Avoid Burdening Yourself

        I have learned to play the piano. Even though I don't play very well, I know quite a bit about playing the piano properly. Some players show a lot of facial expressions, sway their upper body, raising the shoulders, and/or exaggerate their hand gestures when they play. While the recognized, accepted way is to remain relaxed and not indulge in any extra, wasted motions so that you may concentrate fully on expressing yourself through the music. I bring this up because I often have urgent things to pray for and I so want the Lord to answer my prayers that I no longer feel relaxed. I see that the proper way here is to channel all that energy into trusting in the Lord and let go at that. To sum up, burdening ourselves is futile, while trusting in the Lord is fruitful. This is also putting God first.

Life's Only Tragedy

        In the same book by Fr. Groeschel, he quotes the French writer Leon Bloy: "Life holds only one tragedy, ultimately not to have been a saint." To make the meaning equally clear, I could state: "Life holds only one tragedy, ultimately not to have loved God enough." 

Putting God First

        To achieve the greatest happiness, we must put God first in our lives. Take a married couple. If the husband and wife love each other, but put each other ahead of God, they cannot always be happy. They may get along most of the time, but there will be conflicts. If they both can put God first, then they will experience the closest possible union between a man and a woman on earth. As Fr. Groeschel says in his book Healing the Original Wound, the biggest and most persistent enemy is always self ~ you can never escape yourself; you can only change yourself. By letting God be first in your life, the problem no longer exists.

God Makes Life Beautiful

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 5, Jesus taught the crowds on shore from a boat that belonged to Simon. After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch." Simon said in reply, "Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets." When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing. [The willingness to follow Jesus' command paid off. To me, to do exactly what Jesus tells us to do is always the right thing to do. Following his will is walking the most beautiful path of our life.]

        They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. They came and filled both boats so that the boats were in danger of sinking. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." For astonishment at the catch of fish seized him and all those with him. [When we see how perfect, awesome, great, and marvelous God truly is, we see how imperfect, puny, small, and sinful, we are. This is the moment we realize that we need God and we need salvation. This is a joyful moment!]  

An Ideal Rule

        It is so easy for us to get annoyed or irritated by the many things happening around us. Usually they are minor, such as the driver in front of you being too slow in taking off when the traffic signal turns green or someone long-winded talking to you incessantly. I see that if I get bothered by such things, it's because of my lack of humility. I've already found out that if I focus upon the Lord alone, I just don't think about sinning anymore. By the same token, I can forget all about getting annoyed too. So here is my new rule: I shall let the Holy Spirit guide me alone and let nothing else disturb me. St. Teresa's prayer comes to mind: "Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you. All things are passing away: God never changes. Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices."

One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church

        I am reading Fr. Groeschel's book, Healing the Original Wound. In Chapter 5, Fr. Groeschel tells us that Thomas Babington McCauley, the great British historian who was Protestant, pointed out that the Catholic Church was there when all the governments of the world began and when all the kings were crowned, and has continued to stand while they have all fallen. The church existed long before northern Europe was civilized. When I think about this, it is quite amazing. In the last two thousand years, dynasties, governments, powerful conquerors and rulers have come and gone. Today, the biggest industries, banks and corporations can fall or crumble before your eyes. Yet the church with her billion members of all races and nationalities from all cultures and walks of life ~ still all sinners ~ manages to hold together, despite the constant attacks and persecutions it faces throughout the ages. It is quite remarkable. Fr. Groeschel concludes that the church stays together because Jesus Christ as founder and head of the church himself holds it together. As Jesus said to Peter, "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16). 

Weeding the Soul

        The day is nice ~ sunny and cool. This is the perfect time to do some weeding because the ground is moist and soft and the weeds still young, most of which have not flowered or produced seed yet. With a hula hoe, you can go pretty fast. As I weeded away, I thought that for me to look clean and neat before the Lord is so much more important than for the garden to look clean and neat before me. I see God as the master gardener watering, fertilizing, and now "weeding" me.

Secret of Peace

        The world is not following God and it has no peace. Conversely, if we do God's will, we shall have peace, both interior and exterior. So the simple secret is: "Be in sync with God." 

How to Change the World

        To change the world, it is not good enough to just meet Christ outside of us ~ we must meet him from within ~ we must let him dwell in our heart and soul! Hence, seek union with him.

Oddball Living

         When God draws one close to him, the person becomes more and more detached to the world and things that are considered fun in the world are no longer of interest to him. Now he doesn't seem to fit in with the world anymore ~ he is seen as an oddball. Let's realize that the fun of our world is the product of a world that's materialistic, self-centered, and secular. So oddball living is actually a lot closer to living in heaven. I don't think up there there will be TV shows to watch, ball games to follow, pubs to visit, nor cruises to take. The many near-death experiences that have been reported and studied show that those who came back all experienced so much peace and freedom on the other side that they became different persons no longer attached to the world. So living as an "oddball" is only odd in the eyes of the world, but wise in the eyes of the Lord.  

