Family: The Best Thing in Life

Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

Luke 2:41-52

December 27, 2015

Our families are fiercely attacked than never before in any history of humanity. Divorce, infidelity, domestic violence, child abuse and labor, sexual exploitation, pornography, contraception, abortion, and dehumanizing poverty are diseases that threaten the family. It is a sacred duty of every Christian to protect the family. Yet, why we need to guard the family from all these evil?

One of the ultimate reasons is that it is within the family that we all learn the best things in life. Aside from learning to say ‘Mama’ or how to walk, we learn to love genuinely, to trust others, to be faithful to one other, to give generously, and to make true sacrifice. If we are always hesitant to love, or unwilling to share, the root causes may be in the family. We did not see these virtues strive in our family. St. Teresa of Avila herself testified in her autobiography, “If I had not been so wicked it would have been a help to me that I had parents who were virtuous and feared God, and also that the Lord granted me His favor to make me good.”

Jesus was born into a family. It was not a perfect family since Mary and Joseph was not rich and perhaps could not provide much for Jesus, but still, Mary and Joseph were the right parents for Jesus. He obeyed His Father as He saw Mary who had been obedient to God’s will in the Annunciation. He was hard-working preacher because Jesus was trained by dedicated Joseph, the carpenter. Most importantly, if Jesus was able to love fully and sacrifice Himself for our salvation, it is because He saw in Mary and Joseph who wholeheartedly willing to abandon everything for the sake of Jesus.

Family may be just the smallest unit in the society, but we need to remember our salvation comes from the family. Our journey to heaven takes its first step in our families.

Br. Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP

St. Elizabeth: the Spotter of the Good News

Fourth Sunday of Advent

December 20, 2015

Luke 1:39-45

“…for at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy (Luk 1:44).”

St. Elizabeth seemed to have this special skill that often escaped our eyes. She had this ability to spot that Mary, her relative, was with a child. That was their first encounter after years. Nobody told Elizabeth that Mary was pregnant, and surely, no cellphone and Facebook were yet available during that time for speedy communication. Mary’s pregnancy was not yet physically obvious since it was barely a month since the Annunciation. Yet, she did it. We remember that the primary intention of Mary’s visit was to prove Gabriel’s message that Elizabeth was pregnant, but it turned out that Elizabeth was the first one who recognized the Mary’s pregnancy. 

Before the presence of Mary and the baby, Elizabeth’s reaction was astonishing.  She did not grill Mary with investigative questions like ‘who is the father?’ or ‘why did you break the Law?’ Neither did she harbor any hatred to Mary for breaking the Jewish sacred Law, nor reporting her to authority. She chose rather to embrace Mary and to rejoice with her in the Lord. Elizabeth did not only have the ability to spot the pregnancy, but more importantly, the ability to discover the Good News.

Our world is loaded with bad news. Wars and bloody violence are raging from Sahara desert to tropical jungles in South East Asia, from North America to Syria. Our news outlets are full of this terrible information: killing within the family, abuses against women and children, and natural and man-made disasters. What is horrified is that we buy these kind of news and serve them as our breakfast. We can easily spot the problems and issues in our lives. Financial difficulties, health issues, broken relationships, name it and you have it. We are trained to see the bad news and linger in them. We, thus, become announcers of the bad news or simply the complainers or gossipers.

However, echoing the words of Antonio Cardinal Tagle, the Archbishop of Manila, in the opening of Dominican Jubilee Door in Santo Domingo Church, Metro Manila few weeks ago, “We do not need another proclaimer of the bad news. Our world has already a lot of bad news. We desperately need the preachers of good news.” No wonder if St. Dominic de Guzman is called the preacher of grace, because it is the main mission of every preacher to discover the working of God in our midst. As Sr. Mary Catherine Hilkert OP once said ‘preaching is to articulate grace’. 

The Advent season gives us Elizabeth. Her ability to spot the grace among ordinary events and even among unlikely circumstances makes her a humble yet true model of preacher of the Good News. Yet, we must not forget that Elizabeth’s skill is not merely human effort, but in itself a grace of God. She was under the influenced of the Holy Spirit, when she was able to discover Jesus. Eventually, it is the grace of God within us that enables us to unearth the grace around us. In turn, the grace around us brings joy and meaning in our lives as well as strengthens the grace within us.  It is all about grace.

To spot grace and to become happy is not simply a matter of choice, but it is primarily the fruits and gift of Holy Spirit. We constantly pray to God to shower us with His grace and blessings so that in the midst of various earthly concerns and problems, we may not miss Jesus this Christmas.

Br. Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP

Excesses

Third Sunday of Advent

December 13, 2015

Luke 3:10-18

“Stop collecting more than what is prescribed (Luk 3:13).”

We often think that having more is the sure path to happiness and greatness. Surely, it feels good to own high-end gadgets in our hands, rather than to see them in the hands of our friends. That’s why we work so hard to earn money and buy a lot of things, like fashionable clothes, electronic devices, cars, and more. The more we have, the better we feel. Prosperity is happiness. No wonder books on the secret formula of success and richness are mushrooming and best sold. We spend a lot money to invite management gurus or enroll in programs with great coaches. Even, preachers of various religious groups proclaim wealth as blessing and they sound pleasing to our ears.

However, the Gospel, through John the Baptist, offers us a radical shift of perspective. John told the people to live simply, be avoid excesses and share their surplus. Prosperity is not happiness. Yet, deep inside, we do not like the idea. It is counterintuitive, countercultural and as if we swim against the current of contemporary wisdom. We want to work harder, we like to earn more, and it just feel good to have money and things we desire. Sometimes, priests, religious brothers and sisters are not immune to this temptation. We work so hard, preach a lot, do a lot of ministries and we build many new buildings for our apostolates. We unconsciously are running after another form of prosperity. 

Yet, despite preaching against our desire, John is actually proclaiming a Good News, and what good is in having less? When Michelangelo was asked by the Pope, “Tell me the secret of your genius. Tell me how you have made the magnificent statue of David.” He answered, “It is simple. I just remove what is not David.” We are not less human when we stop having excesses, like excessive works, undue problems, complicated relationship, all things that are not essential. In fact, it opens up to other fresh and vibrant possibilities in life, and unforeseen opportunities to discover our true self. Let’s be honest. We are not truly sure what the key to success and happiness is. If we do, we have been as rich as Bill Gate or as powerful as Barack Obama long time ago. If adding things in our lives does not mean happiness, why don’t we just remove those unessential things all together?

John focused on the essential. When he was asked if he was the Messiah, he firmly said no, though it could have been a great opportunity. People of Israel would adore and give him the glory, but John remained firm in his decision. Because his refusal to heed the temptation, he opened up another creative possibility, he became the best man of the Bridegroom, the voice in the wilderness. He then effectively led people to Jesus.

The Advent season is a high time for us to slow down and ask ourselves, “I am working so hard, but am I doing the right thing? I have a lot of things in my hands, but are there really essential?” St. Thomas Aquinas once argued that God is so simple, and because His total simplicity, He was utterly beautiful and lovable. We were created in the image of God, and only going back to that simplicity of God, we are going to discover who we truly are. Like Michelangelo who chiseled out that is not David, we need to detach also those who are not us.

Br. Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP