A Wholeness of Unity and Integrity

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48.

At that time, John said to Jesus,
"Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name,
and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us."
Jesus replied, "Do not prevent him.
There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name
who can at the same time speak ill of me.
For whoever is not against us is for us.
Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink
because you belong to Christ, 
amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.

"Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,
it would be better for him if a great millstone
were put around his neck
and he were thrown into the sea.
If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.
It is better for you to enter into life maimed
than with two hands to go into Gehenna,
into the unquenchable fire.
And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off.
It is better for you to enter into life crippled
than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna.
And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.
Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye
than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna,
where 'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'"

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Reflection

A tribal mentality runs the risk of alienating others just because they are different from us. The disciples thought that they were an exclusive club of disciples empowered by Jesus. Jesus reminded them that the work of God is bigger than human associations. God works through all and in all, and transcends human boundaries. After all, the Spirit, like the wind, goes wherever it wills.

God works and saves humanity in its wholeness. He relates to each one of us regardless of color, gender, age, shape, or size. His working hand does not splinter into the diversity of humankind, but unites them in His Son. Though different, all of us are united in One Faith in Jesus. In the same way that the diverse is united in one, so must each member be singular in his own discipleship.

As individual Christians, we are called to unity not only with others but above all ourselves. Christian discipleship is a single-hearted act. Not one part of us should withheld our full communion in Jesus. We all belong to Christ, different though we are. We all belong to Christ, in all that we are.

The Real Face of Glory

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 9:30-37.

Jesus and his disciples left from there and began a journey through Galilee,
but he did not wish anyone to know about it. 
He was teaching his disciples and telling them,
“The Son of Man is to be handed over to men
and they will kill him,
and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.” 
But they did not understand the saying,
and they were afraid to question him.

They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house,
he began to ask them,
“What were you arguing about on the way?” 
But they remained silent.
They had been discussing among themselves on the way
who was the greatest. 
Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them,
“If anyone wishes to be first,
he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” 
Taking a child, he placed it in the their midst,
and putting his arms around it, he said to them,
“Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me;
and whoever receives me,
receives not me but the One who sent me.”

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Reflection

Jesus was prophesying His Passion and Death to His disciples to prepare them for His moment of glorification. Sadly, the Twelve were blinded by their concept of glory they preoccupied themselves with ascendancy over the rest. Jesus’ message was lost in their ambitions.

Jesus then sat down, the pose for a teacher, to point out to them the real face of glory. Real glory is found in real service. It is the service epitomized in the image of the suffering Jesus on the cross. It a service that exacts the payment of one’s life. In dying on the cross, Jesus served everyone His life. The Twelve had to understand this well.

The Servant of all gave us an example of humility, a humility that can only come from a child, from the Son. For while he was at the top of the mount of Calvary, He did not sit there as King but one who was at the bottom carrying the weight of the world. The glory of God is found in Jesus’ service of love. Like He did with the Twelve, Jesus calls us to follow His example.

Personal and Decided Faith

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 8:27-35.

Jesus and his disciples set out
for the villages of Caesarea Philippi. 
Along the way he asked his disciples,
"Who do people say that I am?" 
They said in reply,
"John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others one of the prophets." 
And he asked them,
"But who do you say that I am?" 
Peter said to him in reply,
"You are the Christ." 
Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.

He began to teach them
that the Son of Man must suffer greatly
and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed, and rise after three days. 
He spoke this openly. 
Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 
At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples,
rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan. 
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."

He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them,
"Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me. 
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake
and that of the gospel will save it."

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Reflection

Different people take Jesus differently. Our experience of Jesus does not only shape our idea of Him but even our own biases may work for or against Him. Jesus wanted a personal answer from His disciples so He asked them, “who do you say that I am?” Christian discipleship is rooted in our personal conviction of who Jesus is.

Such conviction is needed because Christian discipleship is not a walk in the park. Ahead the path lies a long, thorny, and winding road, and on top of one’s shoulders rests the cross. A personal conviction on the identity of Jesus must lead to a personal decision to follow Him. We cannot be Christians by name alone, we have to be Christians through and through.

Jesus cannot just be a brother, a healer, a friend, a teacher or a prophet. He has to be the Christ for every Christian. This is the very revelation of His person. He is the anointed Savior who must undergo His Passion and Death in order to save us. His calvary cannot be separated from His resurrection. A Christian knows this, and thus follow Christ in death and in life.

Rituals, Openness and the Messiah

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 7:31-37.

