Walang Maibibigay, Kung Walang Natanggap Mula sa Dios

Merong isang panalangin si San Ignacio de Loyola. Ito ang “Panalangin sa Pagiging BukasPalad.” Marahil alam ninyo ang kantang nagsisimula sa ganito: Panginoon, turuan mo akong maging bukas-palad, turuan mo akong maglingkod sa iyo...” Ano nga ba ang pagiging generous o bukas-palad? 

Marahil nauunawaan natin ang generosity bilang isang pagbibigay. Ang taong may donasyon sa eskuwelahan o simbahan, ay bukas-palad. Ang taong nagbabanat ng buto para may maihahain sa mesa ay bukas-palad. Oo totoo, pero may isang angulo ang pagiging mapagbigay. Sinasabi, nakakapagbigay lamang tayo ng mga bagay na MERON tayo. Ibig sabihin, may nagbigay muna sa atin ng talento, abilidad o kakayahan, kaya MERON tayong naibabahagi.

 Kaya ang pagiging bukas-palad ay ukol sa taus-pusong pagtanggap sa mga biyaya ng Dios sa atin. At bilang pagkilala sa ibinigay ng Dios, gayon din ang pagtanggap na ito rin ang maaari nating ipamahagi. Ang Dios na nag-alay sa Kanyang sarili, Siya rin ang nagbibigay ng lahat ng biyayang kailangan natin upang makapagbigay naman tayo sa mga nangangailangan.

Magpasalamat po tayo sa Dios na unang nagbigay sa atin!

Bangkang Kahoy

Meron akong kuwentong narinig ko sa isa sa mga guro sa high school. May isang batang gumawa ng bangkang kahoy. Sa labis ng pagkagusto sa bangka, inukit niya ang kanyang pangalan sa ilalim nito. Araw-araw nilalaro niya ang bangka at habang tumatagal, sobrang itong napamahal sa kanya.

Isang araw, pinaanod niya ang bangka sa ilog. Wari niya, handa na ito sa agos ng ilog. Sa kasawimpalad, tinangay ng malakas na agos ang bangka, at nawala na ito sa kanyang paningin. Hinanap niya ito sa mga nagdaang araw, hanggang nakita niya ito sa isang tindahan. Ngunit ang hindi niya ito makuha, dahil mahal na ang presyo ng kanyang nilikhang bangka.

Wari niya sa sarili, mag-iipon siya ng pera hangga’t matubos niya ang bangka. Inipon niya ang kanyang pambaon sa eskuwela hangga’t natubos niya ang bangkang siya rin ang lumikha. Mga kapamilya, tayo ang bangkang-kahoy. Nilikha at minahal tayo ng Dios. Naka-ukit sa ating palad ang kanyang pangalan. Ngunit nawala din tayo, at upang tayo’y iligtas, ibinuwis niya ang kanyang buhay. Pagdasal nating suklian ito sa pamamagitan ng pagtulong mailigtas ang kapwa sa kahirapan o kaya’y sa pagkamangmang.

Awe and Wonder

17 June 2012. 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time 
Ezekiel 17, 22-24; Psalm 92; Corinthians 5,6-10; Mark 4, 26-34 

Parables are stories taken from ordinary life to explain a truth. Jesus uses parables to explain not just a truth, but a greater reality - that of the Kingdom of God. He uses parables in order for people to understand the Kingdom of God.

The parable of the farmer who throws seeds on the ground and wonders how the seed grows is a story unique in the gospel of Mark. The point to reflect on therefore is what we are losing in this day of science and empirical thought: the sense of awe and wonder.

The imagery of the farmer sowing seeds is a familiar image. My dad was an agriculturist who would give lectures to farmers during the time of President Marcos’ Masagana 99. He would bring home huge sweet potatoes, new varieties of rice, and sacks of peanuts. I would watch rice paddies turn into gold and delight in the harvest. Every time I listen to Sting’s “Fields of Gold” I would remember my dad.

