Accepting the blessing of fullness of life

Title: Accepting the blessing of fullness of life
Scripture Texts: Genesis 12: 1-4a; John 3: 1-17
16 March 2014
Delivered at Filipino community in Zion Methodist Church, Seoul, Korea
by Frank J. Hernando

Points of Reflection:

1. The catch phrase "born again" has been used mainly by the new religious movements as distinct characteristics of a religiosity that has been centered on separation from the ways of the world and achieved well assured place in the heavenly places. There are those who have been piously following the born again life and somehow this new found life has given them opportunity to live the values after conversion and have reckoned with the possibility to live a godly life have forsaken the ways of the world.

2. Nicodemus, a scholar of the Pharisees secretly met Jesus at night to ask important questions such as how he may enter into the kingdom of God and Jesus answered him saying that unless he is born of water and the Spirit he won't be able to enter it. Then followed by the question how he can be born again and Jesus gave him an illustration about the wind, which a person would not know where it is blowing from and where it goes, it blows freely. This is the life in the Spirit. Furthermore, Jesus stressed the importance of believing in the Son of God. The life in the Spirit can be seen in the life and mission of Jesus. In Jesus the kingdom of God is made real, we hear it, feel it and accessible in faith. God embraces us and the world through the Jesus Christ. This is the very essence of John 3:16.

3. You might recall the last few hours or even minutes before you depart home for a long journey to work overseas, if not to another city, when you have packed in your luggage clothing, some personal things that are important to you, documents, some photos, and in your hand carry bags were medicines for common flu symptoms, candy or chocolate, few packs of biscuits and for women perhaps lipstick and make-up kit if they have it. After you have said your goodbyes to parents and loved ones, you are ready to go with firm hopes that working or emigrating to another country will give you a better life. Your mind was filled with best interest to support your family when you have found adequate job and prayed that you will be safe and become a blessing to your family.

4. Our generation is not the first to do extensive migrating to other places or countries, the biblical story of Abraham and Sarah is one of the many stories about migration and this can be dated in 2000 BCE in the Ancient Near East, the region in world we now call the Middle East particularly the countries of Iraq, Iran and Palestine. In so many ways, we have been influenced by this biblical story in our journey to other countries to find decent jobs and where we live to realize our personal, family and social dreams of prosperity and find meaning in life. Paul Nuechterlein expresses his insight on this story:

“As I seek to live my faith from day-to-day, there is no more simple theme than "blessed to be a blessing." The promise of blessing to Abraham and Sarah is not just for their sakes but that "in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. In the Spirit, God's loving desire for the whole world begins to become our desire. In making a covenant with Abraham and Sarah, God initiates a long process of salvation that promises to bring us into line with God's desire, with a goal no less than the blessing of being chosen in order to be a blessing to all the families of the earth. A sense of chosenness for its own sake is a failed sense of calling. Chosenness must always be for the sake of being a blessing to all the families of the earth.”

5. Being a blessing both for your own families and all families around the world entails not just knowing your own needs and aspirations but also the broader or deeper reasons why you and all people have those needs such as economic sufficiency, social acceptance, meaningful and fulfilling life. There are psychological approximations of what a blessed life is such as the understanding of self-actualization. Abraham Maslow describes the self-actualized life as the following:

Maslow's self-actualizing characteristics:
+ Efficient perceptions of reality. Self-actualizers are able to judge situations correctly and honestly. They are very sensitive to the fake and dishonest, and are free to see reality 'as it is'.

+ Comfortable acceptance of self, others, nature. Self-actualizers accept their own human nature with all its flaws. The shortcomings of others and the contradictions of the human condition are accepted with humor and tolerance.

+ Reliant on own experiences and judgement. Independent, not reliant on culture and environment to form opinions and views
Spontaneous and natural. True to oneself, rather than being how others want

+ Task centering. Most of Maslow's subjects had a mission to fulfill in life or some task or problem ‘beyond’ themselves (instead of outside of themselves) to pursue. Humanitarians such as Albert Schweitzer and Mother Teresa are considered to have possessed this quality.

+Autonomy. Self-actualizers are free from reliance on external authorities or other people. They tend to be resourceful and independent.

