Recitation

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time 
3 September 2017

First reading

Jeremiah 20:7-9

You have seduced me, Lord, and I have let myself be seduced;
you have overpowered me: you were the stronger.
I am a daily laughing-stock,
everybody’s butt.
Each time I speak the word, I have to howl
and proclaim: ‘Violence and ruin!’
The word of the Lord has meant for me
insult, derision, all day long.
I used to say, ‘I will not think about him,
I will not speak in his name any more.’
Then there seemed to be a fire burning in my heart,
imprisoned in my bones.
The effort to restrain it wearied me,
I could not bear it.

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Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 62(63):2-6,8-9

                

Second reading

Romans 12:1-2

Think of God’s mercy, my brothers, and worship him, I beg you, in a way that is worthy of thinking beings, by offering your living bodies as a holy sacrifice, truly pleasing to God. Do not model yourselves on the behaviour of the world around you, but let your behaviour change, modelled by your new mind. This is the only way to discover the will of God and know what is good, what it is that God wants, what is the perfect thing to do.

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Gospel Acclamation

Alleluia, alleluia!

May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
enlighten the eyes of our mind,
so that we can see what hope his call holds for us.

Alleluia!

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Gospel

Matthew 16:21-27

Jesus began to make it clear to his disciples that he was destined to go to Jerusalem and suffer grievously at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, to be put to death and to be raised up on the third day. Then, taking him aside, Peter started to remonstrate with him. ‘Heaven preserve you, Lord;’ he said ‘this must not happen to you.’ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my path, because the way you think is not God’s way but man’s.’
  Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it. What, then, will a man gain if he wins the whole world and ruins his life? Or what has a man to offer in exchange for his life?
  ‘For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and, when he does, he will reward each one according to his behaviour.’

Reflection

by Gary Tulabut

In my classes, I make sure that everybody is given the opportunity to speak during recitations. So, with a simple macro program, I made this random student picker from an Excel worksheet.  With the picker, a seat plan is projected on the board  where names of students are seen by everyone. Once I click a button, each of the  seats shown on the board will be alternately and randomly highlighted. The highlight changes 100 times in five seconds. The student whose name is highlighted when the random picker stops will get to recite.

This makes our recitation days (which is every day) both fun and nervous. But generally, students enjoy being in my classes despite (or probably even because of) this.

One thing I noticed in my classes is that many students are afraid to speak their minds. Well, some because they really are not prepared. But some, especially the bright but shy ones, are just afraid to make mistakes. So I always remind them not to be afraid to make mistakes. That committing mistakes is better than not trying. That they actually have to commit many “first mistakes” in life to succeed and not to commit the same mistakes over and over again. And my list goes on and on. Most of them I got from talks and seminars I listened or attended to in the past.

St. Peter is always known to be bold and outspoken. Sometimes being carried away by emotions and doing things without thinking. And he has committed many mistakes because of this. For example, in the Gospel reading three Sundays ago, he asked Jesus to let him walk on water with Him. But he sank when waves of water approached him due to his “little faith” according to Jesus.

What about when he was hot-headed and cut the ear of one of those who came to arrest Jesus at the garden of Gethsemane? Only to deny Jesus three times before the break of dawn just hours after that.

In today’s Gospel, when Jesus was telling His disciples how He would suffer the hands of the enemies, the show-off St. Peter tried to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you."

And just like that Jesus just called St. Peter, well, “Satan.” Well,  Jesus might actually be talking to Satan that time but He was directing His words towards Peter. If you were St. Peter, what would you do? Get disheartened? Resigned from ministry? Form your own group?

Good thing St. Peter did not do those things. Just look at who he has become.

We will not be as great as St.Peter, no. But in our own little endeavors in the different aspects of life, may we use our mistakes as lessons to be learned, as stepping stones towards achieving greatness.

Prayer

Father,  for the many mistakes we committed against You, please forgive us. May we all learn from those mistakes and strive to be better so we can give You more glory on earth as in heaven. Amen.

Are You Prepared?

“ Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour. ”

First Reading: Wisdom 6:12-16

Resplendent and unfading is Wisdom, and she is readily perceived by those who love her, and found by those who seek her. She hastens to make herself known in anticipation of men's desire; he who watches for her at dawn shall not be disappointed, for he shall find her sitting by his gate. For taking thought of her is the perfection of prudence, and he who for her sake keeps vigil shall quickly be free from care; Because she makes her own rounds, seeking those worthy of her, and graciously appears to them in the ways, and meets them with all solicitude.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 6:2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8

Second Reading: 1Thess. 14:13-17

We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, about those who have fallen asleep, so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose, so too will God, through Jesus, bring with him those who have fallen asleep. Indeed, we tell you this, on the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself, with a word of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God, will come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together ² with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Thus we shall always be with the Lord.

Gospel : Matthew 25:1-13

" Then  the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones, when taking their lamps, brought no oil with them, but the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps. Since the bridegroom was long delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight, there was a cry, 'Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!'

Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.' But the wise ones replied, 'No, for there may not be enough for us and you. Go instead to the merchants and buy some for yourselves. 'While they went off to buy it, the bridegroom came and those who were ready went into the wedding feast with him. Then the door was locked. Afterwards the other virgins came and said, 'Lord, Lord, open the door for us!' But he said in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.' Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

Reflection

By Elizabeth Eguia

It was a Wednesday afternoon. I received an email from my boss informing me that I need to conduct a demo presentation the following day to a prospective client. At that same moment, I was completely pre-occupied with some other tasks which I need to finish on the same week. At first, I thought I will completely panic because I don’t like to be given work when I am not prepared. Fortunately, I didn’t. Now I am aware of the time I need for preparation, the training environment, software system access, room availability, people I need to get liaise with to make this presentation possible. And the effort I have given here is lesser compared to the past presentations I did.

You see, previously I made mistakes. My presentations went haywire. Some of the slides were not working and the software system got problems during the time of the presentation itself. I somehow panicked but retained my composure but at the back of my mind, I was like telling myself "Oh what a mess this time!"

The feeling of not being ready when you are there at that precise moment is quite disturbing. You try to question yourself "Why didn't I do what should be done earlier so I would not face all these things now?"  We only learn our mistakes at the last minute.

The very same story happened to the 10 maidens in the Gospel today. Five of them were wise and have prepared extra oil while the other five were not. The end result, those who did not have more oil had to go out and buy and when they came back they were not allowed to come inside the party while the five prepared maidens are now enjoying inside the banquet.

All these things are the stories of our lives. Daily, we are given the chance to live to the fullest. To give the best in what we do. We are given the opportunity to be prepared always materially, physically, mentally, emotionally, morally, and spiritually. And the only requirement is for us to respond and to act. Yes dear brothers and sisters, it is not yet too late. God has given us time to act now otherwise we will end up like the unprepared five maidens. Do you want to be like them?

Thank you God for Your love, for constantly reminding us of the important things that we have to decide on and prepare for in our lives. May we follow Your will always in our everyday living. This we ask in Jesus name Amen.