New Life Out There!

Easter 2009
April 10, 2009

New Life Out There!

Today we celebrate Easter with great solemnity because we celebrate the bodily resurrection of our Lord from the dead. Today we share the joy of our new brothers and who have been washed (body and soul) in the waters of baptism, and our brothers and sisters who are welcomed today in the Catholic Faith.

With the Psalm reading today, we proclaim with great joy, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad.”

What a great moment face Easter dawn/morning, too early for most of us. We all got up early today like Mary Magdala who came to the tomb of Jesus while it was still dark.

Easter fills churches this weekend not just because it’s a happy ending to Jesus’ crucifixion and death but because it also means a new beginning of life for us. Jesus’ Resurrection is not only about Jesus but also about us, it’s about our new life in Christ.

The Resurrection of Jesus is rising to life beyond death and beyond time and space. It transcends our present earthly life – a life of eating, drinking, merry-making, power-tripping, marrying, procreating, etc. The Risen Life is the life which we are being invited to share according to God’s great promise as St Paul says, Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it dawned on the what God has prepared for those who love Him. (1 Cor 2:9)

Story of the Unborn Twins
There is a story about unborn Twins in the womb who are having a brother-sister conversation. Let us listen to them.

Sister: Do you think there is life after this?
Brother: No, no. You are imagining things again. This is all there is and this is all we need – this dark and cozy space. We only have to cling to the cord that feeds us, and we’ll be okay.

Sister: But there must be something more than this place. There has to be something else – a place with light where there is freedom to move.

(Brother is not convinced. A moment of silence)

Sister: Hey, I have something more to tell you. I believe you won’t believe that, too, but I think there is a mother.

Brother (furious): A mother? What are you talking about? I haven’t seen a mother. Have you? Who put that silly idea in your head? I told you, this place is all we have. Why do you always want more? This is not a bad place after all. So, let’s be content.

(Sister is quite upset by her brother’s attitude. Silence. Meanwhile, she starts to feel strange spasms and squeezes all over the body.)

Sister: Do you feel what I feel? These squeezes on my body are becoming more frequent and painful.

Brother: Yes, I do. What’s special about that?

Sister: Well I think these spasms are preparing us for another place more beautiful and comfortable than this where we’ll see our mother face to face. Don’t you think that’s exciting?

(Brother is silent. He is fed up with guesses and fantasies of his sister. The best thing for him to do, he says to himself, is to ignore her)

We can imagine at the end of the story the twin Sister was right. There is life outside the womb. There is light outside and there is a place where they can enjoy freedom. And yes, there is a mother. But I guess we cannot blame her twin Brother for his unbelief, after all, no fetus ever moved out of a womb, and returned to tell about the magic of sunset, beauty of creation and a mother’s kiss – outside the womb. He has no idea about life and anything outside the womb.

Struggle for Faith is Conquered by Love
Likewise, on that Easter morning, Mary Magdala and Simon Peter, both had no idea about life after death. They had no idea about Resurrection. As the Gospel says, “For they did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead.”

When Mary discovered that the stone covering the entrance to the tomb had been rolled away, she feared that the body had been stolen and taken away. Mary ran to tell Peter and John (the "disciple whom Jesus loved," v 2), and the two disciples raced to the tomb to see for themselves.

Mary and Peter have both surrendered readily that when Jesus suffered, died and was buried, that was the end of him. In their grief, they need to find out where the body of their Lord was.

Only the “disciple whom Jesus loved” believed that Jesus is not dead, not because he saw and touched Jesus but because he loved. John, was the first one to believe that Jesus has Risen because his love to Jesus perhaps is stronger than the others.

Philosopher Gabriel Marcel once said, to say someone “I love you” is to say “You will not die”. To say “I love you” with authentic love, not spoken lightly, but spoken from the depths of one’s being is to write within oneself, “You will not die.” True love mysteriously resists despair at the loss of the love one, face to face with the evidence of death. Love, authentic love, is itself a desire for immortality; it’s a claim for eternity.

On Easter: Jesus Shows Us Newness of Life
Easter Sunday is a celebration of the newness of life, that is eternal life, we received from God, through our Lord’s Resurrection.

Easter Sunday renews our understanding of life in a world that knows so much death, physical death, spiritual and moral death. Jesus has risen from the dead to show us that human life is transformed. Jesus has risen from the dead to prove to us there is loving God, like a mother or father who cares for his or her child. Jesus has risen for the dead to tell us that life has so much to offer, if we believe in His Resurrection.

Today let us make Easter celebration not just a spiritual day trip, but let us make it a renewal of our journey with Christ in His Church, knowing that we are loved, because God loves us that He gifted us with life, and not simply life, but life eternal - not after our death, not tomorrow, but today, here and now.

