Advent's 'I Accept' Button

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 1:26-38.
The angel Gabriel was sent from God
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the house of David,
and the virgin's name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said,
"Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you."
But she was greatly troubled at what was said
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Then the angel said to her,
"Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.

"Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his kingdom there will be no end."
But Mary said to the angel,
"How can this be,
since I have no relations with a man?"
And the angel said to her in reply,
"The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born
will be called holy, the Son of God.
And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,
has also conceived a son in her old age,
and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;
for nothing will be impossible for God."
Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word."
Then the angel departed from her.

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Reflection

The beautiful thing about our celebration today is that it prepares us for the momentous event of tomorrow. The Gospel relates to us the Annunciation of Jesus' Birth. Today, the angel Gabriel lays out the Terms of Service before Mary. He announces to her God's plan for the child that she will bear. Reading through the angel's announcement, Mary asks a clarification that will point out to us the other-worldly nature of this Child. It is conceived not in normal human sexual relations but through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Grand though it was, it would have been all for nought if Mary did not say 'yes'. But the Blessed Virgin clicked the 'I accept' button to become the Blessed Mother. Mary's 'fiat' was crucial in our salvation. By saying 'yes' to the words of the angel, she bore in her womb the Word, called holy, the Son of God. Divine grace which was already at work in the Virgin gave her strength to accept that proposal.

This last Sunday of Advent reminds us that our salvation cannot happen without our cooperation. Jesus cannot be born into our hearts unless we also click the 'I accept' button at the end of God's love letter to us. The Gospel challenges us to do just that. It is the last stage of our preparation for the birth of Jesus. If we assent with faith to the angel's message to us, we will be surprised by the wonders that God has in store for us, for nothing is impossible for God.

She who chose the Freedom of the Free

What is human freedom in the truest sense? It is the capacity to choose between two options. In its very essence lies an irony - while it is a capacity to choose it is limited to two options. Human Freedom was from the beginning limited. There is no such thing as absolute freedom.

Thinkers describe our generation as a generation that exalts freedom. The preoccupation with civil liberties is the natural expression with the Enlightenment's focus on the human person.The human person is free to decide for itself, to define and redefine itself. Freedom is what makes us human. It is the foundation of all our relationships since we choose to establish and terminate them at will.

Freedom, like all things human, has a limit. As it is a capacity to choose, it remains wanting. That capacity must be exercised in order for our freedom to be true and perfect. Here we see that while everyone has freedom, not everyone is free. It is our choice that determines how free we are. Choosing freely the best option, the good option, no matter how scary or difficult, is what makes a human person free.

Mary, the Virgin of Freedom

Annunciation (Domenikos Theotokopoulos). Wikipedia Commons

It is in the Annunciation that we first glimpse the great freedom that God gave Mary and the freedom that Mary exercised and perfected. To be the Mother of Redeemer is not an assignment that God gives and assigns to any woman. God offered it to the Virgin Mary. He did not command but through the angel Gabriel, He asked for her cooperation.

It was a difficult choice. Mary was already betrothed to Joseph. To conceive a child that is not Joseph's before the marriage is consummated is tantamount to adultery. She risks her future, her honor, her family, and even her life. Despite the fear and the questions in her head, she did what many of us should do: she listened. She listened to the words of Gabriel and submitted to them. Exemplifying obedience for everyone, she gave her fiat, "Let it be done to me according to your Word."

She gained true freedom when she surrendered her freedom to God. That was the great paradox of her choice and the great paradox that awaits us in front of God's invitation. It was a surrender because she could have chosen otherwise, she could have played safe. Mary, however, knew that God is always the best option, the greatest option, no matter how scary or difficult circumstances might be. She knew such surrender can't make her rich or famous. She knew that such surrender entails great pain and suffering. But even so, she surrendered her will and she was made free.

Freedom for the Christian

Religious and consecrated men and women practice true freedom in their vow of obedience. It is a vow made before God where one surrenders one's will. It is a promise made after Mary who was obedient to God's will. It is a promise that follows after Christ who perfected that surrender on the cross.

