My Fig Tree Named "Faith"

3rd Sunday of Lent (C)
March 7, 2010
Luke 13: 1-9 “Sir, leave it for this year, and I shall cultivate the ground around it”


Last Thursday, the Northwest Yeshiva Girls basketball team forfeited their playoff game against St. John in Washington. They walked off the court after their game was scheduled during the Jewish "Fast of Esther," a day when Jewish people go fast for food and water. When their request to change the game time was denied, they decided to forfeit and sacrificed the championship playoff. The school’s head, Rabbi Bernie Fox said, "We didn't think it was safe for the team to play without water. We worked really hard to get here, to qualify for playoff. But we're also very happy to be able to show that our religion is very important to us. And they felt that as important as this basketball tournament was, they couldn't compromise their personal values. I'm very proud of them."

Our gospel shows us a different Jesus. Out of Jesus’ exasperations of dealing with people who see nothing but the sins of others, he blurted out twice, “I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!” (Luke 13:3,5) And then told the crowd the parable of the barren fig tree, “For three years now, I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. Cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?” (Luke 3:7).

The call to repent from our sins is one of things we need to seriously consider this season of lent. But in our gospel today, to repent does not only mean to be sorry for our sins and ask forgiveness. In our parable, it is not mentioned that the fig tree is a bad tree, but the fact that it has no fruits for the past three years. Jesus wants it cut. We may not be murderers, adulterers, drug pushers, and the likes. But we may be fig trees without fruits in the making. To be a Christian is not just to be “good” in the sense that we don’t offend, abuse, or harass people. We should go beyond the attitude of “I don’t offend others, I mind my own business, and you mind your own.” This is not the meaning of being a good Christian. Good Christians are expected to bear fruit by labouring with the Lord in his enterprise of saving souls.

St.Ignatius of Loyola, in his Spiritual Exercises, explained the will of God, “Human beings are created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by means of doing this to save their souls.” (Spex 23). For him, to “serve” God includes commitment to God’s work, “to labour with him, so that following him in his suffering, we will also follow him in his glory.” (Spex 95). No pain, no glory. No labor, no fruits. Thus, if we are minimalist Christians who are happy with just attending Sunday Mass, saying our prayers, novenas, and rosaries, fasting and abstinence during lent, and giving alms to beggars once in a while... we may end up like the fig tree without fruits. We may end up like the Pharisees who faithfully do their religious rituals but do nothing for the poor and then claim righteousness.

I do admire the Northwest Yeshiva Girls who gallantly stood for their faith because they know their priority – their faith. But Jesus wants us to do “magis” (more) for God. He wants to see “faith in action” in our lives, for St.Paul said, “Faith without action is dead.”

Our faith is the fig tree and our action is the fruit. To bear fruit is to allow ourselves to be cultivated and fertilized regularly by our Lord, the Gardener. But such cultivation and fertilization of our faith (our fig tree) means doing what God wants: All are called to share in Christ’s ongoing work of establishing the Kingdom of God in the world. Our personal, family and community prayer should disturb us and open our eyes to the needs of others. Here is the flowering of a fig tree, and on its way to bearing fruits!

Repent, amend, and act now! The Lord is giving us another chance. Let your fig tree bears fruit. Let your faith bears action. Reach out. Serve. Forgive.


- Fr. Willy M. Samson,SJ / Sacred Heart Jesuit Community, Los Gatos / March 7, 2010

read "Team Forfeits Playoffs due to religious fast."
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Listen and Go

2nd Sunday of Lent
February 28, 2010
Luke 9: 28b-36 “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”


Lent is a time of transfiguration. It is our time to gear up, hike to our prayer mountain and listen to the voice of God like Jesus did. In prayer, we bring ourselves into the holy presence of God to purify our hearts from our own sinfulness, selfishness and impure motivations. God made us in His image and likeness; we are more inclined to goodness, beauty, and harmony. In general, when we look at our lives now, we are more or less good fathers, mothers, children, religious and Christians. We always aim something better for ourselves, our families and others, but sometimes, our good plans or intentions may not necessarily what God wants us to do or to be, because of the influence of our impure or selfish motivations. When we go to prayer, we surrender our good will and plans and allow God to purify them according to his light.

For many of us, prayer is asking something from God. We generally pray to beg for something. There is nothing wrong with it. God is always willing to grant our prayers especially if it is according to His will. But in our gospel today, Jesus prays to the Father, not to beg for something, but to be intimately united with the Father. And when one is intimately united with God, he freely submits his own will to the will of God, and the will of God becomes his will in the end. Some of us may be tempted to say, “Why plan for ourselves and then ask God what’s His plan for us? It’s ridiculous! Just ask God what He wants and do it.” It’s seems good and less complicated, but in doing this, we deny ourselves of our freedom to see what we ought to do and do it willingly. Thus, we fail to discover the God within us, and fail to experience our dignity as persons and our fullness as children of God. In prayer, we are invited to listen to Jesus, for us to see things the way God sees things. And as we listen to God regularly, you will be amazed how in the process, we develop the skill and the grace of sensing what God wants us to do.

