Category: Fr. Robert Manansala

March 8/9, 2014
Dasmarinas Village/Santuario de San Antonio/North Forbes

A story is told about a driver who parked his car in a no-parking area and attached the following message to the windshield: “I have circled this block twenty times. I cannot find an available parking space. I have an urgent appointment to keep. The Lord Jesus taught, ‘Forgive us our trespasses.’’

When the driver of the car returned, he saw this reply attached to his own note. “I am a police officer. I have circled this block twenty years. If I don’t give you a ticket, I will not be doing my job and I can lose it. The Lord Jesus also taught, ‘Lead us not into temptation.’”

The word temptation comes from the Latin word temptare, which means “to handle, test, or try.” Although temptation is an inducement to sin, to disobey God and his precepts and to betray our identity and dignity as God’s children, it is also a time of testing and trial. The Protestant evangelist Rick Warren says, “Temptation simply provides the choice… Every time you choose to do good instead of sin, you are growing in the character of Christ.” Jesus is tested in the desert by the Devil but he chooses to be on the side of God and his will and, in the process, he comes out victorious. He shows himself a real Son of God, truly obedient to the will and ways of the Father.

To better appreciate the import of the Temptation of Jesus, we need to take note of three important considerations:

First, the temptation of Jesus is preceded by his baptism in the River Jordan by John the Baptist. In the said baptism, the theme of Jesus as the “Son of God” is very prominent. The voice of he Father is heard, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased” (Mt. 3:17). The heavenly Father reveals that Jesus is the Son of God and it is precisely this divine identity as God’s beloved Son that is under attack by Satan. Satan introduces two of his tests or temptations with the phrase “If you are the Son of God…”

Indeed, the fundamental temptation of Jesus, on which the three particular temptations are anchored, has something to do with his divine identity. The Devil is daring him to prove his divine identity as the Son of God. He wants him to compromise his filial trust in the Father. He is challenging his identity as beloved Son and inducing him to doubt it and to put his trust in other things such pleasure, power, and prestige instead of reaffirming his trust in his heavenly Father and his will for him. The Devil wants him to take a different route instead of keeping steady on the way of the cross that the Father has designed for him in bringing about the Kingdom of God and for the salvation of humanity.

Is this not also the fundamental temptation that we all experience in life? When we are tempted, it is a test of who God is really for us and who we are before God. In the face of temptations, do I continue to cling to God and to his ways? Do I remain faithful to his will and to his teachings? Will I try to be a true child of God and of the light or will I allow myself to be a child of Satan, of darkness and of this world? Will I continue to put my trust in God and in his providential care for me or do I change allegiance by putting my trust in pleasure, wealth, power, and prestige and in anything that is not of God or that leads me away from God and his will?

Second, about a hundred years before Jesus began his ministry of proclaiming the Kingdom of God, the Roman Empire had conquered Palestine and annexed it as a Roman colony. Understandably, the Jewish people, who considered themselves the God’s Chosen people, resented their subjugation to the foreign and pagan Roman Empire. Before the coming of Jesus, the environment became saturated with expectations for a Messiah from the line of David who would take on a politico-military role to liberate the people from the yoke of the Roman Empire. What the people had been expecting was a type of temporal, worldly and political messianism that would exhibit might and power.

The different temptations offered by Satan are a trap leading to this type of messanism. The Devil does not only challenge the identity of Jesus; he also induces him to accept the worldly concept of messianism and not the type of messianism that is according to the plan of the Father. He is challenging him to take things into his hands and do things according to the values of the world and according to his deceitful dictations. But the messianic way of the Father is not a temporal, worldly, political and even violent messianic way; the way of the Messiah, as designed by God, is the way of the cross, of love, peace, service and humility. We see this very clearly in Jesus’ entrance to Jerusalem commemorated on Palm Sunday. Jesus comes on a humble donkey and not on a horse, a symbol of power, might, wealth and prestige. Jesus bluntly rejects the false enticements of the Devil and sticks to the way of the heavenly Father.

