Accross the seas, from a distant lands...

Sr. Nitz, MSBS sharing her reflections on "Mission. She is a missionary working in Italy.

Mission! This word sounds elegant. It usually captures the attention of everybody, and each one has its own personal interpretation of the word. Sometimes the word mission makes us afraid of because in effect it is relatively means death and martyrdom. But what does it really mean? What does the missionaries do in mission territories?
First of all, the first thought that comes in, is "to go beyond" or "to move oneself to change place". But mission is not only the movement or transferring oneself into the other place which is unknown to her/him. It is more than this! Mission is to live here and now each responsibility with fidelity to the faith that he/she received in baptism. Mission is not away from the being of the person, rather it is in the person her/himself. The meaning of our existence must be based on our missionary nature. Meaning, whether we like it or not, we are borne missionary!
Mission simply means "life". The one who is alive has to move and do something. Doing something, one needs force. He/she needs to use all the faculties in order that that "something" she/he is doing comes to its' fulfillment. The one who is doing the action must have a "desire" who pushes her/him to reach the highest desire. Mission is this! It is not imposed by someone but it is the nature of anyone. It is a reality that every single human being has to live in the way she/he is called to live.
There were persons called to live his/her proper place to cross the ocean and share her/his life to the different others away. This is actually the usual concept or understanding of mission and yet it is right. I think this kind of interpretation which is actual and real is an act of radical response to mission activities. By the virtue of obedience one's have to submit her/himself to this radical call to mission. Obedience not only to ones' superior but more is the obedience to the Church call as a missionary Church.
Living a life totally different from mine, different language, different cultures, different costumes and ways of expressions, different climate and time are not easy to do. It needs a lot of sacrifices and self determination. A lot of tears, prayer and patience, to learn to overcome the famous and yet serious missionary sickness: the so called "homesickness". These are the basic activities of every missionary in a distant land. It's challenging!
In the midst of these complex experiences, missionaries are lucky and yet blessed by what they are learning in life. Experiencing different colors of life in the midst of the people who are miles away different from their own, missionaries learn a lot.

on the road going home#2

Whew!!! It was a tough travel going to Tanzania. I was very excited that morning of September 10 (Monday). On board, I was fascinated by the sceneries though everything was all the same dried and brown grasses and trees. It was drought. The road was nice. It’s like an endless road because of its distance. Truly, I am in Africa! After about 3 more hours, we have finally reached the border of Kenya to Tanzania. It took us about less than an hour to process and get our visa and finally went on our way. All in the same sceneries, Kenya and Tanzania has just a bit of difference regarding economy. The currency of Kenya is higher than Tanzania. Here in Kenya there are places and establishments where one can refresh and have a shopping. In Tanzania, it is rather hard to find one.

At about 2 in the afternoon, we have reached Arusha and went immediately to Burka, a parish where two SVD’s were working. A little of lunch and in the afternoon we went to visit confreres and friends around Arusha. We have met some of them and they are good guys doing a lot of hard works there.

The following day, we set forth for a long journey going to the mountain in the parish of Fr. Sebio where mostly populated by the natives of Tanzania, the MAASAI people. On our way, we got sighted a lot of this BOMAS or the houses of MAASAI. These houses are usually made out of mud. Every boma means a house for a wife and if there are many bomas around it means the number of wives.

MAASAI people are nomadic. They are found everywhere in Kenya and Tanzania. Their herds of cows and goats define their status in life. That is why they have to look day after day after their herds and travel places looking for pastures especially during summer and drought. Their culture has been preserved and practiced. They lived in mud houses having wives as many as one can afford to pay the dowry. Women are less recognized and their status is confined to child bearing and earning a living for the family. MAASAI people are highly patriarchal. Men enjoy the rest of the day sitting and chatting with each other while their wives are working. Something that is so amazing with them is that everyone they meet on the road they greeted with a gesture of raising the right hand. Foreigners are respected and they are peaceful people. That is why I never felt threatened by them despite the fact that they are really tall and big people.

It’s really tough to work with these people. Their language alone is very challenging to learn but our guys there manage to stay foot and do something great for them. I must admire them!

Tanzania possessed the wealth of wild animals because of their preserved park where these animals are protected and therefore they live and survive while the government benefited from them especially from the Europeans. We went to that Manyara lake park where we met different creatures passing through right there on my face. Elephants sometimes became the cause of traffic in the middle of the jungle because they are fun of crossing roads. These were the animals that I have seen only in pictures and television but now they are right there before my eyes. I am indeed in Africa!

After 3 days in Tanzania we went back here in Nairobi to prepare and process our papers for Congo. We have to double check the necessary matters to prepare like passport and invitation from Congo and some other important things. Just this evening we went to a particular Safari hotel restaurant here in Nairobi where I had the chance to take for my dinner exotic wild meat. One offer that made me very surprised was that when the waiter asked me if I still want more crocodile. I have never tasted that creature yet in my entire life so I asked for some. Afterwards, I have realized that crocodile is not that strange to my taste at all. It tasted like fish and even the texture of its meat is much similar to that of our known mud fish in the Philippines. Ostrich is quite delicious and tasty much more delecious than that of the meat of the Camel. Goat has a little difference than that of the lamb especially of the smell. I had enough experience of tourism and leisure here in Kenya. Enough experience to cherish for the rest of my life. Experience that may not happened to me regularly but perhaps very rare. But even then I am happy to have them even just for once. I just can raise my eyes above and thanked God for all these blessing. Thanks as well to those people of whom God made as his instrument for me to experience these wonders of His care and love. Now I am ready as I am to go to the place where I belong – to Congo.

Moments of Grace

Grace: God’s Gratuitous Gift of Love through the Cross
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life.”