Again Jesus left the district of Tyre
and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee,
into the district of the Decapolis. 
And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment
and begged him to lay his hand on him.
He took him off by himself away from the crowd. 
He put his finger into the man’s ears
and, spitting, touched his tongue;
then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him,
“Ephphatha!”— that is, “Be opened!” —
And immediately the man’s ears were opened,
his speech impediment was removed,
and he spoke plainly. 
He ordered them not to tell anyone. 
But the more he ordered them not to,
the more they proclaimed it. 
They were exceedingly astonished and they said,
“He has done all things well. 
He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

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Reflection

There are Catholics who dismiss rituals in the Church. Those allergic to rituals in our liturgy should take note that Jesus was ritualistic too. When he healed the deaf man in today's Gospel reading, He accompanied the healing with actions. The act of healing was played out in discrete actions of touching and a verbal command to "be opened!" These rituals are prophetic signs - they point to a greater reality that is happening.

Prophecy in the Bible is not just about predicting the future but pointing to a reality that is beyond the physical signs we encounter. At its heart is handing down to people the Word of God, His will and message. Jesus today is depicted as the Prophet, who acts prophetically but unlike the prophets of old, acts in His own Divine capacity as the Son and Messiah. St. Mark presents Jesus as renewing Creation when he alludes creation story's "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good,"  (Genesis 1:31) with "he has done all things well," but also using Isaiah's Messianic prophecy (Isaiah 35:5) to say that the Messianic time has arrived.

The Messiah comes with great power and prophecy. He performs acts of healing: the deaf will hear and the mute will speak - a sign that He will overturn all evil in the world. Jesus calls us today to be open to Him, to unblock the ears of one's heart that we may hear, and to unfurl one's tongue that we too may prophecy in His name. For us who have been touched by God's grace, the joy of encountering Christ compels us to spread the joy of the Gospel.

Sanctified Humanity

As Christians, we believe that God became man in Jesus Christ who was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. While such an article of faith is already pinned at the back of our heads, I cannot help but wonder at the great and merciful action of God in stooping down to the level of man. What is so special about us humans with all our warts and scars? Or is it that we haven’t truly seen our full worth that’s why we act like we’re all warts and scars?

The birth of the Virgin Mary is celebrated in the Church because it highlights the Incarnation. Jesus Christ was born from a human mother, who herself was born, traditionally known, to Joachim and Anne. Her birth acts as the “dawn” signaling the rising of the sun, the birth of the Savior. All these happenings were carefully orchestrated by the Father, arranged in such a way as to fully reveal to us Himself in the baby Jesus. The Supreme Artist and Tactician, carefully spread out His plans, chose Mary, played along with human contingencies, and humbled Himself by becoming man. At the heart of this great and woven tapestry is our humanity.

Humanity has been accused of self-indulgence and narcissism. Once again, even in the story of the Incarnation, man is at the center? Or is he? From the beginning of the biblical story, God has been depicted as the Creator who made a creature in His image and likeness. This creature sabotaged himself and the whole Bible speaks of how the Creator has painstakingly saving the creation that bore His image and likeness. We have here a merciful God who goes to any lengths to reclaim what is rightfully His.

God acts in such a way that in saving man, He involves humanity itself. It is not an action that comes from outside, a deus ex machina, that suddenly saves the day. God acts through and within man. So He chose a baby girl and prepared for her the vocation of being the Mother of God, preparing her by bestowing upon her the foretaste of the salvation won at the Cross, when she was born Immaculate. He chose to be born in a kingly but sinful family, allowed human conditions to play its part in the birth of the savior: that Mary is placed in a dilemma in her motherhood facing the prospect of death, that Jesus is born into a human family in a human society. The Savior is to be born into a human culture, immersed in human exigencies. Jesus was Jewish, a man of color, poor, shaped and conditioned by our humanity.

It stands to speak of how humanity was saved not by the flick of the fingers, nay, not even by pronouncement as in the creation story, “Let there be salvation for man,” but through a God who enters into the story of our humanity. Indeed, God is Immanuel, God-with-us. He has dwelt inside our very skin and embraced the experience of being human, only to tell us that salvation is not about escaping our humanity but embracing it. In becoming more human we become divine, as Divinity Himself sanctified our humanity. We are not passive recipients of God’s saving action, we have become partners with God, who works with us and through us.

