Peekabo!
Gospel Reflection
Peekabo!
You know how to play this game right?
Its a game babies love to play and you can't just help yourself but enjoy as they make that very cute giggle.
Babies and toddlers develop a certain attachment to people they are constantly with to the point that when the person disappears from their sight, they would cry because they believe that when they don't see that person he or she ceases to exist.
This is normal and usually it lasts up to 2 years of age from 6 to 7 months.
Its called separation anxiety.
"A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me."
No, Jesus was not going to perform a magic trick.
Jesus knew that his disciples have become attached to him and he knows that they have not fully grasped the mystery of his humanity nor of his mission, that is why in his farewell to his disciples he told them, "You will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices."
Why would the world rejoice, anyway? Because they thought, the world thought that they were able to rid themselves of an irritant.
Jesus was attracting too much attention that the Jewish leaders were losing their fans and perhaps their income. They started to feel the emptiness of the halls during their lectures, and they missed the constant crowd that gathers around them. He has to be killed!
Then Jesus said, "You will grieve, but your grief will become joy!"
In formation, we are to grieve the passing of our old self, because we are expected to leave the old, to let go of our old self, our old way of thinking, our expectations, our comfort zones so that the Holy Spirit could work on us, to shape us, to transform us into Christ.
Blessed Titus said that we are to be the other theotokos. We are to be molded, to be formed, to be prepared to be bearers of God, to bring Christ to the world.
How can we be bearers of Christ if our stomach is full? Where would we put Christ? We should first rid ourselves of the waste in order to give Christ a worthy place to grow within us.
For us to be separated from who we were, from the things, the places, the people that we have grown familiar and accustomed with and to enter into a life of constant uncertainty, always on the go, never knowing our earthly destination but always looking forward to that heavenly destination of kaginhawahan, grief and sorrow is expected.
The latter, our ultimate destination, kaginhawahan, shalom, the peace of Christ, God's kingdom, our heavenly home, this is what makes us an Easter people. A people rejoicing in the faith that we have something precious to look forward to.
This should happen everyday, because conversion should be experienced each and every day.
We grieve, yet we rejoice, because we know, that in the death of Christ, there is salvation; in the death of self, there is redemption.
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| Photo by Tribo, O.Carm |
Jesus said to his disciples: "A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me." So some of his disciples said to one another, "What does this mean that he is saying to us,'A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me,' and 'Because I am going to the Father'?" So they said, "What is this 'little while' of which he speaks? We do not know what he means." Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, "Are you discussing with one another what I said, 'A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me'? Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy."
- John 16: 16-20
Peekabo!
You know how to play this game right?
Its a game babies love to play and you can't just help yourself but enjoy as they make that very cute giggle.
Babies and toddlers develop a certain attachment to people they are constantly with to the point that when the person disappears from their sight, they would cry because they believe that when they don't see that person he or she ceases to exist.
This is normal and usually it lasts up to 2 years of age from 6 to 7 months.
Its called separation anxiety.
"A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me."
No, Jesus was not going to perform a magic trick.
Jesus knew that his disciples have become attached to him and he knows that they have not fully grasped the mystery of his humanity nor of his mission, that is why in his farewell to his disciples he told them, "You will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices."
Why would the world rejoice, anyway? Because they thought, the world thought that they were able to rid themselves of an irritant.
Jesus was attracting too much attention that the Jewish leaders were losing their fans and perhaps their income. They started to feel the emptiness of the halls during their lectures, and they missed the constant crowd that gathers around them. He has to be killed!
Then Jesus said, "You will grieve, but your grief will become joy!"
In formation, we are to grieve the passing of our old self, because we are expected to leave the old, to let go of our old self, our old way of thinking, our expectations, our comfort zones so that the Holy Spirit could work on us, to shape us, to transform us into Christ.
Blessed Titus said that we are to be the other theotokos. We are to be molded, to be formed, to be prepared to be bearers of God, to bring Christ to the world.
How can we be bearers of Christ if our stomach is full? Where would we put Christ? We should first rid ourselves of the waste in order to give Christ a worthy place to grow within us.
For us to be separated from who we were, from the things, the places, the people that we have grown familiar and accustomed with and to enter into a life of constant uncertainty, always on the go, never knowing our earthly destination but always looking forward to that heavenly destination of kaginhawahan, grief and sorrow is expected.
The latter, our ultimate destination, kaginhawahan, shalom, the peace of Christ, God's kingdom, our heavenly home, this is what makes us an Easter people. A people rejoicing in the faith that we have something precious to look forward to.
When we are open to the work of the Holy Spirit, metanoia, change, conversion, the new me, will always be a cause for rejoicing.
This should happen everyday, because conversion should be experienced each and every day.
We grieve, yet we rejoice, because we know, that in the death of Christ, there is salvation; in the death of self, there is redemption.
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