Have You Ever Desired the Kiss of Your Beloved?

28 November 2010. 1st Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 2: 1-5; Psalm 122: Romans 13: 11-14; Matthew 24: 37-44

The bride in the Song of Songs 1, 2-4:

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.
Your love is more delightful than wine;
delicate is the fragrance of your perfume...
Draw me in your footsteps, let us run...
How right it is to love you.

Have you ever ardently desired the kiss of someone you passionately love? If you did, then the Season of Advent will appeal to you. Advent is about ardent yearning. We seek, eventually, our union with the Lord, the kiss of the Beloved. Before the union is attained, our burning desire come first. We can be certain, with the knowledge graced by the Holy Spirit, that God so wishes us to intensely want this oneness. St. Ignatius puts it, we were created “to praise, honor and glorify” the Lord. In other words, the purpose of our creation is the union with Jesus, sharing the life of God.

To love is to desire. Love is never a linear journey from one point to another. It is rather a circular movement that increases the union of two persons. As we love, we desire; as we desire, we love. Every circular movement thus deepens. It has, within itself, all the experiences of presence and absence, of hunger and being fed with giving and receiving, and still, our desire for our beloved is renewed but never the same as before: we either love more intensely, or long and pine for the beloved more ardently than previously. It is, as the quote from Song of songs, like wine: that we who have tasted how sweet the Lord is (Psalm 34:8), become intoxicated by the Lord’s beauty. And then when the next day come, it will bring more desires and new pains to prepare for a new loving union.

In preparing and waiting, our deepest desires and longings intensify. Think: as we wait for our beloved in romantic dates, our hearts beat a little bit faster and we cannot stand one more minute of waiting. Think: when we prepare for a birthday party, our excitement grows for the look of surprise, gratitude and affirmation from the celebrant.

And so what are we preparing for? In a broader sense, we are preparing for His second coming, the Day of Judgment. In a specific sense, we are preparing for the day when we finally meet the Lord in death. And therefore, the whole of our life is a preparation and a waiting; our specific advent. In a personal sense, we prepare our hearts and souls for particular experiences of God’s coming at any given point in our life. These ‘visitations’ from the Lord is unpredictable like inspirations that come to artists at any point in time.

In general, the readings today tell us what we should yearn for. Isaiah shares his dream that one day “all nations shall stream” to the mountain of the Lord. The Responsorial Psalm proclaims, we “go rejoicing to the House of the Lord.” And as we go to the mountain of the Lord, Paul says in his letter to the Romans that we shall “put on the armor of light” and “put on Jesus Christ.” In this journey, Jesus says in the Gospel, “you must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come” to meet us (Matthew 24:44). This is the kiss we yearn for when we meet the Lord; the experience of oneness when our lips lock in our Beloved’s lips.

It is no wonder that one of the metaphors the Lord uses to symbolize our relationship with God is the image of marriage: the Lord is the bridegroom and the Church is His bride. And so we, who are members of the Church, Christ’s bride, pine for the kisses of the Eternal Bridegroom.

In the Spiritual Exercises of the St. Ignatius, the one who makes the retreat is asked to pray the grace of "an intimate knowledge of our Lord, that one may love Him more ardently and follow Him more closely” (Louis J. Puhl SJ). This desire is prayed before the meditation on the Incarnation. It could be asked from the Lord before contemplating on the whole life of Christ. That desire is another way of putting the longing of the bride in the Prologue of the Song of Songs (1, 2-4).

Similarly, the Season of Advent is indeed this time: we are being prepared for the Incarnation which is Christmas. In view of the liturgical year, Advent also prepares us in the year-long contemplation of the life of Christ.

As we begin the liturgical year with the first Sunday of Advent, may we reflect on God who is the lover of humanity, the great philantrophos of the human race. And our longings are also God’s way of bringing us to where we should be. God has planted His desire in us and expresses them several times through the Holy Spirit within us. So that we will truly desire, not the ecstatic feelings we long for, but the total fulfillment of God’s desires for us.

