HOMILY

We may wonder why on this Fifth Sunday of Easter we are reading the 13th chapter of the Gospel of St John opening the Passion of Jesus. Well, St John didn’t simply record events but he preached the Good News of Jesus. There is no doubt that writing these verses about the final moments of  Jesus he remembered his Master in the glory of his Resurrection. The passage read this Sunday is very short but it is packed with 5 references of God the Father being glorified in Jesus and God the Father glorifying Jesus. St John witnessed the Father being glorified through the obedience of Jesus on the cross and he also witnessed the Father glorifying Jesus in the Resurrection. This part of the Gospel of St John, beginning with Chapter 13 is called the Book of Glory, not simply because the word GLORY is mentioned many times but because it is the
manifestation of the powerful actions of God who through the death and  Resurrection of His Son. God enters once again the stage of the world not to  terrorize the world but to save the world from the terrorism of sin and death. The Resurrection of Christ is the burst of life. It reveals how powerful this life God brings into our world through the rising of his Son from death is.
    In last few weeks I was attending a course at the Sacred Heard Centre. There was so much we studied that I will need to go back to the materials to refresh my memory but there is something I remember without any notes. Doing my daily walks I noticed some sheep on the property. There was one sheep that got my attention. It had only three legs. I could see that following the rest of the flock was very difficult for this “disabled sheep.” First I thought that it was cruel to keep this sheep alive. A couple of days later I changed my mind. Do you know why? I saw a new born lamb following it. The seep had a baby. As I was standing and contemplating the scene I couldn’t help thinking that life can overpower all limitations and disadvantages. The glory of God revealed in the death and Resurrection of Jesus gives us life that is more than surviving another day, more than putting up with problems of life, more than coping with life issues. It is life of God that springs out of our problems, issues and limitations because the power of the Holy Spirit is there.
    Let me finish with what Jesus said to his Apostles in today’s Gospel: “I give you a new commandment: Love one another, just as I have loved you.” This expression “just as” that St John wrote in the original text means more than an example set for us to follow. It also means a source or a foundation. That’s why as we listen to this commandment of Jesus let’s remember that it also means “Love one another drawing love from the source of my love for you.” Then we experience the explosion of life that Jesus tasted when he was leaving his tomb. We experience that we love even those we dislike, those who annoy us, those who hurt or take advantage of us. We love them because the Holy Spirit lives and works in us to the Glory of God the Father and in this way our live become the continuation of the Book of Glory from the Gospel of St John. This Book starts with the Chapter 13 but it is still being written as God is being glorified in us and through us.

When we say “Holy Land” our thoughts go the area where Jesus Christ lived, died and rose from the dead. However for me there is another area I call “Holy Land”. It is the Oblate cemetery in Cotobato, here in the Philippine Islands. The place of rest of some of our Oblate Martyrs. One of them is Fr. Jesus Reynaldo Roda OMI who was mercilessly killed on January 15, 2008 in the remote island of Tabawan. Around 7:30 in the evening Father Rey was praying inside the chapel, as he used to do after dinner, when he was taken forcibly by his captors. “If you want me, then just kill me here in God’s chapel!” Those  were the words heard from Fr. Rey. Outside the chapel, a piercing shot was heard loud in the dark. Later, Fr. Rey’s body was found left on a road near the shoreline from where the murderers sped away in a motorized boat. His body bore several wounds from gunshots, stabs and lacerations in the head, face, neck, and abdomen and on the back. From the wounds it is quite clear that he was meant to be killed and not to be kidnapped. The same cemetery also treasures the remains of Fr Benjamin Inocencio OMI who was murdered at the back of the cathedral in Jolo on 28 December 2000. To many, Fr. Benjie as he was known, was the least likely victim of violence. He was one of the kindest and one of the most peaceful creatures on earth. As a scholastic and a missionary, he would prefer to do house chores to street demonstrations. Yet, in the end, the lamb-like Fr. Benjie ended in the altar of sacrifice –victim of wanton violence and fanaticism!
There is another oblate martyr: Bishop Benjamin de Jesus OMI who was murdered in front of Mt Carmel Cathedral in Jolo on 4th February 1997.
Bishop Ben would go around Jolo and the whole diocese always with a smile and a greeting of peace on his lips. He would listen endlessly to the cry of his people, Muslims and Christians alike.
Two weeks before the bishop was martyred, a devoted woman came to tell an Oblate of her vision.  She said, “Father, I have seen a vision. I’ve seen throngs of people in the clouds and they were carrying lighted candles.  They surrounded someone who was dressed in white robe.”  Then, the lady asked innocently, “What does that vision mean, Father?” The priest did not know what it meant but he wanted to be polite with her and so he explained that perhaps what she saw in her vision was the Last Day of Judgment as told in the book of Revelations and depicted by artists in some of those medieval paintings. When she left, he forgot everything about that encounter. But during the wake Bishop Ben, that same woman approached him again and said, “Father, do you remember the vision I told you about”? He was temporarily suspended.  He looked at her and said, “Yes, I remember.”
If indeed it was God’s will that Bishop Ben would die, then, we believe it was not without purpose.  Bishop Ben’s death has moved many peace advocates throughout the country to work even more for peace to reign in the Philippines.  His dream of a harmonious relationship among Muslims and Christians has inspired the hearts of a new wave of dialoguers. Bishop Ben’s martyrdom became a symbol of dialogue and peace.

