Isaiah 58:1-9a
...“Why
do we fast, and you do not see it? afflict ourselves, and you take no note of it?”
Lo, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits, and drive all your
laborers. 4 Yes, your fast ends in quarrelling and fighting, striking with
wicked claw. Would that today you might fast so as to make your voice heard on
high! 5 Is this the manner of fasting I wish, of keeping a day of penance that
a man bow his head like a reed, and lie in sackcloth and ashes? Do you call
this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? 6 This, rather, is the fasting that
I wish releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; setting
free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; 7 sharing your bread with the hungry,
sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; clothing the naked when you see
them, and not turning your back on your own. 8 Then your light shall break
forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed; your vindication
shall go before you, and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. 9 Then
you shall call, and the LORD will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will
say, Here I am! If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and
malicious speech;
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 most especially during this Lenten
season. It is important that we always maintain a clean heart and a steadfast
spirit so that we are constantly in the 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!
Psalms
51:3-4, 5-6, 18-19
R: A
heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
1 [3]
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion
wipe out my offense. 2 [4] Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin
cleanse me. (R) 3 [5] For I acknowledge my offense, and my sin is before me
always. 4 [6] “Against you only have I sinned, and done what is evil in your
sight.” (R) …For you do not desire sacrifice; a burnt offering you would not
accept. My sacrifice, God, is a broken spirit; God, do not spurn a broken,
humbled heart.
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 by what seems to
us as 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. If we would read on further the gospel for
today we would find 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.”
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