25th Sunday, OT-A: Mt.20,1-16, "God's Generosity"

I hire you as my workers today, and we agree that at the end of this day’s work at 5 p.m., I will give each of you P300 for your services. That would be just and fair, I suppose. Now, at 3 p.m., I hire 10 more workers to join you in the work. At 5 p.m., all of you line up to me to claim your remuneration. I start with those who started working at 3 p.m., who labored for only a couple of hours, and I give each of the 10 P300. Wouldn’t you expect that since you began working at 8 a.m., and sweated six hours longer that the 10, I would be giving you a higher pay? Would I be unjust and unfair if I gave you the same wage as what those who worked for only two hours received? But take note, P300 was what we agreed on.

The story can be an acid test of our personal values as Christians. If I ask you whether giving those who worked for two hours P300, which is the same sum I give you who worked for eight hours, is fair and just, I think you would grumble and complain that I am being unjust and unfair. You exerted much more effort than the 10, and yet they receive a day’s wage! If that is how you would react, then you need to develop a “second nature” so that you can respond to my generosity as your employer.

In the parable, the owner of the vineyard reflects God; the generosity of the owner of the vineyard reflects the generosity of God. The parable shows us that God is more interested in the worker than in the work done, in the person who produces than in the product. God does not count what we do; rather, he weighs what we do. “It is mercy I desire not sacrifice.”

Remember Dimas, the good thief who was crucified along with Jesus? He was a last hour worker, but he received a handsome wage from Jesus. He was a wicked man but at the twilight of his life, he “worked hard.” He completely changed his attitude and reoriented his life towards God. Thus, he gained heaven.

God’s ways are not man’s ways. God’s justice and rights are not according to man’s calculations. The earlier workers did not understand the decision of the vineyard owner concerning their wage. They had received the usual, just wage but disgraced themselves by their envy. Their complaints were an expression of their dearth of love. That divisive envy cost them the friendship and respect of their employer.

Are we to exchange the “friendship and respect” of God for our enviousness? The true Christian does not begrudge. Let us therefore rejoice in the good fortune of our neighbors and in seeing goodness and generosity manifested in others.

Being man (part 11)

A careful look on him would divulge a bittersweet smile lingering on his face. First time in minutes, I saw his eyes on me, and they seemed to appreciate the kind words I gave him. With folded arms above his chest, he gazed back at the stars shining down at this darkness of our life together. Through the color of night, I could discern the gloom still written on his countenance.

Somewhere in my mind, it dawned that there couldn’t be any difficulty as regards others throwing deriding eyes on him. Why, nobody has taught nobody about the subject on Mark. Only they and I, and God, have access to the room. And come to think of it, for all these years, not a single detail demonstrated to me that, indeed, there was something, well, ‘unusual’ about my buddy. It would take a supernatural talent, a metaphysical light, to comprehend Mark as Mark. I perceived that what was really problematic here was ‘combative’ in essence; Mark was to wage war against the other Mark lurking inside.

“I know how it is to be damned under that undesirable label but . . .”

“Now you know I am one of them. My company is undesirable then,” Mark interrupted.

“No. Of course, not. I was just musing about how they might deal with you. And I’m not one of them. I’m your friend.”

“I know . . . I know.” That gloomy kind of smile returned to him.

“And I was about to say, you’re different. You know how to act well, huh.”

He took my meaning. “Who knows who I am?” he asked the stars.

“Exactly. No one has the slightest reason to think that somewhere within you, there beats a, well, a . . . soft heart.”

“That I am a sissy . . .”

I stood up. “Mark,” my voice sounding close to pleading, “nothing without you ever told me of what was going on within you. Outside, you’re basically the Mark Garcia I made friends with many years ago. You’re a very nice person. I’m certain this is not the first time you ever heard this. You’re intelligent, talented, generous, and helpful. You have all what it takes to be one very good friend. I should tell you, however, as your friend, that you must take care of yourself. Watch out for her. Don’t let her do her things. Be on guard that she does not go chasing the red lights. Then, you’ll still have reason to smile at the world.”

