Minutes of Hope

The Gospel this Sunday points us back to the story of the Rich Young Man   (the Gospel reading in the previous Sundays.)  Jesus was trying to teach with the incidence of the rich young man who approached him and asked what he needed to do to inherit eternal life. He told him to sell all he had, give to the poor and come and follow him. Unfortunately, the young man could not do it because “he had great possessions.”   (Matthew 19:16-22) The rich young man could afford to give a lot – and would probably have been doing that – but the Lord could look in and know that in his heart; he hadn’t surrendered everything yet. And this leads us to the story of the poor widow who has given her all. Jesus was more impressed by the widow’s small offering than the generosity that the rich brought because he knew that in her heart, she had surrendered all already. Beyond her duty, without possibility of people’s praises, without pressure of eyes watching, she laid down a sacrifice that co...

How many times have we grumbled before God? Too many times, I guess. We grumbled about a difficult situation. We complain about the heartaches over a lover, angry and frustrated about a betrayal and seemingly unfair response from someone we care and expect to return our good actions.    This Sunday’s readings are focused on Jesus as the Bread of life where we are reminded of God’s gift of Himself as our daily food.   The first reading from the Book of Exodus, we heard about the grumbling Israelites. They mocked and complained about their situation. Moses promised them a land of freedom from Egyptians, a land of milk and honey. But along the way, through the dessert, the Israelites felt betrayed, abandoned. They began to feel hungry, in need of food. And the promise seemed forgotten. They are now in despair of food. And so, they asked, why? Why all the sudden change? Where is God leading them? When will God come to their rescue?    Of course, we read from the rea...

Last Sunday, we heard about Jesus presenting Himself as the bread of life - the ONE who can fill the hunger and thirst of the people. Today’s gospel is almost similar to last Sunday’s but this time I want to change focus on the challenge of being   the   provider for others instead of the one   being   provided.   The question is: How can we be the provider of others’ needs?    It is always a challenge to be others-centered and look after the needs of others first before working on our priorities. In fact, in many instances, we try to save first for ourselves before we go out and address the requests and needs of other people. For, in reality, we are humans trained to support and preserve our own.    While we were in our mother’s womb, we were trained and introduced to personal survival and protection. And as we grew, we learned and taught how to take care of ourselves by eating good food, long hours of sleep, etc. It is our designed nature. ...

We need a break even for a short period of time to relax. A vacation or a time away helps us to manage stress better. If we are constantly building up stress without ever finding the time and outlet to relax, it can turn into chronic stress and eventually burnout. Taking a break can help us to reduce and prevent stress. But, where do we go?   Throughout our lives, we can be assured that many times we will encounter a lot of challenges. It may come in the form of a tragic experience, a deep wound inflicted by the people we love, the effects of our own sin or some other painful experience.    We live in a world influenced by many means and ways that provide temporary rest to our tired selves and distort the attention we should give to our spiritual life and sanity. So, amidst the never-ending challenges that we wrestle and face every day that may seem insurmountable and would make us give up let us look and examine ourselves, where do we normally go?   Considering...

“That’s unacceptable! You cannot do that since that is not our custom and tradition! You have to observe what we normally do!” These words may seem familiar to many of us when we deal with people doing the same things for a long time. People would insist on doing the same thing since it’s the NORMAL, USUAL, ORDINARY thing people do.   A new teaching. This is what the Pharisees and the leaders of the law during the time of Jesus were so concerned about – Jesus teaching a new way of thinking, a new way of doing things opposite to what is the mainstream teaching and rule.   When people are obsessed with the familiar and popular, people tend to neglect the possibility of looking at other perspectives. At times, even promoting violence in the protection of one’s own beliefs, manipulating other people to subject themselves to their ways.    But Jesus knew that something was wrong. He knew that some things were meant to be changed, and challenged - and HE confronted them ag...