Also in today's Gospel reading from Matthew 16, when Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly and be killed and on the third day be raised, Peter began to rebuke him, "God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you." He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do." Lesson learned. God always knows what he is doing. We may not understand, but we must always follow along and never question. Saying no to God is a no-no.
Thursday, August 4, 2022
****Revelation from God Needed
Today is the memorial of St. John Vianney. In the Gospel reading from Matthew 16, Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" Peter said in reply, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father." In my early days, I came to believe in Jesus after I read and heard a lot about him. It's my intellectual conviction and spiritual thirst that made me decide to accept him. Of course, I now see the truth without a doubt, for I have opened up to him and he has made himself more real to me than anyone else I now see, hear, or touch. It is important that we remain open to the Lord to receive revelations from him so that our faith may become super strong.
***Christ the Ultimate Quest
We usually admire people who look good, are powerful, are generous and loving, never show off, and/or are holy. Look at Christ Jesus and you'll find all these attributes and then some. In fact, he is the embodiment of everything that's good and beautiful. This is why so many of us have fallen deeply in love with him. In him, you find total fulfillment, the completion of your existence.
Wednesday, August 3, 2022
*Myopic Learning
We all learn the ways of the world fast. We find out how to get good jobs, invest our money wisely, know influential people, etc. We learn from both mistakes and other people and pretty soon do quite well in this world. Sad that we don't see the forest for the trees. Know God first and you'll know how to live this life wisely and take care of your next life as well.
**Awake or Asleep?*
We are supposed to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind. So how are we doing? Looking at the world, I can't say that most of us are even awake. Even though God's mercy is infinite, it wouldn't do us any good if we remain oblivious to it. On the other hand, we can make his work in saving us effortless. Then our eternal joy is assured. The choice we face: to wake up or to remain asleep (possibly forever).
**Heavenly Experience
Communion experience. I have never been to heaven. But after I received the Lord in the Holy Eucharist, I was virtually in heaven.
**Beautiful, Logical Sequence
(1) Say the Lord's Prayer with all your heart. (2) Abandon yourself completely to the Lord. (3) You are ready for union with God.
***Most Personal Lord
When Jesus changes the bread and wine into his own body and blood during the liturgy of the Eucharist, he does that for all those present. Nevertheless, at Mass this morning I felt that he, being my personal Lord, just did it for me, and I was overwhelmed.
**This Is Also Trust in God
God does not discriminate. He treats and judges us differently because our backgrounds and life experiences are all different. He knows exactly what we deserve in each case. We are to mind our own business and not judge anyone else.
**Living Fully in Christ
Since there is no limit to how much we can love God, we always fall short of loving him as much as we should. This precisely makes wanting to live a full life in Christ challenging and exciting!
***Proof God Loves Us*
The fact that we can establish a most personal relationship with him, achieving intimate union with him through the Holy Eucharist.
Tuesday, August 2, 2022
**Old Age Wisdom
As we age, we should think more about where we are going and not to get more stuck in this world. You should see that all things pass and when you pass away, you'll have to leave everything behind forever. So the older you get, the more you should let things go. If you still hold onto what you have now, most likely you are not ready to face reality yet and that's not good for your soul. So wake up when you still have time.
***Cause of My Joy
Today I am really happy because I see God as the only one who can touch. purify, and take care of my soul and I have him. A huge deal it is!
****What God Is Like
If you think that God is severe and inclined to punish us, you don't know him yet. Know that it's out of pure love that he tells us how we should live. If we obey him, then living becomes a piece of cake. If you rebel against him, you are asking to be punished. it's all so logical. The fact that he sent his own Son to die on the cross so that we might have life forever should leave no doubt that he is all love. Once you know the Lord personally, you'll see that he is endowed with all delights and sweetness in every taste (borrowing words from Wisdom 16:20), and that's still an understatement.
***How God Suffers!***
I just noticed that a beautiful low plant in the back of my house is missing, leaving a big empty spot among the other plants. The gardener was here last Friday tidying up the yard, but he surely couldn't have mistaken it to be a giant weed. Then I remembered his son was here helping him out that day, who's not an experienced gardener. Only he could have done it. That plant wasn't a common one and had been around for well over a decade. I feel the loss not so much because I was so attached to it that I couldn't let it go but rather because it's something that had been surviving nicely and is now gone. This made me think of how the Lord God must have suffered and is still suffering when so many living souls, all his children, have been and are still being destroyed worldwide. Abortion, wars, drugs . . . are just some of the big causes. Time to console the Lord by obeying and loving him even more!
Monday, August 1, 2022
**God and We Need Each Other*
We absolutely need God's mercy and peace, while God needs our total trust in him. Now you know how to fix all problems and make both God and yourself happy.
***"First" Obedience***
At Mass this morning, during the liturgy of the Eucharist, Fr. Steve recalled the words of Jesus at the Last Supper before he gave the bread and the cup to his disciples. They are respectively "Take this, all of you, and eat of it: for this is my body which will be given up for you" and "Take this, all of you, and drink from it: for this is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me." It struck me that I was to eat his body and drink his blood out of obedience. The Lord made me see that this obedience will lead me to obedience in all things! I was most grateful for this revelation.
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