Today's Gospel reading from Mark 6 tells the feeding of the five thousand. Jesus multiplied five loaves of bread and two fish to feed five thousand hungry people. After they ate and were satisfied, they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments and what was left of the fish. Here I see a clear case of God creating something out of thin air, truly awesome!
Tuesday, January 7, 2020
**To Love As God Loves
In today's first reading from 1 John 4, the Apostle talks about God's love. We Christians already know that God is love. As for us, we are capable of loving others, but our love is more limited compared to the Lord's unconditional love. If loving others is going to cost us in some way, we become hesitant. To truly love others, we'll need to exercise our free will to accomplish it. Again, I am not a theologian, but I believe it's because we were born with original sin. If we were sinless, we should be able to love as God loves. So what we should do is to offer our free will to the Lord, letting his will replace ours. Then we'll be able to love more perfectly.
Monday, January 6, 2020
**What We Are Meant to Do*
Today my second son just had his second child, a boy. These thoughts came to me. We were all created by God the Father, so we truly are his children and belong to him. It's clear that we are meant to remain with him. To stray away from him is to be lost, for we live in a dangerous world. Every child born should be offered to the Father for his protection and blessing. Each new life is most precious and important to him. Read what Jesus said in Luke 17.2: "It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin." Therefore, no one should sin and no one should be lost to the Father!
***How to Face Sin
Let's face it, sin is the biggest problem of our life, for it affects our eternal existence. We should take it most seriously, but at the same time not let it bother us the slightest. How so? The Devil is real and wants you to sin as much as possible, while the Lord God wishes to save us from sin. So, if you go with the Lord, there won't a thing to worry about—he can remove all your sins and even keep you from sinning again. Be one with God and the Devil won't be able to touch you with a mile-long pole.
Sunday, January 5, 2020
**Beware of Consequences of Sin
The consequences of sin can be irreparable. For example, I criticize my friend Tom before other friends and as a result made them think less of Tom. To restore my friendship with Tom, I could always apologize to him and ask for his forgiveness, but it would be difficult for me to restore the trust the other friends originally had in Tom. An obvious extreme example would be to kill someone and the damage caused now is clearly irreparable. So our best policy is to not sin. And here is where we need God's help to make us holy.
**Dealing with Our Sins*
When you get to know Jesus well, the Holy Spirit sharpens your conscience to the point that you become acutely aware of every minute sin you commit. This is the Lord's way of keeping you holy. The loss of inner peace can be painful, for you know you have hurt your relationship with the Lord, now causing him pain. If the sin is minor, you can make amends by reciting the Jesus Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner or just Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner. This prayer can be said with each breath you take. Fr. Mark Goring recently talked about it on his YouTube video. As soon as we have sinned, we need to restore our relationship with the Lord. Of course, if the sin committed is grave, you need to go to confession to take care of it. The worst thing is to let your sins pile up until they are sky-high. Now, in this weakened condition, it becomes increasingly difficult for you to want to get rid of them.
Saturday, January 4, 2020
*God's Power Channels
Communion thoughts. God is love and love is the source of his power. When we receive the Lord, we receive his love and become channels of his power.
***Go Straight to God Please
Nowadays, we do not hear many strong, clear, inspiring messages coming from within the Church. Well, there are always big name speakers yon can hear at various conferences and gatherings, but this is more like getting a onetime spiritual booster shot. What we need to receive constantly is spiritual nourishment. Reading about the great saints is a good way to go, but the best way surprisingly overlooked is going straight to the Lord. After all, Christ is whom we need to know the most, the source of inexhaustible enrichment, and the one who can satisfy all our wants. Therefore, read the four Gospels and open yourself up to him as your most intimate confidant, then you will hear his sweet voice in your heart fulfilling all your spiritual hunger and then some. If you want to know someone, it would be a waste of time to ask others who might not know him that well to tell you about him. Instead, you go straight to the one you want to know. In this case, that one is our Lord, who is ever ready to receive you.
*Messiah of All
In today's Gospel reading from John 1, Andrew was the first one who followed Jesus. He then told his brother Simon Peter that he had found the Messiah, meaning Christ. The Jewish people had been expecting the Messiah to come for a long time. Even if we do not know anything about any Messiah, we all still have that empty feeling in us, yearning to be fulfilled. But Christ has come, and for all of us who recognize him to be our Messiah, he has fulfilled that void in us and delivered us from sin into freedom. He turns out to the Messiah of all.
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