Grace is a participation in the life of God. It is a gift of God to human being initiated by Himself in order for us to know Him and love Him. Grace therefore is the gratuitous gift that God has given us out of His tremendous love.

The cross of Christ which was considered as the image of defeat and meaningless end was then transformed into the image of victory and triumph. Crucifixion was a reality in human history that was never perceived as it was by Jesus Christ. Before the event of crucifixion, the cross caries the meaning of brutality and cruelty. It was an image of penal punishment which was believed as rightful reward for the criminals. Indeed, it was the symbol of death and fear. The cross became a “place” where one is being stripped off of dignity and worth as human being and as person. Christ passed through all these. He was sentenced to die on the cross as a worthless one and as a criminal. Christ was stripped off of his dignity, honor and power.
However, the difference comes in because that failure was never a failure to Christ but rather a triumph and a victory. Through the grace of God as present and active in Jesus Christ as the eternal Son, his crucifixion opened up a new reality and a new understanding. Jesus Christ who, without sin, embraced death as if deserving of it for no reason at all but love. It was that love, that tremendous love of Jesus to us that enabled him to embrace death on the cross. For without that love, his death would have no difference with the thousands and hundreds of crucified persons sentenced to die on the cross. However, because of love, new things came up into the picture and his death became a death “for” and not simply dying for the sake of dying. The truth of Jesus’ death is, he died “for” us, for all, and for everyone (Nicene – Constantinopolitan Creed).
Love changes everything in the conventional meaning of the cross. The cross then receives the meaning of total expression of God’s love: “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for a friend.” It was an up-side-down change of meaning where death gives into life. Christ was offered as the sacrificial lamb who gave up his life willingly and lovingly. However, his death was the consequence of his life. Jesus, therefore in his life lived and proclaimed the message that resulted to his death. There is no doubt that everything was done out of love. There is no doubt that everything was done according to the love and plan of God.
The cross then as it is perceived in Jesus’ way is love. Jesus gives meaning to the very problem of the cross. And it was through his act of living that he loved and in loving he lived. The cross or the suffering was his way of living in order to express his love and out of his love he gave up living. Now, through death on the cross life came into the world. The death of Jesus resulted to salvation of the world from sin and death. Thus, that salvation which was objectively brought into light by Jesus was a grace of God given to all gratuitously. The cross received another meaning which was the meaning of human beings’ future life. It is a hope that when the right time comes, just as it was promised by Jesus, we will become united with God in heaven. In other words, God’s will to bring all people into salvation is to be realized when the right time comes. Thus, it is through that gratuitous love of God that enables us to attain salvation. However, this free gift of God requires human free response and participation. St. Paul says that the gift of God is enough; all we need to do is to participate in the actualization of that gift. This element of participation enables us to recognize that tremendous gift of God through the death of the Son.
As for my experience of God’s grace, it was through an encounter with Him as a God for whom I wanted to offer my life with. The inner desire for God defines my dreams and even my views in life. I have not understood it fully well but as I grow in age and knowledge, my experiences of pain and suffering have taught me more on how to understand and deepen my knowledge of God. The experience of death in the family opens up a totally new world for me. This was a world where death pangs became birth pangs. The image of the cross gives me a clear example and model, a real model of understanding the meaning of death. It was through the experience of Jesus that I have seen how and what it means to live. And indeed, it was a life of living for and dying for God so as to attain the life after this life – a life with God.

The beauty of creation

Creation: the First Revelation of the Cross
Genesis 1: 1ff “In the beginning, when God created the universe, the earth was formless and desolate…”

God was the creator of the world. That beauty of creation and that everything in the world always reminds me of the greatness of God in nature. Everywhere in the world stand as means to appreciate the goodness of God and of his power and might.
However, aside from the reality of good and beauty of creation, there is problem of suffering in the world. This reality of suffering has a lot to do with the way God created the world. Creation was God’s first Trinitarian action: “And now we will make human beings; they will be like us and resemble us…”(Gen 1: 24). From the tremendous act of love, from nothing something came to be. When God created the world, everything was destined for the good. The end of all that exists is the good. God as the creator of the good is the destiny of everything that exists. The creation, though created by God who is in Himself the ultimate Good has not fully attained perfection. The perfection of everything requires time and process. Processual is the term proper for the movement of everything towards perfection. The imperfection of the world was marked by the presence of evil and sin. That is why the process of separation and struggle between good and evil is present in the world. There is suffering and pain!
The law of nature describes this reality of natural survival that someone is to die for somebody else to live. If one needs to survive, one has to eliminate the other. The weak have no place to live while the strong dominate the powerless. That then is suffering. That then is cross. Why is there suffering in the world?
Since, one of the characteristics of the world is processual; it is rather true that suffering is but a necessary element to discover the presence of God in a difficult and suffering world. C.S. Lewis says “God whispers in our pleasure but shouts in our pain. Pain is His megaphone to rouse the dulled world.” The world being temporal and finite reveals the need for a processual movement to see God in creation.
The reality of suffering in the world must be seen from the eyes of God as the Creator, revealing Himself as the eternal God into the world that is temporal and finite. It was God’s way of expressing the tremendous love by creating a place and time where he wanted Himself to be known. His greatness moves Him to enter into time by providing us things that hold His mysterious and tremendous power and love. Suffering then becomes the process towards knowing and understanding God. The event of suffering does make a person ask the question “why?” and this creates an avenue of a deep quest for the reason and meaning of suffering. “Why do I need to suffer if God is all good and all powerful?” is one of the common questions of those who are in trouble about anything in their life. The awareness that the world was imperfect becomes the positive step towards making it perfect. St. Paul says “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” To transcend every experience of pain and suffering in the world is the common call of creation to all. Since everything that exists was done by someone who is God himself, creation must be seen always from the eyes of the Creator. The world was created with reason and purpose, and so nothing in the world happens by accident or chance. God is therefore the centre of every thought and reflection about everything in creation. All that has been especially question about the presence of suffering is God’s ways of expressing his ways of knowing him in the reality that is filled with imperfection. The world is destined to God alone and it will be perfected in Him alone.

