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Prepare the Way of the Lord: 2nd Sunday of Advent

Posted by junix28 on December 3, 2011 in Homilies

Homily on the Second Sunday of Advent  2011

I have always been nicknamed as ‘Junior’, ‘Junjun’, ‘Jun’ by many people who know me. However when I came to Australia in 2007, the then Bishop of Sandhurst, the late Bishop Joseph ‘Joe’ Grech asked me what name should I prefer to be called.  I said, ‘Junjun’ of course. But then the Bishop said, ‘It (junjun) sounds like a toy to me, and it doesn’t mean anything. Can I call you John instead?’ Reluctantly I said, ‘Well, you can my Lord.’ I remember quite well the date  when Bishop Joe unofficially ‘baptised’ me as ‘John’. That was June 24, 2007, the  birth of John the Baptist. From then on he called me ‘John’. Out of obedience, I also began to introduce myself as ‘John’ to people I met.

But something happened. I don’t know if it is providence or what. On my 30th birthday, 28th of December  2010, Bishop Joe died. And with that, I silently made a resolution that ‘John’ would now have to be buried with bishop Joe. And I did. I reverted back to my beloved nickname ‘Junjun’. I reintroduced myself again as ‘Junjun’. When people asked me ‘What happened to ‘John?’ I’d answer, ‘He’s dead and buried with Bishop Joe.

However, this Second Sunday of Advent as well as our gospel today requires that I would ‘dig John up again from the grave.’ Not that I would talk about MYSELF, but because today we hear the great figure of our Christian faith telling us to pave the way for the coming of the Lord- called John, the Baptist. He is such a great figure in our faith that this second candle we lit today, is called ‘John the Baptist candle,’ to remind us the significance of our personal and communal preparation and readiness for the arrival of our saviour Jesus Christ.

He is foretold by the prophet Isaiah in our first Reading today, as the voice who cries out in the wilderness to prepare a way for the Lord…to make his paths straight. St Mark in our gospel today tells us that John proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Yet, he did something more that’s worthy of our imitation…and in fact it is our basic Christian calling. Of course it is not living on ‘locusts’ and ‘ wild honey’ or wearing a ‘camel-skin’ and all that sort of thing.  We ought to imitate the way of John in the sense that he is aware of who he is and he is conscious of the mission that God has entrusted to him.

If we fully know who we are, we don’t have to pretend to be someone we are not. John the Baptist knew who he is. He is God’s herald, a pre-cursor, a messenger. He knew all that and he remained faithful to who he really is. Yes, he could easily pretend to be ‘the messiah’ whom the people are waiting for a long time. We heard in the gospel ‘All Judaea and all  the people of Jerusalem made their way to him…’He must have been very popular. If he were in our time, he must have won the ‘X-Factor. But no, he didn’t take advantage of his popularity, or of his instantaneous fame. Instead, with great humility he said, ‘Someone is following me, someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to kneel down and undo the strap of his sandals…’ It is important to understand that in those times of John the Baptist, it is the servant’s job to undo the strap of his master’s sandals. But here, John considers himself even lesser than a slave.

This is also our call today: that like John the Baptist, ONE: we would point to others the way to God. As Christians, we are all called to lead others to not leading others away from Jesus. And TWO: John is showing us that the way to Jesus or the way to God is humility. Humility means that we acknowledge who we are before God and present ourselves as to who we really are before others. This is quite a tricky call because there are times in our lives that we tend to believe we are the sole owner of our lives; that we can do anything with it. There are also times that when we achieve something better, greater or noble, we would take the credit to ourselves, but when  we met misfortunes, we put the  blame on God or on other people.

God forbid that we forget who we are and what we are sent here for. God gives each one of us a mission to do in life. And he wishes that we would all carry out our individual, unique and personal mission responsibly, with humility,  and love.  St Peter in our Second Reading today would add that we can do this by living a saintly and a holy life…that is by putting God always before us, in whatever we do, and wherever we are.

So as we go on with the season of Advent, let’s examine ourselves:

Who are we before God and before others?

Like John the Baptist, are we paving the way for others to find God through humility or

Are we hindrances for others to see God instead through pride? 

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‘Stay Awake’- the message of hope

Posted by junix28 on November 26, 2011 in Homilies

Homily for 1st Sunday of Advent  2011

A few months ago, I watched a reality show program in a Philippine television which aims to grant people’s wishes. This particular episode was about a high school student who is left alone in this world. Her mother, the last of her relations died and she was left literally on her own. She was left to no one and with nothing. Later on, she had to move house because she couldn’t pay the rent anymore. In the process she had to sleep in the garage of her ‘friend’s house. Her friend offered a room for her in their  house but she doesn’t want to be a burden in the family. She doesn’t want them to worry about her. She continued with her studies though. And she did everything to live on. She sold snacks to her classmates in school to earn money for food and for her allowance. Out of her own effort and determination, she finished her high school. Her friend wrote a letter to this specific TV program, asking if they can help this determined poor lady to live in a decent house and to continue her studies in  the Uni, which they did. They gave her a scholarship grant for any four year course she likes, a small house to live in and a small  business to live on.

