Reflection for August 31, Monday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time: Luke 4:16-30

Gospel: Luke 4:16-30

Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.

Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They also asked, “Is this not the son of Joseph?”

He said to them, “Surely you will quote me this proverb, ‘Physician, cure yourself,’ and say, ‘Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.’ And he said, “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land.

 It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian. When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. But he passed through the midst of them and went away.

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Reflection:

Acceptance of somebody who achieved something is sometimes hard to accept for many of us. Most especially if we know the person and his/her background pretty well. We sometimes are unbelieving and scornful of them.

This behavior of non-acceptance happened also to Jesus when He went back to Nazareth, the town where he grew-up. Jesus’ town mates did not accept Him even if it was very obvious that he was very exceptional.

Their hearts were hardened already for Jesus. The worst part is they even tried to kill him. This is human behavior at its worst! But why is it that we can’t accept? There’s no other reason but pride, envy and arrogance.

Our pride, envy and arrogance will not bring us any good. It will only hasten our downfall! If we allow these negative emotions to rule our hearts no good will happen to us except self-destruction. – Marino J. Dasmarinas 

1Reflection for Sunday August 30, Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time; Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Gospel: Mark  7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. —For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds. So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, “Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?” He responded, “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”

He summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.

“From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.”

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Reflection:

A domineering husband was always critical of his wife, he would always create rules in their house for her to follow. The humble and often verbally abused wife would always follow but as years passed by she finally realized that she had enough. So she decided to permanently walk away from her arrogant husband.

Many of the Pharisees during Jesus time had that domineering attitude also, they were very strict with observing their many traditions and rituals. For example the washing of hands before eating meals, purifying oneself after going to the marketplace and they have countless more: They wanted these all to be observed.

In the gospel the Pharisees saw the followers of Jesus eating their meals without washing their hands. They therefore questioned Him: "Why did they not wash their hands first?" But as always Jesus knew about their motives, Jesus knew that they were only good with the external observance of their traditions. But deep inside them they were still the same arrogant and overbearing people who always push their weight around.

The problem with always being strict is it creates a division that  may produce a permanent wedge amongst individuals.  Jesus knew about this problem that's why he often times disregards the rules in favor of the welfare of the people. For Jesus it is first and foremost the welfare of His people before the observance of the traditions, it is first the interior cleansing before the exterior observance of the rituals.    

Strictness always results to alienation, division and permanent separation while compassion and understanding always results to love, healing and unity. Jesus would want us to always be compassionate, to always be understanding and to always be kind towards our fellowmen.

It's only through these acts of love and gentleness that we could become effective vessels of His teachings. – Marino J. Dasmarinas 

Reflection for August 29, the Passion of Saint John the Baptist: Mark 6:17-29

Gospel: Mark 6:17-29

Herod was the one who had John the Baptist arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married. John had said to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” Herodias harbored a grudge against him and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so. Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man, and kept him in custody. When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed, yet he liked to listen to him. She had an opportunity one day when Herod, on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers his military officers, and the leading men of Galilee. Herodias’ own daughter came in and performed a dance that delighted Herod and his guests. The king said to the girl, “Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you. He even swore many things to her “I will grant you whatever you ask of me, even to half of my kingdom. She went out and said to her mother “What shall I ask for? She replied, “The head of John the Baptist. The girl hurried back to the king’s presence and made her request, “I want you to give me at once on a platter the head of John the Baptist. The king was deeply distressed but because of his oaths and the guests he did not wish to break his word to her. So he promptly dispatched an executioner with orders to bring back his head. He went off and beheaded him in the prison. He brought in the head on a platter and gave it to the girl. The girl in turn gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

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Reflection:

Where does John the Baptist’s courage comes from? John’s courage emanates from God, he draws strength from God. It’s God who fuels John’s motivation to denounce the immorality of Herod and Herodias.

Faced with a very powerful man, John never thought of backing down. He stood his ground and simply followed the dictate of the Holy Spirit.

When faced with the same dilemma would we be able to stand our ground and look straight in the eyes those who are corrupt and immoral? Or those who are straying the right path? For example in your house if you sense that something is wrong with your spouse, would you pretend to see nothing and hear nothing? Of course not! You have to denounce it no matter what happens.

Many martyrs and saints of the church took the difficult path of John and like John they paid dearly for it. This is how it is when you are true to your discipleship with Jesus. You have to be ready to sacrifice a big part of your life so that evil will not triumph.

