Today is the Memorial of St. Bernard. In the Gospel reading from Matthew 22, Jesus told the parable of the Wedding Feast. A king invited many to a wedding feast he's giving for his son. He caught one guest there not dressed in a wedding garment, was displeased, and ordered his attendants to cast him into the darkness outside. The parable illustrated Jesus' point that "many are invited, but few are chosen." To attend Mass to receive the Holy Eucharist is truly attending a heavenly banquet to sup with the Lord. If you receive the Lord not in a state of grace, you risk being cast out. To attend Mass out of obligation with no intention of worshipping God, you risk being cast out. Never try to fool God so that you may be chosen.
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Showing True Love
To love someone, you must love the soul of that person. Your concern must go beyond just concern for his or her wellbeing on earth. Hell is such a terrible place that if you love God, you would not want anyone to end up there. Avoiding going to hell is infinitely more important than avoiding a head-on collision when you are driving. Jesus loves us and came down from heaven to save our souls ~ we should intend likewise.
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Zeroing In on God's Love
"God loves you" sounds trite but true, and knowing its truth can change your life. How much you accept, like, or respect yourself measures how much you know this truth. If you know it well, you would feel so good that whether anyone else loves you or not becomes unimportant and would want to love God back by loving all others. To discover this powerful love, get to know Jesus, the embodiment of love.
God Is Fair
In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 20, Jesus told his disciples the parable of The Workers in the Vineyard. From it, I learned the following. (1) When God calls us, he is hiring us to work for him and we become his employees. If we work hard, we'll be paid (rewarded) by him at the end. (2) After finishing telling the parable, Jesus said, "Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last." This is telling us how God rewards us is none of our business, what matters is that we work faithfully and receive our just rewards at the end, and jealousy has no place in our hearts. For example, I accepted Christ as my Savior decades ago and now someone comes along and gets saved just before he dies, should I be jealous of him and claim that God is unfair? Of course not! I should instead rejoice that God is glorified by one more person. Never compare ourselves with others is a good rule to follow.
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
God's Holiness
Before I received Communion, I sensed the overwhelming beauty and power of God's holiness. I basked in it, letting it "sanitize" and soothe my spirit. After I received Communion, I saw that no matter what happens in life, love for God must not diminish. I'd endure a little while longer on earth as eternal joy awaits.
What to Give Up
In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 19, Peter asked Jesus for all the disciples, "We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?" Jesus answered, "Everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life." Father S in his homily mentioned giving up our free will too ~ I saw that would take care of all of what we should give up, for when there's no more need to exercise our free will, we have chosen to go with God all the way.
Becoming Rich
Jesus is rich because he is completely self-sufficient. We become rich when we possess him and inherit all that the Father has for us later. Enter the kingdom of God and we are rich!
Always Hope in God
If we continue to sin, we lose our inner peace and remain unhappy. The strategy to fight this is to always hope in God as we keep going. With persistence, we can even rise to new heights. Hope and trust in God stubbornly through this brief life of ours and we'll end up resting in God later for all eternally.
Monday, August 17, 2015
Way of Being One With God
At Mass this morning, the Lord showed me that the gift of free will from him gives each of us our unique, individual identity. But if we want to be in him as one with him, the only way is to submit ourselves to him.
Abortion, Not a Casual Thing
Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor who is now running for President as a Republican, said that he used to be pro-choice by default, but became pro-life after he heard his daughter's strong fetal heartbeat during a prenatal visit when his wife was 13 weeks pregnant. This is a beautiful story. Most pro-choice people have never thought about their position carefully. (I know because I used to want to appear tolerant and progressive, seeing nothing wrong with abortion.) What I pity the most are those legalistic people, including many court judges, who would rule that the unborn are not yet persons and therefore have no rights to life ~ what infantile, barbarous thinking! Separation between church and state must never be keeping God out of our conscience. To terminate a human life God has created is a grave sin. And to terminate one that's born out of our sin has to be even graver!
Sunday, August 16, 2015
The Living Bread
John 6.51-58 was the Gospel reading at Sunday Mass. Reading these verses as if you're reading them for the very first time with an open mind, you would not get the impression that Jesus meant eating his flesh and drinking his blood in some symbolic way, for the Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" In this whole passage, Jesus could have added the word "symbolically" in any of the at least five spots, but he didn't. If he did, he probably would've had to explain what that meant and wouldn't likely have said "For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink" later, further confusing the issue. Arguing that the consecrated elements of the Holy Eucharist are not the true body and blood of the Lord is deliberately overlooking John 6 with the intent of saying that the Church got it wrong. It is also my personal belief that this sacrament is God's gift to the Church to keep the gates of the netherworld from prevailing against it.
Enjoying God's Joy
I attended the Vigil Mass yesterday. The entrance song we sang was "City of God." The refrain of the song goes like this: "Let us build the city of God. May our tears be turned into dancing! For the Lord, our light and our love, has turned the night into day!" I felt overwhelmed by the sweet love of Jesus ~ he is indeed the fountain of pure joy. And I realized that when we live by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God, we get to enjoy his joy too!
Simple Truth
I see this life providing us with time to prepare ourselves for the next with Jesus as the perfect guide. If you listen to and follow him, he'll surely lead you to heaven. If not, you are just lost, to be blunt about it. I may seem to simplify things a bit, but the truth is always simple ~ not grasping it is then our problem.
Saturday, August 15, 2015
Urgent Question
On this Solemnity of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, I'd like to ask this question: Is Jesus truly our Savior or not? We'll find out for sure after we die, but why wait till then when it'll be too late? He is so prominent that we must answer this question for ourselves now while we're still alive! Another reason why time on earth is so precious.
Friday, August 14, 2015
Settling in God
Communion experience on this memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe. It was the settling of the heart in God, letting God envelop you completely to heal your heart and soul ~ an experience only God can give. If everyone experiences Christ thus, there would be universal peace. Indeed, the Messiah is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9.6).
Love's Challenge
From Matthew 25.40: Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least of my brothers, you did it for me. It's not just "my brothers," but "the least of my brothers." It just shows that we are to love all with no exceptions. This is our challenge: to love unconditionally and non-discriminatorily.
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