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How many of us have copies of the Bible? More importantly, how many of us read these copies of the Bible regularly or even everyday?

A survey conducted by the LifeWay Research some years ago indicated that 80% of Churchgoers do not read the Bible.

The Rasmussen Poll recently did a survey about Bible-reading in the US. According to the poll, 25 % of Evangelical Protestants read the Bible daily, as do 20 % of other Protestants. Only 7 % of Catholics read the Bible daily.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer last week reported, on the basis of the report of Nora Lucero, Secretary General of the Philippine Bible Society, that in the Philippines, a predominantly Catholic country, “the Bible is not only facing stiff competition from romance pocketbooks, horoscopes, feng shui (Chinese geomancy), it also is facing the challenge of the Internet.”

According to another survey, many people spend at least four hours every day using the internet and other forms of modern communication and mass media, including cellphones. A daily prayerful reading of the Scripture may take only at least 15 minutes. What is 15 minutes of prayerful Bible reading everyday, which can help change our lives, compared to four hours of internet, text messaging, phone calls, TV and radio?

Is the Bible or the Sacred Scripture, which we consider as the living Word of God in human words, really important in our lives? I think we can only truly appreciate the value of the Word of God if we appreciate more the value of the human word.

From our day-to-day life experiences, we know the power and the importance of the human word. Words can build up or destroy. We can praise or curse others and these will have different effects on them.

When we make vows, we commit ourselves using words. Persons who are getting married say: “I take you as my wife or husband… I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health until death do us part.” We who are priests or religious also use worded formulas for religious professions and priestly ordinations. These are not just words. These are words that bind. These are words that must express our deep sense of commitment and our integrity to be true to ourselves, to others and to God.

Words also provide possibilities for us to encounter another person. This is what we experience when we read, for example, a letter from another person. The person becomes present in our minds and in our hearts.

Words form, challenge and transform. A child soaked with loving words will most likely grow into a well-adjusted and confident person. When a child always hears that he is good for nothing, he will most likely internalize this and will become truly a good for nothing person.

Those of us who are married, when was the last time you said, “I love you” to your spouse? Those of us who are parents, when was the last time you said, “I love you” to your children? “I love you,” when said with sincerity, right motivations and sentiments, are among the most powerful, if not the most powerful, words in the world. “I am sorry” are another very powerful words. They can melt an indignant heart. o we know how to say, “I am sorry!” to people we sometimes hurt or offend?

If human words are very powerful and important, how much more are God’s words. The Sacred Scripture has four main functions: fundational, sustaining, critical and contact point with God.

What do we mean by the foundational function of the Scripture? If a house is not built on good and solid foundation, it will not last. It will be shaky. It will collapse when it gets subjected to the forces of nature. The life of a person is the same. It has to be built on the solid foundation of the Word of God. If God’s Word is in the mind, the heart and the life of a person, the person will be strong and firmly grounded as he goes through the journey of life. To build one’s life on the Word of God is to build it on God who is Rock.

The Word of God has also a sustaining function. We need to be guided, strengthened, affirmed and assured as we go through life. In the face, for example, of life’s difficulties, the Word of God will remind us that we are not alone. Our God is a God who is with us and who promised to be with us until the end of time. The Scripture is filled with the reassuring and strengthening Word of God.

The Word of God also serves a critical function. The Word of God criticizes and challenges us when we go astray, when we become unfaithful to God and to His ways and teachings, when we neglect others, especially the poor and the needy. The Word of God can warn us of our own destruction if we persist in our wicked ways and continue to live lives that are apart from God. The Word of God can jolt and must disturb us to conversion and to a new and more godly way of living.

Finally, the Scripture is a primary contact point with God in Jesus. We encounter God in and through the Scripture. The Scripture brings God’s presence to us and it brings us to God’s presence.

In the Old Testament, creation came into existence because of God’s words. God said, “Let there be light and there was light.” This is what we mean when we say that God’s words are performative. They make happen what they say. When Jesus tells a sick man, “Be healed,” the man gets healed.

St. John tells us that the Word, referring to the Son of God, became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus is God’s Word who became Incarnate in our midst. God sent His greatest Word of love to us in the Incarnate person of the Son of God.

God’s Word does not only communicate a message about Jesus. God’s Word makes present the very person of Jesus Christ. In fact, God’s Word is Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is God’s definitive loving Word to us.

