King, God and Victim for all

EPIPHANY 2018

YEAR OF THE CLERGY AND CONSECRATED PERSONS

JANUARY 7, 2018

Jesus, I trust in you.

Wise men coming from the East came searching for the new-born King of the Jews. Finding the Child with Mary his mother, they prostrated before him and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. It is about this day that we sing: May 3 haring nagsidalaw at ang bawa’t isa ay nagsipaghandog ng tanging alay. Today should be the gift giving day. Gift giving, which has become an essential part of the Christmas, derives its meaning from the story of the magi.

The magi offered gifts because they understood that the baby before them was the primary gift of that day. The Child Jesus is the Father’s gift to all humankind. Being gentiles, these wise men were not Jews. They did not belong to the chosen people of God. And yet, they recognized the fact that the Child Jesus was also given by God to them. They offered gold because Jesus is King not only of the Jews but of the whole world. When Jesus was crucified, Pilate had an inscription placed on the Lord’s head which read: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. It was written in 3 languages – Hebrew, Latin, and Greek – not only for purpose of wider intelligibility but also to symbolically point to the universality of Christ’s kingship. He is King of all nations. “All kings shall pay him homage, all nations shall serve him.”

They offered frankincense because Jesus is God not only of the Jews but of the whole world. They prostrated before him and worshiped him because every nation on earth will adore him. They offered myrrh because Jesus is the Paschal Victim who will die for all humanity. Myrrh is used to anoint the dead in preparation for their burial.

Jesus is the Father’s gift not only to the Jews, but to all of us. “The Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” Because he is given to us, we should offer him the gift of ourselves. “He wanted the pure gold of a heart detached from all earthly goods; the myrrh of a renunciation of all the happiness of this world in exchange for participation in the life and suffering of Jesus; the frankincense of a will that surrenders itself and strains upward to lose itself in the divine will. In return for these gifts, the divine Child gave us himself.” (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) Such gift can come only from a sincere conversion of heart. The Magi returned to their country by another way. This does not only mean that they did not return to Herod. It also means that their encounter with the Baby Jesus was a life-changing encounter. They were never the same after this encounter. Detachment, renunciation, and surrender were the response they gave to this wondrous gift of God’s only Son. Today, God’s love is revealed…his love for all of us. We can only respond to this by turning away from our worldly lives and by setting our hearts on the true gold which is the treasure of eternal life. We burn our own will and surrender so that it may rise up to God as a pleasing spiritual offering. We anoint ourselves with the myrrh of self-denial. Dying to ourselves, we unite ourselves with the sufferings and death of Jesus. It is only then that we shall be overcome with joy because such a conversion of heart will clarify our vision and lead us like a star to Jesus. There, we shall prostrate before him. We shall open to him our hearts. “For in sacrifices you take no delight, burnt offering from me you would refuse, my sacrifice, a contrite spirit. A humbled and contrite heart you will not spurn.”

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!