Making Friends With The Lord Jesus: Recent Episodes
Fr. Edwin
The Lord speaks to us in the Gospel today when he mentions us to be a light. Light is an image God uses to refer to Jesus, the Messiah. However, Jesus wants each of us to be light, too. Lamps that are lit are placed on lamp stands so that their light could banish the darkness and shadows in a room. They are not placed under a bed. No one would benefit from their light. Each of us is supposed to be light, capable of shedding light around us. The capacity to give off light is given to us in our faith. We need to share it to the others. We need to apply our faith to what we do. If we don't, we would lose it. If we do, we will be given more faith and other gifts of God.
Jesus replies in the gospel today that the greatest is the child. This is not just any child. But he is the child who is innocent, humble, simple, open to learning, docile, etc. Jesus identifies Himself with that child who is ignorant but open to learning. He is the child who is at the bottom of the totem pole, i.e., the one who is ordered around to do services, and chores. The Lord's disciples got it all wrong, since they argued about who of them was the greatest. Jesus corrected them and told them that he who was the smallest would the greatest. What is smaller than a child?
It is the sick who need the doctor. Jesus says this at the end of the gospel of the mass today to celebrate the feast of the evangelist and apostle, namely, St. Matthew. This apostle, just like the rest, was a sinner. He was perceived as a sinner publicly. This is because of his profession as a tax collector. Tax collecting is universally perceived as open to abuse. Collectors take advantage of their authority to harass, threaten, extort money from innocent and well-meaning taxpayers. Anyhow, the Lord shockingly associates with him and the rest of his colleagues in the profession. Jesus justifies his action with a simple question: it is the sick who need the doctor. He implies our being sinners as sick who requires the help of someone who could cure them. Would there be an illness that the divine Doctor would shun or be afraid to attend to? None. In fact, He makes it plain, and He is after sinners to save them.
The Gospel today tells us about the women who accompanied Jesus and His band of apostles to provide their own resources and help for their undertaking. This accompaniment and support continues up to today. We can only thank God for the women in the Church. They provide some kind of semblance or even or actuality of having a family atmosphere. Anyhow, these women are not only providers, but they get to exercise their priestly souls in so doing. They are not ministerial priests. This latter is administered by virtue of the Holy Sacrament of Holy Orders. But we all have received the Sacrament of Baptism. This first sacrament makes us all receive the powers of the common priesthood. This priesthood is a valid one. Baptism empowers the recipient to perform acts proper of a priest like to pray, and to offer sacrifice.
The Devil may use our perception of our sinfulness or our many sins to discourage us. The Gospel today describes what we need to do in such situations. This woman of the street expressed her love in a very special way with details of affection. She used her obvious gifts to please Jesus, instead of using them for her selfish purposes. She wept, repenting from her many sins, and used her tears to wash Jesus' feet. Likewise, she used her hair to dry them. Furthermore, she used the ointment and anointed His feet. The critical judgement of the host Pharisee learned his lesson c/o Jesus, who pointed out to him his carelessness in according to Him the customary gestures to a guest in the house. Because she loved much, her sins, many though they are, were forgiven.
We find Our Lord Jesus expressing His frustration. He expressed it by describing what He thought of the people of His generation, although what He describes is applicable to people of any generation. "We played the pipes for you, and you wouldn't dance; we sang dirges, and you wouldn't cry." Our Lord tries to win people to check themselves to be aware of their need to be saved: He employed miracles, parables, and corrections. He expressed His frustration with some people who did not heed Him.
Today, we read in the gospel of the mass about a widow who has the huge problem of finding out how she would support herself, now that her husband had died and her only son just died. She was burying her in the gospel scene. Jesus meets the funeral procession. He stops the column of wailing people. He reads deeply into the plight of this widow. Moved by compassion, He resurrects the young man and returns him to his surprised mother. God loves and cares for our misfortunes and plights. Let us only take care of what we read in the last line of the Psalm II of the Book of Psalms in the Old Testament, "Blessed are they who put their trust in the Lord."
Today, we read in the Gospel of the Mass of the encounter of Jesus with the centurion. A centurion was an officer in the Roman Army in charge of a hundred men. He had a servant he was fond of and who was sick and near death. He sent Jewish friends to ask Jesus for the favor of curing the servant. Jesus goes, but when He was closer to the house, the centurion sent Him a message. It said that he did not presume that Jesus come into his dwelling. The Jews were very careful in being pure and clean. Coming in touch with a Gentile or entering a Gentile's house would get them into trouble with respect to the purity laws. Anyhow, Jesus intended to enter his house to do the cure. But the centurion, knowing of this provision of the purity laws, wanted to avoid this problem for Our Lord. Of course, since He was divine, He had no difficulties in being defiled by a Gentile's house. The centurion's message consisted of expressing his unworthiness in having Jesus in his dwelling. His proposal was for Jesus simply to say the word, and that would suffice to get his favorite servant well. Jesus was amazed at the faith of this soldier. He cured the servant from where He was. We can grow in trusting the Lord by repeating this prayer of the centurion, modified a bit to refer to our cure. “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word and I shall be healed."
We are unable to celebrate liturgically the memorial of the Sorrowful Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the foot of the Cross. However, the gospel of the Mass provides us with a text that directly challenges all of us who desire to follow Jesus. Jesus declares that He was destined to suffer. That was a shocker to the ears of those apostles, and it reverberated in the ears of Christians ever since. How can that happen to Jesus, who is all powerful? Truly mysterious! After that, we should inevitably need to ponder on our following Jesus' footsteps in this life. Each of us is also destined to suffer. Mary learned that in a most special way when she witnessed the torture and murder of her Son. We should learn this lesson too!
Today is the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. We remember the value of the Cross of Jesus. God was not constrained to save us by dying on the Cross. He could have chosen another way to do this. However, in His infinite wisdom, He selected this way of the Cross. We can see why. Anyone, let alone a God who undergoes this torturous death, who suffers to this extent to save His people from sin and death, proves to the utmost degree his love for the people he dies for. We need to imitate Him. If He gives Himself to us to save us, then the least we can do is to approximate that by also giving ourselves up in carrying the Cross of each day.
Jesus talks about the problem with the blind leading the blind. Both will simply fall into the pit. We remember that we are all on a trip to Heaven. Thus, we need to know the correct way to get there. We need guidance, insofar as going to that place is not that clearly marked out. Take, for example, today being Friday coinciding with the 13th of the month. What does that say to you? People may be superstitious and read more into this coincidence than the mere fact. The light of Christianity is granted us by the Redeemer and His Spouse the Holy Catholic Church. We all need the light of God to guide us regarding our moral choices. Otherwise, we seek other gods that are apparently able to discern truth from falsehood. These are the blind, i.e., creatures taken to have some divine attribute to guide the blind. Actually, such false gods are blind trying to lead the blind. Our Lord warns us that they will fall into a pit!
Today, Jesus encourages us to learn to face the music. If we do something deserving a penalty, then we need to expect that penalty to come upon us. Some escape with impunity in this world. But we will never be able to escape the divine judgment.
We hear Jesus telling us today that we need to love our enemies. We need to be merciful so that God show us mercy as well. We pray in the Lord's Prayer that God forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
This might make us look weak since we do not go by the way of revenge. It is most difficult to forgive instead. To forgive makes us most Godlike, since it is proper of God to be forgiving of our offenses, as long as we ask for forgivenes.
Our world is fallen. We are all fallen. We have in our souls the aspiration to infinity and perfection for eternity. However, this world cannot provide us with any of that. They will come only in the next world. Here is a valley of tears, suffering and pain. We can only expect disappointments and the sort. The Lord, however, gives us today in the Gospel of the Mass, another perspective. What and how we suffer here actually assure us of some reward in the next life, in the new earth and new heavens that Jesus promised us that will come about when this world ends in time. Find out how we are actually fortunate!
How He does it is the subject of this Gospel and homily. He prays the entire night before He chooses them. Then, we chooses not in the manner we choose people who would be like salesmen of His teachings and get others to learn them. He does not decide on the best. In fact, He picks mere fishermen. Most of them were experts in catching fish. They were not educated like the Pharisees were educated. The one who betrayed Him was perhaps the one with the best credentials. That is why he was made in charge of their money bag. But he committed suicide. It is fortunate that He does not select like we do on earth because none of us could make the standard of holiness or perfection. Thank God, He does not select His priests and bishops like directors do in their search for the actor for a role.
The crux of today's Gospel centers on the tension between the Jews and the Lord in the synagogue. Such tension was all about what was licit on a Sabbath, the eminent day of the week for rest. Jesus asked this question about whether it was all right to cure this man with a withered hand. His enemies were ready to pounce on His first wrong move, i.e., if he cured on the Sabbath. This was a no-brainer. Nothing wrong in doing good, even on a Sabbath. But the Jews wanted to maintain their status of being in authority, instead of acknowledging the correct response that Jesus wanted to get from them.
Today, we celebrate her birthday. We celebrate her Immaculate Conception on December 8. So, counting forward nine months, we get to September 8. Liturgically, we cannot celebrate the liturgy proper to her birthday. In any case, today we read in the Gospel about Our dear Lord's making a deaf and dumb man able to hear and speak. The Lord placed His hands on him. The mere touch would cure people of any sickness. He is Life itself. From Him emanates all health and all perfection. Hence, the touch was essential. This we can experience in Holy Mass and Holy Communion. Let us take care of this touching with Our Lord. Desire to touch Him!
Jesus, Our Lord, clarifies His teaching about the observance of the Sabbath duties. The Pharisees and scribes argue about the absolute necessity to observe these duties that they invent new rules that suffocate man. The apostles eat grains of corn as they weave through a corn field. The Pharisees and scribes observe that they do something prohibited on the Sabbath. They are so unreasonable! Thus, Jesus brings up with them the circumstances of David and his followers who go to the Temple and eat the bread reserved for the Holy of Holies. They absolutely needed to according to the circumstances. In this way, He criticizes the Jews for their rigidities and penchant for establishing human traditions that resonate with the mind of the supreme Lawgiver. Such laws regarding the observance of the Sabbath do not preclude consideration of the different circumstances of the persons concerned.
This was a question very much in the Jewish mind. It is clear that fasting was required. But regarding the extent and intensity of fasting, this would depend on each person's piety and relationship with God. In Jewish society, there were different camps following different ways in this matter. From the Gospel today, the Pharisees and scribes observed that their disciples and those of John were stricter in fasting. Our Lord's disciples did not. Jesus explains that fasting would depend on circumstances. He used language clear enough to convey that the circumstances of His disciples were different from those of the Pharisees and Scribes. These latter had to fast unlike the followers of Jesus. Jesus was with them. He who was going to clarify later that He is the Bridegroom marrying the Church or the People of God in the New Covenant. These latter need not fast because the celebration of the wedding would still be ongoing. When the bridegroom is taken away, then they would need to fast too.
This is the eternal invitation of God to all of us in our lives. Parallel to the Gospel narration about the miraculous catch of fish and the subsequent call of the first apostles, God makes us understand that He stands in the midst of our circumstances, work, and relationships. He hounds us to get our attention through qualms of conscience, what grabs our attention in our affairs and in those of the others, in those inspirations and affections He feeds into our minds and hearts as we encounter poverty and imperfection in the world and others. He summons us out of ourselves. He causes in us wonder and fears. He is aptly called the Hound of Heaven. He caused the miraculous catch of fish, gifting those tired brothers from a fruitless night of work. As it happens also to us, it is natural to fear the presence and summons of God because of feelings of unworthiness, shame, sinfulness, and mediocrity. He continually assures us not to fear, but to cast all doubt and indecisiveness to Him, so that we heed His attentive and pleading calls. Let us imitate Simon and his companion fishermen by leaving everything and following Him in our duties of state.
Today's Gospel brings us various points for consideration. First, He cures Simon Peter's mother-in-law. For our lesson, that woman immediately got up from bed and waited on them. With our gifts from God, we need to use them for serving the others. Then, we see Jesus curing everybody who was sick and brought to Him. This is when He expels the devils from possessing persons. The devils proclaim His being the Son of God. Curiously, He rebukes them and stops them from doing this. Find out why in the homily. Lastly, Our Lord detaches Himself from the people in Galilee to address also the needs of the people in Judea. We should learn to do the same.
The Lord addresses today a prevalent concern we all suffer from in this fallen world of ours. That is about a tinge of doubt lurking in our consciences about the goodness of God. This originates from the way the demon or serpent deceived our first parents. He gaslighted them. Although God forbade them from eating of a certain fruit in the garden of Eden, the devil made it appear that God was withholding a secret from them. It was a secret source of power capable of empowering them to become like gods. God wanted to give them a hard time, keeping them in the dark. They took the bait and they realized the deception too late. So, the devil in that possessed man scream to the Lord approaching him, "Have you come to destroy us?" Of course, the archenemy of God interprets it that way because he is essentially unwilling to do God's bidding. We also play out this role when we doubt His goodness and His plans for us. Will He really keep His word to us? We conquer this temptation by making acts of faith, hope and love.
We need to get this straight. Our Lord Jesus Christ became man to lead us to Heaven. His very life is our model to reach there. Hence, the scriptures that talk about Him are what should enlighten us regarding how we should live. And if we follow their lead, then what scriptures say is also being fulfilled in us today. Our Lord lives in us today!
Our beloved Lord Jesus Christ clarifies with the Pharisees and Scribes about what truly defiles a man. Defilement is sourced from outside man, and that is the reason we need to wash vessels and hands. Hence, they criticized the Lord's disciples because they did not follow the tradition of the elders. Our Lord continued calling them out because they, under the guise of concern for their traditions, were actually not concerned about truly worshiping and loving God. Hence, Jesus says that "This people honor me only with lip-service, while their hearts are far from me." He clarified with them that their doctrines were only human regulations. Thus, God's commandments were relegated to the back seat! It should be the other way around. More importance is to be given to the commandments than to these human traditions or regulations. The pharisees and scribes were more demanding in following their own interpretations of the Law. They unnecessarily multiplied them to overburden the conscience of the ordinary Jew.
Today, we read the second of three stories in Chapter 25 of St. Matthew's Gospel. It is usually referred to as the Parable of the talents. By the way, the term "talent" as employed here referred to a certain amount of money. It could, however, we used to designate those innate qualities and aptitudes one may have as gifts of nature like the ability to sing, dance, play basketball and so forth. There are three servants given 5, 2 and 1 talent, respectively. The master goes on a trip and after some unknown time returns and demands an accounting of what his servants did with the money he left them. The first two doubled what they were given and to them the master rewards with enjoying his own happiness. The last one, alas, neglects doing anything with the one he received. He is condemned by the master as wicked and lazy. His talent was transferred to the one with 10 talents. He is thrown out into the dark where there is weeping and grinding of teeth. The Lord's analogies are illustrative of Heaven and Hell. Heaven is where there is joy and is reserved for those who have used their gifts and produced more good, while Hell is out there in the dark where there is suffering.
Today, we celebrate the martyrdom of the Precursor of Jesus Christ, St. John the Baptist. How he was beheaded is fairly well-known. It can be traced back to the illicit affair that King Herod had with Herodias, who was Herod's brother, Philip. St. John called them out. Herodias wanted to kill him for reminding them of the irregularity of their situation. But Herod protected him since he liked to listen to this holy man's words. Herodias got her chance to eliminate this thorn on her conscience when Herod celebrated his birthday. Herodias' daughter danced before him and his guests and they were pleased. Herod asked her to ask for anything in return. At the instigation of her mother, she asked for John the Baptist's head on a platter. Grieved but feeling obliged by his oaths to the young girl before his guests, he ordered his execution. Herodias got her wish.
Jesus continues to read the riot act for the scribes and pharisees. Basically, he called them hypocrites. This is like what we saw in the Gospel yesterday. He points out again their inconsistency in how they behaved and lived vs what they taught. They appear as good men but inside they are full of lies and immorality. They, therefore, were bad examples to the people they were supposed to teach and guide.
Jesus continues to point out to the scholars of the scriptures what they were doing wrong. The scribes and pharisees were so particular of the external fulfillment of the Law, without having the interior movement of purification and repentance. What mattered a lot was their invention of so many demands in the fulfillment of the Law of Moses. They were so many and complicated that it was practically difficult to practice their religion well. Recall how the pharisees called the attention of the paralytic who was already walking, having been cured by Jesus, carrying his pallet because Jesus had told him so. The problem was that he was doing something prohibited on the Sabbath. Imagine that! Our Lord compared these hypocrites to whitewashed tombs. Externally, they were clean and polished, but inside the tombs was rottenness. Some scribes and pharisees were like that.
Jesus was referring to the teachers of Israel, composed of the scribes and Pharisees. They were experts of the law of Moses. They were scriptural scholars. Furthermore, they tended to interpret the requirements of the Law making petty distinctions and made up demands that would confuse the sincere practicing Jew. Imagine when they went down to so many details regarding what can be and cannot be done on the Sabbath. Thus, to practice their religion became odious and impractical. How can you keep in mind so many details in common and ordinary life. Our Lord called these scholars out. He called them hypocrites because, although they sought to list down these religious restrictions on the Sabbath for the ordinary Jew to observe, they themselves would not lift a finger to live by them. They make it difficult while they give themselves a pass. Our Lord in today's Gospel warns them of the coming retribution for their useless interpretations of the Law.
We listen to the Gospel today telling us about the desertion Jesus experienced from many of His disciples. Why did they leave Jesus? It was because they could not accept His teaching about the Holy Eucharist, that we need to eat His Flesh and drink His Blood so that we be saved. It was ludicrous to them. So, Jesus braced Himself, in asking His closest associates. St. Peter replied by asking a rhetorical question, "What about you, do you want to go away too?" But, St. Peter replied for everyone, "Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life and we believe..." This is how we need to react to a teaching of Jesus. Naturally, we will find some hard to believe. The solution is to make an act of faith, just like Peter did. We affirm again that Jesus is divine, and that we trust Him.
This is the remark of Nathanael or Bartholomew to the announcement of Philip, his friend, about what he had discovered, namely, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus was, according to Philip, the one their sacred scriptures had prophesied to come to save them. Can anything good come out of each of us? This is the discouraging challenge of the devil to each of us, who may be having a hard time in the spiritual life, of being consistent in our struggles in the ascetical fight, etc. Philip encouragingly invited Nathanael to "Come and see!" He went and met Jesus who revealed to him that He knew him in a way that convinced Nathanael that He was divine. Nathanael met the Messiah, the Savior! This was his way of surrendering himself to God, much like the doubting Thomas' " My Lord and my God," when he beheld the risen Lord before him.
Today, we celebrate the feast of Mary's Queenship of the Universe. We also read in the Gospel about a king who invited people to attend his son's wedding. No one wanted to come. The king sent his attendants again to invite them, but they excused themselves by claiming they had to do other things. Some maltreated his envoys. So, he sent soldiers to punish them and burn their villages. Still, he wanted people to come to his son's wedding. So, he ordered that anyone could be invited. Listen to what he did next.
Our Lord replied to a question posed to Him about the greatest commandment of God. Every Jew knew this by heart. We need to love God with our entire being: with all our heart, mind, and strength. But the novelty was that He connected this with a second commandment, which was not unknown to an average Jew. Love your neighbor as yourself. Their connection is intimate. Check this out in the homily.
The Gospel in today's Mass tells us the story of Jesus about a landowner, hiring at different times of the day workers for his vineyard. He agrees to pay the first batch a denarius each for the day's work. When paying them arrives at the end of the day, he gives one denarius to the latest ones hired. So, the earlier employed thought they would receive more. But they also received one denarius each. So, they grumbled about the owner being unfair. He clarifies to them that he was not unjust, since he paid them what they had agreed to earlier in the day. That he wanted to give more to the other late workers was up to him and to his generosity. So, this is also the case with God. He loves both those who love him from the first moment to the end, and, those who got converted to Him much later. He is most generous. There is no unfairness with this arrangement because they all were on the same page regarding Heaven as the reward.
Impossible, right? But that is how Jesus described the difficulty with which those who are rich in this world--meaning enslaved and attached to creatures--to enter Heaven. The apostles acknowledged that much. So, they ask Him what would happen to them since they left everything to follow Him. Jesus assures them of the reward! The reward who being here with the hundredfold and later in Heaven for eternity. Not bad, right?
We all have an innate desire to be perfect. We certainly demand this of the others. Perhaps we ask ourselves less. But we all have this tendency towards perfection. This was the concern of the young man who asked Jesus in the Gospel today about how to enter into eternal life. Our Lord detected this desire in this person. He asked him to follow the commandments. The good man assented and acknowledged that he had been following the commandments. The thing is that he wanted to know what more he could do. What else? He felt he was still in an imperfect situation. Jesus prodded him, saying, "If you wish to be perfect..." We all want this because goodness requires at least some perfection. So, Our Lord asked him to sell all he had and give to the poor and to follow Him. He went away sad because he did not want to let go of his wealth. But notice the kind of perfection Jesus illustrated. It is the perfection of following Him. This is the meaning of perfection in our lives. Not just to be the best in playing the drums, not just being at the top of our professional field, and so forth.
We arrive at the last installment of the text of Chapter 6 of St. John's Gospel on the Holy Eucharist. Here Our Lord explains the sacrament using the imagery of bread. He underscores the need to eat it and here He moves to another imagery, i.e., His Flesh and Blood, as food and drink. These nourish us in the body, while His Body and Blood nourish us in the soul. Let us listen to the Gospel how He explains it all.
We read today the version of St. Matthew found in his Chapter 19 of Jesus and the children. His apostles tried to turn them away when they approached Jesus for a blessing. Jesus corrected them. He reiterates that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as them. Hence, it is not difficult to imagine that God will somehow bring those babies and fetuses aborted, although not baptized, to Heaven. He is not limited by the reception of Baptism. Furthermore, we need to continue our examination of conscience regarding how we treat our children and children in general. They are not property. They are not extensions of the parents. Moreover, they are individuals and persons in their own right. Hence, they need to be respected and developed to follow the talents that God gave them.
Jesus corrects the practice of the Jews regarding divorce instituted by Moses during his time. Husbands were permitted to write a document of dismissal to bid away his wife. This was never done the other way around. Our Lord clarifies the marriage institution. Absolute divorce is repudiated and rejected as a possibility for validly married spouses. What is permitted in present Church practice in handling spouses endangered by their respective spouses in terms of bodily or spiritual harm or adultery, is separation with no possibility to marry again. Jesus cites an exception to this law. People could divorce whenever unchastity is involved, like fornication. The Greek term employed denotes sexual perversion. This was rampant in pagan environments that people married very close kin and siblings or first degree cousins. So, what our Lord was saying that such unions of impediment bearing spouses were not valid marriages. Therefore, they were not under the law Jesus was clarifying now. There was no marriage in the first place because of serious impediments.
We celebrate this dogma today in the entire Church of Jesus Christ. We unite ourselves to praise and thank God for His work in her. Mary is brought up to Heaven in body and soul. The Church is silent about whether she died or she simply slept. In fact, what seems more appropriate is that she perished but was resurrected immediately and assumed into Heaven. This is so because as she was so united to her Son and His work of redemption, it would be proper that she also died as her Son also died and died on the Cross. We celebrate today the triumph of Mary in beating the devil and sin and death by virtue of her singular union with here Son Jesus. It is thus so appropriate that she would enjoy her place in Heaven because Jesus ascended to Heaven to sit at the right hand of His Father.
Jesus expounds on the practice of helping the others who may be wrong in something important. We all experience this because we cannot possibly see ourselves in the mirror all the time. We need someone else to have an objective look at ourselves so that what we miss detecting as mistaken could be addressed. Of course, we need to have this disposition of letting the person concerned know of such mistakes or wrongdoing. Thus, we have the evangelical teaching of making fraternal corrections. Our tendency is to leave the others with their mistakes and come up with excuses from telling them. Usually, we gossip about them, or we mind our own business. Nowhere in the Gospel is the insistence about minding our own business. On the contrary, it is actually the opposite that Our Lord underscores, i.e., to be concerned and help the others.
The spiritual life consists in becoming more and more like little children, especially in the sense of getting naked without qualms. They are still too young that they do not have a sense of shame yet. So, they easily go naked and don't mind being such in front of the others. God asks us to become like children, not childish. Such immaturity is nowhere to be found in Heaven. But we find there those who accept humbly the truth about themselves. We are sinners, and they don't have any problem in acknowledging their sins before God. They do not go around wearing a mask or a disguise to fool people as to the real truth about themselves. We are basically sinners. Even when we become CEOs or great in the eyes of the world, we are sinners. We go to confessions to go naked in front of God to acknowledge each of our big or small sins. We humiliated ourselves like children are simple and don't hide. They have not grown their sensitive egos yet. With egoism, we live in an unreal world. Children are simple and easy to be with. They lack prejudices. They accept the others as they are. Furthermore, they are not complicated. To such belong the kingdom of Heaven.
Today, Jesus tells His apostles about His impending suffering and Death and Resurrection. Whenever we read about anything happening in His life as narrated in the Gospels, we need to get used to understanding that that is what God wants to happen in each of our lives. This is so by virtue of the fact that each of us received the life of Christ via grace when we received Baptism. This influx of more grace through all the sacraments we receive in our lives. We need to learn to see and hear in the reading of the Gospel stories of what happened to Christ to also happen in our lives. He prophesied His death. Then, we too will die. Surely, we will perish at the end of our time on earth. But we don't need to wait that long because we need to die to ourselves many, many times each day. We need to kill instances of pride or selfishness or lust or envy, etc., all the time. We also die to ourselves when we are frustrated, disappointed, etc. Furthermore, we literally die to ourselves. Therefore, we need to be ready for them, and we need to appreciate what is happening to us by the Hand of God. We are given opportunities for Jesus to grow in us.
Jesus continues His discourse on the Holy Eucharist as the Bread of Life by identifying Himself to be that Bread of Life. The Jews were having difficulty in grasping this because they knew His background of having grown up in Nazareth and that they knew His parents. But now, Jesus was claiming that He was the Bread of Life that has come down from Heaven. We need to remember that the Israelites had also received bread from Heaven many centuries before during their trip to the Promised Land from Egypt. They had clamored for food, and God granted them the manna from Heaven. But now, Jesus was introducing the real Bread descended from Heaven. And that this is Jesus Himself.
