On Submitting to God

        My last post talks about our unwillingness to submit ourselves to God. In today's first reading at Mass from Ephesians 5, St. Paul urges all to be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ. Then I realize that when Jesus became one of us and died on a cross, it was a clear case of submitting himself to us in order to save us. When he consecrated the bread at the Last Supper, saying: Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my body which will be given up for you, he made his submission to us clear. So who are we who are not willing to submit ourselves to God?

Ranking Matters

        It becomes clear to me that people do not believe in God simply because they have ranked themselves No. 1, putting themselves ahead of their creator. This is, of course, a colossal mistake that can be fatal. Making yourself more important than the Lord is definitely a bad idea; just by changing your ranking from No. 1 to No. 2, your margin of safety will go way up. If you really want to play it safe, then be as humble as the saints, who don't even consider themselves worthy to be ranked before God. 

God Owns Us!

        This morning after Mass while I remained at church, I watched two faithful parishioners took great care of the flowers on the altar. The Lord made me see very clearly that we are merely agents here to use all things supplied by him to work for his glory. Even ourselves like everything else were made by him. Whether you agree or not, he owns us, but we do have the choice to rebel or obey. 

Jesus Alone Our Beacon

        In view of all the recent horrible acts of violence committed against the Christian minorities around the world, I am proud of the fact that our Lord, Jesus the Christ, has set the highest standard by his example and his teaching that we are to love even our enemies. Who can possibly measure up to him? He stands alone as the truth and our beacon. 

Going Home to God

        Today's Holy Communion experience. Before receiving him, I felt the need to be in his love so that my soul might be healed. After receiving him, I realized that my soul now belonged to him and was on its way home.

Promise of Union

        Jesus said to his disciples at the Last Supper, "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him" (John 14:23). Here the Lord promises that he will come to enter into union with us. If God is in us, then surely we are in him. This is the most desirable state for the soul.  

The Amazing Us (or God)

If you are pro-abortion and/or an atheist, you are invited to view this video:

 

Letting God's Plan Unfold

        Since God has a plan for each of us, we must be sure that it unfolds without our interference. Naturally, all things happenings around us can affect the unfolding, but the Lord will take care of that part. We can easily kill his plan if we just go our own way, so this is what we need to guard against. To be in union with God is an excellent way to ensure that his plan for us will work out for him to his glory.  

True or False Humility?

        If you tell yourself or others that you are such a poor sinner that you can never be good enough to become a saint, make sure that it's not false humility. If you really believe so, then it's almost like saying that you are so sinful that God cannot save you anymore ~ such belief then becomes a grave sin. The correct attitude to fully believe that the Lord can make you into a saint no matter how sinful you are now ~ this is putting all your trust in the Lord and not limiting him in the slightest, showing in fact, true humility.

Foundation of All Relationships

        When we pray to the Lord, we must mean it from the heart. When we want to hear from the Lord, we must mean it from the heart too. Patience is often required since he speaks to us at his chosen time. We must also be prepared to obey whatever he tells us to do. A sincere, trustful relationship between the Lord and us is the foundation upon which our relationships with all others are to be built. 

The Most Beautiful Way to Live Is...

to trust in God with reckless abandon. Either God is trustworthy or not trustworthy. If you believe that he is, then this is the way to go. When Mother Teresa wanted to serve the poorest of the poor in India, that was a first. She abandoned herself to the Lord and her missionary work became a worldwide success. We can do the same in what we are called to do.          

Humility Needed to Understand God

      I'd like to share something else I read in St. Teresa's Meditations of the Song of Songs. She gave the following. 

        In spite of all the wisdom of the Blessed Virgin, our Lady, she asked the angel: How can this be? But after he answered, The Holy Spirit will come upon you; the power of the Most High will overshadow you, she engaged in no further discussion. With great faith and wisdom, she understood at once that if these two intervened, there was nothing more to know or doubt. She did not act as do some learned men, for they want to be so rational about things and so precise in their understanding that it doesn't seem anyone else but they with their learning can understand the grandeurs of God. If only they would learn something from the humility of the most Blessed Virgin! 

Tow-Part Journeys

        I have posted before that the journey of following Christ can be considered to be a two-part one, with the point of division being the point at which we surrender to God. The first part may be labeled "Struggling mostly on you own" and the second part "God doing all the work," leading to union with the Lord. As for the usually much shorter journey between hearing God's call and becoming a follower, it also has two parts ~ they are marked by the point at which we repent our sins before God.  

How God Calls

        Let's look at the spectrum of love. At one end, we have the love of God for us, a pure love as demonstrated by Christ, also known as agape. At the other end, we have love for sex, money, or other material things just to satisfy our selfish desires (it's unfortunate that the word "love" is used here to mean basically "craving"). Close to the love of God is the natural love of parents for their children. Of course, it's possible that the love is a mixture of the pure and the impure. For example, a man and a woman can love each other so much that they are willing to die for each other. What I want to concentrate upon is God's pure love. At the beginning, being human we are not really aware of the existence of such great love. One day we hear the gospel and discover that this love has always been there and that it has the power to change our lives ~ God is now calling.  

Consider Loving These Neighbors

        I believe that no matter how bad a person we are, most of us will unhesitatingly help someone in immediate danger ~ that's the good part in us. If you believe in God, do you realize that a vast numbers of people are in danger of losing their souls at any moment? Shouldn't we do something about it? The least we could do is to be holy ourselves and pray for them. It's easy to be unaware of this reality, but it's utterly urgent. Do something for them ~ it's loving your neighbor, which is the same as loving God.

God Made Me Somebody

        While watching Life on the Rock on EWTN, the Holy Spirit just brought to my mind vividly what I already knew, that I had been called by God to love him, that this was a special grace, that with all the angles and saints, I now belong to his family and have Jesus as my brother, and that there is nothing more I would ever need, and that I am not a nobody anymore in existence. The Lord surely ends my day on a joyful note.    

Suffering the Right Way

        Early all morning since I woke up before 5 a.m., I really felt the presence of the Lord within me. Then I should be happy ~ right? It turned out that I felt great sorrow because I sensed the coming of increasing persecution of our Church. Most of the world, including sadly, much of the Christian population, just does not care or care enough about the moral teachings the Church. I did ask the Lord why it's so. I saw that as disciples of Christ, suffering along with him is unavoidable. I must trust that the Lord knows what he is doing. Then I went to Mass and received him in the Holy Eucharist and he made me see that the joy he had given us outweighs all sorrows. Hence we are to suffer gladly, not in sadness. He restored me. 

Looking at Oneself

        We probably see ourselves daily in the mirror every morning after we get up and before we go to bed. Next time take a good look at your mirror image, but see it as another person. In the questions that follow, I assume that the subject is a male for simplicity, but feel free to change him to a female as the case may be. 

        "How does he look to you? How do you feel about him? What do you think of him? How is he living his life? How is he coping with it? Is he happy inside? If not, why not? Do you admire or feel sorry for him? Is he happy to continue the way he's been? Is anything missing in his life? Does he need changes in his life? How well does he know God? Should he love God even more? What would be your best advice for him?" I think that this is a good way to look at oneself. Hopefully, this examination will bring you closer to God.