PAN DE LA SEMANA

Catholic Homily/Sunday Reflection for the 33rd Sunday of Year C OF SET-UPS, UPSETS, AND RESETS By Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB Last week, we alluded to the importance and necessity of having perspective. To have perspective is to have a frame on which to set a picture, a ground on which to locate a seemingly smaller reality. To have perspective is to be endowed with a point of view, to see the bigger picture, as it were, and not to miss the bigger forest for just a few trees. The seven brothers and their heroic mother of last week’s first reading, definitely had perspective. That perspective of faith in the resurrection was what gave them the courage, the strength, and the endurance to withstand a painful and cruel – grisly – death. On that score, the Sadducees, disbelieving as they were, of the resurrection, lacked the necessary perspective to see beyond earthly existence. Their ridiculous – if, impossible – scenario in the impertinent question posed to the Lord, betrayed their utter lack...

Catholic Homily/Reflection on the 32nd Sunday of Year C November 11, 2007 A “WHY” TO HELP US DEAL WITH THE “HOW” Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB Gruesome, if not grisly, is an apt word to describe the “how” of today’s report on the death of seven brothers (1st Reading), along with their mother. But today’s first reading is to be seen, not in the light of even more gruesome “reality TV” shows and telenovelas that are a collective case of “art imitating life.” Seen against the backdrop of the almost daily reports of some suicide bomber and terrorist-inspired explosion that instill immense fear to countless numbers of people all over the world, the horrific deaths suffered by the seven heroic brothers (and their even more heroic mother) can perhaps occasion, at best, a passive shrug from a desensitized people such as we all are, … (“So, what else is new?” is what me might be tempted to ask), or at worst, a plain indifferent stare of unchristian – and, uncaring – resignation. But we would be mis...

Catholic Homily/Reflection 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C By Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB SPARING ALL, SEEKING ALL, SAVING ALL Zacchaeus sure had everything going for him … money, power, influence … Whatever it took to sway people to his side, he had it … like the mysterious funds that flow every time there are elections in the Philippines, (and elsewhere), whether national or local (as indeed, we had, a few days ago). Zacchaeus was a man in search. He sought money and found it – with a little help from what every notorious tax-collector in Jesus’ times would do – pad the receipts sort of, or its ancient equivalent. He sought the famous wonder-worker and almost did not find him … had he not exalted himself up on a sycamore tree. Zacchaeus sure is one man who knew how to get what he wanted. A man of means, he found out in no time the means to see the itinerant preacher and miracle-worker. But instead of the searcher finding, it became a case of the seeker being found. Instead of the ...

Catholic Homily/Reflection for the 30th Sunday, Year C October 28, 2007 Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB I know the title sounds very much like an oxymoron. How can one be humble and boast? Or how can one boast and still be humble? This is a classical battle of opposites at its worst; a paradoxical tension of two seemingly irreconcilable realities, at its best. As a teacher, the Lord does not fail to surprise us. As a prophet, He continues to shock us. As king, He continues to lead His people to the “less traveled path” in the journey of faith. God’s Word, to the attentive and reflective reader (and hearer), continues to convict us. The Church, Christ’s mystical Body, in her ministry like unto that of Christ priest, prophet, and king, continues to amaze us and rouse us to ever new and “fresh readings” of the same Word, which is her duty to preach and proclaim, in season and out of season. Today’s proclamation puts us in the midst of the proverbial Scriptural paradox, not unlike that of so many...

Catholic Homily/Reflection 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C October 21, 2007 Today’s readings remind me of people who know what they want, who know that what they want is good for them, and who also know that what they want as something ultimately good for them, is worth waiting patiently for, praying fervently for, and working feverishly for. Where I come from, people have the utmost respect and reverence for farmers. I am one of those who look up to them with awe. My father was an accountant by profession, but a farmer by vocation. He loved to plant. He loved to till the soil and be close to nature. He began planting coffee trees at age 11, together with his even younger brother who eventually died as a boy of something that, by today’s medical standards, could easily have been cured. He knew what he wanted. He knew that what he wanted was good for his future (and ours!). And he worked for what he wanted with utmost dedication, commitment, and perseverance. For me, on account pr...

Catholic Homily/Reflection 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C Alternative Reflection. What follows is an old one. The fresh version is found in my latest posting above. Four Sundays back, Luke’s Gospel had us speak about the unjust steward who was cunning, wily, and whose prudent ways led him to selfishly prepare for his own future. Today, Luke would have us consider the figure of an unjust judge who capitulates to the importunings of a widow in need. These are story stuff that merit a second look from story-starved writers of “telenovelas ” (soap operas) known now in the Philippines as “teleseryes.” Yes, there is unfolding drama in the parables of the Lord. Parables are basically stories, but, used skillfully by the master story-teller and teacher that Jesus was, are more than just bedtime stories to tuck children in bed with. No, parables were meant to disturb; they were meant to be so surprising as to catch people off guard, as to make hearers gasp in disbelief, and react e...

Homily/Reflection for the 28th Sunday - Year C October 14, 2007 Today, the readings speak about something totally unexpected, something unpredictable, and utterly surprising from all points of view. Naaman, a foreigner, a non-Jew, and a non-believer, is healed of his dermatological problems of depressing and alienating proportions (1st Reading). What makes it surprising is that a foreigner is deigned worthy of being healed by God. What makes the story unexpected is that he, a man of means and a man of influence “went down and plunged himself into the Jordan seven times,” – a possible allusion both to embracing humility, and doing as he is instructed by Elisha, that is, physically going down the waters of the Jordan. What makes it unpredictable is the total and complete turn-around of somebody who was not expected to believe and embrace the faith of Elisha and all those the prophet stood for. Naaman’s story is a story of reversals par excellence. The Gospel story, too, is one whose ele...