No close observation of him could disclose any reaction to my counsel. There wasn’t any hint whether he assented to my statements. At one point, I feared that they sounded to him more like disbelief in his capacity to withstand the summon of the red lights than caring words to a troubled friend. Or, perhaps, he had already thought of these long ago. (February, 1998)

To be continued...

Feast of the Triumph of the Cross: Jn.3,13-17, "The Wisdom of the Cross"

One of our greatest avoidances, if not the greatest, is suffering. The last thing that we would want to experience is to suffer. We want to live an easy, comfortable life. We frown, or grimace, or squirm at whatever brings us face to face with difficulties, hardships, and problems. Whenever we meet them, we try to skirt away and hide from them. But rarely are we successful in fending them off.

Sometimes, when the strong blows of life hit us, we tend to think that, somehow, it is the will of God. Perhaps, he gives us what we deserve out of the wickedness we do against ourselves, against our fellowmen, against him. The hatred we sow is the same hatred we reap. The anger that we sow is the same anger that we gather. Then, the blows are not as painful. But when a multitude of problems arrest us when all along we feel we are living meritoriously, we question the goodness and justice of God. He would seem to have shut his eyes and allowed Injustice to prowl freely.

Yes, we have a great dislike for anything that makes life inconvenient and difficult for us. We do not like crosses in our life. We do not want to suffer. But isn’t it true that gold has to pass through extreme heat to reveal its luster and glory? A diamond needs to endure many cuts to sparkle more brilliantly. A seed does not sprout unless it is buried in soil. The baby learns to stand on its own feet after innumerable falls. An athlete could never do without undergoing the rigors of daily exercise. A religious sister lives her call only as she turns her back on the pleasures and the comforts and the luxuries of the world. “If you want to come after me, then take up your cross and trace my steps.”

In the Scriptures, God shows us a different way of looking at the cross, at suffering. Exodus narrates that God sent poisonous snakes that bit many of the Israelites. He did this to warn and chastise them; they were constantly complaining, they were wanting in faith. To save from death those bitten, God had Moses set up a serpent on a cross, so that any one who looked at it would be cured. This was going to be an anticipation of the grace of salvation which would flow from the cross of Jesus.

God's way is truly far different from man's. For he used the instrumentality of suffering to bring new life to a dying, if not an already dead, world. The story of Noah has this message. The world in which Noah lived was overflowing with wickedness, corruption and lawlessness. Men and women had very loose morals, and they grieved God. He even got to regret having created the world. But finding favor with Noah, he ultimately decided to renew the earth, and not destroy it totally. He had the earth suffer the utter horror of the great flood. But with this suffering came the promise of new life. The earth was transformed, and God filled it with the blessing of fruitfulness.

But the cross is not only a symbol of the power of God. More significantly, the cross is the ultimate symbol of the love God has for sinful, broken humanity, for us. We are a sinful people, and our sinfulness qualifies us only for death – death forever. But despite our wickedness, God still sees a very good reason to buoy us up from the pit of death – He loves us so much! Love is the reason, the only reason. And so even if it hurt to see his Son, Jesus Christ, suffer, God sent him to take up the cross, walk the distance to Calvary, and get himself nailed and murdered. By that hurting way, Jesus accomplished the great mission of saving the world. The cross brought back to us the grace of eternal life we lost through sin.

Now, who are we not to love the cross?

Job, in the Old Testament, was a very happy man. He had everything a man wanted in life. He was a wealthy but more importantly, a holy man. Then, suddenly and drastically, God took back everything: his beautiful family, everything he possessed, everything. That must have been a very heavy cross to carry. But Job showed that, after all, he did not lose everything. He did not lose what mattered most: his faith. Amid his poverty, he still found reason to shout to the world, “God gave, and God has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord!”

The cross is a gift. Let us keep in mind that it was through the triumph of the Lord on the cross that we became heirs of everlasting life. Time and again, we evade the cross because we fail to see that it is out of love that Jesus gives us the cross. He gives it so that we, too, might fight the fight of the faith . . . and emerge victorious.

May the Lord grant us the wisdom to understand that life flows from the cross.

