December 24 (Lk. 1,67-79): After John

“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has come to his people and set them free.”

For like forever, the Israelites had to struggle against the oppression of the Egyptians. They cried out to God for help. Mindful of his servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and of his promise that he would always be there for them (for that is what Yahweh means), he wrought the magnificent event of the Exodus, through the hands of Moses, to liberate them.

But there is a far more onerous and a far harsher oppression that all humanity has to run a way from. It is the oppression of sin. Now, Zechariah, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, proclaimed that God had already raised up a mighty Savior to liberate humanity from this oppression. The coming of the Savior had been foretold by the prophets as a fulfillment of the promise of God. John, his son, would be great, for he would go before this Savior to prepare his way and point him out when he came. As yet, humanity walked in darkness. And the Savior would be the Light to scatter this and to guide them as they walked the way of peace. The Savior is Jesus, the Son of Mary.

John’s mission, as his name indicates, was to proclaim, by word and action, that God is compassionate. He did this precisely by preparing the way for the Lord so that humanity could go to him. It is only by following a way that we get somewhere. Without a way, we could not reach Jesus, who is rich in mercy and compassion.

John taught that the way to Jesus is repentance for our sins. Repentance makes “the windings straight and the rough ways smooth”. With a repentant heart, Jesus can come to us and we can go to him so that we may be forgiven of our sins. There is no other way by which we can meet God and gain salvation. Jesus himself appeared proclaiming, “Reform your lives!” Repentance is the way to salvation. This is the way we are all enjoined to go. There is no better way to prepare for his coming than to stop our sinfullness and set straight the way that leads to us. Reaching us, he, the Light, may begin to shine anew in our life.

The Light did not come to shine only for us. It is our vocation to be a little light for others who are finding their way to Jesus. Let us not leave them wandering in the dark. Let us show them the way – the way of repentance, of reform, of change of heart.

Following the way of John and trusting in the tender compassion of God, may we all find our feet on the way towards the peace and salvation of Jesus.

December 23 (Lk. 1,57-66): What Will This Child Be?

I consider my family my greatest treasure. I am how I am today largely because of my family. I am the Fr. Tom standing before you today because of my family.

When a child is born, people get to ask: “What will this child be?” Will he be a doctor, or a lawyer, or an engineer, or an executive, or a manager, or a priest? Will she be a nurse, or a teacher, or a midwife, or a religious? Will he be respectful and obedient, intelligent and talented? Or will he be a drunkard like his father, or a gambler like his uncle? Will she be a gossiper like her mother, or unfaithful like her aunt?

When you and I were born, this question might have also been asked. Many things might have run across the minds of our parents and relatives, many dreams woven into their minds. As we grew up, we may have achieved some of these, or we may have missed whatever was dreamed for us. There is one basic dream for every child: that he grow up in grace and wisdom, just like Jesus under the loving care of Joseph and Mary.

But how are our children raised these days? They are left under the care of the nanny, who leaves them in front of the television unsupervised. A few years back, a TV channel carried the news about a four year old boy who always watched TV – guns, killings, violence. One day, after watching on TV a man killing somebody with a gun, he went to his parent’s room, took his father’s gun, went to his yaya, pointed the gun at her, and, puuuh, the yaya lay lifeless on the floor.

Several years ago, computers were only accessible, aside from office workers, to college students. Now, almost everybody, including pre-schoolers, can take advantage of the wonders of the computer, where everything is just a click away. In this age of information technology, one can hardly keep in step with the world without a computer. Use the computer, we must. But who knows what other sites our children are visiting? Consider the stream of negative influences the internet may have on a person.

“What will this child be?” Such a question of great importance! A question that must be asked by both parents and children.

All of us are children, reared by our parents. Perhaps, we children should look at ourselves and ask: How am I? What am I doing with my life? What are my dreams? What are the things that matter to me? What are my priorities? What are the things I believe in? Where is the family in my world, in my consciousness? Is my family my greatest treasure? How is my relationship with my parents, my brothers and sisters? Am I open to them? Do I care about how they feel? All parents wish the best for their children. This is why parents work so hard to be able to send their children to the best schools and assure them of a brighter future. Do I value the way my parents care for me? Do I think my parents, my family, are happy with how I am now? We forget that it is in the family that we learn the basics of life. It is in the family that we feel most secure, energized and revitalized. It is within the family that we find real peace and sense of belonging. Regrettably, many of us take our families for granted until it’s too late. Scripture says, “Jesus went down with Joseph and Mary and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them . . . and increased in wisdom.”

