PAN DE LA SEMANA

3 rd Sunday of Advent (A) Gaudete Sunday December 15, 2013 HERO OR HEEL? REED OR ROD? I am no Justin Bieber fan. I don’t know what he stands for, but right now, he is a hero to many young people in Leyte, whom he paid a surprise visit to, in order to give his help to all typhoon survivors in Eastern Visayas. There are simply some people who rise to the occasion and prove their worth when tested, when tried, when needed. Isaiah was one such. More than a prophet, he proved to be an enabler, who encouraged, who gave strength, and who empowered people with buckling knees: “Strengthen the hands that are feeble, make firm the knees that are weak, say to those who are frightened: Be strong, fear not.” Leaders, they say, do the right things. Managers, they further say, do things right. Either of them, or both, while doing the right things and doing things right, may experience fear, uncertainty, and doubt in the process. When either, o...

--> 5 th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C February 10, 2013 DO NOT BE AFRAID! It was definitely a religious experience of an extreme kind … awesome enough as to make Isaiah cry out: “Woe is me, I am doomed!” Jews of old then believed that no one sees God and still live! But Isaiah saw more than just God. He saw himself too, warts and all … “I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King the Lord of hosts!” Isaiah was honest about what he saw in himself. No use pulling the wool over everybody’s eyes. No use denying it. But once he got to admit and accept what he was, something beautiful happened … For himself. For the people. For us all. Isaiah himself without much fanfare tells us how: “I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?’ ‘Here I am, send me!’” In the last two reflections over the past two Sundays, I have ranted about how dif...

4 th Sunday in Ordinary Time(B) January 29, 2012 The internet explosion has seen a rise in the number of “authors” who write continuously in blogsites, personal web sites, chat rooms and a plethora of networking sites. Digital publishing has gone literally to new heights, and millions and millions of self-styled writers (authors) dish out daily almost like a diarrhea of words that somehow are designed to connect, to communicate, and to help change the culture that is already in rapid and constant flux. I, too, have joined the bandwagon (sort of, with my limited digital skills) since 2007. I love to write. I love to put down my thoughts and reflections in digital ink (given the fact that I hardly now ever put anything down literally in “black and white” as my handwriting is getting worse faster than my age!) Many of us, including me, can be called “authors” in our own right. But only the most conceited among us can claim what that word etymologically, and actually stands for fu...

Catholic Homily /Sunday Reflection 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C) January 31, 2010 A familiar and favorite biblical character meets us as the Liturgy of the Word unfolds with the first reading in today’s celebration – Jeremiah – young, innocent, inexperienced, intimately loved by the Lord who, on account of that same love, called him and sent him to speak against “kings and princes, priests and people.” We know that despite his initial and later protestations, Jeremiah did as the Lord had told him. He spoke to a fickle people whose attitudes ranged from crying unabashedly as the Law of Moses was read (as we heard last week), raising their hands proclaiming unalloyed Amens to the same Law, to fighting and flailing against God’s emissaries the prophets, complaining as they also did to Moses during their wanderings in the desert. Jeremiah was sent to an interiorly conflicted people, who gave conflicting and even contradictory responses to a loving summo...

3rd Day of Simbang Gabi(C)/ Misa de Gallo / Dawn Masses December 18, 2009 Readings: Jer 23: 5-8 / Mt 1:18-25 In keeping with the upbeat mood of the days immediately preceding Christmas, (and Simbang Gabi mood in the Philippines – and elsewhere!) the readings today again wax hopeful. They are full of promises of things to come. Such promises all revolved around the figure of the coming Messiah, couched in symbols that initially were vague, but clear enough for us in retrospect, as we navigate through the account that we now call salvation history. The promised One – what Isaiah earlier this week referred to as the “Just One” – was to come from the house of Judah. He is called by Jeremiah today as “a righteous shoot” who “will reign and govern wisely,” who will “do what is right and just.” The end result, according to Jeremiah would be that “Judah shall be saved” and “Israel shall dwell in security.” The images may have faded a little bit for our postmodern ears and sensibilities, but th...