PAN DE LA SEMANA

--> [BREAKING THE BREAD OF GOD’S WORD] 4 th Sunday of Lent   Year C March 6, 2016 BROKEN AFFINITIES; RESTORED RELATIONSHIPS Last week, if you remember, we talked about the overflowing mercy and love of God. That love, we said, was tender and true. But the same love was equally tough. It was expected to bear fruit. It was a love not meant to be verbally acclaimed, but   concretely experienced, by both the lover and the beloved. This Sunday, fourth in the season of Lent, we seem to have a sequel. We are told in the first reading: “Today, I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you.” The chosen people, we are further told, ate no longer free but boring manna, but from the “produce of the land in the form of unleavened cakes and parched grain.” The people’s brokenness was nourished back to wholeness. What was old and shameful was replaced by something new and wonderful. This much, St. Paul assures us now in the second reading: “Whoever is in C...

[BREAKING THE BREAD OF GOD’S WORD] CHRISTMAS DAY 2015 GOD HAS BARED HIS HOLY ARM Promise has come to fulfillment today. A child is born for us; a Savior is sent to us. All our longings, from the historical viewpoint, took place in history. All our dreams and desires, have been given a definite pledge of fulfillment, though the fullness of which is not yet with us. But the already of His birth has come to pass. The “not yet” of the fullness of salvation is something we still need to work for “in fear and trembling” but with a definite outcome on the side of the God of promises and the God of fulfillment. Isaiah is definitely inspired today. He speaks of God “baring His arm.” The arm is a symbol of power. The arm is a concrete sign of presence. When one’s arm is outstretched, it could be a hand of blessing or an arm of support. But the arm outstretched could also be an arm that reprimands, that punishes, that reminds us when we go our wayward ways. But a gent...

6 th Sunday Year B February 15, 2015 TURNING TO THE LORD IN TIME OF TROUBLE People shun the company of others for various reasons. Many years ago, before the age of “deo-lotions” and “skin whitening products”, “Mum” and “Veto” warned us of the dire consequences of not heeding the advice (not the order) to worry “if it’s you they’re talking about.” Yes, you would most likely be the equivalent of the biblical leper if you had some bodily trait that people are talking about, and I don’t need to be specific here. Yes, there are lepers and there are lepers, and all of them are avoided by the crowds. But crowds now can actually mean more than a throng of people in one geographical space. One could be avoided now by different cause-oriented groups, or by different political colors and all sorts of political leanings and affiliations. In the Philippines, one could be red, yellow, green, or other defining (or damning!) political color. Or one could belong to one of the innumer...

25 th Sunday Year A September 21, 2014 LATE, BUT LOVED NONETHELESS! Being late is a daily occurrence in the country where I was born, grew up in, and still chose to live in. Our culture was never a stickler for details like being on time, to start with. Time and space, like everything else, is considered relative, not absolute values, in our culture. We are a postmodern people living out certain values of a pre-modern setting. Those invited to parties are told to come at 8:00 PM, for example, but guests are really too early if they get to their place at 9:00 PM. Waterways, called “esteros” once upon a time, dotted the urban landscape decades or aeons ago, but are now nowhere to be found all over the bustling metropolis, covered over by so-called “developers” who did more than just develop the city. They enveloped everything, including those esteros with sellable “prime properties” for the unwary real estate buyers. Time seems not to be the best ally...

Magkahalong lungkot at tuwa ... magkapatong na dalamhati at pag-asa ... naghuhumiyaw na pag-ibig; nagpupumiglas na pananampalataya ... Ito ang Biyernes Santo ... dito umiikot ang tadhana ng daigdig ... makasalanan ... marupok ... nguni't minahal ng Diyos nang walang kahulirip!

Catholic Homily / Sunday Reflection 3rd Sunday of Lent(C) March 7, 2010 However much we desire certainty and stability, the glaring truth that besets us daily is really its opposite – the uncertainty of the times, the instability of everything on which our daily earthly lives are anchored … our jobs, our relationships, everything that we work so hard for like our financial security, our family unity and integrity, the trust that friends and colleagues alike have on us … All this could be snuffed out quickly and, at times, even unexpectedly. “Here, we have no lasting city…” “The world and all its pleasures are fast drifting away.” Certainly, those who went through a horrifying earthquake over the weekend in Chile, and the scores who perished in another earthquake more than a month ago in Haiti, experienced first hand the fragility and uncertainty of life in this world. This offers us all a good opportunity to reflect on what today’s readings tell us partly. All three readings are a stu...