In this world, in order to reach whatever goals and aspirations that we have set for ourselves, for our families, inner circles and companies, we can be tempted to take things our way and according to the ways of the world at the expense of some fundamental spiritual, moral and gospel values. We can embrace immoral and illegal means in pursuit of power, riches and prestige and other things and values that can become mammons or idols. Our end goals, no matter how noble, do not justify illegal and immoral means. A true child of God, as the temptation incident reminds us, always seeks and pursues both God’s goals and ways in all things.

Finally, the Temptation of Jesus reminds us of the desert experience of Israel after their experience of slavery in Egypt and of the fall of Adam and Eve. On those 40 days in the desert, the Jewish people were also tested in many different ways. On one instance, for example, the people became hungry and were unwilling to trust in the providence of God (Ex 16 = Deut 8:2-3). While Israel of old succumbed to temptations, Jesus proves victorious in the face of temptations.

Much earlier in the Biblical account, Adam and Eve were also tempted. Like the Israel of old, they also succumbed to temptations and disobeyed God. But such is not the case with Jesus. Jesus is victorious over sin, temptations and death and has broken the cycle of sinfulness. Jesus as the New Adam and the New Israel is presented to us in the Temptation account as a model of fidelity to God and to his will.

The gospel incident also gives us some clues that enable Jesus to defeat the Devil and his machinations. Jesus is secure in his divine identity as the Son of God. He lives in close intimacy with and connection to his heavenly Father. It is only when we are truly grounded in God and in our identity as children of God that we are able to resist evil and temptations in this world. Our traditional theological terminology calls this a “state of grace.” When we are in a state of grace, when we are filled with God’s spirit and presence, we are stronger to say no to the evils and temptations of this world. Indeed, when our lives are directed more towards God, them we are able to turn more away from evil and temptations.

We can also see here the importance of prayer and fasting and other spiritual disciplines and of being grounded in the Word of God. Jesus has been praying hard and fasting in the desert when the Devil comes into the scene. Jesus is equipped with the necessary spiritual weapons to combat the enemy. Someone said, “Unless we have within us that which is above us, we shall soon yield to that which is about us.” Every Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, we are reminded of the spiritual weapons of prayer, fasting and almsgiving to help us grow in holiness and to combat the evil within and outside of us.

The Devil can also quote the Scriptures for evil designs and to make things appear to be good, noble and even holy and according to God’s will. Is this not the nature of evil and temptation? They usually appear to be good and enticing, hiding the destructions that they bring. But Jesus is truly steeped in the Word of God and can very well discern those that are from God from those that are not from God. In life, we also need this discerning spirit that is guided by the knowledge and the living out of the Word of God in order to see what is truly of God and embrace it and reject what is not of God.

Jesus is quick in resisting the Devil. Spiritual writers and saints tell us that we can never dilly-dally before Satan, his temptations and machinations. We can never negotiate with Satan and his ways. We must resist at once for we are stronger at the first moment of temptation. We need to be resolute in immediately dismissing the Evil One. Jesus is firm in his responses to the Devil and he dismisses him, “Get away, Satan.” And if we do not have the courage to dismiss Satan, we need to remove ourselves from the territory of the Devil, from evil and sinful occasions, and flee. The Desert Fathers have a simple but wise advice: “Pray and flee.”

In the Our Father we pray, “Lead us not into temptation.” As we pray to God to deliver us from evil and temptations, it is important that we also do not expose ourselves to temptations for we may fall. Arnold Glasow says, “Temptation usually comes in through a door that has been deliberately left open.” John Ruskin also says, “No one can be delivered from temptation unless he has finally determined to do the best he can to keep out of it.”

To end, someone said, “To pray against temptations, and yet rush into occasions, is to thrust your fingers into the fire, and then pray they may not be burned.”

