Repentance: Note to Self and to Others

5th Sunday of Lent
Mar. 17, 2013
(Jn 8:1-11)

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area,
and all the people started coming to him,
and he sat down and taught them.
Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman
who had been caught in adultery
and made her stand in the middle.
They said to him,
“Teacher, this woman was caught
in the very act of committing adultery.
Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.
So what do you say?”
They said this to test him,
so that they could have some charge to bring against him.
Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.
But when they continued asking him,
he straightened up and said to them,
“Let the one among you who is without sin
be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Again he bent down and wrote on the ground.
And in response, they went away one by one,
beginning with the elders.
So he was left alone with the woman before him.
Then Jesus straightened up and said to her,
“Woman, where are they?
Has no one condemned you?”
She replied, “No one, sir.”
Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.
Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”

As the Lenten Season nears its close, the Gospel reminds us once again of the need to recognize our sinfulness and the need to return to God. The readings hint to the joy that comes from God. Isaiah tells us that the Lord is "doing something new". With the Psalmist, we proclaim that "The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy". St. Paul shares that "gaining Christ" is the supreme good. These readings before the Gospel anticipates the joy that awaits us in the days to come, when we will liturgically remember and celebrate the Paschal Mystery or the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus.

The Gospel presents to us the story of the reconciliation of the woman condemned by the Pharisees and scribes. With this, we are again reminded of the importance of reconciliation, of being aware of and sorry for our sins and coming back to God in the Sacrament of Confession.

The adulterous woman is lucky, if we think about it, because the scribes and Pharisees remind her of her sinfulness. But who reminds these people around her of their sinfulness? Good thing they all went to Jesus and He was able to remind them!

Telling someone that they have sinned is not per se wrong. What made it wrong in the context of today's Gospel story is the intention of the scribes and Pharisees. They pointed out the sin of the woman because they wanted to test Jesus. Our Lord, on the other hand, while acknowledging the sin of the woman, responds instead with mercy, forgiveness and an exhortation to sin no more.

As Christians, we are called to practice fraternal correction. When we are aware of others' sins, it is our duty to try and help them get up from their fall. There is a big difference between telling somebody that they are in sin in order to lead them to repentance and doing the same but with the intention of condemning and humiliating them. Ask any ethics expert and they'll agree: the intention makes a difference.

Inspired by Jesus' words in today's Gospel, we are reminded that even as we try to lead others into repentance, we must not forget to recognize our own sinfulness. This two-fold responsibility of admitting our own faults and correcting others is something that the Pharisees and scribes didn't practice.

Conversion is a journey, and we as a Church take this Lenten Season as an opportunity to advance in the journey towards Easter, towards death to sin and new life in Christ. St. Paul tells us our goal: "gaining Christ" and "possessing eternal life". Christ is thus our goal, and our companion as well. We take this journey of repentance and leading others to repentance, making ours God's desire for "everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4)."

Rejoice! He is Near!

3rd Sunday of Advent
Dec. 16, 2012
(Lk 3:10-18)

The crowds asked John the Baptist,
"What should we do?"
He said to them in reply,
"Whoever has two cloaks
should share with the person who has none.
And whoever has food should do likewise."
Even tax collectors came to be baptized and they said to him,
"Teacher, what should we do?"
He answered them,
"Stop collecting more than what is prescribed."
Soldiers also asked him,
"And what is it that we should do?"
He told them,
"Do not practice extortion,
do not falsely accuse anyone,
and be satisfied with your wages."

Now the people were filled with expectation,
and all were asking in their hearts
whether John might be the Christ.
John answered them all, saying,
"I am baptizing you with water,
but one mightier than I is coming.
I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor
and to gather the wheat into his barn,
but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."
Exhorting them in many other ways,
he preached good news to the people.

As St. John the Baptist continues his preaching, the people were filled with expectation, so our Gospel tells us. Indeed, the same feeling is ours now that we are nearing the Solemnity of the Lord’s Birth. The Church invites us today to rejoice as we celebrate Gaudete Sunday (“Rejoice” Sunday) in the midst of our Advent journey.

 

To rejoice is truly a Christian thing to do. St. Paul, in the Second Reading (Phil 4:4-7) urges the Philippians to rejoice always in the Lord and to show their kindness to all.

