Gospel for August 12, 2015 (Wednesday) Feast of St. Frances Chantau

Mt 18:15-20

Jesus said to his disciples, "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.  If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.  If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that 'every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.'  If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church.  If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or tax collector.  Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed on heaven.  Again, (amen), I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father.  For where there are two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

The Word in other words

The reality of conflict is an inevitable circumstance of human existence caught  between the intricacies of human diversity.  Nevertheless, Jesus provides a practical solution to glitches that may arise from this seemingly unavoidable fact of life.  In other words, He does not detach this challenge from a true disciple's journey towards holiness and Christian maturity.

Once Thomas Edison was approached by one of his assistants complaining, "We have learned nothing from our experiments; until now we have not been able to single out an element that would suit our bulb!"  Edison confidently replied, " Oh, not so, for we have learned that thousands of these elements do not fit to make a suitable light bulb."  And so they continued experimenting until they succeeded in finding the right element for their groundbreaking discovery.

In a similar manner Jesus reminds us never to give up on each other, and that there are thousands of good and right ways to settle our differences.  Our community also plays a part in bridging over these difference, regardless of the fact that no single person is totally the same as the other.  We should therefore not be a hindrance to one another's striving after the true kinship in the Kingdom of God.  After all, we are all children, thus brothers and sisters, bound by the greatest love of all, the one offered on the cross.

                       - Fr. Sedfrey Nebres, SVD (Holland)

Gospel for August 11, 2015 (Tuesday) Feast of Sta. Chiara di Assisi

Mt 18:1-5.10.12-14

At that time the disciples approached Jesus and said, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"  He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, "Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.

"See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.  What is your opinion?  If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray?  And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not astray.  In just the same way,  it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost."

The Word in other words

Who is the greatest in this world?  In the world of politics, undoubtedly President Barack Obama is one of them.  Ecclesiastically, Pope Francis is in the list.  In the world of boxing, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather are certainly included.  On the other hand, today's Gospel, the disciples of Jesus asked him, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"  The Lord presented the child to them as the image of greatest person in the kingdom of heaven.  He wants us to be childlike but not to be childish.  To be childish means to think of ourselves, and ourselves alone.  To be childlike means to be a real CHILD, that is:

...Called.  Children know that they are called by their name; and their parents have all the reasons why they are given and called by that name.  Thus, to be greatest in the kingdom of heaven is to always heed the call of God to be His faithful disciple.  God said," I have called you by your name, you are mine." (Is 43:1)

...Humble.  They know that they are limited and cannot do everything they wish/want.  Thus, to be great in the kingdom of heaven is to always have virtue of humility.  For the Lord Jesus said, "Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted." (Mt 23:12)

...Inquisitive.  They know that they are weak in intelligence.  Thus, to be great in the kingdom of heaven is to be eternal student of the greatest teacher who is Jesus.  For He said, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest." (Mt 11:29)

...Loving.  They know that they are a gift of love from God to their parents.  Thus, to be great in the kingdom of heaven is to always follow the commandment of the Lord, which is to love God and our neighbor as ourselves.  For "God is love." (1 Jn 4:8)

...Dependent.  They know that they are physically weak, and that they need the help of other people.  Thus, to be great in the kingdom of heaven is to always accept the reality that we need the Lord who is always here with us.  For He is indeed the Emmanuel, which means, "God is with us." (Mt 1:23)

                        -  Fr. Ferdinand Alfante, SVD (CT Manila)

Gospel for August 10, 2015 (Monday) Feast of St. Lawrence

Jn 12:24-26

Jesus said to his disciples, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.  "Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.  Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be.  The Father will honor whoever serves me."

The Word in other words

Growing up, we used to watch farmers planting rice in the field.  They first buried the seeds in separate rice beds; then when the seedlings sprouted, they planted them into the soggy rice fields.  It was no fun.  In fact, a song immortalized the hard work: "Planting rice is never fun; bent from morn til the set of sun;cannot stand, cannot sit; cannot rest for a little bit..."  But come harvest time, our parents would give us the hand-sickles and hat; and off we went to the harvest fields.  We saw that what was once only a sack full of seedlings buried into the soil had produced grains a hundred fold and more!

Jesus says: "Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit" (John 12:24).  In this amazing paradox, Jesus teaches that only by death comes life!  The grains were hopelessly alone, ineffective and fruitless, until they were thrown into the earth and buried there as in a tomb- to die, but later to resurrect and bear fruits aplenty!

