Ultimate Level of Trust

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 11 at Mass, Jesus said: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened.... Take my yoke upon you and learn from me... and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light." Notice that Jesus does not promise to remove your burden, but will make sure that it will be light enough for you to carry as he walks with you. Normally, we do go to God for help and relief when we are burdened, but it's difficult to completely let ourselves go when we don't know how things are going to turn out. In theory, if we totally trust in the Lord and know that our soul is safe, we should feel completely at ease. This is possible only if we are detached to all our possessions and ourselves ~ it will be total abandonment, the ultimate level of trust. With God's help, we can rise to that level like the many saints. 

"Alone" with God

        Since God alone is perfect, let us imitate him alone. Since he alone is love, let us love him alone.

Better than Confession

        It's good to go to confession often enough to keep yourself pure and clean, but it's even better not to commit any sin that will make you go to confession. 

Great Awareness

        When you are aware that the Lord who is holy, pure, and the light of the world dwells within you, you know you are blessed and he fills you with joy, gratitude, and humility.

Peace Killer

        As long as we sin, we shall not have inner peace within us and external peace in the world.

Necessary Awareness

        Today is the Memorial of St. Bonaventure. In the Gospel reading from Matthew 11, Jesus reproached (quite severely) the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented. To get to know God, the very first awareness we need to have is that we are sinners! Otherwise, there will be no repentance. It is such an obvious necessity, yet so many of us have not awakened to it. This explains why so few go to confession regularly. It follows that those who don't see their own sins become great sinners in time, and those who are acutely aware of their sinfulness become saints in time.

Saving the World

        Seeing how the world is such a terrible state, you wonder what you can do to improve the situation. My advice is that we consecrate ourselves to the Lord, offering him everything ~ every thought, word, action, experience, joy, sorrow, talent, possession... ~ so that he may apply whatever merit we acquire to saving more souls.      

Speaking as God

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 10 at Mass, Jesus spoke to his Apostles: "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." Find Jesus and you find life.

Like Sailing in a Boat

        Life is like sailing in a boat on the sea. Without Christ, you sail in a boat that simply drifts or sails in some unknown direction. When you encounter a high wind and violent waves, you become afraid. With Christ in your boat, he'll be at the helm at all times. No matter how fierce the wind and how treacherous the waves you encounter, you know you are safely heading in the right direction.

On Speaking Ill of Others

        Should we speak ill of someone even if what we know is true? That would depend upon the situation and your motive.  The answer is yes if speaking out will be for the greater good, correct some injustice, bring someone back to God, etc. The answer is no if your motive is retaliation, to defame someone, or just to gossip. The glory of God is at stake.

Grave Negligence

        In today's Gospel reading at Mass, continuing from Matthew 10, Jesus said to his Apostles: "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna." Most of us are concerned about eating right, taking health supplements, exercising and resting enough, forgetting that our foremost concern should be to protect our soul.

Transforming Light

        Communion experience. I received the Holy Eucharist and saw Jesus as the light outshining the light emitted by the stars of all the galaxies in the universe put together. This light entered me! Let now the transformation begin.

Guidance for World Living

        Today is the Memorial of St. Benedict. In the Gospel reading from Matthew 10, Jesus said to the Apostles: "Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd like serpents and simple as doves." This strikes me as the way we should conduct ourselves in dealing with the world: to be shrewd to keep others from taking advantage of us and simple to preserve our purity. 

Important Awareness

        It is most important for us to be aware that God created us and every instant of our existence depends upon him! You can ignore him, but that does not change the fact. Without him, we are nothing. If you are not thus aware, then you should back yourself up with the awareness that hell exists and it's most important for you to guard against ending up there. 

Happy to Be Imperfect

        Communion experience. I was grateful that I was not perfect so that the Lord might enter me to heal me. And I desired that he would expose everything in my heart and eradicate anything that offended him.

True Reality

        Still at Mass, I became aware that we're living in a horrible, horrible world. Just read the news headlines to see what's happening around the world and in our own country. Since God looks at the hearts, he would see great darkness covering the entire earth and shining lights only from those who have chosen to love and obey him. This is true reality, not the beautiful sunshine, the nice houses in your neighborhood, or any other things external that you see. 

The Christian Life

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 10 at morning Mass, Jesus said to his Apostles, "Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give." This is the perfect instruction on how to live the Christian life ~ we receive freely from the Lord and give freely for his glory. We own nothing and we are free.

Sign of Holiness

        We get caught in slow traffic and start to cuss, in our mind first anyway. It's so easy to lose patience. Since we are not lord of the world, why should things always happen to please us? Even Christ encountered "inconveniences" so much worse than ours when he was on earth. We live in an imperfect world and what happens to us is permitted by God, not to screw us, but to make us more perfect. And this definitely makes patience a sign of holiness.