Maligayang Pasko Po. (Merry Christmas)

Christmas Midnight Mass 2006
12:00am

St. Andrews Parish

Gifts
I’m sure we are all excited unwrapping all the gifts we received today and gifts we will receive tomorrow. We are excited to find out what we gifts will get this Christmas. Inasmuch as Christmas is about gift giving, Christmas is also receiving gifts. This Christmas you may get a new pair of shoes, Barbie dolls, t-shirts, i-pods, box of chocolates and so on. Gifts really make us feel happy and excited. So we thank our mum and dad, our husband and wife, family and loved ones for being so thoughtful this Christmas.

However, let us not forget the greatest gift and the most important gift, we all receive this Christmas. This Christmas gift is not wrapped by fancy coloured paper rather this gift is wrapped by swaddling clothes. This gift doesn’t come from an expensive store but you’ll find this gift lying in a manger in a cold winter night.

And this Christmas gift is more than anything else in this world and yet often neglected.
The gift we receive every time we celebrate Christmas is no other than a newly born baby who is the source of our joy, peace and love, and his name is Jesus.

This midnight, in this Mass we celebrate the moment when the whole humanity received the gift of salvation through the birth of Jesus 2000 years ago.

My dear friends, Christmas is about God giving us the most precious gift no one could offer. God gave us his only Son on the first Christmas not as a visitor but he became one of us and he never left. Christmas is about God coming down to be one of us and one with us, going as deep into our lives as he can, and as deeply as we will let him.

Light and Darkness
The readings we have this midnight speak of darkness followed by light. There is interplay between the darkness – as an image of fear, and light – as an image of joy.

Before the world was filled with the darkness of sin but on the first Christmas day, when the child Jesus is born, the light of God’s salvation shine in the whole world. As the prophet Isaiah says: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.”

In the Gospel, the shepherds were “keeping the night watching over their flock” they were in darkness but suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared to them and they were bathed in a great light.

And, when angel Gabriel appeared to Mary to announce that she was chosen to be the Mother of God, she was filled with darkness of fear. But after she gave birth to her Son, Mary’s heart is now filled with joy. The light of the Child Jesus shine upon her Mary and it remained with her forever.


Darkness and Light in our Life
In our lives too, sometimes we find ourselves in our own darkness: the darkness of sin, pride, selfishness and lack of forgiveness. We also have our own fear and insecurities; we suffer anxiety and depression; sometimes our hearts are full of anger and hate.

Today/this midnight, let the light of first Christmas shine in our lives. Let the Star of Bethlehem shining brightly on earth this midnight overcome our own darkness and sorrows.

Let the angel’s message to the shepherd and to Mary rings out once more with new strength: “Do not be afraid.”

Do not be afraid…because our Saviour is born today.
Do not be afraid… because our Saviour brings us joy, hope and peace.


Emmanuel: Glory to God in the Highest!
So my dear friends, let us not be afraid, but let rejoice now that God’s greatest gift is with us – the Emmanuel. That means God who is with us. God who is not beside us always, but God within us, always, as love – incredible love, unconditional, unwavering love, that will never abandon us, never leave us, ever again.

Our confidence cannot be shaken, nor can our wonder at what we are celebrating ever fade.

Today is born the One who brings peace to the world.

So together with the choirs of angels, let us proclaim and bring the good of news of God’s gift of salvation, as we say:

“Gloria in excelsis Deo”
“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
Amen.

Christmas Encounter

Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 23-24, 2006
St. Andrew’s Parish
Saturday: 6:00-7:00 pm (Vigil Mass)
Sunday: 6:00-7:00 pm (Children’s Mass)
Mi 5:1-4a; Ps 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19; Heb 10:5-10; Lk 1:39-45 ”

This year my two eldest sisters both had their third child. My eldest sister gave birth to a baby girl last October and my other sister had a boy last July. I remember seeing them together both with big tummy was a great joy for our family. I remember I was also excited to see the new members of our family.

Each year the gospel passage for the Fourth Sunday of Advent is a story of Mary’s pregnancy, and for this year it is the visitation. We meditate on this story as the second joyful mystery of the rosary, so that this could be an opportunity to go into it deeper than we usually can in saying the rosary.

