St. John the Baptist Catholic Church

(From Fr. Ray’s homily)
Blessed are those who care:
They will let people know they are loved.
Blessed are those who are gentle:
They will help people to grow.
Blessed are those who listen:
They will lighten many a burden
Blessed are those who let go:
They will have the joy of seeing people find themselves.
Blessed are those who, when nothing can be done or said, do not walk away, but remain to provide a comforing and supportive presence:
They will help those who suffer to bear the unbearable.
Blessed are those who give without hope of return:
They will receive God’s reward.

Third Sunday of Easter C

(Even though Fr. Emmanuel has left us, we will continue to post the homilies he delivers in other countries.)

(April 18, 2010)

For just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to him who sows and bread to him who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.(Is 55)

Scriptures: Acts 5: 27b -32, 40b -41; Ps 30; Rv 5: 11 -14; Jn 21: 1 -19

Theme: The Risen Christ is God’s efficacious Word and Work among God’s people.[1]

(1) The value of action

All efforts and endeavors to do right and to please God are meritorious in intention. In today’s stories, we see the apostles tried before the Sanhedrin for having worked at propagating the news that Jesus was risen as God’s favored One. This labor makes of Jesus’ enemies the guilty party, the enemies of God’s cause in the world. In the second reading we witness the recognition by the heavenly court of the work of the Lamb of God, who is now worthy to receive the crown of glory for high quality service to God Almighty. Finally, in the gospel, we see Peter and his six companions fishing the whole night without much rest, yet ready to take another chance and work some more at the command of Jesus. Peter drags the net full of fish ashore, and at the very end of the story, he is called to “follow” the Lord. Action as service to the Kingdom of God is valued, appreciated and called for by the Lord. By wanting to do something in this time when Jesus had been taken away by death, Peter and the other disciples are pleasing God by going to what they know best is a rewarding human activity. At Easter we were saying that we do know have a complete knowledge of God but if we went (like the women of the first apparition in Luke) to the places we know God wants us to visit, we shall surely be found there by Him. In the midst of their ordinary action the Lord meets his disciples at the down of the new Day to impart on them his efficacious grace, the source and goal of all action: the Kingdom of God.

(2) The perfection in Grace

Grace is God’s every gift to humanity. Today, grace is presented in the first reading as “being worthy to suffer humiliations for the name of Jesus.” Why? Because He is the One God raised from the dead. Jesus is the New Realm of God, and this is the cause of the disciples’ joy, and the destination of their own lives in Him. The Throne of God is the center of Grace in the second reading. Around the throne is recognized the celebrated work of the Lamb and the life that it gives every Creature of God. The blessing received from God is returned in praise and worship: grace overflows. The Gospel reports the Word of God as grace: “Cast the net over the right side of the boat and you will find something” says the Lord. We sang in the Resurrection proclamation, “Christ that morning star, who came back from the dead and shed his peaceful light on us, [God’s] Son who lives and reigns forever and ever.” In the morning of the night in labor, Christ sheds the light of glory upon his friends, making fruitful the work of their hands and inviting them a step further, “feed my sheep” and “follow me.”

As our fore wording text of Isaiah 55 states, the Word of God fulfills what it says. The promises of God are true for us if we abide in Christ, the Kingdom of God. The appreciation and integration of all these pieces is done in the communion with the Lord.

(3) God’s Throne

Grace finally consists of living in the Kingdom of God. It comes down to living according to the patterns of Christ’s life, from communion with Him. The Gospel focuses on the net that is lowered and brought back up with increased weight. This is the symbol of the Kingdom of God, since around the net everything else plays out: the toil of an entire night of fishing by experts, the instrument named by the Word of God for ‘right use,’ the new challenge when grace strikes the fishermen with much catch, the place Peter walks away from while going to the Lord, the center of the other disciples labor from the boat, the work of Peter when sent back by the Lord to drag the net ashore. (Notice that Peter now has the strength to pull the net alone by the power of God). Finally, the supplement to the breakfast meal comes from the same net. The net represents Christ and is Church in whom we find grace and sustenance.

In the Kingdom of God, we are many and diverse, but it is the Lord who calls each one by name and makes us precious in his sight. Christ is the net in which we cannot be torn apart and away from God and others. In the Church that is his body, we enjoy the same security and communion with one another under the guidance of Christ’s instituted leadership through Peter and his successors. In truth it is around Jesus, recognized symbolically (not yet as in the ‘face to face’ of heaven) that we have our communion in the body and the blood of the Lord, his risen life of love and peace.

Conclusion: Let us pray therefore for the grace honoring the Lord by our songs, words and actions, as do the angels in heaven. Since God honors our labor by his presence among us, let us discharge our small and big responsibilities with joy and diligence, with risen minds and hearts in Christ.

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[1] The work of God among people is also alive here in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) where I share in the lives of the people of Christ, Risen and giving grace and peace to his hard-working disciples.

Holy Thursday C

(April 1, 2010, St. John the Baptist – El Cerrito)

While God stands by me, I will rise to the occasion by accepting his friendship on his term, just like Peter.

Scriptures: Ex 12: 1 -8, 11 -14; Ps 116; 1 Cor 11: 23 – 26; Jn 13: 1 -15

Theme: Ritual enacts life and turns us back to ordinary life.[1]

Introduction: Every year we celebrate Holy Thursday. The liturgy is one the permanent rituals of the Church, just as the celebration of the Jewish Passover was a permanent ritual for the people under Moses’ guidance. One of the most important components of this ritual of Holy Thursday is the Mandatum or the Washing of the feet in obedience to the command of the Lord that we should do likewise. This act is also the story of the gospel. I propose therefore to reflect upon the meaning of sacred ritual. It may be good to start with our own experiences of hospitality. How do we honor our guests when we throw a party and invite people dear to us? What is the one thing that cannot miss in a festive celebration in our home? Why is it so?

(1) Why we do rituals

Rituals constitute a living memory. They are an enactment and celebration of significant events in our lives or in the lives of those who passed on life to us: our ancestors, grandparents, parents. Rituals help us to remember and never to forget what matters in our lives. They also help us to experience again and again the realities that we remember. Memory is a life-giving power in that sense. Rituals also tend to produce some effects of what we re-enact. In the Scriptures of this day, we see these three understandings of “ritual” at play: remembrance, life-giving, effective actualization of what it recalls.

The Israelites are instructed to ritualize their freedom from the Egyptian slavery before heading out towards the Jordan. They are instructed to institute this event as a permanent ritual, for every year. Chronologically, they are about to depart for the great desert adventure under Moses and his God. It is a celebration in hope. This hope has already met its fulfillment at the reception of the Word of the Lord, commanding to do it. The institution of this ritual allows its remembrance forever and states its importance. It also offers the possibility to re-live the experience of God’s rescuing help in the present time. How is this happening? Current situations are never identical with the historical oppression of Israel by Pharaoh in Egypt. In the gospel indeed, Jesus speaks of another necessary condition to have fellowship with him, and affirms that he is giving his disciples an example to follow after him.  Jesus is also doing this timely act just a few hours before his passing through death to his Father in heaven: it is another celebration in hope. What are the disciples to remember: (1) Love consists of extending hospitality to fellow believers, and we need to remember that; (2) by doing what the Lord had done, we experience the power of his own hospitable love for all of us; (3) we are empowered to live this way in the ordinary, the non-ritual parts of our lives. All the elements of rituals are taken from the ordinary actions of life and all of ritual actions lead back to the ordinary living of honest people. Meal is the one context today (one of the most ordinary actions in all earthy lives); but the sharing with others is what we want to make amicable and not hostile or conflictually competitive. By washing other’s feet we are inviting them to this holy meal in which we all find salvation. It is an entire part of the gathering liturgy of the holy people calling each other to worship (“Come and Go with me to my Father’s house!”). Salvation is to Jesus communion with him in his Kingdom, built by his Father. The importance of a given ritual lies therefore in the way in which we find salvation, however partially we grasp the meaning of ‘salvation’ for us. How do I feel about the nice (or shy) feeling of having my feet washed? How does that feeling mediate ‘salvation’ to me? How do I live from these revealing experiences of being washed and of washing?

