Reflection

M. Scott Peck, author of The Road less Traveled, defines love as, “the will to extend oneself for the purpose of nurturing one’s own and another’s spiritual growth.” That’s a great definition about love. There are three elements in that definition that sheds light on what Jesus meant when he said in today’s gospel that the greatest commandment is to love God and love one’s neighbor.

First, love is an act of the “will.” Authentic and abiding love is not only a feeling, but also a decision, a choice one makes. It is not based on the calculations of the mind or the fleeting quality of feelings only, but it is an act of the will. Oftentimes, our lives are sabotaged by strong emotions. On the other hand, other people live their lives as if they’re in the South Pole because the only thing that guides them is cold reason. For Christian love to be powerful, both emotion and reason must color the way we love. Only our emotions can move and inspire us to do great things for love. And only human reason can help us penetrate the meaning of the great mystery of God’s love for us and understand the need to love others. Loving, as an act of the will, is something we need to learn. It requires a constant practice of looking after the interests of others as we look after our own.

A second element in that definition of love is the need “to extend one’s self.” To extend oneself is to give one’s self to another. St. Paul said that of the three great virtues of faith, hope and love, the greatest is love, which, we also call charity. And charity is no other than orienting ourselves in a direction towards others. The act of self-extension as an act of love is best typified by Jesus when he extended his arms on the cross and was crucified on it. In Palestine, there are two seas. The river Jordan connects them. One is called the Sea of Galilee. It is fresh water and is teeming with fish and other sea life. The other sea is the Dead Sea. As its name suggests, its waters are oily and dark and not much life can be found there. What’s the difference between them? Bible scholars have pointed out that the Sea of Galilee extends itself by emptying its water into the river Jordan. Every water that the Sea of Galilee receives, it gives out to the river. The Dead Sea does not do that. That is an important image of love as extending oneself through generous self-giving.

Third, the act of self-extension is for the “purpose of nurturing one’s own and another’s spiritual growth.” Here we find the first part of the greatest commandment Jesus spoke about: love of God. The first reading from Exodus is a reflection on how God saves his people. Part of loving is to move beyond the monotony of everyday life and let it be engulfed by a spiritual quality through our worship of God. Concretely, it means to gather around the table of Jesus often, especially on Sundays, to listen to his word and receive him in the Eucharist. This also means a greater desire to spend more time for personal prayer, which nourishes our capacity to love in a self-extending and expansive manner. Our spiritual and religious observance inspires us again to a more meaningful relationship of love.

Response

Jesus invites us to let our lives be guided by love: love for God and others.

Reflection

Between a rock and a hard place. That is where Jesus finds himself in this Sunday’s gospel. The Jewish religious leaders posed a question to Jesus: “Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” It is a query filled with such malice and hypocrisy. Malice because it was a question meant to trap Jesus. However he responds, Jesus will incur the ire of someone. If he said yes, the Jewish population under Roman rule will be offended. If he said no, the Romans will arrest him for insurrection.

His inquisitors were also hypocrites because when Jesus asked them to show him a coin, they had one with them. As religious leaders, they knew well not to worship engraved images. The coin they carried had the image of Caesar with the inscription he was the divine emperor. As Jesus would often do, he answers a question with a question: “Whose image and inscription is this?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. Jesus tells them: “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”

The response of Jesus is a guideline on how to relate our faith life and political life. Let me give you several examples where faith and politics interweaved. I remember in February, 1986 when the archbishop of Manila (who was my archbishop) Cardinal Jaime Sin, asked the people to go out to a street called EDSA to protect a group of soldiers who revolted against the authoritarian rule of then president Ferdinand Marcos. People responded to his call that led to the downfall of Marcos. Many people all over the world praised him but there were those who said he should not get involve with politics. In recent U.S. national and local elections, the U.S. bishops offered guidelines on how to pick candidates and the qualities they should have in keeping with our Christian faith. Many applauded the move. But there were those who said the church should keep out of politics. Pope John Paul II himself spoke against Communist authoritarian rule in his own country many times, criticizing the political leaders in Poland.

For some, there should be a clear demarcation line between faith and politics. Indeed, politics has its own realm of responsibility and so does religion and faith. When we speak of politics as partisanship, choosing one party and candidate over another, religion has no business in doing that. But when we speak of politics as the ethical and moral governance of the people, then religion has a responsibility to involved itself in those issues. That is what Jesus meant when he said to render to Caesar what’s his and to God what belongs to God. What belongs to God? Everything! Creation is his. Politics, then, cannot be independent of God. Our social, economic and political life belongs to God. All aspects of our lives must be informed and influenced by strong Christian moral principles.

