Pentecost Sunday – B
27 May 2012
The Readings:
Acts 2:1-11
Ps 104:1, 24, 29-31, 34
1 Cor 12:3-7, 12-13 or Gal 5:16-25
John 20:19-23 or John 15:26-27; 16:12-15
The HOLY SPIRIT in US
The Holy Spirit is Christ’s Spirit generously given to us so that we can be holy and to continue the ministry that Christ began. On our own, we cannot be like Jesus, but if his Spirit is alive and active within us, we have Christ’s holiness, his faith, his supernatural love and peace, confidence and endurance, and everything else that we see in Jesus.
You received the Holy Spirit during your baptism. The reality of this was confirmed and strengthened in the Sacrament of Confirmation. Ever since the first out-pouring of the Spirit on Pentecost, God has been transforming the world by working through those who serve his Kingdom. He generously fills us with his Spirit so that we will succeed at whatever he asks us to do. But how well his holiness and power exudes from us is up to us.
Join me in this Prayer to the Holy Spirit:
Dear Jesus, stir up within me the fullness of Your Holy Spirit. Help me to live in Your holy power. Open my mind to understand Your truths, and open my heart to accept Your truths even before I gain right understanding.
O Holy Spirit, help me to seek, more than anything, the kingdom of God. Help me to recognize what I am attached to that is not of You, and give me the determination and the strength to let go. I want only You.
O Holy Spirit, help me to face my sinfulness and to feel genuine sorrow for the damage that I have caused. Comfort me as I mourn my need for forgiveness, and give me Your spirit of rejoicing over this new growth. Then, help me to share this healing mercy with all those around me.
Jesus commanded, “Go into all the world and preach the good news.” Use my gifts and talents to make a difference. I have my own expectations about what I should and should not do. I now surrender to You my ideas, my limitations, my preferences, and my goals. I want to be useful to You. I want to go where You lead me. Holy Spirit, send me forth gifted and empowered to spread the holy and victorious love of Jesus Christ.
Come, Holy Spirit; renew me. Amen!
Questions for Personal Reflection:
Does the Holy Spirit seem like a Person to you, as real as Jesus? Why or why not? What affect does the “Prayer to the Holy Spirit” (above) have on you? What in it is most helpful to your spiritual growth?
Questions for Community Faith Sharing:
How do you know when the Holy Spirit is being manifested in you? Give an example from your life. How did this experience help you grow in holiness?
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7th Sunday of Easter – B
20 May 2012
The Readings:
Acts 1:15-17, 20-26
Ps 103:1-2, 11-12, 19-20
1 John 4:11-16
John 17:11b-19
The CALL for UNITY
What makes us one with our brothers and sisters of the faith, i.e., people who love and follow the same Lord, Jesus Christ?
We can have many differences and still have unity. We can have conflicts among the people who serve God in parish staffs and ministries, and still have unity. We can disagree with the non-Catholic beliefs of our Protestant kin and still have Christian unity.
Jesus prayed for this unity, as we see in this Sunday’s Gospel reading. Are we the answer to his prayer? Or are we working against him?
Being one in the Lord does not require getting rid of everything that divides us from each other. Rather, it comes from recognizing that we stand on common ground as we worship Christ, no matter how differently we worship him. The spirit of unity is the appreciation of what we have in common. It’s the recognition that we are individually members of the same body and that we need each other so that the Body of Christ on earth functions well.
Being one in the Lord Jesus means being different than the rest of the world. Our unity comes from belonging to the kingdom of God rather than to the kingdom of darkness and evil. And this unity is strengthened by purging ourselves of sin – individually and as a body.
Jesus said to the Father, “I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.”
All those who love, follow, and serve Jesus, regardless of their denominational affiliations, are all members of the same family, the Holy Family. We live together on the same side of the cross, which is resurrection and eternal life.
However, when we allow ourselves to sin, thinking as the world thinks, with prejudices and judgmentalism and condemnation toward other Christians, we divide ourselves not only from our brothers and sisters but also from God’s kingdom of love. We break the unity for which Jesus prayed.
Questions for Personal Reflection:
Do you see yourself as united with or divided from those in your parish who worship differently than you? What about Christians of other denominations? Who else do you feel spiritually divided from? Ask Jesus to repeat his prayer for unity but to focus it, this time, on you.
Questions for Community Faith Sharing:
What are some of the ways that you’ve come to recognize your unity with other members of the Body of Christ, despite obvious differences? What does “unity” mean to you? How is this lived in your home or your parish?
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6th Sunday of Easter – B
13 May 2012
The Readings:
Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48
Ps 98:1-4
1 John 4:7-10
John 15:9-17
FRIENDS FOREVER
Servanthood is the mark of true Christian living. Jesus emphasized it during the Last Supper, saying that he came not to be served, but to serve, and that likewise we should serve one another. In his parables, he often referred to believers as “servants” of the Kingdom. But in this Sunday’s Gospel reading, Jesus says that he wants us to be hisfriends, not his slaves. Is he contradicting himself?
Not at all! Friends serve because they care. Slaves serve because of duty and the fear of punishment.
Jesus said, “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love.” Do we hear this as a friend or as a slave?
Slaves are afraid of what will happen if they fail to keep God’s commandments; they are self-protective. Friends are eager to find out what God commands, because they view the commandments from the perspective of love, as opportunities to serve; they are other-oriented.
