PAN DE LA SEMANA

30 th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C October 27, 2013 Sirach today smacks of sincerity … on God’s part primarily, not his own. He speaks of a God who truly listens, who “judges justly and affirms the right.” This is what the psalmist also was convinced of. He was convinced enough for him – and us – to acclaim: “The Lord hears the cry of the poor.” I write this short reflection in between sessions, as I preach to group of teachers from Imus, Cavite. Serendipitously, we speak of pretty much the same stuff that today’s readings speak of – the need for everyone who wants to grow towards emotional, psychological and spiritual maturity, to become straightforward, not duplicitous and deceptive. Sadly, in our times, double-talk is all we get from leaders and pundits alike. In the Philippine context, the pork barrel has supposedly and officially been abolished. But it has been resurrected even before it was scrapped, through other fancy and very creative (an...

--> 29 th Sunday Year C October 20, 2013 STICK TO THE PLAN! It is hard nowadays to stay the course. Every sea traveler knows this … every mountain climber is aware of the same. Everyone who goes to the malls understands this. You got to have a plan. You got to know what you need to buy, and nothing more, nothing else … lest you buy more than you really need, and a lot of what you really only want. Moses’ roving, traveling band was engaged in battle. The Amalekites were not exactly good neighbors, but expert marauders. Moses literally needed both hands. No, he didn’t have to fight himself. Already old then, he delegated the task to Joshua. But Moses did not exactly hie off to his tent of an office and play computer games. He got his hands full, very literally. He kept them raised … in prayer, mind you … with a little help from Aaron and Hur, very literally, too! Life is as hard as it can get at times. For us. For everyone. For all sons ...

28 th Sunday Year C October 13, 2013 GRANT, GIFT, GRATITUDE? Certain words have all of a sudden become very popular in the Philippines … one of them is “scholars.” These poor deserving and brilliant students from the boonies suddenly became the focus of legislators’ undying proclamations of love, largesse, and lasting generosity. Another is the word “gift.” The word has become synonymous with “grant,” with “incentive” or – let us now name it – everlasting “gratitude.” Few people, of course, actually believe the legislators have the welfare of “scholars” uppermost in their minds, and only the most gullible would be led to believe that whatever monies were distributed post factum (read: the passage of something wanted by the big man on top) had to do with selfless grants, or altruistic “gifts” or philanthropic expressions of endless “gratitude.” Be that as it may, we should accept one thing at least … Today’s readings do have a word ...

27 th Sunday Year C October 6, 2013 INTEGRITY, JUSTICE, TRUST & SERVICE The word “trust” makes it very often once again in the news. We speak a lot about “public trust” associated with “public office” and we are disappointed when there is wanton betrayal of public trust. Oftentimes though, we see failings in others, but we do not see the same failings in ourselves. But first, let us go to the readings … Habakkuk was impatient. He wanted quick results. He had been praying for help from above, but “God wouldn’t listen” – well, at least, not as quickly as he would have wanted Him to. God plastered him down with a statement point blank: “The rash one has no integrity; but the just one, because of his faith, shall live.” Which would you rather be … be rash or be just? … be quick and show results right off, or be slow but sure? … be imprudent and make so many mistakes, or be circumspect and effective in the long run? ...

26 th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C September 29, 2013 THE FOLLY OF SECURITY AND VAIN CONFIDENCE! The words of Amos are a stunner: “Woe to the complacent in Zion!” I am not a biblical scholar, nor do I intend to pretend to be one today, but there is surely something everyone can say about this stunning statement solely from its face value. One does not need to be a genetic scientist to confidently say this … “All you who feel so secure and vainly feel overconfident, take care!” Well, truth be told, Amos was talking to a very precise group of people who probably were getting it so good then in life: people who were “lying upon beds of ivory and stretched comfortably in their couches.” Was he taking potshots at the filthy rich of his times? Was he condemning those who wallowed in “brilliance and splendor” just because they could afford to? I have no answer for this. But I do have something to say about the rantings of Amos w...

--> 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...

24 th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C September 15, 2013 SELFISH, SELFIES, GENEROUSLY, GODLY! You know the type. They are everywhere … at churches, malls, planes, airports, restos … why, even rest rooms! They take countless pics of themselves in various poses and facial expressions, with matching hand gestures for accent. And they post them via social networking sites for the world to “like” rant and rave on! Psychotherapists now are almost one in claiming that the internet has been steadily churning out narcissists one facebook or twitter pic or instagram post at a time. There is even a new term for all this … “impression management.” Narcissists spend a mighty long time each day “managing” one’s posts and pics in order to give the best impression of oneself as possible. Selfies, they are now called. Incidentally, it is no accident of linguistics that it happens to rhyme with selfish, which in plain language, narcissism is all ab...