Jesus teaches this principle in today's Gospel to celebrate the feast of St. Lawrence, Deacon, and Martyr. He died in the name of Jesus Christ by being roasted alive over a grill. His death made him a martyr. When this way of behaving was imitated by many other individuals throughout the history of the Catholic Church, we witness a resurgence of the faith and practice. More become Catholics. More people seek admission into the Catholic Church. They say that the blood shed by the martyr is the seed to the growth of the Catholic Church.
After announcing to His Apostles that He was going to undergo His Passion and Death on the Cross and then resurrect from the dead, He prodded His apostles to imitate Him, i.e., each of them would have to deny himself, carry his cross each day, and follow Him. He will go ahead and lead. Then, we need to follow His steps. He further says that we need to lose our life so that we could find it. If we insist on saving our life from suffering, we would not succeed. It will even be worse. He asks a very serious question of each of us, namely, "What will it profit me if I win the world but lose my soul?" We'd reply in the negative. It would not be worth it. God in the end of time will reward us according to how we lived on earth. Hence, we need to prepare well for that day of reckoning.
Jesus asked what the apostles thought about Him. Simon replies that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus is God too. Jesus acknowledges that this declaration could be possible only by a singular grace of faith from His Father in Heaven. Then, Jesus renames Simon as Peter, recognizing him for his future role in His Church as the Rock on which Jesus would establish His Church. He then gives him the power of the keys, to bind and to loosen on earth, and it will be recognized as such in Heaven. The gates of hell will not prevail against the Catholic Church. Indestructible until the end of time! But, curiously, Jesus reveals to them that He was destined to suffer and die at the hands of His enemies. The same Peter objects to this. Jesus reprimands him by calling him Satan and that he needs to stay clear of Him. Peter still needed more formation and grace to grasp the role of suffering in salvation of man. This would take time and many lessons more, especially that of humility.
We can learn this from a Canaanite woman who wanted Jesus' help to cure her daughter suffering from torments from the devil. Note that she was a Gentile. She had it clearly in her mind what she needed. So, she launches herself to meet Jesus and, in a manner of speaking, debates with Him about getting what she wanted. He objected that He was sent to focus on the lost sheep of Israel. She persists by kneeling in front of Him, after having called Him "Son of David". She requests Him, "Lord, help me." She recognized His Lordship and His divinity. Jesus objects "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the house-dogs." Again with this rebuff, she retorts, "Ah yes, sir; but even house-dogs cat eat the scraps that fall from their master's table." Wow! Her faith impressed our Lord. This is the secret in winning a "debate" with Jesus!
The Gospel today narrates the Transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Thabor because it is commemorated as a feast in the Catholic Church today. We go through this scene at least once a day, if we contemplate or pray the Luminous Mysteries. One of the things we can focus on is that Jesus and company went up a high mountain to be alone by themselves. To be alone at times is also important as a Christian to rest, to pray, to form bonds with friends, etc. Then, Jesus is transfigured. His face shone like the sun and His clothes because so white unseen in this side of the veil. Jesus was assuring His apostles that despite His coming Passion and Death, He was God. He took off His "mask" so to speak to enable them to catch a glimpse of His divinity. He is in command. Lastly, the Blessed Trinity manifested Itself: the Father in the voice, the Son being there at the summit of the mountain, and the Holy Spirit overshadowing them with a cloud. The words the Voice uttered referred to His Son. If we are to be other Christs, this voice is also intended for each of us.
It would be a great idea to imitate our Lord Jesus Christ as always. Jesus wanted to grab some rest and quiet, and He moved by boat with His disciples to the other shore. But the people were there already waiting for Him. They looked for Him and found out where He was going. What great detectives they were, don't you think? But this is what we need to learn to do, namely, look for Jesus, everywhere.
Jesus is pursued by the people He just fed in the miraculous multiplication of bread and fish. They find Him near Capernaum. But He invites them to think more clearly about why there were looking for Him. That offers Him the opportunity to elevate their considerations. He asked them to go beyond thinking of goals limited to this world and resources. True, He just fed them bread and fish. Think about the food that will bring them to eternal life. Now, that is quite a deep reflection. The earthly goals may not be bad but they will only be for this life. They will end. They will rot. They are vulnerable to the elements. However, there is another Food He asked them to consider, that is, the Food that will give them a ride to Heaven where they will enjoy eternal life with God, the Supreme Good. That would be invulnerable to any and all elements in this life.
Jesus in the Gospel talks about the plight of Herod. This latter stole his brother's wife, to make her share in his bed. John the Baptist kept telling Herod that that arrangement was immoral. But he liked listening to John preach. Herodias, who was Herod's brother's wife, had the chance to eliminate the person who reminded them of their sin. Her daughter danced during the king's birthday and please him and his guests. He made an oath to give her whatever she asked. At the mother's instigation, she asked for John's head on a plate.
The town mates of Jesus in Nazareth were astonished by what He did in their midst as He visited His hometown. His Wisdom, His miraculous powers, etc., were incongruent to the Jesus they knew from childhood. He was not like this. This person may be another person altogether. Then, they would not accept Him. What a humiliation for Jesus! They rejected Our Lord as one among them because of the disparity between what the people knew of Him in the past and the Jesus, now an adult and famous. He was some different person.
Our Lord Jesus Christ comes up today in the Gospel of the mass another imagery that the kingdom of heaven is like. It is like casting a dragnet into the sea catching all kinds of things, like fish, nails, styrofoam, squid, jellyfish, and so forth. When the net fills up, the fishermen bring all that to the shore for sorting. The good items and kept, while the useless and not good items are disposed of. This is what the Lord is inviting us to do to make it to Heaven. We need to actively discern what is good and what is bad, and then follow the first moral principle, which goes like this, “Do good and avoid evil. If we go against this, we commit sin. The Lord encourages us to undertake this process of discernment and consequent action during our lives so that we make it to the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus enunciates today in the Gospel the characteristics of Heaven. To invite us to go there, He'd have to describe it. A salesman needs to show and describe the product he is peddling around. Heaven is like a treasure... Heaven is like searching for fine pearls... To acquire them, one needs to sacrifice certain things to make way for them.
St. Matthew narrates what he alone among the different sacred writers of the books of the New Testament. He writes about the explanation of Jesus about the parable of the darnel or weeds and the wheat. Matthew underlines the punishment at the end of time. That is the first thing he puts down. The other writers position the reward ahead of the punishment. He describes that punishment as follows: fire burning, where there will be the weeping and the grinding of teeth.
That is the definition Jesus gives of Himself. Isn't that amazing? He owns life. Death has nothing that defeats Him. Death can happen. No problem! God resurrects us, as He did several times in the Gospels. Today, we celebrate the feast of Sts. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. The two sisters had sent word to Jesus that Lazarus was sick. Jesus had tarried wherever He was and purposely arrived late. Lazarus had already perished. Martha engages with Him in conversation about these fundamental truths of our Faith. There will be the resurrection. True! But Martha did not realize that Jesus was going to resurrect right there and now her brother, Lazarus. He came forth from the grave alive! Incredible! Jesus solves the conundrum of death!
We read in the Gospel today about the introduction Jesus made about the institution of the Holy Eucharist. Previous to this, we read about the encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus. They had talked about the absolute need for the sacrament of Baptism for salvation. That was the first sacrament. Now, St. John tells us about the other necessary sacrament, and that is the Holy Eucharist. Its introduction is via the miraculous multiplication of the five loaves of bread and two fish. Five thousand men were satisfied. On top of that, they were able to gather 12 baskets full of leftovers. Jesus shows that He can feed His sheep, here with this common earthly food, and later, the Bread of Life that would lead to eternity.
We are struck by the mystery of good and evil together in the world. There is a certain mixture of them in different degrees of proportion depending on the place and culture. Jesus explains in the Gospel today why this is so. Moreover, the good and evil are mixed not only outside of us, but also within us. There are elements of what is good and there, alas, is the presence of certain evil. Jesus enunciates the parable of the wheat and darnel. Wheat is planted by the farmers workers, but when they sleep, someone plants darnel seeds among the wheat. So, they see that both grow up together. The worker asks the master whether he wants them to remove the weeds. The master replies that that would not be a good idea because as they pull out the darnel, they might also remove the wheat. He decides to let them grow together, and only in harvest time will they separate the two plants. The weeds are bundled to be burned, while the wheat are gathered to be deposited in the barn.
The Lord explains the parable of the seed and the sower today in the Gospel. We also celebrate today the parents of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. I know a lot about Mary but practically almost nothing of Sts. Joachim and Anne, her parents. But I could guess their sanctity, genuine holiness, just by looking the child they raised. The Immaculate Conception happened in the womb of St. Anne! Imagine that! And Mary grew up under their tutelage. What a woman they raised! If we want fruits like that, we need to listen to Jesus' explanation about the sowing of seeds. Do you want a rich harvest? The secret is in the soil!
Our dear Lord proposes to James and John whether they are able to drink the cup He was to drink from. If they wanted those powerful positions in His Kingdom, it seemed that they needed to do that. They eagerly reply in the affirmative. Jesus confirmed they would share in that cup. But about the positions of power, He corrected their view because in His Kingdom such positions were to be seen as service. The higher they are in the hierarchy means they have to be more of servants to the others in the Kingdom. Rather uncanny, right? This is the way to share a drink with the Lord!
Between sowing seeds and bearing fruits is something so significant as it is also not so much appreciated. It is the quality of the soil that receives those seeds. Depending on our dispositions to those seeds of God's Word shall the fruits of sanctity and virtue come.
Jesus' mother and brothers came to Him one day. They met the difficulty of having to go through an impenetrable, dense crowd around the Teacher. They sent Him word of their intention to have a moment with Him. The messenger informed Jesus about the matter. Jesus replies in strangely by asking, rhetorically, who His mother and brothers were. Then, He extended His hand to the crowd, affirming them to be His mother and His brothers.
St. Mary Magdalene was the first person asked by Jesus to announce to the others that she has seen the risen Lord. That makes her an Apostle.
The 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time tells us about how God cares for us. He saw the crowd meeting Him like sheep without a shepherd. Directionless! Very capable of getting lost! And so God sets to work to guide them. His apostles were chosen help Him in teaching them about the truths that would them to Heaven.
Our dear Lord Jesus Christ asks the ones whom He cured not to spread the news. This is especially because they still do not have the entire picture about Him. The Jews were all awaiting the advent of the Messiah. Their expectation was for a warrior leader concerned with earthly glory and conquests of land and kingdoms. They yearned for a leader like King David who could lead them against the Roman gentiles. Seeing that Jesus could bring the dead back to life was truly extraordinary. Fallen soldiers from battle could simply be cured or resurrected. Limited rations and military supplies could be multiplied. But all this was fruit only of their limited minds. Jesus was much more. Those people only had a partial grasp of the big picture. Hence, they were not yet ready to spread the news about Him and His power. It would only be fake news.
Our dear Lord explains to the strict and rigid minds of the Pharisees that the Sabbath was not the supreme standard to determine what can or cannot be done on the Sabbath. One needs to check the circumstances of a situation to discern what needs to be done or not done. Such conditions are providential, too. God is the supreme standard over the Sabbath, and not the other way round.
We all experience the effects of modern city living. With the traffic mess and jams compounding the problems, stress and anxieties from the work place, one can easily feel being overburdened. The dire effects of fears of what the future would offer, a weight no one would like to carry. We arrive home with still more issues to face. Add to this mix the hurried nature of living. Wow! We can easily break! The message of Jesus in today's Gospel may truly give us some light and consolation.
Jesus tells us that His Father is discriminating when it comes to sharing His secrets. Learn to deal with Him. Adopt the attitudes that will ensure your unlocking his VAULT OF SECRETS.
Jesus was disappointed by the lack of repentance exhibited by the inhabitants of towns where He did many miracles. He warned them that had He had dome such miracles in Sodom, for example, they would have repented. But since these inhabitants during His time refused to repent, then He warned them of more severe judgement on Judgement Day. So, what we need to do is to get used to repenting from our sins.
Our dear Jesus instructs His apostles to bring nothing superfluous in their journey to look for the lost sheep of Israel. No bread, no haversack, no, coppers, no spare tunic... He asks them to trust Him. Their needs will be attended to, perhaps by the very people they are going to teach. This lesson is still relevant to present day apostles of Christ. A big temptation comes in the form of trusting more on the values and materials of this world. God will take care of them. He only asks us to do what God's wants us to do and leave the rest to Him.
Our dear Lord makes it plain to us that if they gave a hard time to Him, their teacher and master, they, His disciples, should at least expect the same treatment. No student is better off than the teacher. Jesus wants us to make a stand for Him, and not to cower before the powers and threats of this world. If we disown Him here, He would disown us in the afterlife.
The Lord sends His apostles to do the same things as He did to the people. He sent them like sheep. They indeed belonged to His sheepfold. Be warned them that they would be going to meet wolves. Their personal freedom would be compromised. He encouraged them to use their talents extensively to outwit their enemies. In case they'd have to speak, they are not to worry because the Spirit will let them know what say. They would not be alone!
We might say that in the world, the basic tendency we have is to see the others as opportunities to get from. This is not a Christian attitude. This is so foreign from following Christ, as the east is from the west. We are to be gifts to the others all the time. Jesus instructs His apostles when He sent them out that they received without charge, and so they should not charge when they give to the others what God had supplied them with. Give yourselves as gifts to the others. Whatever we are, we are always a gift to the others. This is obvious when we have some talents. We share them with the others. But what if we seem to be a liability, we are always a gift. In this latter case, we give the others the chance to perform a good deed to us.
Today, we read in Gospel of the Mass about Jesus' instructions to His disciples. Her shared with them His power to cure diseases and cast out demons. Awesome power! But Jesus directs them to look for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Pay attention to them, He says. This is another version of His seeking the sick because the sick are those who need the Doctor.
Starting with the miracle of curing a man possessed by a dumb devil, Jesus shows us today the importance of being cured. The dumb devil makes its victim unable to speak about his symptoms in the soul. He is then unable to report them to the doctor. In this case, we think of Jesus as the divine Doctor.
It is incredible that we read again in today's Gospel in the mass about the two women who receive their respective miracles by the faith of the protagonists involved in the narration. It is by their faith that they are cured. Shouldn't we ask for more faith?
We learn this lesson today from the Gospel. Jesus visits Nazareth. Its inhabitants were familiar with Him, His family, His work, and training, etc. They Know Him well and because of that, they could not figure out why Jesus was so knowledgeable, so able to do miracles in other places, etc. They did not accept Him as their own. He must be an impostor or something. Such attitudes made Jesus unable to do many miracles there. Lack of trust in Jesus only results in much fewer miracles there.
Our dear Jesus teaches us to appreciate our being in His Presence. If we believe that, then we don't need to fast. That means we can only expect good to come from Him. With Him, too, we need to realize that He is bringing to the table something new. He did not come simply to continue the extant Judaism. He ushers in the new covenant. This is what is indicated by His references to new wine needing to be placed on new wineskins.
Our Lord Jesus Christ declares this in the Gospel today, where He calls St. Matthew, a prominent tax collector. Later, he throws a party. Many tax collectors attend it. They looked at the tax collectors as public sinners. Jesus was one of the guests. The Pharisees were scandalized by Jesus eating with them. Jesus justifies His associating with them by saying that He was looking for sinners. But those who are not sick, do not need the doctor.
We read in the Gospel today about Jesus forgiving the sins of the paralytic brought to His presence. Perhaps what they were expecting was a physical cure only. Some scribes present, heard of these blasphemous words of this man called Jesus. So, they cried foul! Jesus challenged them by asking them which was easier to do, to forgive his sins, or to get the paralytic to get up and walk. Jesus got him to move again to prove the reality of having also the power to forgive his sins. Oh, the people were in awe, as we all should be! Curing the paralytic to walk again is miraculous. But even better was His forgiving his sins. If He can do both, there must be more to Jesus than meets the eye!
St. Thomas surrendered his being before what he beheld of the scars of the nails and lance on His risen body. He exclaimed, "My Lord and my God!" He was able to prove his faith when he was martyred. Shouldn't we utter that act of faith many times a day when we behold God interfering with us so eager to get done what we want to do? It is the risen Lord seeking us out in those sacrifices during the day.
We read today St. Matthew's version of the calming of the wind and sea in the sea of Galilee. We read some days ago about St. Mark's version. They are practically the same but St. Matthew's version displays certain features. St. Matthew describes Jesus as standing up from sleeping, supposedly in a horizontal position. That conveys more authority. He commands the sea and wind as if they were His pets. He mentions to His disciples that have little faith. This is a realization we need to reach too. Hence, we should grasp God's Providence in subjecting us to a difficult situation so we can see how small we are. And there is nothing to be worried about. That is the truth about ourselves, anyway.
The Gospel presents to us two miracles that involve women. Jesus shows us how He deals with them. They are also recipients of His favors. One was a woman suffering for many years from a hemorrhage, and the other was dead already. The former demonstrated her deep faith in merely having to touch His clothes for her to be cured. The latter simply followed Jesus' command to rise. He shows His care for them. These two miracles remind us of His associating with other women in the Gospels.
Today, we celebrate these two saints. We learn from them by contemplating and imitating them. Peter was assigned to be just that, i.e., the rock foundation of the Church. The gates of Hell cannot prevail against it. Paul shows us his total self-giving to his call to be an apostle. Both teach us that our being founded on rock does mean that we as members are not to be static and remain only in place. We need to move around to evangelize the world.
Jesus expresses His willingness to cure the leper. This poor man got our Lord to cure him by introducing his petition saying that He could cure him if He wanted to. That way seems to get Jesus to cure Him. His was an act of faith in that Jesus could cure him if He wanted to.
Jesus explains to us today that to enter Heaven, we need to do God's Will. To know God's Will, we need to communicate with Him. This communication involves reading and studying His Letters to us in Sacred Scriptures. We need to discern His desires. We will fail in that if we do not pray, spend time with Him, and use our reason and other faculties in finding out what He wants. Wisdom is attained when we act on His Will. Otherwise, Jesus compares us to a man who builds his house on sand. That house will fall eventually. Our Christian life would only be like the life conducted by some Jews who Our dear Lord called as hypocrites.
Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Josemaria Escriva, Founder of Opus Dei. During his canonization mass, St. Pope John Paul II referred to him as the saint of the ordinary. The gospel for the feast tells us about the miraculous catch of fish, where Jesus tells Simon Peter, and all of us, not to be afraid of Him because of our sinfulness. He will count on us to establish and spread the Church He was setting up. We live the Church in the ordinary life we all lead, through our work and life of fulfilling all our duties, made holy by God' action and our free collaboration.
Our Lord Jesus winds down His monumental Sermon on the Mount with shorter teachings, but no less important ones. First, He commands us not to be wasteful of His Things, like the graces He gives us. We would have to answer for each grace He gifts us with. Then, the Golden Rule is given. This not at all unique to Christ. Other cultures also follow this principle, although they express it in the negative form. Jesus enunciates it in the positive form. In this way, He tells us to be creative in doing good to the others. In the negative way, one only avoids what is bad. Lastly, Jesus describes the path to Heaven as passing through a narrow gate, indicating its difficulty.
We celebrate the Birth of St. John the Baptist today. His significance stems from his role in Salvation history. He was assigned to prepare for the arrival of the Savior.
Our Lord asked His Apostles why they were frightened when He was there with them, only sleeping at the stern of the boat they were on to transit to the other side of the Lake of Galilee. An unforeseen gale began to blow, pushing up the waves so much that their boat was almost swamped. They feared for their lives that they woke Jesus up to plead for their safety. The Lord criticized them for their little faith. Then, He commanded wind and sea to calm down, and they went peaceful again. They were so awestruck by His power. They realized they need to trust in Him more.
Worrying is part and parcel of daily living. That stems from our certain attachments to certain creatures like comfort, wealth, making an impression in the others, etc. As Jesus says in the Gospel today, we cannot serve two masters, i.e., a creature and God. He encourages us to follow God by trusting Him instead. He values us so much that He will not let something bad happen to us. But as St. Thomas More said to his daughter Margaret, even if it looks bad, he would still trust God because whatever happens would be the best for us. His head was severed from his torso, and he is a saint!
Jesus challenges us today in the Gospel regarding where we put our treasure. He points out the seriousness of the matter. One's life is lived according to the treasure. If we keep our treasure only in creatures of this world, then you would run into problems, like exposure to rust, thieves, loss, etc. If we store our treasures in matters leading to Heaven, then we would be better off because our treasure would be truly secure.
Jesus addresses today in the Gospel of the Mass the matter of how to pray. He criticized the multiplication of words in some prayers. He wants us to pray simply and to use the Our Father as a guide and preparation to pray for our needs. The Lord's Prayer is that pray. This prepares us for real prayer by going through each petition contained there.
Today, Jesus elucidates on the intentions we may have in doing our good deeds. He reminds us that we should not want to simply attract men's notice. We need to rectify our intentions constantly so that we keep our intentions upright. That means we do things, so God sees us. Our dear Lord encourages us to offer our deeds to God, and not to garner men's attention. Naturally, our good deeds will attract their attention and they would recognize our good actions. But this ought not to be the main purpose for doing them. We should not promote ourselves. If we do, then we may just receive our earthly reward, and we lose the chance to win our eternal reward.
Our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us we need to go beyond what was practiced before Him, namely, Love your neighbor and hate your enemies. The Divine Lord requires us to love even those we deem unlovable, like our enemies who have hurt us in some way. He reasons with His listeners that His Heavenly Father makes His sun rise and set for everyone, even those who hate Him or do not follow or believe in Him. We should do more than what the Gentiles do in greeting those they like. This means Our Lord reminding us that He wants that divine life initiated in our souls in Baptism to grow and develop. It is a divine life, that is, the very life of God participated in in our souls. Loving our enemies is what God does. That is how He operates, not how our fallen human nature operates. But we have left that 'old man' behind when we followed Christ. It is His Life we want to live. Thus, we have to love everyone, even our enemies and those who prove to be unlovable.
Jesus points out today in the Gospel that this principal enunciated in the title was development of Jewish law or the Mosaic Law. However, Jesus perfects it by saying that we should not even think about getting back at our opponents. We should expose our other cheek if he hits us on the other. This means that we need to forgive our offenders. The violence has to end in us. We should not spread the violence to others, beginning with the one who is our aggressor. This does not mean that Our Lord wants us to be like sitting ducks. We can defend ourselves, and we should fight back following justice and self-defense. However, in situations where we cannot achieve that, we need to learn to forgive the others and not spread the harm. We need to imitate Jesus during His Passion and Death on the Cross. He absorbed all of the cruelty of His enemies.
Jesus illustrates to us through parables what the Kingdom of God is like. He uses today the images of seeds, plants, sowing and harvesting. He underscores the phenomenon of how these seeds grow and mature for the harvest. We do not know how it develops, but the seed does grow. And that is an image of the Kingdom of God growing in us and through us. We receive the seed first in Baptism and then in subsequent sacraments. How it grows we don't know how, but it is there growing and maturing. What we only have to do is not to pose obstacles to its growth. Returning to the analogy of Jesus, the farmer takes care of the growth of the seed and the plant. We, too, need to take care of the life of Jesus growing in us but defending it, nourishing it and taking care of it. Thus, when harvest time comes, we would find ourselves in the Kingdom of God!
The Lord emphasizes simplicity in speech. We fall for egoism and primacy of selfishness when we lie and complicate our speech. Truthfulness is the best to follow. Making oaths need not be necessary just to assure the others that we are telling the truth and that one will fulfill his commitment. Ordinarily, what needs to be done is to say things simply and truthfully. Yes if we want to say Yes, and No if we want to say No.
Today's Gospel sends to listen to Jesus Christ who on His own authority as Creator and, therefore, as Supreme Lawgiver, teaches that it is enough to look at a woman lustfully to commit adultery with her. So, God's prohibition against the action of a spouse to engage in sexual intercourse with someone not his or her spouse, also includes "lesser" decisions in a person like looking, imagining, desiring, and remembering such sins. Jesus also corrects Moses' relaxation of this commandment by permitting a certain kind of divorce. He affirms what was from the beginning. One who divorces and remarries, another person commits adultery.
The good Lord explains to us today in the Gospel of the Mass that we need to address the waywardness of our passion called Anger. It should be the right kind of anger. Anger is one of the emotions God has given us. It is a certain vehemence of our strength in battling evil, i.e., evil that we ascertain to be conquerable. However, we cannot give it vent just like that. To be virtuous, it needs to be modulated and moderated by reason, and for Christians, by reason enlightened by faith. This latter means that we should hold Jesus Christ as our model and imitate Him in His Anger.
The Church sets up the life of St. Barnabas for our contemplation today. We can learn from him a lot, especially how he disagreed with the Apostle of the Gentiles and set off in separate journeys on the matter of St. Mark accompanying them.
The sense Jesus gives us about the Law and the Prophets is that these latter were incomplete. Jesus came to complete them, i.e., to perfect them. Thus, He follows the Law of Moses but as the Messiah, He adds to them. For example, with the law against adultery, He underlines the significance of the thoughts and desires against chastity. He explains that even when a man looks at a woman with lust, he already has committed adultery in his heart. We all remember that many Israelites just paid lip service to the Law. They remained only in the motions of obeying the commandments, but interiorly, they did not even care. Our Lord called them out on this.
Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Barnabas, Apostle. Our dear Jesus expounds in the sermon on the mount after mentioning the Beatitudes that we are salt and light. Those are two realities that are well known by the Israelites. Our Lord benefits from them to teach that we are to exhibit the qualities of these realities. As salt, we need to give off flavor to our surroundings. That would mean that we cannot simply be unrecognizable in the crowd because we always adopt what people say and claim. What if they push an agenda that is anti-human and anti-moral? A follower of Christ would need to give witness to the truth that Jesus taught. Then, His followers need to be light. As light, Christians need to help the other know the truth so that they are guided properly through life to reach salvation. There are many errors and fallacies abounding in the world that people exposed to the media and so many hucksters of worldliness are sitting ducks. They are misled by falsehoods disguised as the truth. Then, our role is to help people reach and appreciate the truth.