Jesus said, “This is my commandment: Love one another the way I love you.” It’s the supreme commandment; call it the Commandment of Friendship. He says, “You know how I love you, my friends: I openly share with you everything that the Father tells me.” His friends realize that what he shares (through scripture and through the Church) reveals our opportunities to love. Every commandment is rooted in love. Every Church teaching is based on scriptures that help us know when and how to love.
When we fail to obey, do we lose God’s love? Never! Do we lose our place in his love? Yes. By living outside of his commandments, we feel unloved even while being loved.
This is slavery. We’re enslaved by fear or by false beliefs or by our wounds that have caused us to think that we’re not loved enough. God’s commandments then feel confining, and if we try to escape, we commit rebellion. Those who don’t rebel accept their slavery and obey dutifully in the hope of winning God’s love.
Friends, on the other hand, know that God always loves them, and in this love, they are free to serve one another joyfully.
Questions for Personal Reflection:
Are you obeying God like a slave or his best friend? Do you eagerly and happily jump into doing the will of God or do you complain about it? Do you ever want to escape from God’s will? What will you do this week to become more aware of his friendship?
Questions for Community Faith Sharing:
What raises our relationships with God from slavery into friendship? Describe the differences between obeying out of duty and obeying out of love. How do you define friendship with God?
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5th Sunday of Easter – B
6 May 2012
The Readings:
Acts 9:26-31
Ps 22:26-28, 30-32
1 John 3:18-24
John 15:1-8
The VINE and the BRANCHES
As we see in this Sunday’s Gospel reading, all of us who belong to Christ are fruit-bearing branches of one vine. Jesus is the vine, and because we are all attached to him, we share the same calling: to bear good fruit. And not just any fruit that seems good, but the same fruit that Jesus produced.
However, most of us underestimate how important this is! Stop underestimating how necessary it is for YOU to produce Christ’s fruit – and more of it – today. Today too many Christians are settling for mediocrity. As long as we get some personal satisfaction from being Christian, we feel all too easily satisfied. As long as we’re helping some people with our kindness or generosity or love, we think God is satisfied with the good fruits we’re producing.
Have you ever asked why there’s so much evil in the world? Why doesn’t God raise his almighty hand against war, against corruption in government, against the greed of high-salaried managers who lay off their employees while giving themselves huge bonuses, against the perpetrators of physical and emotional abuse, against legislation that discriminates against Christian faith, against rising crime rates, or against any evil that’s corrupting our world?
Why doesn’t God do something?
Actually, he does! However, he does it the same way he grows grapes. The life-force of the vine (Jesus) travels through the vine to the little twigs (you and me and all Christians) that hold the grapes. The more open we are to receiving nourishment from Christ, the more fruit Jesus produces through us. But the grapes are not supposed to stay there!
We’re nourished by Christ in order to take his fruits abundantly out into the world. We must grow strong and healthy, branch out, and use everything we’ve received from Christ for the sake of others.
Evil is stopped to the extent that we Christians continue Christ’s earthly ministry. Victory over evil comes from Christ, that is, through us from Christ. Holiness in the world comes from Christ’s Holy Spirit actively transforming it through our holiness.
Questions for Personal Reflection:
Are you doing everything you can to grow the best grapes on your branch of Christ’s vine? How healthy is your connection to Christ? What in your life needs to be pruned off because it’s not producing full, abundant fruit?
Questions for Community Faith Sharing:
Name some of the things we do that fertilize the vineyard. What has helped your branch grow stronger and bear more fruit? How does ignoring the need to prune ourselves hinder the growth of good fruit – evil-defeating good fruit?
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4th Sunday of Easter – B
29 April 2012
The Readings:
Acts 4:8-12
Ps 118:1, 8-9, 21-23, 26, 28-29
1 John 3:1-2
John 10:11-18
The GOOD SHEPHERD
In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, Jesus identifies himself as the Good Shepherd. We are the sheep for whom he has laid down his life. He put everything aside for our sake – his human desire for an easy life, the security and familiarity of a home of his own, his time, his sleep, his tiredness, and his natural preference to avoid persecution, torture and death.
We are the sheep who recognize our Shepherd’s voice and willingly follow him to better pastures. We want him to be our Good Shepherd. We want his protection, his guidance, and his love.
However, sometimes we forget to listen for his voice. This usually happens when life doesn’t go as planned, the way WE want it to. In frustration and fear, we assume that Jesus has left the sheepfold. We think he’s gone after the lost sheep and left us behind to fend for ourselves, and – oh no! – this is surely when the wolves attack! Doesn’t he realize that? How could he do this to us if he really cares as much about us as he says he does? Why is he more concerned about the sheep who strayed than he is about us who are good sheep?
However, no matter how busy Jesus gets and no matter how far he has to go to rescue lost sheep, he never leaves our side. He is always with us. When the path of life takes us to dead ends or dangerous cliffs, it’s not because he’s abandoned us. The pain we feel is his shepherd’s staff tapping and prodding us to get us to move in a different direction, and we just haven’t understood.
We don’t want to go in that other direction. We like the familiarity of this old pasture. We’re getting annoyed at the tap-tap-tapping of the staff on our heads. And we won’t discover the blessing of this discipline until we turn again to Jesus with eyes of trust and ears that are attentive to everything he says, even if at first we don’t like what he’s saying.
Questions for Personal Reflection:
In what areas of your life do you feel lost and alone or abandoned? What activities can you do that will restore your vision and your hearing so you can recognize the presence of your Good Shepherd?