This has deep meaning in our Christian life today.  Tertullian, an early Church writer, had this maxim: "The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church."  It was by the death of martyrs that the nascent Church grew up rapidly to change the pagan Roman Empire.  As students in the seminary we read the "Roman Martyrology," a book that chronicled the lives of the first witnesses (=martyrs, in Greek), how they lived, who tortured and executed them.

John Allen, a former Vatican correspondent, writes: "We're living now in the greatest era of persecution in Christian history.  More Christians died for the faith in this century than in the previous nineteen centuries of Christian history combined."  He also relates about the martyrs in Pakistan, Iraq, Algeria, and North Korea, e.g. how pastors and elders were crushed to death by a bulldozer in front of their church.

Today, more than ever, we are called to give witness like "wheat that falls on the ground and dies."  Lord, if that time ever comes to me, be by my side!


                                      -  Fr. Dom Flores, SVD (Sydney, Australia)

Readings and Gospel for August 9, 2015 (Sunday)

First Reading
1 Kgs 19:4-8

And went a day's journey into the wilderness, until he came to a solitary broom tree and sat beneath it.  He prayed for death: "Enough, LORD! Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors."  He lay down and fell asleep under the solitary broom tree, but suddenly a messenger touched him and said, "Get up and eat!"  He looked and there at his head was a hearth cake and a jug of water.  After he ate and drank, he lay down again, but the angel of the Lord came back a second time, touched him, and said, "Get up and eat or the journey will be too much for you!"  He got up, ate, and drank; then strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.

Second Reading
Eph 4:30-5:2

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption.  All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice.  [And] be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.

So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.

Gospel Reading

The Jews murmured about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven," and they said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother?  Then how can he say, ' I have come down from heaven'?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Stop murmuring among yourselves.

"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day.  It is written in the prophets:  'They shall be taught by God.'  Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.  Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God;  he has seen the Father.  Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.   Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.

"I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."

The Word in other words

"Di ko na kaya" or "Ayoko na."  These words express the emotional and spiritual condition of many people today, revealing their exhaustion and burnt out by stress, disappointment and opposition, within the family, at work and even in the parish.  We are tempted "to throw the towel", "Suko na ako!" Can we get out of this?  Can we recover the meaning of life, our peace of mind ,our determination to act?

Elijah (in our first reading) is a typical case of "burn-out".  As a prophet he presented God and the demands of social justice to the people.  But he was rejected and even persecuted.  Tired of preaching and tired of life, he no longer saw any meaning in serving God.  "This is enough," he said, "Lord, take my life."  His faith and fidelity were in deep crisis.  Was Elijah able to recover? How?

Twice an angel woke him up from his sleep of despair and invited him to eat and drink.  The food came from God!  God gave Elijah new courage.  When the angel told him, "There is a long road ahead of you," the intent was to infuse meaning into his life, as if to say "May bukas pa sa iyong buhay," Elijah thus regained his faith and trust in the Lord.

The Gospel tells us that the food from God, which gives us new life, is Jesus himself.  "The person who believes in me has everlasting life.  Whoever eats of this bread, shall live."  As I adhere to Jesus in humble faith, I once again acquire the will to live.  I get a boost in life and gain the patience necessary for faithfully doing my task.

In the midst of doubt, stress and tiredness, it seems hard to regain faith and fidelity.  But today's Gospel assures us that God the Father himself is instructing us and drawing us closer to Jesus.  In our anguish we might say,  "Lord I believe, help my unbelief!"  Thus, we overcome life's stresses.  We recover our personal adherence to Christ.  We regain the courage and patience we need in order generously to serve others.  Jesus is the living bread for my life, but also "for the life of the world!"

Mother Teresa, who provides us with a program for recovery, says: "The fruit of silence is prayer; the fruit of prayer is faith; the fruit of faith is love; the fruit of love is service; the fruit of service is peace."  From silence to faith to service.  No basketball game is won without "time-out".  No burn-out is healed without moments of silence leading to prayer and faith.  And if we pick up the love that leads to service, we arrive at peace: Peace of heart and mind, and the determination to act for peace in the family, church, and nation.

Gospel for August 8, 2015 (Satuday) Feast of St. Dominic

Mt 17:14-20

When [Jesus and his disciples] came to the crowd a man approached, knelt before him and said, "Lord, have pity on my son who is an epileptic and is in  a wretched state.  He has often fallen into the fire and at other times into the water. I bought him to your disciples but they could not heal him."

