In today's Gospel reading from Luke 15, Jesus told the parable of the lost sheep and that of the lost coin. The Lord let it be known that there would be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance. It shows how he truly loves us! If we pray and succeed in converting all sinners, imagine how much joy we can generate in heaven! If we don't try to convert anyone or ourselves, we are spoilsports, party poopers, not deserving heaven anymore.
Thursday, November 4, 2021
***Why Judge Others?
In today's first reading from Romans 14, Paul makes total sense advising the Christians at Rome not to judge others. No comment needed.
"Why then do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you look down on your brother or sister? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written: 'As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bend before me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.' So then each of us shall give an account of himself to God."
***How God Judges Us
The Lord judges us by different standards. Christians are given more, so more is expected of them. Someone who has never heard about Christ may be saved if he is a good person, but someone who knows Christ will be judged by a higher standard. I believe that the standard applied to a priest can even be higher, for he is in a position that can affect many souls. Anyway, every case is different and the Lord knows them all and is always just. If you've been given much by the Lord, know that you need to give him back more in order to receive still more from him.
***God's Beautiful Act
As I prayed the Luminous Mysteries today, I saw that Jesus' giving his own body and blood in the Holy Eucharist was a most magnificent, selfless act. What a great gift we received from him!
***Bonding with God
Some years ago, I had to deal with a difficult matter and one person was always with me. She always supported me and spent a lot of time doing a lot of work for me. The matter was finally resolved after several years. Since she and I went thru so much together, a strong bond was formed between us. Bonds are always formed among those who do things together. Now, if we share everything with our Lord and experience the same joys and sorrows with him, we form a strong bond with him too. In fact, this has to be the most rewarding of all possible bonds, for our partner is no other than the Lord God himself. How satisfying it is to know that he is your closest friend, your most trustworthy ally, and your very soulmate!
***Spiritual Breakthrough
When we abandon ourselves in God, we break through to freedom and joy. This has to be a turning point in our spiritual life, for we break out of self-imprisonment and begin the non-arduous part of our journey to union with God.
***We Are Malformed!
We are shaped by what we experience in this world. In this secular, sinful world, we are influenced so much by all the impure and evil things happening around us that we don't even realize the pitiful state we are in. Hence, we need God who can make us see our sorry state and make us pure, whole, and beautiful for him to behold again. Last but certainly not least, we get to go to heaven too!
***Endearing Yourself to God
Every prayer said straight from the heart endears ourselves to God. So let him draw you right to his Most Sacred heart by sharing everything in your heart with him. After all, he is our most loving Father.
***Skipping Purgatory
I saw this Fr. Mark Goring video that came out in June of 2019. Here are some of my thoughts. Purgatory is where we get ourselves purified before entering heaven. You are going to heaven anyway, right? But both the severity of suffering in purgatory and the duration vary, depending upon the state of the soul. If your time in purgatory would last till the end of time, that definitely won't be a pleasant experience. I am saddened whenever I hear someone who has done something sinful and casually say "I'm going to purgatory anyway." Such an attitude will surely worsen his experience in purgatory if he does get there. Listen to Fr. Goring's message. I agree with him that our aim should be to get ourselves totally purified in this life. If you do this and truly long to see the Lord, chances are you'll go straight to heaven. The attitude should be that even if we do go thru purgatory, we willingly accept whatever the Lord wants to do with us. Total submission to the Lord and loving and longing for him can assure that your time in purgatory will be zero or minimal.
**Awareness of Death
We all know that everyone is going to die one day. But since many people, being still relatively young, don't know when that day will be and have gotten themselves attached to the many things of the world, they live as if they are never going to die. I am sure that should they know the exact date of their death already, they would live their lives differently. You could say that they are now temporarily being deceived by the unawareness of their certain death. I'd advise that we think about our death in advance and start living right, before we get old and realize that death is near. For we may not get that opportunity.
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