Questions for Community Faith Sharing:
Name some of the ways that the Good Shepherd’s voice calls out to us. Share the story of a time when he prodded you but at first you didn’t realize it was him. When did something feel painful until you realized that you were going in the wrong direction? What helped you recognize the voice and the staff of the Good Shepherd?
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3rd Sunday of Easter – B
22 April 2012
The Readings:
Acts 3:13-15, 17-19
Ps 4:2, 4, 7-9
1 John 2:1-5a
Luke 24:35-48
A RENEWED PEOPLE
Now that we’re a renewed people – an Easter people – the scriptures at Mass remind us of the stark difference between living a redeemed life and living in sin. The first reading for next Sunday says: “Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away.” The second reading says: “Those who say, ‘I know him’, but do not keep his commandments are liars, and the truth is not in them.”
And the Gospel reading says: “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name….”
We are all liars in some way every day, professing our faith with our lips but not always in our behaviors. Our actions often say that we don’t truly believe what we say about Christ’s love. Our worries might be saying that we don’t truly believe that God cares about each and every situation.
Our decisions say that we don’t truly believe that Jesus knew what he was talking about when he commanded us to love our enemies and do good to those who hurt us. Our moral relativism says that we don’t truly believe he was smarter than us when he gave us his commandments.
How loudly do your actions preach the truth about Jesus?
Many of us undervalue what Jesus has done for us, thinking that his death and resurrection is enough to get us into heaven; we neglect the need to humble ourselves under the reality of the need for daily redemption.
God’s not expecting perfection from us on this side of heaven’s gate. What he does want, however, is our desire to become more and more like Christ every day. As long as we’re continually examining our lives and educating ourselves about how we can improve, and following that up with doing what is necessary to produce changes, God is very pleased with us.
Questions for Personal Reflection:
What sinful tendencies still enslave you? What will you do this week to turn these over to Christ and his redemptive power?
Questions for Community Faith Sharing:
What do you do to stay in touch with your need for Christ and his redemptive power? How do you rely on the resurrected life of Christ to overcome sinful tendencies and enter into victorious Christian living?
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2nd Sunday of Easter – B
Divine Mercy Sunday
15 April 2012
The Readings:
Acts 4:32-35
Ps 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24
1 John 5:1-6
John 20:19-31
My Lord and my God
“My Lord and my God!” This exclamation of Thomas in this Sunday’s Gospel reading used to be our exclamation at the raising of the Eucharist during Mass. It was a tradition that many Catholics have forgotten in recent years. It would be good to renew this habit. It’s an awe-filled, humble recognition of Christ’s Lordship AND of the reality of his presence in the form of bread and wine.
Pope John Paul II wrote in his encyclical on the Holy Eucharist, Ecclesia de Eucharistia: “To contemplate Christ involves being able to recognize him wherever he manifests himself, in his many forms of presence, but above all in the living sacrament of his body and his blood.”
Notice how Jesus convinced the disciples that he had truly come back to life in the flesh. They thought he was a ghost, or they didn’t know what to think. They found the miracle of the resurrection too incredible to grasp.
Jesus revealed the truth of the miracle through his wounds. He does the same for you and me in every Mass.
Through the use of our logic and our senses, it’s difficult to grasp the truth that the bread and wine miraculously become the actual body and blood of Christ – the same broken and bleeding body that died on the cross 2000+ years ago. It’s even harder to see and understand that the resurrected Jesus is also there!
During Mass, we enter the timelessness of eternity to benefit from the living Christ. When we realize that we personally need the sacrifice he made on Good Friday, because we’ve sinned, we begin to look at his wounds from a crucial perspective. It is then that we begin to understand the truth about the Eucharist.
The first step toward believing in the miracle of the Eucharist occurs when we want Christ’s death to save us from our sins and we want his resurrection to take us to heaven. The final step occurs when our desire to unite to Jesus is so thorough that we yearn for him to consume our lives with his presence. We want the divine Jesus to come to us in the flesh – in whatever manner he chooses – to transform us into his likeness.
It is this desire that makes us exclaim whenever we see the Eucharist, “My Lord and my God!”
Questions for Personal Reflection:
Have you ever doubted the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist? How do you feel when you look at the Eucharist? Does your spirit exclaim, “My Lord and my God”? Why or why not?
Questions for Community Faith Sharing:
How has Jesus revealed himself to you in surprising ways – “in his many forms of presence”? When have you found him incredible, difficult to grasp? What helped you accept the truth of his presence in that situation? And how has Jesus revealed his presence to you in the Eucharist?
The Paschal Mystery of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Reflection: The Paschal Mystery of Our Lord Jesus Christ
The PASCHAL MYSTERY
April 3, 2012
By Fr. Christian B. Buenafe, O Carm, Commissary General
THE Lenten season is the prelude of the Paschal Mystery of our salvation.
The Paschal Mystery is the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus. And this is the mystery of our Christian faith that we always proclaim. Our Lord Jesus, the Christ who has died and is risen, and will come again.
Jesus, the son of Joseph and Mary, from the House of David, from Abraham’s ancestry. He is the Son of God who was incarnated thru the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the promised messiah, the chosen One who lived among us and had immersed with us in our day-to-day lives. The historical Jesus is the master of the disciples who walked on this earth like us, and journeyed with His people in a particular given time of our history. He is the one whom we are remembering and commemorating in His paschal mysteries.
Even before Jesus’ coming and living with us, God has been always with us. All along, He is our Emmanuel, the God who is always with us. Christians remember and celebrate the life and works of Jesus, the Nazarene thru the accounts of the evangelists and his disciples. Jesus the son of a carpenter from Nazareth who obeyed the will of His Father, preached and taught about the coming of the Kingdom, when the reign of God is realized.
