PAN DE LA SEMANA

4 th Sunday of Easter (B) April 29, 2012 All three readings take up the common thread of power. The first reading from the Acts shows us the power of “faith in the name of Jesus.” The second reading from the first letter of John, for its part, shows us that love is power, too … It is generative. It makes those who believe, more than just believers, but children of God. The Gospel from John shows the ultimate sign and fruit of this power from above. Christ Jesus, has power to lay his life down, and power to take it up again! I feel very down these days. For one, the heat is terribly stifling. With such record highs, one loses a lot of energy to do much of anything, except try one’s best not to sweat, by doing as little as possible. But there are other reasons for me to feel down and out, and even powerless. I know I am powerless before the tide of public opinion, swayed hither and thither by mainstream media. I feel for the powerless majority who really have not much powe...

3 rd Sunday Easter (B) April 22, 2012 I don’t know whether being sort of failures in this rat-race world, as the Philippines, apparently is, has to do with believing. I don’t know whether being low on the economic ladder necessarily translates to being high on the belief scale. But as every student of research knows, correlation does not necessarily mean causation, and poverty, or being collective failures in the political and economic scene, ought not be taken as the cause of our very high belief index. A recent US write-up puts the United States and the Philippines as among the countries who believe most in God, with the former at 81 per cent, and the latter at 94 per cent. The US have had a long history of prosperity. The Philippines have had a long story of collective poverty and political pain. The overwhelming majority of both countries claim to believe in God. Why do I write about this on this third Sunday of Easter? Simple … the Gospel passage from Luke, wh...

2 nd Sunday of Easter (B) April 15, 2012 I write from Seoul, South Korea, while awaiting the ordination rites of a fellow Salesian, a former student at our theologate in Paranaque, and who worked for a few years in various settings in Manila and Guam. Being here, and having the possibility to break bread and do Eucharist, together with Korean confreres and others from various nationalities, all belonging to the same family of Don Bosco – the Salesians – is a very good starting point for a reflection for this second Sunday or the Octave of Easter. The resurrection of the Lord, whilst it is one of the foundations of our Christian faith, goes beyond remembrance of an event. It is THE   event, on which a train of other events and realities are intertwined. Let the three readings speak for themselves, as ought to be, definitely, the case, each Sunday. The first reading would have us understand what it means to be a follower of the Risen Lord. In plain and simple language, ...

EASTER SUNDAY APRIL 8, 2012 Churches everywhere around the country and the world, were mostly filled last Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. The washing of the disciples’ feet, which led to watching with the Lord in vigil, produced snaking lines of people, and more hordes of people for the watchful waiting before the altar of repose. And although liturgically speaking, the period called the Paschal Triduum that began during the celebration of the Lord’s Supper and which closes with the  Easter Vigil, ought not be dedicated to confessions, snaking lines were seen in every Church where the unsung heroes of Holy Week in the Philippines, the priests, held their fort, heroically, steadfastly, for many long hours of Thursday and Friday. Lent should have ended on Holy Thursday morning. The Mass of the Lord’s Supper began the paschal triduum, and the three-day period was meant no longer to be penitential days, but a three-day celebration of the Paschal Mystery, that is, the passio...

Good Friday April 6, 2012 Yesterday, we reflected on the act of ritual washing that then paved the way to watching. Jesus, anticipating the end of his earthly sojourn, and aware of the rising tension between the forces of darkness against the forces of light, became the ever provident Lord and Savior that God always is for us His people. He instituted the Priesthood. And by instituting thereby, too, the Eucharist, the first Holy Mass ever celebrated on earth, the first unbloody yet fully meritorious sacrifice offered in this world, Jesus saw to it that the act of redemption He was just about to do – a bloody and ignominious death on the cross, would be perpetuated and repeated in an unbloody manner for all times and for all peoples. The one and unique Redeemer, who redeemed all of humanity in one fell swoop, sort of, in one bloody and perfect Sacrifice on the Cross, thus assured that salvation goes on up till now, for all days, and for always. The washing of the feet – the granti...

Holy Thursday April 5, 2012 The best of Pinoy popular religiosity, along with its worst, shines out beginning today, first day of the Paschal Triduum. Even as I sit down to write these reflections, hordes are now making their way up Mount Banahaw, or trekking in the concrete jungles of Metro Manila to go to Antipolo, or “carrying their little or big crosses” everywhere in Central Luzon, particularly in Pampanga, to do their own version of “washing and watching.” Elsewhere, throughout the Tagalog region, particularly in Batangas and Cavite, the singing of the Pasiong Mahal of the unsung poet Mariano Pilapil, could be heard or espied taking place in just about every prominent family’s house, or in humble abodes everywhere else. In Poblacion, Makati, the old Sampiro, dozens of what is called “kalbaryos” house the family-owned statues depicting the various events related to the passion of the Lord, where endless singing of the same pasiong mahal is done, replete with food and drinks for...