Linggo, Pebrero 17, 2008

Saturday of First Week of Lent

Love your Enemies

One thing that many people find difficult to do in this world is to follow what our Gospel today teaches: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
It is easy to love one’s parents, sisters and brothers and close friends because there is something that bids us together. Loving the other becomes easy when we can connect most especially if this connection is blood or significant experiences that bridge the gap between two persons.

But to love one’s enemies is like asking what is impossible. Look at what is happening around us. See how Arab nations and most Muslims countries hate the Americans. See also how the Americans hate the world and could trust no one. We need not look far to see how this hatred had been fueling so much violence in our very own country. The rising number of slain journalists, missing persons and how our politicians quarrel over kickbacks are solid indications of all of these. From all of these, it seems that the command of the Lord: “Love your enemies” could never happen.

Certainly, we cannot love our enemies unless we stop loving only ourselves and give ourselves fully to God. For the love of God is the sole basis of loving our enemies. Unless we love God, we cannot love our enemies. I guess most of us knows that Pope John Paul II was once shot by a Turkish national, Mehmet Ali Agca on May 13, 1981. The Pope survived the assignation but was in serious condition. Soon after his recovery, the Pope visited Agca in his prison cell and spoke privately with him. This meeting caught the world in awe and admiration at the gesture of kindness, of friendship shown by the Pope to his aggressor. The world could only marvel at the greatness and love that made it possible for a victim to talk and extend peace to his killer and offer forgiveness.

As if words of forgiveness were not enough , the Pope requested the Italian President to pardon Agca. The latter then was released on parole in January 12, 2006. No doubt, Pope John Paul II did love his enemy. And it was possible for him to love because he loves God first. It is in loving God with all our heart, all our mind and all our being that we can love our neighbors and even our enemies.

Sabado, Pebrero 16, 2008

Transfiguration

Usually, newly wed couples would have the best experience of their lives on their wedding day. They are the most sought after couple as almost all would come to greet them wearing their best smiles. “Congratulations!” This is one wonderful experience that the couple would like to prolong and extend as they want to savor the moment and enjoy the time they are in high spirit.

In the event of the Transfiguration, Peter with James and John was also in the high spirit. He had the best experience of Jesus as the Son of God and he too wanted to prolong it. The feeling was so sweet in there that he wanted Jesus to stay as is, “Lord, it is good that we are here.”But the joy the Peter experienced is connected with his experience of the glorious God in Jesus who is destined to suffer and die on the cross for our sake. For this Peter was to be afraid.

It must be remembered that in the early part of the Gospel Jesus rebuked Peter because he does not want Jesus to undergo suffering, “Never Lord, this will not happen to you.” So when it was revealed to him in the transfiguration that Jesus, the Son of God will have to suffer and die on the cross, Peter tremble in fear not of pain and death but of the great sacrifice and love the Lord has to take because of us. In other words, Peter too experience transfiguration in himself as his view of the Lordship of Jesus changed with his transfiguration experience of the Lord.

Like Peter, we too are privileged to constantly experience a transfiguration of the Lord everytime we celebrate the Eucharist. When we break the bread and receive the body of Christ in Holy Communion we share in the fruits of Christ's great sacrifice on the cross. Hopefully, like Peter, as we behold the body of Christ we will tremble before God’s great act of love, the God who humbled himself to become like us and allowed himself to be broken as bread for us to partake. Let us then tremble not out of fear but out of gratitude for such great privilege to be loved by Jesus, the Son of God.

But our transfiguration experience does not end in the Eucharist. Rather it begins here in our call to live out and practice our faith so that our relationship will itself be transformed and permeated by Christ. Moreover, our transfiguration experience continued as we respond to the call of proclaiming our faith to others, of sharing this great story of God who out of his great love allowed himself to suffer and die for our sake. What we practice and proclaim is our faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God who love us most. Amen.

Linggo, Pebrero 3, 2008

4th Sunday of Ordinary Time

HAPPY IS BLESSED
Rev. ARNOLD C. BIAGO, SVD

What we have heard proclaimed in our Gospel today is the famous 8 beatitudes which speaks about those who are blessed. In others versions of the Bible, the word used instead of blessed is happy. I believe there is an equally valid reason for such translation. Since someone who is blessed is one that is significantly happy.

Let me share with you an anecdote of a boy which was interestingly entitled “Secrets of Hapiness” told by a Rabbi: A young man once came to meet me in Jerusalem. He had an unusually happy disposition, so I asked him what's his secret. He told me:

"When I was 11 years old, I received a gift of happiness from God.
"I was riding my bicycle when a strong gust of wind blew me onto the ground into the path of an oncoming truck. The truck ran over me and cut off my leg.

"As I lay there bleeding, I realized that I might have to live the rest of my life without a leg. How depressing! But then I realized that being depressed won't get my leg back. So I decided right then and there not to waste my life despairing.

"When my parents arrived at the hospital they were shocked and grieving. So I told them: 'I've already adapted. Now you also have to get used to this.'
"Ever since then, I see my friends getting upset over little things: their bus came late, they got a bad grade on a test, somebody insulted them. But I just enjoy life.

At age 11, this young man attained the clarity that it is a waste of energy to focus on what you are missing. And that the key to happiness is to take pleasure in what you have. Sounds simple, doesn't it? So why are so many people unhappy?

After reading this anecdote, I noticed that the situation of the happy boy is as worse as what is described as blessed in our Gospel today. Yet in both ways, the boy is said to be happy and those in difficult situations in the beatitudes are noted to be blessed.

By our common and worldly standards, having lost a leg is certainly not something we will be very happy about. Yet the boy was happy. In the same way, being poor, persecuted, oppressed and in some other difficult situation is not a cause for rejoicing. What then constitutes happiness? How come we say that a desperate situation is blessed.

What was said in our anecdotes is very enlightening: “The key to happiness is to take pleasure in what you have.” In other words, happiness is not all about having this and having that or doing this or that. Rather happiness is being in such a positive disposition in a particular situation no matter what it is. In a very secular outlook, they say, it is a state of mind. Actually, this is not altogether secular for this being is being with God, this state of mind is a life centered or focused on God similar to what the beatitude calls blessed. They are blessed who inspite of the difficult situation remains and clings to God.

Like the situation of the boy, what the beatitudes describes is by no means a cause for rejoicing judging from our human standards. How in the world can we justify that someone tortured, harassed, in desperate need and self-sacrificing is blessed indeed? The world will certainly thinks that we are crazy. What makes their situation blessed is no the poverty itself, nor the pain and suffering inflicted on them by others but the sense of hope, their firm confidence in God in the midst of the troubles that surround them. These people described by the beatitudes might be lacking in material resources like money and power but they are rich of faith, hope and the love of God.

Being blessed is in many ways like happiness. To be blessed is not to have this and to have that but rather it is being… it is being with God, the best that is there for us. If God is at the center of our lives, we got is all, in Pilipino it sounds better: “Sa piling ng Dios wala ka ng hahanapin pa.” Indeed, by being with God we are truly blessed.