God's Word and Daily Life

By Fr. Bernard Holzer, aa

In a week-long meeting, around twenty theologians from Asia gathered recently in Seoul (South Korea). The theme of the meeting, organized by the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) was “The Future and Theological Prospect of the Church in Asia.”

To evangelize today in Asia, is to focus on emerging regional realities such as migration and environment while protecting Asian heritage and values. Archbishop Peter Chung Soon-taek of Seoul Archdiocese said: “We must reflect very seriously on how to theologize the Asian heritage and values by illuminating them in the light of Christian faith while preserving them, and how to dynamically testify to the gospel in an Asian context.”

As an Asian, how do I know my own culture and do I savor the Gospel?What are the values of Asia that I find in the Gospel and that the Gospel makes me discover?

Going back to the conversation of Saint Paul to the people of Athens (Acts 17:16-34) could help me to understand our challenge as Asian Christians.

Pope Francis just came back from a three-day apostolic visit to Hungary.

In his homily during his last Mass in the country, on Sunday 30, he sent us a strong message: “Like Jesus, we must become open doors.”

“How sad and painful it is to see closed doors. The closed doors of our selfishness with regard to others; the closed doors of our individualism amid a society of growing isolation; the closed doors of our indifference towards the underprivileged and those who suffer; the doors we close towards those who are foreign or unlike us, towards migrants or the poor. Closed doors also within our ecclesial communities: doors closed to other people, closed to the world, closed to those who are “irregular”, closed to those who long for God’s forgiveness. Please, brothers and sisters, let us open those doors! Let us try to be – in our words, deeds and daily activities – like Jesus, an open door: a door that is never shut in anyone’s face, a door that enables everyone to enter and experience the beauty of the Lord’s love and forgiveness.”

What are the doors I must open? What are the locks I need to blow up to change and to build peace and fraternity?

By Marc Gerona

Jesus said that his sheep belongs to him because he knows them and they follow him. This is the mark of a Good Shepherd; the shepherd knows and follows the sheep. Being a good shepherd is not a matter of entitlement, the shepherd spends time with his sheep. He sometimes bleeds with his sheep to save them from wolves and other wild animals.

We are both shepherd and sheep. We are shepherds because we lead a certain group like our own family and company. We too are sheep because we are followers of Christ. Jesus is the true and only shepherd for he has laid down his life for his sheep. He left the 99 to look for the one, loss sheep. If I were him, I would let go of the one lost sheep. I have 99, anyway! But no, he looked and found the one lost sheep? His only reason? It is his. The sheep is his. That reason is enough.

Are we loving enough like the Good Shepherd? Are we willing to risk our lives for the one lost sheep?

By Rems Noquiao

Next Sunday, our Gospel is Luke 24:28-35, more popularly known as the “Road to Emmaus.”

What is it in journeying and partaking a meal that have become a symbol of God after the resurrection? The disciples walked with Jesus without realizing that it was him. They thought he was an unknown stranger, who did not have any idea about the crucifixion of the Christ. Jesus’ true identity was not revealed to them. Perhaps because Jesus looked differently after the resurrection, or perhaps they were prevented from doing so. They did not see any sign during their travel. Where did they see the sign? In the breaking of the bread! That was the time their eyes were opened to the true identity of the stranger they travelled with. Jesus and the disciples sat down together. He got the bread and the fish and blest them. That act of blessing revealed Christ’s identity to them.

The Holy Eucharist is the event when Christ, in the person of the priest, blesses the bread and wine. It is the summit of our own roads to Emmaus, so that Christ’s identity, too, be revealed in us. And so, every time we hear Mass, our hearts too, should be burning within like the two disciples Jesus travelled with. It is our initial response of love, as the Eucharist is a sacrament of love!

By Fr. Bernard Holzer, aa

Let us rejoice!

Let us meditate and put in action the “Urbi and Orbi” Message of Pope Francis for Easter!

“We are not alone: Jesus, the Living One, is with us, forever.

Let the Church and the world rejoice, for today our hopes no longer come up against the wall of death, for the Lord has built us a bridge to life. […]

Yes, brothers and sisters, at Easter the destiny of the world was changed, and on this day, which also coincides with the most probable date of Christ’s resurrection, we can rejoice to celebrate, by pure grace, the most important and beautiful day of history. […]

May we allow ourselves to experience amazement at the joyful proclamation of Easter, at the light that illumines the darkness and the gloom in which, all too often, our world finds itself enveloped. […]

Let us make haste to surmount our conflicts and divisions, and to open our hearts to those in greatest need. Let us hasten to pursue paths of peace and fraternity. Let us rejoice at the concrete signs of hope that reach us from so many countries, beginning with those that offer assistance and welcome to all fleeing from war and poverty.”