Being man (part 10)

“Mark, I know how difficult all the confusion such as you suffer may get. I should remind you, however, that you did not cause yourself to be. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have elected to be the sort of being that you are now. You, all of us, had been thrown into this unfamiliar world without having been consulted about the sort of being you were to assume. You simply found yourself here and then you realized that you are who you are. How you are, how you feel, is beyond your responsibility. It is not your fault if you are naturally drawn to feel for one of your own kind. Don’t put the blame on you for this.”

“Do you like being Kenneth?” I saw again those eyes that make me admire him. And I did not know what answer I would deliver to him.

“Of course, I do!” my lips just blurted.

“Because there’s nothing wrong with you.”

“And there’s something wrong with you?”

“Tell me, how can I go on pretending there’s nothing wrong with me and still smile at the world?” returned he. His eyes opened as he delivered his inquiry, but he did not throw them on me. I guessed that he was addressing himself to the twinkling things above again.

But that was not the reason that I did not respond at once. Rather, it was not in my immediate ability to face such questioning intelligently. Then I managed to say, “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with you. The way you look at yourself, there lies what’s wrong. If the way you feel about that man you say you love, which you deem devious and erratic, rationalizes your thinking that there’s something unnatural, therefore wrong, about you, then you are belying God’s claim to the goodness of all his creation. You are a special work of God.” (February 1998)

To be continued...

Remembering God’s Mercy

1. Mary’s faith

At the Anunciation, the Angel Gabriel said to Mary, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women…” The Angel was asking Mary’s consent and cooperation in the great mystery of divine power and mercy. Since Eve and until our Lord first spoke, no word more meritorious and full of promise of joy, was pronounced by a human being than Mary’s act of faith: “Be it done unto me according to your word.”

Certainly, Mary knew what she was entering into; she knew God was using her to accomplish his plan of salvation in his mercy towards humanity. For she acknowledged in her Magnificat, “God has come to help of his servant Israel, for he has remembered his promise of mercy.”

2. Man’s fall and God’s promise of salvation

God made man in his image and likeness, and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity. Only man has been called to share in divine life and life forever. But man sinned. And yet after his fall, man was not abandoned by God. He might have lost everything because of sinning, except God’s mercy. In his steadfast love and faithfulness, God called man again and gave him the promise of restoration, the promise of a Redeemer.

We read of this promise in Genesis: A Messiah and Redeemer would be born of a Woman, and a war would be waged between her and the serpent, but a descendant of hers would have the final victory. Mary is that woman.

3. God’s mindfulness of his promise

God has always been mindful of his promise of redeeming mankind from sin. To work his plan, he chose the people of Israel as his instruments. He made covenants with Abraham, Moses and David, and through these covenants, he showed his great love and mercy for his chosen people. “I will be your God, and you will be my people.”

God’s covenant with the people of Israel through Moses was crystallized after their great deliverance from their slavery in Egypt. For many, many years, the Israelites, as slaves of the Egyptians, were like “dead people”. God made them “live again” when, in his great mercy and mindful of his promises, he led them out of that land of bondage. The Exodus-event typifies what the great sacrifice of Jesus, son of Mary, would effect in the lives of fallen humanity. Man has become a slave of sin, and Jesus came precisely to unshackle him, his cross being the key.

But even before the foundation of Israel, God already showed his mercy in the renewal of the world through the Great Flood. There was a general perversion in Noah’s time, and to cleanse the world, God sent the flood. Then after the flood, he promised not to inundate the world again. God gave the rainbow as the sign of that promise. When God would see the rainbow, he would remember that promise, and he would act mercifully again.

4. The fulfillment of the promise in Jesus Christ

Jesus came announcing that the Kingdom of God is at hand, that the day of salvation is near. This strong message he substantiated with his teachings, healings and many other wondrous deeds. His redemptive actions reached their climax with his passion, death and resurrection.

During the last supper, Jesus commanded his disciples: “Do this in remembrance of me.” “Remember” is a powerful word. When the Lord bade his disciples to “do again the last supper” in remembrance of him, it was not only to celebrate his memory, it was not only to imitate what he did, it was not only to gather in fellowship and participate in that commemoration. It was to remember God’s bountiful mercy so truly present, so evident in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. It was to make that sacrifice present again in the here and now.

