John 8:1-11, Fifth Sunday of Lent To say that a person is an animal and therefore deserves to be slaughtered is not to play God. Not even God sees us that way. Let me unravel those words and rewind. There is an adulteress in the Gospel story today. She is dragged by religious men for…
Category: Season
Dead Wrong – Arnel Aquino, SJ
John 8:1-11, Fifth Sunday of Lent A month ago, a friend of mine was coming home from a wake of his friend’s dad. The man committed suicide, which was tragic in itself. But I don’t know which was more tragic: that a father committed suicide, or that none of the priests in the nearby parish…
Cowering – John Foley, SJ
Luke 15:1-32; Fourth Sunday of Lent Watch the dog hang its head when it is scolded. It grovels. It tries to wheedle its way back into good graces. To us humans it looks as if it is saying, “I’m really, really, really sorry for what I did and please, please, please, please forgive me. I…
Social Media Envy – Johnny Go, SJ
Luke 15:1-32; Fourth Sunday of Lent The 2017 McCann study called “Truth about the Youth” surveyed over 30,000 respondents all over the world, and found that one out of two young people today feel worse about themselves when they see the posts of their friends. This rising phenomenon has been called “social media envy.” In…
Will We Always Have Second Chances? – Francis Alvarez, SJ
A caveat: This reflection does not guarantee warm and fuzzy feelings. To stress this warning, let me share with you this essay’s working title: “Are You Ready to Die?” In the first part of our Gospel today, we hear about “the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.” Some scholars…
Prayer Beautifies – Bishop Ambo David
Luke 9:28b-36, Second Sunday of Lent This story of Jesus transfigured before his disciples is also in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew. But only Luke tells us that he was praying when it happened. In another passage, in chapter 11, Luke tells us the disciples were spying on him as he went into solitude…
A Dose of Astonishment – Johnny Go, SJ
Luke 9:28-36, Second Sunday of Lent It’s not every day during his earthly life that you see our Lord bathed in heavenly light. In fact, such displays of divinity are quite few and far between. Unless my memory fails me, this so-called Transfiguration of the Lord is probably the only recorded one aside from the…
Marked for Life – Fr Harold Parilla
Luke 4:1-13, First Sunday of Lent Welcome to our liturgical celebration of the first Sunday of Lent! As we very well know, this special season begins with Ash Wednesday, famous for its ritual of the imposition of ashes. What is the meaning of the ritual for us? I believe we can say that the imposition…
Triggers – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Luke 4:1-13, First Sunday of Lent In the past couple of months on different occasions, three friends of mine told me that they finally deactivated their Facebook accounts. The latest one was a priest-friend, a very eloquent and dynamic professor of theology at their seminary in the province. “I’ve finally taken myself out of Facebook,” he said. “When it’s the online bickering for and…
Work to Do – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Luke 6:1-6;16-18, Ash Wednesday In Loyola School of Theology, I teach a course called Introduction to Sacramental Theology. We recently finished our lesson on the Eucharist. But something’s still stuck in my head about the Last Supper, that last “Eucharistic celebration” Jesus had with his friends the night before he died. Did you notice that in the Last Supper, Jesus gave communion to Peter and…
My Private Room – Willy Samson, SJ
Matthew 6:1-6; 16-18, Ash Wednesday A confused disciple went to his master and begged for enlightenment. And the master said, “Go and sit in your room, and your room will teach you everything.” Today we officially begin the Season of Lent. For most of us, Lent is a time TO REMEMBER how Jesus, the Son…
Judgment – Fr Harold Parilla
Luke 6:39-45; 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time It is not possible to live in this world without making judgments. Judging is a function of the intellect as it determines whether or not an idea is compatible with another. Whenever we choose, we judge. A mother, for instance, leaves the house, goes to the grocery store,…
One Lost Sheep 