Read full report on InterAksyon.com
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Preparing for the Paschal Mystery With Youth
The Church Celebrates Palm Sunday, World Youth Day
By Ann Schneible
ROME, MARCH 30, 2012 (Zenit.org).- “Always be joyful in the Lord!” – Philippians 4:4
These words from St. Paul have been chosen for this year’s World Youth Day, which will be celebrated in Rome this weekend on Palm Sunday.
Although it is well known that World Youth Day takes place every two to three years in a different city – most recently in Madrid, Spain – what is not as well known is that, for all the other years, World Youth Day is celebrated on Palm Sunday, both in Rome and at the diocesan level.
It is for this reason that the young people are given the opportunity to participate in Palm Sunday Mass in a particular way, being asked to process into St. Peter’s Square carrying massive palms, in a poignant reminder of the first Palm Sunday which took place 2,000 years ago.
Carly Andrews, communications director of the Centro San Lorenzo International Centre for Youth in Rome, shares her experience in carrying the palms into St. Peter’s Square.
“I saw the youth of the Church,” she said, “the vibrancy of the Church, and the communion as well, all carrying a Palm together. And going out into a sea of hundreds and hundreds of Catholics, all there for the same reason, for Christ, and for the Church, it was really breathtaking. Overwhelming, in fact.”
“It was like taking a step into their shoes, like going back to the time of Christ, and being able to give a little gift of yourself to the Lord as He goes into making this massive sacrifice for us.”
World Youth Day
“Today you are here again, dear friends,” said Blessed John Paul II to the young people gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Palm Sunday, 1986, “to begin in Rome, in St. Peter’s Square, the tradition of World Youth Day, the celebration to which the entire Church was invited. From my whole heart I welcome you.”
During the 1983-1984 Holy Year of Redemption, a simple wooden cross stood in the center of St. Peter’s Square. At the conclusion of this Holy Year, Blessed John Paul II entrusted that Cross, now known as the World Youth Day Cross, to the young people of the world as represented by the youth of the Centro San Lorenzo. Then, as the 1985 United Nation’s International Youth Year came to a close, the Holy Father invited all of the young people of the world to gather in St. Peter’s Square on Palm Sunday, 1986. The following year, the Holy Father and the WYD Cross traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the first WYD to take place outside of Rome.
“A day which is dedicated to the youth,” explains Andrews in speaking about Palm Sunday as WYD, “is a real gift for the youth because it’s a day in which we can all come together as one body in Christ, as brothers and sisters of our mother Church, and to really live this Holy Week together with the Lord, to prepare for his passion, death, and resurrection. It enables us to enter into this journey, and this way of salvation through the meditation of his passion.”
“World Youth Day means just this,” concluded Blessed John Paul II at WYD, 1986 “going to encounter God, who entered into the history of man by means of the Pasqual Mystery of Jesus Christ. He entered in a way that cannot be undone. And he desires to meet you above all. And to each and every one of you he wants to say: “Follow me,” Follow me. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
Easter Sunday – B
8 April 2012
Acts 10:34, 37-43;Col3:1-4; John 20:1-9
TAKE THE STONE AWAY
The Orthodox Church has an interesting Easter custom. At the end of services on this Easter Sunday eggs are blessed and distributed to everyone in Church to show that all share in the blessings of this great feast. The members then greet one another and crack their eggs together. When one egg cracks, the owner cries: “Christ is risen!” The other person answers: “Truly He is risen!”
Cracking the egg represents the breaking open of the grave of Christ. The egg shows new life. Inside the egg is the material which will make a tiny, new chicken. That new life comes forth when the chick breaks out of the egg.
Christ’s coming forth from the grave is something like that. Christ was really dead before He came to life again. The eggs seems dead before it brings forth life. The egg reminds us of the tomb in which Jesus was buried. The chick breaking forth from the egg reminds us of Jesus breaking forth from the tomb.
We are happy at Easter because Jesus rose from the dead and because He promised that we will rise from the dead at some future date. But our happiness can be even when we realize that we can rise from the grave – TODAY. There are many kinds of tombs and many kind of resurrections. Every one of us can rise from a tomb – TODAY, because every one of us can rise to a better and higher life – TODAY.
In today’s Good News we read “the stone was taken away.” By God’s power Christ’s grave was opened. By God’s power the stone that holds you and me buried can be taken away.
What are these stones that weigh us down? First, there is the stone of selfishness, being concerned only with our very own good. The risen Christ will help us roll that stone away by becoming interested in doing what pleases God and what helps our neighbor.
There is the stone of greed, the stone of gluttony. How these weigh down both body and soul! The stone of indifference or lack of love keeps us from trying to please God, keeps us from trying to do good to our neighbor. ON this glorious day of the resurrection when we re-live the story of God’s love for us, we can break out of this indifference, this lukewarmness, with the strength of our risen Savior.
What is the stone you would like to have taken away so that you can come forth with Christ, bright and powerful? Is it impurity, dishonesty, laziness, pride, anger, envy? With the help of Christ throw it off and Easter will be a much happier day for you.
The main reason for our joy today is that Jesus rose and that He promised we will rise. But there is special joy in each of the resurrections we talked about. May our heavenly Father “bring us – all of us – to the glory of the resurrection,” as we will pray after Communion. The Blessed Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – are on this altar, ready to share with us the happiness of having the stone rolled away. That is the kind of Happy Easter I wish to all of you. God bless you.
