*Key Humility

        Today is the Feast of St. Andrew, Apostle. From the first reading from Romans 10, Paul wrote: For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Believe in the Lord is the first step, then we must call on him from the heart, the key humility we need to be saved. This seems to be the step that many hearts stop short of taking.

***God's Enemy in Us

        Many things make us feel unhappy. We are justified in feeling unhappy when we see how people do bad things to others, whether it affects us or not. Then we can also feel unhappy simply because things do not turn out the way we have wanted through no fault of anyone. This is where we should be concerned, for it reveals that we still have that ugly ego in us. So the next time you feel unhappy, examine yourself to see if your ego is in play. It is always the ego that robs us of inner peace. We cannot serve both God and ego.

***How to Become Holy

        We all carry the original sin. The urge to sin is always there and we are vulnerable to all kinds of temptations. I see that the only way to safeguard our soul is to follow Christ singularly. When we are filled or become one with the Lord, there is just no room for anything else anymore. We do not fundamental change, as without him, we easily revert to sinning again. It'll be like this before we enter heaven. So let the Lord "transform" us by letting him occupy us and shield us from all evil. And this calls for our complete surrender to him first.

Innermost Longing Fulfilled

        Yesterday's Communion experience. Believing in Christ fulfills our innermost longing to attain eternal joy.

***Salvation Is Easy!

        At the Thanksgiving Day Mass yesterday, the Gospel reading came from Luke 17. Ten lepers asked Jesus to heal them. Jesus sent them to the priests and they were cleansed on their way. One of the ten, realizing that he had been healed, returned to Jesus, fell at his feet and thanked him. Jesus responded, "Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?" He then said to him, "Stand up and go; your faith has saved you." This former leper just believed in the Lord was saved! I also recall that one of the two thieves crucified along with Jesus asked the Lord to remember him when he came into his kingdom. Jesus replied, "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." These two instances show how easy it is to be saved! If you close your mind and do not believe that Christ can save you, that's definitely making a big mistake.

***Dumbest Sinners

        Evildoers are the dumbest people around. They want to get their way always, forgetting that they are condemning themselves to hell if they do not turn around. Jesus asked, "What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?" Hypocrites are aplenty today among our elected politicians. They do not perceive the wooden beam in their own eye, but notice the splinter in other's (Matthew 7.3). Worse yet, they even manufacture faults in others, directly violating God's commandment "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." The Lord who is love and the truth detests hypocrisy. So hypocrites are equally dumb. 

*Our Foremost Obligation

        Communion experience. I was unworthy to receive the Lord. I did, because he called me to his table. Obedience to him must be our foremost obligation. When you obey the Lord, you get that sense of great fulfillment and feel peace.

*When Should Jesus Come Again?

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 21, Jesus told the crowd about the coming persecution, "They will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name. You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name." The existence of evil against God could not have been made any clearer. We now see persecutions of Christians and spiritual battles going all around the globe. For the good people, we wish God would come now to put and end to their suffering. On the other hand, for the evildoers, we pity them and hope that God would give them more time to come to repentance. I suppose that if you are with Christ, knowing that you are going to him, you would see that suffering for his sake is truly an honor and a joy and gladly allow more time for those who need salvation the most. In any case, it is the Lord who knows the best time to come again. 

**Falling Away from God

        If you think you know more than God and do not need him anymore, you become as foolish as you can be. Blind to the light of Christ, the world has become completely disordered and lost its way. It is pride again that has made us go astray.

*Anxiety and Sins of Impurity + Schism*

        Always a joy to hear Fr. Mark Goring speaking in the Holy Spirit.

***Seek Union with God Now!

        People do not even consider seeking union with God, not realizing that this is what the Lord desires most ardently. The time for us to start seeking it is right now! You do not become a saint first to be ready for union; you seek union first in order to become a saint. Rejecting seeking union with God is going against his will, for he loves and desires all of you!  

*Those Who've Cast God Aside

        We all know that we'll die one day, yet so many of us in this world are intent on gaining wealth, power, and fame by whatever means necessary; they have cast God aside and turned evil. We can only feel sorry for them for not realizing that if they reject God, they will be rejected by him in the end.

**Pleasing Offering to God

        Today's Gospel reading, Luke 21.1-4: When Jesus looked up he saw some wealthy people putting their offerings into the treasury and he noticed a poor widow putting in two small coins. He said, "I tell you truly, this poor widow put in more than all the rest; for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood. The Lord looks at the heart and values the intention. For most of us who are not free to offer more than we like, consider offering ourselves to God. There is no external restraint here and the Lord will surely be most pleased with this intention.

**To Be Happy with Self

        One is happy with himself when he realizes that God truly loves him; he accepts this love and finally is at peace with himself. Now he is ready to let the Lord make him holy. If you do not like yourself, you still have your ego and are not truly free yet. 

*God Most Amazing*

        The sun is so familiar to us and we don't think much about it unless you are an astronomer or scientist. I watched History Channel's documentary The Secrets of the Sun and was amazed by its power and its uniqueness in the universe. I learned that it's been burning for billions of years and probably still has billions of more years to go. The distance between the sun and the earth is just right so that we get the right temperature for life to survive. The moon is just smaller and closer to the earth enough for a total eclipse to happen. In the past, solar storms had amazingly reached the earth in about 16 hours, covering 93 millions miles. In one Marian apparition, it was revealed that fire would fall from the sky one day–could it be a severe solar storm hitting the earth? The sun is amazing and powerful, but the Lord is its creator. At Fatima, he made the sun spin and fall from in the sky. Everything in the universe obeys the Lord except us. Let us be amazed by him and become obedient too.

Forgiving the Evildoers

        There are many evil people today who are easy for us to hate. Then I remember that Jesus even prayed for those who put him to death: "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do" (Luke 23.34). So I truly feel sorry for all the evildoers too, for they know not what they do and what they would face if they do not change their ways. We must be merciful as our Lord is merciful.

To Be Prepared Always

        Jesus wants us to be prepared always, for he will come at an hour we do not expect. Just in case he does not appear in our lifetime, we must also be ready for our own death. And since many today suffer dementia as they age, we ought be watchful for that too. If all this is too much, just trust and follow the Lord faithfully and he shall take care of you. 

***Food for Immortality

        Communion experience. Yesterday, as I received the Holy Eucharist, I realized that this was the true food that would make me immortal, for Jesus promised in John 6 that "whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood will live forever."