"Why do Catholics make the sign of the Cross?"

Holy Trinity Sunday

(Homily)

          Oftentimes, we, Catholics, find it hard to explain when we are asked one very basic question like “Why do we make the sign of the Cross?”

Sometime in 2004, when I was still a seminarian, I was asked to give a talk to a group of catechists in our parish in Ma-a. In our session, I let them watch Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ and then, I entertained some questions afterwards. One catechist raised a question which was not related to the movie. She said she was asked by an elementary pupil: why do Catholics make the sign of the cross? But she could not answer it.

Now, I throw to you the same question: Why, do you think, we make the sign of the Cross? Before we give some answers to the question “Why”, let us first answer the questions “What is the sign of the cross?” and “What do we profess in it?”

Whenever we make the sign of the Cross, we profess basically two truths of our faith: (1) the Mystery of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus (PDR), also known as the Paschal Mystery; and (2) the Mystery of the Holy Trinity. These are the two fundamental truths of our faith. But the most central – I would say – the source of all we believe and know about God is the second: the Mystery of the Holy Trinity, that God is One in Divine Substance (being God) but Three in Divine Persons (being Father, Son and Holy Spirit).

As we celebrate the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity today, let us review a little what we understand of the Mystery. A story is told about St. Augustine, who, one day, was walking on the beach, contemplating the Mystery of the Trinity. Then, he saw a boy in front of him who had dug a hole in the sand and was going out to the sea again and again bringing some water to pour into the hole. St. Augustine asked him, “What are you doing?” “I’m going to pour the entire ocean into this hole,” the boy replied. “That is impossible, the whole ocean will not fit in the hole you have made”, said the saint. The boy responded, “And you cannot fit the Trinity in your tiny little brain.”

Our tiny little brain can never contain the whole mystery, but this does not mean that the mystery is irrational and that we cannot be enlightened at least by some rational explanation. In order to avoid very simplistic explanations (like the electric fan metaphor, or 3-in-1 coffee analogy of the Holy Trinity), let us try to look into St. Augustine’s attempt to explain reasonably the Mystery as revealed to us in the Scriptures.

St. Augustine gave classic expression to the psychological analogy of the Trinity in which the unity of essence is likened to the rational part of the human soul, composed as it is of the mind, and the knowledge by which it knows itself, and the love by which it loves itself. St. Augustine likened the persons of the Holy Trinity to the human mind, knowledge and love.

In our human psychology, we have a mind that knows itself. We call it our “self-knowledge” or “self-image”. Our “self-image” is sometimes overrated or underrated. Sometimes, we pity ourselves simply because in our “self-image” we focus more on our defects or limitations rather than on our strengths.

God, the Father, also has a “self-image”: He looks at Himself, and He found His “self-image” very good; in fact, the Highest Good! The difference between our “self-image” and the Father’s “self-image” is that our “self-image” does not constitute another person because we are finite creatures. But the Father’s “Self-Image” constitutes another person because He is God, Infinite and Powerful. We understand, therefore, why St. Paul describes God the Son, Jesus Christ, as the “Image of the Invisible God” (Col. 1: 15).

As we look at our “self-image”, we tend either to love it or hate it, depending on whether we see ourselves as lovable or not. If we love our “self-image”, we say we have “high self-esteem”. If we hate ourselves, we say we have “low self-esteem”. However, because we are simply finite human beings, our self-love does not constitute another human person. But when the Father looks at Himself, He finds His “Self-Image” supremely good and, therefore, highly lovable. So He loves Himself infinitely. Since His “Self-Image” constitutes another Divine Person, that Person also loves the Father because love always involves two persons. Now, since these two persons who are in love with each other – the Father and the Son – are Infinite Divine Persons, their Love also constitutes another Divine Person, the Holy Spirit. Hence, the Holy Spirit is the Love that proceeds from the Father and the Son.

We see, therefore, that the best analogy in understanding a little rationally the Mystery of the Holy Trinity is through our psychological experience of our human mind that knows itself and loves itself. Mind, knowledge and love, therefore, could be likened to the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. But what is the significance of this very little understanding of the Mystery to our life of faith? Three points only:

 First, if God is our Father, and we are His children, then, we should not be worried whenever difficulties come. Our Father God will always provide for us, especially when we do our best. Second, since Jesus is the Perfect Image of God, the Father, if we want to be like God, we must be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ: to be a Christian, therefore, is to be Christ-like. Third, since the Holy Spirit is the love between the Father and the Son, we must ask the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love, so that we may truly love God and our neighbors as God loves us.

With this, we are now ready to give reasons why we make the sign of the Cross. We make the sign of the Cross because:

(1) We claim that we are children of God, the Father because we are baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Whenever we sign ourselves, we tell others that “We are sons or daughters of the Father”, the best Father of all (He should be the first that we greet: “Happy Father’s Day”).

