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We regret to inform you that today's #KeepTheFaith mass will be delayed due to internet connectivity issues on our end. Rest assured, we are working to getting the stream up as soon as possible.

Thank you for your understanding.

2 years ago | [YT] | 18

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Homily Delivered by Rev. Fr. Jordan Orbe, SJ
March 21, 2023

Trusting in Mercy

As a priest, I have long realized that making space for the pain of people is part of the calling. But to be honest, there are times when I too struggle with how to respond to people who have been suffering for a long time. And immediately exhorting them to trust, to let go and let God, can sound hollow and dismissive. In our Gospel reading, we encounter a man who had been paralyzed for 38 years, lying by the pool of Bethesda, a Hebrew word that means house of mercy or house of grace. The pool is said to be miraculous, and when it is supposedly stirred by the angel, the person who goes into the pool will be healed. We can almost hear the despair and hopelessness in the man’s voice when he answers Jesus. Being crippled, there is no way that he could bring himself to the pool. It is possible that he may have questioned God’s mercy and doubted whether he would ever be healed. Likewise, in our own lives, when we experience great pain, it can be challenging to trust in God's mercy. God’s grace may seem so out of reach. We may question why God would allow us to experience such pain or we may feel abandoned by God when we need him the most. In those moments, it is important to remember that even when we cannot see or understand God's plan, we are still in his house of grace, and his mercy is still present and available to us.

In the vision of Ezekiel, we see an image of a river flowing out from the temple, bringing life and healing to everything it touches. The river starts as a trickle, ankle-deep, but as it flows out, it grows deeper and wider until it becomes a mighty river, impossible to cross. It is a vision of God’s power and mercy that is not limited or constrained, but rather overflows in abundance, healing and restoring all that is broken. However, we must realize that the healing and restoring that it offers may be different from what we have in our minds. Many times, what blocks us from seeing or recognizing God’s mercy in action is our expectation of how God should be. The pharisees in the Gospel today were blinded by their own concept of holiness and godliness, confining it to the limit of the law. In so doing, they miss out on the very real experience of God’s mercy in their midst.

Perhaps it is good to reflect on what blocks us today from fully seeing and trusting in God’s mercy in our lives. It could be our expectations that God should make all our pain disappear like magic. Sometimes, that is how it goes. Many times, it is not. God’s promise of mercy does not guarantee exemption from pain. What he does assure us is that he will be with us through our pain, to sustain us. Sometimes, we are blinded by our sense of unworthiness. Our readings remind us that no matter how great our suffering, God's mercy is greater. We may feel overwhelmed and broken by the challenges we face in life, but God's healing power is more powerful than any pain or guilt we might experience. We can trust that God's mercy is always available to us, no matter how unworthy or hopeless we may feel.

As we continue our Lenten journey, let us not be afraid to bring our doubts and questions to God. Let us be honest about our struggles to trust in his mercy and ask him to help us see his presence amid our pain. Let us also remember to be channels of comfort and healing to those around us who may be struggling to trust in God's mercy amidst their own suffering. May God's overflowing mercy fill our hearts and give us the strength to trust in him, even in the midst of our pain and suffering. Amen.

#KeepTheFaith #DailyMass #Jesuits #KTFHomilies

2 years ago | [YT] | 13

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Homily Delivered by Fr. Joey Cruz, SJ
6 Mar 23, Monday of the Second Week of Lent

It has been four years since a woman’s husband abandoned the family, but sadness and befuddlement still bring her down. The Gospel this morning tells her to forgive. It is a big ask. Friends counsel her to move on; urge her to allow fresh aspirations and responsibilities to shape life. She says she is now slowly discovering that forgiveness is somehow curative – capable of releasing her from being weighed down by the past. With courage, she does try to live by that truth, but there are times still when without much warning the heart aches.

The Gospel invites us to be merciful and forgiving. How might we respond? There are no clear answers. We might begin perhaps by recalling how we have been forgiven. In 2013, shortly after being named pope, Francis was asked by a reporter: “Who is Jorge Mario Bergolio?” Francis stared long at the interviewer. In the silence, the interviewer began to feel uneasy, unsure whether the question may have been inappropriate to ask. Francis eventually spoke: (quote) “I do not know what might be the most fitting description.... I am a sinner. This is a most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner. I am a sinner whom the Lord has looked upon.” (close quote). It is difficult to forgive, but even more difficult it seems to own up to our need for forgiveness. At this Mass, we ask for the grace to know keenly that the fabric of our lives is woven with the thread of God’s forgiveness. On realizing that forgiveness is tirelessly in pursuit, we shall by then be only a quarter of an inch away from being ready in turn to forgive.

