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.

 

A Man of Silence and Remarkable Faith

 Solemnity of Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary

19 March 2022

 

First Reading: 2 SM 7:4-5a, 12-14a, 16

Responsorial Psalm: PS 89:2-3, 4-5, 27 and 29

Second Reading: ROM 4:13, 16-18, 22

Gospel: MT 1:16, 18-21, 24a

 

Reflection

By: Jose Paulo M. Gonzales

 

On this eventful day, we commemorate St. Joseph, a man with remarkable faith. A carpenter by trade, Joseph is often described as a man of righteous industry, silent dignity, and intimate devotion to his wife, Mary. Such was his devotion to Mary that in the Gospel today, in view of Mary's sudden conception, in order not to expose her shame, Joseph decided to divorce her in silence. Still, upon instruction from the angel of the Lord, Joseph took Mary as his wife, further as mother to what would be Jesus, the Christ.

The message of the angel of the Lord gives us a clear view into faith. The angel told Joseph: "Do not be afraid." It was the possible derision of the people along with all the unknown consequence(s) of Joseph's prospective choice to commit that were likely to have instilled fear in him, but the angel told him how to respond in faith: "Do not be afraid." As we realize today, not to be afraid is not necessarily to be without an inkling of fear, but to step out in faith regardless of whether we are fearful or not.

The second reading for today (Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22) gives us an important distinction between faith and fear. If the blessings that Abraham and his descendants were endowed with came from the righteousness born of faith and not of the fear that comes from the law, it follows that it is our affirmative actions in agreement to God's invitations and instructions by which we are blessed more than our merely following the law. To follow the law is fundamentally necessary to observe what is due to God and all creation, but to follow the law is only to perform the actions necessary to rule out offense or punishment. To follow the law is minimally provident and is overall restrictive, but to live in faith is to surpass the requirements of the law to make for more procreative forms of good towards God and all creation. The law can tell a tenant to give from his or her yield to the landlord a fruit or two or any appropriate proportion, but faith... love tells us to give even when we have few, to give even when others are prosperous, to give even when we could not rationalize it anymore. Faith tells us, as in the words of St. John Paul II: "Nobody is so poor he has nothing to give, and nobody is so rich he has nothing to receive."  A poor widow can give two coins out of the few she has in full and still be considered by the Lord generous in giving (Mark 12:41-44), and a rich man with all his wealth still stands to receive good lessons on giving and humility from Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). Like Joseph in today's Gospel, to act in faith is to accept our "Mary"—to accept and make best of the many things she could represent from our Model Mother to our divine lot—to follow the Lord out of our good hearts than our fearful minds—to follow the Lord even when we do not know the way and nothing seems to make sense, grounded in our belief that He is good, and that to us, He is God, He is our loving Father.

As we remember the Solemnity of St. Joseph today, may we forge of ourselves earnest workers especially in the work of good who know how to be silent when there is a need, if in our silence we can hear God and others better, and if in our silence we espouse a humbler attitude inclined towards loving others more than placing ourselves first.

Prayer

Lord, Thank You for being our good and loving Father and for all the graces You give us. As we remember St. Joseph today, may we grow in his qualities You want us to espouse ourselves, especially if in such keeping, we become more delightful children to You. We also ask for Your forgiveness in times when we fall short of this standard. These we ask, in Jesus' most holy Name, Amen.

 

Go into the Deep

 Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

06 February 2022

 

First Reading: IS 6:1-2a, 3-8

Responsorial Psalm: PS 138:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 7-8

Second Reading: 1 COR 15:1-11

Gospel: LK 5:1-11

 

Reflection

By: Sem. Carlo Alexis R. Malaluan

 

I love walking through labyrinths. The first time I walked through a labyrinth was over five years ago when I was invited for a personal retreat in Tagaytay. I was drawn to the slow pace to which the pathway lends itself and to long rests sitting in the center praying. As you go along the path, deeper realizations and reflections would arise. Sometimes, the path could be too confusing or overwhelming but a labyrinth is a spiritual encounter - an invitation to journey to the very center of our hearts where God awaits.

