Morning Voice

August 8, 2021 Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time READINGS: 1 Kgs 19:4-8; Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9; Eph4:30—5:2; Jn 6:41-51. A Native American Mohawk proverb says: “Life is both giving and receiving.” And a Maltese proverb adds: “If you don't eat you will die; overeating will shorten your life.” Bread is for life. But it is not all that man eats can sustain him longer in life. Look at your own life. Is there a routine more monotonous than eating? Morning, noon, and evening you hang upon food. And as if that was not enough, in between those moments of time, some have an additional routine called snacks or Merenda. After sleeping, eating seems to occupy a great and undeniable portion of our life. If you do not eat, you will die. But strange enough, though we eat, we still die, and some even die of what they have eaten or for having eaten too much. Material food, even though it can sustain life, does not assure us life. Only one meal has this ability to do so, the one the Lord g...

August 6, 2021 Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. READINGS: Dn 7:9-10, 13-14; Ps 97:1-2, 5-6, 9; 2 Pt 1:16-19;Mk 9:2-10. An Indian proverb says: “Where there is sunshine, there is also shade.” And a Filipino proverb adds: “There’s no glory without sacrifice.” I watched one day one short advertising about a washing powder. It was about its capacity to make clothes shine bright and white. A mother went with her little daughter to a surplus, "Ukay-ukay" in Filipino to buy her cloth for a contest. She found a beautiful princess robe. But it was yellow. Filled with joy, the mother came to her little girl holding proudly the dress. "Princess, I found what fit perfectly your contest." But sadly, the daughter answered, "Why is it yellow?" She wanted a white robe. Without despairing, the mother threw it in the water with the washing powder and it came out, angelic white at the greater joy of her princess. We are celebrating today a feast that shows...

August 1, 2021 Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - B. READINGS: Ex 16:2-4, 12-15; Ps 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 54; Eph4:17, 20-24, Jn 6:24-35. An Ashanti proverb says: “Give me a fish and I will eat today, teach me to fish and I will eat for a lifetime.” And a Portuguese proverb adds: “In a breadless home, everyone complains and nobody is right.” Man is supposed to eat in order to live. We do not live to eat. Food is for life and not the contrary. God always provides for mankind's needs, and often, in the way we less expect it. God is kind, compassionate, and love. He cannot see us in need and keep indifferent. What he asks from us in return is to work not for passing things, but for what is eternal, not for a portion of food that lasts a moment, but for the food that truly gives and sustains life. In last Sunday's Gospel, we heard that Jesus did a miracle of multiplying loaves of bread. With five barley loaves and two fish, he fed more than five thousand people. This mirac...

July 25, 2021 Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – B. READINGS: 2 Kgs 4:42-44; Ps 145:10-11, 15-16, 17-18; Eph4:1-6; Jn 6:1-15. A Tibetan proverb says: “To change the world we must first change ourselves.” And an Igbo proverb adds: “The world is like the udder of a goat. It doesn't propel milk unless you punch and squeeze it.” We all dream of a better world, or of this world to become the best place to be, where everyone can get what he needs and when he needs, and maybe, help others to find what they also need. But that dream cannot be possible unless each one of us fights from deep within the virus of selfishness and egocentrism. Our societies and this world will become a perfect place where reign unity, harmony, and unblemished peace only when we will deepen our sense of concern not for oneself alone but mostly for others. Our families, societies, and even the Church, are built on our diversities. Those diversities, when put together become the greatest riches we have...