First Letter to the Thessalonians 2:9-13.
9 You recall, brothers and
sisters, our toil and drudgery. Working night and day in order not to
burden any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. As you know, we
treated each one of you as a father treats his children, exhorting and
encouraging you and insisting that you conduct yourselves as worthy of the God
who calls you into his kingdom and glory... 13 And for this reason we too give
thanks to God unceasingly, that, in receiving the word of God from hearing us,
you received not a human word but, as it truly is, the word of God, which is
now at work in you who believe.
Technology has become so advanced nowadays that nothing
remains unknown for long. With the latest in probes, sensors and the like in
just one click of the computer everything is laid before us. Sometimes it just
goes too far and out of bounds and we fail to conform and align all these
innovations to the Author and Inventor of all these things. Let us not forget,
He is the source of everything there was, is and will be. In the midst of all
the trouble we're going through it is always a consolation to know that we have
a God who knows every single thing that is going on with us and He cares and
loves us a lot. For indeed in today's psalm reading is another confirmation
that God knows our deepest thoughts and longings. We should always be aware of
this undeniable truth that God's Spirit dwells in each one of us. There is no
reason to doubt what today's psalm speaks about with regards to our
relationship with our Creator. May we not forget and always remember who we are
before the eyes of God. We can never allow our flesh, things of this world and
the enemy to lure, confuse and deceive us any longer. It helps to always
remember what St. Paul
wrote in Ephesians 6:11-13, "Put on the armor of God so that you may be
able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil. For our struggle is not with
flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world
rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.
Therefore, put on the armor of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil
day..." We are who we are in the
eyes of God and not what the flesh, the world and the destructive enemy wants
us to believe. We are special to God, He
calls each one of us by name. We should all value the special care and
attention that God has given to us as His most valued among all of His
creation.
This reminds me of this lady who used to ask me, "How
do I look?" I would always reply, "You're beautiful." But she
would say in return, "Oh you're full of baloney" and every time I
would just laugh back at her. Eventually I got inspired to respond to her
differently when I told her that it is not baloney but it's biblical that we
are all beautiful. In fact the Tagalog translation in text message that I have
received is quite funny, it goes something like this, "Kilabot sa ganda, nanginginig
pa" (I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made; wonderful
are your works.) which is stated right here in today's psalm. As man, we have
the concupiscence or the natural inclination to the flesh, lust, greed and
pride. The perfect formula for self destruction is based on this popular and
well subscribed saying that goes like this, "If it feels good just do
it." Pope John Paul II in his book, "Splendor of Truth" said
that the power to decide what is good and evil is not within the power of man.
This is clear in the book of Genesis when He forbid our 1st parents to eat of
the fruit from the tree of good and evil. God gave us the free will and the
source of conflict came from the inability to acknowledge God as our Creator
and that only Him can define morality. Man doesn't make rules of morality, we
only discover it. The 10 commandments are an expression of God's love and the
means to have true freedom which means the ability to do what we ought to do
and not what we want to do. Catholic Morality is under attack as issues on
abortion and artificial contraception have become so liberated. We should be
firm in our stand not give in or budge an inch as we stand by the teachings of
the Church. We should all value the special care and attention that God has
given to us as His most valued among all of His creation. Our life is precious
this we know is true as stated in today's psalm. Amen. Hallelujah!
Psalm 139:1-3. 4-6
R: You have searched me and you know me, Lord.
1 O LORD, you have probed me and you know me; 2 you know
when I sit and when I stand; you understand my thoughts from afar. 3 My
journeys and my rest you scrutinize, with all my ways you are familiar. (R) 4
Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know the whole of it. 5
Behind me and before, you hem me in and rest your hand upon me. 6 Such
knowledge is too wonderful for me; too lofty for me to attain. (R)
We’ve got to believe that there is really somebody watching
us. Sometimes we forget that God can see through us and knows exactly what's
inside our hearts and minds. People may not be able to know it by just looking
at us and we can easily get away with our wrong doings which we have kept in
secret or hidden in our thoughts and feelings which no human person can see but
God does. Let us not wait for the time when we like the scribes and Pharisees
will be spoken to by God in this manner. Let us choose to hear words of
commendation from the Lord rather than be called a hypocrite. Let us truly be
the person that God wants us to be, whether there are people who can see our
goodness or not. Amen. Hallelujah!
Matthew 23:27-32
27 Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you
hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the
outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth. 28
Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with
hypocrisy and evildoing.
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