In this Sunday Homily at Saint Michael Kalibo, Fr. Romie- Jun reminded us that as we enter this Holy Week, we should focus on the love of Christ that redeemed us with His blood. Let us not forget the benefits that God has given to us. He loves us so much that He embraced humanity for us to be saved. He never leave us – in our success or failures. And we also should remain with Jesus even if problems come after us.

In the Passion Gospel, there are different kinds of people that Jesus encountered. Firstly, the three disciples who fell asleep when Jesus invited them to pray with Him. We, as people, also tend to sleep or forget about Jesus. Second, the people who judged Him. We also are judgmental to other people- evaluating others without even evaluating our hearts. Instead of judging, let us help others because what we do to others is what we do to Christ. Third, being neutral. Pontius Pilate chose to be neutral in the situation that He had faced. In Jesus, neutrality is not an option because as He said in His word, “If you are not for me, you are against me”. We should take the side of truth. And lastly, the soldiers who mocked Jesus. As Christians, we should not mock people especially fellow Christians.

Jesus came down from heaven and stayed with us. We should also do the same. Remain with Christ, especially this season of Holy Week.

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Fifth Sunday in Lent- March 17, 2024

“Go and Proclaim: The Father honors those who serve Jesus”

First Reading: Jeremiah 31: 31-34

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 51: 5-6; 7-8;9-10;12-13

Second Reading: Hebrews 5: 5-10

Gospel Reading: John 12: 20-28

Homily by Fr. Romie- Jun Peñalosa

In this Sunday Mass Homily at Saint Michael Kalibo, Fr. Romie- Jun reminds us die to ourselves so that our lives will be transformed.

The First Reading tells us about God’s coming new covenant to Israel- that He will put His law in their minds and write it on their hearts. This reminds us that even though we are unfaithful, God will remain faithful to us. He made a new covenant for us to live eternally, and that covenant was manifested on Jesus’ death on the cross. That through His death, we are saved. The second reading speaks about Jesus, as the Son of God, Who obeyed to His Father so the new covenant will be fulfilled.

The Gospel tells the story of Jesus, predicting His death to the newly- converted Gentiles. He compared it to a grain – when it dies and gets buried on the ground, it will live and multiply. This reminds us that in Jesus, there is no death, but only transformation.

Fr. Romie- Jun also tells about the two kinds of death. The first one is Terminal Death wherein our life here on earth is already finished. The moment that we die, everything is finished. Our hopes and dreams have come to an end. On the other hand, Paschal Death talks about the death that we should anticipate- that when we die, life will begin. Through the Paschal Death, we are changed. This Lent, we are entering the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ- He died, rose from the dead, and will once again come back. His life does not end here on earth, but it will continue on.

People are afraid of death because we do not practiced dying in our daily life. We could practice dying on a daily basis by dying to ourselves. If we die to ourselves, we are to follow Jesus. God does not want us to simply look forward to Terminal Death, but Paschal Death. We should let Jesus enter our hearts, and that would only be possible if we die to ourselves first. Unite our heart to the death of Jesus Christ to witness His resurrection.

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Fourth Sunday in Lent- March 10, 2024

Theme: “Go and Proclaim: The Saving Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ!”

First Reading: Numbers 21: 4-9

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 107: 1-2;17 &19;20-21

Second Reading: Ephesians 2: 1-9

Gospel Reading: John 3: 14-21

Homily by Fr. Romie- Jun Peñalosa

GO AND PROCLAIM: THE SAVING GRACE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

(A RECAPITULATION BASED ON THE HOMILY OF +FR. ROMIE JUN PEÑALOSA)

The fourth Sunday of Lent is called “Laetare Sunday” taken from Latin verse “Laetare, Jerusalem” (“Rejoice, O Jerusalem”.)

Lent may be focused on the sufferings and sacrifices of Jesus, but as God’s people we also need to see beyond it. And this is what Laetare Sunday teaches us, that in spite of all the hardships and sacrifices of Jesus, we can look to the future and hope for eternal life and salvation.

