In our many relationships, the ones we truly value are those who have “Palabra de honor.” People who are faithful to their word or their promise. When one says on this time and this date, surely on the appointed time and date, he/she will be there. On the other hand, if a person does not…
Category: Sacrifice
Happy and Sad
John 20: 1-2, 11-18 As a priest, every day I deal with sadness: whenever I celebrate a funeral Mass whenever I anoint people who are sick when people ask me to join them for prayer for their special intention. Sadness is always related to letting go. In death, we say goodbye to a loved one….
Things That Matter in Life
John 12:24 -26 Nathan Scott once said, “It is the oldest story in the world. One day you’re seventeen and planning for someday. And then quietly, without you ever noticing, that someday is today. And the someday becomes yesterday. And this is our life.” The Gospel reminds us that life is short, swift, and uncertain….
Being Looked Down At
Regardless of who we are, we have all experienced being “looked down at.” A friend shared his experience when he was growing up. Every Christmas season his family would go to their cousin’s place in a very upscale community. He and his siblings had this feeling that even if they were related, they were not…
Doing Anything and Everything
Luke 16:1-18 One sad reality of today’s generation is the reality of greed. If the weather patterns have changed (Climate Change), one could ask oneself, “How can people carelessly cut so many trees and not even plant new trees in return?” If there is a huge disparity of wealth, one could ask oneself, “How come…
To the One Who Has More
Luke 8: 16-18 It is said that one of the biggest problems of the world is the unequal distribution of the wealth. According to Fortune Magazine, the top 5 countries which had the greatest unequal distribution of wealth in 2014 were as follows: 5. Austria, 4. Indonesia, 3. U.K, 2. Sweden, and 1. USA. In…
Testimony for God
One fact of life is that we often get to know a person more when he or she has passed on from this life. How many wakes have we gone to only to hear the many stories of the deceased person from family, relatives, friends, officemates, and even kasambahays? Sadly, in that regard, we get…
Love of God, Love of Neighbor
When it comes to the Philippines, many tourists who have been here say that it is still the world’s best kept secret. Tourists often go to Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore, and China. Very seldom is the Philippines at the top of the travel list. The impression is that it is full of…
The Harvest is Great, the Laborers Few
Matthew 9:32-38 When one goes through the daily news, I guess one cannot refrain from the question, “What are all these things going on in the world today?” When earthquakes are just around the corner… When violence is on a scale that is unthinkable… When world leaders act like dictators… When morality is based on…
The Greatest
One of the beauties of traveling is that we learn a lot. As the saying goes, if we don’t learn from History, we are bound to repeat it. When it comes to travel and history, one important lesson is that nothing lasts forever. What was once the greatest city is now all ruins; what was…