THE BLESSING OF BEING POOR
Some of you may recall that Jaime Cardinal Sin, our Archbishop, visited the Soviet Union a few years back. I was with him then. I share with you now an incident that happened before that visit. As a prince of…
Category Personal Blog
NEIGHBOR IS JESUS CHRIST
The first reading from the Book of Leviticus is called by technical writers as the code of holiness because it begins with the Lord speaking to us, “Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy,” The commandments can…
OUR PRIDE – OUR BLESSEDNESS
I had a classmate who loved to boast about his family, especially his dead relatives who have chalked up achievements or who were regarded as social elites when they were alive. His stories about them had become so repetitive and…
CHOSEN IN SPITE OF
Chapters 10, 11, and 12 of the Gospel of St. Matthew are called the Mission Discourses. At the beginning of Chapter 10, the Lord organizes a select group of people who will carry out his mission of proclaiming that the…
THE SIMPLE WAYS OF GOD
Let me introduce you to three persons mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. The first is Apollos who was a man of eloquence, affluence, and great wealth. He was also a good speaker. He preached and was well-versed in…
OUR STANDARD IS GOD
Recently I ran across a best friend I had way back in grade school. When we were in Grade 6, I was 4’9″ tall, he was 4’5″ went to study high school in Manila, while he studied in our hometown.…
PRIDE
It would seem that the basic mistake of the young man in the Gospel was that he was greedy. He was very preoccupied with material possessions. But, actually, all the commentaries on this Gospel text agree that the basic flaw…
I MUST DECREASE
The example and advice of St. John the Baptizer, as related by the Gospel, can be considered very unpopular in our time. The funny thing about being proud and conceited is that it is easier to see these defects in…
ARE YOU WEAK ENOUGH
I will share with you information that I do not personally believe in but is an interesting thought for today’s Gospel. My priest-professor in astronomy in the seminary told us that he observed that daytime becomes longer after December 25…
PARDON US FOR OUR HYPOCRISY
One of the Ten Commandments is to respect the Sabbath. For the Jews, within that commandment were 39 other rules on how they should respect the Sabbath. The rules ranged from not allowing the harvesting of grains and the carrying…
HIS GOODNESS IS ENDLESS
According to Scripture, Israel was punished for the sins of Ahab. There was a drought all over Israel and even Elijah had to suffer. In the midst of the drought, Elijah met a widow. They had never met before but…
REJECTION, ACCEPTANCE AND FORGETTING
It must have been painful for the Lord to be rejected by His own “kababayans.” The people with whom He grew up, the people who played with Him, His neighbors. All of them rejected Him. Actually, there is something even…