St. Jerome, who translated the Septuagint or Greek Bible to the Latin Vulgate and who is considered the father of Biblical studies, said, “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Jesus Christ.” The Scripture, especially the Gospels, is our primary way of knowing Jesus. And knowing here does not only mean intellectual knowing. It means encountering Jesus and having a personal relationship with Him. Together with the Eucharist, the Real Presence of Jesus, the scripture gets a primary place through which we encounter the Lord.

In the Gospel today we see Jesus as a man of the Scriptures. In beginning his public ministry of proclaiming the Kingdom of God, he opens the sacred scroll of the prophet Isaiah and reads the passage that talks about God’s loving offer of total salvation and liberation for humanity and creation. God’s offer of total salvation is now taking place in the person, words and ministry of Jesus Christ.

In the first reading from the prophet Nehemiah, after experiencing captivity in Babylon, the Jews listen to Ezra as he reads and explains the Word of God. Through the preaching of the prophet Ezra, the people realize their infidelity to their covenant with God and are led to conversion.

The Holy Father talks about the Year of Faith as “a summons to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the one Savior of the World.” Faith is not only about the beliefs that we need to believe in; it is, first of all, believing in and having a deep and personal relationship with God and following in his footsteps.

Pope Benedict XVI, in his document Verbum Domine (The Word of the Lord), highlights the centrality of Jesus in the life of the members of the Church and the role of the Scripture in having a personal relationship with Him. He writes: “With the Synod Fathers I express
my heartfelt hope for the flowering of “a new season of greater love for sacred Scripture on the part of every member of the People of God, so that their prayerful and faith-filled reading of the Bible will, with time, deepen their personal relationship with Jesus.” The
Holy Father clearly reasserts that the Scripture leads us to a deeper relationship with Jesus.

The logic is very clear. If Jesus Christ is the center of our Christian faith and if the Scripture is indispensable to knowing, loving and following Jesus Christ, then, as Christians, we must really take the Scripture seriously in order to grow in our
relationship with Jesus and in our Christian faith, to be truly transformed by him unto his likeness and to be instruments of transformation according to the Kingdom values.

As Christians, we are asked to be readers, hearers, doers and sharers of the Word of God. The Holy Father, in the same Verbum Domine document, states: “only those who first place themselves in an attitude of listening to the word can go on to become its heralds” (VD 51).

We end with the words of one of the first followers of St. Francis Assisi who also became a saint. St. Giles of Assisi said, “The Word of God is not in the person who preaches it or listens to it but in the one who lives it.” We should become what we prayerfully read.
May we truly become living Bibles in the world for we might be the only Bibles that other people may read in their lifetimes. As St. Francis said, “Preach the Gospel at all times and you must, use words.”

About Fr. Robert and his reflections

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus of the Church, who ended his papal or petrine ministry on February 28, has been called the Pope of the basics.

During his papacy, Pope Benedict invited and challenged the faithful to return to the fundamentals of our Christian faith. This challenge has been expressed, for example, in his writing of papal encyclicals and letters on the theological virtues of faith, hope and love and in the completion of his three-volume work on Jesus of Nazareth.

St. Paul in his Letter to the Corinthians, tells us that three things will last forever — faith, hope, and love–and the greatest of these is love.

Shortly after his assumption of the papal ministry after the death of Blessed John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI issued in 2005 the papal encyclical Deus Caritas Est (“God is Love”). That God is love is the most fundamental and basic reality that we must all truly embrace. God is love and this God loves us in an unconditional and boundless way. This God of love also challenges us to live lives of love.

In 2007, the Holy Father wrote another encyclical on the theological virtue of hope. The title of the document on hope is Spe Salve, which means “Saved in Hope.” In it he asserted that our hope, given to us by God, is key to our Christianity. In fact, for Pope Benedict, the great hope we all long for can only be God, “who encompasses the whole of reality and who can bestow upon us what we, by ourselves, cannot attain.”
On October 11, 2011, to commence the Year of Faith, Pope Benedict issued the Apostolic Letter entitled Porta Fidei or “The Door of Faith” to challenge us to embark on “the need to rediscover the journey of faith so as to shed ever clearer light on the joy and renewed enthusiasm of the encounter with Christ.” (#2, #3).