Lord, “How right it is to love You.” (Song of Songs 1: 4)

Are You Tired of Your Life?

26 November 2010 Friday of the 31st Week in Ordinary Time
Rev 20: 1-4, 11 - 21:2; Psalm 84; Luke 21: 29-33

There are times when our life’s journey becomes tiresome. The weariness is often caused by a realization that we are not going anywhere like walking on a treadmill. We think that we are not moving towards our goals; our struggles are still the same; our regular sins continue to be our ‘favorites’ and, despite trying, we find ourselves where we left off.

The Gospel today gives us a tip on how to get out of this muck. The Lord gives us the analogy of the fig tree. When it bears some buds, you know summer is near. In other words, there are telltale signs that we are on our way. We can really assess our growths. All it takes, the Lord said, is to train ourselves to see the ‘shoots’ in our lives. Biology tells us that growth happens when you see tiny little leaves coming out of a stem, but it is very difficult to see the movement of growing happening unless we do a time-lapse on a camera. (see time-lapse video below.)

First, we keep our eyes fixed on the goal. Blessed James Alberione* of the Society of St. Paul said that when our journey tires us, “let us recall that the narrow and arduous road we are walking along leads to heaven.” Revelation, in the first reading, offers this thought. At the end of our lives, our good deeds will not go unnoticed in the final judgment. The Lord will reward us. At the end of days, we will belong to the new heaven and the new earth.

How close we are to our goals helps us assess our growth. For example, if our goal is to get a grade of A (or 1) in a certain class, every excellent quiz is a move towards it. If we want to be patient, every time we have controlled our anger or our penchant to expect others to move rapidly as ourselves, we know that we are nearing the summer of our character-building. Our little successes are important. Thinking life as a process or as a journey is, I believe, realistic. Many things do not happen once and for all; they happen because many factors conspired to produce the effect.

Second, we need the skill to be sensitive to these little growths, these tiny successes, these small steps. Like skills, acquiring them takes time, regularity and practice. You can use the following to become more sensitive. It will require just 15 minutes max of your time. You can do it twice a day: before lunch and before you sleep. Or you can practice it as part of your evening prayer.

1. Take a few minutes to relax; be sensitive to your breathing; remember that you are always in the presence of the Lord.

2. Review the day, or half of the day (if you’re doing this twice). Just go through the day, like a fast rewind.

3. Stop at the most significant moment of the day where you experienced the presence and/or absence of the Lord. It may be a word or quote from what you read, an encouragement from a co-worker, an inspiration, a loss or discouragement, a hurt, a reminder to call a loved one, etc. If you have more, choose only one. It is better that you savor one event than having many without tasting every detail.

4. In the chosen event, see how God has been present to you. What did you feel at that moment. Identify the feelings: gratitude, joy, happiness, sadness, disturbance, etc.

5. Assess: What does it tell you about yourself? What is God telling you? In positive events, it is usually easy. In negative events, it is challenging. But you can see more significant growths in a hurting experience. Were you challenged to do better? Did it draw you to offer your suffering for a loved one? Did you feel as Jesus felt when He was also rejected, when His prayer like that in Gethsemane was not answered, when He was abandoned by friends, etc. Remember the shoots become more prominent if it is growing from an old, dry stump of a tree.

6. End with a prayer of gratitude. You can end with an oral prayer like the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and/or the Glory Be. I usually end with these three. Why? The Our Father reminds me of whom to adore and whose presence I need. The Hail Mary reminds me of whose example I can emulate and whose affection for me is greater than my love for myself. I have a great love and devotion to Our Mother. The Glory Be makes my heart praise the Trinity who is good and merciful to me all the time.

*Today is the Memorial of Blessed James Alberione

** Time Lapse Video of corn seeds. The process of growth is easily seen.

Do you suffer from Doing Good?