(2) How we live our lives

Many among us enjoy being welcomed home when they return from work or journey by a kiss and a warm feeling from spouse, children, friends, or even pets. Even pets have ‘rituals’ of welcoming their master/friend home, in ‘instinctive remembrance’ of the good relationship experienced before the departure that preceded the return. This is a living reality in the present. It is an empowerment to achieve the friendship in successive acts. Many however have various understandings of living from rituals. Some emphasize singularly on the past that rituals represent. Rituals are primarily memorial celebrations of significant past events. If we dwell mostly on this aspect, we may lose the meaning of what we celebrate, except our honoring of the fourth commandment that consists of respecting our parents. If they did it this way, we also do likewise. The danger here is pure symbolism and no living experience of our own.

Some put the stress on the future. As we saw in the Passover and the Last Supper events, we celebrate in hope. Rituals therefore make present our dreams and our goals in life. We have series of these secular rituals in ordinary life: before music concerts, before sports’ games, before important moments like performing surgery etc, to compare with religious sacred rituals. We foresee what we aim at and we ritualize it. The danger here is excessive preoccupation with our concerns and needs to achieve, to win victories as purposes on their own. But the strength here is this trust in the future, the trust in God’s guiding the course of history while we freely do as best we can what we see and accept as our own responsibility given by God.

Some would rather practice rituals just in the moment and see it as their life. ‘We’ve just have received Baptism, therefore we are ‘saved’’. The power of this view is to allow a live experience of the actions performed, the personal understanding and appropriation of their benefits in the moments of enactment. An example of this would likewise be for one to feel “reconciled” because he or she’ s just gotten back  from Confession, or “united” to God because he or she’s just had Eucharistic Communion. We may not see the other sections of our daily lives around other people, particularly those closest to us who are also the living body of Christ, the challenges of Christ, calling us to reconcile and live in dynamic peace.

The First Reading gives us two rituals that symbolize the ordinary lives of the people involved in them: (1) the ritual of the Passover lamb that was the symbol for the life of herders, and the (2) ritual of unleavened bread that celebrates the farming. The two rituals celebrate the goodness of God to his people in the present time, in faithfulness to the past promises and in anticipation of the fulfillment to come after these days of preliminary intensive experience of God’s presence, defeating the suffering of captivity. The Egyptian captivity tended to relegate those competences of shepherding and digging earth behind the slavish constructions of monuments for the captors. The rituals meant for the people, lives dedicated to the freedom from Pharaoh’s dominion and for faithfulness to the God who saves, first in the desert and then in the land (I could translate this pair as good and bad times, anywhere). Finding strength from remembered past or envisioned future is a daily action for most of us when in doubt. In this, we apply (in a sense) ritual to reality. It is always about two: (1) the present moment of our needs and awareness, and (2) the power we draw from our relations to past or future or other people and realities mediating God.[2] In the Gospel, Jesus the true Master is hospitable to his disciples and by this he empowers them for the action of doing likewise. Is it doing the ritual likewise or is it living as the Master lived? It is always both. It is about the pair of freedom from bad and for good, just like other pairs of the dialectic of Holy Thursday. The message of the Lord today is therefore, “Live as I live in the world!” And our lives are patterned according to the Eucharist.

(3) The Eucharist as ‘ritual’ of life

The first part and first point of the Eucharist is God’s people gathered together. See around you and notice the numbers and diversities. What makes us one if not the Lord? In this first part is the liturgy of the Word. If we counted the people involved in all three or four readings today, they also represent a variety of places, times and cultures that we are interacting with: from Moses to Paul and our community here gathered. What is common to all of these if not the Lord? The second part of the Eucharistic ritual is made of several sections including the invocation of the Lord to make our gifts acceptable to Him that is ‘holy’. We recall the events that saved us from the sin of hatred and division among other sins. We receive the body and blood of the Lord as our way of saying “Yes Lord, wash my feet!” A positive response to the hospitality of Christ is a healing from the sin of hatred and division (made possible by easy angers and blind indignations without any recourse to the Lord of suffering, death and resurrection, who alone can judge with justice and help us to do our part rightly) of the social body of Christ, the people intimate with us, those most difficult to forgive and to love, for they hold a great power to betray. Jesus cannot miss making us aware of the needs of his people around us when we come to the Eucharistic table. He invites us to live this healing from hatred and division daily and ordinarily as he rejoices in coming into our ‘home’ through our reception of his body and blood. This healing is not simply ‘therapeutic’ in our simple self-interest. It is a power to be hospitable to others, to never be ashamed of serving, since we can enjoy being served. Our task consists of just saying “Yes” to the Lord who can confront our “Egyptian gods” with his power of true love and self-sacrifice.

Conclusion: As we come to have our feet washed, let us be aware of two realities: (1) the Lord inviting us into his friendship. That is the purpose to which Peter submits with excessive zeal. This is the purpose of our doing it. (2) Our own feelings of this experience: some of the disciples in the gospel are silently sad; Peter first rejects the servanthood of the Lord, before enthusiasm for its benefits. Let us be aware of any sense of sadness or separation from the Lord or any acute sense of our unfaithfulness to his love; and step up in hope. The vision of the Lord Jesus is that we need a welcoming host and a model to follow. If he sees our lives that way, who am I to reject his invitation? I will step up and say, “Yes Lord, please wash my feet, though I may feel unworthy of your love!” What we see in the washing of feet is what we are called to practice on others, just like Peter who is called to dispense the hospitable forgiveness of the Lord to both Jews and gentiles through Baptism and the Eucharist, the two major rituals and Sacraments of the Church for our salvation in Christ.

Let us pray that we may become what we celebrate: one body in Christ and happy members that invite each other to the feast of God’s self-giving love in Christ.

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[1] The Eucharist as a Sacrament is not another among rituals, for it has its own purpose in itself that is Communion with God the overall meaning of Salvation, though it is anticipation here on Earth of the fullness that comes when all is recapitulated in Christ and when ‘we see God face to face’.

[2] The Scriptures present to us several pairs: (1) Lamb-bread, (2) Highest God-Egyptian gods, (3) doorpost-doorpost, 4() Master-disciple, (5) eating-acting, (6) Hospitality-Acceptance, (7) Institution-faithfulness… (8) Lord-servant.

Holy Innocents

(December 28, 2009)

“If we say, ‘We are without sin,’ we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us”

Scriptures: 1Jn 1: 5 – 2: 2; Ps 124; Mt 2: 13 -18

How do I react to gift in another person, in other people? “Of what use is it to have eyes if the heart is blind?”

