22nd SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B

MAKA TURN-OFF!

When I studied in college, I met a beautiful girl and make friends with her. I like this girl because she Is beautiful. One day, I decided to go to her house. When I entered the house I notice that the house is dirty, rugs are everywhere, used clothing are anywhere in the house and the kitchen is so dirty. Nakaingon ko sa akong kaugalingon: “maka turn-off!”

Most of the time, boys does not clean the house and that is true but boys like clean house. It is very relative if the girls clean the house because as our cultures speaks its women’s work. Kaya ang mga lalaki madaling ma turn-off pag ang babae ay hindi marunong maglinis.

Greetings!

Our gospel today, speaks of the Pharisees and the scribes who questioned Jesus about his disciples who eat without washing their hands. However, Jesus defended his disciples by explaining to them what defiles a person. "Hear me, all of you, and understand.

Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;

but the things that come out from within are what defile.” Jesus is referring about their works, action and what they do to other people, and for Jesus, this is what makes people unclean.

The scribes and the Pharisees are very strict in observing the law and by strictly observing the law many people were deprived. That is why Jesus is trying to explain to them that what make people unclean are the injustices that they do to other people.

If we look at our society today, many people are acting like the scribes and the Pharisees. Magandang tingnan sa labas ngunit a loob ay marumi. Like this story that I heard:

 AMO: Inday! Nabutangan na ba nimo ug tubig ang suka nga atong baligya?

INDAY: OO, ma’am humana!

AMO: Ang toyo nabutangan na?

INDAY; Humana pod ma’am.

AMO: ali na diri magrosaryo nata!

Naku! Makakaturn-off ka nanay!

Mga kapatid pag tayo ay madaling maturn-off sa mga taong hindi mabuti sana ay linisin natin ang ating sarili para hindi naman sila maturn-off. God wants us to be always clean because he created us to be clean. Since from the very beginning of time, we are created by God as pure, clean and Holy. When we were at the womb of our mother God already form us in order to live in purity. However, when we grow old, we started to live in impurity and we start to defile ourselves.

"From within people, from their hearts,

come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,

adultery, greed, malice, deceit,

Licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.

All these evils come from within and they defile."

Today my dear friends, we are challenge by God to go back to what we are supposed to be when we were created, that is pure, holy and clean. Sana ito ay ating gagawin para naman hindi ma turn-off ang Dios sa atin at hindi niya tayo tatawaging hypocrite.

21ST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B

DON’T TURN YOUR BACK ON ME

Yesterday, the Parish pastoral Coordinating Council of Medalla Melagrosa Parish, malipayon, pangantucan, Bukidnon had their monthly meeting. The council talks about the incoming fiesta celebration of the parish. In the meeting, we have been discussing about our expenxes for the said fiesta celebration. This is so because the does not have any money to support for the said celebration especially on financial matters. Without the help of the other chapels the said celebration is impossible to achieve. Fortunately, the members of the said council responded positively to the needs of the parish. It is so good that nobody turn their back, for the good of the church.

GREETINGS!

My dear friends, our gospel for this Sunday is the last discourse of Jesus to the people. Because of this story, many turned their back on Jesus. Many leave Jesus because of his words. What are these words? As what I have said this is the last discourse of Jesus in the Gospel of John about the bread of Life. Many of the followers of Jesus leave him because they cannot believe that Jesus is the bread of life. In other words Jesus has been rejected by his own followers.

Turning your back to other person is a form of rejection. This action may hurt other people especially to those who are involved in the discussion. Rejection is a form of disagreeing the idea or personality of a certain person. For example, simple neglecting! If you don’t like the other person, you don’t want to see him or even talk to him and you will always turn your back on him. 

However on the part of Jesus, people doesn’t like about his thoughts. They don’t agree with the idea that Jesus is the bread of Life.  Jesus asks those who were left, especially to his disciples: “do you want to leave me too?” Today, Jesus will also ask us, “Do you want to leave me too?”

One way of leaving Jesus is through sins committing sins towards other people and towards God is a form of turning away from God. Why? Because Jesus hates sin and doesn’t want us to sin. He doesn’t like if we will hurt our fellow human beings.

Jesus in our Gospel today wants us to understand the teaching of our faith so that we can live, act and participate on it. If we don’t understands the church, we mumble also like his other disciple and at the end leave the church.  Hindi sana ito mangyayari sa atin. Hope that we will do our share on propagating the message to all, especially those who leave the church of God.

Today, Jesus is trying to tell us: Don’t turn your back on me! Help me! Help me save souls! Help me that other people will know who I am!

 Don’t turn your back on me!

