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THE WORD

Ac 14,19-28 / Jn 14,27-31

Jesus said to his disciples, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe. I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me, but the world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me. Get up, let us go.”

 

IN OTHER WORDS

If you are troubled and worried, Jesus’ GOOD NEWS is for you: “Do not let your hearts be troubled

or afraid.” “Come to Me,” Jesus invites us, “all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest“ (Mt. 11:28). God is bigger than our troubles, worries, and fears.

Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you.” He is giving us peace of mind and heart, telling us to REJOICE, and be HAPPY. He says, “I am going away and I will come back to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.” Jesus has risen from the dead and conquered sin. Though he is going back to God the Father he is leaving us with His peace. Jesus says, “My peace I give to you.” And as a result, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Mt. 5:9).

Jesus invites us, “Get up!” An invitation to rise up with Him from our fallen situations – our miseries, problems, and sinfulness. To His apostles, He says, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Lk 24:38-39). Jesus is indeed victorious over sin and death.

Jesus invites us again, “Let’s go!” An invitation to participate in His mission. Before Jesus ascends into heaven, He commands His apostles, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Mt. 28: 19-20).

This is Jesus’ promise – I am with you always. Hence, we should not be troubled and afraid.

  • Fr. Ferdinand Alfante, SVD | CT, Manila

The Word in other words 2016

An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.

 

THE WORD

1 Pt 5,5-14 / Mk 16,15-20

Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them, ‘Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation. He who believes and is baptised will be saved; he who does not believe will be condemned. These are the signs that will be associated with believers in my name they will cast out devils, they will have the gift of tongues, they will pick up snakes in their hands, and be unharmed should they drink deadly poison; they will lay their hands on the sick, who will recover.’ And so the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven; there at the right hand of God he took his place, while they, going out, preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by signs that accompanied it.

 

IN OTHER WORDS

On today’s feast of Saint Mark the Evangelist we reflect on the sacred author’s account of the “Great Commission.” When a person is about to die or embark on a long journey with no definite date of return, he/she usually leaves with trusted ones important tasks to be carried out in his/her absence. At the same time he/she assures them of support and “presence in spirit,” as well as the resources for the entrusted tasks.

In the gospel Jesus is commissioning His followers to spread the gospel and baptize believers. Though not physically present, Jesus manifests His abiding presence by enabling His followers with His own power to accomplish their mission. Then Jesus ascends to heaven as the mighty conqueror of sin and death, from where He will return in glory for the nal judgment day.

As we reflect on the gospel, we know that Jesus entrusts to us the very same commission He gave His disciples. We are to go forth and make Jesus and His gospel known to everyone. While this might seem a daunting task, we need not be afraid. We can start by being “living gospels” at home, at work, in fact wherever we are or whenever the opportunity presents itself to proclaim the good news to others through our renewed life in Christ.

Christianity is spread neither by keeping silent about it, nor by keeping it a closely guarded secret.

Rather it spreads when we communicate it personally by word and deed, and make good use of the means at our disposal like digital/cyber means of social communication. In this way we can be sure that Christ’s commission is being carried out, day-in, day-out, for the greater glory of God and the spread of His kingdom.

Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them, ‘Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation. He who believes and is baptised will be saved; he who does not believe will be condemned. These are the signs that will be associated with believers in my name they will cast out devils, they will have the gift of tongues, they will pick up snakes in their hands, and be unharmed should they drink deadly poison; they will lay their hands on the sick, who will recover.’

And so the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven; there at the right hand of God he took his place, while they, going out, preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by signs that accompanied it.

  • Fr. Lino Evora Nicasio, SVD | National Shrine of Saint Jude Thaddeus, Manila

The Word in other words 2016

An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.

 

THE WORD

FIRST READING: Ac 14,21-27

After they had proclaimed the good news to that city and made a considerable number of disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch. They strengthened the spirits of the disciples and exhorted them to persevere in the faith, saying, “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” They appointed presbyters for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, commended them to the Lord in whom they had put their faith. Then they traveled through Pisidia and reached Pamphylia.  After proclaiming the word at Perga they went down to Attalia. From there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work they had now accomplished. And when they arrived, they called the church together and reported what God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.

SECOND READING: Rev 21,1-5

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them [as their God]. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, [for] the old order has passed away.”

The one who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Then he said,

“Write these words down, for they are trustworthy and true.”

GOSPEL: Jn 13,31-35

When he had left, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. (If God is glorified in him,) God will also glorify him in himself, and he will glorify him at once. My children, I will be with you only a little while longer. You will look for me, and as I told the Jews, ‘Where I go you cannot come,’ so now I say it to you. I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

 

IN OTHER WORDS

My friends had long awaited their immigration papers and when these finally arrived, the husband was ecstatic. The wife, on the other hand, was in distress. As an only daughter should she entrust her bed-ridden mother to the care of relatives and join her husband and children in the new country, or should she stay behind to take care of her mother personally?

