The Underpinning

THE UNDERPINNING By Fr. Roy Cimagala If we really are serious in following Christ, we should set no conditions and, instead, open ourselves to whatever and wherever God’s providence would lead us. This is a truth of our faith that is highlighted in that gospel episode where a scribe wanted to follow Christ who told …

By Fr. Roy Cimagala That rather amusing gospel episode about those who were so amazed at the preaching of Christ in the synagogue that they could not believe that someone just like them, coming from the same place and whose family they knew, could preach the way Christ did (cfr. Mark 6:1-6), tells us that …

By Fr. Roy Cimagala They often go together and we are very much prone to them. Thus, we have to be properly guarded, training ourselves to practice restraint and to be quick to rectify once we fall into them. We are reminded of this phenomenon in that gospel episode where the usual critics of Christ …

By Fr. Roy Cimagala Given the obvious fact that the Church has to carry out its spiritual and supernatural mission in an earthly and temporal setting, it behooves everyone of us in the Church, both clerics and lay who should work in the spirit of coordinated and synergized synodality, to see to it that we …

By Fr. Roy Cimagala The Second Sunday of Easter or the Octave of Easter is designated as Divine Mercy Sunday. The Ordo describes it as “a perennial invitation to the Christian world to face, with confidence in divine benevolence, the difficulties and trials that humankind will experience in the years to come.” This devotion to …

By Fr. Roy Cimagala Let’s be like Mary Magdalene, a repentant sinner turned loyal disciple, who went early, even while it was still dark, to visit the tomb of Christ. When she found the tomb empty, she was, of course, heartbroken and went immediately to tell the other disciples. When the others came and saw …

By Fr. Roy Cimagala The Mass of the Lord’s Supper, celebrated in the evening of Maundy Thursday, commemorates the Last Supper, the institution of the Eucharist and the priesthood. It also marks the beginning of the Easter Triduum. It’s a joyful Mass, distinct from the somber services on Good Friday, and includes unique elements like …

THE UNDERPINNING By Fr. Roy Cimagala This is about people who are close to us but who can betray us, much like what Judas Iscariot did to Christ. Imagine, Judas was already one of the apostles, so close to Christ that he must have directly experienced the goodness of Christ. And yet he managed to …

  By Fr. Roy Cimagala We should never take for granted this duty to work daily on our fidelity. We cannot presume that just because we were fervent when we professed to be faithful to some commitment we made, we can hack it simply by going along with what is expected of us. We need …

By Fr. Roy Cimagala The Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord marks that triumphal procession of Christ as King that would lead to his passion, death and resurrection. We should not fail to note the intimate relationship between what is truly to be a king and the need to go through the passion, …