"The Woman in my life"

Mary: Her “fiat” as an acceptance of the cross
Luke 1:27b – 38 “The girl’s name was Mary. The angel came to her and said, “Peace be with you! The Lord is with you and has greatly blessed you...I am a virgin, How can this be? The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come on you, and God’s power will rest upon you. For this reason the Holy Child will be called the Son of God….’I am the Lord’s servant,’ said Mary; ‘may it happen to me as you have said.”

Mary and Jesus cannot be separated. When I talk about the incarnation of the Son I cannot but also talk about the mother. They are the inseparable realities of the mystery of the coming of the Son. God in his greatness has blest his creation, human being, in the person of Mary in order for us to feel his love and to understand him. Mary’s conception of the Son was an act of God out of Love for his people. Mary as the Mother, the chosen one to bear the Son of God, constitutes a necessary event in human history. It was through her womb that the Son was made. It was through her womb that the mystery was revealed. Indeed, she was “blessed among women” because she was found worthy to carry the Son of God.

Mary’s “fiat” or her yes to the message of an angel becomes the defining point of her existence as a human being. It is a conscious and heartfelt expression of willingness – obedience out of love. The fiat is her obedience to the will of God for her out of love. However, that fiat is in itself the tremendous response of human beings to God. It is through her yes that human beings receive an elevation of love to a divine act of loving. Her “fiat” is in essence her “yes” to the cross.
The cross in Mary’s fiat is the reality of the Son – Jesus Christ. It was through her willingness to submit herself to the responsibility of bearing the Son of God that manifest her own kenosis – Mary has emptied herself and allowed God to fill her with the love that could understand the greatness of God’s will. Mary underwent dying from herself in order to live for God – at the end it has no longer she who lived but Christ.

The cross was Mary’s Son and her fiat meant an acceptance of the cross and the multitude of its meaning. This is a reality greater than Mary but her love conquered them all, in fact, she kept everything in her heart. The proof of this was seen in the whole story and history of Jesus as he was once with us. Mary was there and was firm in her response that began at the foot of an angel Gabriel in the annunciation until at the foot of Jesus on the Calvary. Mary undoubtedly lived her life with Jesus and on Calvary she died with her Son. But again, Mary must have understood gradually the mystery of Jesus from the moment of his birth until he breathed his last on the cross. The death of the Son became the death of the mother. Her death together with her Son was a necessary event in her life so she too could rise with Jesus in the resurrection. Indeed, it was through her death that she was brought to life by God and with God. But everything was all kept in her heart.
As for my own experience, the way Mary lived her life and the way she made her response to God became an inspiring moment where love dominated and finally overpowered fear and uncertainties. My difficulty of accepting death as regards letting go of a beloved who died fell into my misunderstanding of birth. It was through Mary’s “yes” that allowed the Son to be brought into time and space through birth. It contained the reality of the imminent end of everything. The truth with the reality of birth is the reality of death. Thus, the example of Jesus’ passing over upon this earth reveals a greater reality that according to St. Paul “we are on this world but not for this world.” Mary’s example in accepting her Motherhood for the Son of God manifested her deep understanding of accepting everything that may come along including the suffering and pain of death. Thus, it was through her that the truth about the identity and the love of God to human being was revealed and finally brought us to the fundamental destiny that we are all destined to by God and only for God.
Being the mother of God (Theotokos), “Mary in whose womb Jesus came, is the figure and symbol of the new community that experiences this new reality of salvation. God, present in Jesus by means of woman’s flesh, is now present especially in those suffering poor and marginalized in history. In and by the flesh of Mary, God has entered our world fulfilling the prophecy that ‘all humankind shall see the salvation of our God’ (Luke 3:16). Mary’s motherhood, then, is not just bearing of Jesus’ humanity. It is the birthing of the divine power through the world itself was created.” Mary therefore became truly the Mother of God and our Mother as well. She became my mother too.
I cannot forget the image I portrayed during Advent a couple of years ago. It was a mother cradling her son. It was Mary cradling her beloved son. When I was asked about the meaning of advent by one of my friends, I told him spontaneously to go and look at Mary. There is no human being like Mary who can explain how it means to wait for the coming of the Son of God. Mary took everything in her heart.

Christ and his cross

Christology: The Mystery of

Incarnation as the first act

of Crucifixion.

John 1: 1-2 “Before the world was created, the Word already existed; he was with God, and he was the same as God. From the very beginning the Word was with God.”