May the blessing of Easter remain with us and loved ones forever and ever. Amen.




Readings: And They Shall Name Him Emmanuel by Fr C.G. Arevalo SJ; Hello Jubilee by Fr Ruben J. Villote

The Passion of God

Good Friday
April 9, 2009
The Passion of God

Good Friday is a celebration that has two fundamental truths: First of all Jesus really died. God cannot die, but Jesus was also true man and shared the fate of us all. It’s a fact that He entered human history and he died on the cross in Jerusalem nearly 2000 years ago.

What is the second basic truth of Good Friday? Not only did Jesus die young but He was murdered. Jesus was a good young man in his early thirties (just two years older than me), doing great work, teaching, healing, and forming communities. Jesus was innocently murdered on the Cross during the prime of His life!

We ask why the anniversary of such a sad and terrible event is called “good?” What “good” is there when such an innocent man killed in cold blood? It is as if we are delighted by the death of Jesus to call this day “Good Friday.” Is there really something good we have to celebrate for this grim fate of Jesus?

Pope Benedict said in his Holy Week reflection, “Christ's death recalls the mass of pain and evil weighing upon humanity in every epoch: the crushing weight of our own mortality, the hatred and violence which still bloody the earth today. The Lord's passion continues in the suffering of mankind,"

If there is anything “good” at the brutal death of Jesus, that is He did not die in vain. His death is life-giving. The first reading from the book of Isaiah tells us why of all Fridays today is called “Good Friday:” On him lies a punishment that brings us peace, and through his wounds we are healed.

Pope Benedict continued in his reflection, "If Good Friday is a day full of sadness, it is at the same time the best day on which to reawaken our faith, to strengthen our hope and the courage to carry our cross with humility and trust, abandoning ourselves to God in the certainty of His support and His victory."

Good Friday is Sacred
Today the Churches are stripped and there are no other liturgical celebrations provided until Easter vigil. The Church watches in prayer sharing the feelings of sorrowful Mary at the foot of the cross of her beloved Son.

While some people are grudging for being unable to shop, gamble or play sports today, we see Good Friday as central to our Christian faith. Today we venerate saving Cross of Jesus. We give honor to the Cross of Jesus because it gives people hope in despair, and it gives meaning to our suffering. Let us not allow consumerism to highjack Good Friday as one of the few sacred and reflective days we have remaining on our yearly calendar.

Good Friday is sacred. Today is the opportune time to recall the Passion of Christ. When we speak of the passion of Christ, what immediately come to our mind are the pains He endured, the sufferings He bore and the death that He courageously faced. As far as many of us are concerned, our immediate thought about the passion of Jesus is what was done to Him physically and emotionally – by his closed friends, by the soldiers, by the people in authority, in religion and government.

Jesus’ Passion
Yet, there is another passion we must think of today, it’s the strong “passion” of Jesus to obey the will of the Father. Jesus had a strong passion to give His life for us; He had a strong passion to show the human face of God to us.

The Pope explained in his Holy Week reflection how Jesus did not wish to use the fact of His being God, His glorious dignity and His power, as an instrument of triumph and a sign of distance. Out of love for us, "He wished to 'empty Himself' and become our brother. For love, He shared our condition, the condition of all men and women. On the contrary, 'he emptied himself' assuming our miserable and weak human condition."

Whenever we are tempted to doubt, or when we feel weighed down, or worried that God will be too strict, or wonder whether God will ever forgive us, the image of Jesus on the Cross should remind us God’s passionate love for us.

Questions
As we reflect on Jesus’ passion today, let us ask ourselves these questions: First, do we still have our passion for God? Do we still have our passion for the good, for the holy and for morality? Are we now turning cold? Are we still on fire with love to serve and to live according to the teachings of the Church? Do we still have that passion in our life? If we say yes, do we have enough proof to show this in our parish community?

If today we realise that what cold fools we have become, it is not time to retreat and feel rejected. It is definitely not the time to walk away ashamed of our lukewarm hearts and hard consciences. But Good Friday is the time we humbly bring our nothingness to Jesus. That is why Jesus came. That is why He suffered and died. That is the reason for the Passion.

He is at the Cross with arms outstretched waiting for any of us whose hearts have turned cold, numb, hesitant or afraid to come back. All we need to do is to come back to Him with all our hearts, with no fear of rebuke. Remember, he has a passion for the wounded, he has a passion for the sick in mind and body and yes, the lukewarm.

Let us use this opportunity this Good Friday to rekindle in our hearts our passion of love for the Lord. As we come to venerate the Cross, we will offer to our Lord our secret sufferings, and let us imagine how much we are loved by God, how much God wants to give Himself to us in love.

