OTHER HOMILY SOURCES:
Homily for 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time – on the Gospel
Sirach 15:15-20 1 Corinthians 2:6-10 Matthew 5:17-37
Matthew’s Valentine Message
A young man who goes to his parish priest and says to him, “Father, is it a sin for me to sleep with my girlfriend? The priest shakes his head and says, “Nope.” The young man goes, “Cool!” And the priest adds, “So long as you are actually sleeping.” In love relationships there are often more questions than answers. And so on this eve of Valentine’s Day, a day in which we celebrate human love, it would be appropriate to ask ourselves, “What does the gospel we hear in church today say to us about this most important human value of love which we are celebrating.
Valentine or Lovers’ Day is now celebrated almost everywhere in the world. Love happens and is celebrated everywhere in the world. But whereas in the developed world people tend to think of only one person, their special man or woman, as their Valentine, in the developing societies of Africa Valentine is understood and celebrated in a more embracive way. People give Valentine cards and gifts to their parents, their sisters and brothers, their parish priests and their teachers. Valentine has indeed become a universal affair. Has today’s gospel anything to say to us about Valentine?
First of all, we must point out that today’s readings were not chosen with Valentine in mind. So any relevance to Valentine is coincidental rather than intentional. All the same I believe that Matthew’s gospel, which we read today, has an important message for us on Valentine’s Day. Let us go to verses 23-24 which says:
So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. (Matthew 5:23-24)
This passage reminds us of two important truths that we tend to forget, namely (i) that your lover is also your brother/sister, and (ii) that your partner is usually a good thermometer for gauging your spiritual temperature.
The early Christians used to refer to fellow believers who shared their faith in Christ as brothers and sisters. So your partner is also your brother or sister insofar as he or she shares your faith in God. Your partner or lover is also your companion in the spiritual journey to God. A good love relationship should recognize this spiritual dimension and make room for its adequate expression. Yet some couples tend to share everything except their spiritual lives. They make arrangements to wine and dine in a good restaurant, or to go and watch a good movie together, but they rarely think of going to church to worship God together as part of their Valentine’s Day celebration. But people who know that their partners are also their brothers and sisters in the faith always make room for praying and sharing their faith together as an important way of supporting each other spiritually.
In fact your partner is so spiritually relevant to you that he or she often serves as a good thermometer for gauging your spiritual temperature. Many people never come to see how patient or impatient they are, how caring or self-centred, how responsible or irresponsible they are until they enter into marriage or a meaningful friendship. In is not an overstatement to say that if you are not doing well in your love life you are probably not doing well in your spiritual life either. How can you say that? Well Jesus just told us that if you brought your offering to God’s altar and there you suddenly remember that your partner has something against you, drop your offering there beside the altar, drive home (since he or she did not come to church with you, to start with), make it up with him or her, then come back to the church, pick up your offering where you dropped it, and then proceed to offer it. Otherwise, if you went on and offered it without making it up with your partner, you might as well be making an offering as unacceptable as that of Cain. In other words, you can offer an acceptable offering or worship to God only when are reconciled with your neighbour, and your number one neighbour is your marriage partner.
Another passage in today’s gospel that is relevant to Valentine, the Feast of Lovers, is this:
You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matt 5:27-28)
This passage brings up the important question of the distinction between love and lust which many people today find difficult to make. The gospel prescribes love and proscribes lust. What is the difference between the two? In plain words, love asks “What can I do for this person to make him or her happy?” Lust, on the other hand, asks “How can I use this person to derive as much pleasure for myself as possible?” Examples of lust abound. Here is a rare example of love:
Jacob and Anna had been married for nine years going on ten. Both wanted to use their tenth anniversary to show how much they loved each other. But they were poor, very poor. For three years now Jacob’s grocery business had steadily dwindled to a shadow of what it used to be. Jacob had sold his radio and Grandfather’s clock and the only thing he still had as a reminder of past affluence was his ivory pipe which he still stuck between his teeth all day as if he was smoking, although there was nothing in the pipe. He could no longer afford the tobacco. Even Anna missed the rich aroma that used to fill the house whenever her husband smoked. It made her so proud of her hero. Jacob was also proud of Anna. In spite of the hardship in the family she was still the most beautiful woman in the neighbourhood. Her rich golden hair was still the envy of other women and the pride of her husband.
