It is in the dark hours of our life that we encounter so
much fear, anxiety and confusion. When we are experiencing these things it is
best to just stay calm and know that we can count on God. Let us not lose hope
nor be discouraged whenever we go through a time like this. We can always hold
on to God's words in the scriptures as in today's 1st reading which instructs
us what to do. Amen. Hallelujah!
Isaiah 26:7-9, 12, 16-19
...My soul yearns for you in the night, yes, my spirit
within me keeps vigil for you; when your judgment dawns upon the earth, the
world’s inhabitants learn justice. 12 O LORD, you mete out peace to us, for it
is you who have accomplished all we have done...
I. The Church professes the mystery of our faith repeatedly in the CREED. I believe in God... In these repetitions, we hope to eventually imbibe and absorb this mystery as best we can.
II. We celebrate this mystery through the LITURGY & SACRAMENTS. In the celebration, we hope to grow in our understanding of the fullness of the Holy Trinity. The sacraments are the vessels of grace. There is something greater than this that we should come to understand. We are the vessels of grace and the sacraments serve as a reminder of this. The sacrament of matrimony depicts the love of a man and a woman with God in the center. We can only hope to have a better understanding of these mysteries as we celebrate and partake of it.
III. Morality. We live the mystery in accordance to the life of Jesus, an authentic Christian life.
IV. PRAYER. is the litmus test or yardstick of our faith.
Our souls have holes that need to be filled or plugged and it is in prayer that
we don't end up placing the wrong plugs that fit our souls. We develop a
discerning power through prayer. The way of prayer is not a feeling but a
decision. Prayer could very well be patterned after the seasons of the church.
There's a part of our life when we need to die, suffer and rise and so are
prayers should always be full of faith, hope and love. It prepares us to live a
life of relationship. At the end of the day it's all about relationship. We
might not be fully aware of this but we engage in relationships every single
day of our life and they all contribute to this life of mystery we have. We
just have to be careful by checking first with whom we are building a
relationship with. We've got to make sure that we are progressing towards the
fullness of our relationship with God. We need to remove the restrictions that
we place on prayer. Though, we need to test if it's really God's Spirit. We
need to keep in mind that we are in a journey to God and we are obliged to
study and learn all there is to know because wrong spirit could be in the form
of ignorance. I just found out that the word anti means in lieu. Satan is so
envious of Jesus he wants to be Jesus and every time we do not decide for Jesus
in our actions then we choose the act in lieu of Jesus and in effect become an
anti-Christ. We need to be aware that whenever we are about to pray, go to
church and do something good, Satan would do everything in his power to
distract us. We need to cultivate our soul in order to grow. Anything that
improves our relationship with God is prayer. In fact, the mere act of suddenly
remembering to give a loved one a call is already a form of prayer. The way we
relate to our loved ones, family, friends, relatives and the people around us
could already be a form of prayer. When we are in the middle of a breath taking
scenery in nature and become full of joy and awe brought about by it, it's
almost like a prayer of appreciation for God's wonderful work and creation. The
language of intelligence relies on rational thinking while the language of the
soul appreciates beauty and makes use of images. In order to understand this
more deeply we have to look at the Parable of the Seed and the Sower. This
parable contains a lot of imagery to convey its message. Although the parable
is about the seed and the sower, the soil is of utmost concern in this story.
You know why? We are the soil. It is our soul and spirituality. In fact the name of Adam, the first man
created by God was derived from the Hebrew word Adama, which means soil. We need to cultivate the soil, Prayer is the
fuel that cultivates our soil. Prayer is God's gift. God's perfect love reaches
out to us when we sin or commit mistakes. Remember when Adam & Eve fell
into sin, God immediately searched for them, in Gen. 3:9, "Where are
you?" Prayer is an act of raising one's mind to God. We need humility for
it to be perfect. Humility comes from the word humus which means dirt. If only
Adam & Eve were humble enough to admit their wrongdoings instead of point
fingers at each other as in Genesis 3:11-13 ...You have eaten, then, from the
tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!" The man replied, "The
woman whom you put here with me--she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate
it." The LORD God then asked the woman, "Why did you do such a
thing?" The woman answered, "The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate
it." Who knows we could have had a different story and could still be in
paradise if they had instead admitted, asked for forgiveness and prayed in a
posture of humility. We have a universal
call to prayer thus our yearning for God. The bronze serpent became the source
of healing as they looked at the object. God allows certain objects to become a
source of blessing from Him as we focus on our faith in God, our hearts can
communicate better. As humans we are sometimes prone to distraction that we
sometimes need visual aids/reminders to refocus our gaze on the Lord. Man is
naturally in search of God. It is God who called and thirsted for us first.