We read today the Beatitudes according to St. Matthew. They are the new commandments of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. We need to learn to live them by depending on God's grace. We can narrow down to the beatitude that says "Happy the Gentle: they shall have the earth for their heritage." We all need to learn to be gentle. Furthermore, we are often tempted to be rough and violent. Impatience is something very proper of paganism, especially today, when most equate goodness with speed and quickness.
We can be His mother, His brother, or His sister as long as we do His Will! It is as simple as that. The Jews were so full of themselves as members of the Chosen People. They believed they did not have to have any interior conversion. It sufficed to have external actions. What was visible was enough. No need really for inner changes. Such internal changes were what God wanted. They were distancing themselves from God by such superficiality. So, Jesus made it a point to consider in the last paragraph of the Gospel today that they needed to have the conversion of doing God's Will.
After celebrating the Sacred Heart of Jesus yesterday, the Church praises God today for the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Her Heart is immaculate because it is without stain of sin. She is immaculate because her heart gravitates around God. She looks for Him constantly, just like when she and Joseph searched for Him anxiously for three days when the Child remained in Jerusalem without informing His parents. She kept the reply of Our Lord Jesus in her heart pondering on them. She prayed about them. She learned from them. Her heart was immaculate because she insists in finding God in each situation.
God has a Heart! With Jesus Christ, we appreciate God's Heart that loves all of us. He proved the extent of His love when He died on the Cross. After the soldier pierced His side with a lance, out came blood and water. There was nothing more Jesus could give us. He gave us everything, and He paid with the ultimate price with His life. How do we correspond to His love? We need to love Him in return!
It is so moving to see a marathon runner never giving up in making it to the finish line. He gives this endeavor everything he has. This could be a fine image of how our love for God should be. Today, the Gospel tells us so much, i.e., love God with all our heart, all our understanding, and all our strength. Do we? It is curious, but we might show more dedication to a creature than we do to God. Jesus also adds that we should love our neighbor as we love ourselves. This love is the acid test to check whether we truly love God so much. Another revelation in the Gospel is that this way of loving God is more important than any holocaust or sacrifice. Think about that!
Our tendency is to put obstacles to His Will, to our getting to know His Will and to us accomplishing His Will. The Gospel today gives us an idea how Jesus handled the Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. They pose to him an example of 7 brothers who marry the same woman, one after the other. Each one dies without leaving any child. By the Law of Moses those brothers are obliged to marry that woman and try to raise children with her. However, each dies before a child is conceived and last of all the woman dies. In the resurrection, whose wife will she be? Such a case is presented to Our Lord to disprove the possibility of the resurrection of the dead. This is an example of how we put up obstacles to believing in God, pure and simple. Let us avoid this behavior.
Roman emperors were seen as divinities during the Roman times. They printed their faces on coins. So, in reply to whether he was for paying taxes to the Romans or not, Jesus asked to see denarius coin. He asks whose inscriptions and head appear on the coin. “Caesar's” Jesus tells them, “Give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God." He succeeded in getting Himself out of the trap His questioners prepared to catch Him in. So, we need to check ourselves how we give to God what is His. This means absolutely everything. What we can ever own is still His because He created them, and He keeps them in existence. They are His. Hence, Jesus condemns selfishness and covetousness.
The Lord used parables to preach and teach His listeners. He employed stories to help in understanding certain concepts and practice of virtues. The ones listening could see themselves in these narratives, and thus they could learn more about themselves. When His enemies wanted to arrest Jesus, they plainly were guilty of being someone in the parable who wanted to murder the heir of the owner's vineyard and appropriate it to himself and his gang. But, instead of accepting this realization, they reacted against it and looked at Jesus as the culprit or the one at fault. He was only narrating a story. Their bad dispositions came to the surface. Isn't checking our attitudes helpful in becoming aware of our recklessness, pettiness, superficiality, and the evil in our hearts. Only with this awareness can the process of rectifying it be undertaken.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night before He was to be crucified, instituted the Holy Eucharist. He commanded us to do this in memory of Him. This is how we remember Him. The words of consecration are uttered by the priest in Holy Mass and the miracle of the Transubstantiation occurs, i.e., the bread and wine are converted to the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. He wants us to eat His Body and drink His Blood, as nourishment. Thus, the salvation that He accomplished on Calvary is made available throughout history, availing every one of it. We need to praise God for this. We need to show our appreciation for this by attending Mass and receiving Holy Communion worthily.
The religious authorities in the Temple of Jerusalem confront Jesus and demand from Him the authorization He has for preaching and teaching the people. They did not like this outsider. Anyhow, Jesus tries to help them face themselves by asking them first whether the baptism that St. John the Baptist had with the people was from heaven or only man-made. They did not think properly. Instead of reasoning out properly from the evidence at hand, they thought only like this. If we say it was from Heaven, then they could be asked by Jesus regarding the reason they did not believe him. If, on the other hand, they say it was only a product of man, then they feared being stoned by the people because everyone thought John's baptism originated from God. So they tell Jesus they did not know where John's baptism came from. Jesus told them that neither would He tell them where His authorization comes from.
The Gospel narrates to us what happened when Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth. We are given words inspired by the Holy Spirit. First, we have the second part of the first part of the Hail Mary we usually recite. Then, we have the awesome prayer of Mary called the Magnificat. Here, we should appreciate Mary's humility.
The Gospel today tells us about Bartimaeus, the blind man, who shouted asking for God's mercy from Jesus who was passing by. He persisted in calling out His Name and asking for His Mercy. Although the people surrounding him tried to hush him, he cried all the louder. Jesus was observing him, although He feigned not hearing him the first time he called him out. Finally, He asked for Bartimaeus to come to Him. He asked Jesus to give him his sight. Our Lord granted him that miracle by saying that his faith saved him. His faith could be seen in his behavior. He persisted in prayer. He left behind his cloak as he sprang up to approach our dear Savior. And he asked with faith. Let us imitate the faith of Bartimaeus.
We have in the Gospel today the reply James and John gave to Jesus when He asked them whether they will be able to drink the cup that He was to drink. They said "We can!" Contained in that reply is a lot of faith in God's help and grace. The cup Jesus referred to was His Passion and Death. So, instead of backing down, these apostles made an act of faith by saying they could drink that cup too. Jesus asked them about this matter because they had asked to be seated, each of them, at either side of His throne in His Kingdom. They were asking a lot and Our Lord revealed to them what was required. Instead of backing off, they said "We can"! We should imitate them in making this act of faith.
St. Peter posed this question to Our dear Lord Jesus after He had expressed to them the great difficulty so-called rich people will have in entering Heaven. We know that He referred to those who were attached to their things--from material wealth to their opinions and so forth--and were not willing to let go of them. Our Lord assured Peter and the rest of His followers--you and I--that He will give in this life the hundredfold and later, life everlasting. Not a bad deal, right?
A rich man received this invitation from Jesus. But he turned it down. Apparently, he preferred his great wealth to the adventure God had in mind for him. This adventure would truly be extraordinary because it was one with Jesus Christ Himself, no less than the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity made flesh. So, he went away sad. If we are so desirous of being eternally happy, we should be ready to give up anything and everything to have Jesus and His promises in exchange.
We celebrate today the highest mystery of our Catholic Faith, i.e., The Most Blessed Trinity. Our daily life as Catholics is dotted with different expressions of piety and reverence to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Since there are three Persons, we need to deal with each of them. With the Father, as His children; with the Son, as our model; and the Holy Spirit as our Guide and sanctifier.
We read today the revelation of two principles of Christianity, namely, the need to deal with all people observing their dignity as persons and as children of God, and that we need to become childlike to enter Heaven. First, we have to learn not to discriminate against anybody. We have to respect them for what they are in essence. They are children of God, or to put it another way, God gave up His Son to die on the Cross for every one of us human beings. This means that each of us is worth the Blood of Christ. Second, Jesus tells us our obligation to become like children to be worthy of Heaven. To be childlike is to be dependent on our parents, just as we need to be dependent on God our Father in Heaven: obligation to pray, abandon and trust in Him, etc.
Jesus speaks about the indissolubility of marriage. Divorce and remarrying is adultery, even when there are good reasons for remarrying like one becoming young again with the new partner, or one believes in love again with the new partner, or whatever may be crafted as a justification for the next union. This divorcing and remarrying is contrary to the union God wants for Himself by nature and for His creatures of free will. Sin is the contrary of union between God and man. The devil's way is to dissolve and destroy such union with God and man with the others by getting them to commit some sin.
Today, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ the Eternal High Priest. He is the Priest because He sacrificed Himself in Calvary for our salvation and in obedience to His Father. In the Old Testament, priests sacrificed something to God. In the New Order, Jesus is both the Priest and the Victim, the one who offers sacrifice and the one who is offered in sacrifice. The Priest and the Victim are the same. Since we endeavor to imitate Christ as Priest we need to get used to adopting the attitude of having ourselves sacrificed for God's glory. In being faithful to our duties of state, we need to sacrifice ourselves always so that the others may live and have the advantage. This happens in the spirit of service of parents to raise their babies. Teacher efface themselves so that their students learn and reach higher heights than their teachers have achieved.
Our Lord Jesus Christ replied this way in the title to the protest of John about wanting to stop someone who was casting out devils in Jesus' Name, but was not among Jesus' close followers. Any such person who works a miracle realistically could not speak evil of Jesus. We tend to create imaginary enemies. We need to be inclusive and open to others when they also serve God and His Church, even if they are not of our company.
The Gospel of today tells us several things. First, Jesus spent more time, effort, and resources in training those who would speak and preach in His Name. How can we be good instruments of God's Word if we do not train ourselves more deeply. Then, Jesus reveals His coming Passion, Death and Resurrection. This is very much part of Jesus' life. Hence, we should not be shocked by the presence of the Cross everyday. If our lives as Christians takes it pattern from the ebb and flow of the various mysteries of the Rosary, we should observe the presence of the Sorrowful Mysteries. Then, we have the embarrassing discussion of Jesus' disciples about who among them was the greatest. Jesus put them in their place by underlining the importance of our calling as Christians to be of service to our brethren. The idea is not to aspire for power and authority but to desire power and authority in terms of being of more service to the others.
The Church that Jesus founded was born yesterday Pentecost Sunday. But the Church as the Bride of Christ was born when Jesus died on the cross. To make sure Jesus had died, a soldier pierced his side with a lance. He withdrew that lance and out came blood and water. These two came to symbolize the two great sacraments that build the Church, namely, Baptism and the Holy Eucharist because of the water and blood, respectively. Mary is the Mother of the Church parallel to her being the Mother of Jesus. The Church is the mystical body of Christ.
Pentecost means 50. In other words, fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus, the Holy Spirit descended upon the group of His followers in a bigger room adjacent to the cenacle they used for the Last Supper of Our Lord. As the scriptures narrate, the Holy Spirit descended on them under the appearance of tongues of fire. There was an antecedent strong wind that shook the dwelling. And they began to speak in tongues. Speaking in tongues meant that the listeners heard what they said in their native tongue. In Jerusalem, there were many pilgrims to celebrate the feast of the tabernacles and they hailed from all parts of the Roman empire. Hence, it was truly miraculous that these prosaic folks were understood in their native languages. Today, the Church celebrates her official birthday. She opened her doors for business, the business of getting to Heaven. So, they began to preach and administer the sacrament of Baptism. About three thousand joined the Church that day!
Jesus is asked by Peter about what would happen to John, the youngest of the Apostles. Jesus had prophesied how Peter would die. Jesus tells Peter that he need not be concern about the future of John. He emphasized that Peter should simply follow Him. This shows us how we need to look at ourselves in front of God. We have been created as unique human beings. This means that there was never been someone like us since Adam and Eve. No one is like us today and never will there ever be another like us. Each of us is so unique in that way. Hence, there is no need for envy. God will demand from each of us an accounting of our deeds on earth when we die according to the unique circumstances of each one. It is unthinkable for God to be unjust.
Jesus asks St. Peter whether he loved Him more than the others did. He replies in the affirmative. Jesus repeats this questions two more times, saddening Peter because He asked him this for the third time. While Peter always replies in the affirmative, Jesus tells Him to take care of His sheep since he was going to be occupying a governing position in the Church. This is what we need to do to prove our love for Jesus. We should take care of the souls who depend on us in any way.
Jesus stresses the point of unity in His prayer to His Father. In fact, He assigns it so much importance that it signifies that the one possessing it is from God. Without it or lack of it would be a sure sign that God is not behind us wherever we may be. People need not believe us because we simply are at loggerheads with others in our church.
Today's Gospel tells us about Jesus' prayer to His Father that we all be one, as He and His Father are one. Unity is an essential attribute of God. There is only One God. Also, in God there is only one Divine Nature. There are three Persons in one God. Three Persons, not three gods. There can only be one God or one Divine Nature. Jesus prayed that we all be one as they are one. This means we need to be united to God and united among ourselves. Only the one who opts to go against God and His Will, will introduce disunity with God and therefore, disunity among ourselves. Some claim that the truths of religion provide reason for people to fight each other. There is nothing farther from the truth in this. Religious truth does not repel others from one another. There needs to be another element that entered the picture that introduces this violence and disunity, like pride in being religious and there is a lot of condescension on the others who are not.
Tossing lots was a Jewish custom. A fortuitous event was believed to show God's Will, as long as there was no manipulation by man. St. Matthias became an apostle because the lot fell on him. It was not because he was better than anyone one else. This way of determining God's will simply humbles us when we receive an office like Matthias. It is not because we are better than anyone else that we got the position.
This valley of tears that we all need to traverse is part of God's plan. The discomforts here should help us aspire for the definitive life in Heaven, where there is all perfection with God. There will be no more need for creatures to satisfy us. Heaven will satiate us without any cloying.
Several things should come to mind when we recall her apparitions to three shepherd children.
There is God.
God is offended by man's sins.
We need to do penance, a lot of penance.
God's victory in the end is assured.
We cannot shirk from the responsibility of obeying the Lord's last words on earth prior to ascending to Heaven. Go out to the whole world. We find ourselves set up by the Lord in our positions and roles in society. Ask yourselves how we have preached the Good News.
We can do this by practicing the Lord's other commandments, especially that of the New Commandment, namely, Love one another as I have loved you. We should practice this with those around us. That means spirit of service with everyone, absolutely everyone, even with those we have a difficult time with.
The name we need to use to get what we ask for is the Name of Jesus Himself. But this name-dropping assumes we have a relationship with Him. Thus, we need to evaluate how our relationship is with Him. In fact, this is the real reply to all our petitions and prayers, namely, Jesus Christ. Nothing trumps Him as the fruit of our prayers. Having this relationship with Him is the bottom line in our existence. Without this relationship with Him, we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Hope is the theological virtue we all absolutely need to get to Heaven. This world is only a leg of our trip. We have all these difficulties here, even with joy because we hope in seeing Jesus in the end. We need to shore up our hope in Heaven.
According to the Gospel today, Jesus forewarns His followers of His coming departure. He encourages them despite the loss because they would see each other again anyway. Temporary inconveniences should not mar our cheerfulness in our trip to Heaven. If we keep our hopes in Heaven alive, we can still be joyful there on earth because of the hope we have in Heaven.
More on the Holy Spirit! He will move us to love the truth. He will spur us to be united with God. It is proper of love to be united to the beloved, while what is characteristic of knowledge is that we bring the known object to our minds. We reduce it to fit in our minds in an intentional manner. The Holy Spirit will foster in us to seek to be united to the Truth, Who is the Son of God and the Word.
Losing things we value always gets us thinking about the situations. We will miss those important items, and we are moved to re-evaluate ourselves. Losing Jesus apparently is what Jesus lays down as a condition for the sending of the Paraclete. He will convict us of sin and judgement.
This is how our lives as Christians is to be described. The Gospel today tells us so much about it. We need to be loyal, hardworking, honest, charitable to those it is difficult to love, be diligent when everybody wants to waste time and so forth. It is much easier to do evil. We only need to succumb to the temptations. It is much simpler to destroy than to build. But there it is! The consequences of destroying in horrible and perhaps very expensive. But to build, this is our task as Christians. Karl Marx said that religion is the opium of the people. His characterization of Christianity is unfair. Someone challenged Marx--to bad Marx was already dead at this point--to live as a good Christian for one day and then he will see that Christianity is no drug of the people to put them to hallucinate or render them intoxicated.
The Gospel for the Sixth Sunday of Easter tells us about Jesus' invitation to remain in His Love by following His Commandments, just as He remains in His Father's Love by following His Commandments. His Father wanted Him to die on the Cross to save mankind from sin and death. The acid test of whether we truly love God whom we don't see--it is so easy to claim we love Him--is by checking on how we love the others. Loving the others is crucial because God loves them too. He died for all of us. How is our struggle to love the others?
The Lord forewarns us of what we will face if we are truly followers of His. Persecutions! If we become worldly, then we would not expect these attacks on religion and on the Catholic Faith. What Our Lord taught us in the Beatitudes, for example, sets us in collision course with the values of worldliness and evil. Hence, our sufferings are compounded together with the given difficulties of ordinary life itself. This sad and frustrating state of affairs here in earth should not discourage us. Our hope is enlivened to look forward to that day when we go to see God face to face, for eternity!
Jesus taught more than in the manner of Moses. He taught with personal authority. He did not cite any other authority to back up his teachings and claims. The other teachers of Israel taught quoting scriptures or venerable rabbis or traditions. But Jesus had an authority totally unheard of in the land. He spoke with personal, first-person singular, authority. He had no need of any backing. On top of that, He spoke with total integrity of life. People could see that He first lived what He taught and only then would He teach the people. He declared He was the Way, the Truth and the Life. There was no need to look for another for the truth or the life. No need to go elsewhere. He was the total package.
Since He is Love, He cannot but love us. We do not need to do anything to deserve His love for us. He simply loves us. We are able to love the others when we have been loved first by God. We love God in return by following His Commandments. His Commandments are a gift to us. This gift is a guide for us to blossom as human beings. When a trainer trains his dog to do certain tricks and the dog does them well, the trainer is happy. Something like that is what happens between God and us. We please Him when we follow His instructions.
The Church presents again for our reading and contemplation the allegory of the vine and the branches. We underscore the statement of Jesus that without Him or without being connected to Him as a branch is to its vine, we can do absolutely nothing. Hence, we should appreciate the importance of maintaining heroically our prayer life, which is the same as maintaining a relationship with Him. This is the universal reply He makes to any of our petitions. He affords us a relationship with Him. This is extraordinary!
Jesus tells His followers that He pray for peace for them. This is a peace that the world cannot give. The peace it offers is so shallow and temporary. God's peace is not simply the absence of war. It is deep and life-changing. It makes one confident, secure, ready to die, generous and very happy.
We celebrate today a great saint in the Church. In fact, we recall St. Catherine of Siena who was declared by St. Pope Paul VI in 1970 a Doctor of the Church. Only a few women enjoy this distinction in the Catholic Church. We admire her for her availability to the purposes of the Lord in the politics and state matters of 14th century. The Gospel reveals to us two revelations: Our love for God is measured by how much we adhere to His Commandments; The Advocate or the Holy Spirit will be sent by the Father.
The Gospel of the Fifth Sunday of Easter presents us with the teaching of Jesus regarding Him as the Vine while we are the branches. We are connected to the Vine. A vine is alive with life-giving sap flowing through the branches. We are alive with God's life in us. Cut the branch off and it withers. The allegory includes the Father as the vinedresser Who cares for the Vine. If a branch does not bear fruit, it is useless and cut off. For a branch that bears fruit, the Vinedresser prunes it so that it bears more fruit. We can only be alive with the Life of God in us if we remain in touch with the Vine. For us to become more productive of fruit, we are subjected by God to suffering and pain so that we can grow more fruit. So, let us maintain contact with Jesus to continue to live in Him via prayer life. We can also expect God to send us difficulties so that we can grow in our faith.
To go to Heaven, it is not enough to simply do good. We also need to follow what He taught us. All of what He taught us. Just believing a part only, only shows we do not believe that He is divine. The Gospel also reveals to us that He is the Son and therefore He has a Father. Both are one! This means that they are of one substance. The Son is the Word according to St. John's gospel's prologue. The Word is Logos in Greek. Logos means concept or idea. We can form an idea of ourselves. God looking at Himself, then forms an Idea of Himself. Such Self-concept is so perfect that such Logos would also be as divine as the One who has an Idea of Himself. In the process of knowing, we constitute an idea of what we know. We become one with what we know in an intentional manner. Intentional here means we do not actually become the object we know but only in a conceptual manner.
Jesus asks His apostles not to be troubled. This is the trouble that brings us away from God. Jesus was troubled, especially in the Garden of Gethsemane during the Agony in the Garden. Mary, His Immaculate Mother, was troubled at the celestial greeting of the Archangel Gabriel during the Annunciation. If our troubles bring us to God, then such troubles are fortunate. If our troubles bring us away from God, then we are at fault. lt is worthwhile to handle our troubles adequately by trusting Him and His arrangements of things for us.
With St. Mark's feast day today, we may learn about interpreting the holy scriptures. First off, we need to understand the place of scriptures have in our faith. Having sola scriptura of the Protestant reformation of the 16th century cannot be accepted because the bible did not fall on our laps from nowhere. It was the Church who gathered the different books and put them together according to the Canon. The Canon referred to the official list of divinely inspired books. What determines this is not Sacred Scriptures alone. This last does not account for itself. It is the living teaching authority of the Church, as mandated by Jesus Himself. He said that they go out and preach. He did not say that they write down things. There was a time for the writing, but only in the context of Sacred Tradition, that is, the transmission of the faith by word of mouth.
The Gospel today tells us Jesus explaining that all who listen to Him is actually listening to the One Who sent Him. Jesus is God in the Flesh. He explained to Philip that He and the Father are one. The unity between the two Persons--God the Son and God the Father--is absolute. It is the strongest union possible in reality. They are identical as God. The only thing that distinguishes them is the relation between them. The Father cannot be the Son and vice versa. The relationship of Filiation and Paternity, or the Son to the Father, and the Father to the Son, respectively, are opposites. We need to get used to kind of vision. Behind the Son is the Father. How can there be the Son if there is no Father? We see beyond what the senses tell us. This is a supernatural vision or outlook. This kind of of seeing is proper of Faith.
Jesus had established His being the Good Shepherd because He laid down His life for His sheep. Added to that is that He is one with the Father. That means that He is as God as the Father is God.
The Gospel today provides us with more characteristics of the Good Shepherd. He enters the sheepfold through the gate and gatekeeper. Others who enter through other ways are thieves. He is up to no good. He is a threat to the sheep. The Good Shepherd goes ahead of His sheep as He leads them to pasture. He foresees problems, that the sheep may face and leads them to safety. He calls out the enemy to warn him. He has the best in mind for His sheep.
Our Lord Jesus Christ tells us today in the Gospel of the fourth Sunday of Easter that He is the Good Shepherd. He immediately defines what the Good Shepherd does. He lays down His life for His sheep. We need such a shepherd since we are limited in knowledge and virtue. We need to learn from those who can guide us. This trip to Heaven is full of strange paths, unknown bends, turns, and so forth. The one who can guide us must be the one who has gone there and has been there. Jesus is God who became Man. He comes from Heaven. He knows the way.
Today, the issue of Jesus giving His Flesh as Food to eat and His Blood to be taken as a drink comes to a head. Jesus does not adjust or modify His daring teaching and requirement to go to Heaven. He lets those who thought that way leave Him. He asked His apostles too whether they'd want to forsake Him as well. Together with Peter, we need to respond, “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” What we cannot do is pick and choose how we will follow Our Lord's teachings. It is either we accept everything He teaches and try to follow them and ask for help or pardon when we fail in them, or we leave Him. Believing Him only in some things is the same as not believing Him in anything He teaches.
The Gospel today continues with Our Lord Jesus Christ revealing more about His earth-shaking teaching about His Flesh and Blood being eaten and drunk, respectively. They need to be received to reach eternal life. He is categorical about it. There is no way around it. It is by faith that we arrive at accepting this astounding doctrine of Our Lord's Flesh and Blood being taken.
Today, we read in the Gospel the role of God in the act of faith. These past days we saw the importance of external signs as motives of credibility, like the miraculous multiplication of bread and fish, and walking on the sea. God also works on us from the inside. Through His grace, God moves us, respecting our freedom, of course, to give the assent and agreement of our intellect and our will, respectively, in believing whatever God reveals. All this hinges on the authority of God, who can neither deceive nor be deceived. Hence, we need to believe Him and His revelation.
Our Lord continues today in the Gospel of the Mass to elucidate on the bread of life that will satisfy us. There will be no more need to eat more. But to eat this bread of life, one must first believe in the Lord Jesus from Heaven. This Jesus is the one who died and was resurrected. He obeyed His Father's Will. We should do the same! And we would also be raised from death!
We read today about the way God teaches us about this sacrament. He is patient and slow. He goes step by step, being reasonable with us. Asked what work they should perform to do the works of God, He responds saying that they should believe in Him. We can believe in Him because He can give us the bread of life, like God gave them the manna from Heaven to feed them on the way to the promised land.
Last week, we read about the first part of the Gospel according to St. John, Chapter 6. This is the famous chapter that reveals the intention of Jesus to institute the Holy Eucharist, the center and summit of all Christian Life and Life in the Church. To prepare the people for this announcement on the Eucharist, Our Lord Jesus Christ underscored His divine authority by performing amazing miracles like the multiplication of bread and fish for more than five thousand individuals. Then, He walked on the sea. The Gospel today provides the next step in this process of preparation. It is the crucial step of believing in Jesus Christ.
