Matthew 5:20-22a, 27-28, 33-34a, 37; Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time Imagine that we’re the bunch of slaves God has rescued from Egypt. After 430 years of slavery, we’re free! From our great-grandparents down to our apos, we knew no other life except the life of a slave. The Egyptians cursed and swore at us with…
Category: Season: Ordinary Time
The Real Influencers – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Matthew 5:13-16, Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time “You are the salt of the earth…you are the light of the world.” When Jesus said thesewords, I imagine, he must’ve been gazing at his friends for a while and felt very proud of them.Like the way, you parents, sometimes find yourselves just looking at your kids and…
Blessed – Jett Villarin, SJ
Matthew 5:1-12a, Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time To be alive is to be fed at varying frequencies. Take breathing. We need to bring in fresh air every few seconds or so. We cannot skip breathing for longer than several minutes. After an hour or so, we need to drink water. After a quarter of a…
Galilee – Jett Villarin, SJ
Matthew 4:12-17, Third Sunday in Ordinary Time The first time I went to Disneyland, I was a young adult. This was in the mid-80s. There were the usual rides but the one that has been memorable is the refrain of the song, “It’s a small world after all”. It’s a world of laughter, a world…
What Kind of King? – Bert Boholst, SJ
Luke 23:35-43, Solemnity of Christ the King As we come to the close of another liturgical year, the Church gives us one more chance to reflect on Jesus—not just as Savior or Teacher—but as King. But what kind of king is He? In today’s Gospel, we see a striking image: Jesus hanging on a cross…
Powers – Jett Villarin, SJ
Luke 23:35-43, Solemnity of Christ the King First we learned addition, then subtraction. After that, multiplication, then division. Then we learned exponents, the so-called powers. That little superscript to the right of a number we soon learned was a power. It had power to make any number big. And so two raised to the power…
Buntong Hininga – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Luke 21:5-19, 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time I had my routine blood test last Tuesday at our Health-Development Office on campus. When it was time to pay, the kind lady said, “Father, charge to Arrupe House po?” Sabi ko: “Lagay n’yo po ‘jan: charge to Zaldy Co po.” She and the nurses hanging around laughed….
Appreciate the Appreciation – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Luke 17:11-19; 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time The leper couldn’t have thanked Jesus the same day he was healed. Jesus asked the lepers to show themselves to the priest, remember? He wanted them to still follow due process. For ostracized lepers to be reintegrated into society, the clean bill of health had to be “official.”…
Chasm – Jett Villarin, SJ
Luke 16:19-31; 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time In today’s parable, the rich man has no name. Right there and then we sense from his namelessness that he might be someone less than a person, someone heartless, without remorse. He is not known to God. The poor man has a name, even while he was full…
Dishonest Wealth – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Luke 16:10-13; 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time I often struggle with this parable especially because of the line, “make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth.” It sounds like we’re being encouraged to make ill-gotten wealth our “friends,” doesn’t it? These days, we have a perfect example of that in the contractors and so-called public servants,…
Honorables – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Luke 14:1, 7-14, 22nd Sunday In Ordinary Time Imagine, sisters and brothers, a papal mass where, in the 10 rows nearest the altar, sit the leading, most influential cardinals from all over the world. After the sign of the cross, the first thing the pope says is: “May I respectfully ask all the cardinals and…
Last – Jett Villarin, SJ
Luke 13:22-30, 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time The crisis over flood control is very much in our news these days. A flood happens when there is much coming in and very little going out. We will not dwell on why so little is going out except to say that the outlets are constricted because of…
One Lost Sheep 