Parents, do you honestly think you had been and continue to be the best parents that you can be to your children? Do you make an effort to bring yourselves close to your children and understand them? Do you care about how they feel and what they think? Are you aware about the difficulties they go through, their problems, their confusions? Our children may be okay and silent in the outside, but exploding and screaming in the inside. Are you happy to see what your children have become? Do you think your children are happy that they have you as their parents? Parents should realize that every child wants to belong to a good, holy, peaceful and respectable family. Parents need to be keenly aware with everything that happens inside the family and listen to what God may be saying. They must imitate Mary who treasured everything in her heart. There were many tragic events that happened to her family, things that were hard to understand, but she meditated on them in the light of God’s word. Parents must remain aware that they are the primary educators of their children. Not the television, not the laptop or the internet or any other medium of communication, not the barkada. They must be vigilant and protective of their children so that they may become like Jesus, who grew to be an obedient child to Joseph and Mary, or like John, who must have been docile to Zechariah and Elizabeth.

“What will this child be?” This question is important to God, too. Every one of us has been created in His image and likeness. He has great plans for us. But we frustrate his plans because we just do what we want to do although what we want may be contrary to his will. As God’s children, we must follow the example of Jesus who said, “I must be in my Father’s house. I must be about his things. I must follow what he wants.” No father or mother desires the ruin of his or her children, but that they become as God intended them to be that they may be happy in this life. Do we think God is happy with how we are spending our time on earth?

I love my family. If I were given a second shot at life, I would happily choose to be born again into the family built by my father and mother with love and care. Our life as a family may be ordinary and simple, but there is genuine loving and caring. Having my family as I know it, I can say, “It’s great to be alive.”

Can you say that, too?

(Some points were shared by a friend, Sherween Saquing.)

December 22 (Lk. 1,46-56): Mary’s Song of Praise

Mary was full of joy as she trod the long and winding road towards the hill country of Judea where Zechariah and Elizabeth lived. Mary expressed her joy over her cousin’s blessing. So did Elizabeth share in Mary’s jubilation because God found favor in someone from their family to carry the Son of God in her womb.

When our happiness is so strong and overpowering, our eyes twinkle like they never did before. Our face radiates the completeness that our soul enjoys. It is as if the day were ours, the sun shone only for us, the wind blew fresh for our sake. We get to sing our heart out, albeit our tongue may not distinguish a do from a re.

Mary must have been bursting with such joy as she proclaimed to Elizabeth the good things God had done to her. She was ecstatic but never proud. She knew how lowly a person she was, and yet God favored her among the daughters of the earth. Her heart could not contain all the happiness that God poured into her being. This she wanted to share with humanity. This she wanted to shout to the world: “God, who is mighty, has done great things for me, holy is his name!” She sang her heart out. “My being proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit finds joy in God my savior.”

Mary’s song was a recognition of the divine work in her humanness. She felt she did not deserve the way God was treating her, the way God was so close to her. God was with her!

Mary reminds us that God has done many good things for us, too. Many times, we immediately see God’s hand working for us. At other times, he works without our awareness, and we fail to recognize his movements about us, which accrue to our benefit. Sometimes, we mistake these movements as originating from our own strength. Not so. The truth is, everything is grace. Every good thing that we experience issues from the wellsprings of God’s goodness. We cannot claim possession over any one good thing that we enjoy. If we are healthy, if we are able to work, if we have claim to some remuneration, if we are able to buy things, if we have possessions, that is because God is good. He gives us the will and the strength to be how we want to be. He gives us the will and strength to achieve our goals. We are by God’s providence.

The heart of Mary was wrapped with thankfulness because of the goodness of the Lord. She gives us herself as our model. She teaches and inspires us to constantly remember our nothingness in our aloneness, and our fullness with the graciousness of God. Mary always approached God with a grateful heart. She fully knew that to God alone belongs our thanksgiving, for he alone has the power to accomplish things. Mary said: “He confuses the proud in their inmost thoughts. He deposes the mighty from their thrones and raises the lowly to high places. To the hungry he gives every good thing, while the rich he sends away empty.” He does great things to every one of us. For this, we might also come forward and acknowledge the goodness of God, singing: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior.”