24 November 2010 Memorial of Sts. Andrew Dung-lac and companions
Rev 15: 1-4; Psalm 98; Luke 21: 12-19

Being good is counter-cultural. Consider the following. In a corrupt government system, bribes are acceptable. A family member who needs documents had to wait for months to get it, unless one spares a few bucks for the employee. A friend whose moral values are laudable gets ridiculed when he does not succumb to the system. A student can only be part of a fraternity only after a violent initiation accepted by all as ‘part of tradition.’ In many of these schools, the members are future lawyers meant to protect citizens from death-threatening situations. Finally, you are cool if your life-style revolves not on faith, but the values of commercialism.

The Gospel today is prophetic. The Lord does not sugar-coat what it will demand of us who follow Him. The cross will always be a constant companion. St. Francis of Assisi has accepted the reality of persecution in doing good by calling it, “Sister Death” (Laudes creaturarum).

Family members will not spare us from their harsh words. Often, they encourage us to follow suit, with the usual tempting words, “Anyway, you can always confess it” or “It will just be this moment.” Following one’s vocation especially the religious life entails great resentment from others. Believe me, in many vocation stories I heard, the constant tagline is this: “I went against the will of my family and friends.” Members expect you to help the family; and often, as one gets involve in ministries, helping others becomes a reality than actually lending a hand for one’s kin.

As I continue to blog, there are ‘haters’ who leave nasty comments. Yes, here in this blog. I do not know them. They constantly use the coward “Anonymous” as identity; there is no way to retaliate. I receive some hate words. Sometimes they bent out on me their frustrations and anger towards someone, the Church, and the world. But it is part and parcel of doing this ministry --- and thank God, these remarks when moderated can go directly to the trash where they belong, sparing you from the emotional upheaval you don’t deserve.

The readings today inspire us to continue the good we do. Of course, we do not deny that doing good is also a struggle; realizing that within ourselves lies the capacity to do evil. And that is why, with the culture that affirms way-ward behavior, it is easy to succumb to the dark side.

The readings on the other hand assure us with two things: First, the Gospel tells us that with our perseverance, not a single strand of hair will be destroyed. The Lord will spare us from destruction. It is true: when we succumb to evil, we eventually ruin our lives, our relationships, and the world around us. If we do what is good, we find ourselves whole, our relationships flourish, and the world around us becomes greener and liveable. We also gain more people who care for us. Our goodness attracts the people who are also struggling to be better.

Second, the first reading from Revelations tells us that within our struggles, we are also graced with experiences of God. Like gasoline that fuels our fires. We become more sensitive to the presence of God. We feel Him in our experiences of friendship. We encounter His visitation in inspirations, like artistic ruptures; in the beauty of nature; in forgiveness and childbirth.

Like drugs, doing something that eventually destroys us becomes addictive. The opposite is also true: doing what is good can be intoxicating. There are people who experience wholeness and meaning that everything else becomes trivial. No persecution is too harsh in relation to the love of God.

What do you have that is eternal?

23 November 2010 Tuesday of the 34th Week in Ordinary Time
Rev 14: 14-19; Psalm 96; Luke 21: 5-11

The Jews were proud of the Temple in Jerusalem. It stood majestically at the center of the city. It could be seen from afar like a jewel reflecting the sun’s rays. It was not surprising that they were talking about it at the time Jesus was also teaching. The Temple was so majestic and sacred that the Jews thought it would stand forever. They literally called Jerusalem, as we read in Scripture, the Eternal City. Since God, who is Eternal, dwells in the Temple, the whole structure would be forever.

But Jesus said that the Temple would be destroyed. And true enough, the Temple would not make it years after His death. In 70 AD, the Romans sacked Jerusalem. And the building that the Jews believed to be eternal faced mortality. Actually, the Temple that they had had been rebuilt. They called it the 2nd Temple, restored by the Jews after their return from exile.

What then is the point of the Gospel today at the end of the liturgical year? As a culmination, the focus of the readings like Revelation in the first reading is the end of time. The Church suggests that we reflect on what lasts and not what is temporary.

We also have our own “Temples of Jerusalem” --- things we are so proud of that we act as if they will accompany us beyond the grave. What are these? Our wealth, our achievements, and our illustrious name to mention a few.