As the anniversary drew near Jacob and Anna each wanted to do something special to make the other very happy on their anniversary. So Anna went to the local hair shop and asked how much they would give for her hair. In a few minutes, her beautiful hair was gone and she had twenty-five extra dollars in her purse. She covered her now clean-shaven head and headed straight to the tobacco shop where she bought a packet of quality tobacco, the type her husband used to smoke when he was rich, and headed home. Meanwhile Jacob had an idea. He went and sold his ivory pipe in the antique shop and bough an ivory hair band for his wife. At the dinner table they exchange their tenth anniversary gifts, tobacco from Anna to Jacob who had sold his pipe, and the ivory hair band form Jacob to Anna who had cropped her hair. That is love. Each had only one question in mind: What can I do to make him or her happy?
With love like that between Anna and Jacob, you can be sure there is one word that is not in their dictionary, and that is “divorce.” Jesus’ strong condemnation of divorce makes sense for people who are in a truly loving relationship. For people who are united by lust rather than love, it just doesn’t make sense. Our prayer today as we celebrate Valentine’s Day is that God help us to become truly loving men and woman able to maintain a lifelong relationship of love like that between Jacob and Anna.
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Homily for 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time – on the Epistle
Sirach 15:15-20 1 Corinthians 2:6-10 Matthew 5:17-37
Among the Mature We Speak Wisdom
There is a crisis of faith in the Church. Many Christians today, including practising and committed Christians, have only a shallow knowledge of the teachings of the Bible and the Church. In today’s second reading from his First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul touches on one of the key causes of the problem, as well as what we can do to remedy the situation. The problem is the one-size-fits-all teaching that goes on in our churches, and the remedy is to return to teaching smaller groups of believers according to their various stages in the journey of faith .
Preaching in church is a very challenging activity. In school, pupils are grouped according to age and class. In church everybody is in the same class, the toddler, the child, the teenager, the young adult, their parents and grand-parents. The preacher addresses all these people, who naturally belong to different age and class levels, all at once. What we get from the pulpit is usually a one-size-fits-all teaching that does not specifically target the needs of any one of the age groups. If the preacher addresses his message to the specific needs of kids and those who are new to the faith, adults and veterans in the faith will find it boring. If the preacher focusses on the needs of adults and those who are mature in the faith, the younger ones find it equally boring. What can we do about this problem?
We can learn from the example of St. Paul and the early Christians. Let us connect what he told us last Sunday with what he is telling us today. Last Sunday, we read: “When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom” (1 Corinthians 2:1). Today he goes on to say, “Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom” (1 Corinthians 2:6). We can see that Paul always adapted his message to suit his audience. To those new in the faith he avoided lofty words of wisdom, but to those who are mature in the faith, he spoke the mature language of philosophy. When Paul said that he was all things to all people (1 Corinthians 9:22), he meant that he adapted his teaching to suit the faith needs of each group that he addressed.
We see this more clearly in his reprimand to the Corinthians, “I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready” (1 Corinthians 3:2). Just as a human person first needs milk and then solid food, so also in the spiritual life. It is the desire of the shepherd to see his sheep graduate from drinking only milk to eating solid food. Likewise, it is the desire of the Church to see her children grow up to become mature Christians, enlightened and empowered to explain the Church’s teaching to others and lead them to the faith. It can be frustrating when, year in, year out, believers keep on needing milk instead of growing up to eating solid food. On this, the Letter to the Hebrews written two thousand years ago speaks to Christians of our times:
We have much to say that is hard to explain, since you have become dull in understanding. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food; 13 for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:11-14)
What then can we do to facilitate our conversion from milk to solid food? First is to recognise that the once a week homily we hear on Sundays is not enough. We need to join an association of Christians who are serious about growing up in the faith. Such associations include small Christian Communities, Bible study and prayer groups, and other associations and sodalities that provide occasion for ongoing education in the faith. For God has called us not only to believe in the Gospel, but to grow in the Gospel to the point where we become teachers of the Gospel.