We have to pregnant women today – Mary and Elizabeth – they are not sisters; they are cousins. There were two extreme women one is young and a virgin; and the other is elderly, mature and a long time barren.

At the annunciation, Mary is told by the angel that her elderly cousin Elizabeth has conceived. Her faith was so strong that she believed immediately the message she of the angel. Sensitive to God’s will, Mary immediately leaves to visit Elizabeth in Judah who was already six month pregnant. It is a journey of about seventy miles, probably made on foot or a donkey. Mary’s own pregnancy did not stop her of traveling such a long distance. She is eager to see the God-given sign and certainly to help Elizabeth in all her needs.

When Elizabeth saw Mary, she was filled with the Holy Spirit and immediately recognized Mary as the mother of God. Elizabeth overlooked her own motherhood, she exclaimed with excitement: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”
Because of her Son Jesus, Mary is the greatest and holiest of all holy women. The deepest sentiments of her heart are always turned to God and completely centered in him. She knows nothing but God and his love; she wishes for nothing but for and his love; she seeks nothing but his holy will and his greatest honor.

The story of the Gospel today, the encounter between Mary and Elizabeth is story of sharing of joy and faith – an exchange of gifts. This is indeed the meaning of Christmas – a time of sharing, a time of self-giving, and an exchange of gift.

This is why I think we have K and K during Christmas, we exchange our gifts to one another as a sign of sharing the gifts we received from God. So we should try to give more than we receive.
At Christmas time we give new toys to the children, we share food with our family and friends, we send Christmas, e-cards, and so on. But the deepest, most personal, and most memorable gift we have to share with others this Christmas is our faith – our faith to the Child Jesus, who is born in this world to give us new life, new hope and joy. As the prophet Micah, in the first reading, prophecies a new beginning and a completely a new start of God’s reign, and he will come from a small town called Bethlehem. In the second reading, St. Paul’s letter to the Hebrew, defines Christ’s sacrifice as the offering of his in obedience to his Father that brought as new life and salvation.

Our challenge for us Christians today especially as we all celebrate Christmas which is really at hand, so close now, is to imitate the Blessed Mary, the mother of Jesus, that despite her pregnancy, she didn’t hesitate to share her blessings – the favour she received from God - to other people.

The greatest favour we received, through our baptism, Christ himself. Are we proud to profess our faith this Christmas? Let us evaluate of Christian faith this Christmas 2006. Let us proclaim to the world that only reason we celebrate Christmas – Christ himself. We don’t our birthday celebrant absent on his party.

So like Mary let set out in haste to proclaim of our faith.

Christmas is coming...handa ka na ba?

Simbang Gabi at St. Peter's Parish

Hoppers Crossing
5:00 am, December 18, 2006
Matthew 1:18-25

In the last two of weeks the Church had been reflecting on the life and mission of John the Baptist. We have been hearing in the past few days the words of John the Baptist “prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.”

It is very obvious today that we are all trying are best to follow the instructions of John the Baptist - prepare the way of the Lord. If not, you will not get up so early this morning! Your presence here today is your “Amen” to Jesus. (Last Saturday, I could hear your loud “Amen” with Fr. Wahid at Werribee.)

Starting yesterday we entered a new episode of our advent journey. Yesterday was Gaudete Sunday, Sunday of Joy, we lighted the pink candle of our advent wreath as a sign of our joyful anticipation to the birth of our Lord. As our advent wreath is much brighter, we are getting more excited about the coming of Christ.

The Church now invites us these coming days before Christmas to meditate on the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus. We reflect most especially with Mary’s fiat, her big “Yes” to angel Gabriel’s invitation to be the mother of God. Through Mary’s obedience and willingness to participate with the plan of God despite her doubt and uncertainty the first Christmas became a joyful reality, which means our salvation became possible for us.

Does that mean that because Mary said yes we are saved? Does that mean that it is Mary who saves us? The answer is no.

It simply means that salvation is not only God’s gift to us, it is also our response to God’s invitation. Salvation is actually God’s initiative, God’s gift to us, and then our response to God’s initiative. Mary was free to say no or say yes. Because she said yes, salvation became possible to us.

