LOVE ABOVE ALL

How would we feel if someone wants to get rid of us? Would we still find ourselves loving that person? Just like David in today's 1st reading we should not harbor any ill feelings in our hearts.  The love that he has in his heart triumphed over the hatred that should have risen from the evil plot of his son, Absalom to kill him. Just like King David we sometimes encounter people who say all bad things about us and in today's 1st reading we are urged to imitate David's kindness and self control despite the curses being hurled at him he decided not to fight back. He continued to trust in God's goodness and mercy who sees all things we are going through. We must find the love of God above all. Amen. Hallelujah!

2 Samuel 18:9-10, 14b, 24-25a, 30-19:3

...Joab was told that the king was weeping and mourning for Absalom; 3 and that day’s victory was turned into mourning for the whole army when they heard that the king was grieving for his son.

We have to be grateful to God for He is indeed merciful and gracious in all His ways. He gives us not just one but various options when it comes to accessing the graces He is dispensing and showering upon us. God provides all means in order for us to avail of all the blessings He wants to give us. When things are about to come to an end or maybe has reached its final stages and been waiting for quite a long time already and yet things are still uncertain as to how it will all turn out then we are placed in a very challenging situation as to how we are to react. Whether in despair or continue to hope in the Lord is always a choice we have to make. But oftentimes, things are easier said than done but it is always a consolation to know that we have a God who always show us the way. It is a reality that we have to attend to a lot of things waiting for us to be done. God wants us to become individuals capable of handling things in our lives with balance, in whatever we do, He is always with us.  We may have been surprised by some kind of news from somebody while thinking about a particular concern and even before we can come up with a solution it was already addressed. It is a blessing from the Lord that when times like these come when we are having a dilemma or unable to access of one option there are still other choices left that we can make use of. God never leaves us empty handed, He always has reinforcement and a back up. Let us not lose sight of the Lord who loves us and will always rescue us in our miseries and make us glad. 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. Virtuous acts build in us strength. The word virtue comes from the word manly which is strength and power. Virtue is a habit that makes it easy and pleasurable to do the right thing. Golden virtue isn’t always easy. It is hard. But what is vice, it is a habit that makes it easy to do the wrong and evil thing. Let’s take exercise as an example. People make it their New Year’s resolution and people who go to the gym noticed that it’s packed on January but they’re gone by the 3rd week. If we’ve ever engaged in an exercise program for the first time, we know that we feel bad, tired, exhausted and wake up sore. This is because we do not have the habit of exercise. We have not trained and our bodies are not used to it. It hurts and it’s hard the first time we work out. If we persevere past the first few weeks and developed a habit of regular exercise then we end up getting used to it and become easy that when we don’t exercise we feel bad. What happens is that we build up the power or the virtue. We’ve conditioned ourselves so that it becomes second nature to us. If we want a progressive course we need to do something hard. No pain no gain. The next time we work out we add up a little bit more since we are stronger. We can move forward and grow in our ability to lift weights. This is the deal. The actions we do have an impact of what we are. It’s like when we start lifting weights we start to change and look different. We look like someone who has strength, power and endurance. This is the point, God is about building champions. The goal of the Christian life is to build champions. Well, not necessarily athletic champions but spiritually. A real champion in every aspect of life. God wants us to be strong, loving, wise and to have the power to live. It’s not so much what we do that counts but it’s who we become. That’s what the commandments, teachings and God is all about. Nowadays, a fatal disease is no longer fatal but just a life threatening disease if left uncared for. Modern Science has come up with several interventions to combat these diseases. When we don’t feel well, we consult a doctor for advice on how to care for ourselves. An example could be hypertension, before people just die of it without prior treatment but since the dawn of anti hypertensive medicines and proper care to maintain a good blood pressure there has been significant improvement on such cases. The same with our souls we have a disease that if left uncared for can cause death. It would be better to think of our souls as such. It’s easier to be receptive to the gospel if we consider ourselves lost. 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 all have a terminal disease called sin, we need a doctor to give us advice. Our souls need a Divine Physician and consult the sacred scriptures in order to know the things to follow. The sacraments serve as the medication that we can compare to medicine from the doctor that we don’t understand how it works. It is the same with the sacraments although we may not understand fully how it works just like how medicines work to cure our diseases. In the spiritual life our physician is Jesus Christ, He tells us what to do on how to be healed. We must not follow quacks and pseudo scientists. We must trust our souls not to quacks but to God. We follow the saints who have lived their life in an exemplary nature. We should also follow the example of the great men in the bible who never doubted God's goodness and mercy. In this way we become free of the serious symptoms of the sicknesses of the soul like pride, covetousness, envy, lust, sloth, anger and gluttony. We seek the truth and the truth will make us free. Amen. Hallelujah!

