Cycle C - Year II:

5 June 2016: Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

(Liturgical color: Green)

Gospel: Please read Luke 7:11-17

Our compassionate Lord!

The Church's liturgy brings us back to Ordinary Time, after a series of solemnities or special feasts following the Easter Season. And this Sunday is the 10th in Ordinary Time.

Just a quick review, what is Ordinary Time?

Well, it is the yearly cycle comprising of 33 or 34 weeks in which no particular aspect of the mystery of Christ is celebrated, but rather the totality or fullness of the mystery of Christ itself is honored.

The Gospel passage is from St. Luke, narrating an incident when our Lord Jesus while in journey to the city of Nain, encounter a funeral of a young man, the only son of his mother, who was a widow.

In Jesus' time, a woman's life and position in society depended so much upon her husband, and thus her only secure means of welfare is her family. The woman in the Gospel narrative was a widow and also lost her only child in this case, and so she was really helpless.

How does our Lord react to such a situation? If we recall, the Gospel records a number of incidents that Jesus was "moved to the depths of his heart" when he met with individual and with groups of people needing help.

In this Sunday's incident, Jesus not only grieved the untimely death of a young man, but He showed the depth of His concern for the woman who lost not only her husband but her only child as well. In other words, the widow has lost not only her loved ones, but her future security and livelihood.

The story continues that Jesus brought back to life the young man. His simple word of concern -- "Young man, arise!" -- not only restored him to physical life but brought freedom and wholeness both to his body and soul. For Jesus is Lord only not only of the living but of the dead as well.

What does the Gospel incident tell us? What lesson do we learn for our Christian living?

More than the miracle of death to life again, let us focus on our Lord's compassion for the helpless. By bringing back the dead man to his mother, Jesus shows a gesture the evokes God's mercy and love regardless of our status in society. Jesus is our compassionate Lord. For God is merciful and loving.

As followers of Jesus, we must respond likewise with compassion and love to the misfortunes of others. By His words and deeds Jesus reveals the mind and purpose of the Father when we care for the poor and weak in society, both physically and spiritually.

With the recent election done, let us pray that our new elected leaders follow the example of the Good Shepherd in His compassion and love, becoming truly servant of all, rather than bullying people to submission through fear and threats.

God of life, please hear our prayers.

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

Ad Jesum per Mariam!

Cycle C - Year II:

29 May 2016: Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

(Liturgical color: White)

Gospel: Please read Luke 9:11b-17

He is truly present!

The Church celebrates another important feast this Sunday: Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the celebration of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Holy Eucharist, or Corpus Christi, is the very center and source of our Christian life. That is why, even after His ascension Jesus chose to remain with us in the sacrament of the Eucharist. Because in the Eucharist we encounter Jesus Himself and thus receive a foretaste of heavenly glory.

St. Luke provides the Gospel proclamation for this Sunday, which is about the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. This miraculous feeding of the crowd was a prelude to something much more wonderful, the miraculous gift of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself in the Eucharist. Today's incident on the feeding of the crowd teaches us that Jesus desires to nourish His exhausted, hungry flock with bread and fish. This was a foreshadowing of our Lord's desire to spiritually nourish the whole world with His own Body and Blood in the Eucharist at Mass.

For it is within the holy sacrifice of the Mass that we have our immediate experience of this encounter

with Jesus. We are invited to prepare our minds, heart and bodies in anticipation of the representation of the paschal mystery. That means to say, our minds and hearts and bodies ought to be be oriented toward adoration of our Lord, contrition for our sins, thanksgiving for our blessings and crosses and supplications offered with our particular intention in mind.

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

The great Saint 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 (visus), touch (tactus), and taste (gustus) Him. He is an "edible" God, as some theologians would say.

It is a a good reminder for everyone that as Jesus makes Himself present to us as a gift in the Holy Eucharist at Mass, so too we must prepare ourselves to respond to His gift of self by our proper disposition during Holy Mass. Thus, our bodily postures of kneeling and genuflecting should remind us of who we are about to encounter as we approach the altar for Holy Communion. Even our discipline of an hour fasting before receiving the Lord into our bodies and souls should remind us of the purity and sense of mortification we must adopt if we want to imitate Him authentically.

So then as we prepare to go to Mass we should ask: "Ho will I offer myself to God during Mass in order to match Jesus' love and gift of self to me?" And we will soon discover that as much as we think we are giving to Jesus, in reality He is never outdone in His generous outpouring of His very life into our own... in the Holy Eucharist.

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

Ad Jesum per Mariam!

Cycle C - Year II:

22 May 2016: Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

(Liturgical color: White)

Gospel: Please read John 16:12-15

One God in three Divine Persons!

