Homilies

          There were several things I asked dad for as a child that he never bought me. He either said no, or not react, or said, “Sisirain mo lang ‘yan.” I wanted a toy robot for the longest time. “No.” There was a time I loved having smooth, shiny things in my pocket, like a stone, a small tile, a sigay from sungka. One time, I was drawn to my uncle’s mini-Zippo lighter, small & shiny. So, I asked dad to buy me one. I promised I’d never light it. I just wanted it. He glared his disbelief & his no. When cousins loaned us their Atari, kuya & I asked for one of our own. “Sisirain n’yo lang ‘yan.” There was a whole stretch in my life when I begrudged dad his many no’s to what I believed I needed from him, both visible & invisible, especially because I earned it by behaving well, doing well in school, bringing back medals. But without being aware of it, I actually developed a transactional notion of my relationship w/ dad: make dad more & more proud, he’d say less no’s & more yeses.           It’s not entirely our fault, sisters & brothers, that many of us have unwittingly transmuted this transactionality to our relationship w/ God. Doing that, if unintentionally, we’ve started believing that God is a meritocratic God, & the modus he operates on is meritocracy. Remember how we sometimes joke & say, “We’re doing this to earn pogi points in heaven”? Or say, “Swerte n’yo naman, may pari kayo sa pamilya. May tiket na kayo sa langit.” Or when we tell children, “’Wag malikot sa church. Papa Jesus will get enggri!” Or, “If you’re good boy/girl, happy si Papa God. If bad boy/girl, sad si Papa God.” The more rosaries, the more Mary will intercede for us. The longer we pray, the faster we get the delivery from heaven’s Lazada. It has even leaked into our works of mercy. “Help the poor & you will ‘go to heaven.’” A meritocratic God is one whose goodness towards us depends on our prior meritorious acts. Na para bang God’s default is neutral. We do a meritorious act first, & only then does our merit switch God on, whereupon he bestows grace, favor, blessings, accordingly. Even better: we put ourselves deliberately through hardship & difficulty, all the more we poise God towards signing our request!           Today, Jesus’ friends ask him to increase their faith. Luke doesn’t mention why. But in Matthew, this happens after they failed to exorcise a boy. So, they believe their failure was due to a shortfall of faith. These are very good people, by the way, very sincere & desirous to save a boy from a demon. Then again, doesn’t a boy’s healing depend more on God’s Providence rather than the amount of fire-power that the disciples believe they lack due to their faith deficit? Kasi gano’n ba ‘yon? Lakasan n’yo faith n’yo, lalakasan din ng Diyos kapangyarihan n’yo. There’s something a little off in there. Kaya siguro sinabi ni Hesus, “Huh? Even if your faith is infinitesimal, you could uproot this huge tree,” which I perceive is another way of saying kahit na kakaunti lang faith mo, that’s not going to stop God from doing even greater things than this for someone he loves who is sick.           Eh, bakit pa tayo magdadasal sa Diyos, kung alam na naman niya kung ibibigay niya sa atin o hindi ang hiling natin? Well, first of all, prayer is not just petition, right? It’s part of our relating to & with God, both as individuals & as a community, along with good works, acts of charity, compassion, etc. But secondly, we should not stop asking God for what we need just because, as we say, God already knows what we need before we ask. No.           When we keep praying for the grace we need (key phrase, “keep praying”), we realize more & more deeply how totally, desperately, endlessly dependent we are on God. And you know what, sisters & brothers, as many of you have already discovered by now, the more we realize in prayer how deeply, desperately, & endlessly dependent we are on God—it’s such a mysterious, miraculous thing—that we also increasingly sense how deeply, desperately, & endlessly kind-hearted & loving, generous & caring God has always been to us, all this time. Kaya tuloy, lumalalim ang ating pananampalataya. Allow me to repeat that. When we keep praying for the grace we need (key phrase, “keep praying”), God takes us to that place where we realize how totally, desperately, endlessly dependent we are on his goodness. But the longer we’re there, the clearer we see how loving & generous God has always been to us, anyway, more than