20th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B

LET OTHERS SEE JESUS IN YOU

Nakahinumdom ko sa akong amigo kaniadto samtang nagkaon siya ug mangga nga hinog siya miingon: “kaon ka?” “o mokaon ko”. “PAGTANOM” he said. The response is some kind of sarcastic but somehow it seems to be true. In order for me to eat more mangos I should plant a mango tree. When you plant something it does not happen overnight for you to yield a harvest. For example, planting rice needs a lot of time before you can obtain a harvest. You need to exert efforts in order to have a good harvest. Most of the time farmers are working very hard to have a good harvest. It needs sacrifices especially time, effort, money and many others before you can have a plentiful and a joyful harvest.

Today’s gospel is almost the same gospel reading from the previous Sundays that we had. Jesus Christ is talking about bread: ‘I am the living bread that comes down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever. I think this is last one that Jesus will be talking about bread from heaven. 

On the other Sundays, we were talking about the graces of God as abundant; Just eat all you can. Last Sunday, I was talking about bread- the real presence of God in the Eucharist.

 Our reflection today is the pick of our reflection about the bread of life. Today, Jesus said:”Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” When I said that, Jesus is really present in the host that we receive every Sunday is really true. This communion will bring us to eternal life is also true but it does not happen suddenly. It is not a magical wand that will automatically bring us to heaven. It does not happen abruptly.  We need to do something about it. We need to work for it because as saint James said “faith without works is useless”. What I mean her is that every day or everyday Sunday we take communion, we go to the church; every day we pray but if it does agree with what we do, it means nothing. Jesus said if you eats my flesh and drinks my blood I will remain in you and you in me. This may mean that we also need to work for it. we need to imitate what Jesus' doings. Take what Jesus is trying to say to you. If he said be a good man, follow the holy gospel, share you blessing and help other people, we need to do it because this is what Jesus is doing. In others words, we are encourage to like Jesus. 

Kada adlaw ta mag-ampo, kada adlaw ta magsimba pero limbungan diay ta sa negosyo. You are always praying the rosary but you have a very bad attitude towards your workers. This kind of life is not what Jesus is trying to tell us today. He want to tell us to be like Him. Since we want to be with Jesus then we must also act like Jesus. Be like Jesus because he said that if we ate his body and drink his blood he will remain in us.

Everything I said today only means one thing. Let others see Jesus in you! Again, let others see Jesus in you!

19TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B

EUCHARIST: BREAD FROM HEAVEN

When I was still a child, every morning mother would always buy bread with coffee for early refreshments. When we woke up the bread and coffee is already set at the table. There are many kinds of bread, but my mother would always buy brown bread. We have also what we called loaf bread; this bread is usually eaten with butter inside and a glass of juice. We have also bread which is one of my favorite also during childhood,” bagong bayan”. There are many kinds of bread: pan de coco, mammon, torta, siopao, pan de leche, supas, but ang pinakasikat na bread in the Philippines is Pandesal. All of these are Pan! Pan! Pan! Pan! We ate this bread because it satisfies our stomach.

However, today my dear friends we will receive the bread from heaven. What is this bread from heaven? The Eucharistic celebration today makes this bread into a reality. During communion in the celebration of the mass, we will taste and eat this bread from heaven. This is Jesus Christ. The host that we receive in the Eucharistic celebration is Jesus Christ, the bread from heaven. How is this possible? It becomes possible during the consecration of the bread and wine in the mass.

 The council of Trent in the 16^th century believed that the whole Christ (Body and Blood and the whole of Him) is really and substantially present in the Eucharist. The Eucharist contains Jesus Christ in the fullness of his divinity and completeness of his humanity. The whole substance of bread and wine is replaced by Jesus Christ.

Many scientists in the past studied the” host” in the celebration of the Eucharist to satisfy their doubts. We cannot deny that there are many people today who do not believe about it. Lucky as I am, I met one of them during one of our retreats, in the person of Dr. Ricardo Castanon. He was an atheist for almost 20 years of his life. Out of curiosity he studied the belief of the Catholic Church that the bread (the host that we received in the mass) is really the body and blood of Christ. He spent more time in research using the knowledge that he has as a doctor to prove that it is not true. However, the result is astounding; the host in the Eucharistic celebration is really body and blood of a human person. The consecrated hosts remain fresh despite of age. Science cannot explain about it, since normal bread can only last for two weeks. It was also found out that the host is really a fresh flesh of human person from the left ventricle of a human heart. We know that the left ventricle is one of four chambers of the heart. It is located in the bottom left portion of the heart below the left atrium, separated by the mitral valve. The research also shows that the wine in the mass becomes human blood of type AB. It also remains fresh which science cannot explain it since when blood is extracted into the body can only last for 15 minutes. It is really true because the research also says that the DNA has no similarities until today.

If these researches prove that the bread that we ate during the Eucharistic celebration is really Jesus Christ, what shall we do about it? My dear friends, I admonish you to take the communion seriously. It is really Jesus that we received. Allow it to sink into the bottom of your soul.

 May this Holy Communion nourishes our soul and make us a holy people of God. Believe in Jesus Christ who is really present in the Eucharist. He is the bread from heaven and whoever ate this bread will live forever. Amen.