There are many reasons why we are not comfortable in “listening” and rather do the “talking” under the guise of “petition” in prayer. As Christians, through our conscience and by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we have a “sense of knowing” and “sense of faith” what God wants from us. We know, more or less, what God would tell us or ask us to do when we pray. We deliberately avoid prayer because we don’t want to listen to God. Thus, in our gospel today, Jesus was praised by the Father for listening to Him and asked the disciples to do the same by listening to Jesus, “This is my chosen Son; listen to him."Luke 9:35.

Listening to God is not just the act of using our ears to hear the Words of God. Listening to God involves “doing or fulfilling” the Words received. Listening may also mean letting go of something (inordinate attachments, sins, vices, past, dark past, dreadful future) that hinders us to be follow God’s will and be united with Him. When Mary heard Angel Gabriel, she said, “Be it done to me according to His will.” Joseph led his family in and out of Egypt after listening to the Words of an angel in his dreams. Jesus had its share in the Garden of Gethsemane. To pray is to listen and to listen is to act. Thus, Jesus was disappointed when Peter said, “Master, it is good that we are here; let us make three tents.” He wanted to stay for it was so good to stay there with Jesus, Moses and Elijah. The consolation of the moment was too good to let go. He did not understand that consolation was to give us strength to follow the footsteps of Jesus to Jerusalem. The transfiguration of Jesus was not the fruit of that single moment with the Father. It was the fruit of his daily prayer – of listening and letting God.

- Willy M. Samson, SJ / Sacred Heart Jesuit Community, Los Gatos California / Feb. 28, 2010

I'll Be Back

1st Sunday of Lent
February 21, 2010
Luke 4: 1-13 “When the devil had finished, he departed from him for a time.”

A newly converted, but disillusioned Catholic young man visited their parish priest and asked him to recommend a good church history book. The priest smiled and asked “Why church history book?” And the young man replied, “I am just curious to know when in our history Christians today become less and less like Jesus.”

There is a grain of salt in this story. Many Christians are becoming nominal and minimalist in our faith. People don’t see Jesus in us. Our Christian faith should set the course of our life - it is our way of life. Our thoughts, words and action should be a living testimony of our faith. People are not attracted to our faith for they don’t see God in us. We are sinking. We have lost the art of walking on water as we lost Jesus in our sight. Temptations distracted us.

We have lost sight to what’s truly essential in life and the reason why God created us. St.Ignatius of Loyola, in his Spiritual Exercises, explicitly stated: “We are created to praise, reverence and serve God our Lord. And all other things on earth are created for us, to help us in our pursuit of the end for which we are created (Spex 23)." Anybody who loses his/her sight for which he/she is created is totally vulnerable to the temptations of the evil one.

The temptations employed by the evil one to the Israelites and Moses, to Jesus and to us are exactly the same. No new strategies. No new tricks, but the usual and very reliable way of trapping us via our most vulnerable spots: wealth, power and honor. The only difference - The Israelites, Moses and us succumbed to temptation but Jesus prevailed.

The Israelites grumbled for not having enough food in the desert. We complained for not having all the luxuries in life while others have. But Jesus said, “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Luke 4:4)

The Israelites constantly worshiped false gods like the golden calf. We worship money, power and honor as our modern gods. But Jesus said, “You must worship the Lord your God and serve him alone.” (Luke 4:8)

The Israelites tested God to provide them water at Massah and Meribah. Moses lost his temper and struck the stone twice. We ask God to prove his love by answering our prayers according to our plan. But Jesus said, “You must not put your Lord God to the test.” (Luke 4:12)

When we think of temptations, we only think of telling lies, losing tempers, getting angry, sexual sins, eating much, not attending Sunday Mass, keeping resentment, basking in pride, non-forgiveness and the like. But the real temptations that could destroy us and our fundamental option are the desire for material riches for its own sake (the ability to turn anything into money), to aspire for status in the society (everyone adores and likes me), and to greed for power (manipulating people and things to meet my needs).

Our struggle with evil will never end. The evil one hates defeat and humiliation from God and from us. The evil will return in different stages and moments in our lives – especially when we are vulnerable, unguarded and too secured. Lent is a time for spiritual renewal. Lent is a good time to refocus our eyes to God and to the essence of our creaturehood. Pray more intensely and meditate the Word of God. Make it part of your life. Jesus resisted evil and won with the Word of God.

