*Who Are Our Worst Enemies?

         In today's first reading from Tobit 12, one statement the angel Raphael said to Tobit and his son Tobiah struck me: "Those habitually of sin are their own worst enemies." So every time we sin, we simply convict ourselves.

*The Panicky Evildoer

         A good Christian has no fear of evil because God is with him; he always hopes for the best in the Lord and never panics. On the other hand, an evil person panics easily for fear of being exposed at any time. (At least he still has some conscience left, one reason we should never write anyone off completely.)

**Do You Realize . . .

that how many good deeds you perform in life doesn't count as much as how much you obey the Lord in all things?

**God's Will, Our Emergency

         We normally do what we want to do first. If some emergency comes up, then we have no choice but to drop whatever we're doing and attend to that emergency first. If God's will is made clear to us, we must also treat it like an emergency and drop whatever we were doing to attend to his will first. The Lord will sure reward you amply. (Think of yourself as an emergency doctor serving the Lord, saving souls.)

****Obedience Took Time

         I talked about being of one heart and one mind with God in my last post. I recall my early days as a Christian. Yes, i believed in Christ, but I wasn't one with him yet. I called him Lord, not realizing that in reality I was still my own lord. I did not go against him, but I didn't obey him in all things either. My conscience sharpened only after I got to know him better. To transfer all my authority to him is not something that dawned on me, especially when I wasn't committing any sin that seemed to be serious to me at the time. Only after knowing him much better did I realize that God demands perfection from us, for any sin wounds him. Of course, once you fall in love in him, you naturally want to become like him. Now your conscience becomes super sharp, guarding you against sinning. With that you experience freedom and peace. Now I know why I didn't feel free nor have peace before—I didn't let my Lord be my lord. I was a hypocrite all right.

***Our Ultimate Fulfillment***

        I know of people who practice meditation, hoping to achieve some sort of nirvana or enlightenment. This is playing a dangerous game because you don't know what you can get yourself into. Unknown spirits are legion out there, ready to enter your life. This I can personally testify. Then you can meditate like that for many years and realize nothing extraordinary, and whatever you might realize still turns out to be your own thoughts. Meditating upon the Lord is totally different. For one thing, you already know who he is, the only true holy God. The other thing is that you don't have to strive hard in any way, hoping to receive wisdom or illumination. On the contrary, you only need to be receptive to his word and rest passively in him at all times. Then he'll reveal all you need to know for your salvation. This is spontaneous, effortless learning, opposite to how we learn things in the world. This is how how we can achieve union with the Lord with the aid of the Holy Eucharist. To be of one heart and one mind with the Lord is our ultimate fulfillment on earth.

*****Holy Eucharist Being Abused

           As I was walking this morning, I saw that the Holy Eucharist is an amazing awesome gift the Lord has given us. It is the Lord's own flesh and blood. In John 6:54-55, Jesus said, "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. For my flesh is true food, and my blood true drink."
        When you receive this Most Blessed Sacrament, you are receiving your creator and the Lord of heaven and earth physically into you! Therefore, you must be in a state of grace. In 1 Corinthians 11:27-29, Paul wrote: Whoever eat the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.
       How can we not be ready beforehand and still remain the same sinner afterwards? Not only we must prepare myself for receiving such a glorious gift, we should also spend time thanking the Lord for such a great privilege and favor. Instead, parishioners leave right after or even before Mass ends. How could we treat the Lord so casually? The Church has surely failed in teaching her flocks. Now pretty much anyone who goes up to receive the Eucharist gets it—one may not even believe in the real presence of the Lord in the Eucharist or is in a state of mortal sin. Why don't priests from time to time before Mass remind us of the requirements for receiving the Holy Eucharist, especially at Easter and Christmas times when all the CINOs surface? Don't we care about how the Lord feels anymore? 

**Letting God Change You

         Do you ever feel the need to change yourself for the better? As sinners, we know that we are not perfect, and the Lord God of Christ is the perfect one who can fundamentally change us to make us perfect. Ask him to to do that and you'll please God as well as feel happy with yourself.