Response

The separation of church and state refers to the prohibition of establishing any state religion. But it does not prohibit our faith from speaking out when the image of God imprinted in each person is violated by political power.

Reflection

You’ve probably heard of the anecdote about a frog placed inside a pot with water slowly boiling under the fire. The frog doesn’t realize what was happening until it’s too late for him to jump out. He felt the temperature rise but there was no sense of urgency. Because of complacency and misplaced priority, death came to the frog slowly and silently.

In the gospel parable today, we find that same attitude of complacency and misplaced priorities. Similar to the Parable of the Tenants last Sunday, the Parable of the Wedding Feast represents the Kingdom the heaven with God as the one who invited the guests to the feast. Everything was prepared for the celebration, yet none of the invited guests shows up. True, it was their right not to go. They had to attend to other matters of importance. But Jesus was not talking of just any wedding. He was inviting them to be part of God’s kingdom. Somehow, it was not high on their list of priorities. It wasn’t urgent. They could attend later. Yet in the king’s estimation, the celebration cannot be postponed for another time. Thus, Jesus is telling us that establishing the Kingdom of God is a top agenda. It is an urgent matter needing our immediate attention, right here, right now.

We know what happens when we lack a sense of urgency. We miss opportunities. Living out faith is the way that the kingdom of God is celebrated. But sometimes we lack a sense of urgency about it. Take, for example, prayer. We know it’s an important part of our Christian life. But it only becomes urgent when we are in dire need and nothing else works. How about praying when you have no favor to ask God? Or can kindness and goodness become urgent and a priority even when there is nothing for us in return? Or the urgency of attending the Sunday Eucharist instead of shopping or sleeping longer? Having a sense of priority and urgency about our faith and God’s kingdom can give direction to the young who might just be drifting through life, a stagnant marriage where one feels stuck in, a mediocre mid-life facing crises, or the crankiness and lack of meaningful existence at the dusk of one’s life.

There is a minimum requirement for accepting God in our life. When those invited first gave no priority to it, others, good and bad alike, where asked to join the feasts. One of them did not wear the provided wedding garment, so he was sent out. We are invited to take the place of others not because we are worthy or are more blessed than other countries or race but because God desires us to be with him.

Response

If God’s kingdom cannot be on top of our list yet, at least give a minimum and simple response to God’s urgent invitation. It’s not a funeral. It’s a wedding feast.

Reflection

The Parable of the Tenants in the Gospel today is the whole history of our salvation in a nutshell. The vineyard stands for the Old Testament chosen people of God, Israel. The landowner is God. The murdered servants represent the prophets. The son of the landowner is Jesus. He is also the stone rejected as the cornerstone. The tenants are the leaders of Israel. They were given the responsibility to take care of the vineyard. The landowner trusted them. He had cared for his land well, thereby, ensuring its productiveness. Like any landowner, he expected the tenants will till the land well and the produce will be available at harvest time. He expected too much. The tenants he entrusted the vineyard with were only concerned about their own gain. They failed in the stewardship entrusted to them. They neglected their responsibility. They rejected the patience of the landowner shown in his gesture of sending several emissaries, even his own son, believing that they are still capable of goodness, and will welcome him. They didn’t. They threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. The owner saw the hardness of their hearts, so he gives the vineyard to new tenants, new stewards, and a new chosen people.

We can focus our reflection on two things about this gospel parable.

First, we are all stewards. In a very unique and special way, God has made us responsible for one another and for the world we live in. We are the new chosen people of God because we have accepted Jesus as our cornerstone. How do we become good tenants and responsible stewards? A steward is sometimes called a caretaker or a keeper. We need to let go of Cain’s attitude. Remember when God asked him where his brother Abel was? He answered: “I don’t know; Am I my brother’s keeper?”

We are stewards of God. What should we keep or care for? Our God is a God of peace. We are keepers of peace as well. We must believe that there are better ways of keeping world peace than making war. Our God is a God of generosity. Everything is from God’s abundance. We came into this world naked and with empty hands. God has placed many good things in them. As stewards, we are to share the fruits of God generosity in our life. As God’s stewards, we also must keep the world we live in and not slowly destroy it with human greed and wastefulness.

Second, the love of God for us is unconditional and patient. He grants us many opportunities for renewal and change. As long as we are open to the grace of Jesus in our life, we are never lacking in second chances. A new start is always possible. He can turn our desperation into assurance, our discouragement to hopeful anticipation, and the wounds of sin to healing forgiveness.

