PENTECOST (B)

Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit

Acts 2:1-11

Before Jesus was taken up to heaven, he gave his apostles this instruction: “And (behold) I am sending the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high (Lk 24:49)."

Jesus calls the Holy Spirit “power”. This means that the Holy Spirit would give the apostles the ability to do something which they by themselves can not do.

The New Testament reports two occasions when the promise of Jesus to send the Holy Spirit was fulfilled. And in both occasions we see the Holy Spirit giving power to the apostles.

The first occasion was on the evening of Easter Sunday itself. We read in John’s gospel: “And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained (Jn 20: 22-23)." With the sending of the Holy Spirit, the apostles were given the power to forgive sins.

The second occasion reported happened during the Jewish feast of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit was given in a dramatic way. First, there was a mighty wind coming from the sky and filling the house. Then there appeared tongues of fire that rested on each of those present. Clothed with the Holy Spirit the apostles were transformed into men of great courage. They went out of hiding. Then they were given the power to preach and to do so in different languages so that Jews from different parts of the world who were in Jerusalem on pilgrimage could understand them.

The Holy Spirit continues to be present today to be our companion. In fact, Jesus said, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always” (Jn 14:16).

Our confirmation is our personal Pentecost. It means that just as the apostles received the Holy Spirit on the Jewish feast of Pentecost, in the same way we also receive the Holy Spirit on our confirmation day. And just as the Holy Spirit gave the apostles the power to witness to Jesus Christ so also the Holy Spirit gives to us the same power.

Our witnessing to Jesus may take different forms. It may be through the spoken word or through the written word. It may be through good example.

There is a short prayer to the Holy Spirit that expresses another power of the Holy Spirit: “Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And you shall renew the face of the earth.” The charismatic renewal is a dramatic expression of the power of the Holy Spirit to renew the face of the earth.

This does not mean that renewal happens only within the charismatic renewal. The Holy Spirit can touch the heart of anyone and if that person responds positively to the Holy Spirit, then the Holy Spirit can transform that person. Some would call this transformation his second conversion.

Have you ever experienced wanting to pray but not succeeding? We may not know what to say. Or we might have started to pray but end up thinking of other things because of distractions. Or we don’t feel like praying at all. The Holy Spirit can come to our rescue. St. Paul in his letter to the Romans writes: “In the same way, the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought” (Rom 8:26). The Holy Spirit can give us the ability to pray.

ASCENSION (B)

Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.

Mk 16:15-20

One teacher shared with me how she became a teacher. One day when she and her cousins were young, they were called to the house of their aunt. Their aunt had them stand in a file in front of her. Then she pointed to her and her sister and said, “You will become teachers.” Then she pointed to the next cousin and said, “You will become a nurse.” And to the third, she said, “You will become a pharmacist.” She was not prophesying their future. She was already deciding their future by telling them what courses to take in college. She felt she had the right to decide their future because she was the one who was going to pay for their college education.

When Jesus called his disciples, he had already their future in mind. He was already deciding what they were going to do. He was going to send them out into the whole world to proclaim the gospel to every creature. This was their mission. This was their vocation.

Don Bosco said that it was very important for us to discover our mission in life. He said among other things that our happiness probably depended on it. The reason for this is that when we carry out our mission in life, we will experience a sense of self-fulfilment. “I did what I was supposed to do in life.” St. John the Baptist suffered martyrdom, but I suppose he died feeling self-fulfilled because he was able to carry out his mission. He did what was meant to do in life. He pre-pared the way of the Lord.

Carrying out our mission in life is not just about feeling fulfilled and happy. When we fulfil our mission in life, we are leaving a legacy behind. This legacy means that we have made a difference in this world. We did some good and this good remains even after we die.

Ninoy Aquino stood up against the Marcos dictatorship. Sentenced to die by a military court, he refused to ask Marcos for clemency, saying “I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees.” Beset by heart troubles, he was allowed to go to the United States for surgery. After he got well, he taught at Harvard and continued to give speeches assailing what he called the conjugal dictatorship of Imelda and Marcos. But what he enjoyed most was being with his family. Imprisonment had separated him from Cory and his children. He could just have stayed in the US.

But one day he decided to return to the Philippines, hoping that he can persuade Marcos give up power and to restore democracy. Warned not to return because of threats of assassination, he declared, “The Filipino is worth dying for.” He returned and he paid for it with his life. He was shot at the tarmac of the International Airport that bears his name today.

