For Ever I will Maintain My Love for my Servant

Reflections on CHRONICLES 24:17-15/ PSALMS 89:4-5, 29-30, 31-32, 33-34/  MATTHEW 6:24-34

By Frank Savadera, SJ

I begin my reflection with the Psalm for  today:

For ever I will maintain my love for my servant.  “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant: Forever will I confirm your posterity and establish your throne for all generations.”  

For someone (myself) who had been a Jesuit for 16 years and a priest for 5 years, this quote can be quite meaningful.  What more for the Jesuits who just celebrated their 60^th anniversaries as priests this week (i.e., Frs. Arevalo, Ferriols,  Diaz, Healy, Bishop Claver).  Isn’t it a great source of consolation ... having to choose this life ... to live with interesting fellows (never a dull moment with everyone) ... to wake up alone in your room in the morning ... and having the time and joy to pray ... and hearing God speaking in a most convincing way:  I WILL MAINTAIN MY LOVE FOR YOU FOREVER.  More than anything ... especially for those discerning their vocation and direction in life, a one crucial and meaningful component of our discernment will have to be an experience of GOD professing his undying love for us.  How powerful and empowering is this profession of love from God?  We will need to experience it.      

SECOND:  If there is perhaps one single concrete manifestation of how we count on this LOVE ... isn’t this expressing our TRUST, our CONFIDENCE in Him.  This is easier said than done.  Yet, we ask concretely:  How do we express our LOVE for and CONFIDENCE in God who is professing his UNDYING LOVE for us?   Our Gospel simply tells us:  STOP WORRYING!   To serve God is to STOP WORRYING ... and TRUST! 

Worrying is normal, isn’t it? Most of us can be quite WORRIERS!  There is nothing wrong with that.  But a CHRONIC WORRIER?  Always FEARFUL ... always AFRAID!  For one, we will need to understand where that fear or worry is coming from.  Some worries are more serious than others.  But our fears and anxieties can actually be so intense (ANXIETY DISORDER na yata yan) that they can get in the way of discerning ... of following the will of God.  Believe me .... I’ve seen this:  because of intense fear and anxiety ... some eventually waived a possible decision to decide on important matters in their lives.  SAD YAN ... di ba?  Go with the flow na lang! 

The Gospel speaks to us about being faithful servants ... and to do so simply suggest:  STOP WORRYING and DEPEND on the MASTER who provides for you ... depend on Him who professes his undying love for you.  We call this a RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE .  We thus allow ourselves always to experience surrendering our control,  coming to grips with experiences that are new, exposing ourselves to others who may have different impressions of us ... and what for are all these????  To challenge us to recognize what is truly important ... what truly matters:  THERE IS A GOD WHO PROFESSES HIS LOVE FOR US and WE ARE CALLED TO TRUST and DEPEND ON HIM. 

I think this is what we can learn from the life of St. Aloysius Gonzaga – our saint whose feast we remember today.  Aloysius was the eldest son of FERRANTE, the marquis of Castiliogne.  His father truly had high hopes for him to be a person of influence in Italian society.  Imagine how his father flew into rage when Luigi asked to be a priest.  But Aloysius was so persistent that at 17 years, he renounced his inheritance.  His father had to give in to the son.  Writing the Jesuit provincial then, the marquis said:  “I merely say that I am giving into your Reverence’s hands the most precious thing I possess in all the world.”

At 23 years old,  Aloysius got very sick because of the plague and died.  He is the patron saint of students, of Jesuit novices,  of the sick and dying. 

TODAY we are asked in faith, to believe in the GOD WHO PROFESSES HIS UNDYING LOVE FOR US telling us:  FOREVER I WILL MAINTAIN MY LOVE FOR MY SERVANT.

To be that faithful servant simply means:  TO STOP WORRYING ... to find in our hearts to TRUST and DEPEND on God. 

Aloysius Gonzaga shows us the way to FAITHFULNESS.

Are we Truly Following the Lord?

