Feast Of The Nativity Of Our Lord – Christmas Day

December 25, 2022

First Reading : Isaiah 52: 7-10

Psalm: Psalm 98:1-6

Second Reading: Galatians 3:29-4:5

Gospel: John 1:1-14

Christmas Day is all about the love of God for all of us. It is celebrated within twelve (12) days representing 12 months because the message of hope, of faith, of peace and of love should live within our hearts everyday throughout the year. We need to contemplate, to reflect, and deliberately live it out so that it will not be lost from us. Constantly sharing and expressing it with other people is the only way to keep the peace, the joy, and the love of God in our heart.

Today, Father Jun shared the love story of Rakesh and Sadnha. A story about a rich man who fell in love with a poor woman. A love story that crossed social barriers and showed the transforming power of love. If we truly love someone, even the unlovable becomes the most loveable person. The same love story happened to us when Jesus came to us. It was impossible for us to live with God before, because of our poverty and sin. We need to be like-God in order to live with Him. The world we live in today is the picture of poverty, of pain, of hunger, of hatred and other sufferings. But on Christmas Day, Jesus leaves everything He has in order to live with us. He took humanity and chose to be with us, so that He can live with us.

Salvation is not just forgiveness of sins. When we say, “We are saved” it means God lives in us. Christmas teaches us the most beautiful part of salvation – Jesus dwells in us. This is the greatest love story ever foretold. God and man, loving each other, dwelling with each other, no longer  separated. Jesus loving us, in our fallen nature, became like us so that we, also can be like Him, sharing His divine nature. This is the most beautiful love story we need to bring into our life every day and share among others; telling our children so that they will begin to understand what life is all about. Life is living, not only for our self but living with God and for God.

Recap by:

MERCY DE LA CRUZ-ESPIRITU

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Theme: “Go and Proclaim with Joy”

3rd Sunday of Advent- Year A December 11, 2022

First Reading: Isaiah 35:1-10

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 146:2 &7,3&5,9-10

Second Reading: James 5:7-10

Gospel Reading: Matthew 11:2-11

Our Advent Sunday readings have been talking about hope, faith, joy, and love. These are the virtues that God wants us to build and cultivate in order for us to become effective in bringing out the Gospel and as we prepare our lives for His second coming.

At the on-set of the year, we are reminded of these virtues. We need to prepare our hearts for Christmas so that when Christmas time comes to our lives, we know what we are celebrating; that God, our Emmanuel has come to live with us. As we prepare our hearts, let us also prepare our lives for the whole year! For God will open door of blessings and the anointing of the Spirit will bring many breakthroughs in our lives.

The first Advent is proof of Christ’s second coming. Christ didn’t back out the first time, and so we anticipate the fulfilment of His promise – His next coming. And for this year, as commissioned people of God in bringing out the Gospel, our activities will be geared to our mission – to preach and proclaim the Good News. We are now the hands and feet of God, the Body of Christ. It is our responsibility now to bring the knowledge of God’s love to the people, especially those who are loaded with so much burden, so much guilt and sin that they forgot that Jesus is no longer counting those sins against them. They need to know and understand, they need to see the freedom that God has given them; the healing and restoration that Jesus has provided. And for the Gospel to be brought out to them and the world, we need to go and bring it with our own lives.

Today, we lit the candle of joy. “When we set our hope in Christ, and anchor our faith in the Son of God, joy comes in”. Many people find it hard to find joy, nowadays. “Joy is the flower/fruit of setting our hope in Jesus.” Joy can evoke and sometimes bring happiness, but joy is an inner strength in us that propel and push us to overcome whatever problems we have in life. Scriptures said, Jesus endured the suffering in the cross because of the joy that was set before Him. When we go out in the world to preach the Gospel, it is the joy of the Lord that will be our strength; it will give us the spiritual energy inside, that though we our feeling wasted and tired outwardly, inwardly, there is a renewal happening. This is the same joy that will be our driving force in our life as we take care our children, our family, and our community no matter how difficult it is. it will cause us to serve Christ when others are already giving up, when others are losing already the ability to serve Christ. This is how joy is important in bringing out the Good News.

