Jesus Preaching

Mark 4:1-9
Listen. He wants us to listen.

There were a multitude hanging to his every word. They reach out to him, ears wide open as a barren land thirsts for rain. He was unlike those they have heard before. He spoke with authority and power that makes their hearts melt in gentle submission. Too long has it been since their hearts were subdued by such a powerful call. They want to hear. There were many of them and they run the risk of overrunning him.

Yet he was not afraid of their numbers. He knew they were all reaching out to him. Although it isn't visible outside, their hearts were restless and fidgeting until he opens his lips. He is the Word. Each ear long for the Word.

In himself he longs to reach out to them too. He wishes to meet every heart and dwell in every heart. He wants to enter every heart. But in his state now, he cannot be united with each. Nor in their state now, they cannot be united with him. Both sides were consumed with the passion of reaching out to the other.

So he gathered them on the land as a shepherd gathers his sheep. He wants to see them as one and address them as one. They were entrusted to him.

And he himself got into a boat and stayed on the water, at a practical distance. It is not a distance that estranges but a distance that gives order. He wants to speak to them. But they would not be able to hear him if he were too near or if he were too far. He kept a healthy distance of space but not of heart. He was already one with them in their state.

He knew their hearts and knew that not everyone is keen on sincerely receiving his message. Not everyone can accept his message. Though some are already ready, more were in need of more work. But he wants everyone to come to him and be one with him. He knew that despite their limitations, eventually each must return to him. So as he had gathered them as one, he addresses them as one. He shouts: "Listen!"

It was a bold proclamation. It was a shepherd calling the attention of his sheep. He spoke and his voice rent the air. It rent the noise buzzing among the crowd. He subdued their restlessness when his words sprang forth and they recognized that he as speaking to each.

He was not just talking to a group but it was as if he was talking to each heart. The world melted away around them. That one word struck them like an arrow penetrating its target. There were no longer we and him but I and Jesus alone. It was just one word but it was enough to put them at ease and the noise died down, the tension relaxed. In front of their eyes was him and him alone.

He knew he captured their attention but he knew them all too well. He had the best of intentions but they were not ready yet. He had to prepare them. He had to teach them how. It all begins by making them aware of where they are.

So he told them the parable of the sower.

He preaches freely and passionately. He does not spare generosity but lavishes his word everywhere and to everyone. He does not choose those he wants to hear but rather wants that everyone hears and listens.

What is this listening? How is this listening? "Let anyone with ears to hear listen!"

It begins with opening the ears. Not just the physical ears but the ears of the whole being. It is disposing the whole self to receive Jesus. It is sweet silence. It is strong stillness. There is focus. The heart and the mind and the spirit is bent on receiving Jesus.

Then when the soil has been prepared, the seed is implanted within it. It falls down from heaven, cast by the very hands that fashioned the soil. It is God moving forth and striking and penetrating every heart. The soil is at this point a passive recipient if that word.

And when the seed had touched the ground, it disturbs the ground and the humous soul devours it. It become united with it. The passivity has ended. The word that has sprung forth from the lips of Christ, sends a tingling that disturbs my every being. I begin to look deeper into myself and the roots begin to grow deep. The seed has germinated.

In the silence and seclusion inside every heart, the word unravels its mystery. A revelation takes place. God manifests himself more clearly and man sees himself in more light. God and man is united to become one.

Then the germinate begins to grow. It dies not stop in growing roots but longs to breath the air outside. It shoots upright and manifests itself to the world. Although its beginnings were wrapped in mystery inside every heart, it begins to pierce the sky with its shoots. It wants to be known. It wants to make the message it once received reechoed to all around.

It grows, some slow, some fast. It all depends on how each soil provides the nutrients. Nevertheless it grows.

When it has reached maturity, it bears fruit and it multiplies the goodness that was planted initially. Just as the sower was lavish in sowing his seeds, so did the plants lavishly bore fruit.

This is how Jesus preached. This is how we should listen.

When Does Human Life Begin?

I write this blog as I search the internet on the debate on cloning. Stumbling across a whitepaper from the Westchester Institute gave me a strong recall of a discussion with one student in my Catechism class. (Warning: I'm quite philosophical in this essay.)

