THROUGH UNTRUE Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, O.P. Before Jesus underwent His terrible ordeal leading to His crucifixion, three apostles witnessed an amazing event in His life – the transfiguration . Today's Gospel reading describes what happened thus: “His face shone like the sun and His clothes...
THROUGH UNTRUE Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, O.P. Since childhood, we have been taught, and rightly so, that cleanliness is next to godliness. But today, thanks to the hygiene industry and their aggressive advertisers, cleanliness is no longer synonymous with being rid of any form of dirt or messiness....
THROUGH UNTRUE Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, O.P. I have heard people phrase this question in different ways but with the same intense desperation. They want God's answer to their plea: “Awake O Lord, why do you sleep? Why do you hide your face?” (Psalm 44:23). One time, a widow approached me...
THROUGH UNTRUE Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, O.P. Last week, a friend told me: "I don't know what's happening to me. I’m constantly stressed and always tempted to be angry. Before the pandemic, I knew exactly who I was. But now, I'm turning into someone I don't want to be." When I told him I...
THROUGH UNTRUE Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, O.P. The gospel reading today narrates that when Jesus called His first apostles, they left everything to follow Him. Discipleship seems very easy, like a walk in the park, but is it? Responding to God's call always entails suffering. And perhaps, the...
THROUGH UNTRUE Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, O.P. Two days ago, we celebrated Christmas. If preparing for it was tiring, the post-Christmas days are even more exhausting – cleaning the mess after the visitors have left, looking for ways to settle the unpaid bills, calming frayed nerves due to lack of...
THROUGH UNTRUE Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, O.P. Many men subscribe to an extreme notion of masculinity that emphasizes aggression, brute power, and machismo. They project themselves as brave men who don't cry, don't run from a fight, and can instill fear in others by an implicit threat of violence....
THROUGH UNTRUE Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, O.P. The pandemic has made the Internet an indispensable source of spiritual nourishment of believers. The sad thing is, although online worship cannot fully manifest the incarnational reality of the Mass and the sacraments, many Catholics have grown content...
THROUGH UNTRUE Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, O.P. For many people, nothing is more empowering than the sense of being a victim. They use victimhood as “the right disadvantage.” For instance a wife can have a wicked delight in being battered by her husband because she controls him through his guilt....
THROUGH UNTRUE Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, O.P. Last March, the World Happiness Report of 2020 ranked 156 countries according to how happy their citizens are. For three years now, Finland has been consistently at the top of the list because of its high GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita,...
THROUGH UNTRUE Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, O.P. According to the 2020 Forbes' list of world billionaires, Bill Gates is worth approximately $113 billion. But as early as 1999, his wealth was already unbelievable. In that year, Evan Marcus noted that Gates had $79.77 billion, and with that money, he...
THROUGH UNTRUE Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, O.P. "Who am I really?" is one question we must ask ourselves in this day and age when social networking is often driven not by our desire to socialize, but by our insatiable thirst for self-validation. Many of us are tempted to assume a false identity and...
