PAN DE LA SEMANA

[BREAKING THE BREAD OF GOD’S WORD] 14 th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B CALLED AND SENT TO RAISE UP A FALLEN WORLD The first reading almost sounds like a reality check … The Lord tells the prophet: “I am sending you to … rebels who have rebelled against me … to [people] hard of face and obstinate of heart.” Paul, in the second reading, almost sounds like he is giving us another dampener … another sob and sad story: “a thorn in the flesh was given to me … insults, hardships, persecutions and complaints.” It is hard for me at this point in time, not to identify with both Ezekiel and Paul. I feel like I am a little weak lamb in the midst of wolves. But today, I need to be reminded. Today, as in all other Sundays, I need to be given a shot in the arm. And it is more than just consoling to note that even the Lord Jesus, when he went back to his own country, was given far less than a hospitable and warm welcome. They doubted him. They could not believe that ...

[BREAKING THE BREAD OF GOD’S WORD] 5 th Sunday of Easter B May 3, 2015 ATTACHMENT … ATTUNEMENT … AT-ONE-MENT Attachment is a good word to begin our reflection for today. John, the “beloved” disciple uses two endearing terms in his letter, and the first word he used is “children.” He is not just connected in some vague, hazy fashion. He is attached to those he cared for, like the now proverbial fox who told the little prince: “You are responsible for whom you tame!” But he uses a more important word … “beloved,” beloved of God, that is. Right now, I have four dogs, three of which I have adopted: one was given and two were kind of “inherited.” Now even dogs instinctively seem to develop some kind of “connection” with those who take care of them.   They become sort of “attached” to their master, and one of them, instinctively again, seems to be attuned to my ways, my habits, my schedule. He even knows better to rouse me a few mi...

[BREAKING THE BREAD OF GOD’S WORD] 4th Sunday of Easter-April 26, 2015 NO LESS. NO ONE ELSE. Being one and being the same is a feat not easy to maintain in our times. We have various identities, depending on what age stratum we belong to. Digital natives who belong to the internet generation have more than one, and they all are evolving. Friendster identities have long since been gone and buried in digital cemeteries. My Space identities have followed suit, along with the likes of WAYN (Where are you now?) and so many attempts at defining the world in terms of cyber associations and organizations. We, digital migrants who were not thrown into the water of digital complexities early on, have now at least two: real identity and virtual identity. (Some of us still hold on to emails, and doggedly forward messages filled with images of fluttering butterflies! … Others have moved on tentatively to Facebook, even if a great many have little or no understanding about the phenomenon of “wa...

BREAKING THE BREAD OF GOD’S WORD 3 rd Sunday of Easter B – April 19, 2015 RECOGNITION, REFORMATION Peter was more than just understanding. He gave it to people who “acted out of   ignorance.” He was tolerant and forgiving … like his Master, who “looked at him with love” even if he betrayed him thrice. John, for his part, was more than just warm to people he endearingly calls his “children.” He writes to them, he says, “so that [they] may not commit sin.” But again, like Peter, he gives it to weak people like me and you, who sin seventy times seven times, for “we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous One.” The Lord, in the Gospel according to Luke, was more than just encouraging. Alluding to the sad and dejected disciples on the way to Emmaus, Luke then reports a “sighting” of the Risen Christ, on the part of “startled and terrified” disciples gathered in a huddle. To startled and terrified disciple...

1 st Sunday of Lent (B) February 22, 2015 REPENT AND BELIEVE! It is very hard now to focus on things. We are bombarded by so many worries, so many concerns, so much tension on account of so many disturbing events:   ISIS spewing threats all over the world … incompetence and selfish leaders bungling just about every imaginable situation that affects the common good … criminal elements apparently lording it over people everywhere. But Lent that started with a solemn imposition of ashes is a call to silence, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. It is a call for all to be gentle, compassionate, forgiving, repentant and openness to renewal – all exact opposites of what we see and hear almost to the day. One thing about Lent is, it also tells us to go slow, to be attentive to signs, to watch out for clues and be reminded that life is not all about worries and tension, problems and threats to peace and security in life. It is a call to put focus on the afterlife, on matt...

5 th Sunday Year B February 8, 2015 DRUDGERY OR DELIGHT? Tension is the closest word I can find with regards to today’s readings. The opening salvo comes from Job, who is not exactly silent about his plaints and pleadings with the Lord, if not, complaints: “Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery?” Take it from the news we have been hearing of late. Attacks here and there ... Terrorism everywhere ... Corruption unabated in our beloved country and beyond ... Fake surveys from outfits that have a lot to gain – and lose, for that matter – should the winds of change blow our way. Grinding poverty for more and more people … sore lack of education for millions and millions … The list is tedious. Do we have anything right now to disprove Job and dispute his “survey findings?” Well, I do … Today’s readings do! And here is where the tension lies. Here is where the capacity to see beyond what we actually see – as part of the fabled Catho...

EPIPHANY SUNDAY January 4, 2015 WHAT KIND OF A STAR ARE YOU? Just over the holidays, when millions were reeling under the fury of typhoon Seniang in the south, a star-studded, politician-filled, and a royal-styled “royal wedding” was held in Manila. No, don’t get me wrong … I am not going to rail against any royal wedding, whether real or pretended. Neither am I going to rant against the bigwigs who graced the occasion. Weddings, after all, in Jewish culture, treated the couple as royalty for the day. But I do want to say a thing or two about stars … stars who attended … wannabe stars who could only follow the media hype all delivered in a blow-by-blow account, figuratively while Rome was burning (or Mindanao and the Visayas drowning in floods) … starry-eyed vicarious stars for the day who wouldn’t want to miss any minute of the gorgeous pageantry called show business at its best and at its worst in the Philippines, (even if the pile ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1T26yw1Ltg   Solemnity of Mary Mother of God January 1, 2015 MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT! MARY MATTERS. Although we begin the New Year in the Philippines with a bang, we also begin it with a dose of essential dogma, all at the service of what really matters most, on the last day of Christmas Octave. Make no mistake about it. This solemnity is not about ushering in a new civil year. Neither is it about making Christmas veer off tangent by introducing someone who sort of “steals the show” from Christ, the Lord, the one and only Savior, the one and only Redeemer, the one and only Son of God. As a counselor myself, I am familiar with the concept of “reframing.” Basically, it means (among others) that when one wants to highlight the image, one also needs to consider the frame. A very good image set in an ugly frame would render the image less than the worth it deserves in the eyes of the be...

4 th Sunday of Advent – B December 21, 2014 DESIRE OF THE EVERLASTING HILLS I borrow the title of Thomas Cahill’s lovely prose and well-written “history” of Jesus of Nazareth. I like the title, first and foremost, for he speaks about Jesus having definitely made a difference in the long history of humankind. Even if recorded history, apart from the Bible, has precious little about him and details about his life and lineage, his coming or irrupting into human history definitely made a dent, for many, not just a few. We are among the many today whose lives were impacted by the one who was promised three thousand years ago by Nathan, the prophet: “I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm … Your house and your kingdom shall endure before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.” We are a people in waiting. We are a people, too, of the promise. We are filled with longing, wra...