Cycle A - Year II:  

6 July 2014: 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time 

(Liturgical color: Green)

Matthew 11:25-30

The Lord is our helping hand!

The liturgy brings us back to Ordinary Time after a series of solemnities or special feasts. Today is the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

In the Church's calendar, Ordinary Time is the yearly cycle of 33, or 34, weeks in which no particular aspect of the mystery of Christ is celebrated. Rather, the mystery of Christ itself is honored in its fullness, especially on Sundays. The liturgical color of the priest's vestments and the altar cloth is green.

The Lord speaks to us this week through the Gospel written by Saint Matthew. I invite

you to reflect on the concluding paragraph of today's Gospel. We are encouraged by Christ himself:

"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light." (Mt 11:28-30)

In our journey through life, we are faced with challenges, suffering and trials that at times it seems tempting to just give up. And some actually do give up.

The media overwhelms us with even more depressing news, like corruption in government, criminality, high prices of basic commodities, catastrophic natural calamities, and even wars in some parts of the world.

Christians are not spared from these challenges and trials, from pains and discomfort they suffer in their attempt to be faithful to Christ's teaching. It's like we keep falling into the same temptations over and over again. In other words, it is hard and difficult to live Christian life in today's world.

Therefore, we ask, where is Christ in the world fraught with war and violence, in our family, or sectors of our family, torn by disagreement and anger?

But in reality, it is us who find countless reasons to avoid Christ. It is us who deliberately take Christ out of our lives because we do not want to follow his path because of the difficult demands of discipleship.

The Good News is that Jesus insists that we come to him when our hearts are burdened.  Jesus offers us a way out in today's Gospel: Come to me all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. (Mt 11:28)

For the human heart remains restless amid all satisfactions that this world offers. Because true peace and happiness is found in Jesus alone, when we live in Him, and for Him.

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

Ad Jesum per Mariam!

Cycle A - Year II:  

29 June 2014: Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul 

(Liturgical color: Red)

Matthew 16:13-19

Saints Peter and Paul: Partners for the mission!

The Feast of the Apostles, Peter and Paul, the two pillars of the Christian faith, is celebrated jointly on June 29. The tradition of celebrating their solemnity on the same day dates back to the year 258. Together, these two saints are regarded as the founders of the See of Rome, through their teaching ministry and martyrdom there.

June 29 falls on a Sunday this year 2014. The liturgical color is red to honor their martyrdom for the Christian faith.

Let us have an overview of their important roles in our Christian faith.

Saint Peter, who was originally named Simon, was a fisherman of Galilee. He has a brother, Andrew, who was also among the first apostles. Jesus gave Simon the name Cephas (or Petrus in Latin), which means "rock" because he was to become the rock upon which Christ would build his Church. The Acts of the Apostles illustrates Peter's role as the head of the Church after the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ. Thus, he is considered as the very first Pope and assured that the disciples kept the true faith handed down by Christ himself.

It was in Rome where Peter spent his last years, leading the Church through persecutions and eventually being martyred in the year 64. At his own request, he was crucified upside-down because he claimed he was not worthy to die in the same manner as his Lord Jesus.

On the other hand, Saint Paul was a late convert to Christianity, and regarded as the Apostle of the Gentiles (or non-Jews). He was a prolific writer and his letters are included in the writings of the New Testament, through which we hear much about his life and the faith of the early Church.

Before receiving the name Paul, he was called Saul, a Jewish-Pharisee who zealously persecuted the early Christians in Jerusalem. Saul's conversion to Christianity took place as he was on his way to Damascus to persecute the Christian community there. It was Jesus himself who appeared to him to stop his persecution and become a disciple himself.

Saul took the name Paul upon his conversion and spent the remainder of his life preaching the Gospel tirelessly to the Gentiles of the Mediterranean world. Paul was imprisoned and taken to Rome, where he was beheaded in the year 67.

The Gospel for this Sunday is from Matthew who wrote about the "confession" of Peter.

Jesus tests his disciples with a critical question: "Who do people say that I am and who do you say that I am?"