Reflections on ACTS 28:16-20, 30-31 / JohN 21:20-25
by Frank D.B. Savadera, SJ

Since Independence Day is upcoming,  we ask and review our history:  Who is the first president of the Philippine Republic?  Emilio Aguinaldo!  We think of him of course as an ESTEEMED hero of the country.  Is he ... really?  Digging into our history books however would tell us that he had a serious political skirmish with Andres Bonifacio, the later apparently was ordered killed by Aguinaldo.  After the Philippine-American war, Aguinaldo sought exile in Guam.   He returned to the country, run in an election but lost his presidential bid to Manuel L. Quezon.  When World War II came, Aguinaldo reportedly collaborated with the Japanese and in a radio broadcast asked Gen. Douglas McArthur to surrender his troops to save the Filipino youth from war.  He married twice (some guys have all the luck).  He was for a time on our P5 bill.  His mansion in Kawit, Cavite is now a tourist place. 

Unlike the other national heroes however (i.e, Rizal who died in front of a firing squad,  Bonifacio and General Luna who were assassinated by political foes, Gregorio del Pilar who was killed in battle with the Americans, Quezon who died during the war) Aguinaldo, historians say not only found himself always on the WRONG side of the political fence ...  HE ALSO  LIVED TOO LONG.  Some thought that he had compromised a lot to lived a very comfortable and convenient life.  He lived very long and died in 1964 at the age of 94 years.  He lived to see President Diosdado Macapagal restoring the date of Philippine Independence to June 12 from the US declared fourth of JULY.

Heroes, we would like to believe LIVED lives of sacrifice.  In the case of our Bible heroes for instance, we have Paul who was placed under house arrest.  He was still meeting friends but was obviously distraught by the fact that his very own people were against him.  I suffer, he said ... ON ACCOUNT OF THE HOPE OF ISRAEL.  Similarly, we have the character of Peter who asked:  “Master, who is the one who will betray you?”   Both Peter and Paul will eventually die violent deaths during the time of Christian persecution in Rome by the Emperor Nero. 

We note Peter’s question about JOHN – the beloved apostle:  “Lord, what about him?”  Yes ... what about JOHN THE BELOVED APOSTLES:  the one who reclined upon the Lord’s chest during the supper.  Apparently John escaped a violent death.  He also lived very long.   It is he who testifies to the writing of our Gospel today.   Just like Aguinaldo,  he lived long and DIED PEACEFULLY of old age in Ephesus. 

John and Emilio Aguinaldo lived somewhat "EASY LIVES" compared to their contemporaries who were perhaps tortured, beheaded and killed. 

We can get caught with the dilemma of Peter in the Gospel.  “Master, who is the one who will betray you?”  What about this person John?  

Our Lord’s reply is his reply to us as well:  “What if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours?  What is important is that YOU ARE FOLLOWING ME! 

If you notice the lives that we live, we recognize that our roles and tasks are different.  We can however get caught up with asking WHY this task for him and this work for me? 

What is important for the Lord, I guess is not whether we live long and short WE ARE FOLLOWING HIM. 

The Worst Prison! is a Closed Heart

Reflections on Acts 2:1-11 /  1 Cor. 12:3-7;12-13 / John 20:19-23

Holy Spirit Mass:  St. Paul University Manila

By Frank Savadera, SJ

Friends, I begin our sharing today with a quotation attributed to the late Pope John Paul II who was just recently canonized a saint.  According to JPII:  “The worst prison is a closed heart!”  Ang pinaka malala o pinaka malubhang piitan ay ang sarado at nakakandadong puso. 

I don’t know if anyone of you would know where the Manila City jail is located. Would anyone know?  I had a big surprise of my life when I first visited the Manila City jail a long time ago.   I realized that the jail is there right smack in the middle of the city.  And where?  If you get off at the Recto Station of the LRT just across the Isetann Department Store ... you will come across what you may think as a community of slum dwellers.  That area my friends, is the renowned, notorious and over-crowded Manila City jail.  How is it like to be in that jail???  I remember prisoners cooking their food with the aid of boat paddles ... yung SAGWAN ba ... and pouring soup and ULAM on plastic palangganas or timba that we normally use in comfort rooms.  I remember prisoners complaining of the lack of water supply that some of them had developed rashes, scabbies and others forms of skin disease.  I remember beds of prisoners stacked one on top of another ... ala high rise condominium ... with up to 3 or 4  “floors.”  Some presos even sleep hanging from the ceiling.  Friends, how is it like to live in the Manila City Jail? (I hope things have improved by now).  Nevertheless, I hope we don’t aspire to be there.

