Christ: Priest and Victim

GOOD FRIDAY 2018

YEAR OF THE CLERGY AND CONSECRATED PERSONS

MARCH 30, 2018

Jesus I trust in you!

Good Friday in the Year of Priests gives us the occasion to meditate on the High Priesthood of Jesus because the mystery of our Lord’s suffering and death on the Cross gives light to the reason why we always speak of the Priesthood of Christ. First of all, we should ask: Who is the Priest and what does he do? The concept of the priesthood is not exclusive to the Catholic religion. The priesthood is found in all religions because religion seeks to offer God the worship that rightfully befits him. The virtue of religion is the virtue that inclines the human heart to offer God worship that is his due. And in every religion, the highest act of worship is always the sacrifice in which an animal or a human being is killed in order to profess the dominion of the deity over life and death. Of all acts of worship, the sacrifice is the highest and the costliest because it involves the snuffing out of a victim’s life. This death is brought about by the separation of the blood from the flesh or the body of the victim. And the one who offers the victim, the one who kills the victim is called a “priest.” And so, the chief work of a priest is to offer the sacrifice to the deity in the highest act of worship of that religion.

And it is on Good Friday that we see Jesus in the very act of performing his duty as the High Priest of the New Covenant. In the Old Testament priesthood, the high priest on the Day of Atonement, kills a bull and a goat. And taking the blood of the animals, he enters the Holy of Holies and there, sprinkles the blood on the atonement cover for his own sins and for the people’s. Today, as Jesus expires, he enters into the Holy of Holies, “passing through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by human hands (not belonging to creation). He entered, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, and achieved eternal redemption.” Jesus is the only one who is priest and victim at the same time. All other priests have to kill a victim other than himself because if they killed themselves, that would be the end of their service to God. Jesus is the only one who could offer himself because he is the Lamb who once was slain but now he lives forever.”

Jesus offered the most perfect sacrifice which man can ever offer to God. This is because his obedience to the Father’s will is perfect. Worship can only be perfect and acceptable if it comes from an absolutely obedient heart. Thus, the blood of this perfectly obedient Son of God is even more greatly powerful than the blood of animals or of any other human being. “If the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of a heifer’s ashes can sanctify those who are defiled so that their flesh is cleansed, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God!”

“This is why Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant…Christ entered heaven itself that he might appear before God on our behalf…He has appeared at the end of the ages to take away sins once for all by his sacrifice…Christ was offered up once to take away the sins of many; he will appear a second time…to bring salvation to those who eagerly await him.”

It was on the Cross on this day when Jesus exercised his priestly ministry. The Lord Jesus was hung upon the Cross as both priest and victim. He offered the Father his obedience and in so doing, he is the priest. He died and in so doing he is the victim. This priestly ministry of Jesus is made present in every celebration of the Sacred Liturgy. In the Liturgy and through the ministry of the priest, Jesus offers to his Father the perfect worship and in doing so, he brings about the sanctification of his people. This is the highest and the only sacrifice that is acceptable to the Father. Nothing can ever rival this sacrifice in its perfection. “The price of (our) redemption was not something of fleeting value like gold or silver, but the costly shedding of the blood of Christ, the lamb without blemish…The blood of Jesus Christ washes away all our sins.”

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

He humbled himself

HOLY THURSDAY 2018

YEAR OF THE CLERGY AND CONSECRATED PERSONS

MARCH 29, 2018

Jesus, I trust in you!

This year’s celebration of Holy Thursday takes a special significance for me not only because it is the Year of the Clergy and Consecrated Persons but also because I am journeying this year towards my silver jubilee as a priest on November 30, 2018. I think added to this is the wonderful news announced at Chrism Mass this morning that I am retained to my assignment here as Parish priest for the next 3 years.