+Continued freshness of appreciation. The self-actualizer seems to constantly renew appreciation of life's basic goods. A sunset or a flower will be experienced as intensely time after time as it was at first. There is an "innocence of vision", like that of an artist or child.

+Profound interpersonal relationships. The interpersonal relationships of self-actualizers are marked by deep loving bonds.

+Comfort with solitude. Despite their satisfying relationships with others, self-actualizing persons value solitude and are comfortable being alone.[19]
Non-hostile sense of humor. This refers to the ability to laugh at oneself.

+Peak experiences. All of Maslow's subjects reported the frequent occurrence of peak experiences (temporary moments of self-actualization). These occasions were marked by feelings of ecstasy, harmony, and deep meaning.

+ Self-actualizers reported feeling at one with the universe, stronger and calmer than ever before, filled with light, beautiful and good, and so forth.

+ Socially compassionate. Possessing humanity.

+Few friends. Few close intimate friends rather than many surface relationships

In summary, self-actualizers feel finally themselves, safe, not anxious, accepted, loved, loving, and alive, certainly living a fulfilling life.

6. Above all these self actualizing characteristics, we need the spiritual power that comes from Jesus Christ who always remind us to live with justice, compassion and love. People around us may know that we are self-actualized Christians but they will feel they are embraced by the love of God when we bless their lives with grace of God. Amen.

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References:
1. http://www.textweek.com/
2. http://girardianlectionary.net/year_a/lent2a.htm
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-actualization

Our transfiguration in Jesus Christ

Title:

Texts: Exodus 24: 12-18; Matthew 17: 1-9
02 March 2014

by Frank J. Hernando

Synthesis:

Today is the last Sunday of Epiphany and the coming week the Season of Lent begins. It is part of the Christian calendar that we talk about the transfiguration of Jesus on a mountain prior to the our scriptural and theological readings and reflection on the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. With the texts both from Exodus and the Gospel of Matthew in cycle A of the lectionary readings, we hear from the scripture how Moses went up the mountain for prayer and fasting for many days and thereupon the mountain received the commandments from God, we commonly know as the giving of the ten commandments, a summary of the laws and regulations that had bound the entire Hebrew people to God and each other as a nation.

Also we hear from Matthew how Jesus went on a mountain to pray and there together with three of his closest disciples, he was transfigured or metamorphosed into Moses and Elijah. Both biblical personages have been considered the bastion of the law and prophetic utterances respectively. Accompanying the transfiguration was the voice of God saying, “This is my Son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.” This transfiguration leaves a mark on the connection of Jesus with God and his predecessors, Moses and Elijah who both stood for the unity of the Hebrew nation, given that the Hebrews were not a mono-ethnic nation, but a confederation of tribes which was very difficult to handle politically, socially and economically. Jesus’ mission to realize the reign of love through justice and unity by ending the system of blood sacrifice, received the affirmation that he is the Son of God and that his mission was a once and for all the blood sacrifice that will end the sacrificial system that had oppressed people in history and in the present.

Jesus Christ’s transfiguration for believers and disciples then and now discloses both personal and social aspects of life. The sacrificial system has not disappeared on the face of the earth, therefore the continuing confrontation goes on until the reign of love, justice and peace is realized. This can be seen in how many people have lost their dignity and have been alienated from the sources of abundant and meaningful life. Laborers, even with long hours of work could not receive just wages, the poor are marginalized and many people living in cities are deprived of their rights to healthy environment and basic social services. Jesus’ transfiguration is an assertion of the God’s holy will for the unity of the nation and solidarity of nations towards just, loving and peaceful world.

Our own personal and social transfiguration entail repentance, fasting from the habits and use of laws and regulations that prevent God’s love to grow in our lives. This transfiguration should encourage us to be like Jesus Christ who was not afraid to face the cruelty of the Jewish and Roman authorities but challenged them so that new life will emerge and transform society. The necessity of having a religious faith that transfigures our values and our character is much needed. We should transcend religiosity that perpetuate the sacrificial system to prosper. When we are able to transcend this, we are transfigured in the image and likeness of Jesus Christ. +

RELIEF FOOD STUFFS ROT AND BURIED IN TACLOBAN CITY --DSWD under fire for ‘irregularities’

Online news outlet the Manila Standard Today disclosed the following news:
R

eference-credit: http://manilastandardtoday.com/2014/03/11/rotten-food-aid-buried-/#.Ux56Ty5uGyY.facebook


DSWD under fire for ‘irregularities’

TACLOBAN CITY—Truckloads of food aid that had gone bad was buried in an open dump in Barangay San Jose on Feb. 5 and March 6, a municipal officer of Palo, Leyte, admitted Monday.

