Fishing Men Out of Darkness

Jesus, I trust in you!

Close to Epiphany, we see the beginnings of the public ministry of the Lord Jesus. He continues to reveal himself to all nations. As through the light of a star he beckoned the magi to himself, so today, he calls to the people beyond the Jordan, the Galilee of the Gentiles. The beginning of his public ministry took place in the land of Zebulun and Naphtali in northern Galilee which was occupied by Assyria. He addresses himself not just to the chosen people of Israel but to all the gentiles, that is, to the entire world: He has glorified the land west of the Jordan, the district of the Gentiles. God has so decided in the past to reveal himself to Israel. It was only to them that he spoke through the prophets. John the Baptist, the last prophet to be sent, preached to the people of Israel. God never sent any prophet to the Gentiles. For a long time, the light of Divine Revelation shone only upon the land of Israel while the rest of the world was kept in darkness. At last, the Lord expands the scope of his light. At last he speaks to the rest of the world: The people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death, light has arisen. That Light is Jesus himself, the revelation of God, the visible image of the invisible God. He is Light from Light, true God from true God. He is the Light of the world and no one who follows him will walk in the dark.

He calls his disciples and makes them his partners in the work of saving people. As “fishers of men”, they are to “fish” people out of the dark seas, the abyss, the kingdom of evil. But for them to do this, they must themselves be fished out of that darkness. They must leave the kingdom of evil in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. This can only be done by conversion (metanoia). Conversion means making a radical turning towards the Lord, a full U-turn, turning one’s back to the previous life of darkness in order to live by the light of Jesus. Because Jesus is the Light, if we turn our backs toward him, we shall face our shadow. But if we turn to him, we have our shadows cast behind our backs. Therefore, we have to turn to Jesus and follow him first. We cannot lead people to the light of Jesus if we continue to live in darkness. We cannot liberate (fish) people from darkness if we remained prisoners of darkness ourselves.

In these past days, we have witnessed the outpouring of Filipino devotion to the Lord. Millions joined the procession of the Nazareno. Millions paid homage to the Santo Nino. And yet, we cannot deny that in spite of such fervor of devotion, many of us are still nominal Catholics. Oftentimes, there is a contradiction between our actual lives and our faith in Jesus. This nominal Catholicism is rooted in the absence of true conversion. Conversion is not just sorrow for past sinfulness. It is rebirth (bagong buhay, pagbabalik-loob) in which we allow the Holy Spirit to transform the way we think into the mind of Christ. It is rebirth in which we allow the Holy Spirit to transform our will so that we would desire only to do what Jesus wills. In this rebirth, we allow the word of God to shape our lives. Thus, we should ask ourselves: are we walking in the light of the Lord or are we still living in the shadow of death? Are we living on the side of light and life or are we still sitting in darkness and the shadow of death? Are we preaching the Gospel of life or are we supporting the culture of death? Let us allow ourselves to be enlightened by the Lord. It is by walking in his light that we shall live in the land of the living.

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

  

The Cross: The Requisite for Discipleship

Christ, the Strength of the Martyrs!

PRAISED Be Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!

Last week, Simon received the name Peter. Today, he is called Satan. Last week, he was praised for receiving revelation from the heavenly Father. Today, he is rebuked for thinking not as God does but as human beings do. Simon Peter was rebuked for opposing the plan of the Lord to go to Jerusalem in order to suffer and die in order to be raised up. Many of us might object: Was it wrong for St. Peter to desire for the Lord’s safety and well-being? Apparently, we find nothing wrong with what Peter said. But this is because we also are thinking as humans do. We are not thinking as God does.

The Lord called Peter “Satan” because Peter was opposing the mission of Jesus to suffer and die on the Cross. He was acting as an “enemy of the cross”. In his letter to the Philippians, St. Paul spoke about the enemies of the Cross: “For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.”  (Phil. 3:18-19) To detest the Cross is to be its enemy.

To the Lord, the Cross plays an integral part of his mission. To him, it is the only means to enter into his glory. Thus, he makes it a requirement for discipleship. Anyone who wishes to be his disciple must embrace the Cross: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” The doctrine of the Cross opposes the way of the world which is the way of self-preservation: “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” The way of the world is self-preservation through accumulation. The world regards suffering as evil which should be avoided. We are taught that we must accumulate as much as we can in order to shield ourselves from suffering. But the Lord himself tells us that the rejection of the Cross is the path to destruction: “What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life?”