But I think, the most important manifestation of this challenge to return to the basics is the Pope Benedict’s emphasis on the centrality of Jesus Christ in our Christian faith and lives. Indeed, Jesus Christ is the center of our Christian faith. There is no Christianity, no Christian faith and there are no Christians without Christ.

The call to turn and return to Christ has reverberated in his writings, admonitions, speeches and addresses. The Pope’s magnificent three books on Jesus of Nazareth can only be understood in this light.

One of my favorite messages of Pope Benedict XVI on Jesus was addressed to young people gathered at the 22nd World Youth Day on Palm Sunday, 1 April 2007. But this message, I believe, does not only apply to young people; it applies to everyone of us. The Holy Father said: “If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed. Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation. And so, today, with great strength and great conviction, on the basis of long personal experience of life, I say to you: Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and he gives you everything. When we give ourselves to him, we receive a hundredfold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ – and you will find true life.”

In the document Porta Fidei the Holy Father wrote, “The Year of Faith is a summons to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord. In the mystery of his death and resurrection, God has revealed in its fullness the Love that saves and calls us to conversion of life through the forgiveness of sins (cf. Acts 5:31). (#6)

During this Year of faith, Pope Benedict XVI is asking us “to keep our gaze fixed upon Jesus Christ, the “pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (Heb 12:2): in him, all the anguish and all the longing of the human heart finds fulfillment… The Holy Father has also prayed that this Year of Faith may make our relationship with Christ the Lord increasingly firm.”

The summons to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord is also what we hear in the Gospel reading today and in a special way during this Season of Lent. Turn and return to the Lord and you will live. Turn and return to the Lord and He will heal us and bind up our wounds. Turn and return to the Lord and He will renew us, our lives, our relationships, our families, our communities, our Church and our world.

In the Gospel passage on this Third Sunday of Lent, Jesus underscores the urgency and importance of conversion and repentance for all.

Two tragic incidents are mentioned in the gospel: the murder of Galileans by Pilate and the killing of 18 people due to the fall of the tower of Siloam. The first incident was due to Pilate’s willful action; the second was entirely by accident. What connects the two different tragedies is the common notion of punishment for sins. The Israelites believe that disaster comes as punishment for sin, a notion found especially in the blessings and warnings of Deuteronomy 28-30 and that appears in John 9:2.

Jesus does not dispute or affirm the connection between sin and disaster. In life, sometimes tragedies happen because of the personal faults of those who suffer or the faults of other people. But this is not always the case. We know that there are so many people who are innocent but who suffer.

What Jesus declares is that those who died were not more sinful than other Galileans or other Jerusalemites. Then he issues the warning, “Unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.”

Aside from the fact that the two tragic events are interpreted by the people as punishment for sins, they are also incidents that happened quite suddenly with total devastation. Without warning, the Galileans were overcome by the power of Pilate. Without warning, the tower collapsed on the 18 people. These two groups of people never had a chance to repent. They were caught by surprise by the suddenness of the tragedies.

In this light, we find not only the importance of repentance or conversion but also its urgency. Repentance cannot be delayed or postponed as death may come at any time. Death, as we know from other passages, is described as a thief in the night that comes when you least expect it.

Thus, repentance must be embraced as an ongoing attitude and practice towards one’s life. Repentance can never just be an occasional or a seasonal act. Scott Hahn says that Jesus calls us today to “repentance” – not a one-time change of heart, but an ongoing, daily transformation of our lives.

It is in this light that we must say that Lent is more than just a season. Lent which promotes repentance, conversion and return to the Lord must be embraced as a way of life. We are given the special season of Lent so that we can more and more imbibe the penitential spirit that must characterize ever minute of our lives.

There is a story about a king who had to put down the rebellion of some of his subjects. After the battle died down, the king put up a candle in the doorway of the castle where he had his temporary headquarters. He lit the candle and announced to all who had rebelled against him that those who surrendered and took the oath of loyalty while the candle was burning would be spared. The king offered mercy and forgiveness only for the life of the candle.

God does the same; the candle is our life span.

This story of the king and the candle is like the parable of the fig tree in the gospel today. In life, we are given many chances to repent and to start anew, but these chances are not limitless as everyone’s life has an end. God’s love is limitless but it is we who are limited. Indeed, the call to repentance is Now! Not tomorrow or the day after for it may never happen if we do not take the opportunity.