(2) We manifest that we are disciples of Christ. The cross is the mark of discipleship. Pope Francis, in his first homily, emphasized the importance of the cross to Christ’s disciples. He said, “When we journey without the cross, when we build without the cross and when we confess a Christ without the cross, we are not disciples of the Lord: we are worldly, we are bishops, priests, cardinals, popes, but not disciples of the Lord”. By tracing the cross on our bodies, we are declaring that we belong to Christ alone: we become more Christ-like;

(3) Lastly, we declare that we want to live according to the Holy Spirit. When we sign ourselves, we express our decision to “crucify” the desires of our flesh – envy, jealousy, sensuality, anger, and all disordered inclinations – and to live according to the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier. Like “tossing off a dirty shirt or blouse”, making the sign of the Cross indicates our stripping ourselves of our evil inclinations and clothing ourselves with the behaviors of Christ (see Col 3: 5-15).

So from now on, every time we make the sign of the Cross, we don’t just mechanically say “In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. We are actually saying: “I am the son/daughter of the Father, a disciple who wants to be like the Son, and who wants to live a life in the Holy Spirit”. Amen.

Light makes one see or renders one blind

Homily: 4^th Sunday of Lent

          It’s quite ironic that while light makes us see the world around us, too much light can also blind us. Light makes one see or renders one blind! We see this truth graphically described to us in the Gospel today. Jesus cured the blind man at the Pool of Siloe (“Siloam”, which means “the One who is sent”). The evangelist John, the great theologian, has combined all possible signs and figures to bring home his point: Jesus, the Messiah – the One sent by God – is the light of the world.

The man who is blind from birth symbolizes all human beings who are born with original sin. Sin is actually blindness to God’s goodness. The clay smeared on his eyes may mean that everyone has to recognize that “we are dust and unto dust we shall return” (cfr. Gen. 3: 19). But then, the man went and washed himself in the water of the Pool of Siloam. Washing one’s face with water symbolizes baptism. The water in the Pool of “the One Sent” (Siloam) refers to the baptism that Jesus instituted. It washes away the original sin that all human beings inherited from Adam and Eve since birth.

Through baptism we receive the Light – Jesus Christ – in the same fashion that our Lord heals the blind man and creates “new sight” in him. Through faith, we recognize Jesus as the One sent by the Father, through Whom all shall be saved. Jesus is the Light of the world, of human existence, of your darkness as well as mine. But how ironic it is that the same light makes us see while it renders others blind! The same Jesus – the Light of the world – opened the eyes of the blind man and turned blind the eyes of the Pharisees. They look at Jesus but they could not see the Messiah. Now, we ask: Who are really the blind? Who is really the keen-sighted? The blind man in the Gospel is the real keen-sighted. The Pharisees are the real blind.

The Blind. The blind are (1) those who see only the appearance. In the First Reading (1 Sam 16: 1b, 6-7, 10-13a), the Lord asked the Prophet Samuel to anoint from among the sons of Jesse of Bethlehem the one God has chosen to be the king of Israel. When Samuel looked at Eliab and thought that he could be the chosen one, the Lord said, “Do not judge from his appearance or from his lofty stature… man sees the appearance but God looks into the heart”. True enough, how many times we judge a person by his appearance or by his gestures and reactions? How many times we stereotype, categorize or put people in a box? Every time we do so, we become blind because we see only the appearance. We are judgmental; we fail to look deeper into the person.

The blind are (2) those who cannot see or refuse to see the obvious. The Pharisees recognized the miraculous cure of the blind man. Yet, instead of praising the author of the miracle – Jesus – and recognizing the divine origin of His power, they said “This man is not from God, because he does not keep the Sabbath!” Oh, what blindness! Their unreasonable and exaggerated love for the law makes them forget the basic law of love, which is, at least, to think positively of others. Not only did they not see Jesus, they even thought badly of Him. That’s uncharitable! Their blindness consists not so much in their unbelieving, but in refusing to believe even if they have seen the clear manifestation of God’s power. How many times we didn’t see the hands of God at work in our lives simply because we refuse to see the obvious? Have you noticed that even the air you breathe is God’s gift to you? Have you thanked God for all the palpable blessings you have received from Him?

Blind also are (3) those who prefer to stay in the darkness of sin. St. Paul, in the Second Reading (Eph 5: 8-14) today, tells us: “You were once in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord… Take no part in the fruitless works of darkness”. But we love darkness because we think that in it we are more free to do whatever we want. As the song goes, “No right; no wrong; no rules for me; I’m free…” (Let it go). There is no freedom in doing what is wrong. Freedom will flourish only in the good. Freedom is not just having choices: it is choosing the good. To choose to stay in the darkness of sin is not freedom: it is slavery! You say: “I cannot get out of my vice”. Wrong! You cannot get out of it because you don’t want to. You prefer to stay in darkness. If you’ll just try and make a decision to get out of that darkness, with God’s grace, you can! Again, listen to St. Paul: “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light”.