But we soon realize that we have to exert a lot of effort to maintain their existence. We have to keep the business afloat. We have to continue to strive to fulfill our goals. We have to take care that our name is not tainted. Why? Because deep inside, we know they will not last without our effort.

And true indeed. There will come a time when someone else will sack our lives, and all that we are proud of will be gone.

Jesus said that evangelical poverty is important. Those who live ‘poor in spirit’ will obtain the Kingdom of Heaven. When we experience this dependence on God, when all that we have suddenly disappears in all forms of tragedy and the only thing left is God, we find ourselves faced with what is eternal. What is eternal cannot be destroyed even by the greatest calamity in our lives.

One of our philosophy teachers, Mr. Eduardo Calasanz, said that in life there is but one thing certain: death. And thus, when we say, “I love you” it also includes its destiny. Love’s life is beyond the point of death. Love knows no mortality. It is, as St. Paul says, the greatest thing that remains other than our faith and hope.

It is therefore good to remember that the word Filipinos use to express love is “mahal kita.” Mahal is also used to mean, “expensive” as diamonds are “mahal.” When we say “Mahal Kita” (I love you) we affirm what the readings today mean: our love is the real treasure that cannot be destroyed; it is the real thing that is forever. That is why it is more valuable than life itself (we do give our lives to those we greatly love).

And so to Jesus, it is not the structure of the Temple that is forever. No wonder, years after His death, St. Paul introduced in our faith the belief that the real Temple is Jesus Himself. And since we are members of Christ’s body, God resides in every single person. We are now the Temples of the Holy Spirit. The Eternal City is the Kingdom of God. It is realized when we are all gathered in Christ; when everything is restored in Christ.

Life everlasting is already experienced when we love.

In my work in prison, when everything that the prisoners own before their incarceration is stripped from them, they realize what remains forever: their beloved and their faith in the Lord. When Jesus was hanging on the cross, I believe the criminal who requested paradise was one of the first who entered when the gates were opened.

Do you need to Restore Something in Your Life?

21 November 2010 Solemnity of Christ the King
2 Sam 5:1-3; Psalm 122; Col 1:12-20; Luke 23:35-43

In the deep recesses of our hearts, we discover a common desire. This desire is the very objective of the celebration of the Solemnity of Christ the King, the end of the liturgical year.

Every human being desires a restoration, expressed in many ways. Healing is a restoration to health. Those who are lost long to find their home, whether they find it in the company of one or in a community. Forgiveness reconciles us to people who have been estranged from us. Reunions gather people who have been separated for a long time. A convention is a meeting of people who have the same concern or interest. Social media connects people from all over the world. Global collaboration encourages people from all walks of life to work together for the common welfare.

This desire brings us to humanity’s ultimate goal to be at peace with one another. On the 11th of December 1925, Pope Pius XI establishes the Solemnity of Christ the King with the objective and meaning, “to restore all things in Christ.” He said that the mission of everyone is building the Kingdom of God. This is meditation of the third of the Luminous Mysteries of the rosary. Jesus proclaims the Kingdom and describes it using different parables. And therefore, the objective of this Sunday’s celebration is already embedded in our hearts and in the practice of the Christian faith. Like all desires, this ultimate aspiration seeks fulfillment.

The idea of a king may sound so archaic because in today’s world, there is no edifying example of an ideal king. Monarchical rule is a thing of the past. But the notion of kingship is not strange to many biblical Christians: kingship is about service in the image of the shepherd. The shepherd is pivotal in the gathering of the sheep; without the shepherd it is difficult for the sheep to be managed into the fold. When Israel requested to have a human king to unite everyone against their enemies, the Lord granted the wish provided that the king lives “in His Spirit.” The human king was to lead the flock in the manner the Lord cares for them. Jesus saw this need when the people were ‘like sheep without a shepherd.’ The king therefore is the center and reason for the gathering; the rallying point of those who are scattered.

