HOLY MONDAY
SERVANT DIPLOMAT PAR EXCELLENCE
Here is my servant… my chosen one…he shall bring forth justice … not crying, not shouting … set as a covenant … a light for the nations. – Isaiah 42: 1-2, 6
Today is the start of the Holy Week. It reminds me of the First Celebration of the Eucharist. God’s Diplomat, even if He was the Son of the Most High, washed the feet of His apostles. I remember this most touching act of humility whenever I attend Holy Mass. It shows me a love that cleanses and dies on the Cross. I try to remember this greatest love story on earth daily. And I give thanks for it.
As Chief Ambassador for God, He did not equate Himself with the Almighty. He went about His mission in the gentlest and most unassuming way. Very diplomatically, He ate with tax collectors and did not throw a stone upon an adulterer. His peaceful and healing ways opened the eyes of the blind and brought out prisoners from their sinful dungeons.
He brought peace, became the bridge between heaven and earth and connected man back to God. The beginning of the holiest and yes, the happiest week of our liturgical year invites me to live for others — dying to my selfish wants to give life to my fellow pilgrims on earth as we journey to eternity. Grace Princesa (grprincesa@yahoo.com)
REFLECTION:
Paradoxically, as Christ did, in order to give life, we must first die. Just like seeds in the earth’s darkness before seeing the light of day, Good Friday comes before Easter Sunday.
Lord, as Your ambassador, may I do the purposes that You want me to do during my earthly existence — just as You did in Your short life in loving , humble and sacrificial
service.
BEING PRO-POOR IS HIGH RISK
The Church — going back to the radical demands of the Gospel of Jesus — began to pronounce a reflected, systematic and elaborated theology on social teachings and involvement since the papacy of Leo XIII. This was a response to the growing tide of socialism and communism that started to captivate the hearts and minds of ideologues and idealists who were reacting to the evils of capitalism and commercialism that were also rapidly eating up societies.
The Church’s social doctrine states that there is a common ground for the Church and for socialism regarding their genuine concern for the plight and welfare of the poor, and those victimized by the inhuman workings of capitalism. However, the Church does not share the thought that the only way out of the issue is violent and revolutionary dialectics between the rich and the poor. The Church does not share socialism and communism’s ideal that to be “pro-poor,” one has to be “anti-rich.” The Church uses the expression “preferential option for the poor,” rather than the expression “pro-poor” which connotes the relative term “anti-rich.” The Church advocates that hope lies in making both rich and poor realize that they are children of God, and therefore both of them are meant by God to use and to progress with the earth’s resources with responsibility and mutual concern.
The Gospel of today underlines how being “pro-poor” alone is insufficient and unbalanced. The figure of Judas Iscariot in today’s narration exemplifies this risk. This risk has been exemplified as real in our milieu by the number of priests and religious whose immersion with the plight of the poor led them to bitterness with society, and to bitterness even with the Church. Needless to say, these men and women, like Judas Iscariot, ended up leaving behind the Church and the Gospel that opened their eyes to the poor. Fr. Domie Guzman, SSP
Reflection Question:
What is your gut-feel reaction to the issue of rich and poor in our country, and in your own Christian community? In what way do you need purification of heart and mind as regards this aspect of your Christian commitment? Are you able to keep a balanced view of issues, while you also become actively involved in works and apostolate for the needy and the disadvantaged?
Help me, O Lord, to see with Your eyes so that I may love like You.
St. Gladys, pray for us.
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