The essence of bringing out the Gospel, is to change the world around us. Gospel transforms the lives of the people. It is like a rain that comes to the desert, when we bring it to the wilderness, the people who hear and receive it starts to bloom. With hope, faith, joy and love, let us be the “rain” that “blooms out the desert”. Let us go out of our comfort zones and venture with joy in our hearts. Hardships and problems of life might cause us to doubt, but like St. John the Baptist, he anchored his faith in God’s words, we might also have that trust and confidence in the promises of Christ. It makes a great difference when Christ comes in the picture of the life of the people.

Finally, Father Jun pushes us to go out to the world, praying that we will no longer be “silent Christians”. Life is short, we need to prepare our hearts for God’s purposes in our lives. Let us not miss out what God has stored for us!

Recap by:

MERCY DE LA CRUZ-ESPIRITU

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Theme: “Go and Proclaim with Faith”

2nd Sunday of Advent- Year A December 4, 2022

First Reading: Isaiah 11:1-10

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 72;1-2,3-4,5-6,7-8

Second Reading: Romans 15:4-7, 13

Gospel Reading: Matthew 3:1-12

Our Advent readings focused on these words… be watchful, prepared, and ready.

And these should be our attitude as people of God. (Fr. Jun)

To be watchful is to be careful with our lives and our hearts. We should be always on guard with what’s in our hearts, not allowing bad things to come in and ruin our happiness. Hatred, anger, and unforgiveness should have no place in our hearts.

Preparing… for something good that will come to our lives. “Because every encounter with Jesus always brings joy to us”, in prayer and in Eucharist, there is always something good that is bound to happen. But the question is, are we prepared? Oftentimes, we miss out on the things God prepared for us because of unpreparedness. Advent is not just a preparation of Christmas; it is a preparation of our hearts for the second coming of Christ. The coming of Christ to us in prayer and in Eucharist, signifies God’s desire to live with us. He wants to share, to stay in our lives. He wants to be part of our homes, of our families, dealing with our kids and simply living with us. But sometimes we miss out on this act of love of God because we are not prepared. There are so many things God has prepared for us every day, but often, these good news turn out to be bad news because of our unpreparedness.

If we’ve been watchful of our hearts, and have been preparing our lives, then we are ready for His coming. Whatever circumstances or happenings or situations we will be facing, we are ready! And basically, this is what Advent is about. We prepare for God’s daily visitation to us, for the whole year.  We can expect the worst to happen, but we can hope for the best to come, since we are ready. Expecting the worst requires a tough mind. We should be tough in facing and dealing the circumstances of life. And the best way to start this year is to have the attitude of hope. We should always learn to start with hope so that we can reach our destination. There are many things in this world that we cannot control and sometimes, we need the grace of God to accept the things we cannot change but at the same time hopeful because of what God has promised.

Today, we lit the second candle of Advent, symbolizing faith. It is good always to have the attitude of hope but it cannot suffice our being prepared and ready for the things that will be coming. Faith is about having a plan of action for the things we hope for. If we want to change things in our life; if we want to get out from poverty, from misery then we should start changing what we are doing so that things around us will change too.

Finally, Father Jun encouraged us to hope and trust God. This is faith, setting goals and having a plan of action. God does not only believe in us, He trusts us also. And if God believes in you, you should also believe in yourself.

Recap by:

MERCY DE LA CRUZ-ESPIRITU

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Theme: “Go and Proclaim with Hope”

1st Sunday of Advent – November 27, 2022

First Reading: Isaiah 2:1-5

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 122;1-2,3-4,8-9

Second Reading: Romans 13: 10-14

Gospel Reading: Matthew 24: 37-44

In today’s Sunday Mass Homily at Saint Michael Kalibo, Fr. Jun reminds us that the Season of Advent is our preparation for the Lord’s second coming.

How we prepare for Christmas reflects how we prepare for Christ. If we do not prepare, there is a tendency to get too caught up with the flurry of activities and forget that the main reason for the season is Jesus. So what are we preparing during Advent?

1. We prepare for the coming of Christ as Savior of the world.
2. We prepare for the coming of Christ as our personal Savior.

