Surrendering to Love

       After receiving Holy Communion this morning, I felt that I was surrendering to the most beautiful love ~ there was nothing more I could ask. 

How the Lord Wins Us Over

         In today's Gospel reading from Luke 5, before Jesus taught his disciples to catch men, he showed them how to catch fish. Jesus told Peter to put the boat out into deep water and pay out the nets for a catch. Peter and his companions had worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but they obeyed. They netted an unbelievably huge number of fish and were completely overwhelmed by the catch. Peter fell at the knees of Jesus saying, "Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man." 

       This is how the Lord teaches and draws us ~ he lets us have a personal experience and we are overwhelmed. Then we know that he is Lord and we are won over. As Peter showed, the winning-over itself is a sweet experience. 

Easy to Possess God

        To build up our body, we need to exercise hard. To earn a higher degree, we need to study hard. To make money, we need to work hard. It is general knowledge that nothing is free and all gains must be earned. Then I started thinking about possessing God ~ it's the easiest of all! In fact, you don't even need to work hard ~ all you have to do is to remain open and passive to the Lord for him to enter so that he may fulfill your desire ~ it is absolutely true!    

Sticking with God

        Before I share today's thoughts, I want to say that I've revised my post Ridiculous Faith of September 4. Since I caught Hannity's interview in the middle, I missed the fact that the Democrats did not mention God in this year's party platform, not in their speeches as I thought. I just read that because of all the criticisms, they've hurriedly added God back to the platform. As far as I am concerned, this is still bowing to the people and not to God. They acted like a bunch of kids not knowing what to do without the guidance of their parents.

       Since God is forever constant, present, patient, and loving, let us trust in him always whether we ride on his wings or go through the dark nights, whether the day is beautiful or gloomy, whether we are healthy or sick, for better or for worse, so that we and God will always be with each other through thick and thin.

One Short Step Away from Paradise

        Since I have a simple mind, the Lord out of his mercy always simplifies things for me to understand. At Mass this morning, I saw that God had made everything beautiful in our universe and we are the only ones who mess things up because we disobey and rebel against God. To correct this wrong, we only need to turn to him, repent, and start loving him ~ that is it! All that's involved is a change of heart and we are given the free will to make it happen. Imagine...eternal happiness just one short step away! Why are we making it so hard for ourselves?    

Learning from St. Teresa

       I am a little over a third of the way through reading St. Teresa of Avila's Life. Here are some virtues she spoke of and one tip on praying she gave:

      (1) Not speaking evil of anyone, no matter how slight; avoiding all fault-finding (not desiring to say of another person what I would not want him to say of me); no talking behind another's back (ch. 6).

        (2) Pray not with the noise of words but with longing that God hears (ch. 15).      

Ridiculous Faith

        I just happened to turn on the news and saw Hannity on Fox News talking to a Democratic governor (I wasn't 100% sure that he was a governor) at the Democratic National Convention in North Carolina. Hannity pointed out that in 2004, God was mentioned seven times in the Democrats' party platform. At the last 2008 convention, God was mentioned just once. This year there is no mention of God in the platform at all. The Democrat responded, without mentioning God, that the party is one of faith. This answer was pretty ridiculous.

        First of all, faith could mean faith in themselves, not God. Secondly, even if the faith was faith in God, it had to be a timid one. Being ashamed of God is to invite God to be ashamed of you (as Jesus had made it amply clear). It seemed to be a case of being more afraid of the people (atheists included) than of God. Thirdly, it also showed the hypocrisy which the Lord could not tolerate ("Woe to you...").  

        Yes, woe to us who treat God this way! 

The Lord Is Too Much!

        This was how I felt after receiving Holy Communion this morning. Every time Jesus enters me, he removes all my discontent, refreshes me, and gives me enough peace and joy to sustain me for a long time until I see him in paradise. Receiving him daily is being filled to overflowing. What a great joy to let his love overwhelm us!

A Beautiful Way to Live

        Today is the Memorial of St. Gregory the Great, pope and doctor of the church. The Entrance Song at Mass reads: "Blessed Gregory, raise upon the throne of Peter, sought always the beauty of the Lord and lived in celebration of that love." What a beautiful way to live! This should be the aim of all disciples of the Lord: seeking the beauty of the Lord and living in celebration of that love. 

Two Big Words from God

        Again, with 1 Corinthian 1:25 in mind, which says, "The foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than the human strength," I can say that hearing the Lord say "Well done" is worth more than receiving all the accolades and honors of the entire world.      

God Shapes His Children

        As God's beloved children, we receive the benefit of being shaped by him. This is our training to be made fit to serve him. We become soldiers in his army and our weapon is love. Our goal is to glorify God in every way we can. When he shapes us, our existence changes into the most perfect state.

