WORD ALIVE A man died and went to heaven. At the Pearly Gate, St. Peter welcomed him then gave a tour around. As they were entering a big hall, the man recoiled with fear, seeing so many tongues hanging inside. “St. Peter, how weird this place is! Why are there so many tongues hanging?” the man...
WORD ALIVE The gospel in this 25th Sunday relates about the envious workers. In Christ’s parable, the workers who were hired in the morning complained and protested that they were paid the same wage as those hired in the afternoon. “A gross injustice,” they grumbled. * * *...
WORD ALIVE The topic of this 24th Sunday is forgiveness. In Jesus’s parable, the king represents God who wishes to write off our debt of sin completely. However, there’s a condition. That is, we should also forgive our enemy. * * * It’s not easy to forgive. One time, when I was a...
WORD ALIVE One woman said to another: “You know what? My neighbor is always criticizing her husband. But look at me. My husband is irresponsible, lazy and a drunkard; but have I ever said anything bad about him?” (Look who’s talking!). In the gospel of this 23rd Sunday, Jesus says, “If your...
WORD ALIVE A lot of love stories end with the words: “And they lived happily ever after.” Is that really true? There’s a guy who got married expecting to have lasting marital bliss. After a couple of years, he was asked by the priest who solemnized his wedding how things were getting...
WORD ALIVE This Sunday we celebrate the feast of the two greatest saints —Saints Peter and Paul. In the beginning, the two were far from perfect. Paul was never a God-fearing, gentle person. Harsh and cruel, he relentlessly oppressed the early Christians, imprisoning them and even...
WORD ALIVE There’s an old saying which goes, “If at first you don't succeed, try and try again.” “Try and try again,” that’s what the Canaanite woman did in the gospel episode in this 20th Sunday. She kept on pestering the Lord to the point of vexation to cure her possessed...
WORD ALIVE The gospel for this 19th Sunday relates about our Lord walking on water. Somebody joked that he did this because he could not afford the exorbitant fare charged by the profiteering boat owners! * * * When Jesus was walking on the Sea of Galilee at about three o'clock at...
WORD ALIVE Did you know that Jesus mentioned “television” in the gospel? After the Transfiguration at Mt. Tabor, he said: “Tel-e-vision to no one.” (Mark 9,9). The gospel in this 18th Sunday does not relate about television but the vision of Jesus’ transfiguration (cf. (Mk 9,2-10). The...
WORD ALIVE In today’s Sunday gospel, Jesus Christ relates about the Kingdom of heaven which is likened to a treasure buried in a field. A person finds it, hides it and sells all that he has and buys that field. The other parable is similar to the previous one wherein a merchant finds a pearl of...
WORD ALIVE Not too long ago a carjack incident happened when a lady tried to stop the carjackers by blocking the way of her brand-new car from being stolen. But the carjackers were determined. They did not only shoot her but even bumped her as they fled away with the car. The grieving father...
WORD ALIVE A professor in a college English class said to his students, “If you will just take a new word and use it 100 times, it will be yours forever.” Whereupon, a young woman in the class looked dreamily out of the window and sighed, “Piolo, Piolo, Piolo...” Jesus’ parables have been...
