Thursday, January 30, 2014

NEVER DESPAIR

David in today's 1st reading was confronted with a temptation. As we go through life, we sometimes encounter similar situations and also end up succumbing to it. These are times in our life when we get caught in the crossfire of life's battles. We need to learn how to handle such situations and learn from the pitfalls of King David. At the time he had this temptation he was in an idle moment. Take note of this specific bible passage which states that while the army of Israel was in battle David, however, remained in Jerusalem. It pays to always be busy doing something for God’s work. As the saying goes an idle mind is the play place of the devil. We must know that one of the things we have to watch out for are these unguarded moments when we become vulnerable to temptation. We must remember and pay attention to these situations that we are in when we fell into sin. We must learn from that experience and know how to overcome it when we encounter it again. We need to be wiser and more able to fight it. It helps to also remember H-A-L-T. This stands for hungry, angry, lonely and tired. We must be aware of these very dangerous state of body and mind and learn how to guard ourselves from it because we are more susceptible to doing something wrong. We need to counteract the work of the enemy by staying within the protection of our Lord. Whenever we are confronted with such situations we have to assess and evaluate it. We should focus on the power of God to get us through anything that He put us through for nothing is really too difficult for our powerful God. Amen. Hallelujah!

 2 Samuel 1: 1-4A, 5-10A, 13-17
At the turn of the year, when kings go out on campaign, David sent out Joab along with his officers and the army of Israel, and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. David, however, remained in Jerusalem. One evening David rose from his siesta and strolled about on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing, who was very beautiful. David had inquiries made about the woman and was told, “She is Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam, and wife of Joab’s armor bearer Uriah the Hittite.” Then David sent messengers and took her. When she came to him, he had relations with her. She then returned to her house. But the woman had conceived, and sent the information to David, “I am with child.” David therefore sent a message to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.”
So Joab sent Uriah to David. When he came, David questioned him about Joab, the soldiers, and how the war was going, and Uriah answered that all was well.
David then said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and bathe your feet.”  Uriah left the palace, and a portion was sent out after him from the king’s table. But Uriah slept at the entrance of the royal palace with the other officers of his lord, and did not go down to his own house. David was told that Uriah had not gone home. On the day following, David summoned him, and he ate and drank with David, who made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his bed among his lord’s servants, and did not go down to his home. The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab which he sent by Uriah. In it he directed:
“Place Uriah up front, where the fighting is fierce. Then pull back and leave him to be struck down dead.” So while Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew the defenders were strong. When the men of the city made a sortie against Joab, some officers of David’s army fell, and among them Uriah the Hittite died.


