Inspirations at your Fingertips!

Saturday of the 2nd week of Eastertide John 6:16-21 This 14th day of Easter, the office of deacons was established so that the temporal needs of the poor members of the Church would be met while the apostles continue their ministry of proclaiming the Word. In the gospel, Jesus was seen walking on the waters. Easter is about the resurrection of the Lord, in body and spirit.  In our case we could experience the resurrection in the integration of human lives with a spirituality that comes from the power of God.  This is called secularity.  It may seem material, but we could recognize God's presence in the world and in way we conduct our temporal affairs - our work, the ways we handle our material possessions, and our preoccupation with day to day living. Each moment calls us to recognize the immense power of the Lord as the one who gives order to our lives.  He is the one walking above the waters; he is in control of all  created things. Second, each m...

Easter Thursday Luke 24:35-48  We are exposed to forty days of Jesus' presence to the disciples after the Resurrection.  This is the fourth day. Peter gave a discourse after he and John cured a lame man.  He helped deepen their understanding about Jesus and the work of salvation.  He needed to explain all these to open the eyes of their faith. In the Gospel, Jesus appeared to the apostles.  He even proved to them that he is present in body and spirit through the eating of the food.  But like the first reading, he wanted to open the eyes of their faith to greater realities: the reality of God's love and salvation through him. We are in need of salvation.  But existence in this world means we have to have the resources to feed our bodies with food.  Some of our brethren get stuck in the world of materialism, others hinge on power, fame, and persons for their happiness. How do we open the eyes of faith then to the realities of Jesus? Fi...

Easter Tuesday John 20:11-18 We are capitalizing on Easter experiences after the Easter morn. The people were cut to the heart when Peter explained how Jesus, the Messiah, was rejected and killed.  Three thousand people converted to the faith immediately after that. Mary had the most intense experience of seeing the Lord immediately on that Sunday morning.  It confirmed how treated Jesus even before he suffered and died - as Master, as Lord and God, and as her Beloved. We are inspired by concrete experiences of love, hate, joy, and sorrow.  In psychology, understanding our feelings manifests self-discovery of what we hold dear to our hearts and what we abhor.  Consequently, if we are devoid of positive feelings for the Lord, let's increase our experiences of faith, especially those that help us deepen it. How do we increase our sentiments and affections for the Lord? First, learn from the Master.  Treat Jesus as such - a master, a teacher, someo...

Doing the works of Jesus John 14:15-21 We reflect on the development of the resurrection experience in the sixth Sunday of Easter. In this Sunday, we hear Philip and the apostles doing exactly the works of Jesus like curing the sick and expelling demons.  Easter shifted from the resurrected body of Jesus to the Church where all its members are doing the exact works of Jesus.  The Church now becomes the body of Christ, doing his work everywhere. This is possible because of the Holy Spirit as Jesus promised , " I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be  with you for ever," giving the apostles and us that assurance that he will stay with us forever. This is our challenge  in the 21st century, to do the exact works of Jesus as in the time of the apostles, instead of limiting our Christian responsibility to simply attending 1 hour weekly masses.  In order to be converted to Christ, we need to use up time as long as the on...

An authentic Church John 15:18-21 The Easter experience continues with the expansion of the Church as Timothy and the other disciples proclaim the Good News even to Macedonia and to the rest of the world. In this experience, the resurrection of Jesus now resides in people being resurrected from the world to new life in God, including us in the present moment.  This privilege is not given only the Jews, but offered to the rest of the world.  And the institution carrying this is ecclesia, the Church. Let us deepen the gift given to us when we were baptized and incorporated into the Church, which is universal in nature, "Catholic", reaching to the ends of the earth. The qualities of this Church are: First, it is born of the Spirit.  We may be in the world but not of this world, because our life's meaning is now founded on Jesus crucified and resurrected.  We then incorporate ourselves with others who were also drawn from the earth to be with God forever. S...

