SSOS Financial Statement (For the period ended Nov. 30, 2008)

SSOS- Statement of Income and Expenditures ( For the period ended Nov. 30. 2008 )

Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul (B) January 25, 2009

“Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.”(Rom. 5:20).  A very consoling passage from St. Paul.  It is a soothing balm for us sinners.  It eases our pain.  Sin is painful and with it a feeling of hopelessness.  But there is a superabundance of God’s grace.  It is like making sense over nonsense, as the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur proposes.  We are sinners but we are not hopeless.  The Apostle Paul reminds us: “In hope we already have salvation.  But if we saw what we hoped for, there would no longer be hope: how can you hope for what is already seen?  So we hope for what we do not see and we will receive it through patient hope.”(Rom. 8:24-25)

Indeed, we live in a society where hope seems bleak.  Sin covers our lives.  Just look around us: social sin is rampant.  Poverty is a social phenomenon.  I don’t want to believe that the poverty of the majority of our people is God’s will.  A big NO!  I rather want to think that greed is the major cause of such a sad fact.  Corruption happens because of greed.  This is very serious (more than our personal sins) since the effect is widespread.  Social injustice is everywhere.  Count the workers who do not receive a fair share of their labor.  Many workers just remain contractuals forever to the advantage of the capitalists.  Their salary is below what is required by law.  And do you think this is normal?  Do you think this is God’s will?  I am afraid that the widespread apathy of our people is a sign of hopelessness.  A difficult predicament.  A resignation.        

But St. Paul is telling us to be patient.  The battle is not yet over.  The Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky writes, “Good and evil are in constant battle and they find their battlefields in the hearts of men.”  Life on earth may be an endless struggle.  It is a journey full of failures and frustrations along the way.  It is at times very very dark.  And like wearied soldiers we are down.

One time The Buddha showed the people gathered around him a lotus flower.  Without a word, he raised it for them to see.  Surprisingly, the people followed The Buddha.  For what reason?  We know that lotus flowers grow in muddy areas.  So here the people got The Buddha’s point: Though how muddy life is, a flower still blooms.  Roses have thorns, but never forget that thorns have roses too.  My philosophy professor once told me a story about the drunk man who, late at night, suddenly fell by the canal.  Despite the ordeal, the drunk man managed to cry out: “I’m in this ditch but I’m looking at the stars.”

We are subject to the sinful human condition.  And yet we are not without hope.  For as pointed out above, no matter how muddy life is a flower blooms.  We may be in a ditch but we can still gaze into the night sky and see the stars.  We are sinners, but God’s forgiveness is everlasting.  God is our hope.  His love makes sense the senselessness of our lives.  We can always change our lives and in doing so we change society.  This we hope and pray!  And with St. Paul we say: “Let us give thanks to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!”(Rom. 7:25)   

Feast of the Holy Child (B) January 18, 2009

Today is the feast of the Holy Child.  This devotion to the Holy Child is very popular in our country.  In today’s gospel our Lord reminds us that unless we become little children, we cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. (Mk. 10:15)

What is in a child that makes us attain the heavenly life?  Our Lord is using this beautiful metaphor of the little children to draw us a very important message.  In my reflection there are three characteristics which are obvious among little children.

The first one, being defenseless.  They are very vulnerable.  That is why we often remind our children not to talk to stangers.  Also, in our television shows there are things not suitable for them.  Parental guidance is always necessary.  This is because children have no defenses.  But what is positive in being defenseless?  Little children are always open to others.  A boxer who fails to keep his guard will be hitted by his opponent.  Too bad for that boxer.  But for us who long for eternal life must keep no defenses to allow God’s punch to hit us.  For the gospel to hit the core of our being.  The problem with us grown ups is that we have many defenses.  Defense in Latin is defendere, that is, to strike away.  We strike away God’s word.  We create walls for protection.  We tend to be self-sufficient.  We don’t just allow others to enter into our economy.  And the worst of all, we don’t allow God to enter into our lives.  Children are defenseless.  They are always open.  Defenseless in Tagalog is walang-laban.  Many times in life tayo ay lumalaban sa Panginoon.  Sana tayo ay walang laban.  We keep down our guard for our Lord to hit us.  For his Words to strike us.  That is why in today’s feast of the Holy Child, we are reminded to be like little children who are defenseless.

