The Key to Heaven

“Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”A man in today’s gospel (Mk 10:17-30) asks Jesus this question.  He wants to know the key to heaven.  And right there and then, Jesus shows him the key.  Jesus inquires whether he has been observing the commandments: God’s Ten Commandments.  After the man assures Jesus that he has been observing all these commandments from his youth, Jesus points out what is lacking: That the man has to go and sell all his belongings and the money he will give to the poor to earn a treasure in heaven; and only then he can come back to follow Jesus.With that, the man walks away sad, for he is very rich.We don’t know what happens after he walks away.  For henceforth, there is no more mention of this man in the gospel.  Did he follow what Jesus commanded?  We can never know.  But I guess that man can be anybody else.  He can be you or me.  In a word this gospel reading is addressed to all of us.  It seems that the Lord has been very demanding to the man.  How could he just sell all his belongings and give to the poor?  It was really a tall order.  Very difficult to do what Christ has commanded.  But there is one thing in this gospel text that strikes me.  While saying this tall order, Jesus looks at the man with love.  It is a look of love.  Wow!What is the feeling when somebody looks at us with love?  It does feel great, doesn’t it?  We probably are in cloud nine.  And if we are loved, we cannot help but love the other in return.  Love is reciprocated.  How attractive the love of Christ?  It impels us.  How lovable he is?  And loving him brings us to the heart of his commandment: to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength; and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.With love everything is possible.  Virgil puts it: “Omnia vincit amor” (Love conquers all).  So that if you are in love everything is easy.  What seems to be a tall order in the Lord’s command to the man in the gospel can be done.If we love God, we love our neighbors as well.  And in loving we do everything.  If the man in the gospel reading felt this love of Christ and how it was very compelling, he could have gone home and do what Christ wanted him to do.  Then heaven was for him.Only in loving Christ that we can give up everything and start following him.  Only in loving Christ that one can sell all his belongings and give to the poor.  Only in loving Christ that one can truly give.  This is what we lack in our country.  We don’t really love our fellow Filipinos.  Corruption happens because there is no love.  I remember this story told by a doctor that one time the Japanese government donated to a group of doctors a 4D ultrasound machine.  And when it was operational, the doctors charged the patients for only P1,000.00.  It was cheap considering that it was already an advanced type of technology.  Realizing that many patients were coming for check up, the doctors raised the fee to P2, 000.00.  When the Japanese donors knew about this they commented that we Filipinos had no love for our fellow Filipinos.  The ultrasound machine was given for free and these doctors charged a big amount for their patients.  Because we don’t really love our neighbors; and yet we call ourselves Christians.  St. John says that if we claim that we love God but not our neighbors then we are liars.  We often forget that it is better to give than to receive.  And the more we give the more we receive.  That is why it is not surprising that at the end of today’s gospel text we read: “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come.”Love indeed is the key to heaven.       

