Reflection for July 2011

Order: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves.” (Mt 11: 29)

The Word for the Community this month is very timely in that it resonates with the exhortation of our Spiritual Director Archbishop Angel Lagdameo for the Community to be on fire again. This comes at the heels of IDC III held in February 2011, that gave birth to a new Vision for the Community.

The vision which guided the Community over the past 25 years has been updated and now states: “We are a Community of Disciples inspired by the Holy Spirit to be living witnesses for transformation in Christ to bring about a world of justice, human development and true peace.”

To give meaning to this new Vision, Archbishop Lagdameo exhorts the Community to be on ‘fire’ again, premised on the exercise the Gifts of the Holy Spirit that will produce in every person the Fruits of the Holy Spirit, which hopefully, will lead every member of the Community to become “fruitful, inspired, renewed and empowered”.

To be on ‘fire’ is to allow and give the Holy Spirit complete authority to reign in our lives and to guide, counsel, teach us and move in us, for only by living in the Spirit can we submit to the will of the Father. This attitude is reflected in almost all the Gospel passages for the month.

Week#1 (14th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

Theme: We submit to the will of the Father when we are meek and humble of heart.

In the Gospel, Jesus spoke in praise of the Father for allowing the “little ones” to learn what the learned could not grasp. Meek and gentle as he is, Jesus does not force anyone to believe in him, or to follow him. The elite of that time – the Scribes and Pharisees – rejected him. But the simple folk, the fishermen, and children believed in him and accepted him.

Jesus invites those who are burdened to come to him. That includes all of us, and he encourages us to clothe ourselves with humility and imitate him in the way he himself came into the world as a “little one” to show us the way. Unwittingly, it is we, ourselves, who lay heavy burdens on our lives, with our slavery to sin, guilty conscience, and greed for material things, all of which lead us away from God. But the Lord doesn’t want us to be burdened. He impresses upon us that we are not alone in our trials and it is in such hopeless situations that Jesus comes to free us and release us from the burdens that hinder our spiritual growth.

Week#2 (15th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

Theme: We submit to the will of the Father when we listen and act on His Word.

Seeds have great power in them. They break through soil and can even breech concrete and knock down walls. But the Word of God is more powerful because it has divine power. Evidence of this, is the way people were healed just by the spoken word of Christ. Seeds are also a sign of life. Jesus is himself a seed that died, but sprang forth from his burial ground to give new life to us. When nourished, most plants bear fruit and many more seeds, and God in his goodness plants his Word everywhere, even on soil in which it is unlikely to grow. The hope is that, in our case, it will melt our stony hearts to receive him.

The different kinds of soil are examples of how we respond to the Word. The Word and the seed remain the same, but the condition of the soil (our hearts and our response to the seed) determines how it can grow and take root in our lives. Our responsibility as Christians is to become good soil. We need to prepare our hearts. We need to turn away from sin, do away with obstacles that prevent us from bearing fruit, and throw ourselves at the mercy of God. To repent of our sins is the first concrete step towards turning our hearts into fertile soil.

Week #3 (16th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

Theme: We submit to the will of the Father when we are forbearing of the weaknesses of others.

Speaking once again in parables, Jesus talks of the evil that permeates the world. In these parables, he tells us that it is the work of the devil that tempts us to do wrong. But with our free will, we have the power to choose whom to follow – Satan or God.

But while the Lord allows some weaknesses to remain in us for our own good, the Lord also reminds us that his grace is enough for us to overcome our weaknesses. The Church has ordained the Sacraments and prayer to be the channels through which we can receive the grace allows us to resist evil.

Our Lord is also asking us to allow his grace to fill and transform us, that we may live in the will of God. God made everything good because God is good, and yet we find ourselves bogged down by the effects of original sin. This is why, in the parable of the mustard seed and that of the leaven in the dough, we are exhorted to accept that we are small, docile and unassuming, so that the life of Christ can grow within our hearts and we can be used instruments to lead others to Him.

Week #4 (17th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

Theme: We submit to the will of the Father when we seek

His Kingdom above all else.

For us to seek His Kingdom above all else requires a life guided by godly-wisdom, because to make a choice between worldly treasures, or our share in the life and love of God will require grace and the operation of divine wisdom in our persons.

The parable in this Gospel passage gives us divine wisdom that allows us to know and value the ways of God. It teaches us that what God is offering is of infinitely greater value than what this world can offer.

It is a paradox that while God grants us the privilege to be called children of light, we continue to cling to the darkness of prioritizing unnecessary earthly possessions. To make the right choice, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to grant us a measure of the wisdom of Solomon, whose heart was not set on his earthly riches. In fact, the Holy Spirit is simply waiting for us to ask, and he will empower us to dispose of all our baggage in order to receive him more fully in our hearts.

Week #5 (18th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

Theme: We submit to the will of the Father when we share the love of Christ.

For the past several weeks, we have read and meditated on the word of God as seed, and our hearts as soil. The readings today now lead us to ponder on the presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist.

The multiplication of the loaves and fish symbolizes the love and care of God for us. The readings clearly show that God provides what we need. Jesus came to satisfy our human hunger for food and for spiritual nourishment by providing, not only bread to satisfy physical hunger, but his word in Scripture and the Eucharist to satisfy the deeper hunger of the human soul for God.

This miracle of the multiplication of loaves and fish also shows that in asking his disciples to distribute the food to the people, Jesus is working through them – and through us – by giving us the opportunity to use our own efforts, while he supplies the grace needed to get the job done.

Jesus actually comes to fill our hearts with his own life. In the Eucharist, he gives himself to us as spiritual food to nourish us in our earthly journey. All that we need to do, especially as a community of disciples, is for us to open our hearts to his purifying love to sustain us in our struggles and help transforms us into his own image and likeness. # # #

 

 

 

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