This is the very invitation of Christ to the fishermen of Galilee - put into the deep! I could imagine the reactions of these skilled men upon hearing the instruction of the Lord. Of course, they have mastered the sea. It has been their life. They could tell whether or not they could catch fishes. But Christ was insistent - duc in altum! Most of the time, we have thought that we already mastered our own seas - our lives, our relationships, our work, our priorities, our dreams and desires. We thought we knew the deepest recesses of our hearts only to find out that we have been casting our nets on the wrong side of the sea. We have been overly familiar with the world we create for ourselves thus we end up being frustrated and lonely because it is not our reality. But Christ sees us through. Christ looks tenderly on the things we fail or choose not to look at. Time and time, He invites us to go deeper - to put ourselves into the depths of our being and to see our own reality, our own brokenness and woundedness.

In the Camaldolese Constitutions, there is a passage that I like very much. It reads: "We are frequently cast out from our hearts as the sea casts out a dead body." We don't like going into the deep. We go into our hearts and are pushed out. We cannot take it. We cannot stay. We cannot be still because we know that the depth of our being and the silence of our hearts reveals only one reality - that we are broken. And that truth is very uncomfortable. However, it is liberating one - an intimate moment of spiritual breakthrough. This is the same experience of the people of God. Isaiah admits that he is a doomed man with sinful lips and Paul tells that he is not worthy to be called as an apostle. And with Peter we could only say with great humility - "Depart from me, Lord, for I am sinful man."

When we are able to enter into the depth of our hearts and accept the reality of our being - conversion begins. When Isaiah acknowledges his sinful lips, God gave him the faculty to proclaim His message to His people. When Paul and Peter admitted their unworthiness, they were given grace to become witnesses for Christ. Christ already knew how deep our seas were. Christ already knew the unexplored depths of our hearts yet Christ invites us to immerse ourselves in the reality of our lives no matter how shameful, how ridiculous and wounded they are.

When we are able to go into the depth of our hearts - we will only find one thing: the love of Christ that loves us even in the darkest deepest reality of our lives.

Prayer

Lord, You know my heart and my whole being more than I do. I offer You the entirety of my being most especially the parts where it is painful or shameful for me to look at. Grant me the grace to journey into the deepest parts of my soul ever consoled that I would find Your unchanging love in the brokenness of my heart. Amen.

 

God's Serene Voice

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

31 January 2021 

 

First Reading:  DT 18:15-20

Responsorial Psalm:  PS 95:1-2, 6-7, 7-9

Second Reading:  1 COR 7:32-35

Gospel:  MK 1:21-28

 

Reflection

By: Carlo Alexis Malaluan

 

"What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?" These were the words asked by the evil spirits to Jesus but wasn't it the same question that we ask when we are clouded with doubt and anxiety? Do we also question God in the midst of uncertainty and suffering?

The global pandemic caused by CoVid-19 has posed a great threat not only in the present situation of our society but also threatens the security of our future, thus we feel a deep and profound uncertainty on how we will live our daily lives. The pandemic is getting worse each day, jobs are scarce, education seems to be an ever-growing challenge, the political and social climate are in turmoil. Our inner peace has been disturbed. We are not used to this kind of life. And in these situations, we would often fall into the thinking: Have you come to destroy us?

In the readings, Paul tells us to be free of all anxieties. To divorce ourselves from the daily preoccupations of life and to focus to what is essential who is God. Sometimes, we espoused unnecessary things, we cannot separate ourselves from what is giving us pain and suffering. But Paul urges us to divorce from the worldly concerns that diminish our faith and to put our trust in the Lord.