About Fr. Robert and his reflections

There is an expression that says: “There is a little child in all of us, and if that child is extinguished, if he or she does not have a chance to speak and to live, we very quickly die as human beings.”

The Jesuit Fr. Joseph Galdon narrates a story about a Jesuit Prison Chaplain. According to the Prison Chaplain, one day the prisoners had a Therapy Session which involved making toy animals out of rags and scraps of cloth. The prisoners made toy squirrels and rabbits and all kinds of cloth animal for themselves.

That night the Jesuit Prison Chaplain was surprised to see the prisoners bringing their animal toys to bed with them. The prisoners were imprisoned for all kinds of despicable crimes like murder and rape. But in the first room the prisoner was cuddling his stuffed rabbit. In the second room the prisoner was reading his toy squirrel a bedtime story. In the third room there were just two heads on the pillow – the prisoner’s and the rabbit’s.

The case of the prisoner named Miko was different and tough. He had just dumped his rabbit on the table next to him. When asked by the Chaplain if he would take his rabbit with him, Miko said: “I do not sleep with crazy rabbits.” The Chaplain apologized to Miko and said he thought the rabbit might become lonely by being alone on the table. But when the Chaplain went back to Miko’s room much later, he saw that Miko had made a bed out of a shoe box. He had put his cloth rabbit in the shoe box and made a cover for him out of a handkerchief.

Fr. Galdon, reflecting on the touching experience shared by the Jesuit Prison Chaplain, writes: “You cannot kill the child in people. You can cover it up, you can hide it, you can beat it, you can do all sorts of horrible things to it, but it will still be there. And God will still be reaching out to speak to that child – and heal it – to help it grow into the sort of person it ought to become.”

The Feast of Sto. Nino today celebrates our nation’s great devotion to the child Jesus that has been maintained since 1521 with the gifting of new Christian queen Juana with the image of the Sto. Nino by Magellan The devotion has acquired different cultural trappings and practices that can be called as indigenously native, foremost of which are the Sinulog festivities on this day.

What challenges does the Feast of Sto. Nino pose to us as Christians? Let me reflect with you on three challenges.

First, the devotion to the Sto. Nino reminds us of Jesus humbly identifying himself with us in our humanity. The Son of God became flesh and dwelt among us. He was born a helpless and vulnerable child. He became a child. He grew up in age, knowledge, wisdom, virtues and in the love and the grace of the Lord. He experienced what we experience in terms of human growth processes. He became close to us, near to us, becoming like us in all things except sin.

We have seen images of Sto. Nino wearing a Barong Tagalog. Sto. Nino in a basketball uniform. Sto. Nino dressed in a kamiseta. Sto. Nino in shorts. While some people may not agree with these practices, they all boil down to the reality of God being one with us in all things except sin. Jesus is the God Emmanuel – the God who is with us. Many people can identify with the Sto. Nino because He has identified with us first.

Second, the devotion challenges us to be childlike, to reclaim the inner child within us, in the face of growths, of sophistications, of experiences of pain as adults. The child possesses so many endearing qualities that we should never let go even when we are already adults. Child-like qualities like trust, forgiveness, simplicity, transparency, dependence.

In the gospel reading today, we see people bringing their children to Jesus that he may bless them. The disciples tried to prevent the children in the guise of protecting Jesus from disturbance and nuisance. What was not immediately apparent was the prevailing mentality towards children during the time of Jesus, which may have influenced Jesus’ disciples in the way they were treating the children. Like the widows and women in that time, the children were considered unimportant and “nobodies’ in society. Children did not enjoy rights and did not have value in Jewish society. The disciples thought Jesus, a rabbi who was becoming very popular, must not be disturbed by a group of children considered unimportant in society.

Jesus broke this prevailing mentality towards children by allowing them to come to him. In fact, this was one of the times that we Jesus becoming indignant. He said, “Let the children come to me; do not prevent them.” Then, perhaps to the great surprise of the disciples, he presented the children as recipients of the Kingdom of God and as models for those who wanted to enter the Kingdom of God. “For the Kingdom belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.” God’s Kingdom belongs to the little, to the childlike, to those who consider themselves and are considered as unimportant, to the nobodies. The Kingdom belongs to the nobodies and unless we become like the nobodies, we cannot enter the Kingdom of God.

