PAN DE LA SEMANA

[BREAKING THE BREAD OF GOD’S WORD] Corpus Christi Sunday Solemnity of the Body & Blood of the Lord – Year B June 7, 2015 BUILD ME UP, FILL ME UP! We all know how the people of Israel were at some point wandering aimlessly in the desert. After being led out of slavery in Egypt, and after the initial euphoria at being liberated wore down, they felt empty. They felt like vagabonds – journeyers without a sure destination. If I were in their shoes, I would probably be reminded of that old song that says: “Why do you build me up, Buttercup baby, just to let me down, and mess me around?” But today’s readings dispel our worst fears about being left alone to fend for ourselves. Let me tell you why… For one, the Lord, through Moses, led them to a clear sign of God’s fidelity to His promises. He called and engaged them in a covenant, which is basically, a mutual agreement. That agreement was sealed in the most visible, most p...

June 10, 2012 Solemnity of the Body and Blood of the Lord (B) ACCEPTING AND DOING! The focus of today’s readings, understandably, is on the blood of sacrifice. That blood is connected with the seal or proof, or witness – if you will – of the covenant between God and His people. The blood is poured. The blood is consumed in some way, and the blood is offered, first, for expiation, and second, as sign of consummation of the supreme agreement between two parties – God, on the one hand, and his people, on the other. The response is as much a promise as an assurance: “Everything the Lord says, we will do!” The pledge pronounced by the people actually stands for two things: acceptance, first and foremost … as if, indeed, to say, “we accept everything the Lord says …” But that is not all … the second part is a promise: “we will do as He says!” Accepting and doing … this, among so many other things, is what we can reflect on today, the Solemnity of Corpus Chris...

Solemnity of the Body & Blood of the Lord (A) June 26, 2011 There was a time the Solemnity of Corpus Christi was celebrated with solemn processions, Benedictions, and many benedictions at select stations all over the main thoroughfares of every parish everywhere.   Those were the days before clogged traffic blocked our streets … before sidewalks disappeared to Disneyland like, multi-colored lamp posts that would change with the change of administration … before religious pluralism and downright indifference took over our culture, and relegated purely “religious” matters, so called, to private chapels and oratories. The disappearance or waning of the practice, however, is not to say the faith in the Real Presence of the Eucharistic Lord is also gone. It is here. It is alive. It is real. And it is here to stay … more in our hearts, if not in our streets… more in our thoughts and minds, if not in practice. Come to think of it, the Real Presence of the Lord   unde...

Catholic Homily/Sunday Reflection Solemnity of the Body and Blood of the Lord Year C June 6, 2010               There is no understanding fully the feast of today without framing it in the context of what “sacramentality” is all about. Being the “sacrament of sacraments,” as St. Thomas puts it, and being both “the source and the summit of Christian life” (Vatican II), the Eucharist is eminently a “visible sign of invisible grace” (St. Augustine). In the very visible, and very ordinary reality of bread and wine, we see, and feel, and experience, in an extraordinary way, something that God meant to be so ordinary in our lives as believers – His living, loving, and gracious presence in the midst of His beloved people!               Eucharist is all about presence. Eucharist is all about the here and now, the “already” of our Christian lives, though i...

Catholic Homily / Sunday Reflections on the Liturgy Solemnity of the Body and Blood of the Lord (Year B) If we go by the three recent youth surveys in the Philippines done on the national level, there is some reason for us to worry. And when I say “us” I mean priests, pastors, religion teachers, religious brothers and sisters, parents – the Philippine Church, as a whole. Less and less young people are approaching the sacraments, the surveys show. That means, less and less of them go to confession, and, that means, less and less of them go to communion. As Rector in our College-Seminary in Canlubang for eight years, and as educator there for another 7 years, both as a brother and as a young priest, I stood witness to the progressively growing unpopularity of confession and communion. It was almost like we had to beg the older adolescents in the college level, especially, to take advantage of the weekly opportunity to confess and the almost daily opportunity to receive holy communion. T...

SOLEMNITY OF MOST HOLY BODY & BLOOD OF THE LORD – YEAR A May 25, 2008 Reading 1 (Dt 8:2-3, 14b-16a) Moses said to the people: "Remember how for forty years now the LORD, your God, has directed all your journeying in the desert, so as to test you by affliction and find out whether or not it was your intention to keep his commandments. He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers, in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD. "Do not forget the LORD, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery; who guided you through the vast and terrible desert with its saraph serpents and scorpions, its parched and waterless ground; who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock and fed you in the desert with manna, a food unknown to your fathers." Responsorial Psalm (Ps 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20) R. (12)...