Homily

What do you find most striking in the story of Jesus? Forgiveness? Love? Wisdom? Miraculous powers? But do you pay attention to how we apply these qualities to Our Blessed Lord? We say Jesus forgives. Jesus loves. He is wise. He performs miracles. We don’t attribute these qualities to the past but we apply them to the present time. Why do we do such a crazy thing? Because what actually strikes us most in the story of Jesus is his Resurrection. When Paul was travelling around the Mediterian Sea with the Word of God he kept saying: “Anastasis, Anastasis!” “Resurrection, Resurrection!”
 Some months ago I was doing my groceries and as I got to the cashier, by the way I was wearing a clerical collar, the girl who was scanning the items, looked up at me and asked: “Why did you become a priest?” My first thought was:  “For God’s sake I am shoning now. Do you need to ask me these deep questions?” Of course I didn’t say that. What I said was: “God wanted me to become a priest.” I just wanted to keep it short. The girl retorted: “Good answer.”
Dear Friends of Jesus!
    As I was driving home with the bags of groceries I couldn’t help thinking that that girl gave me a good Spiritual Direction session. I can’t take you to that supermarket right now to repeat the experience but on this Good Shepherd Sunday when the Church contemplates the face of the Savior, the Good Shepherd, the Church also turns her attention to those who follow the religious or priestly vocation and we pray for new vocations as well. This Fourth Sunday of Easter is an opportunity to ask what we find sticking in our nuns, brothers and bishops. I guess there would be many answers but I wonder if we could bring all these different expressions to one – RESURRECTION? Most of us gathered at this Eucharist, here in Manila, follow religious or priestly vocation but, do we really, really believe that our best gift to the Church Community and to the World is that we have encountered the Risen Christ.
    There is this movie, a teenage boy comes home with a black eye and upon his arrival the mother says: “You’ve met Tome again.” This black eye if we translated it to the Christian language is the vocation story as the vocation story is the result, the outcome of the encounter with the Risen Jesus.
    You know, I am very grateful that 2000 years ago they didn’t have any devices to record sounds. Why do I say that? Remember the beginning of the Gospel for this Mass: “The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice.” He doesn’t say “They listen to my message.” But he says: “They listen to my voice.” How can you hear the voice of a person? When you converse with the person or when you play a CD, MP3 on your phone of tablet with recording of the voice of the person. Do we have any recording of Jesus’ voice? I am not aware of any. So the only chance to hear his voice is when He converses with us. He the Risen Lord converses with us indeed because he isn’t in the past, he is with us today.
    In 2002 the Vatican Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life issued a letter titled Starting afresh from Christ. In the letter we read: “Starting afresh from Christ means once again finding one's first love, the inspiring spark which first gave rise to the following." To describe the following let me use what Blessed John Paul II wrote in the Adhortation  Vita Consecrata “It is a life taken up by Christ, touched by the hand of Christ, a life where his voice is heard, a life sustained by his grace.”
    As I said at the beginning of this homily, our best gift to the Church Community and to the World is that we have encountered the Risen Christ doesn’t mean that we are better, that Christ came to us not others but it is a reminder that Christ is present in this World, not in the past and those in the World of this present age can encounter him too.

