To Know God Is . . .

to know your inner self.

Our Greatest Therapeutist

        Communion experience. God is the one to whom I can safely bare my inner self completely. I can go to him to empty any junk, trash, and filth in me, spill forth all my emotions and feelings, and get myself cleansed, healed, and revitalized. Accepting the fact that there is nothing I can possibly hide without his knowledge is greatly therapeutic. Shall we say that being totally honest with God is the best policy?

The Golden Rule

Jesus said all the following:

Matthew 6.14-15: "If you forgive others their transgressions, you heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do no forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions."       

Matthew 10.12-13: "Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father."

               

Luke 6.37: "Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven."

Luke 6.38: "Give and gifts will be given to you . . . the measure with you measure will be in return be measured out to you."

Matthew 7.12: "Do to others whatever you would have them do to you." This pretty much sums things up with God taking part also. 

*Secret of Inner Peace

        Lesson from today's Gospel reading from Luke 14. Jesus went to dine at the home of a leading Pharisees. He said to the host who invited him, "When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or sisters or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." Indeed, before we invite someone to eat with us, we even consider if that person has ever invited us or if he has, how many times, how good the food was, etc. The same consideration is given when giving a gift. (This reminds me of the "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" saying.) Where is genuine generosity? What Jesus has taught is that we must do good from the heart and not for the sake of repayment. Love must be unconditional. To summarize it further: we must be completely selfless and do good for the sake of pleasing God alone. As a matter of fact, this is the secret of inner peace, when we exclude ourselves (our own egos) from the equation. 

Making Love Meaningful

        Loving others for love's sake may be meritorious, but only loving others for the sake of God who loves us makes it meaningful.

Joy of Perfection

        Communion joy. The grace we receive through the Holy Eucharist is sufficient to make us perfect. It is pure joy to be made as perfect as can be by God.

Our Biggest Pitfall

        Unfortunately, much of the world does not realize that if they do not humble themselves before God, they will never know the true God. Again, ego or pride is our biggest enemy, blinding our way to God. Beware.  

Known by God

        God knows everything about us. What about it? For me, if my God doesn't know everything about me, then he is unqualified to be my God. I rejoice that he does, so that he may know exactly how to help me with my needs and guide me to keep me on track, avoiding falling into Satan's traps. What a blessing! 

To Feel Free

        It took me a long time to see that feeling uneasy when I performed some task before others was because I was concerned about what others thought of me. Therefore, when we care only about what God thinks, we lose our self-consciousness. Aim to please God alone and we are set free.

Where Charity Begins

        One test of holiness is how well we get along with our own family members. By getting along, I mean no shouting, no arguing, no blaming, no getting angry at others, but listening, communicating, forgiving, admitting we are wrong when we are, seeking reconciliation, and making peace always. 

Union Is Ecstasy

        I've said that it's a good feeling knowing that you and God are on good terms. Let me add that an even much greater feeling is knowing that you have confessed every single sin, no matter how minute it is, and know that the Lord has thoroughly cleansed and purified your heart. Now, surrender to him and you and God become one. This is ecstasy on earth.

False Pride

        When a human being makes an astounding discovery in science or technology, he can mistakenly think that he is now more godlike, with his ego puffing up some more. When I was studying nuclear engineering many years ago and first learned the mathematical equation that calculates the critical amount of uranium needed to initiate nuclear fission, I felt the power man had in controlling nature. But all our discoveries and knowledge, while amazing, only show the omnipotence of God, not making us more powerful in any way. After all, our intelligence and ingenuities are given to us by God as well. We should be humbled by what we discover and praise God for it.

Perfect Love Expressed

        Communion antiphon today, John 14.23: Whoever loves me will keep my word, says the Lord; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him. Here perfect love is perfectly expressed by the Lord himself.

To Know Perfect Love

        Today is the Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles. The entrance antiphon: These are the holy men whom the Lord chose in his own perfect love; to them he gave eternal glory. Yes, God's love is perfect. But you say if it is perfect, then why people suffer so much. I would respond by asking you why people sin so much. You will know that his love is perfect when you stop sinning.

Timely utterances

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 13, Jesus, knowing that he would be killed, lamented over Jerusalem: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were unwilling!" In reading 1 from Ephesians 6, Paul advised about battling evil: "Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the Devil. For your struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness ...." These expressions from the heart resonate with me, as I feel very much in my heart the heavy burden Christ is now carrying at this critical time in the history of my country.

The Exact One

        Communion experience. The Holy Spirit let me see spiritually (not intellectually) that Christ was exactly the one to whom I should belong. 

Deepening Our Prayer

        We can only do so much to fight the war against evil as soldiers of Christ, but God is infinitely powerful. Therefore, let us trust in the Lord even more, pray even harder, begging him to unleash his power to vanquish evil and save all souls for the sake of all those who love and remain faithful to him. 

Serious Message of Salvation

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 13.22-30, Jesus talks about the narrow door, and salvation and rejection. We must take the message of salvation seriously ~ it's either you believe or you don't. This is exactly why great holy saints regard themselves as most wretched sinners, for casually thinking that you are OK is not taking the message of salvation seriously. It's infinitely better to make sure that you get through the narrow door than being locked and cast out for all eternity!