Organizing all my daily reflections since 2007 made it easier for me to locate and retrieve them. I have found it very rewarding and beneficial. It has given me the opportunity to access with ease, the insights and reflections I wrote in the past. Thus paving the way to recall, reflect, and share it again. In light of the readings today I am reminded of Fr. Alex Amayin, the associate priest in St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. His talk was about reconciliation which is very much in line with the 1st & psalm readings for today. It was centered on 4 things which is 1. SIN 2. GRACE 3. FORGIVENESS 4. RECONCILIATION. He said that the 1st 3 are all a reality but #4 is only a possibility. There is no doubt that SIN happens but the GRACE of God is always present and available for us even before we ask for FORGIVENESS. When we ask FORGIVENESS, God is always ready to give it.  RECONCILIATION calls us to true conversion. We should always find our way back to God and never doubt His mercy. He cited the example of a snake and caterpillar since both of them undergoes conversion. The snake sheds off its old skin but comes out the same while the caterpillar emerges into a butterfly. We can either choose to be the snake or the caterpillar. Take your pick. It is important that we always maintain a clean heart and a steadfast spirit so that we are constantly in God's presence. It's not that God loves us any less, no matter what we do, He will always love us. It's just that a Holy and Loving God can not dwell in an impure heart and spirit. The sacred heart of Jesus should be our model and guide as we strive to live out the call to be a genuine follower of God. “When we open our heart to the love of God and to others, it makes us capable of shaping history according to God’s plan.”  - said Pope John Paul II. In His fourth apparition to St. Margaret Mary, our Lord revealed His Sacred Heart, declaring: "Behold this Heart which has so loved men that it spared nothing, even going so far as to exhaust and consume Itself, to prove to them Its love.” The center of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the Enthronement of the image of the Sacred Heart in the home. By the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart, we link the tabernacle of our parish church to our home, inviting our Lord to be our constant and most intimate companion.  The Enthronement is a way of life. It means that Christ is King of our hearts, and we desire Him to be present with us always. In other words, by the Enthronement we signify our desire to make our hearts and our homes holy, to sanctify our lives in every aspect. God will not refuse nor turn His back on us if we are truly sorry for our sins and are willing to mend our ways. Let us not be so naive into thinking that we can get away with anything and cheat God. Let us be fair and truly square in dealing with things that concern not just our future but our eternal destiny. Whether it's heaven or hell, we would have to decide for that not God. If we choose to do evil then we are surely headed where it's bound but if we remain faithful to God and all that He represents then we are headed to a place prepared for us by God in heaven. We are sure to go where our hearts lead us. The problem is that there is a great propaganda out there. It makes sin appear with all its fun, excitement and glamour. It makes virtue appear boring, lame, bland and unexciting. But the truth of the matter is, it’s not. The pleasures that God created in this world are enjoyed the most by those who don’t abuse them and use it simply. Who do we think enjoys food most? The person who doesn’t know how to fast and engorges all the time or a person after a fast experiences a feast? The virtuous person enjoys life the most. The person who uses creation and all things according to God’s plan enjoys it the most. It is because pleasure is God’s idea. All the good things in the world that people want are God’s idea. Satan can’t invent even one bit of pleasure.  But God commands them to be used so that it leads to life and a part of life is joy. The way to enjoy life is to follow God’s commands. Life is not all about rules and regulations. God did not just give us a bunch of rules and regulations that we are supposed to obey like machines. What we do does not just proceed from who we are but also makes us who we are.  The actions we engage, the words that we say and the things that we do have an impact on us. We are making ourselves all the time. God created us when we came out of the womb, our mothers and father have a great role in that but our creation continues every single day of our lives. We’re even becoming someone more beautiful, mature and stronger or someone weaker and more despicable. There’s no middle ground. We’re going one way or another. Life leads either to heaven or to hell. That’s what the acts that we commit do. Let us always ask God's mercy for our sins and repent of it. The Lord said that He is not sent for the well but for the sick. We have a disease in our souls that if left uncared for can cause death. We all have a terminal disease called sin, we need a doctor to give us advice. We have been saved by God but we can lose it just as we can lose our human life for not caring for it. We go to God who is our Divine Physician to be healed. He alone can make us whole. God's presence in our lives is inevitable just like the coming of dawn before the break of day and if we have mastered the art of loving back God then we become a pleasing sacrifice before Him. And in his good pleasure makes us prosper, then we find ourselves rebuilding the walls of our boundaries as we expand our borders. It is of prime importance that we take extra care in attending not only to our temporal needs but our spiritual as well. We have this mindset that it pleases God whenever He sees us going through hardships and difficulties in life. We tend to equate God to an oppressing tyrant that would pin us down for every wrong move. Or worst to a slave driver that would not be satisfied unless his subjects exhaust all their strength to his service. The people during the time in the Old Testament could borrow a good excuse for having this kind of mindset because Jesus has not come yet. We who live in this time of the New Testament do not have a good alibi because God already demonstrated the greatest expression of His love for mankind when He sacrificed His only begotten son, Jesus, to suffer and die for our sake. With this truth always engraved in our hearts and minds we could no longer harbor wrong impressions and mindsets of our God. Whenever a particular human right is being violated certain activist groups passionately rally to defend such right that is in question. What about the right of God? We are so concerned about our own personal agenda and we fail to realize that we need to address it more than anything else. According to Pope Benedict XVI, Jus Divinum is the right of God which constitutes the proper and correct response of God’s creatures such as man to his Creator. This we ought to realize and take action. We should do all the good that we are supposed to do to a God who created us. There is something more to what we see, hear and feel about people. We really couldn't judge a book by its cover. It's in knowing what is hidden in the heart that we can truly say for sure what is real. But who can see through our hearts? Nobody but God alone. What is unknown and hidden from us, God knows. We may be able to hide from men but never from God. We can only pray to God to create in us a clean heart. For where our treasure is, there also will be our hearts. This should all be our prayer, “Change me Oh God, mold me in accordance to your pattern and plan and not mine” Dirt stain in clothes sometimes doesn't want to come off even after several times it has been machine washed. There are really some dirt and stain that do not go away that easily with regular washing. There is a need to scrub it manually with soap and water so that it will come out clean. Our souls are just like clothes which are stainable by our sins. It is a consolation to know that our sins are washable in the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. We can always come to Him and acknowledge our sins with a sincere and repentant heart so He can cleanse us, wipe out our offenses and blot out all our guilt. There is nothing that could separate us from the love of God. Let us not be deceived nor dissuaded to believe otherwise. Just like clothes that need to be washed after being worn and got dirty so our souls need to be cleansed too by the blood of the Lamb. God’s love ever present in the body and blood of Christ is always present and available for us. All we need to do is reach out for it because God is a gentleman and would never force Himself on us. There has always been a raging battle between God and satan. Though it has already been won, satan just won’t give up. He continues to wreak havoc and evil among us in his desperation to bring misery into our lives and share in his condemnation. He doesn’t have the tiniest power over us and he can only have it if and only if we give in to his lies, deceptions and false promises. We need to make this conscious decision each and every single day for the Lord. We need to purge ourselves of the impurities of our souls we have to go through a certain process that will render us with a clean heart. As we strive to nurture a heart that beats for God alone we also go through a process of cleansing as stated in the psalm today. God's mercy is greater than any of our sins. If we are to repent and turn away from our sins then we've got to do it right now and really do it fast. God sees through our hearts, our motives and intentions. What God wants of us is to truly acknowledge His great mercy and goodness to us that in doing so will abound a natural inclination to repent and repair all our iniquities and lead to a brand new, wholesome and clean Christian in the truest sense of the word. We need to stand in all humility before God and confess our sins. The body and soul are good but it demands a need for physical asceticism. We have to submit our bodies to an act of sacrifice without neglecting that conversion is first of all interior. Total conversion demands not only expression in works of penance but also of the heart. God is able to do anything. All the more should we be full of confidence that He can create a clean heart and steadfast spirit for us if we truly ask for it. God our Father will never turn His back on us. Let us get this straight, it is the sin that God hates and not the sinner. If we are in sin then that's the time we drive away God's Holy Spirit dwelling in us for it is impossible for God's presence to exist with sin. It's our call then to respond to the psalm's invitation to rise and go to God or remain slumped in the mud of sin. Our God will always be the best Father a child could ever have, the best Brother/Friend and the best Comforter and Guide all in one. Bottom line, to Him alone shall we go because we don't know that much and if we don’t then 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. The words "take not your Holy Spirit from me" made me realize that God has the power to give and take. The thought of the Holy Spirit being taken away from us is the worst thing that could ever happen. If we don't feel God's presence in our life anymore and we've become numb and insensitive to the promptings and guidance of the Holy Spirit then now is the time to reconnect and realign ourselves to God's Spirit. It is important that we always maintain a clean heart and a steadfast spirit so that we are constantly in God's presence. It's not that God loves us any less, no matter what we do He will always love us. It's just that a Holy and Loving God can not dwell in an impure heart and spirit.  It is of prime importance that we take extra care in attending not only to our temporal needs but our spiritual as well. Amen. Hallelujah!  

Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6A, 6BCD-7, 10-11

R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me. R. For I acknowledge my offense, and my sin is before me always: “Against you only have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight.” R. I have done such evil in your sight that you are just in your sentence, blameless when you condemn. True, I was born guilty, a sinner, even as my mother conceived me. R. Let me hear the sounds of joy and gladness; the bones you have crushed shall rejoice. Turn away your face from my sins, and blot out all my  guilt. R.

Our God is good all the time! God does not expect us to be instant saints. He assures us that all we need is a small seed of faith sown in our hearts. As it grows, God can do wondrous things beyond our expectations. Each one of us with no exception has a seed that God has planted in our hearts. God is always at work in us. Whether we are doing something or not, He is the Mastermind, Creator and Executor of everything. It is not through our efforts and abilities that we are able to accomplish anything. All we have to do is just allow this growth to take place in us and not hinder or obstruct it. He can see through our future and knows well also what we are going through at the moment and what we had been through. All things work for the good of those who love and serve God. All we need to do is just cooperate as He operates. Sometimes we have this impression that we can effect change on other people so when they don’t we succumb to despair or blame ourselves for not doing a good job. Or when people come out renewed we sometimes take the credit for it and say that it if it wasn’t for us that person would not have made it. It is simply presumptuous on our part to think this way. We may think that we know better but we can never deny that God knows best. It is definitely true what this sharing in Companion tells us. That’s why we really have to keep this in mind. “It is God’s work to convert people and transform their lives. As much as a preacher and teacher can convince people of the truth of the Gospel, it is still only the Holy Spirit who has the power to convict us of these truths such that we will be willing to live and die for them. Open my heart, Lord, to the truth of the Gospel so that my mind and heart would be truly formed in all that is good and perfect.” No matter how hopeless and discouraging things may seem to appear we have to be fully convinced in the power of God to produce great outcomes from very humble beginnings. All we've got to do is stick to God through and through and things will always turn out for the best. Amen. Hallelujah!

Mark 4:26-34
26 Jesus said to the crowds: “This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land 27 and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. 28 Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.” He said, "To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade." With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it. Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.


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