Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, 
 
                                                                   Love is the Greatest
 
In 1963 at the age of 21, Mohammed Ali (still known as Cassius Clay at the time) brags about his boxing skills and personality in the poem, "I am the Greatest." I am a fan of Ali's humor and boxing skills but have always been a little unsettled about his seeming self-worship, a turn to self, and in another term, self-love that I considered "unchristian." In the same way, I always feel a little uncomfortable with some lines of my favorite Whitney Houston song, "Greatest Love of All." It is my go-to song for karaoke, but I get a little hesitant to sing the part where she says, "The greatest love of all is easy to achieve. Learning to love yourself. It is the greatest love of all." Is loving yourself not contrary to love as Christ did and as St. Paul says in his hymn of love from 1 Corinthians 13? Is the love Jesus and St. Paul call us to embrace self-love?
 
What is the theological virtue of love? Is it not to love God through our neighbor? St. Thomas Aquinas, whose feast we celebrated on Friday, January 28 in his Summa Theologica, defines love/charity as "the friendship of man for God" (ST, II-II, Q. 23. art. 1). Each time I pray the three Hail Marys after the Creed at the beginning of the recitation of the Holy Rosary, I dedicate each to the theological virtues of faith, hope and love respectively. But I always intensify my meditation on love because it is a supernatural grace experienced on earth and in heaven. Through faith, we know God; through hope, we express our longing to be with God and place our trust in him to aid us; through love or charity, we come to love God for his own sake and love him in our neighbors. Love is the greatest because "Love never ends" (1 Cor. 13:8). When we put love into action, like in the fourteen descriptive verbs in St. Paul's hymn (1 Cor 13:4-7), love makes faith and hope come alive and results in spiritual joy, brings peace, and leads to mercy.
 
Is there room for self-love in living out our love for God and neighbor? Is there some truth to Whitney Houston and Mohammed Ali's expression of self-love? Properly distinguished, Yes! Self-love is the basis of love for others. Our love for another is based on and derived from our love for ourselves. The love of self inclines one to the love of others. St. Thomas Aquinas taught that rather than being opposed, they compliment each other. The love of self finds its fulfillment in the love of others. There is room for self-love if it is not egoistic and does not see its relation to others as ends and means. Love is willing the good of the other, and it originates in pure self-love.
 
In the Gospel of today's mass (Lk. 4: 21-30), the people of Nazareth reject Jesus; they reject love. So our efforts to love the other would sometimes be rebuffed, and we can't force it. Love is not coercive; love invites the other to respond. Do we give up loving because of rejection? On the contrary, we must continually cultivate love in faith and hope. Tina Turner sings, "What's love got to do with it?" Everything. If we want to make it to heaven, we need to love because love is the greatest theological virtue that enables it.
 
Let's love,
 
Fr. Bernard, OP
 

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
 
                                                                               Dear Theophilus!
 
Two technical but related interpretative tools for biblical analysis are exegesis and hermeneutics. In the exposition of Scriptures, we attempt to explain biblical passages based on the direct meaning intended for the readers. An explanation of a biblical text depends on knowledge of the people and period's language, context,  culture, and history. Once we are well-grounded in the literal experience narrated, we can then apply the message or the transformative idea or principle behind it to our present-day witness to the faith. The interplay of exegesis and hermeneutic is the way Jesus used the scriptures of the Old Testament from Prophet Isaiah about the past to himself in the present in the Gospel of today's mass. Jesus makes meaningful and effective here and now his understanding and interpretation of the Old Testament texts from Isaiah.
 
Jesus read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah 61 handed to him in the synagogue and declared that his life fulfills the prophetic words of Isaiah in a new way: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor...." (Lk 4:18). So then, applying the biblical methods of exegesis and hermeneutics, Jesus said to his audience, "Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing" (Lk 4:21).
 
In dedicating his account of the life of Jesus to "most excellent Theophilus," Luke also addresses contemporary Christians reading the New Testament texts he wrote in "an orderly sequence." We, too, are Theophilus, lovers of God and beloved by God, and we can make sense of our life and get direction for our Christian living by drawing from our study and careful interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures.
 
On this Sunday of the Word of God, a day devoted to studying the word of God, we need to acknowledge our needs to grow in knowledge and love of the Bible. So, as Ezra read out the book of the law to the assembly of believers in Nehemiah 8:2-10, let us make it a daily devotion to read and meditate on Bible passages and make them our own by applying them to our life. In doing so, we will come to know that God loves us and grow in the love of God: Theophilus (Greek for, lover of God).
 
Will you take up the challenge to grow in your love of God by joining a bible study group? Will you promise God to read and meditate on His words daily, beginning today?
 
May St. Thomas Aquinas, whose feast we celebrate this Friday, January 28,  obtain graces of understanding of the word of God for us as we take up seriously the daily devotion of Bible study.
 