When Alexander Solzhenitsyn was incarcerated in a Russian gulag, he saw prisoners bludgeoned and deprived. He felt that evil had enveloped the world and imprinted itself on everything, including his own heart. He obsessed on taking revenge. At some point, however, he paused and said to himself: “If only it were all so simple. If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through every human heart.” Once Solzhenitsyn recognized that darkness lurked in his own heart, it occurred to him that other hearts were likewise beset with inner demons and that these like his yearned for calm and wholeness.

The call for us to be perfect might not exactly be a call to be perfect as God is perfect, but to live our lives in witness to his perfection - to live in a manner that speaks of the God who sent his only son to share our humanity, so that our sorrows and pain do not discourage us from yearning for a heaven that abounds in mercy and forgiveness.

It is hard to fathom the why of forgiveness. But by listening intently to God’s word today, may we feel the tightness of his embrace that speaks of his deep affection.

#KeepTheFaith #DailyMass #Jesuits #KTFHomilies

2 years ago | [YT] | 27

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Homily delivered by Rev. Fr. Mamert B. Mañus, SJ
31 January 2023
Memorial of St. John Bosco



For this morning’s sharing, let us focus our reflection on the line “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” In most contexts, this is really good advice. But if we put ourselves in the shoes of Jairus, whose daughter had just died, it simply doesn’t make sense. Imagine if you were in his shoes, and someone you loved had just died?

When I look at my life up until this point, I can think of so many instances when I have been afraid. Nakakahiya mang aminin, it was not faith that immediately came to mind in those moments.

I don’t even have to look much further back. In this pandemic, for instance, I remember my fear building up from the time of the first lockdown, and in the weeks that followed, when thousands upon thousands were dying from Covid. There was so much we didn’t know, and so we came up with all sorts of health and safety protocols, barricaded ourselves in our attempt to keep the virus at bay, and in our great desire to protect the most vulnerable in our families and communities.

Imagine how my fear quadrupled many times over, when my first assignment after ordination was to be chaplain at the Philippine General Hospital or PGH, our country’s main Covid referral hospital. It was in PGH where the most serious, the most dire cases of illnesses complicated by Covid were brought. It remains the same today, with its Department of Emergency Medicine always running at 150% capacity or higher.

Barely ten days after my arrival in PGH, I got my orientation on the proper donning of level 4 PPEs, and because of PPE supply problems, diretso na ang sabak sa Covid Ward rounds after the orientation. I tell you, I had just sealed the very last tape on my suit for added protection, when I started hyperventilating inside. My goggles fogged up, parang zero visibility sa Baguio kapag nag-fog, pero ang kaibahan was the burning sensation inside the suit from my own body heat. At that point, I must admit that my fears reached near-paralyzing levels.

I didn’t exactly hear Jesus saying “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” But I heard my partner Fr Lito telling me “relax, take deep breaths, ok lang yan.” Soon after, a small streak of sweat came dripping down my goggles, giving me that one small speck of clearing from which I could look through one eye. And immediately, I saw the list of 12 patients that I had to anoint, and all I could think of was their great need for the sacrament of healing. This was what I was there for; this was what my priesthood meant at that moment.

Nowadays, I have a different mission at hand. I don’t face life and death situations like I did in PGH. Nevertheless, on any given day, moments of fear and anxiety are frequent enough. I’m sure we are all faced with the same as well. So perhaps let us allow the words of Jesus as he spoke them to Jairus, to echo in our hearts today: “Do not be afraid; just have faith.”
”

2 years ago | [YT] | 18

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Homily delivered by Rev. Fr. Gabby Lamug Nanawa, SJ
28 January 2023
Memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas


Jesus says in our gospel today, that no one is to be called rabbi or teacher or
father. Quite easily, this has been understood literally and misinterpreted to mean
that it is against God’s will to refer to even those who have raised us, educated us,
and cared for us as rabbi or teacher or father. In truth, there is nothing sinful about
these words and surely these terms are not evil in themselves.