Prayer is a response to man's thirst for the thirst of God. It is a response of
faith to a God who is reaching out to us. God gives us the Living Water that
will not make us thirst anymore. Whenever we see a particular race of people,
we'll know right away where they belong because of how they look, the language
they speak and other peculiar things that is characteristic of them. This
should also be the case with us, a people who belong to God. We should develop
in us all the characteristics that will set us apart as a people of God. We
should never ever doubt that God has His eyes always upon us. He is always
looking out for our welfare. No matter how hard things may seem to be at
present we can always count on the Lord who looks down on the earth from
heaven. We can always count on God for all our needs. Let us not be discouraged
by the things we see and hear but rather keep our focus on God who answers
prayers. Let us keep our hope and faith in the Lord who never turns His back on
those who continue and persevere in their prayers and pleas to God. God knows
the perfect time for everything. It is not a matter of delaying and withholding
His blessings but rather a matter of perfect timing. Amen. Hallelujah!
Psalm 102:13-14ab, 15, 16-18, 19-21
R: From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.
You, O LORD, abide forever, and your name through all
generations. You will arise and have mercy on Zion , for it is time to pity her. For her
stones are dear to your servants, and her dust moves them to pity. (R) The
nations shall revere your name, O LORD, and all the kings of the earth your
glory, 16 [17] when the LORD has rebuilt Zion
and appeared in his glory; 17 [18] when he has regarded the prayer of the
destitute, and not despised their prayer. (R) 18 [19] Let this be written for
the generation to come, and let his future creatures praise the LORD: 19 [20]
“The LORD looked down from his holy height, from heaven he beheld the earth, 20
[21] To hear the groaning of the prisoners, to release those doomed to die.”
(R)
By this time we may have experienced and witnessed a lot in
life already to know that today's gospel is the best thing we ought to do. No
one in this world can get away from problems and sorrow in life. Life here on
earth is as imperfect as it is. We can not expect to live a life of perfect
peace and happiness here on earth but we can surely make the best out of what
we've got right here and now if we are to follow these words below in the
gospel. There is really nowhere and no one else to go to but the Lord. We
should have realized this by now if we have learned our lessons well. In times
past when we have forgotten to surrender to God and depended more on our
strength, skill and intelligence, we have seen the difference and the worst in
the outcome of our actions. In whatever we do, for as long as we are not
violating God's commands we must not forget to lift up everything to God in
prayer and He will clearly show us the way. Why, because God said, come to me
who you labor and heavily burdened… Our Lord looked at the people around
fighting heavy battle, losing, carrying great burden and running out of
strength. Sometimes life gets us down and causes us a tiredness of body and
weariness of soul that no amount of sleep can rectify. On such occasions we
hear Him say “Come to me let me help you carry your burden. Of course the
problem with us is that we’re carrying burdens that we were never intended to
carry. The burdens and the problems belong to Him. He is in charge of the
world, not us. We can not solve problems on our own. We must realize that He
alone can solve problems we could never solve. When Moses met God in the
burning bush, Moses asked God “What is your name and whom shall I say sent me?”
He said My name is “I am” not I was nor I will be but I am. God lives in the
eternal now where it is neither past nor future. If we are going to realize
that at this very moment God sees us not only at this lovely day He created but
He sees us already dead, buried, judged and safely home with Him forever for
the ecstasy that He has planned for us. He sees now as we are worrying and
fretting about a future that may never come. Moses told the Lord, who am I to
go to pharaoh. But God was with Moses as He is with us. He said I shall be with
you and He was with Moses, as He is with us, too. In the Angelus we say behold
the handmaid of the Lord… These are the words of our Lady which she said and
meant. Though, she has no idea what the Lord has in store for her, she allowed
God to do what He has in store for her. Can we also say the same and mean it?