we deserve or ask for. So, our faith deepens. We want more faith not so much to merit his reward. Rather, we want more faith because it makes us surrender to God, who has, nevertheless, been unfailing & relentless in goodness & providence, much more than we even deserve. That’s what’s behind Jesus’ parable in the 2nd part of today’s Gospel. We will always be only servants to the Master. We do what the Master obliges us to do. But it’s his will that will bring everything to a good end. Faith is not so much to earn or buy or finagle the Master’s prize. Faith means surrender to the Master’s goodness. So, dad never gave me a robot, a Zippo, an Atari, & then some, despite my most importunate begging. Only years after I left home did I progressively realize, hey, my dad started me off on Peanuts comics, then, Hardy Boys, then, a whole set of Collier’s Encyclopedia, w/ a 4-volume set of Medical Encyclopedia; then, signed me up for piano school even as it took away

Homily on Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ | 18 June 2022 by Fr Tony Moreno, SJ “You Filipinos eat five times a day” – a Jesuit tertian from overseas tells me. I was struck to hear this. But actually, at times, it is six times a day we eat if we include the midnight snacks. Eating is a human activity not only to satisfy one’s hunger. It is an expression of fellowship or solidarity. Eating alone is fine, now and then, but if one eats alone all the time, one begins to wonder what is happening. In the eyes of the self-righteous, one unacceptable deed of Jesus is eating with sinners and tax collectors. He breaks the barrier that separates the sinners from the rest of the community by having meals with the unclean and ostracized. Note also the parable of the loving father, after the father and son reconcile, there is a celebration. There is a grand party, much to the dismay of the elder brother. The meal becomes a gesture of solidarity. It is the same spirit behind the Gospel today. The feeding of the multitude is important for Jesus because it is a perfect ending after healing the sick. While his disciples were quick to dismiss them, Jesus finds a way to feed them and celebrate. There is fellowship and solidarity. In Jewish custom, the passover meal is a celebration of God’s liberating power. The night before exodus is a solemn one for God shows the saving power never before the Jewish people have experienced. God enters their world to accompany them. This is a great expression of solidarity. As we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, we likewise call to mind the greatest act of solidarity for all time, God’s unbreakable love for all of us. Jesus uses the meal as an eternal symbol of God’s indwelling in our midst. It is no longer the lamb that we partake but Jesus himself. It is no longer simply a nation (such as the Jewish people) that God commits to love but the whole of humanity and creation including you and me. Jesus becomes food and drink for the nourishment of our life and mission. He commands us: “Do this in memory of me.” He asks us to bring to life the message of God’s unbreakable love. Forgetfulness of God’s enduring love is a great sin. It is an act of ingratitude. Our continuing fragmentation and division as a people is an indication that the wounds of hatred and sin are still there. We partake of Jesus’ body and blood, he lives on in us, but at times, our lives are so marked by hatred and intolerance. Sadly this is still happening in our society after the elections. Ironically, last April, after celebrating 500 years of Christianity in our country it was a moment of grace, but in no time, we showed to the whole world how much we hated those who did not share our political preference. I see good friends who are no longer on speaking terms. I see siblings and relatives who have become enemies. Pardon becomes difficult to ask and equally difficult to give. This runs counter to the spirit of our celebration today. Our celebration of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ such as this Eucharist we are celebrating cannot be simply a personal or private act without anything to do with building our community. It can bring us closer as a community. It can heal our brokenness as a people as we call to mind God’s unbreakable solidarity and love for us. May our celebration of the meal of Jesus be a summit and source of healing and reconciliation. It is the highest form of solidarity which can heal hatred and division.

