To Remain in Darkness or Not

        Darkness is the absence of light. Since God is our light, if we do not see him, we are in darkness. Those who see him but not clearly are in semi-darkness. Those who prefer to remain in mortal sin are the ones who refuse to see the light. Since the light of God will forever be present, we are left with the choice whether we want to remain in darkness forever or not.

Love Makes Union Possible

        Today's Communion experience. The Holy Spirit made me want to surrender to the Lord willingly. No force was ever felt ~ it's his sheer love that overcame me. I am all his! It's love that made union possible.

Most Satisfying Discovery

        When scientists, astronomers, physicists, mathematicians, archaeologists... make a discovery, they get rightly exited. When I discover the solution to any problem, I feel happy too. The last problem, seemingly strange, I had at home was that rain water would drip from the kitchen exhaust hood onto the cooktop. The builder couldn't figure out why; but later I discovered the cause, fixed the problem, and felt good. But the joy of all these discoveries is only temporary. To me, the most satisfying discovery is the realization, not just knowledge, that Jesus Christ is truly God and he loves us, has died for us and can save us. Unlike other discoveries, this realization does not require reasoning on our part ~ it is a revelation given by God to the heart. And the joy of this discovery remains with us for all eternity.

Clear Choices

        Atheism is on the rise. One can believe that God exists or does not. By "clear" I do not mean that the right choice is necessarily clear to the atheists, I only mean that it is clear that these are the only two choices possible. If one believes that God exists, then the next two clear choices are whether you should believe in him all the way or not. The compelling, meaningful choice is to go all the way. This leaves us with just two logical choices: (1) To not believe in God at all and (2) to believe in God all the way. Anything in between is not a "clear" choice.

How We Lose Inner Peace

        One reason, I believe, that people don't have peace is because when things do not turn out their way or to their liking, they are emotional upset. It gets worse when circumstances do not allow them to express how they feel and they keep all their emotions bottled up inside them. On the other hand, those who follow the Lord leave all to him. They may not like what they see, but they are able to maintain their inner peace.  

God's Awesome Holiness

        During Communion today, I sensed the awesome Holiness of the Lord. A sinner does not see how filthy his sins are in the presence of the Lord. Should he realize this fully, I don't think he would be able to survive! On the other hand, if a sinner repents, he is willing to let God's Holiness dissolve his sins and be made clean again. 

Abortion Wrong Again

        I attended Thanksgiving Day Mass this morning and the Scripture reading was on Mary visiting Elizabeth who had conceived a son (the future John the Baptist). [The visit came after the angel Gabriel had announced to Mary that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and she would conceive in her womb and bear a son to be named Jesus.] When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, "Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy." 

        The infant already knew that the Lord was near. At this point, the Lord made me see again how wrong abortion is. 

Learning from Secular Sources

        TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is a global set of conferences formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading." You can hear many of these talks on YouTube. TED Quotes is a list of almost 2,000 notable sayings made by the various speakers over the years. Of course, they were not based upon the Scripture or Christian teachings. Nevertheless, they can be meaningful to the Christian. Here are two examples. 

        From Susan Cain: The power of introverts ~ "There's zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas." This is good to know because even though you may not be a good speaker, if you have a compelling message from the Lord to share, you need to share it. And speaking from your heart will make you a good speaker, if I may add. 

         From Nigel Harsh: How to make work-life balance work ~ "There are thousands and thousands of people out there leading lives of quiet, screaming desperation, where they work long, hard hours at jobs they hate to enable them to buy things they don't need to impress people they don't like." Isn't that the truth? From the Christian point of view, these people are not free.  

The Other Joy

        Anytime a sinner turns to God and repents, he is back in God's good graces and the whole heaven rejoices. We often forget that repentance brings great joy to the sinner too. When I repent, I am forgiven. Relieved of the burden on my heart, I am home again in the Lord ~ one of the great joys of the Christian life. "Repentance" and "forgiven" are two equally joyful words.          

