Monday, October 12, 2015

THE HEART OF GOODNESS

In the beginning God created everything to be in harmony, man, the land and all creatures. But man sinned leading to a rupture with God, one’s self and others. We have to go back to where God had intended it to be. If everything happened by chance there is a tendency for us to wane in our resolution and our responsibility is deemphasized. The understanding that a Creator made the world leads to a fundamental responsibility to it.
When we watch these movies about the end of the world it gives the impression that our world exists by random and we look upon the universe as a product of chance. Everything that exists comes through Jesus. Everything in the universe came through Christ. He is the foundation of all reality. Creation is existent and made through and for Him. It does not exist by chance and is ruled by God and His plan.
Colossians 1:15-16 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through him and for him.

Ephesians 1:3-6 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him. In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved…

Hebrews 11:3 By faith we understand that the universe was ordered by the word of God, so that what is visible came into being through the invisible.

 John1:3 All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race;

Look at creation and see its beauty, in the microscope and telescope. God is the creator. God shows a great love for everyone in this world not in a mythological world. Gen 1:27 God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

We are capable of reason because of our mind. God gives choices but we also have a free will we can go beyond instinct and go against the will of God. We are the image of God and we have a unique personality because of the dignity of a person. We are unrepeatable which makes us distinctive and like God. Man and animals have some similar gifts like emotions and body but what distinguishes us is reason. Our freedom to choose what is right and wrong is conscience. We choose good and avoid evil. It is easier said than done. How many people want to lose weight but it is not easy to lose weight because there are a lot of temptations aside from food. The same is true with our conscience. In Romans 7:18 it is stated, For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh. The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not. For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want. The natural law is humanizing, but it is dehumanizing when we don’t obey the natural law. Human beings should make a decision to accept Christ as the one mediator so we can go to heaven not in hell.  The speed of light is constant throughout the universe, even gravity is a constant and because it applies in the universe that is why we can apply science. There are laws, human beings have reason and discover these laws. God made us distinct from all animals to be able to do these things. Psalm 33:6 By the LORD’s word the heavens were made; by the breath of his mouth all their host. This is a radical statement. All the pagans believe that God created the world through sex and violence. God created the world by His word and it came to be. All reality came to being by God’s word. Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament proclaims the works of his hands. Christians should study Science not be a skeptic but to be able to discover the beauty of creation and God’s wisdom in its order. To display the wonders of God.

