John 10:27-30, 4th Sunday of Easter

“No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.” Last time I checked, that’s not been changed, sisters and brothers. I don’t think anyone can change that default: to be in God’s hands. That’s our existential default, our standard mode: being in God’s hands. So, I’ve found it disturbing that a lot of talk seems to be going on about the devil, demonic possession, demonic “infestation,” young priests being sent to exorcism school in Rome. Last month, in three out of five parish Lenten recollections I checked on YouTube, the priests (one in America, two here) talked about the devil and how to detect demonic presence and how to cleanse the house by hanging medals on door knobs, putting salt in the corner of every room, praying to St. Michael the Archangel, and best of all, having a priest over to douse the house with holy water. In a Lenten recollection! (There was a time when everything was about angels naman, remember, and angelic experiences? But then, it faded out. So, I don’t know if this devil-obsession is a similar trend in Catholic life nowadays. I mean, if you’re looking for bad spirits, their posters are everywhere these days! Sorry. The devil made me say that 🙂

To get back to my point, this preoccupation w/ demons, bad spirits, and exorcism seems to imply that our default mode is being not in God’s hands. Worse, that God is not, by default, in charge. Not of our spirits, not of the world. Worst of all, Satan seems more powerful than God. And we, defenseless mortals, are always fair game to him. What do we do to be protected by God? We must say specific words, do specific actions, and have specific stuff. And only then, earn divine safeguard… because we are, by default, not in God’s hands.

But how much clearer do we want Jesus to put it when he says in today’s Gospel: “My Father is greater than all. No one can take them (us, the sheep) out of his hand”? What else did he say elsewhere? “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am w/ them.” What else? “I am with you always, until the end of the age.” Anything else? Yes. “If anyone loves me, they will keep my word, and my Father and I will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” A favorite theologian says, “God is intimately present to every human being through a universal offer of Godself, known as grace.” Another Christian pastor says, “We cannot attain the presence of God. We’re already totally in the presence of God. What’s missing,” he says, “is awareness.” Totoo. It takes a pause for us to realize again, “Wait. I already am in God’s hands.”

Next year, sisters and brothers, I’m finally receiving my dual citizenship: Filipino and senior. But to this day, whenever I’m on the phone with dad: “Anak, kumain ka na? Anong ulam mo? Kumusta asthma mo? Hindi ka inaatake? May pera ka pa? Kelan ka uwi?” When I visit him in Davao and I’m about to step out of the house: “Anak, ingat sa pagtawid ha. Dito ka maghahapunan?” When I’m about to fly back to Manila, oh, this reverse tug o’ war. He tries to stuff something into my pocket. I grab his and politely push it back at him: “Dad, may pera po ako. Gamitin n’yo ‘yan sa gamot n’yo, dad.” But he shoves the money into my pocket: “Iyo ‘yan!” Kunwari galit! I relent. To my dad, that’s no longer just “money.” That’s his love. His love offering. Many texts thereafter: “Lagi ko kayong ipinagpapasalamat sa Diyos, anak. Lagi ko kayong ipinagdarasal.” All that is his default, sisters and brothers: having his sons “in his hands” all the time. How much more in God’s are we, sisters and brothers, is what I really want to show. How much more in God’s hands are we… by default?

“God allows us to suffer. God punishes sinners. God’s wrath will end the world.” God-refrains like these and more, are our default statements about God. We’re not even aware they are. We just say and think them all the time. But if we could just hold on one minute and take a pause, sisters and brothers. If we could just remember that even good human, yet imperfect parents do not allow children to suffer and instead always try to alleviate their suffering; that when we do unto others what we wouldn’t have them do to us, our misdeeds swing around to punish us; that even you and I will not destroy anything we’ve painstakingly created, or anyone we very dearly loved—if we could just pause and remember all these and multiply them a gazillion times and think them of God, then, we’re back to the default that God really is, the way Jesus revealed him: that the Father has us in his hands. No one can take us out of God’s hands. And no one can change that default either.

What is your default God-statement, sisters and brothers? Take a pause and think: how has this default affected your life?