    We are well into the second week of our three-week-course which is organized by EMMAUS Center for Psycho-Spiritual Formation
The Centre specializes in providing training for nuns, brothers and priests who are or will be involved in the formation ministry. Basically it helps those who are appointed by their bishops or superiors to accompany the candidates for priesthood and religious life. The course I am undertaking at the moment in Manila is called Orientation to Spiritual Direction for Formators and it is composed of two units: Introduction to Prayer and Spiritual Direction in Formation  Context.
     As you may sense a priest or a religious isn’t just doing prayers and various services with and for people but he or she needs to be a person who is deeply rooted in prayer. During the morning sessions we learn how to guide a novice who joins a congregation or a diocese into a personal prayer which flows from the love of Jesus and nurtures this love for Our Blessed Lord.
    The afternoon sessions are focused on Spiritual Direction which give us some tools how to accompany a candidate in his personal spiritual growth. I find it very fascinating to be able to recognize the movements of the Holy Spirit in another person and constantly draw a prayerful attention of the candidate to this activity of God within him or her. Spiritual Direction (individually accompanying a person) cannot be appreciated without a strong conviction that Jesus is present in this world very powerfully, that he is involved in our personal story as well. Just think, how much good can a priest or a nun do if she can see Jesus working in others. In this way the good already accomplished by the Lord can be relished and savored by the person but this awareness won’t happen if the nun or the priest cannot see the hand of Christ in their own life. That’s why we are learning during the course how to develop in our future nuns, brothers and priests this attentiveness to God manifesting himself in different events of their own lives.
    We are very blessed to have Eva and Francisca, lay women, whose deep faith in Christ and solid psychological background make the whole seminar a thrilling experience of God present in people’s stories. Both of them have also got an extensive expertise in giving Spiritual Direction as they are “employed” as Spiritual Directors in a number of Seminaries here in Manila.
    In regards to participants, there are 15 of us: 3 nuns, 3 brothers, 8 priests and a lay woman who will be working for EMMAUS Center. It is a very international mixture but what unites us is JESUS CHRIST and openness to do the job which is very crucial for the Catholic Community training our future leaders. An interesting thing I have found is that nobody has applied for this job. Our common experience is that we were asked by our superiors or bishops to undertake this ministry of formation.
If you would like to learn more about EMMAUS Center that their website
http://www.emmausphil.org/