Today, Third Sunday of Easter, we have three readings in the mass for the day. They all encourage us to repent and turn to the Lord. This message is directed to all sinners, you and I. Hence, we are encouraged to repent frequently and return to the Lord. In this way, we turn to the Lord frequently each day. What a wonderful devotion it is to make many acts of contrition!
I remember listening briefly to a preacher of one of the denominations of religion who declared that Jesus is not God because He died. I could not believe my ears. Of course, He died in so far as He is human. But since it was the second Person of the Blessed Trinity who assumed human nature, He continued to be divine also. Now, we have the mystery of the Hypostatic Union. There is one divine Person who is divine and starts to be human when the Incarnation happened. He needed to be human in order to die and to pay the price of our sins. The Gospel today underscores His divinity in walking over water approaching the boat of His disciples.
Any instrument compared with the results accomplished by the author or main actor is always disproportionally small. A pen is nothing and can do nothing unless it is found in the hands of an author or writer. But in their hands, that pen will be able to compose symphonies, masterpieces in literature, etc. The meager food the Apostles had was not a problem at all for Jesus. He converted the five loaves of bread and two fish into a great amount to feed more than five thousand men, without counting women and children. Hence, we need to let ourselves be employable by God, to be useful to God and so forth so that real wonders could be wrought by God today.
The Gospel today tells us about the value of truth. It is by itself and it stands by itself. There are movements from some quarters of the world that want to manipulate the truth to deceive people. In ancient times, the truth was manipulated by those with power, money, influence, etc. The truth in itself was without value. The truth is simply what you wanted it to be. This tragedy is being repeated nowadays. And these fellows seem to be getting away with it. But the Gospel is clear. The truth is that Jesus Christ is God. He who does not accept this truth is already condemned.
Today, we read the continuation of the meeting between Jesus and Nicodemus. Our Lord speaks about being born again via Baptism by water and the Spirit. But our Protestant brethren underscore the importance of accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior to be saved. Our Lord never said anything like that. So, we need to read the Bible with the discernment of God's word as a unity. What Jesus says in Matthew should agree with what He is said to have said in the rest of the Holy Bible. We should not simply get a statement in one part and forget about what is said in another part that would disagree with that former one.
I have many times heard of having to be reborn to be saved. My protestant friends from university brought this up many times. That happens in a way that sounded so strange to me, although it also sounded somewhat right. You only need to accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. But the Gospel of today's mass does not say anything about that. We need to be baptized by water and the Spirit. And so, we need to ask questions about our faith.
Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord. This was the first open date where this feast could be moved. This solemnity is usually celebrated 9 months before December 25. That would be March 25. However, it was impeded because it fell on Holy Week, whose liturgy is much more important for celebration. So, it was transferred to today. We recall especially the reply of Mary to the plan of God, as revealed to her by the Archangel Gabriel. She agreed to the role God wanted her to take. Thus, Jesus took up flesh. His death on the cross would not have been possible had He not assumed human nature. The Incarnation would not have happened if Mary did not follow the Lord's proposal. There would be no redemption, as we know it.
Our Lord appears again to His apostles. Now, St. Thomas, also known as the Doubting Thomas, was with them. They had shared with him that the risen Lord had appeared to them the previous Sunday. But he demanded that before believing in the Resurrection, he check the holes left by the nails on His hands and feet. He required verification by inserting his hand into the Lord's open side. Our Lord greeted them, saying, “Peace be with you.” He went for Thomas and invited him to check Him out. He exclaimed, "My Lord and my God!" Our Lord upbraided them for their unbelief. He praised those who have not seen and yet believe. But the Lord was merciful. He bid them peace!
Our Lord met with His disciples. He reproached them for not believing the ones who had seen Him risen. This is a crucial stage in the transmission of the faith. I received my faith from God through my parents and religious teachers in school. They taught me about the tenets of the Catholic faith. This happened when they told me that the Lord rose from the dead. I believed them. I never thought that they would fool or deceive me. I trusted them entirely. They transmitted the faith without telling me or showing me anything close to a doubting attitude or a weak practice of having faith in this and the rest of the truths of the Faith.
Today, we read about the second miraculous catch of fish. This instance had different circumstances from the previous miraculous catch of fish. There are fewer people now. The number of fish is identified by the gospel. 153 large fish! The risen Lord invites them to breakfast when they arrive at shore. No one dares to ask Him who He was. They know He was the same Jesus Christ, their dear Friend who was crucified. They would be a bit cautious because they abandoned Him when He entered His Passion and Death, although they had promised to die with Him. But the Lord did not mention anything about it. The important thing is that are still His disciples. They have been caught by His net.
When one claims that to go to Heaven it would be enough to be good, he would need to be a bit skeptical about it. The reason is that the good is not easily agreed upon by many. Granting that we unite around what we need to do good, it would still not be enough to make it. We would need to believe certain truths of Faith that Jesus Christ would want us to lay our lives down for. One of these truths is that about the Resurrection of the Lord. Our Lord continues fortifying the faith of His followers by appearing to them and designating them as witnesses of His Resurrection. His Resurrection involved His Body as well. The risen Christ insisted that they see Him as a resurrected body and soul. He was not just an embodied soul. He was genuinely body and soul, in one Person, Jesus Christ. Hence, He asks His disciples for something to eat and He eats the fish in front of them all. Our resurrection will also include our bodies.
Today, we read about the meeting of two disciples on their way to Emmaus with the risen Jesus. He also appeared to be traveling in the same direction as them. He did not let them recognize Him. He joined them. They were dejected and forlorn. Their high hopes in Jesus' ascension to the throne of David His ancestor were dashed to the ground. But He explained to them the Scriptures beginning with the books of the old Testament that the Christ was the fulfillment of the prophecies mentioned there. They were so enraptured by the "lecture" that they invited Him to join them in the inn. During supper they recognized Him as He broke bread. But He vanished instantly. Let us pray to have such experiences of reading the Scriptures and learning them.
Mary of Magdala was weeping inconsolably. An angel asked her for the reason. Jesus asked her too, without her knowing it was Jesus asking. Why are you weeping? She did not know where the Lord's body was. Well and good, right? As in our case, we have different reasons why we are moody, why we are weeping, why we are troubled, etc. Many times it is not because we were looking for Jesus Christ.
With the resurrection of Jesus, the Apostles preached this awesome truth far and wide. With this great miracle of resurrecting, the Church proceeded to sail outwards to teach this and other teachings of Jesus Christ.
Life has conquered death! Jesus resurrects, as He had prophesied. This last miracle proves to be the greatest of them all. He dies and He rises from the dead. He is divine. He is divine! The Church has been proclaiming this truth through the centuries. She brings up this truth to encourage herself, to energize her missionaries and members to go for the goal, namely, eternal life. Death had always been the greatest answer of the Devil to stop the advance of Christians. But now, death itself can be looked in the eye. Death is not a threat anymore. We die? So what? We will rise to eternal life! The closer we are to Jesus in His suffering, the closer we will be to his resurrection!
The Church is very silent today because its Founder has died. Today is a great day to let our contemplative gaze at the Lord's last hours of life on earth. He truly died because the Roman soldiers usually made sure they executed the condemned criminals. The Sabbath was about to fall on them, and they pushed for the crucified persons to be brought down and buried. They broke the legs of the thieves to hasten their deaths. When they came to Jesus, a soldier pierced His side with a lance. Our Lady was the custodian of the Church in those moments.
The Church today contemplates the dead body of Jesus on the Cross. There is silence among us. We almost cannot believe man has done this to Him, who was so good to us, who respected us, loved us, cured us, been patient with us, and so forth. How ungrateful have we been!
The first reading tells us the background of today's feast among the Jews. They celebrated the holy Passover. God had instructed the Israelites to slaughter a lamp with certain characteristics and use the blood to mark their doorposts to tell the avenging angel to preserve the occupants. The Egyptians were struck by that Angel. All first-born of man or beast perished. So, the Lord had His Last Supper where He instituted the Holy Eucharist. Here we have the Blood of the new Lamb of God who thus would be saved and brought to eternal life.
We read in the first reading of the mass of Holy Wednesday liturgy another text about the Suffering Servant from one of the four songs about his Servant. Only from the point of view of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ that this Servant is Jesus Himself. Emphasis is placed on the tongue of the disciple. The disciple learns to listen and to transmit what he learns. He speaks when he needs to and keeps silent when the need of that appears.
We read for the first reading of the Good Friday service about our calling on earth. Each of us is called to imitate Christ--hence, we are called Christians--in dying on the Cross through our circumstances so that we would be with Him in His resurrection.
This law of the universe is universal. We find it in the plots of all our movies stories, or plays. There is a status quo of order and then the plot thickens when there is a disruption of the peaceful status quo. Thus, the tendency is to restore the original state of things. Thus, when one sins, he needs to be responsible to answer for that sin and make amends for it. So, these days of Holy Week, we will witness God paying the price of our sins by offering his Life on the Cross. This does not exempt us from doing our share in paying for sin. Jesus' action is perfect and overpays the price for sin. We need to do our share since we were the ones responsible for them. After Jesus' sacrifice, we need only collaborate with Jesus to get back his image in ourselves. This will not happen if we do not suffer the consequences of our offenses.
The Church introduces us to the Week of the Lord's Passion by celebrating Palm Sunday. It is called this way because of the palms and branches people waved to Our Lord as He made His way to Jerusalem on a donkey. They laid their clothes and other garments on the path of this lowly animal, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel!" Hosanna was meant to be a praise of God. Here the people recognize Him as the Messiah. In fact, etymologically, hosanna is an appeal to God for deliverance. Ironically, however, the same ones who hailed Him that way, then changed their tune in a few days when they screamed that Jesus be crucified.
The reading of today's mass, Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent, tells us of God laying claim of His people in Israel. This membership used to be by blood and circumcision. After the Lord Jesus Christ's redeeming death on the cross, we become part of His Chosen People if we do His Will. We affirm this in the Our Father when we say, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven..."
The first reading of the mass today, Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent, reminds us of the example of Jeremiah. This Old Testament prophet of God complained to God about how he was received by the people of God. Such animosity against him stemmed from his fidelity to God's instructions. Jeremiah prophesied disaster befalling the Israelites if they do not repent. The people did like to be reminded of their sins and their need to repent, otherwise, they would suffer destruction. They hated Jeremiah for this. He complained to God. But he did so with a trusting disposition. He placed his trust in God all the time. Why don't we complain like this?
Jesus is the Messiah promised of old. God had promised Abraham to make his descendants as numerous as stars in the night sky or the grains of sand in the seashore. It is among his descendants that the Messiah will come forth. Jesus Christ is the son of Joseph, who is of the line of David. Just as Jesus is a descendant of David, not by hereditary rules because Joseph was only the putative father of Jesus. Jesus being born of Mary having Joseph as her husband saved the sanctity of Mary and the line of generation from Abraham to Jesus passing through David and Joseph. We should be more aware of our being a descendant of Abraham. We are among the stars of heaven or the sand grains at the seashore.
Yesterday, we celebrated the feast of St. Joseph. He is a model for us Christians, especially his example regarding how he let God use him to accomplish His plans. It is amazing that God who can do things on His own, chooses to need each of us to collaborate with Him to accomplish His purposes.
We take a break today from Lenten penitence and focus on the excellent creature in St. Joseph, the Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We will recite or sing the Gloria in mass in his honor. Rightfully so! He cannot be overemphasized in his crucial role as the protector of the most Blessed Virgin Mary and her Son, Jesus Christ. The first reading in the mass tells us about the promise of God to send a descendant of King David. He had wanted to build for God a Temple. He was told by Nathan, the prophet that, it will be God Himself who will build a House of David, that will never be destroyed and that would last forever. This house is the House of David. Here in this house, the Messiah will be born. The Christ is a descendant of King David. This is the definitive House of David!
We read about the experience of Susanna in the first reading of today's mass on Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent. She was unjustly accused of the grave sin of adultery and infidelity. Two elders had prurient desires for her. They made their move, threatening her, falsely accusing her of having a tryst with a young man. She instead wanted to fall into the complication of being accused falsely. She screamed, and the two men screamed as well, claiming they witnessed her sin. Furthermore, she was condemned to death, but God heard the prayers of those who pitied Susanna. Daniel was roused to protest the unjust sentence. He had the two criminals separated and questioned them individually, and he asked them under what tree they saw the claimed crime. They gave different answer and their false testimony was discovered. The two men ended up being killed. This case contrasts with the case of Jesus Christ, who was also accused falsely. Jesus was condemned, and they succeeded in eliminating Him via a crucifixion. But Jesus' death, even when it was a terrible evil, produced so much good because we were saved from our sins. God is so powerful that with evil from the bad use of human freedom, He is able to get good.
The second reading comes from the Letter to the Hebrews. It contains a description of Jesus having a hard time during the Agony in the Garden. He agonized because it was truly difficult to obey His Father to suffer and die on the Cross the next day. But He obeyed! And thus, we were saved from our sins. This means that we can go to Heaven and enjoy God for eternity. This all means that we need to learn to obey God's Commandments and His Will. Otherwise, we would be like the bad angels who told God that they would not serve Him. Hence, Hell began!
Farmers are familiar with this frequent occurrence. Seeds stop being seeds when they change into seedlings. The sown seed turns into a new plant. Death leads to life. Jesus uses this analogy to explain to His listeners the need to be ready for sacrifice to attain something worthwhile. Athletes sacrifice partying every weekend to train for the Olympic Games and to win a medal. Soldiers undergo difficult training programs to become elite warriors.
We need to practice meekness because Jesus Christ lived meekly. He invited His listeners to learn from Him who was meek and humble of heart. He lived meekness even when He knew that He was going to be killed. Usually what people do is to struggle and do violence to preserve his life. What ones wants to preserve may not be his life but something of great value in his being, like limb. We can also mention daily experiences regarding others who in a manner of speaking threaten us or our comfort and self-satisfied condition. Many times we react with vengefulness, with violence, with curses, etc. Our Lord invited us to be meek. Blessed are the meek, He said.
The first reading brings us a text from the Old Testament book of Wisdom. It is difficult to read because these lines are a prophecy of what the scheming Jews were thinking and going to do with Jesus. At the end of the day, they reason maliciously. They intuit who Jesus is, and that He is divine, but because of envy, they want to test whether Jesus is truly able to be what He claims to be. Because God respects our freedom, He does not thwart their plot to murder the Son of Man.
Due to original sin, man has the sad tendency of treating a creature as God or assigning to it a divine attribute or attributes. This is the malice of the sin of superstition and idolatry. We realize the impossibility of making ourselves divine, and we try to make a creature divine. But this is futile. Let us catch ourselves in the act of superstition or idolatry and repent from it. God will not forsake us. There are many people praying for us!
The Lord left Israel to be razed to the ground after the Israelites proved hard-headed in continuously defying God and His statutes. Although God sent His prophets and teachers, the people proved defiant. So, God let the Babylonians conquer them, and they were exiled to Babylon for a certain time. All this was to teach them a big lesson regarding what happens to them when they depart from God. But He never forgets them.
It pays to aspire to be converted all the time. It is that goal you want to reach. It is the dream you want to achieve. And if you opt to be with Our Lord, or what is the same thing, to be a saint, or to reach Heaven, or to be the happiest that I could ever be, then I need to have many conversions a day. The Founder used to encourage his listeners to live the parable of the prodigal son many times a day. A woman who keeps up checking the mirror of her face and her makeup and dress is a woman who will look the best each day. That is because she realizes her clothes are crumpled and she straightens them up. She realizes there is a mote in her eye and she cleans it up. So on and so forth. We can be holy just by being converted many times each day.
God promises to create a new heaven and new earth in the first reading of today's mass. He recreates what He had created from the beginning. He suffered and died to make us new creatures, i.e., we are now more than human beings. We are children of God. What the devil promised Adam and Eve to become by disobeying God in eating the forbidden fruit, i.e., they would become like gods, would become true but this time via the obedience of one man and God, Jesus Christ. We are now children of God; when we see Him face to face, we would become like Him.
We read in the lessons of the mass of today, the 4th Sunday of Lent or Laetare Sunday, about God's requirements of justice and His persevering mercy. The Israelites we punished by God by letting Israel succumb to Babylon and being reduced to slaves again. But His mercy is amazing in that after the punishment He engineers Israel's return to the Promised land and the Persians reconstructing their temple in Jerusalem. Amazing grace!
Our lives as Christians is characterized by the experiences of Israel with respect to the Lord and His dealings with His People. Israel defied God and His multiple covenants with the Israelites. They insisted and remained stubborn. God's patience reached a limit beyond which He inflicted on His Chosen People punishment. So, there went the wrath of God. But this was not the end of the story. God indeed subjected them to His punishment, but it was a punishment that was corrective. He inspired the king of Persia to return His people to Israel and on top of that, to rebuild their Temple!
God sends us difficulties to purify our hearts. This purification involves us striving more through those difficulties. Testing will clean our hearts. Our resolve becomes stronger to do things for God. We mature. We grow in virtues. We nourish our love for God.
The Israelites insisted in not trusting in God, in not listening to Him. Thus, they were defenseless. They relied on forming alliances with the surrounding kingdoms. This only showed their opinion of the real God. They relied more on these alliances than on God. This is another way of saying that they trusted other gods, rather than on the true God.
When God tells us the instructions on how to use ourselves to live a life here on Earth, we need to listen. He is our manufacturer. Therefore, He should know how we should behave. So, His commandments tell us these instructions. If He didn't tell us about them, that would show how irresponsible a father He is. But He is our Heavenly Father who loves us very much. He gave us the set of commandments to guide us through our lives.
The first reading speaks to us about how the hagiographer describes God as the Shepherd who takes care of us who are His flock. He as Shepherd brings us to verdant pastures. Part of what He does is to forgive our sins. This is what He wants to do for our sins. He annihilates them that not even God remembers them anymore.
The first reading teaches us the beginning of Joseph's story from the Old Testament, a type of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. The lesson is that from the depravity of man, God can produce good. He is so powerful that He does this par for the course. He does not thwart the evil deeds of free creatures, but He surely can make good come out of them. Truly awesome!
Contingency characterizes everything in the material universe. Hence, creatures here cannot be trusted in absolute terms. They are temporary. Wealth, security, power, and so forth only exist in difficult conditions. Only God should be trusted in absolute terms.
Jeremiah shows us how to complain to the Lord. This prophet felt he was getting nowhere when he spoke for the Lord to the disobedient people of God. He prophesied their destruction if they did not repent. The people got so fed up with him that they plotted to do away with Jeremiah. So, he got tired, discouraged, and stressed out. He complained to God about this.
Sometimes, our resolutions to be good or better fall flat on the ground because we do not study and learn how to do good. Just like the trend of DIY, or Do It Yourself, projects and repairs, we need to do it ourselves. We need to study how to do good. We need to fill the vacuum produced by refusing to do evil. Otherwise, we would still be sucked into evil since there was no alternative to the evil choice.
Being sinners is our condition in the universe of God. He is the Creator and He is Immaculately poor. Aside from Him, Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary are pure. This condition of being sinners is to be accepted and noted as we go about our lives. Since we are sinners, we need to ask for forgiveness constantly. We need to note our weaknesses in making decisions. God, on the other hand, is Savior. He came to save sinners. If one does not accept his sinfulness, then he is not sought after by the savior. He does not need to be saved. Thus, he cannot relate with the Lord and be close to Him.
The readings in the mass on the second Sunday of Lent provide us with lessons regarding God's testing us and our need to learn to give up things so we can get closer to God. His tests are not after that we fail them. God tests us to see whether we go to loving Him. We need to practice giving up even good things for the Lord.
Mass readings today enable us to learn a couple of things. God tests us. He asks us to give up certain things. His tests do not aim at failing us. We may fail them, but this is not His intention. His tests only bring out our realization that we need to do more preparation. To pass His tests, we need to learn to give up what He wants us to do away with. This is especially about the bad things we do. Of course, we need to give them up. But even more, this applies to good things. Good things can also be left behind so that we follow Our Lord's direction.
God's style has been to choose people who would enjoy his predilection. This turned out to be the Jewish people. From them would come forth the Messiah. The book of Ezechiel states that we are a consecrated people. We should be aware of this in our existence. Other creatures and forces are vying for our allegiance and to mollify the strength of our dedication to God. Hence, we should underline the importance and effort needed to be given to maintain our course, i.e., our direction towards God, during the day and our activities.
Jesus asks Peter what he thought Jesus was. He confessed the divinity of Christ and thus, He is the Messiah. In response, Jesus renames him from Simon to Peter, which means rock. He tells him that he is the rock He was going to build the Church on.
Punishment follows one who sins. Solomon marries foreign wives steeped in idolatry. Thus, Solomon receives those scary prophesies against Israel. This logical relationship between crime with punishment should be kept in mind before committing sin.
Do we work on it when we receive the Word of God. It is a direction given to us regarding what to do or grasp in our minds. Does God's Word bear fruit in our lives? These fruits are resolutions and changes in behavior.
The formulation of some of God's commandments in the first reading of today's mass strikes us as clarification. There is more detail regarding how to live the said commandment. Some of them even have a positive perspective too.
Holiness is all about following the commandments. These commandments could be elucidated in different ways. The first reading of the mass today provides another way.
The first reading tells us of God's requirement of radical change of heart as the basis and presupposition of the outward practices of piety and sacrifice.
The Gospel today tells about the Holy Spirit leading Jesus to the desert, where He fasted for forty days. We should ask ourselves what spirit leads us. The spirit of worldliness, the spirit of the devil and the spirit of our flesh may be the one and we are simply led to sin. If the true Spirit leads us we can expect a desert where we most probably with run into difficulties, but we can be sure to be with God. That is what counts!
Today we read the continuation of the reading we had yesterday. From the Book of Isaiah, we read about the consequences of having genuine fasting, which would only signify a true and deep conversion of heart. The Lord enumerates the good things assured to those who are generous.
Moses presents this challenge to the Israelites on their way to the Promised Land. There were those in the group who wanted to return to Egypt where, they like to tell themselves, they will have food to their delight. So, Moses presented them with this choice. Love God and commit yourselves to following His Comnmandments. Love has consequences and commitments. The other choice is to perish, since you will not enjoy God's favor.
God sends us trials since he is a good Father. My dad gave me a plan of tests: in mathematics, in the discipline of following a certain protocol in our home chores, reading aloud and analyzing how I pronounced words, how I emphasize certain words in different positions of the sentence. These trials help me very much to face the challenges out there.
Praying doubting that God will give us what we ask for is a good indicator that we are not praying properly. We need to pray trusting in God 1000%. How will God grant it to us when we doubt Him. We pray with complete faith when implicit in our prayer is the disposition of accepting whatever God grants us.
The Lord makes use of the disease leprosy that affects the body to give us an idea of what sin is like concerning the soul.
Unity is an attribute of God and each of His creatures. Unity is a sign of perfection. Unity is to be strived for in all groups and organizations. Disunity is something that the devil works so hard to attain to destroy God's works.
The story of the downfall of Solomon is illustrative. He fell out of his relationship with God. The problem began with his foreign wives who worshiped other gods. He was influenced and practically contradicted his earlier commitments to the living and true God. So punishment was on the way.
We should honor this simple worker very much since he fulfilled a most important role in the plan of salvation. He was so generous to accede to God's plans for him to be the foster father of Jesus, but the true husband of Mary.
Solomon pleased God with what he asked God for. He sought for wisdom and God praised him and awarded him with much bounty. The Queen of Sheba describes in the first reading of the mass today, Wednesday of the fifth week in ordinary time, her amazement at what Solomon was able to do. We should not forget that all this good and wonder originated from God. It was God who gave him all these beautiful and amazing results. We should learn this so that we take good care of our relationship with Him.
Solomon prayed and we need to pray recognizing the majesty of God. This is the prayer of praise and adoration.
The Israelites revered so much their Temple in Jerusalem because it contained the Ark of the Covenant. That ark supposedly contained the tablets of the covenant that God drew up when he gave them to Moses to signify His commitment to His people Israel. That was all a symbol of His Presence. However, in the Catholic Church we have the sanctuary too but this time with the Tabernacle that contains the Blessed Sacrament, that is the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. It is not anymore a symbol of God's Presence. He is truly, really and substantially present there. This presence is referred to as the Real Presence.
We need to realize the shortness of life on earth. We cannot put all our bets in this life. It would be unwise if we only thought of establishing our everlasting home in this life. What would we get in the next life? We need to prepare for that definitive life. Where will you go?
It is sad to witness the souring of relationships. David and his son Absalom were at loggerheads with each other. Absalom usurped the throne. He went after the life of his own father. One of the closest relationships, that of filiation and paternity, is not exempted from troubles like this. People who are supposed to love each other, become enemies. This need not be necessarily the case. Having different views need not result in becoming enemies. Christianity gives us the reason and the grace, we can still walk together down the street.
We read about David fleeing from his son Absalom who proclaimed himself king of Israel. He wanted to do away with his father since he was the sitting king. David was criticized as he passed by. One time he was up there. Now, he was at the bottom. He was humiliated. However, David was not bent out of shape because of the situation he was subjected to because of Absalom. People threw him stones and was insulted. But David was not troubled by this because he had his humility very well founded.
The New Sabbath is Sunday, the first day of the week. Sunday marks the triumph of God in recreating the universe. The universe succumbed to the wiles of the devil because Adam and Eve trusted more the devil and distrusted God and thus, they ate the forbidden fruit. Thus, man and woman, being the head of the material universe, led the material reality to be part of the devil's kingdom. All this was corrected with the redemptive act of Jesus Christ.
Nathan the prophet was sent by God to confront David regarding his adultery and murder of Uriah the Hittite. He narrated a story in which a blatant injustice was committed. David rose in anger against that barbarian, only to be exposed by Nathan to be as criminal as the character in the story. We need to know ourselves well. We tend to hide and flee from the admission of our sins. Confession arrests this tendency. Our vehemence in anger and complaining about the others' faults only exposes our guilt with our own sins.
