Men of Light

26/08/2026

MEN OF LIGHT – “SON OF GOD, SON OF MAN”
EPISODE 2 SEASON 91
MATTHEW 16 : 21 - 27
22ND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – YEAR A
AUGUST 30, 2026

MEN OF LIGHT – “SON OF GOD, SON OF MAN”EPISODE 2 SEASON 91MATTHE...

25/08/2026

THINGS THE GRAVES TEACH US

- Daily
August 26, 2026, Wednesday of the 21st Week in Ordinary Time
Gospel: Matthew 23:27-32
Mass readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082626.cfm
Sharer: Therese Zapanta-Verzosa

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Anchor verse: “You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside,
but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth.” (Matthew 23:27)

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THINGS THE GRAVES TEACH US

Imagine you are asked to unearth the graves one by one.

You would not know who was rich and died rich, and who was poor and died poor.

They are all the same.

My skeleton is the same as yours when we die.

Today, Jesus likens some people to whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside, but inside, full of decay. It is a blunt image. He is telling us that a beautiful outside means very little when what is inside is already rotten.

The sepulturero sees what most of us rarely see: what is left when the outside is gone. If he could speak to us, perhaps these are some of the things he would tell us.

10 Things a Sepulturero Might Tell Us

1. “I've buried people who were old and people who were still young. I've buried the rich and the poor.”
Death does not choose by age or wealth.

2. “You have to be humble in life.”
One day, someone may have to clean you up after you soil the bed. Someone will prepare your body, embalm you, and dig your grave. And many of them may be people you never met.

3. “I've learned that life can change very quickly.”
One day someone is here. The next day, I am digging their grave.

4. “Many people I bury never knew my name.”
But I was still one of the last people to serve them.

5. “I've also seen graves where nobody came.”
Some people leave this world very quietly.

6. “I've seen people grieve for the time they wish they had spent with the dead.”
They cannot go back and have that time now.

7. “I've learned not to assume I know someone's story.”
Everyone I bury had a life I knew nothing about.

8. “One day, no one will visit the grave anymore.”
The people who came to visit will eventually die too.

9. “The cemetery is one of the most sacred places I know.”
The cemetery teaches you things the busy world has no time to teach.

10. “Invite a sepulturero to your next retreat.”
We spend our days around the end of life. We have seen what people leave behind, what their families remember, and what no grave can tell you. You may learn something about how to live.

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Prayer:
Lord, I want to die a holy death. I don't care if my grave is beautiful. I care that my life was. When the outside is gone, I want there to be something good left inside. Amen.

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Reflection Question:
Am I spending more time making myself look good than becoming good?

24/08/2026

WHAT LIES DEEP WITHIN

– DAILY
August 25, 2026, Tuesday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Gospel: Matthew 23:23–26 (Blind Guides)
Read: (https://tinyurl.com/43efcmd6)
Sharer: Mike Lapid
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Anchor Verse: “Blind Pharisee, you cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence.” (Matthew 23:26)
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Reflection

WHAT LIES DEEP WITHIN

I once had a student who greatly admired one of his teachers. At first, he expressed this admiration by telling his classmates how well-dressed the teacher was. Before long, I noticed that he had begun dressing like the teacher he admired. Sometime later, he adopted a similar hairstyle. After about a semester, he began wearing round eyeglasses like his teacher’s. By the end of the school year, he had even started walking with a bow-legged gait. At first, I thought he was experiencing pain or discomfort as he walked. Only later did I realize that he was trying to imitate even the way his much-admired teacher walked.

Imitating those we admire is quite normal, especially among young people. At times, however, imitating how they look, speak, and walk can become an obsession. This tendency is also found in nature, where some animals, birds, and insects mimic other creatures, sometimes resembling them almost exactly. This behavior is called mimicry. Animals often mimic others in order to survive.

