Trust Essential

        Trust is essential in a good relationship with God. In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 8, the centurion, after asking Jesus to cure his paralyzed servant, said to him, "I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed." And Jesus healed the servant without going to the centurion's house because of his faith. To trust in God is to believe that nothing is impossible with him and that he will respond to you.

Great Relationship With God

        Your relationship with God is gauged by how comfortable you are with him. If you do not hide anything from him, are receptive to anything coming from him, and even long to be with him – in other words, you are completely comfortable with him – then you have a great relationship with God who is your Father.

A Blessing!

        Before Christ was born into the world, God spoke to the Jewish people through the prophets and other leaders. I feel so blessed that I came into being after Christ's arrival so that I can get to know God most intimately, for Jesus has said to Philip, "If you know me, you will also know my Father" and "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father."

Retiring Our Free Will

        The Lord God gave each one of us the free will to choose to follow or reject him. We are entirely responsible for all the choices we make. Keep in mind that at all times God tests our free will. The only way to make sure that we'll always pass the test is to give our will to God, then we won't ever need to exercise our free will anymore.  

**Love Gives Joy

        Communion experience. The greatest love we can feel in this life is God's love for us, for it is the greatest possible love. After I received the Lord in the Eucharist, the Holy Spirit filled my heart with overflowing joy. I felt as if a might force from within my heart was trying to bust open its walls. The joy was powerful, vigorous, and absolutely soul-touching – I couldn't do a thing about it. I knew that it came from the love of Christ.

Key to Entering Kingdom of Heaven

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 16, Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is? They replied, 'Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Son of the living God." Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father." It is the key to entering the kingdom of heaven to be able to believe and say truly that Jesus is the Son of the living God.

Home Sweet Home With God

        It is good to be back home, especially because I am now able to receive the Lord daily again. Away for home this past week, I attended Mass only on one weekday and Sunday in two different cities. The first church was quite far from where I stayed and the second one, to get there, I had to drive through heavy traffic and ended up not being able to find a parking space right away. So I appreciate driving to my church back home on nice country roads in 5 minutes and encountering no traffic. Today is the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. The entrance antiphon reads: These are the ones who, living in the flesh, planted the Church with their blood; they drank the chalice of the Lord and became the friends of God. It is good to be back home, but it is infinitely better to become a friend of God.

Sin Preferred Over Gravity

        Sin and Gravity are alike in that they both weigh us down. Because of gravity, we are limited to moving around near the surface of the earth. The only way to rid of gravity is to be at some spot in space where all the gravitational forces attracting you from all directions cancel each other out. It's safe to say that we are entirely earthbound. As for sin, it becomes our spiritual burden, keeping us from soaring to God. But we don't need to be bound by it, for Christ can free us from sin instantly if we let him. So, in a way, I like sin more than gravity.

Most Satisfying Feeling

        Knowing that you maintain a private, close relationship with none other than God.      

True Freedom

        Those who follow God's will are not affected by what others do, thus they are free in doing what they want to do. But those who follow their own will always get bothered by others' actions, so they never feel free.   

More Than No. 1

        The Gospel reading yesterday came from Matthew 6. Jesus pointed out that doing anything to make people think that you are doing it for God is being hypocritical and will not receive any recompense from God. If we do things to win the praise of others, we have received our reward already. So it comes down to choosing to please God or ourselves, to serve God or ourselves, to worship God or ourselves. God not only needs to be No. 1, but the only one in our life.

Treasurable Feeling

       Since I am traveling, I may not be able to blog daily in the coming week. Anyway, yesterday the entrance antiphon from Psalm 14 read: The clean of hands and pure of heart shall climb the mountain of the Lord and stand in his holy place. To me, keeping the hands clean is not to do any bad deeds and keeping the heart pure is not to have any bad thoughts. Both clean hands and a pure heart assure that you will feel good in God's presence, and what a treasurable feeling that is!

Blessed and Worthy Are ...

those who receive the Lord in the Holy Eucharist with humility, love, and trust. (Today's Communion experience.)

Our Mission and Goal

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 5, Jesus asked his disciples to love not just their neighbor, but even their enemies. And he wants them to be perfect, just as their heavenly Father is perfect. The lesson here: (1) Specifically, we are to love everyone as the Father loves us, irrespective of whether the person is good or bad, just or unjust and (2) fundamentally, we are to imitate the Father who is perfect.

God Wouldn't Mind

        Today's entrance antiphon from Psalm 27: O Lord, hear my voice, for I have called to you; be my help. Do not abandon or forsake me, O God, my savior. We can ask, beg, pester, or even argue with God. As long as we treat him as our most loving Father, he wouldn't mind a bit. Sharing everything in your heart with him surely endears yourself to him.

Sole Influence

        It is easy to follow the crowd and do whatever everyone else is doing, especially when there is the chance of making money or looking fashionable, but believing that it should always be between you and God means that you let only God influence you.

Egregious Disconnect

        So many people are disconnected from God, for they are deeply immersed in the world and have lost whatever spiritual awareness they had. They say that God is dead, but I say that their own hearts are dead. Here's a human analogy that illustrates the situation. A father raises his children, loves them very much and gives them the best in everything he could. Now the children have grown up and totally forgotten about the father. They are immersed in doing what they want to do and no longer visit or communicate with the father. You don't have to be a parent to know how bad that father would be feeling. Imagine now how our heavenly Father with infinite love for us would be feeling over us. 

The Lord Making a Point

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 5, Jesus said to his disciples, "You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one what wants to borrow." These are hard sayings, but they completely make sense if you truly love everyone as God loves us, never wishing to judge or hurt anyone. Naturally, vengeance is out of the question. I think this is the point Jesus had wanted to get across. Another example, in Matthew 5.30, Jesus said, "If your right hand causes you to sin, cut if off and throw it away." Here he made the point that we are not to sin. Nevertheless, love the Lord with all your heart and you'll know what to do in each situation.