Like Mary we are free to say yes or no to God’s invitation.

This morning you and I accepted the challenge to say “yes, I will get up 4 o’clock in the morning to attend Dawn Mass at St. Peters, Hoppers Crossing.”

I am interested to know who among you here haven’t missed Dawn Mass yet since last Saturday. Who are the second timers? And who come here today for the first time? Who come here this morning for free food? I do, I come here for free Food of Life (Holy Communion), and of course for free breakfast.

Last Saturday, I said Dawn Mass at St. Francis Xavier in Corio. I said to the parishioners that it was my first time to celebrate Dawn Mass as a priest. We congratulated each other because this year is their second time to celebrate Novena Mass.

But I said to them, and I would like to say this to you as well, especially to my fellow Filipinos, we celebrate Dawn Mass here in Australia not merely because it is a beautiful tradition we want to continue or that we need to do. However, we celebrate Dawn Mass, not only as Filipinos but as whole Christian community, because it is a special time where our faith as one Christian family is intensified.

Dawn Mass is the time when we mostly feel our need to prepare with great joy and hopeful expectation about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is what God the Father is offering us to be our Salvation. With joyful heart we say “yes.” We want Jesus to be born in our hearts.

So we thank God today for His offer of salvation. At the same time, we acknowledge our failure, our laziness, our fear, doubt and uncertainty to accept that offer.

We heard in the Gospel how Joseph, Mary’s husband, overcomes his fear and doubt and uncertainty though the appearance of the angel of the Lord in his dream. The angel said to him “Joseph…do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived… “She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus…” In fulfillment of the prophet, “They shall name him Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’”

We already received the Good News of our salvation – God-is with us.

So each time we talk, each time we plan, each time we act let us continue to accept the offer of God’s salvation. Amen.

Happy Christians, Happy Christmas

Third Sunday of Advent Year C
December 17, 2006

One time I was invited to visit a house. When I used the toilet I saw a beautiful poem on the wall. It’s a poem about a promise of a parent to a child. It says something like this, “My child you may always misunderstood me, but all I want of you is happiness, because I love you.”

I remember this poem as I listen the second reading today from the letter of St. Paul to the Philippians. St Paul writes like a loving parent as he says, “I want you to be happy, always happy in the Lord; I repeat what I want is your happiness…”

“I want you to be happy…” Isn’t happiness what we want to our loved ones, to our parents, brothers and sisters? Isn’t happiness what we are longing for our family and for ourselves too?

If we ask ourselves today at this moment “Are you happy?” “Am I really happy?” What is your answer?

Command to be happy

God always wants us to be happy. It is God’s will that we, his children to be happy, to have joyful hearts, he wants us to be cheerful, to enjoy life and live life to its fullness.

Even though we all want to rejoice, the bare fact is that we rarely do, maybe because of various circumstances in our lives. As we all aware, depression is one of the greatest problems in our society today. According to study the enemies of joy or what stop the person to be happy are fear, worry and anxiety. Doctors say that these can also cause us heart problems.

On this Sunday the Third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, we all centered on joy, it is a time when we try to overcome our personal depressions, unnecessary worries, anxieties and whatever negative things we have in our mind. As the famous song goes, “don’t worry be happy.”

Answer

And so, now we face the question: what is, in fact, the remedy to worry, fear and anxiety? The answer is suggested in our readings today: to turn to God. We worry because we live as if God were not there. Depressions occur when we see ourselves surrounded by problems, but we don’t see we are also surrounded by God. The priest say at the Mass, “Lord deliver us from unnecessary anxieties..” St. Paul gives us a remedy to the our problems, he says, “there is no need to worry; but if there is anything you need, pray for it…ask God in prayer and thanksgiving. So we make more space for God in our lives.

John the Baptist

The Gospel today tells us that we have John the Baptist as a model of happy person. St. Luke gives us a glimpse into the personality of that wonderful person, John the Baptist. He is someone who is not conquered by fear, anxiety and worries in life. In the Gospel we heard about people were coming to him asking for enlightenment, searching for meaning in life. They are the materially fortunate people, soldiers and tax collectors, yet they come to John the Baptist, who is a man without any material possessions.