Ninoy Aquino’s has been dead for 26 years already. But his legacy remains - freedom and democracy for the Filipino people.

Not everyone can leave the kind of legacy that Ninoy Aquino has left behind. If we can not make a difference in the life of millions of people, we can at least make a difference in the life of some of them.

Consider what this parish priest did for six altar boys. They come from a far-flung town in Bicol. These boys have never been outside of Bicol. One day he had to go to Manila. As a reward, he brought these six altar boys with him. But he really had something else in mind. He wanted the boys to see that there was world out there that was bigger than their small town in Bicol. He wanted the boys to see for themselves possibilities for their future. By making them see these things, he planted a seed in their hearts. That seed grew and bore fruit. All of them without exception became professionals. This parish priest made a difference in the life of at least these six altar boys.

If I believe that everyone has a mission in life, if I believe that everyone is meant to make a difference in this world, then I have to believe that no one is useless. I have to believe that no one is good for nothing. And that includes me.

Henry Cardinal Newman wrote: "God has created me, to do him some definite service; he has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. He has not created me for nothing. Therefore, I will trust him. Whatever, wherever I am. I cannot be thrown away."

God has not created me for nothing. He has created me for something. He has created me to make a difference in this world. I only have to discover it. I only have to fulfill it. But the questions remain. Have I already discovered it? And more importantly, am I already fulfilling it?

6th SUNDAY OF EASTER (B)

No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.

Jn 15:9-17

This Sunday I am going to talk about love.

The NT uses two Greek words for “love”: agape and phileos. Agape is unconditional love, while phileos is love between friends. When Jesus asked Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?", Jesus uses “agape”. When Simon Peter answers: “"Yes, Lord; you know that I love you", he uses “phileos”.

Some have interpreted this to mean that Jesus was asking Peter for unconditional love. But after having denied him three times, Peter was not so sure of him-self and so could only offer Jesus the love of friendship. But Jesus accepted Peter’s love all the same.

There are two other Greek words for love which are not used in the NT. They are: eros and storge. Eros is physical love while storge may be used for the love of the parent for the child.

In 1 Cor 13 we find what they call the “Hymn to Love”. It does not define love but enumerates how love is expressed. “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Love is patient. Two siblings were quarreling. The mother intervened. She told the younger son to respect his kuya. But she also told the elder son to be patient with his younger brother. What was she in fact telling her eldest? To love his younger brother so much as to be able to bear with him.

When I was teaching Religion to 4th year high school students, we studied the definition of love. It was defined as “the power in us that moves us to go out of ourselves, to give of ourselves for the good of the one loved.”

Love as power means that it gives us the capability of doing something for the one we love, even giving up one’s life.

Jesus said: “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.” And he did. That is why the cross is so important for us Christians. It continually reminds us that God loves us.

I read a news item that a mother suffering breast cancer refused chemotherapy because she was pregnant. She chose to put her own life in jeopardy so that her unborn child may live. Love enables us to do heroic things for the sake of the one we love.

Love can be better understood and appreciated using pictures rather than definitions.

The picture of two newly-married couple speaks about love. But the picture of an old couple celebrating their golden wedding anniversary speaks better about what love really is. Love is always being there for the beloved “for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part”.


I read the story of twins. They were in the hospital nursery. The health of one of them was failing. The head nurse was very concerned. Although it was against normal procedure, she put the weak one in the same bassinet with her twin sister. It was then that the condition of the weak one started to improve. But what was touching was the photo taken of the twins. The arm of the stronger sister was around the shoulder of the weaker one. Does this not speak about the love among brothers and sisters?

In the museum called The Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia there is a monumental painting of Rembrandt. It is called the Return of the Prodigal Son. The son leans on his father’s breast while both arms of father enfold the son in a gesture of acceptance and welcome. The prodigal son experiences his father’s love when his father shows him compassion and grants him his forgiveness. When Je-sus told the Parable of the Prodigal Son, all he wanted to say was that God’s love is compassionate and forgiving. And what the Prodigal Son experienced, we too can experience in the confession.

Love can also be better understood and appreciated using stories.

One man kept this particular story in his heart. When they were young, their parents had difficulty in making ends meet. They did not have enough to eat. He never complained but he did feel angry towards his parents for having not enough to eat. Then one day something happened that made him ashamed of himself.

His mother served their meal. She did not eat with them. Since there was not enough food, she tried to divide the food equally. After supper she would stay in the kitchen while the children did their homework. But that particular evening, he went to the kitchen for a glass of water. To his surprise and shame, he saw his mother wiping the inside of the cooking pan with bread and eating it.