By Rems Noquiao

Next Sunday, we mark the beginning of the Holy Week Season. Jesus’ entry in to Jerusalem begins on a huge wave of optimism, joy and hope. The people line the streets; they wave palms, they put their cloaks and garments on the ground and they shout out his name. This was an ancient Roman tradition used to welcome soldiers and armies home after their success in battle. The crowd welcome Jesus in a similar way as they shout out, Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Yet, how quickly the crowd changed and turned on Jesus. The same people who were happy to welcome him with shouts of joy, will soon begin to shout ‘Crucify him, Crucify him.’ Jesus is even betrayed and denied by his closet friends. The rest of them run and desert him. He is left alone.

In our life, we are confronted by the same reality. How many of us have experienced being glorified? How many were left alone? Before we were confronted by these trials, Jesus experienced betrayal to the highest level. He was not only betrayed by his friends, he was left behind, he was crucified without any sin. But death is not the end. Palm Sunday is just the beginning of the celebration and leads us to Easter, Jesus’ resurrection!

By Mike Punzal

On March 25, we celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation.

The Annunciation must be one of the most commonly depicted scenes in the history of art. From paintings, to music, to poetry and narrative, the story of Gabriel’s message to Mary—infused with doubt and belief, joy and sorrow, fear and comfort—has proved to be remarkably generative for both the life of faith and the creative impulse. It is a story sharing space with both devastation and hope, and this means it is a story for all of us, whoever we are and wherever we are in life.

We cannot imagine Mary—comforted here by the angel and comforted still along the way by Joseph not abandoning her, by her shared experience with her relative Elizabeth—as continuously recalling the event of the Annunciation in comfort, ease, and delight. And nowhere do we hear of her being entirely settled, unworried, and confident after her meeting with Gabriel. We cannot imagine that she didn’t have to wrestle through those words of the angel: ‘Do not be afraid, Mary’, each and every day. Maybe even chanting them like a mantra, like a blessing, like a song you can’t get out of your head. Surely, she must have performed her own ‘erasure’ time and time again: ‘be afraid Mary’, ‘be nothing’, ‘be impossible’, ‘and the angel departed’.

Mary’s response was a yes to God, despite her anxieties and troubles. May our response to God’s call be the same. Our Lady of the Annunciation, pray for us!

By Fr. Bernard Holzer, aa

Last Monday, Pope Francis marked his 10th anniversary as pope. The gift that he wanted most for his anniversary, he said, is “peace.”

Let’s then pray for him, for his ministry of harmony and peace, in the paths of St. Francis of Assisi.

Let us reread his two last encyclicals: “Fratelli Tutti” – “All Brothers and Sisters” and “Laudato Si” – “Praise be to you” on care of or common home. And let us act on it with love.

“The guarantee of an authentic openness to God, on the other hand, is a way of practising the faith that helps open our hearts to our brothers and sisters. Saint John Chrysostom expressed this pointedly when he challenged his Christian hearers: “Do you wish to honor the body of the Savior? Do not despise it when it is naked. Do not honor it in church with silk vestments while outside it is naked and numb with cold”. Paradoxically, those who claim to be unbelievers can sometimes put God’s will into practice better than believers.” – Fratelli Tutti § 74

“Because all creatures are connected, each must be cherished with love and respect, for all of us as living creatures are dependent on one another.” – Laudato Si § 42

By Fr. Bernard Holzer, aa

Is the Lenten Season a special moment for me?

How do I live out this time of love: love of God, of others, and of myself?

I would like to suggest a way of reflection and conversion.

Please, read and meditate on the five Lenten sermons of Cardinal Cantalamessa. He is preaching the Lenten retreat of Pope Francis and of the Roman Curia.

His first sermon focused on the Holy Spirit at the heart of all the life of the Church, the real actor of our human and spiritual life. He is the actor of all real conversion of the Church. He will be the guide of the coming Synod.

See his homily in the link:

http://www.cantalamessa.org/?p=4059&lang=en

Listen and meditate an extract of his meditation. It’s directed to each of us:

“We are by nature inclined to be hard on others and soft on ourselves, when we should set ourselves up to do the exact opposite: strict with ourselves, soft on others. This proposal, if we take it seriously, would be enough on its own to sanctify our Lent. It would exempt us from any other type of fasting and would dispose us to work more fruitfully and serenely in all areas of the life of the Church.

An excellent exercise in this direction is to be honest, in the court of one's own heart, with the person with whom one disagrees. When I realize that I am accusing someone inside, I have to be careful not to immediately take my side. I need to stop rehashing my reasons like someone chewing gum, and instead try to put myself in the other person's shoes to understand their reasons and what they would have to say to me as well.”

Let us try, and pray for each other. Blessed and joyful Lenten Season!