Response

This week, think of ways how you can become a better steward of God.

Reflection

There was a time that giving your word was enough. In Eastern thinking, your word was your very self. Thus, there was no need to sign on the dotted line or put up a collateral. The promise you make is enough; the word you give can be trusted. But we know that is not the case today. Nevertheless, there are still those willing to trust other people’s word as well as give their word of promise. When people get married, they make the promise to be faithful and true. When sworn into office, elected officials give their word to uphold their duty to the people. When ordained to the priesthood or enter religious life, they give their vows of commitment to serve God’s people. It is important to make this kind of public declaration of commitment. Do all of them make good on the word they have promised? You know the answer better than I do.

Sometimes, there are those who do not make any public declaration or formal announcement to the whole world and yet are better at keeping their word. They are ‘volunteers’ willing to do the best they can. Are they better than those who did make the public commitment yet failed to keep their word? We tend to think they are. But that, I think, is not the lesson Jesus imparts to us in our Gospel today. He tells the parable about a father who had two sons. He asked the first son to work in the vineyard and he said, “I will not” but changed his mind and went. He asked the second son the same thing and he said “Yes, sir” but did not go. Jesus asked his listeners, the religious leaders, “which of two did his father’s will?” They all said the first. The son who said “Yes” but did not go represents Pharisees and scribes who gave their word to serve God and his people but rejected Jesus. The son who said “no” but changed his mind represent the latecomers we heard about last Sunday. They were the public sinners who said “no” initially, but when they encountered Jesus, they changed not only their minds but also their hearts and repented. Even the most obstinate hearts, represented by the tax collectors and prostitutes, can change their minds or be changed by God’s grace.

Jesus’ words today are both an admonition and an assurance. He admonishes us not only to profess out faith in word but to live it in deed; not only to pledge our commitment of love and service in a marriage ceremony or religious profession or oath-taking but not even try to make it work. It is an assurance as well because it shows us that, with God’s grace, we can change our minds and hearts and be free from past sins and failures. We can turn our greed into generosity, our rebelliousness to repentance, our “No” into “Yes” to God’s grace.

Response

Our “Yes” to God is often reluctant. We know the right thing to do yet our human inclinations and personal interest draws us away from our “yes” to God. Just the same, let us renew our “yes” to the commitments we have made each day.

Reflection

Latecomers often get a bad press. The impression is that such persons are negligent, indifferent, or simply sloppy. As a priest, I am often on time in my priestly duties and try not to be late. At least I try to. But I’ve realized that I won’t be on time every time because of many unforeseen circumstances beyond my control. So I allow myself to be late three times each year (unintentionally, that is). Once, I did not begin the mass at the time it should. An elderly person reprimanded me for being late and not doing my duty. Not one to make excuses, I acknowledge my fault. Trying to lessen the sting of the suggestion of being unreliable and negligent, I remembered what another priest told me about being late for mass. He said: “A priest can never be late for mass because it won’t start without him.”

In our Gospel today, the same impression of being unreliable, negligent, and derelict seems to characterize the latecomers who worked in the vineyard. The laborers hired at dawn felt they were more trustworthy and hardworking because they were hired first and worked longer. They also felt they were unjustly treated because they were given the same wage as those hired late and last. They did not understand that justice is the deserved reward or punishment, as the case may be. No injustice was done to them. They agreed on the wage before working and the amount for their labor was the going rate as well. What were they really grumbling about? More than the impression that the latecomers were unreliable and lazy, at the heart of their vehement reaction to the landowner’s treatment of the latecomers is nothing more than the sin of envy. Their hearts were envious. Where the early comers saw “delinquency” and “injustice” from the landowner, the latecomers experienced prodigal generosity.

In the parable, the landowner is God. He is a God not of strict justice alone but of abundant generosity and mercy. He not only calls the meritorious and exemplary but the unworthy and undeserving. Envy makes us think that we are the only ones who deserve God’s generosity. We think we are entitled to God’s generosity because of our own rectitude and merit. It takes a lot of self-honesty and humility to acknowledge having an envious heart. Envious people are addicted to what others have and take no notice of what they really need. To the envious, the feeling of emptiness and lacking something is unacceptable. The only way out is to blame others who have what they think should be theirs. Envious people fail to recognize that being human is to experience pockets of emptiness that long for fulfillment which can never be satisfied totally.

When we fail to accept this truth, we can easily become envious of who others are and what they have. How can we overcome envy? The feeling of deprivation and recognizing what we feel we have been deprived of can direct us to the good thing we long for. Appreciation and gratitude for the good things we already have is also a step towards healing. But more importantly, the message of today’s gospel is the medicine that heals an envious heart: the expansiveness and recklessness of God’s generosity. He is the only one who can deeply fulfill all the longings of our heart. He is generous to everyone. Even to latecomers.