Homily on The Feast of Pentecost by Fr Arnel Aquino, SJ Cenacle Retreat House | 4 June 2022 I had a tooth extracted two days ago. I know. Sad. In the past, dentists were bunot-happy, remember? Konteng sakit, bunot. Konteng bulok, bunot. These days, extraction is the last resort of good dentists. They try to save a toot as much as they, even if it’s dead. They root canal it, fill it, cap it, anything to keep it just where it is. But alas, my dentist saw a fracture on my tooth, top to bottom. When a tooth fissures top to bottom, it cannot be saved. It has to come off. It’s hopeless. It’s irredeemable. Buti na lang, hindi bunot-happy ang Diyos natin, ‘no? Imagine if he were? When we’ve become such a pain to others, when we start infecting them, corrupting them, a bunot-happy God would extract us from the face of the earth. People are better off without us being such a burden. The space we leave behind? God could always fill that up with much better people, people who are more faithful, to him, kinder to others, steadfast in their love & service. But you & I, we’re often unfaithful, unkind, unloving, & uncharitable. So, thank God, he’s not bunot-happy. Kahit gaano tayo kasama, sa kaila-ilaliman ng ating pagktao, gusto pa rin nating mabuhay, lalo na para sa mga mahal natin sa buhay. And you know, God honors that. For good or for ill, he honors that. Secondly, such good news that no matter how fractured we are—top to bottom, sideways, inside out—to God, we’re still savable. To be fair, not all our cracks are our fault, no. The sins of family, community, the world have split & torn us apart. Nonetheless, we fissure also because of our own immoral, self-serving, & self-aggrandizing choices, both as individuals & as a community, as a country, even. Alam na alam na natin kung ano, sino, at saan anag makakasama sa atin, sige pa rin tayo nang sige. D’un pa rin tungo natin. Ang tigas ng ulo natin. ‘Di tayo matuto-tuto. But even then, we never forfeit our redeemability. Not to God, anyway. Sometimes, to be franck with you, I wish God didn’t give bad people such long lives, especially bad politicians. Sometimes, I wonder why politicians who are obviously bulok are still around & thriving. But just as divine benevolence is a mystery, human redeemability is also a mystery only God understands. If there’s one thing God is “incapable” of doing, maybe it’s to restrain himself from saving us. Kung sa bagay, ‘yun naman ang pangalan niya dito sa lupa, ‘di ba? Jesus. Yeshua. God saves. Many, many Catholics believe that when Jesus ascended to the Father, he has since been saving us by remote control…from heaven. The remot control is the Holy Spirit. I often ask the graduating class in LST: “What does the Holy Spirit look like? What does he do? How does he behave?” They stare at me like a I have three heads! But there’d always be one brave soul who’d answer: “Father, dove? Father, the Spirit hovers over us, enlightens us & empowers us?” So, the Holy Spirit is some bird-like avatar of God & has only two missions: light & power. Meralco? First of all, the Holy Spirit has a face, a human face. And this is the face of Jesus. The Holy Spirit in fact isJesus; not bird, not just “light” or “wind” or “energy.” Secondly, Holy Spirit does more than light & power. If the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Father & Son, then, the Holy Spirit also saves! Whatever Jesus did in his earthly life over 2000 years ago, he still does today as the Holy Spirit. The Spirit heals our illness, fills our hunger, consoles our grief, reconciles us, unites our family & community—the very same way Jesus did back in his day. When Jesus “sends” us the Spirit, it is Jesus’ very Self who comes down to us, to be with us, yes, but also to dwell within us—regardless of our biyak, bitak, putok, baho, tigas ng ulo, katangahan, kasakiman. The Holy Spirit has a name after all. His name is Jesus. Yeshua. God saves. Hindi pa po tapos ang Diyos sa atin, sisters & brothers. We should never despair & think that we’re irredeemable, both as individuals & as a country. In God’s eyes, the world always needs saving because we always need saving, & very often from ourselves. Kung dumating man ang panahon when we finally make the right choices, whether in moral acts, correct behavior, or during elections—our right choices do not end the Spirit’s redemptive mission. We know ourselves only too well. Despite making right choices, we will eventually hurt each other. We will become cynical. We will resort to unkind behavior. And yes, we will try to extract people we reckon are irredeemable. So, all the more reason we need a constant Pentecost—a yearly Pentecost, a monthly Pentecost, a daily Pentecost: that divine outpouring of God’s very self on all of us, in spite of ourselves. And so, we prayer: Come, Holy Spirit. Fill the hearts of your faithful & kindle in us the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit & we shall be created. And you shall renew the face of the earth.” Amen.