For Christians who live and move in the world everyday, it is a great challenge to speak of obedience. The world loves its freedom. It thinks that freedom lies in its capacity to choose. It is drunk in that kind of power. So the world seeks to expand its choices if only to avoid the best the one. Christians must rise to the challenge of being counter-cultural. Even since the beginning of Christianity, or even farther in the Annunciation, faith in Christ always meant surrender to God's Will.

She Who Loved Much and Loved Well

If I am to propose a definition of 'chastity' I would say chastity is the eloquence of love. Our culture today in movies, songs, and images tend to glorify and abuse sexuality and equate it with love. This makes it difficult for us to understand the true meaning of chastity. Everywhere we look sex is screaming at us. This is the vision of sexual freedom the architects of popular culture has designed for the world today.

True freedom however is found not in the unbridled expression of love through sexual intimacy but in the practice of chastity. Chastity is the elegance of love. Love, for it to be true, is a personal decision to will the good of another and enter into communion towards unity with the beloved. Love is not just a feeling but is an act of the will. We choose to love. We choose to love by showering our beloved with all the goodness that makes their happiness more perfect; then their happiness becomes ours. We choose to love because we are enamored with our beloved that we wish for nothing else but to be united with them in heart, mind, body, and soul - in all that we are. This we call personal communion.

In a sense, love is also a language. It speaks in acts of goodness and tenderness so that its words may touch the heart of the beloved. As the lover and the beloved learns to speak the language of love to each other, it becomes a dialogue of two hearts. These two hearts become closer as each heart speaks to the other. In this dialogue and conversation, the speech of love must be eloquent.

Eloquence of Love

Eloquence of speech is what inspires, touches, attracts, and converts the listener. Not all speeches are made equal. Some speeches are so powerful they change opinions, worldviews, incites emotions, and calls to action. To be effective, a speech must be eloquent. And so it is with love.

The eloquence of love comes from its clarity of message. For love to be eloquent, the lover must be clear in his intentions. He must be clear in his words of love. He cannot say 'I love you' but do otherwise. There is a certain integrity and honesty to eloquent love. Clarity in love is like a sharpened tip of the arrow that pierces through the depths of the beloved's heart. It allows the lover to love single-heartedly.

The eloquence of love also comes from the proper use of expressions. An eloquent speech cannot just use any set of words. Each word is chosen carefully to best express the mind and soul of the lover. It takes a certain feel to determine which expressions are best and proper in conveying love. Here we find that propriety is an essential element of love. Love expresses itself appropriately to the beloved. It does so in order to respect the good of the other. There is a sense of order in love.

Lastly, the eloquence of love requires purposefulness. Purposefulness is the thrust that cuts deep into the heart of the beloved. The speech of love is purposeful when all of its parts go together for one specific reason: the self-giving of the lover.

Chastity as Eloquence

These three characteristics make Chastity the eloquence of love. Chastity is not equivalent to modesty or, worse, aversion to sex. Chastity is the virtue that makes the expression of love clear, proper, and purposeful. It is practiced differently by people from different walks of life.

The religious and the consecrated do not marry and vow perfect continence because they want to make their love for Jesus clear, proper, and purposeful. All other loves, while remaining good, are subordinated to a greater and more radical expression of love for Jesus. These people love Jesus above all that they are willing to let go of all other loves. All married men and women practice chastity by remaining faithful and devoted to their spouses. Even Jesus would say that lustful thoughts of others apart from one's spouse constitutes adultery. All those not married practice chastity by respecting love as it truly is and as it properly ordered to. This involves self-control and discipline of the body. For them, the body is the sacred instrument through which their vocation to love is expressed and fulfilled. So they give the body the respect and honor it deserves.

Chastity is not limited to the sexual dimension of the human person. Rather, it encompasses everything the person is. It focuses the love of the person proper to his vocation in life that it clarifies that love. It is the standard with which a person judges his actions that it gives beauty and order to that love. It is channels all the activities of the person for him to truly give himself to love with purpose.

Mary, the Model of Chastity

We call our Blessed Mother "most chaste" not because she surpasses God in chastity but that she perfectly practiced God's chastity. From the moment she gave her 'yes' to the angel Gabriel, all her life were directed to Jesus, all her decisions were directed to Jesus, all her heart were directed to Jesus. She gave everything to her Son so much so that the sight of her Son on the cross completely crushed her heart and her being. Hers was a clear, appropriate, and purposeful love for Jesus.

