13th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Christianity as Discipleship

Christianity is much more than religion. It is a discipleship, an apprenticeship if you like; an apprenticeship with Jesus. What kind of apprenticeship does Jesus leads us to?

In the Gospel Reading today, Jesus said to his apostles:

“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,
and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
and whoever does not take up his cross
and follow after me is not worthy of me.
Whoever finds his life will lose it,
and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

This is shocking! Jesus is asking us to leave behind the greatest resource of our lives—our family—in order to follow him. Not just our family, Jesus asks us to lose our own lives so we can gain our lives in him. And what kind of life is he offering—the way of the cross. St. Paul in his letter to the Romans in the second reading calls this life, baptism into Christ’s death.

This is too much for us to accept, let alone, understand. No wonder, many of us have turned to religion. Christianity as a religion is easier to understand and to practice: Going to mass, receiving the sacraments, following the 10 commandments, and many other religious things. It also became a lot easier for the church to preach about religious matters like observing correct rubrics and moral issues like contraception, abortion, etc.

Jesus certainly did talk about religion. But he did so to challenge and critique the religious ways of his time which have actually alienated human beings from God and one another. Jesus instead talked more about God and how God’s kingdom is breaking out into the world.

To enter into God’s kingdom, Jesus called us to join a new family, a family beyond blood, race, culture, gender and yes, even religion. When we are members of this family, God is our Father and we are all brothers and sisters with Jesus our older brother. To enter into God’s kingdom, Jesus ushered us into an apprenticeship that not only taught us new values, ways of doing and living but sought the purpose of why we live. It is an apprenticeship fulfilling the meaning of life. In seeking the purpose of life, however, Jesus proposes an apprenticeship that goes against the popular routes that the world gives. Jesus’ apprenticeship is to trek the road less travelled. Unfortunately, it also implies going beyond what many people hold dear about their religion.

For Jesus the most important things are greater than matters of religion. Sometimes we talk more about religious liberty, catechism and the code of canon law than about Jesus’ gospel. It’s time once again to talk about Christ and his gospel values not just about a list of do’s and don’ts, doctrines, commandments, canon law, and obligation. We need to recover Jesus’ way of talking about faith—that faith is a change of thinking (metanoia) in accordance with God’s  ways and thoughts.

This calls us to repropose the message of Jesus in our times today. Our world today is hostile and cold to the Christian message especially in secularized countries. This is worsened by the scandals in the church like child abuse and dubious lifestyle of some of the hierarchy. This should not deter us to proclaim the gospel of Jesus. As St. Paul said, “Woe to me, if I do not preach the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:16). We need to proclaim the gospel in the way Jesus proclaimed it more than 2,000 years ago, bold and daring but also compassionate and hopeful. In word and in deed, we need to proclaim, what Pope Francis has proposed, the joy of the Gospel.

The purpose of the church is more than just calling people to the church to attend mass, liturgy and the sacraments. The church’s main purpose is to support and encourage people in their apprenticeship with Jesus. After all, the church is the members of the one body of Christ following, and many times stumbling, in their journey of apprenticeship with Jesus.

12th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Be Not Afraid!

We live in the age of fear. Every day we read in the newspapers news of terrorist attacks here and abroad: Marawi, Mindanao, Syria, Afghanistan, London, etc. We are also terrified by news of an impending big earthquake. We are afraid of continuous criminality in our neighborhood despite the government’s tough stance. We are even afraid of tokhang, which to date has claimed 12,000+ lives, many are innocent. We continue to be anxious of the economy, we are uncertain about the future, we worry about our personal problems.

It’s a normal reaction to be afraid. Unfortunately, fear is also a very powerful weapon to cow the people to submission. Fear is after all the main goal of terrorists. But it is also the main instrument of those who want to remain in power and manipulate the people. The uncertainty of the situation combined with the perception of an escalating threat has led to an increased desire for authoritarianism. In this age of existential anxiety, many embrace a cultural worldview that provides order and toughness. This is perhaps one of the reasons for the popularity of President Duterte and Trump who for many people represents order and stability in a fear-driven world. Unfortunately, we hand over to their authority our wanting for solidity and firmness because of our own failure and laziness to confront our chaotic and messy situation.

