Category: Feasts

  • When God was a refugee

    When God was a refugee

    December 28, 2019 – Feast of the Holy Innocents, martyrs

    Click here for the readings http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/122819.cfm

    Homily

    King Herod was hungry for power. When he heard the news that there will be a new-born king, he was threatened. In his hunger for power, he did not want anyone to share in what he enjoyed. In fact, Herod murdered his own children so that no one will take the power and riches from him. Hence, how much more if the one who is to reign is a baby? Herod was indeed frightened and threatened.

    God reveals Himself not to the rich and the powerful, not to politicians and famous personalities of our society, but, to simple and poor people – because the rich and powerful, the famous and the “big shots” do not need God. They believed that they themselves are “gods.” This is the attitude of Herod and the reason why he felt threatened upon hearing the news of the new-born king.

    Sadly, because of so much insecurities and the corrupted heart of Herod, he would do whatever he can in order to eliminate that baby who threatened his power, wealth and comfort. What had been sacrificed were the lives of many innocent baby boys. They were murdered right before the eyes of their mothers and fathers. There was no mercy! It was just evil!

    Today’s feast of the Holy Innocents reminds us of all the innocent people who have died and who are dying because of the cruelty and oppression of others. The Gospel also tells us that Joseph through the instruction of the angel brought baby Jesus and Mary to Egypt. Egypt was a common place for Jewish refugees and people who seek safety. Egypt had become an important place in the life of Jesus as it had become a safe place for him. This tells us, that even God became a refugee because of the people who rejected him.

    Thus, there are two invitations that I would like you to remember today. 

    First, let us be aware of our insecurities and of our tendency to be threatened by the goodness of others. Being aware of these, allows us to come to the light as the first letter of John tells us. It is by coming closer to God that we also come to light, therefore, making ourselves exposed to God. This will lead us to recognize our own insecurities and tendency to be abusive, corrupt and insecure. 

    Second, as Egypt had been a safe haven for Baby Jesus, allow ourselves also to be the “Egypt” for others – that we become a safe haven for people who need help, love, care and protection. This will not be easy as it will be demanding us of our time, presence and resources. However, let us also remember, in some ways, we have taken refuge to others, friends and family members when we needed help. It would also be good to return the goodness that we have received to others.

    In this way, we may be able to make Christmas a memorable and holy day. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

  • He saw and believed

    He saw and believed

    December 27, 2019 – Friday – Feast of St. John, Apostle and Evangelist

    Click here for the readings http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/122719.cfm

    Homily

    It is just fitting for us to celebrate the feast of St. John the Evangelist soon after Christmas Day. The opening lines of his gospel sum up in a few words what we are celebrating at Christmas, he wrote and ‘the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.’

    This, the last of the four gospels to be written, is based on the eyewitness testimony of the favoured one described as the Beloved Disciple of Jesus. This could give us the impression that Jesus loved this disciple more than all the other disciples. But other texts in the gospels suggest that Jesus loved and loves all his disciples equally. He said to them all as a group, and indeed says to us also, ‘As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.’ Yes, we are all Jesus’ beloved disciples.

    What distinguishes John from the other disciple is that he received and responded to the love of Jesus more fully than all the others did. As we have heard in the gospels, John, the youngest of them all was the only male disciple who was present at the foot of the cross; he remained faithful when others had shown themselves to be unfaithful; he remained fearless when others ran away and hid because of fear.

    John’s faithful love brought him to the empty tomb faster than Peter; and because of this, it made John to understand the empty tomb and recognize God’s power because, ‘he saw and believed.’  

    Yes, John saw the empty tomb and believed that Jesus was raised from the dead even in the midst of fear, doubts and confusion. He is the disciple who encourages all of us to give ourselves wholeheartedly in love to Jesus as he has given himself fully to us.

    Each of us has seen and experienced God’s love and generosity in our own lives. I would like to invite you to be more aware of those moments, of those experiences so that they may lead us to Jesus. Let us truly believe, then, in Him who has come to us to live with us. Let us also come to him, to come closer to God in this season of Christmas. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

  • Happy Birthday Jesus

    Happy Birthday Jesus

    December 25, 2019 – Christmas Day

    Click here for the readings http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/122519-the-nativity-of-the-lord-day.cfm

    Homily

    Why do we celebrate birthdays? It is to “remember” a happy day, like the day of our birth. It is a happy day because our parents and relatives had been “waiting” for us. We also celebrate because we give “thanks” to God for the “gift of life.”