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Pentecost Sunday – B
27 May 2012
The Readings:
Acts 2:1-11
Ps 104:1, 24, 29-31, 34
1 Cor 12:3-7, 12-13 or Gal 5:16-25
John 20:19-23 or John 15:26-27; 16:12-15
The HOLY SPIRIT in US
The Holy Spirit is Christ’s Spirit generously given to us so that we can be holy and to continue the ministry that Christ began. On our own, we cannot be like Jesus, but if his Spirit is alive and active within us, we have Christ’s holiness, his faith, his supernatural love and peace, confidence and endurance, and everything else that we see in Jesus.
You received the Holy Spirit during your baptism. The reality of this was confirmed and strengthened in the Sacrament of Confirmation. Ever since the first out-pouring of the Spirit on Pentecost, God has been transforming the world by working through those who serve his Kingdom. He generously fills us with his Spirit so that we will succeed at whatever he asks us to do. But how well his holiness and power exudes from us is up to us.
Join me in this Prayer to the Holy Spirit:
Dear Jesus, stir up within me the fullness of Your Holy Spirit. Help me to live in Your holy power. Open my mind to understand Your truths, and open my heart to accept Your truths even before I gain right understanding.
O Holy Spirit, help me to seek, more than anything, the kingdom of God. Help me to recognize what I am attached to that is not of You, and give me the determination and the strength to let go. I want only You.
O Holy Spirit, help me to face my sinfulness and to feel genuine sorrow for the damage that I have caused. Comfort me as I mourn my need for forgiveness, and give me Your spirit of rejoicing over this new growth. Then, help me to share this healing mercy with all those around me.
Jesus commanded, “Go into all the world and preach the good news.” Use my gifts and talents to make a difference. I have my own expectations about what I should and should not do. I now surrender to You my ideas, my limitations, my preferences, and my goals. I want to be useful to You. I want to go where You lead me. Holy Spirit, send me forth gifted and empowered to spread the holy and victorious love of Jesus Christ.
Come, Holy Spirit; renew me. Amen!
Questions for Personal Reflection:
Does the Holy Spirit seem like a Person to you, as real as Jesus? Why or why not? What affect does the “Prayer to the Holy Spirit” (above) have on you? What in it is most helpful to your spiritual growth?
Questions for Community Faith Sharing:
How do you know when the Holy Spirit is being manifested in you? Give an example from your life. How did this experience help you grow in holiness?
7th Sunday of Easter – B
20 May 2012
The Readings:
Acts 1:15-17, 20-26
Ps 103:1-2, 11-12, 19-20
1 John 4:11-16
John 17:11b-19
The CALL for UNITY
What makes us one with our brothers and sisters of the faith, i.e., people who love and follow the same Lord, Jesus Christ?
We can have many differences and still have unity. We can have conflicts among the people who serve God in parish staffs and ministries, and still have unity. We can disagree with the non-Catholic beliefs of our Protestant kin and still have Christian unity.
Jesus prayed for this unity, as we see in this Sunday’s Gospel reading. Are we the answer to his prayer? Or are we working against him?
Being one in the Lord does not require getting rid of everything that divides us from each other. Rather, it comes from recognizing that we stand on common ground as we worship Christ, no matter how differently we worship him. The spirit of unity is the appreciation of what we have in common. It’s the recognition that we are individually members of the same body and that we need each other so that the Body of Christ on earth functions well.
Being one in the Lord Jesus means being different than the rest of the world. Our unity comes from belonging to the kingdom of God rather than to the kingdom of darkness and evil. And this unity is strengthened by purging ourselves of sin – individually and as a body.
Jesus said to the Father, “I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.”
All those who love, follow, and serve Jesus, regardless of their denominational affiliations, are all members of the same family, the Holy Family. We live together on the same side of the cross, which is resurrection and eternal life.
However, when we allow ourselves to sin, thinking as the world thinks, with prejudices and judgmentalism and condemnation toward other Christians, we divide ourselves not only from our brothers and sisters but also from God’s kingdom of love. We break the unity for which Jesus prayed.
Questions for Personal Reflection:
Do you see yourself as united with or divided from those in your parish who worship differently than you? What about Christians of other denominations? Who else do you feel spiritually divided from? Ask Jesus to repeat his prayer for unity but to focus it, this time, on you.
Questions for Community Faith Sharing:
What are some of the ways that you’ve come to recognize your unity with other members of the Body of Christ, despite obvious differences? What does “unity” mean to you? How is this lived in your home or your parish?
6th Sunday of Easter – B
13 May 2012
The Readings:
Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48
Ps 98:1-4
1 John 4:7-10
John 15:9-17
FRIENDS FOREVER
Servanthood is the mark of true Christian living. Jesus emphasized it during the Last Supper, saying that he came not to be served, but to serve, and that likewise we should serve one another. In his parables, he often referred to believers as “servants” of the Kingdom. But in this Sunday’s Gospel reading, Jesus says that he wants us to be hisfriends, not his slaves. Is he contradicting himself?
Not at all! Friends serve because they care. Slaves serve because of duty and the fear of punishment.
Jesus said, “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love.” Do we hear this as a friend or as a slave?
Slaves are afraid of what will happen if they fail to keep God’s commandments; they are self-protective. Friends are eager to find out what God commands, because they view the commandments from the perspective of love, as opportunities to serve; they are other-oriented.