May this Lenten Season be truly a desert experience for us, an experience of purification and transformation and of reaffirming our identity as beloved children of God whose sole allegiance is to God and to his will even in the midst of trials and temptations.

About Fr. Robert and his reflections

A story is told about some divers who discovered a 400 year-old sunken ship off the coast of Northern Ireland.

Among the treasures they found on the ship was a man’s wedding ring. When the divers cleaned it up, they noticed that it had an inscription on it. Etched on the wide band was a hand holding a heart. And under the etching were these words: “I have nothing more to give you.”

Of all the treasures found on that sunken ship, that ring and its beautiful inscription was what particularly touched the divers.

This story is often used when giving a wedding homily. But the inscription – “I have nothing more to give you” – could have been also placed on the cross of Jesus. Instead of the inscription, “Jesus, King of the Jews,” “I have nothing more to give” could have been a better inscription.

For on the cross, Jesus gave us everything he had. He gave us his life and his love. He gave us all that one person can possibly give to another. “No one greater love than this,” Jesus said, “to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” This is the kind of King we have – offering everything that he had for the love of us.

The Solemnity of Christ the King is not an easy celebration. The title Christ the King has connotations of power, prestige, wealth and pomp and these values do not reflect the life and mission of Jesus. Although Jesus, in the gospels, makes it clear that his kingdom is not an earthly kingdom or of this world, the symbols that we often use and the ways we celebrate this solemnity often manifest earthly and political kingdom. When we picture Christ the King, we usually use earthly paraphernalia: a golden crown, a gilded throne, an expensive royal robe. But Christ’s Kingdom is not an earthly or political kingdom; it is a kingdom of love, peace, justice, humility and reconciliation.

The imaging Jesus Christ as King is made even more difficult by the recent Typhoon Yolanda and the untold devastations that it has brought to lives and properties. If Jesus is the King of the Universe, of heaven and earth, why did he allow such suffering to visit millions of people in the south? How can Jesus, the King of kings, seem to be powerless in the face of natural calamities? How can we accept a King who seems to be powerless in the face of different forms of evil in the society and in the world?

To even compound the matter, the Christ the King that is presented in the gospel for this year’s solemnity is the Crucified King. The Jesuit priest Fr. Mark Link, in describing this kind of king, says: “He is a king who hangs from a dirty cross instead of sitting on a gilded throne. He is not like a king who did not come to be served but to serve and to lay down His life as a ransom for all. This is our king who gave up all He has and became obedient to death, even to death on a cross (Phil. 2). He is the model of all rulers and leaders both in the Church and in society as a whole. How different our world and Church would be if our leaders were to learn to look at Him and copy his example.”

In the gospel passage today, it is precisely on the cross and in the face of the threefold mockery by the people of the Crucified King, that Jesus showed God’s saving power. The Jewish leaders taunted Jesus: “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, the chosen one.” The soldiers retorted, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” Finally, one the criminals crucified with Jesus exclaimed, “Aren’t you the Messiah? Then save yourself and us.” Luke has shown us, by way of an irony, that it was the enemies of Jesus themselves who confessed the saving event of his dying on the cross.

In the dialogue between Jesus and the other criminal crucified with Jesus, Jesus’ innocence is first established. The criminal said, “We are only paying the price for what we’ve done, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Secondly, the dialogue highlights the saving effects of Jesus’ death. Jesus’ innocent dying on the cross had an effect of converting the criminal. And in the criminal’s request, “Remember me, when you enter upon your reign,” there is recognition of Jesus’s kingship that goes beyond this life and that has authority to grant eternal pardon and mercy.

On that very day, Jesus promised the repentant criminal “paradise.” In the literature of Judaism, paradise meant the realm reserved for the righteous dead. In the New Testament literature paradise referred to the realm of bliss in heaven, which was thought to have began with the inauguration of the messianic age by Jesus.