Multiplication of good works John 6:1-15  The multiplication of the loaves is a sign of the fruitfulness not only of Jesus, but of his disciples who do God's will. Let's make an honest evaluation of the fruitlessness of things, and why we keep on saying, we have no money or time or talent when in fact we have them on this earth. Second, let's learn how Jesus multiplied the loaves through: 1. through offering - the process cannot start if there are no gifts offered. 2. gifts have to be offered to God, not kept to self. 3. gifts have to be broken and be ready for distribution.; 4. gifts have to be given to others to complete their purpose. These could also apply to our fruitfulness in this world if we know how to offer ourselve to God, sanctify all our work and being, break ourselves to serve God, and give ourselves to others so they may also be offerings to others.

The signs of the resurrection  John 3:7-15 The signs of the resurrection of the Lord in our lives are the following: Unity: "The whole group of believers was united, heart and soul; no one claimed for his own use anything that he had, as everything they owned was held in common"; Proclamation: "The apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus with great power"; and Sharing: "None of their members was ever in want, as all those who owned land or houses would sell them, and bring the money from them, to present it to the apostles; it was then distributed to any members who might be in need. If we are giving testimony to the ones mentioned above, then we are "born again" as described in today's Gospel".

I told you so! "See I told you so!" is a term we use to prove to another we are right all along.  In explaining to another, everything we say now makes sense.  Sense is what finally molds us into who we are. Peter didn't know any better about Jesus.  But after Pentecost, his spirit was way above to explain to people the mystery of Jesus and who he was - the Son of God, the resurrected Lord. The "I told you so" syndrome is finally realized in Peter who, in experiencing Jesus crucified and resurrected, now becomes the source of strength for the new converts to Christianity. Jesus also told the apostles in the today's gospel, "This is what I meant when I said, while I was still with you ... " I told you so.  All the apostles need to do was to be faithful to Jesus until he reveals his full self to them. In our lives, how many times have we lost faith and hope in God?  How many of us thought that following God makes no sense and that people who ...

What do we do after the resurrection? It's two days after the resurrection. What has become of us? Peter makes an offer others can't refuse.  What is Easter for us?  That through the communion of God and man in Jesus Christ, our lives are already meant from heaven. Our new vocation is simply to tell the story of Jesus' resurrection.  We tell it through our words and actions.  What seemed impossible is now possible.  We can now live holy lives.  We can generate holiness in the world instead of the usual folly of man.

Easter Reflections The story of Mary Magdalene seeing the risen Jesus should inspire us in our zeal to resurrect our Christian convictions this Easter. Like many of us who are subjected to all sorts of trials and temptations, it is easy for us to lose our sense of sight on the One, true God, Jesus Christ. Mary's sensitivity to the Divine Master enabled her to see despite her feelings of confusion and sadness.  Jesus calling "Mary!" is enough for her to recognize him.  We too have to be extra sensitive to the signs of faith inside and outside of us.  Inside of us is our consciences formed to listen to the voice of goodness.  Outside of us, we recognize the instruments that deepened our faith - our parents, our religiosity, the Church, etc. In being able to see, it is almost impossible to stay in the dark or keep others in the dark.  Even in the world of gossip, people just couldn't keep things to themselves.  In a world where people who are touched...

The night prior to the celebration of Holy Thursday recalls the betrayal of Judas.  It also marks the descent of man away from his true identity in reference to God who created him in His image and likeness.  The effects of sin upon the human heart are far beyond any man could imagine; the death and the horror of sin and the destruction it causes upon every human being in history, at present, and in the future are so much that we choose to feel a total distaste for the world of sin and secondly, to make a firm decision to put an end to its sad influence in the world. On the other hand, there is Jesus and his total adherence to the Father.  Jesus is going to "pass over" from death to life, all for our sake.   His time is at hand; at this time his glory would be proclaimed.  Darkness would give way to Easter morn. On this day prior to the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus, commit only one thing: commit to be on His side; commit to join our Lord in...