**Equal Before the Lord*

        In Jesus' days, the Pharisees and the scribes look down on all the tax collectors and other sinners, forgetting that they themselves are sinners too. They became hypocrites, which displeased Jesus a great deal. It is important to realize that we are all sinners before the Lord, no better or worse than anyone else. We are to measure ourselves against the Lord only, for we only aim to be holy like him.

***Critically Important to Realize!**

        Today's Gospel Acclamation from Luke 19: The Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost. If you know that you are lost, then Jesus is for you. This is all there is to it.

**Foreknowledge

        Communion experience. I know that one day in Christ, I'll understand everything.

***Faith and Healing**

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 18, as Jesus approached Jericho and was passing by a beggar, the man shouted, "Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!" Jesus stopped and asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?" He replied, "Lord, please let me see." Jesus told him, "Have sight; your faith has saved you." He immediately received his sight and followed him, giving glory to God. This is how faith works in healing. We must not assume that the Lord will heal every little health problem we have. Normally, if it's something that's not that severe and/or will heal naturally in time, we ought not bother the Lord. But if it's something that's critical and really needs God's help, then it's proper to ask for healing outright without hesitation.

**Matching the Lord's Offering**

         Today's response from Psalm 119: Give me life, O Lord, and I will do your commands. In John 15:13, Jesus said, "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." Now, Jesus has shown his greatest love by laying down his life for us so that we may have life, we really ought to look forward to doing his commands with zeal and joy!

***Beauty in Plain Sight***

         I just found this post in drafts which I initiated two years ago but didn't get published. I recall that's because I didn't know how to include a photo image. Here it is now. I've been photographing with my cell phone since 2013 and have photographed hundreds of images of ordinary sights or things most people do not notice. At the time, I was attending daily Mass at Mount St. Joseph Seminary in Loomis, CA. One rainy morning after Mass, I saw this beautiful image reflected in a large puddle of rainwater in the seminary parking lot. Of course, what your see is that image turned upside down. God's beauty is everywhere!

**No Double Standard

        We easily notice others' faults and hardly our own. To be fair, we should examine ourselves at least as rigorously as we do others. On the other hand, we should just focus upon perfecting ourselves first.

**God Is Perfectly Just**

         Today's response from Psalm 98: The Lord comes to rule the earth with justice. Yes, we should trust in the Lord's justice, pray as best as we can for all sinners and accept the outcome of his judgment on any of us in the end. Worrying about it simply shows the lack of our trust in the Lord.

***Unique True Love***

        This is the love we have for God. It's essentially his love. It's different from any other kind of "love" we feel, being pure and completely selfless, and involving both the heart and the soul. As a matter of fact, it alone qualifies as true love.

**Becoming Unchosen**

        In John 15:16, Jesus says, "It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you." The Lord has chosen many of us, but many have turned him down. Not only they won't bear any good fruit, but also lose the benefit of receiving whatever they ask the Father in Jesus' name. They are now orphans.