***Remaining New in Christ!***

         Today is special, for it's the first Sunday we are able to attend all Masses inside the church with all seats in place. Only a few people wore masks, and social distancing was no longer observed. In today's second reading from 2 Corinthians 5, Paul writes, "Whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come." What's so wonderful and great about Christ is that he can make us anew at any time so that we can remain new at all times! This certainly makes following Christ most exciting and rewarding! 

**Life Out of Order*

         In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 6, Jesus said to his disciples, "Do now worry and say, 'What are we to eat?' or 'What are we to drink?' or 'What are we to wear?' Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides." Most of us are getting the order wrong. We seek these things first and God only when we didn't get them, forgetting that the Father is the provider of all the things we need. To reverse this order is to put your life in order, and you'll witness the wonders of God.

***Be God's Powerhouse

        In today's reading from 2 Corinthians 12, Paul again boasts of his weaknesses, for the Lord told him that power is made perfect in weakness. I can see that the more we realize that we are weak on our own, the more we know that we need to rely upon the Lord. And the more we rely upon him, the more power we receive. Since God's power is infinite, there is no limit to how strong we can become! It's truly exciting to live and trust in God alone.

**Be Free of Material Possessions!

         I saw a YouTube video showing an entire Italian village that had been abandoned about 15 years ago due to an earthquake. The crew who explored the place showed that almost all the houses abandoned were left open with pretty much all the personal belongings left behind, including clothing, artworks, personal letters, etc. One of the crew members remarked that walking through the village, he felt like he was the last man on earth. By the way, there are many other videos showing the mysterious abandonment of a single mansion or house. After I watched the video, I realized that one day, I may not abandon my own house, but I'll have to leave it behind with no choice. After I am gone, all my possessions will be disposed of by others. This realization brought relief, for it made me see the foolishness of being attached to all material things? Let them go and be free. God is the only one worth holding onto supremely! 

***All Set to Live Forever***

        Jesus is the light. When you are in union with him, he floods your entire being, enabling you to see the whole truth. Your soul now rests in the Lord in perfect contentment. You lack nothing, for God is more than sufficient. You are all set to live forever!

**Where Is Your Heart?*

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 6, Jesus says to his disciples: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroy, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your  treasure is, there also will your heart be." Let's ask ourselves how much time and energy we devote to storing up treasures for ourselves on earth and how much we spend on storing up treasures in heaven. If the passing grade is 60, will you pass? You've heard the proverb "Home is where the heart is." If you are not storing up treasures in heaven, then heaven is not you home yet.

**Holy Boasters

        In today's first reading from 2 Corinthians 11, Paul boasts of how he labored for Christ. He writes, "If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness." For us who love and follow the Lord, we can certainly joyfully boast of my total dependence upon the Lord. This is holy pride!

***Forgive All, We Must!***

         In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 6, Jesus taught his disciples to pray the Lord's Prayer and concluded by saying "If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions." These words came clear as a bell. So we must do our best to forgive others (evildoers included). Then the Lord will do his best to forgive us. The commandment "Stop judging, that you may not be judged" makes perfect sense now. 

*****Greatest Possible Accomplishment*****

        If you want to have a great relationship with the most loving God of Christ so that you get to know him intimately, belong to his heavenly family, and be all set for eternity, it's really simple—you just go beyond believing in him and surrender yourself completely to him. This can be accomplished in an instant and will be remembered by God the Father forever!

***World Getting Out of Bounds

       We are in end times for sure, hastening the Lord's coming. But first, there'll likely be more warnings, followed by chastisements. So be prepared and pray hard. 

****Letting God Heal and Liberate You!

        Yesterday while I was cleaning out a desk drawer in my old study, I found something I wrote in 1975 on a typewriter. It's about ten pages long, double spaced. You see, I was involved in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal at the time and that was written as an assignment for a group of us seeking inner healing from the Lord at a person's house. The Lord has the power to heal all our inner wounds, pains, and sufferings, both present and past. We were to recall and write down everything that had robbed us of inner peace and present it to the Lord. It took me quite some time to get that done. Of course, we did not share any of these private recollections with each other at the meeting, for it sufficed that the Lord knew all about them. Anyway, I quickly went over what I found. If that had been written by someone else, I'd feel very sorry for that person, for he surely was unhappy, all mixed up, and lost, struggling to be somebody. Then I realized that I was now a completely different person, being so happy in the Lord and myself that I had zero desire to be someone else. I wanted to celebrate my freedom—it's all God's doing! Because the change took place over a period of time, I didn't not realize how far I had come. The past is all gone and the future is brighter than the sun. When you know you are on your way to be with your most beloved forever, how can you possibly not feel exhilarated? 

