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Personal Encounter with Jesus: ground for discipleship

Posted by junix28 on September 16, 2012 in Homilies, Homilies and Reflections

Homily for 24th Sunday 2012

  1. Today’s gospel gives us the ground of our Christian faith– the profession of faith in Jesus as the Christ, the messiah, the anointed one of God,  that Peter has confessed in Jesus. Peter has come to believe in Jesus as the Christ, not just one of the prophets, or  Elijah, or John the Baptist, as the others would say of him. Peter has come to recognize Jesus as the one sent by God to be saviour of all. But this realization didn’t come to Peter out of the blue. Peter and the other disciples of Jesus came to see and believe in him because of something more fundamental that had happened in them. They not only met Jesus, but they have encountered him. This encounter happened not because they were driven to Jesus but because they were drawn by him individually and personally.

  2. This is the beauty of our God when he calls us to follow him. He addresses us personally: ‘And You! Who do you say I am?’ And he also freely calls us, thus we are also to respond in freedom. When Jesus calls and we respond in freedom, this is encounter, and this encounter calls for a personal relationship. Because it is only in and through personal relationship with the Lord Jesus that we can profess freely, confidently and even proudly that Jesus is our Lord and Saviour.

  3. This encounter therefore calls us for two things as we can deduce from our gospel today. First to celebrate this encounter by committing ourselves to follow Jesus everyday. Following him means ‘to renounce ourselves, take up our cross and follow him.’ Following him means devotion to the truth- that is to stand up for the truth that there is God, and that he is sending us the Messiah, and that we who are here today are witnesses to this wonderful truth of our faith. Following him means to be single-minded as Jesus was, towards the fulfilment of his mission from the Father- that is to go to Jerusalem, to be captured by the authorities and even to die on the cross. This single-mindedness towards our mission in life as Christians is always a challenging one, because this can mean we can disappoint others, even our own friends. Jesus himself was a victim of this. When he said to his closest friends what is going to happen to him, Peter was disappointed and thus he was trying to block his way to Jerusalem. Peter’s reaction however is typical of any human relationship. We don’t want something bad happens to our friends, we don’t want to lose our friends. But we have to know and understand God calls each one of us personally and in a more unique way. This then leads us to the second way to celebrate this personal encounter with Jesus and that is to be Christlike in the world today.

  4. To be Christlike in the world today means to be reflection of Christ to others, to be bearers of the light that Christ has shared with us in our baptism, to  be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. To be Christlike today is to harmonise our faith with good works as St James urges us in our Second Reading today. To be Christlike is to be humble and meek as the suffering servant that the Prophet Isaiah tells us today in our Second Reading. St Teresa of Avila captured it quite well how to be Christlike in her poem that she wrote: Christ Has No Body. This mystic said: Christ has no body but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours, Yours are the eyes with which he looks Compassion on this world, Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good, Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, Yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours, Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

  5. It is a big call. But we are drawn to follow Jesus not driven. So we are free. He may not make the mountains in our path smaller but he can always make the climb easier. He may not take our load away, but he can always make our burden light. He may be showing us the ultimate way of discipleship which is to embrace the cross and even die, but he also shows us that there is glory, resurrection, and eternal happiness behind it all.

  6. So as we continue our Eucharistic celebration today, let thank Jesus for this wonderful encounter with him. Let us also pray that we may be strengthened, encouraged and be braved enough to be his living witnesses in the world today through our faith in him and our actions that are motivated by the values of the gospel that he taught us. Amen.

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Being true to ourselves: Key to genuine discipleship

Posted by junix28 on September 15, 2012 in Homilies, Homilies and Reflections

Homily for 24th Sunday in Year B Ordinary time 2012

  1. Friends, I might have mentioned this already in my previous homilies, but it is worth repeating. When I entered the seminary almost 12 years ago, I wasn’t really sure what my motives were. All I can remember is that I was wanting to become a priest, in fact I was really dying for it, not literally though. So as I went on with my seminary formation I always had to ask myself:  ‘Why do I want to become a priest?’