According to Luke, Jesus’s making a promise to the repentant criminal clearly shows that everything said of him was in fact true. Jesus can save. He is the Messiah. He is the chosen one and king of glory who can forgive sins, has conquered death and can grant entrance into eternal joy of paradise.

But this Jesus Christ the King is the Messiah who saves others by not saving himself. He is one who is resolutely committed to God’s will, which includes betrayal and death in the hands of men. Only in the shameful powerlessness of the cross can Jesus demonstrate that authority that ultimately saves, forgives and rehabilitates. It is on the cross that Jesus defines what sort of King he really us. The true king is one who gives his all until there is nothing more to give. The true king is one who suffers not only for us but also with us and in us.

Last Sunday, I said in my homily that what happened in the south was not God’s will, that it was more the historical results of man’s decisions and behaviors detrimental to the environment resulting to climate change plus nature’s imperfect and mysterious ways and designs. I also said that the image of Jesus I had in the face of the thousands of deaths and devastations in the south was that of a weeping Jesus. Jesus, out of love, wept over the death of his friend Lazarus and over the impending destruction of Jerusalem. In the same way, out of his love for the suffering, Jesus the Crucified King must have been weeping over the sufferings of our brothers and sisters in the south affected by the typhoon.

Can God really suffer and does God suffer when people suffer? Myron J. Taylor, following the insights of Jurgen Moltmann and Dierrich Bonhoeffer, says that because God cares—because God loves—He suffers… If God loves, then God suffers. To love is to be vulnerable—to be vulnerable means to be open to the hurts and risks that come with freedom.”

There was an old Scotsman who lost two sons in The First World and his heart was so broken that he quit going to church. He felt God had let him down. The minister of his town came by to visit and ask him why he was not in worship anymore. The old man said, “Where was God when my sons died?” The minister paused briefly, then looked up and kindly said, “Right where he was on the day his Son died, right down in the middle of it all.”

Where was God when typhoon Yolanda was hitting Tacloban and other affected places? Where is God in the aftermath of the typhoon? We must say by faith and on the basis of the Crucified Jesus: God has been right there in midst of it all – dying again with his people, suffering and suffering with his suffering people.

The theologian Jurgen Moltmann, in his powerful book The Crucified God, said: “When God becomes man in Jesus of Nazareth, he not only enters into the finitude of man, but in his death on the cross also enters into the situation of man’s godforsakenness. In Jesus he does not die the natural death of a finite being, but the violent death of the criminal on the cross, the death of complete abandonment by God. The suffering in the passion of Jesus is abandonment, rejection by God, his Father… He humbles himself and takes upon himself the eternal death of the godless and the godforsaken, so that all the godless and the godforsaken can experience communion with him.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote from prison to his friend Eberhard Bethge, nine months before his execution: “Only the suffering God can help.”

We have been witnessing, seeing and hearing stories of resilience, faith, solidarity and charity in the midst of great suffering brought about by the Typhoon. In all these, we experience a God who does not only suffer and suffer with and for us. We also experience God as light, consolation and hope.

One very touching picture I have seen coming from the south, from an evacuation center in Tacloban, is a picture of a little boy carrying a smaller boy with great difficulty. The two boys are not brothers. The older boy was protecting the younger boy for fear that he might get lost in the sea of thousands of people falling in line for relief goods. The younger boy must have been separated from his parents and family or, perhaps, he is the only surviving member of his family now. The older boy needed relief goods, but he could not just think of himself. He was also thinking of the welfare of the younger boy, perhaps even above his own needs. I dare to say the God’s goodness was reflected by the goodness of this boy in solidary with another suffering boy.

Again, Jurgen Moltmann says, “God weeps with us so that we may one day laugh with him.”

In April 1865, the slain body of President Abraham Lincoln lay in state for a few hours in Cleveland, Ohio. It was on its final journey from the nation’s capital to Springfield, Illinois.

