THE GRAVITY OF SIN

We are sometimes labeled as supermarket Catholics because we treat our faith in the same way when we go shopping in a supermarket. We only pick up what we need and like and leave behind what is not useful or does not appeal to our taste or preferences. We choose what's economical and what's fitted to our budget and sometimes we fail to realize that is for our own good that we have to follow everything and not modify it according to our own liking. The formula for a truly happy life is the 10 commandments. It doesn't limit freedom but instead enhances freedom and be truly wise and intelligent. It’s not surprising to know that most of us think that God doesn’t want us to have fun. It’s like all the things that we want to do with our friends that are interesting and exciting when we were young, were against God’s commandments. It may seem like we have to settle for less. What’s worse is that all the faithful Catholics get less out of life. This is part of the propaganda way back in the Garden of Eden. God gave us a magnificent paradise wherein there is perfect intimacy and no shame with each other. In the Garden they have everything they need but gave just one limit, not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This is very interesting because God said, “Don’t do this because you will die.” The reason why God commands us something is because He is a loving Father who cares for us. He wants us to have the best. But then came the serpent, it didn’t create Adam & Eve, nor gave the garden or anything at all. All the serpent gave was a lie and told Adam & Eve not to listen to God or they’ll lose out and won’t become like God. They were made to believe that God is holding out something from them and is actually their rival because God doesn’t want them to have what He has. So instead of trusting the one who gave them everything, they trusted a stranger. They disobeyed God and listened to the liar. They were hooked into a downward spiral of destruction. This is what sin is all about. It is a trap. It is disguised as an apparent good because the fruit looks good and desirable but it ends in disaster. The relationship with God is messed up and so creation turned against them, thorns and thistles appear and things in life become hard. This is what sin does, it seemed small but it gets out of control. Things get worse and worse and there are broken lives everywhere. This is the reality about sin, we are draining life out of ourselves unless we recognize the one true source of life. 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 strong 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. Heaven is the realization of being a champion. In heaven we will be glorified magnificently. We will live forever with strength, power and beauty sharing a new humanity with Jesus. Amen. Hallelujah!

Deuteronomy 4:1-2. 6-8

...In your observance of the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin upon you, you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it. 6 Observe them carefully, for thus will you give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations,...

If we read and follow carefully these words in today’s psalm reading then we can truly say that we’ve found the perfect advice to which we can pattern our lives after. God relates with us in a very personal way and precise in His timing for as long as we stand by the principles and values of God then we can never be wrong. God knows our every thought, motive and intention and if we act on it based on what is just, true and peaceful then we will never be disturbed. The commandments do not limit but protect freedom. Since the more we disobey the more we become bound and become a slave of sin. If we follow the full extent of the 10 commandments we become free. We see people who repeatedly commit the same mistakes over and over again. And yet they never learn anything from the lessons that go with it. The frightening truth about this is the fact that they prefer to be disturbed and miserable not because they love misery but because they prefer to stay in the dark. Jesus has a standing invitation to us in John 12:35, "Jesus said to them, "The light will be among you only a little while. Walk while you have the light, so that darkness may not overcome you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where he is going." It is a choice and decision that we alone can make. It’s not surprising to know that most of us think that God doesn’t want us to have fun. It’s like all the things that we want to do with our friends that are interesting and exciting when we were young, were against God’s commandments. It may seem like we have to settle for less. What’s worse is that all the faithful Catholics get less out of life. This is part of the propaganda way back in the Garden of Eden. God gave us a magnificent paradise wherein there is perfect intimacy and no shame with each other. In the Garden they have everything they need but gave just one limit, not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This is very interesting because God said, “Don’t do this because you will die.” The reason why God commands us something is because He is a loving Father who cares for us. He wants us to have the best. But then came the serpent, it didn’t create Adam & Eve, nor gave the garden or anything at all. All the serpent gave was a lie and told Adam & Eve not to listen to God or they’ll lose out and won’t become like God. They were made to believe that God is holding out something from them and is actually their rival because God doesn’t want them to have what He has. So instead of trusting the one who gave them everything, they trusted a stranger. They disobeyed God and listened to the liar. They were hooked into a downward spiral of destruction. This is what sin is all about. It is a trap. It is disguised as an apparent good because the fruit looks good and desirable but it ends in disaster. The relationship with God is messed up and so creation turned against them, thorns and thistles appear and things in life become hard. This is what sin does, it seemed small but it gets out of control. Things get worse and worse and there are broken lives everywhere. This is the reality about sin, we are draining life out of ourselves unless we recognize the one true source of life. 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 fathers have a great role in that but our creation continues every single day of our lives. This is the reason why we call each day the 8^th day of creation. We’re even becoming someone more beautiful, mature and strong 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. If we read and follow carefully these words in today’s psalm reading then we can truly say that we’ve found the perfect advice to which we can pattern our lives after. Though, we may still fall and fail we must not forget that Jesus has triumphed over sin and death. He is victorious and is now sitting at the right hand of God the Father. He is able to carry us through. We must always focus on this truth in order for us to attain a life free of worry, anxiety and is never disturbed. When everything is over and done, we look forward to God's reward of endless worth as we emerge as the champion, crowned with the victory won by Christ and live on the holy mountain of the Lord. Heaven is the realization of being a champion. In heaven we will be glorified magnificently. We will live forever with strength, power and beauty sharing a new humanity with Jesus. If we emerge as the champion who does justice then we will live in the presence of the Lord. Amen. Hallelujah!