Christology is about the revelation of God through the incarnation of the Son - Jesus Christ. The mystery of incarnation is indeed unfathomable. That the eternal God became temporal; that the spirit assumes flesh, and that eternity entered into time and space. Soren Kierkegaard calls it as the “absolute paradox”, that the maker of Mary was formed in Mary’s womb. The event of incarnation was the biggest shock in human history where mystery became known and eternity entered time and made history. The eternal God was made flesh, born of a woman, lived among us and became one like us except sin. That is why even his own people did not accept him, instead, persecuted and killed him by hanging him on the Cross.
The incarnation of the Son is the kenosis of God. In Jesus the Trinitarian God assumed human reality (nature) for the sake of salvation. There were two genuine natures in Jesus as true man and true God (hypostatic union).
The difficulty of acceptance fell on the belief that God would never be confined into matter and form. Now, here is Jesus, being one like us conceived in matter and form claiming to be the Son of God, is truly unacceptable. Having a God with history, was a great scandal to a mentality and belief that has been lived and observed thousand years ago before his coming. As consequence, he was loved by the powerless and helpless but hated by the greater majority of educated Pharisees and scribes. He was rather considered by the lowly as one of the prophets of old like Isaiah and Jeremiah. By his preaching and teachings, he offered hope and new perspective of the future things like the kingdom of God. He projected and exercised authority and power over creation, sickness, and death by curing the sick, the lame, the blind, expelled demons and raising the dead into life. He made miracles and even commanded the wind and the raging sea, he walked above the water of Galilee, multiplied loaves and fish and fed thousands of people. He was indeed admired, loved and adored. But when he speaks of his being the Son of God he was called a blasphemer and a fool. At the end, however that very claim of him as the Son of God brought him to trial and finally to his death. In other words, the Jesus of history was never understood even by his close friends. His disciples who were with him, eating, walking and sleeping with him had failed to understand who was this man whom they called master, teacher, and lord. The proof of this were the admonition of Peter upon hearing his imminent fate in Jerusalem (Mt 16:22), their arguments about whom to sit on the right or on the left side which was clearly expressed with the favour being ask by the mother of James and John (Mt 20:21), and finally the disciples deserted him, leaving him alone to the road of passion until crucifixion manifested in the denial of Peter (Lk 22: 54-60). In his dying moment, Jesus recognized his being misunderstood when he speak “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing (Lk 23:34).” Therefore, I can say that in his life time, the Jesus of history was never understood. But his efforts were not put in vain. Jesus is the God of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He is the Son of God who reveals the identity of God by entering into history. He is the God of history and the God of eternity. After his death, his words began to murmur in the ears and in the hearts of the believers. At first they were afraid but the event that took place that early morning after three days clears all the doubts and remove all fears. The disciples went into the open and preach far more strongly than before for by this time things are as clear as the crystals to them – indeed Jesus is the Son of God. What happened then during the third day is know to us as the day of truth which is the Son triumph over death – the mystery of the Resurrection. The strength of the disciples was made possible because it was an effect of the fulfilment of the promise – a revelation of the Spirit.
Coming back again to his incarnation, his act of becoming man or by having flesh and blood is a form of dying from being God. St. Paul says to the Philippians that “He always had the nature of God, but he did not think that by force he should try to become equal with God. Instead of this, of his own free will he gave up all he had, and took the nature of a servant. He became like man and appeared in human likeness. He was humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to death – his death on the cross (Phil 2:6-8).” Jesus knew it very well even before the incarnation that denial and disbelief were the response of the people for him yet his obedience was done all through because of love.
His death on the cross which was perceived and believed by the people of his time as failure became in itself the victory. The life of Jesus did not end up there hanging on the cross. The suffering and pain that he underwent and even his death were all necessary for him to reveal the truth about himself. It was only through his resurrection that indeed the Jesus of history was recognized as the same Jesus of eternity, the Christ – meaning, the Son of the Father who existed before time and outside time and space. The divinity of the historical Jesus was then fully attained in his resurrection.

As for my experience of Jesus as the Son of God in history, it is clear through an experience of pain and suffering of death. However, the event of incarnation become more meaningful when I see it through the eyes of resurrection. It is just that when I speak of Jesus, I speak of his earthly existence as already God. I have this belief because I perceived Jesus as he is from his incarnation to passion, death and resurrection. It is not hard for me to believe in him because of the position where I am coming in - from the eyes of the Pascal Mystery.
The death of my father occasioned me to learn more about his story and history. I began to cherish every single memory. I kept remembering his words especially his thoughts and principles in life. Then I came to realized that I gained so many learnings from him. I also realized how especial he was to me. I began appreciating the years of his life and through his death I learned how necessary it was for him to die. Dying is a necessary part of living. But it was a death filled with meaning.
Looking at myself, there is also the sense of inner drive to find the desire of my heart. It’s about the search of meaning of my existence, of why I am here – my purpose driven life. Growing up as a normal creature of God, it is but natural for my emotional, psychological, and sociological nature to seek my place about where I really belong. The understanding of oneself is like discovering the identity of my existence. It is indeed very difficult but not impossible.
The pain of death as I experienced through the death of a loved one deepened my understanding of Jesus. It was through him that I have found a greater appreciation of life and it was through him that I have found the meaning of death. Indeed, pain was real but this pain was in itself a consolation. While it’s true that death is being into the deepest state of agony, there enters this higher level of hope and transforms pain into Christ’s cross. Agony became the reason for ecstasy. Ecstasy here means, a deeper sense of joy and peace being brought about by the very event of Jesus’ resurrection. Through the resurrection, the death pangs became birth pangs. Death became a necessary event in one’s life in order to reach a higher level of life.
However, while it is true that in resurrection the death pangs became birth pangs, in the incarnation, the birth pangs became death pangs. It means that in everything that enters in history and in time and space, there is limitation and the reality of “end” is but one of the characteristics of “time.” But in Jesus’ incarnation, he conquers time by entering into time. In his resurrection, he elevates our time-bound existence into eternal and timeless reality. Thus, it is through death that we enter into this elevation of human existence to divinely existence. His resurrection is therefore our resurrection and his life is our life. We are destined to God as it was manifested to us by Jesus Christ himself in the event three days after his death.
My heart is consoled when I think of my future destiny with Jesus Christ. His glorification and return to the Father are realities that I have to await until they will come in due time. What happened to him will also happen to me provided that I live a life according to his will and example.

on the road going home

It was in Tanzania with Bro. Omay SVD and Fr. Sebio SVD(seated) with the MAASAI children.

