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SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER 

4/30/2016

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PictureHermanoleon Clipart
Love as Jesus' Self-Manifestation
By: Br. Martin Nguyen [cjm]

Today’s Gospel continues the discussion of love from last Sunday but gets a sense of larger context. In response to the question concerning Christ’s revealing himself to His disciples in the verse 22, Jesus uses love as the ultimate criterion of His “self-manifestation” to the disciples. Then that His loving relationship with God the Father, with His disciples invites them to keep His word and live it out.

As we love somebody, we try our best to know what our lover likes or loves to do. We even remember as much as possible what our beloved tell us about themselves, their family, friends, etc. Jesus is asking us to go beyond that common behavior. Keeping His word by practicing it will make Him presence through our Tradition of living faith. And the Holy Spirit will make explicit what is implicit in Jesus’ Word for us to obtain a stronger faith in Him.      

God is love as John defines in his letter and all relationships derived from that understanding of love. Jesus teaches his disciples that love is formed by the word He has spoken to them. If they keep His word, that will be the evidence of their love for Him and for one another. By that, Jesus and His Father will come and make their dwelling with the disciples. In God’s house, there are many “dwelling places” for each and everyone who practice Jesus’ commandment of love. Moreover, that promise for the future guaranteed by Jesus becomes real here and now when the disciples keep the word of Jesus because that Word comes from God the Father. The eschatology of Jon is both future and present, both promise and presence.

Our immanent capacity may restraint us from understanding thoroughly the teaching of Jesus, therefore the Holy Spirit is promised to guide us to attain greater comprehension and integration. According to Yves Congar,  the subject of our Church is the Holy Spirit who guides and helps us as our comforter, counselor, advocate, etc. The Holy Spirit continues the presence of Jesus on earth and testifies His Word. The Advocate also reminds us all that Jesus told the disciples.

Keeping Jesus’ word and acting upon it require us not only having a deeper understanding but also a strong commitment by faith in Him. So many disciples had left after hearing the demand of Good News. If we solely rely on our capacity, we will run short of patience, endurance and even hope that we can overcome the temptation of this world. That is the reason Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to “stands by the side of a defendant” – His follower. By that, we are guaranteed by Jesus’ peace amidst the world full of injustice, violence, hardship, etc. Our faith, hope and love will be the most efficient weapons for us to conquer our fear and anxiety. Jesus knows how “strong” our faith is so He has told us “this before it happens, so that when it happens” we “may believe”. There is no better teacher or Master than Jesus. His last words to His disciples are full of consolation, guarantee, promise, etc. We have been experiencing the genuine peace by doing God’s will but our human nature of inclining towards what we like as comfort zone, enjoyable pleasure brings us away from that peace. Jesus is inviting us to go beyond what we think impossible because of our weakness in order to achieve the immense peace given by our Transcendent God who also bestows on us that capacity of being “transcendent” like Him.

​As we love Jesus and want to be His follower, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to teach us what Jesus wants us to do. Discerning the voice of the Holy Spirit among other voices of our “self” or of “the world” requires us to obtain the close intimacy with God through daily prayer, exam of conscience, etc. Praying in every circumstance of our lives will make us be more familiar with the action of the Holy Spirit. Then we will be full of joy and peace to share with our brothers and sisters.  

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Fifth Sunday of Easter 

4/23/2016

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by: Br. DJ Garcia [cjm]

​Love one another as I have loved you.

Today’s gospel poses the central challenge of the Christian life: loving one another as Christ has loved us.  Given in the context of the Last Supper discourse, Jesus’ commandment of love is what he bequeaths his disciples knowing that he is about to suffer and die.

Obviously, the love that Jesus refers here is not the love found in soap operas--- the romantic and fleeting one.

We are all too familiar with the injunction to love one another---simple to understand yet difficult to do. Yet what makes it more difficult is what qualifies that love, i.e., as Jesus has loved us. It is natural and easy to love those who are lovable or to those we are partial to. It is easy to love when it is characterized by “quid pro quo”. It is easy to love when we are guaranteed to be loved back in return. It is easy to love in the face of goodness.  But what if we are faced with evil, with injustice, with betrayal, with uncertainties, with non-reciprocity, can we still choose to love?

