Religion

I try to read the parable of the mustard seed and the yeast (see Mt 13:31-35) in the light of my reflection on the Word of God yesterday, I mean, in the light of the growth of my relationship with God.
"The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in a field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the 'birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.' (…) "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened."
In baptism, the seed of faith was planted in my heart. But it didn’t remain a seed, it has grown to the point that my relationship with God became central to my life and a determining factor on how I would like to live the rest of my life. It is now a tree which “covers” all the areas of my life – my dreams, my actions, my hopes, my relationships. It is the one that gives direction, taste and meaning to my life. I guess that in the end, this is what we mean by being “religious” – it’s not so much belonging to this or that institution but seeing to it that one’s life is “linked intimately” to the Creator, and in so doing, also undertands the connections among all creatures and the whole of creation.
I’d like to deepen this thought with a poem from Kahlil Gibran:
And an old priest said, 'Speak to us of Religion.'

And he said: Have I spoken this day of aught else?

Is not religion all deeds and all reflection,

And that which is neither deed nor reflection,

but a wonder and a surprise ever springing in the soul,

even while the hands hew the stone or tend the loom?

Who can separate his faith from his actions,

or his belief from his occupations?

Who can spread his hours before him, saying,

'This for God and this for myself;

This for my soul, and this other for my body?'

All your hours are wings that beat through space from self to self.

He who wears his morality but as his best garment were better naked.

The wind and the sun will tear no holes in his skin.

And he who defines his conduct by ethics imprisons his song-bird in a cage.

The freest song comes not through bars and wires.

And he to whom worshipping is a window, to open but also to shut,

has not yet visited the house of his soul whose windows are from dawn to dawn.

Your daily life is your temple and your religion.

Whenever you enter into it take with you your all.

Take the plough and the forge and the mallet and the lute,

The things you have fashioned in necessity or for delight.

For in revery you cannot rise above your achievements nor fall lower than your failures.

And take with you all men:

For in adoration you cannot fly higher than their hopes

nor humble yourself lower than their despair.

And if you would know God be not therefore a solver of riddles.

Rather look about you and you shall see Him playing with your children.

And look into space; you shall see Him walking in the cloud,

outstretching His arms in the lightning and descending in rain.

You shall see Him smiling in flowers, then rising and waving His hands in trees.

Prayer

How far could one bargain with God? In the first reading of today’s liturgy, Abraham had courage to go from 50 to 10 (cf Gn 18:20-21,30-34) but wouldn’t go any further. Jesus in the gospel encourages us to stretch the limits because in God, we have a father (mother) and a friend. (cf Lk:11:1-13)
But I guess there’s the “hitch” – our relationship with God or our faith in him, for that matter, has not usually reached that point of maturity: we don’t usually consider him a father (mother) nor a friend. God is simply a judge – giving rewards if we “follow the commandments” or punishing if we don’t do “our homework.”
Come to think of it, the development of our prayer life is really based on how our image of God has developed or has been transformed through time. In the end, prayer is actually much more than “asking.” It goes further – it is first and foremost a relationship, an intimate conversation, a dialogue. And in the more mature dimension, it is complete identification, it is “being one” with the Beloved.
A poem by Kahlil Gibran expresses this very well:
Then a priestess said, 'Speak to us of Prayer.'
And he answered, saying: You pray in your distress and in your need;
would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.
For what is prayer but the expansion of yourself into the living ether?
And if it is for your comfort to pour your darkness into space,
it is also for your delight to pour forth the dawning of your heart.
And if you cannot but weep when your soul summons you to prayer,
she should spur you again and yet again, though weeping, until you shall come laughing.
When you pray you rise to meet in the air those who are praying at that very hour,
and whom save in prayer you may not meet.
Therefore let your visit to that temple invisible be for naught but ecstasy and sweet communion.
For if you should enter the temple for no other purpose than asking you shall not receive.
And if you should enter into it to humble yourself you shall not be lifted:
Or even if you should enter into it to beg for the good of others you shall not be heard.
It is enough that you enter the temple invisible.
I cannot teach you how to pray in words.
God listens not to your words save when He Himself utters them through your lips.
And I cannot teach you the prayer of the seas and the forests and the mountains.
But you who are born of the mountains and the forests and the seas can find their prayer in your heart,
And if you but listen in the stillness of the night you shall hear them saying in silence,
'Our God, who art our winged self, it is thy will in us that willeth.
It is thy desire in us that desireth.

It is thy urge in us that would turn our nights, which are thine, into days which are thine also.
We cannot ask thee for aught, for thou knowest our needs before they are born in us:
Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all.'

