PAN DE LA SEMANA

[BREAKING THE BREAD OF GOD’S WORD] 32 nd Sunday OT_B November 8, 2015 HERO OR HEEL? How little things have changed from then and now. The widow of Zarephath was gathering sticks, much like the poor now gather what has come to be known almost derisively now in the Philippines as “kalakal.” I grew up at a place and time when “kalakal” did not refer to garbage. It simply meant farm produce that you brought twice a week to market to be sold wholesale to merchants who had the capital and the means of transport to sell them to the big Metro Manila market. We were not anywhere near the abject poverty of the widow, who having been married lost the support of her father, and who, having been widowed, lost the entire support from a husband. She was alone – and poor by any standard. So, too, was the widow mentioned in the gospel, who gave her all, despite her want, in spite of her need. The first widow was the object of the Lord’s largesse and compassion. The secon...

[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...

20 th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A August 17, 2014 HAVE PITY ON ME, LORD, SON OF DAVID! Isaiah gives a piece of advice so clear and unmistakable; so straightforward and so irreproachable: “Observe what is right, do what is just.” Well, let us start with something not so right … Yes … not so right for purists then who knew their boundaries, and who knew better than to mess up with women like that one derisively referred to as “Canaanite,” who lived in the district of Tyre and Sidon. She deserved nothing from any self-respecting man and from a Jew, for that matter. She was totally out of bounds. And she did something totally expected, but totally uncalled for … In her extreme need, born of remarkable faith, she did the unthinkable (though expected!) … She approached the Lord and pleaded with Him in faith: “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!” But the Lord, it must be said, also did the unthinkable. He, it must be further s...

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. ...

17 th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B) July 29, 2012 FOOD TO EAT, AND SOMETHING MORE BESIDES! It’s been decades the alarum bells of an utter lack of food to feed the hungry multitudes have been sounded over and over again. Years ago,  a movie entitled “Soylent Green” took the form of a horror movie – depicting the absolute horrors of a time in future when people would be literally forced to ingest tablets of food made from other human beings. In our insecurity, in our fears, in our anxieties, the human family has, on occasion, acted in a way that is exactly the opposite of the attitudes being raised by the readings – an attitude of trust, an attitude of confidence and faith that the psalmist reminds us of: “ The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.” (Response) Those alarm bells have taken various forms throughout recent history. And many of those forms are self-canceling and self-contradictory. We have scientists and self-styled “saviors” of...

24 th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A) September 11, 2011 N.B. I am posting this in advance as I am not sure I can post anything during my three week travels from place to place in three different countries. Death and decay, wrath and anger, unforgiveness and vengefulness seem to be the rule of the day in our times. As we commemorate the 10 th year of the ignominious mass murder done on the World Trade Center twin towers in New York, we see the undeniable reality of a world enveloped in a culture of death and decay – and more! We all have stood witness to at least some of it … the unforgiveness, the selfishness, the insatiable greed of people who think not much about the common good. In the Philippines, for example, the reality of people in the know who get away with a whole lot of things (including almost 2,000 containers) that bleed the country dry of potential revenue and concomitant chance for it to join the league of respectable and respected nations all over the world, sta...