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ANG MAS MAKAPANGYARIHAN SA DIYOS: Reflection for 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A – February 13, 2011
“Nanay, ano po ba ang sampung utos?” tanong ng isang bata sa kanyang ina. “Anak, ” sagot ng nanay, “‘Yan ang ibinigay ng Diyos kay Moises at ipinapakita nito na ang Diyos ay Makapangyarihan!” Bahagyang tumahimik ang bata at nag-isip. “Kung gayon nanay, mas makapangyarihan pa pala kayo sa Diyos!” Bulalas ng batang nakangiti. “Bakit naman? Sagot muli ng nanay. “Kasi ang dami-dami n’yong utos eh! Ang Diyos… sampu lang!” Noong panahon ni Jesus ay may mga taong “mas makapangyarihan” pa sa Diyos! Ang mga Pariseo at mga Eskriba na itinalagang tagapag-alaga ng Kautusan ay naging mas makapangyarihan pa sa Diyos – pinarami nila ang sampung utos! Kaya nga si Jesus ay malimit na maakusahang binabalewala ang batas. Dahil para sa kanila, ang literal na pagsunod sa kautusan ang naggagarantiya ng kanilang kabanalan! Ang matuwid na Israelita ay sumusunod sa Kautusan! Ngunit malinaw ang mga salitang binitawan ni Jesus sa kanila, dumating Siya “hindi upang pawalang bisa ang kautusan kundi upang gawin itong ganap!” At iyon nga ang nais ni Jesus na kanilang maintindihan: Hindi ang sinasabi ng batas kundi ang layunin kung bakit ito ibinigay ng Diyos ang higit na mahalaga! Kasalanan ang pumatay ngunit baka hindi natin nakikita na ang “pagkapoot” sa kapwa ay nagdadala dito. Masama ang maki-apid ngunti baka hindi natin namamalayan na ang pagtingin at pag-iisip ng mahalay sa isang babae ay nagdadala rin sa atin sa kasalanang ito. Kaya nga ang nais ni Jesus ay muli nating balikan ang ating mga sarili at tanungin natin ng tapat kung bakit ba natin sinusunod ang kautusan. Ano ba ang layunin ng aking pagtupad sa mga kautusan? Bakit ako nagsisimba tuwing Linggo? Bakit kinakailangan kong sumunod sa magulang? Bakit masama ang magnakaw? Mahalaga ang pagsunod sa batas. Totoong katibayan ito ng ating katapatan sa Diyos. Ngunit sana ang mamayani sa atin ay hindi ang literal na pagtupad dito kundi ang diwang dapat maghari sa ating puso! At ang tanging diwang dapat mamayani sa atin ay “pag-ibig.” Sinusunod ko ang Kautusan sapagkat “mahal ko ang Diyos!” Tama ang sinabi ni San Agustin: “Love and do what you want!” Siguradong hindi tayo magkakamali sa ating mga desisyon kung sasamaha natin ng pagmamahal ang ating pagsunod sa mga ipinag-uutos ng Diyos!
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Word Alive
Against a legalistic piety
By FR. BEL R. SAN LUIS, SVD
February 11, 2011, 11:10pm
MANILA, Philippines – A newly installed bishop, who is a stickler for church rules, tells his clergy in their first meeting: “Henceforth this diocese will be ruled by Canon Law.”
An old priest, who is hard of hearing leans to a young priest sitting beside him, asks, “What did he say?”
The young cleric replies within earshot, “The bishop says, ‘Henceforth this diocese will be RUINED by the Canon Law.”
* * *
Laws and rules are good but when imposed rigidly and legalistically, they not only become burdensome but also ruin the real spirit of piety.
Contrary to the onerous interpretations imposed by the established religious and political leaders (Pharisees), Jesus went beyond the letter of the law, exposing the underlying purpose which is the MOTIVE for keeping it.
* * *
For instance, the scribes and Pharisees during Christ’s time were inflexible in imposing the law of the Sabbath. Any kind of servile activity was forbidden. But the Lord opposed this by healing the sick or doing good works on the Sabbath, saying “the Sabbath was made for men and not men for the Sabbath.”
* * *
Moreover, the Pharisees imposed animal offerings as part of Jewish tradition, but the worshippers coming to the temple had to buy them only from the priests’ shops, and at a much higher price. The people, especially the poor as captive market, were exploited.
* * *
There are other passages in the Scriptures in which the Lord lashed out against the Pharisees for their injustice and hypocrisy. No wonder, He warned the people, “Unless your holiness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of God.” (Mt 5:20)
* * *
We are not any different from the scribes and Pharisees when we behave like them. For instance, some Christians know the exact limits of their obligation when it comes to churchgoing, fasting, almsgiving, or committing sin. Hence, we hear such queries like: “How far can I kiss my girlfriend before I sin gravely?” (A relevant question for Valentine’s Day two days from now!). “How much can I steal before I sin gravely?”
* * *
Others ask what part of the Mass they can be late to constitute a mortal sin. This is looking at the Mass as a mere “obligation” and the faith of one who has this attitude is legalistic and immature.
The real spirit and right motive behind Mass going is to show our dependence on a God whom we honor, respect, and love.
* * *
Moreover, our Sunday worship of God is pleasing to Him only if it overflows into love for our fellowmen.
To express our love for God at Mass, but we despise, hate, cheat, or slander our neighbors, is a contradiction and certainly not the spirit of going to Mass.
* * *
As followers of Christ, how far do we fulfill God’s law? Are we satisfied with minimal legalism, like going to Mass once a week and that is all? Does our Christian piety mean just avoiding committing sin or saying, “What should I not do?” rather than “What more can I do out of love for my fellowmen?”
