I watched a short tonebase video in which the celebrated pianist Leon Fleisher gave a master class on the opening five bars of the Beethoven's 4th piano concerto. I mention this because I met him at his 70th birthday celebration at the University of Kansas in 1998. This video was probably made more recently, in which he looked older. My thoughts are that as we age, our hair, our skin, our teeth . . . all exterior parts of our body show our age. If you examine the X-ray or CT scan images of an older person, you'll find that the interior parts also no longe look as pristine as before. Nevertheless, spiritually we can always become more robust and beautiful. What an opportunity for us to grow holier and more pleasing to the Lord! The body deteriorates, but the soul becomes more immaculate! Growing old affords us the time to get perfectly ready for meeting our Lord.
Wednesday, July 13, 2022
*****What God Wishes the Most from Us*****
God wants us to pray for the world and many other things, but most of all he want us to pray for ourselves. He wishes the most that we surrender ourselves completely to him so that we may receive power to become holy and blameless. Whether you are happy or feel uncomfortable upon hearing this, he is calling you!
****Never Lock God Out
Never lock God out of your heart. If you do, you cut off your lifeblood. Seek the God of Christ with an open heart and he will enter and become your dearest friend, then you'll have more life than ever. (John 10:10) We can be stone dead or filled with abundant life! Which would you rather prefer?
**Greatest Fulfillment or Tragedy
Knowing Christ is the greatest fulfillment of my life. So I see that not knowing him can be the greatest tragedy of one's life.
**To Be Freed from Now On
In this life, we are stuck with our physical body and original sin. The body will always be a burden to us while we're on earth, so there's not much we can do about it. As for the original sin, we can take care of that by believing in and following the God of Christ. In fact, by so doing, not only are we set free from sin now, we'll also remain free forever after we lose our physical body.
**Taking Holy Eucharist Seriously
Early at morning Mass today, it came to me that I was to receive the Lord shortly, so I must not sin again. To receive the body and blood of the Lord while having no intention of stopping sinning is in itself a serious sin.
***The Virtue We Need the Most
Humility is what we sinners need the most. The lack of it causes us to rebel against God and judge our neighbors. It is a virtue we must never stopping praying for. Imitating or seeking union with Christ is the effective way of acquiring humility.
Tuesday, July 12, 2022
***Urgent Message to Us
**Living in Christ
Christ is everywhere. Living in Christ, you are with him no matter where you are.
***Enjoying the Lord
Communion experience. Now that my eternal life is all secure, I just enjoy Christ to the fullest!
*****Unrepentant Sins Warning
In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 11, Jesus reproached the three towns, Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, for being unrepentant. To repent is to tell God we are sorry for having offended him. We do say sorry to friends and others easily when we realize that we are wrong—then why is it so hard for us to repent to God our sins? I think it's because with friends, we just want to make peace and move on, not really thinking about changing ourselves, while in repenting to God we must be completely honest and want to change ourselves afterwards. Not willing to submit ourselves to God yet, we keep putting off repenting (going to confession for Catholics).
Sins are to be removed as soon as possible. If you don't repent now, the Lord will show you all your unabsolved sins when you face him at judgment time. Not repenting is choosing to destroy you own future forever. Remember this motto: Never die in sin.
Monday, July 11, 2022
***All Things Work for Good
From Romans 8:28, "All things work for good for those who love God." To us, both good and bad things happen. But if you see them as all coming from God, they can draw you even closer to him. Here's one recent example. After my bout with COVID-19, I came to appreciate even more my wife's devotion to me. This is a good thing that came out of a "bad" thing, which made the "bad" thing look good. So we should thank God for all things that happen to us, as they all work for our good (if we love him).
**Heavenly Gifts for the Faithful Christian*
Living for Christ, you experience freedom, peace, and joy, more or less in that order. Freedom is what you experience when the Lord first liberates you from sin and severs your attachment to the world. Consequently, you experience his peace that surpasses all understanding. The heavenly joy you receive from time to time is just icing on the cake. Let Christ set you free first to get the ball rolling.
***Jesus Speaking as God***
Today is Memorial of Saint Benedict. In the Gospel reading from Matthew 10, Jesus said to the Apostles, "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not taker up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." If anyone else had said this, you would definitely think that person must absolutely be out of his mind—who does he think he is? But if you believe that Jesus is indeed our Lord God and Savior, then what he had said here is perfectly fitting. Go through all the Gospels and you'll see that he always knew what he's doing or talking about and had the right answer to every question people threw at him.
****God's Infinite Mercy
Thought for the day. We are all sinners, ranging from slightly imperfect souls to most horrendous evildoers. But what we are now doesn't make any difference when we go before the God of Christ to confess our sins and ask for his forgiveness. He'd just take away all our sins and make us white as snow, for his mercy knows no bounds. We are so blessed to have such a soft-hearted Lord.
Sunday, July 10, 2022
***Another Realization*
When we become one with God thru the Eucharist, we become perfectly happy and content. I realized at Mass today that this is how the Lord has made us!
***God Changes Us*
Someone recently shared a video many people thought was hilarious. It shows a comedian telling some jokes. But I found it neither funny nor entertaining. Nowadays, nothing in the world excites me anymore. Tasty food, great sceneries, beautiful music . . . they are all fine, but I don't feel any attachment to any of such nice things anymore. How come? I know it's because I have already experienced the overwhelming brilliance, beauty, loveliness, power, and love of Christ so that everything else just pales in comparison. Other people probably think that I am no longer a fun person to be with, but that's only a small price I don't mind paying at all. Besides, I had expected that. God can truly change us, this I now know.
***Jesus' Awesome Status
In today's reading 2 from Colossians 1, Paul writes, "Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation. For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together." These are bold statements. Note that Paul used to persecute all followers of Jesus without mercy. Then Jesus called him and converted him. It had to be the Lord who revealed to him what he proclaims in this epistle. So I totally believe what he has said is true.