Gospel puzzle

Since yesterday, I have been reflecting on Jesus’ enigmatic answer to his disciples’ question: "Why do you speak to them in parables? " (Mt 13:10) His answer goes like this: "Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted.” And the enigma follows, “To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”
Some say the “it” must be “faith”: the one who “has faith” in the first place will receive more, while the one who has “no faith” even the little he or she has will be taken away.
Be that as it may, I feel I need to continue my exploration and I found that the Word of God today seems to give me the hint for a possible answer (actually the continuation of the gospel above, cf Mt 13:19-23). “The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the kingdom without understanding it, and the evil one comes and steals away what was sown in his heart. The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy. But he has no root and lasts only for a time. When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away. The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word, but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word and it bears no fruit. But the seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold."
The basic thing in all these types of soil (disciples?) is the capacity to hear the word. True, there is a basic difference among the types of soil (this is the lovely thing about the parables – they stimulate your imagination bringing to mind reality) – the path, the rocky ground, the thorny soil, the rich soil. That is equivalent to saying that we, disciples of Jesus, have very different personalities and approaches to reality. All of us are capable of “receiving the seed” or listening to the Word, but not all have the same capacity to understand. Hence to anyone who has more of this capacity to understand, more will be given to learn about and live in Jesus.
The gift and the task of understanding then, beginning from attentive listening, seems to be the answer to my search. This is about all we can do from our side to let our spiritual life grow. God will help us to do the rest.
At this point, I recall Bernard Lonergan, a Canadian Jesuit philosopher and theologian who developed a whole system of how we humans could possibly grow in understanding what we know (beginning from experience), deciding on our actions on the basis of what we know, and making it a “habit” to do good, allowing ourselves to be transformed into the Love that has known us and that allows us to know him. I guess that would be the equivalent of "bearing fruit and yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty."
His works are not easy reading though. Here is one quote from him which calls to mind Jesus’ parable today: "The seed of intellectual curiosity has to grow into a rugged tree to hold its own against the desires and fears, conations and appetites, drives and interests, that inhabit the heart of man." Insight (310 [285]).

Saints Joachim and Anne

Today’s liturgical memorial is a rare one: instead of the usual solitary saint, we have a husband and wife, Saints Joachim and Anne, parents of Mary, hence grandparents of Jesus. They are presented by the Church as model for Christian spouses and parents. The Sacred Scriptures do not even mention them but some stories of them are told in the Protoevangelium of James. Here’s one example:
“Joachim is said to have been born at Nazareth and married Anne when he was still a young man. He was a rich farmer who possessed great herds. Because they had no children for many years, Joachim was publicly mocked--to be childless was considered a punishment for unworthiness. One day the Temple priest even refused Joachim's offering of a lamb. In a last prayer for a child, he withdrew to the desert and fasted for forty days.
Anne's father is said to have been a nomadic Jew named Akar, who brought his wife to Nazareth for their daughter's birth. Anne, too, after her marriage to Joachim, was saddened that God had not blessed them with children. She would weep and pray for God to answer her prayer. One day as she was praying beneath a laurel tree feeling that even Joachim had abandoned her (he was in the desert), an angel is said to have told her that God had heard her prayers. She would have a child who would be praised throughout the world. Anne replied, "As my God lives, if I should conceive either a boy or a girl, the child shall be a gift to my God, serving Him in holiness throughout the whole of its life."
Then the angel told her to run and meet her husband, who in obedience to another angel, was returning with his herds. They met by the Golden Gate and from that time Anne prepared for the blessed event. Saint Anne gave birth to Mary when she was about 40. It is said that Anne kept her promise and placed Mary in the service of God at the Temple when she was but three years old. According to tradition, she and Joachim lived to see the birth of Jesus and Joachim died just after seeing his divine grandchild presented in the Temple at Jerusalem, and was buried in Jerusalem.”
For more on these saints, you can click here.
The alternative reading in the liturgy praises them in these words from the Book of Sirach. "Now will I praise those godly men, our ancestors, each in his own time. These also were godly men whose virtues have not been forgotten. Their wealth remains in their families, their heritage with their descendants. Through God's covenant with them their family endures, their posterity, for their sake. And for all time their progeny will endure, their glory will never be blotted out. Their bodies are peacefully laid away, but their name lives on and on. At gatherings their wisdom is retold, and the assembly proclaims their praise." (Sir 44:1, 10-15)
For our prayers today, we can ask their intercession for the needs of grandparents, parents and spouses awaiting the birth of their children.

Saint James the Greater

Today is the feast of one of Jesus' best friends, St. James (Giacomo in Italian, Santiago or Tiago in Spanish, Jacques in French, Seamus in Irish, Jacobus in Latin). This James was called “the Greater” to distinguish him from another apostle, also called James, son of Alphaeus. Then, the early Christian church had another James, relative of Jesus, who became an elder of the Church in Jerusalem (see Mk 6,3 and Gal 1,19).

