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Homily of Fr. Soy at the Epiphany of our Lord Parish
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"Faith, Hope and Love, and the greatest of this is Love." We are gathered and called not just to feel the love of God but also to share that love. Many times we have become self-centered in our prayers, personal favors have been asked through the prayers of others, we forget that it ought to be for others.
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"The greatest expression of love according to St. Thomas is prayer." Therefore we do not give the least importance on prayer. Wag nating gawin na lang ang pananalangin. Prayer is not merely an option. It is something essential to our life, to our faith to our hope to our love. Prayer is the greatest act of love. Why? St. Thomas defines love as benevolence, when one wishes the other well, and that is love. Prayer is asking the Lord to make another person well. Thus, the need and our responsibility to pray for others.
We have to go back to God, the God who gives us perfection, the fullness of life. Death is not the failure of the doctor, it is not the failure of the healing ministry or of anybody but rather it is a one second passage from one life to another. We will live again, a life which is more healthy. Because of these we are thus challenged to use our health in service. We are called to go back to God and put our life in the context of God's own life, because only the life of God is true, only the life of God is perfect, only the life of God is eternal. We ought to live a life which is a reflection of God's Life. That is why we are given the living bread. The bread which is the "fruit of the earth and the work of human hands." Since we ought to reflect the life of Christ, our life should in turn be shared , be given to others just like the Bread of Life which is broken and given up for all. Let us imitate this Life which is shared and so we not only pray for ourselves but rather let our prayers be for others.
True prayer focuses on God, it is not for oneself not even for our human need, God therefore should be the focus of our prayer. God said "ask and you shall receive seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened" but do remember that he first said "seek first the kingdom of God".
If God would heal us, would grant us healing, he would use us as an instrument of healing and of conversion. Therefore let us find our mission, that which God calls us to be, where he wants us to be. Even our illness has a message to offer, a mission to do.
Let us try to rebuild our lives, to rebuild our relationship. This is the message of healing. Healing which tends towards conversion, towards discipleship. It has a direction. It is not always about my pain, my health, my project, healing has to do with one's mission. It is not about you, it is about others. Lord heal me, so I can heal others.
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