We need only the brilliant light of faith, and a little reminder of reality, and WE CAN SEE our invisible jewels in the sunshine!

JEWELS IN THE SUNLIGHT



My niece MARIA FE JESENA asked me, “Have you ever preached a HAPPY sermon?”

“Of course!” I said, “Many times!”

“When?”

“Many times. Many, many times….. There’s my file cabinet. Take a good look. I’m sure you will find many happy sermons there.”

My niece, MARIA FE JESENA, looked. For two hours. Then she gently faced me and said, “Sorry, Tito Jun. I could not find a single happy sermon in your files.”

“Is that so?”

THAT was the first time I realized that like so many other Priests, my sermons are sad.

Always sad. Always negative. Talking only of the sins and the moral sicknesses of our world.

Maybe my religion is like that. Maybe my life experience is like that. Negative. Sad. Sin-centered. Forever gloomy.

Thank you, MARIA FE JESENA, for shocking me into this realization and admission.

I MUST ALLOW my CHRIST, my dead CHRIST, to RISE from the dead, as He actually did, and I must allow Him to triumph, and be victorious over sin and suffering and all things negative. God is a God Who wins. And Who smiles.

MY FELLOW PRIESTS, did YOU ever preach a HAPPY sermon? Did you ever preach a BALANCED sermon? Did you ever, ever -- really – as though YOU meant it - did you ever go BEYOND the Cross and Calvary to the ecstasy of the Resurrection?

OR do you really, really think -- always -- that all the people in your Church and in your world are SINNERS, ALL SINNERS, and only SINNERS? No saints among them? No human beings who repent, and try again, and strive to become better persons?

I don’t know about YOU. But me, I plead guilty. I HAVE NOT PREACHED ENOUGH ABOUT THE RISING AGAIN OF CHRIST, THE VICTORY OF
GOD.

FOR I BELIEVE ONLY WHAT I SEE, AND WHAT I SEE IS THE NEGATIVE–HUMAN SUFFERING, THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL, AND THE UNIVERSALITY OF GLOOM. MY RELIGION IS SAD.

But there was one time, many years ago, WHEN I SAW THE LIGHT! The light of faith, and the light of reality, and the light of life.

It happened in a farm. I was ten years old. Everyone else was out somewhere. I was left alone in the nipa farmhouse. I was hungry. I went to the kitchen. I ate some boiled saging. Then I just sat there in the kitchen, thinking about nothing. I was simply listless, gloomy and sad.

And then I saw A VISION. Of reality.

There, above the table in front of me, was a wondrous phenomenon! Like a magnificent pillar that stretched from the table all the way to the ceiling was this magical, fantastic light. And enclosed within this pillar of light were countless jewels – gems – stars – pearls floating, dancing up and down, in a splendid dance of transcendent, unspeakable beauty!

A hole in the roof had allowed the sunlight to come in. The sunlight acted like a fantastic spotlight, showing me all the floating dust: now brilliant, now incandescent, now luminous, now radiant, now PERFECT! -- now no longer only dust, because it had been made alive and priceless and beautiful by the wonderful, visiting sunlight!!!

Thousands upon thousands of illuminated dust particles -- up there in the air -- looking like perfect, priceless jewels – dancing their beautiful, divinely choreographed dance -- floating, diving, climbing, gliding, telling ME and all the world, “So what? So whatif your weak, fallible eyes do not always see our beautiful dance. WE know WE ARE beautiful, and GOD knows WE ARE beautiful… and we are divinely content to dance our beautiful dance, for ourselves, and for our dear GOD!!!

YOU AND I CAN LEARN SO MANY THINGS FROM THAT ILLUMINATING EXPERIENCE.

Those splendid, fantastic jewels and gems are present, not only within the pillar of sunlight, but throughout the entire house, and even outside the house. They are VISIBLE to our eyes ONLY when the sunlight touches them. But they are ALWAYS there.

ALWAYS BEAUTIFUL. ALWAYS PERFECT

So also throughout our whole lives: there is beauty, there IS heroism and nobility, and we have abundant, endless deeds that do help our loved ones and many people although these often go unnoticed and unappreciated, until the light of wisdom and faith touches them, and then we realize how wonderful our lives have been, and how ineffably pleasing to God WE ARE!

We should never allow despair to overcome us, for we ARE all noble heroes, everyday of our lives!

MY FRIENDS. Your whole lives -- and mine, are full of fantastic, magnificent, unique masterpieces! We need only the brilliant light of faith, and a little reminder of reality, and WE CAN SEE our invisible jewels in the sunshine!

A MOTHER MAY OFTEN FEEL SAD AND USELESS, FEARING THAT SHE AND HER SMALL DEEDS ARE NOT IMPORTANT. BUT IF SHE PAUSES AND REMEMBER AND THINKS, THEN SHE WILL REALIZE HOW FULL HER WHOLE
LIFE IS CROWNED AND ENRICHED BY HER LOVING DEEDS, NOURISHING HER FAMILY WITH TREMENDOUS SECURITY AND LOVE.

This reality of JEWELS IN THE SUNLIGHT is true with a Mother, or a Nun, a Priest, a Lola, a Lolo, a Janitor, a Teacher, a Public Servant, a Journalist, a Reporter, EVERYBODY! Our LIFE is not defeat and decay and death. It is everything, including change, including creativity and uniqueness and new life. Not just gloom and disaster, but sunrise and healing and spring and summer. Not only garbage, but gardens full of fragrant roses, of wonderful flowers!
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SO WHAT did my very ordinary but very FANTASTIC VISION teach me? That the FULLNESS of reality is not only what my naked eyes can see, but what is hidden and invisible and forgotten. And these JEWELS ALWAYS real and important and wonderful…. in the eyes of GOD, in the eyes of the TRUTH.


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“Father Juni, did you ever preach a happy sermon?”

“No. But I have been wrong. Our world and our entire existence ARE full of life and happiness and victory and hope and healing and Resurrections. Our beautiful faces are not meant only for wrinkles and frowns. But for laughter and endless smiles

Because everyone of us is a wonderful Child… of a wonderful GOD!!! A smiling GOD. A happy, happy GOD!!!





Fr. Juni Jesena, S.J