Part of this preparation is bringing the Gospel to our heart. 1 Peter 1:13 (NLT) says  ^“So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world.” We are to be active in anticipating the coming of Jesus. Not passive where we simply wait for Him.

There are two kinds of preparation: Physical (Material preparation) and the Spiritual Preparation.

We should always have hope, faith, joy and love in our hearts as part of our preparation. Advent is the preparing of our mind and heart to live with God forever. To live with Jesus, we have to learn to live Holy Lives. Holiness is not about being perfect. Holiness is about trying your best to become who God wants you to be.

After we prepare ourselves, we will now go to missions to share Jesus to others. Go into missions and spread His good news. He also reminded us to set our hope fully in Christ not just this Advent season, but in our daily lives as we prepare for Jesus’ second coming.

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Theme: “Blessed be the King”

34th Sunday in Ordinary Time Feast of Christ the King 

First Reading: Jeremiah 23:1-6

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 145:1-3,5-7,10-11,13

Second Reading: Colossians 1:13-20

Gospel Reading: Luke 23:33-43

Homily by Romie-Jun Peñalosa

Fr. Jun started his homily by giving a brief history on why we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King. The Feast of Christ the King was instituted in 1925 by Pope Pius XI. World War I just ended and when they thought that it was the war that would end all wars, people started focusing on politics. This was the time when people started lost faith in religion and this paved the way for the rise of secularism and atheism.

Secularism is the belief that there should be a separation between religion and the economic aspects of life. For secularism, faith is now just a personal and private matter. Pope Pius also saw an increasing mindset of atheism and he knew that if this continued, people will compartmentalize God in a box.

Christ the King was created to destroy that mindset so that we can establish that the Kingdom of God encompasses all. Here we are, 97 years later, and secularism and atheism is rising again. This is why we need to celebrate Christ the King! To establish that the Kingdom of God will be forever and Christ will remain supreme.

Our first reading prophesies about a King Who will rule wisely. Our second reading speaks about our rescue from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. But then the Gospel talks about the crucifixion – showing a king dying on the cross for a slave. This is why we say that God’s love is not only radical, but scandalous as well.

This King did  not come to lord over us but to serve us. The thief who was crucified with Him recognized this and saw Him as the prophesied Messiah. The thief will teach us how to be saved. A thief who recognized Him as Christ the King.

This thief is named St. Dismas, and he is the patron saint of criminals. Here is what we can learn from him:

1. Acknowledge your sin. – People come to war justifying themselves instead of acknowledging their sin. But not this thief.
2. Acknowledge Jesus as LORD.
3. Acknowledge Jesus as SAVIOR.

He did all this when he said. “Remember (‘Save me’)  me when you enter into your Kingdom.”

May we be bold like this thief in proclaiming that Christ is King! A King who came to save us!

He is our King, Lord, and Savior. Professing this leads us to salvation. May this be our continuous confession.

Fr. Jun ended his homily by asking the question: “Who sits in the throne room in your heart? Is it still Jesus?” Let us grow in our confession of Jesus as King of our lives. He further challenges us to not do it privately but publicly. CHRIST IS KING IN MY LIFE!

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Theme: “Standing Firm as Overcomers”

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Reading: Malachi 3:16-4:2

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 98:1-2,4-6,8-9

Second Reading: 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Gospel Reading: Luke 20:45-21:4

Homily by Fr. Romie-Jun Peñalosa

Fr. Jun started out his homily with rounding up today’s readings. In our first reading in Malachi, it was prophesied that the day will come when He will separate who is for Him and who is against Him. In the second reading, Paul gives a warning about simply being busybodies. He reminds them here to not be a burden, and in silence do our work. Finally in the Gospel, we learn about cultivating the heart of a cheerful giver.

God is always looking at us and He sees everything we do. Our actions will connote if we are for Him or against Him. Most importantly, our hearts will clearly show how much we value God in our lives.

With today’s readings, he shared with us three wrong attitudes in giving, and three proper attitudes when giving.

Three Wrong Attitudes:

1. God hates selfishness.
2. God hates it when you show off.
3. God hates self-preserving.

These are some of the attributes that the Pharisees showed in their giving. The widow, however, showed something different. Though she was poor, she proved that no one is too poor to give to God. The widow’s mite was the best offering because with it, she gave her all, her everything. What we need to see is that every time we give to God, He observes you.  God does not look at the amount but at the value of what you are giving. He even knows when we give away something that we need. Most importantly, God knows  how much love you put into your giving.

