12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

June 25, 2017

Dear brothers and sisters,

Peace and all good!

Here is my Homily for this Sunday, 12^th Sunday in Ordinary Time.  May it help you in increasing your faith and love in the Holy Eucharist and the Word of God!

Fr. Yosi, OFM

Readings:

First Reading – Jeremiah 20:10-13

Psalm 69

Second Reading – Romans 5:12-15

Gospel reading according to Matthew (10:26-33)

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Homily

Jesus, before sending his twelve apostles (in the gospel), and we today as we listened and heard his command from the gospel, he gave instructions to them and to us, on how to become messengers of God’s Word to all people they and we meet.  On how they/we behave and in what attitude they/we have shown in meeting people in all walks of life, even our own family members, friends and neighbors.  In teaching, in preaching and in sharing, they/we must show courage to bring the message to the people’s ears, hearts, soul and body; the totality of their whole being. 

Jesus said to the twelve: “Fear no one” (Mt. 10:26).  Due to fear, we sometimes are paralyzed; fear makes us not to move or think properly and easily. In fear, we cannot proclaim the good news to everyone, because there is something that hinders or blocks in our hearts and throats, as if we cannot talk and we stammer, hesitant to speak out despite we know what we are going to say or proclaim. Fear also is the product of the devil.  There is fear that obstructs us to speak due to unknown or known reasons, especially when we are not used to speak in public or to the strangers.  To bring the message of God’s good news to others there is a need of trust to the one who is sending us – Jesus Christ and to have self-confidence that we can carry out our tasks.  Also, there is an appropriate and opportune time to speak out.  When the right time comes, and when we are inspired by the Holy Spirit, we can say to anyone, “Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known” (Mt. 10:26).  All that were thought, all the actions that were planned either hidden or open, all of this will be pronounced to amend the thoughts and actions of many, and to help them changed their lives for the better and lead them back to God. 

Jesus said, “What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim in the housetops” (Mt. 10:27).  All that Jesus taught and said, for the good of others, either in secret of the night or that he whispered to our ears, must be exposed and made known to others by bringing out what was concealing and proclaiming them in public and in the open spaces where everybody can hear, not to put to shame anyone but to teach a lesson and to stop whatever plan they have scheming to do.  Naturally, people who have different motives and intentions when they hear this good news will have negative feelings and might retaliate to get even.  Jesus has already known these attitudes of men and women, so he told his apostles: “And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both the soul and body in Gehenna” (Mt. 10:28) who is none other than our God Himself.  Some men and women may become mad at us when we corrected and bringing in to light what they are concealing against God to harm their brothers and sisters/their neighbors.  They will become angry at us when we tell them that what their evil plans will destroy good and harmonious relationship with God and to one another, and even kill us to silence us so that their evil plans might not be discovered and to make them known.  But Jesus told us not to be afraid in revealing what is right and true of those who kill body but cannot kill the soul.  To whom shall we be afraid of is to the one who can destroy both our soul and body into the everlasting Hell (Gehenna). 

Jesus also giving us guarantee of our safety, if we do what he has commanded us to do, for he said, “Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin?  Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge.  Even all the hairs of your head are counted.  So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (Mt. 10:29-31).  Like the prophet Jeremiah (in the first reading), when he performed what was commanded him by God, people reacted and plotted to destroy him even his friends, “All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine. ‘Perhaps he can be tricked; then we will prevail; and talk our vengeance on him’.” (Jer. 20:10).  Everyone was watching him so that when he commits mistakes or say something that will not happen, they can accuse him of false prophecy.  But, what he prophesied was coming from the true and almighty Lord God, that’s why he cannot committed mistake and all he prophesied came true, for he confirmed, “But the Lord is with me, like a mighty champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.  In their failure they will but to utter shame, to lasting, unforgettable confusion” (Jer. 20:11).   All his trust and confidence were in the hands of the Lord God, that the Lord will always protect him from his accusers and enemies of the prophesy.  God the Father is the One who will take good care “ang bahala” of us who perform His commands.  He cannot let his followers abandoned and left behind unattended, for He watches us and sees all what we are doing in His name.  As we perform what Jesus told us to do as his disciples and followers and acknowledging him as our Master and Teacher, our Lord and Savior, he is always ready to support us and help us in times of need and of danger from evil, even in death.  As what he said when he sent his apostles, disciples and followers – we as well: “Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.  But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father” (Mt.10:32-33).    

