A month of fruitful love

For our family, this month is a month of fruitful love - 4 wedding anniversaries:

June 18, 1983: Uncle James, my mother's younger brother and Auntie Helen


June 20, 2004: my younger brother, Winchile and Terefil



June 27, 2000: my eldest sister, Che Vicky and Koko Gerry



June 27, 1971: Papa and Mama.


I especially offer my masses and prayers for them, that God may sustain them in the bond of marriage, that Jesus bless their family and friends, that Jesus who loved his Church to the end, will always fill their hearts with love, that Jesus may keep joy and hope alive in their hearts.

No supermen...

Today is Good Shepherd Sunday, and also World Day of Prayers for Vocations. Please pray for us priests. We are chosen and ordained by God, endowed with a special grace of the priesthood, but we too are human, and no supermen.

Many expect us to be all the ideal that we could be. Well, they have the right to, since we are to be transparent witnesses. But we too have difficulties.

I identify with these verses of the secular song, Superman. For me, these express our struggle - as we live our mission to bring God to humanity, and humanity to God, through our life and ministry, in spite and despite of our vulnerable humanity.

It may sound absurd
but don't be naive
Even Heroes have the right to bleed
I may be disturbed
but won't you conceed
Even Heroes have the right to dream
It's not easy to be me

Up, up and away, away from me
It's all right; You can all sleep sound tonight
I'm not crazy, or anything

I can't stand to fly
I'm not that naive
Men weren't meant to ride
With clouds between their knees (yes, meant for heaven, but struggling to live for heaven while inescapably human and this-worldly)

I'm only a man in a silly red sheet (white sheet?)
Digging for kryptonite on this one way street
Only a man in a funny red sheet
Looking for special things inside of me (and trying to bring out the better things in all, and to lead all to the really better things)

It's not easy to be me.


Any priest would identify with these lyrics. Even with the sacra potestas (sacred power) conferred by Ordination, after a long day of ministering - giving the sick and dying hope of healing and life, admonishing the sinner to repentance, comforting the sorrowing, counseling the doubtful and troubled, encouraging the struggling, feeding the spiritually starving, praying for the living and the dead, offering humanity's prayers to God, ministering to all, we too need healing and rejuvenation, understanding and forgiveness, comfort and counsel, encouragement and nourishment, prayers and intercession.

Good Friday

Christ once and for all died for all of us. By his death we have life. We are no longer slaves of sin and death. We are no longer subject to the evil one. The wages of sin no longer have a hold over us. We are redeemed – in fact, paid in full.

But the world and humanity saved by Christ still lives in sin, in poverty, in corruption, in manipulation, in exploitation of people, in war, in discrimination, in a state apparently anything by saved.

Why do these happen? Because we have never really taken to heart the message of the Cross. The Cross is God’s offer of love – by it he showed us his great love. The challenge for us is to allow this love to change us – to make us lovers like Christ – selfless, sacrificing. The challenge for us is not to allow selfishness to take hold of us, not to allow greed to conquer us, not to allow self-centeredness to rule us.

Our remembrance, celebration and reflection of the Paschal Mystery continues. We shall see tomorrow that for Christ, it does not end with the Cross. The Cross is the way to salvation, to glory. The sure way. The only way.

Unless we love like the man on the Cross, we may have everything of this world, but we will never be truly glorious and victorious.

By Your Cross...

Yesterday morning, we had our parish recollection. I was sharing on the victory of the Cross as the victory of Jesus over sin and death. One of the participants asked, “Father, if Christ triumphed at the cross, then why does evil seem to triumph?”

The question is for sure very real – did Christ really triumph over sin and death?

If we look at the cross, and we find Jesus crucified, what appears to us is a scandalous death of an innocent man, condemned to death unjustly, killed at the cross while being mocked – all these, after he had offered his life for the people, healing their sick, expelling demons, feeding the hungry, even raising a couple of dead people back to life, announcing daily a message of hope in a loving God.

But this precisely is the triumph of the Cross of Jesus – that amidst the evils of this world – all consequences of selfishness, self-centeredness – Christ shows the triumph of selflessness, of sacrifice for others, the triumph of love.

Not even the powers of the Roman conquerors or the influence of the religious leaders of his time, indeed, not even death and the evil one could ever hinder Jesus from showing love – love in all its glory. Not even the ugliness of the cross could obscure the beauty of love.