**God Knows About Me!

           Today is the Memorial of St. Anthony. The Gospel reading from Mark 2 tells the healing of a paralytic by our Lord. Four men brought the paralytic to see Jesus. Unable to get near him because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him and let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Child, your sins are forgiven." Some of the scribes present asked themselves, "He is blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins?" Jesus immediately knew what they were thinking. To show that he has authority to forgive sins on earth, he said to the paralytic, "Rise, pickup your mat, and go home." He did as he was told in the sight of everyone.

        I do not know the age of the paralytic. He could be older and not much younger than the Lord. Anyway, the fact that he called him "Child" strikes me that he was speaking to him as God. As always, Jesus knew what people were thinking or what they were going to do. I find great consolation in knowing that God knows all about me and all my thoughts. It would be terribly lonely to know that there is not a single soul out there who can fully understand you. Being aware that the Lord knows all about me guards me against losing my way. Furthermore, it keeps me on the path to becoming holy and more perfect. 

**Exalted Spiritual State

        Communion experience. When we submit our will to the Lord, we become one in perfect harmony with God. And all is well! 

***We Are the Antichrists!

        In today's Gospel reading from Mark, a leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said, "If you wish, you can make me clean." Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched the leper, and said to him, "I do will it. Be made clean." The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean. Yes, the Lord only needs to will and it is done! But wait a second, there is a problem. Do you realize that we have the power to prevent God from completing his will by exercising our free will? See how we ignore him, defy him, or betray him all the time. Look at the politicians who claim that they are Catholic, but openly support abortion without shame. I now see life also as a testing ground for the Lord to find out whether we deserve to be his children in heaven or not.

***God No Longer a Mystery

        Communion experience. The Lord entered me—God could not possibly be a mystery to me anymore. In fact, he had come into the world, becoming one of us so that we might know him as one of us. And he revealed all we needed to know about the Father, the Spirit, and how we can have life for all eternity. In union with us, he becomes one we know more intimately than anyone else! It turns out that he is also more exciting to know than all the mysteries there are!

**Focusing on Jesus*

        Christianity is all about Christ. Therefore, we should zero in on him. He is everything and all things to us. Going peripherally about him is a waste of time; you won't get to know him well. We need to live in him, breathe him, be wide open to him to be fed, nurtured, shaped, and molded by him, and become one with him. Then we'll be like him, fulfilling his loving desire and satisfying all our inner thirst and hunger.   

Love for All Eternity

        Communion experience. Relationship with anything or anyone in the world, no matter how enjoyable or intimate, can wane, grow tiresome, or become burdensome over time. With God, the deeper you enter him, the more you witness his beauty and splendor, and the more you fall in love with him. 

No Duplicity in Us with God

        Jesus said in Matthew 7.21: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven." In other words, when we say "Lord, Lord," we must mean it, that he truly is our Lord and we obey him always. Otherwise, we are hypocrites. 

*Faith as Gift from God

         If I want to enlarge my house, no problem. I could do the work myself or hire someone else. If I want to plant more trees in my yard, again no problem. If I want to grow more muscles, I can join a gym to work out. With most things, I can do something about it. As to my faith in God, it is different. I can try my hardest to force myself to believe in him more and that won't work. Only by the grace of God can my faith grow. In this sense, faith is a gift from God.
        The above I blogged earlier. Then I thought about it. There is something we can do to increase our faith. Instead of trying hard, we simply relax ourselves and open up to God. With resistance out of the way, the Lord can increase our faith by drawing us close to him.

Bolder Prayers Please God

        I hear too many prayers that begin with "May...." They sound timid, too polite, or even wishy-washy. I venture to say that the Lord would rather that we be bolder, more commanding, or more resolute, especially when we know we are following his will. I particularly remember Jesus' parable of the persistent widow from Luke 18, in which the dishonest judge eventually caved in to the demand of the widow who persistently pestered him. Remember that our Lord is our dearest Father.  

**Power of God's Holiness

        In today's Gospel reading from Mark 1, when a man with an unclean spirit saw Jesus, he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!" Jesus rebuked him and said, "Quiet! Come out of him!" The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out. I see the power of God's holiness at work here. When we become one with the Lord, this power makes us holy, and fearless, shielding us from all evil. Let's use this power in loving and evangelizing others too.

*Obeying the Lord in All Things*

        It is super easy to follow the flesh and not God. For example, I came across an interesting TV show with many episodes. After I watched the first episode, my flesh urged me to go on and watch the next one, while the Lord let me know that it's time for blogging. The voice of the Spirit is always gentle, so we must learn to discern and listen carefully. Our goal should be to obey the Lord in all things at all times; as John the Baptist, pointing to Jesus, said, "He must increase; I must decrease."

Making It the Right Way

        People look at someone who has become rich and famous and say that he has made it, but I don't necessarily agree. What if he won't make it to heaven? Besides, if the person others admire is not even holy, what does that say about them? Jesus came to give us life—not to make us rich and famous. Obviously, to have life is to have life for all eternity. Let's make it the right way, not according to the ways of the world.

**Advice on Sinning

        Sometimes we sin and hurt ourselves only; at other times we sin and hurt others too. Then our sin can cause others to sin also or hurt them to the extent you can't possibly make amends, making you feel bad. Now, let's think fundamentally. Every time we sin, no matter what sin it is, what the cause was, and what its consequences are or will be, we hurt our Lord badly. Therefore, do not ever sin and you do not have to be concerned about all the implications of your sin.

**Fair Exchange

        Communion experience. The Lord even let me consume him, how could I not let him have all of me?

**Great to Be in God

        When we are in God or God is in us, we become pure in every way: pure in thoughts, words, deeds, our motivation, our love, etc. This is why being in God makes us feel so good. (He has made us this way.)

***Be Filled with God

        The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Joy! Anyone filled with the Holy Spirit can't help being on fire with great zeal for the Lord God. Without the Holy Spirit, we would appear to be rather depressing or pitiable. To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to submit yourself fully to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity. Anyway, whether it be the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit, it is total submission to God that sets you free. Anyone or anything other than God can only enslave us. This is the spiritual warfare we're involved in. Be filled with God and you are saved and safe. Otherwise, you are lost and lose.

*Keeping Our Conscience Clean

        We are given a conscience by God, but that conscience gets muddy as we continue sinning, "trapped" in this secular world in which evil is real! To get our conscience cleansed and restored so that we can see clearly what's good and what's evil, we need to go to God from whom we received our conscience. A super sharp, clean conscience protects us from sinning, thus preserving our inner peace. The worst feeling is knowing that we have offended the One who loves us the most. Remain in union with the Lord is the best way to keep our conscience pristine. 

*What True Love Demands

        Do you really love someone (yourself)? If you think only about getting a good education, finding a good job, having good health, making money, seeking material comfort . . . do you think you can make your loved one truly happy? I think you know the answer, but you still hope that you can, as you do not know anything better. This is the common situation I see. If you truly love someone, whether it be your father or mother, your brother or sister, your own son or daughter, your good friend or yourself, you would want that person to be truly happy forever! Eternity is real and earthly existence only transitory. To truly love someone is to make sure that the person (yourself) will be happy forever, not just to seek only pseudo happiness on this earth.