To do nothing, to pretend to hear and see nothing in spite of the obvious stench of immorality and other wrongdoings is evil. – Marino J. Dasmarinas    

Reflection for August 27, Thursday Saint Monica: Matthew 24:42-51

Gospel: Matthew 24:42-51

Jesus said to his disciples: “Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.

“Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household to distribute to them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so. Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property. But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is long delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with drunkards, the servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”

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Reflection:

There’s a story of a woman who transferred to her newly built house. In her two years stay in the said house she had it blessed three times already. And her reason was she always had a feeling that something eerie was going to happen to her in that house. When she was asked if she always has time for God she said that she doesn’t have. She only read the bible if she wants and she only attends Holy Mass if she likes.

What does it mean to stay awake? It means to always be ready for whatever that may come into our lives. Life is so full of surprises that we cannot predict what may happen to us in the next seconds and minutes.

Earthly preparation is always prudent but nothing beats being prepared spiritually. For spiritual preparation is the best preparation that we could ever do. Whatever that may hit us if we are spiritually prepared we are very sure that we will rise up again. For the simple reason that we are connected with God and who could bring us down if we have God? Nobody!

Let us therefore always be prepared by having a special bond with Jesus. We can begin by reading about His life in the bible. And my making ourselves available for Holy Mass most especially during Sunday.   

Are you always prepared? – Marino J. Dasmarinas 

Philippines becomes regional star as gloom descends around Asia; http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-wp-blm-news-bc-philippines24-20150824-story.html

MANILA, Philippines — It's more what the Philippines doesn't have than what it does have that's making the country Southeast Asia's safe haven amid an emerging-market rout.

Relatively low levels of foreign investment in its bonds and stocks are shielding the Philippines from an intensifying selloff, while a comparative lack of raw materials means it's less vulnerable than Indonesia or Malaysia to sliding commodities prices. Stability under President Benigno Aquino stands in contrast to Thailand, ruled by the military since May 2014, and Malaysia, where the prime minister is facing calls to resign amid a political scandal.

Philippine local-currency sovereign bonds returned 2.9 percent over the last three months, the most in Southeast Asia. The peso has held up better than its peers, losing 4.5 percent, compared with drops of 8 percent in Thailand's baht, 12 percent in Indonesia's rupiah and 18 percent in Malaysia's ringgit. The benchmark Manila stocks index has also declined the least in the region over the period.

"It's definitely the regional star," said Edwin Gutierrez, who helps oversee $13 billion as the head of emerging-market sovereign debt at Aberdeen Asset Management in London. "In a world starved of growth, Philippine growth -- albeit slowing -- is holding up relatively well," he said, adding that a relative lack of foreign participation had protected the country from capital flight.

  

The economy expanded 5.7 percent last quarter from a year earlier, according to a Bloomberg survey before data due Aug. 27. That would be an improvement from 5.2 percent expansion in the first three months, although slower than 6.1 percent in 2014. Indonesian and Malaysian growth slowed to 4.67 percent and 4.9 percent, respectively, last quarter, while Thai gross domestic product increased 2.8 percent.

A burgeoning business-process outsourcing industry is aiding the Philippine economy. Revenue from BPO, which includes customer call centers as well as the farming out of accounting tasks, will rise to $21.2 billion this year and $25 billion in 2016 from $18 billion in 2014, according to the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines.

Money sent home by Filipinos living abroad, which makes up about 10 percent of GDP, increased 5.6 percent to $12.1 billion in the first half from a year earlier. A net oil importer, the Philippines has also benefited from falling crude prices. The country ran a $3.3 billion current-account surplus in the first quarter, compared with $1.5 billion in the same period of 2014, according to central bank data.

The Philippines' consumption-based economy and steady dollar inflows mean it's insulated from China's yuan devaluation and U.S. interest-rate increases, according to Jay Peiris, the International Monetary Fund's representative in Manila.

"It's very hard to think of a country that's less vulnerable," he said in an Aug. 20 interview.

Peso sovereign notes are the best performers in Asia after Taiwanese securities in the last three months, according to Bloomberg indexes. Thai debt returned 1.6 percent, while Malaysian and Indonesian paper declined 1.1 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively.

I just hope we won't waste this momentum by electing a corrupt president in 2016. Aquino may not be perfect . To my countrymen back home please vote wisely...Every election we are learning ...lets not elect those pretending to protect the welfare of the Filipinos. Lets look closely at...

Around 10 percent of Philippine bonds are foreign-owned, according to BPI Asset Management and Trust Group, part of the country's second-largest lender. That compares with 39 percent in Indonesia, 31 percent in Malaysia, and 17 percent in Thailand at end-March, Asian Development Bank figures show.