Adjustment on many things sets in. My eyes get tired early and wanted to retire while the sun was still up. We spent the day going around the place outside the city of Nairobi. Everywhere, I found one and the same color of the people. Every one stares at us and children mostly greeted us with their welcoming smiles coupled with their universal greeting “how are you”, the only English words that children knows in greeting foreigners. In kayote, one of the parishes run by the svd’s outside the city, we have had our first African Mass in their own dialect – Swahili. I have not understood even a single word but the whole two hours of celebration was a new experience of the Mass for me. The big church was filled with people. I did not understand their language but I understood how God works on many ways and their dancing and singing tells me more than they can express in words. It was an experience with these new faces and color of people that brought me an inner sense of admiration. Even a little girl can move and dance gracefully. It was as if they were born to sing and to dance. The whole congregation participates and dances gracefully in unison with the song they sing. What a beautiful expression of unity and faith among them in the celebration. We have finished the Mass after two hours. I got enough even just for the first time but I still have more to learn …

Afterwards we went to a giraffe breeding and captivity where tourists come to see face to face with the giraffe. Giraffe is actually not a small animal; they are rather huge and tall of six meters high. I took some pictures of them including the Kenyan turtle as big as the medium size of a laundry basin. We left the breeding center with all admiration in my heart. Not so far we have encountered Camels walking along side of the street and they were indeed big and tamed. These animals were formerly not real to me. I can only see them in pictures and in movies but here I am face to face with them even with that of the donkey and white hog. What a beautiful place!

We proceeded to a place where traditional culture were presented but since we came a bit early we decided to have a close glance of the actual model of the houses of the different tribes here in Kenya. The houses were called as “mud house” practically because they were made out mud mixed with the dung of the cow because it is sticky. The houses are constructed strategically where culture and costume of the particular tribe are expressed. It was the polygamous culture of the Kenyan natives that were clearly expressed in those set ups where male is considered as higher than women.

On our way home, we passed by a kind of a shopping mall which is not like that of my understanding of the mall in the Philippines. It was rather like a single story and a small market where there are groceries for goods and restaurants for Asians and Europeans. At least inside that mall I have seen other faces like Indians and whites. But what is common to everyone is that they are fun of calling us as Chinese.

Back in our provincial house, we were informed that the invitation letter from Congo might come within the week. Since we cannot go to the embassy of Congo here in Kenya without that invitation, instead while waiting we maximized the time by visiting our confreres in the mission here in the province. It was good because our confreres here in the provincialate were too generous and kind to us. The next day, early morning we traveled by land at least about 5 hours to visit our confreres in Tanzania. Tanzania is a country next to Kenya. So we crossed borders again and in that case we brought all our necessary documents like passport and visa. Preparing my things made me realized that I have brought only 10 pieces of T-shirt and 2 short pants and 4 long pants, 1 jacket and 1 formal coat plus barong tagalog for three years here in Africa. I hope I can always catch up washing them.

Huh!...it’s still far from my place of destination and yet I had already the feeling of being there. Perhaps because of the situation and especially of the people here reminds me always of their faces and colors. I kept telling myself that Congo is almost similar to this place. Brother Manuel Omay, SVD kept telling us that in Congo is much difficult than here in Kenya. With that I guess he is right that the secret of finding my place with them is to adapt myself to whatever situation that awaits me there. Everything becomes part of the preparation of the reality there in Congo. Tanzania was considered as another country where I have learned and prepared myself for Congo. While waiting for the time I believed that part of it is the enjoyment of doing mission.

Memories of the past keep on coming especially those that has some personal attachments regarding emotions and feelings. But the thing is no longer the same. I am here in the field of mission and I have to perform well what is expected of me as I am. Philippines will always be there inside me and forever be part of me. Everything in the Philippines becomes a distant part of my reality now here in Africa. I have to let go of the Philippines including everything and everyone in there. But they are my inspiration in doing and in living my life here in Africa. I let them go so that God can go for them…I let go and I let God.

an attempt to create

"Immitation"
Beginner like me need the work
of the professionals.






Creation never ends…

There were times before during my years as a student when I was introduced by someone to the ability on how to appreciate beauty. He just simply told me that the eyes see the outside appearance of every sensible things but the heart sees far more beyond the naked eyes can see. It stucked down into my mind and I tried to search how does those words really meant to be. I never asked him anymore but I tried to do something I think I can to do my part in discovering the appreaciation of beauty. Since then, I resolved to put into an image anything that I wish to convey and I tried to do it by my heart. But it is rather frustrating than consoling because I feel like unable to capture what my heart is telling. Inspite of the amount of discouragement than that of incouragement, I choose to have more patience up to the extent of even forcing myself to be patient. There were many works of art that I have made but they seem to me like an empty shells for they were just images without a heart. With that then frustrations came but I never gave up and I keep trying instead. But why is it like this? I guess the reason of this is the unending reality of creation. That even God himself did not create the world soo perfectly once and for all that human being has nothing more to do to make it a better and finally a perfect world to live in. Instead, it was created with a perfect nature which slowly realized through the efforts and participations of each and everyone in the world. There is this important part that rests in each of every creature the ability to share his/her part in creating the world. For this I believed, or perhaps not agreeable to many, that the feeling of unsatisfaction in the world is a first step to extend one’s natural call to share in the continuing creation of the world - to make the world a satisfactory place to stay with and to live in. The same is true with those who have the ability make a creation by themselves in means like art and music and in other field of appreciations that there can always be more ways of capturing or painting the real sense of beauty but in reality they remains to be just an attempts because they can never be captured…indeed, creation never ends.

Sharing Christ's mission...as priests.

It was during the priestly ordination of the Yobel Class in the Holy Spirit Chapel, Divine Word Seminary, Tagaytay City, Philippines.

"The best rule is that we should follow what love inspire us to dofrom moment to moment, with the sole desire of pleasing the good Lord in everything he asks of us."

St. Therese of the Child Jesus.

“…Today I am meeting you, priests called by Christ to serve him in the new millennium. You have been chosen from among the people, appointed to act in relation to God, to offer his gifts and sacrifices for sins. Believe in the power of your priesthood! By virtue of the sacraments, you have received all that you are. When you utter the words “I” and “my” ( “I absolved you…This is my body…”), you do it not in your own name, but in the name of Christ, “in persona Christi”, who wants to use your lips and your hands, your spirit of sacrifice and your talent. At the moment of your ordination, through the liturgical sign of the imposition of hands, Christ took you under his special protection; you are concealed under his hands and in his Heart. Immerse yourselves in his love, and give him love! When your hands were anointed with oil, the sign of the Holy Spirit, the were destined to serve the Lord as his own hands in today’s world. They can no longer serve selfish purposes, but must continue in the world the witness of his love.”

(Address of the Holy Father to the Clergy).

the World of Art

This painting is about the "Dream of Childhood"

Title: "Panahon ng Kamusmusan"

by nonigallego

Art has been understood as a form of expression. Its a work that touches and has an appeal to the 5 senses of each human being. Each aesthetical work communicates the feelings/emotions and faith of the creator in which often times are hidden from the eyes of the viewers. However, they carries the meaning that is so rich that the audience may find more from it apart from the real intention and meaning made by the creator himself.

Here are the facts about art according to Wikipedia:

Art refers to a diverse range of human activities and artifacts, and may be used to cover all or any of the arts, including music, literature and other forms. It is most often used to refer specifically to the visual arts, including media such as painting, sculpture, and printmaking. However it can also be applied to forms of art that stimulate the other senses, such as music, an auditory art. Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy which considers art.
Traditionally the term art was used to refer to any skill or mastery, a concept which altered during the Romantic period, when art came to be seen as "a special faculty of the human mind to be classified with religion and science".Generally art is a (product of) human activity, made with the intention of stimulating the human senses as well as the human mind; by transmitting emotions and/or ideas. Beyond this description, there is no general agreed-upon definition of art. Art is also able to illustrate abstract thought and its expressions can elicit previously hidden emotions in its audience.
Visual art is defined as the arrangement of colors, forms, or other elements "in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium". The nature of art has been described by Wollheim as "one of the most elusive of the traditional problems of human culture". It has been defined as a vehicle for the expression or communication of emotions and ideas, a means for exploring and appreciating formal elements for their own sake, and as mimesis or representation.

Art is often intended to appeal and connect with human emotion. It can arouse aesthetic or moral feelings, and can be understood as a way of communicating these feelings. Artists express something so that their audience is aroused to some extent, but they do not have to do so consciously. Art explores what is commonly termed as the human condition that is essentially what it is to be human. Effective art often brings about some new insight concerning the human condition either singly or en-mass, which is not necessarily always positive, or necessarily widens the boundaries of collective human ability. The degree of skill that the artist has, will affect their ability to trigger an emotional response and thereby provide new insights, the ability to manipulate them at will shows exemplary skill and determination.

The Cross reveals the Trinitarian God

Mark 14: 36 “Father,” he prayed, “my Father! All things are possible for you. Take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet not what I want, but you want.”

I have not seen God. This is a factual acceptance of the truth that in my entire life, God never appeared to me and revealed his identity directly as One and Three persons. It was indeed quite difficult to believed and finally owned and loved the God whom I cannot see. But despite God’s objective inappearance to me I hold on believing that there is One but Three divine persons in God. How do I come to this truth? I discovered my faith in God not in an instant but processual. It is a faith that was formed out of a continuous desire to seek God in my daily existence. This was brought into light by the wisdom of reading the Traditions and teachings of the Fathers of the Church, reading of the scriptures and of the thoughts of individuals whose wisdom were preserved in the thousand of books expounded and discussed inside the walls and field of classroom endeavours. Another is the gift and grace bestowed upon each of every experience that comes along with me everyday. This education and experience were my bridge to meet my longing to know God. Here below, i will be mentioning terms like "economic and immanent trinity". To put it simply, economic trinity means that Trinity as revealed by Jesus while immanent trinity means trinity as they are in themselves which is not known to us.
As far as “economic trinity” is concern, I would always look at the incarnation of the Son as the effective means of revelation of the identity of God. [When I speak of God’s identity I mean of the economic identity of God for the Trinity as they are in themselves cannot be known (Immanent Trinity) yet it was through the Son that they can be known.] It was through the incarnation of Jesus that opened that avenue of knowing God. It was through the Word made flesh that we have come to know God. I cannot forget a very dear friend when she told me that “so you think you know me well huh?” Spontaneously I told her that “no, its too presumptuous on my part to say I know you well for I know you only as much as you have allowed me to discover the part of you.” I mean, knowing somebody depends on his/her willingness to be known. And i guess, it has some bits of connections in knowing God since we knew God only through the revelation made by the Son. Indeed, it was through the willingness of God to reveal himself to human beings is that part that we can know much about. And it was made real through the mystery of incarnation. The Son revealed the identity of God and taught us to call him as “Father.” However, there were problems regarding unity and distinction of the Trinity. How can it be that the three persons become one?
In the Trinity, there is only one nature, which is the divine nature. The Father, the Son and the Spirit share the common divine substance. As for their distinction, the Father as the unbegotten generates or begets the Son, while inspiration is the Spirit of the Father and the Son. In the Old Testament, the distinctions of the three divine persons in the Trinity were not fully revealed. Delineation took place in the New Testament because revelation happened in Jesus. From eternity God is already trinity but revelation happened in time (OT not yet but it was symbolize) – it took place in Jesus Christ.
It was like all signs and fingers pointing to one direction when I asked myself who is the God that I have been believing all along? The image of Christ on the cross captures the whole point of understanding God. The Jesus Christ hanging on the Cross shows us two directions and these directions tells us an appropriate story and history of God who wish to reveal himself to human being. One direction points to the past (OT) while the other to the future. These directions project the Trinitarian – human reality in the eternal person of the Son – for salvation. The Son is the revelation of the “Abba.”
All predictions and signs made by God through the prophets, kings, and the people of Israel point towards Christ. Jesus as Christ fulfilled that promise that God has made with his people Israel. He did not only fulfill the promise but he revealed his true identity. It was a revelation of God of Himself in the person of the Son. That is why the death of Christ is a necessary event in his life to let the whole world know of God’s tremendous love. His crucifixion became the summit of God’s revelation of his great love and of his greatest identity.
As regards the future, the image of the cross fulfilled the promise of God to bring salvation to all. More than fulfilling the promise, part of the revelation is the inauguration of the coming of the Holy Spirit. It was through the death of the Son that new life began – a life with the Spirit. In Mt. 28:19, Jesus commanded the disciples to “go into the whole world, preach the Gospel to all nations and baptize the people in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” It was then an assurance of Jesus that the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of the Father and the Son would remain as an active guide in preaching the good news and in doing the mission of God.
As regards my experience, aside from the intellectual quest for God, the reality of pain and suffering became central to my understanding of God as a personal God. The meaning of my purpose in living was slowly unfolded due to the desire to find the reason why bad things happened in the world and why bad things happened to me. Pain and suffering became the means to find the bridge that connects me to the deepest secret of my existence. Those pains that I have been through with were necessary for they have allowed me to see things beyond their appearance. I mean, I have learned the art of transcending my pains and that is by seeing them in the eyes of Jesus. I have realized that I am meant for something because I was created by Someone – and that Someone is God.