  2. Many reasons have come and gone. Security was one. Family expectations also played a great role. In my little village in the Philippines, having a priest in the family is just like marrying a beautiful princess or a queen. Social expectations also had emerged as a top contender. A priest always has a special place on the table of families, on the public events, even to play ‘judge’ in a dancing contest even if the priest has two left feet.

  3. Overtime though, I realized that to be a priest is not all about living in people’s expectations. Being a priest is someone who acts in the person of Christ the head. Being a priest is one who according to Lacordaire:

‘[Lives] in the midst of the world; without wishing its pleasures; To be a member of each family, yet belonging to none; To share all suffering; to penetrate all secrets; To heal all wounds; to go from men to God and offer Him their prayers; To return from God to men to bring pardon and hope; To have a heart of fire for Charity, and a heart of bronze for Chastity; To teach and to pardon, console and bless always.’ 

 4.It takes time for me to realize this. It takes time for me to go beyond the expectation of people in me. It takes time for me to know and understand my mission in this life. It was so because my vision was clouded with many social expectations, personal ideals and unrealistic goals. And I thought that was all there was being a priest. However, this does not mean that I would no longer  live in the people’s expectations of me. It is part and parcel of our humanity. It would be hypocritical if I would dare not to. In fact, living out with the expectations of people and the society is helpful and beneficial. If it were not, we would not have order in our society and harmony in our social milieu. However, we could not just continue living in those expectations to the extent of losing our own identity and mission in the world. So we need to ask the question often: Who am I? What is my purpose in this world?

5. Pope Benedict XVI, in his Catechism for youth or YouCat, said it quite simply: He wrote: ‘We are here on earth in order to know and to love God, to do good according to his will, and to go someday to heaven.’ [(#1 YouCat). This is not only our purpose. Yet this is one of the reasons why God sent his own Son to us- to serve as our way, our truth and our life’ (Jn 14:6) in living, in loving and in serving Him. Jesus knew who he is, what he needs to do and what his ideals are and he put all his heart into it. Yes, Jesus was also caught up with the social expectations of the messiah, and he could have easily got into this, but he knew who he really is. In fact, he not only knew who he is, He also revealed the real trait of a Messiah, a messiah who is not what people expect, a messiah who would rather choose to die for his people to live, and for his followers to learn from, a messiah who would rather be a suffering servant that we can hear from our first Reading today, than to make his people suffer the eternal consequence of sin and the loss of eternal life in heaven.

6. Jesus was true to himself and to his mission. And so are we? What can we do then? St James in our Second Reading today again shows us that he was indeed very practical. He urges us to express our faith in action. He urges us to exercise our faith and action in harmony with each other.  There are many ways to express our faith in action. We just have to look around, opened our windows and doors to people in need, ring someone whom we believe needing someone to talk to, or listen to someone who are needing listening ears.

7. We just have to remember, we can only express our faith in action more effectively and more productively if we are true to ourselves and our mission, and only if really grounded in Christ. There is not  much benefit for us and for others if we just extend help because our society expects us to, or because this is what is expected of us. But if we stand to who we are, no matter what people expect of us, or think or say of us, we can assure God is on our side…as he was, as he is and always will be with Jesus.

8. So let’s pray that like Jesus, we would stick to our real selves and go on with our mission in living, loving and serving God and others. Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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When Jesus touches, he makes it very personal

Posted by junix28 on September 9, 2012 in Homilies, Homilies and Reflections

 

Homily for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary time year B 2012

  1. Yesterday I had the chance to be part of the great and historic event in the Archdiocese of Melbourne. Archbishop Denis Hart ordained eight new priests for the Church. Yet  what made it historic was the ordination into the Catholic priesthood for the first time in Melbourne the four ex-Anglican priests who have chosen and have decided to be in full communion with the Catholic Church under the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross. It was indeed a remarkable event. The ceremony went over two hours yet that didn’t bother me so much. In fact that made me more grateful to God for the gift of vocation to the priesthood. I was just overwhelmed by the fact that each of these eight men have been called by Jesus personally from whatever they were doing before (I know one of the men was a teacher for many years, and one was a lawyer for sometimes), touched by him in a more personal way, taken away from the crowd and made them sharers of his ministerial priesthood.

