Gospel and Readings for August 16, 2015 (Sunday)

First Reading
Prv 9:1-6

Wisdom has built her house,/ she has set up her seven columns;
She has prepared her meat,/ mixed her wine, yes,/ she has spread her table.
She has sent pout her maidservants;/ she calls from the heights out over the city;
"Let whoever is naive turn in here;/ to any who lack sense I say,
Come, eat of my food,/ and drink of the wine I have mixed!
Forsake foolishness that you may live;/ advance in the way of understanding."

Second Reading
Eph 5:15-20

Watch carefully then how you live, not as foolish persons but as wise, making the most of the opportunity, because the days are evil.  Therefore, do not continue in ignorance, but try to understand what is the will of the Lord. And do not get drunk on wine, in which lies debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another [in] psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.

Gospel Reading
Jn 6:51-58

Jesus said to the Jews, "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 Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"  Jesus said to them, " Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.  For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks  my blood remains in me and I in him.  Just as the living Father sent me and I have life is the bread that came down from heaven.  Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever."

The Word in other words

On October 13, 1972, one of the most grueling survival stories of the 20th century unfolded.  A chartered flight carrying a Uruguayan rugby team to its match in Chile crashed in the high Andes due to bad weather.  Of the 45 passengers, 12 people were killed outright, while many others died later because of injuries and an avalanche that struck them.  After rescue efforts proved futile for eight days, the search operations were stopped and abandoned.  This left the survivors with only one option; to simply save themselves.  Not only did they have to endure the extremely cold weather but they also needed to solve the big problem of starvation.  After eating whatever they could find in the ruins of the aircraft ad after much soul searching, the survivors agreed to eat the flesh of their dead companions.  It was their way to remain alive and survive the most severe test of their life.  The decision to cannibalize the dead was ll the more agonizing, because the survivors would be acting their strong Roman Catholic faith. It was only after 72 days that the unforgettable ordeal of the 16 survivors ended.

It must have been very difficult for the people of Jesus' time to understand and accept his teaching concerning his flesh as the bread and his blood as the drink that he would give them.  They took his words literally, and therefore got scandalized.  In fact, many of his disciples stopped following him because they found his words too much to bear.  Peter, in behalf of the rest of the apostles, expressed his faith in Jesus in spite of not being able to really comprehend his teaching: " Lord to whom shall we go?  You have the words of everlasting life."  Even if Peter did not understand Jesus, he still trusted and believed in him.  Perhaps, he was thinking someday, the mystery of which Jesus spoke with authority would become clear and acceptable to their finite minds and hearts.  Instead of judging Jesus hastily like many of the disciples did, Peter and the other apostles gave him the benefit of the doubt.  They gave him a chance to prove his point.  They stayed with him until the end and thus allowed him to reveal to them the fullness of his mystery.  Do we have patience and trust in Jesus when we cannot grasp the meaning of the mystery we are going through in life?  Do we allow him to unveil before our eyes the depth and truth of his words?  Or do we walk away and look for another master who is easy to understand and control?

In the light of our Gospel reading today, may we appreciate even more the mystery that we celebrate in the Eucharist.  Jesus is truly present in our midst when we gather around his table.  He feeds us with his body and blood.  He offers to us the whole mystery of his very own life, mission, suffering, death and resurrection.  He desires to enter into communion with us so that we may experience the fullness of life, a life that no one or nothing in this world can take away from us.  Whenever we celebrate the Eucharist, do we really hunger for that life which is much more than the world can give?  Are we aware that without Jesus, our life is empty and meaningless?  Jesus says, "Without me, you can do nothing."  In our story, the survivors of the tragedy felt the urgency of eating the flesh of their companions.  It was for them the last resort, their only remaining hope, in order to remain alive.  In our life of faith, do we realize and feel the urgency and need to seek the body and blood of Christ in order to live a real and meaningful life?  Do we hunger eagerly for his living Word?  A prophet of the Old Testament said: "Lord, when I found your words, I devoured them."  Do we long and thirst profoundly to be in communion with Jesus?  Do we seek to have a deep, personal, loving relationship with him?  Do we seriously desire to allow his body and blood to transform our very own body and blood into a generous offering of love and service to our brothers and sisters, especially to those who are in need of our care and compassion?  Certainly, the more we hunger and thirst for Jesus in the Eucharist and in our life, the more will we savor the new and definitive life he gives to those who do not turn away but rather choose to remain with him.

Gospel for August 15, 2015 (Saturday) Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Lk 1:39-56

During those days Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.  When Elizabeth heard Mary's greetings, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, "Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.  And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?  For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.  Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled."

And Mary said:
"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
For he has looked upon his handmaid's lowliness;
behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed.
The Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is from age to age to those who fear him,
He has shown might with his arm,
dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart.
He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones
but lifted up the lowly.
The hungry he has filled with good things;
the rich he has sent away empty.
He has helped Israel his servant,
remembering his mercy,
according to his promise to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever."

Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.

The Word in other words

Last August 8, we celebrated the feast of St. Dominic, the father and founder of the Dominican order. The book entitled "Mysteries, Marvels and Miracles in the life of the Saints" lists him as one of the holy men in the Church blessed with extraordinary gifts, of which one is the ability to know future things and occurrences.  One day, St. Dominic told his companions that he would leave the world before the celebration of the Assumption of Mary. He did.  He died on August 6, 1221.

