PAN DE LA SEMANA

7 th Sunday Year A February 23, 2014 SPEAK TO ALL AND TELL THEM LIKE IT IS! Almost everything now attracts controversy. You say your piece and you are immediately branded as liberal, conservative, out of touch with the times, medieval, a bigot, a clerico-fascist, a wimp, stupid, an ignoramus, etc. Labels abound in this image-conscious world that always seeks for convenient compromises (read: a position that tries to please everyone, but ends up satisfying no one). St. Paul today refers to one that he probably was called as such so many times after his conversion. He was branded a “fool.” A fool was apparently one who did not agree with the popular vote, who went against the tide of public opinion. Let me give you one issue that was, and still is, popular … “Kill the bastards!” people now say about heinous criminals. Then, as now, revenge is mistaken for retribution. “An eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth.” So said the Old Law!   So...

6 th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A) February 16, 2014 IF YOU SO CHOOSE … It is hard to see the connection … Wisdom is not associated with rules and commandments. The Scribes and Pharisees were definitely learned people, by the standards in operation then.   They were the equivalent of today’s illuminati, the few, the privileged and the titled. Who would not want to count among the then society’s elite? But today’s readings would have us look beyond titles and degrees: stuff that eyes do not readily see, nor ears so quickly hear about. Just look at what goes on repeatedly in our country. It pays to hover around higher circles, and to hobnob with people walking in the corridors of power. Big time thieves and crooks rubbing shoulders with “honorable” men and women in all three branches of government change colors from being plain thieves to being whistleblowers, to being heroes, all in a matter of a few years, or a few months, or even a few ...

5 th Sunday Year A February 9, 2014 NOT ON HUMAN WISDOM, BUT ON THE POWER OF GOD Today is some kind of a repeat of Candlemas. All three readings speak of light, as against gloom; wisdom from above as distinct from earthly human power; and about shining brightly for the world to see. It is about having the courage to be seen and recognized as such, by a world that, even up until our times, has been “walking in darkness.” But the Gospel passage adds another metaphor for discipleship – that of being salt for the earth. The readings, therefore, talk about being visible, and being flavorful; being seen and being tasty; being real and being effective. You’ve seen the likes so often in life … fixtures that add beauty and form, but serve no real usable purpose; museum pieces that are good to look at, but which offer no real practical use to no one; artifacts that give a clue to something in the past, but which does not make life any bett...