Fr. Bernard, OP
 

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, 
 
                                                                 Wine and the Wedding Feast 
 
 The Epiphany trilogy concludes this Sunday with the wedding feast at Cana (Jn 2:1-11). Reflections on the theme of manifestation of Jesus as the Savior and Redeemer of the world began on the feast of Epiphany with the story of the visit of the Magi, followed by Baptism of the Lord last Sunday when the Father declared that Jesus is his beloved Son. Now, this Sunday, we see Jesus perform the first of his seven signs in John's gospel, turning water to wine at the wedding feast in Cana, showing his divine personhood in the very act. God reveals his plan for our redemption to us in the three-fold symbols of the Magi bearing gifts to Jesus in worship, the water of baptism, and wine at the wedding, respectively. Worship, water, and wine, all point to the manifestation of His glory. 
 
 Wine is essential for a successful wedding feast. Hence, when the wine ran short at the wedding feast in Cana, we can imagine the fear and sadness that must have overcome the wedding host and guests. "They have no wine" (Jn 2: 3); Mary informed her Son, a special invitee to the wedding. The lack of wine points to something more profound, an absence of joy. It takes the intercession of Mary, the Mother of God, to turn an inadequacy into an abundance. The wedding banquet at Cana is a foretaste of the wedding banquet God has prepared for his people. In Jesus, we have a marriage of divinity and humanity. The union of Jesus to his body, the Church, further illustrates this marriage. The marriage of God to his people expresses the love of God for his people. Christ's love for his church is celebrated in this banquet. When this union lacks Joy that the wine symbolizes, sadness and sin are prevalent. Jesus restores that abundant joy by his presence and the sign he performs.  
 
 Wine is the symbol of divine life, the Spirit that sustains our union with God. It is the life of the party. It is what facilitates the joy of the guests at the wedding banquet. We cannot afford to run out of wine at this feast. We need a constant supply of fine wine. Jesus provides not only an abundance of wine, one hundred and eighty gallons in all, but he offers the best quality wine, superior to what was provided at the beginning of the feast. Wine here is divine life. As Jesus says in Jn 10: 10: I have come that they may have life in abundance." The abundant life happens at the wedding banquet in Cana. Life without this Sacred Wine is equivalent to being immersed in sin and enslaved to sin. But Jesus is the source of this superior wine, and he is present with us. Mary, his mother, and our mother play a vital role in intercession. She continues to appeal to her Son on our behalf: "They have no wine." And Jesus reveals his glory by supplying an abundance of divine life to sustain our union with him by responding to his mother's appeal. 
 
 Have you run out of wine of joy? Then, turn to Mary, and Mary will appeal to her Son, "They have no wine," and Jesus surely will provide an abundance of wine to sustain the life of the wedding banquet, a symbol of our union with Jesus. 
 
 In His Joy, 
 
Fr. Bernard, OP
 

 
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
 
                                                                          Who is the Christ?
 
We must know who Jesus Christ is. It may appear silly or stupid to raise the question about the identity of Jesus Christ, yet it is a profound question that demands an answer. Jesus Christ is the beloved Son of God. At the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan, the heaven opened up and the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, descended upon him and the Father’s voice came from heaven, addressing Jesus: “You are my beloved son; with you I am well pleased” (Lk 3:22). As the Only Begotten Son of the Father, Jesus embarks on the mission of redemption. Through Jesus’ baptism in the Holy Spirit, he is anointed and empowered to do good and bring healing to “all those oppressed by the devil” (Acts 10:38), “to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness” (Isaiah 42:7). This is good news. Now that we have answers to the question: who is the Christ?, let us advance into the new year with courage and faith because we have been baptized in him “with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Lk 3:16). Knowing who he is, the anointed one and Son of God, we know ourselves better;  adopted sons and daughters of God. Let us live out our identity; we are beloved sons and daughters of the Father. Reflect deeply about your baptism and its implication on this last day of the Christmas season.
 
As we come to the close of the Christmas season, I want to seize the moment to say THANK YOU to all of you who have made the season a joyful one. In addition, I am indebted to many of you who created time to bring the Christmas joy to live in the parish: thanks to the team responsible for the decorations in the historical church and the church on the hill, thanks to the extraordinary minister of the Holy Communion, lectors, altar servers, ushers, money counters, the choirs, and the musicians. I also extend my appreciation to the various parish groups that helped create the Christmas spirit in the parish: St Vincent de Paul Society, Men’s Club, Council of Catholic Women, Knights of Columbus, and others that I may have failed to mention.
  
I am grateful for all the Christmas gifts I received from you: parish societies, families, and individuals. Our Father in heaven will reward your generosity. I extend to you the promise of Jesus Christ, the Father’s Only Begotten Son: “whoever gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he shall not lose his reward” (Matthew 10:42).
 
In His Love,
 
Fr. Bernard, OP