Squaring Ourselves with God

        If we love God, we will love all others. If we reconcile with God, we will be able to reconcile with all others too. If we do not offend God, we won't offend others either. Work on our relationship with God and all our relationships with others will straighten out. 

Longing for God

        Today is the Feast of St. Teresa of Avila. The Entrance Song at Mass consists of Psalm 42:2-3: "As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God." I've been talking about how God plants such longing in our soul. Today he lets me know that he does it so that he can fully satisfy us one day.

On Living Quietly

        As I was praying the Joyful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary this morning, I saw that the Lord lived his life "quietly." After he made a leper clean, he told him not to tell anyone. After he was gloriously transfigured before Peter, James, and John, he did not ask them to publicize what they saw. Jesus did all his deeds quietly without fanfare or any self-promotion, although the Resurrection and Ascension speak loud enough by themselves. This is how we should live. If God be so humble, who are we to be otherwise? Let's imitate the Lord by living quietly in his shadow so that his glory alone may shine among us. 

God Alone Is Trustworthy

        I have learned that anytime I put my trust in people, I am taking a chance. Sometimes they become completely different persons. My conclusion is that when an opportunity arises for them to take advantage of you, they turn against you. So love all sinners, but be careful not to trust to them too much. God alone is worthy to be trusted, for he will never fail us.

A Sweet Cross

        I have mentioned that after you have fallen in love with the Lord, he gives you a great yearning for him ~ you feel that you won't be satisfied until you are with him in heaven. This is a cross you have to bear, but it is a sweet one.

Selfless Loving Called For

        Christ died in our place ~ God always gives all of himself to us. His love being boundless, he becomes completely selfless. That's why Jesus rightfully commanded us to love the Lord, our God, with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind.   

We Mess God Up

        If we leave God alone (imagine that we are not even around), everything will turn our fine. But we love to interfere with his will! We rebel and offend him nonstop ~ no wonder that the world is in disorder. In other words, we mess God up. The only solution is for us to be as perfect as God is, then his will will be done. Again, to quote what Jesus said in Matthew 5.48: "So be perfect, just as your Heavenly Father is perfect." 

Jesus Brings Joy

        I saw the TV program The Family Hearth on EWTN, featuring Br. Fishman telling the story of Elisha and the healing of Naaman the Syrian. Since Br. Fishman is a Jew, I thought how especially satisfying he must have felt when he realized that Jesus, his Savior, was a fellow Jew. This had to be an extra joy on top of the joy of finding the Messiah the Jewish people had been long expecting. 

Not Knowing We Are Finite

        God made all kinds of creatures with intelligence at different levels. God alone is infinite and all creatures are finite with some more finite than others. A dog is certainly more finite than a human being. You feed the dog and he eats the food, not knowing where the food came from. You give him a ride in your car and he joins you, not understanding anything about the car. You take him to the vet when he is sick and he goes along with trust. So the dog does not question, knowing that you are his loving master.

        God is obviously infinitely more knowing than we are and he had come to tell us that he wanted to save us if only we would believe in him. Then, being finite as we are, why do we keep questioning him and not want to trust in him? If we can't do better than a dog, then our ego must have grossly overestimated our intelligence. 

Latching onto Jesus

        Today's after-Communion thoughts. I was passing through this life and saw nothing worth latching onto. Then I saw Jesus, latched onto him and found out that he is worthy and I was able to let everything else go. Life is no longer a riddle. 

"Conquering" God

        Man wants to conquer Mt. Everest. The climbers spend a lot of money and years of training in preparation for the risky venture ~ risky because over 200 climbers have perished so far on the mount. I suppose that people want to do it because they feel good and proud if they can accomplish something so challenging. I have no desire to challenge myself like that. I brought this up because by contrast I see that I can "conquer" almighty God, to me the highest peak we can possibly reach, without even trying hard ~ all I need to do is to trust and let go in him and he lifts me right up to him. Not only the view from up there is beautiful, there is also absolute security.    

A Crucial Settlement to Make

        There is only one thing we need to settle before we die ~ to make our peace with God. This is of critical or crucial importance. Without such a settlement, we shall not have peace for all eternity! We know that we are to leave everything behind when we die, but don't forget to include unconfessed sins! The wise have already made their peace with God, but the foolish think that there will always be a tomorrow and tomorrow may bring the biggest shock of their life.

We Are Always Welcome

        Today's Gospel reading at Mass came from Luke 11. Jesus emphatically told his disciples: "Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." Obviously, the Lord wants us to feel free to approach him, let him know of our needs, and be persistent about it. It is a great consolation to know that God is always ready for us and we are welcome despite our sinfulness. Any hesitancy to go to him can only come from us. (We are always our own obstacles!)

A Logical Progression

        You give myself completely to God ~ he starts to transform you ~ gradually you become like Christ ~ finally, realizing that you and he are alike, you yearn to become one with him ~ you fall deeply in love with God and your deepest desire is fulfilled. 

Becoming Master of Our Life

        To straighten everything out in our life and become master of our new life, all we need to do is to go straight to the very highest top, our God, and hand ourselves over to him. Then he will help us become his faithful, truthful, and trusting children. In the process, we'll invariably fall in love with him, learn to love all others and have no more enemies. The Lord will handle our tendency to sin and our own struggle to overcome our own sins will be no more. Nothing will be able to deter us in any way. When we are OK with God, everything is OK with us. (In other words, the superior way is to seek union with God first.)   

Mutually Beneficial

        When God gives you a certain task to perform, it is a very beautiful thing because he gets to use you to accomplish his will and you get a chance to please and glorify him.

On Receiving Holy Communion

       Practically everybody receives Holy Communion nowadays at Mass. Do they receive the Lord merely out of habit? Do they seriously understand what they receive? Let me relate to you some of the things St. Teresa says about reception of the most Blessed Sacrament in Chapter 34 of her The Way of Perfection. 

          She advises that we don't lose so good an occasion for conversing with God as is the hour after having received Communion. We should strive to leave our soul with the Lord ~ he is within us. This is a good time for him to teach us and for us to listen to him. Since you have the Lord himself present, strive to close the eyes of the body and open those of the soul and look into our heart. And he will reveal himself to us. [I would like to vouch for the fact that I made the most spiritual gains during the time I shared my heart with the Lord after receiving him in the Holy Eucharist. On the average, I spent about 40 minutes each time.] 

         Teresa continues. His Majesty lets all those who love and desire him greatly know that it is he who is present in the most Blessed Sacrament; these are his true friends. Whoever is not his true friend will never trouble with requests that he reveal himself. Such a person will hardly have fulfilled what the Church requires when he will leave and quickly forget what took place. Thus, such a person hurries on as soon as he can to other business affairs, occupations, and worldly impediments so that the Lord of the house may not occupy it. [This is worse than not receiving the Lord.] 

Nothing to Be Bothered About

        If people say wrong things about me, I am not bothered simply because what's said is not true. Then there are people who falsely believe in some things about me, and I feel that I should explain things to them to clear up any misunderstanding. Now I see that these two cases really belong to the same category, so the second case no longer bothers me. It is God's understanding alone that matters. Since God always understands, there is not a thing to be bothered about.