Someone mentioned that if you spell the word “PART” backwards, you’ll end up with “TRAP.”
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In today’s Gospel (Mt. 22, 15-21), we hear how the Pharisees wanted to trap Jesus with a question regarding the payment of taxes to the Romans who occupied their country then. Yes, there are people who question everything and everyone, not really to know the truth, but to entrap, to set up, to attack. They are not truth seekers, just faultfinders.
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Jesus was not concerned with the opinion of others, nor about the social status of His hearers. Why? Because Jesus was “a truthful man,” who taught “the way of God in accordance with the truth.”
If you stay with God, you stay with the truth; if you stay with the truth, you stay with God.
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Think global. Let us go beyond our small, self-centered, and pragmatic views; reach out to people, and be part of the big world out there. For some people, they believe that the whole world revolves around them. Hello. The world was already turning before we were born, and will go on turning long after we are gone.
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Today is World Mission Sunday. We have a mission to share our faith, and to dialogue with different religions and cultures, with respect and understanding. We believe in the good news of our salvation, and we joyfully spread it, worldwide. We are, so to speak, “carriers” of God’s virus called love, here and abroad. Please sign up, re-enlist, and be on active duty.
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Life is a mission, not a vacation. Life without a mission is vain, shallow, empty, and lonely.
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Life is about being commissioned, and not about searching for commissions. Worldly treasures, comfort, and power can make us forget that we have been commissioned to share our faith and our blessings to other people.
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Life is transmission, not of the COVID-19 virus, but of God’s virus of love. Yes, let us be carriers (symptomatic, please) and be a part of the transmission of God’s presence here and worldwide.
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Worse, there are people who live life without a mission, and who even become a “konsumisyon” (problem) to, and of other people. If we cannot become part of the solution, at least, let us not become part of the problem.
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Fr. Leonardo Mercado, SVD, has accomplished his life mission at the age of 85. He was an accomplished person in the line of Filipino philosophy and theology, but he remained quiet, simple, and humble. We have much to learn from this spiritual giant who never sought the limelight, but who just quietly followed the light.
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Let’s continue to pray that the pandemic will end soon, and that we will not be infected by the COVID-19 virus, and specially that we do not get the COVID-19 virus of fear, hopelessness, selfishness, impatience, and depression. Let’s fight the COVID-19 war, and win as one.
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May we come out of the pandemic as better persons who have been humbled and purified. In everything that is happening, there is a reason, and there is a mission.
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“In this year marked by the suffering and the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic, the missionary journey of the whole Church continues” (Pope Francis). Please continue to pray for our missionaries all over the world, and support financially the missionary endeavors of the Church through the Pontifical Mission Societies of the Philippines (BDO C/A 006578010868 or Metrobank: S/A 091-3-09151543-2).
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A moment with the Lord: Lord, help us to see life and live life as a mission. Amen.
jorbos@inquirer.com.ph