ADVISORY

Since I'll be away many times these coming weeks, I will probably not be able to upload anything these coming weeks. Perhaps by August I'll be able to upload regularly.

12th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (B)

"Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?"

Mk 4:35-41

Jesus was sound asleep at the rear end of the boat. He was probably very tired so that even with the noise of the wind and the pounding of the waves, he remained asleep. The apostles were experienced fishermen. They knew they were in a dangerous situation. So they woke Jesus and reproached him: “Don’t you care that we’ll all die?” Jesus commanded the wind and the waves to keep still. And the sea became calm once more. Now Jesus turned to his apostles and reproached them: “Why are you so afraid? Don’t you believe that I care about you?”

Today we will confront the problem of evil in the world.

During World War II in a Nazi concentration camp, four men were hanged in front of all the prisoners. One of them was just a teenager. It took him a while to die because he was not heavy enough. One of the prisoners survived the concentration camp. After World War II, he wrote about his experiences in that camp. Talking about the hanging, he wrote that at that moment he asked: “Where is God?”

Hundreds of years before during the persecution of Catholics in England, many Catholics were tortured and put to death for remaining firm in the Catholic faith. One man wrote: “God must be asleep.”

Stated simply the problem is: If there is an all-powerful and good God, how come there is so much evil in the world? Either there is no God or there is God but evil is more powerful than God.

Some will say: “Let us trust God. He knows what he is doing that is why he allows evil to happen in the world.”

Others will say that God allows evil to happen but he will find a way to bring good out of that evil. This is the meaning of the statement: God writes straight with crooked lines.

Viktor Frankl was a psychiatrist. He died in 1997. He was a survivor of the Nazi concentration camp. He did not ask question: “If there is a God, how come were are suffering here in a Nazi concentration camp?” But he did offer the secret of surviving suffering. The secret is faith. He said once you lose faith, you will not survive. In fact, many committed suicide by flinging themselves on the electrified barbed wires of the concentration camp.

Rabbi Kushner lost his son to premature aging. This caused in him a crisis of faith. He survived that crisis and wrote a book to help people to survive suffering and evil. The title of the book is “When Bad Things Happen to Good People”. He is not a Christian. He is Jewish. But he does give an answer that we find in the book of Job. And it is this: “If we want to find an explanation as to why good people suffer, we will discover in the end that there is no satisfying answer.” Where does that leave us? It leaves us with the advice of Viktor Frankl. Keep your faith in God. It is that faith that will give you the strength to survive and go on living meaningfully.

Let us turn to Scriptures regarding the problem of evil and suffering.

What does St. Paul say? He complains of a thorn in the flesh. It may refer to a sickness, to a temptation or to a person who was giving him a hard time. He asked Jesus to free him from this thorn. But Jesus replies that his grace is enough to help Paul withstand this thorn. “Therefore, that I might not become too elated, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan, to beat me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness" (2Cor 12: 7-9). Someone had this in mind when he said: “God will not lead you where his grace can not keep you.” Here again the Christian response to suffering and evil is faith.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talks about the providence of God. Providence means that God takes care of us. He does not abandon us. “Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?” (Mt 6: 26-30). We have been told that the Christian response to suffering and evil is faith. In this passage this faith is explained. We are told to believe in the providence of God. It means that God takes care of us because we are important in the eyes of God.

St. John Bosco experienced surviving a famine because of his mother’s faith in the providence of God.

St. John Bosco’s father died when he was barely 2 years old. On his death bed, his father encouraged his mother, “Margaret, have confidence in God.” Francis Bosco died leaving Margaret three children and his ailing mother.

That year there was drought. There was hunger everywhere. They found dead people in the fields with grass in their mouths. They were trying to relieve their hunger.

The Bosco family were farmers. They, too, were hungry. They asked a neighbor to buy food at the surrounding villages even at an exorbitant price. But he returned empty-handed. Margaret gathered the family and they knelt in prayer. Rising to her feet, Margaret said that her husband recommended confidence in God. She decided to kill the calf to provide food for the family. That calf was their insurance for the future.

With faith in the providence of God, but also with hard work, thrift and resourcefulness, the Bosco family survived the famine of that year.

Evil and suffering are inescapable. It is part of our life on earth. What is the secret to surviving evil and suffering? Faith in the providence of God.

CORPUS CHRISTI (B)

This is my blood of the covenant.

Mk 14:12-16, 22-26

When I was in the minor seminary way back in the late 60’s, I applied to be a member of the brass band. I was given to learn the piccolo. It’s a small clarinet (hence, piccolo) in the key of E flat.

One day our band master told us we had to learn to play several traditional church songs fast. Not only that we had to learn playing those songs while on the move.

It turned out that we were invited for the procession of Corpus Christi in one of the big parishes nearby.

