PAN DE LA SEMANA

[BREAKING THE BREAD OF GOD’S WORD] 20 th Sunday OT_B August 16, 2015 WISDOM ON ALL LEVELS; WISDOM IN ALL SENSES Wisdom is definitely what binds all three readings today. The first reading extols it, and exhorts all to pursue it: “Forsake foolishness that you may live!” The second reading makes much of it, and Paul tells us to “live, not as foolish persons but as wise, making the most of the opportunity, because days are evil.” The Gospel presents to us who the Wisdom incarnate is … Jesus presents himself as God’s wisdom in human form, as Daniel Donovan puts it. Now, pray, tell me … who among us does not need a good dose of this wisdom? Who among us would refuse the gift of such wisdom? The “days are evil,” yes … We feel lost. We are confused. We can’t tell who speaks the truth. We can’t anymore decide whether what we see and hear in mainstream media, in surveys, in polls, and in opinion pages, is really the truth, nothing else, nothing less, and nothing mor...

6 th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A) February 16, 2014 IF YOU SO CHOOSE … It is hard to see the connection … Wisdom is not associated with rules and commandments. The Scribes and Pharisees were definitely learned people, by the standards in operation then.   They were the equivalent of today’s illuminati, the few, the privileged and the titled. Who would not want to count among the then society’s elite? But today’s readings would have us look beyond titles and degrees: stuff that eyes do not readily see, nor ears so quickly hear about. Just look at what goes on repeatedly in our country. It pays to hover around higher circles, and to hobnob with people walking in the corridors of power. Big time thieves and crooks rubbing shoulders with “honorable” men and women in all three branches of government change colors from being plain thieves to being whistleblowers, to being heroes, all in a matter of a few years, or a few months, or even a few ...

--> 25 th Sunday Year C September 22, 2013 WISDOM IN TIMES OF CRISIS; PRUDENCE IN MOMENTS OF CHOICE The parable in today’s gospel passage definitely sounds weird to modern ears. What is the point of the story? Is it OK to spend what is not yours to get yourself off the hook, just as the steward (manager) did? Is it OK to bribe everyone with your fake generosity in order to earn friends just in case you end up being jobless? These are just two of the many possible questions we can ask about the strange story that only Luke reports. Let me premise my reflection by reminding you all of something we all know already … God can write straight with crooked lines. God’s ways are not man’s ways, and His teaching comes to us in a multiplicity of guises and a variety of packages, but the basic teaching is what we all need to understand, not the details, not the hows or the wherefores, but essentially the what. I am sure you have experienced the l...

20 th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (B) August 19, 2012 THE HOUSE THAT WE ARE CALLED TO BUILD! We all make mistakes. The human capacity for error stays with us for as long as we live in and move around mortal earth. To err is, indeed, quintessentially, human! Sometimes, in my quiet moments, the memory of the many times I committed monumental mistakes haunts me. Whilst I cannot say I want to recall them, such memories come unbidden, uninvited, and unwanted. At those instances, I must admit, a flurry of self-embarrassment fills me from head to toe. But I must tell you, too, that I learned immensely from those mistakes. Some of those learnings are still in time for me to do something about, like having learned to hold my tongue on particular tension-filled situations. But there, too, are some learnings that I cannot do anything about anymore, like the learning that I got already as an adult, that it is never wise, nor good – and, definitely not beneficial – to be playi...

3 rd Sunday of Lent (B) March 11, 2012 I generally don’t prefer eating out and patronizing big restaurant chains, even if they pass themselves off as “family restaurants” that offer sit-down dinners a la carte . Reason, you might ask? I don’t like having to choose from so many options, from starters to main courses; from sides to sauces and dips, to drinks and what appears to be an endless array of concoctions galore. Being basically of simple taste and simple, humble origins, I would rather go for simple dishes that already boast of everything in one, simple, uncomplicated platter. Postmodernity, they say, is a world caught up in an infinite variety of choices. Everything has become a fruit of a choice. One does not take things as given. One decides to have it, chooses to hold it, and opts to keep it. Cable TV has become the epitome of what the postmodern world of choices, and unbridled freedom devoid of any parameters, stands for. Truth also becomes a matter of choice, or preferen...

32 nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (A) November 6, 2011 I am still reeling from the startling impression given me by the words of St. Judith Zoebelein to Dr. Moynihan: “Find wisdom … Live from your heart, not just from your mind.” It was, to say the least, a jolting reminder for one who, as teacher and educator, may have a reputation of living a little more from the “mind” side. Wisdom … this is something we all hanker for and desire above everything else. In the morning of everyone’s life, we all look for learning, information, credentials, titles, and everything that enriches our resume. I am sure those who are younger than me will find this true. But I am sure those of you who are my contemporaries (or older) will find this more wise than true. Many years ago, as a young freshman in college, I was touched by a line from Boris Pasternak’s novel “Dr. Zhivago.” “Man is born to live, not to prepare for life,” he wrote. Too bad so many of us forget about getting a life, and foc...

Catholic Homily / Sunday Reflection 25 th Sunday in Ordinary Time –Year C Sept.19, 2010 There is a contemporary “ring” to all the scenarios described by the first and third readings today. They sound so real and current they could as well be said of what goes on in people’s lives, all over the world – the references to cheating on the side, to dishonesty, to a little manipulation with the figures, a minute adjustment with the scales, and putting to use one’s foresight, practical wisdom, and abilities to get maximum advantage for oneself. They sound so realistic and so contemporary that one is tempted to ask … so what’s wrong with being smart and using one’s talents to gain personal advantage? One even feels affirmed when one realizes that in the gospel parable, the Lord recounts how the master even “commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently.” One initially gets the impression that, for so long as one “prudently” thinks and plans ahead for one’s future gain, one ...