And finally, if you want to follow Jesus and be like him, and like the Father before him, you too, must have this passion to give yourself away. Remembering his own words, "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”





Reading: Jesus Our Light by Bishop Socrates Villegas pp 124-126

Remembering the Last Supper

The Lord’s Supper 2008
St. Andrew’s Parish
April 9, 2007, 7:30pm

Welcome to the beginning of the Easter Triduum. On this evening of Holy Thursday we enter into a somber and dramatic atmosphere of the final days of our Lord, filled with the remembrance of his passion, death and his glorious resurrection on Easter Day.

There are three principal mysteries we solemnly commemorate on this evening Mass of Holy Thursday: First is the institution of the Holy Eucharist; Secondly, the institution of the ministerial priesthood; and lastly, the New commandment of Christ to love one another.

The Eucharist
The first reading from the book of Exodus and the second reading from the letter of St Paul to the Corinthians are linked together to illustrate for us how our Lord transformed the Jewish Passover Meal into his own Paschal Sacrifice, (and the Eucharistic celebration as we have today).

The first reading narrates that the blood of the animal marked outside the door post of the houses of the Chosen People saved their first born sons from the plague of death. In the second reading, St Paul shows us that through the coming of Jesus, we were also saved from the plague of death, not through the blood of an animal but through His very own flesh and blood.

Until the Lord comes, St Paul says, therefore, every time you eat this bread of Life and drink this cup, you are proclaiming his death.

The Eucharist therefore gives us assurance that our Lord will never abandon us. The celebration of the Mass is a celebration of His loving presence and divine security.

Our Lord’s body and blood is our food for the soul, so that as long as we live, his body and blood is the source of our comfort and strength.

So tonight let us deepen our love and devotion to the Eucharist. Let us not take the celebration of the Mass for granted.

The Priesthood
After our Lord instituted the Eucharist, he then followed by the institution of the priesthood with his command, Do this in memory of me.

The priests as ministers of the Sacraments and the Eucharist, are called to represent Christ in the community. They act in persona Christi to keep the command of Jesus fulfilled for you, the people of God, so that the presence of Christ’s paschal mystery pervades in your daily lives today and until the end of time.

Priests are ordinary people, human and weak, chosen to perform extra-ordinary works.

The priesthood is a difficult life. It is no joke to live a good priesthood… Sometimes priests have to hide from people their tears under a whitened made-up face because they do not wish to add to their flock’s burden. They have to dance and jump at their beck and call, even if their legs feel broken and bruised.

After each busy day in the church, the priest goes to his room alone, fondly remembering the children who can’t be his own. He returns to his room, alone, with no one to listen to his happy story, with no one to whom to bare his aching soul.

The priest’s life is way of the cross. It is the duty of the priests to pray for the people and to sacrifice for them. Priests are called to imitate Jesus, to love Jesus and to share Jesus.

So this evening please pray for us priests that we may always be faithful to Jesus, that we may always be faithful messengers of his love, courageous enough to carry our crosses, and joyful enough to bring God’s hope.

Commandment of Love
Lastly this evening we call to mind the new commandment of Christ, to love one another as He loves us. This love is much deeper than feeling or emotion, but it’s a kind of love that can bear trials, endure sacrifices, and face the horror of death.

In the Gospel, Jesus demonstrated a unique picture of love and humility — he stoops down to wash his disciples' feet. His purpose wasn't to clean up their feet; but his purpose was to give us a genuine example what our relationships should be as brothers and sisters.

He washed his disciples’ feet to remind us of his undying affection and a silent plea for us to do the same for each other. We are called to love and take care of one another, as he loves and takes care of us.

If God so humbled himself, how much more us? If really want to welcome Jesus in our life, we are required to imitate him, we must wash one another’s feet, serve one another, and revere His divine presence in every person.

Conclusion
Let us pray tonight as we celebrate the Last Supper, we may not only relive the memory of our Lord’s paschal mystery but sincerely bring its true message in our actions.

We thank the Lord for the Eucharist that sustains us.

We thank the Lord for the priesthood.

We thank the Lord showing us how to love genuinely.

Amen.





Readings: Jesus Our Light by Bishop Socrates Villegas pp 73-74

Forgiveness of God

St Andrew’s Parish Werribee
Penitential Service
April 7, 2009

Forgiveness of God

A missionary priest on one of the Pacific Islands was surprised one day to see a woman enter his hut carrying a handful of sand, which was still dripping water.
“Do you know what this is Father?” she asked.
“It looks like sand,” replied the priest.
“Do you know why I brought it here?” she asked.
“No, I can’t imagine why?” the priest answered.
“Well, Father, these are my sins,” the woman explained, “my sins which are as countless as the sands of the sea. How can I ever obtain forgiveness for all of them?”
“You got that sand down by the shore, did you not?” said the missionary. “Well, take it back there and pile up a heaping mound of sand. Then sit back and watch the waves come in and wash the pile slowly but surely and completely away. That is how God’s forgiveness works. His mercy is as big as the ocean. Be truly sorry and the Lord will forgive.”

