Cycle C - Year II: 

1 May 2016: Sixth Sunday of Easter 

(Liturgical color: White)

Gospel: Please read  John 14:23-29

A life of love, strengthened by the Holy Spirit!

It is hard to say "goodbye", but sometimes the pain eases when you know that those you'd leave behind are in good hands, so to speak.

Jesus is preparing His disciples for his impending departure. A week from now we will celebrate the Lord's Ascension.

Our Lord gave the disciples a new commandment: "Love one

another, as I have loved you." Because by a life of love the world will know that they are His disciples.

Today, Jesus challenges us to commit ourselves deeper in a life of love. He said to the 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."

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

The phrase "keep my word" means the we remain faithful to the totality of the message of Jesus, as handed down to us through traditions and the teaching 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.

Although He is leaving soon, Jesus promises that He is coming back. But while waiting for that time, "The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything  and remind you of all that I told you." (Jn 14:26)

In other words, the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church is our assurance that her missionary work is not simply a human endeavor but in reality the continuation of Jesus' saving mission, and so therefore the work of God Himself. The Holy Spirit never leaves the Church. So that when we sometimes feel overwhelmed by personal trials, like when we struggle to pray because of so many distractions, or at times when we want to pray but seem not to have the words to express ourselves, 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."

In the Eucharist at Mass, let us commit our love for Jesus by keeping His word and witnessing His teachings through our authentic Christian living. So that as Jesus Himself promised, the Father and the Son will abide within us, and the Holy Spirit will make us undertand Jesus' teaching through His Church.

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

Ad Jesum per Mariam!

Cycle C - Year II:

24 April 2016: Fifth Sunday of Easter

(Liturgical color: White)

Gospel: Please read John 13:31-33a, 34-35

"Love one another!"

Sometimes we tend to complicate our lives by creating so many laws and ordinances. And those who are called experts in the law add to the confusion with their different interpretation of same law. So that in the end we live our lives in fear of transgressing these laws. Such fear takes away the joy of living.

In this Sunday's Gospel Jesus gives us a practical and simple command to live a good christian life. The Gospel reading is part of Jesus' farewell discourse during the last supper with his disciples prior to 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."

What is new and unique about Jesus' commandment to love one another?

Well, our Lord Jesus speaks of love that is unconditional, without limit, without 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.

For in God's kingdom the definition of love is not "having good feeling 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.

That is why 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. Because Jesus asks to love to the point of suffering, as He has loved us.

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

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

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

Our love for one another must include not only human beings but the entire creation, like our environment and the rest of our world. Because we are stewards of God's creation.

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

Let us use our Lord's new commandment of love in terms of serving others as our guide in choosing our leaders this coming election.

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

Ad Jesum per Mariam!

Cycle C - Year II:

17 April 2016: Fourth Sunday of Easter

(Liturgical color: White)

Gospel: Please read John 10:27-30

"My sheep hear my voice!"

What do we expect from a leader? The question is foremost in everyone's mind as we approach another national election in our collective journey as a souvereign nation.

On the Fourth Sunday of the Easter season the liturgy inspires us with the timely message about what a leader should be in the image of our Lord as the Good Shepherd.

Of the many titles attributed to Jesus, perhaps the most consoling and reassuring is that of the Good Shepherd. It is the Lord Himself who claims that title (Jn 10:11).

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

However, in our country agriculture and farming is the livelihood, and so shepherding may be alien to our conscieousness. 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. The shepherd walks in front of the sheep, and the sheep follow the shepherd freely; they are not driven or coerced.

In the opening of the Gospel passage Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me." (Jn 10:27) Thus, the relationship between the Shepherd and the sheep is a mutual recognition through the use of voice, a picture of the sheep following the shepherd voluntarily based on total trust.

Those who stay with the Shepherd never get lost. For how can they? Because we know and believe that Jesus our Good Shepherd is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

And when one sheep goes astray, the Shepherd leaves the ninety-nine and goes in search of the one who has wandered and brings it back.

The Gospel also says that we have been given to Jesus by the Father. And so it is in Jesus, and through Him that we find our way back 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.

What is the practical application of this Sunday's Gospel in our lives?

It is really a timely message. For we can use this imagery of the Good Shepherd to guide us in choosing our leaders this coming national election. We should support leaders who by their examples of caring, compassionate leadership, and love and respect for life can truly transform us to be a God-fearing people.

The second point in our reflection is on sheep-like attitude. We are the sheep and the sheep listen to and recognize the voice of the shepherd. We must follow our shepherd and not another.

As followers of our Lord Jesus, it is important for us to recognize the voice of Jesus as it comes to us in our daily life. The voice of Jesus can take many forms in our Christian living. It comes to us first and foremost through the official teachings of the Church, which Jesus Himself established since apostolic times. 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, or refuse to heed, Christ in the voice of His Church and those proclaiming God's kingdom, we are likely to get lost. Sadly, many including those who profess to be Christians have lost their way. They do not know where the Shepherd is, or perhaps they do not have shepherds..

And this brings us to the last point in our reflection. This Sunday is also Vocation Sunday. Let us pray that more generous individual answer the call to dedicate their lives in a special way to the ministry of the Church community. Let us also pray for our priests, bishops, an the Pope that they remain good shepherds of God's flock here on earth.

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

Ad Jesum per Mariam!

Cycle C - Year II:

10 April 2016: Third Sunday of Easter

(Liturgical color: White)

Gospel: Please read John 21:1-19

Feed my lambs! Tend my sheep!

We are the new "Easter" people as we celebrate with the risen Christ who saved mankind from bondage of 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.

Thus, our Easter experience should inspire us to hope for a better future, as we approach our national election. It is another chance to save ourselves from patronage politics and the resulting corruptions in public governance.

Let us reflect on the Gospel message.

On the third Sunday of Easter, the Gospel narrates that Peter and his companions went fishing by the Lake of Tiberias. But that night they caught nothing. Then by dawn Jesus appears to them for the the third time after His resurrection but the disciples at first 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 only then that the disciples realize 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 is really rehabilitating Peter as their leader in asking him a threefold confession of love to make up for his threefold denial at the passion. So Jesus gives Peter a job to do, his mission, "Feed my lambs!", "Tend my sheep!" But Jesus also predicted the kind of death that Peter will suffer for our Lord's sake: "...you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." And so it happened that Peter died a martyr, crucified upside down on a cross on the Vatican hill.

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

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."

In sum, the Lord also calls each one of us, even in our weaknesses, sinfulness and failings, to love Him above all else. 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 our society.

This is a timely message in choosing our leaders comes election day. We must go for the leaders who can lead us, not only through our journey in this world, but more importantly our journey "safely" to our heavenly home. For we are but a pilgrim people, while on earth.

What will be our response? Has our Easter experience given us the confidence to accept our glorified Lord's invitation to all: "Follow me."?

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

Ad Jesum per Mariam!