The Keen-Sighted. He who can really see is (1) one who looks into the heart as God does. Does it occur to you that even though that person may appear unlikeable in your sight, he is a genuine person inside? The Little Prince already said it: “It is only through the heart the one sees clearly, for what is essential is invisible to the eye”. If you want to see the real beauty of the person, give more importance to the moral values in your relationship – loyalty, sincerity, purity, respect of each other’s body – rather than to the physical aspect like sexual activities and other forms of sensuality. Sensuality blinds the spirit. But he who can look at the other person through God’s eyes is keen-sighted indeed!

Another keen-sighted is (2) one who believes even when he does not see or understand. When Jesus found again the blind man, He asked him: “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” he answered, “Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus replied, “I am He”. The blind man exclaimed: “I do believe, Lord”, and he worshiped Him. Do you need proofs in order to believe that Jesus loves you? You say, God does not exist because evil exists. Can’t you see? A god who cannot tolerate opposition is not a true god because he is not powerful enough to tolerate evil. But a God who can permit evil to happen because He can get something good out of it is a true and most powerful God. Even though you cannot yet see or understand why God allows you to suffer poverty or that sickness, believe first in order for you to see. Believe in order to understand!

Lastly, he is not blind (3) who try to live as a child of light. St. Paul exhorts us: “Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth. Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord”. When the sole motive of your every action, every word, and every thought is God and His glory, you are living as a child of light. However, to live in the light today is very difficult because the world wants to drag you into the darkness. Fight against worldly wiles and temptations. The world will often deceive you with its false lights: the dancing light, the patay-sinding ilaw. Avoid that light because it will blind the little child in you – your innocence.

Brothers and sisters, Jesus comes to you as the Light: He comes to give you back your sight, which you lost through sin. But if you still refuse to live as sons and daughters of light, the Light of Jesus will blind you. Will you prefer to stay blind? Will you not say to Jesus: “Lord, make me see again”? Ask Mother Mary to help you.

The Itinerary of Christian Life

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

Today’s episode of Jesus’ encounter and conversation with the Samaritan woman near Jacob’s well is a vivid description of the itinerary of our Christian life. This itinerary consists in three (3) levels: the encounter with Jesus, the finding of answers to our questions in life, and the giving witness to Jesus. Let us reflect on each level.

The Encounter with Jesus. It was unusual for this Samaritan woman to fetch water at “about noon” because women normally draw water in the early morning or the late hour in the afternoon. Perhaps, this woman chose this hour to avoid meeting anyone. Probably, her marital situation prompted her to avoid such encounters.

But then, she met Jesus unexpectedly. How many times our encounter with Jesus is unexpected? We bumped into someone who invited us to a prayer meeting, and there, we decided to change our lives and follow the Lord. But sometimes, our encounter with the Lord is occasioned by some negative experiences: death of a loved one, broken relationships, economic crisis, family problems.

In the First Reading, we see how the Israelites complained against the Lord and against Moses because they did not have anything to drink. “Why did you ever make us leave Egypt? Was it just to have us die here of thirst with our children and our livestock?” Experiencing discomfort, the people immediately forgot the miraculous deeds of the Lord at the Red Sea. Oftentimes, our crisis in life makes us forget God’s providence. Like the Israelites, we also ask: “Is the Lord in our midst or not?”

Yet, one thing is certain: even in our trials and difficulties, in our problems, we can and we must encounter the Lord. The Lord is present not only in prosperity; He is more present in adversity. Oftentimes, we just forget about Him and neglect Him. That is why, we need to go to the well: the Sacraments. At noontime of life, when we feel thirsty and our soul is dry, let us go to the source of living water: Jesus Christ, who is ever ready to quench our thirst.

Finding Answers to our Questions. “Who are we?”, “Where do we come from?”, “What are we here for?”, “What is the meaning of life?”, “Where do we go from here?”, “Is there life after death?” “Does God exist?” “If God is good, why the evil in the world?” You may add more questions. But where will you go to find answers to your questions? To the media? To TV? To movies? To Facebook?

Why don’t you try to listen to the Church? Why don’t you open the Bible? Why don’t you try to browse the Catechism? Why don’t you try to pay attention to people whose lives have become meaningful because they have decided to follow Christ? Why not try to converse with Jesus like the Samaritan woman? Try it. Perhaps, you will find the answers to your questions, just like the Samaritan woman did.

Our basic human questions are legitimate. Our longing for answers and meanings in life is natural. But oftentimes, we are wrong in thinking that only the water that the world gives can quench our thirst. Jesus said: “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life”.