John 3:16 is one of the most powerful verses in the Bible and many of us memorize it. It is part of today’s gospel, but Father Jun wants us to understand better the passages before and after. Here, we can take two (2) important lessons: First, God wants us to face our fears. Salvation begins when we look up to God; when we confront our fears. In the time of Moses, people suffered difficulties while on their journey to the promise land and through it they learned to obey and trust God. God  asked Moses to lift up the bronze serpent so that those who were bitten by snakes could look at it and be healed. Just like that image of the serpent, Jesus must also be lifted up in our lives. Jesus on the cross is symbolizes God’s perfect love for us. And this perfect love drives out all fears.

Secondly, God doesn’t condemn us no matter what. When we were still sinners, Christ already died for us. He already loved us then. When we don’t see Him as a loving God, condemnation sinks in. So when we sin, our instinct is to run away. We punish ourselves thinking that we deserve to take the burden. But the truth is, no matter how bad we are, God will never hate us, nor condemn us.

We become the playground of the enemy when we murmur and grumble in life. When we continue to look away  and not align our life to  the cross where Jesus was crucified, we will continue to live in darkness. God extended His hand to help us, but understand that we also need to do our part. Because our part is as important as His part in order to fulfill His plans and purposes in our life.

In this season of Lent, Father Jun encourages us to face our fears and to continually have check-ups of our spiritual life. If we think we are healed, then confirm. There is no need to run away, no need to punish ourselves nor try to repay Him; for there is no price that can match the love of God for us. God loves us not because we are good but because He is a loving God. It’s not about who we are but about who He is. Embrace that love!

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Third Sunday in Lent- March 3, 2024

Theme: “Go and Proclaim: Let Jesus Cleanse our Hearts”

First Reading: Exodus 20:1-17

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 19:1-2;7-8;13

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Gospel Reading: John 2:13-22

Homily by Fr. Romie-Jun Peñalosa

GO AND PROCLAIM: LET JESUS CLEANSES AND REIGNS IN OUR HEART

(A RECAPITULATION BASED ON THE HOMILY OF +FR. ROMIE-JUN PEÑALOSA)

“If you want to go far, accomplish more, become successful in life, go back to the basics.”

Oftentimes, we think we are already walking on the right path. But when we try to look back, we will discover that we passed through a crooked road. This is true for all of us. And the Lenten season allows us to pause for a while to check and evaluate ourselves, especially our spiritual life. To ask the question – “Where are we in our life now?”

In our gospel today, Jesus shows us His other side. We often know Him as meek, kind, and humble. But in the gospel, we see anger. The scene of a market in the temple made Him angry because people no longer cared to worship God wholly and instead cared more about their earnings and businesses. Understand that God is not against us doing business but we should not forget that He is the One who gave that to us. Many things in our life start right, but as time passes by our hearts become greedy and things slowly start to crumble down.

When we come to Him, we should be prepared and give our all to Him alone. The problem with many of us is when God gives us something, we tend to love the benefits more and forget Him. We should never love the benefits of God more than God. God is not against the things that we value, but He is jealous when it becomes our obsession. Therefore, guard your heart so that it would not love things more than God; for anything you love equally with God is idolatry.

The cleansing of Jesus in the temple is a reminder for people to go back to the basics of life. In this time of Lent, let us allow God to search and cleanse our hearts, for He is the gravity that pulls you toward God and helps you make Him the center of your life. We all have something we value in life, but Jesus teaches us today to give God  supreme value. He should be the utmost priority in our life. We have been so attached to the benefits that God gives us, but He wants us to go back today to the basics of life – prayer, fasting, sharing/giving. These will allow us to put our lives in order, physically, morally, and spiritually.

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Theme: Go and Proclaim: Bring Forth Jesus Christ in Your Life, Preach His Life and Heal Other’s Life

First Reading: Isaiah 40: 21-24, 27-31

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 147

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 9:16-23

Gospel Reading: Mark 1: 32- 39

Homily by Fr. Romie-Jun Peñalosa

GO AND PROCLAIM: BRING FORTH JESUS CHRIST IN YOUR LIFE

(A RECAPITULATION BASED ON THE HOMILY OF +FR. ROMIE JUN PEÑALOSA)

“When we lose hope, life becomes so dark and drudgery.”

