Easter Sunday

Acts 10:34a, 37-43
Ps. 118
Col. 3: 1-4
Jn 20:1-9

God Will Raise You Up

Beloved in Christ, Easter literally means “the feast of fresh flowers”. Today we gather in joy to celebrate our new life in Christ and we pray that we will develop fresh love for Christ, for his church, for our family and friends, for our country, and for all those God has placed in our lives. Yesterday, one of my friends shared a joke with me and I thought I would share that with you. The joke is about Joseph of Arimathea. Do you remember who this man was in the Bible? He was a very rich man and had a lot of influence in the society at the time of Jesus. He was also a secret disciple of Jesus, the one who went to ask Pilate to allow him to take the body of Jesus from the cross so that he could bury Jesus. Now here comes the joke. It is said that one of his friends asked Joseph of Arimathea: “Why did you give your most expensive tomb to Jesus? It was too expensive to be given out as a gift, you know!” and Joseph responded: “Oh don’t worry about it, I knew he only needed it for the weekend and I would have it back J” And the friend asked: “How did you know?” and Joseph said: “Because Jesus said it, and everything he that man says I know is true”! Beloved, even though this is a joke, there is some truth in it. Our first reading and the gospel today tell us that Yes, Jesus needed the tomb for only that weekend. He is risen, He is alive, Alleluia, Alleluia! (Please give me Amen for thatJ). He is risen indeed!

 Beloved, another thing that is true in that joke is that everything Jesus says is true. Jesus said he would be betrayed by the high priest and the people, he would suffer and be put to death, but on the third day he would rise again. As Peter explains in the first reading, all this happened exactly the way Jesus predicted them. When Jesus says something, it comes true. When he promises something, he does it. The joy of following Jesus lies in the fact that he is faithful!

Beloved, Jesus did not only say that he would rise again, but also that he will raise you up (Jn 6:44). Yes, his resurrection is a sure sign that he will raise us up and that the grave will not be the final destination of our lives. If we believe in Jesus, he will raise us up again. This is what St Augustine meant when he said, we are Easter people and Alleluia is our song. As the responsorial psalm tells us, because of what God has done today, we have reason to rejoice and be glad.

St. Peter tells us in the first reading that Jesus promised to raise us up not only from the grave at the end of our lives, but also, even now, as we live he promises to raise us up from our sin. “all the prophets bear witness, that everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name” (Acts 10:43). That is why St. Paul encourages us in the second reading to “seek what is above” and do all we can to overcome sin because sin can prevent us from experiencing the joy and the power of the resurrection. We have to hold each other’s hand in our struggle to overcome sin and help each other strive to live a new and fresh life in Christ.

Beloved, Jesus also promises to raise us up above all the problems that overshadow us in life. In John 16:33 he tells us that in this world we shall have problems but that we should take courage and not give up because he has overcome the world and he will help us overcome the problems in our lives. Jesus is risen but life was still dark for Mary Magdalene that Sunday morning when she went to the tomb. She did not feel the joy of the resurrection that morning when she went to the tomb because she was still focusing on the problems of her life, the death of her friend and savior. Perhaps, like Mary Magdalene on the day of the resurrection, you are also overshadowed by the problems of your life. Jesus promises to raise you up above your problems at school, family problems, broken relationships, broken dreams, financial problems, sickness, depression, struggle with drug addiction, and all that overshadows you and takes your joy away. Do not be afraid! Because He lives, we can face tomorrow. He will raise you up! Because Jesus lives, life is worth living.

5^th Sunday of Lent-Year C

Isaiah 43:16-21

Psalm 126

Phil 3.8-14

John 8:1-11

God Is Not A Memory; He Is A Presence!!!