In the long line of people filing by the body was a poor black woman and her little son. When the two reached the president’s body, the woman lifted up her little son and said in a hushed voice:

“Honey, take a long, long look. That man died for you.”

What that black mother said to her child can be said about Jesus by every mother of her child.

Pointing to the Body of Jesus on the crucifix, she can say: “Honey, take a long, long look. That man died for you.”

About Fr. Robert and his reflections

A Reflection for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
by Fr. Robert B. Manansala, OFM

The Trappist Monks, known for their strict observance of monastic life of silence, prayer, work and study used to greet one another with the greeting “Memento Mori.” “Memento mori” can be translated as “Remember death.” A translation that can have more impact is: “Remember that you will die.” In Pilipino, “Alalahanin mo, mamamatay ka rin.” This greeting is a reminder of one’s mortality and the need to live faithfully in this world. Life is short; live your life well.

The Knights of Columbus’ fraternal motto is even more explicit: “Tempus Fugit, Memento Mori,” “Time Flies, Remember Death.” According to John P. Martin, the Grand Knight of Council 14557, New Bedford, Massachusetts, “the Knights of Columbus are called to constantly reflect on the fact that we have only a short earthly existence in which to prove ourselves worthy of eternal life.” Martin traces this motto “Tempus Fugit, Mememto Mori” to the Knights of Columbus’ Founder Fr. Michael J. McGivney’s commitment to an immigrant parish consisting of hard working men and women – who died young. Fr. McGivney himself succumbed to death due to pneumonia at the age of 36.

I think this reminder is not only for the Trappists and the Knights of Columbus; it is for all of us.

“Vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!” All things are passing, all things are transient. Time flies, remember death. Remember that you will die. This may sound frightening, but it is true. This is not being pessimistic; it is just being realistic. Life on earth is short when seen from the perspective of eternity.

The Biblical scholar Sr. Diane Bergant says this phrase from the Book of Ecclesiastes and the other readings for today all highlight “what we all know so well from experience, namely, that everything and everyone is ‘here today and gone tomorrow.’ Thus, the author of Ecclesiastes insists that the meaning of life cannot be found in possessions that do not last.” Luke, for his part, says, “One’s life does not consist of possessions.”

This can be a very hard and disturbing warning in a world where one’s value is measured by the extent and quality of one’s possessions. In the words of Bergant, “Those who are admired are the people who have money; those who have power are the people who have money; those who set so many of the standards of society are the people who have money.”

Money per se is not the root of all evil; it is greed. Greed is the inordinate desire to possess money, wealth, goods and others with the intention to keep these for oneself far beyond the dictates of basic needs. It is the inordinate desire to acquire, possess, and accumulate more than what one needs or deserves. What is worse is when this desire is pursued at the expense of others people, especially the poor. As Mahatma Gandhi said, “There is always enough for everybody’s needs but not for the greed of a few.” It is the head of greed that we see in many of the scandals, scams and corruption cases in our country today.

The Bible clearly condemns greed. But how do we really distinguish reasonable and just profit from profit propelled by greed? How do we earn a living honestly, raise a family decently, and live responsibly in a world that values people in terms of what they have than who they are and who they can become? Is it morally okay to live luxuriously, extravagantly and scandalously, even if one’s money is hard-earned, in the midst of poverty and destitution of many people?

In the Lukan gospel passage today, Jesus and his disciples were on their way to Jerusalem, the place of his passion and death. As he led them on the way to the cross, Jesus instructed them in the costs of discipleship and the demands of the Kingdom of God. Today’s gospel focuses on Jesus’ teaching on appropriate attitude toward possessions and preparedness for the coming reign of God.

Jesus’ teaching was occasioned by a request to arbitrate between two brothers. One can very well see that the reality of family members quarreling and getting divided over inheritance is not something new. It has been there since time immemorial.

