Are You Disturbed Yet?

To us he is the censure of our thoughts;
merely to see him is a hardship for us,
Because his life is not like that of others,
and different are his ways.
- Wisdom 5:14

Mass Readings for March 15, 2013

Wis 2:1a, 12-22 

PS 34:17-18, 19-20, 21 and 23

Jn 7:1-2, 10, 25-30

I'm a lurker in pretty much a lot of Catholic blogs, forums and YouTube channels as I try to learn about my Catholic faith...and of course, to grow more in my spiritual walk with Jesus.

One of the things that I always, always encounter when I read the discussions in the comments section are quite violent reactions to the Catholic message. Often, it's not just to things Catholic but things Christian.

People would go out of their way to lambaste belief in God and Heaven. It's like Christ, Heaven, Hell, faith and salvation are four-letter words that sets of bombs of affront in people's minds.

Flame ensues as each person defends their positions. The virulence could get so ugly at times so site moderators come in to stop the fracas.

That's when I realize, Jesus and His message do create divisions among us. If truth be known, it even creates divisions within families (Luke 12:52-53).

Habemus Papam! 11 Things About Pope Francis

We have a new pope, praise God! And by the name he chose—Francis I, a salute to St. Francis of Assisi (and two more St. Francises, if you think about it)—it looks like his papacy is going to be one of the humility he’s been known for.

Hubby and I came home from an bureaucratic appointment to the news that Cardinal Jose Mario Bergoglio, 76 years old and (now) former Archbishop of Buenos Aires, is the new occupant of St. Peter’s Chair.

The new pontiff, Pope Francis I

Of course, we were excited to know who the new Papa was going to be. One of our own countrymen, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Archbishop of Manila, was in third place on New Advent’s list of papabile this morning before we set out for Orlando (Cardinal Bergoglio was seeded 31st). A Filipino in Rome, perhaps the most influential (ergo, most powerful) person in the whole world! (It was a long shot but we were tickled by the possibility.)

We’re happy about God’s choice though.

Let’s get to know Pope Francis I, shall we?

1. The erstwhile Cardinal Bergoglio is, by all intents, two years younger than Pope Benedict XVI when the latter ascended to the papacy. He was born in Buenos Aires to an Italian railway worker and he’s brother to four other siblings.
2. He’s a Jesuit—something surprising, considering that the Society of Jesus are “generally discouraged” from “ecclesiastical advancement” outside of their mission countries.
3. He was the provincial in Argentina in the mid-70s, at the time when clerics were moving towards active involvement in the liberation theology movement in the years of the country’s military junta. He instructed his priests to be more active in the parishes to shepherd the people instead of struggling in the frontlines of political activism and “base communities”. (In other words, he was the cool head that reined in the hot heads, in a manner of speaking, who wanted to be in the trenches fighting for the people. After all, there is another way to help your flock other than militancy and community immersion, isn’t it?)

And I Say to You: You Rock!

And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
- Matthew 16:18

Today's Mass Readings:
1 Pt 5:1-4 | Ps 23:1-3a, 4, 5, 6 | Mt 16:13-19

If you mosey on over to Wikipedia to read on how rocks are formed, you’ll see that these solid immovable objects were the products of extremely stressful events—the cooling down of magma, the compaction of matter, and going through tremendously harsh pressures and temperatures. In short, rocks didn’t have it easy on their way to their current indestructible form.

Image by EvanS/Wikimedia Commons

And so did Peter, before he stepped into his designation as the first Pope at Pentecost Sunday.

He had to go cut off someone else’s ear in the Garden of Gethsemane in a moment of bravado (before that, he was snoozing like a baby). Then he scrammed like a scaredy cat when they arrested Jesus. He denied the same Friend he promised he’ll never turn his back on even at the point of death. And he cowered from the authorities—in utter terror—behind a locked door in an upper room somewhere (methinks he was probably quaking behind Mama Mary’s skirts…just sayin’).

Before GG (the Garden of Gethsemane), Peter was an all around swell guy. Until he got blasted with the heat of being in Jesus’ company and the prospect of being crucified himself. Then he just became any ordinary guy out to protect his own hide.

God Always Answers Prayers

Which one of you would hand his son a stone
when he asked for a loaf of bread,
or a snake when he asked for a fish?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him.
- Matthew 7:9-10

Today's Mass Readings:
Esther C:12, 14-16, 23-25 | Psalm 138:1-2ab, 2cde-3, 7c-8 | Matthew 7:7-12

One of the things that I’ve mastered in my relationship with God over the last three years—or even before that, to be honest about it—is the pouty sulk. When I don’t get the answer to prayer that I wanted, a full tantrum ensues.

I start pouting during prayer time—griping about why I didn’t get what I was praying for at the time I (thought) I needed it. Then when He raises His divine brow, the full metal sulk commences, complete with grumbling and the silent treatment. I know, preposterous of me to throw a fit before the Lord, but I’m claiming beloved child privileges.