In the Holy Gospel today, we were told that “Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end…(He) was fully aware that the Father had given everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God.” The Lord Jesus knew who he really is…He is God the Son, the Lord and Master: “You call me Lord and Master and rightly so for indeed I am.” He makes no pretenses about this. He does not deny his greatness in an attitude of false humility. He knew who he was: he is the one to whose power the Father had given everything. And this knowledge of his own greatness makes what he did even so remarkable: “He rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist.” To me, St. Paul gives the appropriate interpretation of what Jesus did: “Though he was in the form of God, Jesus did not deem equality with God, something that was within his grasp. But rather he emptied himself and took the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.” Do you remember the Transfiguration of Jesus? Jesus’ face shone like the sun and his garments because excessively brilliant. This brilliance, this external glory was what Jesus took off at his incarnation. The outer garments which he took off stood for the external glory of his Divinity which Jesus took off when he became man. This is what we call the Kenosis of Jesus. Jesus emptied himself and took the form of a slave, which is our human likeness. That towel which he tied around his waist was the human nature he assumed for himself. He was clad in the garments of a slave. He who is so great, so much like God his Father, humbled himself and became a slave. But the Incarnation was not the end of his humiliation. He humbled himself even further by obediently accepting death on a Cross. He poured water into a basin and washed the feet of his disciples. Feet washing is an act of courtesy shown by Jews to visitors considering the fact that the roads in Israel are either dusty or muddy. However, feet washing is a very menial task. It is an act so low…so demeaning a task that it is never assigned to a Jewish slave on account of his dignity as part of the chosen people of God. And so there he is…God the Son to whom everything has been given by the Father…he now washes the feet of his disciples. He performs the low and menial task of washing our feet. He washes us through the blood and water that will gush out of his wounded side. He gives us the bath of spiritual birth called Baptism and washes our feet with the absolution obtained from the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This is how he shows us his love. He loves us by going down so low as to wash our feet. I remember Florante of the work of Francisco Balagtas. He said: “O pag-ibig kapag ika’y pumasok sa puso nino man, hahamakin ang lahat, masunod ka lamang.” Jesus loved us and in that love, hinamak niya ang lahat, pati ang kanyang sarili.

And so he tells us: “If I, your Lord and Master, washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an model to follow so that as I have done for you, you should also do.” With this, we begin to ask ourselves: “Ano ang kaya kong gawin upang maipakita ko ang pag-ibig ko kay Hesus? Hinamak niya ang lahat, maging ang kanyang sarili, upang ipakita niya ang pagmamahal niya sa akin. Ano ang kaya kong hamakin para sa kanya?” What am I willing to do? How low am I willing to go, in order to prove my love for him? The bishop this morning reminded us priests: “that there is no assignment too poor, no task too menial, no service too low for us. We must be willing to bend so low if we are to be who we should be: ministers of Christ. Remember that no servant is greater than his master, no student is greater than his teacher. We are all servants. We go to wherever we are sent. We leave when we are dismissed.”

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

He falls alone

PALM SUNDAY B

YEAR OF THE CLERGY AND CONSECRATED PERSONS

March 25, 2018

Jesus, I trust in you!

“You will all fall away!” so Jesus told his disciples during the last supper. To this, Peter and the other disciples objected: “Even if all will fall away, I will not…Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And so it came to pass: at the garden, Peter, James and John could not stay awake and watch with Jesus even for an hour; Judas betrayed the Lord with a kiss; everybody deserted him and fled; Peter denied him. Even that mysterious young man who followed the Lord fled naked, leaving his garments behind. From the time of his arrest, Jesus was surrounded by his enemies: false witnesses testified against him, the Sanhedrin condemned him as worthy of death, the crowds demanded that he be crucified, soldiers mocked him, passersby insulted him, and even those who were crucified with him heaped insults on him. But the worst of all was that when Jesus cried out from the Cross: “Eloi, Eloi lema sabachthani?” no answer was heard from the Father…even the Father seemed to have abandoned him. In other words, Jesus died alone.

But it was when he died that the centurion who saw how Jesus died exclaimed: Truly this man was the Son of God. The women who followed him from Galilee and also from Jerusalem were seen watching from a distance. Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Sanhedrin came forward to bury Jesus. Indeed, the single grain of wheat fell to the ground and died. But when it died, it bore much fruit.

This single grain that fell to the ground is truly the King of Israel. This truth was professed by his enemies themselves. Pilate asked, “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” The soldiers who mocked him saluted him by saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” The chief priests and the scribes mocked him, “Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down cross that we may see and believe.” The inscription of the charge above his head read: “The king of the Jews.” Indeed, the Holy Spirit has put this truth on the lips of Christ’s enemies in order make it more credible. If a person’s greatness is acknowledge by his rivals and enemies, that greatness becomes more believable than when it is said by one’s own friends and relatives.