This James was also the brother of John, known in tradition as the Beloved disciple. In this regard, I’ve always wondered how James felt that his brother seemed to be Jesus’ favorite. On the other hand, I imagined that he enjoyed it himself for that could also mean some kind of “reflected glory.” These two brothers, in fact, had a difficult time understanding the teaching of the Master. We see this in the Gospel of today (Mt 20:20-28 or preferably the more original version in Mk 10:35-41). Here they were shown to be such ambitious men asking the assurance of a special place from Jesus: "Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left." Jesus had to use much patience with them and had to be very explicit: "You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?"
The “cup” refers to our Lord’s passion. And it is believed that St. James had really the chance to drink it ahead of all the others since he was the first apostle to be martyred. Acts 12:1 tells us that King Herod Agrippa I had him killed with a sword in an early persecution of the Church. There is a story that the man who arrested James became a convert after hearing James speak at his trial and was executed with him.
Through the intercession of St. James, I’d like to ask the Lord for the gift of PATIENCE in times of trials and contradictions. And maybe I should also ask him to intercede for all the pilgrims, the laborers and all the Spaniards. Legends have sprung up that James evangelized Spain before he died but these stories have no basis in historical fact. At any rate, his relics remained there (Santiago de Compostela) and this led to his patronage of the country and all things Spanish. It was believed that for centuries, the Spanish army rode to battle with the cry "Santiago!"

March of the Penguins

Tormented by the scorching heat yesterday here in Rome, I tried to use my imagination how to “refresh” myself towards evening. I switched on to the virtual mode and searched where on earth would be a little cooler. Among the piles of DVD’s in our recreation room, I found the March of the Penguins, 1995 Academy award-winning documentary, filmed in Antarctica!
Perhaps it was the power of my imagination affecting my body, but towards the middle of this lovely film, I told the sister beside me, “I feel cold already!”
Joking aside, I found it not only very informative but a very contemplative film. I appreciated how, through the camera, the film “allows” the viewer to “caress” the beautiful feather of this unique bird, to get involved in the intimate love dance of the penguin couple, as well as in their arduous attempts to keep their chick alive.
At this point, it is very tempting to make some comparisons between the penguin’s “parental instinct” and that of humans. I’ll resist that, for fear of doing injustice to these two species, one way or the other.
I just asked myself this morning during meditation time what remained with me after watching this film. Two things: first, sentiments of praise for the Creator – for the care for the minutest detail in “programming” the life and the continuity of this species. The Biblical text that comes to me reflecting on this is from Lk 12:6 – “Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins? Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God.” The second thing is a seemingly insignificant comment during one of the marches of the penguins. It says, “the solitary one is condemned to death.” Didn’t poet John Donne once said a similar thing, though worded differently: “No man (woman) is an island...”
For my Filipino readers, here’s one interesting information about this film which I found in Wikipedia:
The Tagalog version is narrated by actress Sharon Cuneta; it was entitled Penguin, Penguin, Paano Ka Ginawa? (English: "Penguin, Penguin, How Were You Made?") with the English title as the subtitle; this may be an allusion to a Philippine novel and movie, Bata, Bata, Paano Ka Ginawa? (English: "Child, Child, How Were You Made?")

Jesus' friends

Below is the reflection of Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa on tomorrow’s Gospel reading (Luke 10:38-42), a beautiful one on friendship, taken from the issue of zenit yesterday.
"Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha was burdened with much serving."
The village is Bethany and the house is that of Lazarus and his two sisters. Jesus loved to stop there and take some rest when he was traveling near Jerusalem. Mary was stupefied that for once she had the master all to herself and could listen in silence to the words of eternal life that he spoke when he was taking his rest. So she sat there at his feet, as is still done today in the East. It is not difficult to imagine Martha's half-resentful, half-joking tone when, passing by them, she says to Jesus: "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me."
It was at this point that Jesus said something that by itself is a mini Gospel: "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her."

The tradition has seen in the sisters a symbol of the active and the contemplative life respectively; the liturgy with the choice of the first reading (Abraham who welcomes the three angels at the terebinth of Mamre) shows an example of hospitality in the episode. I think, however, that the more evident theme is that of friendship.

"Jesus loved Martha, together with her sister and Lazarus," we read in John's Gospel (11:5).

When they bring him the news of Lazarus' death he says to his disciples: "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep but I am going to wake him up" (John 11:11).

Faced with the sorrow of the two sisters he also breaks down and weeps, so much so that those who are present exclaim: "See how much he loved him!" (John 11:13).

It is wonderful and consoling to know that Jesus knew and cultivated that sentiment that is so beautiful and precious for us men -- friendship.

