PAN DE LA SEMANA

[BREAKING THE BREAD OF GOD’S WORD] 17 th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B July 26, 2015 G PLUS PLUS! Most of us, if not all, have experiences in traveling. Unless you travel in style, merely transposing oneself from one place to the other in the Philippines, can be a real ordeal … for many reasons … most of them economic.   For one, you cannot drink   too much liquids, or you have to make a scene to ask the driver to stop some place to relieve yourself. Second, it is cumbersome to lug foodstuffs with you. For hours on end, one will have to make do with biscuits or dry bread with not much else that can spoil in a matter of hours. Third, depending on where you go, food may not be available, or you could only get some by paying more than four times their usual price. Both the first and third readings talk about people on a journey. In the first reading, crowds followed the “man of God,” Elisha. In the third reading, crowds flocked towards the “wonder worker,” ...

[BREAKING THE BREAD OF GOD’S WORD] July 19, 2015 – 16 th Sunday OT – B NOTHING MORE SHALL I WANT I have been mortally afraid quite a few times in my life – from childhood all the way to adulthood. The first time was some kind of a twilight zone experience. I was probably teetering on edge between toddlerhood to early childhood. I was midway between being fully asleep and being half awake. I don’t remember the details nor the images, but I do remember the fear and the trembling … alone in a dark room, while I heard terrifying sounds of gunfire and loud voices of people in the middle of the night. There were other occasions of “fear and trembling” that did not quite equal the terror of the first, but again, I still remember the feeling. As an adult, I still fear the unknown. I still fear getting sick and old and eventually dying – a reality that seems less and less far-fetched as time moves on. But my experience has taught me one thing beyond those fears. One ma...

15 th Sunday in Ordinary Time B [BREAKING THE BREAD OF GOD’S WORD] July 12, 2015 NOT IN MY NAME, BUT GOD’S Amos is an interesting figure. He was an ordinary laborer, equivalent to a daily wage earner of our times. He was, by any standard, poor. That means no insurance, no savings, no big house, no household appliances to boast of … no nothing. He was not taken seriously by anyone. No … definitely not the powers-that-be who had better things to do than listen to a worthless lout. Definitely, he was most unwelcome, if Amaziah the priest of Bethel was to be followed. Amaziah, who probably thought that Amos was getting a little too preachy about certain things, told him to go and do his preaching elsewhere. “Off with you, visionary, flee to the land of Judah. There earn your bread by prophesying.” NIMOB … not in my own backyard! Mind you, there was not even the word “please” to soften the rude command! But Amos would not be bullied. He knew who he was and what h...

[BREAKING THE BREAD OF GOD’S WORD] 14 th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B CALLED AND SENT TO RAISE UP A FALLEN WORLD The first reading almost sounds like a reality check … The Lord tells the prophet: “I am sending you to … rebels who have rebelled against me … to [people] hard of face and obstinate of heart.” Paul, in the second reading, almost sounds like he is giving us another dampener … another sob and sad story: “a thorn in the flesh was given to me … insults, hardships, persecutions and complaints.” It is hard for me at this point in time, not to identify with both Ezekiel and Paul. I feel like I am a little weak lamb in the midst of wolves. But today, I need to be reminded. Today, as in all other Sundays, I need to be given a shot in the arm. And it is more than just consoling to note that even the Lord Jesus, when he went back to his own country, was given far less than a hospitable and warm welcome. They doubted him. They could not believe that ...