At a very early age, I wondered about life itself and the processes involved in growing. I love science. I took up Marine Biology in college, until I was told to shift to Philosophy because it was an ecclesiastical necessity. But the priesthood did not kill my interest in biology. It was wonderful to learn about life forms.

When everything is almost explainable with science, we lose that sense of wonder. This sense of wonder blinds us from seeing the mystery that is happening between every cell division that contributes to the re-shaping of the seed to the tree that allows the birds of the air to nest on it.

Walt Whitman puts it nicely:

When I heard the learn'd astronomer, 

When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, 

When I was shown the charts, the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,

When I, sitting, heard the learned astronomer
Where he lectured with much applause in the lecture room, 


How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, 

Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself,

In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, 

Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

On Father’s Day, we have to re-claim our child-like sense of wonder. “To look up in perfect silence at the stars” - Today, those stars are our fathers. We honor all fathers, including those who have functioned as fathers to us. We stretch its meaning, and not be constrained by gender, into all those, including women, who single-handedly care for children in many “father-like” ways. I would like to think that the commercial celebrations of both Father/Mother’s Day are only two ways to honor our parents.

We know that our parents are not perfect. They commit a lot of mistakes. They hurt us, and some, even inflicted more than just a gash, but a deep-seated wound. But somehow, even in their flaws, they have raised us to what and who we are. Like the seed, the father wonders how it grows and he does not know how. Even as you peer into the microscope and see how cells multiply, you often wonder what makes them move. Isolate the nucleus and mitochondria of a cell, the basic structural unit of life, and then put them all together, you can’t bring the cell back to life.

On Father’s Day, we re-claim this sense of awe and wonder. Wonder how your dad has raised you. Wonder how your mom has brought you to who you are today. We sleep and rise and go on our daily routines, and then suddenly and especially when milestones happen like a birthday, a graduation, a wedding or even death, we wonder what happened: how our children has grown, despite or because of us.

To me, as a priest, I often wondered how one student, with all of his mischief, suddenly calls me to officiate their wedding; and to see how they have grown is to me one of the most rewarding moments of priesthood -- you can say, my fatherhood.

When I was a child wondering how rice paddies turn into gold, I would sometimes catch my father looking at me. I would like to think and I believe that he was wondering too how I was maturing so fast.

Now, it is my turn, looking at my students in high school, and wondering what they would be in the future. That business of the future, is ours and not ours.

The parable says, it is also God’s. We do what we can now. And then we entrust to the Lord what we can’t.

May isang kwento tungkol kay San Jeronimo at ang batang Hesus: “Minsan, nagpakita umano ang batang Hesus kay San Jeronimo at sinabi sa kanya: “Jerome, ano ba ang handog mo sa akin?” At ang sagot ni Jerome, “Panginoon, ibinigay ko na ang lahat, maging ang buhay ko.”

At ang batang Hesus ay tumugon, “May isa pa na nais Ko?” “At ano ito” tanong ni Jerome. “Jerome,” wika ng Panginoon, “Ibigay mo sa akin ang Iyong mga kasalanan.” Mga kapamilya, ito ang pagkakataong pagnilayan ang mga kasalanan nating personal na nagiging malaki kapag nagtutulungan tayong panatilihin ito. Halimbawa, ang paglilingkod sa bayan napapalitan ng maduming pamumulitika at pangungurakot. Tila baga, tanggap na natin ito bilang kasama sa atin mismong kultura.

At kung bibigyan natin ng pagkakataong magnilay ng mas malalim, makikita natin na ating personal na kasalanan ay nakakasira sa ating mga relasyon tulad ng pamilya’t kaibigan. Kaya, hinihingi na rin ni Hesus ang mga ito upang itigil na. Sa ganitong paraan, higit at dalisay ang ating paglilingkod sa Kanya. Ipagdasal natin ang grasya na maunawaan ang kalikasan ng ating mga kasalanan at kung paano nito naaapektuhan ang kalidad ng pagmamahal natin sa iba.