God, in His infinite patience, let’s me get over the disappointment my own way. And once the honest-to-goodness crying jags start—no tricks this time—He gathers me into His loving arms and patiently explains to me, in language I understand, why His response to my prayer wasn’t what I was expecting to get.

One of the longest-running prayers that hubby and I have ever had is for a child of our own. It seemed like we’ve been praying for 1,000 years already. (So far, I’m still Nanny Mommy to my nephew—a sort of built-in babysitter.)

Then I turned 41 last year.

Get Up, Dust Yourself, and Sin No More

When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out. - Jonah 3:20

Today’s Mass Readings:

Jonah 3:1-10  | Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 18-19 | Luke 11:29-32

Jonah and the Whale by Pieter Lastman (1583–1633)

I’m insufferably proud of my two-year-old nephew. (What aunt isn’t, eh?) He’s very smart. His vocabulary’s growing in leaps and bounds and already, he’s teaching himself stuff. Praise God for YouTube, I always say, because he’s set his after-meal routines to watching Baby Einstein, Special Agent Oso, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and nursery rhymes.

There’s one thing that’s got me concerned though. He’s turning out to be the little perfectionist. He’s so used to getting it right the first time that when he doesn’t he’d scrap the effort. Watching him, it’s like he’d go, “Ah, what the heck! It’s not worth the angst anyway!”

Scares me a bit, he does. It takes a bit of prodding and cajoling and bribing to get him to try again. And he does try again but sometimes it feels like the little guy’s just humoring me. I know because he tries again half-hearted like.

Watching my Li’l Prince (as I call him) learn stuff is a lot like watching myself whenever I take a spiritual stumble—that is, commit a sin.

I know and you know that kids have to go through a lot of mistakes before they can ever learn anything. It’s the major way we humans are wired to get to know the world. So when we see kids take a tumble, we urge them to get up, dust themselves, and try again until they get it right. We don’t allow them to give up because we know what they’re capable of. Plus, we’ve got the ‘wisdom of the ages’ working in our favor. We know they’ll eventually get stuff right one of these days.

The same thoughts must be going through our Heavenly Father’s mind when He sees us fall into sin and don’t bother getting up from the muck we’ve gotten ourselves in.

7 Quick Takes Friday, Vol. 1

- 1 -

The high point of my week is getting up on Monday noon (I keep strange hours, what can I say?) and getting the news from my BIL that the Pope’s resigning.

I say, “Wut?!”

I thought I didn’t quite hear it right. C’mon, I just woke up. My mind—and ears, which had never been good to begin with—might have processed that itty bitty bombshell wrong.

But no! The Pope, indeed, was resigning. So said the local TV news. It was even plastered all over Google News when I went on it to find out why.

I’ve shared my take on Pope Benedict’s resignation on this blog. I must’ve been so shocked that it got me out of blog hibernation...something that the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday couldn’t even do.

I do agree with his reasoning—if he doesn’t have the physical strength to give his best to the ministry that God has entrusted to him, and he’ll end up doing stuff atrociously, what good will that do to us Catholics? We’re asked to give our best to God (Mal 1:8, Col 3:23) and the pope’s more aware than anybody else of what that means.

I’m praying that our next pope will be much younger and able—spiritually, mentally and physically—to lead St. Peter’s “bark” in this rapidly changing, digitized world.

- 2 -

I just have a beef with the Pope’s timing, is all.

Why, oh why, Pope Benedict, do you have to exit left on my wedding anniversary?

Weighing In on the Resignation of Pope Benedict XVI

My lifetime witnessed so far the elevation of four popes into the Seat of St. Peter: Paul VI (1963-78), John Paul I (1978), John Paul II (1978-2005), and more recently, Benedict XVI (2005-)...which tells something about my age, heh.

The first two, I must confess, never made any impression on me for the simple reason that Pope John Paul II was elected when I was in first grade, years before my First Communion (even though I went to a Catholic school). I only became aware of JPII in the winter of 1995, when he visited the Philippines for the tenth World Youth Day celebrations (January 10-15, 1995). Pope Benedict XVI...well, him I’m familiar with because he came onto my radar when I was already an adult in the Catholic faith, in a manner of speaking.

Photo: Reuters

The recent resignation of Pope Benedict took me by surprise, to say the least. Truth be told, it was shocking. I mean, can popes resign—“carry your cross and follow Me” and all that jazz? Apparently, they can.

The text of Pope Benedict’s resignation says it clearly:

After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. 

His strength is fading and if reports are to be believed, he's very sick. His frailties didn’t deter John Paul II’s service, but his papacy didn’t see the kind of inner turbulence that marked Benedict’s: the child abuse scandals, the Vatileaks, politics and what looks like vicious in-fighting within the Vatican, accusations of money-laundering and tax evasion by its in-house bank, the growing encroachment of evangelicals in traditional Catholic enclaves across the globe, the rapid changes brought on by an equally rapidly-digitizing world, and so on...