Municipal Social Welfare and Development Officer Nina Balderas said biscuits, cupcakes, canned goods and rice were declared unfit for human consumption and were buried after they began to smell. Even used clothing was dumped, she said.

Another mess. Leyte Rep.Ferdinand Martin Romualdez decries reports that typhoon victims are being forced to sign testimonials commending the government while undistributed relief goods are going bad in Leyte.

Residents said the food aid was buried in haste in a remote village that could be reached only through an unpaved road.

“It was raining almost every day here in Leyte, and when these goods were delivered to us, the entire shipment was drenched in rainwater, so that even the canned goods were spoiled,” Balderas said.

Balderas also said some of the goods were already about to expire when they were delivered.

But the residents near the dump said that they suspected some irregularity because of the haste with which the goods were buried.

Barangay San Jose Councilman Eubejeldo Amolo, who lives near the dumpsite, said that last Thursday, March 6, he saw two garbage trucks of the municipality of Palo dumping sacks of rice and assorted goods in a pit. A bulldozer immediately filled in the pit.

This was the second time food aid was buried by the municipality of Palo, he said. The first was some time in February.

After the garbage trucks left, residents near the dumpsite dug up the discarded goods and brought them home. Some said that they will feed it to their dogs, hogs and chickens while others said that there are items they salvaged that could still be eaten.

Baldersas said relief good remained stacked in their office because those allocated to specific barangays had not yet been claimed by their barangay chairmen.

Palo, Leyte, 18 kilometers north of Tacloban, was one of the hardest hit by super typhoon Yolanda with more than 1,000 reported dead and more than 200 still missing.

Meanwhile, residents of Tacloban who received a 25k-kilo pack rice from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) complained that it was 5kg lighter.

Mark Simbajon, secretary general of Alyansa han mga Biktima han Bagyo Yolanda ha Tacloban (ABBAT), said upon hearing the complaint, his group launched an investigation to find the truth.

The group went to Barangay 65, Paseo de Legaspi and weighed the still-sealed sacks of rice.

“After three repitions, one weighed close to 20kg, one a gram above 20kg, and one with 21kg, but none weighed 25kg,” Simbajon said.

The DSWD also came under fire at the House, where members of the independent minority accused Secretary Corazon Soliman of bribing Yolanda survivors with P1,200 in cash grants in exchange for “favorable feedback” about her department’s relief and rehabilitation operations.

“We caution the government against resorting to bribery to solicit favorable feedback. They should do their job without asking for anything in return,” Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, leader of the bloc, told a news conference.

Manila Standard repeatedly tried to contact Soliman, presidential spokesmen Edwin Lacierda and Herminio Coloma Jr. for comment, but only Coloma replied.

“Secretary Soliman categorically states that there is no such solicitation or offer being done by the DSWD. Hence, DSWD urges citizens to report impostors so that this anomaly may be stopped. DSWD continues to perform its duties in accordance with its mandate and the President’s guidance,” he said in a text message.

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan secretary general Renato Reyes said Soliman had invited the Yolanda survivors, led by officials of the People Surge, for a dialogue to clear the air on March 12, 4 p.m. at the Department of Social Welfare Office.

Reyes said Soliman sought an audience with the People Surge after the members complained that they were being compelled to sign a petition drafted by DSWD, commending Soliman for doing a “good job.”

“After she had repeatedly snobbed the plea of the People Surge and berated them for coming to Manila instead of using the money to look for livelihood in Tacloban, Soliman had the nerve to make the survivors sign a self-serving petition,” Reyes said.

Reyes said the Yolanda survivors vehemently refused to sign the petition because it was the “opposite of what is actually happening on the ground.”

