PAN DE LA SEMANA

16 th Sunday Year A July 20, 2014 A GOD LIKE NO OTHER! I can never claim to be like God … no … not by any stretch of the imagination! “There is no god besides [him] who has the care of all …” So says the first reading, to which I heartily agree. He is clear about justice. He is master of might. But He is a God of clemency of heart, not just clarity of mind. I can never claim to be a model pray-er. I often mumble, if not ramble, through the time set aside for prayer. I do not even know what to pray for, on occasion. But God, like no other, in and through the Holy Spirit, actually – fortunately! – prays for me, and “comes to the aid of my weakness.” I can never claim to be patient like God is … He allows weeds to grow alongside the wheat. He even “sleeps with the enemy” and allows him the freedom to deny Him. Clarity in terms of justice with might does not take away God’s compassion matched with clemency and inexhaustible mercy. ...

16th Sunday in Ordinaty Time (A) July 17, 2011 CALLED TO BE, CALLED TO BECOME IN THIS VALLEY OF TEARS! Patience is what the readings lead me to reflect on today, even as I wait patiently for a delayed flight to Cebu, where a task awaits me over the weekend. Patience is what I needed to have all through the week, as once again, I saw how a powerful PR machinery has all but reduced the Catholic Church to a humiliating, defensive stance, beset by unfair, and, for the most part, untruthful, accusations involving two separate issues: SUVs or so-called luxury vehicles, and supposedly illegal receipt of funds from the state-run and state-owned lotteries. The accusations later turned out to be duds, inventions and machinations of a PR team that was apparently well-funded, who did their homeworks, and almost succeeded to pull off a caper consisting of half-truths and suggested associations with a much-hated and also much maligned former president. Despite the clarifications that ensu...

Catholic Homily / Sunday Reflection 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A July 20, 2008 Readings: Wis 12:13, 16-19 / Rom 8:26-27 / Mt 13:24-43 We all had our own favorite teachers in the past. Or at the very least, we all have an image of a good teacher, mentor, leader, father, or superior – as the case may be. I am certain that for most of us, if not all, our image of a good parent, or teacher - or superior – for that matter, is one that espouses a healthy balance between two seemingly opposing poles as in gentleness, on the one hand, and firmness, on the other. I have it on the authority of Carl Jung and other less known psychologists, that mental, psychological health is basically toeing the middle ground exactly between two polar opposites. The word they use for this is integration. It has to do with the practical ability to put together seemingly conflicting elements of both, and knowing when to emphasize one and downplay the other depending on the circumstances surrounding the p...