Tag: Robert Manansala

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

Charles Colson, the founder of Prison Fellowship, tells of a memorable experience he had while bringing Christmas gifts to the children of prison inmates. Colson and his wife met a small boy who told them his name was Emmanuel. When Colson opened his Bible on Matthew 1:23 and showed Emmanuel that his name means “God with us,” the boy jumped up excitedly and said to his mother, “Mommy, Mommy, God is with us! God is with us!”

This is the summary of Christmas – “God is with us.” Christmas is all about God’s coming among us in human flesh in the mystery of the Incarnation.

In the Philippines, we usually celebrate two Christmas Masses– the Midnight Christmas Eve Mass and the Mass During the Day of Christmas.

In the Midnight Mass we use the Gospel of Luke, which tells us of the story of the birth of Jesus. In the Mass for the Day, like what we are having right now, we use the Gospel according to John.

The Nativity account in Luke is very simple and brief: while the couple is in Bethlehem for the decreed census, Mary’s time to give birth comes; she delivers her firstborn, warms him in swaddling cloths and lays him in a manger because there is no room in the inn.

The most important as aspect of the Nativity story in Luke is the sign given to the shepherds to allow them to recognize the Savior. The sign is “an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” Come to think of it – an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes is a very ordinary sign, something that we see everyday. Swaddling cloths are baby-wraps to keep the child warm and snug. Even “lying in a manger” is not surprising for the shepherds. Perhaps, they think that this baby is just one of theirs. The sign is given is very ordinary, nothing spectacular, nothing bombastic, nothing majestic. This is how God accomplishes our salvation. He comes in all meekness, humility and vulnerability. Thus, this ordinary sign of the coming of the Son of God in the form a little babe can only be perceived with faith-filled, simple and uncomplicated eyes and hearts. This little baby is God.

In the Gospel for the Mass during the Day, John gives a more theological explanation of what Luke is telling us in a more story type presentation.

In John God is presented as Speech. Jesus, the Son of God, assumes in his person all the functions of the speech of God. He is the decisive speech of God, the good news, the Word made flesh, the Word dwelling among us and the Word that saves.

What we actually have for the Gospel Reading for the Christmas Day is John’s Prologue to His Gospel. It is divided into three parts: First, the Word in relation to God, to creation, and to creatures. From time immemorial, the Word, the Son of God, is with God and the Word is God. And because this Word is in God’s Presence, the Word is associated with the work of creation and with creatures themselves. Secondly, this Word is the Light that comes into the world. Finally, the Word becomes Flesh or Incarnate establishing a new covenant. Through the Word made incarnate in Jesus, we have seen the glory of God, which no one has ever seen before. Jesus, the Son of God, is the reflection of the Father’s glory, the exact representation of the Father’s being in the world. Yes, the Word made flesh is the Emmanuel, the God with us.

Emmanuel – God is with us. This is how God has come to us – taking upon Himself the form of a little baby, flesh and blood. No wonder St. Francis of Assisi considered Christmas as the feasts of all feasts and the greatest of all solemnities.

The devotion to the crib or the “belen” as the primary symbol of the Nativity of Jesus can be traced back to St. Francis of Assisi. According to St. Bonaventure, one of the biographers of St. Francis, three years before the death of the saint on October 3, 1226, he decided to celebrate at the Italian town of Greccio the memory of the birth of Jesus with the greatest possible solemnity. He had a manger prepared, hay carried in and an ox and an ass led to the spot. The brothers were summoned and the people arrived and the forest amplified their prayers and songs. The venerable night of Greccio became very brilliant and solemn by the multitude of bright lights and by the harmonious hymns of praise. Then St. Francis stood before the manger, filled with piety, bathed in tears and overcome with joy. A solemn Mass was celebrated over the manger and St. Francis lovingly preached on the birth of the poor King, the Babe from Bethlehem. By reenacting the birth of Jesus at Greccio, he wanted to make a showcase of God’s love, humility and generosity.

For St. Francis of Assisi, in Jesus God has manifested who God is and God’s love in an absolute manner. Jesus, the Word of the Father, is the language in which God has spoken to us of Himself and of His love.

In the mystery of the Incarnation God has expressed himself in and through our humanity and frailty, through poverty and suffering. Opposites are reconciled. God is weak and yet so strong. God is mortal and yet living and true. God is frail and yet so strong. This is the paradox that we must recognize and follow.

Indeed, for St. Francis, God has shown his limitless love and total self-emptying in the birth of his Son Jesus. In the Incarnation we find the intensity of God’s loving self-giving by becoming one of us.
St. Francis also saw the great humility of God in the Incarnation. He considered humility as the horizon in which God appeared. Jesus’ Incarnation, poverty, the cross and even the Eucharist are forms of God’s humility and contours of the horizon through which God has come and continues to come to us.