The solemnity of Corpus Christi is the solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. This solemnity is traditionally celebrated on a Thursday. But some countries have chosen to celebrate it on a Sunday in order to allow as many Catholics as possible to celebrate it.

For this year’s solemnity of Corpus Christi, I have chosen this passage as our jumping point: “This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many.”

The word “covenant” means a solemn contract, oath or bond. In the Bible “covenant” refers to the solemn contract between God and his people. The Bible speaks mainly of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

The Old Covenant was ratified on Mt. Sinai. The New Covenant, on Mt. Cal-vary. The mediator of the Old Covenant was Moses. That of the New Covenant was Jesus. The Old Covenant was between Yahweh and his people, Israel. The New Covenant, between God and his people who are believers in Jesus Christ. The Old Covenant was ratified with the blood of bulls. The New Covenant, with the blood of Jesus shed on the cross.

Let’s focus our attention only on the New Covenant. What are the important consequences of the existence of the New Covenant?

First, it means that a Christian is at the same time a member of the Church. There is no such thing as a Christian who does not belong to the Church. That is why two of the effects of Baptism are: becoming a child of God and becoming a member of the Christian community, the Church.

Second, if I behave in a way that is seriously contrary to being a good Christian, I can be expelled from the Church. This is called excommunication. For ex-ample, anyone actively involved in abortion is automatically excommunicated or expelled from the Church. This includes the woman who underwent abortion, the doctor and the nurses who performed the abortion and those people who advised the woman to undergo abortion.

Third, Gawad Kalinga is no longer a church organization both because it has lost the official recognition of the bishops and because it has cut itself from the bishops. It is now just a civic or social organization. Official recognition from the bishop or from the parish priest is important if a group is to be called a church organization.

Fourth, if I am a member of the Church, then I have to participate in the life of the Church. Worshiping together at Mass is participation in the life of the Church. Joining a pilgrimage, joining a procession, supporting Pondong Pinoy are ways of participating in the life of the Church.

The New Covenant is a covenant between God and his People, the Christians. But there is also another covenant. It is between two human beings and which Christ has raised to the dignity of a sacrament—marriage or matrimony.

Marriage is so sacred that St. Paul uses the relationship between Christ and the Church to describe the relationship between husband and wife: “As the church is subordinate to Christ, so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in eve-rything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her…” (Eph 5: 24-25).

Now some pieces of advice.

First, nothing gets better by being neglected. Your marriage will not become stronger by neglecting it. You have decided to get married because you have fallen in love with one another. But if you do not pay attention to one another, there is a danger that you will fall out of love with one another. On your wedding day, you became mag-asawa. But if you don’t nurture your married life, the time will come when “asawa” will lose the “a” and you will be “sawa” with one another.

How do you nurture your marriage? Take time out together. Go on a date. Only the two of you. Ask other couples for tips.

Second, on your wedding anniversary, celebrate. In my opinion, it is more important to celebrate your wedding anniversary than your birthday. Of course, this is true if your wedding is worth celebrating. And it is worth celebrating if you have been taking care of your marriage throughout the year.

How do you celebrate it? Go to mass together. After mass, renew your wed-ding vows. If a priest is available, do it before the priest. Go to a restaurant. Go ballroom dancing. Have fun together. If you have your unity candle, light it and say a prayer before going to bed.

This Sunday I said the following things.

Regarding the New Covenant. (1) To be a Christian is to be a member of the Church. (2) Excommunication is the penalty for serious unchristian behavior. (3) Recognition from the parish priest or bishop is necessary to be recognized as a Church organization. (4) I have to participate in the life of the Church. The Mass is a participation in the life of the Church.

Regarding marriage. (1) Nurture your marriage. Nothing gets better by being neglected. (2) Celebrate your wedding anniversary.

TRINITY SUNDAY (B)

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Mt 28:16-20

One day we are told that St. Augustine was walking along the seashore, re-flecting on the mystery of the Holy Trinity. He wanted to understand how could the Father be God, and Jesus be God and the Holy Spirit be God and yet there are not three gods but only one God.

He was distracted by the sight of a boy running to the sea, filling a sea shell with water and then pouring the water into a hole. Amused, he asked the boy what he was doing. The boy answered that he was going to put all of the water of the sea into the hole. St. Augustine smiled and exclaimed, “But that’s impossible!” The boy smiled in turn and said, “It is also impossible for you to understand the mystery of the Trinity.”

Neither are we going to attempt to understand the mystery of the Trinity. What we are going to do is to learn how to live by imitating the Blessed Trinity.

The fundamental Christian belief is that there is one God in Three Divine Persons. God is, therefore, like a family. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit live in a relationship with one another.

The Book of Genesis says that man is created in the image and likeness of God. From this we can conclude that we, too, are meant to live in a relationship with others.