John the Baptist is a happy person because he recognizes Jesus not simply as a man, but he recognises him as the Christ the Son of God.

As John the Baptist announces the "good news," he encourages people to prepare for the coming of the Christ by making concrete changes in their lives.

As we can see our advent wreath has now 3 lighted candles, it’s now brighter, it makes us feel happier. We can be happy and joyful, for we have already heard the good news.

And this, my dear friends, is the Good News today, the only remedy from all our anxiety, fear and worry. This is the only reason why we should rejoice. We have Jesus, our God, who is the source of joy. Not money and material possessions can ever determine our happiness.

Jesus alone, only Jesus, always Jesus, can bring us happiness, eternal happiness.


Lord, help us to be joyful, prepared and ready for your coming. Amen

First-first Dawn Mass

Simbang Gabi
St. Francis Xavier, Corio, Geelong
5:30 am
December 16, 2007
Mt 17:10-13

I am interested to know if there are people here attending Simbang Gabi or Dawn Mass for the first very time. Pakitaas po ang kamay? I also would like to ask specially my fellow Filipinos who never been to Dawn Mass in Australia?

It’s a great privilege for me to say my first ever Dawn Mass with you my dear friends here at Corio. You are actually my neighbours. St. Andrew's Parish, Werribee is not really far from here.

I am aware that this year 2006 is the second time that Dawn Masses will be celebrated here at St. Francis Xavier parish through the initiative of the Filipino community. As you know my dear friends, Simbang Gabi or Dawn Mass is one of the longest and most popular among the Filipino traditions in the Philippines. It is when Catholic churches across the nation start to open their doors as early as three o’clock in the morning to welcome the faithful to the Dawn Mass.
In fact, the Mass at Dawn begins the long Christmas season in the country, they say the longest in the world which starts on Dec 16 and ends of the Feast of the Ephiphany or Feast of Three Kings on the first Sunday after New Year’s Day.

As we begin today the first day of the nine-day novena Mass to the Blessed Mother I thought of giving you my friends some historical background about this rich Christian tradition of Dawn Mass.

Simbang Gabi or Dawn Mass traces its roots in Mexico in 1587 when the Pope granted the petition of Fray Diego de Soria, prior of the convent of San Agustin Acolman, to hold Christmas mass outdoors because the Church could not accommodate the huge number of people attending the evening Mass.

The Dawn Mass or Simbang Gabi became a Filipino religious practice in about 1660. To prepare for the Christmas season, the missionary Spanish friars held a series of Masses in the early morning hours, usually at about four in morning, when the roosters crow to announce the coming of a new day. Being an agricultural people, the Filipinos woke up early in the morning in the fields, starting the day two hours before sunrise. By holding Dawn Masses the Spanish priests gave the farmers a chance to hear Mass before setting out for the fields.

During the old times, it is believed that parish priests would go far knocking on doors to wake and gather the faithful to attend the Dawn Mass. (I don’t think your parish priest will like this idea). Today in the Philippines, actually at this very moment, Dawn Mass is announced an hour before the start of Mass by the ringing of the church bells, a brass band or Christmas music all over the town. (I don’t think the council here will allow this idea).

Dawn Mass has become a Filipino tradition, a religious practice handed down from generation to generation. We, who now live in a modern world, living in a new country Australia, would like to share this festive tradition to other people, as we are doing today.

We no longer attend Dawn Mass for agricultural reasons as in the old times. What I would like to emphasise to you my dear friends, we do not celebrate Dawn Mass merely because it is a tradition that we need to do. However, we celebrate Dawn Mass and we are joyfully celebrating it as not only as Filipinos but as whole Christian community because it is a special time where our faith as one Christian family is intensified.

Dawn Mass is the time where we mostly feel the presence of the Lord because it is the spiritual preparation for Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ. John the Baptist reminds to “Prepare the Way of the Lord.” We prepare the coming Lord internally and spiritually so that he will be born in our hearts.

So, let us ask God’s grace as we begin the nine day-novena Mass today that we may be filled with peace, joy and hope. We call upon Him as we said altogether in the responsorial psalm: Lord make us turn to you, let us see your face and we shall be saved.