Dear brothers and sisters, we are gathered here this evening for two reasons, first we remember our sins. Our sins may be as countless as the sands of the sea, we remember them all; we feel sorry for them all.

{In remembering our sins, we take time to ask ourselves: What have I done for God in my life? And what am I doing the rest of my life? Am I living a life pleasing to God? Am I making a difference?}

Secondly, and most importantly, we are gathered here this evening because we remember that we have a God, who is forgiving and merciful. We remember that the measure of his forgiveness is beyond measure, his forgiveness is far beyond our imagination, greater than the ocean.

And as we remember God’s forgiveness, we desire for it, we must long for it.

The Psalm reading invites us to want God’s forgiveness, to desire for his mercy more than we desire for gold.

Let us now gently lay down our sins and all our guilt feelings, let us allow our Good Lord to completely wash them away, to purify us, and make us a new and holy people.

Take Control of Our Life Lord

Palm Sunday 2009
April 5, 2009
Mass Homily

Today, Palm Sunday, we come together to begin a solemn celebration of Holy Week in union with millions of Christians throughout the world as we commemorate the Entrance of our Lord into his own city, Jerusalem, to finally complete his work as our Messiah: to suffer, to die, and to rise again.

We remember the adoring crowds raising palms and shouting “Hossana” as Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem.

We remember before the week is out, the stirring welcome wears off; cheers turn to jeers; the sheltering palms into scourging at the pillar and the hosannas into a heart-piercing “Crucify him!”

A Close encounter
The Mass today is unique compared to all Masses, we have a long narration of the Passion Narrative from St. Mark Gospel.

The Gospel reading is intended not merely to narrate what happened 2,000 years ago but it is being proclaimed in Churches all over the world today for us to remember the good news of salvation in our own present time and the good of salvation in our present situation.

What is the good news of our salvation? It’s no other than God loves us! God loves us more than our imagination.

The Holy week which we begin today is the great time for remembering. We remember how much He loved us. We remember especially on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Black Saturday, and Easter Sunday that we were saved with much pain, and at a great price.

Yes, more than anything else, we remember we are loved so much.

St. Paul
In the Second Reading, St Paul spells it out very clearly our Lord’s utmost love for us:

….though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave…he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

St Paul is also invites us to bend our knee before Him…to glorify the name of Jesus…to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord… What does he mean? Perhaps it’s another way of telling us to always remember, never forget, how Jesus he loves us so much…

An Altar Server asked me this morning, “Father, why the statues were all covered today?” I said to her, “It’s because Holy Week is a time when we focus to Jesus alone!” To make sure I said the right answer I asked Fr Frank, for the first time I was right! :)

Like fasting we try to discipline our mind and hearts for Jesus alone. Without Jesus everything will be out of control.

There will times in our life when we seem to be out of control!

Philippines
• My mother’s 60th birthday – many invited guests didn't send RSVPs. Those who were invited and attended the party carried along with them some friends who were not invited!
• We went to an Boracay island – 4 kilometers of white sand beach and crystal clear waters. Our joys were out of control! It was great experience!
• My timetable in the Philippines was out of my control, I was invited to give speeches and hand in awards at graduation ceremonies, bless houses...
• Visited the mother of my closest friend who is suffering leukemia.
• Anointed some people who were seriously sick without medication because of poverty...
• Highschool reunion – we started at 6pm we finished at past midnite. We shared our personal stories sad and joysful.. For some broken marriages and relationship were beyond their control.

When it seems what’s happening around us to be out of control, maybe it’s time to give Jesus a chance to control us!

Conclusion
This Holy Week we let Jesus control of us -- our mind, our hearts, our whole being. We remember that whether we are healthy, rich, happy or not, whether we ended up in broken relationships He left us a mission to accomplish.

Our mission is to remind everyone that there is a God, a God who loves us, and that there is hope.

Let us always remember that Jesus knows our own suffering, the burdens we bear, our depression, conflict in our family, health problem and all other conflict we carry within us.

Finally, during this Holy Week we remember that it is not enough to remember.

Our remembering should lead us to transformation, our remembering should lead us to become better persons, to be good Catholics, holy members of the body of Christ.

In other words, we remember and renew our love for God and for us His people.

Remembering is going back from past in order that we can go forward once more, with great love and devotion!

With all this in mind and heart we are ready for Holy Week.