September 11, 2012
Tuesday – Weekday
by Msgr. Bong Lo (Chaplain, Chapel
of Eucharistic Lord)
Lunch Mass at Megamall, Chapel of
the Eucharistic Lord
12 In these days he went
out to the mountain to pray; and all night he continued in prayer to God. 13
And when it was day, he called his disciples, and chose from them twelve, whom
he named apostles; 14 Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and
James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, 15 and Matthew, and Thomas, and
James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, 16 and Judas
the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. 17 And he came down
with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a
great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre
and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; 18 and
those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19 And all the crowd
sought to touch him, for power came forth from him and healed them all.
HOMILY
In our Gospel Reading for today, we have heard
that before Jesus chose His 12 Apostles, He spent the whole night praying. He
spent time praying for guidance. Was Jesus mistaken in his selection of his Apostles
? Peter denied Him, not once, not twice, but three times; Judas betrayed Him. Nagkamali
ba si Jesus sa kanyang discernment? No. Hindi nagkamali si Hesus.
But Jesus' disciples had the free will. They had the choice whether to listen
to God or not. Jesus' disciples were free to obey Him or not.
Just like the disciples, we are free to choose the direction we want to take. We can choose to be free and lead our own lives, or for better or for worse, to follow the will of God, to stand up for God, no matter how hard it is. Sometimes, our hearts have the spirit of revenge, the spirit of selfishness. Pero sa kabila ng ating kahinaan at kasalanan, God is always there to welcome us, to give us the chance to reform, to come to His presence, and allow God to bless us, to touch our spiritual being, and heal us of our sicknesses, our sins.
As we relate the Gospel to St. Paul's reading today, it tells us to learn to settle matters among ourselves, and to be instruments of reconciliation. Like Jesus' disciples, kung pag-uusapan lang nang sana natin nang maayos, if we can listen to one another, to forgive one another - although we may not be able to always satisfy what we want - we welcome God's peace, and we welcome God's joy, blessings and graces.
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