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THIRTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 

6/27/2016

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What Works for Jesus
By: Br. Jose Eric M. Lacsa 

Marriage that lasted in just 90 minutes!  I was tempted to think that it’s a joke, but it happened in real life.  How long does commitment last nowadays?  A week? Two months? A year? Does marriage become a haven for what works? For comfort?

  A month ago, I’ve read a very interesting column in the newspaper by Franz Giuseppe F. Cortez entitled “Whatever Works.”  He was mentioning on how pragmatic politics as one of the explanations for Duterte-Robredo phenomenon.  One of the best descriptions that he gave about Pragmatic thinking was on Deng Xiaoping aphorism which says: “It doesn’t matter whether a cat is black or white as long as it catches mice.” 

 In three of my classes, I had tried to ask the view of my students about this thought, and I found out, that indeed, most of my students agreed with what Deng Xiaoping said.  I might be wrong to assume that pragmatic thinking seems to be widespread nowadays? Are we become practical, or realistic by going for “it works-anyway, so let’s adopt it” mentality?
In our gospel for today, Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem and the shortest route that he could take was to pass by Samaria. 

 It was a common knowledge that Samaritans and the Jews have a long history of strained relationship and do not mix like water and oil.  The Jews look down on the Samritans because they are considered impure.  Impure in the sense that they intermarried with foreigners.  It was for this reason that Jesus and his disciples were refused access to pass by the Samaritan village. 

 From pragmatic viewpoint, James and John violent stance against the Samaritan village could be taken as normal and logical.  Was it just and right to howl for revenge and resort to calling down fire on the entire village?  Well, it’s the easiest thing to do, isn’t it?  It’s the way things works for the purist Jews and, therefore, it’s sensible and called for.

 Does this sound familiar with what is being espoused nowadays?  Criminals and drug and drug addicts are plaques to our society, so let’s eradicate them.  It’s the easiest thing to do and it could work effectively.  Let’s bring back death penalty, preferably by hanging, so we can deter criminality.  

​ Would-be criminals would be scare to death.  It is what works!  Let journalists be assassinated.  They are all in the pay of vested interests.  Never mind their human rights.  They are corrupt!  They deserve to be killed.  It’s what works!

 In the Gospel, however, Jesus made an unfamiliar stance directly opposed to the idea of James and John.  Rebuking them, he opted to take a detour and a non-violent way. Why would Jesus take the shortcut?  Why would Jesus opt for what works in the fastest and easiest way?  Well, if Jesus opt for the shortcut, for what “works,” there will be no room for love.  What works for Jesus is LOVE.   







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12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

6/18/2016

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Being and Becoming a Student of Life at the Master's Feet
by: Fr. Serg Kabamalan, CJM

My sister Mae was eight years old when she refused to go back to school after witnessing how her classroom adviser castigated and berated her classmate who failed to accomplish his homework.  It traumatized her.  She declared to my parents that she does not like a teacher who “scares her out of her wits.”  She cried and refused to dress up each day for school whenever my mother forced her to, until an arrangement was made to allow her to join another class with another teacher.  I was just a year older than her and, at that time, I thought that she was just being a brat. 

Looking back, what she may have been trying to articulate with both words and action was that she cannot possibly learn with a teacher who no longer inspires her to learn and to make studying a truly worthwhile and enjoyable journey of growing up.  Fortunately, she got over it, and she did learn to love learning. At 26 years old, she was able to complete two (2) bachelor’s degree in college, one after the other, with the “masters” who inspired her to learn and live the best way she can.

Our gospel this Sunday gives us a remarkable insight at being a student of life, a disciple, at the Master’s feet.  Being a disciple does not begin and end with listening to the words of Jesus Christ.  Discipleship is more than just witnessing and proclaiming the great deeds of our Lord.  Discipleship has something to do with our whole life with the best possible Master who can lead and guide us.  Here are some points that elucidate what Jesus himself thinks about it:

1.      Know who Jesus truly is!  The ministry of Jesus would have gone for nought if the very ones in his inner circle were unable to recognize who he is by the words and deeds that they were privileged to hear and see.  That is why he had to ask his disciples about it.  The first question, ““Who do the crowds say that I am?” is preparatory to the real question, “Who do you say that I am?”  Our knowledge of who Jesus is in our lives has to be articulated in a very personal way as it brings us into deeper reflection on our own experiences where the Jesus of the Gospels we hear proclaimed on Sundays can be recognized as the same Jesus who moves in our daily lives.  Reflect and pray over it, we must, for it is in the context of prayer that the dialogue between Jesus and his disciples happened.  Indeed, it is only in prayer that we can revisit our ordinary experiences and see it from a higher plane.