Beloved in Christ, in Christian theology, we believe that God speaks through words and events of Jesus’ life as recorded in the Scriptures and traditions of the church. We also believe that God speaks through human experience, the events of our daily lives, as disciples of Christ. When we gather at Mass and any sacramental celebration, we celebrate not just the memory of what God has done, but most importantly the presence of God in our lives here and now. If we don't take care we can celebrate God and actually treat him as a memory rather than a presence. We can reduce our rituals into remembering what Christ did 2019 years ago and not see how God is living these realities in our own daily lives. As we get closer to the celebration of the passion of the Lord, the readings remind us God is not a memory; He is a presence! And that our celebrations should not focus only on what God has done in the past, but also on how we allow him to live these mysteries in our own lives today.

Our first reading today reminds us that God is not a memory; He is a presence. The people of Israel were in exile in Babylon and life was extremely difficult for them. They had lost everything in their lives, become slaves, prayed for almost seventy years, and the situation seems to get worse. They had given up all hope in the future and all they were doing was taking consolation in the memory of the past, the “good old days” when God delivered their ancestors from Egypt, divided the sea for them, and brought them back to their own land. They focused so much on the past that they were missing what God was doing in the moment.  As they focused on the past, God reminded them that He is not God only of the past; he is also God of the present and the future. Beloved, it was only when the people listened and paid attention to their present situation that they came to realize that God was providing a solution to their problem through the pagan king, Cyrus. It was only when they started seeking God in their present situation that they came to realize that Cyrus was not an enemy but a friend God was giving them to set them free and help them return to their own land.

In the gospel, Jesus reminds us that, as his disciples, it is our calling to do all we can to overcome suffering and all forms of injustice in life. However, as we fight to restore the world into the paradise that God created it to be, we should look for the presence of God in every suffering. In that way, we will experience God not as a memory but as a presence! It is easy to say God died for me 2000 years ago than to say Christ is suffering with me right now. When we seek Christ in suffering, we receive strength to overcome and bring new life even into the most hopeless situation. Jesus teaches the woman in our gospel today that she should not settle for any unjust treatment that society brings her. She should fight to overcome that. However, the only way she can succeed in this fight is to keep her eye fixed on Christ and know that Christ is suffering with her. If we don’t look for God in suffering we will miss the real solution to our problem. I am sure the woman had heard of God as a God who cares and saves; but it was only when she decided to remain with Christ at a point where she could have just left, like her accusers had done, that she felt the presence of the God even in her suffering.

St. Paul in the second reading reminds us that life can really be tough; life can be a difficult race at times. There are ups and downs, success and failures. Things do not always go as we pray and hope for. St. Paul says in good and bad times he keeps his eyes on Christ because only Christ has the power to make things new, to bring good out of evil. Beloved in Christ, Do you take time to look for God good and bad times? If you do, you will come to realize that God will make a way even when there seems to be no way!

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3^rd Sunday of Lent-Year C

To Live Without God is a Disaster

Beloved in Christ, Our Lord Jesus uses different images that people can identify with to reveal spiritual truths about the kingdom of God. He uses images, such as good shepherd, the gate, bread of life, sheepfold, and mustard seed to teach us about God and his relationship with human beings and other created things.  In our gospel today, Jesus uses the image of disaster to communicate divine truth. He makes reference to two disasters that his audience at the time was very much disturbed by.

One was the massacre of many Galileans by Pontius Pilate as they were worshipping and offering sacrifices; and the other was 18 people who died because a tower in Siloam, a city south of Jerusalem, fall on them. As the people were talking about these natural disasters, Jesus tells them, yes, these are disasters that should not happen because they destroy human life; however, the greatest disaster that can happen to human beings is for them to live without God. Living without God is the greatest disaster that can happen to a human being. Just as we will do all within our power to guard ourselves, our family, friends, and communities against any type of disaster in our world, we should help each other avoid this greatest disaster of living without God so that no human soul perishes.