There is a point of “communion” between us and God, between us and other people. For John it is the light. The first truth this light of God reveals is that we are sinners in need of God’s help. Relating to God means seeing more and more clearly what we need to work on with God’s grace to strengthen our identification with his Son like these innocent children. The psalm affirms the certainty of this rescue by our God who keeps sending his light to guide our steps into the way of peace.

The gospel presents a contrasting picture. Herod has “communion” with Christ in kingship, but he cannot stand it. Why? Partly because he cannot bring himself to see his limitations as ruler; he cannot handle his need of ‘external help’. If there should be any ‘real messiahs’ they should come from the house of Herod – he thinks. That is his darkness and blindness made explicit by the fact that the scriptures in which he and his sages believed indicate clearly such prophecies from the living God. Herod is portrayed as the perfect example of one in whom the truth does not dwell at all. Before I read for you my understanding of God is calling you to do with somebody else’s giftedness through a story, I need to say that Jesus is the main character for us to consider. The coming of Christ on earth, as the fathers have taught us sends to heaven those on earth who are his own: Stephen the first martyr on the 26^th, John the apostle and evangelist on the 27^th, the holy innocents today. Men, women and children of all walks of life are called to be close friends of Christ in different ways. They all said “Yes” with various degrees of awareness and levels of consent. We are therefore in good company with them in our own struggles to say, “Yes Lord, I will follow you wherever you lead me!”

Here is the story of how to receive the blessings given by God to other people, with the spirit of John the Baptist and the spirit of Christ Jesus: a spirit of thankfulness for having others as spouse, siblings, friends, colleagues…etc. Our innocent comes from knowing God’s greatness, even through others.

A story, originally from  Anthony de Mello, S.J.

A holy man dedicated to prayer and contemplation in a secluded place receives an unexpected visitor: the abbot of a well-known monastery.

“What is it you seek?” asked the holy man.

The abbot recounted a tale of woe. At one time, his monastery had been famous throughout the western world. Its cells were filled with young aspirants and its church resounded to the chant of its monks. But hard times had come on the monastery. People no longer flocked there to nourish their spirits, the stream of young aspirants had dried up, the church was silent. There was only a handful of monks left and these went about their duties with heavy hearts.

Now this is what the abbot wanted help in discernment about: “Is it because of some sin of ours that the monastery has been reduced to this state?”

“Yes,” said the holy man, “a sin of ignorance.”

“And what sin might that be?”

“One of your number is the Messiah in disguise and you are ignorant of this.” Having said that the holy man closed his eyes and returned to his contemplation of God.

Throughout the arduous journey back to his monastery the abbot’s heart beat fast at the thought that the Messiah –the Messiah himself—had returned to earth and was right there in the monastery. How was it he had failed to recognize him? And who could it be? Brother Cook? Brother Sacristan? Brother Treasurer? Brother Prior? No, not he; he had too many defects, alas. But then, the holy man said he was in disguise. Could those defects be one of his disguises? Come to think of it, everyone in the monastery had defects. And one of them had to be the Messiah!

Back in the monastery he assembled the monks and told them what he had discovered. They looked at one another in disbelief. The Messiah? Here? Incredible! But he was supposed to be here in disguise. So, maybe. What if it were so-and-so? Or the other one over there? Or. . .

One thing was certain. If the Messiah was there in disguise, it was not likely that they would recognize him. So they took to treating everyone with respect and consideration. “You never know,” they said to themselves when they dealt with one another, “maybe this is the one.”

The result of this was that the atmosphere in the monastery became vibrant with joy. Soon dozens of aspirants were seeking admission to the Order—and once again the church echoed with the holy and joyful chant of monks who were aglow with the spirit of love.

As we receive strength from the Eucharist, let us ask God for the grace of constant discerning of our pathway in friendship with his incarnate son: good community life for these monks, good family life for most of us, and our various involvements for the well-being of the larger world.

Holy Family of Jesus Mary and Joseph

(December 27, 2009)

“Whoever obeys his father brings comfort to his mother”

Scriptures: Sirach 3: 2 – 6, 12 – 14; Ps 84; Col. 3: 12 – 21; Lk 2: 41 – 52

Theme: The very ‘natural’ revelation of God’s love in the family if of Christ.

Introduction: Today we hear Jesus speak for the first time in his own voice, in his own words. Jesus is slowly coming of age and developing some convictions. It is true that the age of 12 was the entering of a young man into adulthood as regards the Jewish Torah in which he would be schooled for basic living knowledge or greater mastery of God’s will in order to teach others. Jesus is God’s Son; he does not obey all natural and customary laws as the gospels try to teach us, yet he appears to be like all boys of his age. Mary and Joseph, who, like us focus on Jesus, are parents like all parents, giving the best they have and know to their child, with great love on their part. Like all parents, they cannot comprehend all the desires and inner world of their child. The call is therefore to do our best and give from our heart. God will take care of all the rest. That trust in God’s fulfilling his own law in the heart of a child is also part of being a parent as Scripture teaches us today.

(1) A Normal Family

The Holy Family is foremost a very normal family. They live by the Jewish piety of going every year to the Passover celebration in Jerusalem. We all know that the Passover is the symbolic beginning of the Jewish faith in God’s love and commitment to his people. The going out of their homes and villages to the temple added a surplus of sensitivity to the desert journey for those who came from a distance, like Mary and Joseph coming from Nazareth in the North. The prayers, rituals and gift offerings in the temple are part of the formation of a community dedicated to God. The family is the basic unit of this community of God-lovers. Like our own context shows, Mary and Joseph were kind of geographical ‘inter-racial’ couple, yet both related to David’s house, hence from the same tribe, that is God’s choice.

This normal family obeys the customs of women walking together and men walking together. One day-journey of re-uniting led Joseph and Mary to realize that their child did not associate with either group. He prefers the temple atmosphere and the total dedication to studying and expanding the Torah-Law in Jerusalem. Again, this child is beyond gender-divides. He is God’s child, the savior of all humanity on this textual bridge announcing his public ministry. This family is on its Exodus of love of God. We remember all the troubles in Mary’s life since the coming of the angel Gabriel. We remember the troubles of Joseph who had to grapple with these unpleasant events around his sweetheart’s life. Now we see them anguished by the Way of their Son. They are out seeking the constitution of a new large family of God from the natural feelings for family life: missing each other, communicating thoughts and feelings, sharing everything. In this natural environment any child learns from parents; he or she obeys them. Scripture teaches that this obedience does not take away in any sense the freedom and authentic God-given personality of the child. True education belongs to parents who are called to pass on the values they judge most authentic, the values of love, and the values of mutual concerns.

The book of Sirach and the Colossian epistle confirm this by encouraging family members to honor each other. Children in particular are encouraged to revere their parents who stand as God’s representatives. A sinless family in this light is a family where mutual respect is the rule of love. In other words, there is no way of loving and serving God (except for unusual/exceptional graces of conversion through healing), unless we experience good/just family life. Many adults cannot value paternal imagery because they have not touched the kindness of a human father. Likewise, it is hard to value motherhood if you have never perceived the anguished heart of a tender mother who cares about what happens to you. Paul likewise says to the Colossians, that family relations are better when ruled by forgiveness, the “bond of perfection”. Holiness in a family consists simply in being thankful for one another and swift to forgive one another. Then he gives the three-part guideline for action towards each other: subordination, love and compassionate care. When husband and wife have the peace of Christ in their hearts these attitudes are its fruit. Wild human nature cannot teach subordination without inviting for sinful domination and oppression. But love wishes to submit to every wish of the beloved. This wisdom is difficult to explain or teach.  In following the order current society gives, the joy of being married will come from the enjoyment of loving the other person for who he or she is and for whom he or she is not yet as far as my knowledge goes. I do not know of anyone who has figured out what the order of society and family is in our days as regards this teaching from the world of Pauline spirituality. Is there a need of subordination and of love the way Paul understands them, or do we just live by contract of self-interests colored by the interests of the other just as one condition to fulfill our own dreams and pursuits of happiness?