In this world, we all want to be somebodies. There is a tendency to always compete, to be better than the others, to be ahead even at the expense of other people. This is not the way of the Kingdom. The way of the kingdom is the way of the childlike, of the humble, of the trusting, of the simple, of the nobodies. Indeed, there is so much to learn from little children.

The comedian Tom Bodett says that his best friend and best man at his wedding told him that he was going to learn the greatest and the most important things in life from his children. Bodett continues that he did not initially believe this until he truly allowed himself to be taught by his own children and by the children of other people.

Julie A. Johnson says that we are always teaching children – teach them rules, teaching them how to behave, teaching them skills. And sometimes, we forget that children can also teach us a lot and that there is a lot that we can learn from them. Or at least, we forget the things that we ourselves learned when we were little children.

Let us take one important lessons that we learned or we were supposed to learn as children or lessons that children can remind us of.

If you fall, you can cry for a bit, but then get up and start again. When a child takes stumble and wounds his or her knee, he or she might need to be comforted for a bit. But the child quickly recovers and starts to play again. Is this not a very important lesson for all the adults? When you fall, be sorry but do not brood. We can start all over again.

Finally, we cannot have a devotion to the Sto. Nino and at the same time neglect our children. I refer here not only to your own children, but to all the children in our midst. The devotion to the Sto. Nino must also impel us to take care of and protect our children and the vulnerable.

According to the Statistics, there are about 1.5 Million Street Children in the Philippines. The Stairway Foundation reports there are three categories of street children: children on the streets, children of the streets and completely abandoned children. Children on the streets work on the streets like beggars or peddlers but do not live there. They return to their poor abodes after working. Some of them continue to attend school while working long hours on the streets. The so-called children on the streets comprise 75% of the street children.

Children of the streets live on the streets. They make the streets their homes. Although some of them may still have family ties, which are often bad or dysfunctional, these children usually form a family with other street children. They make up the 25-30 % of the street children in the Philippines.
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Completely abandoned children are children with no family ties and are entirely on their own for their physical and psychological survival. They comprise about 5% to 10% of the street children in the Philippines.

Street children face a lot of social problems which include drugs, health problems, summary execution, child prostitution, child abuse and many others.

In summary, the feast of the Sto. Niño is a reminder of God’s nearness to us in Jesus who became like us in all things, including becoming a child, for the love of God and for our salvation. The feast also reminds us to be like little children, to be children, in the face of the world’s propensities for sophistication, independence, and self-centeredness. Indeed, we cannot enter the Kingdom of God if we do not become like little children. Finally, the feast reminds us of the inherent Filipino love for children, with whom Jesus has identified himself, to be translated into concrete deeds and programs that protect and alleviate the suffering of the children and the vulnerable in our midst. We cannot take care of many images of the Sto Nino while neglecting the children in our midst.

About Fr. Robert and his reflections

Herb Miller, in her book Actions Speak Louder Than Verb, tells a touching story about 900,000 people who died in the long battle of Leningrad during the Second World War. At one point, the parents and the elders were trying to save the children from both the Nazis and starvation. So they placed them on trucks to cross a frozen lake to safer sanctuaries. Many of the mothers, knowing that they would not see their children anymore, shouted at them as they got on the trucks, “Remember your name. Remember your name.”

To remember one’s name is to remember one’s identity and one’s roots. A name in the Bible stands for the person himself or herself. To remember your name is to remember who you are.

We officially got our names when we were baptized. From the Biblical perspective, giving a child a name is a most sacred activity because the name stands for the identity and the mission of the child in this world. In fact, the name must come from God and parents must discern the name that God intends for the child. But sad to say, we have started to lose the sense of the sacred in naming our children according to the Bible tradition. Giving the most unique, most popular or the most unforgettable name, even without any religious significance, is fast becoming the norm.

When we were baptized, we did not only get our personal names. Aside from being cleansed from the original sin by the pouring of the blessed water, we became adopted children of God, followers of Jesus Christ, temples of the Holy Spirit and members of the Church. To remember our names means to remember these tags or titles, which must form our identity and mission in the world.

To remember our baptismal names is to remember who we are before the Lord and what we have professed and renounced. At baptism, through our parents and godparents, we made a triple profession of faith in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit with all the articles of faith contained in the Apostles’ Creed and a triple renunciation of sin, evil and Satan. These renunciations will enable us to live in the freedom of the children of God, so that sin may have no mastery over us.