We are born into a family. We work with others. We belong to the Church which is a community of believers. We have friends. We have textmates and chatmates. We are connected to others through Friendster and Facebook. All of these are relationships.

There is a song that expresses the truth that by nature man exists and lives in a network of relationships.

No man is an island, no man stands alone
Each man's joy is joy to me
Each man's grief is my own
We need one another, so I will defend
Each man as my brother
Each man as my friend.

But for these relationships to be happy relationships, there must be love. Without love these relationships become like hell. The Fifth Dimension has a song entitled, “There’s No Love in the Room.” It is about a marriage where love has died.

Sitting around the table watching each other
Feeling kinda sorry for my baby brother
There’s no love in the room
No love in the room.
Mama’s gone her way, daddy’s gone his
I wonder how long it’s been since they kissed.
No love in the room
Once before, long ago, it was here to see
Tell me what’s been happening to our family?

Without love, marriage and family life becomes hell.

Therefore, parents, if you want your child to grow up and have a happy marriage, then love them. You might be asking yourself what is the relationship between a happy marriage and loving your child.

If you want your child to have a happy marriage in the future, your child must be capable of true love. But true love must be learned. And your child will learn true love only if he or she has first experienced true love. And who will give him or her true love? Is it not you, parents?

And remember, it is not enough to love your children. They must feel that love.

Love has been used for so many things and in so many ways that it can be quite confusing at times. I love ice cream. I love my dog. I love my country. I love to swim on the beach. I love my friends. And so on.

Here we use love to refer to relationships between persons and that means human beings and God.

What is the test for true love? How do I know that I love in an authentic way? One criterion is this: My love is true if I seek the good of the one I love.

There were two sisters. One was successful. The other was not. The success-ful kept on telling the other sister to put in order everything so that by the follow-ing year she could go abroad and work. The following year the unsuccessful sister was still in the Philippines because she had not been able to put everything in order. So the successful sister gave her a deadline. My offer to finance your trip abroad is only good for this year. If you do not leave by the end of the year, you are on your own.

Believe it or not, this is an example of true love. It is tough love but true love at the same time. By setting a deadline, the successful sister was prodding the un-successful sister not to take things easy.

I have said in the beginning that the fundamental Christian belief is that there is one God in Three Divine Persons. God is, therefore, like a family. When we were baptized we became part of this family. We became God’s children. God became our Father.

The catechism speaking of Baptism states that we became adopted children of God. The term “adopted” needs to be explained. In ordinary speech, adopted means that a child has his own biological parents but through adoption another set of parents accept him as if he were their own child. AS IF is the operative word here. The child is not really their child but they treat him as if he were their child. This is NOT the meaning of adopted children of God.

The catechism uses the term “adopted” to differentiate our sonship from the sonship of the Word, that is, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity. The Word was always the Son of the Father. There was never a time that he was not the Son of the Father.

Regarding us, on the other hand, there was a time we were not children of God. Before baptism, we were not children of God. After God’s baptism we became real children of God.

I use the word “real” because we really became God’s children. God does not accept us AS IF we are his children. No. Baptism transformed us into his children. “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are” (1Jn 3:1).

As a practical consequence, when you pray to God address him the way you address your father. Is it Tatang, Itay, Papa, Dad, Daddy? Do this when you pray and at once you realize that there is now a difference. Iba ang dating!

They say that when you love someone, you make yourself vulnerable. It means that when you love someone, you give to that person the possibility of hurting you.

A friend is someone you love (ka+IBIG+an). Suppose it’s your birthday and you tell your friend to come for your birthday dinner. Suppose he or she doesn’t come. You will feel hurt, won’t you? Why? Because he or she is your friend. You might have invited the jeepney driver who gave you a discount because it’s your birthday. But if he doesn’t come, you won’t feel anything at all. Why? Because he is not your friend.

God loves us because we are his children. Because God loves us, he gives to us the power to hurt him. When we commit sin, we really offend God. That is why, when we pray the Act of Contrition we should really mean it.

“Oh, my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended you. And I detest all my sins because I fear the loss of heaven and the pains of hell. But most of all I have offended you my God, who are all God and worthy of all my love. I firmly resolve with the help of your grace, to confess my sins, to do penance and to amend my life. Amen.”

On this Solemnity of the Holy Trinity I have suggested four things that we can do:

1. Let us love our children so that they may learn to love. And having learned how to love, they may have a happy marriage and a happy family.
2. One of the criterion of true love is: Is this for the good of the one I love?
3. God is really our father. We are really his children. When we pray to God, let us call him Tatay, or Itay, Papa, Daddy or Dad.
4. When we commit sin, we really hurt God. Therefore, when we pray the Act of Contrition, let us really mean it.