St. John the Baptist, on the other hand, in preparing the expectant people for Jesus’ public ministry, exhorts them to practice charity, to show love and concern for their neighbors and to always do what is just in their dealings with other people. St. John’s message applies to us today. As we wait for the Lord’s second coming and anticipate the joy of the Christmas celebration, we are reminded to take another look at how we relate to other people. In our love for our neighbor, we show our love for God and our deep longing for Him.

Our joy, of course, does not come exclusively from a life lived in love and justice, lest we fall into the error of believing that our joy comes only from what we do, from our own merit. After instructing the people, John the Baptist speaks about someone who will come after him – Jesus. It is Jesus who comes to us that give us true joy. “The Lord is near,” says St. Paul; that is why we are joyful! Being righteous is not the cause of our joy. We are joyful, rather, because of Jesus, Righteousness Himself, in whose example we follow.

In our Advent journey, we are again filled with joy because the Lord is indeed coming! May we find that true joy that comes only from Christ and not from Christmas decorations. Also, like John the Bapist, may we continue to point to Jesus, telling everyone that He brings salvation and joy to all. Thus shall peace, justice and love be our treasures not only for the coming Christmas season, but for the rest of our lives!

Joy and Repentance

2nd Sunday of Advent
Dec. 9, 2012
(Lk 3:1-6)

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,
when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea,
and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee,
and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region
of Ituraea and Trachonitis,
and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene,
during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas,
the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.
John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan,
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,
as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah:
A voice of one crying out in the desert:
"Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.
Every valley shall be filled
and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
The winding roads shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth,
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God."

John the Baptist is a key figure of the Advent Season. He was the herald of the Lord Jesus. His task was to prepare the people of Israel for the Lord's coming - for the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus. We are fortunate to have St. John the Baptist as a model in our Advent preparation. As he wanted to prepare the people of his time for Jesus' coming, we also wish to prepare ourselves now for the Lord's second coming. And hopefully, this Advent Season may remind us of the importance of always being prepared for the Lord's coming, whatever liturgical season it may be.

John the Baptist prepared the people for Jesus through a baptism of repentance. Truly, sin hinders our openness to God who is coming to us. So it was repentance that John called for so that the people of Israel would be ready and open to the message that Jesus was about to proclaim. Today the Church also calls us to repentance and conversion - our proper preparation for the "end of the world" or for the Lord's coming. For the Lord will come to judge us according to our faithfulness.

The words of Isaiah are echoed by John: "Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low." Yes, the Lord's coming demands such a radical change. The mountains and hills of sin and secular worries must be made low. They should be brought to level ground so that justice may reign in us. The valleys - the laziness and the refusal to follow God's law of love - should be filled in with charity, with virtues, and especially with the adherence to the beatitudes of Jesus. This is authentic repentance and conversion! We should not stop with mere sorrow for our sins and failures. We must come to Jesus in Confession and strive, through divine grace, to amend our lives, keeping the faith until He comes again.

We know that the Lord will be coming, yet we do not know when He will come. For all we know, He might come again during Ordinary Time! Therefore, the call to repentance, to turn away from sin and to practice charity is a call that we must answer everyday. We know that when Jesus comes, He will bring salvation to His faithful ones. Therefore, we must always remain faithful and as much as we can, with God's grace, never falter in our Christian living even for a moment. For all we know, that one moment when we become unfaithful might be the last moment we have.

True, Advent is a time of joyful expectation. But it is also true that it is a penitential season, though not as much as Lent is. We are joyful because we have that "blessed hope" that Jesus will surely come to bring us salvation. But we must also be repentant, mindful that Jesus will come as our Judge and Savior.

Vigilance of Faith

1st Sunday of Advent
Dec. 2, 2012
(Lk 21:25-28, 24-36)

Jesus said to his disciples:
"There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars,
and on earth nations will be in dismay,
perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves.
People will die of fright
in anticipation of what is coming upon the world,
for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
And then they will see the Son of Man
coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
But when these signs begin to happen,
stand erect and raise your heads
because your redemption is at hand.

"Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy
from carousing and drunkenness
and the anxieties of daily life,
and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.
For that day will assault everyone
who lives on the face of the earth.
Be vigilant at all times
and pray that you have the strength
to escape the tribulations that are imminent
and to stand before the Son of Man."