We can also pray the prayer by Jeremiah the prophet, when we proclaim, announce and share what we have heard from the Lord: “O Lord of hosts, you who test the just, who probe mind and heart let me witness the vengeance you take on them for to you I have entrusted my cause.  Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, for he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked” (Jer. 20:12-13).   

We hide our guilt

Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (A)

Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (A)

(Corpus Christi)

June 18, 2017

Readings:

First Reading – Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16a

Psalm 147

Second Reading – 1 Corinthians 10:16-17

Gospel reading according to John (6:51-58)

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Homily

Jesus said to the Jewish crowds: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven” (Jn. 6:51). This is in reference to the first reading on Deuteronomy (8:3, 16a) when Moses reminded the people who has been directed by God in the desert for forty years, “He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers, in order to show you that not by bread alone does man live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord . . . Do not forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt . . . and fed you in the desert with manna, a food unknown to your fathers.”  Jesus was saying to the Jewish crowds that the “manna, unknown food to your fathers” is none other than he.  Jesus is the bread sent down by God from heaven, so that the Israelites of old and the Jewish people during his time, and we to this present age may also live forever.

“Whoever eats this bread will live forever” (Jn. 6:51), this is his revelation, unknown to humankind – the manna, the food given by God in our hunger and thirst, is his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to satisfy our hunger and thirst.  As what Jesus said, “. . . and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (Jn. 6:51).  What does Jesus mean when he said that, “I will give my flesh . . .?” Does he mean his real flesh we are going to eat?  He will be easily consumed by 5,000 men excluding women and children if they will eat Jesus Christ literally. And, this is cannibalism, which is abominable in the sight of God and monstrous in men.  Even the Jews quarreled among themselves saying, “How can this man give us his flesh?” (Jn. 6:52), as they understood it.  Or, does he mean another thing?  Maybe he is talking about spiritual food.  That is why Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you” (Jn. 6:53).  Jesus talked about “life within you,” which is spirit and life, coming from the Lord God.

Jesus is inviting us to eat his flesh and drink his blood so that we may have life in him.  He made acceptable his saying when during the Last Supper he took bread and said a blessing and transformed this bread into his own flesh and the same with the wine into his own blood.  So every time we eat this bread and drink this wine we remember his offering of his own body and blood in the altar of sacrifice on the cross.  Therefore, “. . . whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day” (Jn. 6:54), as Jesus our Lord said.  His flesh and his blood in the form of bread and wine give us life, hope and assurance that someday when the time comes, we will receive eternal life full of happiness and joy.  As he continued, “For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink” (Jn. 6:55), for he cannot deny himself.  All what he said is true – true food and true drink.  In the eyes of faith, it is no longer bread and wine we see in the Holy Eucharist, but the body and blood of him, who offered his life once and for all for the ransom of many, of us, who believed in him.