At Greccio St. Francis wished to see with his own eyes and feel with his own hands how human, tiny and fragile and lowly God is (1 Cel 84-87). He wanted to realize and help people realize exactly what God had done for his people, and “how poor he chose to be for our sakes.” Francis himself had chosen the bitter poverty of being on the margin of society, with no resources or security. He saw the Son of God placing himself, as it were, on the margin of divinity.

If God has taken the horizon of humility in which God has appeared and continues to appear, for St. Francis, unless we fix our gaze in this direction, we cannot experience God.

Finally, for St. Francis, the Birth of Jesus is about the generosity of God. God’s generosity in the Incarnation is shown in the divine self-giving, in God embracing our human condition and in being solidarity with us and becoming like one of us.

Because God has extended his marvelous generosity to us through the birth of his only begotten Son, St. Francis believed that Christmas must be enjoyed by all people, rich and poor, and even by all creations, not just humans. Side by side with human creatures, all other created beings and things must join in the celebration of Christmas. He wanted to tell the Emperor to ask all the citizens to scatter grain along the roads on Christmas day so that birds and animals would have plenty to eat. He wished that sufficient fodder be provided for brother Ox and brother Ass. But above all, he wanted the rich to take care of the poor and to share with them what they have. For St. Francis, Christmas could never be complete without doing something good for the poor, without sharing God’s generosity through us.

Indeed, Christmas is the feast of all the feasts, the great solemnity that calls for jubilation by all of God’s creation. God is Emmanuel, God is with us, God is very near to us in flesh and blood, God is one of us, and the world can never be the same again.

One time, Christmas day fell on a Friday. One of the brothers, Brother Morico remarked that they would not be able to serve meat because it was Friday. St. Francis told Bro. Morico: “You sin, brother, when you call ‘Friday’ the day when unto us a Child is born. I want even the walls to eat on that day, and if they cannot, at least on the outside they be rubbed with grease!”

For St. Francis, the Christmas paradox has serious consequences for us. We who claim to be followers of the Incarnate Son of God must also follow God’s love, humility and generosity. We must show love, humility and generosity to everyone, starting with our families but not limited to them. In a special way, we must show these especially to the little ones and even to other creatures. Indeed, Christmas must not only be celebrated or commemorated. It must be lived.

The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. As Christians, we must continue to enflesh Jesus in the world by the way we live genuine Christ-like lives of love, humility and generosity.

COMING HOME TO CHRISTMAS (New Christmas Album)

LET LOVE BE THE GIFT
Jose Mari Chan and Liza Chan-Parpan

Each day of the year can be Christmas
If Love is the gift from you
When the Season comes to an end
And the New Year’s just round the bend
Though they’ll take down the Tree as always
And the bright trimming off the hallways

Christmas will linger for all days
(Christmas can linger the whole year through
It is you that can make this true)
Let Love be the gift from you.

CHRISTMAS MOMENTS:
Jose Mari Chan and children Liza, Jojo, Michael and Franco

(Franco)
I remember my Christmas when we went around
My Daddy drove us down to some orphans in town
We gave some goodies away
Happy faces made our day
We learned that giving and sharing
is the real Christmas way

About Fr. Robert and his reflections

One day, a man asked his friend, “What were you before? The friend said, “A sinner.” Then he was asked, “What are you now?’ “ The friend responded, “A sinner.” “What’s the difference?” The friend answered, “Before, I was a sinner running after sin. But now I am sinner running away from sin.”

We will always be sinners in need of conversion and repentance – until we die. But the real question is: “Are we sinners who are running after sin or sinners who are running away from sin?” Or better, “Are we sinners who are trying to turn more and more to God and to turn more and more away from sin?”

On this Second Sunday of Advent, we hear the prophet John the Baptist proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This is precisely what John the Baptist is asking us to do as we continue to prepare for the commemoration of the birth of Jesus.

Immediately, after the mention of some political and religious leaders, the gospel narrates that the Word of God came to John in the wilderness. In the midst of power, prestige and wealth represented by these leaders, the Word of God came to be addressed to the poor and ascetic prophet John the Baptist. The Word of God was heard not in Rome – the seat of imperial power; not in Jerusalem – the most important city for the Jewish people; not in a palace or in any other grandiose place. John the Baptist heard the Word of God in the desert.

In the Bible the desert is a place of struggle between God and Satan, a place of confrontation between good and evil in the heart of the person in the experience of solitude, barrenness, nakedness, vulnerability and of the challenge to put one’s complete dependence on God. While John the Baptist heard the Word of God in the desert – both in its literal sense of a physical place of the desert and in its symbolic meaning referring to the heart of the person – the main locus of the struggle between God and Satan, between good and evil, in our case it must be more of its symbolic meaning. We need to hear the Word of God in the depths of our hearts for it is from there where we must respond to it and where we truly surrender ourselves to God. Our hearts must really be receptive dwelling places for God and God’s Word.