In 2 Corinthians 9:6-7 it says “But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap ^[bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.” 

With these, he then shared the following…

Three Attitudes of a Cheerful Giver

1. Selfless – thinks of the other
2. Sincere – not for show
3. Sacrificial – does not give without value

As David once said, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” (2 Samuel 24:24)

God values why you give and how you give.

Fr. Jun then challenged the congregation to start doing sacrificial giving for the missions of the church. For as low as Php10.00 per week per family member, we can already raise funds for the mission. Let us be part of the work of the church in bringing out the Good News of the Gospel. Let us not just be busybodies, and let us ensure that we are seen by God as part of His flock through our sacrificial giving and love for Him.

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“Those who are afraid to die are not fit to live.”

The idea of death is the common and greatest fear of man. And when we live in fear, we do not live righteously and properly. Jesus’ final instruction to His disciples to “Go into the world, preach the gospel, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19-20) – requires a lot of work! The thought of this alone can weaken and make us weary and afraid to even start. However, He promised also that when we obey and do the mission He wants us to do, He is always with us, and therefore, we should not be afraid. 

It is always a risk to obey and follow Christ. But if we are not going to work and do what Jesus wanted us to do, we will not grow as a people and bear fruits in our lives. Doing missionary work does not guarantee our good health. It cannot give assurance that we will not get hurt, get tired, or get disappointed. It does not give us the security to be exempted from rejections and facing adversities in life but we have hope in His promise that He will be with us who follow the mission.

The resurrection of Christ gives us hope. This hope gives us the boldness and courage to go out on a mission. We are not afraid to die in the mission because we put our hope and confidence in the resurrection of Jesus and we should live this every day of our lives. We should not think that resurrection is an Easter week celebration only. It must be engraved in our minds, every day so that we will not fear death. When we focus our thoughts on the resurrection of Christ, it gives us so much hope, that no matter how hard we labor for the works of God, we are encouraged to press on, knowing that all things will turn out for our good in the future. 

As Primate Alcaraz said, “I do not know what the future holds for me, but I’m not afraid because I know the One who holds my future”. The rising of Jesus from the dead gives us hope for a life after. There is no reason to worry about the future. Our confidence must be in Christ Who promised us a future that we hope for.

As we enter the celebration of Christ the King, Father Jun encourages us to declare in our lives that Jesus is the King and He is the Lord of our life! We will celebrate with joy and proclaim that only Christ has the say in our life! We will rule out the fear of death for Jesus has already erased sin and death when He died on the cross! 

Job, in the midst of his suffering, has already seen the coming of the Redeemer. He never fears dying for he believes that someone is going to save him and he will see him face to face someday. We who have been born after Christ’s death should keep fresh in our mind the resurrection of Christ for by hoping, we can have the strength and the courage to fulfill our mission as a church. The Body of Christ is a mission community. We should not allow the world to minimize us, dictate to us, or intimidate us into doing what God wanted us to be. The power of heaven is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. We should not be afraid and therefore, let us be who God wants us to be.

Recap by:

MERCY DE LA CRUZ-ESPIRITU

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Standing Firm in Patient Perseverance

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time- October 16, 2022

First Reading: Genesis 32:22-31

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 121:1-2,3-4,7-8

Second Reading: 2 Timothy 3:14-4-:5

Gospel Reading: Luke 18:1-8

“There are things in life we can never be successful in unless we persevere.” (Fr. Jun)

Today’s parable in our gospel reading talks about the most important activity  in our life – PRAYER. We fail in so many things because we do not continue with them. Oftentimes, we stop whenever we find it difficult. But there are many people who become successful in their prayers, not because they know so many things in the Bible or they have that big faith in life, but because they always persevere and never give up.

