We awaken to a calling

Change, they say, is the only constant in this life. This is true for me. Life is a constant change. As in the beautiful song by Jose Marie Chan.

But within all that change, I have found, lies a common thread hidden in the everyday lives of all people. It pulls us invisibly towards something. And it pulls at us at different times of our life.

We do not end up all the same in life.

But all the same, the experience of life in this world leaves us all changed. The seasons themselves say it by their cycles. The Liturgy of Mother Church also, as the seasons of Earth and Sky, speak of change in their great and mysterious rounds. Life is a constant change.

And it pulls us all towards a spiritual transformation.

The ends by which we live our lives as a means is this change.

The presence of death in this world not only prepares us for the crossing of a Greater Sea but is the Angel that is to also guide us through and comfort us when the time comes for us to "pass over" from temporality into immortality.

For death is but a passage by which we are come to another experience of change. Yea, in this life - before the hour of our passing away - we die a little each moment, each day.

It pulls at us to remind us to be watchful of the living moment. Not to be afraid of it. But to learn from it. And to learn from the living of this life. And to start thinking about the deeper questions of life. Not to fear the changing. But to live as we must. To gather up those changes into a bouquet that we may offer up to our Lord and Lady each day. To love.

And to realize in the end that it is but our Lord Jesus pulling at the thread of our lives, that it is but He Who is with us and Who loves us so much Who is tugging at our weary, wandering hearts - "come to Me, and I will give you rest".

And that that is the answer we've been looking for - the Change to master change!

When we come awake to our calling, we soon realize the Voice Who calls us to our greatest freedoms - and to the Christian, as it is for me - Jesus Christ is the Change to master change...

Only Him can set me free.
---<--@

 

Today we had our EMHC Lenten Recollection.

I am proud to be with my brother lay ministers from our Shrine. Apart from preparing my soul for the last stretch of our Easter journey this year, I also learned so much today.

We tackled core concepts from  the Exhortation of Pope Francis, "Evangelii Gaudium", about the New Evangelization. It is a very relevant theme in today's world indeed. And many are the things the Laity may expound from it.

But the central spirit, in my own opinion, is that the Church needs to transform - not with the world - but against it. That we may as Nations be helped to persevere, overcome and together prevail against the challenges of this new age. And the joy of knowing we have...

Finally, let me share here what a brother EMHC today shared: To be a Christian without "Christ" is to be just an "ian"; an "i am nothing".

True indeed, Christ is the Vine and we are from among all the Nations, the branches - intended by God the Father to bear for each other, human fruit - edible and good everlasting.

Let us know that this world is diverse and that our Catholicity understands implicitly that the world is such a place - that we may not all be Catholics or Christians in our own places in time - but the most important thing these days is not that we are all the same - but that we flourish in our distinctions!

So let the past be the past.

Mabuhay, I love you all.

20110313

A Call to Christian Vocation

These days, there is a dearth of hearing the Word of God.

The wilderness is still out there in our cities - barren and desolate places they are.

In the built up places of our world, where ordinary people flock for a decent living, we find a desert.

At the very hearts of our nations, there is but a darkness for the altars of the honest labors of everyday human life are broken.

Everywhere, the virgin hope of our common humanity is sacrificed to idols.

Civilization itself has lost its living light.

What say we who understand these things with an understanding of faith?

What say we in the face of the continual desecration of the life of our common humanity?

What say we in the face of the madness of the darkness that deceives the universal patrimony of our nations?

You whose heart is shaken unto a remembrance of these things, whose soul is suddenly awoken at the depths of this winter of our mourning together, what say you?

You who fear God and believe in His faithfulness, what say you?

You Who claim the heritage of our Father Abraham of old, what say you?

You Who hope in God and seek His Holy Name, what say you?

You who live to serve the One God, the LORD of hosts, what say you?

You who love the LORD, thy God, what say you, you who love Jerusalem of old?

What say you, you sons of Holy Mother Church, what say you, O daughters of Christ?

What say we against all this evil, we who love our Lord, Jesus Christ, our Holy Redeemer?

Shall we everyday fear the nails?

An authentic call to Christian vocation and a faithful common citizenship to each other are not mutually exclusive realities - the latter proceeds from the former.

Love of neighbor proceeds from love of God - they are not two competing commandments but one commandment alone; the greatest commandment of all.

Church and State or Religion and State stand apart but both still stand as pillars of the one temple of the Sacred Life of our nations which is all the life entrusted to our nations, above all human life.

Truly, we can never hope to separate the reality of God and the reality of Man and live to prosper in the sheltering peace of our nations.

For no nation exists for war - we will either lose sight of our remembrance of the peace or persevere in its prospering embrace.

The craft of all nations is peace. Lest we forget. Lest we forget.

The War in heaven is in our hearts: This Lenten season, let us break the rule of war in our hearts - let this division die with our sins.

Let us leave off our gifts until we have been reconciled to all our hopes - together this time.

Let us live to embrace the hope of all humanity - sanctify it all to the one LORD Whose glory it serves.

Let us Christians respond to our vocations. Let us do this without shame or fear of loss. For one Who gains the God of all as his or her portion gains all true things unto life everlasting.

There are many different gifts but only one arena of service - the nation. Unto the hearts of the common people, for the sake of their common needs, is where virtue bears its fruits for all.

So discern thy gifts assiduously and with much prayer. And then let us say in response to all these questions, yes Lord, for I am my brother's keeper.

Let us rebuild the Church around the Holy Father: Two lungs has the Church, East and West; two arms has the holy bishops of the Church; the holy priesthood and the permanent diaconate.

Serve: Rekindle in your hearts a love of service.

Serve all souls without distinction.

Love God and bring forth this Love to all the barren places of our world and let's make of it, my friends, each city, each town, each place, as our Eden rebuilt - together this time.

---<--@

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.