John the Baptist invited the people to submit themselves to baptism as an expression of this repentance, of a return to God and a turning away from sin. As Christians, we have already signified this. We have already been baptized into Christ. We have already been claimed for Christ. We already died to sin and must truly continued to do this to signify our being followers of the Lord and children of God.

The Holy Father, in opening the Year of Faith on October 11, has said: “The Year of Faith… is a summons to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the one Saviour of the world.”

At baptism, we renounced Satan, sin and deeds of darkness and professed our faith in the Trine God and in God’s ways. But have we really been faithful to these baptismal vows? Have we really been Christians in deeds and in the way we live authentic Christ-like lives and not only in name? John the Baptist, as part of our preparations for Christmas, invites us to return to our baptismal vows and to be really faithful to them and to God.

To prepare the way for the Lord, John the Baptist speaks of the mountains that need to be flattened, valleys which have to be filled in, crooked ways which have to be made straight, rough roads which have to be smoothed.

In response to the Advent challenge we need to look more into the landscape of the human heart. We must hear during this Season of Advent John’s call to have an interior change of heart, to change our lives and our ways. Are there areas in our lives that need to be straightened or flattened because these have been hindering us in truly welcoming Jesus in our hearts and in our lives and in surrendering our lives to God and to his ways and becoming better Christians and children of God?

But the demand of conversion is not only personal; it is also communal, societal and structural. As a people, we continue to suffer in many ways because of the sins of divisiveness, inequality, graft and corruption, ecological neglect and many others. The newspapers tell us that the recent tragedy in Mindanao, just like many tragedies in the past, was not only due to nature; it was also largely manmade. Illegal logging and neglect of geohazard warnings have been mentioned as two of the causes. We indeed need to change as individuals, as communities and as a people.

But again, we must start somewhere. How do we start? We start by truly allowing God to love us even in a most unexpected way. Then when this happens, we can truly be changed people.

The Jesuit John Powell, in his book Unconditional Love, tells a true to life story about Tommy, a very strange student in his theology class who turned out to be an theist. In class, according to Fr. Powell, he was a pain in the neck for he was always objecting and whining about the possibility of an unconditionally loving God.

One day, Tommy approached Fr. Powell and asked in a cynical tone: “Do you think I’ll ever find God.”

Fr. Tom decided to apply a shock therapy by giving an emphatic “NO.”
Tommy responded to Fr. Powell: “Oh, I though that was the product you were pushing.”

Fr. Powell, in response to Tommy, said: “But He will find you.”
Fr. Powell later learned that Tommy had graduated. Then he received a sad news that he was suffering with terminal cancer.

Then one day, Tommy appeared in the office of Fr. Powell. After some pleasantries, Fr. Powell asked Tommy: “What’s it like to be only twenty-four and dying?”

Tommy said it could be worse – like being fifty and having no values or ideals, like being fifty and thinking that booze, seducing women, and making money are the real ‘biggies’ in life.”
Tommy then reminded Fr. Powell of that incident when he told him, “But he will find you.” Tommy said that when he got to know about his cancer, he started to look for God. And as his illness became more serious, he sought God even more intensely. But nothing happened, according to him.

Then one day, he remembered what Fr. Powell had told them in class: “The essential sadness is to go through life without loving. But it would be almost equally sad to go through life and leave this world without ever telling those you loved that you had loved them.” So Tommy began with the hardest one: his Dad with whom he did not have a good relationship. His Dad was reading the newspaper when he approached him.”

“Dad, I love you. I just wanted you to know that,” Tommy told his Dad.

“The newspaper fluttered to the floor. Then his Dad did two things Tommy could never remember him ever doing before. He cried and he hugged me.

And they talked all night. Tommy said it felt so good to be close to his father, to see his tears, to feel his hug, to hear him say that he loved him too.” Then, he did the same to his mother and little brother, which was easier. They too cried with him and they hugged each other.

Tommy said he felt sorry about one thing: that he had waited so long for such opportunities of really being close to his family, of showing his love for them.

Then, Tommy said, “Then, one day I turned around and God was there. Apparently God does things in his own way and at his own hour. But the important thing is that he was there. He found me. He found me even after I stopped looking for him.”

Tommy eventually died of cancer. But he found God before he died. He found God because he allowed God to find him. He allowed God to find him by loving. Someone said, “When one loves, he touches the face of God.”

This is the deeper meaning of conversion: more than finding God, it is allowing God to find us – sometimes in a most unexpected way.

About Fr. Robert and his reflections