Peter, who was always quick to respond, exclaimed that he was "the Christ, the Son of the living God!"  And Jesus said to him that no mortal being could have revealed this to Peter, but only God. Through faith Peter grasped who Jesus truly was. He was the first apostle to recognize Jesus as the Anointed One (meaning, the Messiah and Christ), and the only begotten Son of God.

And so Jesus then confers on Peter the authority to lead and govern the Church that Jesus would build, a Church that no powers on earth could overcome.

In practical life, the Lord Jesus also tests each one of us personally with the same question He asked the first apostles: "Who do you say that I am?"

Our personal answer to that test question defines our relationship with our Lord Jesus, and become the foundation of our Christian living.

As we celebrate this Feast made holy for us by the blood of the Apostles Peter and Paul, let us embrace what they believe, their life, their labors, their sufferings, their preaching, and their confession of faith.

Let us pray: Lord Jesus, I profess and believe that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. You are my Lord and Savior. Make my faith strong, like that of the Apostles Peter and Paul, and give me boldness to speak of You to others that they may come to know You personally as Lord and Savior, and thus grow in the knowledge of Your Love. Amen.

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

Ad Jesum per Mariam!

Cycle A - Year II:  

22 June 2014: Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ 

(Liturgical color: White)

John 6:51-58

The Eucharist: Christ's Real Presence in us!

The Church celebrates today another important Feast, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, or more popularly known as Corpus Christi. (Its complete Latin translation: Sollemnitas Sanctissimi Corporis et Sanguinis Christi.) 

The Gospel reading is from St. John, and the central theme of today's reading is about Jesus speaking about the Bread of Life: 

"I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." (Jn 6:51)

The Holy Eucharist, or Corpus Christi is the very center and source of our Christian life. Even after his ascension, Jesus chose to remain with us in the sacrament of the Eucharist. Because in the Eucharist Jesus gives his body and blood to be our food through our spiritual journey.

In other words, Jesus wants us to share in his very self while in journey in this world. That is why He gave us his Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. The human flesh of Jesus continues to link us and the people of every age with the timeless sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Thus, the Holy Eucharist fills us with a lasting sense of communion with Jesus Himself and with one another.

For us Catholics, the doctrine of the Real Presence asserts that in the Holy Eucharist Jesus is literally and wholly present, that means body and blood, soul and divinity, under the appearances of bread and wine.

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that Jesus' presence in the Eucharist is visus, tactus, gustus. That means his presence is not imaginary in our mind. Because when we receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, we actually see, touch, and taste Him. He is an "edible" God, as some theologians would say.

As we receive the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ in Holy Communion at Mass, we

come to be more and more like Him, and so partake while still here on earth of the eternal banquet of heaven. Because the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood guarantees his promise: "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day." (Jn 6:54)

In practical life, we cannot completely fathom the mystery of Christ's sacramental presence in the Eucharist, so much like the teaching on the Blessed Trinity which we celebrated last Sunday. But we do believe that when we gather in Jesus' name at the Holy Eucharist, we proclaim ourselves to be truly God's people, united as one body in Christ. And this is the essence of being the New Church, as People of God on earth.

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

Ad Jesum per Mariam!

Cycle A - Year II

15 June 2014: Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity 

(Liturgical color: White)

John 3:16-18

The Trinity: One God in three Persons!

Today is the Solemnity of the Most Blessed Trinity. It is the most important Truth in our Catholic faith: three Divine Person equal in majesty, yet one Lord, one God. 

What do we understand about the Holy Trinity?

There is the story about the great St. Augustine of Hippo. One day while walking in a beach, he was reflecting and trying to grasp the mystery of the Trinity. Then he saw a little boy digging a small hole in the sand, and the boy was transferring the water from the sea into his little hole. St. Augustine asked him what he was trying to do. "I am putting the sea water inside my little hole," the boy told him. St. Augustine said to him, "That's impossible to contain the vast ocean into your little hole, my child." The boy answered him back, "And so with you. How can you grasp the vastness of God with your little mind?" For indeed, if we can explain God we must be greater than God.