At the very beginning of our liturgical calendar, the Gospel reminds us of the end. People often sensationalize discussions about the end of the world. Some panic about it, saying that it is near; some want to find out when it will exactly be, through science. As Christians, should we not listen to what our Lord Jesus had to say about the ends times? Jesus reminds us in our Gospel today: "Stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand." This is the proper Christian response to the idea of the end of the world: a joyful expectation of the redemption that the Lord Jesus will fulfill in us. This is precisely what Advent is all about.

Advent, being a preparation for the Solemnity of Christmas, also leads us to reflect on the Lord's Second Coming, an event which we should be prepared for - always! This season, therefore, is not just a season of preparation. Advent is a reminder that preparation is necessary every day of our lives! For Jesus came and He will come again.

But again, Jesus reminds us of the kind of preparation we must make. He warns us not to embrace the pleasures of the world nor be too engrossed with the anxieties of daily life. We often struggle to get all that we want here on earth - pleasure, power, money and everything else we can get - and then to keep them for ourselves for as long as we want them. The prevalent idea is: "The world will end so we must do everything we want. We must achieve everything we can." As Christians, our idea is: "The world will end, so we cling to Him who does not end - God." Of course, Jesus does not want us to forget our duties. What Jesus wants is that we live here on earth with our minds and hearts ready for heaven - for eternity.

The proper preparation for the Lord's Coming is the keeping of our faith in Him. With the vigilance of faith, we continue to know, celebrate and obey God in our daily living, even as we await His Coming. When we live without faith, in sin or in apathy towards God, only then do we fear the end of the world, because we would have nothing to cling to. But when we strive to keep our faith and pray for the increase of our faith, we become more and more prepared to meet the Lord, and less afraid of the end of the world. We can only "stand erect" on that day if we know that we are ready to receive the fullness of redemption that Jesus brings.

As we begin the season of Advent, we light candles on the Advent wreath. The light of the candles increase gradually as we light one more candle every week, symbolizing that the light increases as our Lord comes. May that light also symbolize our faith, ever alive and ever increasing, through God's grace!

Present In Us and Through Us

Solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord May 20, 2012 (Mk 16:15-20)

He said to them, "Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. They will pick up serpents with their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." 

So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God. But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Lord's Ascension. After appearing to His disciples during forty days after His resurrection, Jesus finally ascends, returning to the Father and taking His seat at God's right hand. But before He ascended, Jesus commissioned His disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all, assuring them that great signs will accompany them as He Himself will work with them.

The Lord's Ascension marks the end of His physical presence here on earth. But His presence does not end there. He continues to be with His Church; He is present in the community of those who believe in Him. And He wills that this community of believers grow in number. Jesus is present in every place where His Word is preached. He is present where His believers are. He is present in us. And because of His presence, we, His believers experience signs and wonders as a confirmation that Jesus is working in us.

Since we have become members of the community of believers who enjoy the special presence of Jesus, we also inherit the commandment that our Lord gave His disciples: "Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature." As Jesus' disciples, it is our duty to spread the Word of God in everything we say and do. We must not speak nor act in a way that opposes the Word. Jesus is present in us. Therefore, we must also make Jesus present to others through us, in our words and deeds. By a faithful witnessing to the Word, we can make the people around us disciples of Jesus.

In Jesus' Ascension, we Christians draw hope and strength as we continue to obey His mandate to evangelize. As we live our faith and share the same faith to others, we are assured that the Christian way of life leads to heaven because Christ already went before us. As true Christians, our goals in life go far beyond worldly achievements, beyond a good career and even beyond earning a great deal of money. Our Solemnity today reminds us to look up to heaven as the disciples did. To be with Jesus in heaven is our ultimate goal as Christians.

As we celebrate the Solemnity of the Lord's Ascension into heaven, may we strive to be obedient to the Lord's command of evangelizing in everything we do, assured of Jesus' abiding presence and hopeful that we may one day merit to be in heaven with Him and with the people we have evangelized. May the Lord be present in us and through us!

