Our Greatest Challenge

        God is always present, so we face the challenge either to accept him or to reject him completely. Ignoring the challenge does not make it go away.       

***Most Amazing Relationship!

        God is our creator, Lord, Savior, Father, brother, friend, guardian, spiritual guide, confidant,  and even servant. We worship, praise, and adore him, beg for his mercy, and at times argue, bargain, or laugh with him, even retorting to him, and he doesn't mind. This absolutely special, beautiful, and delightful relationship is only possible with our God, the God of Christ. And I most treasure and enjoy it.           

What We Must Do Urgently

        Sin hurts God. Every time we sin, we betray the Father and sadden him greatly by being unappreciative of his greatest love for us. Then sin hurts us, the sinners. It becomes a burden on our heart, robbing us of inner peace and impairing our health. More importantly, sin can weigh us down to the point that we lose God for all eternity. To get our sins removed by God is absolutely the thing we most urgently need to do in this life.

**"Whoopee!" Time

        Do you realize that when we surrender to God, we experience no enslavement, only freedom? Not only that, we are also raised to the level of being one with him! 

A Special Peace

        At the end, Jesus will put all his enemies under his feet, destroying the last enemy, death. Everything will be subjected to him. (1 Corinthians 15.) John wrote about Jesus: "He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be." (John 1.3). Jesus himself said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14.6). This is our great and awesome Lord. This morning he made me see that when we subject ourselves to him, we shall experience a special peace, the peace of being in perfect harmony with God. 

*Christianity's Unique Feature

        Communion time thoughts. One popular bumper sticker reads: Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven. No matter how bad we are, the God of Christ is always ready to forgive us. That is, as long as we are still living on earth, God will always give us a second chance, which means that the hope for our salvation will always be there. This is what God's infinite mercy is all about. And this is what makes Christianity unique and wonderful.

Forgive We Must

        The lesson from today's Gospel from Matthew 18 is very clear. We must be merciful to others as our heavenly Father is merciful to us, and always forgive those who have sinned against us. This is following the example of Christ the Lord and is what must distinguish his followers. Whatever we do to others, we must let love reign, overriding all other negative feelings. If we want God to be forgiving to us always, then we must likewise be forgiving always.

**What Is Honor?

        We bestow all kinds of honors on people in this world. Does it really matter? Do you even care? We erect statues to honor past heroes who might be suffering in hell now. In the case the honor bestowed results in boosting the ego of the honoree, then it acts more like a curse than a blessing. The Church also honors saints by canonizing them. This serves to inspire others to love God more by following their examples. As far as the saints are concerned, who only wish to follow God's will, being officially declared saints is not going to thrill them in anyway. 

         Conclusions. The world bestows honors mostly for vainglory. In the presence of God, no one deserves to be honored. When we honor someone, we must do it for the sake of glorifying God. Not to forget, if God has called you to serve him, you have already received the highest possible honor, an honor that humbles you to boot.   

**Doing Things Without God

        John 15.5: At the Last Supper, Jesus said to his disciples, "I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing." What Jesus meant was that without him we cannot be fruitful for God's sake. We can perform good deeds, but without him we are still stuck with our sins. In fact, to be good is not good enough, for Jesus wants us to be perfect as the heavenly Father – definitely we need his help here.

Pray for Fire

        Today's Response to verses read from Psalm 66 at Mass: Blessed be God who filled my soul with fire. Normally, we ask God to fill us with peace and joy, but asking for fire is entirely appropriate. His fire can consume all our sins, purify our souls, and ignite our zeal to go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature as Christ had commissioned his disciples before he ascended into heaven.     

Joy of Banishing Ego

        If you can crush your ego the moment it rears its ugly head, you would experience a new freedom in God because you have now triumphed over a personal destructive enemy. 

**Deal With Sin!

        Christians do not confess sins to God for the following reasons: (1) They have not sinned (which is impossible). (2) They have not sinned seriously (most likely due to a dull conscience). (3) They are afraid and put off facing God (which is being most foolish). Realities: (1) We all sin, so we are unclean. (2) As long as we remain unclean, we are not with God. (3) Away from God, we cannot enter heaven. Therefore, deal with sin, our greatest destructive enemy, before anything else. 

**Big Realization

        As I am now living on earth, I am free to choose whatever I want to do. You don't even need to think about this, for you know it and take it for granted. Then I suddenly realize that after this life is over, where I end up will be completely determined by God – I won't have any say at all! But, should I be chosen by God to live forever with him, I shall have my new and even greater freedom in him.

Hint on Reading the Gospels

        If you doubt that Christ is God, you will have many questions when you read about him in the Gospels. But if you assume that he is God, then you'll see that the Gospels support your assumption and make perfect sense to you. 

Are You Smart?

        If you are truly smart, you would see that to win God, you must be humble and obedient to him.

Serious Talk About Serious Talk

        Today is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the 2nd reading from 1 Corinthians 15, Paul writes that at the end, Jesus must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet, including the destruction of death. This is serious talk we must not casually brush aside. Either Paul knows what he is talking about or it's all baloney. The same goes for all of what Jesus has said. To not pay attention to him is to dismiss God who has created you and now wants to save you. We must listen up and give him the most serious consideration.

On Changing Ourselves

        Let's face it – changing ourselves fundamentally is one of the most difficult things we face. It's kind of like trying to find our eyeglasses without them. God is the only one who can get the job done, for he is our creator and a higher power. But we need to cast aside our pride to make it happen, and this is a hurdle for many of us.  

Two Great Paradoxes

        (1) The more you hide yourself in God, the more he notices you.

        (2) The more you let God own you, the more you experience freedom.