Everyone knows the heat that wraps the abortion, stem cell, and cloning issues. Arguments and counter-arguments have been presented at table and sadly, the discussion has been so muddled with controversy the truth is buried deep in the spoil and the impressionable is left to take a relativist stand on things. These issues touch on one value: Human Dignity, and a question, although already answered scientifically and proven empirically correct is placed in doubt: when does human life begin?


I was taken aback a few months ago when a student explained to me that the zygote in the womb of its mother is not yet human. My hair stood on end. It's the classic argument of misinformed abortionists.With all the science that have been taught in our classrooms how can one student state such statement. It is true that my student is not alone. Most Filipinos have the wrong notion of when humanity starts. But we defend and we declare that human life starts at the moment of conception.

This question is of such vital importance because people often contradict this fact. Reading through wikipedia's article on the question gave some counter-arguments that challenge this fact. I believe such arguments come from the Western philosophical habit of cutting everything of reality into distinct parts. The truth is every developing organism undergoes a smooth and continuous process and it remains substantially the same throughout. Otherwise, I would be a different individual than I was when in my mother's womb and killing that clump of cells in past would not mean killing me as I am in the future. Give it to the East for accepting a more unified view of reality.

It is sad that despite all the empirical and technological science we have today, skepticism continues to hound human knowledge. Others may question facts out of purely speculative and critical reasons in seeking the truth but there are minds out there who are driven by malformed motives who continue to attack Life. They start with questions and when everything is shaken up, the confusion is enough to obscure the truth. The media is not at all immaculate in advocating falsehood (it is interesting to note how individuals and corporations get whacked for telling lies while media as a whole is self-regulated with regards truth despite its many blunders in the past).

So please, let us give ourselves the respect we deserve. Everything that we are is based on our humanity. Our humanity can be proven by facts from whence our values rise up. Our humanity is the foundation of our human dignity. Let us not undermine the very ground we stand on.

Sinulog

Pit Senyor Santo Nino!

So goes the loud cry from Cebu. This third Sunday of January, the annual Sinulog celebrations takes place in my beloved island. There would be revelry and fun, dancing and festivities. Vibrant colors and sounds saturate the streets in honor of the Holy Child.

This morning, I asked the young people of Majada, "who is more powerful the Poong Nazareno, whose feast we celebrated last Monday, or the Sto. Nino, whose feast we celebrate today?" They paused in silence for a few moments. Their eyes wide with innocent confusion over the riddle. A little hand shoot up in the air followed by a triumphant answer, "the Poong Nazareno!" The little girl was so sure of the answer, her eyes were gleaming with victory. I chuckled at the innocent blunder.

Jesus who is truly God and truly man shared humanity with us in its fullness. He was a child once and lived as a child indeed. I explained to the little girl how much Jesus would understand her childhood as he also had the chance to play with friends, run up and down the road in Nazareth, and explored the hills and holes like any child would do. The Almighty God took upon himself the humble humanity of little boy.

And so we celebrate the Feast of the Sto. Nino in the Philippines. It is a feast we Cebuanos hold very dearly. Thanks to the modern means of communication, events happening in the Basilica Minore del Santo Nino in Cebu is streamed live right through our screens here miles away in Canlubang. I surely miss the activities and festivities the second time around. In this feast, we celebrate more the closeness of Jesus to us as he shares our own nature. We believe he understands us because he experienced what we are experiencing now.

But more than this, we look to him as a model of obedience and simplicity. In the same way that he put upon himself our humanity, we are invited to put on the godly virtues that the Holy Child possesses. Because of this child we have become children of God, and so in Him we also see how it is to be a child of God.

It's wonderful to reflect on how the Catholic Faith has come to the Philippines. Just as God came to be with Israel 2,000 years ago on that first Christmas eve, he came to our islands in the form of the Sto. Nino handed on Queen Juana of Cebu. It is then with gratitude that we celebrate this wonderful feast as a thanksgiving for the gift of Faith and the powerful protection of the Little Child himself. Sinulog is that very oblation of dance that springs forth from our culture seeking to express the wonders that God has done for our people.