The problem with imitation and mimicry, however, is that they are often limited to the outward aspects of what is being copied. Adopting the visible qualities of the people we admire is simple enough, but it does not necessarily transform our inner life. We may copy how someone looks, speaks, and walks, yet remain unchanged in the way we think and feel. External appearances alone do not reveal what is truly inside the human heart. In fact, they can often conceal what lies deep within it. This dichotomy between the external and the internal is real; for many, it can even become a way of life.

Jesus points to this dichotomy in today’s Gospel. He harshly condemns the Pharisees for living a lie, concealing the evil that resides in their hearts beneath the outward trappings of religious observance. Through their public displays of religiosity and piety, they have convinced others of their righteousness. By intentionally acting the part of holy men, they have succeeded in mimicking the lives of those who are truly holy. They embody the Greek word hypokrites, meaning “actor,” the very word Jesus uses to unmask their fraud.

The Lord’s admonition to the Pharisees is also directed to all of us who may be tempted to act like them. For those of us who desire to imitate Jesus and his saints, a thin veneer of outward religiosity may hide a heart “full of plunder and self-indulgence” (Matt 23:25), but it will never escape the judgment of God, who knows and sees the heart (Lk 16:15). Our imitation should focus primarily on the “inside of the cup” (Matt 23:26), where the heart is made clean and where we “do not conform to the pattern of this world, but are transformed by the renewal of our mind” (Rom 12:2).
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Ponder
Do I examine my conscience, my motives, and my desires?
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Prayer
Lord, you know my heart. You know its desires and tendencies. Heal and renew my heart, Jesus, that I may conform to your will. Amen.

24/08/2026

8.24.2026 | 6:00PM | Dakilang Kapistahan ni Apostol San Bartolome de Malabon
Mass Presider : His Eminence Pablo Virgilio Cardinal S. David

24/08/2026

8.24.2026 | 9:30AM | Dakilang Kapistahan ni Apostol San Bartolome de Malabon
Mass Presider : His Eminence Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle

23/08/2026

HE SAW YOU FIRST

– Daily
Monday, 24 August 2026
Feast of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle
Gospel: John 1:45-51 (Jesus Calls Nathanael)
Read: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/feast-saint-bartholomew-apostle
Sharer: Dennis Carpio

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Reflection verse:
“Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” (John 1:48)

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HE SAW YOU FIRST

That thought you keep having – “I should go back to Mass” – may not be random.

Maybe it comes while you are driving home. Or lying in bed. Or scrolling through Facebook late at night.

“I should start praying again.”
“I should go to Confession.”
“I should fix this part of my life.”

You push it aside. Later na lang, Lord.
Then a few days later, it comes back.

We often dismiss thoughts like these as random. But today’s Gospel gives us another possibility: what if God was already reaching for you before you realized you were looking for Him?

Nathanael comes to Jesus after Philip tells him, “Come and see.” When Jesus greets him as a true Israelite, Nathanael asks, “How do you know me?”

Jesus answers, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”

Before Philip spoke.
Before Nathanael walked over.
Before Nathanael believed.
Jesus had already seen him.

That line makes me look differently at my own life.

A couple of months ago, I was sitting in my car after playing and singing at a funeral. My music gear was in the trunk. Music sheets were on the passenger seat. The family had just thanked me because the music helped them pray through a painful day.

For more than twenty years, my working life was mostly offices, technology, banking and coaching. Music was always there, especially in church, but I never thought sacred music would become such a big part of my everyday life.

Then one chapter ended, and I found myself asking, “Lord, what now?”

I thought I was trying to work out my next move.

But looking back, music had been there long before I started asking that question — Sunday Masses, choir rehearsals, weddings, funerals, years of serving with no career plan attached.

I cannot say I understand everything God was doing. But I have learned not to dismiss those subtle nudges towards God.

The Catechism teaches that even our preparation to receive grace is already God’s work in us. We are free to respond, but He moves first.

So, if you have been away from God and lately something in you keeps saying, “Come back,” pay attention.

That desire to pray again.
That discomfort with how you are living.
That thought of returning to Mass.
That nudge to finally go to Confession.

