S'up? (Page 14)

Your Citizenship: Don’t Lose it! Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 9:28b-36 For those of us who travel often, international Passports are not equally respected. For once, black is powerful, perhaps Africans should be proud of this, because it shows that Caucasians are not a bunch of racists – their passports are largely black, and respected; how Africans and Asians end up with greenish and reddish international passports is a tale for another day. The power of black passports derive from human contrivances, and history shows that their powers have fluctuated with good and bad fortunes. The issue, though, is that earthly citizenships have setRead More →

Stop Tempting Temptation: Turning our Temptations into Strengths Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11 When I listen to homilies, these days, the emphasis on the damnation of sinners tromps that on the salvation of sinners; but then, Jesus didn’t come to condemn sinners, he came to save sinners. When “prosperity gospel” is not preached, on a Sunday, “end times prediction” is the next viable topic of interest among evangelists and prophets, but that topic didn’t preoccupy Jesus during his earthly ministry. All in all, one gets the urgency of repentance and the acute ascendancy of sin in the world, painted in the most apocalypticRead More →

You are gods: Reclaim your Identity! Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18; 1 Corinthians 3:16-23; Matthew 5:38-48 Believe it or not, it was prophesied in Psalm 82:6, the gospel of John 10:34 talks about it, and today, in our second reading, St. Paul confirms it—“You are Gods, all of you, children of the Most High” (Psalm 82:6). If last Sunday you thought that Jesus was commanding the impossible, that he was talking about keeping of commandments, you are very much mistaking. Jesus is talking about who you and I are: we are gods, as such, we should behave like gods, not like human beings—simple mortals. Our nature andRead More →

“I am the Man” or Working out my Salvation Sirach 15:15-20; 1 Corinthians 2:6-10; Matthew 5:17-37 You probably remember where that came from—“I am the man”. Well, it came from the incident between Nathan and David, after David committed adultery with Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11-12). The prophet Nathan confronted David with his sin telling him the story of a man with many sheep, who had a visitor but was unwilling to offer any of his many sheep to be killed and a meal made for his visitor; instead, he took his neighbor’s only sheep and slaughtered it for his guest. King David, onRead More →

Let your light shine! Isaiah 58:7-10; 1 Corinthians 2:1-5; Matthew 5:13-16 A hunter went hunting and came upon an eagle’s nest with eggs in it. He took the eggs home and mixed them with those of an incubating free range hen. The innocent hen hatched all her eggs, thinking she had only chicks. One day, while she was foraging with her chicks, one of them, an eaglet, asked her about those creatures flying up in the sky, and why shouldn’t he do the same. The hen said, those are birds, they can fly, we can’t. The eagle lived all its life thinking it was aRead More →

Beatitudes: Building the Kingdom of God on Earth Zephaniah 2:3; 3:12-13; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31; Matthew 5:1-12a In the age of democracy, three elements are indispensable for the building of the human polity: 1) party-politics, 2) manifestos, and 3) capitalism. Individuals join different political parties on the basis of their philosophies and convictions; worst case scenario, politicians join the winning party or the political party that guarantees thievery as part of its unwritten laws. From these political parties emerge beautiful and hopeful manifestos, even though delivering on those manifestos is a different question. Finally, the deification of money or capital is key to democracy. Beautiful slogans,Read More →

Recruitment Day: Being a Word-Fighter Isaiah 8:23-9:1-3; 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17; Matthew 4:12-23 Wildfires have come to be regular occurrences in our lives, whether they be the Australian experience, American reality or Canadian seasonal cases. These occurrences, in addition to house fires and arsonists’ ventures, make fire-fighting very important today. Homes and vehicles have fire-extinguishers and communities have fire-stations. The irony of all these fires is that they cannot extinguish themselves, human beings are always needed to fight fires of all kinds and propositions. Thanks to human solidarity, fires everywhere are attended to, even if that requires assistance from other countries and communes. Well, aRead More →

What is your SMELL? Isaiah 49:3, 5-6; 1 Corinthians 1:1-3; John 1:29-34 Maybe not so much for human beings, but “smell” plays a vital role in the animal kingdom: at least, it marks boundaries and territories, in addition to group identity. Little did I know that “smell” is also important for human beings and, today, I realize that it is vital for Christianity. As a young minor seminarian, I went for morning Mass with another seminary at a sisters’ convent chapel. As we stepped into the convent, it took barely seconds before the seminarian with me asked the sisters, whether his Mother was in thatRead More →

Baptism-of-the-Lord or Substitution Sunday Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7; Acts 10:34-38; Matthew 3:13-17 In many sports that are played around the globe, there are many substitutes, other players with whom to replace the players on the pitch or arena. It is the contrary of putting all the eggs in one basket. Coaches have realized that things do go wrong – injuries, accidents, red cards, time out, infractions – and there comes the need for a substitute, replacement player. It so happens that substitute players go on to make a significant difference in a game — make the home-run, score the winning goal or the touch-down. You knowRead More →

Jesus Christ is the Reason for the New Year Numbers 6:22-27; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21 Do you sometimes wonder why the first of January inaugurates New Years, this time around, New Year, 2023? Why can’t we celebrate the year 2345 or 2222? Welcome to a Christian understanding of New Year: Christ is the reason for the New Year! We celebrate 2023, because we, Christians, take our reference point about time and eternity from Jesus Christ. When we say 2023 A.D., (In the year of the Lord – Anno Domini [A.D.]), two presuppositions undergird the celebration of New Year: the recognition of the God of TimeRead More →