The Solemnity today is not only about the Baptism of Jesus; it is also about our own baptism, our own commitment as baptized Christians following the example of Jesus our Lord. His baptism is found in all the Synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke.

This year, we use the baptism of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. Highlighted is the “anointing of Jesus by the Holy Spirit, His royal investiture and His eternal birth in God” (Days of the Lord, 312). There are two remarkable features of the baptism of Jesus in Luke. These are: (1) His theophany or divine manifestation taking place in the midst of a people in search of the Messiah and (2) the link of the theophany of the Messiah to His prayer and not to His baptism.

Luke’s account starts with the people inquiring about John’s identity. The Baptist takes pain to explain that the One coming after him is mightier. As always, John knows his place vis-à-vis the awaited Messiah. John is a good reminder for us to always know our place and role vis-à-vis Jesus and to always point people to Jesus – by our words, deeds and lives. There is only one Messiah and it is the Lord. We are only servants of the Messiah.

John emphasizes that while he baptizes with water only, the One to come “will baptize with Holy Spirit and fire.” John’s baptism is a baptism of repentance, a sign of turning away from sin and turning to God. Jesus’ baptism, while still carrying the aspect of repentance, is, first of all, a baptism of reception of the Holy Spirit, the very life of God who makes us God’s beloved children. This is the reason why John, the herald of the Messiah, points people to Jesus as mightier for He brings an even more powerful baptism.

Luke also highlights that the theophany of the Messiah is tied not to the baptism of Jesus, but to His prayer. In fact, Luke does not give us so many details about the baptism incident. What is more important is the coming of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus, which takes place after His prayer.

Nil Guillemette tells us that “this is Luke’s way of telling us that Jesus was inspired, inspirited in all His actions, empowered with His heavenly Father’s energies, enabled to always act as a beloved Son fulfilling a beloved Father’s wishes.” (Hearts Burning, 318). With the anointing of Jesus by the Father through the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, his divine Sonship is revealed with the Father’s voice: “You are My beloved Son.”

Just as the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in the form of dove, we also received the gift of the Holy Spirit when we got baptized. And just as the voice of the Father confirmed Jesus as His beloved Son in whom He was well pleased, we too have become God’s beloved children in whom the Heavenly Father is well pleased.

There is a powerful lesson here. Just as Jesus was able to face everything, including the cross, in His life in fulfillment of the Father’s mission because of the Father’s assurance of Him as His beloved Son, we too are able to face anything once we really believe this – that we too are God’s beloved children. We can then face anything with a peaceful and trusting heart. Indeed, we may not know what the future holds for us, but we know Who holds our future. In fact, we know Who holds our past, present and future. And as the great English mystic Julian of Norwich exclaimed, “All will be well, and all manner of things will be well.”

Luke’s giving importance to prayer in his gospel account is also true to the biblical tradition that “prayer precedes Divine revelation” (Days of the Lord, 311). In fact, in the entire Gospel of Luke, prayer plays an extremely important part in the life and ministry of Jesus and it is always connected with the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Lukan Jesus is portrayed very much as a man of prayer and, therefore, filled with the Holy Spirit. At Pentecost, the disciples were also at prayer when the Holy Spirit came upon them in the form of tongues of fire (Acts 1:14, 2:3).

Luke’s emphasis on prayer provides a very important reminder for us who have been baptized in Christ. Although we have already received the Holy Spirit at baptism, the Spirit’s continued indwelling within us and our identity as beloved children of God can be manifested only when we remain connected to God in prayer. We can only truly reflect Christ and our baptismal identity in the world if we are truly men and women of God, men and women of prayer and of the mission.

Jesus’s public life of proclaiming the Reign of God starts with His baptism by John at the River Jordan, after being anointed by Him with the Holy Spirit and being assured of His divine identity. Anointed by the same Holy Spirit and marked by divine adoption at our own baptism, we are compelled to participate in the same mission and to truly live as God’s beloved children, followers of Jesus, temples of the Holy Spirit and members of the Church.

St. Paul in the Second Reading admonishes how we must live our baptismal commitment – to reject anything that turns us away from God and to embrace what strengthens our relationship with Him and with others. This is basically going back to our baptismal profession and renunciation. Christian living is basically baptismal living – living in, with and for God and Christ and denouncing sin, the lure of sin and Satan, the author of sin and darkness.