Father Jun started his homily with the story of an OFW who suffered tremendous depression during the COVID pandemic. The man, after knowing his family was infected with the virus, started to become anxious. He tried everything to come home to be with his family but failed. In his misery, he intentionally infected himself and committed suicide.

Father Jun shared this story out of concern especially for the youths of today. They suffer a lot of problems and troubles in life which causes in them restlessness, overthinking, and depression. The gospel today actually teaches us how we can avoid these burdens. It is through prayers.

Prayer is life; it sustain us. Jesus, in our gospel reading, showed us how to deal with all the troubles and chaos life brings us. Jesus is Son of God but also Son of man, so He also gets tired. But He was focused on His purpose in life. Knowing our purpose in life motivates us to get up from our tiredness, gain our strength, and glide back to the fulfilment of our purpose. Prayer connects us to God Who is the source of all our strength. He caters all our worries and problems and let us rest on Him. In our gospel reading, we see Jesus after a tiresome day of teaching, healing, casting of demons, etc. He recharged by getting up early in the morning to find time to be alone with the Father. Prayers strengthened Him and kept Him focused on His purpose. See, life becomes a burden when we lose our purpose. When we get too busy, we lose that balance in life. We no longer know that sense of purpose we have causing us to lose also that meaning of life.

How did Jesus maintain that sense of purpose, despite His busy ministry? Prayers. No matter how tiring His day was, He sets time to pray so that on the next day He can walk and do His ministry again with tranquility. And so, Jesus must be our inspiration when we serve the Lord. “Serving the Lord is our joy. He doesn’t need servants but He invites us to serve so that we can experience the joy of serving God.”

There is strength in life when we know our purpose. And when we have a clear purpose in life, we have a different perspectives in life. We are not overwhelmed with the problems; we soar above the circumstances in life. Just like Saint Paul we should live a purpose-driven in life, balancing our active life and ministry life, with prayers. Prayer must not just be an activity, it must be our life. This way, we can pass it on to our youths so that they will learn to overcome burdens and see life as beautiful as God.

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Theme:” Go and Proclaim: The Word of God which has power and authority”

First Reading: Deuteronomy 18:15-20

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 111:1-2;3-4;5-6;10

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 8:1-3, 10-13

Gospel Reading: Mark 1:21-28

Homily by Father Romie- Jun Peñalosa

In this Sunday’s first reading, it says, “Moses continued, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your fellow Israelites. You must listen to Him (Deuteronomy 18: 15).” Moses is the greatest prophet of all time for he talks to God face to face. But here, Moses speaks of another prophet that God will be sending and he is telling them to listen to Him.

In the Gospel, Jesus is speaking in the synagogue while the Scribes (keepers of the Scripture) listened to Him. People were more astonished listening to Jesus than to the Scribes because Jesus spoke with authority in sharing the Word among the people, unlike the Scribes who only quotes scriptures and teachings from famous prophets like Moses. Jesus is the manifestation of what God has spoken to Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15- that Jesus is the Word Himself. He reigns in power and with authority.

On the latter part of the Gospel, we see that someone with an unclean spirit reacted to the presence and teaching of Jesus. However, Jesus cast out the demon and it immediately obeyed His command. We are also given the same kind of authority as Jesus. It is important to note that when we speak God’s word, we should speak it with faith. Power through God’s authority flows through us when we use it by faith, not fear. Believing without faith is ineffective.

We also need the wisdom of the Lord. As Psalm 111: 10 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”. We should fear the Lord first while we walk in His wisdom. Knowing how to speak with power and exercising authority starts with having fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord develops in your life when you love God. Fear – not because you are afraid of God, but because you are afraid to hurt God.

In the Second Reading, Apostle Paul emphasized that simply knowing Scriptures makes us boastful like the Pharisees, who are filled with knowledge about the scripture. Knowledge of His word alone is not enough, it must be evident in our daily lives. Primate Ricardo once said, “Wisdom is the correct application of knowledge” because wisdom will teach us how to correctly imply His word. Therefore, we should acquire God’s Word with wisdom.