God has a plan for us and that plan is filled with love. The Lord said I am
meek and humble of heart. He has no ego problems like we have. We must realize
that the most difficult problem is preoccupation with self. When we go into a
room and try to impress everybody we come out and think how we fair in
ourselves. We just have to let go. He wants us to work with Him in helping
other human beings. The yoke is the 2 metal piece ring that links 2 animals. It’s what happens to us when we give our help
to the Lord, not what happens to whom we have helped. If we are blinded with
selfishness we fail to accept the plan God has for us. Our desire to thank God
is our gift and adds nothing to His greatness. Did we ever stop to think that
the only thing that our Lord asks of us is humility. Learn of me for I am meek
and humble of heart and you will find rest for your soul. But we listen so
easily to the father of lies. We imagine to find what we pray in flattery, in
the applause of the crowd and in riches. But what is humility? What is this
vague, ethereal, intangible, supernatural virtue? It is simply the truth. The
truth shall set us free. And the truth
about us is that apart from God we are nothing. We have nothing, we can do
nothing. We have a body but we can not control it. We do not know when it will
die. We have a mind but the bursting of a tiny blood vessel will make us
imbeciles forever. We have a heart that can love but at times we have no
control over it. It is hard, cold and unresponsive to the needs of others. But
there is a positive side about this which is beautifully described by Father
Faber, in Frederick William the English poet who became a Catholic after
Cardinal Newman. He said, “There are some thoughts which however old they are,
are always new. Either because they are so broad that they are never thoroughly
learned or because they are so intensely practical that their interest is
always absorbing. And such thoughts are for the most part very common thoughts.
They require no peculiar keenness of vision for no one can fail to perceive
them. They are like the huge mountains visible to everybody on the plain below.
Now among such thoughts we may reckon that thought which every child would know
that God loves each one of us with a special love. This is one of the most
common thoughts in our religion and yet when we come to look steadily at it we
find it very hard to believe. God does look at us in the mass and the multitude
as though we stand single and alone before His judgment seat one day but before
the eye of His boundless love. This is our faith. This is the faith in which we must live and
die. St. Paul
tells us in his letter to the Philippians that this mind be in us which was in
Christ Jesus who although he is God emptied Himself taking the form of a
servant (Philippians 2,6-11). Christ divested Himself of His dazzling beauty
and glory and he was lost in the crowd and he was thought to be Mary’s boy and
Joseph’s son. We are asked to empty ourselves of all that is false of all that
is ignoble , all that is unreal so that we may become filled with Christ.
Because nature abhors a vacuum and so does grace. We must be filled with
something. Tragically we are filled with all kinds of desire, we want to be
applauded, be promoted, we want to be consulted and we want to be loved. We
want to be preferred to others. Look at all the fears that fill us that stifle
us and paralyze us. We are afraid of sickness, growing old and of death. We are
afraid of the thought of what comes after death. Don’t we remember Shakespeare,
“To sleep for a chance to dream, what dreams may come when we have shuffled off
this mortal coil must give us pause to that undiscovered land from whose no
traveler returned. John the Baptist gave us our ideal, I must decrease and He
must increase (John 3:30). All the foolishness, unreality intolerance, the
selfishness and all the sin that is in us must decrease so that we must fill
the vacuum with our Lord who wants to share our life. He wants to be part of
the trivia that make up the waking hours. Whatever happens to us happens to Him
and He wants us to let Him share because only then will we find the rest that
we pray. A long time ago St. Francis cried out loud, “He comes to His own today
and receives Him not.” And so we live lives that are restless, confused,
frustrated and unfulfilled because we do not share our lonely life with Him. So
the prayer we learn as children that is said all over the world among
Christians should be our prayer now, Oh Jesus meek and humble of heart make our
hearts like unto Thine. Amen. Hallelujah!
Matthew 11:28-30
28 Jesus said: “Come to me, all you who labor and are
burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves. 30
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”
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