocabulary. There will be no more generosity, no gift-giving or “bayanihan” because the poor people do not deserve recognition in the society as there is no place for the unfit. This too emphasizes the wide gap of inequality between the rich and the poor, and may lead to hostile actions between the classes later. Some rich people would convince poor people to believe that the latter should resolve in using contraceptives if they want to have a better life. But in actual circumstance, how many rich people do help the poor and treat their helpers, drivers, errand boys fairly? The problem of poverty exists because there are people who are greedy. In their greediness, they think they are the only ones who should survive. It is better to reflect then that social status and social standing or being poor is not simply a matter of personal merit. There is a need to consider the circumstances and the structures that made the person difficult for him to reach at least a better standard of living. Moreover, it is not the case that generating more money necessarily makes people better or fit for society. Human as we are, though we are rich or poor, have the right to live and the right to preserve life in the best way we can. The survival of the fittest has a sense of truth but it does not have the general truth. The poor people even how poor they are, still we can see the mystery of their survival. In their struggle to survive then, we may say they are not yet out of the game –the game of the survival of the fittest.

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time C August 1, 2010

Today we celebrate the solemn feast of God, the Father of all mankind. We are indeed blessed here in our parish that this is the only parish in Aklan which celebrates the said feast with the holy octave of consecration to God our Father. Thanks to the initiative of Ma’am Inday Luces and our Parish Liturgical Team.
Why is it significant for us to celebrate this event? What is the relevance of celebrating this solemn feast of God the Father of all mankind to our church? At the very heart of this question lies the quest of understanding our relationship with God.
In the Old Testament, God is revealed as the Creator and all others are His creatures. With this kind of understanding, we establish a relationship with God as that of a Creator and creature. As a Creator, God seems to be far distant from man. He is up there in heaven and we are here below on earth. In order to meet Him, one needs to go where God is. He needs to go up to the mountain. God is on high separated from man so that the mountain is a good image of a meeting place. This is what the word El Shaddai means –the God of the mountain. It is the name, by which God was known to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Exodus 6:3,). In Exodus 3: 1-3, Moses too met God on a mountain –Mount Horeb. At that instance, Moses was trying to get “closer” to see God, but God told him “Come no nearer!” In this case, God was near yet so far.
In the New Testament, Jesus revealed to us who God is by calling Him “Father”. In truth, God is the Father of Jesus by nature. And then Jesus taught His disciples to call God their Father. In calling God as a Father, His disciples became children of God, not by nature but by baptism and grace through Christ Jesus.
The Fatherhood of God is not only for the early disciples of Jesus. It is for all those who are baptized. We too become children of God and He is our father by baptism through Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:26-27). And every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer or the Our Father, we acknowledge what kind of Father God is.
As a Father, God who is in heaven is CLOSE TO US, who wills to establish a familiar relationship with us His children as His Kingdom comes and His will is done on earth as in heaven. As a Father, God is a Provider as He gives us our daily bread. As a Father, God is Merciful as He forgives us our sins. As a Father, God is a Protector as He delivers us not into the test. Of course, God is even beyond our human description but using the language of faith, He is the best Father.
Going back to my question stated earlier “why it is significant for us to celebrate this event”, well this is the time for us to reflect IF WE HAVE BEEN A CHILD OF GOD as Jesus revealed to us that God is OUR FATHER. How far we have become children of God then?
Some of us if not all have the difficulty in addressing God as a Father. Sometimes it is difficult to approach God and conduct ourselves as His children. Just like the rich man in the parable of Jesus (Lk. 12:13-21), we think and act in a way we ignore God as a Father. Just like the rich man, we never thought of God who provides us a great harvest. Just like the rich man, we never thought of God who protects us from any harm or fortuitous event. Just like the rich man, we never thought of getting closer to God as we declare to ourselves, “Take ease, eat, drink and be merry.” Just like the rich man, we are overwhelmed by our childish ways that we often forget to turn to God for mercy.
My dear friends, sometimes this difficulty of calling God “Father” is rooted in our experience of our human father. Our human father is imperfect. And when all we see from him is imperfections –drinking, womanizing, gambling, irresponsible parenting, etc., we get a distorted image of a father. We become unaware that we carry such distorted image we have of a father and unconsciously project it to God our Father: If our father is strict, so God is to us. If our father does not listen, so God is to us. If we find it difficult to embrace our human father, so we too feel before God.
But God is not like our human father. If our father could hurt us, God would not do it to us. If our father could reject us, God would not do it to us. God as a Father is the best Father we have. And on this solemn feast, we are called to consecrate ourselves with a childlike attitude to Him. This is the moment we renew our familial bond before God our Father no matter what is our experience with our human father. This is the day to claim our birthright and declare –I am a child of God.
This is the time we can sing to Him:
I KNOW AND I BELIEVE
MY FATHER LOVES ME
HE NEVER LEAVES ME
I ALWAYS WANT TO BE
LIKE MY FATHER
HE’S EVERYTHING TO ME I AM MY FATHER’S CHILD