***Requisite for Setting Yourself Free

         In yesterday's Gospel reading from Matthew 6, after teaching the disciples how to say the Lord's Prayer, Jesus added, "If you forgive men their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions." Since forgiving those who have transgressed against us can be most difficult, we sometimes honestly tell the Lord, "Sorry, I can't do it," and not do it. Now we have committed the sin of disobedience and he'll deal with us exactly the way we deal with others on judgment day. Bad move on our part! What if we had turned to the Lord and said, "You know that it's most difficult for me to forgive my enemies, but I know that you are right and I must obey you. So help me, Lord"? Now we've made a smart move. When God sees that we are humble, he will help and not condemn us. The bottom line, rebelling against God is being foolish to the extreme, while yielding yourself to him is being truly wise. I am sure that most of you already understand this, but some of you might need to hear it again. To set yourself free, you need to set all others free from your heart first.

**Upon Whom Shall I Depend?*

        In this life, should I depend upon my government? If you've read my last post, you would know my answer already. Should I depend upon my family or friends? Maybe, it would depend upon their relationship with me. I'll try to depend upon myself as much as possible, knowing that one day I'll be completely helpless. So that leaves God last to consider. But I should have considered him first and only, for he is the only one most powerful and forever dependable. So I'll put myself completely in his hands and rest from now on. This is an insight, a foresight, and being wise and smart. I am speaking a truth, not trying to pat myself on the back, although I do feel good about it. God is love and equally a joy!

***Heavy Burden in Dark Days

        The world is in darkness. This country is in darkness. I've never felt this burden this heavy on my heart. If I were someone who doesn't know Christ, I probably wouldn't feel it so intensely. Despite the repeated warnings God has been giving us through Mary our Holy Mother and other saints and mystics since the mid 19th century to this day about how we need to turn to him and repent or face chastisements (and some of the prophecies had already been fulfilled), we humans just tragically do not pay any attention and keep on sinning. The darkness began accelerating in the 1960s. We started seeing sexual liberation, divorce becoming common, unmarried couples living together, indecent fashions, immoral movies, legalization of abortion, increase in violent crimes, support of same-sex marriage, Satanic worship, etc. After more than half a century later, thanks to the complacency of the weak, lukewarm Church and people in general, the immoral ways have become acceptable to most of the world. It's in the last four years that the people of this country finally woke up to realize that evil had already infiltrated every segment of this nation except for those who live mostly outside of the big cities, work hard for a living, and are still honest, patriotic, and God-fearing. Although they still form the majority, the money and power are unfortunately not in their hands. The evil ones in control are the various governmental departments (with the exception of the military), courts at all levels, the majority of the news media, the academia, the entertainment industry, and the giant tech companies. The United States, known to be a staunch enemy of Communism, now appears to be on the way to becoming communistic! (This was warned by Mary too.) The burden is heavy on many of us. But don't despair, for God and truth are on our side. There is never a better time for us to choose sides.

*Completely Secure in Jesus

         Today is the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, Apostle. In the Gospel reading from Matthew 16, the heavenly Father revealed to Peter that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus said to Peter, "So I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Of course, Jesus holds all the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. When we abandon ourselves completely in him, we'll be completely secure in him on earth and in heaven!

****Be Prepared for Temptation and More***

        I'd like to talk about temptation again. God often leads those who love him into temptation to test them so that their faith might grow even stronger. The Lord had already revealed to us that the day of his coming would be like a thief at night (Revelation 16, 1 Thessalonians 5) and we must watch and be prepared. Let me tell you that when the Lord decides to test us, these tests also come suddenly when  we  least expect them. The severe ones can totally crush our spiritual life but for the grace of God. So be prepared is the best defense you can built for yourself. The spiritual battle we face is a fight to death for eternal life in God. If you don't take this seriously, continue to live on as usual, and do not know where you are going, but think that everything is going to be OK, then you are following exactly what Satan wishes you to do! Wake up now to avoid being shocked for all eternity! (I'd like to include this important tip. During any temptation, Satan loves to confuse you by making you think that it might be God's will for you to give in, as you do not know his reason yet. But it's crucial to know that if you do God's will, you'll always have inner peace. As long as you still experience turmoil in your heart, you are not out of Satan's grip yet.)

***The Purpose for Which God Has Creatd Us*****

        Today I see that the Lord God has put us on this earth to discover the purpose for which he has created us. I now know the Lord well enough to know what that purpose is. Most people of the world don't know or don't want to know the Lord. They just let him coexist. This is absolutely tragic. I know the following: (1) God is love. (2) We were created by God in his image. (3) God the Son came to earth to save us from sin. These three facts alone are enough for me to see that the Lord had created us so that he would have someone to love as much as he loved himself! This is an eye-opening, mind-blowing, most uplifting revelation! It's all about love. God is love; God created us out of love; and he died for our sins out of love. We only need to accept his love to make this universe perfect! For the love of God, let's make it into a two-way love!

***The Way to Transform Oneself***

         Sermons or homilies that focus exclusively upon Christ the Lord are usually powerful and most effective, while those that focus upon ourselves are usually weak and instantly forgettable. For example, if I tell someone not to worry about anything without mentioning the Lord, that'd be a complete waste of time. My suspicion is that in the latter case, the speaker himself doesn't really know the Lord well enough yet. You see, if you know the Lord intimately, you'd want to talk about only him to others. He's really the only one who can fundamentally transform us. And people need to know this! To rely upon ourselves to change ourselves just won't work. My advice—no matter who you are, surrender yourself to the Lord to attain union with him first, then you'll receive the power you need directly from the Lord to get yourself transformed. After that you won't need to listen to another sermon or homily again, for you already dwell in the Lord!