But there is more to Mary’s song that just thanksgiving. It tells us about what God had done for us and what he continues to do. It is very clear that God wants change. In fact, He sent Jesus His only Son to restore all things to himself. God wants change in the moral sphere. “He has shown might with his arm, dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart.” For moral change to take place, every person who bears the name Christian must put on the humility of Christ. Humility and arrogance mutually exclude each other. God wants change in the social sphere. “He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly.” For social change to come about, we should remind ourselves or perhaps even drill into our consciousness that all are equal before God. People in office, those in positions of power, should regard their work as a way to serve and not as an occasion to be served. God wants change in the economic sphere. “The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty.” For economic change to happen, we start getting up from the “giving side” and not from the “taking side” of the bed each day. We are not here in the world to get as much or as many as we can. “All is vanity,” says Quoheleth. But if we do acquire, it is because we want to have something to share.

May we, like Mary, actively proclaim the goodness of God and demonstrate our gratefulness by being at the service of God’s strong desire for change. Our move, our action may not be that radical. But little by little, in our own little way, may we bring about moral change, social change and economic change in the world starting in ourselves, thus claiming Mary’s song our own.

Lk.1,26-28: Mary’s “Yes”

Nobody knows what the future holds for us. There may be a few who had been gifted with insight into the future, but generally, we, including Mary, are ignorant about what still will be.

No doubt, Mary knew the history of her people. She knew their desperations and hopes. She knew that God would fulfill his promise of salvation. But she could not have thought even once that she would be playing the vital role of delivering the Son of God into the world. Consider her shock when Angel Gabriel broke the good news to her. How could she have even imagined that she would become the Mother of God? She was only a very poor young lady from an obscure village. But when the fullness of time arrived for God to work out his plan of mercy, Mary, herself mindful of God’s mercy, said, “Let it be done unto me as you have said.” And she became, as it were, the receptacle of God’s mercy for the world.

That crucial “yes” of Mary started a new chapter in the history of the world. It was as if God’s light as never seen before finally broke through into mankind. And we thank Mary for saying her unconditional “yes” to God. That yes was not only a yes to Him, but it was as much a yes to us, her fellow human beings, her sons and daughters.

The “yes” that Mary gave the Angel at the Annunciation was only the first in a series of yeses in her whole life as the Mother of God. Almost immediately after she had given birth to Jesus, she learned the bare truth about his dreadful destiny and that her heart would be pierced by the sword. It must have taken time for the prophecy of Simeon about the sorrows to come to sink in her. But certainly she came to realize that accepting that prophecy was fundamental or central to the fiat, to that “yes” she professed at the Annunciation.

Although she, together with Joseph, had to protect her child from the deadly hands of Herod, and so they had to run to Egypt for safety, she kept her fiat. Although she must have become hysterical when she thought she had lost her son when he was 12, she still said yes. Although she was struck with great pain when she saw her son being rejected by the people of Nazareth – by their own people – and almost pushed by them over the cliff, she didn’t break loose of her yes. And although she was already drowning with so much hurt at seeing her son carrying that heavy cross towards Calvary, his face like a workshop of blood, of sweat and of derisive saliva, she never said “no” to God. But she patiently endured everything unto the foot of the cross. This is where her fiat had brought her. From her fiat at the Annunciation to her fiat at the foot of the cross, Mary remained the Mother of God; she lived her divine motherhood.

There are innumerable instances in our lives when we have to say “yes” or otherwise to someone or to something. Questions range from something trivial to something crucial, from something funny to something hurting, from something childish to something serious. Sometimes we postpone answering; but there come times when we are pressed for an answer. No matter what our answer to the question may be, we have to face the implications and consequences of that answer.

If you lose a loved one, especially when he is tragically taken away from you, would you still say yes to God? If your beloved son or daughter fail the bar or board exam despite your fervent and unceasing prayers, would you still say yes to God? If your good name is destroyed when all along you try to be the best person that you can be wherever you are, would you still say yes to God? Or would you still say yes to your spouse after he or she has betrayed your trust? Would you still say yes to your son or daughter after he or she has dragged your family to utter humiliation? Would you still say yes to your parents after they have failed to be the father and mother that they should be to you? No matter what we go through in life, we should not despair and say “no” to God.