“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him” (Jn. 6:56).  If we eat his flesh and drink his blood we become like Him, being sent by God to others and to unite us in one body of Jesus Christ – though we are many but one in the One Body of Christ, like this community (his Church) in communion with Jesus Christ.  St. Paul clarifies more in the second reading, he said: “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?  The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?  Because the loaf of bread [and the cup of wine] is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf” (1 Cor. 10:16-17).  Though we are many, there is always bread and wine for us all to celebrate the giving of body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We cannot consume him forever until the end of time.  We participate actively in his life through the breaking of the bread in the hands of the priests throughout the whole world, distribute and receive by all those who believe in him.  This is what Jesus our Lord promised to us who eat his body (flesh) and drink his blood though in the form of bread and wine, acceptable to all, “Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me” (Jn. 6:57).  The Father who brought down manna, unknown food (bread) to the Jewish people before, which is now known to us that it was Jesus, the living bread sent by God to us and encourage us to eat the living and true flesh of Him so that we may have life and live with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  “This is the bread that came down from heaven” (Jn. 6:58) Jesus the Son of God, the manna, unknown bread becomes known to us as he humbles himself in the form of loaf of bread and cup of wine we receive in the Holy Eucharist.  “Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died” (Jn. 6:58).  Every time we eat this bread and drink this wine, we proclaim the death of our Lord Jesus Christ and rejoice in his resurrection until he comes for “whoever eats this bread will live forever” (Jn. 6:58).  Amen.     

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity (A)

Dear brothers and sisters,

May God give you peace!

Happy Feast Day of Holy Trinity!

Yosi, OFM

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity (A)

June 11, 2017

Readings:

First Reading – Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9

Daniel 3

Second Reading – 2 Corinthians 13:11-13

Gospel reading according to John 3:16-18

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In the very beginning, before the world was created and everything in it, God who is full of love for He is love and His love is overflowing; and because of this love He wanted to share this overflowing love; that is why He created all so that all these creatures may experience the love of God.

Firstly, as in the first reading, God showed himself to Moses “having come down in a cloud . . . and proclaimed his name, ‘Lord’.”(Ex 34:5).  God is Lord of all, that’s why everybody must cry out as Moses led, “The Lord, the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity”(Ex 34:6). 

Secondly, in the Gospel of John, the Lord God to show how much He loves us, his creatures, instead of revealing Himself like He did to Moses in the past to us,  when the fullness of time came to reveal his only begotten Son “. . . he gave his only Son,” (John 3:16) to us, despite of our sinfulness and wickedness.  As what Moses described his people before, “This is indeed a stiff-necked people” (Ex. 34:9).  The Son of God, Jesus Christ, became like us except sin and lived among us.  He taught and preached us very clearly about God’s commandments in all its truth, without blemish and self-interest, and about heaven and earth, about life and death, and resurrection, but above all he taught and preached that we must love God, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.  The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself . . .”(Mk 12:29-30, June 8, 2017 Gospel reading), as what he said to the scribe who asked him which is the first of all the commandments and that we must believe in him, “. . . so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but may have eternal life”(John 3:16).  This is another reason why God, our loving Father, sent his Son to this world; he wanted to save us from worldly allurements, temptations, and sins.  Through Jesus Christ, God our loving Father has forgiven all our offences.  He wanted to show to us the right path of life. And he wanted to lead us back to God the Father almighty, so that like him, we become truly the image and likeness of him – the perfect love of God.   

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him”(John 3:17).  There is no other savior like our Lord Jesus Christ who laid down his life for us.  Those kings and emperors, princes and other worldly leaders who came before Jesus and after him have had conquered the world to dominate it and made subordinates all the peoples of the world to themselves.  They made people under their authorities and powers as their slaves to obey every command they gave.  But our Lord Jesus Christ, who is Lord of lords and King of kings did not come to be served but to serve, he offered his self as living sacrifice to those whose authority they claimed came from Moses and not from God the almighty.  Jesus did not condemn the world but instead the world condemned and killed him.  Jesus did not condemn us because like his Father he loved us as well.  The only thing we need to do, therefore, is to believe in his holy name with the help of the Holy Spirit.  “Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:18).  This is the condition of those who believed in the name of Jesus who are saved, but for those who did not believe in him are condemned.  “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you”(2 Cor. 13:13).

Solemnity of Pentecost (A)

Dear brothers and sisters,

Happy Pentecost!

For almost a year now, I was not posting any thoughts, reflections

and other means of communications to you, since my hospitalization last year, 2016.  Now, I'm back to share with you some inspiring words that may uplift your faith as you listen to the silent blow of the wind in the wilderness!