    Can you find in the Gospel for this Sunday something that sound strange in terms of our daily experience? You don’t need to use any theology or spirituality. Simply think about you daily experience…. It’s hard. Isn’t it? Because when we read and reflect on the Scriptures we jump to some high thoughts straight away. Let me tell you what I find strange in this passage of St John’s Gospel. Usually when somebody goes to have a swim the person takes off the clothes. However, as we heard a few minutes ago, Peter did an opposite thing. In the boat when he heard from John that there was Jesus on the shore, he who  was practically naked according to the Gospel, put on his clothes and then jumped into the Lake of Galilee. One could say that it wasn’t a rational thing to do, that it wasn’t very graceful of Peter.
    There is the story of a man going to monk to ask him how to grow in the relationship with Jesus. The monk asked him to go down to a lake. When they got into the water the monk pushed the man under the water. After a minute or so he helped him up. When the visitor recovered the monk said: “You will grow in your relationship with God when you desire God as much as you desired air when I kept you under the water.”  Now you can see that Peter wasn’t out of mind. But he desired Jesus so much that he had only one thing on his mind – TO JOIN HIS MASTER ON THE LAKE SHORE. If somebody is drowning he doesn't think about being graceful or about presenting himself in an impressive manner. He simply wants to get to the surface. He wouldn’t care what he would like if somebody recorded him on an I Pad or a cell phone. Peter didn’t care about what people could say of him he wanted TO BE WITH HIS MASTER.
Dear Friends of Christ!           
     Now let us ask a more spiritual question. What created this strong desire for Jesus in Peter? Well if it were up to me I would choose another passage for  the first reading for this Sunday. It would be taken from Genesis. It would be  about what happened when the first parents sinned. The Holy Scripture says that they hid. Their guilt got better of them. Peter from today’s Gospel shows us
that there is another way to deal with guilt, with sin. Peter goes to Jesus. In  one of the reflections we’ve been given lately it was written that every person  longs for being loved. In his sin Peter still discovered that he wanted to be  loved, not that he deserved to be loved but that he wanted to be loved. That why he was swimming the Lake of Galilee, fully dressed, not as a mad man but as a saint. As the one who depends on God’s love for him. A priest was once teaching children Catechism and he asked them how a saint can be described. A little child very innocently answered: “A saint is somebody who doesn’t need to go to confessions anymore!” I would hate to be in the position of the priest as it is a daunting thing to say to a child that it is not right. We can see where the child comes from, that a saint is like a hero who is perfect through and through. But if we can set off on this journey to become saints ourselves we wouldn’t go far having such a plan. What we need to know that there is God whose love for us is called mercy. It means that he loves us not because we are perfect but because without his love we will have a dysfunctional life. Hiding ourselves all the time like Adam and Eve did or ending up in such despair like Judas.
    Let me finish with a message I believe is an important one to hear not just for us but for all people: When Peter got to Jesus an unexpected thing happened. Jesus showed Peter that in his, Peter’s heart, the heart of coward and betrayer there was still love for Jesus. It doesn’t matter how messed up your life may be, how big your sins may be you, how much physical, emotional, psychological, moral and spiritual pain you experience can still love Jesus. YOU CAN.

On Sunday afternoon Fr Hill, a Philippine Oblate, and I moved across Manila to arrive at the Sacred Heart Retreat House in Quezon City to check in for our course. Sacred Heart will be our school and home for the rest of the month. It is run by Jesuits, the same congregation which gave us Pope Francis. The first impression I had was an amazement at how many chapels and prayer rooms you can find in the complex. One cannot complain at the shortage of places to pray or reflect. Although we are no on a spiritual retreat but the very fact that it is a retreat house makes a big impact on the dynamic of our session. We have our classes and discussions sessions that sometimes can be noisy but as soon as we step out of our classroom we are immediately immersed into a very prayerful atmosphere of the place. We don’t feel like taking as we go, for example to our dining room, when we see so many nuns, priests and lay people undergoing their spiritual exercises and observing silence all the time. Their silence has spread into our outside class time. I think that the last time I felt like that was two years ago when I went to Lourdes where Our Blessed Mother appeared to St Bernadette. Even when I go for my daily walk, by the way it is a very early walk at 5.30am as later it gets very hot, there are people in all parts of this huge property occupying every possible bench to pray or to meditate. To be honest I don’t expected to have such a spiritual time. I prepared myself just for another training but Our Dear Lord has given me such a holy time to enjoy. In a sense I shouldn’t be surprised as I have already discovered that fervent prayer of another human being lends wings to my own prayer experience. Sometimes we may feel that prayer it is our privet, personal thing, that it is my business with God. However if we think what prayer is all about, that it is an encounter with the Risen Lord can we be surprised that Jesus on the way to see us touches others. I’ve always encouraged people to be generous with their prayer, in their families, in their social life and of course in their church in order to make impact on others.
The Sacred Heart House is also the Novitiate of the Jesuits in the Philippines. It means that here, the young men who want to be Jesuits, spend their initial two years in order to embrace this way of life and prepare themselves for taking religious vows. I’ve just learnt that at the moment there are 6 people in the Novitiate here. Apparently it is a small group. I would be over the moon to have such a group in Australia. If you read this, I ask you to pray for new candidates to the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, particularly in  Australia.
Weather keeps spoiling us. It is still very hot and humid though it is not as hot as I anticipated. I hardly use air-conditioning in my room. The only downside of this most enriching experience is that I am going to end up with a dysfunctional behavior by the end of April. I was aware that rise is popular in Asia but to have it for your breakfast, lunch and dinner is a bit overdoing to me. I am predicting that I will end up being addicted to rice or I  will hate it for the rest of my life.