Tony Castle relates that occasionally he meets someone who seems to have a secret, some special knowledge that sets that person apart. One such person was Ruby Free. Tony met her when she was conducting a Holy Land tour. He thought that she must have a secret, for how else could she accomplish so much, so easily? And he envied her. Ruby was a good listener, a troubleshooter, an organizer, a mother to her two children, etc. Yet she never got tired. He wanted to know her secret. And then when they returned home, he visited her. And Tony discovered Ruby’s secret. There it was, a two-word motto over her kitchen sink. It said: “Yes, Lord.”

Like Ruby, we can live that Marian brand of obedience to the will of God. Just as through Mary’s yes, God’s help gushed forth into the world, so would the same divine assistance flow to us with our yes to Him. To a great degree, our fiat will determine the breadth and length of our Christian happiness and fulfillment, emphasis put on the word “Christian”. And if your life is a “yes” to God, would you still need to know what the future will bring?

December 20 (Lk. 1,26-38): Sheltering God

Six months after God sent Angel Gabriel to Zechariah, he also sent him to a woman engaged to a man named Joseph. The woman was Mary, the daughter of Joachim and Anne.

We cannot live alone. We cannot satisfy all that we need with our own strength alone. We need others to take care of us. We need to belong. This is the reason that a person does not come into being on his own. When he comes to be, he comes to be in a family, in a home. The home makes a person. We are how we are largely because of our homes.

When the fullness of time came for God the Father to work his plan of salvation, he found in Mary the proper home into which his Son was to be born. From eternity, God had seen in Mary the kind of motherhood fit for his Son. To prepare her for the holy task of mothering the Son of God, God made his favor rest on her. Sanctifying grace protected her from the stain of sin so that she would be worthy to be the home of the Son of God. Human as she was, she was chosen to carry the Divine in her womb.

But God was not forcing her to take the office of motherhood of the Son of God. Mary had the freedom to concur with the will of God or to beg off. After all, he freely gave man freedom, yes, as a gift. Was she going to say yes?

“Rejoice, O highly favored daughter! The Lord is with you,” greeted Angel Gabriel. He added, “Blessed are you among women.” This angelic salutation disturbed Mary so much. She could not immediately make out that greeting. She must have been dumbfounded. The angel felt her confusion. And so he told her not to worry. In fact, she found favor with God. Among all women, she was favored to bring forth the Savior, to usher in the Light that would dispel all the darkness in the world. The child that she would conceive would free mankind from the grip of death and bring everyone into the glory of life everlasting, where he would reign over heaven and earth forever.

Mary was deeply honored for being chosen the home of the Divine. In her simplicity, and not out of unbelief, she asked: “How can this be since I am not yet married?” She did not say, “This is impossible. How can a woman who has not known any man be with child?” She did not question the power of God. She had faith that for God nothing was impossible. She wanted to know just how everything the angel told her would take place. The angel told her that the Holy Spirit would take care of that. The Holy Spirit would overshadow her, and she would conceive a son and name him Jesus, for he would save men from sin.

Because of her deep faith and unflinching love for God, she unhesitatingly accepted the divine invitation. She said “yes” to the will of God: “Let it be done to me as you say.” She trusted in the word of God. And with that occurred the wonderful event of the incarnation: God becoming man.

Mary’s yes was a crucial point in the history of salvation. It was her loving and faithful yes which allowed God’s grace of salvation to gush forth into humanity’s spiritual lowliness. By that yes, man was saved.

But God also waits on us. He also wants us to be other mothers, to be Marys. Let us shout our “yes” to God and allow a special place in our hearts for the Son of God. Let us bear him lovingly and faithfully for others to behold, that is, show them that we have Jesus in us, that Jesus is with us, by our acts of faith, of hope, of charity.

December 19 (Lk.1,5-25): The Listening God

One of the deepest desires of a father is for a son. A son takes the place of his father after his father is gone and so perpetuates his father’s name. A son, therefore, makes secure a father’s memory. The gift of a son immortalizes a father’s being.