When other Christians reject Mary for fear of idolatry, one should rather see that God has made use one of the most sacred part of being human: motherhood. We all have a special and sacred bond with our mothers. God knew that, and used it to bestow humanity to Jesus, but also raised it when Jesus said, “behold your mother!” The mother-child relationship between Mary and Jesus was not exclusive to them but extended to the bigger, and mystical, body of Jesus which is the Church. The Church has faithfully celebrated the sublime marriage between divine and human, because, after all, this marriage is will of the God who stooped to our level.

Humanity is sanctified because God took it upon Himself. All things human has been blessed because Jesus lived and shared our human experiences. Our human relationships - fatherhood, motherhood, childhood, has taken on divine dimensions. Jesus the new Adam, was the immaculate Son. Mary the new Eve, was the immaculate mother. In the same way that they were born as redeemed and renewed creation, so are we, as a Church, saved, by being redeemed and renewed every day as sanctified humanity.

Should the Moon Shine More Brightly Than the Sun

Religious people - priests, nuns, and brothers, are for the  most part people of privilege in Filipino culture. Not because of their own achievements but because of the identity they have taken for themselves. Religious are honored because they chose a life of service to the Church, a life that strives to be closer to Christ - two difficult endeavors in our society today. Besides that, their consecration to Christ marks them as a group Jesus Christ has taken for Himself. It is that acceptance of their self-donation by Christ through the public admission of the Church that religious are seen as "people close to God".

It is both a privilege and a responsibility. It is not a right. It is a privilege because the vocation to serve is a gift. It is a responsibility because the religious share in the mission of Christ and the Church more closely. It is not a right, because what man has the right to claim God's glory for himself? Religious people are like the moon that help govern the tides and seasons of earth but they are not the source of light and warmth. They accompany the earth in its dancing journey around Jesus, the sun and Son.

The big danger so far, as what Pope Francis has also pointed out in the past, is clericalism, or that sense of entitlement within the Church. Too many religious people fall into the trap. Pampered by people, admired by parishioners, listened to in talks and homilies, religious begin to think that they are the source of light. How many of us priests and religious feel proud when garnering more likes and shares in social media than the average person? How many of us priests and religious expect to be served and given special attention at social functions?

The privilege of attention, of focus, of a captured audience, was given to us because we are supposed to be heralds of the Gospel. The Gospel, Jesus Christ, takes the center stage of all our ministry. Our success in the ministry, the plans that we perfectly executed, the achievements we have garnered, our political beliefs and ideas should not eclipse our main mission of proclaiming Christ. For when the moon has eclipsed the sun, then we have defeated our self-donation to Christ and the Church.

For the ordinary Christian, stop praising priests because they are priests. They did nothing to deserve their priesthood and call it their own - it was Christ who chose them and not the other way around. The same goes for religious sisters and brothers. But rather, pray for them, assist them, encourage them, and help them become faithful in their ministry. In our society permeated by social media, the temptation to shine more brightly than the sun is stronger, our weak self-image and the need for affirmation trap us in an illusion of self-grandeur. Should the moon shine more brightly than the sun, remind it of its own proper place.

The “Hugot” of the Christian

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23.

When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem
gathered around Jesus,
they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals
with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. 
—For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews,
do not eat without carefully washing their hands,
keeping the tradition of the elders.
And on coming from the marketplace 
they do not eat without purifying themselves. 
And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed,
the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds. —
So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,
"Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders
but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?" 
He responded,
"Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.
You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition."

He summoned the crowd again and said to them,
"Hear me, all of you, and understand. 
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile.

"From within people, from their hearts,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile."

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Reflection

This Sunday’s Gospel presents to us a controversy between the Pharisees and Jesus’ disciples. Apparently, Jesus’ disciples have not been following the ritual traditions of purification in the Jewish religion. The Pharisees, who are strict observers of the law, point this out to Jesus in the belief that what these rituals are the true expressions of worshipping God. Not doing them means forsaking God.

Jesus turns around the debate by pointing out to the Pharisees that it is not what we do that makes us pleasing to God but rather the sincerity of our hearts that flows to our actions. For Jesus, it is important that a person worships God through his actions because those actions are motivated by love that comes from the person’s heart. A loving and merciful heart that expresses itself in acts of charity is true worship of God.

In Filipino pop culture, “hugot” means drawing out from one’s deepest emotions. Like Jesus, we Christians draw out our actions from our deep love for God and for our neighbor. Rituals themselves are not bad but they become meaningful when they are motivated by love and meant for love. For Jesus, we worship not in empty rituals but in love expressed and made felt.