In other words, the teaching on the Trinity is most difficult to comprehend and even more difficult to fully communicate with human words. We end up acknowledging that the Trinitarian character of God will always be a mystery.

But it is important to say that the Church did not invent the teaching on the Trinity. Jesus Himself revealed the mystery of the Trinity to us through the first disciples. In fact our whole life is marked by the sign of the Trinity. And every time we make the sign of the cross, we proclaim the Truth of the Holy Trinity: In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

The Gospel for this Sunday is taken from John, and the text essentially summarizes the whole of salvation history: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life."

Elsewhere in his Gospel, St. John also tells us that "God is love!" Thus, for God to live is to love. "This is revealed in the fact that God exists eternally as Trinity -- a communion of three divine persons who are one God, only distinguishable from each other in their relationships to each other, relationships which are defined by the love of a Father, a Son, and the Holy Spirit that proceeds from and personifies that love."

In our human experience, it is in this love that God created man in his image -- a creature created to receive God's love and to love Him in return. But it was man's rejection and refusal of God's love that was essentially the original sin, man's loss of life with God.

And so God came to us in this world, in love and revealed himself as love: as a communion of love, Father and Son, and Holy Spirit. 

God's love does not seek condemnation but salvation: to restore us to receiving and returning God's love, a love that is eternal and limitless as the life of God Himself, the love that is the essence of "eternal life" in the Holy Trinity.

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

Ad Jesum per Mariam!

Cycle A - Year II:  

8 June 2014: Pentecost Sunday 

(Liturgical color: Red)

John 20:19-23

The Holy Spirit empowers the Church!

The Church celebrates Pentecost Sunday fifty days after the resurrection of our Lord. That is why it is called "Pentecost". After Jesus ascended into heaven, now it is the turn of the Holy Spirit to continue the work of Jesus through his disciples and our Holy Mother Church.

The first Reading from the Acts of the Apostles describes the very first Pentecost day: "When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they (the first disciples) were all in one place together. And suddenly there came  from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim." (Acts 2:1-4)

Pentecost Sunday celebrates the great beginning of the Catholic Church. So today we greet ourselves a Happy Birthday or Happy Anniversary as we mark a fresh start for all of us as the New Church, the People of God in journey toward the Father's house in heaven.

The Gospel reading is from John which speaks about the first encounter of the risen Lord with his disciples. 

When the resurrected Christ appears, he offered proof of his resurrection by showing the disciples the wounds of his passion, his pierced hands and side. Then he calmed their fears and brought them peace, the peace which reconciles sinners and makes one a friend of God.

In the gospel, Jesus commissioned his weak and timid apostles to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. He breathes on them the gift of the Holy Spirit to equip the disciples with power, grace, and strength in accomplishing their mission.

And just as Jesus empowered the disciples on the first Pentecost with the gift that is the Holy Spirit in order to do their mission to evangelize the world, so also we are empowered today by the same Holy Spirit to continue the missionary work, to face the challenges of our time, especially in matters of faith and morality.

Through the gift of faith we, too, proclaim that Jesus is our personal Lord and our God. He died and rose again that we, too, might have new life in him. The Lord offers each of us new life in his Holy Spirit that we may know him personally and walk in this new way of life through the power of his resurrection.

In practical life, at times when we struggle to pray because of so many distractions, or when we want to pray but do not have the words, it is the Holy Spirit that links us to God and interprets our desire before him. In the words of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, "It is the Holy Spirit who helps our inability, who enlightens our minds and warms our hearts, guiding us as we turn to God."

Let us pray that the Holy Spirit empowers us with his seven gifts (wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord) to keep us unwavering in our faith and remain committed to all the teachings of the Church handed down from the apostles to the bishops and the Pope. And let us use these gifts to build and strengthen the Church as the Body of Christ through constant prayers. Because it is through prayers that the Holy Spirit works in our humanity, strengthens our weakness and transforms us from men bound to material realities into men filled with the Spirit of Christ. Amen.

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