Friends the story moved me so much because I saw in this lady that HOPE is indeed a very real thing. Because she hopes that something better and greater is reserved for her,  she worked on it and she worked for it. She was determined to achieve it despite all odds and unlikely circumstances where she was in. And because, her hope is so real, people can see it as well. Thus, people are trying their best to help her realize her dreams.

Friends, today is the first Sunday of Advent. Jesus in our Gospel today urges us to ‘stay awake’ for his second coming. In other words let’s keep up, renew and make our hope real, our hope that Jesus is coming again. This is the message of advent. Yes, this season is also a celebration for the birth of Christ our Saviour, which is indeed worth rejoicing. But there is more. This season of advent also calls us to celebrate the hope that we have, to continue waiting in hope and to prepare ourselves for the day of our Lord Jesus Christ as St Paul tells us in our Second Reading.

How to celebrate the hope that we have? St Paul would remind us: To thank God for all the graces we have received through Jesus Christ. This is very important because there is always great temptation to forget who we are and to whom we are sent for as we live our lives now. It is not an uncommon attitude that when we achieve something greater, better or noble we take the credit to ourselves. But when we suffer misfortunes and  the like, we blame it to others or to God. Celebrating in hope is to thank God for everything and for who we are.

How to continue waiting in hope? It means an active waiting. It means we have to do something.  We can’t just sit down and look on the NEWS about the chaos happening in the different parts of the world today. If we are people of hope, we must have realized that this is not what the world is supposed to be. But what we can do here and now? We can think of many. Because we can really do many things. But we should not underestimate the power of our prayers. “Prayer”, as Bishop Joe Grech would say, “is not everything, but it is the first thing.” Have we prayed for this people and situations? If we did, are we praying seriously enough?

How to prepare ourselves for the coming of our saviour? It means establishing or renewing our friendship with God and friendship with people  around us. What does it mean? Two things: First, Love. Love is the only thing that cements  our relationships with God and with others. Love is what prophet Isaiah tells us of God in our First Reading today. Isaiah tells us that despite all our weakness, our sinfulness, even we complain against God, he remains to be our ‘Father’. Such is his unconditional love.

Second, Faith. Faith is the assurance of the things we hope for, according to the epistles. In a more simplistic way, faith is like an umbrella. An umbrella cannot stop the rain, but it helps us to stand in the rain. So also with faith, it cannot stop the events happening in Syria and Libya, as we want it to be, but it enables us to stand firm even if our shivering in the cold or even if our knees are trembling in fear or insecurity.

So as we start the season of advent and as we continue to wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, let’s pray and ask God that He’ll make our hope more real in us and that we will grow more in faith and in love. Amen.

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Is Christ really the King of my Life?

Posted by junix28 on November 19, 2011 in Homilies

Homily for the solemnity of Christ the King 

November 20, 2011

Last week I went to garage sales around Bendigo area in Australia. I was struck by the many things people can acquire only to realize later on that they don’t actually need them. So they would want to get rid of them. It is good though because there are people  also out there who need those things. In fact I got a couple of things which I really need to have…one is my golden watch I am wearing now for the price  of $3, would you believe it.

Why am I telling you all this? What does it have to do with our solemnity of Christ the King?

The feast of Christ the King is established in 1925 to counteract the growing trend of atheism and secularism at the time. Yet these trends are still here in our day and age. Together with these trends is the rise of materialism. It is true that not a few people think that material things can satisfy all our longings. It is sad that for many, Christ is no longer the KING in their lives. It is an unfortunate fact that even for us, we tend to show more allegiance on something else but CHRIST himself. We have this other ‘king’ or ‘kings’ in our lives, whom we devoted more time, more energy, or more money than we do to our REAL king in Heaven.

Our Gospel today, tells us of Christ, our real KING who would come in the clouds and judge us according to how we serve him as our REAL KING, and on how we serve God in our fellow human beings around us. Jesus would recount for us how we fed the hungry, how we quenched the thirsty, how we clothe the naked, how we welcomed the stranger and on how we visit the sick and imprisoned.

But there is an interesting point in our gospel that makes me reflect how must I strive to be worthy of heaven when Jesus comes again. Both sides, i.e. the sheep and the goats, asked Jesus same question: ‘Lord when? When did we see you hungry, thirsty, naked, etc?’ It seems like they didn’t know at all. It appears that they were not aware what they have done or what they have not done.