It is our hope that through our words and action, people will be drawn to us - not to ask us something on Church History - but to know more of Jesus who lives in our hearts.

- Willy M. Samson,SJ / Sacred Heart Jesuit Community, Los Gatos California / Feb. 21, 2010

I Can See You

Ash Wednesday
February 17,2010
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18 “When you pray, go to your inner room”


A confused disciple went to his master and begged him for enlightenment. And the master said, “Go and sit in your room, and your room will teach you everything.”

Today we officially begin the Season of Lent. For most of us, Lent is a time to remember how the Son of God willfully offered his life for our salvation. It is a time for us to examine ourselves in the light of God’s love and how we responded or not to His call to righteousness. Lastly, lent is also a time for intense prayer to know more of ourselves and our God.

We remain a mystery to ourselves in spite of our best effort to know ourselves. My self- understanding continues to elude me. Do I really know what I want? There is inner restlessness that is embedded in me. I am never satisfied. I always want more of anything and everything. And in my failure to fully understand myself, I end up endlessly craving for praises from other people, and “what they think” of me defines who I am. Are you affected when no one praises you? Do you feel bad when your work is criticized and not appreciated? Unfortunately, some of our course of action is deeply influenced by what people would say, and not by what we should do for the good of all. This is very frustrating and non-liberating. Slowly, we lost our identity.

Our gospel tells us how Jesus warned his disciples of performing noble things like giving alms, praying and fasting for the sake of winning praise and affirmation. This is a vicious trap. Sometimes we do good works for other people to see, not because this is the right and noble things to do, but because we unconsciously seek praise and adoration from others. Our desire to do charity is tainted with our selfish motivation. And when we allow impure motivation to eat us up and be our main reason for doing good works, we end up empty and tired trying to feed our ego with our unquenchable thirst for praises, honor and glory. We want to be seen always. We want medals, trophies, awards, citations and others. We want to be on the pedestal. The pedestal defines who we are. This is a mirage in the desert of emptiness.

Thus, Jesus is giving us a solution to free ourselves from this vicious trap of craving for praises and honor. He wants us to allow God to exclusively define who we are by going into our inner room where nobody sees us except God. The more we spend time in prayer, the more we detach ourselves from what others would say or think about us or our work. We realize that the praises or negative comments against us have no bearings in the eternal life. Trophies and medals will gather dust and claps will fade away, but the words of Jesus telling us much He loves us will stay and stick through the test of time.

The volunteers in Haiti are slowly packing up their things back to their countries. The thrill of going into the rubble and being seen in CNN news is slowly fading. Haiti is not “hot news” anymore. The real volunteer heroes in this catastrophe will not be seen and would not want to be seen. They are the ones who will eat and sleep with the Haitians on the street tents when CNN’s Anderson Cooper and his new crew would be home for a hot cup of cappuccino.

Today is Ash Wednesday, let’s not just fast and abstain from our skin-deep cravings – ice cream, bacon, cigarettes and wine. We can do better than these things. Start doing noble works for the love of God. Don’t expect anything in return even the words “Thank You.” Grab a time and enter into your inner room. And you will find God is everything you need.

Fr.Willy M. Samson,SJ / Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles / 02/17/10

Heaven is All Yours

5th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Luke 6: 17; 20-26 “Blessed are the poor. Woe to you who are rich”


Jewish law teachers used “contrast” as one of their techniques when they preach. In our gospel, Jesus stood on the ground and used “blessing and curse” contrast to teach his disciples: “Blessed are poor! Woe to you who are rich!” (Luke 6: 20, 24). It was not an open declaration against rich people. Jesus has nothing against wealth and being rich, in fact some of his disciples were socially affluent and powerful. The correct meaning of “poor” and “rich” in Jesus’ time would be “socially unfortunate and powerless” and “greedy” respectively. Thus, anybody, rich or poor alike, in our present meaning and context could be considered “blessed or cursed” in the eyes of God. This was the context when Jesus preached this heart-shaking Beatitudes.

To fully understand and appreciate the meaning of the Beatitudes, it should be seen in the context of discipleship. Last Sunday, we learned the disciples left their boats and followed Jesus (Luke 5:11). Levi did the same thing (Luke 5:28). They gave up everything and opted to be poor. They were blessed upon discovering that happiness was not attached on wealth and power but on following Jesus. To discover Jesus is to discover happiness, and then everything in this world becomes secondary. This theme is also highlighted in the parable of the pearl of great price. (Matthew 13:444-46). This is the joy of discipleship.