P S A L M 

Psalm 86:1-2, 3-4. 5-6

R. (1a) Listen, Lord, and answer me.

Incline your ear, O LORD; answer me, for I am afflicted and poor. Keep my life, for I am devoted to you; save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God. (R) 3 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for to you I call all the day. 4 Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. (R) 5 For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in kindness to all who call upon you. 6 Hearken, O LORD, to my prayer and attend to the sound of my pleading. (R)

Two miracles took place in today's gospel and it should leave us in awe at the tremendous power of Jesus. There is no room for doubt all we have to do is just have faith. The woman in today’s gospel with hemorrhages for twelve years and Jairus whose daughter is at the point of death have something in common. They have faith in Christ. A woman was considered of no social standing during that time, and to be a pagan/Gentile only added to her worthlessness she wan not even addressed with her own name. The woman touched the tassel of Jesus in the midst of the crowd bustling about trying to push and touch Him. As specifically written, Jesus was aware at once that power had gone out from him. The crowd tries to get a hold of Jesus but doesn’t allow the power of Jesus to go out of Him. . How come Jesus feels one woman touched him. What made the difference is her faith. The result of her faith is power. He is present in the sacraments. We touch Jesus in the Eucharist but we have to approach the Eucharist with this hemorrhagic woman’s kind of faith, expecting Jesus to do something for us, as we receive Him. Allow Him to come to our heart, make life better spiritually, give us the power to rid us of the burden of sin. We may not have lived at the time when Jesus walked about the earth and healed the sick but we can touch Him in the flesh. It is true that we are touching Jesus in the sacraments especially the Eucharist but when we do not have faith there is no effect.  Let us not fall into the trap of becoming overly familiar with Jesus as we receive the sacraments regularly or even daily for some. This familiarity makes us lose the awe and wonder of our faith that it wears off. We have to maintain and sustain our faith. Whenever we come in contact with Him let us ask Him to give us greater things, to heal us and change us as we touch him. Jesus is healing us in the way that the doctors can not do and is made possible through the sacraments. Is there anything else that Jesus is not capable of doing? We should answer these questions ourselves and really feel in our heart and impress in our mind the resounding truth about Jesus. If we are to imagine that woman touching the cloak of Jesus to the point that it really feels so real that we could almost feel the cloak of Jesus flowing around Him and touching our skin we would surely feel goose bumps all over. Somehow we could identify with the woman since she has been longing and desiring for a cure to her disease for quite a long time already and we in our lives sometimes encounter situations when we've been waiting for the answer to our prayers for a long time and have utilized every possible means and yet things did not get any better and felt that we were not helped at all but instead made things grew worse. One way or another we may all have felt that way. As days, weeks, months and even years go by we should come to a point when we can also develop that same faith of the woman in the gospel who got cured just by touching the cloak of Jesus and in turn will finally receive the long awaited blessing we all have been waiting for. Another important thing that is being pointed out today is the certainty and reality of death and our desire to live forever. There is indeed an explanation as to why people doesn't want to die and wanted to avoid even talk or mention about death. It goes way back to the time of creation when God never meant for us to die at all but because of our consent to sin, death entered the world. It's a good thing that despite all of these we are assured in Jesus that we can still take part in God's original plan to live life to the full for eternity. Amen. Hallelujah!

Mark 5:21-43

21 When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to the sea. 22 One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward. Seeing him he fell at his feet 23 and pleaded earnestly with him, saying, “My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live.” 24 He went off with him, and a large crowd followed him and pressed upon him. 25 There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years. 26 She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped but only grew worse. 27 She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. 28 She said, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.” 29 Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. 30 Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who has touched my clothes?” 31 But his disciples said to him, “You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ” 32 And he looked around to see who had done it. 33 The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.” 35 While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official’s house arrived and said, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?” 36 Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” 37 He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. 38 When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official, he caught sight of a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39 So he went in and said to them, “Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep.” 40 And they ridiculed him. Then he put them all out. He took along the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and entered the room where the child was. 41 He took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!” 42 The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around. [At that] they were utterly astounded. 43 He gave strict orders that no one should know this and said that she should be given something to eat.