The Blessed Sacrament Unifies

        In preparation for electing the next successor to St. Peter's chair, cardinals around the world are already in Rome attending the conclave. I was just watching on EWTN the College of Cardinals praying in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City. After they finished praying the Holy Rosary, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament (Eucharist) followed. When I watched all the cardinals kneeling before it, worshiping, the Lord made me see at that moment that it's the belief in the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament that holds the Church together! Witness how Christians without the Blessed Sacrament split into innumerable denominations. 

All About Life

        Communion Experience. When I saw the consecrated bread and wine held high by the priest while saying the doxology, I knew that I was looking at the Lord, the one with whom I am going to spend my eternal life, and all anxieties vanished. As I received the Lord, I knew that I was receiving life itself and felt eternally grateful. 

Not Looking at Jesus

        Not looking at Jesus is both easy and hard. It is easy because you are doing OK on your own, you don't have time, you don't need someone to tell you what to do, and besides, he may make you feel uncomfortable. It is hard because you do want to know the meaning of life, you do wonder about life after death, sometimes you feel that you need direction and help you don't find in the world, and lastly, you find it hard to ignore him because maybe he is the true God he said he was. Make the right choice and everything will turn out right for you. 

Dying to Live

        I've started reading Pope Benedict XVI's Way of Cross, trying to do one station a day. The Holy Father quotes John 12:24 in the presentation at the beginning: "Unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." This is beautiful truth, both simple and profound. Each one of us is a grain of wheat. First, we need Jesus. Then if we meet him, but do not die, we remain the same. If we die in him, we experience great joy because we are born again, being transformed into new, beautiful, creatures in full freedom. To die in Christ once is to live forever!

Learning to Forgive

        Today's Gospel reading at Mass came from Matthew 18. Jesus taught Peter to forgive his brother who sins against him not just seven times, but seventy-seven times. Remember in the Lord's Prayer, we say: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us"? Forgiving others can be most difficult, but forgive we must! Here's the solution. Just as realizing the immensity of the universe can humble us, discovering the greatness and beauty of God can makes us forget all our troubles. Therefore, seek union with God and he will make us as forgiving as he. When you experience the peace afterwards, you'll know that you've done God's will!

Man in Contrast to God

        In meditating upon the Sorrowful Mysteries early this morning while walking on a treadmill at the gym, I saw Jesus remaining calm, quiet, humble, and obedient to the will of the Father throughout his suffering from Agony in the Garden to his Crucifixion. Then I looked up and saw the commercial being played on the TV mounted directly ahead on the wall, showing a bunch of people dressed in all kinds of weird costumes, acting crazily like buffoons. Since there was no sound, I didn't know what product was being pushed, but what I saw couldn't have provided a greater contrast. 

Surrender and Be Transformed

        Again, Caryll Houselander wrote in her A Rocking Horse Catholic that ordinary people who are not saints rarely surrender themselves to God wholly. It's likely to be a more gradual process; it may be only after many Communions that they will even begin to know God as He really is, well enough to dare to abandon themselves to and for Him. [Based upon the experiences of the saints, we can confidently surrender to God with readiness.] She concluded that if we offer ourselves and let God transform us into Himself, we shall see the world with Christ's eyes, rejoice in it with His zest for life, and love it with His Heart. [This is what union with God is all about.]

God's Merciful Heart

        Communion experience. Again I heard the familiar words of Jesus during consecration of the bread and wine: "Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my body which will be given up for you" and "Take this, all of you, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me." These struck me as words from someone with a most selfless, tender, and merciful heart. 

Falling in Love with God

        In this world we view a couple in love as the luckiest two people ~ they are aware of only each other, ecstatic in each other, so happy that they love everyone else too. Exactly the same thing happens when you are in love with God, albeit the feelings are on the spiritual level. So, be open and let the immense ocean of God's love sweep you off your feet.

Letting God Transform Us

        Continuing reading Houselander's A Rocking Horse Catholic, I find that some of her experiences resonate with mine. We both experienced the healing power of the Blessed Sacrament. She was healed of her psychological suffering. We both agree that at the "touch of God," an unhappy person incapable of living fully can recover to live gloriously. Her description of surrendering to God for the saint was quite beautiful: "...a tremendous fling of the heart, comparable to a leap into the fire of eternal Love, to burn with its heat, to take the radiance of its light..." We also concur that once the soul (my word) is healed, we can begin to enjoy life and everything (I would say "enjoy God"). I like her pointing out that this change is as secret and as real as the Body and Blood of Christ; no one sees any change, but what happens is the work of God. Let union with God be his work in us.