Their mother contented herself with the sauce that was left so that they, the children, would have more to eat.

No sacrifice is too great for the sake of the one you love.

Someone observed that real love is a verb. A verb is defined as an action word. What he meant to say was that real love is not just something that you say but above all something that you do. Unless love passes from word to action, that love is probably a fake.

How is our love lately? Is it fake or real? Is it just a word or has it become an action?

5th SUNDAY OF EASTER (B)

He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.

Jn 15:1-8

The branches that do not bear fruit are cut off so that the nutrients of the vine are not wasted but go to those branches that bear fruit produce more and better fruits.

What are the things that we need to cut off from our lives that are useless? What things in our lives do not help us at all and need to be pruned away?

We may find ourselves carrying emotional baggage. They negative experiences which make us unhappy and keep us from living to the full.

A friend whom we trusted so much might have betrayed us. This betrayal might have hurt us so much that we refuse to trust anyone again.

A love relationship that we treasured so much might have ended and left a deep wound in our heart. For this reason we are afraid to love again because we are afraid of being hurt again.
We might have had an unsatisfactory relationship with our father. This might negatively affect how we see God and how we relate to him.

We need to find a way to let go of this emotional baggage if we want to be happy and if we want to live life to the full.

We form certain beliefs as we were growing up. Some of them are good. Some of them are bad. Some of them are correct. Some of them are downright wrong. We need re-examine our beliefs and let go of those that are bad and wrong.

Some of us may believe that ONLY those things that go against our likes have value in the eyes of God. If this were true, then it means that if I like to sing and if for this reason, I join the Sunday choir, my singing in church on Sundays has no value in God’s eyes. But this is wrong. St. Francis de Sales said that what gives value to what we do is the love which we put into them. Hence, if I join the Sunday choir because I love to sing and because I want to serve God, my singing has value in God’s eyes.

Some of us may believe that EVERY misfortune that comes to us is a pun-ishment that God sends us for the sins we have committed. But this is wrong. Recall the case of the blind man in the gospel of St. John. The disciples asked Jesus whether it was the sin of the parents or the sin of the man himself that was the reason for his blindness. Jesus answered: “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents” (Jn 9:3).

These wrong beliefs might cause us to be afraid of God rather than be trusting toward him. We need to do away with these wrong beliefs.

Sin and sinful habits should be the first to be cut off from our lives. They damage relationships and they make us unlikeable.

If someone likes to talk about the defects and shortcomings of other people, I will certainly not want to become close to this person. Why? Because I would suspect that this person is more likely to talk about my defects and shortcomings before other people. Sinful habits make us unlikeable.

If someone has a short temper and as a result he or she hits his or her spouse and children, should he or she be surprised if they have ill-feelings toward him or her?

Sin damages relationships. For this reason sin and sinful habits need to cut off from our lives.

Emotional baggage, wrong beliefs and sin and sinful habits—these and other similar things need to be pruned from our lives. They prevent us from being happy. They make Christian life something unpleasant rather than something beautiful. They damage our relationships and turn us into people whom others love to hate. The sooner we let go of them the better for us.

GOSPEL EXPLANATION

Jn 15: 1. "I am the true vine.”

Only through Jesus can we belong to God.
He is the one who fulfils the symbols of the OT.

The figure of the vine and vineyard is found in the OT. Israel is a vine.
• Ps 80: 9-17. You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove away the nations and planted it….

But it has gone bad.
• Is 5:7 - The vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his cherished plant.
• Jer 2:21 - I had planted you, a choice vine of fully tested stock; How could you turn out obnoxious to me, a spurious vine?
• Hos 10:1 - Israel is a luxuriant vine whose fruit matches its growth. The more abundant his fruit, the more altars he built; The more productive his land, the more sacred pillars he set up.

Jn 15:2. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.

Branches that do not bear fruit must be cut away so that the nutrients go to the branches that bear fruit and thus give better fruits.

Fruit refers to the faith that is lived.

This verse might refer to those Christians who hide their faith because of persecution.
• Jn 12:2-42 - Nevertheless, many, even among the authorities, believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they did not acknowledge it openly in order not to be expelled from the synagogue. For they preferred human praise to the glory of God.

Jn 5:4-6. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.

This might have reference to the Eucharist.

Jn 5:5. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.

Christian – Christ = ian = I am nothing.

