What is God's will
for us? He wants us to live and not die. If we do what is right and just then
we are headed in the right direction which is to live, but if we end up doing
the opposite then we're doomed. Sounds so simple and yet most of the time we
think, say and act in an entirely different way than what God expects of us. If
we really want to live in the real sense of the word then we should think very
carefully what these words in today's 1st reading are telling us. It is in
discovering the truth in these words from today's 1st reading that we will
surely live. Amen. Hallelujah!
Ezekiel 18:1-10, 13b, 30-32
5 If a man is virtuous– if he does what is right and
just,...that man is virtuous he shall surely live, says the Lord GOD ...all
lives are mine...only the one who sins shall die.
...31 Cast away from you all the crimes you have committed,
and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit...Return and live!
Bottom line, we don't know that much so we end up doing one
of these things, take for granted, ignore, forget or neglect the things God is
telling us to do. What's worse it could be all of the above! We get blinded and
become preoccupied with a lot of things that lure us away from doing what God
wants us to do. We are deceived into believing all the lies of this world
disguised and packaged by the enemy in an inviting and convincing truth. We
should realize that it is always for our own good that He commands us to do the
right thing. It is not merely to impose but for us to freely decide for a life
lived to the full. There is no other way to maintain the Holy Spirit dwelling
in us but to let it reside in a clean heart.
We drive away God's Spirit in us if we don't strive to let our hearts
remain clean. Today's psalm is a song that I have come to know and sing by
heart without the aid of a song book. I always love to sing it and hear it
being sung most especially by the choir during mass. It is well for us to not
just love to sing it with our voices but with the sincerity of our hearts.
Amen. Hallelujah!
Psalm 51:12-13, 14-15, 16-17
R: Create a clean heart in me, O God.
10 [12] A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast
spirit renew within me. 11 [13] Cast me not out from your presence, and your
Holy Spirit take not from me. (R) 12 [14] Give me back the joy of your
salvation, and a willing spirit sustain in me. 13 [15] I will teach
transgressors your ways, and sinners shall return to you. (R) 14 [16] Free me
from blood guilt, O God, my saving God; then my tongue shall revel in your
justice. 15 [17] O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall proclaim your
praise.
Let us strive to become like the children who are always
open to the truth and do not settle for lies. We ought to be like the little
children who possess a clean and totally surrendered heart to the Lord in order
to get a hold of our inheritance and belong to the kingdom of heaven. Today’s
gospel should also make us realize how true and correct the Church teaching is
with regards to children. The world’s point of view is totally different from
this. According to a social scientist named
Stephen Mosher who works for the Population Institute in the US he was struck
by the fact that the Church does not only have the fullness of the truth in
matters of faith and morals but also in the socioeconomic and all possible
truth seeking levels. He cited the example whether the children are burden or a
blessing. He quoted the Church and bible saying that children are a blessing
from God and made in the image of God. The world does not see it this way
because it says that it takes $200,000 to raise an infant to adulthood and so
they are a burden on family, society and the planet. But he also said that if
calculated we’ll see that the average child in the US
Matthew 19:13-15
13 Children were brought to Jesus that he might lay his
hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked them, 14 but Jesus said, “Let the
children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs
to such as these.” 15 After he placed his hands on them, he went away.
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