sharing on the Cross of Christ

September 21, 1978, that is my birthday, the genesis of my history and the beginning of everything. Since I lost the womb-world security, I started crying for care, attention, and recognition, which formed into a deprivation triggered by the situation where I was in. I knew how much we were loved by our parents but their love was not expressed according to my needs. Perhaps because my state of concern as a child was far different from theirs. I wanted tender loving care and attention, but they gave me not only strict but “stick” discipline. True enough that became the source of my feeling of insecurity. Yet through the course of time I was able to survive and learned that life had to go on. Henceforth, I longed to be “up there”, to be recognized, respected and treated well.
I was a little boy then when I saw a guy doing something inside the chapel in front of the people. Every time he speaks, people listened intensely to him. He was “up there”, recognized, respected, and cared for. Alas! I said to myself, “I want to become like him someday.”
“I want to become like him” was very real to me not knowing that this person who was a priest, had vows of humility and simplicity which were quite opposite to my motives. Obviously, what I was conscious of was just about meeting my needs.
Through the years of struggles, the desire became more intense so much that I grew being persistent and determined. I chose not to entertain the difficulties of life hoping that there was glory assigned for me “there”. Everything that appeared along the way was considered a mess, a block, and a hindrance towards my desire. I preferred to set them aside instead of facing or recognizing them. I never acknowledged my true motives, their impurities, and their self-preserving nature. Instead, I boasted proclaiming nothing other than that of staying behind the walls of the seminary. I enjoyed complying with the structures laid because I benefited out of them, and of course, they satisfied my self-preserving needs. Indeed, I was recognized and treated well.
February 12, 2000, two days before the feast of St Valentine which is commonly known as the Valentine’s Day, things changed. I received a message from home about my father’s critical health and surprisingly on the very day of Valentines, he was diagnosed and found to be afflicted with Cancer. I stopped trying to realize my doings; I almost couldn’t believe it. I rubbed my eyes, slapped my face hoping that everything was just a dream and I wanted to wake up. I was very much alarmed of the term “cancer” because to me it was synonymous with “death.” The truth was I could not accept that the person for whom I worked my best in order to be recognized would soon perish. For this I realized that there was a little boy inside me who never grew up but keep longing for care and recognition from his own father. It means that the reason of every single effort to be up there was merely a thirst for a simple recognition. Thus, everything then turned dark as if all were void of meaning. My energy subsided and I lost courage to go on with my life. I felt I was dropped into a muddy field, heavy rain poured down around me, everywhere was dark, and the whole place was conquered by the noise of unyielding raindrops. I knew that soon Death would visit my family, and consequently my own death. My father would die, the man whose life was offered for us. To be recognized by him was my sole inspiration to continue living. During the night, I tried to escape but the more I drove myself away, the more it disturbed me.
Finally the moment, which I feared most, came. My father breathed his last on the 5th of June 2000 in front of me. At that moment, I wanted him to stay longer with me, I wanted him to speak more to me, I wanted him to hug me and I wanted him…to become alive! But death triumphed over his life. His last long and deep breathing was never heard again. It was a clear sign that Tatay’s existence and history finally ended. It wasn’t that easy at all but perhaps God was contented with the life of my father and perhaps he has fulfilled the reason of his existence, are the thoughts that I found a bit consoling but I was greatly affected…the cross was too heavy for me to carry.
At first, I was thinking of leaving the seminary with the following reasons “what is my vocation for? What is it for to move forward without any purpose at all? My father is dead so no more!” But God really works in His own ways; He used that very death of my father as an instrument of a real call. It was a call that caused the life of someone very dear to me. I wanted to hate God and I wish I can but the pain inside my heart pushed me into the limit of asking the very reason of my existence: What is it that I am here for? I passed so many troubled nights and the well of tears never dries. I was mourning. And it was in that very agony of my heart and soul that I found myself engage with the man hanging on the cross. It dawned on me that his life never ends in death but rather finds its new beginning. His death on the cross gives meaning to the words he lives and because of that he has overcome death in order to give hope to those who are hopeless and faith to those who don’t believe. He made sense out of his suffering! And so, I have seen that life will still go on even without my father and I have my own life to live, cultivate and develop. It is mine, I will be the one to live, and I will be the one who would decide for it. Perhaps, there is still life inside the seminary if I would give a try and go on. And so I decided to proceed.
Leaving my family behind in the midst of grieving was not an easy thing to do. I knew how painful it was to let go of the loss of a beloved father, the first experience of death in the family. When I came back to the seminary three days after the burial, it was for me an emancipation from my self-preserving motives. It was a new birth and a new life. My selfish motives in entering the seminary died together with Tatay. I have seen that experience as God’s mysterious act of burning my selfish desire. I was made free! Now, as I looked at the crucified Christ hanging on the cross, my thought of His suffering became true to my own experience of dying. Indeed, I have my share of his cross. I can now take up my own cross and follow him.