After some troubles with hiring a car to move my belongings from Sydney to Melbourne I managed to hit the road and after 10 hours I got to my new home: St Mary's Seminary, Mulgrave, Vic. Following days were very busy as I had to finalize  my trip to the Philippines and organize some other stuff for my time away. During my packing process I had a visit from Fr Cornelius  Ngoka OMI who is part of General Administration in Rome. Fr Cornelius is responsible for Formation in the Oblate Congregation. During his visit I also met Fr Leo Mifsud OMI, our New Provincial who once again offered me his support for my new ministry in the Seminary.
During that short time in Melbourne I went to our church in Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula to visit Fr John Hannah OMI. I found Fr John in good spirit in spite of various health issues he is struggling with. I am always moved by his deep faith which is evident in his cheerfulness and friendship he extends to so many around him. I remember my beginnings Down Under when Fr John was PP in Sorrento. From my first visit to the place he made me feel so welcome that even now after a number of years in Australia and a few parishes I have been to, every time I go to Sorrento I feel like going home.
On 6th of April I got on the plane to Manila and after 8 hours I got safe and sound to the Capital of the Philippines. By the way, when dinner was served during the flight the young man sitting next to me got his chicken before me and started eating. When my chicken was served I blessed myself and said a quire grace. Then the fellow next to me put the for and knife aside and he blessed himself as well saying his grace. I think that sometimes we don't value how important this simple prayers are. Upon arrival, once again I experienced great hospitality of the local Oblates. I got spoilt as they picked me up from the airport and transported to the Oblate Seminary here where I was staying until the beginning of the course. Talking about being spoilt, I can't forget beautiful, hot and sticky weather that welcomed me to this tropical place. After freezing nights in Melbourne it was a welcome change. The seminary in Manila is very boring at the moment as the students are on their summer holidays. Anyway I had a chance to spend some time with Fr Hillario who is still in the seminary but shortly will move south to Cotobato to look after the novices. Fr Hill will be my classmates during this course in Manila.

A few photos of the Oblate Seminary in Manila :)

How do you know that somebody has a
flu?  ..... The person coughs and sneezes, has high temperature or a running nose.
 How do you know that somebody is alive?  ...... The person walks and sings, eats and drinks, works hard or works hard not  to work, sleeps and wakes up, loughs and cries.
 How do you know that somebody has fallen  in love? Well, the girl looks at the boy as if he were the only male in this  valley of tears. The boy may start reading books and watching movie she would  never bother about otherwise, but he does it to impress the girl.
 How do you know that somebody is a Christian? That's a big question. Isn't it? To answer this big question I would like to use the conversation I had with a parishioner some days ago. She asked me: "What is this Spirituality thing you are going to study when you leave  our church in a couple of  weeks." Well, spirituality is not simply you character or your temperament. It  is not a skill to focus or calm yourself down. Spirituality isn't the ability to  be inspirational either. To understand it properly let's listen what St Paul  wrote in one of his letters: "I don' live my life any longer it is Jesus Christ  who lives in me." Spirituality is simply manifestation of the dwelling of Christ  in a person. Spirituality it is Christ Jesus visible through the actions, words  and decisions of a Christian. Not all of us are called to study Spirituality but  all of us are called to Spirituality, all of us are called to allow Christ to  shine through us. This is the powerful message of this Holy Vigil of the  Resurrection of The Lord. It is not a celebration of an even of the past but it  is a celebration of joy and praise that the Spirit of the Risen Lord is poured  into our humanity. We can be spiritual people because The Lord is Risen and  living in us. I hope and I pray that our constant wish and prayer may be like  this: "Lord live in me. Live in my decisions. Live in my words. Live in my  actions. May people watching me see you."
 Dear Friends of Jesus who have followed him faithfully through the last three days like Our Lady and St John. I'd like to give you an image of how important this Paschal Mystery (the Mystery of his death and Resurrection) is. I'm going to use a brilliant story of The Lord of the Ring. I need to confess that I never read the book. I've tried a few times but the greatest achievement was when I got to the page 20. However I enjoy the movies based on the Tolkien's books. As you may be aware Tolkien created this story to get the message of Jesus across. Those of you who are familiar with the  story know that it is full of wars and battles. It is easy to be captivated by  this stuff but the story isn't about those big wars. It is the story of a little  guy called Fredo who I carrying a certain ring. The ring is the source of all  evil. Fredo is making his journey to destroy the ring otherwise nothing will  change. Wars and battles will keep brake in the world. The most powerful scene  is when the ring is destroyed, when Fredo blows up evil from its within. It is  the story of Jesus' Death and Resurrection. Those who crucified him thought they  won. Thy we're sure they managed to get rid of him but what happened that first  Three Days of Easter 2000 years ago was Jesus going to the nest of evil, taking  there not only his holy cross but the power of the Holy Spirit and blowing evil  up in its source. That powerful moment, that can never be fully explained is all  about spreading of goodness initiated by The Lord. All of us who have been  baptised participate in this expansion. Albert who will be baptised in a few  minutes will be immersed in Christ' great victory too.  Always hold fast to what we celebrated   last tree days. Death and evil have been conquered. They have been conquered in  us too.
Christ is risen!