A more meaningful interpretation of Jesus’s words is that no one can really be a
teacher or a rabbi in the sense that one can create one’s own laws and principles
of what is true and good in the world. Whatever truth or goodness that we impart
on others is not really of our own making. Rather, all that is true and good and
beautiful come from God. We pass on that which we have received; it is not our
own. There is nothing good that we can give to others that did not come first from
God. Thus, Jesus says, we have only one Father, the one in heaven, and only one
teacher, Christ the Messiah.

Furthermore, there is a danger that when we get used to calling ourselves rabbi or
teacher, we might be lulled to believe that we have achieved something great on
our own, that our nature had somehow become superior, that we now deserve a
higher level of authority and dominance over the others. Thus, Jesus’s words today
cautions us that we should not find comfort and power in honorific titles. Rather,
Jesus reminds us that we are always his disciples, forever called to God’s service.
We remember Jesus on his knees, washing the feet of his disciples, prompting all
of them, all of us, to do as he did, to serve God and God’s people. Service, not our
titles, is what honors us. We are closest to God when we are serving others.

Today is the memorial of St Thomas Aquinas, priest and doctor. Having been given
the title Doctor of the Church, together with 36 other saints such as Sts Ambrose,
Augustine, and Teresa of Avila, perhaps we may ask, what truths from God did St
Thomas teach, and what service did he provide the Church? St Thomas lived for
49 years and was canonized 49 years after his death. But during the canonization
process, the devil’s advocate objected that there had been no record of miracles
attributed to St Thomas. In response, one of the cardinals replied, “there are as
many miracles in his life as articles he had written.” In his short life of 49 years, St
Thomas had been a prolific teacher and writer, producing philosophical and
theological works that clarified ambiguous ways of understanding, refuted heretical
teachings, and employed Aristotelian principles to give solid grounding to Catholic
theological truths. In a way, it was a war against fake news and disinformation. And
ever since his death, this has been his continuing service to the Church.

One brief example of how the teachings of St Thomas can be applied to today’s
concern is about relational ecology. In general, us humans have become more and
more alienated from creation. We have assumed a power upon ourselves that we
understand gives us the rightful authority to do with nature as we please. However,
creatively drawing from the works of St Thomas, since we and all other creatures
are not the true causes of our own existence, then there must be a Primary Cause,
God, who actively brings and holds everything in being. Thus, everything is bound
by a common dependence on God, everything has a uniqueness that reflects an
image of God. Our interdependence with others humbles us and makes a
correction on how we see the world. This and many other teachings of St Thomas
from the 13th century can shed light and provide clarity for the confusing issues
that we face today.

In 1273, a year before his death, St Thomas received a great mystical experience
while he was celebrating the Holy Eucharist. From that time on, he stopped all his
teaching and writing. His great work the Summa Theologica would remain
unfinished. When asked by his assistant what had happened, he replied, “all that I
have written seems just like straw to me.” At the end of his life, St Thomas
experienced a profound unity with God’s heart that made all his insightful writings
pale in comparison.

In the end, all of us will have our own titles of father or doctor, mother or professor,
ma’am or sir. But what matters most is that we try to convey God’s goodness and
truth and not our own distortions, letting our generous service to God, through
others and creation, be what silently honors us. And after doing all that we can in
this life, we may receive the grace that we too, like St Thomas, will find true joy in
the loving embrace of our one true Father

2 years ago | [YT] | 14

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Homily delivered by Very Rev. Fr. Primitivo Viray, SJ
25 January 2023
Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul

Dear friends, can you recall experiences in your life that you were so sure in what you believed in and could not be convinced to do otherwise? Some years ago, I found myself in such a situation and fully convinced that what I was doing was okay. However, someone gave me feedback about my behavior which was really painful to hear. Moreover, I didn’t even like the person giving the feedback. But as you know truth can be painful. I prayed over the feedback and gradually came to accept that what I was doing was wrong. So, this person became an instrument of my becoming aware of my blindness and eventually healing. I started to slowly change my ways. But it was a slow conversion.