St. Paul addresses his spiritual son Timothy in the first reading of the mass today. He reminds him of the gift he received by the laying of the hands of Paul on him. That phrase "laying of the hands" refers to the passing of sacred power to the recipient. This power is the power of the priesthood. This is a responsibility of the recipient to use this power responsibly. This applies to every one of us since we all receive some power or talent from God. We need to develop them.
Today, we celebrate the feast commemorating the Conversion of St. Paul. His importance cannot be overemphasized. He has 14 letters in the New Testament. He narrates his conversion story in the first reading of the mass. Furthermore, he was humiliated when knocked off his horse on his way to Damascus. We need such humiliation to keep us in our place and humble. With humility, God can work wonders in our souls.
We hear this prophecy mentioned in the first reading of the mass today. In the process, God shows forth His loyalty to the people He had chosen to be His own. Although Israel would be unfaithful, God will not withdraw the predilection He has for Israel. He would punish them for their transgressions, but they will remain His people.
David shows us his behavior at the presence of God symbolized by the ark of the covenant. Lots of sacrifices are offered to God while they move the ark of the covenant to the tent David set up for it. David himself danced like a madman throughout the route to the tent. All this behavior was to recognize and give adequate worship to the God symbolized by the ark of the covenant. Imagine what we must do in God's Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist. It is not anymore a symbol we have of God. We have His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity hidden under the species of bread and wine. Think then what we need to do in order to attend mass on Sundays for example. The effort of going is part of the sacrifice we offer to God. Just like in the first reading ending, the people returned home with some items David sent with them. At the end of the mass, the priest sends us forth with Jesus now in our hearts, especially after receiving him in Holy Communion.
Our Lord Jesus Christ inverted the existing conventions regarding power. People more easily grasp that to have power means the ability to bully others, to get what one wants, to take away the lives of others, to torture them, etc. But Christianity corrected that and made it mean the ability to serve the others and to be useful to the needs of the others.
Mark 10:13-16
It is to such as these little children that the kingdom of God belongs. People were bringing little children to Jesus, for him to touch them. The disciples turned them away, but when Jesus saw this he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. I tell you solemnly, anyone who does not welcome the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’ Then he put his arms round them, laid his hands on them and gave them his blessing.
As we appreciate the stirrings and activity of David's mourning the death of his friends, we learn of the affective power we have in our hearts. We need to use these emotions. We need to train them so they help us in our service to God and so that they would not enslave us to sin. We need to realize that these emotions are not bad in themselves. After granting an allowance to the falleness of our nature, and the practice of prudence, we can enjoy and mourn what is good in the world and what is lost.
David has the chance to kill King Saul as he rests in the same cave he is in. The king was having a respite from the search for the criminal, who in this case was David. According to Samuel's account, some people were feeding the king with false information regarding David's supposed disposition to harm the king. David proved to Saul that that was false because he did not touch the king when he had the chance while inside the cave. David proves his good disposition towards the king. In the end, the king recognizes David's good disposition to him and that he is worthy to be the king of Israel.
Envy, jealousy and unity are some of the virtues and qualities exhibited in the narration of the first reading of today's mass. King Saul became envious of David because the people acknowledged that David had done something more amazing than the king. He wanted to kill this simple shepherd boy. Jonathan, however, King Saul's son, dissuaded him by pointing out that David was his servant and that whatever he did was for the glory of Israel. His dad admired his words and was inspired to stop his plan to kill David. Jonathan brought David back to the king's service and there was peace. What a great friend Jonathan was!
We can apply today's story of David and Goliath to our own stories. We do feel in our struggles against evil and temptations that we are at a disadvantage. We are weak. We are limited. We are sinners. But we need not count on these negatives. The fight belongs to God. We are in His Hands. By His Providence, we shall conquer, and thus it will be patent that it was God who won the battle for us. Praise be the Lord!
In the first reading of today's mass, we read about God's choice regarding who would succeed King Saul. David was his choice. Interestingly, Samuel visited Jesse as God had instructed him to do, and he had thought that an elder son of Jesse was God's choice. He paid attention to the external qualities. But God looks into the heart. Only David, the youngest of the brood, made the cut. He was anointed with oil to become the next king.
We read in the first reading of the mass today about the fall from grace of King Saul. The cause was his disobedience to the command of God. He disguised his disobedience by citing his good intentions. However, the prophet Samuel points out the utter disobedience of the king. He was punished for that.
The first reading of the mass today tells us about the disappointment of Samuel with the failure of King Saul to obey God's commands to exterminate a group of people. He did this with flimsy excuses. We should learn from his sin how we sometimes justify our faults using specious reasons, partly true and partly false. God removed his favor from Saul because of his disobedience. It is obedience that pleases God. It is obedience that undoes the disobedience of Adam and Eve.
St. Paul was looking for a way to encourage the Corinthian converts to avoid the sin of fornication. He employed the second reading of the mass today where he states that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Our bodies are members of the Body of Christ. We cannot countenance the Body of Christ to be united to a prostitute, right? Thus, we should avoid fornicating where we unite ourselves--who are bodily members of the Body of Christ--to prostitutes.
The first reading of the mass today tells us about the call of Saul to be the first king of Israel. Samuel anointed him king. But the thing is that for us to hear God calling us, we need to foster a collected attitude, a habit of focusing ourselves on the Lord and to deal with him. Otherwise, we would be drowned by the noise, that apparently modern man is more confident in. This just distracts us from focusing on God. It will be very difficult to hear him and to hear him calling.
The Gospel tells us of the Lord's episode with the show of faith of four men who brought a paralytic to the Lord to be cured. Jesus seeing their faith forgave the paralytics' sins. The scribes and Pharisees present resented that since, according to them, only God can forgive sins. And the one who claimed to forgive the sick man's sins was human. But Jesus broadens their minds. He performs a miracle to prove that he can forgive sins. The paralytic was cured of his paralysis. God could delegate the authority to forgive sins to human beings.
In their battles with their enemy the Philistines, the Israelites missed answering this most basic of questions regarding the conduct of our lives: is it God that we truly seek or is it ourselves and our selfishness and pride? The Israelites were devastated by the Philistines twice in row, even when in the second battle the Israelites had brought in the Ark of the Covenant to fight for them. They used the Lord's presence to attain a personal and self-serving objective, namely, to win against the Philistines. They failed to truly bring the Lord into their lives because they were out only for what interested them the most. They wanted to win in battle. They were not concerned with the weightier and more important issue. That involved their infidelity to God.
The Christ arrived into the world that had been given up to the Enemy of God, namely the Devil. Adam and Eve went over to his side because they had distrusted God and disobeyed His Commandment of not touching the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. So, Jesus in a manner of speaking, parachuted into enemy terrritory. He went behind enemy lines to reclaim what God had lost to the Devil. So, the Christ began this work as can be appreciated in the readings of today's mass. First in the Gospel, we find our Lord curing the mother-in-law of Peter from her fever. And because she was cured she began to serve them. Health is given us not to use for our greed but for the service of the others. Then, Our Lord gave us His example of rising well before dawn to pray. Foreseeing a busy day, He sacrificed a bit of sleep to fulfill this duty to God. And thus, we should follow suit. And to pray is to report to the presence of God, just like the young prophet Samuel did in the first reading of the mass.
Today, we celebrate his birthday anniversary. What better way to celebrate it than by thanking God for giving us this holy man as another model of holiness! In the mass of St. Josemaria, we usually read a text from Genesis, the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans, and St. Luke. Each of these readings gives us some lessons that the Saint taught when he was among us. First, we were made to work. Second, we are children of God. Third, God wants us to catch men for Him so we could follow Him. This means that we are not supposed to just do something good, but that we need to follow Him.
We celebrate today the last feast day of the Christmas Season and with it, the season officially ends. Today we commemorate the Lord's Baptism. He identified himself with us human beings in need of salvation by becoming man, and then he had himself baptized. What humility of the Savior! We should be reminded of the need to be repentant of our sins. No matter how we claim that Jesus has forgiven our sins, none of this can be true if we do not repent of them. With that step undertaken, then we can see the probability of God's forgiveness. That is His to give but for us to know that for a fact, we have the human priest representing Him to do that.
I beheld this reredos in the private oratory of the Prelate of Opus Dei, who at that time was Blessed Alvaro del Portillo. It was a magnificent painting of the Holy Family in the lower part of the frame and the Blessed Trinity, complete with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, at the upper region. The saying goes, and this is attributed to the Founder of Opus Dei, Saint Josemaria Escriva, that in order to reach the Blessed Trinity in Heaven we need to pass through the Trinity on Earth, consisting of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. We need to learn to live in the family if we are to arrive at the bosom of the Family of Divine Persons in Heaven.
The world will not be able to suffice to bring us real lasting happiness. Only God can! St. John in his First Letter tells us so much in the first reading of the mass today. He sums up the problematic nature of the world, not taken as the result of God's creation, which would then be utterly good since they come from Him, but taken as worldliness consisting of the sensual body, the lustful eye and the pride of possessions. These cannot make us truly happy, since they are passing. They all come to an end. Only God remains forever.
This assumes that Jesus Christ is our model. He is our example because He is a perfect Man. His life therefore is normative. He need to imitate how he behaved. This is summed up in the commandments of God. Jesus is our light with regard to living correctly and in accordance with God's Will.
Today, we recall the murder of children two years old and under, by the command of King Herod the Great. They are considered as martyrs since they gave up their lives so the Baby Jesus could live. If Herod only saw the Child properly, he would not have been so brutal. The Child only wanted to be king in our hearts. He had no plans of usurping Herod's throne. In fact, Jesus only wanted to help save his soul, help him live virtuously, etc. He was not after his throne.
We celebrate today the feast of St. John, who was called the one Jesus loved. The point that our holy Mother the Church wants us to learn from him is appreciated in the first reading of the mass today. They--St. John and the rest of the Apostles--received from their close contact with Jesus such knowledge and faith that they were so filled to give to so many others. We are challenged today to carry on this Tradition. We should receive from our predecessors in the faith what was handed on to them from the beginning, i.e., the initial contact of the Apostles with Jesus Christ.
Today, we celebrate St. Stephen's Martyrdom and witness to the Lord Jesus Christ. Yesterday, we remembered His birth. Today, we recall His first servant to imitate Him in dying. This proto-martyr or first martyr is a great example to us in terms of being faithful to the teachings of Jesus and of being courageous to withstand even the reality of death to give witness to this faith.
Christmas is the birth of a Baby! He calls us to pay attention to Him. Our selfishness is burned in the process. Fall into the process of eliminating our bad selves for the love of this divine Infant!
The texts of the three lessons of today's mass cap our preparations for Christmas. David plans in the first reading to construct an appropriate dwelling of the Presence of God in the Ark of the Covenant. But God tells him to consider whether God should dwell in a house built by human hands. God wanted to tell us that He was planning to establish His Kingdom on Earth. The second reading brings us up to speed, so to speak, to the fact that God revealed Himself more fully in the birth of His only-begotten Son. The Gospel reminds us that all these plans of God would only happen if man agrees with God's plans. Mary is brought to us to consider again. She said her Fiat to becoming the Mother of God. We also need to say yes to Him. Only to the extent we agree to His plans will Christ become incarnate in each one of us to effect that Kingdom of God.
The text of the first reading of today's mass tells us again about the Precursor, St. John the Baptist. His example underscores the Church's insistence that we prepare for the Lord's coming by being humble as creatures, as children are, and fallen creatures that we are. He need to behave and to accept what we are and act accordingly. We have to ask for pardon for our sins. We need to acknowledge God's glory over our's. We need to thank God for His gifts to us. We should petition from Him our needs. He is God and we are mere creatures. Thus, we are to serve Him and obey His Will for us.
We are presented in the first reading of today's mass--on the 22nd of December--the story of Hannah. She had prayed a lot to have a baby and the Lord granted her request. In thanksgiving, she brought the baby to the Temple and presented him to the priest Eli. They brought a bull and slaughtered it to express gratitude to the Lord. They wasted it since they killed it and thus, have no more use for it. It is offered to the Lord. Let us not forget to continue with a spirit of self-denial and sacrifice in being grateful for the coming of the Lord. Then, she left the baby in the Temple, for the Lord's service. For the gifts we receive, we are grateful to the Lord for them if we offer them back to Him by using those gifts to serve Him and His other children in the world.
The first reading of the mass today gives us a text taken from the Old Testament's Song of Songs. It is interesting that the Church provides for our spiritual food today with this text that tells us of a lover bounding mountains, looking for His beloved. He loves us. Hence, He wants to become a man. With the symbolism of human love, the Church teaches us that God is like a lover in love with His beloved. This latter is us, each one of us!
Today, the 20th of December, we read the account of Isaiah about Ahaz and his lack of trust in the Lord. He wanted to form an alliance with a Gentile kingdom, not mindful of the grave danger this would mean for Israel. In fact, Judaism was modified to the chagrin of God. It became syncretic, meaning they began to mix with their religion other pagan and superstitious practices. Ahaz lacked trust in God as he went about the future of his kingdom.
Elijah is the star of the first reading of the mass today. He is famous for his word's power and call to repentance. This latter made the Israelites think that St. John the Baptist was Elijah come again. The first characteristic awed everybody. He commanded a famine to strike at Israel to get them to focus back on what was essential, i.e., God. Do we need a calamity to get us back on track in our relationship with God? The Lord is coming. The time is nigh!
The Church is about to begin the Novena for Christmas. These a special masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary said at early dawn. These are different from the usual Advent Masses for the specific day before the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Mother the Church encourages us in this way to pay attention to Our Lady. There is no better way than to stay with Her to welcome Jesus. Imitating Her is the way.
God is coming! God is with us since He is Emmanuel! Despite how sin rendered us puny and dirty, useless and damned, the Savior will raise us up to glory and unlock our true potential for eternity. We will be able to go beyond this worldly existence of great achievements and do something of eternal value to fulfill our deepest aspirations. Come Lord Jesus! We are eager for you to come to fix me. Hence, we give Him the chance to work on us!
Isaiah writes in the first reading of the mass today about the God of the Heavens, contrasting Him from the gods that littered the Babylonian landscape. He wrote this during the Babylonian Captivity of the Israelites.
Today we celebrate the feast of the Our Lady of Guadalupe. We spoke a bit about her during the memorial of St. Juan Diego a few days ago. The most moving thing that Our Lady said to this Indian convert was about what he thought about her. She asked him rhetorically. The reply to her queries was a resounding yes. She wants us to remember that we are her children and she is our Mother in Heaven.
We are happy to the extent that we have hope. If our hopes are squat and lowly, i.e., limited only the good things of this world, then we have ample reason not to be that happy. Only when we keep our sights on our faith and that we hope in the eternal prize, then we shall be joyful.
This would be the best way to prepare for the coming of the Lord, i.e., for the commemoration of His first coming on Christmas Day and for the second coming of the Lord, when from His seat at the right hand of God He would come to judge the living and the dead.
We need to work on this preparation for the coming of the Savior. We need to want to receive Him as our Savior. Otherwise, God is rendered helpless to help us. He does not force us to do what we do not want to do. This especially applies to being brought to heaven. We simply need to be open to Him, to His action and His Will. He cannot save us unless we want to be saved.
We celebrate today the memorial of St. Ambrose. From him, we should realize our responsibility with the words we use relative to the people around us. We may inspire, discourage or hurt the others depending on the words we use. St. Ambrose was the bishop of Milan in the middle of the fourth century. St. Augustine used to love listening to him. He was instrumental in St. Augustine's conversion.
Isaiah tells us in the first reading of the mass today to celebrate the memorial of St. Ambrose to be deserving of availing the protection of the Lord in His fortress. He enumerates them in a list consisting of uprightness in following God's Laws--and when we fail to, we could still get up as many times as needed by being sorry for our sins and making clear resolutions of amendment--, steadfastness in being founded on following the will of God, peaceful and trusting in the Lord.
We celebrate today the memorial of St. Nicholas, Bishop. He is said to be the origin of the gift-giving tradition of Santa Claus. This kind-hearted bishop heard of a poor man who could not raise the money for the dowry for the marriage of his three daughters. The good bishop resolved their problem by leaving in the premises of this family three small purses with enough money for the marriage of those three daughters-exactly what Santa Claus does!
We learn in the first reading of the mass today about the characteristics of the Savior and what He has in mind to establish among us. It is amazing how the hagiographer uses analogies that paint peaceful and fraternal relationships, in our world.
Last 28 November 2023, we celebrated the 41st anniversary of St. Pope John Paul II act of establishing Opus Dei as a Personal Prelature. It ended Opus Dei--The Work of God, in latin--as a secular institute since this last juridical recognition did not exactly fit the charism received by St. Josemaria Escriva on 2 October 1928. To accurately acknowledge that charism an evolution of thought had to happen in the Church regarding vocational callings to serve the Church in a secular manner. So, instead of vows, or what is more commonly known as the evangelical counsels, the nature of the vocational commitment of the faithful of the Personal Prelature had to express this through a contract made between Opus Dei and the person concerned.
God descends to our altars every time the words of consecration are said by the priest in mass. This is like what we prepare for during Advent season and later on Christmas. He is Emmanuel, i.e., God with us. The Eucharist is exactly that since God is truly, really and substantially present after the consecration. We may even stretch this further. The Holy Mass is the liturgy of the Church in worshiping God. Is this not what we want to do for eternity? Heaven is an eternal Liturgy to God by His creatures.
Our Lord's coming is an invitation to all of us to stay under His wings to be protected from anything evil. As long as we follow or strive to follow His will and His dispositions, we have nothing to fear. We know the remedy for our sins. That is contrition and confession. We learn His teachings, and we will never go wrong. We stay within the dispositions of His Holy Catholic Church and surely we will be safe and we will go to Heaven. Hence, we can play and behave with confidence. God takes care of us.
God did not send the Redeemer immediately after the Fall of Adam and Eve. He made man wait so that he would be more convinced to need God's intervention. Because of the pride and disobedience involved in offending God in the first sin, Man would tend to be independent of God and trust in his resources. So, God left him to his own devices and let him get frustrated. So in the first reading of the Holy Mass today, we have man pleading with God to open the Heaven to rain down the Redeemer.
What we mostly talk about is the importance of being free from. Free from tyranny, from injustice, inequalities, and so forth. But we need to still find out what our freedom is for. Otherwise, an emancipated freedom could still be destructive and unjust when practiced. The sickness of our nature due to original sin would threaten our limited freedom to be enslaved to wayward passions or falsehoods outside it.
Ever since the beginning of Christianity, there have been many forces trying to take her down. Only the Catholic Church survived, even her enemies. We need to know the words of her Founder since we will be judged by them.
Today, we celebrate the feast of the Apostle Andrew, brother of Simon Peter. Andrew was the first one called by Christ. He shared his experience with the Lord to his brother Peter. Both of them we called by Christ when they were working on their fishing nets. This act of Andrew of sharing his encounter with the Messiah should be a model for us so that we continue spreading the Good News. And the first matter to spread to the others is the very Love of God for them. We are to be the face of Christ.
Idolatry was the worst sin that God wanted to shield His chosen People from. Israel was surrounded by idolatrous nations. And so even with their best efforts, they got contaminated, especially when their leaders married heathen spouses. Creatures are mere creatures. They cannot perform anything close to what God does.
The first reading tells about the different kingdoms that will reign on earth and of a certain kingdom that will outlast all of them. We should belong to this one.
The first reading provides us the episode of some Judean youths who were among those chosen by the pagan king to be trained in the Chaldean culture. We witness in their story their efforts at being faithful to God and follow his commandments. They were concerned with not defiling themselves with the food from the king's table. So they arranged with the chief eunuch that a trial be conducted, namely, they be fed only vegetables and water. After ten days they were to be compared with those youths fed from the king's table. The result was that they were more healthy-looking than those nourished by the king. Daniel, who was one of these faithful Israelites, thus, stayed faithful to His God and avoided contamination from pagan food.
He should be King of all of us: in our minds, our hearts, our actions, our rest and entertainment, all our relationships, and so forth. This requires struggle, constant struggle. Sometimes we lose, sometimes we win. What we cannot do is to surrender and remain down and out. A Christian is one who gets up every time he falls. This affirms Christ to be our King!
This is a typical challenge for anyone who seeks to live the good life here on earth and later eternally. To affirm the universal kingship of Jesus would require a constant struggle to conquer God's rivals to the throne. Especially stubborn is our egoism. In this struggle, we need the grace of God in order to be victorious.
Proof of our fidelity to God above all may be required of us. Heroism is needed here. Eleazar gave the supreme sacrifice of himself instead of giving in to doing something prohibited by God.
The text of the first reading today comes from the first book of the Maccabees. The faith of the Israelites was challenged by the usurpation of the divine prerogative of the King of Israel at that time. He wanted to agree with the pagan kingdoms around Israel. Many Israelites suffered death for they remained faithful to the God of Israel. Shall we be able to withstand the onslaught of rising and spreading paganism today and remain faithful to the living God?
The book of Proverbs provides the source of the first reading of today's 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. It talks about the beauty and bounty of having a good wife.
Yesterday, we pondered on the folly of those who deny the existence of God when contemplating the Universe. The force that prevents us from recognizing the Creator is an aspirant to the title of God. Lucifer thought he was greater than God. He sort of suffered a delusion. Pride, attachment to the goods of this world like pleasure and money rival God. So, other gods come into existence.
St. Peter and St. Paul stand outside the facade of St. Peter's Basilica. They have been at the vanguard of the Church in spreading God's Word as they were instructed by the Christ.
It is stupidity to not have known God. This is the message in a nutshell of the first reading of the mass today. The material universe begs us to find the Maker. We posit the existence of that Maker. Otherwise, the universe would lack rationality. It would be insufficient of itself to account for itself.
The Gospel of today tells us of the gratitude of one Samaritan leper, among the ten lepers who were cured by Our Lord, when they obeyed Him to report to the priests. Our Lord praised his faith and that faith saved him. Jesus wondered why the others did not return to Him to express their Thanksgiving. This we need to do. We should not take for granted the gifts that God showers on us.
The Book of Wisdom tells us in the first reading of the mass today God's admonitions, especially for those in authority here on earth. Authority is from above. It is a gift to use in governing that we need to give an accounting for when we face the ultimate source of all authority. Wisdom requires this recognition and submission to this higher power. Accounting will be made for the authority's use. Wisdom dictates that kings follow the commandments of God. All their laws should respect God's prerogative. Power is a service to our fellow men.
The first reading of today's mass is taken from the Old Testament Book of Wisdom. It explains to us more about the nature of Wisdom and how to attain it. Of course, it is a grace from God and a Gift of the Holy Spirit. However, we need to practice it. The way to follow is to be sincere and simple. This is due to our fallen nature and personal sins. We have a tender part in our souls that we feel we need to protect and hide from others, and even from ourselves. Hence, the root of our problems is identified and exposed to receive the proper medicine.
The first reading of the 32nd Sunday in ordinary time hails from the Old Testament Book of Wisdom. Its text speaks to us about wisdom and its value. It is worth our trouble to pursue this Wisdom, which certainly involves the truth as it is. Thus, wisdom is all about the truth. Against this are the attitudes rampant in this misinformation age, namely, gaslighting, giving your spin on the news, etc. It is easy to attain, but at the same time, it is difficult! It is easy because it is reachable by being honest to ourselves. Furthermore, it is difficult because it might take some time to attain, so much trial and error need to be experienced and lessons learned and finally, we need to follow God and His commandments. Our sins hamper our attainment of wisdom.
The atmosphere reigning in the Catholic Church was initially characterized by warmth and communication, sharing and mutual support. They were not simply concerned with their internal problems and challenges. They had a vision and attitude of togetherness and of working cohesively from their respective places with the other churches. The atmosphere governing their relationship with one another shows us that working for Christ is part of being family with one another. They cannot be antagonistic with each. They shared their issues and especially their encouragement with one another.
We read in the first reading of the mass today about St. Paul's conviction regarding his vocation to evangelize the pagans or the Gentiles as the Israelites called them. We also need to exude our Christian life naturally so that the others would be influenced to ask us what makes us tick with regard to our faith.
Today we celebrate the Dedication of St. John Lateran Basilica, located in Rome, Italy. This temple is the seat of the Bishop of Rome. Just like any bishop in his diocese, the Pope has an official seat and that is found in the cathedral of the diocese. Today, the Church reminds us that we are living members of the Mystical Body of Christ. Jesus in the Gospel tells us that this temple be destroyed and in three days He will raise it again. He was referring to His body and when He resurrected from the dead, His disciples remembered this declaration. He was referring to his Body, and not the Temple of Jerusalem.
This is the commandment that St. Paul gives his listeners and readers in Rome. It all stems from Our Lord Jesus Christ's teaching regarding love for our neighbor.
St. Paul points out to us in the first reading of the mass today, Tuesday of the 31st Week in Ordinary Time, that we form a body among us members of this body. We relate to each other according to the different gifts we have received. And thus, we organically help each other and help the whole.
This is the mystery that God reveals to us in St. Paul's letter to the Romans when we read in the first reading of the mass today about, “God never takes back his gifts or revokes his choice.” Thus, we can be confident in Him and His mercy and His favor. This is so, despite our sins, or the gravity and number of our sins. We may be disappointed with ourselves. We may think that we have done something that would make us undeserving of God's love. But His love for you is never-ending. Our sins cannot outperform His mercy. He will always love us because He "never takes back his gifts or revokes his choice.” Alleluia!
The three readings of the mass of today, the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, bring us to face our grave responsibility of matching what we teach with what we do. There needs to be an equivalence between the two. Malachi warns the leading men of Israel in the first reading. Jesus in the Gospel echoes the same ideas. The second reading provides us an example of someone who truly takes care of his sheep, i.e., St. Paul. His example is truly inspiring.
God reveals to the world his undying love for the Chosen People, even though the Jews rejected him and had him crucified. With this behavior of God, we should appreciate also that He does not give up on us ever. It's the devil with his allies, the world, and the flesh, who will try his very best to get us to distrust and give up on God. He does not change his choices.
St. Paul shows how much he is willing to sacrifice or undergo to secure the salvation of the people of Israel. He attests to his willingness to be condemned and be cut off from Christ-if that were possible, to get salvation for his fellow Israelites.
