**Repent First of All

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 15, Jesus told the Pharisees and scribes the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. He let them know that "there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who have no need of repentance, and there will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents." It shows how incredibly important we are to God our Father and how necessary it is for us to repent! If you haven't repented yet, the whole heaven is waiting to cheer for you. So get off your high horse and stop being a kill-joy.

Letting God Strengthen You

        This morning's entrance antiphon from Psalm 38: Forsake me not, O Lord, my God; be not far from me! Make haste and come to my help, O Lord, my strong salvation! This is the timely prayer for me to hear. Since the Lord is the infinite wellspring of anything we need, we can derive infinite strength from him. Be weak in God and he'll make your strong. Be in union with him and he'll fight all the battles for you.

**The Lost Generation

        I have come to see that if you know the Lord well, you'll see and understand clearly what life and this world is all about. If you don't see good against evil going on at all times and that the soul lives on forever and will face final judgment after we die, then you are essentially living in darkness. Christ is the only shining light that can make us see and understand the reality and truth. But tragically, many are so lost that instead of seeing themselves as obstacles in God's way, they do not see him at all or even see him as an obstacle in their way. How I wish that they realize that there is not a time in life that we don't need to repent of our sins.  

Letting God Condition Your Heart

        Communion experience. Jesus not only can purify our heart, but also heal its wounds. Once the heart is cleansed, healed, and made whole, it is ready to receive the peace and joy of the Lord.

Seeing the Light of Salvation

        My spirit gets depressed when I see so many people in the world suffering persecution and injustice. Then I see how Christ suffered the worst persecution and injustice of all and the best good news came out of it – our salvation! My spirit now is uplifted, seeing Christ as our bright hope. We must never forget that God is our light and salvation (Psalm 27:1). 

***Best and Right Way to Live

        From time to time, I have to give up doing certain things I enjoy doing because of old age or other reasons; but the Lord compensates me by letting me feel even more joy in him. Seeing how the world is becoming so godless in so many ways often places a heavy burden on my heart. Again, I find relief and consolation in Christ the Lord. We can decide to fight all the problems on our own our whole life, and then die. What do we accomplish then? It becomes crystal clear to me that the best and right way for us to live is trust fully in God, obey him in all things, and grow holier each day. (Obviously, God has no use for anyone unholy.) As one of the lines of Mother Teresa's poem "Do It Anyway" reads: For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. 

Do You See Clearly?

        If you see that you owe your whole existence to God and that he loves you, then you should also see that it's time for you to submit yourself totally to him. 

**God's Preferences

        God desires mercy, not sacrifice (Hosea 6.6, Matthew 9.13 & 12.7). He also prefers to see the interior of our hearts rather than the exterior of any ceremony we conduct.

**To Be Fair to Christ

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 14, Jesus tells the parable of the great feast. In the story, a man gave a great dinner to which he invited many. But one by one, those invited all began to excuse themselves. We see the same phenomenon today. Christ is patiently waiting, hoping that anyone would even glance in his direction, yet people do not pay the slightest attention to him. I truly feel sorry for the Lord, although I know that he would want me to feel more sorry for them. My message is this: To be fair to the Lord, if you ignore him, you should at the least examine yourself to know what your true reason is.

*Imitate Christ and Be Exalted

      Paul wrote in today's first reading, Philippians 2.5-11 – Brothers and sisters: Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and, found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.      

          We too should empty ourselves so that we may obey and serve the Lord humbly with all our heart. Then God will also exalt us. It is absolutely appropriate for us to want the Lord to exalt us, for this is his wish. And it is also appropriate for us to desire to go to heaven, for nothing pleases the Lord more than our wanting to be with him forever.   

*How God Understands Us

        God knows us so well that he has devised the sacraments of Penance and Eucharist ingeniously. In confession, when you hear the priest absolve your sins, you know that they are being absolved. In receiving the Holy Eucharist, the physical contact just makes you realize that the Lord is inviting you to spiritual union with him.  

**Why No Inner Peace

         Here's the very reason. We lose peace because things do not always turn out the way we want them to turn out. We are in effect spoiled, rebellious children of God, not letting him be our Lord. It come down to the lack of humility. Don't expect to enter God's kingdom when you are still full of pride. 

Life Is All About . . .

how much you are willing to let the Lord change you.       

*Freedom in Christ

        Communion experience. I felt free that I could abandon myself to Christ in him as much as I wished. This itself is freedom.

**To Love God Perfectly

        Today's readings at Mass were all about loving the Lord, the first of all the commandments. It is true that we shall all be measured by how much we love him. If we do not surrender ourselves totally to God, we shall always fall short of loving him with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, an with all our strength. It stands to reason that if we can give ourselves up to God, then we can give everything else up to God too, and we thus become free. 

***We Can Be Limitless!

        I want to be able to play the piano well; but physically, I lack the necessary facility. Now with memory getting weaker and finger joints less flexible, the goal becomes even more difficult to reach. I used to play basketball and table tennis quite well, but there were always others who played better. I was pretty good in mathematics too, again I sensed that some others just thought and caught on faster. What I want to say is that we all have our physical or intellectual limitations. We are finite, period. But there is one thing that can be infinite with us, that is on opening ourselves up to God. When we do open ourselves up, the infinite God enters to do what he pleases, and there will be no limit to how holy he can make us! This is truly exciting when we see that we can grow spiritually as much as we desire. 

***To Be Living Happily Ever After

        Today's Gospel reading came from Luke 14. Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees. Noticing how the invited guests were choosing the places of honor at the table, he told them a parable. The moral of the story is that "Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted." Therefore, let's humble ourselves until we forget that we even exist, then the Lord will exalt us to his level, that is, he'll truly be with us and in us. This is living happily ever after! To give God the Father joy is to be joy-filled ourselves.

***Our Foremost Concern

      Trusting in God with all our heart to precede all other concerns.