Jesus said, “This is my commandment: Love one another the way I love you.” It’s the supreme commandment; call it the Commandment of Friendship. He says, “You know how I love you, my friends: I openly share with you everything that the Father tells me.” His friends realize that what he shares (through scripture and through the Church) reveals our opportunities to love. Every commandment is rooted in love. Every Church teaching is based on scriptures that help us know when and how to love.
When we fail to obey, do we lose God’s love? Never! Do we lose our place in his love? Yes. By living outside of his commandments, we feel unloved even while being loved.
This is slavery. We’re enslaved by fear or by false beliefs or by our wounds that have caused us to think that we’re not loved enough. God’s commandments then feel confining, and if we try to escape, we commit rebellion. Those who don’t rebel accept their slavery and obey dutifully in the hope of winning God’s love.
Friends, on the other hand, know that God always loves them, and in this love, they are free to serve one another joyfully.
Questions for Personal Reflection:
Are you obeying God like a slave or his best friend? Do you eagerly and happily jump into doing the will of God or do you complain about it? Do you ever want to escape from God’s will? What will you do this week to become more aware of his friendship?
Questions for Community Faith Sharing:
What raises our relationships with God from slavery into friendship? Describe the differences between obeying out of duty and obeying out of love. How do you define friendship with God?
5th Sunday of Easter – B
6 May 2012
The Readings:
Acts 9:26-31
Ps 22:26-28, 30-32
1 John 3:18-24
John 15:1-8
The VINE and the BRANCHES
As we see in this Sunday’s Gospel reading, all of us who belong to Christ are fruit-bearing branches of one vine. Jesus is the vine, and because we are all attached to him, we share the same calling: to bear good fruit. And not just any fruit that seems good, but the same fruit that Jesus produced.
However, most of us underestimate how important this is! Stop underestimating how necessary it is for YOU to produce Christ’s fruit – and more of it – today. Today too many Christians are settling for mediocrity. As long as we get some personal satisfaction from being Christian, we feel all too easily satisfied. As long as we’re helping some people with our kindness or generosity or love, we think God is satisfied with the good fruits we’re producing.
Have you ever asked why there’s so much evil in the world? Why doesn’t God raise his almighty hand against war, against corruption in government, against the greed of high-salaried managers who lay off their employees while giving themselves huge bonuses, against the perpetrators of physical and emotional abuse, against legislation that discriminates against Christian faith, against rising crime rates, or against any evil that’s corrupting our world?
Why doesn’t God do something?
Actually, he does! However, he does it the same way he grows grapes. The life-force of the vine (Jesus) travels through the vine to the little twigs (you and me and all Christians) that hold the grapes. The more open we are to receiving nourishment from Christ, the more fruit Jesus produces through us. But the grapes are not supposed to stay there!
We’re nourished by Christ in order to take his fruits abundantly out into the world. We must grow strong and healthy, branch out, and use everything we’ve received from Christ for the sake of others.
Evil is stopped to the extent that we Christians continue Christ’s earthly ministry. Victory over evil comes from Christ, that is, through us from Christ. Holiness in the world comes from Christ’s Holy Spirit actively transforming it through our holiness.
Questions for Personal Reflection:
Are you doing everything you can to grow the best grapes on your branch of Christ’s vine? How healthy is your connection to Christ? What in your life needs to be pruned off because it’s not producing full, abundant fruit?
Questions for Community Faith Sharing:
Name some of the things we do that fertilize the vineyard. What has helped your branch grow stronger and bear more fruit? How does ignoring the need to prune ourselves hinder the growth of good fruit – evil-defeating good fruit?
4th Sunday of Easter – B
29 April 2012
The Readings:
Acts 4:8-12
Ps 118:1, 8-9, 21-23, 26, 28-29
1 John 3:1-2
John 10:11-18
The GOOD SHEPHERD
In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, Jesus identifies himself as the Good Shepherd. We are the sheep for whom he has laid down his life. He put everything aside for our sake – his human desire for an easy life, the security and familiarity of a home of his own, his time, his sleep, his tiredness, and his natural preference to avoid persecution, torture and death.
We are the sheep who recognize our Shepherd’s voice and willingly follow him to better pastures. We want him to be our Good Shepherd. We want his protection, his guidance, and his love.
However, sometimes we forget to listen for his voice. This usually happens when life doesn’t go as planned, the way WE want it to. In frustration and fear, we assume that Jesus has left the sheepfold. We think he’s gone after the lost sheep and left us behind to fend for ourselves, and – oh no! – this is surely when the wolves attack! Doesn’t he realize that? How could he do this to us if he really cares as much about us as he says he does? Why is he more concerned about the sheep who strayed than he is about us who are good sheep?
However, no matter how busy Jesus gets and no matter how far he has to go to rescue lost sheep, he never leaves our side. He is always with us. When the path of life takes us to dead ends or dangerous cliffs, it’s not because he’s abandoned us. The pain we feel is his shepherd’s staff tapping and prodding us to get us to move in a different direction, and we just haven’t understood.
We don’t want to go in that other direction. We like the familiarity of this old pasture. We’re getting annoyed at the tap-tap-tapping of the staff on our heads. And we won’t discover the blessing of this discipline until we turn again to Jesus with eyes of trust and ears that are attentive to everything he says, even if at first we don’t like what he’s saying.
Questions for Personal Reflection:
In what areas of your life do you feel lost and alone or abandoned? What activities can you do that will restore your vision and your hearing so you can recognize the presence of your Good Shepherd?