Zechariah must have had this desire. It seemed too bad, he had to keep hoping for a son (or a child) for so long, even beyond the time to shelve such hope altogether. He was too old; so was his wife Elizabeth, Mary’s cousin. The sun had already gone down on the possibility for him to have a child. Elizabeth was sterile! In Jewish culture, sterility was seen as a punishment from God for one’s sins. Because her womb did not bear any child for Zechariah, she became a focus of reproach among her neighbors. These people must have been laughing secretly behind Elizabeth’s back. But the hope remained burning. And then, one day, Zechariah was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and offer incense. Suddenly, the angel of the Lord appeared to him and broke to him the good news that would change his and his wife’s life. He was overcome by fear. But the angel told him that there was nothing to be afraid of. In fact, he should rejoice because his prayers had been heard. Elizabeth would conceive a son, and he should name him John. Zechariah was struck with astonishment: “How could this be when I am too old and my wife is just as advanced in age as I am?”

It was quite inconsistent of Zechariah to have displayed unbelief in the words of the angel. His was a questioning stance over the possibility of the good news. All along, he was praying that he be given a child, a son. God heard him. And yet when God sent his angel to deliver the good news, that he was going to have a son, Zechariah hesitated with unbelief. He was not ready to believe that with God everything was possible, that there was no limit to what he could do, including liberating Elizabeth from the shame of barrenness. Because Zechariah showed distrust in the good news, the angel made him dumb until the good news came true.

God is a good God. He knows what brings us down. He perfectly knew that childlessness made Zechariah and Elizabeth insecure. He intended to make them happy, so he answered their prayers. But by his unbelief, Zechariah was blocking God from accomplishing his plan for them. It was as if, although he was praying for a son, he did not really mean it after all.

Many times in our life, we are faced with our own inadequacies – inadequacies that we alone cannot satisfy. We look to God to fill us up. But when God begins to work out his intentions for us, we, like Zechariah, get bewildered, sometimes afraid. For we do not know just how the wisdom of God works. Truly, God’s ways are not man’s ways. The thoughts of God infinitely surpass those of man.

Christmas is the perfect example of God’s wisdom as transcending man’s logic. Man’s mind cannot fully understand why the Son of God had to assume human form to save human beings from sin. He could have taken another way, not such a humbling way, by becoming man. But out of his sheer wisdom, that is both loving and faithful, God willed his Son to be born of a woman in order to dignify once again man, who lost his original dignity to sin.

Christmas is a celebration of the loving and faithful wisdom of God that bends toward man. Let us not be afraid of this God, who is willing to humble himself for our sake because of his infinite love. Let us not be afraid of the fact that sometimes we do not understand his ways of love. Instead, let us rejoice that God both explicitly and incomprehensibly loved us as shown in the event of Bethlehem.

December 18 (Mt. 1,18-24): The Loving Man That Was Joseph

The Gospel recounts a very endearing love story.

The seven verses center on Joseph’s role in the circumstances surrounding the conception of the human nature of Jesus. Mary was betrothed to Joseph. According to the custom of the Jews, a man and a woman are first engaged and are married only a year later when he brings her to his home and consummate the marriage. So Joseph and Mary were living in an espousal state, which would last a year. During this period, Mary was expected to act like Joseph’s wife. Any infidelity on her part would be counted as adultery, and an adulteress deserved nothing less than death.

Then Joseph found out that Mary was with child! She seemed to have broken the contract. She appeared to have slept with another man. She has thus disgraced his name. Therefore, she ought to be punished. Joseph must have been terribly hurt because he loved and adored Mary so much. And yet, despite her apparent unfaithfulness, in his love for her, he did not want to expose her. Instead, he wanted to save her from being shamed and the imminent death sentence. He was contemplating on divorcing her quietly. He would simply sign the divorce papers and give them to her in the presence of two witnesses. By doing this, he would be giving her her freedom. He would lose his “right” to cry foul against her and see her punished. He was a kind man, and he truly loved her.

And then the angel of the Lord appeared in his dream. Probably, it was Gabriel. The angel told Joseph not to worry and not to execute his plan to divorce Mary. Her pregnancy was not due to human action but was the fruit of divine intervention, the work of the Holy Spirit. Mary would not bear an ordinary child but would give birth to the Son the God. The child would save the people from their sins. The angel further intimated to Joseph that Mary’s conceiving was, in fact, the fulfillment of what God had foretold through the prophet Nathan in King David’s time: “The virgin shall be with child and give birth to a son, and they shall call him “Immanuel”, a name which means “God is with us.”

