Why Are You Are Still Here?

     In today's Gospel reading from John 7, Jesus went up to the feast of Tabernacles in Judea. He traveled not openly, for the Jews there were trying to kill him. When he started to teach openly in the temple area, they tried to arrest him. But no one laid a hand upon him because his hour had not yet come. 

          I am not leaving the world right now because I know that my hour is not here yet. The Lord has a plan for each one of us. It is good to know why we are still here and what he wants us to do. Otherwise, we are likely to waste much valuable time on earth. We reap later what we sow now on earth. Become one with the Lord so that you may know his plan for you.

*Lamenting the World

        I feel sorry for the world, for so many of its inhabitants live for themselves without any consideration for the welfare of their neighbors. They are marching away from the Lord, the truth, toward their own destruction. They are wasting away their time on earth. But God is merciful, and there will be more chastisements and warnings coming if they continue their ways. All the more we need to pray for the world.

*Be Smart and Careless

        We feel hurt emotionally or get upset because we remain uptight and take everything very personally. To cure this, we need to truly abandon ourselves in the Lord. Once we are totally in the Lord, we would only care about how he treats (loves) us and what he thinks of us, and are no longer bothered by what happens to or around us. Otherwise, we are simply being foolish to let all those things take away our peace.

**Peace of God, a Treasure

        Philippians 4 mentions the the peace of God that surpasses all understanding. This is the sweet endearing gift that you receive when you are totally obedient to the Lord. When you lose it, you know you have sinned against the Lord and feel awful. So this is the peace you would want to preserve in your heart at any cost. It's a treasure indeed.

**Our Perfect Example

        Jesus is the perfect example for us to follow if you want to be perfect. His main purpose of coming into the world is to give us the good news of salvation, but he also wants to show us how to live to become holy and free. *Attain union with the Lord through the Holy Eucharist to make following him a breeze.

**Only One Way to Go*

         In Luke 9.62, Jesus said to anyone who wishes to follow him, "No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God." Here is the perfect rule to follow to make getting to heaven easier. We must attach ourselves to the Lord alone and nothing else. The past is gone forever. Wanting to get to heaven is precisely the ardent wish of our heavenly Father. If you know in your heart that you are going there, you will live a life in freedom. 

        I am posting Fr. Mark Goring's video of yesterday to reinforce what I have said:

***Where Is God?

        What? You do not know where God is? He is in heaven alright, but he is also everywhere and can even dwell within us when we attain union with him. No matter where he is, he is instantly accessible. Speak to him from your heart and he hears you. Open up your heart wide and you'll hear him. So start right now telling him that you love him!

***What We Can Have***

        At this time when so many in the world are suffering losses of various kinds, we need to be thankful for what we still have and not focus upon what we've lost. We shall all die and should never regard anything to be ours, including ourselves. If you already have Christ, you have everything! If you want even more, you don't have the Lord completely yet and you remain unhappy. Think about it, nothing can be yours except Christ. Rejoice! Rejoice!

**Hearing God's Call

        God is always calling us. It's easier to hear and turn to him when times are bad. If you don't even hear him then, you probably won't ever turn to him. Those who hear and believe in him when times are good are the wise ones who are ready for whatever times coming they way.

**The World Without Truth

        We are influenced by the world so much, as it's headed in the wrong direction. We think we can take care of ourselves and don't even think about God anymore. What I love about believing in Christ is that I know that he is the truth and as truth, he is absolutely trustworthy. So I know where I am headed. The majority of the people in the world may live perhaps a seemingly interesting life, but ultimately it's an empty one—much like many of the movies produced nowadays for our entertainment, which may be superficially interesting but ultimately aimless. Without knowing the truth, we know not what we do.

*The Good Yes-Person

        We all look down on any yes-yes-person. But when the angel Gabriel came to the virgin Mary to tell her that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and she would conceive in her womb and bear a son who would be great and called the Son of the Most High, Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." In any case, if you always say yes to the Lord God, you'll be exalted by him and be great in his eye. 

**The Wise and Prudent Man

        Today is the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord. I just followed Fr. Mark Goring celebrating Mass on YouTube and received spiritual Communion. His new video A Real Man today is good for all to watch. I am sharing it with you here.

**On Learning About God

        In the documentary on Issac Stern I've been watching, I caught him saying "If you know music, you learn how much you don't know and how much there's always to learn. Then you learn you can spend a whole life and not know everything." Let me contrast that to learning about God. With God, it's impossible to know everything about him, since he is infinite. But there is no need for us to know all about him. All we need is to believe that he is trustworthy and follow him, and we are saved and can get to heaven. If you really want to learn all about him, wait until after you get to heaven. Perhaps he will then tell you everything. But I bet you'll be so happy up there that you don't care about asking any questions anymore.

***Sensible Way of Knowing the Lord

        Issac Stern the famous violinist told young performers never to think about going out to the audience and reaching up to them, but to be yourself and bring the audience to you and encompass them with your playing with your arms. It got me thinking if Stern's advice is helpful to those of us who wish to know the Lord. I think so. We normally think that the Lord is way up there and struggle hard to reach him. But the right and sensible approach is to just be yourself and open, then the Lord will come to you for you to embrace him.

**Handling Our Conscience

        In today's Gospel reading from John 5, Jesus healed a man who had been ill for 38 years. He said to him, "Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you." Jesus knew that the man knew what sin was. In fact, we all have a conscience and know what sin is, except for anyone who has sinned so much that his conscience has become muddy. We battle our conscience all our lives, that's why we do not have inner peace. Here is the real game-hanger for you. Seek union with the Lord. Once you attain union, you no longer need to struggle with your conscience any more, for you are now in complete alignment with the Lord and enjoying inner peace. 

*The Joy of Salvation

        Today's verse before the Gospel from Psalm 51: A clean heart create for me, O God; give me back the joy of your salvation. If you want to experience true joy in life, just let the Lord make your heart clean so that you'll know that you are saved. This is a unique joy that is sweet yet powerful and deeply touches the soul. It's a joy a worldly person cannot know. 

**Have Faith!

        Today's responsorial psalm consists of 6 verses from Psalm 46. Verses 2-3 read as follows: God is our refuge and our strength, an ever-present help in distress. Therefore we fear not, though the earth be shaken and mountains plunge into the depths of the sea. This is the kind of faith we should have, no matter what hardship we go through. For we know that our God will be victorious in the end. He will come to judge all of us and straighten out everything and order will be restored. Sins will be wiped out and salvation of the righteous complete. That we experience all the horrible things now is just part of the process. Have faith always! 

*Rejoicing in Our Lord

        Today's Psalm reading comes from Psalm 30, a psalm of David. Verse 6 reads as follows: The LORD's anger lasts but a moment; a lifetime, his good will. At nightfall, weeping enters in, but with the dawn, rejoicing. This is how the Lord deals with us sinners. There is great mercy and compassion, and we should rejoice that we have such a loving, tolerant Lord. He is the one who can and wants to rescue us.