Tambayan sa Seminaryo Podcast Network

My dear friends, we share the same experience with the one person who was also in the same shoes with us during her time. A gracious lady was once a troubled person who wasn’t even sure of the tomorrow she’ll face. Following the wars happening around her, the oppressions from foreigners invading her homeland, and the uncertainties on whether a Savior is coming, she chose to contemplate on her environment and sought God in the midst of it all. She fervently prayed for the salvation of the world. She chose to maintain her silence and look inside it to find God amidst the noise of war, famine, and worldwide catastrophe. Most importantly, she prayed for her Messiah. This is how she was destined to become the Mother of our Lord.

The Blessed Virgin Mary is the epitome of a Catholic despite the troubles surrounding her. She is the perfect example of perfect humility whilst challenged to bear the greatest gift she received from the Almighty. She is the ultimate reason why a Catholic is born from enduring the torments of everyday life. She is the Mother of God.

As a Catholic facing the pandemic, we hope for the new year of 2021 to become more about us, to come in our advantage. However, it isn’t the essence of our Christianity. As the Church strategically placed the celebration of the Theotokos on new year’s day, she reminded us that our new year is bound to start with the ways our dear Mother Mary followed - in total contemplation and communication with the will of God. Her “yes” was, is always, and will always be, the point of origin of our faith. Through her relentless trust in the salvific power of God, she experienced hope amidst undying despair. In her hopes of bringing the world towards the fulfillment of God’s ultimate messianic plan, she introduced Love to us - who is the Lord Jesus Christ.

My dear friends, as we close the year 2020 and welcome the year 2021, may we remind ourselves of the true meaning of a new beginning. As Catholics, we are always called to an everyday renewal of our baptismal vows. Like Mary who renewed her deep devotion to God every single day of her life through prayer, adoration, and contemplation of the Scriptures, we are called to renew our devotion to God, uphold a deeper contemplation to the Gospels, and indulge our souls to a fount of prayer, charity, and complete desire to become examples of Jesus in this world. We are Catholics born from the affirmation of the Mother of God, placed under her motherly guidance, and brought up to salvation through her maternal intercession to our Lord and God.

Happy New Year to all of us. Let us keep safe and return to God while we still can.

On this day, we are commemorating the biggest event in human history. It was on a momentous night, over two thousand years ago, when God had fulfilled His promise to the people of the world - salvation from the wrath of sin and death. Today, “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14a)

My dear friends, Jesus is the ultimate promise of the Father, the paramount of His Love and Mercy to His creation. Through Him, everything was renewed in ways we can never imagine. In His birth, we are now experiencing the kind of hope we have never experienced in our wretched lives. In His humble nativity, we are rekindled to the faith we ought to give to our Lord and God. In His joyous coming, we are exposed to a deeper kind of love that only the Lord can provide us.

So today, my dear friends, let us light our Christmas candles and remember that Jesus is “the light of the world” (John 8:12)

But, with what is happening around us, do we really deserve the kind of love, the type of hope, and the aspect of faith endowed to us in Baptism? Are we also rekindled in our mission as Catholics given the fact we are all locked away because of the pandemic? What’s left in the glad tidings knowing we cannot celebrate it fully for fear of death and afflictions brought by the coronavirus disease? What is the true essence of Christmas that makes it worth celebrating even in times when we’re no longer sure.

Pandemic or not - Jesus is the reason we celebrate Christmas. There is nothing more than that. Christmas is more than just giving gifts and hosting parties. We are called to celebrate Christmas as a solemn remembrance that our loving God once made a huge decision that saved us all - to become a human being like us and show us the way to salvation Himself. The essence of Christmas is love, and through the love we can show to each other despite the limitations we face, we can celebrate Christmas just the way it should be. The mission isn’t about becoming a pompous Catholic. The mission is to be Catholic who is one with the Church in celebrating the joy of the season and salvation through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

My dear friends, the true essence of Christmas is love. In love, we find light and joy. In Jesus, we find the same because He is love. The essentials of a solemn Christmastide is not what is displayed on the table or what is wrapped beneath those gift boxes. It is in our faith that we remember how He loves us so much that he endured everything - from the moment of His humble birth up to His death on the Cross. Through the mysteries of our faith we draw Hope that will inspire us to become a better Catholic, to remain universal in our truths and affections, to be more encouraging to those who are losing it all, and to show them what it’s like to trust God above everything else. Through Hope, we enjoy the fruits of Love that were endowed to us by the Lord, who is the Holy Spirit, where we can show the world that the only way to salvation is through loving one another, not just in romantic or filial sense but a kind of love that endures everything just to make everyone feel it. It is the true meaning of Christmas. It is the ultimate reason we celebrate it year after year. It is what makes Christmas the best time of the year.

My dear friends, Jesus is the same - yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). There is nothing more relevant than this universal truth. Despite the pandemic, the pressure of keeping our economics and well-being in check, we can celebrate the fact that we are loved, we are shown mercy, we are given compassion despite the troubles and shortcomings we have incurred in our lives.

Advent is the reminder for the modern-day Catholics that there is always hope alongside faith and love. We are baptized not just to a religion but to a pathway of salvation that takes us to God through our actions and our graces. We are given a chance of a lifetime to become better in a world where everything seems to go downhill. We are Catholics with universal traits of piety, charity, and humility that continues to guide us no matter what happens in our lives.