Jesus, Mary and Joseph are seen as ‘forgiving’ each other and living according to the family code of their nation and religion. Jesus naturally obeys his parents and they watch over his natural and grace-filled growth. Yet God is the Father and Lord of all, singularly present in Jesus.

(2) The Unique personality of Jesus the normal man

Following the Exodus motive, Jesus goes to Jerusalem accompanying his parents for the first time. But for the last time, he will be accompanied by his disciples. His Father’s House, his heavenly family is a ‘city of peace’ not built by human hands but by the word of God. In the exact same way as he stays in Jerusalem for the first time, he will stay there for the last time, giving appointment to his disciples in the ‘Galilee of the dispersion’ for their restoration as a new people of God. In that sense, Jesus is presenting himself as a unique human character radically marked by God’s grace. He is God’s own Son. Seeing how these saintly people of his human family struggle to gradually understand who he was, we know that any true association with Jesus will lead us to experiences that we could not dream about on our own.

This unique character of Jesus responds to the call of the wisdom of Sirach, “My son, take care of your father when he is old,” by the place Mary and Joseph occupy in the Church’s piety, that is the earthly special home of Jesus to which Mary and Joseph eminently belong. We honor them as he honors them in heaven. If we keep doing so, the three of them will indeed teach us what Paul calls “heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” Jesus reveals his divinity to those who have a heart capable of love; that means all humanity. However, he wants to honor the Exodus tradition by encountering us on our way of searching for the truth. This truth today is, “Where is Jesus our Son?” Am I personally interested in knowing more about Jesus, in wanting him close to me? Do I feel when he seems distant from me? Do I take action to close the gap to the best of my ability? For us sinners, Mary and Joseph express the act of repentance, of return to Jesus when we lose sight of him due to our sin. We cannot go our own way without his unique character on us. Although we are adults and doing the works of charity, we constantly need the instructions and presence of the Lord in all that we do. There is no ‘absolute point’ coming of age in the kingdom of God except growing in love, and growing in love increases the desire to be with the beloved. In being close to the beloved, we learn that we can never know him or her or them completely. Every day is a new day with them. More so is it with Jesus our Lord. He instructs us by reminding us that he is the “Son of God,” or by showing us a particular instance of what it means to be God’s Son. We are filled with gratitude by belonging to the family of Jesus Christ in the Church, and we sing to God “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” of praise for knowing about these things.

(3) The extended Family of Jesus

Finding Jesus in what matters to Him is becoming a member of his family. Does he not say, “the one who listens to my words and puts them in practice is father/mother/brother/sister to me”? Mary and Joseph, the family of Jesus according to the flesh did also the work of faith in Christ the Lord by seeking his heart, and by giving him to his broader mission. As we see in today’s gospel, their hearts were filled with anxiety (as normal parents experience it), about him. They put their trust in God whose kingdom is the sole comfort of the mother in the case of a son like Jesus. By doing the natural things parents do, they grew into the spiritual family of their Son who is also their Lord and God. What do we learn from their example? Do what is our immediate duty and responsibility to the things of our current life. We value order in society and relationships on various levels. We care about our natural family, we live by the common piety of the Church, particularly the Eucharist. And we let our hearts question what we do by increasing attention to what the Lord is saying, and the ever new ways in which he is communicating his divinity to us. These ways of the Lord are often too ‘natural’ for unprepared hearts to perceive as divine. In that sense Mary and Joseph who experience the coming of the Lord into the flesh were not better prepared than we who believe today. They had the love needed to accept to be transformed by the mystery of God come close. As family of God, the Church presents to us the mystery of God’s incarnation in ways that sound sometimes incredibly simplistic to sophisticated minds, or too unlikely for the skeptical. But for the one who has faith (neither stupidity nor scientism), “nothing will be impossible to God,” and this is not mindless credulity as we can see in Mary who keeps searching for the deeper meaning of the words of the angel when her son grows up. We grow up with the evolutions of our world in science, technology and various awareness-levels of our common heritage. This evolution makes our faith even more viable, for it is simply the beauty of love made real in concrete relations of respect to the knowledge of others and respect to the mystery of others, made in God’s image, after the Only Son.

Conclusion: Let us pray brothers and sisters that our hearts remain open to the refreshing newness of God’s revelation of his presence to us through the various means and instances of our journeys of faith, and our natural journeys of life. All is from God who has united us to Christ, to form a family of God-lovers and lovers of his Peace. The introductory terms of ‘natural’ and revelation come together for one who loves truly, for that person will see what ‘natural’ eyes cannot perceived; This is so because love reveals the orderly nature of God who is Love.

Christmas 2009

Scripture: Is. 9: 1 – 6; Titus 2: 11 -14; Lk 2: 1 -14

“The whole world should be enrolled,” “for the grace of God has appeared, saving all.”

Theme: The world is a creation of God. In it, all peace-lovers enjoy God’s “dominion” and call Him “Father-Forever.”

Introduction: The birth of a child was culturally more important in the Palestine of Jesus days than ours in which voices even cry for prevention of such great events. The meaning of Christmas as  the simple joy of humanity rejoicing in a family event is tainted by the understanding of what a blessing a child could be to parents today. We have many other events that we celebrate but this is God’s way of relating to us: becoming one of us in this particular child, Jesus. Our short reflection may just consist of listing some of things we readily notice as gift and blessings and other realities we need more focus to see, and then the things that only God shows us as sure signs of his love. One guiding question might be who counts as belonging to our Church family of St John the Baptist in El-Cerrito? What place do we have for those we do not yet know? How are we intentionally mindful of “hidden presences?”

(1) Elements of the world readily known and counted

Some people are counted, well respected: Augustus Caesar, Quirinus and other rulers. Joseph and Mary and other citizens. Human passions are recognized. Through passions, many good things have been achieved in our world. Justice and temperance are virtues that we can name. Our own town and cultures count. Our own history counts, the rich count, the priests and leaders of the people count. Those who have given us something or given us love count. Gratitude is important, and knowledge of facts is important. But, are we open to growth?

(2) Elements accepted with due effort

Some groups are barely visible: Shepherds, unborn children, the  poor. The invisible people of prophet Isaiah are now in the light. The “lifting of pressure from those oppressed” by various ills takes the effort of one who cares to remove the obstacles others neglect. Indeed, they will all hang on the shoulder of a little child in the future, whose personality is difficult to perceive now. Some of the obstacles, some of our enemies, we can overcome with great, consistent and sustained effort. However, there are battles and wars that we cannot win without ‘external ‘aid’. We may, with some training and discipline attain a certain level of devout life: willing what God wills for us. The effort can be summarized in the overcoming of fear: fear of the new, fear of opinion, fear of suffering, fear of loneliness. Work at progress is important. But are we open to grateful reception of surprises (beyond what we make)?