Homily on The Feast of Our Lady of the Cenacle | 4 June 2022 by Fr Oliver Dy, SJ In Jerusalem of the time of Jesus, it was typical for the house owners in the city to own a second floor or an upper room to be rented out to pilgrims. It is in such a room that the Last Supper was held and many other occasions, the disciples celebrated in the Upper Room for the feasts in Jerusalem, thus, also the name Cenacle or dining room. It’s in this Upper Room that the election to replace Judas, the betrayer, was held. And it was also in such a room where “All these [the apostles] were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary, the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.” The Upper Room. I would like to share my thoughts related to this Upper Room which for me symbolizes and mirrors the heart of Mary, Mary of the Cenacle. That there is a certain congruence of meaning of the Upper Room and the heart of Mary related to the three gifts of the Cenacle – Apostolic Service, Prayer and Community Life. First of all, the Upper Room is a holy space between heaven and earth. It is grounded on the earth and yet also elevated above it to indicate a sense of perspective and spiritual transcendence. The Upper Room is grounded on the cry of the people who cry and with the groan of creation, so the vibrations of the earth, as it were, is felt in this Upper Room, and yet this Upper Room is also the meeting place between heaven and earth or rather the meeting place or the point of transition between the old heaven and old earth and a new heaven and a new earth. The Upper Room’s sense of apostolic service is that place where the old is transformed into the new. The Upper Room symbolizes the hill country of Judea where Mary visited Elizabeth in the sense that it is elevated and here, Mary’s Magnificat was heard for the first time, the revolution of the heart and the reversal of order in the world. And this perspective and this vision of Mary continues here in the upper room in a new way, in the apostolic service. There’s both a typical distance from the earth and yet also a certain typical intimacy. One should not succumb to the subtle temptations of the world but to live amidst them with a sense of perspective of Mary. And so, it is in the sense of spiritual deviation with the world that we can transform into a new heaven and a new earth just like Mary did in her time. The second one is the Upper Room is the place of prayer. As it is located in this in-between space, the heaven and earth, it is the place of radical openness related to the virtue of hope and the act of waiting. The radical openness to God’s possibilities. Not so much to give in to the earthly projects in the act of presumptiveness or over-planning like the apostles did or thought when Jesus ascended, “Would He restore the kingdom of Israel?” It’s not that, rather, the radical openness to something totally new , totally unheard of. An openness by that which came forth from the heart of Mary from the womb, that Incarnate God himself, something unthought of before. This radical openness demands that we detach ourselves from our earthly project and have that clear space for prayer. The German word for this is “abgeschiedenheit” or “detachment” in English. The word is “gelassenheit” or “letting things be”. Not to give in, on the other hand, to utility and despair but to allow our pondering in prayer, the gradual pondering while waiting to allow the plan of God to unfold in His due time. So, we must maintain that radical openness in prayer like Mary in the Upper Room. Finally, Mary and Community life. In the year 2018, Pope Francis also declared Monday after Pentecost as the Feast of Mary as Mother of the Church, and it is also related to the Feast of the Cenacle in this Upper Room where Mary became part of the emergent Church and in fact, became also a witness to the maturation of the disciples, the apostles in the Spirit. They were with one accord, a single heart. And this means spiritual conversation and fruits of prayer. I can imagine Mary sharing the stories about her Son to encourage the apostoltes. I can hear Mary entering into dialogue with the apostles in the spirit of the Lord’s absence. I can see Mary co-discerning in their fellow pilgrims here on earth. Mary was at the side of the apostles. She was with the apostles. She was companion to the apostles. She was telling the apostles, “You are not alone, I am here, your mother.” She died with the apostles and lived with the apostles at their side. The word Paraclete incidentally is someone called to one’s side. I can imagine the Paraclete as somebody beside us. Somebody who strengthens us when we need strength. Someone who speaks for us like a lawyer. Paraclete symbolizes God by our side. In the same way, Mary in community life is a woman, a person by the side, beside the apostles, being with, being together with the apostles in the place of prayer, in the place of emerging apostolic service. In this Mass today, let us pray for the spiritual blessings related to this Upper Room, that symbolizes and reflects the very heart of Mary, Mary in the Cenacle, apostolic service, in prayer and community life.