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, 23 August 2009

Do you remember Lucifer?  He was once an angel of God.  His name comes from the Latin word “lux”, which means light.  Or Lucifer comes from a Latin word which means “light-bearer.”  Originally, it comes from the Hebrew word “helel,” which means brightness.  Isaiah presented him as the “morning star” or “star of the morning” or “bright star.”  Lucifer’s downfall was an account of pride.  Here is how the prophet Isaiah pictures him: “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn!  How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!  You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit on the mount of assembly on the heights of Zaphon; I will ascend to the tops of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High’” (Isaiah 14:12-14, NIV).   Lucifer was a former angel who has chosen to reject God by saying: Non serviam (I will not serve).  He has chosen not to serve the Lord.  How contrary Lucifer’s position to what Joshua proclaims in today’s first reading: “As for me, I and my household will serve Yahweh” (Jos 24:15).  Joshua reminds the Israelites not to abandon Yahweh by serving other gods.  He warns them that if they do that, punishment and destruction will be their lot (Jos 24:20).Hence in this Sunday’s readings we are called to serve the Lord.  But how do serve the Lord?  Is it total or just partial?  In the second reading (Eph 5:21-32), it is mentioned that wives should submit themselves to their husbands.  The husbands are the heads of the family.  This analogy points to Jesus Christ as the head of the Church.  Therefore to belong to Christ is to submit totally to him.  There is no partial here.  It is either or.  It is to serve or not to serve.  It is a choice.  I am always convinced that religion is a choice.  In today’s gospel many of the Lord’s disciples turned away and stopped following him (Jn 6:66).  Then Jesus asked the Twelve: “Will you also go away?” (v. 67)  This was a challenge.  Maybe it was the same challenge the angels in heaven were confronting and it led to the downfall of Lucifer.  But Simon Peter replied: “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life” (v. 68).Can the world apart from Christ bring us eternal life?  Today we speak of secularization.  We regulate laws undermining God’s revelation.  We want to be in control of our lives.  Maybe we want to be like the superman of Nietzsche.  We are proud.  When we are healthy and strong, we forget God.  Material prosperity leads many rich countries to turn away from God.  I heard this from one foreigner who told me that he does not believe in God.  And I cannot blame him for he comes from a rich country.  Money and material success can oftentimes blind us from seeing God.  Material things cannot truly make us happy; and if they do, never forget that it is part of the devil’s lie.  Lucifer’s lie.  Lucifer’s ambition to be like God.  We put it this way: if on earth we only rely on material satisfactions, how about one day when these material supports crumble, where shall we go?  I know someone who was not really religious.  He went to Church just to comply his obligation.  He just smoked outside the Church during the mass.  He gambled and was not a faithful husband.  He was rich.  One day, he was diagnosed with cancer.  And how things had changed.  From then on he went to attend mass every morning.  He said the rosary every day.  He suddenly became religious.  Medications were no longer possible.  Chemotherapy was already very painful, so he just took only once.  There was no more earthy power to turn to.  Only with God, he could find strength and hope.  There was nobody to turn to.  When one is already approaching death, one can ask: What then?  To whom shall we go?  Only Jesus Christ has the words of eternal life…        

Give us this bread… Come and believe!

I heard this from a cousin.  One day, in one of his lectures, Bo Sanchez showed a one thousand peso bill to his audience.  He was asking whether anybody from them would like to have it.  Of course, most of them raised their hands.  But one person among them stood up and walked in front and grabbed the money from Bo’s hands.  “Here is the man,” Bo remarked.  “When I said whether anybody would like to have that one thousand peso bill, it was not enough to just raise your hands.  You should stand up and get it from me,” Bo explained afterwards.The crowd in the gospel, after Jesus’ discourse on that life-giving bread that comes from heaven, asks the Lord to give them that bread.  Jesus replies to them that He is the bread of life and that whoever comes to Him will never go hungry and whoever believes in Him will never go thirsty (cf. Jn. 6:35).  Our Lord shows to them that it is not enough to ask for it.  They should come and believe.  If you want to have that one thousand peso bill of Bo Sanchez, you should stand up and get it from him.  If you want to have that life-giving bread who is Christ, you should come to him and believe in him. 

There was this lay minister who went to the barber for a haircut.  Knowing that he was a lay minister, the barber said that he did not believe in God.  The lay minister only listened and never argued with the barber.  After the haircut, the lay minister went out.  Just outside the barber shop he saw a man with long hair; his face looked dirty.  All of a sudden, there was this urge to go back to the barber shop.  Back inside the shop, he told the barber, “Brother, you know, I do not believe that there are barbers.”  Surprised, the barber retorted, “We just had your haircut.  And now you are saying that you do not believe that there are barbers?  Come on!”  “Yes,” the lay minister answered back, “since if barbers exist then there would be no person with long hair.  Look at that man outside your shop.  He looks dirty with his long hair.”  “He has long hair because he does not come to us for a haircut,” argued the barber.  Smiling, the lay minister said, “See, there is no God because you do not come to him.”