Conscience Examined

        In today's Gospel reading from Mark 6 at Mass, we heard the story of how King Herod came to order the beheading of John the Baptist. Herod was the one who had John arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married. John had said to Herod that it's not lawful for him to have his brother's wife, so Herodias harbored a grudge against him and wanted to kill him.

        Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man, and kept him in custody, yet he liked hearing him speak. [Here we see that Herod knew righteousness and holiness, and was even attracted to John. He feared him perhaps because he realized that he was guilty.] 

     On Herod's birthday, he gave a banquet and his own daughter came in and performed a dance. The king was so delighted that he promised to grant her whatever she asks of him. She went out to her mother and asked what she should ask for and her mother said "the head of John the Baptist." The girl hurried back to the king and made her request. Herod was deeply distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests present, he did not wish to break his word to her. This was how John got beheaded. [We see that Herod had his conscience, but he overrode the good voice he heard and followed the evil one in him.]

        We all have a conscience. The good voice comes from God and the evil one from the Evil One. It's easy to ignore or smother the gentle good voice and pay attention only to the disruptive evil voice ~ just like the news: the bad news is pretty much all we get to hear. There is one antidote though ~ the Holy Spirit. As we are drawn closer to the Lord, the Holy Spirit purifies (sharpens) our conscience to the point that it works like a message filter, allowing only the good voice through and blocking the evil one.

Ready to Go in Peace

        Today's Communion Experience. The Lord is all holy and he can make anyone holy. He has saved me, entered my soul, and drawn me to union with him through the Holy Eucharist. Like St. Simeon after seeing the Infant Jesus at the Presentation, I am ready to go in peace. 

Our Calling Today

        Mark 6 provides the Gospel reading for today's Mass. We heard that Jesus sent the Twelve two by two out to preach repentance. At the beginning the Twelve were called by the Lord to be fishers of men. Even after the Resurrection, he appeared to them telling them to go into the whole world to proclaim the good news to all creation and making disciples of all the nations. This is still our calling today! If you love the Lord, let nothing get in the way of following this call. Salvation of souls must be the sole purpose of our life because that was the reason Jesus came into the world.

Looking into Life-After-Death

        In church this morning while waiting for Mass to begin, I became acutely aware of the brevity of life. We all know that we are going to die sooner or later, then why so many of us do not take the time to look into life-after-death? Of course, the very young are too busy making discoveries in and learning about the new world. The next older generation may be busy attending college, concerned about how to make a living on their own, etc., and death still seems far-off. Then there are the less fortunate folks whose main concern is how to make ends meet ~ life after death is just not a pressing concern yet. We now come to those who have succeeded in business or gotten rich or famous some other way ~ they are so absorbed in their worldly successes, enjoying their wealth and/or fame, that they no longer feel the need for God. This is the period in which they become fools in God's eyes. Success in the world is now a curse, not a blessing. Finally, in old age, almost everyone starts to look into life-after-death.  

How to Log In to God

        I have brought up the many paradoxical truths in past postings. For example, the more we surrender ourselves to God, the freer we become. Another one: The more we acknowledge our weakness before the Lord, the stronger he makes us. In general, we decrease to let God increase. So the "secret" is, you might say, "Don't even try hard." When we remain passive (open), we show trust in the Lord and he fulfills our desire by doing the work. To be passive is to get out of the way of the Lord who eagerly wants to bring us into union with him. "Passive" then is password for logging in to God.  

Jesus Our Greatest Consolation

        Today's Gospel at Mass was read from Mark 6. Jesus came to his native place and began to teach in the synagogue. Many who heard him were astonished, but they took offense at him. Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house." I think many of you readers probably would agree with me that it's not easy to tell our own family members and friends about Jesus because they know us and have seen all our faults and imperfections. (In Jesus' case, his kin probably had not seen anything extraordinary about him yet.) Anyway, I turn and see the Lord, who always appreciates us and will listen to us at any time. He is truly our greatest consolation!

One Short Step Away from Heaven

        Adam and Eve had a perfect relationship with God at the beginning. Then they committed the original sin and we now all carry it. God, out of love, has sent Jesus to us to clear the way for us to get back to him. Stained with original sin, we can still attain the highest spiritual state by letting the Lord draw us into full union with him through the Holy Eucharist. Then we are just one short step away from having our perfect relationship with God restored fully in heaven.   

A Good Question

        Today this question popped up in my mind: How dare I ever think that everything should revolve around me when the Lord is ever present?