Mark 34:35-41, Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time For me, it’s not easy to read the Beatitudes–not to mention to preach about it. Maybe it’s because in the Beatitudes, our Lord Jesus blesses the very people the world considers cursed. Consider his list: the poor in spirit the mourners the meek those who seek justice the…
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Pondering the Beatitudes – RB Hizon, SJ
Matthew 5:1-12a, Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time I remember once being completely taken by an evangelical youth group that somehow made me feel and think that I was completely invincible. And because of that, albeit in the “name of Jesus” completely “happy.” After having received Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior, I was convinced…
To Hand Over – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Matthew 4:12-23, Third Sunday in Ordinary Time I don’t exactly remember how that conversation started. But I will remember for a long time what dad said to me around those days after we laid mom to rest. “Anak, wala kaming gaanong maiiwan sa inyong magkakapatid ha? (Son, we won’t have much to leave you, ok?)”…
How do you imagine the Kingdom? – Francis Alvarez, SJ
Matthew 4:12-23, Third Sunday in Ordinary Time In our Gospel today, we hear Jesus preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). The Greek word translated as “repent,” metanoeite, comes from meta (beyond) and nous (mind). Literally, metanoeitemeans “to go beyond the mind.” More elegantly, it can be rendered “to go…
Don’t Surrender – Willy Samson, SJ
Matthew 4:12-23, Third Sunday in Ordinary Time For many years, a giant ruled the Kingdom of Himosh. Every day, the giant went up to the hill and challenged the villagers; but no one dared to accept because of the giant’s enormous size. One day, a little boy accepted the challenge and started walking towards the giant. To everyone’s…
Ever Widening Circles – Mark Aloysius, SJ
John 1:29-34, Second Sunday in Ordinary Time I. When I was a young child, there was an animation called The Spiral Zone which I used to faithfully follow. In this animation, the bad guys would set up a generator from which an ever widening hemisphere enveloped the entire land, called the spiral zone. Within this…
To Protect and to Protest – Norlan Julia, SJ
Matthew 18:1-5, Feast of the Sto Niño The feast of Sto. Niño, is strictly speaking, a liturgical feast celebrated only in the Philippines. In other countries, there is no feast day assigned for Sto. Niño. Yet, where there are communities of Filipino anywhere in the world, the feast of Sto. Niño is celebrated with the…
Beyond the Child Jesus – Rudolf Horst, SJ
Matthew 18:1-5, Feast of the Sto Niño Even though the Christmas season ended last Sunday, we celebrate one more feast that is closely connected with Christmas: the feast of the Infant Jesus. We look at this child with tenderness. But the liturgy reminds us that this child is not just a baby. He is Jesus,…
One King and a Convoy of Tourists – Johnny Go, SJ
Matthew 2:1-12, Solemnity of the Epiphany Finding out that the three kings were neither three nor royalty was not quite as traumatic as that other life-changing discovery about Santa Claus. But to whomever thought of coming up with the three kings–what were you thinking? For years, we staged Nativity plays that religiously featured them with…
What’s in a Word? – Rudolf Horst, SVD
Matthew 2:1-12, Solemnity of the Epiphany Please, don’t expect that I will discuss here who the wise men were, where they came from, what their names were – all that is not in the text of the gospel. Rather, I would like to reflect for a moment about the main word of today’s Solemnity: Epiphany….
New Year’s Eve – James Donelan, S.J.(✝)
If you were to enter a home in ancient Rome, you would find in the doorway a dog with two heads. A statue of course. It is Janus, the Roman god of the doorway. One head looked to the past, the other to the future. Since the first month of the year has this two-fold…
The Signal Birth of Jesus – Jose Mario C. Francisco, SJ
Solemnity of the Nativity of our Lord On this special night, we take time to focus our attention on the belens we put up weeks ago. We bend low to gaze on beloved familiar characters usually set in an animal shed or a cave—the newborn babe, mother Mary and guardian Joseph, the adoring three kings…
One Lost Sheep 