Jesus replied, "You, faithless and evil people!  How long must I be with you?  How long must I put up with you?  Bring him here to me."  And Jesus commanded the evil spirit to leave the boy, and the boy was immediately healed.

The disciples then gathered around Jesus and asked him privately.  "Why couldn't we drive the spirit?"  Jesus said to them, "Because you have little faith.  I say to your:  if only you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could tell that mountain to move from here to here, and the mountain would obey.  Nothing would be impossible to you."

The Word in other words

Thelma is her name, a woman in her forties, married, with two children: a girl and a boy.  The boy is a school dropout and a drug user.  The girl, the older one, is a third-year student at a local college in Talamban, Cebu City, getting good grades in her studies.  However, attending college has always been am uphill climb for the girl, financially.  Thelma is employed as a helper in a home for the aged run by the Camillian nuns in Talamban.  And her husband?  Unemployed.  Once, when Thelma turned to him to find a way to support the family, his curt reply was, "Tell Joy to quit school."

But for Thelma, Joy, their daughter was the only hope for them ever to come out of their misery.  And so, against all odds, she decided to let Joy continue her schooling She approached individuals and agencies for help.  She was about to go to a lending agency when a nurse frequenting a home for the aged suggested that she get counsel from a certain priest in the neighborhood whose counsel the nurse also sought at one time.  And so, eventually Thelma found herself face to face with the counselor priest.

Thelma (having told her problem in all its details): Father, I don't know what to do anymore. At night, I stay up awake, trying to figure out what I should do.  I reached the point when I told myself, "Bahala na, I will go to the lending institution.'  You see, Father, my daughter cannot take the semi-final examination this week if she cannot come up with the needed amount for her tuition fee.  These past days, I was not feeling well and so could not report for work, and so a deduction was made on my salary at the latest payday.  After providing for our barest needs as a family, what is left of my salary is not even enough to pay for my daughter's tuition fee.

Counselor:  I see that your burden is truly heavy; tat you feel depressed is understandable.  But you don't have to be carrying your load all by your lonely self.  This is what I miss in the way you respond to your problem:  You don't go to God for help!  Yes, we have a God who is bigger than any of our problems.  He is our Father in heaven who loves us so much that He would not want us to get crushed under our loads.  All we need to do is call on Him.  Nothing is impossible to Him.  Believe in Him, trust in Him.  Go also to Mary our Mother.  At the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee, when the wine had run out, she turned to her Son and said, "They have no win." And Jesus worked his very first recorded miracle:  changing water into wine.  It would be so easy for Mama Mary to tell Jesus, "Thelma has no money for her daughter's tuition fee."

Thelma was all ears to the counselor, weeping.  Then wiping away her tears, she admitted that she had not called on God or the Blessed Mother, "But, hopefully, from now on it's going to be different," she said.

What a world of difference faith makes when it comes alive in the person who has it!  Just compare Thelma's way of going about her problems with the father's way of handling his in our gospel today.  Thelma worried about her problems in the extreme, spending sleepless nights over them.  On the other hand,  the father in our gospel  had recourse to the disciples of Jesus believing that they could heal his son who was a lunatic.  And when they could not, he did not give up but approached Jesus, the best healer of all, and, kneeling down before him, pleaded with him to heal his boy.  Seeing his faith, Jesus healed the boy right there and then.  In that sense, the father's faith was such that he was able to move his "mountain"- by the power of Jesus, the Son of God.

                  -  Fr. Dong Alpuerto, SVD (USC, Talamban Cebu City)

Gospel for August 7, 2015 (Friday) Feast of St. Cajetan, Patron of the Unemployed

Mt 16:24-28

Then Jesus said to his disciples,  "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.  For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.  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?  For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father's glory, and then he will repay everyone according to his conduct.  Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."

The Word in other words

"Sure ka?" (Are you sure?)  This is, today, a common question or expression to determine how convinced and committed one is in pursuing what one wants to do.  Am I sure, really sure, that I wish to respond to Jesus' invitation to follow him?  I may say that becoming a religious I have given my life for Jesus.  How sure am I for this?  Or I might say that I really want to give up everything for Jesus.  What makes me so sure of this?

Following Jesus or becoming a Christian may be legally mine by virtue of my baptism, but it is something automatic.  I want to claim the grace of work for it.  In a similar way, becoming a real Christian- a follower of Jesus- does not happen just like that.  I have to make it happen.