How often do we make the sign of the cross. The sign of the cross is the "trademark" of every Christian.

Every time we make the sign of the cross, we profess and proclaim the most important truth in our Catholic faith: three divine Persons, equal in majesty, yet one Lord, one God.

The Church celebrate this Sunday the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. What does our catechism teach about the Holy Trinity?

Admittedly the doctrine on the Holy Trinity is the 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, in reality, a great mystery. In fact, the shortest Gospel commentary is that the Trinity is a mystery, end of the story.

But it is important to mention that the Church did not invent the teaching on the Holy Trinity. It is Jesus Himself who revealed this mystery of the Trinity to us through the first disciples.

In this Sunday's Gospel from St. John, Jesus reveals to us God's real identity in the Trinitarian mystery:

"I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you." (Jn 16:12-15)

Does the Church teaching on the Trinity make sense at all to us today? The answer is "yes", and it does greatly to help us grow in faith and strengthen us in practical ways of our Christian living.

First of all, God allows us to know Him more intimately as He truly is in the Trinitarian mystery. For we cannot love Him unless we know Him: one God in three divine Persons. Thus, He reveals Himself to us as a divine family. And we are all invited to be part of that family.

In the words of St. John Paul II: "God in His deepest mystery is not a solitude, but a family, since He has in Himself fatherhood, sonship, and love, which is the essence of the family."

Second, because we know that God is a communion of persons, we who are made in His image and likeness are likewise made to be in relationship with God and with each other. We are made to be communal beings, meant to live for others. This is the nature of love and the nature of God who formed us in His image.

And finally, through the Holy Trinity God reveals Himself to us as a family, a loving communion of persons. So, therefore, our family should be a communion of life and love modeled after the Trinity. It is in the family that we first learn some important lessons about Christian living, like sharing, about being patient and forgiving. it is in the family that we also learn how to practice a selfless, sacrificial love that is an image of the selfless love of the Trinity.

In sum, the doctrine on the Holy Trinity tells us something about who God is, and tells us something about ourselves, too, made in His image and likeness. In the Eucharist at Mass, let us give glory to God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit -- one God, three Persons -- from Whom everything in the world and in history comes, and to whom everything returns, in time. Amen.

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

Ad Jesum per Mariam!

Cycle C - Year II:

15 May 2016: Pentecost Sunday

(Liturgical color: Red)

Gospel: Please read John 20:19-23

The Holy Spirit, the Power within us!

We celebrate today Pentecost Sunday, which comes fifty days after our Lord's resurrection. That is why it is called Pentecost, from the Greek "pentekoste" which means the fiftieth (day after Easter).

The Scriptures describe this great event thus: "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...." (Acts 2:1-4)

After Jesus' ascension to heaven, it is now the turn of the Holy Spirit to continue His saving work through the disciples and our Holy Mother Church. The Holy Spirit is the one who will gather together and unite men and women of every race and tongue in one body and one faith. So that empowered by the Holy Spirit the apostles began their work as fishers of men until our generation.

Pentecost Sunday is really the celebration of the birth of the Universal Church. So today we greet ourselves a Happy Birthday, or Happy Anniversary, or Happy Foundation Day, 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 evangelist John shares with us the Gospel for this Sunday, which speaks about the first encounter of the risen Lord with His disciples.

When the resurrected Christ appears, He offers 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.

Then Jesus commissioned His previously weak and timid apostles to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth. He breathed on them the gift of the Holy Spirit to equip His disciples with power, grace, and strength to accomplish their great mission.

Until today, in our own generation, we too are empowered by the same Holy Spirit to continue the missionary work, to face challenges of our time, especially in matters of faith and morality.

Through the gift of faith we, too, proclaim Jesus as our personal Lord and our God. For He died and rose again so that we might have new life in Him. In other words, the Lord offers each one of us new life in His Holy Spirit so that we may know Him personally and walk in this new way of life through the of the Lord's resurrection.

Ho do we "experience" the Holy Spirit in our lives today?

When we struggle to pray, for example, because of so many distractions, or perhaps when we want to pray but do not have the words to say, 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 come and shower us with His gifts (of wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord) to keep us unwavering in our faith and remain committed to all the teaching of the Church handed down from the Apostles to the bishops and the Pope. May we use these gifts of the Holy Spirit 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, strengthen our weakness and transform us from men bound to material realities into men filled with the Spirit of Christ Himself.

Our people has spoken. We pray especially that the Holy Spirit guide us as in the next six years of our collective journey as a nation. We ask this through the intercession of Mary, our Mother and Protector. Amen.

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

Ad Jesum per Mariam!