Response

A boy was complaining to his mother that his shoes were not fashionable like his friends until he saw a TV ad of a boy who could only watch his friends play football because he lost his legs in a landmine explosion.

Reflection

Revenge never works. But in the case of Laura Blumenfeld, an American Jew, it did. Her story was featured over Primetime Thursday on ABC 7 last April 4, 2002. Her father, David Blumenfeld, was shot on the head by Omar Katib, a Palestinian Muslim. Fortunately, it was not fatal. She planned to get revenge against his father’s assailant. He was caught and put in prison awaiting trial. She sought the family of Omar Katib. Since she is a journalist, she pretended she was writing about him and got close to the family of Omar. They accepted her without knowing who she was. As she got their confidence, she started to correspond with her father’s shooter. Not only did she get to know well the family of the man who tried to kill his father, she also got a closer look into the man responsible for it. Her father, who lives in Glen Cove, New York, did not know what her daughter was doing.

At the court hearing, something unexpected happened. Laura spoke in behalf of Omar and said that she believed that Omar was sorry for what he did. The court tried to stop her saying she did not have any right to speak. She said she had every right and revealed she was the daughter of the victim. She faced Omar and told her about her plan to exact revenge and how, along the way, something else happened. She even brought her father to meet Omar’s family. The personal contact changed Omar Katib. He said: “People become different when they are near.” Laura Blumenfeld and her father also experienced transformation: “I was looking at him directly as if he was speaking directly to my heart.” In his prison cell, Omar Katib describes Laura Blumenfeld’s actions this way: “She chose the positive way of getting revenge. She succeeded.”

I think the “positive way of revenge” he refers to that Laura chose is what Jesus speaks of in the gospel today: forgiveness and reconciliation. There is a misconception that choosing forgiveness is choosing weakness of character. On the contrary, it is choosing strength of spirit. A person who has been inflicted harm has the right to choose and seek revenge. But he also has the choice to seek justice, founded on forgiveness and reconciliation, and thus, walk the path of peace. It’s a little selfish of us asking God to forgive us our sins and yet be unwilling to extend the same to others. God’s forgiveness is premised on our forgiveness of others. Unforgiveness is a prison we create and locked ourselves in. Forgiveness is a gift from God. As such we do not have the right to keep it for ourselves. It must be passed on to others as a gift, even if they are not worthy. For in truth, no one is. The death of Jesus makes us worthy. The truly courageous and spiritual choose the way of forgiveness. Vengeance and violence will only continue to injure an already wounded world.

Response

A proverb says: “When you seek revenge, dig two graves. One for the person you seek to hurt and the other one for yourself.”

Reflection

In a few days, we will remember the 7th anniversary of September 11, 2001. People affected by the World Trade Center terrorist attack will recall what they were doing that day or where they were during that fateful morning. I happened to be doing my graduate school at Fordham University and living in a parish in Manhattan that time. Most of us woke up that day thinking it was just another day. Little did we know that by the end of that day, not only was the landscape of Manhattan changed, but the lives of so many people were forever altered. In just one short morning lives were lost, families torn apart permanently, plans and dreams will remain unrealized. Amidst the fear and confusion, we saw courage, hope and goodness in the hearts of many people. We saw a changed of priorities, from the ephemeral to the essentials of life. We also saw faith rekindled even for a short time during the days that followed 9/11.

Some years after the dust has settled and debris cleared from Ground Zero, a place hallowed by the victims who died there, we’re still faced with the question “Can the world be a better place?” The perpetrators have supposedly been bomb out of their hiding places. But is the world we live in a more peaceful and just place? Or is the world more divided, unstable and filled with conflicts than ever?

Such conflicts are the concerns of the early Christian communities as we find them in our readings today especially the Gospel. Jesus tells us what to do when a “brother sins against you.” The first step is to be straightforward but prudent. Approach the person privately and without being self-righteous, tell the person their fault. If the person reacts negatively, Jesus says to ask help from others in order to account for the seriousness of the matter. When the invitation to change is met with continued intransigence, bringing it to the Church community is always the last resort. The threefold process that Jesus presents might appear simplistic to some. But try to apply it and you will see how challenging it is.