“The petition was commending Soliman and it says that Soliman and the DSWD were taking care of the survivors and that they were doing their best to uplift their plight and help them recover from the onslaught of Yolanda,” Reyes told the Manila Standard.


Romualdez said he hoped the reports about Soliman were untrue, as these would add insult to injury.

From the Palace, Lacierda said the government will soon launch version 2.0 of its Foreign Aid Transparency Hub website to allow the public to track where international donations went.

Many have observed that the FAiTH website was not as transparent as the government promised it would be as it did not contain an accounting of the billions of pesos of foreign aid, both cash and non-cash, that have entered the country.

“If you look at the FAiTH website, a bulk of the pledges of assistance has not gone to government. We need to also know how many of the pledges have been converted to actual donation,” Lacierda said.

“We will also track those that went to multilateral organizations. The impression is that all the P23 billion went through government and that is not true,” he added.

The Aquino administration has so far received P643.2 million in cash from foreign donors, representing about 21 percent of the P3.08 billion cash pledge made by various international donors.

This has prompted presidential assistant for rehabilitation and recovery Panfilo Lacson to appeal to foreign governments to make good of their promise.

The FAiTH website showed that the total aid pledged has now reached P24.636 billion.

Of the amount, P21.55 billion were in non-cash donations, but there was no information available how much of these have actually been turned over by foreign donors.

While Lacson’s office does not have anything to do with relief pledges, he said the PARR is now in the process of collating data on pledges for reconstruction and rehabilitation.

“We have been continuously collating all the resources poured in by all stakeholders—multilaterals, bilaterals, private sector, non-government organizations, among others—and where these resources went,” Lacson said.

“Right now we have substantial albeit incomplete data,” he added.

All foreign donations coursed through the government have to be examined by the Commission on Audit.

Donations through independent organizations and the private sector, however, are not subject to COA audit. With Christine F. Herrera and Joyce Pangco Pañares

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Statement of the International Migrants Alliance (IMA) on the commemoration of International Women’s Day 2014

Statement of the International Migrants Alliance (IMA) on the commemoration of International Women’s Day 2014

The world was shocked with the pictures of the bruises, wounds and obvious sufferings of Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, an Indonesian woman domestic worker in Hong Kong. The shock turned to anger, and the International Migrants Alliance (IMA) enjoins all migrants to turn our anger into collective actions to change the condition of millions of us who live and work with abuses, exploitation and oppression.

Almost half of the 232 million migrants worldwide are women. They mostly come from underdeveloped and developing countries, and are engaged in all sectors of work especially in service and agriculture.

We are factory workers who are underpaid, agricultural workers who have no security, domestic workers who are treated as slaves, health and care workers whose work is undervalued, women trafficked into the sex and other trades, and marriage migrants who are victims of social exclusion. We are women migrants suffering from all forms of violence at home, in our workplace and in the society.

As migrants, we are victims of the vicious system of commodification and modern-day slavery that tramples on our rights and our dignity. This is the system of migration that puts wellbeing of the likes of Erwiana and numerous more women in serious risk.

This is the kind of migration perpetuated by neoliberal globalization that keeps many people in extreme poverty and creates a huge army of the unemployed and underemployed whose only real recourse for survival is to migrate as cheap labourers. As the world continues to be mired in crisis, imperialists, through the World Trade Organization and other trade deals including the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement and the Trade in Services Agreement, are aggressively pushing to dismantle any vestige of patrimony and sovereignty of poorer countries to save their own economies and thus result to a more widespread displacement of people.

Such migration is now deodorized and used to promote as development framework that does not address the fundamental issues of underdevelopment. International financial institutions such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank as well as bodies like the United Nations, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Global Forum on Migration and Development are consistent in pushing the use of migration for their own version of development that is not based on principles of human rights, equitability and sustainability.

Under the neoliberal globalization framework of migration for development, our future is bleak. There will be more Erwianas, more Kartikas, and more women who will be forced to migrate and be exploited by agencies and unscrupulous employers. There will be more women who will fall victims to the economic, social, political and cultural violence perpetrated by the state and the ruling elite.

On this year’s commemoration of the International Women’s Day we remember our sisters and fellow workers who confronted various violations of our rights as women and as workers.