And so, this single grain that fell and died is truly the King of Israel. Single handedly, he defeated the enemy. Alone, he took up the battle and he was victorious. God greatly exalted him and gave him a name which is above all other names. This is why today, we acclaim him: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel!” Today, the Scriptures tell us: “Fear no more, O daughter Zion; see, your king comes, seated upon an ass’ colt.”  Let us welcome him with all the sincerity of our hearts. Let us “inwardly fulfill what we enact outwardly.” (Pre-1955 blessing) Christ bows down to us so that we should come back to the Father. Therefore, let us honor Christ by our sincere conversion. By submitting to his commands and teachings, let us truly profess: Truly, this man was the Son of God, the King of Israel.

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

The Hour of Christ

5^th Sunday of Lent B

Year of the Clergy and Consecrated Persons

March 18, 2018

Jesus, I trust in you!

We have a saying” Pag oras mo na, oras mo na.” Oras here means death. It means that when your time is up, no matter how much money you have or how good your doctors are, if it is your time to die, nothing will keep you for dying. There seems to be some sense of fatalism here but what it says is true: there will be a time to die and when it comes, there is no escaping it.

The Lord Jesus today speaks of his “Hour.” In the Gospel according to John, the Hour of Jesus is a very important theme. It appears as early as the first miracle of Christ during the wedding at Cana. When Our Lady brought to his attention the problem of the newly wedded couple, Our Lord said to her: “My hour has not yet come.” Even when the Jews attempted to kill him or even arrest him, the Lord would escape unharmed because his Hour has not yet come. However, in today’s Gospel, that Hour has at last arrived: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”

What is this hour all about? This refers to the hour of his death: the time when the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies in order to bear much fruit. When the wheat dies in the ground, mysteriously life is released from its shell (balat) and it produces thousands of other grains containing its same nature. Similarly, Christ’s death brings about the birth of many sons and daughters unto God, inheriting eternal life and participating in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).

Although he is troubled, the Lord Jesus resolutely faces this hour because it was for this purpose that he came. He wants to glorify the Father by giving up his life for the sake of sinners. From the Cross, Jesus “offered loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Son though he was, Jesus learned obedience by his sufferings.” His obedience glorified God. In doing so, he casts out the “ruler of this world” and draws all men to himself. He is the Son of Man who ascends to the throne of God through the heavenly ladder, which is the Cross. By the Cross, he is lifted up to God. By the same Cross, we ascend to him. Jesus was glorified because he was obedient until death on the Cross. We ascend to God also using the same ladder. We ascend through obedience also until death. “When Jesus was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him.”

By his death, the Lord Jesus is ratifying a new covenant for us with God. This covenant is ratified, not by the blood of animals but by his own blood which was shed upon the Cross. This is the new covenant referred to by the Prophet Jeremiah: “I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God and they shall be my people…All shall know me, says the Lord, for I will forgive their evil doing and remember their sin no more.” He writes his law upon our hearts by pouring upon us his Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit reveals the Father and the Son to us. He gives an interior witness to Jesus in us. He Holy Spirit poured in our hearts brings about the forgiveness of our sins. The Holy Spirit gives us the power to obey God and to be faithful to this covenant. Therefore, as Christ faces his Hour, let us make the petition of the Greeks as our very own: “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” We would like to see him so that we may follow him. We will follow him to Jerusalem. We will follow him to the Cross. We would like to see his glory. We would like to be glorified with him by dying with him, by crucifying our disobedient hearts so that we may acquire hearts like his own: meek and humble, always obedient to the Father’s will.

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

In Christ's Light , we find joy!

4^TH SUNDAY OF LENT B

YEAR OF THE CLERGY AND CONSECRATED PERSONS

MARCH 11, 2018

Jesus, I trust in you!

