Jesus' Good News

        As the priest marked the forehead of each of us at Mass with black ashes in the sign of the cross, he said, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." This is true of my physical body. But now I am already God's child and to the heavenly Father I shall return. I am most grateful for this good news Jesus had brought me. 

Our Role

        Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. At morning Mass, I saw the simple role of Jesus and that of us this way. He is here to teach us how to love and we are here to learn how to love from him. If we do well, then we'll have answered his call, fulfilled our duty, and accomplished the mission given us.

Unity Above All

      It is Jesus' express wish that his disciples, his church, remain as one always. This serves as my guide in interacting with all others, whether they are members of my parish or not.  Anything I do that would weaken that unity I must abandon.

No Humility, No God

        I see people who get impatient or angry, using swear words to express their feelings. Impatience and anger may be difficult to manage, but surely swearing can be controlled if one is serious enough about it. Basically, they hurt themselves. Not only does their blood pressure rise, they also sentence themselves to undergoing more severe purification in purgatory should they be bound for heaven. We must realize that every time we sin, we actually hurt the Lord! Then there are some who in following their own will would use the excuse that they cannot help it because God made them that way. If they truly believe in that, then it's blaming God for keeping them the way they are and worse yet, believing that he cannot help them. At any rate, the cause in both above cases is lack of humility. Be filled with pride and you easily keep the Lord away.

Why Life Is Precious

           Here are some reasons:

           (1) It is a God-given gift.

          (2) While you have life, you get the opportunity to love God so that you may have eternal life.

     (3) Everything that happens to you, including suffering and any unpleasant experience, provides you with the opportunity to become humble and love the Lord even more.

       (4) Life is so brief, making the time we have for loving and serving God most precious.  

Our Choice

        To hide in the darkness of sin or to bask in the eternal light of Our Lord (based upon the words of Fr. Groeschel in Chapter 7 of his book Healing the Original Wound).

Logical Sequences

        The caterpillar undergoes metamorphosis to become a butterfly. A human must die physically before entering heaven. The old self must die in Christ if it is to be renewed and live. And surrendering to the Lord is required if we ever want to experience his sweet love.

How Jesus Touches Us

        The Gospel Acclamation at Mass this morning was Matthew 4.23: "I preached the Gospel of the Kingdom and cured every disease among the people." When I heard that read, my heart leapt for joy. Then later after I received Holy Communion, I felt complete peace. 

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.