Have you ever wondered why when you decided to accept Jesus in your heart even your hardest trial became bearable? Because you have found meaning to your pain! Have you ever wondered why even in your times of prosperity, without Jesus, everything – even your comfort, your security – becomes meaningless? Because without Jesus, there is emptiness. Without faith in Jesus, there is a vacuum in life that no worldly good – whether money, fame, or power – can fill.

If you have not discovered it yet, sooner or later you will. You will understand what St. Paul meant in the Second Reading when he wrote: “We have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith, to this grace in which we stand”. For even if we are surrounded with prosperity, economic gain, fame, and all what the world can offer, if we are not at peace with God, if we are not reconciled with God, there is still emptiness; all that we have is meaningless!

Witnessing to Christ. After our encounter with Jesus and after finding meaning to our life, the natural consequence is to share Jesus to others: to give witness to the joy that we have found. Witnessing to Christ simply means letting other people see for themselves the joy of encountering Jesus. The neighbors of the Samaritan woman said to her: “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world”.

We, Catholics, must give witness today of our faith. How do we do this? By letting people see and hear “for themselves” how our lives have been changed by our encounter daily with Jesus, in the Sacraments, in our workplace, in our family life, in our choice of entertainment. When people “experience themselves”, when they encounter Jesus themselves through our witnessing, this will create a ripple effect. We make Jesus known and loved by the world.

Let us ask the Blessed Virgin Mary to help us to encounter Jesus, to let Jesus quench our thirsts for life’s meaning, and to give witness to Jesus among our friends. Amen.  

Jesus’ Baptism and ours

Today, we formally end the Christmas season with the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord. Christmas ends; ordinary time begins. But we are reminded that our encounter with the Lord does not end. On the contrary, it is intensified in the ordinary tasks that we do each day.

The Baptism of Jesus in Jordan by John that we hear in the Gospel today reminds us also of our own baptism. In fact, there is parallelism between the two: Jesus’ baptism and ours. Let us reflect on the meaning of our Lord’s Baptism and its implication in our lives.

FIRST, in His Baptism, Jesus revealed Himself as the Son of the Father. In fact, the Lord’s Baptism reveals to us that God is a Trinity: One God in Three Divine Persons. The Father’s voice is heard: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” – words that remind us of the First Reading: “Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased”.

Our baptism also marks the beginning of our divine filiation. It serves as our anointing as sons and daughters of God. In baptism, we become children of God and brothers and sisters to one another. Baptism makes us one big human family of God. The implication is that because we are God’s children now, we should strive only to please our Father so that we too can hear God saying about us: “This is my beloved son, with whom I am pleased”.

SECOND, the Lord’s Baptism also marks the beginning of His public ministry. It serves as His anointing as the Messiah sent by God, the Father, whom the Prophet Isaiah prophesied in the First Reading as the one who “shall bring forth justice to the nations” and  who is the “light for the nations to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from slavery”. The Acts of the Apostles, in the Second Reading, summarizes Jesus’ public ministry in these words: “He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him”.

Our baptism also marks the beginning of our vocation to holiness. Anointed by the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, we are called to live a holy life, always keeping ourselves away from sin. With such anointing, we share in the three ministries of Christ as Priest, Prophet and King. As priest, we must offer to God the worship that is due to Him by participating in the Sacred Liturgy. As prophet, we must proclaim the love of God to the world through our actions, and – if necessary – also through our words. As king, we must render service to God through our service to our neighbors.

The implication is that because we are baptized as priest, prophet and king, then, we must strive to transform our hearts into the heart of Jesus, to think, speak and behave like Jesus, to become alter Christus (other Christ) or ipse Christus (Christ Himself) to others.

Lastly, in Jordan, Jesus joined the line of sinners approaching John to receive the baptism of repentance. Jesus, who knows no sin, becomes one with the sinners by being with them. He is near to those who are lost. He eats with them. He shows solidarity with sinful humanity.

The implication is that our baptism should also make us one with Jesus and with one another. Solidarity means we should live as one people of God. It means that we should be concerned with the needs of our brothers and sisters. If somebody is lost, we should try to find him. If one is in error, we should correct him. We should strive to help one another in our needs, whether they are spiritual, moral, or economic. Our attitude with one another should be like that of Jesus: we weep at other’s misfortune, laugh at other’s joy, and are compassionate – not judgmental – of other’s defects.

Today’s celebration of the Baptism of the Lord, therefore, is a good reminder of the meaning of our own baptism: that in the same way that the Lord’s Baptism reveals that He is the Son of God, who is pleasing to the Father, and the Messiah who is one with the sinful humanity, we too must be pleasing to God and must be transformed into the likeness of Christ.

May the Blessed Virgin Mary assist us in our struggle to become ipse Christus, Jesus Christ Himself. Amen.