Palawan Reflections: 2008 Sunday Gospels -- March

March 2, 2008
4th Sunday in Lent

Readings of the Day
First Reading: 1 Sm 16:1b,6-7,10-13a / Psalm 23
Second Reading: Eph 5:8-14
Gospel: Jn 9:1-41 Jesus heals a blind man

Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.

Jesus said, "While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." And so he makes a man born blind see.

Blindness -- or any other kind of handicap or sickness -- cuts a person off from fully participating in the life of his community. By healing the man of his blindness, Jesus, as it were, makes him an active member of his community.

I need to turn to Jesus, then, I need to call on his name so that even if all sorts of infirmity "dismember" me from society, through his help, I will, once again, become a dynamic member of this society.


March 9, 2008
5th Sunday in Lent

Readings of the Day
First Reading: Ez 37:12-14 / Psalm 130
Second Reading: Rom 8:8-11
Gospel: Jn 11:1-45 The raising of Lazarus

I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, wil live and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.

Lazarus has died while Jesus, a close friend, was away and has already been entombed in a cave. In the end, however, Jesus raises Lazarus back to life.

There is no escape from death. Nor from sickness. Nor from age-ing, with our teeth falling off and our hair turning gray. This is the direction of the world.

Yet, this direction may be stalled should I beliueve in the Lord Jesus. I am matter and, hence, subject to the world's physical and natural laws. Yet, I am also spirit. I, therefore, place all my trust in Jesus who makes all things possible. He is the Resurrection and the Life.


March 16
Passion (Palm) Sunday

Readings of the Day
First Reading: Is 50:4-7 / Psalm 22
Second Reading: Phil 2:6-11
Gospel: Mt 26:14-27,66 Jesus' passion and death

Behold the hour is at hand when the Son of Man is to be handed over to sinners.

Love of God is the Grief of God.

Jesus gets betrayed by Judas, one of his closest friends. Then he is handed over to Caiphas and the entire Sanhedrin, to Pilate, and eventually to the soldiers who strip him, nail him on the cross, and pierced him with a lance.

This is God's love for me. The All Powerful Son of God bowed down by the weight of his cross on the way to Calvary. The Great Healer of all kinds of sickness helpless and in agony on the cross. The Author of Life breathing his last on the cross in the middle of two thieves.

How can I not love him?


March 23, 2008
Easter Sunday of the Lord's Resurrection

Readings of the Day
First Reading: Acts: 10:34a,37-43 / Psalm 118
Second Reading: Col 3;1-4
Gospel: Jn 20,1-9 He saw and believed

He saw and believed.

The tomb is empty and Jesus is gone. John, the beloved disciple, saw the linen cloth and believed. Believed in what? Believed that the Lord Jesus has risen from the world of the dead, as Jesus has always declared while he was with them.

This capacity to see beyond what the eyes -- or the senses -- can grasp must be the reason why John was Jesus' beloved disciple.

Whoever has seen love? None. What I see is a mother spoon-feeding her sick daughter. Whoever has seen courage? None. What I see are soldiers placing themselves in harm's way to rescue women and children trapped in flood waters.

At Mass, while I see only the host and the chalice, I know and believe that I see the body of Christ.


March 30, 2008
2nd Sunday of Easter

Readings of the Day
First Reading: Acts 2:42-47 / Psalm 118
Second Reading: 1 Pt 1:3-9
Gospel: Jn 20:19-31 Peace be with you

Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieveing, but believe."

Jesus, once again, appears before his disciples who stay behind locked doors for fear of the Jews. He greets them with a very reassuring, "Peace be with you!" Then, he tells Thomas to "put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving but believe."

Here is the Most Powerful Son of God identifying himself with his wounds. He has no harsh words for his disciples who abandoned him nor unkind remarks to Thomas who, until then, refuses to believe that he has risen.

What Jesus brings is "Peace!" as well as the invitation to see his wounds and to believe that he has, indeed, risen.