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross wrote: “The entirely comfortable being-at-home in the world, the satiety of pleasures that it offers, the demands for their pleasures and the matter-of-course consent to these demands – all of this is darkness in God’s eyes and incompatible with the divine light. It has to be totally uprooted if room for God is to be made in the soul. Meeting this demand means engaging in battle with one’s own nature all along the line, taking up one’s cross and delivering oneself up to be crucified.” (Edith Stein, The Science of the Cross, 47.)

The path to life is the path of self-denial. The way of the Cross is the way of discipleship. But what does it mean to deny oneself and to take up the Cross? St. John of the Cross explains this through maxims. He said: “Take care that your inclination is ever directed: not toward the easier, but toward the more difficult; not toward the pleasant, but toward the unpleasant; not toward the restful, but toward the troublesome; not toward the more, but toward the less, not toward what brings you more joy, but what brings displeasure; not towards what prepares consolation for you, but toward what makes you disconsolate; not toward the higher and more valuable, but toward the lowly and insignificant; not toward what wants to be something, but toward what wants to be nothing. Seek not what is the better in things, but what is worse. Demand for the sake of Christ to enter into total denudation and freedom and poverty from all there is in the world.” (CWJC, A.1.13.6-8.)

Jesus, I trust in you. O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee! 

Dishonest Wealth vs. True Wealth

Praised be Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

When the Lord spoke of “dishonest wealth”, many of us might immediately think of material things that were acquired dishonestly – something very similar to ill gotten wealth obtained through the misuse of public funds. “Dishonest wealth” may be taken to mean misappropriated funds – funds that were supposed to help the poor but ended up into the pockets of the rich. However, “dishonest wealth” cannot be limited only to wealth obtained at the expense of the poor.

Christ is the only true treasure

Notice that the Lord speaks of “dishonest wealth” as referring to all kinds of material goods, whether they be obtained honestly or dishonestly. All material wealth is dishonest because such deceive us into some false sense of security. We have always been taught that the possession of material wealth gives us security in life. Thus, the more we accumulate, the more secured our lives are. The more we possess, the greater our capability to address our material needs like food, clothes, shelter, medicine, education, and the like. The more possessions we have the more secure our future becomes. This is the illusion that material things give us.

Such illusion ends at the moment of death. At that moment, we realize that money cannot buy us a second more of life on earth. We then will realize that money cannot be taken beyond the grave. There is no way to transfer account from this world to the other world. In other words, there is a limit to the power of money. It perishes together with this material world. And yet, the Lord says: “If you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with true wealth?” In speaking of “true wealth” the Lord is referring to the treasures of the Kingdom of heaven where rust does not corrode, moth cannot destroy and thieves cannot steal. The test for trustworthiness with regards the true and lasting treasures of heaven is the way we exercise our stewardship of the dishonest wealth of earth. The test for our loyalty and worship of God is the way we deal with mammon. Do we subjugate mammon and use material wealth to promote the work of God or do we simply accumulate material wealth and end up being used by mammon? Do we love money and use people or do we love people and use money? I think that the right thing to do is to love people and use money. We use money to help people. We do not use people to accumulate money. The Prophet Amos has a very stern warning to those who enrich themselves at the expense of the poor: “You who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land…The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Never will I forget a thing they have done.”

And so, let us not be overcome by greed. Rather, let our dealings with the goods of the earth be governed by charity. Remember that we are only stewards and not owners. The earth and everything in it belongs to God. Whatever we have does not belong to us…it belongs to God. “If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another, who will give you what is yours?” Remember that the Lord intends to give us the inheritance of heaven, only if we be faithful stewards of the things of the earth. There can be no double loyalties. You cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and mammon.

Jesus, I trust in you. O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

Late Posting 21st Sunday in Ordinary time C :The Narrow Gate

Praised be Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!

We have always known the Lord Jesus as someone who is welcoming – someone whose heart is always willing to accommodate everybody…one who keeps telling people: “I come to gather nations of every language; they shall come and see my glory.” This is why we would wonder why he would say: “Strive to enter the narrow gate.” Is it not true that if the Lord wanted to bring all men to salvation, then he should make heaven’s gate wide and open? Then why is he saying that heaven’s gate is a narrow one?