  2. This is the beauty of our God. He always looks at us individually from among the crowd. Not only that, He would also take us away from the crowd. Then he would touch our lives personally. Then he would make us whole. Because in the eyes of God, nobody is no one because everyone is someone special for him.

  3. Our little man in our gospel today is a concrete witness to this. According to St Mark, he is deaf and has a speech impediment. We can imagine how his ‘defects’ caused him to be feeling isolated, misunderstood, misinterpreted, misheard, or even marginalized. There might be times in his life that he would want to express his view on things but he couldn’t. There might be times in his life when he wanted to present his own understanding on things but he just couldn’t make it. And when he met Jesus, his life is never the same.

  4. Jesus called this man personally through sign language I suppose,  to follow him away from the crowd. Then at the corner, he looked up to heaven and sighed indicating that what he was about to do to this man is not only his own doing but it is in union with his Father whose compassion is such for our humanity. Jesus then touched him personally (puts his fingers into his ears and touches his tongue with spittle (v.33). Then he made him whole again and  out of his brokenness after he uttered the word ‘Ephphatha’ or ‘be opened.’ Then his life has changed. In a way, he has experienced the fullness of life as a human being.

  5. We are here today because we have been called by Jesus from among the crowd by virtue of our baptism. We are here because Jesus Christ has touched our lives personally. We are here because we experienced his healing touch in more ways than one. We are here to celebrate this Eucharist to give praise and thanks to God for the gift of himself to us- a gift that gives health to our souls. Yet, Jesus is also telling us now to ‘be opened’ to really experience the beauty of his calling.

  6. So how ‘open’ are we to Him? St James in our Second Reading today tells us of one way to express our openness before God- that is to avoid combining our faith in Jesus Christ by making distinctions between people. This is a practical one. Because, there  is always a temptation for us to be discriminating, whether we are conscious of it or not. A good test for this is our ‘attitude’ or ‘how do we think’ about the ‘asylum seekers’ who are risking everything including their own lives just to get to Australia. Another test is how do we play our part in our society. Do we just remain to be critical and discriminating to the people in the government and not doing the bit that we can do to them? Have we ever prayed for them that they may lead this country according to the virtues of Christ and the will of God? Another test, third one, how are we sharing our resources to the rest of our sisters and brothers around the world? I know and I can speak of my own experience that there are many things I  don’t even want now that are really ‘needed’ by the many people in the third world countries. The problem with us is not that we can’t, we just don’t do it.

  7. Jesus is calling us from among the crowd of many. He has touched us personally and continuously despite who we are and whatever we do. He wishes that we may be made whole again out of our brokenness, yet we have to  listen to him all the time ‘to be opened’ to his words, to be opened to ‘his needs’ expressed in the needs of all of humanity, and to open our doors for strangers. So let’s thank him for this and at the same time let’s make the word of God that we hear from the prophet Isaiah in our First Reading today our support as we go on with our Christian journey: ‘Courage! Do not be afraid.’

 

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The Heart of the matter is what matters

Posted by junix28 on September 1, 2012 in Homilies, Homilies and Reflections

Homily for 22nd Sunday in Ordinary time year B  2012

Father’s day (Australia)

As I reflect on the gospel today, a memory came to mind about a certain seminarian who was put in charge of the chapel and sacristy in a certain seminary. This seminarian (an ex-seminarian now, for he left the seminary later), was really meticulous in doing things. He wanted things to be done according to his certain standard of perfection, precision and accuracy. It really annoyed me to be honest, because it seemed like for him, there would be no room for error or imperfection. One particular situation that  really got me was when he told me to put the candle stands at a certain and exact distance away from the foot of the altar, even describing to me the exact distance in centimetres or inches. I was really fed up with him, to be honest, so I told him right then: ‘You know what, God doesn’t really care how far away should this candle stand be from the altar. All he cares for is what is in our hearts every time we come to this chapel.’ The seminarian fell silent. He couldn’t believe that I would stand up against him. And I added: ‘If you really want to have it done that way, you’d better do it yourself.’ And I left the chapel. From then on he became so careful in asking a favour from me, until he left the seminary.