Questions for Community Faith Sharing:
Name some of the ways that the Good Shepherd’s voice calls out to us. Share the story of a time when he prodded you but at first you didn’t realize it was him. When did something feel painful until you realized that you were going in the wrong direction? What helped you recognize the voice and the staff of the Good Shepherd?
3rd Sunday of Easter – B
22 April 2012
The Readings:
Acts 3:13-15, 17-19
Ps 4:2, 4, 7-9
1 John 2:1-5a
Luke 24:35-48
A RENEWED PEOPLE
Now that we’re a renewed people – an Easter people – the scriptures at Mass remind us of the stark difference between living a redeemed life and living in sin. The first reading for next Sunday says: “Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away.” The second reading says: “Those who say, ‘I know him’, but do not keep his commandments are liars, and the truth is not in them.”
And the Gospel reading says: “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name….”
We are all liars in some way every day, professing our faith with our lips but not always in our behaviors. Our actions often say that we don’t truly believe what we say about Christ’s love. Our worries might be saying that we don’t truly believe that God cares about each and every situation.
Our decisions say that we don’t truly believe that Jesus knew what he was talking about when he commanded us to love our enemies and do good to those who hurt us. Our moral relativism says that we don’t truly believe he was smarter than us when he gave us his commandments.
How loudly do your actions preach the truth about Jesus?
Many of us undervalue what Jesus has done for us, thinking that his death and resurrection is enough to get us into heaven; we neglect the need to humble ourselves under the reality of the need for daily redemption.
God’s not expecting perfection from us on this side of heaven’s gate. What he does want, however, is our desire to become more and more like Christ every day. As long as we’re continually examining our lives and educating ourselves about how we can improve, and following that up with doing what is necessary to produce changes, God is very pleased with us.
Questions for Personal Reflection:
What sinful tendencies still enslave you? What will you do this week to turn these over to Christ and his redemptive power?
Questions for Community Faith Sharing:
What do you do to stay in touch with your need for Christ and his redemptive power? How do you rely on the resurrected life of Christ to overcome sinful tendencies and enter into victorious Christian living?
2nd Sunday of Easter – B
Divine Mercy Sunday
15 April 2012
The Readings:
Acts 4:32-35
Ps 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24
1 John 5:1-6
John 20:19-31
My Lord and my God
“My Lord and my God!” This exclamation of Thomas in this Sunday’s Gospel reading used to be our exclamation at the raising of the Eucharist during Mass. It was a tradition that many Catholics have forgotten in recent years. It would be good to renew this habit. It’s an awe-filled, humble recognition of Christ’s Lordship AND of the reality of his presence in the form of bread and wine.
Pope John Paul II wrote in his encyclical on the Holy Eucharist, Ecclesia de Eucharistia: “To contemplate Christ involves being able to recognize him wherever he manifests himself, in his many forms of presence, but above all in the living sacrament of his body and his blood.”
Notice how Jesus convinced the disciples that he had truly come back to life in the flesh. They thought he was a ghost, or they didn’t know what to think. They found the miracle of the resurrection too incredible to grasp.
Jesus revealed the truth of the miracle through his wounds. He does the same for you and me in every Mass.
Through the use of our logic and our senses, it’s difficult to grasp the truth that the bread and wine miraculously become the actual body and blood of Christ – the same broken and bleeding body that died on the cross 2000+ years ago. It’s even harder to see and understand that the resurrected Jesus is also there!
During Mass, we enter the timelessness of eternity to benefit from the living Christ. When we realize that we personally need the sacrifice he made on Good Friday, because we’ve sinned, we begin to look at his wounds from a crucial perspective. It is then that we begin to understand the truth about the Eucharist.
The first step toward believing in the miracle of the Eucharist occurs when we want Christ’s death to save us from our sins and we want his resurrection to take us to heaven. The final step occurs when our desire to unite to Jesus is so thorough that we yearn for him to consume our lives with his presence. We want the divine Jesus to come to us in the flesh – in whatever manner he chooses – to transform us into his likeness.
It is this desire that makes us exclaim whenever we see the Eucharist, “My Lord and my God!”
Questions for Personal Reflection:
Have you ever doubted the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist? How do you feel when you look at the Eucharist? Does your spirit exclaim, “My Lord and my God”? Why or why not?
Questions for Community Faith Sharing:
How has Jesus revealed himself to you in surprising ways – “in his many forms of presence”? When have you found him incredible, difficult to grasp? What helped you accept the truth of his presence in that situation? And how has Jesus revealed his presence to you in the Eucharist?
The Paschal Mystery of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Reflection: The Paschal Mystery of Our Lord Jesus Christ
The PASCHAL MYSTERY
April 3, 2012
By Fr. Christian B. Buenafe, O Carm, Commissary General
THE Lenten season is the prelude of the Paschal Mystery of our salvation.
The Paschal Mystery is the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus. And this is the mystery of our Christian faith that we always proclaim. Our Lord Jesus, the Christ who has died and is risen, and will come again.
Jesus, the son of Joseph and Mary, from the House of David, from Abraham’s ancestry. He is the Son of God who was incarnated thru the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the promised messiah, the chosen One who lived among us and had immersed with us in our day-to-day lives. The historical Jesus is the master of the disciples who walked on this earth like us, and journeyed with His people in a particular given time of our history. He is the one whom we are remembering and commemorating in His paschal mysteries.
Even before Jesus’ coming and living with us, God has been always with us. All along, He is our Emmanuel, the God who is always with us. Christians remember and celebrate the life and works of Jesus, the Nazarene thru the accounts of the evangelists and his disciples. Jesus the son of a carpenter from Nazareth who obeyed the will of His Father, preached and taught about the coming of the Kingdom, when the reign of God is realized.
