***I Know the Lord!

        Today's Gospel reading from John 20 is about the empty tomb which Mary of Magdala first discovered. She ran and went to Simon Peter and John and told them about it. Then they all ran to the tomb and saw only the burial cloths and the cloth that had covered Jesus' head in the tomb. After the disciples returned home, Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping. Later Jesus appeared to Mary and told her to go to his brothers and tell them that he was going to his Father and their Father, to his God and their God. Mary went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and told what he told her.

        It must be such a great joy to see the Risen Lord! We do not see him, but we can know him! In fact, knowing the Lord is much better than seeing him but not knowing him. Jesus said to Thomas, "Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed." Let's get to know Jesus as much as possible so that we may proclaim "I know the Lord!"

Peter as an Eyewitness

        Happy Easter to all! We have the Risen Lord! Reading 1 comes from Acts 10, it is Peter's speech! He told us as an eyewitness the many things Jesus did. He and other witnesses even ate and drank with Jesus after he rose from the dead. Peter also knew that Jesus was appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead and that everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name. If you can't say that Peter wasn't speaking the truth, then you must believe in Jesus.

*Time-Wasting Thoughts

        Thinking about various things occupies the greater part of our life. Contemplating worldly things, worrying about the future, dwelling upon the past, being unduly curious about others . . . all these things take up our time. In fact, they keep us away from God. If you want the Lord to uplift you spiritually, ask him to uplift your thoughts too. The time of our life is precious. Any time wasted is time lost forever, the time you could have used for building up treasure in heaven. Seek to attain union with God to have him occupy your mind completely to block out all wasteful thoughts. And I  assure you that you'll experience inner peace.

*Knowing God Is Best

        You can study physics, math, medicine, or even theology, and become the top expert in your field, but if you do not know God, what you have learned doesn't amount to much. Knowing God personally is worth more than possessing all the knowledge in any other subject field. It is through God that you come to know the truth about this life and beyond. Also, you can only know God through the heart, so he is special. Rejoice, if you hear him calling you to know him in your heart.

***How Jesus Won Me Over

          Matthew 28.1-10 is today's Gospel reading about the Resurrection of Jesus. It starts out this way. "After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, approached, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing was white as snow. The guards were shaken with fear of him and became like dead men." Let me stop right here. Our Lord never tries to win us over by being self-aggrandizing, intimidatory, or harsh in any way. Seeing his glorious appearance is enough to make you shake with fear or submit yourself to him in joy. This will happen at his Second coming. When I realized his awesome glory, he completely won me over. 

        I resumed reading and the Holy Spirit stirred up a powerful joy in my heart that's so overwhelming that I had to stop reading again. Jesus is more than sufficient for me!

***Back in God's Good Graces*

        Today is Holy Saturday. Reading 1 starting from Genesis 1 gives The Story of Creation. God created the whole universe, the earth, all the vegetation, plants, the animals and other living creatures on earth and culminated in the creation of man, male and female, in his image. "Wow!" is all I can say. My simple thought is that surely he can make us holy in no time. The only problem is that man committed the original sin of disobedience later and we now have to "permit" God to make us holy first. That is, we need to submit ourselves to God, expressing our sorrow for the original sin, as it were, and for our continued disobedience. Taking this one simple step will get us back in God's good graces again. And we can easily accomplish this if we are humble and willing! 

***Our Ultimate Quest*

        I used to chase after music. I would spend a lot of time at various Tower Records stores searching for records and CDs. I found great pleasure in listening to music and collecting recordings. I also subscribe to a number of magazines such as Fanfare, American Record Guide, Gramophone, etc. Looking back, I see that I was unknowingly looking for God. Although I already knew God at the time, I had not completely submitted myself to him yet. All of you who are doing all kinds of things, good or bad, to please or satisfy yourselves are, you may not realize it yet, basically searching for God, because without him life is empty. How do I know? Well, once you truly know the God of Christ, all your other desires just fade away. You are not obsessed with any of them anymore. Compared to the joy and freedom you experience in God, all your old pleasures are now "boring." You finally know that the Lord God is the real thing, that he has made us in such a way that we won't be truly happy until we have him! 

*One Christian Failure

        The world is full of unhappy people living unhappy lives. Here we have Christ who can make us anew and change our lives. Of course, many heard about him and choose not to accept him. But there are many more who have not even heard about him! It's a case of "the harvest is abundant but the laborers are few." Sadly, Christians in general have not taken the Lord's last command "Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature" seriously. They need to know the Lord more to feel the urgency of bringing him to others. Otherwise, they'll have to answer to the Lord one day.

***Key to Perfection

        From Hebrews 4, today's second reading: Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. Jesus' perfect obedience to the Father showed that he was perfect. Surely, if we humble ourselves and obey God, he will exalt us and make us perfect.

