During the 2020 lockdown, we woke up daily to the news of how many people were getting infected with COVID-19 and how many died, including doctors. In my dental circle, we realized we would be frontliners once asymptomatic patients open their mouths in our clinic. The fear was so crippling that I thought I could no longer return to work as a dentist. Anxiety robbed me of sleep.

So I lifted up my fears to God when we prayed the rosary. The virus seemed uncontrollable, but I knew my God was still in control. I did what Jesus said: I cast all my cares upon Him. One night after our rosary, I suddenly felt God’s inexplainable peace. The paralyzing fear was gone! When the government lifted the lockdown, I was one of the first dentists in the city to open our clinic doors, ready to treat patients safely in the new normal, even as many colleagues were still too scared to even step out of their homes. There is freedom when you surrender your fears to God. Ronna Ledesma (ronna_ledesma@yahoo.com.ph)

reflect

“He will shelter you with his pinions, and under his wings you may take refuge; his faithfulness is a protecting shield.” (Psalm 91:4)

Abba Father, I will always declare that You are in control and I thank You that You are forever sovereign.

St. Paschal Baylon, pray for us.

When Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch, they shared with the Christians everything that the Lord did during their journey. Sharing their experience helped build the community. The people at home are an important link in the work of salvation, as they provide the foundation for mission and a place of rest for returning preachers and evangelists.

¹⁹ In those days, some Jews from Antioch and Iconium arrived and won over the crowds. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. ²⁰ But when the disciples gathered around him, he got up and entered the city. On the following day he left with Barnabas for Derbe. ²¹ After they had proclaimed the good news to that city and made a considerable number of disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch. ²² They strengthened the spirits of the disciples and exhorted them to persevere in the faith, saying, “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.” ²³ They appointed presbyters for them in each Church and, with prayer and fasting, commended them to the Lord in whom they had put their faith. ²⁴ Then they traveled through Pisidia and reached Pamphylia. ²⁵ After proclaiming the word at Perga they went down to Attalia. ²⁶ From there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work they had now accomplished. ²⁷ And when they arrived, they called the church together and reported what God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. ²⁸ Then they spent no little time with the disciples.

Responsorial Psalm | Psalm 145:10-11, 12-13, 21

R: To your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

¹⁰ Let all your works give you thanks, O Lord, and let your faithful ones bless you. ¹¹ Let them discourse of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might. (R) ¹² Making known to men your might and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. ¹³ Your kingdom is a kingdom for all ages, and your dominion endures through all generations. (R) ²¹ May my mouth speak the praise of the Lord, and may all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever. (R)

Gospel | John 14:27-31

Let us remember that Satan no longer has any real power. In the name of Jesus, by the Blood He shed on the cross, Satan has been defeated and he knows this. The problem is we fail to stand firm in the victory of Jesus over Satan. We allow Satan to have power in our lives and we succumb to sin.

Gospel Acclamation

Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead, and so enter into his glory.

²⁷ Jesus said to his disciples: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. ²⁸ You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. ²⁹ And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe. ³⁰ I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me, ³¹ but the world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me.”

Read the Bible in one year! Read 2 CHRONICLES 4 - 6 today.

The world nowadays is heavily focused on the 5G Internet technology. There are lots of fake news associated with it, along with conspiracy theories.

But today, I refer to a different type of 5G: get, grab, grouse, grovel, and go. Psychologists have long since sounded the alarm on the narcissism epidemic. Hordes of self-entitled people have no qualms about getting and grabbing for themselves. Fresh graduates of expensive elite schools are reported to settle for no less than a salary that would put them on managerial rank even if they are applying for their first job ever. And if they don’t get it, they grouse. They raise hell, for they feel rightfully incensed and offended.

In the geopolitical situation of our times, we hear of national leaders groveling shamelessly to the leader of that rogue nation northwest of the Philippines, which is now the de facto bully nation not only all over Southeast Asia but even in the African continent and many nations in South America. And we all know that it is “go-go-go” situation for election winners whose bid for the electorate’s placet is manipulated by foreign money that can finance trolls and cyber goons.

5G, both referring to technology and technocracy, is now ruling the roost in many countries. And the situation now in the world, just as it was during the time of Christ, is more or less similar: “The ruler of the world, the devil, is coming,”

Today’s Gospel passage, however, cautions us to go 2G: Get up and Go!

The world tells everyone to simply get and grab. Grouse if you don’t get it. If all else fails, grovel to those who can enrich you. The lifestyle is not one based on obedience to the commandments of the Lord, but on “what’s in it for me.” And “what” refers to nothing else but money (and electoral victory).

For the Lord, however, it is “get up and go”—to the cross, where Jesus’ love will be on display for the world to see. No greater love than this. Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

reflection question

Which lifestyle do you follow—5G or 2G?

I pray for our leaders—both in government and Church—to be people of the 2G lifestyle. Amen.

Today, I pray for: ______________________________________