 

In the midst of the noise of the world, we must turn to the God of Silence and Sound who tells us, like Jesus in the Gospel, "Quiet!" How many times have we fail to notice God's tender voice and would think of him as background noise to the daily distractions of life? The global pandemic has also been a purifying encounter for us to allow ourselves to pause and think for a moment. Fill your heart with the prayerful and serene peace of God and you will that the evil spirits will come out from your life.

In the silence, God works. God's silence is not God's rejection. God's silence is an invitation for us to see the good things he has done for us and is doing for us. May I invite you to offer a moment of silence each day that you may hear God's voice speaking.

"If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts"  - PS 95:8

Prayer

 

God of silence and God of all sound, help me to listen. Help me to do the deep listening to the sounds of my soul, waiting to hear Your soft voice calling me deeper into You. Give me attentive ears that begin to separate the noise from the sounds that are You; You who have been speaking to me and through me my whole life, for so long that You can seem like background noise. Today, help me hear You anew. Amen.

 

 

 

Sacred Space

3rd Sunday of Lent  04 March 2018

First reading: Exodus 20:1-17 Then God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work – you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it. Honour your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour. You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.    Second reading:  1 Corinthians 22-25 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Gospel: John 2:13-25 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six Years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone.

Reflection
by Theresa Ballo

I remember when I attended a seminar entitled Finding Your One True Love, the speaker mentioned that one important aspect of getting to know a potential boyfriend is to see him really angry. In this you will get to validate the authenticity of the kindness he shows you in the dating process. I have also seen a lot of calm and kind people transforming into “Incredible Hulk”, people who suddenly “got lost” and lashed out to emphasize a point and make other people agree or make amends to him/her. More so, I have been hurt by my 3 year old niece when she got really mad and accused me of being a terrible person just because I didn’t allow her to play outside at noon time. I think being angry is my least used emotions among others that could also be the reason why it is also a challenge for me to deal with angry people. 

I would be very anxious as I imagine myself being in the temple looking at Jesus so infuriated, turning tables of money, making a whip from ropes and driving animals out of the temple.  The problem was that greed, dishonesty, and extortion have taken over the temple. The merchants overlooked the sacred nature of the temple and have lost sight of the true purpose of sacrifices. Undoubtedly, Jesus was proclaiming that He was the Son of God, the Messiah. He had the authority and right to do what He did. The disciples saw that Jesus felt strongly about the house of God. He emphasized that a sacred place deserves to be treated with full reverence.  

Secondly, it was not wrong for the merchandisers to sell animals and doves. Nor was it wrong to change money. However, it was wrong to do it with greed and dishonesty. They make people believe that through the offering of the animals they can please God. We must be cautious about our motivation. We must put God first in all our motivation not for our own good and not for profit. 

Today may be a day to ask ourselves: What happens to me when I am angry? Do I get angry for the right reasons? What do I do when being mad subside? May we be like Jesus who out rightly asserted wrongdoings. May we take courage to go against abortion, extra-judicial killings and divorce. Moreover, what and where are our sacred places? What are the places that are sacred to us? Where do you commune with God in prayer? It might be your local parish church, a forest, the mountains, the beach or simply a swing in your backyard or a special bench in your house. We all need sacred places in our lives. Places where our only motivation is to experience and open ourselves to God’s presence in beauty, in silence, in peace – be that in nature, that small quiet corner in your house or in church. These sacred places and spaces help to ground us in God. Thus, we may experience God’s presence in that place more intensely and more concretely. That sacred place as well as sacred activity (such as simply sitting quietly in a chair, gazing in nature, etc.) also may help us open ourselves more intimate to God’s presence, word and grace. 


This third Sunday of Lent I am inviting you to deliberately sit quietly with God for 5, 10, or 30 minutes. We may receive many gifts and serenity as we quietly and peacefully simply sit with God. He longs for us and God is waiting for us. 

Prayer

Father, thank You for an example of Jesus' moral outrage and cleansing of the temple. Help us to stand strong against wrong acts. May You cleanse the temples of our hearts, no matter how much we might be offended and upset, so that our hearts might be holy places that welcome You. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.