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.

The Sacred Heart and the Fallen Priests

I. When priests have fallen, what should be our reaction? One of condemnation or one of compassion?
The gospel says, “Judge not, that you be not judged” (Mt. 7:1). Henceforth our attitude towards fallen priests should be one of compassion.

On behalf of the fallen priests, maybe we can recite this line from the consecration prayer to the Sacred Heart:

“I take Thee, O Sacred Heart, for the sole object of my love, the protection of my life, the pledge of my salvation, the remedy of my frailty and inconstancy, the reparation for all the defects of my life, and my secure refuge at the hour of my death. Be Thou, O Most Merciful Heart, my justification before God Thy Father, and screen me from His anger which I have so justly merited. I fear all from my own weakness and malice, but placing my entire confidence in Thee.”

II. Priests are sinners like all the rest. But what is special about them? God has anointed them. So even if they are fallen, they remain special in God’s eyes.

Remember the story about Cain? God punished him for killing his brother. It was too great a punishment for Cain. But God felt sorry for him. God placed a mark on Cain’s body to signify that he was on God’s protection. Hence no one could harm Cain (see Gen. 4: 1-6).

Whenever there are fallen priests, we don’t have the right to judge them. We should instead pray for them. God’s mark is with them. The priesthood is indelible. Its mark is forever. Let God be the judge of fallen priests.

III. The distinction between ex opere operato and ex opere operantis.

Even with fallen or sinner priests, the sacraments presided over by them are still valid. The grace conferred does not depend on the priest. Grace comes from the sacrament itself. This is the principle ex opere operato, literally means “from the work performed.” Ex opere operantis means that because the priest performing the sacrament is not in the state of grace, he receives a little grace or none at all. One’s good disposition is needed also for the grace to be received. If a person with a contrite heart confesses his sins to a sinful priest, then he gets the grace of forgiveness. But if that person is not in good disposition, even if he confesses to a saintly priest, still he gets little forgiveness or none at all.

We pray for our fallen priests. We pray that God will grant them the grace of repentance. This we ask through the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The Sacred Heart and the Task of the Priests in Bringing God to the World Today

I. Introduction:

Three salient points from our theme here: 1) The Sacred Heart, 2) the priestly task in the proclamation of the gospel, and finally 3) bringing God in today’s world.

The following points will be considered below.

II. The Sacred Heart

The Sacred Heart as the fountain of love and mercy is and will always be flowing for all generations. The Epistle to the Hebrews goes, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever” (13:8).

The love of God is always relevant. It is always significant. God is always the Emmanuel- the God who is with us. Constantly through the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we can always avail of the richness of God’s love and mercy. It is only a matter of our openness to Him.

How open are we to the Sacred Heart? Do we unceasingly ask for his forgiveness?

III. The Priestly Task in Proclaiming the Gospel

The First Letter to the Corinthians puts it “For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast about, for this obligation has been entrusted to me. How terrible it would be for me if I didn’t preach the gospel!” (9:16)

The proclamation of the gospel is the task of the priests. The core of the gospel is love. The priests then have to proclaim this love. But in proclaiming the heart of the priests should be patterned after the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In a word, they are witnesses of God’s love and mercy. Through their lives they will make others turn to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

IV. Bringing God in Today’s World

The priests proclaim God in today’s world. There is a kind of urgency in doing this. The world is fast changing. We live in a secularized and globalized world. The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church “Lumen Gentium” (1) declares:

“Christ is the Light of nations. Because this is so, this Sacred Synod gathered together in the Holy Spirit eagerly desires, by proclaiming the Gospel to every creature, to bring the light of Christ to all men, a light brightly visible on the countenance of the Church. Since the Church is in Christ like a sacrament or as a sign and instrument both of a very closely knit union with God and of the unity of the whole human race, it desires now to unfold more fully to the faithful of the Church and to the whole world its own inner nature and universal mission. This it intends to do following faithfully the teaching of previous councils. The present-day conditions of the world add greater urgency to this work of the Church so that all men, joined more closely today by various social, technical and cultural ties, might also attain fuller unity in Christ.”

The priests should bring God to our world today. They must do it with love and mercy, until the day when all people have turned to Christ – to His Sacred Heart.

Pray for your priests! Pray that they will fulfill their mission faithfully until the end.

God bless her!

I tell you a story about Richelle.  She is an 18-year old girl who comes from my hometown.  She is close to our family because my papa is her ”ninong” when she was baptized.  Her elder sister was also my classmate way back my elementary years.  Papa and Richelle’s father are bestfriends.  Usually when there are fiestas, papa and Richelle’s father never miss to attend.  They love eating and drinking.  Whenever there are occasions they go from one barrio to another.  They are like politicians.  Until one day Richelle’s father was diagnosed with a Renal Disease.  He had to undergo a regular dialysis.  And he is doing this treatment to this day.

But how misfortune flies further.  A year ago Richelle was diagnosed with an End Stage Renal Disease.  Twice a week she undergoes a dialysis.  Actually the dialysis is supposed to be three times a week.  But as a compromise, since two of them in the family, Richelle has it twice a week and the father thrice.  Richelle has to pay P32, 000.00 a month.  I don’t know with the father.  I presume they have sponsors for that.  It’s a pity situation.

But Richelle is a symbol of courage and hope.  One day she told me of her wish to pursue a college degree.  She wanted to enroll in a University where after graduation she could easily land a job.  She thought of the University of San Carlos in Cebu.  Since nowhere else to go, she asked me if I could support her financially.  Since I am also pursuing my studies without any scholarship, I don’t have the capacity to grant her request.  All I could do was to promise her of looking for a grant to support her.  On her behalf, just two weeks ago, I humbly asked the president of the University of San Carlos and the German provincial of the SVDs of the possibility of having Richelle as a university scholar.  With a little luck, they recommended me to the priest-in-charge of the university scholarship grants.  Richelle could enrol while the University would look for sponsor. She is also smart. To make sure that she could be accepted, she already took up the entrance examination of the University. She was accepted for the degree program of BSBA major in Marketing in the first semester of the Academic Year 2009-2010.  The German SVD provincial said that he was touched by Richelle’s story.

Now Richelle is in school. I really admire her. Send a Soul to School is giving her one thousand every month for her additional allowance. Her willingness to pursue a college degree despite her situation is worth emulating. She is too young for a dialysis. I asked her doctor if it is okey for her to go to school. The doctor told me that it is alright as long as she is faithful to her dialysis. She even told me that Richelle is too ambitious because she even wanted to be a lawyer someday.

Here is a young girl who is practically prolonging her life through dialysis, but unaffected. She is showing us great strength. She is bringing us hope in the midst of a miserable condition. What a young girl! She is sick, maybe dying. But she lives her life as if it will be a century. God bless her!