Connected to Jesus

5th Sunday of Easter May 6, 2012 (Jn 15:1-8)

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

Connection is very important in our daily lives. "No man is an island," the saying goes. We need to connect with the people who matter to us. We want to be connected to people who can do favors for us. This need to connect explains why social networking sites such as facebook and twitter have been widely accepted.

Jesus, in our Gospel today, compares Himself to a vine to which we, the branches are connected. The Father, He says, is the vine grower who prunes us and expects us to bear fruit. We are connected to Jesus because of our faith in Him. Obviously, a branch cut off from the vine will surely die. Jesus' metaphor thus conveys powerful messages about our relationship with Him: "If we are cut off from Jesus, we cannot bear fruit," and "If we do not bear fruit, we might as well be cut off from Jesus."

In our modern times, when we busy ourselves in connecting to people for many different reasons, there is a danger that we might lose our connection to Christ. Faith in Him is now challenged by so many things around us that invite us to connect to them instead. But it is clear that we cannot live apart from Christ. We can do nothing without Him as our source of strength. We must always be connected to Him.

Nevertheless, our connectedness to Jesus must not be stagnant. No matter how strong our faith in Him is, it is dead if it doesn't bear fruit. Bearing fruit means doing good works arising from one's faith. In the level of the community, bearing fruit means growing in number as the witnessing of the community attracts others to also connect themselves to Christ. True connectedness to Jesus always entails bearing good fruit.

The Father, our vine grower prunes us in order to help us bear fruit. But we must submit to His pruning. Jesus tells us that His Word is one way by which we become pruned. Through the Word of God, we can little by little prune away the things in our lives that hinder us from bearing good fruit. But we must let this Word transform us. We must not simply hear the Words of Jesus, we must heed them.

Jesus also speaks to us in the events of our daily lives. It doesn't matter if our experiences are joyful or sad. What matters is that we are able to get the message Jesus is trying to tell us in everything that happens to us. And when we heed these lessons, we become more connected to Christ and we can bear more fruit.

As we continue rejoicing in the Season of Easter, may we not forget our connectedness to Christ and our responsibility to bear fruit. Jesus continues to give us life for He is the vine and we are the branches. May we rejoice in this life He gives and may we bear fruit through it!

Good Sheep of the Good Shepherd

4th Sunday of Easter April 29, 2012 (Jn 10:11-18)

I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.

I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father."

Jesus uses the image of a good and loving shepherd to demonstrate His relationship with us, His followers. He tells us that He is the Good Shepherd who loves each of His sheep, that is, each of us. He is ready to lay down His life for His sheep - for us. He is divine but is willing to die for mankind. Such is Jesus' love and care for us.

As our Divine Shepherd, Jesus leads us to the Kingdom of the Father, where we will find verdant pastures and restful waters (cf. Ps 23:2). He offers us not just guidance, but loving guidance. He guides us in our life journey because He cares for us so much and He doesn't want any of us to be lost. He desires all men to be saved (cf. 1 Tim 2:4).

Jesus' love for mankind is the reason why His Church is Catholic or universal. His love reaches out beyond His circle of followers and even beyond the Jewish nation. His love is for all. It is even for those who haven't yet heard of Him nor believed in Him. It is also for those who persecute Him, as we clearly see in St. Paul's story. Jesus loves those sheep who haven't entered His fold yet. Truly, Jesus' great love for the human race is magnificent and all-embracing!

The great love and care that our Good Shepherd has for us calls us to respond in faith and obedience. If we truly believe that Jesus is our Good Shepherd, then we will let Him lead us. As good sheep, we must follow the Good Shepherd and faithfully listen to His voice always. In times of trouble, we often feel that Jesus has abandoned us. But probably we only felt that Jesus was absent because we were too busy listening to other voices or to our own convictions. As good sheep, we cannot journey on our own. Being successful in our journey entails entrusting ourselves to Jesus, our shepherd. He is always there because our Good Shepherd never leaves His flock. But we must always keep close to Him.

Today, as we reflect on the great love of Jesus who laid down His life for His sheep, we also join the whole flock of Christ in praying for vocations. Inspired by the Good Shepherd's love, may young people courageously answer God's call for them to serve in the priestly or religious life. And may those who are not called to this service continue to live out their vocation as Christians in whatever state of life they are in.

May we continue our journey towards verdant pastures as good sheep of the Good Shepherd!