The first reading tells us that God’s mission is to save his children from any form of disaster and oppression. He is always working to save his children because he hears our cry, he sees our tears, and he feels our pain, and he will do whatever it takes to save his people, but he needs our cooperation to save us and use us to save others. The reading talks about how God needed Moses’ cooperation first to save Moses and then use Moses to save the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. There are many images in that story that draw attention in a powerful way: 1). God’s name: I AM tells us that our God is the Emanuel, Always with us and will never abandon us. 2). The burning bush: God uses the burning bush to tell us that when God enters into our lives, he does not come to destroy our joy but to make it complete. 3) God asking Moses to take off his sandals. The sandals are meant to protect Moses from harm and danger and bring him comfort. So God asking Moses to remove his sandals was telling Moses to make himself vulnerable to God, to depend on God for protection and comfort.

Beloved, God’s presence will always surprise us. It may demand some purification from us, and even call on us to take some risk in entrusting our lives into God’s hands. However, all these are not to destroy us; rather, they are meant to make our lives better. Moses cooperated with God and helped to save a nation. Jesus cooperated with his Father and saved the world. Moses and Jesus both had to first offer their lives to God in order to become life giving to others. That is what St. Paul means by saying the Israelites were baptized into Moses and we are baptized into Christ. God wants your life; he wants my life so that we can help others find their way back to God. Indeed, millions in our world today are still living without any recourse to God. Are you ready to give your life to end this disaster? May God give us the grace and courage to say “Yes” I am.

Second Sunday of Lent (Year C) 

Gn 15:5-12, 17-18

 Ps 27

 Phil 3:17—4:1

 Lk 9:28b-36

Sacrifices Open Us Up To Receive God’s Promises

Beloved in Christ, this past week, I received two wonderful stories from two families that I have been praying with for over seven years now.  Both families needed a child, and we have been praying for 7 years for this intention. At a point in time, they decided to stop holding on to the idea that they need to have their own biological child. After years of praying, they decided to adopt. For two years, each family has been working on the adoption papers. Guess what? The very day that one family brought their child home, they found out that they were pregnant! The other family also found out a month later that they were pregnant.  Beloved, see what God can do? These families wanted a child each, but God knew that they needed two children and not one. God wanted them to offer their plans up as a sacrifice to him; and the moment they did, God fulfilled his plans for their lives.

Beloved what God did for these two families, he has done before in history. Our first reading today talks about Abraham, a man who was homeless and childless. He received a promise from God that he was going to possess a country filled with milk and honey, that he would become a father of nations, and his descendants would be as many as the stars in heaven. Two things that Abraham needed most in life were a child and a place to call home. That is why what God promised him was good news. However, this news would not make sense from the human point of view because Abraham and his wife were too old to bear a child, and the land that God promised him was occupied by the Canaanites who had a strong tribal army to fight anyone who tried to take their land.

Abraham believed in God, but also struggled with the fact that, humanly speaking, this promise seemed impossible. When Abraham asked God for a sign, God asked him to offer a sacrifice, an invitation for Abraham to let go of his fears and his human assessment of how he thought the rest of his life was going to be. God was telling Abraham; let it all go; offer all that to me; let me take care of the future and how I will fulfill my promise. As you let go off the question that creates fear and doubt, you open yourself up for the faith God needs from you for his promises to come true.

            It takes sacrifice, my brothers and sister, to receive God’s promises for our lives. Blessings must always be received with open arms! The gospel tells us that in order to save us, Jesus had to offer his will to the Father. He knew that offering one’s life to the Father is the only means to transcend sin and evil symbolized by the Cross. He used his transfiguration to teach the disciples that when we offer our lives to God, the cross will not have the final say. Beyond the cross, there will be the resurrection. Moses and Elijah offered their lives to God and did not lose their lives but led a nation back to God.

Beloved, what are you struggling with? What is your heart desire? What are you praying for? Work? Marriage life? Struggle at school? Finances? Children? Struggling with drug addiction? What sacrifice is God asking you to make for his promises to come true in your life? St. Paul, in the second reading, tells us to stand firm in the Lord because God is faithful. Let us not be afraid to offer our plans, fears, anxieties, and questions about the future to God and “wait for the LORD with courage and be stouthearted” (Ps. 27) because God is faithful!!!

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