**Great Tragedy to Avoid

         God is always calling us. We are all given a conscience, and we need to have a clear conscience to hear his calls. The voice of the Lord is ever so gentle that a soul in turmoil won't be able to hear it. To have some time to turn to God is absolutely crucial to hearing him. Living a busy life, you can easily not hear the Lord your whole life and miss all the golden opportunities to reconcile yourself to him. This would indeed be a great tragedy.

**Saving Souls

         We want to bring as many souls as possible to Christ. There are some who are doing this work admirably, for they are gifted speakers or writers and know how to spread their messages through mass media and by other means. How about many of us who are not able to reach so many souls. The Lord made me see that we only need to enter deeper into him. For the more we are in tune with him, the more effective our prayers will be, and deep prayer is the key to saving more souls. Where we lack power, the Lord fills in. Do our small part well and our works will become great too.

***Treat God the Way You Want to Be Treated by Him

       Listen to God and he'll listen to you. Respect God and he'll respect you. Praise him and he'll praise you. Trust him and he'll trust you. Enjoy him and he'll enjoy you. Open up to him and he'll open up to you. Communicate with him and he'll communicate with you. If he is beautiful to you, you'll be beautiful to him. Appreciate him and he'd appreciate that. See how you can make God treat you according to your wish? But no matter what you treat him, he'll always love you. 

****Breaking Free from Sexual Enslavement

         Men are often enslaved by physical desires, among which the sexual desire, especially in today's culture, can be dominant and overpowering. The pleasure men get from sex makes such a sin most difficult to overcome, even though they know that if they indulge in it too much, the pleasure can become sickening. Nevertheless, with gratification on mind, you don't think beyond it. To break free of such enslavement or any serious bondage, you absolute need God to enter your life. Submitting yourself completely to the Lord is always hard, but you must make your first attempt. Much prayer is needed. Find someone with faith to pray with you. Know that your soul is at stake and it's either do or die. Only by experiencing the peace and joy of the Lord will you be able to overcome this sin. Know that nothing is impossible for God. Cry out to the Lord from you heart if you must and he will surely hear and take care of you. 

**Thanks to Another Musician

         Through Nahre Sol, the pianist and composer whom I posted about on May 31, I came to learn about Andrew Huang whom Nahre Sol interviewed in her video The Brilliance of Andrew Huang. He is a Canadian musician very popular on social media. On YouTube alone he has almost 600 videos, garnering 2.2 million subscribers. I think Andrew is creative, ingenious, and a hard worker, not afraid of exploring lots of genres and instruments. While many talented people are admirable, they also make me treasure what I've chosen to follow even more. What I have discovered in my Christ is not only rich and beautiful beyond words, but also absolutely pure and simple. I only need to lie back and enjoy the Lord.

***Challenging Message from Jesus

        In today's Gospel acclamation from John 11, Jesus said: "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me will never die." Is there anything not clear to you? If you do not believe in Jesus, it has to be either you believe that he was lying to you or you just reject the truth.

***Requisite for Knowing God

        Since God knows everything about us, what's in our heart and on our mind, we must be completely honest and truthful to him, for an iota of deviation from that he can instantly detect. Being completely honest and truthful to God greatly strengthens our union with him. This is how we really get to know the Lord.

***Stop Persecuting Priests

          This is today's post from Fr. Corapi. We need to support and pray for all the priests who speak the truth. The video shows the silencing of some of these priests, but there are more cases. 

**Great Realization

        As we age and experience physical deterioration and begin to depend upon others more to do some of the things for us, we think about God more. When we were young, we might be attracted to God, but still thought that there's so much time left that we easily attended to things of the world first. For me, I now catch myself making more and more mistakes even in typing a message like this one, as the old physical dexterity is no longer there. Anyway, turning to God is a great blessing! The ultimate realization is that the God of Christ is all we need. For all things of the world pass. 

**Most Glorious Feeling!

        Today's Gospel acclamation comes from Ephesians 1 in which Paul prayed for all that God the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ might open the eyes of their hearts. Yes, our hearts also have eyes and ears through which God communicates with us and we get to know him intimately. When you are totally obedient and receptive to the Lord (or in union with him), you hear and see him. He now is your lifeline, your inspiration, your counselor and guide. Hearing the voice from him alone is enough to transform, nourish, and sustain us. Now you know that you are one with and belong to your God. What a glorious feeling!