PAN DE LA SEMANA

2 nd Sunday of Advent Year A December 8, 2013 FLOWERING REPENTANCE; FLOURISHING JUSTICE We have heard it once too often … “It’s not me; it’s my genes!” … “I didn’t know anything about it; my signature was faked!” “I am not a thief!” “Ooops! Sorry; I am just having a bad day!” “Is it a sin to love? What’s wrong about loving someone totally, physically, completely?” Yesterday, I really had a bad day … no, a bad dream … a nightmare, in fact. Something really, really bad happened to somebody good. I know her and her family very well, from years back. Exactly like what happened to a young, promising lady who had a “bright future ahead of her” … that is, until a group of unrepentant young men killed her in cold blood and, when caught, had this line to tell the world: “We really did not mean her any harm!”   No remorse … no guilt … nothing … It just so happened she had the unfortunate lot of crossing their paths one early dawn, while they wer...

14 th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B) July 8, 2012 We all know what it means … to be ignored, to not even be considered, to be rejected. Scriptures is full of such stories of rejection, with no less than the Lord Jesus Christ as the centerpiece. At times, you and I can feel – rightly or wrongly – that we are the poster boy or poster girl of such painful experiences. I had my own brush with such a “forgettable” chapter in my life … yes – forgettable in theory at least, but not quite in reality! One does not easily give up on such debilitating memories. Human nature tends to hold on to such things, and our fallen nature makes it even more difficult indeed, to “let by-gones be by-gones” – easier said than done, despite what they say about Christian forgiveness. Today, the day of the Lord, the 14 th in ordinary time, I would like to think I am one with everyone – and, I mean everyone – who ever felt the uncomfortable feeling of being resisted, being refused, being ...

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B) July 5, 2009 Sunday Reflection / Catholic Homily Ezekiel was not one who would mince words. He was not the type who would soft-pedal an important message, or one who would hesitate, or even doubt prophesying at all, when face to face with people who, he knew all too well, could either relent or resist. Heedful or rejecting, rebellious or ultimately accepting, … whatever it was that characterized Ezekiel’s hearers was the least of his concerns. Ezekiel prophesied “in season and out of season.” “And whether they heed or resist – for they are a rebellious house – they shall know that a prophet has been among them” (Ez 2:5). On the other hand, we see Paul today in a moment of sincere and utter self-acceptance, a time when he recognizes that even God-sent apostles and prophets like him do have their difficult moments, a portion in life when, like the Master Himself, who begged the Father in his most agonizing moments at the Garden of Gethsemani: “If it is po...