To follow Jesus is not a walk in the shore. There is a call to “leave our boat” and be poor in spirit: “Blessed are the poor...” (Luke 6:20). The next three beatitudes after the first beatitude are the cost of discipleship: You will be hungry, you will weep, and you will be insulted and persecuted. (Luke 6: 21-22). Jesus is very honest to tell the hardship to expect in responding to His call and what’s store for them: “Be not dismay for the Kingdom of God is yours.” (Luke 6:20). The Beatitudes give us the reason why we should hold our ground until the end.

Saint Syncletica of Alexandria, known for her charity, humility, and internal torments, summarized the struggles and hope of discipleship: “In the beginning there is a struggle and a lot of work for those who come near to God. But after that, there is an indescribable joy. It is like just building a fire: at first it’s smoky and your eyes water, but later you get the desired result. Thus we ought to light the Divine Fire in ourselves with tears and effort.”

Following Jesus requires us to “leave our boat.” Peter, Levi and the disciples did it. We should free ourselves from the clutch of wealth and power. Our inordinate attachments could stop us from doing what we ought to do. Our society teaches us to buy, buy, and buy more things for our security and social status. We unconsciously hoard things (food, clothes, medicines, DVDs, books, magazines, chocolates, and others) under the guise of “we could use them in the future.” Anything we are not using is not ours already. Give them to those in need and feel good inside. Hoarding is a sign that we don’t trust God’s providence and generosity.

This week is Ash Wednesday, let’s fast and abstain from our inordinate attachments to things, feelings, and people. Let’s “leave our boat” especially our attachments, so that we could be free to do what we ought to do and follow Jesus.

Today is Valentine’s Day, renew your commitment to God, to your vocation, and to your family. Surrender your heart to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus who loves us tenderly. Hear Him say, “Rejoice and leap for joy, heaven is all yours.”

Fr.Willy M. Samson,SJ / Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles / 02/14/10

Fishing Expedition

5th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Luke 5: 1-11 “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”



The Lake of Gennesaret (Sea of Galilee) was surrounded by ten prosperous towns during the time of Jesus. The richness and beauty of the lake attracted people from all walks of life. Being a wise evangelizer, Jesus knew the vicinity was a good place to catch souls. On the other hand, Peter knew the lake as a perfect place to catch fish! But the two men ended up with contrasting results. Jesus caught multitudes! People listened and followed him. On the other hand, Peter and his friends caught nothing; they returned to the shore with empty nets.

When Jesus saw Peter, He knew that Peter could do greater things than fishing. Like Peter, we failed to do something for God for we are preoccupied with our own fishing career – satisfying our needs and dreams! Fishing was everything to Peter. But Jesus saw more of him. And the only way to force Peter to move out of his box is to challenge him to “go out into the deep” which may mean doing two things: Going “in” and going “out.”

When we go “in” through prayer and reflection, we discover three things: 1) We are blessed 2) We are loved by God 3) And we could do “greater things” for God. Peter realized these in his encounter with Jesus and found himself overwhelmed and unworthy of God’s love, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” (Luke 5:8)

We usually hear people say that they don’t feel worthy of this or that ministry or service in the church or community. Perhaps they ought to take heart from Peter’s words and Jesus’ response. Peter saw his unworthiness, but Jesus lovingly consoled him and said, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” (Luke 5:10). Such affirmation from Jesus compels Peter to leave his nets, follow Jesus, and go out into the deep.

Good fishermen don’t stay in the shore. They bravely sail into the deep to catch fish. Christians should not stay inside the four walls of their homes, prayer meetings, convents, and parishes. We should go into the deep – to the borders, frontiers, outcasts and marginalized – be with the people in their needs. Be where brave Christians are. Be at the frontiers where Jesus had trod his feet. This is the cost of discipleship.

Are you still in the shore? What stops you from going into the deep? Is it your unworthiness and the feeling of inadequacy? Let God consoles you as he consoled Isaiah: “I touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged. Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” And with conviction, slowly say, “Here I am Lord, send me.” (Isaiah 6:7-8).

Are you still in the shore hoping to catch some fish? You will be disappointed. They
are on the streets taking drugs, sleeping in the shanties, dying alone in hospitals, hopeless and confused in prison and in every corner where evil casts his darkness. They need a helping hand or a listening heart to understand them. They need hope and encouragement. Don’t wait for them to come to the church. It may not come. Instead bring God to them through your presence. Bring your “fish nets” (our words and action) and catch some of them for God’s greater glory.

Every day is a fishing expedition. There’s no fish in the shore. You need to sail into the deep. Do not be afraid to give yourself to Jesus. For the more we give ourselves to Jesus, the more His Presence is multiplied for others, two boatloads filled!

Fr.Willy M. Samson,SJ / Loyola Marymount University – Los Angeles / 01/07/10