In doing our mission, we do not just quote bible verses, but we are to bring the Gospel with action. We do it with love, this is the greatest evidence of God’s word being lived in our lives. Listen to God. Listening is hearing God and understanding His Word, that we may apply what we have learned in our daily living.

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2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time January 14, 2024

First Sunday- 1 Samuel 3:1-10, 19

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 139

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 6:13b -20

Gospel Reading: John 1: 43- 51

Homily by Father Jun Peñalosa

In this Sunday Homily at Saint Michael Kalibo, Fr. Romie- Jun reminded us that God is calling us to do mission. Our kingdom work is an adventure because God does not want us to get bored in our life. Our mission is to invite other people in His kingdom, but before that, we should invite Him into our personal lives first.

In our first reading, Samuel heard the voice of God and he became one of the greatest Prophets in the Bible. It teaches us that we must be in an attitude of prayer so we can hear what the Lord is saying to us. Prayer is not just a religious act, but a relationship. The more we develop our relationship with God, the more people see God through your daily living. We can invite other people not just by simply preaching the Gospel, but by living out the ways of God.

There are two things that we should be reminded regarding prayer: First, we must recognize God. The first reading showed that Samuel did not recognize God’s voice at first until Eli taught him how to respond the next time he hears God calling him. We must learn to listen to Him when we pray instead of just speaking. The more we listen, the more we get to know Him. And secondly, we must know ourselves- that we are fearfully and wonderfully made by God (Psalm 139: 14). Our second reading tells us that we must understand our value- that we are purchased with a great value and therefore, we must glorify God in our body and in our spirit that belongs to God (1 Cor. 6: 20).

The Gospel reading teaches us that God loves us so much, and His love is incomparable. This love is essential when we do our mission because this is the core foundation of what we teach to other people. Our mission is to invite others to His kingdom and that could only be done if we have a personal encounter with Him, know our value and if we know that God loves us deeply.

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“Go and Proclaim: The Light of our Lord Jesus Christ in You”

First Reading: Isaiah 42:1-7

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 29

Second Reading: Acts 10:34-38

Gospel Reading: Mark 1:4-11

Homily by Fr. Romie-Jun Peñalosa

THE FEAST OF THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD

(A RECAPITULATION BASED ON THE HOMILY OF +FR. ROMIE JUN PEÑALOSA)

What is baptism? And why did Jesus Himself asked to be baptized?

The Gospel of Mark today tells us the story of Jesus’ baptism at the river of Jordan. Why at Jordan River of all places? Is it a holy river?

Father Jun in his homily today shared his thoughts about Jesus’ baptism. The Jordan River does not have anything special thing about it. Joseph and Mary, his parents, were also not special people in the society. Yet they were called a holy family. This is because the mere presence of Jesus in everything is what make things holy. The Jordan River became holy when Jesus chose to be baptized there. The family of Joseph became holy when Jesus was born and became part of that family. Baptism then gives us the opportunity and privilege to immerse in the life of Christ. It was in baptism that life started in us. So if you want to become holy, invite Jesus in your life. The presence of Jesus in our lives makes us holy.

John’s baptism in our gospel reading was a baptism of repentance. As we know, John was sent ahead to pave the way for Jesus. Yet Jesus who has no sin asked him to be baptizez. Why? First, Jesus, himself value baptism. We need to realize that our baptism is very significant to God. In baptism, we need to reflect, contemplate and constantly be reminded of our likeness to Him. Second, Jesus wanted to be identified with us, sinful, ordinary men and women. So why did God in His supremacy and greatness come down from heaven to be like us? So that we could be like Him also. What a great love for us!

Our baptism comes with responsibilities. So we need to continually immerse ourselves physically, emotionally and spiritually in order to stay in the life of Christ.

Three responsibilities in our baptism:

Repent. Repentance is part our covenant. So every time we sinned, we should repent.

Speak the truth. Embrace the truth; practice telling the truth.

Serve. As baptized people, we are called to serve; meaning, we should participate in helping others.

Living holy lives means constantly inviting Jesus to live in us. Yes, we continually sin, but let us remember that the presence of Jesus in our lives makes us say NO to sin. This is what makes us holy.

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