God Is Peace

        Today's Communion antiphon, John 14.27: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you, says the Lord. As sinners, we'll never have peace on our own, for we continue to sin. God has made us so that if we desire to have him take away our sins, he'll do so and we receive peace from him. This is almost common sense and I can testify to you that it is true. 

**Through Christ in All Things

         Earlier in John 14, Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Therefore, we should all connect ourselves to Christ first. It all comes down to that each of us is to go and respond to him, learn from him, and become channels of his love for all others. Yes, we love through him too.

***Union Promised by God

        Today's Gospel reading today at Mass from John 14 more or less confirms what I said in the last post. Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him. Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him."

***Most Beautiful Coming Together

        The closer we get to Christ, the more we are awed by his perfection, and the humbler we become. Then finally, we enter him (or rather we let him enter us) and we completely vanish in him, with him dwelling in us alone.

**Most Private Moment

        Communion experience. Being just with the Lord alone was a most private moment. The ego no longer existed and I was filled with peace and freedom. Where God resides, ego has no place. 

***Spiritual Journey With the Surprise***

        Achieving union with God is our greatest challenge, precisely because it make us saints. Actually, the hard part consists of just one sticky point: surrendering yourself to God. Here is how a fruitful spiritual journey progresses. You struggle along and eventually reach that sticky point. You stop, but you brave yourself and decide to go beyond it. Now God picks you up and carries you all the rest of the way! This is the big surprise.

Importance of Remaining in God

        In today's Gospel reading from John 15, Jesus talks about the vine and the branches. He said to his disciples, "I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned." Matthew 12.21 comes to my mind, in which Jesus says "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven." Those who do not remain firmly in the Lord can easily be targeted by Satan. I have seen this happening time and again. My personal recommendation is to achieve union with God so that you and the Lord might remain in each other firmly. 

Evangelizing Ourselves First

        We must evangelize ourselves first before evangelizing others. It's always between God and us, never between others and us. And only God can convert our hearts. Our sole responsibility should be to evangelize ourselves, then we'll automatically be effective in attracting others to the Lord. Peace on earth starts with the evangelization of ourselves.

Indebted to God

        Communion experience. This is the Lord, my Savior, to whom I owe my existence and without whom I would not have life, let alone eternal life. 

*Awakening Time

        God has made his intention and how we can have eternal life absolutely clear to us. Are we willing to listen to him? Do we still pretend that we do not hear him?  

**God Does It Better

        When I thought that if I must give my own life so that the souls of those I love might be saved, I would do so. Then I realized that the Lord surely love them so much more than I, and I felt instantly relieved, knowing that he would take care of their souls. God always does better than we can in anything. 

***Let God Do It All!

        We fall short of loving God as much as we should, but focusing upon our sinfulness and asking ourselves how we can do better is not the way to go. To progress, we need to focus upon God's love, mercy, holiness, and greater power to inspire us to seek union with him. We can never become saints on our own. We become saints only when we let God do it all for us!  

***Jesus and the Father Are One

        Today's Gospel reading came from John 14. At the Last Supper, Jesus said to his disciples, "From now on you do know my Father and have seen him. Whoever has seen me has seen he Father. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me." You ask, "Where is God?" Find Jesus and you find him. Know Jesus and you know him. How you feel about Jesus is exactly how you feel about God the Father. God is completely within your grasp. In fact, attain union with him and he is all yours!

In the Light of Christ

        Today's entrance antiphon, 1 Peter 2.9: O chosen people, proclaim the mighty works of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light. Indeed, once you've been called to know Christ, in his light everything becomes crystal clear (no more questions) and you are fully content.

Walking With the Holy Spirit

        In following the Holy Spirit, I have learned not to rush ahead of him. Today I see that lagging behind the Holy Spirit can even be worse. Seek union with God so you may always walk in lockstep with the Holy Spirit. 

Nothing to Say, Just Believe

        In today's Gospel reading from John 14: Jesus said to his disciples, "In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

         All I can say is that Jesus knew exactly what he's talking about. We'd better believe.

**What Preaching Needs

        Once I met someone promoting a certain product, telling how wonderful and useful it was. I asked him if he owned and used one himself. He admitted that he did not, but knew about the product well. Right there and then, he lost much of his credibility. This makes me realize that if we only tell others how great God is, but not mention how he has changed our lives in any way, we can't be very convincing. Giving personal testimonies is an effective way of backing up what you preach. To spread what God has done to and for you is to glorify God, something to boast about. Catholics can learn much from their Protestant brothers and sisters.   

**In the Light of Christ

        Communion experience. I feel I am basking in the light of Christ. In this light, I know that he knows all about me, and that he loves me, watches over me, and takes care of me. In this light, I feel good because I am completely content and comfortable with him. Basking in the light of your most beloved and enjoying him, there's nothing more I can ask for.