Friends I’m telling you this because sometimes in our lives we really behave as a follower-of-the-law-to- the- letter people. And it is not uncommon that we also behave this way in our dealings with our personal God, in our act of worship, and in our expressions of the faith. Certainly, following the law is important, but this is only half of the task. We are also called to understand the deeper meaning of it to finish the  whole task.

God gave us the ten commandments as written in the Book of Exodus and Deuteronomy. And because they are made and given by God himself they are good. Hence, Moses was really keen and firm in following it and to encourage his listeners to do the same. There is however a deeper meaning of the law given to Moses and that is: it serves as evidence of the closeness of God in the lives of the people. They are witnesses to the reality of the presence of a personal God working and walking with them. Because of this realization, the author of the Book of Deuteronomy would exclaim: ‘What great nation is there that has its gods so near as the Lord our God that has laws and customs to match this whole that I put before you today?’, as we have heard in our first Reading today.

But then again, sometimes we are caught up with a belief that God would be more pleased and would reward us with great things if we do things perfectly, precisely and accurately as it is written in the instruction manual. Sometimes we tend to project God in our own image of human perfection that would  look at the externals of things first before  going deeper into what really is the essence or the real meaning of things. Sometimes we can forget that God sees what’s in our hearts already even before us expressing it out in our behaviours, in our actions and in our dealings with others.  More interestingly, we also sometimes express  this follow-to-the-letter- attitude in our worship, as we come to Mass.

This is the kind of attitude that made Jesus stood up against the Pharisees and the scribes  as we have heard in our gospel today. Mark is telling us that this group of people in the Jewish circle are so particular in the external ritual of cleansing before eating. So when they saw the disciples of Jesus not doing the right thing that is written in the law, they criticized them. They told him that his disciples are not respecting the tradition. So Jesus had to tell them right on their face: ‘It was of you hypocrites that Isaiah prophesied. This people honours me only with lip-service…while their hearts are far from me.

Jesus doesn’t like hypocrites. So he  is calling us now to get to the heart of things as God designed them to be otherwise we would just play hypocrites before him if we wouldn’t know who we really are and what God plans for us. He is inviting us to check if what we are showing in our actions are really motivated and empowered by our love of God and our neighbour. He is telling us to examine ourselves if what we are doing, may it be an  act of charity or of service to one another, is really done free from selfish motives. He is reminding us to have a reality check if our coming to Church to give praise and thanks to God for is really done in love and freewill rather than just fulfilling a religious obligation.

God needs our hearts, a heart that beats for him and for others. If we don’t have this kind of heart yet, it is never too late. If we are this loving person already let’s continue to be loving and generous because  this is the reason why we are created. We are created by the God of love, in and through love in order for us to love in return. And we can become who we really are as God calls us to be if we live in love. St James would urge us to express and live out this love in our Second Reading today. He tells us: ‘You must do what the word tells you and not just listen to it and deceive yourselves. Pure unspoilt religion, in the eyes of God our Father is this: coming to the help of orphans and widows when they need it, and keeping oneself uncontaminated  by the world.’

Fathers,  father figures, and fathers-to –be who are here today, thank you for your love of your wife, sons, and daughters. And thank you not only for doing what is expected of you but also for going out of your comfort zones  by living in love with the people close to you. Thank you dads, for your love, care, sacrifices and continuing support for us your sons and daughters. Thank you to be a concrete witness of God the Father’s love for all of us.

So as we continue our celebration today, let’s pray for help from the Holy Spirit for three things: to help us see beyond the letter of the law by understanding that it is for the betterment of personal relationship between people, and between us and God; to make us more loving, more generous and more understanding toward one another; and for all fathers whose day we observe today, that they may continue to  be a reflection of God’s love for us. Amen.

 

 

 

 

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