Of friendship we must say what St. Augustine said of time: "I know what time is but if someone asks me to explain it, I no longer know what it is." In other words, it is easier to intuit what friendship is than to explain it in words. It is a mutual attraction and deep understanding between two people, but it does not have a sexual component as does conjugal love. It is a union of two souls, not two bodies. In this sense the ancients said that friendship is to have "one soul in two bodies." It can be a stronger bond than that of family. Family consists in having the same blood in one's veins. In friendship one has the same tastes, ideals, interests.

It is essential to friendship that it is founded on a common search for the good and the true. That which binds people who get together to do evil is not friendship but complicity, it is "an association that corrupts," as is said in judicial jargon.

Friendship is also different from love of neighbor. The latter must embrace everyone, even those who do not return it, even enemies, while friendship demands reciprocity, that is, that the other corresponds to your love.

Friendship is nourished by confidences, that is, by the fact that I confide in another that which is deepest and most personal in my thoughts and experiences.

Sometimes I say to young people: Do you want to find out who your true friends are and rank them? Try to remember what have been the most secret experiences of your life -- positive or negative -- and ask yourself to whom you confided them: those are your true friends. And if there is something in your life, so deep and you have revealed it to one person only, that person is your best friend.

The Bible is full of praise of friendship. "A faithful friend is a strong support; whoever finds one has found a treasure" (Sirach 6:14ff.). The proof of friendship is fidelity.According to a popular saying, "When the money goes, friends go." True friendship does not fade at the friend's first problem. We know who our true friend is during the time of trial. History is full of great friendships that have been immortalized in literature. But the history of Christian sanctity also knows examples of famous friendships.A delicate problem with friendship is whether it is possible once one is married. It is not said that one must completely cut off all the friendships one has cultivated before getting married but there must be a rearrangement if the newlyweds are not to experience difficulties and crises.

The surest friendships are those that a couple cultivates together. Among those friendships that are cultivated separately those with persons of the same sex create fewer problems than those with persons of the opposite sex.

Often in these cases the presumption that one is above all suspicion and danger is punished. Films with titles like "My Best Friend's Bride" [Ed.N. Father Cantalamessa refers to the Italian translation given to the title of the movie "My Best Friend's Wedding"] speak volumes about the problem, but apart from this extreme they also create serious practical problems. You cannot go out with friends every night leaving the other (usually the wife!) alone at home.

For consecrated persons, the more certain friendships are those that are shared with the whole community. In talking about Lazarus, Jesus does not say "my friend Lazarus" but "our friend Lazarus." Lazarus and the sisters became friends of the apostles too according to the well-known principle, "My friends' friends are my friends." This is how the great friendships were between some saints -- the one between Francis of Assisi and Clare, for example. Francis is the brother and father of all the sisters; Clare is the sister and mother of all the brothers."

Good Samaritan - LIVE!

I’d like to share here the experience of Sr. M. Necitas, one of our three PDDM missionaries in Hong Kong. Her reflection confirms my faith that if we only pay more attention to our lived experience, we would sense that the Lord is there talking and walking with us all along the way.
“Last Sunday I was asked to give a sharing (homily) during the English Eucharistic celebration in St. Vincent parish. The parish priest is a Belgian CICM and the pastoral workers are the ICM sisters. The Legionaries here are the regular beneficiaries of my liturgical-spiritual formation. The Church was full; there were around 300 persons present, including many Europeans - Belgians, Britons, persons from other parts of Europe. There were also Chinese from abroad coming home and more than half were Filipino residents and Overseas Filipino workers (OFW).

For myself I was moved by how the Lord was working on me in the process. The fact was I was not so disposed to giving the homily and could not concentrate on the preparation during the week. I was still a bit shocked of the news of Sr. Luz condition (another member of the community) whom I accompanied in Caritas Hospital and consoled as she faced the operation after being diagnosed with cancer. That Saturday came as my last chance to prepare. I did not go to the usual Lectio Divina session at the park and just tried to concentrate on the homily preparation. Then I went to visit Ma. Luz. Just when I came back at around 1:30 pm the phone rang. It was the Mother of an OFW whom I have known in our Church. She was bringing her daughter to the hospital, another OFW, 5 months pregnant and with a big lump in her breast extending to her armpit. She told me: “Sister we have no one with us.” I told her, “I could not go with you, I have another urgent work now.” But then I was bothered after that, thinking of the subject of the homily: the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:25-37)!!. So I called back telling them I’d be there. I needed still to do some errands and iron my habit. By the time I finished and was about to leave the phone rang. They told me they were already okay. I felt at peace.
That evening I still had nothing clear in my mind. I just asked the Lord to let me sleep so I could have a good mind and fresh thoughts tomorrow. I could hardly believe it - I woke up at 5 am and ideas just flowed! At 7:30 I had everything in my heart. I just entrusted everything to the Lord.
As I ended the homily, the clapping of hands just came like a flowing water. God took over in my time of powerlessness. I have seen how people were all eyes and ears to the flow of words the Lord put in my lips, even foreigners were taking notes on the points stressed. After the Mass, a Belgian educator and principal of an International school told me that the 3 points stressed constitute as the soul of her vision and mission for the school she heads.
Here are the 3 points on the Good Samaritan (GS): at every point I gave concrete stories of my life which I prefer not to write here.
LISTEN - this is the key attitude invoked in the first reading in regard to the Law, listen to and live the commandments... (see Dt 30:10-14). The disciples are among those who “hear what they hear”and “see what they see.” This is concretized by the GS, and by Mary of Bethany in the text that follows (Lk 10:38-42). The model for this listening is above all Jesus' listening to the Father and his acting on God’s will.