In our society where we often equate love with sex, the virtue of Chastity is one that challenges world values. Chastity today does not subvert sexuality but orders that sexuality and harmonizes it with the person in all his dimensions. It harmonizes it so that it is not just sexuality that loves but the whole person, his total being. After all, true love is seen in the totality of generous self-giving.

Voices in the Desert

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 1:6-8, 19-28.
A man named John was sent from God.
He came for testimony, to testify to the light,
so that all might believe through him.
He was not the light,
but came to testify to the light.

And this is the testimony of John.
When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests
and Levites to him
to ask him, "Who are you?"
He admitted and did not deny it,
but admitted, "I am not the Christ."
So they asked him,
"What are you then? Are you Elijah?"
And he said, "I am not."
"Are you the Prophet?"
He answered, "No."
So they said to him,
"Who are you, so we can give an answer to those who sent us?
What do you have to say for yourself?"
He said:
"I am the voice of one crying out in the desert,
'make straight the way of the Lord,'"
as Isaiah the prophet said."
Some Pharisees were also sent.
They asked him,
"Why then do you baptize
if you are not the Christ or Elijah or the Prophet?"
John answered them,
"I baptize with water;
but there is one among you whom you do not recognize,
the one who is coming after me,
whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie."
This happened in Bethany across the Jordan,
where John was baptizing.

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Reflection

Testimonials used to be the thing when MySpace was still around. The much needed psychological boost from positive feedbacking fed the trend. Today, Facebook's 'like' and reactions replaced all that. Who among us would not delight at the number of likes our posts get on social media? Psychologists warn that this is the narcissistic trend today. We live in a world of self-promotion and self-aggrandizing.

Despite the power of his preaching and the charisma that drew in the crowds, John the Baptist denied the titles asked of him. The Anointed One or Messiah or Christ for the Jews is the one who will bring about the new age for Israel. John denied that he was. Elijah was considered one of the greatest prophets of Israel who worked wonders and preached fidelity to Yahweh. John denied that he was. The Prophet is the New Moses who will bring Israel back to the fulfillment of the Law. John denied that he was.

What John claimed for himself is his rightful and honest place in the story of salvation. He is the voice of one crying out in the desert, "make straight the way of the Lord." He is the herald that announces the coming of the Bridegroom. In his honesty, John reminded us what true humility is all about. Humility is honesty about who we are in front of Jesus.

While most of us put forward our best angle in our profile pictures and spend minutes thinking about lines that catch attention in our posts, this Sunday of Advent reminds us of our dignity and role as Christians. We too are voices crying out in the desert. We cry out to lobby for a world ready to accept its King. How can we make straight the way of the Lord today in our hearts, homes, and communities?

She Who Followed Closely

This begins my series of reflections on our Blessed Mother as we begin the Year of the Clergy and the Religious this new Liturgical Year in the Philippines. The Christmas novena that we celebrate every year in the Misa de Gallo or Simbang Gabi is a journey with the Blessed Mother in anticipation of Christ's birth. The birth of Jesus Christ is for us a sign of God's love and an invitation to follow Him more closely, Him who came to be close to us.

The Priesthood and the Religious Life

The Second Vatican Council ushered the Church into the modern era. It challenged her to rethink and reinvigorate her life and ministry to be more consonant with the signs of the times and relevant to the ordinary man of today. Church people saw it as the opening of windows to let in fresh breeze into a house that is in danger of growing cold and stale. This included rethinking what priesthood and religious life is in the modern world.

Icon of Christ the High Priest (Wikipedia Commons)

The ministerial priesthood is a vocation, a gift, given to some who are called to serve the Church in her official and public worship especially in the Eucharist. It grew out of the long tradition of ritual priests in Israel who were representatives of the people before God in their act of offering sacrifices and prayers at the Temple in Jerusalem. The priests of the Catholic Church however draw their priesthood not from the Old Testament but from the person of Jesus Christ who perfected the old priesthood and is called the High Priest by the author of the Letter to the Hebrews. Jesus does not offer animal sacrifices but instead offers Himself as the only acceptable Sacrifice of the Father, the Lamb of God slaughtered for the salvation of the world. Our priests today share and participate in this ministry as they perpetuate and make present the very same sacrifice of the cross in their celebration of the Holy Eucharist in which Jesus offers Himself as the Paschal Sacrifice today.