As we remember the pictures of Erwiana and numerous more battered, bruised and wounded pictures of women migrants, we also celebrate the solidarity women have shown since the first IWD.

Throughout the years, we have won countless victories from our collective struggles. From the level of factory struggles, to national and international levels, women as a sector or as members of the working class and other exploited classes have achieved gains for our rights. We remember the victory of Juana Tejada in Canada, the victory of the campaigns of Asian migrants in Hong Kong, the victory of trafficked women in the US, the victory of stranded women migrants in Hong Kong, and the victory of women domestic workers in having the ILO Convention on Domestic Workers (C189) approved.

These we remember today as we celebrate and pledge to continue our collective struggles until all of us break free from gender and, moreso, class oppression and exploitation.

Cybercrime law, killing and arrests, corruption: martial law footprints in the Philippines

Press Statement
February 25, 2014

“BS Aquino is bringing the Filipino people back to the days of martial law with the approval of the Cybercrime Law and the appointment of a member of the defunct Philippine Constabulary to the Claims Board that is tasked to indemnify the victims of the Marcos dictatorship. These, along with the systemic and structural problems in society, retain the martial law footprints in our country,” said Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general, as the 28th year after Edsa 1 is commemorated today.

Palabay said, “This year’s commemoration of the fall of the Marcos dictatorship underscores the reality that 28 years may have passed, but the Filipino people still face the same problems that should have gone with the Marcos dictatorship.”

Karapatan listed “10 footprints that bring us back to the dark days of martial law, debunking that democracy was restored after the Marcos era.”

1. The Marcos family is back in power, like they did not leave government at all. They were as free as in the glorious days; they remain unprosecuted for the crimes they committed against the Filipino people.

2. Justice continues to elude the Filipino people. The membership of the Claims Board, mandated by the law to render justice to the victims of martial law, showed BS Aquino’s distorted sense of justice when he tasked a former member of the Philippine Constabulary, Gen. Lina Sarmiento. Thousands of victims of human rights violations after the fall of the dictatorship up to the present are likewise denied justice as impunity persists and not a single perpetrator is put to jail.

3. Free speech and freedom of expression is threatened anew with the Cybercrime Law in place. The law, aptly called e-martial law, aims to sow fear, especially to those who dare speak against the anti-people policies and programs of the US-Aquino regime.

4. Extrajudicial killings (known as ‘salvaging’ during martial law), illegal arrests and detention, torture, bombings and forced evacuation are unabated. The violations are not simply a product of “aberrations” in the military institution, committed by scallywags. The human rights violations are caused by the government’s counterinsurgency program, Oplan Bayanihan that was preceded by several other Oplans from the time of Marcos and of those who succeeded him. There are now 169 victims of extrajudicial killings under the Aquino regime.

5. Paramilitary groups formerly the ICHDF (Integrated Civilian Home Defense Force) are now known as the Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit (CAFGU), SCAA (Special Citizens Active Auxiliaries), Investment Defense Force (IDF) and many other names. The names may vary but the aim remains: to serve as force multiplier of the military and to sow terror among the populace. The gruesome killings from which they are known for continues.

6. Corruption in the bureaucracy stinks. The names of programs and lump sum allocations to the members of the clique in power vary but the nature is the same—the nation’s treasury is used to buy off loyalties to perpetuate themselves in power; and to amass more wealth at the people’s expense.

7. Demolition of shanties to build Imelda Marcos’ “City of Man” never ceased. Now, demolition of urban poor houses is done to build condominiums, shopping malls, resorts and casinos.

8. Land Reform from the time of Marcos up to the present remains a euphemism for landgrabbing and depriving the peasants of the lands they till. How the Aquino-Cojuangco clan skirted land reform through corporatization and through the use of armed force in Hacienda Luisita continues to be a model in the post-martial law era.

9. Marcos tampered the Constitution, with a semblance of a rubber stamp Congress and his law-making powers; Aquino, is playing with the Constitution by a simple resolution of his minions in Congress to sell the country’s sovereignty and patrimony to foreign investors.

10. Lack of jobs, high prices of basic commodities, and low wages were earmarks of the Marcos era that continue up to the present. ###

Betrayal of EDSA: A Throwback to Martial Law era?