(3) God’s consecration of elements beyond our grasp

Things that only God reveals: The angels, the divinity of this particular child, “Christ and Lord” are pure gifts from God to our knowing ability. The unexpected victories in life and miracles come from God. Our “cleansing from lawlessness by our great God and savior Jesus Christ” is beyond the Law that is the highest authority over every citizen. Who among us is totally shaped into pure willingness to do the good? Jesus’ own eagerness to do just what is good by not even having the inclination to do wrong is divine, God’s favor to humanity by coming in the flesh. Let us relish our humanity with the birth of Christ today.

Conclusion: The enrollment of the whole world means ability to count all those parts that are not yet on the common list. We are called to remain open in our hearts to encounter God in ways not yet revealed. Christmas is about pointers of love around us. Some of them we can see, some take some searching and others come from the light of pure grace. Let our hearts and mind shower peace upon the entire world: on those who share our faith and those who do not, those we love and those we love less. Let us ask God to make the universe his home and give us His peace.

First Sunday of Advent C

(November 29, 2009)

“It is our business to see that we do right; God will see that we come out right.”

Scripture: Jer. 33: 14 – 16; Ps 25: 4-5, 8-10, 14; 1 Thes. 3: 12 – 4: 2; Lk 21: 25 – 28, 34 – 36.

Homily

Advent is a time of expectation and hope.[1] Officially, we all expect the coming into the flesh of God’s Son, the birth of Jesus at Christmas. What do we want to ask of him? What do we want to offer him?[2] This is a season for making our every desire known to God and to ourselves for a deeper appropriation and perhaps for a better perspective.

The Scriptures of this day present to us a horizon in the future where God’s power will be felt and known. In the light of this coming event, the same scriptures teach us a way to wait for the realization of the promise. Jesus indeed teaches us how to live today in holy expectation.

Our reflection bears on the healthy vision of the wonderland of promise in touch with the here-and-now of joyful but constant labor.[3] In other words, while our attention is on the Lord who is coming, our awareness watches over every step of the journey, in the Spirit of God.

1) God is coming

In the first reading prophet-Jeremiah announces the coming of the Lord in fulfillment of a promise made to David that his kingdom will not know destruction.[4] The God who comes is a God of peace and tranquility. His justice consists of restoring security to Jerusalem, and his agent is a “just shoot” from David. The coming of God through this “just shoot” does not seem to involve military power or anything else but doing “what is right and just.” Safety comes from righteousness of individuals and justice in social institutions could we push the argument to match our contemporary language, and it is a never-ending process, always forward into the future.

In the letter to the Thessalonians, our second reading, the coming of the Lord is the second coming of Jesus Christ “with all his holy ones.” [If this clause helps your understanding of the communion of the saints in the life of the Church, you may take good notice]. When Christ comes, we stand before God the Father. The future in this context is a time of revelation of holiness. Our own degree of holiness will appear in full light. It is a time when embarrassment can be huge if one is not careful now, and greatness unambiguous, if we obey now.

Finally, the Gospel talks of the shaking of heavenly powers and the roaring of earthly powers. Nevertheless, the coming of God is visible in the coming of the “Son of Man in a cloud with power and great glory.” This coming of God is now a day of “standing erect” and of “raising heads.” This coming is simply an invitation to stand before the Son of Man. Two great dangers threaten people ahead of that day: deadly fright, and tribulations or suffering. However, the Lord is clear that these tremendous signs including people’s dismay and death only announce our “redemption at hand.” Shall we then understand that every assault on our relationship with God is a sign of some form of imminent liberation coming our way? Can we then see in temptations (always imminent) the closeness of the Lord and remain firm in his word of promise?[5]

For us today, we are looking forward to the coming of the Son of Man at Christmas when we can stand before the crib to greet the baby and his parents. Again, how much can we put aside to buy him gifts? What shall we do to prepare for this day of power and glory, clouded by the humility of Jesus?

2) We live for God today

“Be vigilant and pray,” says the Lord Jesus for the strength to escape tribulations and to “stand before the Son of Man.” These two are the commandments we receive from him who has the words of eternal life, the one in whom the Father is well pleased, the one Moses announced and commended to the people.[6]

Saint Paul, on his part, exhorts the church in Thessalonica to follow the sure instructions received from him. The teaching that Paul himself had received from the first witnesses will bring forth right conduct pleasing to God.[7] Before he gives his exhortation, Paul first prays for the community, “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love…” The strength of heart he invokes for them comes from the life of charity for each other, according to the doctrine and example of the apostle himself. But it is all about the Lord Jesus. The doctrine of Jesus is about a human heart fully alive to God today – every day. The only risk Jesus lists for us is “drowsy heart.” The habits leading to that kind of death are carousing, drunkenness and anxieties of daily life.[8] The various ways of preparing ourselves to receive the Eucharist are parts of this willingness of ours to stay awake. Above all, the Sacrament of reconciliation is a great help to keep constantly alert and stand prepared. I will suggest some practical ways, in case they help anyone.

Application: Before Christmas, take the time to read the instructions of Luke the evangelist in the Gospel of Luke, with this simple question in mind: Lord how do you want me to be blameless before you? Through the teaching of Luke, we may know our daily traps and the safety escapes that consist of gazing at the Lord in his life and ministry and learning from him. The Eucharistic presence summarizes it all and gives us the power to do it. The Lord is the one whom we want to know more and to love more.[9]

After Easter (supposing that your first day of the year is a foundation that you can remember), take the time to read the Acts of the Apostles from the same evangelist, with another simple question at heart: Lord, how do you want me to serve you?

The whole year, take the time to do something gratuitous every day. Something with “no strings attached” to it. This good action could minimally be an attentive and insistent prayer for someone who does not suspect that you are offering him or her such a marvelous gift; therefore he/she will not return it directly to you.

Conclusion: By doing these or any good old habits or new resolutions for this new liturgical or church year, we will be responding to the two commands of our Lord. “Be vigilant” to see that there is always a door open for us to practice charity in little or big ways, and “pray” to know that it is God who saves us from this “fright” and the risks of despair in suffering. Our Advent and Year C efforts may consist of faithfully asking every morning, “How do I wish to stand before the Lord today?” And before retiring at night, “If I stood before you today Lord, what have you noticed about me?” This deep communion with the Lord in desire, practice and dialogical evaluation will keep us indeed alert, vigilant and prayerfully loving.

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[1] There is a stressful kind of expectation in the story of Verna who “was wearing a T-shirt with the words: Be Nice to Me. I Had a Hard Day. Little Eric looked at the words and said, “How can you tell this early in the morning?” Our expectation is a living hope to see with our eyes God’s righteousness at home with us. We start on a journey full of promises and surprises. As some say, “There is no way one can take an unborn child to the hairdressers;” yet we do get, (without boredom), many things ready before its birth.

[2] I may want to ask the Lord for peace on earth, harmony in my family. I may think of asking him to live in his simplicity of heart, or his courage to draw closer to someone I really wish to help, with true generosity. I may want to offer Jesus the one thing I do well in this life, in gratitude. I may want to offer him the shortcoming I have failed to overcome, in humility and trust, or my neediness. I may consider offering some social progress I feel good about, or simply my perceived decline, in truth. I will then take this Advent season to meditate (as if buying and wrapping my gift), on my intended-offer to the Lord.

