Month: January 2008

“HAVE YOU COME TO DESTROY US?” (Mk 1:21-28):  15 January 2008 (Tuesday)

Reading:  www.nccbuscc.org/nab/011508.shtml

I saw “Dead Man Walking” almost ten years ago, but it remains one of the most powerfully moving and disturbing films I’ve ever seen.  It’s about a true-to-life Louisiana nun, Sister Helen Prejean (Susan Sarandon), who momentarily interrupts her work with inner city children when she receives a letter from Matthew Poncelet (Sean Penn), a prisoner on death row for rape and murder.  She visits him only to find that the prisoner is far from likable or repentant: He is rough, insolent, and is a liar.  Despite all this–and to the horror of the victims’ families–Sr. Prejean campaigns against capital punishment, insisting that no one deserves to be killed–even for the most heinous crimes.

“WHAT ARE YOU FISHING FOR?” (Mk 1:14-20):  14 January 2008 (Monday)

Reading:  www.nccbuscc.org/nab/011408.shtml

More than twenty years ago,  I worked as a brand manager in a food manufacturing company, and was assigned to marketing the ready-to-drink juices–the type that came in bottles and tetra briks.  On my first couple of months, I was eager to learn everything about the job, so I decided to get a first-hand experience of how market research was done.  One morning I joined a team of researchers that went door to door to survey the brands of juices found in different households in Little Baguio, San Juan.  I watched the team interview whoever opened the door for us.  On maybe the fourth house, an unforgettable wide-eyed girl opened the door, and very graciously agreed to undergo the interview.  

“WHY DO BAD THINGS HAPPEN?” (Mt 3:13-17):  13 January 2008 (Baptism of the Lord, Sunday)

Reading:  www.nccbuscc.org/nab/011308.shtml

The morning after Christmas Day in 2004 the ocean shook and rose.  And in far too many places in Asia, the ocean withdrew from the land only to return with an unexpected vengeance, a rampaging giant wall of water, sweeping and wiping out whatever lay in its path.   The tsunamis hit Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Maldives, among many other areas, leaving death and devastation.

“WHAT IS THE COLOR OF MY HEART?” (Jn 3:22-30 ):  12 January 2008 (Saturday)

Reading: www.nccbuscc.org/nab/011208.shtml

In the 17th century Isaac Newton studied light and concluded that white light is actually a mixture of many different colors. If a ray of white light is aimed at a prism, what we see is a spectrum, a broad band of different colors looking like a rainbow.  The colors of the spectrum range from violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red.

“DID I COME TO PLAY JESUS?” (Lk 5:12-16):  11 January 2008 (Friday)

Reading:  www.nccbuscc.org/nab/011108.shtml

A song I’ve been listening to recently is “One” by Bono and Mary J. Blige.  Originally a U2 recording, they first sang it together at the benefit concert for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, and eventually recorded the duet.  One verse strikes me as particularly intriguing:

“Have you come here for forgiveness?
Have you come to raise the dead?
Have you come here to play Jesus
To the lepers in your head?”