Becoming One With God

        Communion thoughts. Receiving the Holy Eucharist is more than being touched or embraced by God. The Lord actually enters me to unite mystically with my soul. I become all his!

*God Full of Surprises

         Today's entrance antiphon, Matthews 25.34: Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. So we did not just happen to appear on earth to remain lost; God had actually prepared for our return to him from way, way back. God surely is full of surprises. At the same time, it'd be more surprising if our loving God had not done anything like that.   

**Enjoying God to the Fullest

        If God is to be first in your life, turning to him should never be your last resort. In fact, through receiving him in the Holy Eucharist, you can attain union with him. In such great intimacy, no words are needed to share everything with him. How good it is that he sees and cares about all your desires and wishes. This is enjoying the Lord to the fullest.

Determining Our Destiny

        We determine our own destiny first, for God can not force us to do what he wants us to do. But if we do decide to follow him, then he gets to determine our destiny. Needless to say, he will always lead us to the right happy place.

*Bold Preaching Needed

        The preachings you hear nowadays in general are on the mild side, lacking fire nor zeal. It seems that the concern is that if you preach the message too strongly or to the point, you might turn the people off, for they are not ready yet. Is there ever a time when we can say that we are ready to hear the good news? I don't think so. The need to hear the Lord is ever present, whether you are ready or not. I can't possibly believe that Jesus ever had this concern when he preached. Truth is to be proclaimed freely without getting watered down or held back. How the people react to you is how they would react to God – not the preacher's concern. The Holy Spirit is gentle, but bold and fearless. To evangelize effectively, we must respond to the Holy Spirit alone and cast aside all our own concerns.

*On Recognizing Jesus or Not

        In today's Gospel reading from John 20, Mary of Magdalene stayed outside the empty tomb weeping, thinking that someone had taken Jesus and laid him elsewhere. Then Jesus appeared next to her, but she did not know it was Jesus, for she thought it was the gardener – Mary had a good reason for not recognizing the Lord. But today many do not recognize Jesus because they are blinded by their self-importance. If we do recognize him for who he truly is, we would see that he is absolutely the most critically important person to our existence!

Dying in Sleep

        Is dying in sleep a blessing? Yes, if the deceased had already reconciled with God. No, if the person hadn't accepted God and now missed the chance of repenting to God in his last moment.

**Perfect Ending*

        Do you realize that not only Jesus can take your sins away now, but get you into heaven later and you become perfect at last?

*Breaking News

        In case you don't realize: we are so worthy to be saved by God that he personally died on a cross in our place to redeem us!        

Saved or Not?

        Yesterday, I got the news that a cousin of mine passed away in his sleep. He had always seemed to be in good health, while his younger sister suffered poor health; so it's unexpected that he left first. I had the chance to tell him about Christ for a number of times, but he just couldn't make himself believe. He appeared to be a decent man, always cheerful and fun to be with. I first figured that if I could forgive him, surely the Lord would forgive him. Then I do not really know his heart. Maybe he couldn't be blamed for not believing, for he was not convinced that Christ was the Savior yet, which is not the same as knowingly rejecting him. Then again, if someone truly believes that Christ is God, he wouldn't possibly dare to reject him. Anyway, not knowing where his soul is, I could only trust in God's infinite mercy. But this I know: any believer who does not take his faith seriously can be in worse shape than an unbeliever.