RECONCILE, HEAL -The GS is a minister of reconciliation and healing in his unconditional love to people hostile to him. He moved on and made himself the disadvantaged in many ways as the text indicates.

EMBRACE - If we follow the moving gestures of the GS: how He used his own provision of oil and wine forthe travel, how he tore his shirt, bandaged the wounded man, lifted him up to the body of the beast, walked the way, not riding on horse back, brought the wounded to the inn, cared for him that night, paid with his money, risked his name as he vouched for the debt incurred for whatever the wounded man would need.
In the end, I brought home the point: such is the living symbol of what God has done for us! He embraced our humanity and made himself Saviour to us. God, in Jesus, is actually the Good Samaritan. And we are called to be such, a neighbor to the other. In the parable, Jesus subtly changed the focus to his interest. Neighbor is SUBJECT for Jesus, not object as the Lawyer perceived.

I ended the homily with my lived experience of that Saturday. Who is my neighbor? She was the needy woman who came to me at a time I was distraught and not ready to help. But the Word of the Lord “changed me…”

We need to develop a discerning heart so we may be able to find God in everything especially in the unexpected... The challenge then is “do we listen to the call of God in our day to day life?” - SR. MARY NECITAS, PDDM

New Evangelization

New evangelization is a “must” in our world today, hence it’s good news when every now and then, I see someone uses his/her imagination to the full to let people question again about the presence of God.

Let me start with one of the latest "creations" in the European continent. Yesterday, I came across a vignette in one of my favorite magazines The Tablet. It reports: “The model of Noah’s Ark is an evangelizing strategy of contractor Johan Huibers, who built it after dreaming that God wanted him to do so to share his faith with others. Since its completion in April in a village north of Amsterdam, the ark has attracted extensive media coverage and some 30,000 tourists. The ark’s dimensions – 70m long, 13.5m high and 9.5m wide – are about half the size of the 300-cubit-long-ship described in Genesis. But the cavernous hold is large enough to fit several life-sized models of the giraffes, elephants, zebras, lions and other animals. It also holds a 50-seat theatre for children to watch the segment of the Walt Disney film Fantasia telling the story of the flood. “I want to show people what the ark looked like to make the story more tangible,” said Huibers. “When people who don’t believe in God see the ark, they have many questions.” (July 7 issue, p. 15)

Now, here's a true story from the US about a modern day disciple who followed our Lord Jesus’ injunction to visit the prisoner. This was published in the Christianity Today.

And on a smaller “family scale” here’s a video clip of my 3-year old niece proclaiming the greatness of God in the things he has created – big and small! If you want to view this, click here (don't forget to put your audio on)!

Cross-questioning...

Question 1 : "Who is my neighbor?"
Answer (actually question 2): Which (of these three), do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?"
How does Jesus educate? He re-phrases our questions. He teaches us to ask the right question. He doesn’t answer questions directly, he rather corrects the question and hence changes the perspective. In the Gospel today (Lk 10:25-37), he subtly says that the question is not “who is my neighbor” but “how can I be a neighbor…”
The relationship does not begin “from the outside” but “from the inside,” from me. On the other hand, if you go very deeply into the discussion and concentrates on Jesus and everything he has done, you could also say it begins “from the outside” – that is, from the First One who showed you how to become neighbor. And so the chain of relationships continue...
Crossings commentary for today puts it this way: Having been loved by the ultimate Neighbor, our hearts begin to want to know better the One who makes it possible: Christ. And then, knowing Christ, we find ourselves taking to the road, looking for neighbors to love. We are no longer inclined to pass by on the other side (antiparelthen) as the priest and Levite did, but rather to cross over to them (proselthon) with Samaritan-like commitment to serve. We grasp Jesus' creative reframing of the lawyer's question, meant to show us that it's not so much about finding a neighbor worthy of love, as being a neighbor who loves.