[3] In his second Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi, Saved in Hope, of November 30, 2007, par. 2, Pope Benedict XVI comments on this letter to the Thessalonians. He says, “Here too we see as a distinguishing mark of Christians the fact that they have a future: it is not that they know the details of what awaits them, but they know in general terms that their life will not end in emptiness.”

[4] See 2 Sam 7: 12, “And when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm.” And 2 Sam 7: 16, “Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.”

[5] A wisdom saying declares, “An untempted minister will never do us any good, and an untried man will talk over our heads.”

[6] See Deut. 18: 15, “A prophet like me will the LORD, your God, raise up for you from among your own kinsmen; to him you shall listen.”

[7] 1 Cor. 15: 1 & 3.

[8] Mk 13: 37 is strongly explicit about this command, “What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’” Mt 26: 41 or Mk 14: 34 goes further, “Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” You may also see how Moses prepares to receive the Law for the people in Deut. 9: 9 – 10, and how Jesus prepares for his ministry in Mt 4: 2 & 10. The acquisition of any good passes through some form of hardship/work. So is it with the true joy of Christmas, and with daily communion with the Lord.

[9] Saint Augustine, in his Sermons, 256, (see second reading in the Liturgy of the Hours, week 34), says, “You have entered upon a time of trial but you will come to no harm – God’s help will bring you through it safely. You are like a piece of pottery, shaped by instruction, fired by tribulation. When you are put into the oven therefore, keep your thoughts on the time when you will be taken out again; for God is faithful, and he will guard both your going in and your coming out.”

Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome

(Nov. 9, 2009

Extract from the hymn to matter of P. Teilhard de Chardin, S.J

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‘Blessed be you, perilous matter, irresistible march of evolution, reality ever new-born; you who, by constantly shattering our mental categories, force us to go ever further and further in our pursuit of the truth.

‘Blessed be you, universal matter, immeasurable time, boundless ether, triple abyss of stars and atoms and generations: you who by overflowing and dissolving our narrow standards or measurement reveal to us the dimensions of God.

‘Blessed be you, impenetrable matter: you who, interposed between our minds and the world of essences, cause us to languish with the desire to pierce through the seamless veil of phenomena.

‘Blessed be you, mortal matter: you who one day will undergo the process of dissolution within us and will thereby take us forcibly into the very heart of that which exists.

‘Without you, without your onslaughts, without your uprooting of us, we should remain all our lives inert, stagnant, puerile, ignorant both of ourselves and of God. You who batter us and then dress our wounds, you who resist us and yield to us, you who wreck and build, you who shackle and liberate, the sap of our souls, the hand of God, the flesh of Christ: it is you, matter that I bless.

‘I bless you, matter, and you I acclaim: not as the pontiffs of science or the moralizing preachers depict, debased, disfigured – a mass of brute forces and base appetites – but as you reveal yourself to me today, in your totality and your true nature.

‘You I acclaim as the inexhaustible potentiality for existence and transformation wherein the predestined substance germinates and grows.

‘I acclaim you as the universal power which brings together and unites, through which the multitudinous monads are bound together and in which they converge on the way of the Spirit.

‘I acclaim you as the melodious fountain of water whence spring the souls of men and as the limpid crystal whereof is fashioned the new Jerusalem.

‘I acclaim you as the divine milieu, charged with creative power, as the ocean stirred by the Spirit, as the clay molded and infused with life by the incarnate Word.

‘Sometimes, thinking they are responding to your irresistible appeal, men will hurl themselves for love of you into exterior abyss of selfish pleasure-seeking: they are deceived by a reflection or by an echo.

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All Saints (November 1, 2009)

“We praise you God in the company of your saints!”

Scriptures: Rev. 7: 2 – 4, 9 – 14; Ps 24; 1Jn 3: 1 – 3; Mt 5: 1 – 12a

Homily

Introduction

God’s congratulations go forth to: 1) The poor in spirit, 2) They who mourn, 3) The meek, 4) They who hunger and thirst for righteousness, 5) The merciful, the clean of heart, 6) The peacemakers, 7) They who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, You when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you -falsely- because of [Jesus].

God recognizes/knows such people as his own, less for the external signs as for the disposition and spirit that consistently animates the living person. For the Lord Jesus, the sign contains in seed the certainty of the anticipated glory. This is an incredible blessing and amazing word of promise.

Question: What signs allow you to say that you truly know another person? And, what have you ever passionately or strongly noticed that needed attention/change in your area, church, society?

Blessed are you for noticing what you have seen. May God support and fulfill your longing for change, as Jesus promises today!

From the few selected holy ones (144 thousand), to an uncountable number of elect, we see the increasing of inclusion in the book of Revelation, our first Reading. Ps 24 sings the praises of the Mighty God who organizes life in its various dimensions. The first letter of John defines holiness as being “children of God,” and “incapable of sinning.” This idea of incapacity to sin tormented our fathers in the faith in the first centuries of Christianity. Today, we have the Sacrament of Reconciliation to bring us back when we sin after baptism. Jesus lists for us eight signs of “holiness,” to say, everything you truly notice may lead you to God who is thus paving your way into his Kingdom. We shall break the word in two steps of meditation: 1) some signs from our predecessors in the faith; 2) the indications that they were from God.

1. Some signs of holiness in history

Congratulations to, happy, blessed are those who “won victory through their perseverance” against poverty, grief, violence, iniquity, hatred and harm, temptations of idolatry, brokenness, persecutions for doing what is right, and rejection!

[Dr Martin Luther King was a Baptist minister who is however close to many among us, as a model of courageous truthful and authentically inclusive living in the twentieth century United States. He has peace-making brothers and sisters, and even mentors who, all, persevered against violence and rejection, in the name of the common love that comes from God the Creator, who is ultimately the One we reject when we groundlessly exclude others. King thirsted for justice, and thus preached the gospel from the down side of social reality. The blood and moral martyrs of faith likewise, live as signs and call to go higher towards God. They come from all continents and from all ages of history. We know just a few.]

St. Juan Diego of Mexico (1474 – 1548, canonized in 2002) and St Rose of Lima/Peru, Patroness of the Americas (1586 – 1617; canonized in 1671), persevered against misunderstandings and rejections, showing an example of humility devotion and love. The Ugandan martyrs of Africa (1885 -86) persevered against idolatry immorality and persecutions. They are 22 Catholic young men who are pure of heart by relying on God in time of need. Some Anglican converts also shared their fate in Christ. Charles Lwanga is the name of the head-person among the Catholic new converts. Pope Paul VI canonized them in 1964 and we celebrate their feast on June 3, every year.

