Shaping Our Own Destiny

           In Matthew 24 (and Luke 21), Jesus said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." You can be sure that what he had said would come to pass. What he had not said could change, depending upon how we behave toward him. We are free to choose to obey or rebel against God. We get to shape our own destiny.

**Reflections at Mass

          Went to the outdoor Sunday morning 10:30 Mass again. Another beautiful day; couldn't believe that the temperature was above 60 F in the middle of the winter. I felt good that we could enjoy such peace in the Lord, then I immediately saw the most horrible evil we were capable of doing to God. All you need to do is look at history and what has happened in this country now. We can be holy as the Lord or evil like the Devil. It all comes down to this. 
           The sky was light blue and cloudless with the low bright winter sun shining right in my eyes. Then I remembered I had seen such a bright sun with absolutely no glare three time before. The sun just looked like a pure white consecrated host, pulsating as if it had a living heart. I saw this miracle in Texas, Medjugorje, and Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, a group of us pilgrims were together, yet some of us saw the miracle and others couldn't because of the intense glare of the sun. This itself was a miracle. Anyway, it became clear to me that God was real! 

*One Who Knows Everything

        Did you ever notice in the Gospels that when Jesus talked to someone or a group of people, he already knew what's on their mind? Sometimes he asked them a pinpoint question, knowing what they were thinking. And he knew of his own coming Crucifixion and Resurrection. He is so far ahead of us that I feel absolutely safe and secure to put my whole future in his hands. The omniscient Lord is the one to keep and treasure for all eternity!

***Know Whom You Belong To

        Today's second reading comes from 1 Corinthians 6. Paul writes, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body." If you already follow Christ, know that you now belong to him. Therefore, treat yourself as God's most precious belonging, and keep yourself clean and blameless!

****Secret to Union with God

           Excerpts from Psalm 40 at Mass today: Sacrifice or offering you wished not, but ears open to obedience you gave me. Holocausts or sin-offering you sought hot; then said I, "Behold I come. In the written scroll it is prescribed for me, to do your will, O my God, is my delight." We see that obeying the Lord, doing his will, is what he desires the most. Let that "dictate" everything else we do, sacrifice, offering, etc., all included. This is the secret to union with God.

**God be with You

        In today's first reading from 1 Samuel 3, the Lord repeated called Samuel. When he finally realized that it's the Lord, he answered, "Speak, for your servant is listening. Samuel grew up, and the Lord was with him, not permitting any word of his to be without effect. It is so good to have the Lord being with you. This way you can't go wrong in what you do and will be his effective servant. He is with you when you belong to him totally. Attain union with God through the Holy Eucharist and you'll know that he is with you and in you.

***Sinners Being Called!

        The Gospel reading at Mass comes from Mark 2. When some scribes saw that Jesus was eating with sinners and tax collectors and said to his disciples, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?" Jesus heard this and said to them, "Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners." All you sinners, raise your hand. Jesus is calling you right now.

**God's Living Sword

        Today's first reading comes from Hebrews 4. Here is the first verse: The word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joint and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart. If you truly know the Lord and have been baptized in the Holy Spirit, you would feel the word of God cutting you heart and penetrating your soul, illuminating your conscience and guiding your thoughts. Definitely an exhilarating experience! You also know that the Lord dwells within you and whatever you experience can only come from him. You can bear witness to it, but not prove it. It is faith that enables us to know and become one with the Lord.

**Happy Living in This World?

        Whether something is good or bad for us becomes clear when we ask what if everyone does it. For example, casting one false ballot may not look too bad, but if every citizen of the nation does it, we won't have a republic anymore. Again, not believing in God may not seem to be a big deal, but if everyone on earth is an atheist, the whole world would surely go to hell (pun not intended). Similarly, whether you can be truly happy living in this world becomes clear when you ask what if you don't die and get to live in this world forever. As long as the world remains, sinful, godless, and chaotic as it is, I don't believe you'd be happy spending eternity here. I'd much prefer spend my brief time on earth and return to my Father to spend eternity with him in heaven.

**Amazing Power of Faith

        In today's Gospel reading from Mark 2, Jesus was preaching in his own town to a packed crowd so that there was no longer room for them, not even around the door. They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him. After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to him, "Child, you sins are forgiven." (Later, he healed him too.) The lesson here is that if your faith is strong, believe in him firmly, and try your hardest to reach him, he's ready to forgive all you sins! Such is the power of faith! Let's exercise that faith and watch miracles happen.

*Clear Conscience Required to Be Smart

        To be considered smart, one must have a clear conscience. One can be very sharp intellectually or very shrewd in business, but if his conscience remains muddy, he is still a fool (in my book).

**Grave Oversight*

        In Luke 17, Jesus spoke to his disciples about the day of his coming. He said, "As it was in the days of Noah: they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Similarly, as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building; on the day when Lot left Sodom, fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy them all. So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed." This passage came to me as I learned that someone I know was very excited about finding others related to him through DNA testing. We often spend much time engaging in trivial or mundane activities and forget all about preparing ourselves for the Second Coming of Christ or our judgment day. This has been one of mankind's gravest oversights.

****Our Key to Glory

        In today's Gospel reading from Mark 1, a leper came to Jesus and begged him to make him clean. Jesus, moved with pity, did just that. Then the Lord told him not to tell anyone about his healing. But the man went away and and began to publicize the whole matter. He spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. We have a case of someone what did not obey the Lord but followed his own inclination. Perfect obedience to God means casting aside our own feelings and emotions and following his command alone. It is the key to becoming holy and one with God and entering heaven afterwards.

**Happiness is Relative

         Everything is relative. I have not been to heaven, but I know that if I spend one minute in heaven, I'll never want to come back to earth anymore. As the Lord is infinitely greater than we, the joy in heave will be infinitely greater than any happiness we experience on earth. Only fools will attach themselves to the world.  Only fools will think that they have only one life to live,

**Spineless Cowards

          It's sad to see that so many people today don't act on principle. They would change their stand or switch allegiance so long as it would benefit them. This is happening with many politicians and big corporations right now. They show themselves as hypocrites. The Lord is keeping the day of his Second Coming a secret, so no one will be able to switch to believing in him on learning that he is coming. Those without principles will surely lose big time.

***The Art of Doing God's Will

         We have the well-known book The Art of the Deal by Donald Trump and the classic The Art of War by Sun Tzu. What about the art of doing God's will? Well, you don't need to read any wordy book to learn that. Just abandon yourself completely in God and you'll know how to do his will perfectly. 

**Our Choices of Freedom

        If you truly follow the Lord, your faith will be tested continuously. You may have to pray hard constantly to get though all your trials and tribulations. Outwardly, this may appear unpleasant, but deep down you'll always have the Lord's peace. After you leave this world, your'll experience complete freedom for all eternity. On the other hand, the evildoers appear to have the freedom to do whatever they want in the world, but they have essentially fallen into Satan's trap. After this life is over, they will be imprisoned with no freedom whatsoever for all eternity. Going against God is never a good idea. 

***World's Fatal Mistake

        Reading 1 has been coming from Hebrews. Paul glorifies the Lord in his epistle. In today's reading, Paul writes that Christ is the one for whom and through whom all things exist. We recall that the Apostle John wrote "All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be" about Christ at the beginning of his Gospel. These are all huge statements! That the world doesn't look up to anyone so meek and humble as Christ has to be its fatal mistake. The humble and the wise see the truth, believing that Christ was with God in the beginning and is God (John 1). As God's ways and thoughts are higher than ours as the heavens are higher than the earth, our highest praises still fall way short of God's true greatness.