The Lord tells us that heaven is for the strong: “Many will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.” However, strength here is not gained by simply eating and drinking in the company of the Lord. Nor is it gained by simply listening to the Lord as he preached in our streets. For “not everyone who calls out ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter into the kingdom of God!” The strength to enter through the narrow gate is gained by what the second reading calls “Discipline”: “Endure your trials as ‘discipline.’”

Try to enter the Narrow Gate

We enter heaven by following the Lord. He is the Good Shepherd who leads us into the verdant pastures and restful waters of heaven. He goes before us and we follow him. However, he goes before us along the way of the Cross. The way of discipleship is that of self denial and of carrying our crosses in imitation of him who suffered and died for us. The way of discipleship is the way of discipline. Contrary to what the world teaches us, our trials, our crosses actually make us strong and fit for the narrow gate of heaven. That is why we should never disdain our trials. We should not disdain the cross for such is the mark of the love of the Father for us: “My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him: for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines. He scourges every son he acknowledges…God treats you as sons. For what son is there whom the father does not discipline? At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.”

Thomas a Kempis wrote: “JESUS has always many who love His heavenly kingdom, but few who bear His cross. He has many who desire consolation, but few who care for trial. He finds many to share His table, but few to take part in His fasting. All desire to be happy with Him; few wish to suffer anything for Him. Many follow Him to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the chalice of His passion. Many revere His miracles; few approach the shame of the Cross. Many love Him as long as they encounter no hardship; many praise and bless Him as long as they receive some comfort from Him. But if Jesus hides Himself and leaves them for a while, they fall either into complaints or into deep dejection. Those, on the contrary, who love Him for His own sake and not for any comfort of their own, bless Him in all trial and anguish of heart as well as in the bliss of consolation. Even if He should never give them consolation, yet they would continue to praise Him and wish always to give Him thanks. What power there is in pure love for Jesus -- love that is flee from all self-interest and self-love!

Christ first of all; Christ above all

Praised be Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!

First he said that he did not come to bring peace to the world but division: a family will be divided, two against three, three against two. Now, the Lord says: “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” The Lord makes very great demands from those who wish to follow him. To follow the Lord means to make him the priority above all priorities. It means putting Christ above all else that we hold dear: above our properties, above our relationships, above our families, and even above our very own selves. St. Benedict, in his Rule says: “Let them prefer nothing whatever to Christ.” (Rule of St. Benedict, Chapter 72.) Christ before all else. Christ above all else.

Prefer nothing to the Love of Christ

Why such great demands on us his disciples? What right has he to demand from us that he be preferred by us before and above all else? This is answered only by looking at who Jesus is: Jesus is the Son of the living God whom we should love with all that we are and all that we have…with all our souls, with all our minds, with all our hearts and with all our strength. Why is this so? It is because God created everything through Him and FOR Him. He is before everything that exists. He holds all things together in Himself. We belong to him on account of the fact that nothing came to be except through Him. We belong to Him because He bought us at the price of His own Blood. In other words, none could love us more than the way the Lord Jesus does. We owe Him our existence. We owe Him our redemption. We belong to Him, we are His people, the flock He shepherds.

In fact, our love for those who we love – our fathers and mothers, wife and children, brothers and sister, and even ourselves – will only find its true meaning in our love for the Lord. He commands us: Love one another as I have loved you. Only in the love of Christ will we be able to love each other in the right way. The virtue of Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all and for his own sake and by which we love our neighbors and ourselves for the sake of Him.

It is only in Christ that we are able to love as he loves – in a detached and pure manner. “Jesus asks us to overcome the instinctive inclination to love in an almost idolatric manner the persons dearest to us.” Loving with “detachment and purity” entails a tremendous amount of self-forgetfulness and self-control. It demands great sacrifice.

Let us prefer nothing to the love of Christ. Let us love him before all and above all. Let our love for each other be pure – that is, let us love each other for the sake of Christ and in imitation of Christ who laid down his life for us his friends. Let us ask our Blessed Mother, whose birth we celebrate today, to help us keep the purity of our hearts and minds. Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.

Jesus, I trust in you. O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.