We call the approach recommended by Jesus as fraternal correction. As there are differences and conflicts in the global family, our areas of immediate concern are those that are within our reach. It is not easy to resolve, much more, reconcile with those we have conflicts or broken relationships. Those who receive corrections can interpret it us a personal attack on their integrity, and thus, lash back at the messenger. Or, we can listen openly and learn more who we are and grow from it. Those giving the correction must also listen to the intentions in their heart why they are offering the correction. Listening is basic in bridging conflicts and differences.

Response

It is a lot easier to talk about someone. But it takes courage to talk to that someone.

Reflection

The book The Road Less Traveled, written by M. Scott Peck, begins with a thoughtful and wise statement: “Life is difficult.” Short as it is, it captures a truth and a wisdom that can save us from many unnecessary worries, vexatious whining and unending complaints about the most inconsequential inconvenience. He says further: “It is a great truth because once we really see this truth we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult, once we truly understand and accept it, then life is no longer difficult … the fact that life is difficult doesn’t really matter.”

We can paraphrase the quote above and apply it to Christian life and say: “Discipleship is difficult.” And it seems that the impulsive disciple Peter lost it again. Last week, he got the right answer “who do you say I am” when he proclaimed the identity of Jesus as the Christ, the son of the living God. But he did not yet understand what it entailed to confess that Jesus is Lord and savior. In the words of Jesus, it meant: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” When he heard Jesus say that he had to undergo the difficult process of suffering death, Peter, with all his good intentions, remonstrated with Jesus, telling him: “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” Once more, Peter was looking at things from the limited understanding of reason. He did see Jesus as his Lord and savior. And so, he thought they all should be exempted from any form of hardship and difficulty, much more, death on the cross. It’s part of the perks of the position of being the Messiah, the Son of God, or so Peter thought.

What was Jesus response to his inaccurate idea? “Get behind me Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are not thinking as God does, but as human beings do.” We can get stuck with Jesus calling Peter “Satan” and forget that he asked him to “get behind me.” It is an invitation, not a rejection of Peter, to confess Jesus as Lord not only when things are going right but also to follow more closely, even cling to him, in trying times. We need to stop thinking that it is alright for others to have difficulties in life while we should be exempt from it. To get behind Jesus is to accept that discipleship is difficult.

Response

It doesn’t mean we have to look for suffering. It’s not discipleship. It’s masochism. Jesus himself requested that the cup of suffering be taken away from him, if possible. The point of carrying our crosses is not about us dying. Jesus has done that for us. For us, it is about having life to the fullest. Peter, who died by crucifixion himself, understood in the end what Jesus meant when he said: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.”

Reflection

Know thyself, said the Greek philosopher Socrates. Taking lightly his advice can easily have us fall into the trap of self-delusion of grandeur and conceited presumptions. Seeing the truth can easily escape the eyes of those who are blind to their true selves, failing to ask the question who am I? The opposite, though, might become an extreme as well when one’s identity and self-knowledge depends on what others say.

We find Jesus asking his disciples the question who do people say that the Son of man is? He receives different answers from his followers. And they tell him what were the opinions of other people about Jesus: Some say your Elijah, others John the Baptist, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. But Jesus was not satisfied with their answers. Why? Jesus, in asking what people thought of him, was not interested in his popularity rating or being on the list of top ten celebrities in upcountry Jerusalem or down country Nazareth. What really mattered for Jesus was his follow-up question: And you who do say that I am? Jesus was not really asking this question because he did not know who he was or had no idea about his own identity. He knew who he was. In other episodes in the Gospels, we hear Jesus say that whoever has seen me has seen the Father and that he and the Father are one. Jesus wanted to find out what their heart told them about him. Jesus was interested in their personal feelings and understanding about who Jesus is for them and not just hearsay or opinions they have heard from others. The second question, therefore, is an invitation personally given by Jesus to his disciples and by extension to us, to establish a personal relationship with him not based only on what you have heard or read about the Lord Jesus but on a personal experience of him in your life. And you, (put in your name), who do you say I am?

Indeed the two questions posed by Jesus challenges us to a deeper faith life. And faith is nothing more than our relationship with God. Listening to a homily, reading about faith in God and who Jesus is (like what you are doing right now) is responding to the first question of Jesus in today’s gospel; who do people say I am? That is a necessary question, but not enough. We need to answer his follow-up question: And you, not your mother or father, not your teacher, not your friends, not your priest, but you, who do you say that I am? When we are able to chew on that very personal and intimate question from Jesus, we can also build an intimate and personal relationship of faith with him.

Response

Remember what St. Bernard said about knowing God and knowing oneself: Knowledge of God without knowledge of self can lead to presumption. Knowledge of self without knowledge of God can lead to despair.