What has St. Dominic to do with our celebration today?  Nothing.  The dogma on the Assumption of Mary was defined by Pope Pius XII only on November 1, 1950.  But I mentioned St. Dominic in order to show that even as early as during his time, that is the 13th century, this doctrine was already par of the faith confession of Christians, and one of the celebrations of the Church.  More than this, however, the Assumption was already within the faith consciousness of the early Church.  Records show that it was already believed in as early as the 6th century.  What Pius XII did in 1950 was simply to formally establish this as a truth for the universal Church.

There is a certain controversy about this dogma that needs to be resolved.  Did Mary die?  The answer is affirmative.  According to the theologians Ian Knoxx(1994), although the definition of the dogma given by Pius XII only states her "having completed the course of her earthly life" without any explicit mention of her "death", theologians commonly hold, or at least presume, that "since Jesus her son suffered death it would be most fitting that Mary should have had the same experience. "Mary died, but she had the privilege of having been taken into heaven both body and soul, a special favor not unthinkable for the mother of the Son of God.

The dogma means a lot to us.

1.  It is a sign and a pledge of our final glorification.  It is an affirmation of the human destiny; we can look forward to heaven.  What was granted to Mary will also be granted to us.

2.  It opens to us the possibility of being transformed even in the present.  Should we choose to live our lives now in the tune with God's will, we thereby already participate in the final reward promised by Jesus so that, even today, we are saved already.

3.  Mary was taken up body and soul; this means that the whole person and not merely the spiritual part of us will share in the glory of the resurrection.

4.  Finally, this dogma reminds us that death is not an end but a beginning, the beginning of a new and fuller existence, at home with the Creator. (Anthony Tambasco in Knox, 1994)

In the Assumption we celebrate Mary's life in the hands of the Father.  But we are celebrating that same life that is ours too as God's gift.  Let us therefore pray, not only today but every day, for the intercession of the Blessed Mother, that where she is now, we will all be.

             -  Fr. Dudz F. Lero, SVD (HNU, Tagbilaran City, Bohol)

Gospel for August 14, 2015 (Friday) Feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe

Mt 19:3-12

Some Pharisees approached him, and tested him, saying, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?"  He said in reply, "Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female' and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'?  So they are no longer two, but one flesh.  Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate."  They said to him, "Then why did Moses command that the man give the woman a bill of divorce and dismiss (her)?"  He said to them, "Because of the hardness of your hearts Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.  I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) and marries another commits adultery."

(His) disciples said to him, "If that is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry."  He answered,  "Not all can accept (this) word, but only those to whom that is granted.  Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some because they were made so by others; some because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever can accept this ought to accept it."

The Word in other words

This is how my professor at the seminary explained the sacramental bond of marriage to us.  He said:  A man, his mother, and his girlfriend are in a boat on a lake.  They have an accident.  The boat sinks and they are all in the water.  Only the knows how to swim.  He can only save one person at a time.  Whom does he save first?  In this instance, the bond between mother and child is stronger than the bond between boyfriend and girlfriend.  So he is morally obligated to save his mother first.

Imagine now a man, his mother, and his wife.  The same thing happens.  However, this time the man is morally obligated to save his wife first because the bond between the husband and wife is stronger than the bond between the mother and child.

This is why the Church admonished people not to take the sacrament of marriage lightly.  Choose your partner wisely and prayerfully.  My sociology professor in college used to tell us this quotation:  When going to war, pray twice.  When getting married, pray a million times.  Married life is not an easy path to take.  It involves a lot of patience, understanding, and sacrifice.  But the underlying force in all of these must be love.  Without love, no marriage stands a chance of succeeding.  A marriage blessed by God through the sacrament of marriage is a union that not only relies on the determination of the couple to make it succeed but also has the special grace from above which definitely makes it stronger.

Let us pray for all married couples that they may continue to love each other that they may always seek the counsel of God and ask for His blessing as they strive to be faithful to the vows they shared on their wedding day.

          -  Fr. Jose Luis "Chito" Lorenzo, SVD (Japan)

Gospel for August 13, 2014 (Thursday) Feast of Sts. Pontian and Hippolytus

Mt 18:21-19:1

Peter approaching asked Jesus, " Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him?  As many as seven times?"  Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.  That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king, who decided to settle accounts with his servants.  When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.  Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt.  At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.'  Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan.  When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him much smaller amount.  He seized him and started to choke him, demanding.  'Pay back what you owe.'  Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'  But he refused.  Instead, he had him put in prison until he paid back the debt.  Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair.  His master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant!  I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.  Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?'  Then in anger hi master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt.  So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart."

When Jesus finished these words, he left Galilee and went to the district of Judea across the Jordan.

The Word in other words

The story is told about a senior citizen who asked his drinking buddies one on his right, and one on his left: "Did you spill beer on my pants?"  When both of them said no, he said: "Then it must have been an inside job!"

Forgiveness, so to say, has to be an "inside job".  Without the grace of God, it is difficult, almost impossible to really forgive and forget.  All we need is to make a small opening for the Holy Spirit to come in and bring us out of our misery and sadness.  Humility is that small opening.  Aware and grateful that we to have been forgiven so many times by our Heavenly Father, may we swallow our pride and forgive those who have wronged us.

The evil one will always make us focus on our hurt, and if we do just that, we will never come to true forgiveness.  The Lord tells us today to focus instead on the heart, His heart that is full of mercy, compassion, and forgiveness.

Are you still hurting, still going around in circles, and still not moving on?  Forgive, let go, let God, and the hurt is gone, the road ahead opens up, and you are moving on!

                 - Fr. Jerry Orbos, SVD (DWMC, Batangas City)

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)