BOKASYONG AGUSTINO MINISTRY

PN. Dennis Marpuri Bañares

Polangui, Albay Province, Philippines

This is a reflection on Lk. 10:25-37.

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“Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I say to you, many prophets and king desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it. ”

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When I was just a boy, my mother would always accompany me to the church, to attend the Sunday mass in our place. I was very excited to take a bath preparing myself for that event.

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I was excited then because during the homily, I would see again my mother’s smile. I didn’t know why, the only thing that I remembered was my mother’s smile maybe because of the homily. Even I didn’t understand the homily of that particular priest. Every time my mother smiled I also smiled even I didn’t understand what the priest was trying to explain in the front. Even though I heard every word that the priest explained, I didn’t understand it maybe because of the unfamiliar words, since I was just young then.

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We are blessed because we are here to see and hear the Word of God. As the disciples have given by Jesus a private beatitude; and they are blessed because they have been gifted with sight, and the Father has allowed them to see and hear Jesus, the Word of God. The beatitude expresses the privileged role of the disciples as eyewitnesses of Jesus after his resurrection. This is the privileged and this also involved a responsibility to become witnesses of the resurrection and to use for their preaching.

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We, seminarians, are like the disciples. We are here to see and hear the Word of God; and these are also parts of our formation as would-be priest, as a preacher. What we hear and see today are parts of our daily life that eventually help us in our future ministry.

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The Gospel, challenges me how to take this time more valuable. Hoping for a break as what I always long for, may I find time for silence and solitude. This is the time that I can revisit my life, my relationship to others and my relationship to God. Now I can smile not because I don’t understand what the priest is preaching on that day or not because I smile because my mother used to smile in this very particular instance. But it is because I am in the right time and place where I may suppose to understand what he is trying to explain. The most important thing is that I will make my own smile with a reason.

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“This is also the time that we need the eyes of faith to see Jesus in the daily events of our life and in every person we meet.”