NATIONAL UNION OF PEOPLE'S LAWYERS, PHILIPPINES
Press Statement
25 February 2014

Betrayal of EDSA: A Throwback to Martial Law era?

After twenty-eight years of platitudes and grand rhetorics, this year is the height of insult and affront for victims of the Marcos dictatorship as President BS Aquino seems to ignore years of efforts at fundamental change for the benefit of the majority of our people.

In a fundamental sense, the Aquino presidency has practically put us back precisely to the Martial Law era: to the age of widespread corruption and the systematic marauding of government coffers; to monopolies and oligopolies by a tiny elite living ostentatiously amidst penury; to degrading quality of life and diminishing economic power of the ordinary Filipino deprived of basic social services; to flagrant state violence and vicious attacks on human rights and callous denial of such; to the failure to attain real justice in a discriminatory system despite the "rule of law" shibboleth; to US intrusion and domination in political, military, social, and economic affairs; to unresolved roots of the armed conflict raging in the countryside.

Indeed, the only thing missing might be the blanket military and legislative powers exercised by Ferdinand Marcos. Or essentially maybe not.

One outstanding betrayal among so many is BS Aquino’s appointment of a police general as head of the Human Rights Victims Claims Board. It is reminiscent of Marcos’ own dependence on a loyal army and police and his revolving door policy – one important facet of which is appointing retirees to political positions.

In selecting a State law enforcer with no natural affinity, track record, or known advocacy for human rights, Aquino with one fell swoop demolishes whatever gains and progress Martial Law victims have achieved.

The human rights victims are not beggars and are not concerned merely with seeking compensation for themselves for past and continuing atrocities. It is the re-writing the history of human rights violations during the martial law regime that is the bigger picture. By insisting on his choice that escapes reason and common sense, BS Aquino is effectively exonerating the entire system that perpetrated the abuses, justified their occurrence, and concealed them with a veneer of impunity. This is nothing short of contempt and revulsion for “fellow” victims of the Martial Law regime.

The present has become the sum of all our fears: that “never again” will happen again.

Do not the headlines of today – spiraling consumer costs, dissatisfaction or distrust with government, unbridled corruption, breakdown of "law and order," echo those of past?

Are not the perils of before – extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, and lack of certain accountability– still menacing us today? It may come in different shapes and sizes, but fears will always feel the same. The sheer dread of losing out to an “unjust” rule of law permeates our society, as the same ruling elite play around with the system.

Or as more things change, the more things indeed basically remain the same? In the end, no real sense of history comes from the ivory tower of caciques.

But as the people become increasingly perceptive, our governors can no longer take comfort in pedigrees or camouflage pretentious self-righteousness.

But it will take only a little before it becomes obvious that, from the point of the view of the people, the beginning of the end of the old society must genuinely start anew, a chance to squeeze out of the gridlock of the long and winding road of so many things that are wrong in Philippine society.#

THE CHOICE WE MAKE

Title: “The choice we make”
Scripture Texts: Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18; Matthew 5:38-48

by Frank J. Hernando
Meditation for Filipino community at Zion Methodist Church
Seoul, Korea
23 February 2014

Reflection Points

1. The immediate past week was predominated with news that were emotionally stirring like the reunion of separated Korean families in the DPRK’s Keumgangsan Resort, where tears flowed out when separated family members have the chance to see each other face to face and expressed their love and hopes for each other. There was the frustrating news that Kim Yuna got second place instead of first place in the figure skating event at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Many Koreans expressed their disgust on the unfair judging of the competition. Also there was the political conflict in the city of Kiev in Ukraine where many protesters were killed by the state security forces. These news characterize the world in which we live and in a sense we find ourselves connected to these events. If you are not then perhaps you have been immersed into your personal concerns or trying to figure out how to resolve difficulties you’ve been facing during the week or lingering psychological disturbances that bother you.

