THE HAND OF THE LORD

We have all been called by God for a purpose. He already had a plan laid out for us even before we were born. We are that special to God. Let us not forget our holy calling from God. Let us become the man or woman God has meant us to be and live each day of our lives in answer to this call. Amen. Hallelujah!

Isaiah 49:1-6

1 Hear me, O coastlands, listen, O distant peoples. The LORD called me from birth, from my mother’s womb he gave me my name. 2 He made of me a sharp-edged sword and concealed me in the shadow of his arm. He made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me.

May we not forget and always remember who we are before the eyes of God. We can never allow our flesh, things of this world and the enemy to lure, confuse and deceive us any longer. Also in Ephesians 6:11-13, "Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil. For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens. Therefore, put on the armor of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day..."  We are who we are in the eyes of God and not what the flesh, the world and the destructive enemy wants us to believe.  We are special to God, He calls each one of us by name. Catholic Morality is under attack as issues on abortion and artificial contraception have become so liberated. We should be firm in our stand not give in or budge an inch as we stand by the teachings of the Church. We should all value the special care and attention that God has given to us as His most valued among all of His creation. Our life is precious this we know is true as stated in today's psalm.  Amen. Hallelujah!

Psalm 139:1b-3, 13-14ab, 14c-15

R: I praise you for I am wonderfully made.

1 O LORD, you have probed me and you know me: 2 you know when I sit and when I stand; you understand my thoughts from afar. 3 My journeys and my rest you scrutinize, with all my ways you are familiar. (R) 13 Truly you have formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb...My soul also you knew full well; 15 nor was my frame unknown to you when I was made in secret, when I was fashioned in the depths of the earth.

We belong to God's family. If everything is clear about this truth then we ought to think, speak and act in accordance to it. Let us not make of ourselves a disgrace and dishonor to the family we all belong to. Let us uphold and carry out the prophetic, priestly and kingly ministry we have all been given as part of this one and great family of God. May we, like David from whom a Savior has been born become a well from which springs forth a generation that God will surely be proud of. Let us firmly hold fast to the principles of Catholic Morality (from our Catholicism study by Atty. Jess Moya). Morality is defined in the dictionary as conformity to ideals of right human conduct but based on Catholic principles is further defined as fully conformed to God and His will, an expression of our love for God and follows the moral law. It is clear that God has defined morality and not man. As man, we have the concupiscence or the natural inclination to the flesh, lust, greed and pride. The perfect formula for self destruction is based on this popular and well subscribed saying that goes like this, "If it feels good just do it." Pope John Paul II in his book, "Splendor of Truth" said that the power to decide what is good and evil is not within the power of man. This is clear in the book of Genesis when He forbid our 1st parents to eat of the fruit from the tree of good and evil. God gave us the free will and the source of conflict came from the inability to acknowledge God as our Creator and that only Him can define morality. Man doesn't make rules of morality, we only discover it. The 10 commandments are an expression of God's love and the means to have true freedom which means the ability to do what we ought to do and not what we want to do.

Morality is objective. It is defined by God's revelation not subject to man's will. We are warned not to be enticed by the tempting appearance and enticing call of this world like the flies attracted to sugary coating of the fly paper, got trapped, unable to get out and eventually ended up dead.  In Rom 12:2, it is said that we should not conform ourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of our mind, that we may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect. That is in order for us to have the right relationship conformed with God by obeying the teachings of the church which is an extension of the Body of Christ meaning God is with us. God has equipped us with the totality of the means of salvation and we can overcome anything with the grace of God and achieve true freedom and joy.

Moral law is known by human reason (Natural Moral Law) and perfected by Divine Revelation. Divine revelation is God's way of communicating His will to us. We submit to God's will because we are created in his "image and likeness" (Gen.1:26-27) and our ultimate end is to be with God. We are in this world but we are not of this world. We came from God and we all go back to Him. That is what our life is really all about since all of us will die someday and each day that passes should be thought of as a day closer to God. Since our end is God we should all know how to relate with God. In John 1:12 it is said that we are the adopted children of God. We are partakers of the divine nature of God (2Peter 1:3-4)

Morality is Universal. It applies to all people in all places and at all times. Holiness is our objective and by doing so we should be closely united with God. We have a higher dignity than that of the animals and we should not degrade ourselves since man is a spiritual being. Animals do not communicate with God only humans pray. St. Augustine said, "Our hearts are restless until it rests on God." We are compared to a donut which has a hole in the center that needs to be filled in by God.

Man has the duty to educate his conscience. An uneducated conscience can err. Everybody has to keep on forming our conscience and our standard is the word of God and the Holy Spirit. It helps to know of the fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, peace, joy, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self control. The Church is the final and infallible interpreter of moral law. This is not dependent on the kind of church ministers we have.  Law of Catholic Morality is the purest and highest form because it comes from God. A famous man once said, "I do not need a Church to tell me that I am wrong when I know that I am wrong, what I need is a Church that tells me I am wrong when I think that I am right." Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI rallies against the principle of Moral Relativism which relies on the "it depends" justification. We all have the "Freedom of Conscience" and we can choose to have a good, lax or bad conscience depending on whether we will not or will adhere and obey the teachings of the church. Another principle that almost all people of this world fall prey into is the "Fundamental Option" which states that if there is no specific rejection of God in my heart then there is no sin committed. This is where the issue of a lax conscience falls. A person shapes God according to his/her own image instead of us, humans, His creatures adjusting to God's own image and likeness. Morality is unchangeable for God does not change. We are obligated to conform our conscience to the will of God. There is so much chaos and darkness prevailing in the world today because of the endless redefining and constant injection of other beliefs into our moral values which was long before established in the 10 commandments by Moses. And even before Jesus came for He Himself said that He came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it. Amen. Hallelujah!

Acts 13:22-26

22 In those days, Paul said: “God raised up David as king; of him God testified, ‘I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will carry out my every wish.’ 23 From this man’s descendants God, according to his promise, has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus. 24 John heralded his coming by proclaiming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel;...“My brothers, children of the family of Abraham, and those others among you who are God-fearing, to us this word of salvation has been sent.”

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Nativity of John the Baptist. We can never deny the awesome and wonderful signs that God has wrought in the life of St. John the Baptist from the moment he was conceived, the time of his birth until he fulfilled the ministry and call that God has given to him. If we are to look very closely and intently at our own lives there is no denying to the truth that the hand of the Lord is always with us. It is up to us how we live this truth, whether we grow and become strong in spirit like John the Baptist is a choice we have to make. He is a well known figure in our Christian faith. We can surely learn from his example and live out God's mission for each one of us to its fulfillment. Amen. Hallelujah!

Luke 1:57-66, 80

...All who heard these things took them to heart, saying, “What, then, will this child be?” For surely the hand of the Lord was with him. 80 The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the desert until the day of his manifestation to Israel.