Joyful Preparation

    

First Sunday of Lent

18 February 2024

 

First Reading: Gn 9:8-15

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9

Second Reading: 1 Pt 3:18-22

Gospel: Mk 1:12-15

 

Reflection

By: Ma. Rosalina S. Flores

 

When Christmas is approaching, everyone gets excited counting down the days, playing Christmas songs, buying gifts, going to parties, preparing full blast for the occasion, exclaiming "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!"

But it is the exact opposite for the Lenten season. People tend to be quiet and could not wait any longer for the Holy Week to start so it will soon end.

Attending a Lenten formation this afternoon, I became more convinced that the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ which we commemorate during Holy Week is the heart of our liturgical year, the summit of our Catholic faith, the most joyful season because God gifted us the most precious present, our salvation.

Being aware of this joyful celebration that will happen on Easter Vigil, Rev. Fr. Genaro Diwa invited today's Lenten formation attendees to empty a big portion in their lives, ready for the huge gift from God.

The call to have a happy disposition this Lent is actually supported  by the Gospel Reading on Ash Wednesday saying that the Lord requests us to not look gloomy even when fasting, to not neglect our appearance just like what the hypocrites do. The three pillars of Lent: Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving should be complied with a cheerful disposition looking forward to God's promise of salvation.

This Lent, surely, we have already decided on the sacrifices we wish to offer as a penance. But more importantly, may we be guided of St. Benedict's quote "Let each one deny himself some food, drink, sleep, needless talking and idle jesting, and look forward to holy Easter with joy and spiritual longing." Let us savor the Lenten journey to Easter.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, thank You for the season of Lent, please accompany me in my 40-day preparation so that I may celebrate joyfully the Easter and Your Resurrection. This we ask in Your Name, Amen.

Kenosis

 

 Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion

10 April 2022

 

First Reading: IS 50:4-7

Responsorial Psalm: PS 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24

Second Reading: PHIL 2:6-11

Gospel: LK 23:1-49

 

Reflection

By: Sem. Carlo Alexis Malaluan

 

Our Lenten preparation has led us to the climax of Christ's redemptive work. In a way, the whole week from today until Easter Sunday should be seen as one event – the Paschal Mystery. In the Philippines, we call it "Mga Mahal na Araw". True enough, these days present to us the greatest love expressed by God for humanity. Also, this is an opportune time to examine our lenten journey and to scrutinize how much we are able to give love like Jesus.

If you were able to attend the Holy Mass today, you will witness the dramatization of Christ's Passion. In all honesty, this is my favorite part of the liturgical celebration for filled with emotions, the Gospel stirs the hearts of the faithful and evokes me to question: Whose side am I? Which voices do I belong to?

For the reading from the Gospel in this first part recalls the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem as King. He gets a rapturous reception from the crowd who acclaim him with words "Holy! Holy! Holy!". This scene is important for, in a few days’ time, the same triumphant Jesus will be reduced to a battered wreck of humanity. The voices that acclaimed Jesus was then turned into shouts of blasphemy and accusations - seeking for his own very death. What you hear instead are the loud cries of the detractors who shout in unison, “Crucify him!” All these loud voices are employed well by Satan.

This remains true until this very day. We are not set apart from the events two thousand years ago. Evil remains loud and at times, could become aggressive. It has a way of making its voice dominate the world - calling attention to itself, deliberately shocking our sensibilities with expletives that we normally would not hear in ordinary circumstances.

What is God's response to all of these noise? Silence. The Messiah comes not adorned with robe of majesty and glory but as a lowly servant. Today, we are invited to walk with a selfless, self-giving and self-sacrificing Redeemer who offered his life for the salvation of all. The antidote for the loudness of evil is the silence of God. We too are called to this very silence - to unnoticed and hidden works of love and charity, to fight for the oppressed and unheard members of the society and to remain with those who suffer silently until evil vanquishes forever.

How could we become truly "silent"? Simply to put ourselves in the Kenosis of Christ. In a way the real key to Holy Week is given in today’s Second Reading. It expresses the “mind,” the thinking of Jesus, a “mind” which Paul urges us to have also if we want to identify fully with Jesus as disciples. “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” The key word in the passage is “emptied.” This kenosis, or emptying, is at the heart of Jesus’ experience during his Passion. FIrst of all took on himself in the fullest sense our human nature – “like us in all things, but sin”. But, even more, he reached down to the lowest level, the lowest class of human beings – the servant, the slave. That was still not the end. He let go of all human dignity, all human rights, let go of life itself to die, not to any “respectable” form of death, but the death of a convicted criminal in shame and nakedness and total abandonment.

Our silence should be like that of Christ's self-emptying. As evil points towards itself, we must have the courage to "strip" ourselves from worldly vanities and selfishness in order to point others to the Divine love - the very offering of Jesus in the cross.

My dear friends, what we have just heard was not simply a narration of an event in the past. The passion and death of Jesus is love seen at its best. What he went through was the result of his obedience to the Father. Rather, Jesus’ obedience even unto death is obedience to Divine Love. Since love is about assuring the other that he/she is not alone, then, Jesus had to undergo every kind of human misery and endure every human suffering except sin in order to prove to us that he is in love with us, the worst of sinners!