The prime example is the Eucharistic celebration. People who attend the mass are of different personalities, backgrounds, and cultures. Those who are in conflict with each other may also be present in the same congregation. But they are there because they all love Christ. It is Christ who makes the gathering possible. Unity becomes a reality “through Him, with Him and in Him in the unity of the Holy Spirit.”

How then do we live out this Solemnity? We are to restore all things in Christ...

In our individual lives. Do we spend time to “recoup our energies” when we are tired or keep our bodies healthy? Do we spend some private moments for prayer, so that we are never away from the wavelength of Christ?

In our community life. Do we help in the healing of wounds in all its forms? Do we bring estranged people together? Do we insist on the value of spending time together as a family or as a group of friends? Do we participate in common activities whether as organizers or members of our own local community?

In our life as citizens of our country. This can take many small forms such as promoting order like following traffic rules and talking to others about the beauty of our culture. (Check Alex Lacson's 12 Little Things We Can Do For Our Country)

And in our global world. Do we participate in our effort to curtail all forms of human degradation? Do we lend our energies to the protection and care for our environment?

In a culture of individualism where Christ is removed from the center to the sidelines of our lives, the Solemnity of Christ the King gains more relevance. It is to remind ourselves to restore and ‘enthrone’ Christ in the center of our lives.

Thus, the basic attitude is not to be divisive, but to be reconciling. At the end of our lives, what matters is how we have contributed to Christ’s mission of gathering everyone He loves in His Kingdom.

Lamentations and Regrets

18 November 2010 Thursday of the 33rd Week
Rev 1, 1-10; Psalm 149; Luke 19, 41-44

Note: Sorry for the long hiatus. Been overwhelmed by many concerns.

The Gospel today is both a lament and a challenge for us. Jesus weeps as He sees Jerusalem. He knows that Jerusalem will be the place of His suffering. He can see His cross hovering over Him.

He laments because of two things: First, Jerusalem is His rightful home. The Temple is the Father’s house. He weeps because He calls the Eternal City, His home.

Second, He cries because He knows what will happen to Jerusalem if the people will not heed his prophetic warning. If they will continue their life of sinfulness, Jerusalem will eventually be destroyed.

Furthermore, Jesus wishes that Jerusalem will recognize Him and find His visit important. If only they know that Jesus is the Shepherd King who returns to the City of David, they could have followed His voice. But they didn’t.

And just as Jesus predicts, the Temple of Jerusalem will eventually be destroyed by the Romans in AD 70.

The Gospel is also a challenge to all of us. It requires great sensitivity to know the “visit” of Jesus in our lives. We must know when Jesus warns us and when He tells us about the consequences of our actions, if we act on it.

What Jesus has undergone in the Gospel is not an impossibility for many of us. There are many ways to know the future of our acts.

By reason, we know the implications of a decision and the results from such a choice.

Through scientific research, we know what causes certain sicknesses and the symptoms when we contract a disease. Medicine and our practical lives have always lived with the tenet: better prevention than cure.

Through repeated practice, we now have our moral and ethical laws embedded in our culture. For example, we know that it is good to the community if we all heed the law of the country. How? The same as the creation of culture: we know because of repeated practice. When we follow, there is order; if we don’t, we revert to chaos. A civilized society is organized and live-able.

When a community takes the inspiration from a letter of an apostle like Paul by reflecting and living what he wrote, the epistle becomes normative to community living. And when it becomes a measure of Christian living, it becomes a canon. The word “canon” comes from a reed that is used in ancient times as a measuring stick because the distance between the nodes and internodes are almost equal from each other. Thus, a book is chosen to be canonical, when it is used to measure one’s spiritual, community and moral life. If the book is found, through repeated practice, not normative then it is rejected and replaced. It is like choosing a textbook.

And thus there are many ways to know what is good or evil, what is right or wrong, what is correct behavior from what is crass and uncivilized.

And there are numerous sources to inquire from to know, most certain, the consequences of our acts. History is one of them.

But often, our hearts and head are made of stone. We still want to find out, our own way. Part of it is our individualism, arrogance, and lack of trust for our ancestors, our parents and Jesus. Sometimes we think that we can learn everything on our own, having our experiences as the criteria for validity. And then, impose them as normative for others.