1. The indications that these blessed people were of God

a) The one thing no one can take away from them

The “dream,” the light of God and the courage of faith are their strength. St Rose of Lima was very beautiful in soul and body and very devout. St Ignatius Loyola (1491 -1556) held creation by God in ways that no advanced theologian or antagonistic authority could take away from him from a vision he received at the Cardoner River in Manresa. Littleness cannot be taken away from St. Juan Diego: “I am a nobody,” says Juanito. The Ugandan martyrs had joy and serenity. One of them named Joseph had his father among the executioners, and he chose Christ over against the local king and that biological father. From St Joseph, you could not take away the habit of acting with justice and love. And, from the Mother of Jesus and our Mother, you could not take away the Word of promise delivered by the heavenly messenger. The specific way in which God’s love is engraved upon our hearts leads our action in shaping our habits. Love is a big Reality with various smaller names. For us to recognize these names, we have to know God as Mystery and Presence of Love. Then we can read God’s mark on his creatures and on his elects. The saints are people who know this God, even from a tiny partial vision of God’s glory. What do they see?

b) The one thing they see

St Rose of Lima saw God’s beauty through the Blessed Sacrament; this beauty is worth leaving everything aside to pursue with great penance and severe discipline. St Faustina saw the inexhaustible Mercy of God as the one unforgettable truth. St Juan Diego saw that the Virgin Mother was a native woman who spoke Nahuatl, who could heal his diseased uncle and who provided during winter (December 9, 1531 on Tepeyac Hill), flowers that grew only in Castile/Spain. She was the bringer of God’s salvation. The African martyrs from Uganda saw obedience to God as unconditional. One cannot compare or reverse this order where God is Supreme. St Ignatius Loyola saw God in everything, thus denying the enemy all claims to ownership over creation and over our lives. The Queen of all saints, our heavenly Mother saw loving service to God in everything and in all people as the ultimate truth on earth. The one necessary thing bears the name of our calling. It is special and unique, but it is connected to all other callings and mission-nings of people from God. These saints have developed the “one necessary thing” into multiple opportunities for others, all originating in this one word or one vision. We may look at some examples of manifestations of God’s gift in them.

c) The Manifestation of Grace through them

In St. Juan Diego, there was a surplus of energy and vitality, to the extent that he seemed to be serving in more than one place at given times – oral tradition says. In the Ugandan martyrs, the light and straight affirmations of truth confounded their 19^th century royal court and convinced the people of their blessing and approval by God. They sang songs until the fire consumed them out of earthly life – tradition says. Those of you who heard of Padre Pio also hear about his bi-location ability – as tradition narrates— the zeal to serve God through others is so pure that it becomes tangible and visible to people. All these external signs refer to the more fundamental side that is a burning love of God that also makes of many of them unsettling friends to live with. The miraculous side is certainly not the most important, but the daily humble devotion to God that uplifts others around, making them freer to love and serve their God. Through the saints, God attracts many souls to salvation. We can even make our own the following fragments of the words of the Blessed Mother to Juan Diego and to his church community: “I vividly desire [to] be present and give my love, compassion, help, and defense. [As your] most devoted mother [I will] hear your laments and [ ] remedy all your miseries, pains, and sufferings.” The saints are signs of God’s love. They affirm concretely “God is with us,” Jesus-Christ.

Conclusion

Most often, we affirm knowing someone when we can securely anticipate and predict about him or her in the best sense. As we often say, “I do not recognize you in this,” or “From what I hear, I recognize this person in this particular pattern described to me,” God, the Loving Father of Jesus Christ recognizes our spirit in what we pray for and why we do so. Let us join the company of all the holy men and women, keeping in mind our favorite saints, friends in heaven in praising God.[1] As much as memory is selective about what to keep and what not, our soul is also selective about what we notice and otherwise. Our friendship with particular saints comes from the same selective source. Many people who understand passionate love or the power of the little way take Theresa of Lisieux for model. Other virtues make different spiritual relations, which the Church always encourages in upholding the communion of the saints. The things we therefore notice are clues to our life-story with God if we allow ourselves to look at them intentionally. This is what the saints did, and they can help us sort out and order our values.  They took time to notice what God was doing in their lives.  Juan Diego hears the song of birds and the voice of one like an “Aztec princess” on his 15 mile-way to Church; he believes and follows the signs. We now share his graces from our Lady of Guadalupe.  St Rose of Lima sees the source of all beauty in the work of the self-donating God; she places all her satisfactions in the Eucharist as she embraces the cross of her Lord. The cloud of witnesses to God’s love – the saints— celebrated today, “saw and believed,” and practiced love. This is what we are called to do, as if we were just praying, “May your Kingdom Come!” – praying Just for love of our God.

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[1] Psalm 4 asks, “How long will you people mock my honor, love what is worthless, chase after lies?” Envy/jealousy is a mockery to God’s honor. The innumerable types of blessings and people acceptable to God states this clearly. Let us work out new incentives for excellence, positively based. It is often said, “Envy is the bitterness of the heart just as, by contrast, love is its sweetness.” May sweetness prevail in us and in our world!

Arguably the most important document to come from the Second Vatican Council was its Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum. The final paragraphs dreamed of a people of God committed to living by the Scriptures at every level of their lives. The council yearned for the whole Church to be renewed spiritually through the Scriptures and to become much more biblical in all aspects of her existence. (Fr. Gerald O’Collins, S.J.)

29^th Sunday B

(October 18, 2009)

We are praying and supporting our brethren devastated by natural and social disasters: in the Philippines, in Indonesia in Darfur/Sudan, Eastern Congo, Afghanistan, Palestine, and sufferers everywhere. Now, has anyone ever asked to suffer like them by association or compassion? These places symbolize cross-bearers, friends of Jesus in one sense. The illustration might help us to keep grappling the exclamation of Jesus: “You do not know what you are asking!”[1]

Scriptures: Is. 53: 10 – 11  ; Ps 33: 4-5, 18-19; Heb. 4: 14 – 16  ; Mk 10: 35 – 45

Homily

Introduction: God’s suffering servant redeems God’s people as prophet Isaiah says, and Jesus Christ, our powerful high priest in the letter to the Hebrews is identified with this suffering servant. Jesus, in the Gospel affirms having come to serve and give his life as ransom for many. These readings make me ask the question of Jesus’ identity and the quality of his sway or kingdom among us. Who is Jesus for us today, and how does he want us to bear witness to him in this world?

1) Jesus, and the rest of us

Two weeks ago, we saw Jesus indignant because his disciples were banning children from entering his presence. Today, the disciples (ten of them) are indignant because two among them asked to hold the highest ranking around the leader Jesus. There seems to me a difference in their respective indignations. The same feeling is experienced, but the cause and the purpose are different, from Jesus to the disciples. How often do we identify with Jesus’ feelings? And how often do we identify with the disciples’ feelings about life? In other words, what gets me/you indignant? What makes me angry? Why? And what do I do after experiencing my frustration? Where do I take it?

One prophet of old said on God’s behalf, “My people perish for lack of knowledge.”[2] Jesus’ indignation is about a similar situation: “My disciples don’t know my heart,” that is a heart of a child, calling people to retrieve their childhood in matters of love and genuine relations. “My disciples do not know my heart,” that is Jesus’ overall approach to human life. How does Jesus come to experience such feeling?

James and John request the highest intimacy with the Lord: one at the left, and one at the right. Just like us, they want to own what they love. They want to appropriate this wonderful companionship, more than other, and they are even ready to pay the price. This is close to the spirit of competitive progress as we all experience today: everybody wants the upward movement, the climbing of the social ladder. From Assistant professor, one becomes full Professor – for example. Sometimes, there is a specified reason: some people want to please parents and mentors for their good support; others want to prove to themselves what they are capable of; others want a different objective as they climb this specific ladder, for it avails another desired place. Being close to the teacher would allow James and John to teach as admirably as he does. Still others do not know too well why they want to go upward (everybody else does so, or they don’t even need to think about whys). Is Jesus validating the desire of James and John that passes the moral test by their strong agreement to pay for it (“We can,” they say.)? Jesus is doing the work his Father in whom he invites the disciples to have faith and trust. When the Father picks one among them for a specific mission Jesus submits to the father’s will – there is no competition between Father and Son. The Holy Spirit is not a spirit of conflicting competition. We see this submission of the Son when he tells Peter that The Father, by revealing hidden things to him was making him the leader among the twelve (mission is always for “those for whom it is prepared”).