The Holy Father, in his document Porta Fidei in opening the Year of Faith, talks of faith as a journey of faith that begins with baptism, that lasts a lifetime and that ushers us into the passage through death to eternal life. Through faith, we can address God the Father and share in the fruits of the Resurrection of Jesus and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We must profess this Christian and baptismal faith with renewed conviction, celebrate it more intensely especially in the Eucharist, and give witness to it with greater credibility. May this Solemnity of the Baptism of our Lord bring renewal to the practice of our own baptism vows.

About Fr. Robert and his reflections

The Gospel passage today and even the entire Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord afford us so many points or themes for Christian reflection and living. These include the manifestation of the Messiah to the Gentiles as represented by the magi, indicating the universality of God’s offer of salvation in and through His Son Jesus; the significance of the three gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh; the megalomaniac personality of King Herod; the figure of Jesus as the shepherd of God’s people; and, the search for God. Allow me to just focus on the theme of the universal search for God.

Chapter One of the The Catechism of the Catholic Church starts by asserting that “the desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God, and God never ceases to draw man to Himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for” (CCC, 1).

To believe this assertion is to recognize that the search for God is not only universal but also innate. The longing for God is existentially inserted in every heart like a blue chip, whether we admit it or not. This is the reason why saints and spiritual writers tell us that our deepest and most authentic longings have something to do with God. There is a fundamental restlessness in every heart that is oriented towards God and that can only be satisfied by God. St. Augustine very well expressed it, “Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God.”

The problem is that this existential restlessness is not always recognized as something basically religious or spiritual by all people. Thus, some seek satisfaction in the wrong directions and places. Some give their hearts to things that cannot truly or even remotely satisfy their deepest longings and desires. The Desert monk Abba Poemen warned many centuries ago, “Do not give your heart to that which does not satisfy your heart.” Indeed, our hearts have been created for more and greater things. We have been created by and for God and for his plans.

I remember an incident when I was a college student. I was already in the Franciscan Seminary and one day, I just felt very restless. It was the restlessness experienced particularly by young people.

As I was walking along the corridors, I saw the open door of my professor’s room. He is an Indian Franciscan priest who always left his room door open to make the seminarians feel welcome. I greeted the professor, went inside his room and just started to look at his books on the bookshelf.

He asked, “Robert, what are you looking for?” I really did not know what I was looking for; all I felt was the restlessness in my heart. So I said, “Father, I am looking for God.” The Indian Franciscan priest stood up and came close to me. He said, “You are looking for God?” He pointed his finger at my heart and said, “God is there.”

Indeed, God is everywhere. But we must experience Him, first of all, in the depths of our hearts and recognize Him in the longings and desires of our hearts. We see outside what we see inside. We must recognize His presence written in the heart – in my heart and in your hearts that are fundamentally oriented and drawn to a life-long search for God.

The journey of the magi in the Gospel reading today is basically that – a search for the God who searches for us even more. As St. John of the Cross said, “It is a consolation for a seeker to know that it is the beloved who seeks him all the more.” We cannot even seek for God without Him seeking us first. It is a journey from God, with God in Christ and towards God.

The name Magi comes from the Greek word magoi. The word suggests that the wise men mentioned in the story are priestly sages from Persia who are experts in astrology and interpretations of dreams. They are not actually kings and we do not really know how many they are. The tradition that they are three is based on the number of gifts offered to the infant Jesus.

What distinguishes these magi in the story is their sincere and persistent search for the baby “born king of the Jews.” They embark on a long journey unmindful of all the sacrifices and difficulties involved in the search for the Son of God.

Indeed, the journey to God is the most difficult journey we will ever make because it may involve leaving the familiar and the comfortable and venturing into the unknown and the untested. But what one thing is sure – the magi throughout their journey are patiently guided by God. First, through a star in the East, then through a text from Micah and finally through a dream.

The magi see a star in the East and this guides them in their search for the child. Eventually, the star leads them to the child.

Throughout their journey the magi need to be focused on the star, whether they always see it or not. Perhaps, at times they only see the star in their hearts and not out there in the skies because of the clouds or the darkness of the night.