The tragedy of the Babylonian that has befallen upon the Israelites was the fruit of their sins: “…all the princes, the priests, and the people added infidelity to infidelity, practicing all the abominations of the nations and polluting the Lord’s temple…They mocked the messengers of God, despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets, until the anger of the Lord against his people was so inflamed that there was no remedy.” That is why they had no one to blame for their sufferings but themselves. However, the rise of Cyrus, King of Persia, brought to them great joy. Cyrus ordered the rebuilding of the temple of the Lord and also the return of the Israelites to Jerusalem to end their slavery.

The proximity of Holy Week is the reason for our rejoicing today. Why do we rejoice at the approach of Holy Week? Is it not the time to commemorate the sufferings of the Lord? Then why do we rejoice instead of becoming sad? The answer is this: the approach of the days of the Lord’s suffering marks for us the nearness of our salvation. As the rise of Cyrus to power marks the liberation of Israel from their slavery in Babylon, so also the lifting up of the Son of Man upon the wood of the Cross will mark our liberation from our captivity to sin: the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. God loves us and he does not want us to perish. He does not want to condemn the world. This is why he sent his only begotten Son to die on the Cross: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

The reason for our joy is the great love of God for us: Because of his great love for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, God brought us to life in Christ. God, indeed, is rich in mercy. He offers us the light of Christ as a way out of the darkness of this world. All we have to do is to approach the light which Jesus offers. And it surprises us that people preferred darkness to light because their works were evil. Why would people prefer darkness to light? It is because the light exposes the ugly face of sin. Isn’t darkness deceiving? That is why beauty pageants are done not at midday but at night. A friend once told me: Father, when I meet a woman I fancy, I first ask her out for lunch so that I could verify her beauty under the light of midday. People are afraid to draw near the light of Christ because they know that he will expose the ugly face of the evil within us. But if we want to be saved, we must draw near Christ’s light so that realizing the gravity of our sins, we may repent and confess them so that we may be forgiven. Operating tables are equipped by powerful lights to assist the surgeon in their operations. So are dental chairs and derma clinics. Assisted by powerful lights, the doctors can clearly see the tumors, the cavities, or the blemishes that they should treat. It is when we expose our sins in the light of confession that they are forgiven by the grace of God’s kindness to us. Only then will we be liberated from the sadness of slavery to sin. Then we shall rejoice in the truth. Let us then expose and confess our evil works so that we may be freed of them. In Light there is true joy. “Whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.”  

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

Christ: the Temple of God

3^RD SUNDAY OF LENT B

YEAR OF THE CLERGY AND CONSECRATED PERSONS

MARCH 4, 2018

Jesus, I trust in you!

Last Sunday, Jesus was transfigured before his disciples. His face shone like the sun and his clothes became dazzlingly white. By this, he revealed to his disciples his glory as God the Son. A shining cloud descended and enveloped him in the very same way that the cloud of God’s presence descended upon the Temple on the day it was consecrated by Solomon: “The cloud filled the temple of the Lord so that the priests could no longer minister because of the cloud, since the Lord’s glory filled the temple.” God, who cannot be contained by the highest heaven, decided to dwell in the temple built by Solomon. (1 Kings 8) The Temple is the consecrated place where God dwells among his people.

Jesus is truly the Temple of God because in him dwells the fullness of the Divinity. This is the reason why he said: “Destroy this temple and in 3 days I will raise it up…he was speaking about the temple of his body.” After the transfiguration, Jesus admonished his disciple not to tell anyone of what they have seen until he has risen from the dead. This is because they will understand the glory that they saw in Jesus only after the resurrection has taken place. In the same manner, the disciples understood Jesus’ words about the temple being destroyed and rebuilt only after the resurrection: “Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the Scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.”

St. Paul tells us that we, baptized Christians, are also temples of God. This is because at our Baptism, God the Holy Spirit descended upon us and made his dwelling in us. This is the reason why we must strive to be pure as Christ is pure. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” (1 Cor. 6:17-20) In the Gospel, the Lord Jesus was driven by holy zeal as he cleansed the temple of everything that should not be found in it: “Take these out of here and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace. His disciples remembered the word of Scripture, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’” The Temple of Jerusalem was the Father’s house. Jesus’ body was the Temple of God the Son. We, baptized Christians, are Temples of God the Holy Spirit. In the manner that the Father’s house was cleansed by Jesus and he kept himself pure, so also Jesus desires that we be cleansed for God’s Temple is holy and we are that Temple. As water washes away impurities, so also the waters of Baptism cleansed us and made us temples of God. The waters of sorrow for sins, the tears of compunction, also cleanse us and make us worthy dwellings of the Holy Spirit. Thus, it is important to regularly examine our conscience so that we can detect impurities within us that should be cleansed by confession. We examine our conscience by measuring our lives according to the 10 commandments revealed to us by the first reading.