I’ve been graced with two real witnesses of “neighborliness” yesterday and today. The first one is my fellow sister in Hongkong who just had a mastectomy due to carcinoma. Talking to her over the phone yesterday, I gathered how much the experience touched her. We talked about vulnerability, readiness to die, even citing the book Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom which she used for her book report in her Clinical Pastoral Education early this year. In a very “neighborly” way, she told me the significance of her present illness. I quote, “This is very useful for me in understanding the patients I meet every day in my ministry. Last month I was assigned in the department of terminally ill cancer patients. Now I can better understand their stories.”
The second witness is a young Filipino priest assigned here in Rome. Yesterday he brought with him a young Korean deacon doing his biblical studies here. They concelebrated in the Eucharistic celebration and he gave way to the deacon to preach the homily. Today he did the same as he went early for Sunday Mass in another religious community nearby.
I asked him, “why do you do it?” “Because he needs to exercise his homiletic skills,” he said. “And the other confreres wouldn’t want to bring our new deacons with them,” he continued. I thanked him for his care for the younger members, and especially for his patience. And very humbly he said, “It’s nothing. Many people are exercising the same patience with me too.”

Motu Proprio Debate

The newsflash yesterday from Inside the Vatican (ITV) presented the response - letter from Bishop Bernard Fellay, the head of the Society of St. Pius X, - to the motu proprio published by Pope Benedict XVI on the 7th of July. ITV noted that Fellay's remarks are marked by caution, opening his message with thanks to the Holy Father, but then immediately making this main point: that he is cautious about this document because he feels the great battle over the liturgy still lies ahead, and depends in considerable measure on the attitude and decisions of many bishops around the world who have not yet made clear their own positions. Here is an excerpt of the letter, which you could find in its entirety here.

The letter accompanying the Motu Proprio gives the pope’s reasons. The affirmation of the existence of one single rite under two forms -- the ordinary and the extraordinary forms -- of equal right, and especially the rejection of the exclusive celebration of the traditional liturgy, may, it is true, be interpreted as the expression of a political desire not to confront the Bishops’ Conferences which are openly opposed to any liberalization of the Tridentine Mass. But we may also see in this an expression of the "reform of the reform" desired by the pope himself, and in which, as he himself writes in this letter, the Mass of Saint Pius V and that of Paul VI would mutually enrich one another.
In any event, there is in Benedict XVI the clear desire to re-affirm the continuity of Vatican II and the Mass which issued from it, with the bi-millennial Tradition. This denial of a rupture caused by the last council -- already shown in his address to the Curia on December 22, 2005 -- shows that what is at stake in the debate between Rome and the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X is essentially doctrinal. For this reason, the undeniable step forward made by the Motu Proprio in the liturgical domain must be followed -- after the withdrawal of the decree of excommunication -- by theological discussions.
The reference to Archbishop Lefebvre and the Society of Saint Pius X made in the accompanying letter, as well as the acknowledgment of the testimony given by the young generations which are taking up the torch of Tradition, clearly show that our constancy to defend the lex orandi has been taken into account. With God’s help, we must continue the combat for the lex credendi, the combat for the faith, with the same firmness.

Self-empowerment

I received several inspirationals today and I chose this one to share as my wisdom-word.

TUYO, TINAPA AND GALUNGGONG

By: Bo Sanchez
Let me tell you a story. Three construction workers were on top of their half-finished skyscraper. Rrrrring!" the lunch bell sounded, and the three men sat on a steel beam jutting out of the 56th floor with their lunchboxes in hand.
The first guy opens his and groans in exasperation, "Tuyo!" There is not a day that I don't get tuyo for lunch!" He turns to his buddies and announces, "Mark my words. If I still get tuyo tomorrow, I'm going to throw myself from this building."
The second guy opens his lunch box and moans, "Tinapa". Everyday, I get tinapa!" He looks at his friends and declares, "Believe me when I say this. If I get tinapa tomorrow, I'm going to jump and kill myself."

The third guy opens his lunch box and it was his turn to despair. "Galunggong" . All I get is galunggong!" I'm telling you, if I still get galunggong tomorrow, I'm going to jump from this building and die."

The next day, the lunch bell rings and all three men are again seated on the 56th floor. The first guy opens his lunch box and starts crying, "Tuyoooooo!" And so he jumps and crashes on the ground.
The second guy opens his lunch box and wails loudly, "Tinapaaaa!" And he also hurls himself off the building and dies.

The third guy opens his lunch box and screams, "Galunggonggggg! " And so he too jumps off the building and splatters on the ground.
Days later, during the funeral of the three men, their three wives embrace and weep together. The first wife cries out, "I didn't know my husband didn't like tuyo anymore! Why didn't he tell me? If only he told me, I would have prepared something else."
The second wife echoes her statement, "Yes! If only I knew, I would have cooked something else, not tinapa!"

The third wife, between sobs, speaks up, "I don't know why my husband killed himself."
The two wives look at her curiously.
"Why?"
She went on, "Because ... my husband prepares his own lunch everyday..."

