"Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:48)

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

***Eternal Union or Separation

        In the Gospel reading from John 10, Jesus said: "I give my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand." This shows that those who belong to the Lord are already being separated from those outside the fold. If the latter does not become his sheep, that separation will become a chasm impossible to cross forever – a thought too horrible to contemplate. 

**Making the Right Choice

        In the first reading from Acts 13 last Sunday at Mass, we heard that the Gentiles who were destined for eternal life came to accept the word of God. Are you destined for eternal life? Accept the word of God and you can be so destined too. Rejecting it is to condemn yourselves as unworthy of eternal life (verse 46). God offers us choices. Are we being smart or stupid? Know that if things do not work out, God is not the one to blame. We cannot avoid being imperfect, but we can definitely avoid being stupid.

**Most Beautiful Process

        Peter denied Jesus 3 times, but he loved Jesus, and the Lord forgave him. This is a most beautiful process that can happen to us: we sin, we love the Lord, and we are forgiven. 

Love and Trust, Inseparable

        You cannot love a God in whom you have no trust, and you cannot trust in a God for whom you have no love. Therefore, to love God and to trust in him are the same.

To Live Gloriously or Miserably

        (1) We do good, believe in the God of Christ, and are heaven bound – this is living the glorious life!
        (2) We do evil with no faith in the God of Christ and find the pleasures of the world never truly satisfying, not realizing that they are the only reward we are going to receive – this is leading a most miserable existence.

*Simple Fact and Formula

        We do not deserve anything good. It is the love of God that saves us. We submit ourselves to him and he makes us holy.

Fountainhead of Love

        All love starts with God who is love. It is because we love God that we love all others, saints or sinners, friends or enemies.       

**My Agony*

        Jesus' great agony was realizing that he would have to go through the Passion for the sake of saving all of us. My relatively small agony is seeing that so many of us today still do not even believe in him.

***Good Rule to Remember

        Do not do anything in thoughts, words, or deeds you would not want Jesus to catch you doing when he comes next.

To Conform or Not to Conform

        If I choose to conform to the ways and practices of the world, I'd have to compromise some of my principles and not feel free or happy anymore. But if I choose to be individualistic and submit myself to God entirely, I become the freest and happiest person.