Prayer

Lord Jesus, as we enter the Holy Week, help us to reflect on Your passion and lead us in the humbling of self and in loving our neighbors. May this week becomes a reminder of Your unconditional love for us so to stir us in asking for forgiveness in the sacrament of reconciliation. May we have a meaningful Holy Week and become new persons on Easter. All these we ask in Your Most Holy Name, Amen.

 

God's Plan

Fifth Sunday of Lent

21 March 2021 

 

First Reading:  JER 31:31-34

Responsorial Psalm:  PS 51:3-4, 12-13, 14-15

Second Reading:  HEB 5:7-9

Gospel:  JN 12:20-33

 

Reflection

By: Emerson C. Maala

 

Once a year, my high school best friends were able to gather just to have a moment of friendship and talk about ourselves. It is just like a mini-reunion. Most of them are already professionals and have stable jobs. It was only I who was still studying because of my chosen vocation. We asked one another what was our plans and wishes after five years. In his sudden reaction, one of my best friends realized that he was turning 30 years old at that time. He said he wants to pause his age at 25 years old because he still wants to do many things and enjoy his life. Similarly, they asked me a question if I don't have any regrets that I was not able to enjoy my life outside. Excitedly, I answered them saying, "This might be God's plan for me and I love what I am doing and I enjoy things that I have right now.

 

In the Gospel, Jesus is aware that the hour has come. It is the time of His passion, death, and resurrection; the return to His Father and His glorification. However, Jesus was troubled. He knew that He will suffer from pain and anguish and He knew that this was the way. Instead of complaining, that the chalice of suffering passes Him by, Jesus prayed, "Father, glorify Your Name." And the Father's glory was manifested by Jesus in His loving disciples and all the people at the very end.

 

In the Gospel, Jesus reminds us that aside from our plans, there is God's plan. We might not be certain of the future or we might want to be still in our younger age or to pause our age so that we might be able to do things and enjoy our life. However, these were all just things that we want and not what God want for us. We might experience pain and suffering on our way, but Jesus would always be on our side, to fulfill God's plan for us. For what God wants for us will always be for our sake and a fruit of His love for us.

 

Prayer

 

Lord Jesus, You have taught us to accept what Your Father planned for You. By this, we begged You to grant us the grace to have a humble heart so that we could also accept what God planned for us. Help us on our journey to fulfill Your Father's plan for us and always lead us on life. Amen.

 

 

 

Jesus' Salvivic Sacrifice

Second Sunday of Lent

28 February 2021 

 

First Reading:  GN 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18

Responsorial Psalm:  PS 116:10, 15, 16-17, 18-19

Second Reading:  ROM 8:31b-34

Gospel:  MK 9:2-10

 

Reflection

By: Jose Paulo M. Gonzales

 

Today, we behold the story of Jesus' magnificent Transfiguration. Jesus, spending many of His human days with the apostles, had miracles of prophecy, healing, and deliverance to hint at the apostles His divine reality, but in the Transfiguration, Jesus' divinity takes to another degree. At such moment, Jesus transformed before the apostles lucidly so mystically! I can only imagine how incredible a sight it was for the apostles to behold!

The placement of Jesus amid Moses and Elijah, would you believe it has a rather popular and interesting interpretation? It was not arbitrary. To have Jesus situated deliberately in the midst of the two signifies His being culmination of what they represented: Moses, the Law, and Elijah, the Prophets!

In the Transfiguration, God the Father greatly extolled Christ the same way Christ was exulted in His Baptism. In Jesus' Baptism, the Father called Jesus "the Son whom [He] loves, with whom He is well-pleased" (Matthew 3:17). In the Transfiguration, Jesus was held as the Beloved Son, whom we should listen to" (Mark 9:6). It is clear as day in the Transfiguration how to Jesus, we must be all ears, but also minds, hearts, and souls.

Apart from listening, God also assigns us the task of evangelization. He may have told the apostles to observe silence as regards the Transfiguration, but He told them to proclaim Jesus' resurrection. Jesus' Transfiguration gave the apostles a glimpse at His God Nature, with His Ascension to the Father, soon to follow the Transfiguration, meaning we have a Great Advocate to speak to the Father on our behalf (as our Representative) and in our behalf (for our benefit); but it was Jesus' Passion and Resurrection in the first place that meant: in His death and triumph over it, we have One whose sacrifice pays ultimately for our sins. In the Bible,"the wages of sin is death", (Romans 6:23) and to exonerate the guilt, a sacrifice must be paid. Jesus is the eternal Price paid for the cost of our sins—multiple generations of them—would have incurred. This is why it is understandably  apparent the necessity to spread His salvivic Resurrection.

 

Prayer

 

Jesus, thank You for dying for us on the cross and for rising to life. It is with Your triumph over death that we have life. May the life You promise us in heaven afforded by Your sacrifice move us to be cultivators of good here on earth, and as we complete our good work, may we enjoy the fruits of our labors in heaven with You for eternity. Please always be with us and replenish us in our work of spreading You and Your good work. We ask these, in Jesus' most holy Name, Amen.