What do I need to do?  First, I need to believe it.  I need to believe that only Jesus suffices and nothing else.  I need to believe it is possible to deny and to lose myself and that I can carry my cross.  Second, I need to appropriate to myself the reality that, by my baptism, I ought to follow Jesus and that I ought to give my life for him and make hi the only treasure or possession I wish to have.  Third, I must start working for what I believe.  I must start denying and losing myself.  I must begin carrying my cross.  I must not exchange my life with anything except the life that Jesus has offered me.  If you are sure of that, do it!

                 - Fr. Patricio R. delos Reyes, Jr., SVD (LVD Tacloban)



In honor of St. Cajetan, I would like to share this daily prayer with you.

St. Cajetan, Pray for us.

Daily Prayer

O glorious St. Cajetan, you studied to be a lawyer, but when you felt that the Lord was calling you to his service, you abandoned everything and became a priest. You excelled in virtues, shunning all material rewards for your labor, helping the many unemployed people of your time. You provided loans without interest and you attracted a lot of benefactors who donated to your resources so that you could go on with your activities. Look on us with mercy. We wish to find employment that could help us and our families live with dignity. Listen to our petitions, dear saint; you, who could easily give up the food on your table for the needy, bring our petitions to Jesus (here make your request). Amen.

Gospel for August 6, 2015 (Thursday)

Mk 9:2-10

After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.  And he was transfigured before them and his clothes became dazzling white. such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.  Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus.  Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, "Rabbi, it is good that we are here!  Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."  He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.

Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; then from the cloud came a voice, "This is my beloved Son.  Listen to him."  Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them.  As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.  So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant.

The Word in other words

Working in school for the last 14 years, I found that one of the most challenging decisions to make every year is where to hold major retreats and recollections. This is true not only for our faculty but also for our students, especially the graduating 4th year students whose parents can usually afford out of town activities for their children,  And what should be the gauge of a good place for such activity?  For us administrators, foremost is that it should be in a far and isolated place.  We discourage retreats in our city because there is always the temptation to go home which is anyway just a stone's throw away.  Moreover, making "valid reasons" for "hard to refuse" permissions is as easy for our employees or students as buying puto (rice cake) in a nearby store.  Looking back to the planning stage of every retreat or recollection, a great number would insist that it be held locally for various reasons like it saves money, makes it easy for the "SC" (Senior Citizen) members of the community, facilitates the feeding of their babies, and many more,  Of course, some reasons are valid, but others are obviously not convincing enough compared to the annual spiritual activity,

But experience also shows that common to all these retreats or recollections is the fact that at the end of the activity, one normally hears comments like, "Can we extend?" or "Bitin", or "Sana dito na lang tayo" (I hope we can stay here forever).  In short, if possible, the participants would want to postpone even for a little while.

As my parishioners would say, when I was still a parish priest, "Kada bagting, kaon" (Each time the bell rings, we eat).  But I think it is not only the eating which makes a retreat something to miss, since that part is something they can always do at home anyway, maybe even more often.  It is not only the physical comfort or the experience of being away from daily concerns that makes a difference, but more so the experience of being in a state of an unfamiliar "peace".  When we invite speakers, we see to it that we get the best ones, Our Campus Ministry Office would always prepare beautiful liturgical and other para-liturgical exercises and we see to it that they are well-prepared for a meaningful reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation,  And of course, what more can one ask after a foretaste of heaven?

What about the "going-home-part"?  Many have actually turned into "Peters".   Remember when Peter told Jesus, "Rabbi, it is wonderful for us to be here; so let us make three shelters, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah"?  They also wanted to stay on Mt. Tabor!  Home for some means worrying again for the next meal, or being back to a nagging wife or a suspicious husband, or dealing with a troublesome neighbor, or returning to a pile of papers for evaluation and signature, or doing lesson plans.  In short, home could mean going back to the harsh realities of life.

No, they just have to go back.  They just have to bring back with them that newfound peace- the peace that is the result of the realization that this Jesus Christ taught to them by their catechist, by their parents and teachers, by the books they read, by the movies and videos they watch- this Jesus Christ is God.  In fact, He is the Son of God. He was introduced to them and they have seen and experienced the truth of that during the retreat, confirmed just as it was confirmed to Peter, James, and John who heard a voice from heaven saying "This is my Son, the Beloved.  Listen to Him."

No.  Don't stay.  Rather, go back and face the realities of home- this time as a better and stronger person, because you know that somewhere up there, a reward is waiting.

                            -Fr. Bar Fabella, SVD (DWC, Calapan City)