Much of the health restrictions may have hindered us from celebrating Mass, attending important events as Christians, and enjoying the blessings of the Church, but we can never be stopped from being the spitting image of Jesus to the world. We are celebrating Advent because we wait for the world to completely accept Jesus. We are waiting for His inevitable coming that will prove the world that there is nothing more important than loving God and our dear brothers and sisters, regardless of age, gender, race, and social status.

As we celebrate a Year of Mission to the Nations, a year that we can foster care and charity to everyone like the Church’s great protector, Saint Joseph, we are called to prepare ourselves to engage in a mission that is grounded in the doctrines and magisteria of the Church. While we think that being sent on a mission requires mobility, today’s generation has a lot of tools that can continue to bring glad tidings to the world without going out of our homes. While we are all called to go out and preach the Gospel, show love and mercy to the least of our brethren, we can still lead a good example to everyone through our social media platforms. We can remain devout to the season of Advent through giving the world an idea of how wonderful it is to be part of the Mission that Christ has given us from His birth until the day He will come again.

Pope Francis quotes in his letter how Saint Joseph, “in every situation, declared his own ‘fiat’, like those of Mary at the Annunciation and Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.” In this affirmation, he found joy throughout his life. Yes, he has endured a lot like his spouse and adopted son, but he never felt bad or disheartened about it.

The Advent season of this year is no different than that of the first advent. Joseph waited for news on Mary’s whereabouts, her revelation on bearing a child that is from God, on preparing Mary to give birth while the burdens of colonial census bore him to go back to Bethlehem, his patience while knocking on doors to find an inn, and his humility when he brought his pregnant wife to give birth on a stable.

As we celebrate a Year of Missions, proclaiming our rich Catholic faith to the nations of the world, we also have to bear Joseph and his virtues in our hearts. We can connect to him by becoming a more mature Catholic in delegating our Faith to the faithless, in extending our Hope to the hopeless, and expressing our Love to the hated, the neglected, and the marginalized.

Like our dear medical and social frontliners who are battling the coronavirus disease while risking their life, their time, and their personal affections, we can look inside our sorrows and find joy like Saint Joseph. Knowing he will never gain any merits on earth for fostering the Messiah in his home, he has assured himself of the happiness in Heaven in exchange for all the sorrows he bore while raising a home for Jesus, his Lord, and the Blessed Virgin Mary. We can also take heed of the saint’s perseverance in protecting his wife and fostered Child, working his best in providing for them both economically and spiritually, and giving them their everyday needs than only looking at his gains when working his mission on earth as the custodian of the Savior. My dear friends, we can be like a Saint Joseph in this time of pandemic, starting from home and to our community. We can be a custodian of Faith, Hope, and Love in the Advent season.

On the Second Day of Advent, we continue to prepare for the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Also, this season is a perfect moment of preparation for the upcoming quincentenary celebration of the first Mass in the Philippines, which is a commemoration of the first evangelization of the nation to the Way, the Truth, and the Life - Jesus and His Church.

The liturgical year, themed Year of Missio ad Gentes (Mission to the Nations), is bound to be filled with wondrous celebrations of worship, festivities, and commemorations on the arrival of the Spanish explorers and friars to the country. When looking back at the moment when the Filipinos, of all the peoples in the Far East, received such a grace as faith in the True God, we all couldn’t help ourselves but overflow with joy and gratitude. Why does a small nation of roughly seven thousand and seven hundred scattered islands receive such a grace when all other surrounding nations have far greater honor to receive it?

My dear friends, God chose our country not only for a purpose but also out of love and fidelity to His peoples. The CBCP Letter that introduces the New Liturgical Year, Missio ad Gentes, revealed to the Filipino faithful how auspicious is the quincentenary celebration of Catholic and Christian faith to the nation. Especially in this time of national crisis, we are reminded of how important it is to continue and remain steadfast in our faith. That, being said, we will light another candle for this sunday of Advent.

The first Sunday of Advent is usually celebrated with the lighting of the first of the four candles that mark the Sundays before Christmas. But today, the lighting could not be witnessed by many due to the restrictions in mass gatherings. The pandemic has created a lot of guidelines on coming together, with which we have not anticipated to happen this year. Yet, we will continue to do it anyway. Today, we will light the first Advent candle.

But what’s the point of all this? What lies deep in the symbolism behind the candles and the traditions we do as part of our preparation for the Lord’s coming? With what we have struggled and fought upon, is it just right to pause and contemplate on the salvation brought by Jesus to our lives? The point is, Jesus is our core to everything. He is the cause of Faith, the anchors of Hope, and the source of Love that nourishes us even with these troubling times.

The moment we take a break and listen to the voice of God deep inside our hearts, we will begin to realize how essential it is to have Jesus in our thoughts, words, and actions during the pandemic and other calamities we have encountered this year. It is hard, but it’s all worth the wait. Jesus is worth the wait. Jesus is worth every suffering, every trial, every confusion, every answer, everything we know, and everything we do. In fact, He is worth more than whatever there is in this world. Understanding and ensuring this in ourselves would open our minds and hearts to the true meaning of Advent - that is we are all His children, His siblings, and His beloved. We celebrate Advent because we believe in the destiny we all share as God’s creation and, now, as His beloved adopted children