And when someone makes a stance against their abuses, he/she is seen as a threat and persecuted for going against order and stability. This is what we experience when we made a prophetic stand for justice and peace in defense of the poor in the course of the rampant extra-judicial killings as a result of the anti-drug campaign of the government.

Over social media, we have been attacked for hypocrisy and called all sorts of names—bastard priests, demons from hell, members of the yellow cult, rapists and pedophiles, coddlers of drug lords, thieving hypocrites playing the games of politicians, etc. There are also positive comments, though, defending the stance of the shrine, for example, Cedrick C. Sagun, who expressed his support:

Stay faithful to the Gospel and to the teachings of the Church. Kings and rulers come and go, but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Let no one distract you or prevent you from proclaiming the Truth, even if it leads to persecution and martyrdom. People will say a lot of things, but the only voice you need to hear is the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Mother of Perpetual Help will always be there for you. MAY GOD BLESS THE REDEMPTORISTS!

Comforting words, just like the words of Jesus in the gospel today:

“Fear no one. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known.”

In this age of fake news and alternative facts, truth will prevail no matter how much people will try to bury it. In this terror-driven and manipulative society, Jesus calls us to continue his mission of truth, justice and love. Like the disciples we are sent out on mission. We are to proclaim in the marketplace or from the “housetops” the gospel.

“What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.”

We can expect rejection and humiliation but these should not deter us from our mission. We are not to give up the struggle or capitulate in the face of persecution. If Jesus and the Holy Spirit is with us, Jesus’ mission will prevail in spite of our weaknesses. They may kill our bodies but they cannot kill our spirit and soul.

“And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body.”

Corpus Christi Sunday: The Eucharist—Unbloody Renewal of the Sacrifice of the Cross

Whenever we go on mission to remote barrios in the Philippines, we always tell the joke that as soon as we enter the area, the chickens, ducks and other livestock animals are running for their lives as they know they will be sacrificed at the table to feed the mission team. Somebody asked, do we not feel guilty that so many chickens are slaughtered whenever there is mission? We respond with a philosophical jest, at least they die of a higher cause—for the mission. (Go tell that to animal lovers and vegetarians).

There is, however, more than meets the eye in this anecdote. It highlights a profound reality of our lives—that much of our lives depend on the sacrifice of others. Much of what we are is because of the sacrifice of our parents, siblings, friends, community, church, strangers, and yes, many animals and plants.  We are sustained and feed by the sacrifice of fellow human beings and the whole of God’s creation.

After the mind boggling belief on the Trinity comes another doctrine that is a bit hard to take. Today we celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi or the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. The Catholic Church teaches that in the Eucharist, the communion wafer and the altar wine are transformed and really become the body and blood of Jesus Christ which in technical jargon is called transubstantiation. But there is a much more important happening in the Eucharist than transubstantiation. Instead on dwelling on transubstantiation, therefore, we will focus on how the Eucharist affects our lives. What is in the Eucharist that is for us?

What transpires in the Eucharist is God’s sacrifice of God’s life for all humanity on the cross. Eucharist is the great event of Christ’s dying on the cross happening right before our very eyes, minus the blood and the gory details. This is not to soften the violence of the event but as the Catechism of the Catholic Church points out, the Eucharist is the unbloody renewal of the sacrifice of Calvary itself. Jesus Christ instituted the Eucharist not to perpetuate the Last Supper, but rather the sacrifice of the Cross (#1367).

God’s sacrifice on the cross and again and again celebrated in the Eucharist tells us that the giving by God of God’s life is the most sacred thing that God has done for us. The Eucharist is God himself who comes to us, a God who is passionate and loving, who suffered and sacrificed Godself for us. A sacrificing God is what God is love means.  That is why during the benediction, the priest uses the veil in touching and raising the Blessed Sacrament because the Blessed Sacrament as the symbol of God’s sacrifice is to be regarded in the highest and most sacred way, lest it be touched by our unworthy hands.

