By Fr. Roy Cimagala We are now in Holy Week. And the gospel of the Mass for Monday of Holy Week (cfr. John 12:1-11) speaks of how Judas, the traitor, reacted badly when Mary, the sister of Martha and the resurrected Lazarus, anointed the feet of Christ with an ointment of great price. “Why was …
The Underpinning
Palm Sunday and the Holy Week
By Fr. Roy Cimagala With the celebration of Palm Sunday which opens the Holy Week, we will be having a liturgy that is understandably quite long and heavy. We will go through some dark moments that will eventually end in a very glorious way. And that’s because the Holy Week is the climax of …
We are meant to judge, but to judge fairly
By Fr. Roy Cimagala In spite of our first impression on Christ’s words that we should not judge, since he said, “Judge not that you may not be judged,” we have to make it clear that we are actually meant to judge, but to judge fairly. We are meant to judge precisely because we have …
When the gift of prophecy is abused
By Fr. Roy Cimagala We cannot deny that we are now into some very tricky times, when the line between truth and falsehood is blurred if not erased, when men of the cloth can present themselves as prophets to push their own opinion, especially in matters of politics. Christ already warned us about this. “Beware …
To be Christian is to be fearless
By Fr. Roy Cimagala That’s right! If we are truly and consistently Christian, fear would have no place in our heart other than that wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit himself that is the fear of the Lord, which is a healthy kind of fear. The fear of the Lord is the fear of offending …
Conversion a continuing affair
By Fr. Roy Cimagala What can we learn from the parable Christ told the chief priests and the elders of the people, about a father with two sons whom he asked to work in the vineyard? (cfr. 21:28-32) The first son at first said “no,” but later on changed his mind and went to the …
On the matter of rest
By Fr. Roy Cimagala “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” (Matthew 11:28-30) …
Insistent faith for miracles to happen
By Fr. Roy Cimagala That beautiful gospel story of a centurion who approached Christ on behalf of his dying servant, importuning Christ for a miracle to happen, that is, for his servant to survive, (cfr. Matthew 8:5-11) tells us precious lessons about how our faith in Christ should be. It should be a faith …
The sense of time as connected to eternity
By Fr. Roy Cimagala If we want to have a truly global picture of our life, we should develop a sense of time that is connected to eternity. We need to remind ourselves of this basic truth about this human condition of ours since we tend to ignore it or give it little importance and …
The pressing and the precious
By Fr. Roy Cimagala In life, we have to learn how to give due attention and care to both the pressing things and the precious ones. In the end, we have to learn how to give due attention and care to all the different aspects and dimensions of our life: the material and the …