DON'T WASTE IT

 How many chances do you think is God willing to give us? Every single day that we wake up is another chance for all of us to claim and fight for God's promises in our lives. There is always hope.

Amos 9: 11-15

I will bring about the restoration of my people Israel; they shall rebuild and inhabit their ruined cities, plant vineyards and drink the wine, set out gardens and eat the fruits.

God will never stop in sending out His message to us. All we have to do is be attentive and receptive to what He's telling us.

Psalm 85: 9ab and 10, 11-12, 13-14R: The Lord speaks of peace to his people.8 [9] I will hear what God proclaims; the LORD-for he proclaims peace. To his people, 9 [10] Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him, glory dwelling in our land.

God created us with a brilliant mind and a loving heart. In today's gospel Jesus was questioned by John's disciples, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast (much), but your disciples do not fast?" Sometimes people question us, too. May we think and feel just like Jesus and always be guided in the things we say or do. May we always find ourselves justified in Jesus name. It is not just what we see that matters but what we truly value and treasure in our hearts. Our innermost motives and intentions should always be in line and conformity to the values of Jesus. We may be doing one thing but may be intending to do another, there is no unity in our actions, words and deeds when we are just after the outward appearances and does not really mean what we are doing. Or worse we're just doing something for the sake of just doing it without really putting our hearts into it. We get carried away but what seems to us is important but fail to see what's most essential. People are not blind to all these and we can not deceive people for long or if even sometimes we can, there is a God who knows everything. We are called to conversion and holiness. It is helpful to take hold of the Paschal Mystery of Jesus and  keep this constantly before us. We may want to look at what’s behind the particular mystery of Jesus’ life when He fasted and prayed in the desert for 40 days. Immediately after His prayer and fasting, was the temptation of Jesus in which Jesus rebuffs this attack and points to Adam & Eve’s temptation and Israel’s journey in the desert for 40 years. There are 3 basic temptations represented. Eve was tempted to eat of the fruit because it is pleasing to the eyes. This tempts us to greed because it looks good to eat and can satisfy one’s self. The desires of the flesh tempt us also to lust. It is also said that it is desirable for the knowledge so it can give power and prods a person to pride. From the very beginning since the fall of Adam & Eve in the garden, the devil has capitalized on these 3 things, greed, lust and pride. Even before the fall these were with us already and the devil capitalized on it to trick Adam & Eve hence the fall. As we can see, the devil also used these 3 basic temptations to Jesus. After fasting for 40 days, Jesus was hungry and tempted to turn the stone to bread for satisfaction of the flesh, which is connected to lust. The devil also told Jesus to throw Himself off from the top of the temple since the angels would be there to catch Him. This is the sin to get a hold of power and pride.  The devil asked Jesus to look at all the cities and offered to give Him power and glory which is the sin to greed. As we can see these are the same 3 temptations that Adam & Eve fell into but the devil is dumb to think that Jesus could be tempted with the same temptations. We may also want to look at Israel’s journey in the desert which took them 40 years trying to get to the Promised Land. This is the salvific meaning of Jesus’ 40 days in the desert. He is the new Adam, who remains faithful to fulfill the promise to Israel. He is totally obedient to the divine will and is the devil’s conqueror. He binds satan that tricked Adam & Eve in giving into and robbing us of all the graces we have before the fall. He takes back the plunder and anticipates His further victory at the passion on the cross which is the supreme act of obedience. Jesus’ temptation reveals the Son of God who is the Messiah. He is our high priest who has been tested as we are and yet did not fall into sin. This is the mystery that the Church wants to unite us with, Jesus in the desert who is the same Christ who vanquished the tempter for us. We should always keep this at the back of our minds and connect it to the mystery of Jesus at the desert which has a two fold character. First is by recalling our baptism. What it means to be a baptized person and what does it entail? Do we recognize that? Second is to recognize the need for penance. Think of what we have done to offend God. It is time to reflect at where the state of the world is heading and the culture which we have been disposed of. It calls us to pray more diligently and be faithful to the word of God.  We should become predisposed to a faithful reception of the graces that Christ merited on his death on the cross. We can also observe interior penance which can best be manifested in many ways which the scriptures insist on always. There are 3 forms, prayer, fasting and alms giving. These once again make connections to the mystery of Christ in the desert for 40 days. These 3 forms are what every person struggles with most of the time but can help us in many ways to fight those 3 main temptations. Prayer expresses conversion in our relationship with God. Alms giving make better our relationship with other people to overcome greed and selfishness. Fasting to one’s self which is the focus for today’s readings is to fight against lust and sensuality. It develops mastery over our instincts and attains freedom of heart. In this way, we are recalling our baptism as the Church unites herself to Jesus on the desert. Not to forget the 3 forms of penance which help us in conversion to fight the ancient temptations of pride, greed and lust. Everything we do should always have a clear and sincere intention and motivation to put Jesus in the center of it. If we find Jesus comfortably seated, happy and very contented in the midst of our activities just like a bridegroom on the day of his wedding then we can be assured that we are on the right track. God has always been giving us all kinds of reminders, be it direct or indirect, in the form of a parable or a simple story just like in today's gospel. The practicality of the message being conveyed by Jesus is not only applicable to its direct and obvious meaning with regards to new clothes and wine but most especially to our daily lives. Come to think of it, although we all are very knowledgeable about life after having studied and experienced a lot of things we still end up, at times doing the wrong things and end up ruining not only ourselves but the people close to us. We might as well ask ourselves why we sometimes end up doing crazy things that we know already won't work! We all know that only Jesus can make things right and make us whole. If we only remember, we even sing this often, too. He can give us peace, sweet love, joy and heaven too for only Jesus can satisfy our souls. Amen. Hallelujah!
Matthew 9:14-15

14 The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?” 15 Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” No one patches an old cloak with a piece of un-shrunken cloth, for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse. 17 People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”