But the Catechism of the Catholic Church goes on to say that the Eucharist is the sacrifice of the Church, because being the body of Christ, she participates along with her Head, who is Christ.” (#1368). As we celebrate the Eucharist, we are reminded that the most sacred thing that we can also do in life is to sacrifice our lives for others. Sacrifice is the truest way we can be justified before God.  Sacrifice is the most sacred way to God.

The Eucharist is not just a ritual, a celebration, or an obligation. It is a new time and space where we are transformed into the body of Christ—ready to be broken as a sacrifice for others and for the world. The Eucharist ushers us into a radical mindset and a whole new way of life. We do not just attend the Eucharist and not be drawn into the agape of Christ. God’s self-sacrificing love in the Eucharist is so overflowing and bubbly that it is impossible that it not engulf us, so too we may become love—self-sacrificing persons. Just like in love, we are absorbed into that love that we become that love and love becomes us; it becomes impossible to remain outside as mere spectator of this love. We partake of this love; we become in communion with it.

Trinity Sunday: “Heretical Sunday”

It’s Trinity Sunday. It’s a dreaded day for Catholic preachers the whole world over. Every preacher is faced with the daunting task of preaching about the Trinity: One God, three persons as the central mystery of our faith.  As St. Augustine warned us 1600 years ago, “There is no subject where error is more dangerous, research more laborious, and discovery more fruitful than the oneness of the Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”^[1]

Trinity Sunday can also be called heretical Sunday. On many Trinity Sundays a lot of heresies have been heard, of all places—from  the pulpit. Many of these heresies were in the form of analogies in an effort to explain in simple language the Trinity. Let us take a look at some of these analogies and their corresponding heresies.

Trinity is like water. Water can be a solid (ice/frozen water), liquid, and gas (water vapor), and yet all three forms are still water. Likewise, God manifests Himself in 3 different ways in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Or Trinity is like a man; he can be a husband, a father and an employee.

Heresy: Modalism or Sabellianism which is the teaching that God is one person that manifests Himself as either the Father, the Son, or the Spirit (1 god, 1 person with 3 different manifestations instead of 1 God, 3 persons).

Trinity is like the sun, God the Father is the sun; the Holy Spirit and the Son are represented by the heat and light.

Heresy:  Arianism which believes that the Son and the Spirit are created and therefore subordinate to the Father.

Trinity is like an egg which has a shell, an egg white and a yolk with all parts making up the egg, and much like how all 3 make up the egg itself, so does each member of the Trinity. Similarly, the trinity is like an apple that has a skin, a flesh and a core. All the parts are uniquely different, but they are all one apple. Or the Trinity is like a three-leaf clover – the three leaves make up the three-leaf clover together.

Heresy: Partialism which taught that Father, Son and Holy Spirit together are components of the one God. Each of the persons of the Trinity is only part God, only becoming fully God when they come together. (Reminds me of Voltes V, although it was not 3 but 5, 5 in 1).

Any analogy of the Trinity will ultimately fall short.  Are there any good analogies about the Trinity? Unfortunately, none. What does this say to us about the Trinity?

God is unfathomable, inexhaustible and ineffable. No human language or categories can ever fully talk about God. God cannot be colonized. We cannot make God in our own image (reverse creation). So what road should we take? Let God be God. The only suitable way of talking about God is to obey God, to submit to how God talk about Godself. God revealed himself in Jesus. God talked about God through Jesus. It was Jesus who talked about God as Trinity. Trinity is not a human invention but originated from God. Trinity is God’s language about God.

On the other hand, this should not discourage preachers to talk about God as Trinity. This Sunday, preachers should not run away from preaching on the Trinity. Trinity has inexhaustible practical implications inasmuch as Trinity is unfathomable.

The whole focus of Trinity Sunday really is not what the Trinity is but how did God the Trinity lived.  The whole focus of Trinity Sunday really is not how to understand the Trinity (although this is very important) but to live and follow the example of God the Trinity.  God, the Father + Son + Holy Spirit, is really the highest paradigm to how we should live our lives. So how did God the trinity lived? The shortest answer is love. But love in the Trinity means more than what we understand and experience as love as human beings.