Our Lord exhorts us in Saturday’s gospel to go beyond the piety of the Pharisees.
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Moments
Love 101
By Fr. Jerry Orbos
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:41:00 02/13/2011
THE STORY is told about a 5-year-old girl who asked the boy seated next to her, “What is love?” He replied: “Love is when you steal my chocolates every day from my bag and yet, I still keep them in the same place.”
* * *
On Sunday’s Gospel (Mt. 5, 17-37) Jesus tells us that true love is that which goes beyond the legal and minimal. Love is a call to fulfill the requirements of the law, but it goes far beyond that. As we celebrate Valentine’s Day on Monday (also called “Hearts’ Day”) let us be reminded that we all have hearts, and that matters of the heart still do matter. We must not belittle the heart or deny the stirrings of the heart in this legalistic and pragmatic world.
* * *
What is love? There have been, there are and there will be many definitions, but the truth is that we do not define love. Rather, it is love that defines us. It is love that brings out who we are, what we are capable of. Yes, it is love that defines us, and refines us.
* * *
Take note that justice and law are the minimum of love. That is why Jesus tells us to fulfill the law, and beyond. In other words, the law can bring out the good in us, but not quite the best in us. There are many things in us that need not be or cannot be legislated. Like love for instance!
* * *
They were classmates in elementary some 30 years ago and did not see each other since then. But when they met again, the flame of love was still there! So, on February 8, 2011, Jose, our driver at the SVD retirement house, a high-school graduate, married Jean, an accountancy graduate. Yes, love has its own accounting and its own calculations which cannot be computed or legislated. As the Desiderata says: “Do not be cynical about love for it is as perennial as the grass.”
* * *
Another uplifting love moment was the wedding of 52-year-old Boyet Cacho to Chanda, about 20 years his junior. Boyet was a shy boy who spent most of his life taking care of his elderly and sickly parents. But love knows, remembers and is kind, for he who nursed his parents with care finally got a nurse for a bride! Yes, love has its own ways, and has its own reward.
* * *
It was a freak accident. My classmate Father Ali fell from his bed in the early morning of Feb. 2, hit his head on a piece of furniture that injured his left eye, which eventually had to be removed to save his right eye.
Wow! How can accidents happen even in our sleep! Well if it is any consolation at all, Father Ali sees everything now with the right mind, with the right attitude, with the right intentions and with the right eye. And, he’s “all right” now!
* * *
For two days now, I have no sense of smell, and consequently no sense of taste at all. Food tastes flat, and eating is just a chore.
There are things we take so much for granted in this life, until we lose, or are about to lose them! Come to think of it, if we lose our sense of love, life would be flat, and living would just be a chore.
* * *
Talking about life and living, I did the zip-line! Yes I hung on a cable and plunged all the 57 years and 210 lb of me at the Dahilayan Nature Park in Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon. (Such a beautiful place. Cool like Baguio, and clean!) Perhaps that’s what life and love is all about—daring to try out new ways and means, and allowing God to surprise us again and again!
* * *
You realize that corruption has become so widespread in our culture and in our country when a religious word like “conversion” has been corrupted to mean diverting funds from those they were intended and giving them as “pabaon” or “pasalubong” to military and other government officials. Or for that matter, the beautiful greeting “Merry Christmas!” which has taken the meaning of asking for money or presents. When love is gone, a lot, as in a lot, goes with it. Let us bring back values and love, again!
* * *
A friend related to me an unforgettable incident last December 2010. She had dropped by about noontime at the Our Lady of Lourdes Church in La Loma, Quezon City, to get some water from Lourdes. Soon after, an old Italian priest in brown Capuchin habit came out, and gave her Lourdes water and two rosaries for her and her husband. After that, he left telling her that he had a flight to catch for Rome that night.
When she went to the parish office, looking for the old priest, she was told that there were only Filipino priests in that church. It was then that she saw the picture of Padre Pio, and she knew. And she cried.
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Join me in a Marian Pilgrimage to Spain, France, and Italy from May 16 to 30, 2011. Our pilgrimage will bring us to Montserrat, Avignon, La Salette, Turin, Assisi, Loreto, St. Padre Pio’s Shrine in San Giovanni Rotondo and Rome. For details, please call 721-7457 and 523-8581 to 88 (Executive Resources Inc.)
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Think about this: “There is no remedy for love but to love more” (Henry David Thoreau). Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! Keep on loving!
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A moment with the Lord: Lord, help me to love, to love true, to love much, and to love on. Amen.
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See Today’s Readings: Cycle A
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