"Philippine fixed-income assets stand out versus their Asian peers largely due to the dominance of domestic investors," said Mario Miranda, senior vice president at BPI Asset in Manila.

Outflows from Philippine stocks have also been more modest than for regional peers. Some $332 million has been pulled from the country's shares this quarter, compared with $587 million from Indonesia and $1.6 billion from Thailand. The Philippine benchmark share gauge is down 13 percent in three months, trailing drops of 13.8 percent in Thailand, 14.3 percent in Malaysia and 21 percent in Indonesia.

  

Saturna, the Malaysian unit of Saturna Capital, is overweight Philippine shares in its Asean portfolio as the country is a regional bright spot and less dependent on foreign funds, said Monem Salam, Saturna's president in Kuala Lumpur.

There are pockets of concern in the Philippine economy including companies with high levels of foreign-currency debt and property developers that engage in shadow banking, said the IMF's Peiris. The Philippine Exporters' Confederation warned last month that the peso's resilience was a potential threat to shipments. The currency is 20 percent overvalued, said Claudio Piron, co-head of Asia FX and rates strategy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Singapore.

Filipinos go to the polls next year to elect a new president, with Aquino prohibited from running for another six- year term. Since 2010, his administration has pursued tax evaders and corrupt officials, allowing it to collect more revenue to build roads and schools and boost cash handouts to the poor, while shrinking budget deficits.

Standard & Poor's has upgraded the Philippines' credit rating four times during Aquino's tenure and all of the three big ratings companies assess it as investment grade.

Strong growth fundamentals, a large English-speaking population, fiscal and monetary prudence, and political stability support the positive outlook on the economy, said Andrew Wood, the Singapore-based head of Asia Country Risk Research at BMI Research, part of Fitch Group.

"The Philippines' large and growing labor force, along with increased policy-making credibility, should continue to draw investors' interest over the medium term," he said. "We believe the Philippines can continue to outperform the region."

Contributors: Clarissa Batino, Siegfrid Alegado and Ian Sayson in Manila and Lilian Karunungan in Singapore.

Copyright © 2015, Chicago Tribune

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-wp-blm-news-bc-philippines24-20150824-story.html 

Reflection for August 25, Tuesday Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time: Matthew 23:23-26

Gospel: Matthew 23:23-26

Jesus said: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. But these you should have done, without neglecting the others. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.

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Reflection:

Which is more important to you? The outside of a person (what is seen) 0r the inside of a person (what is not seen)? For Jesus it is always the inside, the content of a person’s heart and thought.

What is seen doesn’t matter for what good it is to wear nice clothes, to have nice houses and to have wealth. If the content of our hearts and minds are filthy and toxic? What good it is to have all the material wealth and power in this world if you have no God in your heart. If you have no compassion and love?

Power and material things are temporal. But if you have God in your heart, if you have compassion and love you are forever peaceful until the end.  

The Pharisees in the gospel which was the ruling power during Jesus’ time were the recipient of Jesus woes. For they were always looking good and pious on the outside but morally and spiritually lacking in the inside. Thus, Jesus wanted them to change and to have an interior cleansing and renewal.

Let us reflect on these pronouncements of Jesus for He is speaking to all of us also: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean (Matthew 23:25-26). – Marino J. Dasmarinas 

Reflection for August 24, Monday Saint Bartholomew, Apostle: John 1:45-51

Gospel: John 1:45-51

Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth. But Nathanael said to him “Can anything good come from Nazareth? Philip said to him, “Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him. Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me? Jesus answered and said to him “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree. Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel. Jesus answered and said to him “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this. And he said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.

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Reflection:

How do you encounter Jesus in your life? The best encounter with Jesus that you could ever have is through the Holy Mass. Because it’s through this sacred celebration that you become united with Jesus.

But can you have an encounter with Jesus if you seldom go to Holy Mass, If you only go to Holy Mass because you feel like going then if you don’t or you have other activities you sacrifice your presence at Holy Mass for your worldly activities.  

Nathanael in our gospel had an encounter with Jesus. And he was never the same again after that encounter for he was profoundly blessed by Jesus.

Our spiritual development hinges on our hunger and thirst for the Holy Mass. The more that we hunger for it the more that Jesus becomes more real to us. And the more that we feel His abiding presence in our lives.  The more also that we are freed from our fears, worries and vulnerability from the evil scheming of the devil. – Marino J. Dasmarinas