The second characteristic, humility.  The metaphor of the little children has full of images.  In the gospel the adjective ”little” is emphasized.  Being little literaly means low.  Baba in Tagalog.  Little children are mababa.  Hence we have the Tagalog word mapagkumbaba.  The Cebuano word for mababa is ubos.  So the Cebuano word for humble is mapaubsanon.  The word then humility is derived from the Latin word humilis or humus, traslated as ”ground” or ”soil”.  During Ash Wednesday, the priest reminds the people saying: “From dust you came, to dust you return.”  Therefore, we are just but ashes.  There’s nothing to be proud of.  The problem with us grown ups, especially if we have achieved a little success or wealth, we tend to be proud.  We feel we are high.  No, we are just humus (ground).  The little children are our reminders.

The third characteristic, trust.  One day a jeepney was running too fast.  The driver was more or less reckless.  The passengers were complaining.  They were afraid the driver would crash their way through the street.  Among the passengers, there was this little boy who seemed to be enjoying the ride.  The old man sitting beside the boy asked: “You little rascal, why are you enjoying the ride?  Are you not afraid we might crash?”  The little boy smiled and calmly replied, “I am not afraid.  We won’t crash.  The driver is my father.  He could not allow it to happen.”

Too often in our lives we suspect God’s providence.  We distrust God’s goodness.  We forget that we have a Father above whose care for his children is without end.  The little boy in the story completely trusts his father.  Little children do not worry about life.  They know that they have their parents to take care of them.  

Our Lord Jesus Christ is reminding us to learn from the kind of trust little children have. No matter how uncertain life is, we don’t have to worry.  God is with us.  In the midst of difficulties and struggles, we are not alone.  God shares our pain.  He is our Father.  Trust him and things will just be fine.  Allow him to direct our lives and things will just be falling into place.  Oh, how we can learn from the little ones!

Unless we become like little children, we are not worthy of God’s kingdom.  Only childlike characteristics - defenseless, humility, trust - will bring us to heaven.    

              

  

Feast of the Lord’s Baptism (B) January 11, 2009

Our Lord Jesus Christ, like us, has been baptized.  Thus the Feast of the Lord’s Baptism.  He submits himself to the baptism of John the Baptist.  If we recall, John’s baptism is a baptism of repentance.  In the river of Jordan, people come to be baptized.  They immerse into the water to be cleansed of their sinfulness and then emerge from it as new creatures.  Our Lord Jesus Christ, though without sin, compels John to baptize him.  Unworthy even “to bend down” and untie the Lord’s sandals, John baptizes the Lord (Mk. 1:8).

The Lord’s baptism expresses God’s solidarity with humanity’s sinful condition.  It opens the gates of heaven.  With the Spirit descending upon the Lord, a voice from heaven speaks: “You are my son, the Beloved, the One I have chosen” (Mk. 1:11).

The plan of the Father has been revealed in Jesus Christ.  The extraordinary event at Jordan prefigures the Resurrection.  The Father exalts the Son and through the Son the whole of life and creation is renewed.  The Father is revealed through the Son.  In John’s testimony: “This is the one who comes after me, but he is already ahead of me for he was before me.  From his fullness we have all received, favor upon favor.  For God had given us the Law through Moses, but Truth and Loving-kindness came through Jesus Christ.  No one has ever seen God, but God-the-Only-Son made him known: the one who is in and with the Father” (Jn. 1:15-18).

What has been transpired in the baptism of our Lord is the special relationship between the Father and the Son.  Jesus is the Beloved, the Chosen one.  The Father loves the Son.  The Son loves the Father.  The Son obeys the will of the Father.  And this obedience to the will of the Father brings the drama of our redemption to the Paschal Mystery: Passion, Death, and Resurrection of the Lord.

The Lord’s baptism commences his public ministry: bringing good news to the poor; healing the broken-hearted; proclaiming liberty to captives and freedom to those in prison; announcing the year of God’s favor and God’s vengeance; comforting all who grieve; giving garlands instead of ashes, joy instead of sorrow and festal clothes instead of despair (Is. 61:1-3).

In fulfilling the will of the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ endures until the end crying at the garden of Gethsemane, “Abba, all things are possible for you; take this cup away from me.  Yet not what I want, but what you want” (Mk: 14:36).

What God wants from us.  God’s plan is revealed in Christ.  So that if we die with Christ, we also rise with him.  Glory can only be achieved in following the way of the Lord.  Jesus Christ has been obedient to the Father.  He follows the path God wants him to do.

We have been baptized in Christ.  And today’s celebration of the Lord’s baptism reminds us also of our own baptism.  Our baptism makes us sons and daughters of God.  We are now free to call God our Father.  Our baptism makes us participants in the drama of salvation.  Our special bond with the Father through Jesus Christ makes us collaborators in the renewal of our lives and the rest of creation.  But many times we fall short.  Many times we tend to follow what we want and not what God wants of us.  Many times we rely too much on human security to the point of forgetting that we have a Father up there who never ceases to provide for his children.  We accumulate wealth, and worse, we do it at the expense of others who are supposed to be our brothers and sisters. 

In a country of widespread poverty, we ask: Are the poor not our brothers and sisters?  We always want a comfortable life.  That is why we work hard for it.  Idleness has no place in our dictionary.  But in going up the economic ladder, we make sure that we don’t leave others behind.  We make sure that we don’t become rich at the expense of others.  The problem is evident when there is a wide gap between the rich and the poor.

Our country is the largest Catholic country in Asia.  We are a baptized people.  But sadly, our country has been labeled as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.  Where are the Catholics?  Where are the baptized?  Where are our brothers and sisters?  And if one day God our Father would inquire from us about the sad plight of our least brothers and sisters, maybe we reply like what Cain did: “I don’t know; am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gn. 4:9).

We are God’s children.  We are all brothers and sisters.  We are each other’s keepers.  The Tagalog recessional song captures our sentiment here.  “Walang sino man ang nabubuhay para sa sarili lamang.  Walang sino man ang namamatay para sa sarili lamang.  Tayong lahat ay may pananagutan sa isa’t-isa. Tayong lahat ay tinipon ng Diyos na kapiling n’ya.”        

Poor Mang Jim!

Walking along P. Noval Street this morning, I met a very familiar face.  He was an old friend during my seminary years (late 1990’s) here in the University of Santo Tomas.  His name is Mang Jim.  He was once the bookbinder of Ate Belen, our favorite photocopier (cause with her we could make “utang”).  When I met him this morning he easily recognized me.  Maybe I had not changed then since the last time he saw me.  He was happy to know that I had been ordained and had been in the ministry for five years now.  And there in that corner of P. Noval, Mang Jim lives with her wife and only child.  The family owns a little store.  I recall that before I left Manila, Mang Jim owned a xerox machine.  He then separated from Ate Belen and was able to establish his own photocopy and bookbinding business.  When I saw his corner this morning, there was no more xerox machine, only a handful of papers for bookbinding.  Mang Jim told me that he no longer had a xerox machine.  Just a few bookbinding for a living and a little sari-sari store with a minimum display of goods.  A sad sight indeed.  Mang Jim told me that he was getting poorer and poorer.  A hard time indeed for him and his family.  He envied me for I did not have to experience his difficulties.  I told him that we only had different problems.  I told him that in the news, a rich man in the US committed suicide.  I told him that money could not guarantee a person happiness.  Even Bill Gates could attest to that.  I told him that in rich countries where wealth abounds and people live in luxury, many poeple no longer believe in God.  It is just always like this: when one is materially fulfilled, then one needs no God.  The financial crisis in the US and in other rich countries has caused a lot of people to despair.  For when one no longer believes in God and when human security fails, then one has nowhere else to go.

I told Mang Jim that we are still lucky because we still have a God who won’t let us down.  We have a treasure that no one can take away from us: GOD.  Material wealth is good and a necessity, but having God is still the better option.  But our faith should not mean resignation.  Mang Jim should not just submit to a poverty that is partly not of his own making.  He is just one among the many victims of our corrupt system. 

I always believe that we are not poor.  I always believe that we can be at par with other advanced countries of Asia.  Only if we work harder.  Only if good men and women of this country will stand up against the evils of corruption. 

Then Mang Jim will suffer no more…