Cycle C - Year I:

5 May 2013 - 6th Sunday of Easter  

(Liturgical color: White)

John 14:23-29

A life of love!
 
Our Lord Jesus gave us a new commandment:"Love one another, as I have loved you." So that by a life of love the world will know that we are his disciples.

Today Jesus challenges us to commit ourselves deeper in a life of love. He said to his disciples: "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him."

With his impending return to the Father, Jesus urges his disciples to keep his word or his teachings as a concrete expression of their love for Jesus. Because his word, Jesus explains, is not his own but is from the Father.

The phrase "keep my word" means that we remain faithful to the totality of the message of Jesus, as handed down to us through traditions and the teachings of his Church. This is a timely message today when people call themselves his followers and yet question the validity of his teachings, or interpret them according to what pleases them.

So Jesus in today's Gospel reminds us to walk in his way of love through obedience to the will of the Father, as Jesus himself has shown by his example. Because true love for God is expressed in obedience and obedience is expressed in love.

Love for Jesus simply is love in action. So that Jesus makes it clear that followers love him by serving others. It is a love characterized by mutual regard, and service, like the example of Jesus washing the disciples' feet.

In the Eucharist at Mass, let us commit our love for Jesus by keeping his word and witnessing his teachings through our Christian living. So that as Jesus himself promised, the Father and the Son will abide within us, and the Holy Spirit will make us understand Jesus' teaching, when we live a life of love.

A blessed Sunday to all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Deo Optimo Maximo!

Cycle C - Year I:

28 April 2013 - 5th Sunday of Easter

(Liturgical color: White)

John 13:31-33a, 34-35

Loving others, as Jesus loved us!
 
Society tends to complicate our lives by creating so many laws. In the end we live our lives in fear of transgressing these laws. Such fear takes away the joy of living.

In today's gospel, Jesus gives us a practical and simple commandment to live a good Christian life. The gospel reading is part of Jesus' farewell discourse during the last supper before his passion.

Jesus said to his disciples: "I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another."

We ask, so what is new and unique about Jesus' commandment to love?

Well, Jesus speaks of love that is unconditional, without limits, qualifiers or prerequisites, and totally self-sacrificing. There is no greater proof of God's love for us than the cross of Jesus Christ. Because in the cross, we witness a new way of loving, a love that is selfless, sacrificial, forgiving and compassionate beyond comprehension.

The definition of "love" in God's kingdom is not "having good feelings about another person." Rather, love is serving others before I serve myself; especially serving those who do not normally get such devotion or do not even deserve it.

When Jesus commands us to love, he asks us to go beyond the normal love of friendship, beyond the love of family members, and beyond the love of a man and a woman. Jesus asks us to love to the point of suffering, as he has loved us.

It was this type of love that moved Mother Teresa to reach out to the poor and the dying people of Calcutta. And it is this type of love that moves parents to keep reaching out to wayward children.

In a real sense, love is our only mission here on earth. We came from love, we go home to love, and in between we are called to be people who can give and receive love.

The preface for a Wedding Mass says it beautifully: Love is our origin. Love is our constant calling. Love is our final fulfillment in heaven.

And our love for one another must include, not simply human beings, but the entire creation, like our environment and our world, because we are stewards of all of God's creation.

Loving one another, as Jesus loved us, is our witnessing of God's love. And when we love others unconditionally, we love God Himself.

A blessed Sunday to all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Deo Optimo Maximo!

Cycle C - Year I:

21 April 2013 - 4th Sunday of Easter

(Liturgical color: White)

John 10:27-30

"My sheep hear my voice!"
 
The theme of the liturgy on the fourth Sunday of the Easter season is on Jesus as the Good Shepherd. In the Gospel from John, Jesus says that he takes care of his sheep and "my sheep hear my voice."

Shepherding was the main occupation of people during Jesus' time. Hence, the imagery of a "Good Shepherd" relates to the practical realities of the daily living of people in his time.

In our country, however, agriculture and farming is the livelihood, and so shepherding may be alien to our consciousness. Nonetheless, we can reflect on the qualities of a "good shepherd" and the relationship between the shepherd and the sheep to understand God's message to his people in today's liturgy.

Good Shepherd is an image that implies someone who gives caring, compassionate leadership. He walks in front of the sheep, and the sheep follow the shepherd freely; they are not driven or coerced.