Today we celebrate the feast of the conversion of St. Paul. It appears a rather dramatic and immediately life-changing event for him. I think most of us may not have such dramatic conversions but slow ones like the one I shared with you. Saul, as he was called before his conversion, was a Pharisee, knowledgeable of the Jewish law and passionately devoted to his religious beliefs. He was totally committed to the point of persecuting the followers of Jesus Christ and having them even put to death. His religious beliefs blinded him to the reality of the truth about Jesus Christ and those who followed him. With this conversion experience, Paul begun to entrust his life more to the Lord rather than to his personally held religious beliefs.

It would take a dramatic divine intervention to show him his blindness and to help him to open his eyes to the truth of Jesus Christ. His conversion was assisted by the very people he wanted to persecute and kill. Ananias, devout follower of law and of Jesus, became the instrument of Paul’s recovery from his physical blindness and spiritual blindness. Can you think of people in your lives who acted as Ananias to bring you to become aware of your blindness and help you to see the truth?

Our Philippine nation and the world remain deeply divided and polarized by many things, many deeply held beliefs and loyalties. Even the Catholic Church, lay people and clergy, are deeply divided. Our celebration of the conversion of St. Paul gives us pause for thought about own beliefs and practices, it challenges us to listen to the Lord more, to listen to each other even to those with whom we differ. Truth invites and challenges us to break out of our silos, our echo chambers, even of our loyalties to individuals, family, organizations, and institutions. There is only one absolute in life and that is God. Thus, our loyalty can only be to the absolute truth that is God and to no other.

In 2018, at the height of the extrajudicial killings, we wanted to respond to the call of Bishop Ambo David to establish a mission station in the diocese of Kalookan where many of our sisters and brothers were being killed in the cause of the war on drugs. We, thus, scouted for places in Kalookan where we could send one of our Jesuit priests to reside there as our way of witnessing to the people that we were with them amid all the violence and killing.

I asked our former driver who was very much supportive of the war on drugs to accompany me to the urban poor communities in Kalookan. We were able to talk to people there and listen to their stories especially those whose families who had been orphaned due to the killing of their loved ones. As our driver was with me as I listened to the stories of the widowed wives and children, he also had the opportunity to listen to their many stories of supposedly incidents of drug addicts “na nanlaban sa police.” We went to different places trying to select a possible mission site and as we went around, we heard even more stories of supposedly “nanlaban na mga addict, young boys and older men and even women” who were brutally killed.

To cut the story short, after several weeks of doing this, I asked our former driver what his experience was listening to these stories. He told me sadly, “Bakit naman nila pinapatay ang mga mahihirap, kung nagkasala man, dapat ipakulong at wag patayin.” Listening to the stories of those orphaned by the war on drugs, his eyes were slowly opened to the brutal reality of the conduct of this war on the poor. The poor widows and orphaned children would be the instrument for his coming to the truth about the war on drugs. They would be his Ananias for opening his eyes to the truth.

At present, these widows and orphaned children continue to wait from the present administration to render justice to them. They struggle to live their lives and hope and pray for a speedy rendering of justice. While the current national government does not explicitly pursue a kill, kill, kill policy, the poor victims of these injustices do not hear of any pro-active statements and efforts to address these injustices done to them by the previous administration.

In the famous book of Moises Naim entitled, “The Revenge of Power”, he argues that the world finds itself now in a very difficult struggle to hold on to democracy as a way of carrying out our social, economic, and political lives. He frames the problem in terms of 3 Ps, namely populism, polarization, and post truth. And these three are leveraged by autocratic leaders through the power of the internet and social media through disinformation and fake news.

Thus, the challenge to bring truth and the Good News becomes even more daunting for us Christians. But we need to continue the struggle and become equally creative in using social media and the internet and our collective organizations to hold the line on democracy and truth. As Christians, live in hope, a defiant but loving hope grounded in the love of God as shown by the power of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Let me end with these beautiful lyrics from the song, “Matibay” by Vonn De Guzman. You can find this song in Youtube. I highly recommend it.