***Difficult Teachings

         In yesterday's Gospel reading from Matthew 5, Jesus said to his disciples, "Offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow." I could see that Jesus himself certainly practiced what he preached. But how about us? I have great difficulty with the first saying about offering no resistance to one who is evil. What if someone wants to kill me and my entire family? I even have trouble giving money to anyone who asks of me, when I know that it's a scam. Should we not even fight evil? I believe that the Lord basically wants us to always love others, including our enemies. What he requires us to do is most difficult, all the more we need to abandon ourselves to him. I believe the consolation here is that if we love God, he will never put us to any test we cannot pass. 

**On God's Mercy

        I used to be teacher at a college. Usually, I set the passing score at 60%. If a student scored a 59, should I fail him? You need a cutoff, but how strictly should I adhere to it? What about the student who would have done better if some unfortunate event hadn't happened to prevent him from studying for the exam? Shouldn't the student who tried really hard to pass be given special consideration? These were the questions I asked myself. I believe that God's mercy is flexible. We already know that he loves us and wants to save as many of us as he can. Many of us are basically imperfect, but not exactly evil. He'll look for any little merit we have in order to save us. The existence of purgatory is a sign of his great mercy. Repentance ensures that we'll get into heaven. To me, the best policy is to love and serve the Lord to the max and we won't need to be concerned about how he's going to judge us anymore.

***Serving the Lord

         There are people we cannot reach or we can reach but are not able to convert. This is where we need to abandon ourselves completely to God. We work for him, but let him complete everything we do. And know that when we serve the Lord, we are always his first beneficiaries. 

**God Is Fire!

         It pains me greatly to see people not taking Christ seriously. One case in point. I saw the work of an artist playing around with the images of Christ on the cross and the Cross. These images probably amused a lot of people, but to me they were so irreverent as to be blasphemous. If I were at that art show, I would have let him know of my concern. The artist obviously didn't know Christ, but he was absolutely stupid not realizing that what he planned to do might offend many others to whom Christ was the Lord God. Know that with God, we are playing with the fire we can be cast into one day if we are not being careful with it.

*We Are Completely Exposed

         All those people who have had a near-dearth experience claim that even when they were out of their own body, they could see everything that's going on in the world except that they couldn't contact us. This was also confirmed by some seers who receive messages from heaven when they were asked this question. I personally believe that there are all kinds of spirits out there who see exactly what we are doing on earth, but are invisible to us. Of course, God is the only one who not only sees us, but also knows everything about us and can contact us. Just know that we are being watched at all times, but living for God alone is all we need to mind. 

*****How to Experience God*****

         I have visited many beautiful and magnificent cathedrals, basilicas, and churches which are big tourist attractions. Examples are Notre Dame of Paris and St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. People flock there to see the impressive architecture, sculptures, murals, paintings, etc., but I would be surprised if many visitors actually felt drawn to Christ during their visit. All the attractions can easily become distractions. I attended Mass at one church in Escondido, CA, once. The singer was so good that it made me focus on the singing more than on the Lord. Over a decade ago, I attended daily Mass at a nearby seminary. The Mass was held in a small chapel with an altar and some stained glass windows. There were not even regular pews. So it's a rather spare place. Yet in remaining at the chapel alone after Mass, I experienced many spiritual breakthroughs. Now this chapel had been fully furbished with pews, red carpet, improved lighting, etc. and looks beautiful. Somehow I miss its former spare look which was less distracting. I had mentioned that I felt the intimacy of God most when I woke up late at night or very early in the morning when it's quiet and dark. So the best way to experience God is to be in solitude without any distraction, leaving only you and God alone together. The world does not know God because it is being distracted by all sorts of things not of God.

**Never a Lonely Moment

         Whether you are young or old, extrovert or introverted, if you feel lonely, you do not know God yet. Attain union with the Lord so that he becomes one with you, then you can be in the desert all alone and still do not feel lonely. As a matter of fact, the lonelier the place, the more acutely you'd feel his presence.