Your Enemy Is Your Brother

         The Parable of the Lost (Prodigal) Son (Luke 15.11-32) is teaching me to see how we are to love our enemies. In case you are unfamiliar with the story, here's a quick going-over. A father has two sons. The younger one, the lost one, took all the money, left home and squandered it all. He is left with no hope but to return to his father to admit his wrongdoing and beg for mercy. The father was elated that his son has returned and celebrates the occasion with him. The older son finds out and is angry that he's been faithful to the father all along, but never been treated like this by him. The father says to him, "My son, you are with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found."

        Since we are all children of God, I see my enemy as my brother. Even if I do not like him, I must pray for his conversion to please God the Father. Wishing God to inflict harm on him is obviously out of the question. If I remain with God the Father, everything his is mine and that surely would include protection from all my enemies.

Great Consolation

        Communion experience. The Communion hymn was I Am the Bread of Life. The lyrics of the song are based upon Jesus' Bread-of-Life Discourse from John 6, with Jesus promising eternal life to whoever eats his flesh and drinks his blood. The song is beautiful! Receiving the Holy Eucharist, the living bread from heaven, was indeed one great consolation. 

Draw Your Line

        All the sins are connected in the sense that they are all sins and committing small oness can lead to committing bigger ones. Therefore, we need to draw a clear demarcation line between living in sin and being holy and choose the side we want to be on. 

A Tall Oder

        Life should be cleaned up, and lived effectively and with purpose. Since our time on earth is limited, all the more we need to be watchful. Sinning is the worst way of squandering away time. Not only do we need to remain pure, but also be fruitful for God. It sounds like a tall order, but all is within reach when you become one with the Lord.   

Heart-to-Heart with God

        God looks at the hearts. The centurion asked Jesus to say the word to heal his paralyzed servant and he was healed. The woman who touched the tassel on Jesus' cloak was cured of her hemorrhages. Jesus saw the faith in their hearts; what each of them did was merely an act through which they revealed their faith. When we pray to the Lord, the prayer is our act and he reads our messages from our heart just as clearly. Of course, the Sacred Heart of Jesus feels for us at all times. We read in the Gospels how often he was moved with pity for the crowds. He even wept at the death of Lazarus before raising him. How he deeply loves us is unquestionable. What I see is that to move the Lord's heart, we must communicate with him from the depths of our heart. This is truly heart-to-heart with God.

Easy Lesson We Don't Get

        In today's Gospel reading at Mass from Luke 18, we heard the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. Jesus concluded, "Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted." The truth is clear. To exalt oneself is play god, and there is only one God, so you are doomed to fail. On the other hand, to humble oneself is to submit yourself to God and he will honor you for it.  

Applying Simple Logic

        In mathematics, if A > B and B > C, then A > C. Simple logic makes this obvious. Then we can say that if you love God and God loves all his children, then you should love all your brothers and sisters. Again by simple logic, if you hate someone, you do not truly love God yet.

Dying Is of No Concern

        Some folks care about how they are going to die. My wish is that I shall go with a clear mind. Then I see that the much more important concern is how we live our present life. If we intend to do the will of God always, how we die, like everything else, becomes inconsequential.   

God Our Savior

        In praying the Our Father, we ask the Lord to forgive our trespasses. Do you ever think about that? We all sin ~ should we just ignore it and let bygones be bygones? What about our troubled conscience? The fact that Jesus can take away our sins has to be a great piece of news! Here God provides us with a way out, a way to be made clean and free of guilt. His whole intent: to save us for all eternity.

Christian Living

       Jesus said to his disciples, "Let your 'Yes' mean 'Yes,' and your 'No' mean 'No.'" If God wants you to give up or do something, say yes. To think up all kinds of reasons or excuses to avoid following him is being untruthful. Christian living is rigorous, not wishy-washy.          

Getting Intimate with God

        In mathematics, if A is a subset of B, and B is a subset of A, then A = B. Jesus is in the Father and the Father in him (John 14.11), so the Son and the Father are one. Union with God is, to be more precise, being one with God. Now God is a space infinitely larger than mine, how can we fit within each other? Physically, that would be impossible; but spiritually, it's no problem. When I surrender to God, I become entirely his and I am in him. At the same time, he enters my heart and we become one. Receiving the Holy Eucharist seals the deal, you could say. By the way, the Holy Eucharist had been the greatest aid in bringing me to this state. True, God is everywhere around us, but to bring him into your heart you have to open the door, to invite him in. There is no other way of getting more intimate with God in this life!

Fear of God Analyzed

        We are afraid of God only because we have not been good children, so the fear stems from fear for ourselves. As long as we remain so, surrendering to the Father will not happen. Thorough repentance is in order. Once you realize that God is all love and embrace his love, all fears will vanish. 

In Most Fortunate Position

        How happy and grateful I am to know Christ the Lord. I have no more fear of death. I am in his secure hands and going home to God the Father who awaits me. I don't need to hope for anything, for I already have God. Time is passing fast, but nothing in the world can hold me back, for everything down here is passing too. Sure, I still suffer at times, but suffering for Christ's sake only draws me closer to him. So many things I still don't understand, but that's OK because God has all the answers with him. 

Face the Truth

        Without God, whatever happiness you can find in this life is only temporary, never satisfying to the soul. You don't need God to realize this. With Christ, you will receive joy in the present life and infinitely more in the next for all eternity. 

Cause of Peace

        Communion experience. I treasured the deep rest I felt in Christ after receiving him. As human beings, we relate to both God and fellow humans. A bad relationship with the former invariably results in bad relationships with the latter. Even though we cannot solve all others' problems, a good relationship with God enables us to relate to them with love. My relationship with God was the cause of my Communion peace.

*Living by Faith

        Sometimes we think that if God were around and we see and hear them, it would be so much easier for us to listen to him and do what he tells us to do. Then I see that in Jesus' time, the twelve Apostles were the only ones with the Lord most of the time in his last years, and they still got into trouble and Judas didn't even listen to him. It is by faith that we are to live! It is being aware that God is present and knows everything about you and everything affecting you that counts, whether you actually see or hear him. 

Mankind's Greatest Achievement...

has to be success in surrendering himself to God, since it brings him into union with God. This can also be considered the greatest breakthrough because it's the breakthrough to spiritual freedom.

Easy Ascent to Heaven

        People can get unbelievably attached to their pets, guns, cars, hobbies, sport events, TV shows, pop idols . . . that they virtually become slaves. This is spiritually unhealthy, to say the least. The healthy way is to enjoy, but not be attached to them. If you ever pray the Our Father, focus upon the meaning of "Thy will be done." If there is something you can't possibly give up ever, then you'll have trouble when the time comes for you to leave the world. Just remember that the more earthly baggage you carry, the harder will it be for you to leave. A beautiful sight to the Lord is the ascent of a free, weightless spirit toward him.