Kung nalulungkot at nag-iisa
Kung tiwala sa mundo’y maglaho na
Ay huwag mag-alala ako’y nandito na
Iyong makakasama
sa luha at saya

Habang buhay
pinapangako ko
Matibay na pag-ibig
na para lang sa iyo
Lumipas man ang sandaang taon
Pangakong pagsinta pa rin
Sa puso mo’y ibubulong

Koro: Matibay na pag-ibig
Hindi matitiklop
ng init at lamig
Parang dagat
sa lawak at lalim
Na yakap ang daigdig
Matibay na pag-ibig

Matibay ang pag-ibig ng Diyos kahit sa gitna ng lahat ng ating pinagdaraan na personal pagsubok at sama-samang pagdurusa ng bayang Pilipinas. Hindi ito matitiklop ng init o lamig. Matibay ang pag-ibig ng Diyos

2 years ago | [YT] | 14

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"BEING FACILITATORS OF GRACE"
A homily delivered by Rev. Fr. Jordan Orbe, SJ
16 January 2023
Monday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

Speaking as a priest, nothing shames me and breaks my heart more than hearing stories of people who experience harshness, rudeness, and even cruelty from other priests. I remember a woman who recounted to me how she desperately needed the grace of reconciliation but the priest refused to see her and even scolded her simply for wearing a sleeveless blouse in church. Another person shared how he felt hopeless that God would ever forgive him after hearing the harsh words from a priest. It is painful to hear from folks who feel harshly judged by their pastors, that instead of being brought closer to God, they are turned away. This is in stark contrast to what we hear today from the letter to the Hebrews: “Every high priest is taken from among men and made their representative before God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring, for he himself is beset by weakness and so, for this reason, must make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people.”

As priests, we are meant to be channels, but frequently, as Pope Francis said, “we act as arbiters of grace rather than its facilitators.” We prevent others from experiencing God’s grace through our harsh judgments, our narrowmindedness and hardness of heart. Of course, priests are human beings too, imperfect and flawed. Which is all the more reason we need to be patient and compassionate. I have always believed that the vocation to the priesthood is a vocation to be tender. Tender in the sense of being gentle, and also tend-er, one who tends to others, especially the suffering and vulnerable, and be the channels of God’s grace for them.

It is important to note that this vocation to the priesthood is not just for the ordained clergy. All of the baptized participate in the priesthood of Christ. All are called to be facilitators of grace to one another. Whenever the faithful offer prayers for one another, or offer their work and sacrifices to God, or lead others closer to God through their words and actions, they are in keeping with this baptismal priesthood. It is unfortunate then when lay Catholics themselves act as arbiters of grace instead of facilitators, when lay Catholics are so quick to cast judgment on their fellow men and women. Now with social media and the digital age, there are so many “faithful Christians” who use their platforms to attack and bully others in the name of religion. Many of them disparage their fellow Catholics for matters of liturgical practice. It is ironic that they may be very particular when it comes to rubrics at mass, but they forget, as Jesus said, about the “weightier matters of the law.”

In our Gospel today, Jesus uses the imagery of new wine poured into fresh wineskins. This is his vision of the radical reorientation of our relationship with God. Jesus was very critical of the religious leaders of his time who tried to box in the movement of grace by limiting religion to the legalistic observance of rules. This is religion that is based on fear, rather than faith. In a fear-based religion, we see God as a one-false-move kind of god, who is only waiting for us to fail so he can condemn us. But the new wine that Jesus is inviting us to experience sees God not as petty or cruel, but tender, with a heart that is open and spacious. Let us pray then for the grace to become fresh wineskins, to allow this new wine to enter us and transform us. May we deepen our love for our tender God, who also calls us to be channels of his tender grace for a world that is filled with pain and suffering.

#KeepTheFaith #DailyMass #OnlineMass #Homilies #Jesuits

2 years ago (edited) | [YT] | 7

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Homily delivered by Rev. Fr. Jose Ramon Villarin, SJ
18 December 2022,
Fourth Sunday of Advent

Not a single word of his is mentioned in the Gospels. Instead we learn of
angels speaking to Joseph in his sleep. He only comes in at the beginning
and fades out sometime we know not when.
Quietly. That is the adverb of his motion in life. Even in the Gospel today,
when he learns that Mary is with child, he decides to fade out of Mary
quietly so as not to shame her publicly.
Quietly too, upon awakening, he does as the angel tells him. Quietly he
takes Mary to his home.

