God's Word and Daily Life

By Fr. Bernard Holzer, aa

Last Sunday after praying the Angelus in Rome, Pope Francis, once more, asked to pray for peace:

“Let us continue to pray for peace in Ukraine and in the entire world. I appeal to the heads of nations and international organizations to react to the tendency to accentuate conflict and confrontation. The world needs peace. Not a peace based on the balance of weapons, on mutual fear…

With God’s help, this is always possible! But it is necessary to pass from the strategies of political, economic and military power to a plan for global peace: no to a world divided between conflicting powers; yes to a world united between peoples and civilizations that respect each other.”

As the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrives in the Philippines, let us pray for peace.

Each of us can be a peace builder! In our family, our neighborhood, let us pray:

“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”

- Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

By Mel Jasmin

On June 29, the Church will celebrate the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul. A hymn from the Orthros for June 30 says about the Apostles: “You preached throughout the entire world that the eternal all-holy Trinity is in nature God.”

The ministry of the Apostles, those who were sent forth by the Lord and strengthened by the Holy Spirit, took the Gospel to the corners of the then-known world. For example, Saint Paul, although not one of the original twelve, took the Gospel to the Gentile world of Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome. Saint Peter also traveled to Rome. Saint Thomas, tradition holds, traveled to India. Saint Andrew traveled to Greece and, as tradition holds, established the Church in the city of Byzantium, which would later be renamed Constantinople, the See of our Ecumenical Patriarchate. In those places and others, the Apostles preached the Gospel and taught and guided the Christians. 

The feast of Saints Peter and Paul and the Holy Apostles, should inspire us to reclaim our missionary zeal with the aim of bringing people to Christ and His Holy Orthodox Church, those outside the Church, and those who have drifted away. We should be concerned about the growing indifference that many people show toward their Faith and their Church. We should be concerned that after three months of comfortably watching services online that people may take their time to return to their parishes. This then becomes our challenge: to bear witness to the love of God, to show our care for all people in all dimensions of their lives, by being active in the world and sharing our many gifts with as many as we can.

 Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us!

By Mel Jasmin

On June 23, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist.

John challenges us Christians to the fundamental attitude of Christianity—total dependence on the Father, in Christ. Except for the Mother of God, no one had a higher function in the unfolding of salvation. Yet the least in the kingdom, Jesus said, is greater than he, for the pure gift that the Father gives. The attractiveness as well as the austerity of John, his fierce courage in denouncing evil—all stem from his fundamental and total placing of his life within the will of God.

The greatness of John, his pivotal place in the history of salvation, is seen in the great emphasis Luke gives to the announcement of his birth and the event itself—both made prominently parallel to the same occurrences in the life of Jesus. John attracted countless people to the banks of the Jordan, and it occurred to some people that he might be the Messiah. But he constantly deferred to Jesus, even to sending away some of his followers to become the first disciples of Jesus.

Perhaps John’s idea of the coming of the Kingdom of God was not being perfectly fulfilled in the public ministry of Jesus. For whatever reason, when he was in prison he sent his disciples to ask Jesus if he was the Messiah. Jesus’ answer showed that the Messiah was to be a figure like that of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah. John himself would share in the pattern of messianic suffering, losing his life to the revenge of Herodias. St. John, pray for us!

 By Father Bernard Holzer, aa

The Trinity remains a deep mystery! It brings us back to the mystery of life.  We think we dominate it, understand it. It remains a mystery. It is a gift.

Do I believe in the word of Jesus who reveals God his Father to us and promises us the gift of the Spirit?

This mystery is telling us that God is not a lonely and jealous being, but that he is relationship and love. In God no one speaks for himself, no one proposes or wants to convince the other of his position. In God no one wants to impose himself, everyone shares what he has received.

To experience this mystery, let's take the time to contemplate on the love of a couple who takes care of their child. It introduces us into the mystery of love and communion. Let us take the time to contemplate on the search for unity in a diversified society or community such as the Church. Is this not the profound meaning of the reflection on synodality?

With the Trinity, we are at the heart of the mystery of relationship. Why do two beings love each other and decide to give birth to a child? Why are we in solidarity with the poor? Why are we called to love those who do not love us?

We are children of the Trinity: none of us is an island, and God is not far from us. The mystery of the Trinity is an invitation to rethink about our conception of God and our way of living in society.

ABy Father Bernard Holzer, aa

At the end of the Easter Season and the Pentecost, we enter in the Ordinary Time until the Advent Season. But this time is not ordinary: it’s the time of the Holy Spirit! But how do recognize him?

Last Sunday, on the Solemnity of Pentecost, Pope Francis offered advice on how to distinguish the voice of the Holy Spirit from “the voice of the spirit of evil.” The Pope provided several examples on how to recognize the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who “at every crossroads in our lives suggests to us the best path to follow.”