Forgotten Commandments

        This morning one BBC news story on lethal weapons was titled "Robot warriors: Lethal machines coming of age." The era of fighting wars with killer robots is approaching. This made me realize how far we had forgotten about the Commandment "You shall not kill." I looked at the list of all Ten Commandments and it came somewhat as a shock to see that the other nine were equally ignored by most of the world. 

Understanding God's Mercy

         The great mercy of God was made amply clear by Jesus in the parable of the lost (prodigal) son. In the true story of the woman caught in adultery, the infinite mercy of God was again clear. When the scribes and Pharisees brought the woman to Jesus to test him by asking what he says to Moses' commandment  that such woman be stoned according to the law, Jesus said to them, "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." In response, one by one they went away. Jesus, left alone with the women, asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She replied, "No one, sir." Then Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go, from now on do not sin any more." 

        We see that no matter how sinful we may be, Jesus is not ready to condemn us yet until we've had every chance for repentance and reform. (This is one reason why we should not judge anyone, period.) Since we don't know how long we are going to live nor how we are going to die, it would be wise for us to repent and reform right after sinning each time. Repentance is the key to avoiding final condemnation.

Honesty of the Evangelists

        Caryll Houselander was a prolific, popular, Catholic, English writer the first half of the last century. I am reading her A Rocking Horse Catholic, an account of her early life. When she was still a little girl, an adult lawyer friend of hers named Smoky tried to convince her mother that if Jesus Christ was really God and if he did found a Church, that Church had to be the Roman Catholic Church. One  piece of evidence he presented was the integrity of the witnesses, the four Evangelists. He said that only absolutely honest witnesses determined to give the facts would have recorded the words of Christ on the Cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" ~ words which could easily have cast doubt on the divinity of Christ. I think he made a good point here.

Most Fitting Name

        In today's first reading from Exodus 3 at Mass, the Lord revealed to Moses that his name was "I AM." To me, this had to be God speaking, proving that he is eternal, for no one else can fit that name. 

Death Our Wake-Up Call

        Most recently, a friend passed away because of failing health; one church member died unexpectedly of a heart attack; and another person I knew died under more tragic circumstances. After hearing the news each time, the generally feeling was that "there's nothing we can do about it." But, we can do a lot before we are gone! Jesus has already shown us the way to eternal life; so for ourselves, we can take full advantage of that. For others, we can help by spreading the good news and living a holy life. Then whenever death sneaks up on us, we are prepared and ready.

Satisfied with God

        If God is still a mystery to me, that's because I am a finite creature. But God, being infinite, already knows everything about me ~ this is good enough for me.

The Real God

        Early this morning, I saw the grayish sky filled with somewhat hideous-looking black clouds. The dramatic view probably would have inspired a poet to write a poem or a artist to do a painting. Then I knew that no matter how talented the poet or painter may be, the work produced can never match the vivid, original scene imprinted on my mind. Similarly, man-made colors can never match the colors of real flowers. I thought of the real God and knew that no matter how great our imagination, we can never grasp the beauty and glory of the real God (for the time being anyway).      

Continued Alienation from God

        The Apostle John already talked about the many antichrists that had appeared in his first Epistle. He regarded anyone who denies the Father and the Son to be the antichrist. Polycarp, the early Apostolic Father, called anyone who preached false doctrine an antichrist. If that's the understanding, then today our world is certainly overwhelmingly populated by antichrists. 

       President Obama came out again today voicing his support for gay marriage in California. By the way, in 2004 he opposed same-sex marriage based on his religious faith. So where is that faith now? If he'd changed his view because he saw the trend changing, then he is an opportunist. According to BBC, there is a Clinton-era piece of US federal legislation called the Defense of Marriage Act that defines marriage as solely being between a man and a woman. The Obama administration has already stopped enforcing the law nor defending the legislation in court. I naively thought that only criminals ignore the law! 

        God created a man and a woman, not two men or two women, at the beginning. Yes, whatever we do, even under the guise of love, God's intention and design must never be violated. There cannot be true compassion in legalizing abortion because it ultimately hurts the mother (not to mention the unborn child). In the same way, legalizing same-sex marriage further cuts us off from God. Without the love of God, we won't know how to love.