HOMILY

4th SUNDAY OF LENT (A)
Gospel: John 9:1-4 “The healing of the man born blind”

Theme: To hope, to trust and to proclaim Jesus as the light of the world.

Once, there was a very devout man who wakes up early in the morning to join the celebration of the Eucharist at their village chapel. He does it almost everyday. After the Eucharist he would talked to people and give them words to lighten their day and goes home. Neighbors and people around the village say he is indeed a man of faith and trust in God. But one day, the news about the death of his only son by an accident shocks almost everyone. After the burial, the man wakes up very late and does not go to the church. Another day came, he was again absent in the chapel. And another day, a week, and another week and a month…he no longer goes to the chapel and no longer talks to people. Concern friends and neighbors came to asked him why he stops attending the Eucharist. And to their surprise, he said, I have been doing well for the rest of my life but why God took my child away?


Indeed, a real experience of suffering like death, disease, sickness, physical incapability’s like blindness and etc brought us face to face with our faith in God. It raises questions which are very natural and immediate to us, we asked: why? And sometimes we ended up into the extreme of hating God.

In today’s gospel, St John narrated the story of the healing of a man born blind. For those of us who enjoy the gift of sight, it is impossible to appreciate what it means to be blind. But for this man in the gospel, he may have heard people saying “what a beautiful sunset! What a beautiful flower! These are nonsense to him because he cannot see them. But for sure, what he felt most are the words of people mocking him, spitting on him, dislikes him, sending him away and telling him that he is a great sinner that is why he is blind. We just do not know how much he suffered in silence and how much he accumulated enough amounts of hate and anger for people and for God.

But what made him continue living? Do you ever wonder why?

Today, let the blind man himself teach us and remind us of the things we already know but we chose or perhaps we simply forget.

He is teaching us to hope.
Being expose to the multitude of passers by, he may have heard people talking about someone very extraordinary who goes village to village and disturbed the silence of the Pharisees and Scribes. He may have heard them talking about the numerous and miraculous healings done by this someone. Remaining in his post everyday is an attitude of a hopeful waiting. He waits the day that this man might visit his village. His prayer might be like this: “Oh heavenly God, since I cannot see, if ever he passes by let him be the one to see me.” What a hopeful prayer!


He is teaching us to trust.
Being a blind man, the society considered him as an eye sore and a sinner. He is someone who has no status at all reduces like nothing but a sinner in the eyes of others. He might even think that he is a mistake of God’s creation that he was born only to be humiliated and rejected. When his hope arrives and when he was told by Jesus to go and wash his eyes, he may have felt being driven away by Jesus or he may have felt being rejected again. But he didn’t, as a blind, he might have struggled where to find the pool of Siloam. He went with trust to Jesus.

He is teaching us to proclaim the goodness of God.
There is no comparable joy we can ever imagine from the man who from his birth living in the darkness and now able to see. What a tremendous gratitude he can feel to someone who healed him, who give him light. As an effect, I am very sure that this man will never get tired of telling others how good the lord to him until the day he closes his eyes in death.

Now, what does this thing have to do with us since no one is physically blind around?

Just as this man who was healed from blindness telling the Pharisees and people around him how does Jesus healed him, we too today are ask to do the same - to tell our story of encounter with Jesus. To tell how much we see Jesus after he healed us from our own kind of blindness.

The Pharisees’ never sees Jesus because of their pride. Because they believe they can see and so they cannot see Jesus. This means that, their arrogance and pride blinded them to see Jesus. They in turn have seen Jesus as a law breaker and therefore he is not from God.

For us, we have to see the real Jesus like the Jesus who was being seen by the blind man after he was healed. He is the Jesus that fulfills our hope, the Jesus that gives us the assurance of his words and the Jesus that send us to proclaim the good news.

Everyday, we are being called to hope. This means believing that something good awaits us no matter what happens. Here in this chapel, count the number of our nationalities? We may be different in colors, in heights, languages, etc, but we have the same hope for the future…a better future…a hope with God. Our sacrifices like you leaving your beloved one’s at home means a lot of hope for the future. And needless to say that that hopes is anchored in God.
Everyday, we are being called to trust God. This is not easy but very possible, actually we have it already. To trust God is a lift of faith. It’s like saying “Thy will be done”. It is the submission of the heart to someone greater than us – to God. We came here in Congo with trust to God that he will always be with us, that God will take good care of us. Like the probable prayer of that blind man “O almighty God, since I cannot see let him be the one to see me.” Let us trust God that he will always give us the light when we fall in darkness.
Everyday, we are being called to proclaim the goodness of God. This is the missionary task that is expected to each of us – to proclaim the goodness of God. The blind man proclaims Jesus by recounting his experience with him. A very short encounter with Jesus but very concrete. We too have our experience of Jesus, concrete experience of Him that we can share to others.

By telling our experience of Jesus whenever we may be at home or at the office or anywhere, we share the mission of the Church to proclaim Jesus truly as the light of the world.

Please, today as we go home; bring with you the message of the blind man to hope in God, to trust in God and to proclaim God’s goodness to others. If there are things expected to us as Christians, I guess, some of those are these messages of the blind man.