• “The Holy Spirit will never tell you that on your journey everything is going just fine. … No, he corrects you; he makes you weep for your sins; he pushes you to change, to fight against your lies and deceptions, even when that calls for hard work, interior struggle and sacrifice.”
• “The Holy Spirit, correcting you along the way, never leaves you lying on the ground, never. He takes you by the hand, comforts you and constantly encourages you.”
• Feelings of “bitterness, pessimism and negativity” never come from the Holy Spirit, but come from evil, which “stokes impatience and self-pity … complaints and criticism, the tendency to blame others for all our problems.”
• “The Holy Spirit on the other hand urges us never to lose heart and always to start over again. … by spreading hope and joy, not complaints; never envying others, never – envy is the door through which the evil spirit enters — but the Holy Spirit ... leads you to rejoice in the successes of others.”
• The Holy Spirit is “practical” and “wants us to concentrate on the here and now, because the time and place in which we find ourselves are themselves grace-filled… The Spirit leads us to love, here and now.”

As St. Paul tells us, the twelve fruits of the Holy Spirit are “charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity.”

Let us be children of the Spirit!

By Mel Jasmin

Pentecost originally was a Jewish feast that occurred 50 days after the Passover celebration and commemorated the giving of the law to Moses and the Israelites on Mt. Sinai.

On the Pentecost following Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles and those gathered with them, bringing fulfillment to this feast by bringing the new law in the Spirit, which is written on our hearts. The descent of the Holy Spirit is depicted using Old Testament imagery. The “strong driving wind” and “tongues as of fire” are reminiscent of the encounters with God on Mt. Sinai by Moses (see Exodus 19) and Elijah (see 1 Kings 19). The presence of the Holy Spirit manifested itself miraculously through “different tongues.” As the context reveals, this indicates that the Apostles were supernaturally able to speak in many languages and be understood by the diverse crowd.

This evidences the Holy Spirit’s role in bringing unity to the people of God. Sin separates but the Spirit unites. The fact that the diverse crowd, representing many nations and languages, could understand each other served as a reversal of what happened at the Tower of Babel back in Genesis 11.

At Pentecost, due to grace and the power of the Holy Spirit, people who would have been separated by language and nationality were brought together. This unity is a characteristic of the Church. Pentecost traditionally marks the beginning of the Church and reminds us that the Church is meant for all peoples. In fact, the word “Catholic” means “universal,” indicating that it crosses societal, ethnic, and linguistic barriers. In the Church, we all speak the same “language” because we profess the same faith, despite our many differences.

By Mel Jasmin

On May 29, the Catholic Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. Here in the Philippines, we also celebrate Catholic Communication’s Sunday.

Just before His ascension, Jesus commanded His disciples to “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.” This statement is called the Great Commission, which is also recorded in Matthew 28:18-20. His exhortation applies to us today just as much as it did to the original disciples. Jesus calls us to spread the gospel to everyone. In fact, at the end of every Mass we are sent out to bring Jesus to the world. Recall one version of the dismissal at Mass: “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord” or, another more common version, “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.” Yet, we can’t give away what we don’t have. What then is “the gospel” that we are to proclaim? The word “gospel” means “good news.” What is the good news? Simply put, it is Jesus Himself. Jesus is God in the flesh. God became man in order to bring about salvation from sin. All that Jesus did and taught was good news. But even more so, the death and resurrection of Jesus are the center of the gospel. Without Jesus’ death and resurrection the rest would be meaningless. He died to take all our sins to the grave and He rose to bring us new life and prove victorious over sin and death. As a result, we can have salvation from our sins and communion with God. Now that is good news and it’s worth sharing! Who will you share it with this week? Are we enablers of fake news? Do we communicate in the Catholic way?

By Mel Jasmin

On May 21, the whole Church celebrates the feast of Saint Christopher Magallanes and his companions.

Like the Jesuit Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro, Saint Christopher and his 24 companion martyrs lived under a very anti-Catholic government in Mexico, one determined to weaken the Catholic faith of its people. Churches, schools, and seminaries were closed; foreign clergy were expelled. Christopher established a clandestine seminary at Totatiche, Jalisco. He and the other priests were forced to minister secretly to Catholics during the presidency of Plutarco Calles.

Every martyr realizes how to avoid execution, but refuses to pay the high price of doing so. A clear conscience was more valuable than a long life. We may be tempted to compromise our faith while telling ourselves that we are simply being realistic, dealing with situations as we find them. Is survival really the ultimate value? Do our concrete, daily choices reflect our deepest values, the ones that allow us to “tick” the way we do? Anyone can imagine situations in which being a follower of Jesus is easier than the present situation. Saints remind us that our daily choices, especially in adverse circumstances, form the pattern of our lives.

We hope there would be as many brave believers who are willing to offer their life of love and faith to Christ. Saint Christopher Magallanes and companions, pray for us!

By Fr. Bernard Holzer, aa

The results of the national and local elections are practically known...

Some rejoice, others are desperate. Others wonder, are afraid of violence, many are waiting to know what happens next...

What does Jesus tell us? “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” Do not confuse with everything. Take time to reflect, pray, ask for the discernment of the Spirit and above all listen to the poor, the little ones, those who suffer. Put them at the heart of your life and commitment.

Roll up your sleeves, don't wait for six years to act, re-read Pope Francis' encyclicals and try, with others, to implement his teachings. Become Jesus’ disciples and follow him. Become a better person and a better citizen.

Today's Gospel is enlightening once again. Let's take the time to read it and meditate on it.

“I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness.

And if anyone hears my words and does not observe them, I do not condemn him, for I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world.

Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words has something to judge him: the word that I spoke, it will condemn him on the last day, because I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. So what I say, I say as the Father told me.” (John 12:44-50)