The relationship between the shepherd and the sheep is a mutual recognition through the use of voice, where there is a voluntary following and total trust.

Those who stay with the shepherd will never be lost. How could they be? Because we know that our Shepherd is the Way, He is Truth and Life.

And when one sheep does happen to go astray, the shepherd leaves the ninety-nine and goes in search of the one who has wandered to  bring it back.

And so the Gospel today says that we have been given to Jesus by the Father. It is in Jesus, and through Him,  that we find our way to the Father. Because Jesus is the Truth and Life and he alone can lead us to the very source of all Truth and Life, God himself.

We can use this imagery of the Good Shepherd to guide us in choosing our leaders this coming mid-term election. We should support leaders who by their example of caring, compassionate leadership, and love and respect for life can truly lead us to be a God-fearing nation.

The second point of our reflection is on sheep-like attitude. We are the sheep, and the sheep listen to and recognize the voice of the shepherd, and that is why they continue to follow him rather than another.

As followers of Jesus, it is important for us also to recognize the voice of Jesus as it comes to us in our daily life.

In our Christian life, the voice of Christ can take many forms. It comes to us first through the official teachings of the Church, which Jesus himself established since the time of the first apostles. It is also in the voice of those who come into our daily lives to preach and witness the Good News.

If we do not recognize Christ in the voice of his Church and those proclaiming God's Kingdom, we are likely to get lost. And perhaps many, including Christians, do lose their way. Because they do not know where the Shepherd is, or perhaps they do not have shepherds.

And that brings us to the third point in our reflection. This Sunday is also "Vocation Sunday" to pray that people may answer the call to dedicate their lives in a special way to the ministry of the Church community.

In particular, we are asked to pray that people will consider whether they are being called to join the ranks of priest-shepherds or to the dedicated life of brothers and sisters.

In the Mass we pray that the Lord send "shepherd of souls" to lead his flock to Him. Let us also pray for those who follow our "Good Shepherd", our priests, bishops and the Pope that they become good shepherds of God's flock here on earth.

A blessed Sunday to all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Deo Optimo Maximo!

Cycle C - Year I:

14 April 2013 - 3rd Sunday of Easter

(Liturgical color: White)

John 21:1-19

Loving Jesus, caring for others!
 
We are Easter people as we celebrate with the Risen Christ who saved mankind from bondage to sin, and destroyed the hold that death has on all of us. For the Lord's Resurrection is our promise of new life, both in this world and in the next.

On the third Sunday of Easter, Jesus appears for the third time after the resurrection to his disciples by the Lake of Tiberias. Peter and his companions went fishing but that night they caught nothing. By dawn Jesus appeared but the disciples did not recognize him.

Like in the previous miracle of the big catch of fish in Lake Gennesaret, Jesus again performed a miracle of another big catch of fish, and the disciples realized it was Jesus with them.

At the end of the Gospel narrative, there was a conversation between Jesus and Peter, possibly a slightly uncomfortable one on Peter's part. Because the threefold question from Jesus, "Do you love me?" serves as a reminder of Peter's cowardice and infidelity during the passion when Peter denied Jesus three times.

But Jesus rehabilitates Peter as their leader and asks him a threefold confession of love to make up for his threefold denial at the passion. So Jesus gives Peter a job to do, "Feed my lambs", "Tend my sheep." Jesus also predicted the kind of death that Peter will suffer:"You will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." So it happened that Peter died a martyr, crucified upside down on a cross on the Vatican hill.

In other words, Jesus has challenged Peter to abandon his work as a fisherman for the task of shepherding God's people.

Then comes the fateful last words of today's Gospel reading which is addressed not just to Simon Peter but to all of us down the ages who wish to serve the Lord, the invitation to discipleship:"Follow me."

Thus, the Lord Jesus also calls each one of us, even in our weakness, sinfulness and failings, to love Him above all else.  And loving Jesus entails caring for the people He loves and died for. Loving Jesus means embracing his mission of proclaiming God's kingdom on earth and becoming witnesses of God's love by caring for others, especially the poor and marginalized members of society.

What will be our response? Has Easter given us the confidence to accept Jesus' invitation: "Follow me."?

A blessed Sunday to all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Deo Optimo Maximo!