According to Patricia Datchuk Sanchez, Jesus refused to act as arbiter in the family feud on possession, not because he did not have the authority to do so, but in order to correct the misplaced attention of the people… Jesus wished to align the attitudes of his disciples toward their true purpose and concerns in life. As his followers and as heirs of the eternal inheritance, believers in Jesus are called to reevaluate themselves and their possessions in terms of the new way of life he held out to them. The heart of the… story was Jesus’ exhortation to avoid greed and to understand that possessions, even great possessions, are no guarantee of life.” In other words, the disciples must avoid greed of any forms because life does not consist in possessions.

Jesus was not condemning the man who had asked him to mediate in his property feud with his brother. The man may have been justified in his claim. Nonetheless, Jesus instructed him to be on perpetual watch against the variety of ways greed operates in human life. For Jesus, greed is an attitude foreign to the coming of the Kingdom and his disciples must be free from this evil tendency. Greed results into idolatry.

To make his point more compelling, Jesus told a parable of a rich man who thought about nothing but enlarging his barns for the overflowing harvest he was expecting. The parable does not tell us that the rich man acquired his wealth dishonestly, illegally and immorally. There is also no indication that he was manipulating and oppressing his neighbors or workers. But still, Jesus considered this man a fool because he invested all of himself in a treasure which he would not carry with him when he died. There is a stark indication that although this man was rich in wealth, he was “not rich in what matters to God.”

In the Old Testament, the term “fool” is used to refer to someone who has denied or forgotten God (Psalm 13:1). Anybody who makes money or wealth above God is a fool. Anybody who forgets that everything, especially one’s life, is but a loan which God can recall at any time is a fool. And anybody who forgets the reality “here today and gone tomorrow” is a fool. For the foolish man, death would be a rude but late awakening.

The main message of the gospel resonates with the main insights of the first and second readings. The word vanity is “hebel” in Hebrew and it means “transient as a vapor” or “wisp of air.” Again, Ecclesiastes says, “Vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!” All things are transient and are but a vapor or a wisp of air. And to be absorbed by what is transient and passing is “a great misfortune.” Indeed, what does it profit a man if, in the end, he must leave everything?

Because all things are transient and passing, we must focus our energies on those things that have lasting significance. St. Paul, in his Letter to the Colossians, writes: “Seek what is above… Think of what is above, not of what is on earth… Put to death, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry.”

Lest we misunderstand the main message of the three readings today, they do not tell us that we do not need material things and possessions in this world. We are not angels. We are embodied beings with material, bodily and physical needs. But there is a big difference between needs and wants, between decent life and ostentatious life, between simple life and scandalous life, between earning to live and living to earn, between earning money to live and living for money.

The readings do not also tell us not to get involved in this passing world and just focus ourselves on heaven or the things of heaven. Far from it! In fact, we are asked to give ourselves to the task of the transformation of the earth but with the perspective that we are only pilgrims in this earthly journey.

We are asked to give our best shot in living our lives and in doing something good and beautiful for God, for others and for the world, knowing that everything is a gift from God and belongs to God, that everything must be shared, that our time and opportunities are limited and what is important is how we live godly and loving lives. We only have one life on earth to live and we must live it from the perspective of eternity. Indeed, how we live our lives and how we use, handle and share the gifts and resources that God has given us have eternal repercussions.

St. Bonaventure, follower of St. Francis of Assisi, said, “To lead a good life a man should always imagine himself at the hour of death.” In the same light, St. Alphonsus Liguori also said”…if you wish to live well, spend the remaining days of life with death before your eyes.”

St. Alphonsus Liguori said further: “…Oh! hasten to apply a remedy in time, resolve to give yourself sincerely to God, and begin from this moment a life which, at the hour of death, will be to you a source, not of affliction, but of consolation. Give yourself up to prayer, frequent the sacraments, avoid all dangerous occasions,…secure yourself eternal salvation, and be persuaded that to secure eternal life, no precaution can be too great.”

About Fr. Robert and his reflections.