It is because their attitude towards the needy is already part of their nature. If things are already natural for us, most of the times if not always, we take things for granted. We don’t pay much attention on what we are doing. We don’t make such a big deal for it. This is indeed a call for us now: if we have not developed it yet, to create an attitude of caring, loving, serving and giving towards our brothers and sisters in need, and make it a part of our nature. I  have met some people whose heart is naturally inclined to help people that they don’t care how much would it cost them as long as they can help the needy. Of course, we have to do this in freedom. So we can also do the opposite, but in  the end of our lives we just can’t help but face the bad consequences of our neglect and omission.

Our celebration of Christ the King therefore calls us to make Christ the center of our life again. We can do this by letting go of  those other ‘king’ or ‘kings’ in our lives whom we swore allegiance to. If we put Christ as the driving force of our lives, we find out that all those things we think we need are not they lose their value but rather they just fade into the background.

Today we pray with humility that God would make it part of our human nature the values of the kingdom of God: the value of loving and caring service to our needy brothers and sisters and to live out these values by using the means and the resources that we are lucky to have and possess.

All for the greater glory of God. Amen. 

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Homily on the Parable of the Talents

Posted by junix28 on November 12, 2011 in Homilies

Homily for 33rd Sunday in Ordinary time 2011 (Year A)

There was a young Filipino guy who was born from a very poor family. At a young age, he was forced to work to support his mother and all his 5 siblings after his father left the family for another woman. He worked in the dangerous streets of General Santos City in the Philippines selling breads and other bakery goods. But he realized that he had something more to offer to the world than just being a street vendor. He discovered he had a passion for boxing. He worked for it, nurtured it with his incredible speed and the amazing power of his left hand. To cut the long story short, through boxing he earned the name not only for himself or for his family but also to all Filipinos everywhere in the world. Because of his firm determination to develop what he’s got, Emmanuel or Manny Pacquiao as he is popularly known, is now one of the inspiring figures in the Philippines. Because of his absolute determination, he becomes the only boxer  in the world to earn world titles in eight weight divisions. Aside from that he is now one of the billionaires in the Philippines. In fact tomorrow he is playing again in Las Vegas against a Mexican boxer. But one thing that struck me of him, is that despite his overwhelming wealth, he  doesn’t forget who puts him to where is now…Just before every match he had, he would stay on one corner of the ring, makes the sign of the cross. And every after match, he would have a holy mass said in the hotel  where he stays, to thank God for  what he had done.

Why am I telling you all these?

Because our gospel today invites us to make use of our talents and abilities according to what God has given us. Like Manny Pacquiao, we all have something more to offer to the world. Each one of us has something not to be kept for ourselves but to share it and invest it. As in our gospel today, the master entrusts his servant a certain capital to develop. Isn’t it an amazing thing, that God entrusts us of certain skills, talents, abilities to develop? And if we examine carefully our gospel, the master punished the third servant NOT because he misused his talents, but because he didn’t do anything about it. He didn’t invest it. Yes, God wants us to make use of what we have and on what we are here for. In the end he doesn’t expect us to be PERFECT in using it. He just wants us to make GOOD use of it, whatever it might be. This is  therefore a point for our self-examination.

How to make use of our TALENT?

I would suggest the word TALENT as an acronym.

First T- TRY. There is no harm in trying they say. Sometimes we are afraid to try because we think we might fail. We just have to take time for it. Jesus would tell us the same thing today in the person of the Master, ‘INVEST it while ‘I’m gone.’

Second A- Accept. Whatever talent we have, God gives us that because he knows that we are capable of developing it. We just have to accept this. The opposite attitude to this is envy. We envy  other people’s success because they have something which we don’t have. God want us to be who we are, not to be who we are not.

Third L- Love it. It is very important to love our skills. The athletes, the successful people did not just become successful overnight. Because they love what they have, they developed it, by making sacrifices, discipline, and self-control. They are willing to sacrifice for love of who they are and for who they can become.

Fourth E- Engage. Engage with people. We must share our talents. Not one person here or in the whole world can  honestly claim, that he or she has got all the talents God can give. This is so  because we need each other. We need to engage with each other and grow together.

Fifth N- Nurture it. We need to train ourselves, to practice, to do every possible way we can to make the best of our talents. We can nurture it through our relationships with others…not to become the JACK of all trades but a Master of None.

Sixth letter is  T- the most important one, THANK GOD for his gifts to us, for entrusting us his riches.  Yesterday, I watched the News of Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas as he prepared for his fight tomorrow, he had a bible study with his whole entourage and he said words to this effect: “Sometimes if we are very successful in life, we tend to forget God, we tend not to thank him for his help. But in all our successes and even failures in life, He is always there, with us.”

So, as we continue the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, let’s pray that God moves us to discover our unique, individual and personal talents. Let’s us also pray that he would help us to TRY, ACCEPT, LOVE, ENGAGE NURTURE, and TRUST Him by THANKING HIM for his trust on us. Amen.

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