Saint Francis of Assisi. (Wikipedia Commons)

Religious life grew out of the devotion of early Christians who sought to follow Jesus more closely. It has a long history and development, renewals and reforms. What was clear and constant in its tradition is the willingness to emulate the life of Jesus Christ as faithfully as possible. Multi-faceted as Jesus is, each religious order is known for its charism, a spirituality inspired by the Holy Spirit that stresses on a particular aspect of Jesus. One of the oldest orders, the Benedictines have monks that try to follow Jesus through work and prayer. The Franciscans follow Jesus in their practice of evangelical poverty. The Jesuits follow Jesus in discernment for the glory of God. We, Salesians, follow Jesus the Good Shepherd to young people especially the poor and abandoned.

Mary, the first and radical disciple

Even before the Eucharist was instituted and the Christians were inspired to follow Jesus, Mary in a preeminent way was His first disciple. She was first to join in the mission of Jesus as Messiah by making possible the Incarnation of the Son of God when she gave her fiat, her 'yes' to the invitation of God by the Angel Gabriel to become the Mother of the Messiah. Her whole life, from that point on, was intertwined with that of her Son. From the crib to the cross, it was hers to accompany Jesus in the path that led to Calvary. At the top of that mount, she joined in the Passion and Death of her Son as she watched helplessly yet in faith the torment and pain Jesus underwent, which is for her the prophesied sword that will pierce her heart. At the resurrection, Mary accompanied the nascent Church as they accepted, reflected, and imbibed the mystery of the Resurrection. In the most crucial points of Jesus' Paschal Mystery, Mary is to be found.

All these makes our Blessed Mother the radical disciple. She is radical inasmuch as she is very much connected to the roots of our Christian faith - Jesus Christ, His Person, His Life, His Words, His Actions. Radical comes from the Latin radix, meaning 'root'. The very root of Christianity is Jesus Himself and that root is forever intertwined with the person of Mary. This radical connection is not only by virtue of consanguinity by Mary's motherhood of Jesus but even more so in the life of faith. Events in Jesus' life could not have been possible or would not be what they are if not for the presence, intercession, and cooperation of the Blessed Mother. The stories about Jesus infancy could not have been made known to the Church without the Blessed Mother who accompanied the infant Church.

In our time when radical is synonymous with 'ultra conservative', 'ultra orthodox', 'fundamentalism' and 'extremism', it is easy to fall into the trap of limiting radicality with 'keeping the rules'. Radical discipleship, as the Blessed Virgin has demonstrated in her life, is not about rules and practices. Radical discipleship is a close following in all aspects of our life of the Person and Teachings of Jesus. If being radical makes us less charitable to others then we have entirely missed the point of discipleship. Being radical simply means we become more and more like Jesus by grace and by personal effort.

Mary and the Clergy and Religious

Mary remains the ultimate example of how to be a radical disciple of Jesus Christ. Those who have received the Sacred Orders of the Diaconate, Presbyterate, and Episcopate are called to unite their very persons to the Person sacrificed on the Altar of the Mass. Like Mary, each time a priest breaks the bread, he too is broken together with the Body of Christ as an offering to God for the benefit of the people. While the Blessed Virgin Mary was not a priest she exemplified in herself the act of total offering united in the offering of Christ which priests are called to. She invites even the lay, the non-priests, to fully embrace the common priesthood each of us received in Baptism which allows each disciple to commune with that One Sacrifice.

The Nativity of Jesus (Wikipedia Commons)

While becoming more alien to the youth of today, religious life remains a valid and relevant way of life for those who are called to become radical disciples. Following Jesus Christ more closely entails a set of life choices that stands at odds with the values of the world. Religious men and women are called to be obedient, chaste and poor as Christ is. Religious men and women are called to make present the future glory of heaven in the way they live in communities as brothers and sisters. Religious men and women are witnesses to the present generation of the future glory that is to come. Mary was all that. She anticipated the faith of the Church by her Christian faith. To her was revealed the glory that Christ was to accomplish in His earthly life and she grew in that revelation by her life of faith. To religious was given the invitation to live the glory that Christ is to accomplish in humanity, they too, like Mary, must grow in their lives of faith.