2. Holy (banal, Tag., balaan, Vis-Hil.) or holiness (kabanalan, Tag., pagkabalaan, Vis-Hil.) has been a character of God, the unseen One who is sovereign (makapangyarihan, Tag.), meaning able to do what God wants to do and behaviourally contrasted to the mundane or human, and sometimes the profane. As a maturing person in my teenage years, I understood holiness as a psychological state of mind that prevents me from doing something that will displease God or those who have the authority over me like my parents. I might be right with my initial religious perception of holiness, the Levitical instructions in our text today as I understand them present a different view of holiness. The collection of Levitical instructions reminds the Hebrew people that God’s holiness is actually protecting the rights of their neighbors. While we think of these instructions as religious duty, these are almost the same with the Asian and Filipino social customs and traditions of community life. The list of instructions are practical ways in living out holiness.

1. Leaving a portion of the harvest of the field to those who may need food--concern and compassion for poor and hungry. (Lev. 19: 9-10)
2. Promote empathy and solidarity with your neighbors (not stealing, no deception, not lying; 19:11)
3. Be responsible for your actions (19:12).
4. Deal honestly and protect the rights and welfare of workers (19:13)
5. Be accountable to your neighbor, love them as you would to yourself (19:16-18)

These instructions point to the holiness of God which is beyond the religious piety that most of us think are better than practical justice operationalized in social relations and strengthens community solidarity rather than thinking and acting as if some are better of that others or are more spiritually gifted than others (holier than thou). James K. Mead says that “God's holiness requires us to live justly and truthfully in relation to others. Strengthening this theological motivation is the phrase, "love your neighbor as yourself." At the deepest level, loving others flows from the recognition that they are "like us," that they bear the image of God with us.”

3. Jesus did not desist in teaching the religious instructions from Leviticus and Deuteronomy in the Old Testament, but he interpreted them in the light of his own social context. Jesus was not just another rabbi of his time who just follow the instructions to the letter or literal interpretation, rather he affirms these instructions as prerequisite both in religious and social relations and means toward acceptance and solidarity within the community of the Jews. The historical circumstances in which Jesus lived and did his ministry presented to him the religious malaise (sakit sa gawaing relihyoso) in which the Jewish authorities have concentrated in teaching rigid religious laws that alienated those at the bottom of the social structure. Jesus taught the levitical laws in the perspective of the reign of God as contrasted to the reign of self-righteousness, greed and violence. The points in Jesus’ instructions are:

1. Mat. 5: 38-39, Inflicting violence should be stopped, or put in control because violence is rooted in humanity’s instinctive response to survive and defence of life. The task of a disciple is to overcome the culture of violence and emphasize empathy, compassion and deeper relationships with neighbors and challenge people to leave the kingdom of violence, self-righteousness and greed and move into the kingdom of love and compassion.

2. Mat. 5: 40-42, Be generous and magnanimous with those in need. In the reign of greed and violence people think and behave in a manner that devalue human life and demean those that belong to the lower classes of society. Jesus instructs the disciples that those who want to live in the reign of God must actualize generosity and open mindedness.

3. Mat. 5: 43-47, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. The enemy mentioned here are considered those who live within the boundary of the reign of greed, violence and self-righteousness. When they unleash their violence, the disciples can be harmed and or prosecuted in the courts and even crucified or killed. Loving one’s enemies means living in the reign of love, compassion, solidarity and peace and making it possible for your enemies to leave behind the reign of greed, violence and self-righteousness so they as well life in the new reality.

4. Finally, I would to share with you the thoughts of Richard Rohr on the last verses of Matthew chapter 5 that stressed the practical aspect of Jesus’ teachings:

If you greet only your brother, what’s so great about that? The ultimately alienating process is that if we stay inside our religious/ethnic group, wars and racism continue. That’s just staying inside a kind of magnified self-love. The key is always to love the stranger at the gate. Love the one outside of your comfort zone, the outsider, the other. Until you can enter into the outsider and the other, Jesus says, you really have not loved at all. What’s his motivation for doing this? The all-inclusiveness of God.

What Jesus suggests is a kind of imitatio Deo, an imitation of God. If that’s who God is and that’s the way God loves, then that’s how we want to love. God rubs off on people who hang around God. If God “sets no bounds,” then we have to stop keeping score and weighing worthiness.

The final imperative is … most demanding commandment is going to ask a great deal of us — boundlessness and magnanimity.

Let the reign of agapaeic or unconditional love, compassion, generosity and open mindedness that comes from our Lord Jesus Christ grow and bear fruit in our lives. Amen.