2.      Understand who Jesus is in a deeper way.  Peter confessed on behalf of the disciples that Jesus is “The Christ of God.”  But they all got rebuked for it.  The rebuke may be interpreted at two levels:  first, because it is not yet time to proclaim it; and, second, because although they got it right, they did not really understand their own confession.  Hence, the need for them to continue to know and understand their Master.  From this viewpoint, Jesus’ prophecy about his impending passion, death and resurrection – is an invitation for the disciples to re-examine and understand their image of Jesus as “the Christ of God” not just from the Jewish worldview and tradition nor from their own personal and past experiences of Jesus in the mission.  The completion of the revelation about Jesus’ identity was about to come with the culmination of his mission on the cross, the embracing of human suffering and death, and the laying down of his own life for all.

3.      Accept one’s gift of life even during trying times like Jesus did. Jesus exhorted his disciples to deny themselves, carry their crosses daily and follow him.  It means saying yes to life not according to human and worldly terms, for this is too narrow and self-defeating.  The world glorifies the self to the exclusion of others.  It teaches truncated autonomy that amounts to selfishness and self-aggrandizement.  This is the self that must be denied.  We rather say yes to self that is inclusive and sensitive to the needs of others by following the path of Jesus, where we can find meaning even in the face of suffering and pain.

My little sister I told you about earlier, passed away just as she was completing her second degree.  Someone took her life.  But the way she went inspired us her family and friends to go and look back at how she lived her life.  It was not an easy life given the choices she made.  She could have had it easier if she stuck with her first career option as a pharmacist.  But she loved painting; she loved exploring where creativity could lead her.  So, she pursued her second degree, Fine Arts major in Painting.  She never complained about the hardships it entailed - physical, financial and emotional! And there was literally a lot to complain about. All through her journey, she had been very prayerful, kind and generous. In her little way, she took what life gave her, and gave back to life to the best of her ability.  We found a clue why, from the final draft of her thesis where she wrote in her acknowledgment, “Thank you God, for showing me that life is beautiful.”  I guess that is one valid way whereby discipleship could be lived well!




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Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time 

6/13/2016

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Forgiveness – The Joy of the Gospel
by: Br. Ian Granada [cjm]

                  This Sunday’s gospel is one of the many instances Jesus showed His mercy and compassion especially to repentant sinners. Let us see the repentant woman showed how her Faith in God in Jesus changed her life and made her capable of doing extraordinary acts of love and devotion to the Son of God.

                   This particular text can be found in all four gospels. However, in the gospel of Luke, the emphasis will be on the sinful woman. The other gospels do not report the most provocative of the woman's behavior; kissing, and the anointing of Jesus' feet. Forgiveness of sins, which is the crux of the matter is a particular theme that runs in the Gospel of Luke. The chapter where this text is found is devoted in portraying Jesus as one greater than a prophet.
                 "Your Faith has saved you, go in peace!" This was Jesus ending remarks to the repentant woman. According to scripture scholars, this particular event might not be the first meeting between the woman and Jesus. It might be a unintentional second meeting where the woman recognized the man who forgave and even healed her. The faith which the woman showed in the first meeting with Jesus became a moment of change in heart and mind (metanoia). This conversion ir repentance brought about salvation and redemption to the woman. However, our society is not ready for such an overnight change. For them, the identity of the woman as a sinner (prostitute) became her life and name despite God's intervention and forgiveness. This was the sin of Simon the Pharisee whom Jesus asked, "Do you see this woman?" Due to the Pharisee's spiritual pride due to his fanatical adherence to external holiness, he failed to see the woman as a person, capable of change and new life.

                Even in today's world, we see instant judgements here and there, proclaiming people as "sinners", "bad", "living in sin", and even "evil people". Where is the charity of our humanity? Pope Francis in different occasions have condemned such nametagging and labelling to people. We are called in the same vocation to holiness, though different in levels and stages, we are in the same highway to our heavenly home. As such, we should always be mindful of the struggles of our brothers and sisters in their spiritual journey and in their lives. Instead of judging people by mere appearance or first meeting, we should try to discover their journey, their backgrounds, and struggles to live a holy life as they carry their own unique crosses. It might be, that in the end, we may discover that this person is even holier than us and may call us even to greater repentance and conversion!

                In another hinge, I pray that the repentant woman may inspire from the journey of Faith to the joy of the encounter of Jesus! From the initial encounter of Jesus and the faith that God infused in her to believe in the Son of God, to the openness of heart that she showed in embracing the message of Jesus as a call to new start in life, we are now ready to embrace our redemption; freedom from the slavery of sin. Thus, we can now fully love God and our neighbor with no boundaries or limitations. For me, that is the Joy of the Gospel, the meaning of our encounter with Jesus in the Scriptures, our Tradition, Sacraments, and in our daily life.


O God, strength of those who hope in you,
graciously hear our pleas,
and, since without you mortal frailty can do nothing,
grant us always the help of your grace,
that in following your commands
we may please you by our resolve and our deeds.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.          

             








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    Authors

    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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