Conclusion

Christmas is nine days away. These novena days is for us a graced moment of preparation together with our Blessed Mother in our path towards radical discipleship. Not all of us are given the gift of priesthood and religious life, but we all are given the gift of the Divine Life that the Word and the Spirit has given us in Baptism. That Divine Life is a life of discipleship, of following the Person of Jesus Christ. Let Mary, the First and Radical Disciple become for us a guide and help in our own following of Jesus.

We are Hyperlinks

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 1:1-8.
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you;
he will prepare your way.
A voice of one crying out in the desert:
"Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths."
John the Baptist appeared in the desert
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
People of the whole Judean countryside
and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem
were going out to him
and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River
as they acknowledged their sins.
John was clothed in camel's hair,
with a leather belt around his waist.
He fed on locusts and wild honey.
And this is what he proclaimed:
"One mightier than I is coming after me.
I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.
I have baptized you with water;
he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

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Reflection

St. John the Baptist is the Biblical prototype of the hyperlink. Those texts on the web that you click/tap in order to follow up on some information were called hyperlinks by the founding engineers of the internet and web. They link pages together allowing us to jump from one page to another. The name is cool because it really is a hyper jump. Unknowingly, as you follow through those links, you are interacting with webpages hosted in the USA, then Europe, then Africa, then China... You get the point. These links hold the web together.

John the Baptist reminds us to be hyperlinks today inasmuch as he was to Jesus. Fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah, he prepared Israel for the coming of the Messiah by his preaching of repentance. He was not the message nor the Word. He was the hyperlink to the Word. He led people to believe in Jesus. He attracted people and forwarded them to Jesus. He was the introduction, Jesus is the core message.

Jesus, after all, is the fulfillment of the Scriptures. His baptism is the Baptism of the Spirit that fulfills what was begun by John's baptism of water. This Fulfillment comes with a prelude that does not promote himself but humbly points out the coming of his Master. Do we as Catholic Christians point out the coming of Jesus by our life-witnessing? When people hover around us can they see us pointing to Jesus? As Jesus' birth is coming, we deepen our shared role with St. John the Baptist.

Watch and Wait

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 13:33-37.
Jesus said to his disciples:
"Be watchful! Be alert!
You do not know when the time will come.
It is like a man traveling abroad.
He leaves home and places his servants in charge,
each with his own work,
and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch.
Watch, therefore;
you do not know when the Lord of the house is coming,
whether in the evening, or at midnight,
or at cockcrow, or in the morning.
May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.
What I say to you, I say to all: 'Watch!'"

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Reflection

Hacking and data intrusion is our version of Jesus' comparison today. While most of us are oblivious to the dangers of being connected to the internet, there are individuals who by reason of fun, challenge, surveillance, or even ill-intent are hard at work peeling off the layers of security that protect us in this connected world. People never know when they are hacked. It happens silently as the user is happily browsing his Facebook feed and notifications or curiously clicking a dubious link.

The same warning given to all tech-savvy and internet-connected citizens was given by Jesus. "Be watchful! Be alert!" It is a warning that pushes us to prepare. Our naivete and disregard in our online behavior is but a mirror of what happens in flesh-and-blood reality and in the depths of our Christian inner life. We live our online life, physical life, and spiritual life not in an atmosphere of the YOLO but always in anticipation of what is coming.

What and who then is coming? The Lord of the house of which we were put in charge. As we begin this Advent season, the Church reminds us to put our affairs, our lives, our house, in order so that when the Lord comes, he finds everything well, nay, better. This season of Advent is a privileged period for us to prepare spiritually and physically for the birth of Jesus.

Our watching out is not seeped in anxiety but in hopeful anticipation. We watch out not because we don't want Jesus to find us sleeping in our sins, but that despite of our failures we stayed awake waiting for him. Advent is a time of preparation. There is no better preparation than repentance and reconciliation with God and with others.