How to Enter God's Kingdom

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 5, Jesus said to his disciples: "I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven." So there he set a minimum standard. In fact, he went on to tell the disciples not to follow what they had heard was said, but to listen to what he tells them. The smart move is to never mind the scribes and Pharisees and what anyone else had said, but to go straight to the Lord and listen to him alone. We make heaven not because we not holy enough; we make it because we follow the Lord.

*Good Reasons for Seeking Salvation

        Today's entrance antiphon from Psalm 25 contains the verse Look upon my affliction and suffering; take away all my sins. We are sinners and need God to take away our sins. Today's response from Psalm 130: If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand? If God pronounces you guilty, you are dead guilty. Then the Communion antiphon from Ezekiel 33.11: As I live, says the Lord, I do not desire the death of the sinner, but rather that he turn back and live. God wants us to live. These three truths compel us to to turn to the Lord to ask him to save us.

*Being Attached to the Past

        I watched a British TV show, The Repair Shop. People brought old and broken objects such as pieces of furniture, stuffed dolls and animals, music boxes, toys, vases, clocks, paintings, etc. to the shop to be repaired or restored. The repair-crew were all amazing craftspersons. The owners wanted their things brought back to life because they were mostly heirlooms which they wanted to remember their ancestors by and pass onto their own descendants; and they had happy memories associated with the respective objects they owned. So when they came back and saw the object all restored, they were all so exited and happy. In some cases, they were moved to tears. I felt happy for them too, but I couldn't help also feeling sorry for them, for with such attachment to these material things and the past, they wouldn't be free to leave this world when the time comes. 

**God Forever Ready and Open

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 7, Jesus said to his disciples, "Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." So you can confidently go direct to the Lord to seek or ask for whatever you need. It doesn't matter whether you are a sinner or a saint (although I do have the feeling that the sinner would get the bigger welcome). Our Lord is pure love, totally accessible, and eagerly wishes to be one with us. He created the universe, keeps us alive, and gave us his only Son so that we might have eternal life, surely he can and would want the best for us. Time to run toward him at full speed.

**Fast Track to Holiness

        Trying to make spiritual progress without accessing the Lord God is like trying to lift yourself up by pulling on your bootstraps—it won't work! This is not a new message; I am giving it again only because I saw people again praying that they might become more patient, more sensitive to others' needs, more obedient to God, etc. . . . all centered upon themselves. It should be obvious that the effective way to getting results is to go straight to the Lord, telling him all that you desire and asking him to take over to help you succeed. And you'd be surprised by how easily he can fulfill all these good desires of yours.

*Sign Seeking Is Evil!

        Today's Gospel reading came from Luke 11. Jesus said to the people that their generation was an evil generation, for it sought a sign, but no sign would be given it. Our generation today is the same. Many of us do not believe in the Lord unless they personally witness a sign. If you have a hardened heart, do not even acknowledge that you are a sinner, and still expect the Almighty God to do some wonder so that you might believe, you have to be out of your mind! Don't you see that Jesus has been our greatest sign for the past 2,000 years? If you don't see that, no other sign will do you any good. Be humble and know your place before the Lord first and desire to know him, then you'll have made the right start. 

**To Be with Christ Completely

        Jesus is always present and among us anyway. What we need is to have the Lord dwelling within each of us to be one with us. Otherwise, we are not completely with him.

**Purpose of the Eucharist

        Communion experience. The Lord gave us the Holy Eucharist to consume so that we may know that he is always with us and that he wishes to become one with us. In receiving this most precious gift, we also get to savor and enjoy him.

***Our Perfect State***

        To hear the Lord speaking to us, we need also to go limp so as not to offer any resistance. To go limp is to open up ourselves to God completely, to abandon ourselves in him totally. It's letting the Lord take over, do whatever pleases him the most with us. This is the ideal perfect state for us to be in, with us "vanishing" in him and all set to spend eternity in heaven. 

*Good Intentions Matter

         God reads our hearts and minds. We may not succeed in doing something good, but if our intention is good, God values that. We try to imitate the Lord to become like him. Of course, we'll never be as perfect as he is, but he would still appreciate our intention. Always have good intentions and do your best, and the Lord will not blame you.

***Like Getting Up in the Morning

        Abandoning yourself to God is like trying to get up in the morning. We all want to sleep or relax some more in our comfortable bed. To get up requires making an effort. But once you are up and see what a beautiful day it is out there, you are glad that you are up. Not to deal with God may make you feel guilty, but it's a "comfort" you enjoy after all. So to abandon yourself to God would require a great deal of effort on your part. But once you've done it, you would never want to go back again, for you feel and know that you've been liberated. The truth is that as long as we play God even for a tiny bit, we are not free. Let God be God and we are finally set completely free. 

*No Longer Afraid of Death

        When you attain union with God, you no longer fear death, for (1) God is so real that you know the eternal life he promised is real, (2) you are so in love with him that you long to see him in person, (3) experiencing the freedom in the Lord, you become detached to all things of the world, (4) you already possess the Lord and lack nothing anymore.

*For Me Alone

        Communion experience. The Lord is so personal that he would have died for me alone to save me. Now he enters me just to feed me and to be one with me alone. 

**How to Appear Before God

        It it better for us to remain on the timid side or be bold when we go before the Lord? Neither! Just know that he is your most loving Father who desires ardently to be one with you, and act naturally.

*To Be Blessed or Accursed by God

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 25, Jesus talks about The Judgment of the Nations at his Second Coming. Two things are made clear. (1) The Lord will separate all, one from another, into just two groups. There will be (a) the righteous blessed by the Father to inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world and (b) the accursed to be sent off to eternal punishment prepared for the Devil and his angles. (2) It is the presence or absence of love in our heart that determines if we'll be blessed or accursed. To make sure that we would be considered righteous by the Lord, love all others not on our own, but for his sake alone.

***Best Rewards for Now & for Later*

        Know that God wants to reward you in your next life. That can only mean one thing: he wants you to have eternal life! But if he only wants to reward you in this life, that would be horrible news, for it can only mean that you will lose your life forever after death. My advice is that you seek to attain union with him now. Then not only you will have eternal life guaranteed, you'll also receive the best possible reward you can have on earth, the joy of knowing God as your soulmate! 

***Be Out of God's Way First

        If you have not surrendered yourself to the Lord completely yet and ask him to help you grow spiritually, he won't be able to accomplish what you ask for freely. Surrender and get yourself out of his way before asking him for help, then you'll make rapid progress. (In theory, you can become a saint instantly.)

*God's Solid Promise

        Communion experience. I receive the Lord and know without a doubt that my soul is now safe. This is no magic. It is based upon his ironclad promise that whoever believes in him and eats his flesh and drinks his blood will have eternal life. (John 3.16 & John 6.54.)