Today, All Souls' Day, we remember in a special way all the faithful departed, especially our loved ones. We owe this to them. We owe them our suffrages, i.e., our prayers for Our Lord to shorten their stay in Purgatory. They are satisfying their temporal punishment. They are suffering a lot. Furthermore, we try our best to shorten the sufferings of our dear beloved on earth when they are sick or suffering in any way. The souls in Purgatory are suffering tremendously. We should not be indifferent to that, and try to pray a lot for them. The goal of the Church today is to get Purgatory out of business. Let us empty Purgatory so they all go to Heaven ASAP!
St. John tells us in the first reading of All Saints' Day mass about what the saints are doing in Heaven. We need to practice these actions in this life to make it there too.
This is a matter of faith that St. Paul makes us face and exercise each time we suffer on earth for whatever reason. To make such pains worthwhile, God assures us of what He has prepared for us in Heaven. For starters, He offers Himself for us.
Our Spiritual Life is all about the Supernatural Life of God living in our souls in a state of grace. It is a life that is rooted and nourished by a sacramental life, i.e., a life that frequents the sacraments, especially confession and holy communion. A nonspiritual life is characterized by gravitating around worldliness and material considerations and attitudes. Thus, one is materialistic in his attitudes and perspectives, pessimistic, short-sighted rather than lofty and eternal, here and now assume more significance rather than that which is permanent and truly fulfilling.
Our Lord enunciates in the Gospel today the commandment to love God above all with all our faculties. He adds the second that he put right beside this first of all mandates. He draws the two together. Loving our neighbor as ourselves proves that we have fulfilled the first one.
I had this podcast with two gentlemen guests who brought up with me different concerns and problems they experienced among their friends in handling situations of "failed marriages".
St. Paul invites us to use our powers to serve God and His purposes. What we had employed them for in committing sin, should now be directed to God's service.
St. Paul squarely faces the truth of himself. He brings us up to speed regarding how he saw himself. He admits that he had the fomes peccati, i.e., the tendency to evil. We will do well to imitate him in doing this. It takes humility and courage to do so. It challenges the hope that we should entertain in banking on Jesus Christ to beat these tendencies.
St. Paul speaks to us in the first reading of today's mass about slavery and masters. The one we obey is the one we are slaves of. So if we sin, we make ourselves a slave of sin. What we need to do is to choose carefully who our master is. The enemies of our soul's salvation are the Devil, the World, and the Flesh. These three connive and collaborate with the other two to bring us down by getting us to sin and making us slaves of our wayward passions.
Because if you really do, then leave behind that creature and come to do His Holy Will. St. Paul continues in the first reading today to pound on the importance of faith. Our trust in God should be absolute and iron clad. That is the only way to deal with God!
The first reading of today's mass continues, quoting the letter of St. Paul to the Romans, insisting on the faith that justified Abraham and all those who believe the promises of God like he did. Abraham could surely entertain doubts to God's promise that he will have descendants as numerous as the stars in heaven. He was old and his wife, as old as he was, was barren. When they had Isaac, Abraham was instructed to waste him. How would killing his son help in God's cause and promise to Abraham? Good question! But still Abraham believed in God's promise and hanged on that for the rest of his life. This kind of faith in God saved him to go to Heaven. This faith justified him.
This was a totally unexpected reply of Our Lord Jesus Christ to the trap question of the Jews. They had asked him whether it was licit to pay the taxes to Caesar. Either of the two answers possible would catch Our Lord and provide material for accusation. If He says it is licit to pay taxes to Rome He would be called a traitor. If He says it was not licit to pay taxes to Rome, they would bring that to Roman authorities and they would take Him to task.
Today St. Paul continues to elucidate about the primary importance we need to attach to faith in Jesus Christ. Not by anything we do are we saved or justified before God. It is by sheer goodness and mercy of God that we are saved. We only need to have faith in that.
St. Paul explains in his letter to the Romans about our salvation. God sent His only-begotten Son to take up flesh. The Justice of God played through with regard to the sins of Adam and Eve and all the rest of the sins committed by man till the end of time. The price for sin had to be paid by man. At the same time, no man could foot the bill because sin's gravity was infinite. God had to come into the picture. Hence, the solution was a God-Man, i.e., Jesus Christ. Justice would be served by His dying on the cross.
Today is the feast of the Evangelist St. Luke, a disciple of St. Paul. St. Luke is the third Evangelist, following Sts. Matthew and Mark. He penned those accounts of more intimacy and details about Our dear Lord's origin, virginal conception, birth, childhood and so forth. He was a practicing physician, much like Sts. Peter and Andrew and James and John were fishermen. They all had to have something solid to earn their keep to support themselves. The account of St. Paul in the first reading of the mass today, taken from St. Paul's second letter to Timothy gives us more ideas regarding how the work of evangelization was going. It was a lot about resources and their distribution to deliver the Church's services to the people.
In the First Reading of today's mass, we read from the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans about the possibility of reaching certain and true knowledge of God. This can happen through His very creatures. They beg for a Cause. Otherwise, the universe would not be understandable. When man rejects the one and true God as God, he automatically makes some creature into an idol.
St. Paul tells us in the first reading of the mass today what we should do in relation to the others. The Church adopts his first lines in his letter to the Romans. We bring Jesus Christ in evangelizing the others. We do not propose some setup or understanding of things. Furthermore, we propose a Person! We are not a religion of the Book. We are a religion of a Person and through Him, we reach the other divine Persons, namely, the Father and the Holy Spirit.
The Prophet tells us in the first reading of the mass about that day. The Church wants us to grow our hope in going to Heaven and being with God as He makes judgment. We will sing and dance and plan in the banquet of rich food and the choicest of wines and so forth. Wow!
The Prophet Joel continues to tell us about this big Day when everyone will be gathered to witness the vindication of the good and the evil people vanquished. Joel describes the abundance of liquid from the wine press as the harvest is subjected to this treatment. Such Judgement will be like a purging of the world of all Evil because evil will be sent to its proper place.
The Old Testament prophet Joel describes in more detail the day of Judgment. And thus, we are encouraged to prepare for it. Repentance is asked of us before the Day of Reckoning comes. This repentance is shown on the outside by acts of penance, i.e., wearing sackcloth, fasting, and so forth. This consequence of internal sorry for our sins is most natural. Penance should emanate from the interior. Otherwise, it would be fake and contrived.
Pillar designates something of strength. When Samson was about to die, having been reduced to a circus entertainer since he had revealed to his lover Dahlila the secret of his superhuman strength, although blind placed his hands on the two main pillars of the structure over the Philistines as they feasted to their pagan gods. He pushed with a last push on these pillars and down fell the building, sending the death of everyone underneath. Our Lady is a pillar to us, so we can persevere as we navigate the discouraging circumstances of our times. The first reading mentions them as evil actions and said to be good instead. Criminals roam around with impunity. St. James the Apostle also faced discouragement when he went to the Iberian Peninsula, to evangelize the natives there. He was set to return to the Middle East, and the Virgin appeared on a pillar to invigorate his drooping spirits.
Today, the first reading of the mass presents to us again Jonah. This time he is furious because the Ninevites repented and God had mercy on them. What a position he has taken! God then teases him by sending him a castor plant that gave him shade at the place in the mountain he had positioned himself in to witness what God promised to do to Nineveh had they not repented. Then God let the castor oil plant perish. This again triggers Jonah to be mad. God was teasing him and teaching him something. God's mercy has precedence over everything to win back souls to God.
Today's Our Lady of the Holy Rosary feast day was instituted by Pope Pius V to celebrate Christendom's military victory over the Ottoman fleet in Lepanto, Greece. The Turks were eager to include Western Europe within its borders but were stopped in their tracks on October 7, 1571. The Holy Father asked the Catholics to pray for that battle using the Holy Rosary. That praying of the Rosary figured as one factor contributing to the victory. The mysteries of the Rosary also provide us the key to tackle each day's mysteries or battles. Everyday, I experience The Annunciation when God asks me to do something. I live my Visitation also when I am asked to help someone. The Birth of Jesus reminds me of God wanting to be born again and again in my heart. Hence, I need to afford him room, unlike the first Bethlehem where there was no room in the inn. And so on and so forth!
The three readings of the mass I said today are taken from the mass in honor of St. Josemaria Escriva. The first one hails from Genesis chapter 2 where we learn of the reason God placed man in the garden of Eden, namely, to "cultivate and take care of it". Work then is not a curse for man. It is the reason why God put us in Paradise. Before original sin, Adam and Eve enjoyed every bit of any work. Then, the other message of the lessons of the mass is that of divine filiation by which we call God our Father.
Finally, we should feel the sensation of being caught or being pursued. The Gospel tells us the miraculous catch of fish. We are those fishes caught by the net for Christ. Now that we have been captured by Christ, so to speak, we need to imitate Peter, Andrew, James and John. They left everything to catch men and that they needed not to be afraid.
We fulfill this duty by going to Mass on the Day of the Lord, i.e., on Sundays and holidays of obligation. We inherited from our Israelite brethren this part of our Mass. This part is called the Liturgy of the Word. We rise to listen to the Word of God in the Gospel of the day. Then, we should commit ourselves to living out the instructions of the Lord.
Such slavery indeed happens when we have difficulties in being attentive to the needs of others. We need to be attentive to them. This is hampered by our focus on material desires and possessions. It need not only be about things material but also non-material things, like our thoughts, our worries, our opinions, and so forth.
The first reading in the mass today comes from the Old Testament Book of Zechariah who prophesied about Israel's sharing with other nations what she received from the Lord. It is foretelling of Pentecost Sunday when the Apostles did indeed go out to tell the entire world about the teachings of Christ. We are modern apostles called by God to give Christian witness to everyone we meet and know. This is a vocation rooted in the fundamental vocation implanted in our souls in Baptism. In this sacrament we assume the Person of Christ in the common priesthood. It is by virtue of this assimilation into Christ that we should go forth to give our testimony of Christ through our everyday activities and interaction with men and women of all walks of life.
Today is the feast of the Guardian Angels and the foundation anniversary of Opus Dei. Jesus tells us in the Gospel of today's mass that the greatest in God's Kingdom are the children. Thus, He invites us to become like children. And each child has a Guardian Angel. Let us not deprive ourselves of this wonderful devotion and practice of our faith, i.e., of dealing and interacting with our respective guardian angels.
The first reading and Gospel of the mass today, the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, tell us to change for the better. The first reading presents to us the case of a good man who lost his goodness by committing a crime. Such a person would be condemned if he does not repent of his sin. Then, there is the person who has been committing sin and then repents of them. Such a person will be saved. Thus, in the Gospel, Jesus lauds the public sinners of his day because they accepted to repent of their sins. It is also implied that were they to fall again to sin, if they keep on repenting and beginning again, they will end up first, unlike the religious leaders of Israel who kept on sinning in not accepting our Lord as the Messiah and they did not repent ever.
He became a great saint because he did not give up his struggle to reign his irascibility until the day he transited to Heaven. He kept getting up again and again. Thus, he showed his love and loyalty to the Lord. The Lord says that he will be the wall of Jerusalem. There will be no physical wall because the inhabitants of the Holy City will eventually include so many nations and peoples. They will make it in because they will fulfill the requirements of the "filter" Our Lord Jesus Christ will be, i.e., fire is love and love will determine our eternal destiny. Not just any kind of love, but the ones who have the Holy Spirit in their hearts.
Today's feast opens to us the possibility of living in the supernatural world. The Angels are real, as real as the computer or phone you are using to access this homily. Let us get used to dealing with them and counting on them.
The prophet Haggai prods the Israelites to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem. Difficulties and opposition met those returning from exile to Babylon. Mediocrity and lukewarmness set in. God was not pleased. So He sent Haggai to prophesy in His Name. Prophecy is not only about foretelling future events but more of reminding, teaching, and interpreting present occurrences read with the eyes of God. The Israelites were experiencing not so nice consequences of this delay in the construction. Haggai encouraged them to wake up.
Ezra tells us in the first Reading of the mass today about the returning exiles to Jerusalem. One of their challenges was how to face the challenge of mixing with the natives, these are the Israelites who were able to stay behind in Israel and not go into exile in Babylon like the great majority of the rest of the Israelites, and their having intermarried with foreign nations that surrounded Israel. These practiced idolatry and other abominations. We can compare ourselves with the returning exiles. We need to fortify ourselves in the doctrine of Jesus Christ to forestall the osmosis that would certainly happen since we are surrounded with other contrary doctrines today.
The Book of Ezra provides the reading content for the first reading of the mass of today, Tuesday of the 25th Week in Ordinary Time. We are told that King Darius took off from the documents of King Cyrus to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem. It is amazing how much earth, stone and mortar went into the reconstruction. We should check also how we construct the temple that is our bodies for the Blessed Trinity to dwell in. How much effort do we exert to accomplish this? How much resources are we willing to employ to improve in our formation and training in Christian Living?
God is so good! After many years of atoning for their sins, God moved the King of the Persians, Cyrus, to return the Israelites to Israel from Babylon. He commands all to assist them in rebuilding the Temple of Jerusalem. God had meted out to them the punishment for their infidelity to Him in being exiled to Babylon. When the proper time came, He crafted the way for them to return. Oh, how great God is!
The first Reading of today's mass of the 25th Sunday in ordinary time is a text from the Old Testament Book of Isaiah. He reminds us that we need to seek God, and that we need to reset our standards and thoughts and plans because God's thoughts and plans are not like ours. He is the standard, not the other way around.
St. Paul continues to give instructions to Timothy, one of his disciples. This time he underscores the need to practice what we have been told by our faith. In this way, our faith avoids becoming simply a theoretical thing, with no connection with life. Our faith is meant to be practiced, not only thought or believed in. Our faith is life, not a book.
St. Paul reminds us as he had reminded Timothy that money is the root of all evil. We cannot escape the fact that we did not bring anything when we were born in this world. And we cannot bring anything from here when we die. He is driving at the need for us to beware of becoming attached and enslaved by the creatures of this world. There is only one God. The rest are creatures, although we might mistakenly deal with them as if they were God. This would be idolatry.
The astonishing thing about St. Matthew's calling is that Jesus simply presents Himself to this chief tax collector and addresses him, saying, "Follow Me." Remember, Jesus caught him working his slimy business. He was a public sinner in the eyes of the ordinary Israelite. But his worthiness was not the basis of his calling. It is simply God's sovereign will. He is not like a casting director looking for the right fit for the role of a movie. St. Matthew surely would not fit if we made God think like us. He chooses the one He wants, creates, and supplies him with what he needs to fulfill his calling. Our limitations should not be an obstacle to our answering yes to the divine choice. Levi stood up and left everything to follow Our dear Lord. We need to do the same!
The title of today's homily is taken from the first letter of St. Paul to Timothy, read in today's first reading of the mass, verbatim. Gone then should anyone's doubts be. There is not just the Christian who can interpret the Sacred Scriptures on his own, since he or she could claim direct contact with the Holy Spirit. The Church was established by Our Lord Jesus Christ on the Rock of St. Peter in order to uphold the truth and keep that truth safe.
St. Paul enumerates the qualities to his disciple, St. Timothy, in this letter. What is striking is that they should be of impeccable character. Our parents had this as a goal too when any of us were young. Our parents simply faced the responsibility of training us for future society. I point out, however, that this process would necessarily require the parents to practice what they teach. Otherwise, it would be very difficult for the children to learn to live virtuously.
St. Paul clearly instructs Timothy, his disciple, to pray for everybody. That referred especially to the Gentiles. We should not put limits on the quantity or quality of the people we need to pray for. He said that we pray for everyone, not only for some, for those we like, or for only the number we feel right so as not to bother the Lord with too many petitions.
For us to learn to forgive, we need to ask God for help. To err is human, to forgive is divine. And so the saying goes. Another thing for sure is what Our dear Lord warns us about. He will deal with us the way we deal with others. If we hardly grant mercy, God will do likewise to us.
This text of St. Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians enlightens us to see and appreciate the following: we have a treasure and we carry it in vessels of clay. This symbolizes our fallen nature that easily falls and sins. To encourage us onward in battling our weaknesses, we need to consider we have a treasure consisting in the life of grace, our divine calling, our quest for holiness, God's love for us manifested in so many details during the day. Hence, we should not love hope. We should reach this level of self-knowledge.
The Letter to the Hebrews tells us in the first reading of the mass that Jesus learned to obey His Father's Will, although he prayed that His Passion and Death not happen. In the end, He submitted Himself by saying that not His Will but the Will of God be done. The Blessed Virgin Mary imitated her Son at the foot of the Cross by accepting in obedience the Will of the Father that her Son die on the Cross. She suffered a lot. It is difficult to obey but this is the way to undo the first sin of Adam and Eve. They disobeyed God by touching the forbidden tree at the instigation of the devil. The only way to make up for that and to undo that sin was for Jesus to obey His Father's Will. Mary followed her Son in that obedience.
What used to be hated and feared and despised has not changed in any way in itself, but since Jesus Christ took it up and died on it to save us, we now should appreciate the humiliating crosses in our lives.
There is no escaping it. Jesus carried and died on the Cross to save us from our sins and restore us to God's life. It is also imperative to embrace our daily crosses with a different outlook now. We need to value these crosses and succumb to tantrums or frustrations because of the Cross of Jesus Christ. Having the cross is a prerogative.
St. Paul tells his Colossian converts that since Our Lord Jesus Christ is in Heaven, they needed to spend their thoughts on matters of Heaven. Thus, we have another reason to take care of our prayer life. If we are to spend eternity in Heaven, we would need to start practicing prayer life here on earth. We should not keep our hearts rooted here since we are only passing through.
That is the message of St. Paul in his letter to the Colossians in the first reading of today's mass. He graphically uses the phrase "You must be rooted in him". As the tree gets its nourishment from the ground through its roots, we need to get our sustenance from Our Lord Jesus Christ's life.
The text of today first reading teaches us the why of our suffering, even though Jesus Christ had already suffered and died on the cross for all of us.
The readings in the mass today, the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, encourage us to face our serious responsibility to help others through this Christian and Evangelical means of fraternal correction. Our Lord will hold us responsible if we keep our mouths shut and mind our own business. As they say, Hell is full of closed mouths. It is a grave duty of charity. We all make mistakes. We implicitly would like to be helped to be right and correct. Our problem is that we find it difficult to see our faults because we are too close to ourselves. We need another person to point out we have stains on our faces or our fly is down. Even when the one corrected does not change, Our dear Lord assures us that that person will suffer the consequences and that we who went out of our ways to help him would escape judgement from God.
St. Paul points out to the Colossians that they were redeemed by the sacrifice of the Lord's Body's death on the Cross. However, much still needs to be done since in the words of the Apostle of the Gentiles, we need to persevere to the end when the Lord returns in His Second Coming. The Apostle from Tarsus encourages listeners to look forward and not simply celebrate being saved by Our Lord's death. We need to hope for that final conversion in time for the Lord's triumphal return.
The one most special lesson we need to learn and keep on learning about is that God's favor is won by the humble. Mary was an ordinary young girl. Her one quality, among the many gifts she enjoyed, that caught God's eye was her humility. She saw herself to be a handmaiden. "Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done to me according to your word." The ones who enjoy God's favor are the humble. He gives his grace to the humble.
Today, the Lord tells us through the letter of St. Paul to the Colossians that we need to do God's will and not waste God's gifts in what brings us away from Him. Otherwise, we waste our time and efforts. Accomplishing what is good is not enough. Receiving our reward on earth would not be enough. Our Happiness would only be limited to this life. How about the life eternal? For this to happen, we need to do God's Will and for that, we need to know it through prayer. In this way, we escape the clutches of the powers of darkness.
Let's observe how the Apostle of the Gentiles greets the Colossians in opening his letter to them. He mentions his title as an apostle of Jesus Christ. One could find it unusual to do that, but after following the customs of the time, St. Paul made it his practice to keep in mind his identity as such. This facilitates many things in one's living each day in his activities. For instance, if we keep being aware we are children of God, we can handle better our disappointments and challenges because we firmly believe that God being our Father in Heaven will not permit anything bad to happen to his children. Then, he mentions his companions always in a good light. We should follow suit when we mention others in our discourse and thoughts. Lastly, he wishes good to the others.
This sums up what St. Paul tries to tell the Thessalonians in his first letter tl them. We all need to struggle to heaven but we are not to struggle alone. We have the help of the communion of saints, i.e., the others. How are our concerns for the others? Are they effective and creative? Or do we give in to mediocrity and discouragement?
We practice our faith when we use it to answer questions about death and what happens after it. As long as we are with Christ we can expect the same things as what happened to him, i.e., we will resurrect and we will still be with Him after death. If we have not been striving to be with Him while here on earth, we may expect that we will not be with Him in the afterlife. What a terrible prospect!
The readings in the mass today bring us to consider the plight of Jeremiah, who despite working for God was persecuted by the same people who were recipients of the word of God passed on by this prophet. Since the news Jeremiah brought was negative to his listeners, they condemned him. Jeremiah was also called by God to become a sacrifice too for God in this harrowing experience for him. St. Paul in the second reading tells the Roman in his letter to them that they needed to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice too. Jesus scolds St. Peter when he chided our Lord when he announced that He was going to suffer and die. He tells him, "Get behind me Satan." He tells Peter that he does not understand the way of God in this matter. We need to be available to suffer for the Lord.
St. Paul reminds the Thessalonians to love one another. He was elated by the fact that they learned it from the Lord himself. Such loving the others is how their love for God would be verified. It is easy to claim we love God as required by the Shema of Israel. But we learn to assess its veracity and solidity from how we care for the others around us.
Holiness means to live the life of Christ. This is the life that Jesus died to get us to enjoy. It is a participation in the life of God through grace. We should grow in the likeness of Jesus. This is the fruit of the work of the Holy Spirit, not our work but His. All we need to do is to get close to Him by frequenting the sacraments, especially of Penance and the Eucharist. Thus, we receive all the graces God wants to give us. Then, we let the Holy Spirit work on us. Let us not avoid His chisel blows when He chips off our selfishness, vanity, laziness, lust, anger, and so forth. Let us be like clay in the potter's hands to be easily molded to the form the potter wants.
We learn impressive things from St. Paul in his first letter to the Thessalonians chapter 3 in the first Reading of today's mass. First, the blessed communion of saints. We may have to ask the Holy Spirit to deepen our awareness of a great many others who are even unknown to us and who are suffering greatly but keeping in the faith. This must be an encouragement to us to pray for them and to see our responsibility to live in a more Christian way. Second, we need to look forward to the second Coming of Jesus, when he will judge the living and the dead. The final victory will be ours. We will all be vindicated and the enemies of the Faith who seemed to escape judgment with impunity on earth will be judged finally.
St. Paul clearly states what he did as he went about preaching the Word of God. He worked at his profession--which was to be a tent maker-to support himself, although he could have asked the Thessalonians to help him since as an apostle he deserved such treatment. But St. Paul did not make use of this privilege. He worked hard. This we need to imitate and examine our conscience about. We should not be a burden to the other. He live off their earnings. We should work and work hard with competence and care for the details. We do this in order to be able to offer our work to God and to serve the others well and properly.
The temptation of preaching ourselves, or preaching only what our listeners would like to hear without regard for the Will of God that sent us to share the Good News is powerful. St. Paul in the first reading of today's mass. St. Paul defends his rectitude of intention in his fulfillment of his mission. We imitate him necessarily by not only being superficial in how we serve the recipients of the Good News that we bear. We need to give ourselves, our entire selves to them.
In the First Reading of today's mass, we read from St. Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians. He delivers his subtle congratulations to these people because they lived their faith in action. Faith is not something we only think about, speak about, or discuss. Faith is a Life. Faith is lived out, not only thought about. Hence, we need to ask ourselves about how we practice what we believe in.
It is rather unfortunate that the name of God is used haphazardly nowadays, as an expression of surprise, shock, disappointment, etc. Today's Gospel should remind us about what and who God is. St. Peter declares that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. He is the Anointed One, the One promised by God to save mankind from sin and death. He is God since His Father is God too. How much of a God is Jesus to us? When He pronounces the words of consecration over the bread and wine in Holy Mass, these materials turn into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. They obey Him instantly. He commands existence from nothing. But for us, what does God mean?
The First Reading of today's mass taken from the Old Testament Book of Ruth tells us of Ruth who accompanied her mom-in-law back to Israel. She was loyal to her. And so Ruth met Boaz taking care of his land. They married and they bore a child who was Obed. It turned out that Obed was the father of Jesse, who in turn was the dad of King David, the illustrious ancestor of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Although the lineage of Jesus may not be that clean so to speak, such colorfulness should not determine future limited to being unholy. Our future is forged by the Providence of God and our good use of our freedom. We can still make it good.
The First Reading of the mass today, Friday of the 20th week in Ordinary Time tells us of the loyalty of Ruth to her mother-in-law. She went with her anywhere she went. She became like an assistant who took care of Naomi. It is worth mentioning that Naomi was a Jewess while Ruth was a Moabite, a gentile. Naomi returned to Israel, since her husband Elimelech and her sons had passed away already. She had no more business in this foreign land. Ruth followed her back to Israel although she was a Moabite.
St. Bartholomew gave us a good example in giving his life and became a martyr of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, he became a pillar and foundation of the Church spawning more conversions to the Church of Jesus.
Being a leader should mean that we listen first to God and carry out His wishes. Then the in our care will listen to us. If we make as king a certain creature to the detriment of the real Kingship of Jesus Christ we will certainly be in the wrong.
What Gideon did is typical of any one of us who is called by God to do something for him. We give excuses so that we be excused from following his Will. Moses did it. Peter tried to cite his being a sinful man. But to this God always says, "Do not be afraid."
We should not be shocked at ourselves when we experience ups and downs in our Christian struggle to be saints. Our individual stories are just like what happened to Israel. The Chosen people also went through a roller coaster of a history in their relationship with Adonai. They would be faithful to His Word and then become unfaithful especially in falling for the idolatry practiced by their neighbors, i.e., other tribes of gentiles. But the Lord was faithful to them, never giving up on them. Of course, He would punish them and they would repent. He'd send them Judges who would bring them back to the fold and help them be faithful. But at the Judge's death, the Israelites relapsed into idolatry. That being our story we should not give up since God is always Mercy to us.