    There are two words that are very important here. First, “to remember” – memory is humanity’s greatest treasure. Memory makes us “who we are.” It makes us connected with others, with our friends, family and relatives. Thus, our memory makes us “rooted,” to let us know where we come from. 

    Second, “giving thanks” – it comes from our grateful hearts. This is our response to God who has been so generous to us in so many ways. And because of our memory we are able to remember the goodness of God and so we celebrate and give thanks. The act of saying “thank you” to God is a statement of our dependence to Him, of our faith to God who is so good to us.

    This is basically what we are doing right at this moment in this Holy Eucharist. 

    Eucharist means “Thanksgiving” – we thank the Lord as a community of faith as we also REMEMBER the greatest gift that has been given to you and to me – and that is, the birth of Jesus, the Emmanuel, the God-with-us.

    That’s why, Christmas, like our own birthdays is a very happy day because we remember how God fulfilled his promise to be with us. Today, we remember as a community how our almighty and powerful God took the form of a defenseless baby to tell us that he is with us in our weaknesses, in our failures, in our problems and sorrows.

    Our Gospel from St. John has described to us this mystery of the birth of Jesus, he said, “and the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us…” Yes, God has at last come to us. He is here in our midst. He lives among us. It means that our God is not someone who is so far away and so distant from us. No, in Jesus, God assures us that he is truly with us! That we can easily find him, feel him and call on him.

    This is the message of joy, of peace and comfort in this Season of Christmas. God has come to us and so let us all come to him! Let us visit him, look at him and cuddle the Lord. But how do we do that? How do we visit, look and cuddle the Lord now? 

    God makes himself present in the lives of the homeless, the poor, the weak and vulnerable, the bullied, with the victims and the oppressed, with the broken-hearted and the depressed, with the lonely and the grieving, with the inmates and the sickly, the problematic and the dying, the addicts, refugees and the victims of war and calamities.

    Our God is He who identifies himself with the weak and the poor and chooses to reveal himself with the powerless and insignificant people in our society.

    My friends, God is waiting for you and me. Jesus is born and is right there in our own stables, there in the helplessness of our neighbors. Jesus is there in our lonely and alone friend. Jesus is resting there in our hungry brothers and sisters. God is there in the person whom we have not forgiven, whom we have hated for so long. The Baby Jesus is there in our loved ones who distanced from us. Let us come and visit Jesus in the lives of others.

     In this Season of Christmas we may be filled with joy, with smiles on our faces as we proclaim to our neighbors, classmates, co-workers and relatives the goodness of God, his faithfulness and love for you and for me. 

    A blessed Christmas to all!

    Jom Baring, CSsR

  • Christmas: Meeting God in the most unusual place

    Christmas: Meeting God in the most unusual place

    December 24, 2019 – Christmas Eve Mass

    (Readings are taken from the proper of Mass during the Night. Click here for the readings http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/122519-the-nativity-of-the-lord-night.cfm)

    Homily

    Click this Video: Eating Twinkies with God.

    It was an encounter with God in a very surprising manner. But how about you? Especially when you first watched this video, were you surprised by that? I am personally surprised by this video especially towards its end when the mother of the boy asked him if he ever found God. It was also surprising when the woman herself said that she too found God on that day. 

    For the boy, what was surprising was to realize that God was a woman and she was there waiting and sitting at the park. The boy was in search for God and so he did search for God and only to find God sitting on a bench in a park. Perhaps the boy did not know that that woman was homeless and lonely but through her, the boy encountered God, through the beautiful smile of the woman the boy has witnessed God’s most beautiful smile he has ever seen.

    For that homeless, hungry and lonely woman, what was surprising was to realize that God was a boy, much younger than what she has expected. The woman was waiting for something to happen, waiting for some coins to be dropped, perhaps. She might have been waiting for some miracle. And indeed, a miracle happened before her eyes. A boy sat beside her, offered her a cake and ate with her. That moment, the woman witnessed God’s generosity and encountered God’s self through the goodness and innocence of the boy.

    That video shows us that encountering God and being able to experience and witness God’s presence happen even in our common and ordinary dealings with others. The video brings us into that experience of surprise from God because God reveals his presence in ways that we do not expect.

    This is the good news being preached to us tonight. There was a great surprise from the shepherds when the angel appeared to them announcing the birth of the savior. But they were more surprised to have found God in a manger wrapped in swaddling clothes in a form of a vulnerable and defenseless baby.