But then ... as we said and according to John Paul II:  The worst prison is a closed heart.  Ang pinaka malala ang pinaka malubhang piitan ay ang sarado at nakakandadong puso.   You don’t need to be in the Manila City Jail to experience being in prison.  Some of us may actually be living in a self-imposed jail ... right now.  Baka naman mas malaya pa yung mga taong nasa preso kaysa sa atin.  The worst prison is a closed heart.  

Why talk about jails and prisons?  A jail or a prison is the image I get as I imagine all the disciples locked up inside one room on at least two occasions, one during the time of the Lord’s Resurrection and the other, during Pentecost.  Mahilig magtago ang mga disipulo ni Jesus.  They were all locked up in a room cowering in fear ... for the Lord had left them and they were perhaps wondering how on earth are they to proceed with their lives knowing that many people outside may hate them or worst kill them as they did the Lord.   

Friends, we may not literally be in jail today but our HEARTS may be in prison.  And the worst prison is a closed heart.  A heart in prison sees everything as DARK.  A heart in prison succumbs to fear and paralysis.  A heart in prison thinks of the world as bleak and peoples and situations ashopeless and helpless.  A heart in prison could not think of any other need than his own.  I can be very protective of myself.  Everyone becomes an enemy.  Life is constantly a battle.  The center of the universe simply becomes the self.  Take for instance our propensities for HASHTAGs ... i.e., FOLLOW ME (F4F – follow for follow;  FF – follow Friday) i.e. look how beautiful and talented I am; HASHTAG OOTD (outfit of the day);   (Ako ang THE BEST ... BURN ... BOOM) or NAKAKA-AWA naman ako.  I have this so SEVERE A PROBLEM.  Helpless!    In such situations, we know that our hearts are in prison because no matter what it is that we do ... we cannot seem to be happy; I could not find meaning in the things that I do.  Friends: Are your hearts in prison?  The worst prison is a closed heart. 

I think it is in this context that we wish to start our year ... begging and pleading for the presence of the Spirit.  Mind you, even before we asked about its presence among us, the Spirit already DWELLS in us and among us.  Do you believe so? 

This is the assurance that we receive in our readings today.  There came a LOUD NOISE and a MIGHTY STORM ... a DRIVING WIND HEARD ACROSS THE ROOM and tongues of fire appeared, rested on their heads ... and  ALL were filled with the Holy Spirit.  Jesus in the Gospel tells us RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT.  Remember how the apostles were speaking in different tongues and yet still understanding each other.  What a GREAT GIFT of the Spirit isn’t it?  Despite our differences ... our varying perspectives in life ... each of us has the capacity to understand the other.  According to Scriptures: “Each hears the others speaking in their own tongue about the marvels God has accomplished.”  I think the best way to OPEN UP ONE’S HEART today  is to recognize how each of us is DIFFERENT but nevertheless called to SPEAK of the marvels God has done in our lives.  

Another image that we may wish to underscore in our Gospel today comes from the statement:  At the sight of the Lord, the apostles REJOICED.  I think FREEING OUR HEARTS means constantly wishing to FIND THE FACE of GOD in all there is that we do for the whole year.  Finding the face of God in the faces of people we see everyday. There will be PEACE!  The Spirit RENEWS ALWAYS THE FACE OF THE EARTH. 

The WORST PRISON IS A CLOSED HEART.  We are called to SEEK the Spirit’s assistance in FREEING US from our self-imposed prisons, FINDING THE FACE OF GOD in ALL that we see and FINDING PEACE and RENEWAL in the WORLD.