Feeding the Soul Before the Body

        Today's Gospel acclamation, Matthew 4:4b, was quoted by Jesus from Moses' second long address of Deuteronomy: "One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God." We eat bread in order to sustain ourselves physically. To sustain our spiritual life, we need be fed by every word that comes from God. The spiritual life is so much more important than the physical one. What good is it to have a healthy body but a sick soul? It is a clean, healthy soul that will enable you to live forever.

**Why People Reject Christ

         They cannot prove that he never existed. They cannot prove that he is false in any way. They cannot prove that he is not God. So their only reason has to be that they are afraid to face him as they wish to remain being their own god. They are a bunch of cowardly fools.

***To Be Rewarded Now or Later*

        God rewards all of us. Do you want him to reward you in this life or in the next? I wouldn't want to be rewarded in this life at all, but would prefer to be recompensed in my next life only. If you get all your reward in this life, there'll be nothing left for you in the after life. This fact that God will reward you in the next life implies that you'll have eternal life. The greatest reward for us is actually Christ the Lord himself. Become one with him and you receive the greatest reward both in this life and the next. Let go of all other rewards. Leave any reward that comes from the world in the world. Once you have Christ, eternal life and all heavenly rewards follow. The future with our God can truly be unbelievable!

**The World, God's Eyesore

        A couple of church friends just passed away. They both had served the Church well. One had suffered poor health for years. The other passed away rather quickly after an unexpected health issue was uncovered. May they rest in the Lord's peace now. Meanwhile, I had just witnessed some new births, not human, but still amazing. My older son lives next to me. He and I and one neighbor together own a bunch of alpacas to roam our adjoining lots to keep the weeds down. One alpaca gave birth to a baby just a few weeks ago after a gestation period of 11 months. Yesterday and the day before, two more baby alpacas were born. Births are always amazing to watch. Today is quite a beautiful day, but the world remains ugly in sin. The righteous are fighting the evil ones. With one group marching toward heaven and the other toward hell, a lot of people are caught in the midst still not knowing which way to go. Not a happy or pretty sight. Life should not continue like this. The world will need to turn to God, repent, do penance, and pray, pray, pray, if it ever wants to look good to God and save itself.

****Luckiest Person in the World!

           I've blogged over 11,000 times since the blog took off in 2010. It has to be the Lord's doing, for it would've been impossible for me say so much about the Lord on my own. This month, you could say that I have fallen behind my quota as I have so far received less messages than usual. Zero, yesterday. I realized that should the Lord want me to stop blogging, he would simply stop depositing any messages in my heart. All the more I saw that the blog was all his doing. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. What is important is that we obey the Lord always, doing whatever he wishes us to do for his sake and at the same time not being attached to what we happen to be doing. Using my blog as an example, if the Lord wants me to quit blogging, then so be it. It's what God wants you to do, never what you want to do for yourself. Then you become the luckiest person when you and God happen to always want to do exactly the same thing. 

**Lessons Learned in Suffering

        Twelve days ago, I blogged about my fall. I'd learned these lessons. (1) Being human, no matter how careful we are, we still end up making all kinds of mistakes. So it makes sense for us to abandon ourselves in God now, not until we becomes totally helpless. (2) In suffering myself, I realized how horrifically Christ had suffered for my sake, and this united me to him even more. (3) I also realized that God had made us so that we all need a Mother who can look after us, and the Lord had given us his own mother to us to be that ideal Mom before he died on the cross. I am proud to be a mama's boy when my mama is so holy, beautiful, and perfect. I started calling on her a lot and felt greatly consoled. She's now with me always as she is always with her divine Son.

**To Be Heartless and Foolish

        I read today's Gospel reading from Luke 9 and saw exactly what Jesus said which I quoted in my last post. But before he said that, he said to his disciples: "The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised." The Lord was letting us know that he's going to do all the work necessary for us to receive eternal life. This was a huge price for him to pay. He has sown fully so that that we may reap fully. If you can prove that he is false in any way and believe that you have no sin and don't need salvation, then dismiss him by all means. If not and you still ignore him, then you have absolutely no heart and are being extremely foolish and are to be pitied. 

**Sad Rejection of Truth*

          In today's first reading from Deuteronomy 30, the Lord made it clear through Moses to the people that if they choose to love him, walk in his ways, and obey his commandments, he would bless them and they would have life. But if they turn away, do not listen, adore and serve other gods, they would perish. It amounts to choosing life or death. It couldn't be any clearer. In Matthew 16 (and Luke 9), Jesus said to all, "Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever losers his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?" It's so sad that the people of the world to this day continue to turn a deaf ear to the truth! They just reject anything that they think would inconvenience them. How self-centered can you be!

**Living for God in Secret

        If money is the root of all evil, then ego is the biggest cause of our unhappiness. In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 6, Jesus said to his disciples: "Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father." In other words, we are to live for God alone in secret and never for ourselves. The is the secret of shedding our ego and attaining inner peace. 

***Responsible for Our Own Destiny

        To get back in God's good graces, you only need to recite verses 3-6ab of today's Psalm 51: Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me. For I acknowledge my offense, and my sin is before me always. Against you only have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight. It takes less than half a minute to say the above from your heart to the Lord and you restore your relationship with God and change your eternal destiny! Getting back to God can be so easy. If it's hard, you are the one making it so!

***Tragic State of Our World***

        Today is Ash Wednesday. The first reading from Joel 2 begins as follows: Even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God. This is exactly what the world needs to hear, do, and feel, or face even greater chastisements. We need to weep and mourn for our own sins. We need to feel the pain in our hearts for having turned our back on the Lord? Why are we not getting it? Why are we so thick-headed? God has been most patient, but we are relentless in pushing him to the limit. The cup has already been running over. If we don't return to God, we'll be heading straight for our own extermination, and we'll have no one to blame but ourselves.