Knowing God Makes the Difference

        Since I see so many people I know not living a joyful (not even happy) life, I'd like to draw the contrast between those who know God (Jesus) and those who do not. Those who have no faith seem to drift from day to day. They don't think about God (even though I believe that deep down they know that they should). They feel uncomfortable anytime God is mentioned (an indication that they really need him). Life is not fulfilling, at best OK. They worry about and plan for this life, avoiding thinking about life after death (out of fear?). They may seem cheerful on the outside, but they feel empty on the inside. Basically, they live a life of running away from life. Then those who have faith live exactly the opposite.  

Shocking Lessons from God

        God may teach us by shocking us if we don't pay attention to earlier warnings. I don't know if I have mentioned this incident in the past (after over 2,000 posts, it's no longer easy to remember). I used to be somewhat obsessive about collecting music recordings, vinyl long-playing records and later, compact discs. In the old days, there were no online stores, so the only way was to actually visit the stores to find any interesting releases. I knew in the back of my mind that I was spending too much time doing this, but it's easy to go on anyhow. One day when I was driving home right after spending an excessive amount of time at Tower Records (which had folded six years ago), a bird flew out of a row of trees along the freeway and collided with the car's windshield. The impact was so great that it sounded like an explosion and the whole windshield, being tempered, broke into myriad small pieces covering my entire upper body. I really thanked the Lord that nothing went into my eyes. This was a lesson loud and clear to show me that I was wrong in being so obsessed about acquiring recordings.

        The other hobby of mine was collecting postcards of airplanes, ships, trains, and cars. To every new city I traveled to, I headed for the postcard stands first. It was exactly when I was doing this that my unwatched camera bags containing all the equipment and rolls and rolls of film shot were stolen. This shock stopped my collecting folly cold.

        Early this morning I had a bad dream. In it I put my camera bag on the rear seat of my parked car on the street of a busy city and left to go somewhere. After walking quite a while, I remembered that I forgot to lock the car and got panicky. So I started rushing back to the car, but lost my way and just didn't know where the car was parked. I was so alarmed and woke up. Is there a lesson I could learn here? Yes, the Lord showed me how attaching to anything in this world can cause great pain and it's just not worth it. Thank God for the shocks.

Holy Communion Benefits

        When I attend a banquet on earth, I simply enjoy the eating and any festivities present, then leave and go home afterwards ~ it's a one-time thing. Today after I received the Holy Eucharist, I felt that I was attending a banquet that feeds, cleanses, and permanently heals the soul ~ its effect is for all eternity. 

The Lord's Prayer Facilitates Union

        During the Lord's Prayer at Mass this morning, when I came to saying "thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," I realized that if I say it with all sincerity, I am really making my surrender to God. Now I see that when Jesus taught us this prayer, he desired union with him from us.

"Please Choose Me"

        Jesus told his disciples, "It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you" (John 15). It struck me that a great prayer would be to ask the Lord to choose you, whether you are a believer or not. If you are already a believer, then ask him to choose you to serve him, to spread the gospel, to make you holy... there are just so many favors you can ask. When the Lord chooses you, it is a great honor and assures that you'll live a blessed life now and forever. 

Attachment Is Not Love

        Why do people feel sad when someone (or even some pet) close to them leaves or dies? Of course, you miss the person (or your dog or cat). But still why? I dare say that it's because of attachment, not necessarily all love. I know some readers may see it differently ~ that's all right. Here's my take. Attachment to anything in the world is basically self-centered. If someone departs from this world and you miss that person, it's most likely because you feel your loss ~ you no longer have the joy of that person's company, you no longer have that person to give you comfort or help when you needed it, etc. If you truly love that person, you would think for his (or her) sake. If you know his soul is going on to God, you rejoice for him. Otherwise, you feel sad for him, not for yourself. Love is only pure when there is no attachment mixed with it. And the heart is free only when it is free from all worldly attachments.

We Know Enough About God

         A couple of days ago, I read on BBC News online about the discovery of millions of supermassive black holes and blisteringly hot, "extreme" galaxies. Black holes are called such because they are regions of space where gravity is so powerful that not even light can escape. The hot galaxies are labeled as "extreme" because they can outshine our sun by a factor of one hundred trillion! It all sounds like science fiction. I have talked about how I was awed by the universe in the past ~ billions of galaxies with each galaxy consisting of billions of stars. Another interesting fact is that what we see now is already ancient history ~ looking at a star a billion light years away is looking at that star when it was a billion years younger. To see where it is today, we'll have to wait another billion years! If the universe is infinite, then what we've seen is quite nothing. I feel the same way about God our infinite creator. We learned about him through the Old Testament and a lot more from the Lord himself, but there must be so much about him that we still don't know yet. 

      Three points I want to make here. (1) We are finite creatures and obviously, it is impossible for a finite creature to understand his infinite creator fully. What we can know is limited by how God made us or what much he allows us to know. To try to figure out all about God would be utter folly. (2) What God has revealed to us through Jesus is all sufficient for our salvation ~ knowing any more would be superfluous. Therefore, be content with what we already know and start believing. (3) Most importantly, it is knowing God, not knowing about him, that's central. Once you know him, you'll be loving instead of questioning. Then one day your beloved will reveal everything about him to you.