PAN DE LA SEMANA

26 th Sunday Year A September 28, 2014 A PAST WORTH LOOKING INTO; A FUTURE WORTH AIMING FOR They say every saint had a past and every sinner has a future. Agree! St. Lorenzo Ruiz, for his glorious martyrdom in Japan, originally did not go there to seek for that cruel death. He had other motives. He had other plans. Not that were bad of themselves, but they definitely were not what eventually he suffered and died for. We all were children once upon a time. We all felt picked on by our parents, who always seemed to have a ready command or a quick errand for us children to do then. Who among us did not have a ready answer for either of them, or both? “Why me?” “Not again!” “I am busy!” “I got tons of homework to prepare for school!” What child did not answer thus, at least on a few occasions: “Yes, Dad. Count on me. I will do it later,” and then went his/her merry way playing games with neighborhood kids until he or she felt hungry? Wha...

25 th Sunday Year A September 21, 2014 LATE, BUT LOVED NONETHELESS! Being late is a daily occurrence in the country where I was born, grew up in, and still chose to live in. Our culture was never a stickler for details like being on time, to start with. Time and space, like everything else, is considered relative, not absolute values, in our culture. We are a postmodern people living out certain values of a pre-modern setting. Those invited to parties are told to come at 8:00 PM, for example, but guests are really too early if they get to their place at 9:00 PM. Waterways, called “esteros” once upon a time, dotted the urban landscape decades or aeons ago, but are now nowhere to be found all over the bustling metropolis, covered over by so-called “developers” who did more than just develop the city. They enveloped everything, including those esteros with sellable “prime properties” for the unwary real estate buyers. Time seems not to be the best ally...

--> Feast of the Triumph of the Cross (24 th Sunday Year A) September 14, 2014 THE LOGIC THAT IS BY NO MEANS LOGICAL! We always feel right when we complain. Whenever we feel aggrieved, we always have a sense of entitlement. And we tend to be very vocal – even, vociferous – about it. Take the case of the Israelites. One day they were excited to leave their hell-hole; another day they were angry at being caught in the little pigeonhole of their uncomfortable desert meandering. And boy, did they raise hell for Moses as they hollered: “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water?” But the very same man they blamed was the man they begged assistance from. They thought better of him when they were in dire straits … when their lives were threatened by something far worse than not having meat or spices to tickle their choosy palates – serpents! And then, when they started falling down like flies smitten...

23 rd Sunday Year A September 7, 2014 A CARING COMMUNITY: COMMAND AND CONSOLATION One of the goals of the ASEAN region, all ten countries that make it up, is to provide “a caring community.” Well, they still have a few months, before the AEC (Asean Economic Community) goes into full operation in the year 2015. By any standard, this is more than just a nice phrase to describe one of the three pillars of the ASEAN dream – PEOPLE ( in addition to PROSPERITY and PEACE)! But of course, given the three readings in today’s liturgy, it is easy to realize that it is not just a pipe dream of ASEAN, but a command from the Lord, repeated not twice, but thrice, in all three readings. Ezekiel gives the opening salvo. We are all meant to be “watchmen (or guardians) for the house of Israel.” As watchmen, we are expected to warn, admonish, counsel, or otherwise mentor others who might be straying off the beaten track. St. Paul, writing to t...