"God for All, All for God"

        "One for all, all for one" is the motto of Alexandre Dumas' Three Musketeers and also the traditional motto of Switzerland. I brought this up because I thought of the phrase "God for all, all for God." Indeed, God is for all. He has created all of us; he loves all of us equally; he sustains our very existence; he provides what we need; and he wants to save us all. Realizing this helps us to love all our brothers and sisters. "All for God" to me means that all of me must be dedicated to loving and serving God; all I have is his and all that I do is to glorify him. This part is the proper response to his being for all of us.  

Realizing God's Love

        After receiving Holy Communion this morning, I asked the Lord to continue to feed me, nurture me, teach me, and fulfill all my desires. Then I realized that this is really letting God do whatever he wants with me! This is also letting him love me to his heart's content!  

Encouraged by God

        Today is the Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We heard the parable of the ten gold coins read from Luke 19. The lesson is that (1) to everyone who has, more will be given and (2) from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. The first part greatly encouraged me to move onward in anticipation of receiving even more. If I am greedy, then it's a holy greed. 

There Are No Accidents

        I know that God leads me, but normally I do not foresee where he is leading me to. Then I look back and the picture is clear. Every little thing that has happened plays its part in steering me in the right direction. Every one of my past failures contains a lesson. There are just no accidents. Therefore, I no longer ask the Lord why. I simply wait or move forward as he leads, feeling no anxiety whatsoever.

God Does It Again

        It is clear that a big ego (lack of humility) and an unforgiving heart (not loving your enemies) are the two most difficult things for us to conquer. It feels like that they are virtually an intrinsic part of us. Then nothing is impossible with God when it comes to wanting to change ourselves for his sake. Again, ask him to make us humble and forgiving, then remain passive and he'll accomplish that with no sweat on our part. God always make it easy for us when we ask him to. It's ask, trust, rest, and receive.   

The Peace Formula

        After receiving the Lord in the Holy Eucharist, I wanted to become even more passive, to let go, to trust and rest in Christ ~ I knew that this would bring me even more peace. God must do everything for me!

Skipping Trivialities

       I live in a rather rural area. As I drove to Mass this morning, the sky above and everything below looked just beautiful in the early sun light not long after the fresh rain had stopped. Having a photographic eye, I noticed the possibility of getting some good shots of the trees, houses, the field, etc. Even a blue, rental portable toilet on the side of the road looked appealing (once I saw a portable unit with the unforgettable name Wee Chateau on it). In my younger days, I would have turned the car around, rushed back home, grab my camera, and rush right back to start shooting; but today getting to Mass is of foremost importance to me, so I drove right on. 

        Later I thought about the whole thing. Getting good pictures is pure enjoyment ~ I'll have something nice to look at later, and someone may even praise my images. Is that all? It just seems to be self-centered and so trivial! There really isn't that much ultimate value to it, as it doesn't exactly build up my treasure in heaven. Seeing it this way, I am glad that I let it go and shall see things the same way in the future. 

The Ego Danger

        Years ago, it's the O. J. Simpson murder case that shocked people. Today BBC News reports that a Brazilian star football player has been accused of ordering the murder of a former lover. I am not getting into the cases ~ all I want to point out is that once an ego gets too big, you can easily lose control and become the victim of your own ego. This is the real danger. The antidote to ego is, of course, humility. Then humility is virtually impossible to acquire without God's help. 

Transformation in a Nutshell

        It occurred to me that we are still very much like little children no matter how old we get. We love security and feel good when someone cares about us. We look for food when we are hungry. We want things and get unhappy if we don't get them. In other words, the little kid is still in us, even though our appearance has changed. The only thing we do not retain is the childlike belief in things we do not see. Then we find God and he starts to transform us. Our basic desires and behaviors change from being self-centered to centering upon God and the childlike faith is restored. We are now a new creature in God.