The point is this: In order for us to have this bread that gives life, we should come to Christ.  We should believe in him.  Many times in life we fail to do this.  Maybe we often complain why bad things happen to us.  We are like the Israelites who were once complaining to Moses and Aaron of their sad flight in the desert.  They said that it could have been better if they stayed in Egypt and died there rather than being in the desert and die in hunger (cf. Ex. 16:2-3).  Why so many problems?  Why can’t I get the things I want?  Why the crosses and trials?  Why, why, why?  So many why’s…  Hay naku!  We still lack what St. Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians: “You must lay aside your former way of life and the old self which deteriorates through illusion and desire, and acquire a fresh, spiritual way of thinking.  You must put on that new man created in God’s image, whose justice and holiness are born of truth” (4:22-24). 

St. Paul speaks of “spiritual way of life.”  This is what we also call spiritual poverty.  It means that in life we totally depend on God, for earthly bread – material things and all – cannot truly satisfy us.  God alone.    

Until Jesus Christ Rules Over Our Hearts…

The gospel according to John (6:1-15) mentions about the feeding of the multitudes.  Jesus “took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those whore were reclining, and also as much of the fish as they wanted” (v.11).  Jesus then satisfies the hunger of the multitude.  This event already prefigures the institution of the Eucharist during last supper. In the same gospel account Jesus declares: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (Jn. 6:35). 

We now ask: what kind of bread Christ has brought us? Is it purely to satisfy our bodily desire? Is it material or spiritual? Earthly bread, I believe, cannot truly satisfy us. Time and again it has been proven that worldly and material things cannot give us full satisfaction. I remember here that rich British national who came to visit our country. All his life he was not exposed to seeing poverty until he came here. He saw how poor we are as a people. Poverty was all over the place. Touched by what he witnessed, he went back to England and sold his properties.  When he came back to our country, he donated everything he had to Gawad Kalinga. And since then he became its active member. Before when he was materially rich, he was not happy; there was emptiness. But being spiritually poor after giving up everything, there was joy and contentment in him. I also recall Bill Gates, one of the world’s richest men, commenting that if you want to feel unhappy, then become a rich man.

Indeed, to say that material things make us happy is an illusion. So what Christ has brought to us is not material satisfaction. He does not feed us with earthly bread. He brings us spiritual contentment. He brings us himself, the bread of life. With him alone we are fully satisfied.

After they were full, the people were amazed. They realized that Jesus was truly a prophet. So they wanted Jesus to be their king. Sensing this, Jesus managed to flee to the mountain all alone (cf. vv.14-15). The people were satisfied, but their satisfaction only remained at the level of the material. We see this how they planned to have Jesus as their king. They were only looking at Jesus as a political messiah; that Jesus would establish in them a worldly kingdom.

But Jesus is no political leader. His kingdom does not belong here. What he wants of us is that he rules over our hearts. His calling is metanoia - a change of heart. The philosopher Plato, who lived prior to Christ’s coming, once said that until philosophers become kings and kings have the spirit of philosophy, only then that we can have a just society. But I may add further: Until Jesus rules over our hearts, only then that we can have a just and humane society. Only then, as St. Paul mentions in his Letter to the Ephesians (4:1-6), that we can live in a truly human manner: humble, kind, patient, bearing in love with one another, peaceful and united.

Jesus is the bread of life; he is our life. And if he rules over our hearts, then what a world we have.       

Spiritual Blessings Over the Material (15th Sunday in Ordinary Time [B], 12 July 2009)

Today’s readings speak of spiritual blessings over the material.  The prophet Amos has been called by God to prophesy to the people of Israel (Amos 7:15).  The gospel reading (Mk 6: 7-13), deals with the good Lord commissioning the Twelve to proclaim the good news, to expel demons, to cure the sick, etc.  The Lord also gives them authority over unclean spirits.  And in doing their mission they must follow this very important instruction: bring nothing for the journey - no bread, no bag, no money in the belt, but just a staff.  Wear only sandals and no two tunics.  It is like saying that they leave all baggages behind.  In a word, they must be materially poor.  But they must also eat.  In another gospel account it is said that the apostles must stay in a house where they eat and drink as they are given, for they deserve also a compensation from their labor (Lk. 10:7).  The prophet Amos must also earn his bread as he prophesies to the people of Israel (Amos 7: 12).