We are created in order to fulfill a mission on earth. St. Paul wrote the Romans about this and explained to them and to all of us that although we may be unfaithful, although we are sinners, He does not depend on our vacillations in life. He calls us to existence to accomplish a role and an objective for which He does not repent of. Let us constantly look for our calling. Having this sense of mission changes our perspective in life. It matures us and strengthens us.
Joshua challenged the Israelites into deciding who God they would serve. We need to respond likewise to this challenge today in all our circumstances. Today there entice us many other idols just like during the times of Joshua.
Joshua called for a meeting with the leaders of Israel. He began to enumerate to them what God had done for them from even before sending Abraham to begin a new race of people, i.e., the people from whom the Messiah would come from. His enumeration was a veritable narration of their history up to that point. God did everything for them and they just had to tag along, go along and collaborate with God. This absolute owner accounts for everything we have. We have received them from God. Do we use them properly knowing that we are only stewards? Do we fall prey to vanity and pride believing falsely that we can do anything with them? Do we reason out that "This is my body. I can do anything with it" like the pro-choice and pro-abortion advocates claim? Do we thank God, praise God and interpret reality according to this central perspective, i.e., God gave that to us?
Joshua was appointed by God to take up the leadership of the Israelites after Moses passed away. God gave him the same capability as Moses who parted the Red Sea for the escaping Israelites to pass dryshod. God empowered Joshua to do practically the same thing, only that the river concerned was the Jordan river. God underscored the importance of having a leader. We are all called to lead since we are called to other Christs, Christ himself!
The bottom line of our relationship with God is about how much we trust him. If we don't then we would be in doubt of his goodness. Moses doubted when he struck the rock as instructed by God to do but with the doubt whether that would be enough to get water to gush out of the rock, he struck it again. God was displeased. He punished him by denying him entry into the Promised Land. God only showed it to him from a distance. We should not doubt God on his word. When we experience some doubts we need to make acts of faith again and again to counteract this doubt.
Today we celebrate a solemnity about the Blessed Virgin Mary being assumed into Heaven. Among other things, this goes to show how much dignity there is in a female, in a woman, in a daughter of God, and in this particular case, in the Mother of God.
We shouldn't just treat God as way of expression in whatever way we want. He is the God of gods and Lord of lords. He is transcendent and here with us at the same time. He is not a part of the universe. He is the God we need to adore, praise, ask pardon from, thank and ask from for absolutely everything. How much is God a God to us?
The first reading of today's mass of the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time tells us of Elijah's change of heart regarding his mission. All he needed was an experience of contact with God. He was fleeing from persecution and he reached Mount Horeb. There was an earthquake, fire and wind but God was not in any of them. Then there was a gentle breeze and Elijah got his fill that led him to return to his mission. We need such experience with God in prayer and not only in special times of prayer but all the time.
The Jews had the practice of reciting the Shema three times a day. This was logical since we in our love for God although theoretically certain in practice we forget it or go about our activities having a different idea in mind or a different love that we aim at. The recital of the Shema or in the Catholic custom the morning offering could help us keep ourselves straight and sure towards God. The Shema goes like this: Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Relative to having this relationship with Christ, that would have infinite value, everything else that may be valued here on earth would assume a lesser value. St. Paul employs a very strong word. He compared these to rubbish. That is how much he prized knowing Jesus Christ. Thus we can examine how goes our relationship with Christ and especially how we keep up in knowing him. Do you need to do some catching up in knowing his plans, his will in each of our activities, etc?
God loves a cheerful giver, says St. Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians. This is a basic Christian principle. We cannot behave with God as like what we do to our parents when we begrudgingly do what they ask us to do in the house because we don't like what they were told to do. Do we pout after being requested to do something? When asked to do some errands for them do we get moody and drag our feet when going out to do them? As the Apostle of the Gentiles says we are free to choose what to do, let us be free in doing that we are asked to do, by God or by some authority and not act like a spoiled kid. In this way of being cheerful we can imitate the saint of today, namely, St. Lawrence who was martyred by being roasted alive. He is reputed to have told his executioners that he was well done already on one side and that they could turn him around for the other side to roasted. What a guy, right?! What great love he had for the Lord Jesus Christ who suffered and died for him and for all of us, for that matter.
God's goodness is seen in His caring for us by appointing instruments to help us discern God's Will.
The First Reading of today's mass brings us to contemplate the complaining of the Israelites because of the difficulties of the journey to the Promised Land.
St. John Mary Vianney was a man of great penance and sacrifice. He asked the Blessed Sacrament during a Benediction that he'd accept all the sacrifices that He would send him for the conversion of his parish.
The first reading of the mass tells us of the concept of the Jubilee in Israel. With the Jubilee we should recall we have received gifts from the Lord and that we need to share that with the others.
Moses built the Tent of the Covenant by following the instruction s of God to the letter. This is also how we need to approach the will of God. We need to listen to it and obey it. But there are also some things that God wants us to use our God given talents especially our spiritual faculties to choose what we would like to do, always being within the wide road that God grants us leeway.
St. Paul tells us in his first letter to the Corinthians that he encourages us to imitate him since he also imitates Christ. If he does not try to imitate Our Lord his moral authority over the people would practically disappear.
The three readings in the mass today show us this importance. Solomon asked for the ability to distinguish good and evil. In the second reading St. Paul tells us to ask to be saved. The Gospel tells us to ask that God give us the pearl of great price and the treasure in the field, i.e., the discernment of what God wants us to do in this world and for which God created us.
God did so to make it easier for us to know what we needed to do to do good and avoid evil. As the situation of man was debilitated because of original sin, man needed assistance to know accurately God's Will in the Decalogue. Without this aid man would have tended to commit errors in getting to know God's laws, not everyone would be talented enough and have the necessary time to analyze his experiences to distill from them the way to please God in our behaviors.
It is such an important revelation about who God is when in the first reading of today's mass for the 16th Week in Ordinary Time tells us that God offers us forgiveness as long as we repent of our sins. He is ever ready to forgive us.
God does not forsake his chose people. He sends Moses as his instrument. As usual when God chooses someone, that someone brings up an objection. But God prevails by saying He will accompany Moses.
The story of how Moses was born, the circumstances he was born in and how he survives as a baby and becoming the son of Pharaoh's daughter is illustrative of God intervening in our world.
God's omnipotence means that His Will is uncontested in the universe. No creature can resist His all powerful Will. However, His only weakness is a created will like us and the fallen angels who can elect to be proud and disobedient. But even then God power accomplishes its purpose especially because He can get good from evil.
We need this virtue to counteract the root cause of our pride and disobedience to God's Will.
The preparation we have been undertaking these days with the first readings of the masses include the understanding that although our Lord does not need any of us to accomplish His Will, He has wanted to count on our contribution, our free correspondence to His divine inspiration and action in our souls. What a privilege! Thanks be to God that He has wanted to depend on us also!
This is staple in the Christian conscience. When a problem is observed or suffered by a Christian he or she strives to--at least in theory--to see what could be done about it, not by someone else--although that may be possible--but by the one who notices such problem. One tries to see that he is called by God to address the issue and to do something about it. When there is a crisis in the Church as we could see in her colored history there were people who rose to the occasion and saw and appreciated God calling them to give themselves to His--God's--plans so that the Church could be reformed. This is a basic Christian attitude that we all need to verify in ourselves. We will have to struggle in preparing ourselves for such eventuality like in developing a prayer life and cultivations of the Christian virtues. Only then will one get to pursue the call of God as seen in his detection of a problem or crisis in society and in the Church.
What we usually do is to listen to ourselves. Worse, we just say immediately what we think. This leads to many errors and mistakes especially against charity. Human prudence requires us to at least think first and even better for Christians to listen to the Holy Spirit. You cannot go wrong in doing this. What might be problematic is to discern what He actually says. In any case, if we pursue this line of behaving, the Holy Spirit will teach us how to discern Him and His inspirations. Let us pursue this!
We depend on their witness of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The doubting Thomas was praised by Jesus because he saw Him and touched His Wounds. But Jesus praised all those who would come afterwards who without seeing Him or touching His Wounds, we would believe. We depend on that witness. This explains why the Apostles preached a lot the Resurrection. It became the cornerstone of their preaching. They did so powerfully.
That is it! Suffering has meaning. We will see this in how the Apostles take their flogging and humiliation in front of the Sanhedrin for the miracle of curing a crippled man.
We begin the season on Lent in the Catholic Church. We recall that the Church helps us to contemplate and incarnate the life of Jesus Christ. So she brings us through the various phases of his life. We began with His birth by preparing for it with the Advent Season. We then contemplated Jesus in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, delivered when the fullness of time arrived, His infancy, His childhood, His adolescence and so forth. We tried to incarnate the qualities and virtues of Jesus as He went through these stages. We are now preparing for the Easter Season when we contemplate Christ's victory over death. To help us prepare for this most important mystery we have the season of Lent. About 40 days are spent in it. We thus prepare ourselves by contemplating and striving to practice the virtues Our Lord exemplifies during His Public Life leading up to Calvary.
Ash Wednesday signals the beginning of the Lenten season in the Roman Catholic Church. Just like the pair of seasons of Advent--a preparation for the Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ--and Christmas, we have Lent--a preparation for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ--and Easter seasons. We Catholics recall more intensely and deeply the Public Life Of the Son of God on Earth that led Him to be caught and tortured by His enemies among the hardheaded Jews and the pagan Romans. This culminated in His crucifixion and Death on the Cross in Calvary. On the third day after His death He resurrected and appeared to some people.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is tested by a reckless lawyer. He asks Our Lord what he needs to do to gain eternal life. This is a question we all need to ask, and find out the answer. We are destined to Heaven but we need to fulfill the requirements. The first is that we need to love God with all our mind, all our strength, all our soul, all our heart...
Man asks this question all the time, even when he does not realize it. We do things here on earth always for a purpose, for an ultimate purpose. It may be God or basically for selfish motives. We are so in hurry that we fail to take time to consider how this latter would fare as a last end. Will it bring me eternal life? If I know myself I would be easily disgusted if I was my own last end. I only do things to delight myself. That would be a certain hell, right? So what do we have as the real last and ultimate purpose?
Today we read in the Gospel about faith that Our dear Lord describes as powerful to move objects like a tree to the sea. If our faith needs nourishment to be strengthened then let us ask for more faith.
This is the Lord's reminder to his seventy-two disciples when they returned to see him after a day's work. They were jubilant because the forces of evil were subject to them. They had received the power to overcome these demonic forces from the Lord. We would equally feel so proud and joyous at the experience of sending the powerful devil off and back to where they came from. But Jesus cautions them and reminds them--and us--that we should rejoice in that we are working out our getting into Heaven when we collaborate with the Lord in His plans and projects.
Our Lord in the Gospel today from St. Luke chapter 10 warns Bethsaida and Chorazin about their fate if they do not repent. Jesus compares how much He had invested in these towns for their repentance with the case where He would have applied the same to Tyre and Sidon these would have repented.
Today the Church celebrates these three Archangels. Let us pray to them and entrust to them our concerns.
The Gospel today tells us of what we need to do in order to follow Our Lord, even up to the point of martyrdom.
Today we read about Our Lord Jesus Christ on the way to Jerusalem but having to pass Samaria. There was this village that didn't want to accept Jesus since He was set on going to Jerusalem. The sons of thunder, James and John, wanted to bid fire from Heaven to consume that village. Jesus corrected them. His solution was simply to go to another village to avoid a situation of tension and conflict.
The sons of thunder, namely, John and James, asked our Lord whether they could send fire from Heaven to punish the village that refused to be hospitable to Our Lord who was passing through. The reason they had was that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. Our Lord corrected them and simply asked them to go to another village instead of having this frontal collision or conflict with that village that refused him shelter.
We read in the Gospel today about Dives and Lazarus, the Rich Man and Lazarus. Dives feasted magnificently everyday. He could not see the needs of the poor sick man at the gate of his property. Shouldn't we check out our surroundings and see the people around us?
Our Lord passed by the office of Levi, who would become St. Matthew later on. And He called him to follow Him. He got up immediately and followed the Lord. Jesus continues doing that today when He also passes by our places of work and calls us to follow Him, His footsteps, His teachings, His calling in the context of our work.
The only way is what Jesus praises in the Gospel today. That is that we should listen to the word of God and practice it.
Jesus Christ is the Light of our lives. With Him we can see better and penetrate more deeply and accurately into reality. This reality is what God provides us to find our path to Heaven. Such Light we do not put under a bushel or under a bowl. Such Light is best positioned to be able to provide guidance to us travelling to Heaven.
The Gospel of the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time makes us notice the contrast between those who follow Christ and those who are worldly. He encourages us to appreciate how these worldly people are astute in fulfilling their worldliness. Different from them are Christians who seem slow in being astute as well in furthering God's agenda in society. So Jesus challenges us to learn from the astuteness of the worldly to advance God's agenda in spreading the Good News.
God sows His seed, that is, His Word. He has foreseen the different types of recipients to His Word. And still He sows His Seed. He reaches out to us all the time. Let us be more responsible to receiving His seed. He reveals Himself to us via natural revelation as seen in His works
The Gospel today-Friday of the 24th week in Ordinary Time 16 September 2022- tells us of the women who accompanied the band of Jesus. Jesus treats women going beyond what was conventional in Jewish customs with regard to women.
Today we celebrate Our Lady of Sorrows. She stood at the foot of the Cross suffering with her Son on the Cross. Who mother would not suffer with her children? She would even desire to take their pain and make it her own just to save their children. Our Lady was identified with the Will of Jesus who was obeying His Father's desire to save mankind from sin by His paying with His Life the price of sin. She also was like having birth pains giving birth to each one of us for Christ to be born and to live in each of us.
We celebrate today the supernatural value of the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. The cross and attendant crucifixion was hated penalty in the ancient world. The Romans adopted it to send a grim message to all its enemies. But the dying of Jesus on it transformed it into a grace from God. That teaches us who undergo crosses everyday to appreciate them because they help us participate in the work of salvation of Jesus.
This roman centurion exhibited a faith that amazed Jesus Himself. The soldier is remembered for his words in the words verbally said by everyone just before holy communion of the celebrant priest. The benefactor of the Jews simply saw that since he could order his soldiers to do something he transposed this analogy to Christ Himself. He only needs to say the word and his servant would be healed.
With our mistakes, failures and sins we might get into a crisis of sorts especially because of our milieu. There is a lot of talk about having to succeed, having to work hard and earn, etc. In fact, we may get the impression that there is no place for those of us who actually fail. Our self-esteem takes a deep dive. We get to believe we are no good. But this is not how God looks at us. He always awaits our returning to Him, to have a conversion, to seek forgiveness. We are all in the same boat. We are not failures just because we have sinned. The end is not yet. What we can always do is to see repentance and conversion and return to the assuring and forgiving arms of Christ.
If we permit the blind to lead us who are blind already, then we simply would be courting trouble.
It is characteristic of Our Lord that He prays a lot. He dedicates time to pray even the entire evening in preparation for big decisions like the one He made today in the Gospel of today's mass, namely, He called His twelve apostles. We should do the same.
Instead of paying attention to something to criticize they should have prayed for the man with the withered hand. God identifies himself with those in need and in this particular case, He was in this man with the withered hand.
Today the Holy Catholic Church makes us review Our Lord's teaching about following Him. He requires that we carry His Cross and follow Him. Otherwise we cannot be His disciple.
Our Lord is made aware by the Pharisees and Scribes of the difference between His disciples and the others. The former do not fast while the latter practice fasting. Jesus reminds them that you cannot expect the bridegroom's attendants to fast when the bridegroom is around. This bridegroom refers to Jesus. Now that He was already ascended to Heaven Our Lord invites us to fast. Fasting does not refer only to food or drink. Fasting is also called for in other things like fasting from the Internet, fasting from FB, fasting from other forms of self-indulgence.
When Our Lord enters our lives He does not need our permission. Likewise, we need to enter the lives of our friends, colleagues, officemates, etc in order to share with them the goodies we have received from the Lord. Minding our own business would be behaving like the devils. They don't mind anyone's business because they are all self-centered and concerned about their own excellence in opposition and ingratitude to God.
Today Wednesday 31 August 2022 he hear that Jesus in the Gospel curing the mother-in-law of Simon. Interestingly after the sickness left her at the command of Christ, she began to attend to their needs. We need to get into this train of thought. We receive a blessing then we need to realize that God sends us to do something for Him. Remember the Blessed Virgin rushing to the side of her cousin Elizabeth who the Archangel Gabriel revealed was pregnant although she was sterile.
Jesus tells us today Tuesday the 30th of August 2022 that there are devils. He handled the possession of a man by an unclean spirit. He exorcised the poor man and the devil left him. However, what interests us now is how the devil reacted to the presence of God before him. He was so defensive. He considered and challenged God saying, "Have you come to destroy us?..." How in the world does a creature talk to God like that? God is the source of all goodness.
Some people think that if they eliminate the person who corrects them from an error or malfeasance, they would be off the hook. They forget that it is not the other person who performs his duty to be of assistance to the person weighed down by sin but his very own conscience who condemns him. Herodias thought so. She wanted badly to kill the Baptist but Herod liked to protect him to listen to him. But she got her opportunity when her daughter's dance moves delighted the intoxicated Herod during his birthday party. He vowed to give her whatever she wanted. At her mother's instigation, she asked for John the Baptist's head. And so he lost his head! But the head that should have gotten off its shoulders should have been that of Herod and Herodias, the criminals in the story. It was their consciences that bothered them in the first place.
The Lord exhorts us to humble ourselves instead of exalting ourselves in this life. His life and example is patent in this too. He who is divine did not disdain the chances to be humble. He actively submitted himself to torture, spit, insults, etc. Why don't we adopt that attitude too instead of looking for honors and privileges here on earth. He is clear that he who exalts himself will be humbled!
The parable of the talents is the subject of the Gospel for today. It is found in Chapter 25 of St. Matthew's Gospel. The same themes are set forth by the Lord. They similar to the previous parable in the same chapter, namely, that of the wise and foolish virgins. There is a time of reckoning. God has given us our lives to develop the talents he has distributed among us. The time of reckoning comes and the three servants need to account for the money the master had left with them to see what they had done to them. The first two doubled the money the master had given them and the master rewarded them for they took care of the little things. But the last one was punished because he did not do anything with the little money was left with relative to the amounts the master had entrusted to the first two servants. Most of us have little things to take care of in this world. But doing that will get us the big reward in the end.
Anyone of us could be classified either as wise or foolish. The foolish virgins did not bring more oil in case they would have to wait longer for the tardy bridegroom. The wise virgins are wise because made provisions for such eventualities. Likewise, we all need to think about the future. Not just the future in this world. More importantly we need to think of the future in eternity. Are we making provisions now about where we would go?
The Lord warns us that we need to have some preparedness for when he comes the second time to our world. For that we need to examine ourselves to determine what we need to ask pardon for and for what we could still do better. For this to be done well we need to know well the life of Jesus Christ and to know his teachings. Otherwise, our standards to judge ourselves would be lacking and substandard.
We celebrate in the Church the feast of St. Bartholomew today, the 24th of August. The Lord tells us in the Gospel in the Holy Mass the story of the meeting of St. Bartholomew--then known as Nathanael--with Him for the first time. It was St. Philip who brought the topic of Jesus from Nazareth being the Messiah to his friend. He invited him to check Him out for himself. This is an example that we as Christians should also do. We cannot keep to ourselves the things we learn in listening to these homilies for example. We need to spread the Word of God to the others. First, by loving the others, that is, to serve the others. One of the ways among others, is by sharing the good things we have. Isn't our relationship with Jesus one of them?
Jesus teaches that the Jews should continue listening to the Scribes and Pharisees but cautions them not to follow their example. They teach but they do not practice what they preach. The reason they don't practice what they teach is that they lacked rectitude of intention. They only were after their fame and gain honors and recognition. They had another god!
Mary is our Queen! The Queen of Heaven and Earth! And she has an army. Let us be part of her army. The way to go is to always say yes to God. We can say Serviam! That means I will serve. Not like what Lucifer said to God Non serviam, or I will not serve. That is how he became Satan and Hell started to exist.
Once again the Lord provides us another imagery for our consideration to teach us something important. This time he employs the narrow door or narrow gate. He tells us that to get to Heaven we need to struggle to get through that tight opening. We will not be alone in trying to make it through. It takes effort to struggle to get to Heaven. So the question is whether that is our attitude. Many times we are cavalier about our efforts to get to Heaven. Low goals, lukewarm attitudes. So unlike what we expend when we are doing what we like.
Jesus criticizes the scribes and pharisees for being teachers who do not practice what they preach. At the bottom here is the influence and succumbing to pride and selfishness by these teachers. They are not actually interested in teaching the people sincerely. They just mouth the teachings and do not give good example of living those principles.
Our Lord Jesus Christ replies to the questioner that the greatest and first is that of loving God above all with our entire heart, soul and mind. The second is similar to it. But the second is the test of veracity of how we are doing the first. We need to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Today we read another of Jesus' parables about the kingdom of Heaven. Our Lord compares it to a wedding feast of the Son. These symbolic realities refer to Heaven and the wedding is that of God's only begotten Son who is Jesus. Jesus is set to marry His Bride, the Church. The invitations were sent but nobody accepted the invite. They had their excuses. Isn't this what we do as well when we are inspired by the Holy Spirit to aspire for Heaven or a step of struggle on earth so we advance in the direction of Heaven. His Father skipped the guest list because no one accepted to come. So He asked his servants to invite everyone in the street. This was done. This symbolizes God's general salvific will, i.e., He calls everyone to Holiness. However, He finds a man in the feast without a wedding garment. He ordered him to be cast out. That wedding garment is the state of grace or state of friendship with God. Without this we cannot enter into the wedding feast. We cannot enter Heaven that way.
The Gospel today draws us to recall that parable about a landowner who hires workers to work in his vineyard. We are represented by these workers who are hired at different times of the day. We are characterized by differences of our conversion to the Lord. There are those who give themselves to God early in life. Others when they are middle aged while yet others go to the Lord towards the end of their lives. God promises the same reward to everyone without discriminating anyone. The ones who followed our Lord early in life might expect more reward. They might even be critical of God who gives exactly the same to early birds as well as those who come late. Why be envious of his generous goodness that prefers to give the same to them all.
Essential to our struggle to reach Heaven is detachment from creatures like material possessions. Our Lord is not against owning property. We need material means to attain our purposes here on Earth. However, what he emphasizes is that we cannot be slaves of these creatures. Otherwise, it will be most difficult to see Him for eternity. The Apostles express their exasperation and frustration in this matter. Who can be saved then? Our Lord clinches the lesson by saying that with God nothing is impossible. With men, it will be impossible to struggle against attachments to creatures.
Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Heaven. The Blessed Trinity wants to bring Mary body and soul to Heaven. It was fitting because Jesus her Son is also in Heaven Body and Soul. The source of His Flesh and Blood was Mary. It would not do that her flesh see corruption. She was united with Jesus all the time, especially in Calvary. It was fitting that she also is united to her Son in Heaven. She is assumed into Heaven especially because She was so obedient and faithful to the plans of God that when the Triune God wanted her body also in Heaven she followed and was taken up.
In following Christ we need to realize that He wants to have us spread what He came to tell us. It is not enough to be a follower of Christ, knowing him and living like Him. This should include an enterprising spirit to let others know about Him. St. Josemaria Escriva mentioned about a lighted charcoal that did not give off heat or light. What a strange sight, right? What is normal for a follower of Christ is that he thinks about how he could spread this fire, the teachings of Christ to man...
People noticed that Jesus was passing by. There were children in the street. Their parents prodded them to go to greet the Master. The Apostles tried to stop them from bothering our dear Lord so intensely set to spread his saving teachings. Our Lord saw the intent of his disciples and he corrected them. He asked them to permit the children to come to him. He revealed that the kingdom of Heaven is for children. Hence, we need to become like children. What better way to remain like a child than to think of our mothers. Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary will help us stay youthful and childlike in preparation for Heaven.
Our Lord cannot be more clear in this teaching. In today's Gospel from Matthew 19 Jesus declares that what God has united no man can break. He was referring to the institution of marriage.
We have the Gospel of today's mass telling us about Peter's question about how many times he would need to forgive those who offend him. Jesus says that he should forgive as many times as necessary, i.e., all the time. Jesus related a story about a servant who was forgiven his huge debt. However, this same servant unjustly demanded from a fellow servant his debt. He threw him in jail. The other servants reported this to the king. The king called the servant he forgave of his huge debt and demanded from him to pay his debt. Being unable to he threw him to jail too. The interesting thing here is that we imitate Peter in consulting with the Lord about the quandaries in his soul regarding what to do. We should do the same.
The greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven is a child, Our Lord teaches. Heaven belongs to such as these. Death or the prospect of dying can help us see ourselves truly. Death levels the playing field in the world. And the truth is that we are small, no matter how much our imagination and dreams leads us to conceive of ourselves. We are like before a very superior power that we are like children.
Today the 9th of August we celebrate in the Catholic Church the memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Her original name is perhaps more well known. She was Edith Stein before she joined the Carmelites. She died in the second World War in Auschwitz in its dreaded gas chambers. She was captured in Holland where she was moved to by her superiors to hide her from the Nazis. She was a Jew who converted to Catholicism. After the bishops of Holland denounced the evils of Nazism, the Germans retaliated by rounding up the Jewish converts to Catholicism to send them to their concentration camps. And it was to one of these that St. Edith Stein went and died. The Gospel today from Matthew chapter 8 tells us of Our dear Jesus Christ teaching them the answer to their question regarding who was the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven. Our Lord got a child and placed him in their midst and declared that one needed to be like this child in order to enter the kingdom of Heaven.
