On Facing Death

        Death is imminent for all of us. We can shrink back, be afraid, and try to hold onto this life, but this is being weak in faith and unrealistic. The healthy, proper attitude is to welcome death and look forward to meeting our most beloved Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Luke 9.62: Jesus said, "No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God. This saying applies here too. Death is not a dead end (pun not intended). Prepare yourself right and death becomes you gateway to freedom and eternal bliss. Following Jesus means willing to go through anything after him, and he did die. 

No More Knowing Each Other

        My elderly neighbor across the street has 26 grandchildren, so he has trouble keeping straight who's who. Our heavenly Father will have no such problem with us. I don't even need a name. He knows me and I know my sonship. As Jesus said in John 10, he knows his sheep and they know him. No words need to be exchanged. Then when you reach union with God, he and you become one and knowing becomes irrelevant.

A Small Heaven

        Communion experience. Heaven is where God dwells. When the Lord entered me in the Holy Eucharist, I felt that he's going to transform his dwelling in me into a small heaven. So I have Jesus in heaven in me ~ I was overjoyed! 

For God Alone

        People are not always trustworthy. I have known some who completely change their personality or demeanor in test situations. Others who you think are friends can instantly become your enemies. Most people hide their true self behind a facade ~ I suppose this is due to the lack of mutual trust. The good thing is that we have God to trust in. The title For God Alone implies that we can not only trust in God alone, but also live in him, love him, listen to him, serve him, and do everything for him alone. It means that we only care about what he, not anybody else, thinks. This is how we gain freedom and peace. [Note: As only God can forgive sins, only he can give this kind of freedom and peace.]

Do You Hear Jesus Calling?

        The 4th Luminous Mystery of the Rosary for today is The Proclamation of the Kingdom. Jesus called the Twelve to be his Apostles and they followed him immediately. Just the same Jesus is calling us today. Read the Gospels and you'll hear him calling you. If you don't hear it, then you won't hear it even if he appears today asking you in person. It's not how or when he calls you that matters, it's how you respond to his call.

"True" Sins

        God fully understands us. Many times we fail because we are spiritually weak, not because we deliberately want to hurt him. Peter's denials of Jesus are prime examples that should be encouraging to us. The "true" sins are committed when we look away from the Lord and choose to do what we want to do. 

On Loving Jesus

        Communion time reflection. Here's the humble and meek Jesus who loved and died for us. We care for our dogs and cats a lot, so how could we possibly love the Lord even less? After receiving the Holy Eucharist, I knew that we must love Jesus so much never to offend him again!

Our Wondrous God

        I thought about God before Mass began. His power and knowledge are without limit, and his holiness and perfection awe-inspiring ~ I tremble before him. Yet his beauty is so delightful and his love so tender that I want to run to him, yelling "Daddy." I do not see him, yet he watches over me. Even though he fills the whole universe, he enters me in the Holy Eucharist. Such are our wondrous God.  

Making Sense to an Unbeliever

        A friend of mine didn't wish to believe in Christ. His good friend was losing the battle with cancer, so I took the chance to reason with him like this. We are all sinners and if there is God, he has to be holy. As sinners, we cannot enter heaven where the holy dwell. He agreed with me so far. Many people like to clear their conscience before they die, but telling another human being about their sins is useless because the sins remain. To get our sins forgiven, we need to confess and repent to God and then we shall be saved. Therefore, we need to believe in Christ. It seemed that I made some sense to him. 

Grateful for God's Mercy

        Four days ago, I got up in the morning and saw a big black spot of irregular shape, roughly half an inch wide, through my right eye. It's fixed in space, unlike one of those tiny floaters I notice once in a while. About five minutes later, it's gone. So I went in to see my eye doctor today. He thought that what I had was most likely an ocular migraine, not something of major concern; but he did find the pressure in my right eye too high and see signs of glaucoma. I am now using an eyedrop to control the high pressure which can cause blindness if unchecked. I see that the Lord gave me the migraine sign to get me to see the doctor. Otherwise I might not go visit one for another few years. So I just want to thank the Lord for his ever present mercy, our greatest treasure. We only need to recognize it.    

The Greatest Good

        God who is love and all-knowing will always bring about the greatest good out of any situation you're in. And that greatest good can be the spiritual transformation of yourself. 

New Level of Freedom

        For most of us, life is all about getting ahead. We want our children to get into the best schools. We try to know people who can help us in matters. Who wouldn't take advantage of an opportunity that can make us money? This morning while driving to morning Mass, suddenly the Lord made me see that if I do all such things, but not in order to make gains for myself, I would feel free! In other words, selflessness leads to freedom. This was "revelatory" to me and I thanked him for uplifting me to this new level of freedom. 

Soul Food

        Communion time thoughts. Food feeds and sustains the body, book feeds and cultivates the mind, and the Holy Eucharist feeds and heals the soul.         

Repentance Necessary

        Believing in God may not involve a change of the heart, but repentance does. Believing in God alone does not make you clean, but repentance does. Therefore, we need to repent after we have believed. 

From Rebellion to Obedience

        In Galatians 2, Paul wrote: "I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me." This is union with God, making it possible to gladly obey God in all things. Man has rebelled from God. Obedience to God is going all the way home to him who loves us in the first place. Union with God is rightfully a heavenly state because it restores our place in heaven.    

The Real Enemy

        If you truly love Jesus, you will want everyone else to love him too, and this would include all your enemies. But if you do not forgive your enemies, how can you expect them and yourself to love the Lord? Therefore, "not loving your enemies" is the real enemy you want to defeat.

Two Spiritual Flaws

        To not want to be a saint is to not want to love God to the utmost. To not believe that you can be a saint is to not believe that all things are possible with God. Both are serious spiritual flaws.  

The Compelling Jesus

        Today is the Memorial of St. Bonaventure. In the Gospel reading Matthew 10:34 - 11:1, we heard some of the rather "shocking" statements from Jesus to his Apostles. He said, "Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter again her mother.... Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

         Here Jesus really challenges us. He knew that he had brought the sword because people would be forced to accept or reject him. His statements force us to conclude either he is God or someone who doesn't know what he's talking about ~ there's no third choice possible. And you will not have peace if you choose to ignore him. With Jesus, it has to be all or nothing, take it or leave it. Come to think of it, no one other than the true God can possibly be so compelling.