Read full report on InterAksyon.com
Preparing for the Paschal Mystery With Youth
The Church Celebrates Palm Sunday, World Youth Day
By Ann Schneible
ROME, MARCH 30, 2012 (Zenit.org).- “Always be joyful in the Lord!” – Philippians 4:4
These words from St. Paul have been chosen for this year’s World Youth Day, which will be celebrated in Rome this weekend on Palm Sunday.
Although it is well known that World Youth Day takes place every two to three years in a different city – most recently in Madrid, Spain – what is not as well known is that, for all the other years, World Youth Day is celebrated on Palm Sunday, both in Rome and at the diocesan level.
It is for this reason that the young people are given the opportunity to participate in Palm Sunday Mass in a particular way, being asked to process into St. Peter’s Square carrying massive palms, in a poignant reminder of the first Palm Sunday which took place 2,000 years ago.
Carly Andrews, communications director of the Centro San Lorenzo International Centre for Youth in Rome, shares her experience in carrying the palms into St. Peter’s Square.
“I saw the youth of the Church,” she said, “the vibrancy of the Church, and the communion as well, all carrying a Palm together. And going out into a sea of hundreds and hundreds of Catholics, all there for the same reason, for Christ, and for the Church, it was really breathtaking. Overwhelming, in fact.”
“It was like taking a step into their shoes, like going back to the time of Christ, and being able to give a little gift of yourself to the Lord as He goes into making this massive sacrifice for us.”
World Youth Day
“Today you are here again, dear friends,” said Blessed John Paul II to the young people gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Palm Sunday, 1986, “to begin in Rome, in St. Peter’s Square, the tradition of World Youth Day, the celebration to which the entire Church was invited. From my whole heart I welcome you.”
During the 1983-1984 Holy Year of Redemption, a simple wooden cross stood in the center of St. Peter’s Square. At the conclusion of this Holy Year, Blessed John Paul II entrusted that Cross, now known as the World Youth Day Cross, to the young people of the world as represented by the youth of the Centro San Lorenzo. Then, as the 1985 United Nation’s International Youth Year came to a close, the Holy Father invited all of the young people of the world to gather in St. Peter’s Square on Palm Sunday, 1986. The following year, the Holy Father and the WYD Cross traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the first WYD to take place outside of Rome.
“A day which is dedicated to the youth,” explains Andrews in speaking about Palm Sunday as WYD, “is a real gift for the youth because it’s a day in which we can all come together as one body in Christ, as brothers and sisters of our mother Church, and to really live this Holy Week together with the Lord, to prepare for his passion, death, and resurrection. It enables us to enter into this journey, and this way of salvation through the meditation of his passion.”
“World Youth Day means just this,” concluded Blessed John Paul II at WYD, 1986 “going to encounter God, who entered into the history of man by means of the Pasqual Mystery of Jesus Christ. He entered in a way that cannot be undone. And he desires to meet you above all. And to each and every one of you he wants to say: “Follow me,” Follow me. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
Easter Sunday – B
8 April 2012
Acts 10:34, 37-43;Col3:1-4; John 20:1-9
TAKE THE STONE AWAY
The Orthodox Church has an interesting Easter custom. At the end of services on this Easter Sunday eggs are blessed and distributed to everyone in Church to show that all share in the blessings of this great feast. The members then greet one another and crack their eggs together. When one egg cracks, the owner cries: “Christ is risen!” The other person answers: “Truly He is risen!”
Cracking the egg represents the breaking open of the grave of Christ. The egg shows new life. Inside the egg is the material which will make a tiny, new chicken. That new life comes forth when the chick breaks out of the egg.
Christ’s coming forth from the grave is something like that. Christ was really dead before He came to life again. The eggs seems dead before it brings forth life. The egg reminds us of the tomb in which Jesus was buried. The chick breaking forth from the egg reminds us of Jesus breaking forth from the tomb.
We are happy at Easter because Jesus rose from the dead and because He promised that we will rise from the dead at some future date. But our happiness can be even when we realize that we can rise from the grave – TODAY. There are many kinds of tombs and many kind of resurrections. Every one of us can rise from a tomb – TODAY, because every one of us can rise to a better and higher life – TODAY.
In today’s Good News we read “the stone was taken away.” By God’s power Christ’s grave was opened. By God’s power the stone that holds you and me buried can be taken away.
What are these stones that weigh us down? First, there is the stone of selfishness, being concerned only with our very own good. The risen Christ will help us roll that stone away by becoming interested in doing what pleases God and what helps our neighbor.
There is the stone of greed, the stone of gluttony. How these weigh down both body and soul! The stone of indifference or lack of love keeps us from trying to please God, keeps us from trying to do good to our neighbor. ON this glorious day of the resurrection when we re-live the story of God’s love for us, we can break out of this indifference, this lukewarmness, with the strength of our risen Savior.
What is the stone you would like to have taken away so that you can come forth with Christ, bright and powerful? Is it impurity, dishonesty, laziness, pride, anger, envy? With the help of Christ throw it off and Easter will be a much happier day for you.
The main reason for our joy today is that Jesus rose and that He promised we will rise. But there is special joy in each of the resurrections we talked about. May our heavenly Father “bring us – all of us – to the glory of the resurrection,” as we will pray after Communion. The Blessed Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – are on this altar, ready to share with us the happiness of having the stone rolled away. That is the kind of Happy Easter I wish to all of you. God bless you.
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