PAN DE LA SEMANA

First Sunday of Advent (A) December 1, 2013 SUDDENNESS. SURPRISE … SALVATION! Mountains have always mystified me. Oceans frightened me each time, but mountains always somehow make of me a little mystic. I have climbed at least 14 of them in tropical Philippines, a number of them for more than just once or twice, or even thrice, and every time I set my sights on one, I always sigh – and pine for – the heights. The Israelites were spot on to think of mountains as a place of refuge and a place to encounter God. It certainly was – and is – refuge for me … Then and now … when times get tough and the rough and tumble of life get the better of me. It is also a place of encounter with God, especially when right from day one we started the group – and the tradition of trekking up heights at Don Bosco Mandaluyong, Philippines – we ended each weary day with a lively recitation of the rosary and the traditional Salesian pep talk called the “good night....

November 24, 2013 Solemnity of Christ the King Year C Closing of the Year of Faith SHEPHERD, SERVANT, KING I missed my weekly “pan” last week. I was taken up trying to do what in my little capacity I could, to help the hapless victims of the supertyphoon that wrought death and unprecedented devastation to many places in Central Philippines. It felt so humbling … being literally so helpless. The magnitude of the destruction was and still is, unfathomable. Money doesn’t grow on trees, and no one plucks it out of nowhere just when one needs it, no matter how urgent, no matter how important, no matter how noble. But at the same time, it felt so encouraging. The little that was available for everyone to do was precisely what the suffering millions needed. The power that was not anyone’s innate resource was the very same power that God needed to do His mighty works. Aid came in trickles … a little bag here; a little bag there. A few hun...

--> 32 nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C November 10, 2013 N.B. I would like to join CNN, and the rest of the world, in paying tribute to my suffering compatriots down south in Central Philippines, who braved through the strongest tropical cyclone on earth in about three decades, by posting this pic I grabbed from CNN NOT A GOD OF THE DEAD, BUT OF THE LIVING Despite the systematic drive of anti-Catholics, most Filipinos trooped to the cemeteries, brought and lit candles and offered flowers for their beloved dead. Many also offered prayers and had the names of their beloved deceased relatives written and brought at the foot of altars in innumerable churches all over the country. They all are symbols and at the same time, actualizations of what many of us believe – that for us Christians, life is changed, not ended, and that we owe it to those who have gone ahead of us, to intercede for them, pray for them, that they all might be granted, in God’s...

  31 st Sunday Year C November 3, 2013 BROKEN BUT NOT BEATEN, FORLORN BUT NOT FORGOTTEN! I am afraid of heights. I fell from a tree once in my life, while doing  - you know – that childhood classic Batman stunt! (I will spare you the details!) But for one afraid of heights, I think I have done a mean feat climbing 14 Philippine mountains, one of them for more than 12 times! I am a small man, too, by any standard, including by current Philippine standards where children of people not any taller than me, end up being a lot taller than their progenies. (Did we do the Star margarine challenge right? Or we just didn’t have Cherifer “tangkad sagad” back then?) Today, I take comfort from the story of Zacchaeus. No … I don’t mean to gloat over his height (or the lack of it!). I meant, I take comfort from Zacchaeus, not because he was just as small as me, but because he was endowed with a big heart. He was willing to go out very lite...

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 ...