Solemnity of Pentecost (A)

June 4, 2017

Readings:

First Reading – Acts of the Apostles 2:1-11

Ps. 104

Second Reading – 1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13

Gospel reading according to John 20:19-23

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Three days after, when Jesus resurrected from the dead, that “on the evening of that first day of the week,” this solemn yet mysterious night, “when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews,” because of what had happened to their Teacher and Master whom the Jews crucified and put to death, and that they were thinking they were also wanted and that they might be killed also by the Jews, that’s why they were hiding in that house, “Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace be with you’.” (Jn. 20:19).  What they can do if their Teacher and Master was killed than to hide because they are afraid that they might follow the same fate that Jesus went through.  But Jesus appeared to them and gave them an assurance, of peace.  “Peace be with you.”  What does this “peace” mean by Jesus to his disciples?  This means, as if he is saying to them, that do not worry, do not be afraid, have courage for I have conquered the enemy.  And also as if he is saying to his disciples, I have forgiven you for what you have done, when you escaped and saved your lives and abandoned me on that Holy Thursday night, alone in that Mountain of Calvary.  There is no need to hide from the Jews.  “When he had said this, he showed them his hands, [his feet] and his side” (Jn. 20:20).

Sometimes, when our lives are in danger by either seen or unseen events due to sickness, many problems, or because of our neighbors, friends or enemies, and even our own family members, fears, suspicions and doubts come in.  It is normal to defend ourselves when our lives are encountering threats inside and out.  The tendency to hide from intimidations, pressures, terrorisms, coercions and extortions is our means to protect and preserve ourselves. There is no wrong with that hiding, but let us always remember that we do not need to stay longer in hiding, that we do not live in fear, that we have to face our fears and even fight them to resolve and find solution to our suspicions.  By facing our doubts we become free from fears and live life to the fullest.  “Let go and let live,” as saying goes.  Let go your fears and live in peace.

Those who were hiding in that house, in the cenacle (or upper room), and locked in, for fear of the Jews, when the resurrected Jesus appeared to them alive, they “…rejoiced when they saw the Lord” (Jn. 20:20).  The indescribable feelings, of regain hope and assurance brought back to them.  Liveliness, energy and vigor came in to each one of the disciple when they saw the risen Lord.  For the second time, “Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, so I send you’.” (Jn. 20:21).  This time, Jesus is commissioning his disciples to go out from their hiding place and go to proclaim the good news they received from him as his witnesses, especially of his resurrection from the dead, that in the midst of many fears there is hope, and there is life to as many peoples in the whole world.

The same with us, after we are released and untied from our fears, and new hopes and freedom come in, we have to proclaim also what the Lord has done to us.  We have to share the goodness of the Lord in our lives, that we are loosen in the knots that bounded us from fear, anxiety, problems and trouble that we went through so that others may also experience the love of God and the peace that comes from the Lord.  The guarantee that we can do this is when the Holy Spirit given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father comes.  Jesus “. . . breathed on them [and to us] and said to them [and to us], ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.  Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained’.” (Jn.20:22-23).    

Jesus was true to his promised.  He and the Father sent the Holy Spirit, after Jesus ascended to heaven, to the disciples who were staying in the upper room in Jerusalem for forty days. “When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, Christ’s disciples were all in one place together: And 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 . . .” (Acts 2:1-4).  The Holy Spirit will guide us and teach us what to say and do to others, especially to our loved ones when we proclaim to them the good news about our Lord Jesus Christ and his commands.  We will also receive other spiritual gifts and different forms of service and workings from the same Holy Spirit for some benefits.  As St. Paul said to the Corinthians, “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone.  To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefits” (1 Cor. 4-7).

Therefore, let us continue asking for the same Spirit of the Lord so that we may say continuously: “Lord, send out your Spirit and renew the face of the earth” (Ps. 104).  Amen.

HAPPY PENTECOST SUNDAY!!!