Love Indicator

        In today's Gospel reading from Mark 12, Jesus gave the two greatest commandments: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength" and "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Clearly, how much we love our neighbor indicates how much we love God. When we find out how difficult it is to love our neighbor as ourselves, we get an inkling of how great God's love for us is.

Grand Statement

        Today's Gospel acclamation (based upon 2 Timothy 1,10): Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death and brought life to light through the Gospel. Here's a statement that pretty much says how much God loves us.

No Longer Alone

         Since I got back home very late the day before yesterday, it wouldn't be wise for me to get up early to attend morning Mass yesterday. Today I was happily back in my own church. I believe people, including some from other parishes, love to come to our church for daily Mass for the following reasons. The church is just a few years old with a simple, bright, nicely designed interior. The tabernacle is beautiful and the seating are rows of movable, comfortable chairs linked together. As the church is not that large and everyone sees each other clearly, you get some of that intimacy of being together in one spacious living room. The priests always give well thought-out homilies too.

         The entrance antiphon came from Psalm 25: Turn to me and have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am alone and poor. See my lowliness and suffering and take away all my sins, my God. Indeed, we can't deny that are not alone, poor, lowly, and afflicted. I am just going to talk about feeling alone. We all look for companionship, sympathy, understanding, and love. Although I have so far refrained from telling any friend about my nasty fall two weeks ago when I was away, the urge is there. How can we eradicate feeling alone? Would having millions of friends or followers on a social networking website do it? How about having worldwide fans who adore you for whatever reason? I don't think you'd be happy with either. Even if you have real close friends who truly love you, they are still fallible beings like you who are just here for the time being. Basically, you are alone. 

           As St Augustine points out, feeling alone is really a blessing from God because he made it so when he created us that we might search for him. That is, we feel alone when we have not found God yet. Well, do I who have already found Jesus still feel alone? No. But to be honest, I must admit that I do feel lonely whenever I face a disconnect between me and those who are still very much of the world, which is nothing compared the oneness I feel with the Lord. 

Home Sweet Home

        I finally got home last night very late ~ it's "home sweet home." Then I realized that my true home is with the Father in heaven. When I get there, I'll definitely have the best home-sweet-home feeling ever! And life on earth would seem very much like a short dream I had once. 

Doing Your Best for the Lord

        Suppose you are a good shoemaker and Jesus orders a pair of new sandals from you ~ wouldn't you do your utmost to make the best possible pair of sandals you can for him? Then why not do your utmost best in everything for him? In so doing, your life will be filled with great joy. 

Adopting God's View

        Our views are so myopic that we are only concerned about our immediate interests and physical survival. The reality is that we are simply passing through this world with our soul continuing on to live forever in the next. Therefore, whatever we do now should be based upon this unlimited view as God sees us for the sake of our eternal happiness.

We Are Responsible for Souls

        We shall be judged by how much we love God. More specifically, he will measure how much we draw others to Christ or turn them away from him. This is a critical point, since it's easy to do what we want to do and not consider any effect our action might have on others. A good deed you do that affects others is so much more meritorious than one that just benefits you alone. And a sin that makes others also sin is indeed much graver than a sin that affects only you in private. For rapid spiritual advance, avoid all sins and concentrate upon bringing as many individuals closer to Christ as possible by your holy example and work. 

Teachings Severe & Demanding

        It does seem that the teachings of the Lord can be severe and demanding. For example, we are to love him over all other things and love even our enemies, and he warns that "whoever causes one of the little children who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck and be cast into the sea." I believe that Jesus always tells it like it is for our good and we should appreciate that. He reveals to us what we need to know. Without his teachings, we'd easily be lost souls. The truth may not always be pleasing to the ear, but once it penetrates the heart, we are set free. 

How Easy to Enter Heaven?

        If you believe that you are a great sinner and utterly need God's mercy to be saved, you will find entering heaven easier than you think, for nothing is impossible with God. On the other hand, if you believe that as a fairly decent person you pretty much deserve heaven, you may be shocked at finding entering heaven harder than you think, for whoever exalts himself will be humbled. Thus, being meek and humble before the Lord is essential for entering heaven.    