But what has been shown here?  The Lord’s instruction means that the apostles’ preoccupations are only the spiritual ones.  Their only treasures are the spiritual blessings that the Lord has given them: goodness, holiness, wisdom, words of repentance, peace and love.  With these blessings they give thanks to God like the way St. Paul puts it at the opening verse of today’s second reading: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Eph. 1: 3).  Such blessings one cannot only keep to oneself.  One must give them away for others to have.  That is why the apostles must go and bring healing and peace. 

This week at St. Paul University Manila where I teach philosophy, I just had a film showing for my students.  We watched a documentary film from the discovery channel on Plato’s great book called Republic.  During the viewing I noticed that most of the students looked bored and tired, though they were a little excited at the start.  They thought it was fun.  But it was not.  The film contains some heavy stuff for them.  It contains Plato’s World of Ideas.  And what could I expect from these students who were uninitiated to the world of philosophy.  So I never reprimanded them.  Some of them were just sleeping but I never called their attention. I just allowed it to be that way.  It was a 50-minute documentary film; it was almost an hour for a torture.  The last class was also terrible.  They were not asleep but were very noisy, even louder than the TV’s volume.  I should have been angry and walked out of the classroom but I never did that.  I just stretched the narrow limits of my patience.  I kept my focus. 

After the film, I told them that if we were watching Twilight or Transformers, I could have kept their attention.  I processed their reaction.  I reiterated Plato’s idea of man as having three parts: the rational part, the emotional part, and the appetitive part.  I told them that most of us only remain at the level of the appetitive.  It is our drive for food or drink, for sex and for all those bodily appetites.  Plato believes that for us to be truly human, these lower appetites must be properly checked.  The rational part must rule over the lower parts.  The students were bored because philosophy as shown in Plato’s Republic belongs to the higher part of man - his rationality.  Many of us only remain at the level of the bodily appetites, at the level of the senses.  Go to the malls.  What do you see?  How about our TV shows, what do you find there?  The world around us offers only things of the senses.  I don’t think we discuss ideas when we are at the coffee shops, but maybe the latest cars and technologies and fashion.  The students were bored because they were not used to seeing things from the intellect.  I cannot blame them for they belong to a generation that espouses too much on material things - on things of the senses.  And this for Plato is only an illusion, not reality.  Reality belongs to the world of ideas - a world beyond our seeing.

In my frustration, I told my students that by next semester I will not be teaching anymore.  I will just go to the mountain and read Plato’s Republic and there enjoy the beauty of nature.  It is better that way than wasting my time with them.  But Plato’s famous allegory of the cave reminds me that for a person who has attained enlightenment and who has seen the truth, he must go back to the cave and invite others to see the truth.  This is not easy.  It is a lonely journey.  It is not easy to stretch one’s patience for others.    But a teacher must do it.  He must bring others to the truth without ceasing, even if includes a lot of sacrifice.  Gradually, they will soon realize what truly matters in life. 

The apostles in today’s gospel bring only spiritual blessings for others.  It only shows that spiritual blessings are more important and more lasting than the material.

I wonder why as a priest I cannot cure the sick, literally.  I have not even expelled demons in my life.  The apostles were given the authority to do that.  I recall Bishop Soc Villegas’ commentary during a Manila clergy recollection.  He was asking why we priests find difficulty in curing the sick, expelling demons.  Bishop Soc reminds them of the Apostle Peter.  He was on his way to the temple when a crippled beggar asked him for money.  But Peter says, ”I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, (rise and) walk” (Acts 3:6).  Then the beggar was cured.  Why we priests can no longer do what Peter did?  Bishop Soc’s answer strikes a sharp chord: because we can no longer say that we priests have neither silver nor gold.

The apostolic zeal is gone.  I am afraid that we priests also remain at the level of the appetitive or of the material, like most of our people in today’s world.    

Quiet and Be Still! (12th Sunday in Ordinary Time [B], June 21, 2009)

Our gospel today (Mk. 4:35-41) is a soothing balm to a terrified, anxious spirit.

