SKP2 in Sta. Ana Shrine Parish

Brothers and sisters in the Lord, you might be surprised that I am celebrating this mass here at Sta. Ana. I got a special invitation to celebrate this mass here and you will know the reason later.

We are in the fifth Sunday of Lent and we have six Sundays. This is the last Sunday that is numbered because when we reach the next Sunday, it is Palm Sunday.

Lent runs from Ash Wednesday to first Sunday of lent, second Sunday of lent, third Sunday of lent, fourth Sunday of lent, fifth Sunday of lent, six Sunday but it is not numbered – Palm Sunday, and then Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday, Holy Wednesday, Holy Thursday, daytime – that is still lent.

Yearly preparation, yearly meditation, we are closing our eyes as if it were the mystery of our salvation and the mystery of God’s action to save us. And its apex or finale, the final chapter, because it began in many years, but the conclusion is what we are preparing in lent.

And what is that?

The Holy Thursday evening is no longer lent, this is the start of what we are preparing for. The center of it – Jesus, begins to explicitly hand Himself over to face death, His passion, His crucifixion, His death on the cross.

And then His glorious resurrection.

So, going back to our time, the fifth Sunday of lent, lets prepare as it were the days of lent are days we rediscover the basic character of God, the basic dream of God, the basic orientation of God, who He is and who are we in His eyes.

Who is God and who are we in His eyes and who are we to one another?

It is a journey that we discover who God is and who we are. We read in today’s second letter of St. Paul to the Philippians. Honestly, readings sometimes give us a bit of scare. Let’s look at this to really, really meditate who is God and who are we to Him?

St. Paul will help us.

Brothers and sisters, St. Paul says, “I consider everything as a loss because of the supreme surpassing good of knowing Christ the Lord. For His sake, I have accepted the loss of these things and I consider them so much rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in Him.”