The Council of Florence in the fifteenth century has this to say about how the Trinity lived: “[T]the Father is entirely in the Son and entirely in the Holy Spirit; the Son is entirely in the Father and entirely in the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is entirely in the Father and entirely in the Son.”

God’s love lived by each person of the Trinity is to be totally focused on the other, to live totally for the other, to welcome totally the other into one’s own, to make room totally for the other, and to totally love the other. Because of this perfect love, God is one and three persons. Perfect selflessness. Perfect unity in diversity.

In other words, God is a relationship, God is a community, and God is love. God is not a noun but a verb. God is not static but dynamic. God is ever loving and ever helping each other, ever forgiving and ever welcoming the other, ever relating, ever cooperating and ever communicating with each other.

We are created in the image and likeness of God, the Father + Son + Holy Spirit. As God is a community, relationship and love, we ought to live as a community, opening ourselves always to the other, always relating and cooperating with one another. The Holy Trinity is the model of the family, community, relationships and all collective endeavors.  As God is one and connected to each other, we are also one, we are interconnected to each other; we are not just interconnected to each other but to whole of God’s creation. As God is unity and diversity we should be united even as we open ourselves to diversity and celebrate difference.

There is still so much to talk about God the Trinity but the most important thing is to live the example of the Trinity. As the Nike ad declares, “just do it!”

 

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[1] De Trinitate, Book 1, Chapter 3, 5.

Pentecost: God’s New Creation

Once again, we were jolted with headlines of terror during this past week. It’s a crazy and messy world out there. In the midst of this terror stricken world we celebrate the Pentecost. What is the relevance of the Pentecost to what’s happening in our world today?

In today’s feast of the Pentecost, we saw how the Holy Spirit came down “like a strong driving wind,” and appeared as “tongues of fire”, and finally rested on each of the disciples. This emboldened the disciples and gave them the gift to speak in every language of all the people gathered at Jerusalem during that day.

The coming of the Holy Spirit marks the beginning of the church. Pentecost is our birthday as a church. This means that the church, as St. Luke has shown in the whole Acts of the Apostles, is a spirit-led church. Actually, the Acts of the Apostles could have been more appropriately called the Acts of the Holy Spirit: It was the spirit who decided where the early church should go, what the church should do. In every major decision, the early church would listen to the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit the church could have fallen apart a long time ago.

Today the Spirit continues to lead us, to guide us. to shake us out of our complacencies, to disturb us out of our passiveness.  But do we listen? Are we like the early church who always sought the direction of the Holy Spirit, who discerned always where the movement of the Holy Spirit in their lives and work?

In today’s chaotic and terror stricken world, the temptation for the church is to freeze in fear and be content solely with its own security and self-preservation. Worst is to rely more on our human capacity and wisdom rather than on the surprises and creativity of the Holy Spirit.  This is not the church of Pentecost. Pope Francis has said about the church of Pentecost, “She is a Church that doesn’t hesitate to go out, meet people, proclaim the message that’s been entrusted to her, even if that message disturbs or unsettles the conscience.”[1]

The Holy Spirit re-created the disciples. The Holy Spirit set the disciples on fire. Compare the apostles before and after Pentecost, oh what a difference the Spirit makes. From timid they became bold, from lethargic they became energetic  and from fearful they became courageous – all for the sake of the good news of Jesus.

For all the bad news, there’s so much hope. In spite of its craziness and messiness, God will re-create the world through the Holy Spirit. “Behold, I am making all things new.” (Isaiah 43:18, Isaiah 43:19, Revelation 21:5, Isaiah 65:17, Ephesians 2: 15). As in the first Pentecost, we have in need now more of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In a prayer in preparation for the Second Vatican Council in 1962, Pope John XXIII prayed, “Renew Your wonders, O God, in our day — as in a new Pentecost!”

“Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.”

 

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[1] Pope Francis, “By the Power of the Spirit the Church Astounds & Confuses,” Angelus, June 8, 2014