The necessity of human effort is not denied here. What is affirmed here is that it is Christ who gives the value of eternity to our life. Hence, we may say: “without me you can do nothing of eternal value.”

Jn 5:6. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned.

Those branches which do not bear fruit are cut off and hung on the vineyard walls to dry and later used for fuel.

The unfaithful disciple is excluded from the community of Christ and will not participate in the Kingdom that is to come.

FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER (B)

Jesus said: "I am the good shepherd."

Jn 10:11-18

The Greek word which translates “good” is “kalos”. “Kalos” does not mean “good” as in “good for something. Rather it means “noble” or “ideal”. When Jesus calls himself the good shepherd, he is saying that he is what a shepherd should be, that is, that he is the ideal shepherd.

The image of God as a shepherd is already found in the Old Testament. In fact, in Psalm 23 the psalmist (David) describes his experience of God as a shepherd. It begins with the following words: “The Lord is my shepherd. There is nothing I lack.”

Jesus tells us what he does as the good shepherd. (1) “I will lay down my life for the sheep.“ He defends with his own life the sheep against the wolf. And (2) “I know mine and mine know me.” He knows his sheep and his sheep knows him.

When Jesus says that he KNOWS his sheep, what does that mean?

In the family day of the Filipino community of Sacro Cuore, there was one very interesting contest. The participants were husbands and wives. All of them were blindfolded. The challenge was this: would the husbands be able to identify their wives just by their smell? Interestingly but not surprisingly all the husbands were able to correctly identify their wives. They knew their wives so well that they knew even their smell.

This gives us an idea of what Jesus meant when he said that he knows his sheep. He knows us inside out. He knows us by name. He knows our past. He knows our “little” secrets. He knows our likes and dislikes. He knows our fears and our desires. He knows our character. He knows our strengths and weaknesses. He knows us inside out. And because he knows us so well, he can also fully understand us.

What we say of Jesus in particular, we can say of God in general. God knows us so well that he can also fully understand us.

That is why he can be very forgiving with us. I think that the reason why he doesn’t strike us dead when we commit grave sin is because he knows and under-stands that many times we commit sin not because we’re evil but because we’re weak.

Because God fully understands us, he can be very patient with us. He gives us our whole life-time to learn how to live as good Christians. And if that were not enough, he also gives us all the time we need in purgatory to finally learn how to be good children of God. Why such patience? Because he know na tayo’y tao lamang (because we’re only human).

What is our response to this God who is so understanding? Should we take it easy because we know he is forgiving and understanding? Hindi ba ito nakakahiya? Is this not an abuse of his kindness? What then is the right response? To be more serious about living our Christian life. Never mind the results. The important thing is for God to see that we are making a real effort.

Jesus says that he will defend his sheep against the wolf, even to the point of giving up his life.

The wolf can be a ferocious animal, especially when hungry. Once, St. Francis of Sales was returning home from his priestly ministry. It was a cold winter’s night. Half-way he met a hungry wolf. He could do nothing to save himself but climb a tree. He stayed there all night, freezing. It was only when a villager saw him and took pity on him that he was saved from being frozen to death.

The wolf can be a symbol of evil, both spiritual and physical.

We can and should ask the protection of the Good Shepherd from these evils. When I was young, I was struck by the good example of a neighbour. Whenever she left the house, she would always make the sign of the cross. My guess is that she was asking God’s protection from any untoward event. Whenever I ride a plane, I would make the sign of the cross as it took off. I ask God that I would arrive alive and well at my destination.

I know of a mother who prayed for her son everyday. Her son had gone to study in the city. For the first time, he was away from home. She prayed to God to protect her son from the wolves of bad companions (masamang barkada) and from the wolves of robbers.

We find this confidence in God's protection in Psalm 23. "Even when I walk through a dark valley, I fear no harm for you are at my side; your rod and staff give me courage" This psalm is so a powerful in arousing confidence in God's protection prayer that it has made the difference between life and death of soldiers during the second World War.

Here is such one story.

The tide was turning against the Japanese in the Pacific. The Americans were reclaiming one island after another from them. Then one day the kamikaze planes arrived and wave after wave attacked the American ships. Many of them were badly hit and sunk. Five sailors managed to get into a life boat. Days went by. They had no water and no food. No American ship was in sight. These five men, however, survived to tell their story.

What was it that gave them hope? What was it that made them not give up? Whenever they felt giving in to despair, they would pray Psalm 23.

Whenever the going gets tough, let us remember: The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want.