    What does it mean to us now? For me personally, what the video showed us and what the Gospel told us were quite disturbing for me at the beginning. I found it hard to reconcile the almighty and powerful God with that encounter of God in the image of a homeless woman or a young boy and worst in the image of a defenseless and poor baby in the manger. If we have been looking for God amidst the world’s power and riches, we might not see God. In these days, if we have been looking for God in our endless Christmas parties, in our extravagance and in our shopping spree at SM, Abreeza or G-Mall, we might not find God there. In fact, we might miss God in our Christmas celebration.

    Tonight, God reminds us where to find him. God is right there on that bench, in the person of a homeless woman. God is there in that generous boy. God is there in that baby in the manger. Yes, God makes himself present in the lives on the homeless, the poor, the weak and vulnerable, with the victims and the oppressed, with the broken-hearted and the depressed, with the lonely and grieving, with the inmates and the sickly, the problematic and the dying, the refugees, the victims of war and calamities.

    Our God is he who identifies himself with the weak and the poor and chooses to reveal himself also with the powerless and insignificant people in our society. This is symbolized by the shepherds in the Gospel. They were the first ones to have heard the good news. These shepherds who were considered as outcast and irrelevant to Jewish culture and society were favored by God because of their standing in the community. Our God reveals God’s self to them because God is making a statement. God is saying to us that he is the God of the outcast and the insecure, the God of insignificant people, the God of the weak and the powerless, of the poor and the broken-hearted.

    This is the good news that the angel proclaimed to the shepherds and reechoed by the shepherds themselves when they encountered the baby Jesus with Mary and Joseph. God is telling us now that “He is truly with us.”

    My friends, God is waiting for you and me. Jesus is born and is right there in our own stables, there in the helplessness of our neighbors. Jesus is there in our lonely and alone friend. Jesus is resting there in our hungry brothers and sisters. God is there in the person whom we have not forgiven, whom we have hated for so long. The Baby Jesus is there in our loved ones who distanced from us. Let us come and visit Jesus in the lives of others.

    When we are able to do this, we will surely encounter God, his generosity and goodness to us like that homeless woman. We will surely be delighted with the most beautiful smile that we shall ever see like that little boy. We shall surely find peace and comfort like what the shepherds found.

    In this Season of Christmas we may be filled with joy, with smiles on our faces as we proclaim to our neighbors, classmates, co-workers and relatives the goodness of God, his faithfulness and love for you and for me. Hinaut pa.  

    Jom Baring, CSsR

  • God’s coming received with great opposition

    God’s coming received with great opposition

    December 14, 2019 – Saturday 2nd Week of Advent / Memorial of St John of the Cross, priest and doctor of the Church

    Click here for the readings http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/121419.cfm

    Homily

    Have you been opposed by others just because you are different? Have you been rejected by people around you just because you do not adhere to the status quo, to what they do and to what they liked to believe?

    The Gospel today tells us that the arrival of Jesus was not received warmly by people around him particularly of those in the leadership, of those in the high position. Despite the call of the prophets from the ancient times from Isaiah, Elijah and up to the person of John the Baptist, God’s coming was received with great opposition. As the prophets called the people to turn away from sin and selfishness, the prophets also received violent condemnation from the powerful. This was what happened to John the Baptist who confronted King Herod for his immoral union with his brother’s wife. As a result, John was silenced by beheading him. In the words of Jesus, he said, “they treated him as they pleased.”

    Indeed, the Lord revealed himself, yet the people refused to recognize him because their hearts were filled with malice and full of themselves. These people who continually rejected and opposed Jesus had become so comfortable with their life but trapped by their own selfishness.

    The Pharisees, scribes, lawyers and priests of the temple were so comfortable with their way of life that they did not want a change and did not want to be challenged. They were afraid of losing what they were enjoying. Herod and his mistress were also contented with their immoral life and did not want to be confronted. Thus, these people did not want God to change their life. What they seek was the preservation of that kind of life they were living. However, this was not what God wanted. Jesus wanted them to be free, that is why, he had to confront them.

    In this Season of Advent, we are reminded to also examine ourselves if we have become too comfortable with what we have been doing, with what we have been thinking and with what we are living for. The problem is not the comfort in itself, the concern is our attitude or way of life in choosing to be indifferent and unmoved with what is happening around us and with God’s self-revelations in our life. This also include our attitudes of not wanting to change, to be challenged, to be criticized and to be corrected.

    Hence, this calls us to confront ourselves with those attitudes that do not lead us closer to others and closer to God. Jesus invites us today to be more welcoming of his presence by also letting go of those comforts that prevent us from coming closer to him, and attitudes that prevent God to enter into our life.

    As we prepare ourselves to celebrate the birth of Jesus, may our hearts and our whole life be more ready and more welcoming of God’s coming. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

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