A just man, Joseph did everything that the angel told him. He forewent divorcing Mary and brought her to his home, and she became his wife. He accepted the holy role of being the foster father of the Son of God.

There are three things that we can immediately learn from the example of Joseph. First, trust in God. Joseph put his trust in God. God knows what is best, and Joseph believed that everything that God asked him to do was for the best. Joseph did as the angel commanded him. His trusting attitude, although he was a nobody to the world, living only in an obscure village, made him great in the eyes of God. He must have been a man of prayer, for only a person devoted to prayer would easily submit himself to God’s will.

Second, obedience. Joseph’s obedience was remarkable. His was immediate and unquestioning although it meant having to go through a lot of toil and suffering. As soon as Joseph got up from his bed, he accomplished the command of God. Obviously, Joseph and Mary had definite plans of settling down together and raising a family. But God intervened and wanted them to have room for his own plan instead. Joseph and Mary put far more premium on the will of God.

Third, justice and kindness. Joseph was a just man. In accordance with law, he had to let go of Mary, whom he loved. He had to divorce her. Yet out of kindness, he chose to divorce her quietly so as not to expose her to public ridicule and make her suffer the harsh death penalty. Of course, this never happened because of the Lord.

This Joseph, who is full of trust in and obedient to God, just and kind, protected Mary and the child Jesus while in Bethlehem and Egypt, and provided for their needs in Nazareth. This Joseph is the protector of the family and of the whole Church. Let us run to him for protection.

St. Joseph, pray for us!

December 17 (Mt.1,1-17): Jesus: Son of God and Son of Man

Our name is one of our basic treasures. We want it to be respected because it mirrors who we are. We usually feel uncomfortable when our name is misused, or even get enraged when it is dragged with disrepute or when people make fun of it, especially in the case of little kids.

The Gospel presents a long list of both familiar and unfamiliar names. It begins with the name of Abraham, mentions the name of David and ends with Jesus. This listing of names, tracing the ancestry of Jesus, is called a genealogy. We may not find genealogies interesting for outwardly there are no stories in them. But for every Jew, his genealogy is very important for proving his Jewish ancestry, his racial purity. His genealogy speaks about who he is and determines his class, his place in society.

Matthew, by tracing the roots of Jesus back to Abraham, attempts to show that Jesus descended from Abraham and, therefore, is a Son of Abraham. Abraham was not blessed with a child; his wife Sarah was sterile. God spoke to Abraham in his old age and made a solemn promise that he would be father of nations. All the nations would find blessing in his descendants. And this was fulfilled in Jesus as he commanded his disciples to go to the ends of the earth and make known his good news of salvation.

Matthew also calls Jesus Son of David. Just as Jesus is descended from Abraham, so does he find his roots in David. Nathan prophesied to David that God would raise up an heir from his stock, and he would make his throne firm forever. Jesus is the Davidic heir whose reign would know no end. In the Gospel of Matthew, this name of Jesus, “Son of David”, is associated with many miraculous events. The man whose sight was restored cried out “Son of David”. When Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem, the Jews shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”

The Gospel teaches us that Jesus was unquestionably a Jew. He was a true Israelite. He continued the history of Israel, for he played the indispensable role in the history of Israel. He was the fulfillment of all the promises made by God in the Old Testament.

At the bottom of all these is the truth that Jesus was really a man. He was born of a Hebrew woman named Mary, who was betrothed to a good man named Joseph, who is a descendant of King David. Looking at the genealogy, we might realize, in disbelief, that Jesus, in fact, is descended from ancestors who were far from perfect. Jesus’ ancestry could be traced back to the prostitute Rahab; to Ruth, who was not an Israelite; to the adulterous Bathsheba, who bore David a son named Solomon; to Tamar, the daughter-in-law of Judah by whom he had a son named Perez. Jesus’ genealogy truly abounds with scandals. But we should not see this truth as a scandal to our faith. This only boldly and plainly shows us the humanity of Jesus. Jesus is like us in everything except sin. He is Son of God, hence his divinity, as much as he is Son of Abraham, Son of David and Son of Joseph, hence his humanity.