Some of us have either been directly or vicariously involved in such conflicts between parental duties and obligations versus marital rights and responsibilities. Most of us can sort out and distinguish the different sets of values and priorities involved on either side. Unfortunately the daughter’s practical choices are usually limited to only three courses of action. The first is to side with one group’s interests (e.g., her husband’s and children’s future) and sacrifice those of the other (the personal care of her mother). The second is to do nothing and hope that the others decide for her, i.e., wait for either the husband to volunteer postponing the migration or expect the mother to urge her daughter to join her husband while she looks for someone else to take care of her. The third is for everyone to sit down and together look for a creative and workable, if not always satisfactory, solution. Being related to someone and being burdened with corresponding responsibilities for a loved one is not only a fact of life, but the necessary test of our becoming authentic human beings.

Indeed for Christians it is the only way we can respond to Jesus’ commandment of love. Ask counselors about this situation and most will advise you to prioritize your affections and then be prepared to sacrifice the least demanding of your responsibilities. That is how we often decide conflicts of values and interests in a society. In the family, however, there is an unspoken rule: no matter what the conflict is about, we should never give up on each other. We should constantly seek the good of the whole and protect the interests of everyone, cost what it may. Where the choices are not between good and bad, but higher and lower values, or stronger and weaker attachments, or more urgent and less urgent needs, some solution is available, provided we do not close our minds to possibilities but offer each other win-win solutions. “Pag ayaw, may dahilan, pag gusto may paraan.” And this is where today’s gospel command applies, that we should love not just each other (where only two persons are involved), but one another (where community is engaged).

The Gospel improves on the Filipino saying: where caring is modeled on Christ’s charity, love will always find a way.

  • Fr. Dionisio Miranda, SVD | President, USC, Cebu City

The Word in other words 2016

An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.

 

 

THE WORD

Ac 14, 21-27 / Jn 14,7-14

Jesus said to his disciples, “If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”  Philip said to him, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.”

IN OTHER WORDS

 “You know, Father, for some time I left our church,” a parishioner told me one day. This was at the Saint Arnold Janssen Parish in Basak-San Nicolas, Cebu City, the only SVD-run parish in the whole of the Archdiocese of Cebu. I was serving this parish located in a depressed area for eight years.  “What do you mean?” I asked the man.

“I left our church and joined the other (Pentecostal!) church in our neighborhood. I was already taking part in their religious services there.” “And how was it there?” I inquired.

“I did not feel at home. Their church is bare. No images, no statues at all. I missed the statue of Saint Arnold and the image of Mama Mary and the image of the Lord Jesus. Most of all, I missed the Real Presence in our tabernacle with the sanctuary lamp beside it. And so, I’m coming back to our church, Father. Here I feel at home and can really pray.”

“Welcome back home!” I said gladly.” Be convinced now that this is where you belong.”

Did not that parishioner somehow echo what Philip told Jesus in our gospel today? “Master, show us the Father…” Was not Philip, in effect, asking for something concrete-- a representation, an icon, an image of the Father? The iconoclasts notwithstanding, people of flesh and blood need concrete representations in their devotional life.

In his answer to Philip, Jesus hits the nail on the head: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” Paul, in his Letter to the Colossians, puts it this way: Jesus is “the image of the unseen God.” (Col 1:15) In his “Treatise against the Heresies”, Irenaeus declares something similar: “… all saw the Father in the Son, for the Father is the invisible of the Son, the Son the visible of the Father.” Would such concepts as mercy and compassion and love not have remained abstract and cold had Jesus not made them of flesh and blood? Thanks to the Incarnation of the Word of God, we see and hear and feel the all-merciful, all-compassionate, all-loving God, in the person of Jesus, he being the perfect image of the Father.

Followers of Christ that we are, we should bring the Father’s presence to our world, making it our mission to show something of the mercy and the compassion and the love of the Father to those within our reach. In this mission we have a good leader: Pope Francis who walks the talk to encourage us. Thanks be to God for him! He has learned of Christ well. In his own simple, humble way, he shows us the face of the Father -- the Father of us all.

  • Fr. Dong Alpuento, SVD | USC, Talamban, Cebu City

The Word in other words 2016

An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.

 

More Articles ...

  1. April 22, 2016 Friday
  2. April 21, 2016 Thursday
  3. April 20, 2016 Wednesday
  4. April 19, 2016 Tuesday
  5. April 18, 2016 Monday
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