PAN DE LA SEMANA

--> Feast of the Triumph of the Cross (24 th Sunday Year A) September 14, 2014 THE LOGIC THAT IS BY NO MEANS LOGICAL! We always feel right when we complain. Whenever we feel aggrieved, we always have a sense of entitlement. And we tend to be very vocal – even, vociferous – about it. Take the case of the Israelites. One day they were excited to leave their hell-hole; another day they were angry at being caught in the little pigeonhole of their uncomfortable desert meandering. And boy, did they raise hell for Moses as they hollered: “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water?” But the very same man they blamed was the man they begged assistance from. They thought better of him when they were in dire straits … when their lives were threatened by something far worse than not having meat or spices to tickle their choosy palates – serpents! And then, when they started falling down like flies smitten...

Catholic Homily / Reflection on the Liturgy of the Day Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross Sept. 14, 2009 It is easy enough to sound pious and serene during the good days. It costs nothing much to talk about braving the storm when the sun is up and shining, and it is no problem to talk about living life fully when one is healthy, when one is in the prime of life, and when everybody around you seems to be bubbling with the energy of relative health and youth. But it is when we find ourselves wandering apparently aimlessly in the hot and sultry desert of uncertainty and monotony that all niceties and superficial piety evaporate faster than the manna of old could be desiccated by the merciless desert sun. In times such as these, when the reality of a difficult, nomadic life in the desert, far from one’s real home, far from the relative comforts of a life one has gotten used to, albeit in slavery in a foreign land, far from the much awaited “promised ...

Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross Sept. 14, 2008 Readings: Nm 21:4b-9 / Phil 2:6-11 / Jn 3:13-17 It is easy enough to sound pious and serene during the good days. It costs nothing much to talk about braving the storm when the sun is up and shining, and it is no problem to talk about living life fully when one is healthy, when one is in the prime of life, and when everybody around you seems to be bubbling with the energy of relative health and youth. But it is when we find ourselves wandering apparently aimlessly in the hot and sultry desert of uncertainty and monotony that all niceties and superficial piety evaporate faster than the manna of old could be desiccated by the merciless desert sun. In times such as these, when the reality of a difficult, nomadic life in the desert, far from one’s real home, far from the relative comforts of a life one has gotten used to, albeit in slavery in a foreign land, far from the much awaited “promised land,” one understands why the Israelites gav...