Jesus made a whip out of cords and drove out from the temple area everything that did not belong to the holiness of the temple. In the same manner, we must use a whip of cords to drive out from the temples of our bodies everything that should not be found in it. The whip of cords would be our acts of penance and mortification: fasting, abstinence, prayer, almsgiving, whole hearted acceptance of sufferings…these penitential acts cleanse us and keep us pure as temples of the Holy Spirit. By these acts of penance we proclaim in our bodies the death of Jesus. We die to ourselves and we die to the world. “We proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called…Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

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

We do not know Christ until we know his sufferings

2^ND SUNDAY OF LENT B

YEAR OF THE CLERGY AND CONSECRATED PERSONS

FEBRUARY 25, 2018

Jesus, I trust in you!

Every 2^nd Sunday of Lent, we read the story of the Transfiguration of the Lord. Before the scandal of the Cross takes place, the Lord Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him to the mountain so that they may encounter the Blessed Trinity. On that mountain, the divine glory of Jesus as God’s only Son was revealed to them. His face shone like the sun and his clothing became dazzlingly white. The Holy Spirit appeared as that shining cloud that covered Jesus and the Father made his voice heard. He said: “This is my beloved Son, listen to him.” Both the Father and the Holy Spirit made Jesus known to Peter, James, and John. Jesus was revealed as God’s beloved Son.

But the very disciples to whom Jesus’ divinity was revealed seemed to have forgotten the revelation so easily. When Jesus was arrested in the garden, James was one of those who fled and abandoned the Lord. Peter dared to follow Jesus until the house of the high priest. There, he saw Jesus beaten up by the guards and so, when he was being identified by the servants as one of Jesus’ disciples, Peter denied the Lord 3 times: I do not know him. John followed Jesus and accompanied Mary his mother all the way to the foot of the Cross. It was there where he saw Jesus suffer and die. It was there where he saw Jesus’ side pierced with a lance. It was there where he saw the blood and water flowing from his Christ’s wounded side. But it was not until he saw the empty tomb that John believed: He saw and he believed. Thus, we understand now why Jesus admonished them not to relate the incident of the Transfiguration to others until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.

Apparently, Christ’s glory was revealed to the disciples in order to prepare them for the scandal of the Cross. And the Cross was truly a scandal. It was an incomprehensible act of Divine love. Seeing how Jesus was being beaten up, Peter was saying the truth when he said that he did not know Jesus. For no one will truly know Jesus unless he sees him Crucified and Risen from the dead. When we see Jesus on the Cross, we are confronted by the same scandal. The Cross reveals to us the incomprehensible depth of Divine Love. Abraham was prevented by an angel from consummating his sacrifice to God. An angel prevented him from killing Isaac: “Abraham, do not lay your hand on the boy!” But no one prevented the Father from consummating the offering of Jesus his Son. “He did not spare his Son but handed him over for us all.” The consummation of Jesus’ sacrifice manifests to us the incomprehensible depth of God’s love. To what extent was God willing to do in order to save us? This baffles even the mind of St. Paul who asks: “Who will bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who acquits us, who will condemn? Christ Jesus it is who died for us.” Seeing how Christ suffered for us, we will say: I thought I have already seen everything…but I did not realize that it will be like this. (Hindi ko akalain na hahantong ang lahat sa ganito.) God will not spare even his only Son so that he might acquit us of our sins.

Indeed, the glory of Christ Crucified is the glory of God. The depth of Christ’s humiliation is the depth of God’s love. Thus, we have not known Christ until we know his suffering. The Cross truly scandalizes us but it opens up for us the true revelation of who Jesus is. Thus St. Paul would say, “I consider everything as rubbish except the knowledge of Jesus and him Crucified.”

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