Safeguarding the Heart

        Today is The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, a glorious celebration! Although the church I attended just a block away was beautiful, the acoustics were on the reverberant side. As a result, the organ and the solo singer were overpowering and the reader with a foreign accent more difficult to understand. The easy thing is to blame all your negative experiences on the church, that Mass; but the Lord made me see that my focus must be on him alone who would soon enter me to become one with me, and not let anything else disturb me. That is, our heart is to be reserved for God alone and we should absolutely let nothing distract us from our primary focus upon the Lord. 

Security in Christ

        I always marvel at God's timing of things that happen to me. I'll be heading home the day after tomorrow and have not only recovered from my bad accidental fall, but also almost gotten over my cold. There is security in knowing that God makes things happen at the right time for him and you. And the greatest secure feeling is knowing that your soul is absolutely safe in him. Without Christ, I could enjoy the best health all my life and have things going well at all times, but not knowing where my soul will end up ~ this would be a worst nightmare.   

Fundamental Healing

        I have pretty much completely recovered from my recent fall, but am fighting a nasty cold. While taking it easy, I caught part of Dr. Phil, a popular TV show in the States. The doctor, a psychiatrist, attempts to resolve family problems on his show. While his approach might be effective, I can't help thinking that only God can fundamentally change us. Without him, all changes are only superficial. A fundamental change involves the change of the heart and only God, our creator, knows how to reach into that innermost part of us. It is in offering our heart to God that we are healed.

Our Biggest Challenge

        I have pointed out that with Jesus, it is all or nothing. That is, we must believe that he is either our God or no God at all ~ a simple true-or-false case. This is the biggest challenge all of us will ever have to face, for we shall be judged by our response to it.

How Real Is Jesus?

        This is a good question. If Jesus is our God and we absolutely worship and love him the most, then why is it that we never even think or talk about him much? We can go to Mass on Sunday and never say anything about him the rest of the week. If seems that if the Lord is truly real to us, we should be one with him at all times, aware of his holy presence every single moment, and do everything for his sake.           

Jesus Our King

        We all need a king, one to lead us, to protect us, to inspire us. There have been human kings, but they do not last and in most cases, people are better off without them. That leaves only one king that is perfect, and that is Jesus the Lord. He is all we need ~ gentle, wise, all-knowing, all-powerful, completely dependable, everlasting, and most of all, loving. You cannot ask for more.

False God Is Real!

        Satan is the false god that draws people to him by deceit. He basically fools people into thinking that there is nothing wrong with what he has to offer. For example, the TV commercials and sitcoms look innocent enough because the commercials are beautifully presented and the sitcoms amusing and entertaining. But those who know the true God can discern the subtle, underlying moral harm they do to the watchers. The recent overwhelming vote for same sex marriage in Ireland, a Catholic country, shows just how far the false god has mislead people around the world. Only those who stick close to the Lord will be able to stay on track and remain safe. The great tragedy is that people are not even aware that they are on the road leading to doomsday. What's coming will be more horrible than ever if people do not wake up and turn to the true God. It is our eternal souls that are at stake!

Heaven and Hell Considered

        You do not hear heaven and hell preached from the pulpit much anymore. I believe that hell is not brought up in order not to instill fear in the listeners. Nevertheless, it is a real place and heaven can always be mentioned at the same time for balance. After all, how can we separate God and the Evil One from heaven and hell? The world could certainly use a big dosage of healthy fear right now. I want to go to heaven because I love God, and avoid going to hell because it just goes against the will of God. Let's be realistic by thinking and talking about heaven and hell.

Jesus Is Right

        Once you know the Lord Jesus well, it does not mean that all your troubles will go away; it only means you now know how to deal with them (life) his way. Here is one thing that I truly appreciate: as I follow the Lord faithfully, he makes me see that all his teachings are correct, including those that are difficult for us to follow without him, thus drawing me ever closer to him.