My Gratitude to ICMAS

Homily
Immaculate Conception Major Seminary
Tabe, Guiguinto, Bulacan
November 15, 2006
Lk 17:11-19

The word “gratitude” is defined as an emotion, which involves a feeling of emotional indebtedness towards another person. Often gratitude is always accompanied by a desire to thank the person, or to reciprocate for a favour that this person had done for you.

In the Gospel today we heard about a Samaritan who returned to Jesus to show his gratitude for being healed. Gratitude is the homage of the heart which responds with graciousness in expressing an act of thanksgiving. The Samaritan approached Jesus reverently and gave praise to God. He came back to recognize and appreciate the mercy, compassion and healing he received from Jesus. “He praised God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet.”

This is actually how I feel today, like this Samaritan I would like to praise God with a loud voice, I would like to fall at Jesus feet for this feeling gratitude I have today. I am very thankful and full of gratitude first of all because of the gift of the priesthood. I return today in my beloved seminary, the Immaculate Conception Major Seminary, not just to visit this place or reminisce my happy memories particularly in the college department, but I’m here to bear witness to you the grace I received from God.

Tomorrow I will celebrate the second month anniversary of my priestly ordination. Looking back in 1998, my final year at Philosophy department, I had full of doubts, uncertainties, and struggles about my vocation. I shed a lot of sweat and tears in this chapel. Knowing my sinfulness and incapability I was then asking God for clarity and direct answer whether God is really calling me to be priest or not.

I still remember my former rector Msgr Angel Santiago, he would often remind us that we are being formed in the seminary to be good, holy and intelligent priests. Again and again he would say this in his homilies, lectures and meetings – to be good, holy and intelligent.

To be good means doing good acts and showing others the goodness of God. To be holy means to be always in touch with God and making others feel the loving presence of God. To be intelligent means being able share wisdom of Christ to others. I took them as big challenge for me, however, we are here at the seminary to be formed according to the heart and mind of Jesus.

We, as priest and seminarians have to acknowledge and accept the fact that we always need to be formed. Pope John Paul II stressed in his apostolic letter Pastores Daba Vobis “Every life is a constant path toward maturity, a maturity which cannot be attained except by constant formation.”

So, with great sense of gratitude, I would like to express my gratitude to the seminary fathers, seminarians and the whole community of the Immaculate Conception Major Seminary, for your important contribution in my vocational journey to the Priesthood.

I would like to end my homily with this prayer:

"Lord, may I never fail to recognize your love and mercy toward me. Fill my heart with gratitude and thanksgiving and free me from pride, discontentment, and ingratitude. Help me to count my blessings with gratefulness and to give thanks in all circumstances."

Aspiring to be Holy?

Aspirant Recollection:
Religious Catechists of Mary

Sta. Isabel, Malolos, Bulacan

Readings for Reflection

November 19, 2006

Christian Vocation to Holiness

Our Christian vocation in the first place is a call to salvation in Christ we first received in baptism. We fulfill our Christian vocation only through a dynamic mutual self-giving of God to us and ourselves to God.[1] To habitually practice these self-giving acts highlights our Christian vocation whilst we are still in the world. As we live in a pluralistic society, following our Christian vocation to holiness is difficult but not an impossible task.[2] To be “holy” means to integrate one’s life into Christ’s identity, his teachings, his deeds and his example of obedience to the Father. To be “holy” in this sense is a challenging journey, for it should reflect concretely in one’s integral values in life, one’s behaviour and one’s sense of purpose in life. So what really is our Christian vocation in this modern world? What is it that we, as Christians, can offer to the whole of humanity, even to non believers?

The bishops at the Second Vatican Council with their statement in Optatam Totius declare what Christians should be in today’s world: “they should draw more fully on the teaching of holy Scripture and should throw light upon the exalted vocation of all the faithful in Christ and their obligation to bring forth fruit in charity for the life of the world.”[3] The notion of “throwing light” and “sharing the fruit” of salvation as our “vocation in Christ” speaks of what Christians—whether married, single, religious or ordained—are called primarily, as mentioned earlier, to be, namely, followers of the teachings and examples of Jesus Christ. Our lives and deeds cannot share light or become fruitful to others, if we are not attached to Jesus Christ, who significantly is the source and basis of Christian holiness.