God always sends us guiding stars in our spiritual journey through life. The star may be another person who always reminds us of or lead us to God. It may be a spiritual book that we chance upon and that challenges us to a new and more godly path. It may be a spiritual experience from childhood when we deeply felt the unconditional love of God that is now coming back to our consciousness because we have digressed from walking more humbly with the Lord. We will never run out of stars if we are only willing to recognize them. They come to us at the right time, in God’s time. And our biggest Star is none other than Jesus Christ the Way, the Truth and the Life who leads us to the Father.

The prophetic Word of God from the Book of Micah also serves as a guide to the magi. The prophecy of Micah about the birth of Jesus in the town of Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, gives directions for the magi in their search for the King of the Jews. Such is the continuing power of the Word of God or any Sacred Word for that matter. The Bible serves as our primary guide in the journey towards God. Countless men and women have become saints because they have found God and Jesus in the Scriptures.

The Spanish St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, after being wounded at the battle of Pamplona with the French soldiers, had to recuperate in their ancestral palace at Loyola. To accompany him in the loneliness of period of recovery, he was looking for romantic novels and other worldly books. But these were not available. The only available materials were the lives of the saints and a book on the life of Jesus. St. Ignatius was somehow forced to read these books. He gave a small opening to God and that was enough for God to propel him to conversion. He was never the same again. He said, after reading the lives of the saints and the life of Jesus, “If St. Francis and St. Dominic could do it, I can also do it.”

In St. Ignatius of Loyola’s ancestral palace, which now belongs to the Jesuits, we find a room, which has been called Conversion Room. In this room there is a replica of St. Ignatius sitting, wounded from the battle in Pamplona, and reading the Life of Jesus. Such is the power of the Word of God. It helps us to interpret our experiences from the perspective of the eyes of God and His plan and action in history. It shows us the futilities of things and endeavors that have nothing to do with God and our final destiny. It jolts us to conversion, renewal and transformation. It makes God alive in our midst and it guides us in our life journey.

Finally, God also gives a warning to the magi through a dream not to return to Herod. God sometimes sends warnings in different forms to wake us up from mediocrity, selfishness, indifference and sinfulness, to alert us to the things that are not perhaps good for us, to keep us from harm or from further harming ourselves, and to redirect us to the right and safe path. The Spirit of God will disturb us when we need to be disturbed for our own good, for the good of our families and even for the good of the Church and the world. Of course, God does not cause or will that evil befall upon us, but sometimes He allows these things for a purpose. Thus, we need to recognize God’s hidden blessings and invitations in these.

Again, this journey is from God, with God and to God. Yesterday, the remains of the venerable Fr. James Reuter, SJ were laid to rest after a blessed journey on earth as God’s faithful and holy servant. Fr. Reuter’s journey has entered a new phase –into the realm of God’s presence for all eternity.

On May 31, 2008 at 3:00 AM, Fr. Reuter wrote a reflection entitled “The Pre-Departure Area.” Let me quote some of its portions to end our reflection on the search for God on this Solemnity of the Epiphany. Fr. Reuter said:

“Of course I am in the pre-departure area. . . . Of course my flight will be called soon. . . . Death may come at any moment. . . I know that. . . .but when it comes it will be the greatest of all adventures — a journey into the unknown.

I have been blessed by my studies as a religious, as a Jesuit. I have been constantly exposed to the Gospel. . . . The word of God leads you to the fullness of life. . . . to peace of soul, to the joy of living, to happiness, to love, to everything that is beautiful and good.

Even if there were no heaven or hell, no last judgment — I would never regret having tried to live by the word of God. . . . . If I had my life to live all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing.

I have made a thousand mistakes . . . . . But with the grace of God I hope to make it to Purgatory. . . .Because, then I know that someday I will be safe with God, forever.

And I believe that: ‘Eye hath not seen, nor hath ear heard nor hath it entered into the mind of man to conceive the joy that God has prepared for those who love him.’

What does it feel like to be 92? You feel that you are standing on the threshold of a great, beautiful adventure. . . . Life will begin when God calls you home.”

The magi found their destiny in the presence of the Messiah in Bethlehem. Fr. Reuter has reached his final destiny. May we also reach this final destiny of being home with God forever after a long and well-spent journey guided by God’s bright stars, transforming words and even loving warnings.

About Fr. Robert and his reflections