***Words to Set Us Free***

        Luke 23.46, today's Psalm response: Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. This was what Jesus cried out from the cross before he breathed his last. These parting words of his are words that can actually set us free! When we say them to God the Father from our very heart, we abandon ourselves completely in him and we are free!

**Fulfilling the Prophecies

        Today is Good Friday of the Lord's Passion. Isaiah 52.13–53.12 is the first reading. I confess that I am not that familiar with the Old Testament, but what Isaiah had prophesied about Christ's suffering 700+ years in advance was amazing! Here are some of the verses from Isaiah 53 I have lumped together. 

        

         It was our pain that he bore, our sufferings he endured. He was pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes us whole, by his wounds we were healed. We had all gone astray like sheep, all following our own way; but the LORD laid upon him the guilt of all. Though harshly treated, he submitted and did not open his mouth, like a lamb let to slaughter. Seized and condemned, he was taken away, though he had done no wrong, nor was deceit found in his mouth. But it was the LORD's will to crush him with pain, by making his life as a reparation offering. My servant, the just one, shall justify the many, their iniquity he shall bear.

         There are many other prophecies in the Old Testament which Jesus fulfilled, down to a specific detail in some cases. The Lord God had made the prophets foresee the coming of Christ as our Savior, surely he can make us believe in him as our Savior now that he had already come.  

***Loneliness, Begone!

        Each of us is basically alone in this vast universe. If there is no God, our existence becomes meaningless. Deep down, we know that there must be a creator. The fact that we understand good and evil shows that we have a spiritual God. We may belong to a huge family and living among billions of other human beings, but if we don't have a personal God, each of us is still alone, for no one truly knows us thoroughly. Then Christ came and became one of us, giving us the great news of salvation. We can even become one with him in spirit through receiving him in the Holy Eucharist! Being our creator, he knows all about us. Violà, we are no longer alone! He is the only one who can take away our loneliness and the feeling of being lost. (I am not even mentioning that he can make us go to heaven easy too—whoops!) 

Only What God Thinks Matters

        If you are still affected much by what people think about you, good or bad, you still have an ego problem. We should care only about what God thinks about us. When God praises us, we rejoice. And he would never say bad things about us. When we fail, he gently reminds us. We then repent and are forgiven and back to rejoicing. Let the Lord dwell in you fully and there will be no room left for ego.

*Two Versions of Tea for Two

        This post kinda ties in with the previous one. As you know, I have an interest in music (but not obsessed with it anymore as I was once). In the morning, I usually watched the news a little bit on YouTube and if I see any music videos interesting I watched them also. This morning I heard both Pierre-Yves Plat's "Tea for Two" and Art Tatum's version played. If you read scores, you can follow the playing. Pierre-Yves Plat is a living French pianist, very talented in both classic and jazz playing. His arrangement of the song is cleverly worked out and quite impressive. Art Tatum was probably the greatest American pianist who ever existed. I found his arrangement to be more spontaneous, coming more from the soul, and his talent truly amazing. I would say that, of the two, Tatum is more like a reservoir and less like a canal. The videos follow below.

**Be More like a Reservoir

        This morning I watched Marcus Grodi interviewing Keith Nester on his EWTN The Journey Home show on YouTube. Marcus quoted the saying "We aren't supposed to be channels, we are supposed to be reservoirs." This spoke to me and I searched online and found that St. Bernard of Clairvaux actually said this. I am quoting him more fully below.

        "The man who is wise, therefore, will see his life as more like a reservoir than a canal. The canal simultaneously pours out what it receives; the reservoir retains the water till it is filled, then discharges the overflow without loss to itself.... Today there are many in the Church who act like canals, the reservoirs are far too rare.... You too must learn to await this fullness before pouring out your gifts, do not try to be more generous than God."

       It was beautifully said. While we feel that it is our duty to serve the Lord, it's equally important to know that God wants us to become holy ourselves first. The best way to achieve that is again to go deep, deep into the Lord. 

     I am posting the Keith Nester interview here in case you are interested in watching it.

**WHY We Need Christ

        Not a single person in the world has the power to understand us fully, know our true feelings, tolerate all our errors, remove any guilt we have, or heal our wounded souls except Christ who can not only do all the above, but also set us free, make us clean, and lead us to heaven. He is not called our Savior for nothing.

*God Be Our Defender

        When you are one with God, if you are ever wrong, you would know instantly and repent of your sin. And if you are right, you would know that your are, for God is always right. Now, even if people say bad things about you, put you to shame, or oppose you, it doesn't matter anymore, for he Lord is your instant help and will defend you.

***How to Know God's Plan for You

        First, you must know God well. Attain union with God is the perfect way to know him. Once you know him most intimately, you'll know his will, and his plan would be for you to follow his will. Beware that if you sin, you ruin his perfect plan for you, for you have gone against his will. So, remain in union with the Lord to know his plan and remain holy to know that you are following it.