A Glimpse of His Love

4th Wednesday in the Ordinary Time Memorial of Saint Paul Miki and Companions, martyrs IN TODAY'S GOSPEL (Mark 6:1-20) the Lord encountered rejection from his own townmates-- "A prophet is despised only in his own country, among his relatives and in his own family" (v. 4)--simply because he has been one among them-- "Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James and Joset and Judas and Simon... His sisters, too, are they not here among us?" So they took offense at him   (v. 3). And in an important moment in his ministerial life, he experienced the difference between the love of his Father and the love of men.   By nature, human "love" is selfish. People tend to behave with care on people that they like; not on those they don't. We believe that love is a privilege that you can give to or take from other people depending on how we like them or not. We tend to praise others' accomplishments in close relationship to th...

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C, Year 1 IN TODAY'S GOSPEL (Mark 5:1-20), Jesus and the Twelve arrived at Gergasa ("Country of the Gerasenes") on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee-- on the other side of the lake in the region of the Gerasenes  ( (v. 1). Here he encountered a demonically possessed person who lived in the tombs and attacks those who passed by. When the demoniac saw the Lord, he hastened to approach him, the possessing demons asking him that they not be "tortured" (v. 7). Saint Mark also identified the group of possessing demons as Mob (Christian Community Bible translation), or Legion  (in other translations). Knowing that staying in the man was not acceptable to Jesus,  Mob  requested to be transferred instead to a herd of pigs.   The Lord shows us a beautiful show of the disciplined and respectful characteristic of love. He showed respect for the needs of the demons while making it clear to them that...

Third Friday in the Ordinary Time, Cycle C, Year 1   TODAY'S GOSPEL (Mark 4:26-34), the Lord tells the gathering crowd two parables--the parable of the self-growing seed (another sower parable) and that of the mustard seed. He explains how it is in the Kingdom of God; how even little things count... little seeds grow on their own, and which can grow into so huge a tree, in fact,  becomes the largest of the plants in the garden and even grows branches so big that the birds of the sky can take shelter in its shade (v. 32). And the sower does not have to do anything to make the seeds grow; nay, he does not even have to understand how that happens. Each little seed plant will grow on its own nourished by a power that takes care of all things created, that loves all things created.   Portiuncula, the small portions... The Lord intimates to us that even little things we do matter; that even little things we do count. He does not call us to be great giants in soci...

Third Wednesday of the Ordinary Time, Cycle C, Year 1   IN TODAY'S GOSPEL (Mark 4:1-20), the Lord tells the parable of the sower, an approach he used when teaching those who are still outside the Kingdom --But to those outside, everything comes in parables (v. 11b). He tells of the soil conditions that the seed of the Word may fall into--the path soil (v. 4); the rocky ground (v. 5); the thorny ground (v. 7), and; the good soil (v. 8).   Reflecting on these soils shows us that all the first three types of soils are pure human conditions empty of the grace of God. In a way of speaking, the Lord tells us how our soul would be like when it is not nourished by the love of God. It will be unstable and vulnerable to open attacks of the Enemy (the path soil). It will be full of unfortunate bumps and hurdles that mean anything to use other than making our lives frustrating (the rocky ground). It will be littered with painful and unhealed wounds as we struggle to survive...

Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles TODAY'S GOSPEL (Mk. 16: 15-18) Jesus directs the Eleven on the focus of their mission before he ascends to Heaven. His central message constitutes the role of faith and baptism in human salvation-- whosoever believes and is baptized will be saved . And that doing the opposite will bring man to damnation-- whoever does not believe will be condemned . Inherent in the act of faith is the act of total surrender to the love of God and to His will. Without this act of surrender there will be no faith as Jesus defined it. This total faith transforms the human heart totally into a soul consumed by God's love in the same way that a "partial faith" (if such is by definition possible) will not allow God's love to trasform the human soul because the reservation against faith becomes a stumbling block of that transformation. That stumbling block lets the seed of fear grow and fester the heart of man so ...

13th Thursday in the Ordinary Time TODAY'S GOSPEL (Luke 13:18-21), the Lord described before the disciples the all-encompassing love that the Christian community is called to be for the rest of the Creation. This love is not our own but an offshoot of the seed of love that God has placed in our hearts at the time we were conceived. The God of love calls us to be children of love, elder creatures called to take care of the Father's creation. As we can see, God's love is not meant to be exclusive, neither it is meant to be confined to ourselves. The God who loves all the Creation called us to love those outside ourselves too. Even married couples are not meant to confine their conjugal love between each other. They too are called to love their children and the community outside their homes. It is this expansive love that tells us how God of love cannot help but love us. It is simply in his nature to love. God is the Father who nurtures us no matter what. God is the...

13th Monday in Ordinary Time IN TODAY'S GOSPEL (Luke 13:10-17) the Lord has made manifest to us another glimpse of his boundless love. Despite the darkness in the heart of the woman bound to Satan for 18 years, he looked unflinchingly in that darkened heart, and dispel it from there. And did it from the overflowing love he had for the woman. In the heart of the woman, his love conquered the darkness finding its home there.   The scene also tells how legalism can be a serious obstacle in the free expression of love. The heart that serves justice and upholds what is right has the tendency to harden in the process because justice and right will find compassion unacceptable, weak, and unstable. Of all the sense of justice and rightness in the heart of the Pharisees watching Jesus deliver the woman from hands of darkness, they failed to understand the compassion streaming from the Lord's heart. They can only see what made the action wrong; not what made the action-loving. ...