Do not assume it means nothing.

We think we are searching for God.
Grace begins when we realize He saw us first.

Today we celebrate St Bartholomew, traditionally identified with Nathanael. He did not know where that first meeting with Jesus would lead. He simply came and responded.

You do not need to solve your whole life today.

Take one step.

If you have been away, visit a Catholic church this week. Sit before the tabernacle for five minutes and say:

“Jesus, You saw me before I came looking for You. Help me respond.”

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Reflect:
Is there a small desire to return to God that I have been ignoring?

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Let’s Pray:
Lord Jesus, You saw Nathanael before he came to You. You see me too. Help me recognize Your grace and respond to it. If I have wandered away, draw me back to You through Your Church and the Sacraments. Give me the courage to take the next step. Amen.

Saint Bartholomew, the apostle, pray for us.

23/08/2026

8.22.2026 | 9AM | Ika-21 Linggo sa Karaniwang Panahon

Isaias 22, 19-23
Salmo 137, 1-2a. 2bk-3. 6 at 8bk

Pag-ibig mo’y di kukupas,
gawain mo’y magaganap.

Roma 11, 33-36
Mateo 16, 13-20

21/08/2026

UNRESPONSIVE DEVOTION

– Daily
August 22, 2026 | Saturday
Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Gospel: Matthew 23:1-12 (Denunciation of the Scribes and Pharisees)
Mass readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082226.cfm
Sharer: Glenn N. Aguas
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Anchor Verse: “They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them.” (Matthew 23:4)
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UNRESPONSIVE DEVOTION

Reflection:

The Gospels often portray tension between Jesus and the Pharisees. In today's passage, Jesus rebukes some religious leaders whose teachings and actions fall short of the values of God's Kingdom. However, the Gospel is not simply anti-Pharisee. Jesus also encountered scribes and Pharisees who sincerely sought truth, such as Nicodemus, who recognized His wisdom and faith.

What Jesus highlights in the insincerity of many religious leaders was their unfairness which to some point was an excess in the conduct of enforcing the Law. By citing this, not only did these leaders impose burden on others; they were unwilling to lift a finger to help alleviate the load. It is crucial to understand that while the law had its place, it was the spirit of the law, meant to show love, compassion, and mercy, that was wanting. Jesus reminds us that following God’s command should lead people to feel enriched and enabled, not to feel crushed under the weight of impossible demands. The added human traditions and rigorous interpretations to the Law were burdensome, difficult for ordinary people to follow, yet the religious leaders themselves did not observe these rules faithfully.

Jesus’ reminds us that leaders and teachers of the faith are called to serve and not to afflict. We are taught today the importance of humility, service, compassion, and where the greatest among us must be a servant for others. The Lord asks us not to be indifferent about the plight of those who suffer injustice, are treated outcasts, and are sick and deprived of basic needs. We are called to examine our own actions to embolden acts of genuine love as God Himself loves.

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) 1853, we are reminded about the sin of omission. The act is defined, “as failing to perform a good that one is obliged to do toward God or neighbor.” Some misdeeds cited by Jesus among the institutional enforcers and rabbis in His time was they “did not lift a finger” to ease the burden of many brethren. In following Christ, may we not be as indifferent to those who need our empathy, charity and care.
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Reflection Question:
Grace is always available and abundant when we ask it from God. Do we offer the same charity or care when we are asked and ‘called’ to give it?
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Prayer:
(excerpted from the USCCB “Prayer to Overcome Indifference”)

All too often, Lord, we turn away from the world's many problems, which seem too big, too complex, or too far away. Forgive us our indifference. It is easier, Lord, to see only what is around us: our lives, our homes, our challenges. Forgive us our isolation. Help us to see with your eyes: eyes which notice one another and help us understand. Amen.

21/08/2026

ENEMY TERRITORY
EPISODE 1 SEASON 91
MATTHEW 16 : 13-20
21ST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – YEAR A
AUGUST 23, 2026