Psalm 15:2-3. 3-4. 5 (1a)

R: The one who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.

2 Whoever walks blamelessly and does justice; who thinks the truth in his heart 3 and slanders not with his tongue. (R) Who harms not his fellow man, nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor; 4 by whom the reprobate is despised, while he honors those who fear the LORD. (R) 5 who lends not his money at usury and accepts no bribe against the innocent. Whoever does these things shall never be disturbed.

Let us be very careful in our commitment to follow God by not altering or obscuring the true intent of God's law. We should not look at the 10 commandments as something that is meant to make life difficult for us but instead be considered a perfect gift to mankind. A gift that is meant to be valued and used as intended. It is important that we become fully aware of it and be doers not just hearers of the word of God to maintain and sustain our purity. We have often heard people say, "If it's nice and beautiful then it must be good." We have to make a clear distinction of this because it's like we're in a masquerade ball. We're in for a lot of excitement because everyone is all dressed up in a costume and mask. Let us not be carried away and stick to the perfect rather than the imperfect gift in disguise. The reality of temptation is something we all experience. Its sources are the world, the flesh and the devil. We should be aware of it and not take for granted. It is so powerful that if it goes unchecked could lead us to sin. Sometimes we are fooled into believing that God causes all the things that happen in our lives even the bad ones. We are being corrected by James from this wrong mindset and made to realize that we have a loving God who wills all good things for us. We have our free will and thus we are responsible for our own doing. Just like the food we eat, we must realize that everything we take in has an effect on our bodies. The same thing applies to the sins we commit. Though we have been forgiven our sins have physical, psychological, socio-economical, mental and spiritual effects. These effects are what we still battle in this world that we live. Whatever it is that we are going through right now we must not lose hope in a God who is all good giving and from whom every perfect gift comes. He is consistently good and never for a single moment be other than Holy and Perfect. If such is our belief in God then we are indeed blessed and the first fruits, in other words on top and the best of all His creatures. To this, we should all live up to. Amen. Hallelujah!

James 1:17-18. 21b-22. 27

17 Dearest brothers and sisters: All good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change. 18 He willed to give us birth by the word of truth that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. 21 Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls. 22 Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

The Pharisees and the scribes in today’s gospel are so obsessed about the tradition but have missed the most important point. The scribes and Pharisees put a fence around the law to make sure they do not break the law. An example of this is the 2nd commandment which is “Thou shall not use the Lord’s name in vain.” In order to make sure that they don’t break the law they were not allowed to even say the Lord’s name at all. Jesus does not tell us that tradition is bad but if it goes to the point of disregarding the spirit of the law which is love then it is just for nothing because it does not please God at all. Since it goes beyond to the point where some use the details of the law to undercut the law. The worst part here is when criminals go free. This mentality applies to certain laws. In everything we do we have to be clear with our motivations and agenda that we don’t tip the scale and do one thing for the extreme reasons and neglect a whole lot of things. This reminds me of certain rules that we needed to strictly follow during the feeding of the homeless like the wearing of hairnets and gloves. We found out that there was a particular incident in one Church during a feeding when somebody was sued for not wearing a hairnet while in the kitchen. Sometimes these rules which were meant to protect the people can be used to the detriment of unsuspecting people most especially the ones who only meant to help and be of service to the needy. What God is telling us is to go back to the source of scriptures and not use our own imagination to use the law for our personal agenda. We sometimes hear people say that they do not have any sins since they have not killed anybody. Sometimes we tend to make a criminal like Al Capone as the norm. We have to stop comparing ourselves to the worst kind of criminals. We have to go back to the real source of the scriptures and the laws. Jesus is our moral source and He should be our model. What God intends us to do is to examine our conscience to live our Christian life well. We need to prepare for a deeper repentance so we don’t get called hypocrites by our Lord but instead welcome us to fidelity to Him and the gospel. We ought to be very careful in the conduct of our affairs. We may think that we are good enough Christians and not missing on the obligations we are all expected to fulfill. Today's gospel gives us a specific account of the things we must avoid doing. These are things that stain our soul. If we don't watch it we may be going through life without realizing what we've made of our souls. We may be looking all good on the outside but full of filth in the inside. When we leave earth we don't bring our bodies with us. We leave them behind what we bring with us is our soul. Let us make sure we render it clean all the time so that when the time comes we can finally inherit the gift of eternal life. As in Rev. 7:14, "These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Every single thing has been spelled out for us by Jesus in order for us not to be led astray. We can no longer make excuses and justifications. No need to confuse ourselves any further with the rigid rules of our faith. All we have to do is come to Him in prayer at all times. God can make all things possible. We simply have to decide for God who is love in all our actions. We should always trust that God would do for us exactly what He deemed is best for all of us. Amen. Hallelujah!

Mark 7:1-8. 14-15. 21-23

...So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, “Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?” 6 He responded, “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; 7 In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.” 8 You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” 14 Jesus summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. 15 Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.” ...“But what comes out of a person, that is what defiles. 21 From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, 22  adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. 23 All these evils come from within and they defile.”