Father Jun points out PATIENCE and PERSEVERANCE as the main ingredients in a successful prayer. We need to cultivate these attitude if we want to be successful. The parable as explained by Jesus to His disciples, tells the importance of prayer – not to give up; and to pray unceasingly. We should “always pray “ and not lose heart or be discouraged. We should pray continually, meaning having regular time in prayer. To pray unceasingly means also that we need to have patience. A person without patience will find it difficult to pray and pray every day. “Do not give up”.  Jesus told us not to give up in prayer even at times when prayer is hard for us or difficult for us to do, because “the habit of not praying is more difficult to break than the habit of praying.”

In the parable, Jesus also tries to give us the picture of how vulnerable, how helpless we are sometimes in our life. The widow persevered in seeking justice from the judge who is not willing. Jesus tells us that if perseverance will work on someone who has no the intention to help– how much more will it work when we come to our God who is not reluctant to help us.

Cultivating patience in prayer is a must attitude. The ability to stay calm, to stay composed, and to stay focus. Psalm 37:3-4 tells us to delight ourselves to God in order to have our heart’s desires. God is delighted with us when we pray because when we do, we are mindful of Him. He wants us to think of Him always, and prayer makes us mindful of Him. Talking, spending time with God every day, being still and waiting for Him patiently makes God excited to give us what we desire, for He is just and a God of justice. To be patient also means that we should not be intimidated when things are not happening the way we want it to happen. We just need to continue and persevere because God does now answer all prayers right away. Often, it takes time. Why? Because God will give us the best in the best time.

Let us remember Church that we don’t have a reluctant God. We have a Father that delights in answering our prayers. We just need to be patient in praying, and do not give up, until we have it in our life.

Recap by:

MERCY DE LA CRUZ-ESPIRITU

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Standing Firm with a Thankful Heart

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time- October 9, 2022

First Reading: 2 Kings 5:8-15

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 111:2-3,4-5,7-8,9-10

Second Reading: 2 Timothy 2:8-13

Gospel Reading: Luke 17:11-19

The pandemic has brought a drastic change in our lives. And as it eases now, we see a world filled with hungry people…hungry for meaning of life. Many people are turning to so many things. And we can see the world now as a huge market, everyone has something to sell. People tend to learn so many things and because of these, the need for the church to go and feed them with the word of God is urgent to satisfy their hunger and longing in life. The world is longing for Christ. And we, the church, are commissioned to go and bring Christ to the world.

Our gospel today mentions the term “go” twice, reminding us church of our mission.

The lepers in our scripture reading cries out loud to Lord Jesus to have mercy on them. This is also the case with the world today, it cries out for mercy from God. The lepers obeyed Jesus when He told them to go and have themselves checked by the priest, but only one remembered to go back and give thanks to Jesus and praise God. We can see from this story the common attitude of many of us now. It is the joy of God to bless us, He demands not, but He expects us to be thankful always.

As Jesus commanded the lepers to go, it is the same word He is telling to us church – go on our mission. But as we go out to bring the Gospel, we need to cultivate the following in our hearts: 1) faith – obeying God, believing  what He will do for you; and 2) gratitude – when you obey God because of what He has done for you from the past.

Gratitude and thankfulness is an attitude. Attitude is the most important thing as we walk our life with Christ and our mission. And how are we going to cultivate it in our lives? According to Father Jun, these are the ingredients:

1. Learn to expand or widen our perception of life. See things beyond your family, your work or your business. Open your mind to many things and learn to appreciate the value of every thing. We should stop being too conscious of the prices that oftentimes blinded us to value small things. Let us begin to perceive the value of what has been given to us so that we can learn to appreciate.

2. Be humble. A humble person realizes that what he has in life is something he doesn’t deserve. Once you realize that everything is a gift, a bonus in life…it makes you humble.

3. True gratitude in the heart needs to be expressed. Appreciation must be shown or expressed. Once we learn to express our gratitude to Jesus, it praises God. We should come in humility and express our true gratitude to God.

Realizing what God has done for us and will be doing for us, He deserves our utmost appreciation and gratitude. We should not only keep it in our hearts but we should be bold also in expressing it. He expects us to become grateful. A token is always an expression of gratefulness. We have nothing great to give God as a token, but we have life to give back to Him. Our willingness to use our life for Him is already a token. Be bold then, St. Michael Cathedral!

Recap by:

MERCY DE LA CRUZ-ESPIRITU

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