Cycle B - Year I:  

25 December 2014: Solemnity of the Lord's Birth 

(Liturgical color: White)

John 1:1-18

The Gift of Christmas!

A blessed Christmas to us all!

In our generation Christmas is easily associated with gifts. Indeed, Christmas is God's greatest gift to mankind, the gift of His beloved Son.

The event of the birth of our Lord Jesus is the reason for all the preparations during our Advent pilgrimage, and the nine-day novena Masses or Misa de Aguinaldo or Simbang Gabi. Today let us rejoice and be glad, for the Messiah is born. We are overwhelmed with joy that lights up our darkness.

The Gospel reading is the prologue of the Gospel of John. In his simple introduction, John actually summarizes for his audience everything that he wanted to convey about Jesus of Nazareth. John expresses the divinity of Christ: He was there in the beginning (that is to say, the beginning before anything else has been begun); in that time Jesus was with God, and He was God; nothing was made without Him because it was all created through Him; in Him is life for all men.

After talking about Christ's divinity, John proceeds to tell us about Christ's mission on earth. The Word became flesh to make it possible for us to become children of God. Because Jesus is the only way that we can inherit God's kingdom.

We reflect on the significance and importance of the Christmas event. The all

powerful and mighty God comes to our world as a "helpless" little Infant. And we realize that every new born child is precious, a gift from God. And God is present in the tiny, vulnerable infant.

The Son of God assumed our human nature so that in it we can be saved. Born of the Virgin Mary, Jesus has truly been made one of us, like us in all things except sin.

As we gather together on this Christmas day to celebrate the Eucharist around the Infant Child of Bethlehem, it is my joy to wish everyone of my family and friends, and my readers, a "Blessed and Merry Christmas!"

Happy, Happy Birthday, my Lord Jesus!

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

Ad Jesum per Mariam! 

Cycle B - Year I:  

21 December 2014: Fourth Sunday of Advent 

(Liturgical color: Violet or White for Simbang Gabi)

Luke 1:26-38

Let it be!

This Sunday we enter the final week of our Advent journey, and our last days of "waiting" for Christmas. In all churches and chapels we light the fourth and last candle in the Advent wreath, the candle of love. It symbolizes love for life and all creation, love for sinners and saints, love for the poor and the little ones, and especially God's love that redeems and shows us the way to His kingdom.

In the Gospel we will hear Luke's account of the angel Gabriel's Good News to Mary that she was chosen by God to bear His Son, our Lord Jesus. The

Annunciation is the first Joyful mystery of the Rosary. It invites us to reflect on Mary and her anticipation as she waited nine months for the birth of her Son. Mary is our model of how to prepare to welcome our Savior, by her openness to God's promise, her deep faith,  and her willingness to trust and follow God's plan.

Let us reflect that both Mary and Joseph came before the Lord, at different moments, facing the decision to believe in God and trust in His unfathomable plan. Their radical "yes" to God's plan brings fulfillment to their lives and enables them to participate by their own free will in the marvelous, saving work of God.

In historical perspective, the Incarnation of Jesus will not happen again.  (Although we know and believe that He will come again in glory as Judge and King of all creation in the second coming, but no longer as an Infant Child.) So in that sense, none of us will ever be asked to do anything quite like Mary and Joseph in their obedience to God's will. Yet in practical life, everyone of us is called to make a similar act of faith. Because we too stand before God and are asked by our Creator and Redeemer to place our lives in His hands, and to trust in His loving plan for us.

Perhaps, our deep faith in God is really the foundation of the Filipinos' spirit of resiliency in the midst of calamities and trials. It is the Holy Spirit, dwelling within us, that gives us the strength to overcome our fears and doubts, and like a trusting child make the leap of faith into the loving arms of our loving Father in heaven.

As we wind up our spiritual preparation for the Lord's coming, let us pray that the grace of our Lord Jesus, the examples of Mary and Joseph in their trust and obedience to God, and the blessing of the Advent season lead every one of us to respond freely to God with the obedience of faith, even when sometimes we do not understand immediately God's plan for us.

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

Cycle B - Year I:  

14 December 2014: Third Sunday of Advent 

(Liturgical color: Violet or Pink)

John 1:6-8, 19-28

Feeling the joy!

The theme of the liturgy for this Sunday is "rejoicing" because we are mid-way in our Advent pilgrimage and thus so close to the big event that is Christmas day.

On the third week of our Advent walk, the Church celebrates Gaudete

Sunday or the Sunday of Rejoicing. The entrance antiphon in the Mass begins with St. Paul's exhortation: "Rejoice in the Lord always!" (Phil 4:4) Indeed the readings for this Sunday tell us there is reason to rejoice as we prepare and await with joyful expectation for the coming of Jesus, our Lord and Messiah.

In the Gospel account, John the Baptist appears in the Jordan River as "the voice of one crying out in the desert, make straight the way of the Lord." The Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask John if he might be the Messiah. But John answers, "I am not the Christ... but there is one among you whom "

you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie." (Jn 1:20, 26-27)

Thus, we know from the Gospel account that the leaders of Israel show their attentiveness and expectation of the Messiah. And yet the irony of it all, despite their expectation, they did not recognize or accept Christ when He came. Years later they would even cry out against His claim to be the Messiah, "Crucify him! Crucify him!"

In our own generation today, we find ourselves in a similar position of waiting and watching. Our Lord promised to come to us --and not only at the end of the world but also through the course of our lives. So then, like the leaders of Israel, we should be attentive to His coming.

We rejoice that Jesus is indeed among us here and now.  But do we recognize Him?

Indeed our Lord is among us in many ways: We hear His voice in the teaching authority of the Church, like He promised the first disciples: "Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me." (Lk 10:16) He comes to us in the smallest among us: "Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me." (Mk 9:37) And the Lord is here in the least among us: "Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me." (Mt 25:40).

We have reason to rejoice because Jesus dwells not only among us but also within us, by grace. He comes to us most especially in the sacraments. At baptism we receive the sanctifying grace that fulfills His promise to dwell within us. In our reception of the Eucharist we encounter Him again and again in the most intimate manner. But sometimes we fail to recognize Him in this encounter in the sacraments because of lack of faith.

Let us, therefore, pray for stronger faith to seek our Lord Jesus Christ where He promised to be: in the Church, in the small and weak of society, and most of all in the grace we receive from the sacraments.

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

Ad Jesum per Mariam!