I love this crazy story because it presents a very important truth: all of us prepare our own lunch. If we don't like our jobs, if we don't like the state of our relationships, if we don't like what's happening to our spiritual lives - we have no one to blame but ourselves. Because God has given us free will. He has given us the power to prepare our own lunch.
If you want to earn more and be free from debt, if you're sick and tired of your bad habits, if we want to put more joy in our marriages, if we want to grow in our relationship with God - then go back to your kitchen and prepare yourself another dish. Because you design your own future. You create your own destiny. Ask yourself what kind of future do you want to have? What kind of life? What kind of eternity? You decide.

Motu Proprio

I’m silently monitoring the reactions to the Pope Benedict XVI’s Motu Proprio through some news agency. Here are two revealing interviews reported in the magazine Inside the Vatican – one from the USA and another from Italy.
The first is from an interview with Msgr. Michael Schmitz, vicar general and provincial superior for the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest in the USA. In synthesis, he seems to be very happy with what the Pope has done and that this last move was simply a worthy “finale” to all the past discussions regarding the matter. In the following excerpt, he points out the value of active participation which was already present in the Tridentine liturgy and in the present liturgy, hence reinforcing the Pope’s assertion of continuity between the two “forms” of celebration. Moreover, he sees that the Pope’s Motu Proprio is needed for the continuing dialogue with the Orthodox Church. For the complete interview, click here:
Q: Do you believe the idea of people participating rightly and well in the liturgy, brought out in Sacrosanctum Concilium, is indeed a worthy goal, even for the Classical Roman liturgy?
A: The participation of the people at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was already underscored by several popes before the document you mentioned. As a matter of fact, the encyclical Mediator Dei of Pius XII specifies the theological meaning of this participation. There can be no question that our Blessed Mother participated in a very full sense in the Sacrifice of her Son while standing under the cross.
This true participation in the divine mystery of the Mass, under the prudent direction of the Church, can also find its expressions in adjoining liturgical music or appropriate responses. This exterior participation, though, will only have a spiritual meaning if it is accompanied with an interior participation according to the example of the Blessed Mother.
Q: Do you think that the Orthodox may be watching very keenly what the Pope is doing to restore the Latin liturgical tradition?
A: We all know that our Holy Father is an extremely learned person and we can be sure that nothing of this importance will ever escape his attention. We can only hope that the efforts of the Holy See to reconcile the Orthodox churches -- thus continuing a long tradition of efforts made by various Roman Pontiffs -- is blessed with spiritual success. The emphasis the Orthodox world rightly puts on the liturgy will certainly make their representatives reconsider our theological position if we are able to show them that we have the same respect for our own liturgical sources that they have for their traditions.

Now, here’s the other side of the coin – represented by Monsignor Luca Brandolini, Bishop of Sora-Aquino-Pontecorvo and member of the Liturgical Committee of the Italian Episcopal Conference reported in La Repubblica (Sunday edition), by the veteran Vatican journalist Orazio La Rocca. Again for the complete version of this newsflash, click here.
"This day is for me a day of grief. I have a lump in my throat and I do not manage to hold back my tears. But, I will obey the Holy Father, because I am a bishop and because I care for him. However, I cannot hide my sadness for the putting aside of one of the most important reforms of the Second Vatican Council." In fact, Monsignor Luca Brandolini, Bishop of Sora-Aquino-Pontecorvo and member of the Liturgical Committee of the Cei (Italian Episcopal Conference), hardly holds back his tears when he is asked for a comment on the reintroduction of the Tridentine Latin Mass: "Please, do not ask me anything, I do not wish to speak [about it], for I am living the saddest day of my life as a priest, as a bishop, and as a man."
Monsignor Brandolini, why [are you] so upset?
"It is a day of grief, not only for me, but for many who lived and worked in the Second Vatican Council. Today, a reform for which so many labored, at the cost of great sacrifices, animated solely by the wish to renew the Church, has been canceled."
You will not accept the motu proprio of Benedict XVI, then?
"I will obey, because I care for the Holy Father. I have for him the same sentiment that a son has for his father. And then, as a bishop, I am bound to obedience. Yet, in my heart, I suffer deeply. I feel as if wounded in my heart, and I cannot help saying it. Nonetheless, if anyone in my diocese will ask me to follow the Tridentine rite, I will not be able to say no. But I do not believe this will happen, because ever since I have been the bishop of Sora-Aquino-Pontecorvo, there has never been anyone who has expressed a similar desire. I am certain that it will always be like this in the future."