The other disciples get vent of this request and feel unfairly treated (“indignant”) by the two brothers who are literally “going tribal” about being with the Lord – [long live the tribe of Zebedee!]. I doubt  whether there is one among us who has never felt that someone else should not be where they are, doing what they are doing, being who they are – because they thus take what belongs to “me/us”— at a given moment. The ten are just like us in this regard: “Who do you think you are James and John?” Are we not here on the same call? Have we not been as faithful as you did to the Lord, have we not been as loving? Why do you want more “privileges” than others? Clearly their question is about, “Who will be the greatest among us?” They don’t seem to have an idea about what their call and their mission means. Imagine a family of 12 brothers and sisters who gather to celebrate the life of the deceased patriarch or matriarch. Will they ever asked, “Who among us will volunteer to be next in death?” Such question is rarely asked. “Who holds the first rank in the family now?” That’s readily expected. It therefore did not occur to the ten others disciples to perceive the request of James and John in that sense of sharing in the Lord and servant’s suffering and death. They also did not know what they were “indignant” about.

Jesus takes this opportunity to state clearly who he is: the child of God, servant of God’s people, the one who works hard so that others may have more rest, since they are already burdened with several afflictions: blindness, hardness of heart, guilt and unrighteousness. “I am here to serve and give my life as a ransom for many.” This expression ransom needs some explaining today. When a woman’s husband died leaving her childless, the brother of the deceased would redeem her by begetting children for his brother.[3] When someone becomes unsolvable before the bank, a corporate or individual helper redeems him by offering an equivalent value or equal amount. When a student struggles honestly with studies, a teacher redeems him or her by suggesting different framings of the same questions or exercises of equivalent grade that will require the same amount of effort, until the student owns the principles. In basketball, scoring redeems one’s team from defeat. Ransom is this price paid for satisfaction, to fill in the gap. Jesus’ life is a “ransom for many.” We are part of the many. How is Jesus’ life a ransom/rescuing-help for you personally and for your/our community? Jesus is drinking a cup, and receiving a baptism, which, both, seem repulsive. It is by reading from prophet Isaiah (before Jesus coming in the flesh), and from the letter to the Hebrews (after his identity was made plain by the Holy Spirit to his disciples), that we know that Jesus is the suffering servant whose life brings us back into life when we are crushed by iniquity, or by our own selfishness, or by some natural or social unwanted forces. Jesus is the life that calls us back to our senses, for he is “innocent” and yet he offers himself to atrocious treatment so that our hearts will never faint. There is no aspect of our current life that is not touched by the life of Jesus (from power and success, to failure and rejection). If we trust him, we will look at him for guidance and for better understanding of our own thriving and receding. If you take the time to look at Jesus and to ask him the right question, he will surely not fail you, for his life is “ransom” for many, for all those who relate to him really and trustingly. It is in that context that he explains to both groups (the two on one side and the ten on the other side) the full meaning of discipleship and living in the kingdom of God, among us.[4]

2) The quality of the Kingdom of God among us

“The greatest is the little boy/servant among you.” Do we now remember how the highly favored one, Mary is the silent woman whose effectiveness shines through the apostles, after the Son? For the Archangel Gabriel to greet Mary as “Highly favored,” Heaven had first seen the possibility of Earth’s response to God’s call to obedience. In response to the rebellion of the wicked angels who decided to be “like God,” proposing to humanity to make the same choice, Archangel Michael asks, “Who is like God?” Mary echoes Michael on Earth, “I am the servant of the Lord!” Jesus is the Son of this response of humanity to God: pure obedience in love. Therefore, “among us” who believe in Jesus Christ, who put our trust in him to intercede as our high priest, for us with his Father, relations are different from relations in the world.[5] We do not “throw our weight around.” We try to be transparent to God, and to let others see God in us. This is a sacrificial life, but it is no more sacrificial than forfeiting the truth of who we are for the lie of trying to be like God. I will always insist that, “we suffer with sin or we suffer with love;” there is no place between, so long as we are on earth. Suffering does not always mean ordeal or atrocity, but certainly unfulfilled desires. Have we learned to surrender to God? If we take the time to check in our experience, we will see that the significant events in which we held the first role were full of tensions and much work of overseeing. Those events at which we held secondary roles felt different, maybe a little more relax. But in the second case, we do not get all the attention; we mostly see our part of the work. If we resent not being the centre of attention, Jesus has much to teach us today. If our joy is in serving and contributing as best as we can, even in the role of number-one-person whenever that happens, then we understand the willingness of James and John to drink the cup and receive the same baptism as Jesus.[6] Having understood this, we cannot resent them for asking for more suffering to be united with their Lord, just as several saints and mystics of the Church are reported to have done. We can just ask for the same “privileges” of carrying the cross of our Lord so that we may share more intimately in his joy, in his kingdom. For the kingdom of God is about a demanding, yet gentle and humble service of communion in the life of God.

Conclusion: By rescuing James and John from greed and by rescuing the ten other disciples from jealousy, Jesus shows the quality he expects from our life of faith. Among us, service is not a matter of competition for roles or domination, but a deep joy of sharing the Lord’s life, which is a ransom given for our salvation, if we do what it takes to be part of the many, still few. Let us pray to the Spirit of Christ, to tame our greed and non-discerned or lustful generosity, and to increase our creative participation in the life of his brothers and sisters among and around us, just as we share at the same table, in the Eucharist, and outside of this table, in the resources of this world. Let the Eucharist ransom us into generous love today!

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[1] Mk 10: 38. Alternatively, if your child saw on TV a show of war actions and decided to identify with the hero. You surely will say, “You do not want to be on that battle front my son!”  If he insisted, you will put him through the process that takes people there he is validly approved to be sent to that place where he wishes to offer his service. It takes time, training and a “call” to be a hero. It is God’s choice to incarnate in Jesus and to call people for specific kinds of holiness.

[2] Hosea 4: 6. And prophet Isaiah interprets God saying, “An ox knows its owner, and an ass, its master’s manger; But Israel does not know, my people has not understood.”

[3] Dt. 25: 5 – 6. Bailing out, rescuing and redeeming amount to helping someone to live better.

[4] The people of God brought into the “Kingdom” as Jesus the descendant of David does, were divided into Northern kingdom (Israel) with ten tribes, and Southern kingdom with two tribes, constantly quarrelling with each other, theologically and politically. These sometimes bloody conflicts are narrated with high sophistication in the First (Old) Testament. Why would God dwell on Mount Zion (Jerusalem in Judea; cf. 1Kg 8:1, Ps. 9:12, Ps 48:12) and not on Mount Gerizim (North in Samaria: Dt 11: 29, Dt 27: 12) Ps 78:68 says, “God chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he favored.” And Ps. 87:2 says that God “Loves the gates of Zion more than any dwelling in Jacob.

[5] The spirit-of-the-world among us seeks the mighty-greatest. But the Spirit of Christ makes the self-giving servant who loves freely without expecting compensation, even a place on left or right – just loving service for the good of others.

[6] The tradition according to which James died a martyr’s death first among the apostles and John died last among them of old age may be the positive answer to their request. Indeed they died (dismembered or dislocated) for the Lord and for his Gospel.29t2