Today we will desire to be hushed by mystery, as Joseph was. Of course, we
will allow all kinds of sound and merriment to adorn the season, but we will
also permit some restful quiet in the wake of every celebration. We will
pause, turn down the dial, and move into decrescendo. We will hush
ourselves even if only for an interlude amid the rush of Christmas.
We will ask Joseph to help bring us to some quiet. Of all persons in our
faith, he knows how important quiet is for sleep and dreams and action.
Quiet is a prelude to sleep and dreams and action.
First, sleep. The image of San Jose Dormido, St Joseph sleeping, invites us
to reflect on how we rest, on what helps us to rest, and on how we retire
from the fullness of the day. Joseph reclining also makes us wonder about
what keeps us restless and standing.

Some of us keep the sound on until we are lulled to sleep. Some read. Or
pray. Or drink or medicate. Whatever our devices, we can only prepare and
dispose ourselves to sleep. We do not really know how or when sleep
descends. It is a gift. While we are awake, we are in control or so we'd like to
believe. When we sleep, we let go.

To come to the quiet of San Jose Dormido is to learn to let go. When I was
young, I was proud to pull all kinds of all-nighters. Now that I am old, I take
to heart what the poster says: Sleep in peace; God is awake.
Second, dreams. Some dreams are nightmares, some an incoherent mix of
storylines that hardly make sense. They say dreams are the mind's way of
housekeeping and throwing the gunk out, of rebooting itself. Or that
dreams are expressions somehow of repressed longings and subconscious
desires.

Whatever the theories, in faith, we hold that God is also with us while we
are sleeping. God is near not just in our waking moments. God is present to
us whether or not we are present to him. God is present to us even when
we are not present to ourselves. Case in point: Joseph, to whom God spoke
in his dreams.

And so quietly, ala Joseph, we will rest to dream and let God speak. We will
let God speak to us of his dreams and longings for us. From the very words
and deeds of Christ our Lord, we realize that God's dreams of redemption
and wholeness for us are our deepest and most urgent dreams as well.
Third and last, action. The quiet of sleep and dreams restores us. It
reenergizes us to commit our lives to God's work of deliverance in the
world. The silence of Joseph is not weakness. In our Gospel today, his
silence reverences Mary and spares her the hate of humiliation. His silence
brings Mary home.

Silence however is not always this strong. It can also signify inaction or
indifference. Silence can be a refuge for the timid or afraid. Quiet can be an
artifice used by the unscrupulous in the name of order. It can deaden us
into submission and disengagement. Quiet can mean complicity in the
works of darkness in the world.

We can learn from Joseph's silence. Quietly he gets up from his sleep. He
acts on his dream that is God's dream for Mary and the Child. It is just the
first of three dreams that all come true because he gets up to protect the
vulnerable in his care. All throughout, there is only quiet resolve and
determined action from the man, whose faith in God must have been deep
and strong.

Quietly, Joseph comes in at the beginning and fades out at some point we
know not when. Only for an interlude, not even a single word.

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Homily delivered by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Alfonso, SJ
17 December 2022
Saturday of the Third Week of Advent



“This house is so full of people it makes me sick. When I grow up and get married, I'm living alone.” That’s the famous line of Kevin McCallister in our favorite Christmas movie of all time, Home Alone. Kevin McCallister is of course played by the loveable Macaulay Culkin. In the story, Kevin is the youngest of five children and hates his family because he is always bullied around by his older siblings and the parents seem to ignore him as well. And the height of that neglect is that, as we know, the family travels overseas for the holidays but leaves behind Kevin HOME ALONE in the US. Spoiler alert, in the end, Kevin survives the holidays and even protects their home from burglary. More importantly, the chaotic McCallister family reconciles as they realize that Christmas is all about family. One moving scene is when Kevin prays: “Will you please tell Santa that instead of presents this year, I just want my family back. No toys. Nothing but Peter, Kate, Buzz, Megan, Linnie, and Jeff. And my aunt and my cousins. And if he has time, my Uncle Frank. Okay?”