In the present podcast I try to convince you to make acts of faith in God and his providence, that no matter what happens and especially when things look bad, we should repeat having faith in God who knows best. Jesus also teaches us to try not to offend others by the apparent neglect of a duty by arranging things so that we actually fulfill that duty.
The Gospel of the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time brings us to listen to Jesus' words about our treasure. He asks us to have our treasure in Heaven because something less than Heaven would be open to destruction by earthly elements. Then, we will be left with nothing. Investing in Heavenly treasures first means that we need to be vigilant. We should be like basketball players who are so conscious about how to make more points than the other team to win the game. We need to be more aware of doing lots of good here on earth to make it to Heaven.
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. We read in the Gospel of the Holy Mass today the narration of St. Luke about this transfiguration. Jesus removes the veil covering his Divinity and Glory for the three closest of this Apostles to appreciate His attributes. Pay attention that Our Lord just revealed to his apostles that he was going to suffer in the hands of his enemies, then die and resurrect after three days. That is truly a terrible prophesy. Who wouldn't be traumatized by it? So Jesus wanted to show them a secret. And that was that he was divine and in glory. This dying would only be a step in a series of steps to save mankind from sin. He was like telling them not to be traumatized by his crucifixion because He was in charge. He was going to resurrect anymore. Then that voice of the Father came out of the cloud that covered the scene expressing the divine relationship Jesus had with the Father, i.e., Jesus was his Son and that we need to listen to Him. This is what we need to do, we need to be rooted in Jesus no matter what. God is in charge. He has a plan. He just wants us to trust him!
Today we celebrate the memorial of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome. It is the oldest church dedicated to her. It contains many treasures to honor her since the Council of Ephesus in 431 where the Blessed Virgin Mary's greatest honor, namely her divine maternity was defined. Let us not fear of overdoing our honoring her because we can never outdo God in doing so.
St. Peter is asked by Our dear Lord about what he thought about the Lord. He declared the divinity of Christ. He is the Christ, the son of God. Jesus praised him for this since what he declared was fruit of God's grace sent to him at that moment. Instead of seeing Jesus just like he would of any man, he went deeper by the grace of God to the divine identity of Jesus. He was not only man. He was and is and will always be the second Person of the Blessed Trinity. This going deeper into reality is fruit of the grace of God that we need in this life. We should not be satisfied by externals, images, fleeting pleasures, etc. We need to penetrate more deeply so that we do not get deceived by things. It takes for time and effort and the grace of God we need to ask for. Hence, it is easier to be superficial. St. John Mary Vianney arrived at his parish of Ars. He discovered that Christian life was almost nil. He officiated a benediction with the Blessed Sacrament and he asked God for the conversion of his parish and he was ready to accept any sacrifice God would send him. He was a deep person, a man of faith, a great saint.
We have the case of this Canaanite woman in asking for her daughter's cure as an example for us in being patient in asking Our Lord for favors. We should only show our need, our indigence, our weakness to our Lord. The truth is no one wants to show himself in some way weak. But this is the disposition that helps convince Jesus to do a miracle for this woman. We should live a certain kind of strength of the persevering endurance kind.
We read from the Gospel according to St. Matthew Chapter 14 about Our Lord walking on the sea after he prayed for the evening after multiplying the five loaves and two fish to feed so many people. St. Peter in a manner of speaking challenged Our Lord asking him to bid him come over the water. Our Lord invited him to come to him. He got distracted by the strong wind and he began to sink. He cried to Our Lord to save him and Our Lord extended his hand to Peter and remarked that he had little faith and demanded why he doubted. We need to be reminded that Our Lord is also present in our midst. And we can call out to him to save us, to help us, to fortify us. Thus, we can use various ways to remind us of His pervading presence: images of crucifixes, pictures of Our Lady, our own Guardian Angels, etc.
Today we read about Our dear Lord multiplying the bread and fish, only five of the former and two of the latter, to feed at least five thousand men. Our Lord only asked that these meager resources be brought to him and be prayed over. Then he asked his disciples to distribute them to the people. This is the behavior we need to imitate and emulate, that although we may surely feel inadequate in facing a problem, we only need to present our smallness to God and ask Him to multiply it so we could confidently face our issues and fulfill our purposes.
Our Holy Mother the Church provides for our lesson today, the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time 31 August 2022, the text of St. Luke's Gospel Chapter 12, verses 13-21. Someone in the crowd asked Jesus to act as arbitrator to the conflict of claims between two brothers. Our Lord does not accept the invite but focused on reminding everyone that there in our hearts lurks covetousness or avarice. Hence, we would need to be on guard against it because it explains the quarrels we have over possessions in this world. Our Lord calls a person preoccupied only with his money and business a fool because he was going to be called to God's presence very soon. At death, no one can bring anything of this life to the next. He should have thought about his social responsibility before thinking of a flimsy security of having a lot to be able to simply make merry.
We are given for our consideration Matthew 14: 1-12 about Herod murdering St. John the Baptist. He knew of this prophet's teachings and correction about his unjustly taking Herodias who was Herod's sister-in-law. Herodias was married to Herod's brother Philip. But he did not retract or correct his behavior. He only liked to listen to him. But this changed radically when he in a drunken state was pleased with the sensual dance of Herodias' daughter during one celebration. Pleased as he was, he promised on oath to grant any request of this dancer. She asked for the head of John the Baptist. He felt constrained to do it, and he ordered the execution of the prophet.
The Gospel of today's mass, Saturday of the 17th week in ordinary time 30 July 2022, brings us to the context of Herod the tetrarch capturing and jailing John the Baptist. He ended up chopping off his head because of his promise to grant whatever the dancer--Herodias' daughter--asked. She had them bewitched by her sensual dance. Alcohol helped. But alas! She asked at her mother's instance for the head of John the Baptist. He was constrained by the oaths he made in front of his guests. He went for it to be granted. Had he acted on the Baptist's teaching of separating from Herodias, his brother's wife, whom he had taken to be his own, he would not have been put on the spot.
Today, I speak about the resurrection of the dead in relation to the obligatory memorial celebrating Sts. Martha, Mary and Lazarus. One of the Gospel options today is the one taken from Luke 10:38-42 where Jesus arrives at the house of these siblings when Lazarus had already died. Martha meets him and poured out her heart about her wishing that Jesus was present when Lazarus was still sick. But she declared her faith in the resurrection of the dead and that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. He asks her directly about whether she believed in this. To which Martha answers she did and then declares the divine nature of Jesus. Since he is God, then he can very well resurrect her brother Lazarus.
Building up on the Gospel of the day, Thursday of the 17th week in Ordinary Time July 28, 2022, from Matthew 13:47-53 where we find the familiar parable of the The Lord about fishermen and the catch of fish when the fishermen segregate the good from the bad in the items caught by the net. Jesus reveals the reality of hell symbolized by the items thrown into a certain furnace where there will be the weeping and the grinding of teeth.
Two persons were compared by Our dear Lord Jesus Christ in today's Gospel. Jesus declared the second one to be pleasing to God. And that is the prayer of the tax collector who simply said "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." This shows lots of humility which pleases God so much. There is nothing like speaking the truth about oneself to the One who is everything and more. The first one's prayer belonged to the Pharisee who prayed more about his virtues and good deeds before the One who is Good. He refrained from praying the lines about one's insufficiency.
Jesus asked this of his disciples one day. He addresses each one of us about this all important matter. If Jesus was just any Tom, Dick or Harry to you, then we would not have to change our lives. If Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Son of God, then we would need to change our ways. Peter spoke up protesting about Our Lord's announcement that he would suffer and die at the hands of their religious leaders. That was His plan to save us from sin and hell. Peter protested. Peter tried to correct Him. Peter receives a rebuke from Our dear Lord. His ways were not God's ways. We need to adjust to God, and not the other way around.
Today we are presented by our Mother the Church the following scene in the Gospel. He is brought a blind man they beg him to cure. He removes him from the village they are in. Jesus puts spittle on his eyes and asks him how he is with his sight. He replies that he saw people but they were like trees moving about. So Jesus proceeds to put in hand on him again and only then could the man see clearly. To carry out God's purpose for us He proceeds step by step. At time he does things quickly with one step like the majority of his miracles. But he could also as he did with this blind person. First, one step, then came the final step. So let us appreciate also this way of God acting on us in our prayer where we may see nothing, then another prayer period we see some more and so on and so forth. Only in Heaven will we see very clearly God face to face.
Jesus asks this question of his disciples who were worrying themselves about forgetting to bring bread with them on their trip by boat. The Gospel tells us they brought only one loaf. That loaf referred to the living bread from Heaven, i.e., Jesus himself. Being aware of that still made them worry about not bring bread. Our Lord asked them what they witnessed recently of how He multiplied the loaves of bread for the crowds. They should not worry about lack of provisions. Our Lord would be enough. Let us be more perceptive of the things of God, that we be more sensitive to the motions of the Holy Spirit in our souls. This we ask from the Holy Spirit.
Today we greet each other Happy Valentine's Day. Flowers and roses are sent to our beloved women in our lives. Today we also celebrate important historical anniversaries in Opus Dei, a personal prelature of the Catholic Church, namely, the anniversary of the start of the apostolate of Opus Dei with women and the anniversary of the foundation of the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross. Both these landmark dates point to the persevering prayer of the Founder, St. Josemaria Escriva, who initially did not think women could form part of Opus Dei and who could not find the solution of having priests ordained to serve in Opus Dei. On February 14 in their respective years, God nudged St. Josemaria forward to include women in the Prelature's apostolate and to found the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross that will be intrinsically joined to the Prelature by which priest could be ordained with the Prelature as title of ordination.
All these should help us check our hearts' content. The contemplation of the Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple will aid us in appreciating the pure heart of Mary and Joseph as they experienced those anxious moments.
Today we read about the version of St. Luke of the Beatitudes. We are more familiar perhaps with the version of St. Matthew. Anyhow, we read about them in today's Gospel. Let us remember that the Greek term makariosusually translated to Blessed can be translated as Happy or Lucky. So we can keep this in mind when we read these Beatitudes. These are the features of those of follow Christ. Here in this imperfect world we may suffer and be miserable but God assures us of his loyalty to us for He will reward us afterwards.
Today Our Lord and his disciples met the challenge of feeding about four thousand people who had gone with him for three days. He was concerned that if he asked them to go home they might faint on the way. So he asked his disciples what they had: some loaves of bread and fish. He asked for them. This is a good example for us all when we meet any challenge. We have to check what we really have instead of whining about what we do not have. Then, Our dear Lord gave thanks. Gratitude for what we have is the call of the moment. Then he asked his disciples to distribute them. We need to imitate this scene. Our Lord will supply what we lack but we need to give all we have!
Today we are presented by the Gospel in mass a scene of Jesus on his way to the Decapolis. He is presented a deaf mute. They ask him to cure him. He draws him aside and puts his finger into his ears and touches his tongue with spittle. This is amazing! Then He uttered, "Be opened". He was cured. He began to speak and hear. We also need this miracle so that we can speak when we are supposed to in order to correct somebody, encourage someone or enthuse somebody. We need to learn to do this instead of saying bad words, curse, or utter words that puts down our neighbor. We need the miracle to get us to hear what we are supposed to hear, i.e., God's Will, instead of listening to so many useless words, gossips, hatreds, envies, etc. But this can only happen if we have contact with Jesus. This is possible only when we spend time in prayer.
This time we find Jesus in a repartee with a Syrophoenician woman who was begging him to cure her daughter of an unclean spirit. Although Jesus begins apparently rebuffing her reaffirming his main purpose on earth was to save the chosen people of God. She did not make much of this. She just insisted in playing along in repartee with Jesus who was won over by her intelligent and creative replies. Our Lord granted her request and her daughter was healed. He appreciated women and was open and frank with them. He respected them for their obvious talents as women and encouraged them to the utmost of their potential.
Man realizes he is not a god. He is a creature beset by limitations and weaknesses. Therefore, he has this concern about what happens to him when he passes this life. The Jews were sticklers for cleansing themselves although they underscored the externals only. I suppose that was not so in the beginning but more and more these cleansings were limited to superficial manifestations that Our dear Lord expressed disapproval of their so called piety because they honored the Lord only with their lips but their hearts were far away. The Lord in today's Gospel tells us the real culprit for our dirtiness. That is sin.
The Lord today in the Gospel of the mass today makes us think about this matter. He called the attention of the scribes and Pharisees because they expertly make up policies on practices and make them traditions for the ordinary Jew to follow. They finagle things things so that theses practices supersede the laws of God. This is another manifestation of man acting like gods, obviously a desire our first parents had to distrust Him and disobey his commandment not to eat the forbidden fruit. We should beware of this tendency we may have. We need to change how we set up these traditions and practices, i.e., they should only hold sway in our lives only when they follow the Will of God.
Oh how the crowds followed Our dear Lord Jesus as he went from one place to another! They all wanted to touch him or at least the fringe of his cloak. Our Lord did not stop them. He wanted it so as to communicate with them and transmit to them his saving power. At a deeper level he was establishing the grounds for setting up the economy of the sacraments. For especially the people that will come afterwards till the end of time they can establish contact with Christ through the sensible and efficacious signs that are the sacraments that communicate to us his saving grace. These sacraments are accessible via the external senses. That is how much and deep God understands our need to touch him.
The Gospel today narrates for us the miraculous catch of fish where we find Jesus boarding the boat of Simon. We should read that as an image of Our Lord boarding our lives. Shall we be as docile as St. Peter in going to the deep waters and in throwing the nets for a catch when it was not the time to fish? With the miraculous catch Simon was moved to ask our Lord to depart from him because he was a sinful man. We also find ourselves incredulous at how God comes close to us, gives us good things, and even asks us to follow him. Listen to Our blessed Lord assure him. "Do not be afraid. From now on you shall catch men." We shouldn't be afraid to dare to follow our Lord and doubt or second guess ourselves.
Our Lord today in the Gospel spends bonding time with his apostles. They have been working hard, so hard that they did not even have the time to eat. In any case, he brings them to another part to be by themselves. However, the crowds were there already waiting for him. What is striking is that they according to the good Lord were like sheep without a shepherd. Hence, he renewed his teaching activity prodding the apostles to do the same. They were supposed to rest but the urgency of taking care of the souls of those crowds had a greater pull. Especially parents with their children, we all bear some responsibility in explaining the faith to the others.
King Herod shows us the dangerous situation we put ourselves in when we think and act in an intoxicated way. During his birthday he and his guests were pleased by the sensual dance of Salome, daughter of Herodias, who was recently stolen by Herod to be his consort from being Philip's wife. Herod asks Salome what she would want him to give her for the entertainment. Upon the advice of her mom, she asks for the head of John the Baptist who was in prison but kept alive by Herod's fascination at listening to him speak. Herodias was so bothered by John's repeated judgements about the anomaly of her and Herod's situation together. She wanted to kill him but couldn't because of Herod. So now an opportunity presented itself. Herod caved to the request and ordered the execution of the holy man for his head to be served on a platter for Salome, who brought it to her mother Herodias. We should be careful in making decisions of great import when we are under the influence of alcohol.
Wordliness teaches us to trust in the world. Trust in God is moved to the margins. Hence, our blessed Lord forbids his apostles from bringing certain necessities when they went out commissioned by Jesus to help him evangelize by curing the sick and expelling devils. Thus, God also deprives us of certain things in life to help us exercise this trust.
Today we celebrate the feast of the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple. Mary and Joseph were very law abiding Jews and they fulfilled the obligation to present to the Lord their first born son. This is a practice we need to adopt or to continue with great love and devotion. The best for the Lord! Then, we need to trust God in venturing forward in life although we are sure that there will be difficulties and sufferings and pain.
We are sent by the Church to this Gospel scene with Jesus who meets Jairus begging him to come to visit his daughter who was dying and in the trip over there his encounter with the woman who had been suffering from a haemorrhage for twelve years. Both stories and miracle enlightens us about the faith Jesus taught us about. We only need to trust in the Lord!
Our Lord shows his command over the wind and the sea in this episode of the Gospel. He had been sleeping at the stern of the boat when a sudden gale tossed their boat like it were a toy. The disciples were frightened so much and the they ran and woke Him up. They asked him whether he cared for them. Of course, he does care for them. He got up and quieted the waves and the wind. We should not doubt our Lord. He always cares for us even on those times He seem not to. That simply means he is caring for us in a different way.
As usual Our dear Lord uses parables to explain the deepest mysteries. One of these primary mysteries is that about the Kingdom of God that he has been inviting everyone to join. From the very beginning of his public ministry he vectors everyone there by repenting. He compares this Kingdom to a mustard see that mysteriously is able to sprout and grow from being a tiny seed to a big tree with branches that provide shade and security. We may not understand why the Church legislates this or that, or we may find such rulings as exaggerated and fanatical and so forth but as it is the Kingdom of God is a place where you can be secure from the dangers outside her fold. These rules are simply like what our parents used to give us to keep us safe at home.
Today's Gospel enlightens us regarding the nature of Christ. He is light for us. Since he is the Truth he sheds light on our knowing faculties so we may see and understand better reality. Without light it is difficult for us to see our way, to find objects we are looking for and impossible for us to see the direction and goals we are trying to achieve. We cannot keep our Lord away from us. Otherwise we make our journey here on earth more difficult if not impossible. We may find other lights that would just send us on a tailspin.
Today the Lord tells us a parable, that of the sower and the seed. He points out the importance of checking what kind of place these seeds fall onto. Depending on the quality of the reception will the seed bear fruit. We are responsible for taking care that we are receptive, open, attentive, focused and so forth to God's Word. He looks for the fruits of his investment of seeds in our souls.
The Gospel today reminds us of the instructions of our Lord Jesus Christ just prior to his ascending to Heaven to sit at the right hand of his Father from where he shall come to judge the living and the dead. This remind is for all of us, not that we are supposed to do exactly the same thing, but to evangelize through our different circumstances, talents, education, culture, etc.
Today's Gospel introduces us into another show of envy by Our Lord's enemies. This time they claim that Jesus casts out devils in the name of the devil himself. He discusses with the people the ludicrousness of this proposition. He tries to bring them to understand that such stance in looking at him is a sin against the Holy Spirit, i.e., they reject God and his overtures to bring us salvation and cure.
The Scriptures are what constitutes the written Word of God. This is what St. Luke started out to do culling content from their experiences with Jesus. He recorded in an orderly manner the events of our dear Lord's life. So the New Testament did not just come out from thin air, made without a context or done without some supervision of some kind. Hence, Our Lord established a Church with his authority to gather these manuscripts of what would make up Sacred Scriptures and more accurately, the New Testament as we have it. He who hears you, hears me and he who hears me, hears him who sent me. Jesus shared his teaching authority with his ministers. And so the teachings of our Lord spread throughout the world.
The Gospel today presents the relatives of our dear Lord to be very concerned with him because he did not have any time to eat anymore because of the work he had, the crowds and sick needing his help and cures. This work included his preaching and teaching. No time to eat! They were convinced that Jesus was out of his mind.
We too have some madness for a creature on earth. There are those crazy about football, a girl, an actress, an actor, a movie, or something else. We might even miss meals because of our love for them. This should wake us up to the ability and potency we have to be crazy about our love for God. We have that energy. We have that strength to do something crazy for Him since He also did something crazy for us, i.e., He died on the Cross to save us from sin and death.
Today we see our dear Lord thronged by so many people. They recognized him as someone very special since he cured so many. But at the end of the Gospel he forbade them from making him known. This is understandable because he did not want the people to think that he was merely after becoming a king in the earthly sense. But also we may understand that the Lord wants to teach us to be aware of our wayward tendency to extol ourselves as paragons of something. Indeed we can be famous for a certain talent or skill. We may be recognized by society as an expert or authority or power. However, we should be careful about being vain and attribute all that to ourselves.
In the Gospel today we see a confrontation again between Jesus and the Pharisees who were on the lookout for Jesus first mistake, error or failure so that they could have something to accuse him with. This could remind us of how we sometimes look at the others with envy eager to find something to gossip about, talk badly about, accuse of, be judgmental about, etc. We should imitate Jesus who brought goodness to everybody. Their problems, sicknesses and sinfulness were just occasions for him to do good to them.
Jesus teaches us today that fasting needs to be done. He points out that there is no need of fasting when the bridegroom is around, i.e., Himself. But there comes a time when the bridegroom is taken away and then there will be the need to fast. This refers to the Passion and Death of Christ. We cannot expect not to fast because Our Lord himself undergoes his Passion and suffering for our salvation. We fast in union with Him. We fast in order to feast with Him when we resurrects.
We continue reading from St. Mark's account of Our Lord's life. After spending so much time with those physically sick, he pivots around the account about the paralytic. With this last case, he first forgives his sins and seeing his faith. Notice, these are invisible and spiritual realities that the Lord is dealing with now. His claim to be able to forgive his sins startled the Jews who know that only God can forgive sins. But Our Lord rose to the challenge. He clarified that he could forgive sins and proved it by curing the sick man of his paralysis. In today's Gospel, Our Lord spends time with sick people again, but this time with spiritual ailing people like sinners and tax collectors. The other objected but our Lord brushed them aside since he was still concerned about the health of the people, albeit in the spiritual realm.
He came to banish evil. Hence, he cured Simon's mother-in-law of the fever she had. Later in the day, many came with all kinds of diseases and ailments that he cured. He banished demons from peoples' bodies. He also prayed and He gave this example to the people and to all of us reading this Gospel and throughout His life.
When Jesus Christ comes again to judge the living the dead he would be looking for solid deeds of faith, hope and love in each of us. Our life as Christians as the Lord said in the Gospel today is that we listen to his words and live according to them. This part of acting on the Lord's words is crucial. Without this, we would be theoretical Christians and not real sure followers of the Blessed Lord. Our lives should be built on practicing the Lord's teachings. We will be judged on this and not on mere sentiments or thoughts about the Lord and his words.
The Gospel today provides us the features of Christ the King, the Solemnity we look forward to this coming Sunday. He walked on water, He enabled St. Peter to walk on the water, He saved Peter from sinking and He calmed the winds that terrified His Apostles in the boat. Thing is that Our Lord prayed before all this display happened. He teaches us that if we pray we can access this tremendous power of kingship.
The Parable of the Talents is an allegory of our lives. God seen in the master of those servants who leaves each of them an amount of money with the instruction that they do business with it to make more money. To the ones who increase their money he rewards them with more responsibilities. The last one who did not do anything with the money he was entrusted with is punished. And so we shall also be when the Lord comes to judge the living and the dead.
Our Lord invited himself to Zacchaeus' house. This senior tax collector was overjoyed and not only that he repented of this shady practices by promising to do restitution to the ones he defrauded. We all need our Lord to be saved.
Our Lord insists with us that we should not falter in praying. This is not only about petitions to him but also the praying praising him, thanking him and asking pardon from him for our sins and the sins of the others we know of. This persistence is a manifestation of faith in God. Such faith is a relationship with him which is the underlying reason for our praying to him. Either getting our wishes to come true or not is not the most important thing in praying. Our foundational intention is to maintain and nourish a life of relationship with Him.
We all wonder what and where the Kingdom of God will be. Jesus announced it. St. John the Baptist announced it. All our direction is towards it. But to get there we need to repent as Jesus said to the people. Interestingly, Jesus claims that the Kingdom of God is among you. It is among us. It is here and we are in its midst. We don't see it or feel it yet. And our lives is all about getting to enjoy it. We know that Jesus is the Head. And we are members of his Body. Since each of the baptized is a Christian, a follower of Christ, or more accurately, alter Christus, ipse Christus, then in each of us is that Kingdom. To make it there we need a program of constant conversion. That means frequenting the sacraments, prayer and ascetical struggle.
Our Lord cured ten lepers who asked him for help. He asked them to report to the priest. They got cured while in transit to see the cleric. Only one, a samaritan, returned to Our Lord to thank him. He wondered where the other nine were. Are we one of them?
On visiting the Temple of Jerusalem, that center of Jewish life, Our blessed Lord saw the sad conversion of his Father's house of prayer, i.e., house of encounter with God, into a house of secular business. He was so angered that he made a whip of cords and flushed them all out of the Temple. The religious authorities demanded from him the authorization for doing this. The Lord prophesied about the dissolution of the temple of his body and in three days return to life. He does present to us followers of Christ the reality of our bodies as Temples that need to be cleaansed for occupancy of the Blessed Trinity.
One of the areas of assistance we need to be aware of making fraternal corrections. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself talks about this responsibility we all have. No one is perfect. Neither is any of us able to see himself as he goes about his daily duties. Hence, third parties will be able better to check on us. Rather than to gossip about us we need to see our duty of letting the concerned party know about his defective behavior so that we could correct it.
Our Lord Jesus Christ brings up two points. First, he criticized the Scribes who focused more on themselves, having the choicest positions. Vanity seems to be their problem, thus displeasing God. Second, he praised the generosity of a poor widow who contributes all she has, although little relative to the contributions of richer donors. These latter contribute from what they had extra. But the widow gives all she has. She pleases God more.
This rivalry between God and Money is felt by most of us. We know that we cannot have both as our masters. There needs to be a hierarchy between them. Jesus Christ asks us to put God ahead of money. The devil is successful in convincing people to think that if we do that then we need to say good bye to Money. This is a lie. We need to use money. This set up is also provided by God's care for us. There is a compatibility between the two. In fact, we need to create lots of money. It is the special way we would be able to serve the others.
The end of the Liturgical Year is approaching. The theme of the Last Things is highlighted by the Church in the Gospels of her masses these days. Today we have a steward who has been caught by his master in defrauding him. His masters wants him to prepare to leave him by fixing his affairs. He does so in a crafty way by settling the accounts of those who owe his master.
Since we have been chosen by God to exist in the world and to be His children we need to be more mindful of ourselves. A healthy spirit of self-awareness will go a long way to foster gratitude to God, penitential disposition of our sins and humble smallness in need of help from God to continue in the struggle to reach Heaven.
I speak of the need for supernatural outlook in order to be obedient to seize occasions as opportunities to imitate Our Lord Jesus Christ.