Midyear Prayer Request

        Tomorrow will be the last day of June. I do not ever look back on the past. What's in store ahead for me? I don't think about that either. At Mass this morning, which happened to be the Solemnity of St. Peter and St. Paul, the great Apostles, I just ask the Lord to further (1) heal my soul, (2) condition my heart so that I'll be totally obedient to his will, and (3) purify my mind. Joy awaits me when he complies with my request.

Levels of Knowing

        My last post is concern about whether God knows us. So what is knowing? I know a lot of people, but do I really know them? On the other hand, I have never seen Jesus or met any of the great saints, yet I feel that I know them intimately. To know is a relationship after all. To know well is to have an intimate relationship. In this case, it's the love for Christ that's the common bond, making this intimate knowing possible. It's a knowing not on the physical or mental level, but through the soul.  

Getting God's Attention

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 7, Jesus said to his disciples, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not...do mighty deeds in your name?' Then I will declare to them solemnly, 'I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.'" Obviously, to call Jesus "Lord, Lord" to get his attention or pointing out that we did mighty deeds in his name won't do us any good. Jesus shows us that we must do the will of God in humility, then he will notice us.

How to Be a Cool Christian

        Many jazz musicians and pop entertainers are known to be cool. Kids nowadays want to look cool. To be cool is to do one's thing well and looking totally unperturbed. Jesus was definitely cool. Here's how we can be cool.

        (1) Never judge anyone.

        (2) Trust in God fully so that we do not worry nor get anxious.

        (3) Show compassion for all.

        (4) Be optimistic and joyful always.     

Staying Out of Confusion

         There is a vast amount of information on any subject available to us nowadays. The last two times I got really sick, based upon the symptoms my wife was able to search online and arrive at the right diagnosis each time before my doctors thought of it. YouTube is a popular site that shows just about anything you want to see or hear, but here's the problem of having too much information available to us. Let's just look at the many Catholic videos posted alone. A speaker would present a strong point of view with conviction, then another video will attack him by pointing out all his errors. Or a speaker sounding very Catholic starting out, then gradually he tells us that the Pope is wrong, EWTN has been deceived by Satan, etc. Overall, it's no longer two sides disagreeing; it's everyone thinking that only he knows the truth and everyone else is wrong. Of course, this can definitely cause mass confusion (guess who's happy about all this).

        So, what are we to do? Simple ~ ignore all of them. Keep your eyes on Jesus alone and shut out all noises that are distracting and confusing. Be fully occupied with the Lord and let all else go.

Our Last Wishes

        As people grow older, they wish to do certain things before they die. One common desire is to travel while they are still physically able to. Recently, the fine Hollywood screenwriter Nora Ephron passed away and I caught the end of an old interview with her on PBS. She expressed exactly what I just said and she's all for it. She mentioned a friend who always wanted to taste a certain food item, then she got throat cancer and couldn't do it anymore. So we quite naturally conceive the desire to do more things as we age. However, it's basically self-centered. If we believe in the Lord seriously, in the limited time we have left we really should first ask what we must do to please him even more before meeting him? Who knows? ~ maybe the answer is to take that vacation we dreamed about.

God Getting Personal

        Jesus died for us all so that we may be saved ~ this is old good news. You most likely have also heard said that Jesus would have died for you alone even if you were the only person around ~ this is true too. Think about it ~ how more personal can you possibly get? And how more important can you possibly get to be?

Living for Eternity

        To me, only eternity is meaningful. I want to spend all eternity with my beloved Lord. If I live ten thousand or even a million years and don't make heaven at the end, all that living would be meaningless. If the problem with eternity is all resolved, then everything I go through now becomes meaningful. You could say that I live for eternity only. 

Jesus the True God

        I have posted in the past more than once that Jesus compels us to accept him as true God or reject him as a lunatic or a consistent liar ~ there's no middle ground here. We can rule him out as being a lunatic, since there's not the slightest sign of insanity shown in all the Gospels. It would be hard to find out where he lied in the Gospels either. Perhaps he's being delusional all his life? Then how could he have performed all those miracles? Besides, he was consistent and clear-minded from beginning to end. What impresses me the most was his meekness and humility. On his way to death, he never complained and even forgave all those who put him to death. My conclusion and belief: Jesus has to be the true God as he claimed to be.  

God Does It All

        When we repent properly, the Lord takes away our sins. The next step is to ask him to take away our tendencies to sin also ~ this is healing of the soul. Then we still have certain undesirable traits and weaknesses to overcome, such as being too self-conscious, the desire to overeat, etc. Union with God is the solution to taking care of all the above. In other words, God can forgive, heal, and perfect us. 

For a Straight Spiritual Journey

        Focus your entire attention upon the perfect Lord and ignore completely the imperfections of people (believers included), then your spiritual journey will be safe and straight. 

How Secure Is Life?

        Today a Mass was said for the deceased friend whom I mentioned most recently and burial took place afterwards. I thought about the security of life. Obviously, even if I have billions of dollars in my bank and the power to influence the world, it's still here today and gone tomorrow for me. I see life as insecure as the flame of a lit candle in the wind. The only security is in the living God, who promises eternal life for those who believe in him. 

The World or Jesus

        The world loves to enslave you and put your heart in turmoil, but Jesus wants you to experience freedom and have peace in him. Make the shift from either one to the other and you'll feel the difference right away. The two are mutually exclusive. It's a choice you must make in your lifetime.

Freedom & Peace

        Not the name of a political party; just the two happy states of the human soul. Freedom comes to the one who seeks only to do God's will. Peace comes to the one who puts all his or her trust in God.

Two Epiphanic Moments

      The first such moment is when you realize that you had nothing to do with how, when, and where you came into the world, that you brought nothing with you, that you are going to leave this world as you came taking nothing with you, that everything you find in your life was already here all along, that you cannot stay alive without God sustaining you, that whatever powers you think you have are given by God, and that you are truly nothing next to the infinite God ~ you owe everything to him. The next epiphanic moment is realizing that through Christ, despite your nothingness, you are actually greatly treasured by God. The best ending is that these revelations get you on the right track to returning to God forever. This makes life a great fulfilling journey!

Life Is a Battle

        Human life on earth is no heaven. No matter who we are, where we live, and what we do, we face problems. Basically, we all fight for our own survival, but those who have little or no faith in God and those who believe in God have different objectives. The former is only concerned about surviving the present life and their help comes from what they've learned from the ways of the world. By contrast, the latter is more concerned about the survival of the human soul, for themselves and others too, and their help derives directly from their faith in God. In the end, those on their own will lose the battle and those with God, not.                 

Walking in Step with God

        Lesson of the day for me. Anytime I feel strongly about something, I should watch out! Is it from the Lord? Am I rushing ahead on my own? The voice of the Lord is always gentle, so a strong feeling may be more from me than from him. On the other hand, if I lag behind when he wants me to do something, I would lose peace too. It's walking in step with God that brings about the best results.

God Loves Our Trust

        Thoughts from the Lord this morning. We must "forget" all our troubles in him and let nothing bother us. The Lord deserves and loves our trust ~ it's his desire that we maintain his peace in us.