One of the values that identifies us Filipinos is our being hospitable. Before accepting a visitor to our house, we do a lot of preparations, from scrabbing the floor to sweeping the ceiling, changing the curtains, arranging the furniture and fixing everything from bedroom to bedroom providing the newest beddings and the most scentful blankets and softest pillows. Of course the food has to be delicious and at best. This is our way of welcoming our visitors at home.
        In our Gospel, we see two ways of welcoming Jesus, two ways of serving the Lord, and two ways of discipleship. First is Martha’s way. Martha’s way is very similar to Abraham’s manner of welcoming his visitors. Abraham in our first reading shows hospitality to the three strangers visiting their tent. He offered refreshments, cool water to wash their feet, he even asks Sarah to prepared bread out of the finest wheat and provide really the best food for the strangers. Abraham, Sarah and Martha offer the best service to the Lord. I guess this is important to us, what we can do for our visitor, and in this case, what we can do for the Lord.
         Second is Mary’s way. Mary’s way is of welcoming is seating beside the Lord at his feet and listening to his words of wisdom. A posture of a disciple. Welcoming the word of Jesus is true hospitality. And Jesus towards the end of the gospel tells us that Mary chose the better part.
        The gospel presents two manners, active and contemplative way of receiving the Lord. There should really be no conflict between action and contemplation, doing and praying. They complete each other. But contemplating or welcoming the word or wisdom of Christ before acting it out is the better part. Upon receiving the words of Jesus, which is the mark of a true hospitality, we allow this to change us, to change our life to the better. We allow the word of God to form us into his image and likeness.
     Just as Abraham and Sarah received a son as promised by the stranger visitors, we too shall be refashioned into the image of the son as we welcome the transforming word of God in our lives.
         Sisters and brothers, we continue our eucharistic celebration, we pray that we may look into our ways in welcoming Jesus into our lives and be like Mary, choose the better portion, that is, to quiet our busy bodies and spend time listening to the will of God in our lives. Through this, we may be transformed into his divine image and follow his divine will in our lives.

We are reflecting from today's readings about the freedom of a true disciple. In our first reading, Elisha is called by Elijah to take his place and with all readiness he immediately asked for a goodbye kissed from his parents and followed Elijah with joy. In our second reading, St. Paul says that we are called for freedom and because we have freedom, we should not use it as an opportunity for the flesh but rather to serve one another through love.

In our gospel, we are presented with three types of call-response scenarios. The first one is responding to the call of God with excitement and enthusiasm. Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem and he knows exactly what's gonna happen to him in Jerusalem. That he will be persecuted there in a shameful way of death. To die on the cross is shameful because it means one did something really wrong in the eyes of both the Jews and the Romans. Such death is the death of Son of Man. He has nowhere to rest his head means absence of any worldly comfort. Following Christ is devoid of any comfort. Remember I mentioned last Sunday about the consequence of our baptism, not an easy life but a life of selflessness.

The second is a perceived call from God but is reluctant about accepting the call because of a personal/familial cause. Often in our experience, when we surely received a call and we don't want to entertain such so we give reasons. We have the call but we are not free to respond favorably to the Lord because we are tied in something else, or we are into someone else, or we want to be somewhere else. Remember that this is what St. Paul is reminding us, to be free from our worldly attachments. And this leads us to the third scenario.

A conditional decision to follow the Lord. Panginoon, gusto ko magbago pero pwede ba, wag muna ngayon? May gusto pa akong gawin kasi. Napatay to tatay ko amo nga ilubong ko anay. Si nanay may sakit alagaan ko anay siya ah. We have all the “good” reasons in the world to excuse us from following him. We have attachments to things that are worldly. Saan ang mas dadayuhin mo, concert ng Parokya ni Edgar, or Bible Study ng Parokya mo?

Brothers and sisters, how free are we in responding to the call of God in our lives? Second question is, how generous are we in giving ourselves to God through others?

 In this year of faith we are reminded once again of the articles of our faith and one of these is our firm conviction in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Our gospel today deepens more the identity of Jesus, the Son of God, and not only that, he will “suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.”

Jesus' question to his disciples, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” is the same question he is asking to each of us here present. Who is Jesus in your life? What has he to do with each of us? What is his mission? Many of those who encounter Jesus had wrong impression about him. And Peter, when ask by Jesus, “who do you say that I am?” responded correctly that Jesus was the Christ, but his understanding of what that meant was mostly wrong. For Peter, the concept of a Messiah connoted earthly power, a political power, and especially earthly privilege, whereas for Jesus it meant suffering and dying. Peter had the right answer, but the wrong understanding of that answer.

Perhaps, this is the real reason behind the so-called "messianic secret" in the Gospels, where Jesus repeatedly asks his disciples to not reveal his identity. His reluctance to have his disciples broadcast publicly who he is was based upon his fear that they could not, before the resurrection and Pentecost, properly understand his identity and would invariably preach a false message.

Again, Jesus way of liberating Israel from slavery is by conquering it with love. Jesus sees the “slavery” of the his people from the Roman rule but more so, he saw the slavery of his people from sin, from evil. And to liberate them, he has to show them how to conquer all evils and that is by sacrificing his life for each of us.

