***Putting Faith to Work***

        In Matthew 8, a centurion asked Jesus to heal his servant who was lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully. When Jesus was ready to go and cure him, the centurion said to him, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed." Jesus was amazed by his faith and healed the servant. Now at Mass before we receive Holy Communion, we say, "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word, and I shall be healed." I am sure we can also confidently say at any time, "Lord, I am not worthy to come into your holy presence; only say the word and I shall be made holy."

***To Love God . . .

just let him love you.

**Strong Faith Needed*

        A strong faith in God remains steadfast, unaffected by any ongoing disorder or confusion in the world as well the Church. One with such a faith always thanks the Lord for his generosity and mercy, so he does not complain about anything. I'd like to thank God specifically for this. Decades ago, I had a blockage in a rein in my left eye, causing the the center of its vision to go blurry, and I had to rely on my right eye mostly for seeing. Time passed and the blurry vision started to clear up unexpectedly at an imperceptible pace and is almost completely well now. It so happened recently that the vision of my right eye became slightly blurry overall due to glaucoma, so the roles of the two eyes have reversed. The bad has become good and the good gone bad—the Lord surely knows what he is doing.

**Disadvantages to Being a Christian?

        Are there any? I know for sure that being one can turn people away from you or make them ridicule or even attack you. But these are hardly disadvantages, for a Christian sees whatever he receives from others on account of his faith as a badge of honor and rejoices in that. In fact, it's in times of persecution and suffering that he feels closest to the Lord, and is thankful for that. Life in Christ is upbeat always! 

***Holy Eucharist Encapsulated***

       The Church just held a National Eucharistic  Congress in Indiana last month. It was a glorious 5-day event with over 60,000 attendees. I thought this would be a good time to give a summary of what the Eucharist means fo me.

        (1) The Eucharist is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

        (2) It is the greatest gift from him—himself!

     (3) Since the transubstantiation takes place most humbly, it is one greatest miracle. 

       (4) Receiving himself achieves physical union with him, but is also an invitation to spiritual union with him. If we say yes, we attain the highest level of union with God.  

***Making Entering Heaven Easy***

        In Matthew 7, Jesus said "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few." Entering hell is super easy—just do whatever you want to do, while following the world. Entering heaven is super hard only if you don't know Jesus. For once you know him, that narrow gate virtually disappears and the road becomes wide and free, making entering heaven a sure thing. This is the good news about God's great love for us!

**To Be Famous Now or Later**

        This morning I lay in bed to do my eye drops for glaucoma. I turned on the bedside clock radio to see what's playing on the classical music station. It was to be Schubert's famous Trout Quintet. I learned that this masterpiece was composed in 1819 when Schubert was 22, and was not published until 1829, a year after his death. Like many other artists, he became better known and was appreciated more after his death. My thoughts are to become known in this life or afterwards should never be the concern of a Christian, for only God is to be glorified. So never mind what people think of you, but remain hidden in the Lord so as to enjoy your great intimacy with him.

***"Think No Evil" Best?

        Scammers nowadays are rampant. It shows how evil has taken control of our societies. Do you know that when you buy a health supplement online, if you're not careful enough, you are likely to receive a fake product? One YouTuber tested 27 different brands of berberine he ordered from Amazon and found that three of them contain no berberine at all and only five of them 100% berberine. That's pretty shocking, for you can endanger people's health here! Of course, online scammers we encounter daily. Using credit cards to shop is a risk too. I wonder how God will judge a scammer who has stolen $10 from someone vs. one who has stolen a million dollars from others. Would they be guilty to the same degree? What if the $10 was taken from some really poor soul and the million from a multibillionaire? I don't know the answer. The solution is not to sin at all, then you won't have to think about such questions. 

**Our Duty and Aspiratioin

         We acknowledge that Christ is our Lord and our God—let us live up to tt. 

**Basic Law**

        Fall deeply in love with God and you are filled with constant joy.  So if you are not happy with life, you don't love God enough yet.

***Reversing Our Predicament***

        Again, I'd like to make a blunt statement which some people may not want to hear, but I believe to be true: We are all sinners heading straight toward hell unless we do something about it. You see, I can't say that as sinners we are naturally heaven bound. Now, to reverse our situation, we only need to turn to Christ. His whole purpose of coming to us on earth was to save all future generations.

***Purpose & Power of the Eucharist***

        (1) To unites you with the Lord spiritually so that you may become holy.
        (2) To set your heart on fire so that you may assist the Lord in saving all souls.

***Balanced Approach to Prayer

        We can ask God for favors once, believing that he will grant them and stop praying anymore, or we can pray persistently, concerned that God may not grant them to us. These are the two extreme examples. I believe that the best approach is to pray unceasingly but also believe firmly that the Lord will respond to us favorably, thus showing both our fervency and trust in him. 

***Our Missing Piece***

        Communion experience. Christ is exactly the one we need to make our existence meaningful and a joy, for he is the truth!

**Biggest Fools

         I know of people who spend a lot of money on what they wear, what they eat, and how they look, but don't realize that they'll have to justify all that before God one day soon. The biggest fools are the ones who do not even realize that they are being foolish.

***Happy Separation***

        Communion experience. My body is still on earth, but my spirit is already with Christ the Lord in heaven. 

***To Be Righteous Before God*

        Today is the memorial of Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the Church. In thje Gospel reading from Matthew 13, Jesus said to the disciples: “The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.” We must be sure that we live a life good enough now to be considered righteous before the Lord later. Best yet, attain union with the Lord through the Holy Eucharist and you won't need to be concerned about how to live your life right with God anymore.

***How to Experience Christ

         Be humble and open, show that you need him. After all, he is your Lord and your God. If you are too busy or have too much pride, forget it.