Our faith in Christ must contribute significantly to the way we act and live, the way we fashion our minds and thoughts, including the way we interpret certain moral issues in life most especially concerning the dignity of human persons. Before we can be ‘light’ and ‘fruitful’ to others, and thus ‘holy,’ we must first present our human response to God’s invitation and express our response with various issues in life and in the way we relate and live with other people. Therefore, our response to the twofold challenge made by the Council Fathers, we must first of all consider seriously the richness of the reality and dynamism of our Christian faith, and secondly, we have to take on freely the obligation inherent to our faith to live humanly in a way in which we bring about the kingdom of God in our world.[4]

To live the fullness of our Christian vocation can bring the whole of humanity into communion with God, which is itself given in the grace of the Spirit of God promised in Christ.[5] In the same Spirit we are able to change our hearts, to change the world and to bring God’s kingdom to human community. Our response to participate in the call of Christ to holiness allows us to find our human completion and understand that we are called not to selfishness but rather to lay down our lives for our neighbours[6], keeping in mind the words of Christ, “I have come so that they may have life, and have it to the full.”[7]

To sum up, Jesus Christ is the model of morality in all circumstances of our lives. His life, death and resurrection form the unity of morality and faith which brings us to live our Christian vocation to holiness, accomplishes our salvation, enables us to attain human completion and finds our communion with God.

Jesus, Our Only Life

Christ himself is our guide to Christian living; he is the model and norm of the way we behave, make decisions, interact with other people and relate with God, who is our salvation. Our response to imitate Christ makes us his true disciples in our time. Following Christ is an absolutely essential condition for us to live as authentic Christians and our effort to follow our Christian vocation to holiness and moral living cannot be separated from the caption “Jesus, our only life.” In a more concrete manner, to call upon Christ as our “only life” is to realize not only our external relationship with him but moreover our internal transformation and personal communion with the Holy Trinity.

The quest for authentic Christian living tends to draw ourselves more closely to Christ’s teaching and example in every circumstance of our life. Our Christian faith and life require attention to the goal and reality of the love of God to us, through Jesus Christ. We must acknowledge deep within our hearts the context of God’s self-giving to humankind because we are all called to share our life and bear fruit as we are called to participate in the life and death of his Son. While still on earth, Jesus Christ lives faithfully and obediently to God even to the extent of suffering. As St. Paul writes to the church community at Philippi, Christ humbles himself “even to accepting death, death on the cross.”[8] We cannot be true followers of Christ without sharing our lives for other even in the midst of suffering and death. A disciple without a cross cannot be a true disciple because Christ himself says, “carry your cross and follow me.”

Again and again we say to ourselves that it is our following of Christ’s example and deeds, his human understanding, love and compassion to humanity, that is the path that leads towards the fullness of Christian living. For this simply, but radically, is our life as Christians. Jesus lived and died for others and so we are called to live and die for others as well—indeed for the whole human community. It is in this way we can view the dynamism of Christian morality and spirituality within a community of God’s people. In the end, it is sharing in the life of God that is the very core and existential meaning of human life, of goodness, and of holiness – and thus of Christian living.


Fr. John Joel E. Vergara

[1] Joseph Fuchs S.J., Personal Responsibilty and Christian Morality (Georgetown: University Press & Washington D.C. & Gill and Macmillan, 1983) 21.
[2] Moral theologian, Terence Kennedy mentions in his book Doers of the Word that the Church is in difficult position, most especially in deeply secularized societies such as in Europe, North America, Australasia and parts of developed countries in Asia where the Church is being stereotyped as an enemy of freedom and secular autonomous ethics. Terence Kennedy C.Ss.R., Doers of the Word (Missouri: Triumph Books, 1996) 47-48.
[3] Optatam Totius paragraph 16.
[4] Frances Baker. “Christian Moral Life: Expression of Life in Communion with God,” Australasian Catholic Record (July 1999) 317.
[5] ibid.
[6] 1 Jn 3:16.
[7] Jn 10:10.
[8] Phil 2:8.