Christian love is total offering of life to others so that evil will be replaced by love. Love is self-denial, and sacrificing for others, giving one's life for others. This is the way Jesus loves us. And those who wish to follow this way of loving will suffer greatly but the reward is enormously immeasurable. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”

Our selfishness will ultimately bring damnation to us and our sacrifice for Christ will surely gain more life in us and in others. The greater the evil the greater the love to conquer it.

I have been talking to many working students at NDMC as their coordinator and I have been hearing their stories, their struggles and their difficulties. But despite all of these, they still see the brighter side of their life. Some express their willingness to sacrifice so that they could be of help to their parents, or their younger sibling. Others wanted to be of help in the development of our society. It shows therefore that, indeed, in our love for others, we offer our sacrifices to conquer the reality of evil in us and around us.

This Sunday, may we be more and more loving to others and that we may have the courage to follow more closely the loving way of Jesus.

When we experience something extraordinary often we just stutter as we struggle with words or even become speechless after having been so overwhelm by such an enormous surprise! After such a stressing experience, looking for the lost Jesus for three days, she can’t help but ask Jesus, “why have you done this to us?” The pain of a mother looking for her son.

Jesus however seemingly indifferent about the emotions of Mary responded, “why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” Twelve years after the announcement of angel Gabriel the true identity of Jesus as the Son of the most High, Mary, possibly had forgotten Jesus’ purpose too, in all the days and years of being a mother to this young God/man. From the Annunciation, to the Magnificat, to the Presentation of our Lord to this moment, lots of mothering days and moments occurred. She bonded with Him as a mother should, loved him and cared for him, so much so that even these enormous moments in her history with this young lad could be buried deep in another realm not part of the real mechanics of daily life. And with such a question, “why were you looking for me?” everything comes back to her, such a huge reality that the God who took flesh living as one with the humanity, and her response was silence “as she kept all these things in her heart.”

Our world today is filled with so many noise that keeping all these things in our heart is a rare occasion for each of us. We often (if not always) do the talking. Even in our prayer we do most of the time the talking especially in moment of great anxiety, pain or feeling of a seemingly “absent God”. “Lord, why have you done this to us?” We forget that prayer is about relating to God not necessarily talking but keeping our mouth shut and listening to what he wants us to be.

When a mother relates to her newborn baby, she doesn’t do the talking. By just being there by her child’s side, she does relate to him/her. No talking but relating. When visiting a seriously sick friend/loved ones, our presence is enough even without talking to him/her. Our presence speaks for us, it’s our way of relating in a deeper way. This is Mary’s way of relating to Jesus. “She kept all these things in her heart.”

On the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we are reminded to be as pondering as Mary when we encounter bitterness, anxiety, pain, problems because God has a better plan for us. He sees far wider than what we can see, and he knows far better than what we can think of. Mary’s fiat, her “yes” is our model in dealing with God’s enduring presence in our lives. Allowing God to be god in our lives.

Nabubuhay tayo na maraming galit, hidwaan at suklam sa mundo man o sa simbahan. At dahil sa mga ito tuluyang nahahati ang ating pagiging kumonidad. (Our being community is torn apart by this.) Nahihiwalay ang mabubuti sa ibang mabubuti, ang mga naglilingkod sa ibang naglilingkod at madalas kapag nakikita natin ang ganitong sitwasyon parang nawawalan na din tayo ng gana.

Ang nakakalungkot kapag nanghuhusga tayo sa iba ay gamit pa natin ang ating alam sa biblia o sa moralidad upang tuluyang bumagsak ang isang taong nagsusumikap na bumangon sa pagkadapa at itama ang kamalian or we judge when we are hurt because simply we don’t feel respected for something done by others for the good of the many. Or we accuse others for stupidity and lack of common sense simply because we have a wider perspective, more exposure and they do not have.

One sad thing about education is when we know more, we become angrier for the ignorance of the many and angrier for not hitting the right thing and we find ourselves shaking heads and say tsk tsk tsk…then easy for us to pass judgments, in fact almost automatic, kahit hindi sinasabi.

Note that when truth and the Gospel break through, the first mark is compassion, not anger. Kapag tayo ay tinamaan, nilaslas ng katotohanan at ng mabuting balita ang unang peklat ay habag, hindi galit.

This is what Jesus telling us, remove the plank from your own eye first; then you will see clearly to take the speck from your brother’s/sister’s eye.

When we go deeper into our person, we see how complicated our composition is! Not necessarily our biological make up but our psychological, mental and spiritual composition, something that we haven’t explored a lot but known to God who created and knew us from the start of our life.

The is the point: when we ourselves, sometimes, find it difficult to understand why we say or do a certain thing, how much more in understanding others? Kung hindi nga natin maintindihan ang ating sarili minsan, yung iba pa kaya? Hindi din nila naiintindihan ang kanilang sarili sa lahat nang oras.

Before compassion and not judgement flow out of us, it has to be nurtured first. There has to be something deep inside us that need to be established, i.e. the fact that we are loved by God. When we realize that, then it is easy for us to say a blessing than a judgement.