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.       

Not Signs But Living Witnesses

In one scene from the Gospel, the scribes and Pharisees are asking Jesus to work some signs.  That is why Jesus calls them evil and unfaithful.  They are eager for a sign but Jesus assures them that they will not be given any.  What sign do they need?  It is already Jesus standing before them.  The people of Nineveh were transformed because of Jonah.  The queen of the South came to Solomon just to listen to his wisdom.  And here Jesus is more than Jonah and Solomon (see Mt. 12:38-42).  What else do the scribes and Pharisees need?  Is Jesus not enough for them?  Why look for some signs other than Jesus Himself?

By the way, what do we mean by the word ’sign”?  A sign is something that points out to something else.  For example, smoke is a sign that there is fire.  Smoke points out to something else, that is, fire.  In the case of Jesus, why do the scribes and Pharisees ask for something else when it is already Jesus?  That is why they deserved to be called evil and unfaithful.

How about us?  Are we still looking for some signs for us to believe?  When the priest consecrates the ordinary bread and wine, they become the body and blood of Christ.  Christ is really present in the Eucharist.  The consecrated bread and wine are not signs of Christ.  They do not point to something else.  The bread and the wine is body and blood of Christ.  It is already Christ.  It is not pointing to him, like a sign pointing to something else.  It is Christ’s real presence.  So that everytime we receive communion, we receive Christ Himself, allowing Him to enter into our lives.  St. Paul is right when he says, “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).  What we receive is Christ and not something else. 

Receiving Christ means that he lives in us.  After the mass when we go out and go back to our ordinary lives, we bring Christ with us.  We become now, not as signs, but living witnesses of Christ.  Through our actions, we show Christ to others.  We bring love, compassion, forgiveness, peace and truth to a world that is often too lacking of them.  That others may believe in Him…     

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.