BETTER DAYS Over the past few decades we have seen an exponential growth in the use of technology and along with it, the amount of information that is being made available at the fingertips of people. A while back, the amount of content an individual can consume was dependent on his or her...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The imagery of the birds does not suggest idleness or passivity. Birds, like humans, actively look for food. Unlike humans, however, birds do not worry about what they will have for the next meal. Birds can neither produce nor store food. It is God who looks after them. It is also...
REFLECTIONS In biblical times, aside from fields/farms, treasures were in the form of coins and jewels, and fine clothes and costly textiles. There was the perennial danger of losing them to robbers, fire, and insects. In view of Matthew’s context which concerns practices of piety (almsgiving,...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The only fast prescribed by the Torah of Moses was that of the Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement (Lv 16:31). Regular fasting became common in later Judaism when pious Jews fasted twice a week out of devotion. Some occasionally fasted out of grief. However some fasted for a...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Against the popular Jewish understanding of love limited to one’s neighbor, that is, one’s fellow Israelite, Jesus extends the love-commandment to one’s enemies—one’s adversaries or outsiders. The sole motive is “that you may be children of your heavenly Father” (v...
REFLECTIONS TODAY What does “turning the other cheek” mean? Does Jesus bid his disciples to invite a second blow? When he himself was unjustly struck in the face, he reacted strongly against the striker (Jn 18:22-23). Like the sayings about tearing a right eye and cutting off a right hand (Mt...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Gospel • Mark 4:26-34 We might wonder why, in the parable of the Mustard Seed, Jesus calls the mustard seed (Greek sinapi) the “smallest” of seeds and the mature mustard plant the “largest” of plants in the garden, when there were smaller seeds and larger plants....
REFLECTIONS TODAY An oath is a guarantee to the truthfulness of one’s statement. In the court of law, a witness is made to swear to tell “the truth, and nothing but the truth.” Originally, the oath formula had the character of conditionally cursing oneself if the statement should prove false....
REFLECTIONS TODAY To be called “least” or “greatest” in the Kingdom of heaven does not suggest that there is a hierarchy in God’s Kingdom, or people are classified in the order of their “sanctity.” Like the Jewish teachers, Jesus uses the expressions “greatest” and...
REFLECTIONS TODAY In biblical times, as in our own, salt is seen as a necessity of life. It is used as a condiment to give taste to food and to preserve food from decay and corruption. It also has medicinal purposes: it was a custom to rub salt on a newborn child. Lastly, salt was associated with...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Today we start Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, the first and the most important of the five Great Discourses in the Gospel of Matthew. It begins with the Beatitudes, Jesus’ declaration of who truly are macarioi—happy or blessed—of human beings. The Beatitudes turn the usual...
BETTER DAYS On June 3, 2024 we witnessed President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signing into law the Kabalikat sa Pagtuturo Act or the institutionalization of the grant of teaching supplies allowance for our public school teachers. Known among the teaching profession as the “chalk allowance,” funding...