The rainbow was the sign of the covenant of God with Noah. But now Jesus Christ himself is the sign of the new covenant of God with man. God recalled his promise not to destroy the world again with flood when he saw the rainbow. But when God sees the Body and Blood of Jesus, his Son, raised in offering in the celebration of the holy mass, he will remember his promise of mercy. God will see the sign, he will remember and he will act again with mercy.

5. The holy mass as memorial of God’s mercy

The holy mass or the Eucharist is a re-enactment, in a bloodless manner, of the sacrifice of the cross. In the last supper, Jesus had every one of us in mind to save. Through the sacrifice of his life on the cross, he saved every person – past, present and future. His sacrifice was once-for-all; that’s why, it need not be repeated anymore. By that singular sacrifice, he gained the merits for the salvation of all. Now, every time the holy mass is celebrated, the sacrifice of the cross is made present once more, and the graces won by Jesus Christ are made available again for the people in the present. And in every celebration of the mass, God remembers his promise of mercy to humanity, and we ourselves remember how merciful God is to us sinners.

God’s richness in mercy and the coming of Jesus as man are two things inextricably joined. It was because of God’s overflowing mercy that he sent his only Son to be the ransom for our sins, that we may be released from the bondage of eternal death into the glory of eternal life. It was precisely the coming of Christ that finally fulfilled God’s promise of mercy.

6. Mary’s participation

Could all this have happened without Mary’s consent and cooperation in God’s merciful plan? We don’t have to think about it. But we thank Mary for saying her unconditional “yes” to God.

Mary knew the history of her people. She knew their desperations and hopes. She knew God’s promise of salvation. She may not have thought even once that she would be playing the vital role of carrying the Redeemer in her womb and bringing him up, until the day Angel Gabriel appeared to her. But when the fullness of time arrived for God to work out his plan of mercy, Mary, herself mindful of God’s mercy, said, “Be it done unto me as you have said.” And she became, as it were, the receptacle of God’s mercy.

7. Our response

Every time we celebrate this memorial of Christ’s death and resurrection, may we remember God, our God, who is rich in mercy for us. Through Mary’s “yes”, God has truly come to help us, for he has remembered his promise of mercy.

23rd Sunday, OT-A: Mt.18,15-20, "My Brothers' Keeper"

We profess to be followers of the Lord Jesus. There is no better way to prove ourselves his followers than to follow his example. He lived a holy life. Throughout his life, he deeply desired that all be converted from their evil ways and fulfill in their own selves what is expected of children of God. He wanted to see all living lives pleasing to God, just as he did.

We are the Body of Christ, who is holy. Everyday of our lives, we endeavor to move a step forward to becoming more holy. But we are not alone in the journey. We have our brothers and sisters journeying with us. As children of the one Father in heaven and as the Body of Christ, it is our ought to be concerned with the holiness of our brothers and sisters. In his ministry, Jesus made the first move to bring an errant person to conversion. Now, he gives us a course of action in dealing with an erring brother or sister. If a brother (or a sister, for that matter) does not realize his mistake, we must make the move. We need to take him aside and correct him in private. He must be convinced that he, indeed, committed a mistake, that he did something wrong and displeasing to God, and that he must repent and make amends. We do not condemn him but we want to win him to lead him to repentance and conversion. This is one most noble act of charity.

If the brother does not listen to us, then we should call for two or three others to help us admonish the brother to repent and change his ways. Again, we never condemn the brother who has fallen out of the way. All we want to do is to help him get back into the journey. Perhaps, this is where the power of intercession is most needed. For Jesus himself promised, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in their midst.”

Still, if the brother does not right his life, the community comes in mercy and in charity to convince the wayward brother to repent, to do penance and to amend his life. But if he remains obstinate even before the community, then he disqualifies himself from being counted among the community. For we need to protect the holiness of the Body of Christ.

But the bottom-line of all these is charity, that brand of charity with which the good shepherd leaves the 99 to look for the one that is lost. Didn’t we say, we are followers of Jesus? This Jesus whom we follow seeks out the lost, those who wander away, never despising them. Let us make his move our move. Perhaps, we can begin moving from home?