Once again we prayed the Stations of the Cross outside. IHM Youth did a fantastic job presenting 14 scenes from the moment when the Lord was condemned to the final station when the Body of Christ was placed in the tomb.

Homily

Once I was having a dinner with a  family  when I was told: "Father you should get Andrew to sing in the church  choir.  He's got a pretty good voice. I heard him sing in the shower." Poor Andrew  choked.  When he got control of the food in his mouth he retorted: "Mum, please  stop it.  You are embarrassing me." I felt sorry for the fellow so I said:  "Don't worry.  You are safe. I am not going to drag you into our parish choir.  But just think  why you sing in the  shower.....you feel safe and relax there."
 Dear Friends of Jesus gathered tonight  to celebrate this Holy Night when The Lord Jesus had the Last Supper with his  disciples. In the Gospel it is said only once Jesus sang. He sang after the Last  Supper when he was walking with the Apostles out of the Upper Room.
Let's  ask  what made him sing. Why did he feel secure and safe that night? As we read  the  story of that final days of him we discover that death was hovering there like a  bird of pray.  The Evangelist says that darkness covered the land like a shadow of a predator. There is also no doubt that Jesus knew what was going to happen but he still sang. He wasn't out of his mind. When you read the Gospel written by the beloved  disciple of Jesus, St John you find out that the Gospel is divided into two  parts. The first half of the Gospel is about Jesus' public ministry the second  part is about his Passion and Resurrection. In the first part we find that over  50 times Jesus talks about life or about living. In the second part of the  Gospel another word becomes more common on the lips of the Saviour, more then 30  times he mentions LOVE. His life is going to be brutally cut short but at this  point of the reign of darkness Jesus lives love most intensely. He isn't loosing  his life but he sacrifices his life, he offers his life as an act of love for  his Heavenly Father and as an act of love for us his human sisters and brothers.  That's what made him sing that night when he was walking to embrace the events  of Good Friday. It's worth stressing that it wasn't an accident or coincidence.  It was his choice coming from his loving heart. Every year thousands of lambs  were slaughtered in the Temple. The animals had no choice but the Lamb of God  whom we acknowledge at every Mass chose to die so that we could have eternal  life.
 Dear Friends of Christ. As you enter  these Most Sacred Three Days of Easter I beg you, listen to Our Lord singing and  may this divine music resounds in your hearts and minds to remind you that the  life that is spent for God and others makes sense. That's the only life that  makes you sing as you live love. If you think that it is impossible, let me tell  you: You can sing even with tears in your eyes. I pray so that the Holy Spirit  could powerfully enter into your life as Christ gives up his life for us.