I recall this beloved movie because our Gospel today features the Family tree of Jesus Christ, what is technically called the Genealogy. And at first glance, we can already see how chaotic this family of our Lord, perhaps more chaotic than Kevin’s family. There you have Abraham who tried to sell his Sarah twice to a princes or kings, King David who committed murder so he could have the woman he lusted after, Judah and his brothers who sold the young Joseph, and many more. One would expect a more decent family tree for the Messiah but what we find is a family of cheaters, killers, prostitutes and so on and so forth. This then begs the question: why did God choose this family line to be born into? And the answer of course as Theologians tell us is clear. First, realistically, there is no such thing as a perfect bloodline; even the so-called Royal Family or families have skeletons in their closets. The family tree of Jesus thus looks Family or familiar to us. It mirrors our own chaotic families, it represents the whole of humanity. Secondly, which is the more theological point, the sovereignty, freedom, power, and love of God is greatly manifested in his selection of this so-called chosen people or family. The implication is that as God embraces this particular bloodline, he welcomes ALL in his family, sinners and saints alike. Indeed, he desires for everyone to be saved. Also, by producing a savior from this flawed family tree, God raises our dignity, and proves not only that God writes straight with crooked lines but as Paul says, where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. Finally, that Jesus enters into a historical family implies that the locus of our salvation is the family. The savior could have saved us in any other way but the fact that he saves us by becoming part of the broken human family must mean that God recognizes that our families are sinful and broken. In fact, oftentimes, our deepest wounds and hurts come from the Family, and so it is where healing and salvation must take place.

For all these reasons then, it is no accident that Christmas, as the McCalister realize, and as we say all the time, is all about family. As we gather as families this Christmastime, let us then pray for more love, joy, understanding, healing, forgiveness in our families. Let us pray that Jesus embrace, protect, and save our families. AMEN.

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Homily delivered by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Alfonso, SJ
28 November 2022
Monday of the First Week of Adven

Mutationes. That’s what we Jesuits call this odd tradition or practice in our seminary. We can only stay in a room for one semester. At the end of the sem, we move out and transfer to another room. It is a training in detachment, even from the roof on one’s head. But more than that, it trains us to be on the go always; we are supposed to be missionaries, and so we are always on the move.

I share this story in anticipation of the very busy month ahead of us all with the start of Advent. For sure, we will be moving around a lot—parties, reunions—and some of us will also be traveling back to our home provinces or to your favorite holiday getaways or back to our country in the case of our OFW kababayans. And as we are seeing as early now, after two and a half years of being cooped up in our homes during the pandemic, many of us are really raring to go. Movement. Whether it’s moving on, moving back or moving forward. That indeed seems to be the spirit of the season. There is surely a lot of movement, of going to and fro, in the Christmas story that slowly unfolds in our liturgy during advent and Christmas. The angel goes to Mary, Mary hurries to Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem so Joseph can be enlisted in the imperial census, etcetera. Even the first readings from the Old testament have had the same refrain these past days: “Come, let us climb the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob that he may instruct us in his ways.” That’s from yesterday’s first reading. But our favorite of course is from Isaiah: “The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shone.” And our Psalm this past week resonates with this theme of moving, walking, going: “Let us go to the House of the Lord.”

But we need to clarify something here. As the great Denzel Washington would say, “do not equate movement with progress.” We may be bustling and hustling no end this season, but that may all be physical exertion which typically leads to exhaustion, then to holiday blues. The movement in our advent scriptural readings is not merely physical, although there is that, but more importantly the movement there is internal, spiritual. It involves the mind and the heart rather than the feet. The Gospel today for example clearly points that out. The centurion asks Jesus to heal his sick servant but he tells Jesus that he doesn’t have to go to his house: “Just say the word and my servant will be healed.” Jesus is moved internally by the centurion’s faith and lifts him up above all the Jews. The advent movement we desire then is internal, involving a mutationes or conversion of our hearts and our minds. Symbolically, in our biblical stories whether in the old or new testament, this simply meant that the movement is either towards the mountain of Zion or Bethlehem. Let me end then with the story of the first Belen which as we know was put up by St Francis of Assisi in Greccio, Italy in 1223. But what inspired Francis to stage this now favorite Christmas tradition? It is said that in his pilgrimage to Israel, our saint felt deeply the presence of the baby Jesus in Bethlehem and so upon his return to Italy, he created the first Belen. Indeed his journey to the home of our Lord moved him to share the image of that home to the whole world. My dear friends, like St Francis then, and our biblical heroes this advent, may all our movements this time of the year lead us back home to Bethlehem, to the baby in the manger. AMEN.

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