This love that Jesus challenges us into is modeled by Jesus himself. If we look into the literary context of our gospel, it is placed after Jesus washed the foot of his apostles and Judas’ impending betrayal of Jesus. We can infer then that this love is characterized by acts of humble service. Such love calls us to serve one another even in the mundane and most menial tasks. This love then is always concrete and expressed in deeds rather than simply words. Just as Jesus loved his apostles, yes, even Judas, who was about to betray him, points to the truth that this love is never dependent on the worthiness of the recipient. Thus, this love needs to be inclusive, crossing boundaries which we, and even society, place on people. I believe, this is where we most fail in loving, by putting limitations on who we love by equating it to who deserves and is worthy of our love. A further look on Jesus’ love is that it involves sacrifice. Jesus’ love for us entailed giving his life so that we may be redeemed and have eternal life. This love then challenges us to go beyond our comfort zones, to travel the extra mile, and perhaps not to count what it would cost us (not necessarily financial).

Choosing to love at all times enables us to see the world in a different lens--- the lens of love. The more we love, the more we become sensitive to acts of love and recognize it around us. The Christian life is a life of love, nothing less. If we honestly look at ourselves, we may be daunted by our inadequacies and imperfections. The love of Jesus would always remain the ideal, and surely, a lot of times we will fail in loving as Jesus loved, but this should not stop us from living the way of love.  As God is love, we are created in love and are deeply loved by God, we are to live in love and die in love. Choose love. Let God’s love empower us to love as he has loved.

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GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY (4th Sunday of Easter) 

4/14/2016

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Fr. Ron Bagley, CJM 

In recent years, the Fourth Sunday of Easter is known as Good Shepherd Sunday. That is because in all three years of the Sunday lectionary (A, B and C) we hear a portion of tenth chapter of the Fourth Gospel which contains pastoral images of Jesus as shepherd and sheep gate. Today’s second reading from the book of Revelation also references Jesus as “the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

The use of Psalm 23 as the response to the first reading reinforces the image of the Good Shepherd. “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.” The shepherd is so faithful in caring for the flock. He seeks out green pastures. He guards against predators. A good shepherd is vigilant and close to his sheep.

Jesus takes on the role of the Good Shepherd. In the Fourth Gospel this image is used as a metaphor that illustrates the closeness of Jesus to his disciples. In the ancient Middle East, being a shepherd was a full time task. The shepherd spent all his time with his sheep. He never left them. There was an intimacy between sheep and shepherd. So Jesus says: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”

In the same chapter Jesus says that he “knows each one by name.” They recognize his voice as he calls them. He is the kind of shepherd who seeks out the lost sheep. He will leave the 99 who are doing fine in order to find the one who is lost.

Jesus as the Good Shepherd offers much more than an ordinary human shepherd can. He makes another promise: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.” In other words, Jesus invites us into the same intimate relationship that he has with the Father. Being close to Jesus in this life, brings us to an intimacy that is eternal.

This is all quite consoling. It is so beautiful to ponder this intimate relationship that Jesus wants to have with us. Reflecting on this image of the Good Shepherd can comfort us when we are lonely, strengthen us when we feel down, and sustain us when we do not have the strength to go on. It is no wonder that this image has such a prominent place in Christian art, literature and music. Pope Francis wears this image as the pectoral cross around his neck.

But there is a challenge also implied in the image of the Good Shepherd. Those who are called to any type of leadership in the Christian community are also to imitate the ways of Jesus, the Good Shepherd. For us who are priests, seminarians, religious and lay leaders in the Church, we need to be as close to the people we serve as Jesus was. In the words of Pope Francis, we must “have the smell of the sheep.” Because of our intimate relationship with Jesus, the Good Shepherd, we can in turn lead God’ flock with a shepherd’s care. Being close to Jesus and close to God’s people, we are able to lead them to green pastures and eventually eternal life.

The image of the Good Shepherd can also inspire those who are servant leaders in any walk of life. What would it mean for parents to see themselves as good shepherds of their children? How would shepherding rightly apply to those who supervise or manage others in the workplace? What would change in the lives of civic and government leaders if they took the Good Shepherd as a model for their public service? How can teachers, nurses, doctors, lawyers and social workers be inspired by Jesus the Good Shepherd? Any one of us can ask ourselves in what ways are we called to shepherd others?

As we hear the Good Shepherd calling our names, let us draw closer to him and find in Jesus the intimacy we long for. But let us also hear him challenging us to go to the peripheries to seek out the lost and neglected. May we be good shepherds and shepherdesses to whomever the Good Shepherd sends us. 


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    The following reflections are courtesy of Eudist Fathers in the Philippines with some Eudist seminarians assigned to give their sharing and reflections on Sunday readings.

    For feedback and comments, please email us, cjm.vocph@gmail.com

    Thanks and God bless you!

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