Jesus and his disciples were on a boat when a violent storm suddenly came. The boat almost sank due to heavy waves. The disciples were terrified. But Jesus was sleeping like a baby. They woke him up and asked him with these words: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” After waking up, the Lord commanded the wind and the sea to be quiet and be still. And so it happened. Then he asked his disciples: “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?”

The Lord’s words are stronger than the wind.

Many times we are like the disciples: terrified and lacking in faith. Why am I having these problems? Why this financial crisis? Why bad things happen to good people? Why this N1H1 virus? Why this illness? Why am I troubled? Why I failed the board exam? Why do the people I trusted turn out to be a disappointment? Why am I poor? Why can’t I get the things I want? Why Lord, it seems you don’t listen to my prayers? Where are you Lord when it hurts? Why, why, why? So many why’s… We may be like the disciples accusing the Lord of not caring that we are perishing. We cry out and blame the Lord when bad things happen to us. We are afraid when the many different storms of life come our way. Then all of a sudden the Lord will just rebuke us: “Quiet! Be still!” Or after such outburst or tantrum, the good Lord will just simply speak to us: “Tumigil ka nga! Tumahimik ka! Just be calm. I am just here. Why be afraid? Have faith.”

When God is with us, who can be against us?  Don’t forget this principle in theology that God does not give us problems we cannot solve. God’s grace is sufficient for us. If you have big problems, then rejoice!  God loves you that much.  Look at Job in our first reading (Job. 38:1, 8-11). It is stated there that God is in control of everything. He is our creator and our master. It is even in our experience that the closer we are to God, the more problems and temptations we have. We have problems because God believes in us. And if we are led into temptations, then rejoice!  It only means that we are close to God. The devil no longer tempts those who are one of his kind.

Be not afraid. Have faith! God is with us.

Just last summer I witnessed such a great faith in the midst of a terrible tragedy.  One of our seminarians died.  His name is Waldemar.  He was the magna cum laude of their class. He is supposed to be in Ateneo this semester for his Theological formation.  He was once my student.  And being the vocation director of our diocese, I even planned of recommending him to pursue his theological studies in Spain.  He got nine medals during graduation.  He is very brilliant.  And not just that, Waldemar was a good man. He was well respected by his fellow seminarians.  Every commencement, he is awarded as the seminarian of the year.  In short, he is an exceptional seminarian.  He is very promising. But how fortune flies.  More than a week after graduation, right after Easter Sunday, he died from drowning.  There were four who got drowned, but only one died and it was Waldemar.  The three who were saved were girls.  During summers, our seminarians together with some lay and youth volunteers are immersed in a popular mission to the barrios.  It was during that time that Waldemar’s mission team had to take a break and go for a beach outing.  But at two in the afternoon, when they were about to leave the beach, Waldemar and the three companions were drowning.  The rest of the team managed to rescue the three girls.  But Waldermar was nowhere to be found.  He was seen only thirty minutes later.  He was already dead.  Such joy turned out to be tragic.  Later in the evening I was there in the hospital before Waldemar’s dead body.  It was too painful.  It seemed all dreams were vanished.  We waited for the parents to arrive.  They lived from the other side of Bohol so it would take time to travel.  What could be the parents reaction?  I could not imagine the pain in their hearts.  And so they arrived.  The father was very calm but the mother and the sister of Waldemar were terribly crying.  And what was amazing about the parents: there was no single word questioning God for what happened.  The mother only said, “Anak, God has another plan for you.  Maybe better than our plans.”  And what a faith.  Such a great one.

I also believe that Waldemar is in heaven now.  Just last month, I learned that the parents went to the place of the three girls.  They wanted to know what really happened.  The three survivors said that Kuya Waldemar saved their lives.  And what a sacrifice.  He died for others to live.  Waldemar is a worthy Christian because he comes from a family of deep faith.

God is with us.  There is nothing to worry.  Be not afraid.  Have faith.  Just trust him and everything will just be fine.  God is in control.  Just let go and let God.  Don’t forget, as the song goes, that God will find a way when there seems to be no way.  And if we believe, like Jesus on that boat, we can sleep like a baby.