Two prayer intentions

Two pieces of news which I suggest could be turned into prayer intentions:

The first is regarding the publication of the Pope's Motu Proprio or personal initiave to "open" the Church to the renewed use of the pre-conciliar Roman missal of 1962. In issuing this Motu Proprio last July 7, the Pope very prudently accompanied it with a letter explaining his motives. Let me quote a part of that Letter. “I now come to the positive reason which motivated my decision to issue this Motu Proprio updating that of 1988. It is a matter of coming to an interior reconciliation in the heart of the Church. Looking back over the past, to the divisions which in the course of the centuries have rent the Body of Christ, one continually has the impression that, at critical moments when divisions were coming about, not enough was done by the Church’s leaders to maintain or regain reconciliation and unity. One has the impression that omissions on the part of the Church have had their share of blame for the fact that these divisions were able to harden. This glance at the past imposes an obligation on us today: to make every effort to unable for all those who truly desire unity to remain in that unity or to attain it anew.(…)
We are now awaiting what would be the general reaction to this personal initiative of the Holy Father, hoping and praying that he really had intuited the "right time" for this highly delicate issue.

The second prayer intention concerns the liberation of Fr. Giancarlo Bossi, an italian missionary of the PIME fathers who has been abducted in Southern Philippines (Zamboanga). He has remained in the hands of his captors for a month now. The PIME missionaries and their collaborators have actually organized an international prayer vigil tomorrow, July 10 to plead for his release.

Let us join them in initiative and pray especially for the conversion of his captors.

Calling, not career

The mission of evangelization is not meant only for the Pope, bishops, priests, nuns and professional church workers (symbolized by the 12 apostles). Here’s an enriching commentary on this Sunday’s Gospel (Lk 10:1-12. 17-20) which speaks of the mission as something belonging to the whole people of God (symbolized by the 70 = 70 nations in the Book of Genesis). The commentary presents the premise that we all have been called and sent on a mission dedicated to the care and redemption of the world. The problem is that this calling to serve the world gets perverted into the self-aggrandizing and burdensome pursuit of career. The solution is that in Jesus Christ career can be transformed into the blessing of a calling/vocation.
Here are some excerpts. To read the whole commentary, please click here
Step 2: Advanced Diagnosis (Internal Problem) - "What's in it for me?"
Jesus' description of the mission of the 70 assumes that it wouldn't take too much for them to be tempted to turn their appointment to a calling to serve into a career focused on their own advancement. The 70's natural selfish inclination to only be concerned about their own perks gets reinforced by the impossible size of the harvest and the threats of the wolves. They turn inward. Their first impulse to ask "What's in it for me?" is anticipated by Jesus as he warns them against accumulating too much baggage, shopping for the best deal for themselves and not being too upset by the frequent rejections from those who could care less about their mission. And even when they do enjoy some success by defeating the demons, Jesus reminds them that their mission is not about their success. It is not about their fame and reputation. Jesus offers these warnings because he knows that the 70 and we are more likely to put our trust in our own success than the One who called us. It doesn't take much to turn what began as a calling to serve others into a career dedicated to our own self-promotion because we (and not God) are the only ones that matter.
Step 6: Final Prognosis (External Solution) - "Beyond the Bottom Line"
Confident that they have a calling and not just a career, authorized by the only One who matters, the 70 and we can be sure that God is on our side and that is all we need. Therefore, we are freed from having to worry about the bottom line. Instead we get to travel through this world lightly, no longer worried about having to accumulate a bunch of stuff. Rejection no longer devastates us. We no longer have to play games pitting people against each other in order to get the best deal. We don't need to be patted on the back for being able to get demons to submit to us. Being loved by God and certain that our name is written in the Book of heaven is all that matters. No longer driven by the bottom line, we are truly free to serve others and let them know that the Kingdom of God has come near in Jesus Christ. We can rejoice in our calling to live lives dedicated not to our careers but to the care and redemption of this world.

Turning point

"When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem" (Lk 9:51). This is the turning point for Jesus in Luke’s gospel. Henceforth, it will be a continuous movement towards Jerusalem, that is, towards the passion, death and resurrection – the Paschal Mystery.
Actually the destination goes further – “from Jerusalem to the ends of the world.” The mission must reach the ends of the earth. That is why Jesus needs followers, disciples, committed persons, messengers of the Kingdom of God. "Follow me," he commands.
Our turning point comes when we realize and accept that it is not we but God who is at work. As my favorite Gospel commentary observes, “the passive "for him to be taken up" summarizes what God accomplishes in Jesus. He has raised his Son from death to life. The second part of that pivotal verse, "he set his face to go to Jerusalem" shows that Jesus would stop at nothing to see God's mission through. What makes us fit for the Kingdom of God? The answer is not what, but who. Jesus' death on the cross wipes away all traces of our excuses, sins, and misplaced trust. His resurrection to new life clears the way for us to enter the Kingdom (unencumbered by our self will).

May our "turning point" come soon!