Ask the Lord to Make You Well

        In today's Gospel reading from John 5, Jesus saw a man lying by a pool and knew that he had been ill for a long time.  He said to him, "Do you want to be well?"  And because of his helplessness, Jesus cured him. 

        I can't help sensing that at times Jesus asks us this same question too.  If you hear his voice, don't pass up the opportunity to answer yes.  Better yet, ask him to make you well before you hear him ask.

Dealing with Others

         The last line in the poem Do It Anyway attributable to Mother Teresa reads, "In the final analysis, it is between you and God; it was never between you and other people anyway" (see post of 8/27/10). All of us must deal with God in the end. If someone mistreats you, he or she will have to face God. About how we react to that person, we'll have to face God too. Realizing this fact, we can learn to remain cool in dealing with others in all things.

Why Christianity Is Beautiful

        Before Mass I was thinking how beautiful my Catholic faith was.  (I don't even consider Catholicism a religion because to me it's simply the truth.) 

        (1) The message is crystal clear.   God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but have eternal life.

        (2) God's relationship to us is made absolutely clear.  He is our loving Father and Jesus not only our God, but also our brother and our servant. 

        (3) God is Love and Mercy.  You cannot find another god like that. 

A Lenten Prayer

        (1) Help me always remember that there is no profit in gaining the whole world and forfeiting my own life.

        (2) Please make every sin loathsome to me so that I may never offend you.

Follow like the Apostles

        I am thinking that the Apostles had Jesus with them all the time, following him around, absorbing all his teachings, and watching him  perform all the miracles.  We don't have the Lord physically with us, but we can also follow him like the Apostles.  We know that the Lord is with us as he had promised.  He'd given us the Holy Spirit, our Paraclete.  Especially when we receive him in the Holy Eucharist, we reaffirm our oneness with him.  In a way, we are more intimate than following him around in person.  As far as his teachings are concerned, the Church has it all.  He is still doing miracles today among all of us.  Yes, we are absolutely close to him.   

The Light of Christ

        This morning's Gospel reading at Mass was taken from John 9.  The story about Jesus opening the eyes of the man blind from birth is just beautiful.  Jesus declared himself to be the light of the world and then made the blind man see.  We can ask the Lord to shine his light on our hearts too to remove any blind spots he sees.
        As Jesus made it clear to the Pharisees later on, true seeing is not seeing with our eyes ~ it's seeing with the heart.  We can have perfect vision and still be blind to the truth.  O Lord, shine your light upon us so that we may be cleansed of our sins.

Heart for God Alone

        Today's First Reading is taken from 1 Samuel 16.  God lets Samuel know that man sees the appearance but he looks into the heart.  Time and again, I have assessed a person based upon his appearance and even his speech and I turn out to be wrong.  Only God knows what is hidden in the heart.  Our hearts are for God alone to see and examine in secret.  You could say that to become holy is basically a process of preparing and purifying the heart so that it becomes presentable to the Lord. 

How a Christian Should Act

        The current horrible news is that violence has spread in Afghanistan, resulting in the loss of innocent lives and more hatred against the United States and the West ~ all triggered by the people's anger over the burning of the Quran by a Florida pastor.  My thoughts are that a Christian should always act out of love for others and never, never do anything that will turn nonbelievers away from Christ.  That particular pastor obviously doesn't know Christ well and has done something foolish.  Anyone without true humility becomes an easy target for Satan to deceive. 

On Loving God

        In yesterday's Gospel reading from Mark 12, Jesus taught that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength.  When I thought about this, it is really the only logical, sensible way for us to respond or relate to God, for he is our infinite creator, so much greater than us finite creatures.  In addition, he had shown that he loved us so much that he gave his only Son so that we might be saved.  To not love him as we are called to would make us both rebellious and ungrateful. 

Reasons for Loving God

        (1) He is holy.

        (2) He is love.
        (3) He is Jesus.