Jesus, who is God and man, has a love that encompasses all, a love that doesn’t discriminate. This we can glean very clearly from his genealogy which lists good and not-so-good men together, man and woman together (although a woman was regarded as a second-class citizen), Jew and non-Jew together. Jesus did not love only the saintly, he loved the sinners as well; in fact, he even loved them more. Jesus did not draw only men to himself; even women have a special place in God’s plan. Jesus was sent not only to the Jews but also to the Gentiles. So before Jesus the God-man, there is no more saint or sinner, man or woman, Jew or Gentile; all are loved by God. Jesus’ genealogy, after all, is a great story telling us of the breadth and length, the height and the depth of the love of God.

We rejoice over this blessed truth: that Jesus, as human being, is completely one of us. He is no different in this. He perfectly knows our joy and happiness, our hopes and dreams, our grief and anguish. He completely understands everything we go through, what fills our emptiness, what brings true joy in our life, where we must end and what can take us there. With his coming, Jesus blessed our humanity. With him, our fallen humanity is raised once again to the dignity of the image and likeness of God, to the dignity of sons and daughters of God.

December 16 (Jn.5,33-36): A Saving Event

Today begins our nine-day journey towards Christmas, the feast of the birth of our Savior, our Hero. We call these nine masses aguinaldo masses because they are considered as a kind of our Christmas gift to the Lord who comes, but they are regarded as a kind of gift of God to us as well. Our celebration of the dawn masses is very symbolic of the person of Jesus Christ and the person of Mary. Jesus, whom we are waiting for, is the light of the world that dispels all darkness. When he came into the world more than 2000 years ago, he was introduced by Mary. For this reason, Mary can be called the dawn that brought forth the light which is Jesus. We gather very early for nine days in honor of Mary so that we can experience in the dawning day a symbol of herself and her role in the greatest event that ever happened on earth – our salvation.

If you were to ask me to identify one curious event that happened in my personal history, I would readily pinpoint that which took place in 1982. I was hit by a motorcycle on a provincial road in Pinili, where I come from, and was left gravely wounded. For many years, the saving circumstances that snatched back my life from the clutches of death remained a puzzle to me. It was an amazing event that there was an available vehicle to rush me to the hospital. It was an amazing event how supplies for a major orthopedic surgery such as I had gone through would arrive at the hospital where I would be rushed just the night before my accident. It was an amazing event that it was that particular surgeon, and not any other surgeon, who operated on me. For him who believes, this was a miracle. On my ordination day five years ago, the pieces of the puzzle finally fell into place. There was a reason for those events – those saving events. I stand before you all today as a priest. As one who believes, I’d say that each piece of the puzzle fell as it did, each saving event unraveled as it did, because I was to become a priest of God.

Events can save. Things happen because they have a particular place and end in the order of history. For many hundreds of years, the Israelites kept their hopes high for the day of their salvation to dawn. They lived a watchful life, as inspired by the prophets, because the dawning of that day would be the day of their deliverance from sin and death. The birth of Jesus was – and is – the saving event.

We easily admire a person who could forget his own life to save another’s. We admire St. Maximilian Kolbe for offering himself to be killed by starvation and dehydration in one of the barracks in Auschwitz in place of a fellow prisoner who had a family. We admire that man who crashed his aircraft against the spaceship of the aliens to be able to implant the virus and kill them all in the process to save the world from utter annihilation in the film Independence Day. We admire Richie Fernando, the Jesuit scholastic assigned in Cambodia, who used his body to shield a physically handicapped student from a grenade explosion. We get to wish there would always be a willing hero when we need him.

Brothers and sisters, Jesus is the name. Jesus means “God saves.” God is with us. Our hero is with us. Jesus was sent by the Father to do the most admirable work of salvation. It is precisely this work that testified that he, indeed, was sent by the Father, as the Gospel tells us. He is with us because in his undying love for us he wills to save us. He is always there. We only have to call out his name in faith, and he will come to us in our misery.

But Jesus is not a name which only you or I have claim to. Jesus’ coming was not only for my sake nor just your sake. He came to save all. So let us tell the world that “there is no other name in the whole world given to men by which we are to be saved” but Jesus. Let us work even only in simple acts of love towards others and so proclaim that Jesus came to save us all. May our lives be as “saving events” for them.