Therefore, just as Jesus has wished centuries ago for His people -- and for us: We must trust Him before it’s too late.

They say, regret always comes at the end. If only our ancestors could speak, many of them will tell us in chorus: We told you so.

When Will Our Sufferings End?

7 November 2010 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
2 Maccabees 7: 1-14; Psalm 17; 2 Thess 2:16 - 3:5; Luke 20:27-38

When November comes, the theme of the readings focuses on eternity. In the liturgical year, the tail-end is about eschatology: the resurrection and the end of days when Christ the King finally rules in triumph. And the Church reminds us that the final say in our lives is not our crosses but our resurrection.

Have you ever wondered when all of our sufferings would end and find meaning? Many of us have suffered for a very long time, and it seems the horizon is not yet at hand. It is like the middle journey of the Israelites: they have left Egypt and the ‘comfort’ of their lives, they are in the middle of the desert, and the Promise Land is still far far away. They even don’t know who will be able to reach it: them, their children or their children’s children.

Remember Albert Camus and his Myth of Sisyphus? Sisyphus, as his punishment from the gods, was made to roll a stone on a steep mountain. But when he reaches the peak, the stone rolls back again to the mountain’s foot and he rolls it up again. Over and over. Again and again. According to Camus, our existence is like that. There seems to be no end; neither does it have meaning. But it is the situation we find ourselves in.

In this angle, Albert Camus is right. Our life is a constant repetition. We find ourselves doing the same routine every single day. We eat and love the same food menu every meal. We struggle with the same issues. We fight with the same enemy in our lives; some of them just changes form, but it is the same banana. Our prayers are repetitive: our petitions to the Lord are the same; our rituals are done every week.

But our faith tells us that in the midst of these repetitions, there is a direction. Often our lives are viewed as a linear struggle, like points in a line: we are here, we want to go there. Not all of life is linear.

Reflect. There are those who have reached the top of their ambitions. They are financially stable. Their names are respected in their own industry. They are in the echelons of power. But they are unhappy. It is not rare to hear them say, “It is lonely on top.”

Don’t get me wrong: those are also important. The linear direction has to be pursued too. We need to survive. However, experience tells us that meaning is not found in that horizon.

The matters of consequence, however, are spiral journeys towards depth. In our constant sufferings for our loved ones, our love intensifies. In our daily practice of our skills and abilities, our passions are fired. In our repeated studies, we discover and hone our knowledge and we grow in wisdom. We repeat to discover what matters. The dive towards depth is a journey towards finding our pearls of great price. The parable has it that the merchant who finds it, will sell everything just to possess it. It is what gives meaning, and all other things are superfluous.

Therefore, every Sunday, we pray and worship as a community to grow in faith. When we fall, commit mistakes, and sin, we are given another chance so that we know what it means to hope. When we care for the people around us, and at the same time, know that the love is also reciprocated, we find ourselves “awake, alive and enthusiastic.” We then discover love.

St. Paul discovered in all of his repeated struggles what matters and what is constant. And what matters and what’s constant are eternal. Our loftiest ideals are found not “up there” but “down there” in the depths of our hearts.

But the pure and stable experience of faith, hope and love, are not experienced in our mortal life. It will be experienced when we are in the company of the eternal God. And thus, death becomes the gateway to eternity. Therefore the commemoration of All Saints Day and All Souls Day almost at the beginning of the theme of eternity in the liturgical year, re-directs our eyes towards forever.

The senseless suffering of the Maccabees’ seven sons and their mother are endured because of the hope that God, in the end, will reward the good and punish the evil. In our lives, the good that we do, even when persecuted, become bearable because of the final judgment.

The belief in our resurrection gives us hope and points to the reality that whenever we find ourselves feeling like Sisyphus, we can always look towards our resurrections. The repeated rolling of our life’s stones becomes meaningful, because it is in view of an end. In the company of God in the afterlife, there will be no stone to roll to the mountain. There is the mountain to enjoy.