Wisdom 13:5 Now if out of joy in their beauty they thought them gods, let them know how far more excellent is the Lord than these; for the original source of beauty fashioned them. Or if they were struck by their might and energy, let them realize from these things how much more powerful is the one who made them. For from the greatness and the beauty of created things their original author, by analogy, is seen. We look at the ocean and see how wide it is, the sunset, mountain vastness and outer space is even more amazing with trillion of stars and millions of galaxies. We have perception so we do not just see but we have a mind to appreciate it. (Romans 1:19-20 For what can be known about God is evident to them, because God made it evident to them.) Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made. As a result, they have no excuse; St. Bonaventure said that God loves creation so much and took on human nature
The creatures of this sensible world signify the invisible God. This part of reality we need to understand.  All of this well established theories of evolution are not meant to be opposed or refuted but we can believe this but we get to the point of human beings. The Church teach first of all that every human being has a soul as all Christian and Jewish believers. It’s not matter and does not depend on the law of Physics not controlled by these laws. This is immaterial and not derived from an evolutionary process. All of these material physical processes, a human has a soul w/c is immaterial, can transcend merely physical acts could not evolve from a physical natural process, and not governed by evolution. There is a way to think rationally that we have a soul. Cardinal Newman said that a convergence of data can come up with probabilistic clues of human transcendence
  1. Survival of human experiences after near death experiences. A study done in 10 Dutch hospitals and published in a medical journal in 2001. An accumulation of very good controlled data that their consciousness were able to survive their death. A lot of evidence out there of survival of consciousness after near death. It exists outside of the human body and human consciousness.
  2. Godel theory- Human intellection is very different from machine intelligence. Human beings can find mathematical truth that are not in the axioms that they have been dealing with. Goes beyond axiomatic intelligence. Human beings are beyond machine intelligence. No physical explanation for human intelligence and beyond in axiom recognizing finite . Stephen Barr author of Modern Faith and Ancient Physics said that human beings are not machine like, human beings are always beyond the machine.
  3. The clue of self consciousness. Self awareness transcends physical limitations.. We could be aware of our awareness. We could have our own inner world, it presents a real problem if all physical things are limited to a certain sense.  Something about human beings that seems to elude the laws of Physics, what we are seeing so far. Creative thinking totally different from machine thinking, transcending mere physicality. Defying the laws of Physics. Plato transcend mere physicality a desire for awareness of perfect truth. A desire for perfect goodness and beauty. Separate us from the rest of the animal kingdom.
Today's 1st reading reminded me of this very popular expression in the Philippines which is, "Obvious ba?" or "Isn't it obvious?" in English. I often hear it being said by people who are annoyed at somebody who seems to be inattentive, unable to get the message right away, pretending not to know or simply doesn't care. It has become so common that anybody would just throw it to someone who doesn't seem to be paying attention. I guess, God for so many times already, would have said the same thing to us whenever we doubt God's abilities to carry out what He's capable of doing. I must say we are all guilty of this inattentiveness or a passing moment of doubt from time to time. There are countless reminders that are being sent our way. If we are to look at creation then all the answers will be right before us. Even the several experiences we’ve had in our lifetime serve as lessons that we can learn from, though we still do not conduct our affairs in the manner that we should. Let us not forget and always remember that nothing can ever come between us and God for as long as we truly desire to know more about Him. Amen. Hallelujah!


Romans 1:16-25
...For what can be known about God is evident to them, because God made it evident to them. 20 Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made... 

It always pays to be watchful and alert at all times. Although we sometimes fail to measure up due to our own shortcomings or could be the doing of another, God assures us in today's psalm that if we fall into the trap of the enemy we can always repent with a deep remorse for our sins and resolve to make the precepts of the Lord the joy of our hearts. In doing so, we find ourselves naturally restrained from sin and maintain our innocence. It is so hard to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord if we do not know exactly how to go about with it. It's just like when we have to comply to certain requirements in school and follow the standard set by it. We need to have a pattern or outline from which we can base our work. Just as it is so in other things, the more we are all in need of God's precepts. The absolute bedrock of spiritual life is to follow the 10 commandments. We are sometimes misled into thinking that when we have a type of prayer then we think that we already have a spiritual life. We’ve got to have the humility to admit that God is smarter than we are and we need to follow and obey what we are told in the 10 commandments. We should be totally and absolutely convinced that He knows best. Satan uses half truths and half lies in his devilish tricks. Satan’s claims seem to come true in one level. Take the example of our 1st parents after eating of the forbidden fruit their eyes were opened and did become in one sense like God. The fallen angels made their free choice by radically and irrevocably rejecting God so in turn they seduce and mislead Adam & Eve. It was through sin that humanity was afflicted by death. Because of one man’s disobedience many were made sinners. When tempted in the Garden, Adam failed to remain faithful to God and His commands. Jesus, the New Adam, is God’s servant totally obedient to the Divine will. Jesus is the devil’s conqueror and takes back the plunder. What the devil has stolen from us, Jesus has recovered for us. Pope Benedict XVI commented about what the Lord experienced in the desert and said that at the heart of all temptations is the act of pushing God aside because we conceive Him as secondary. It is an act of constructing our world with our own lights and building our own foundation and setting God aside as an allusion. Temptations come in many varied forms but one thing is sure, it does not invite us to directly do evil because it is too blatant and would outright turn us off. It is very subtle and yet an act of pushing God’s commands aside and placing the devil’s temptation as primary. If we want to remain victorious throughout life, we have to keep Him in the center of our life and hold on to His words which are Spirit and life. God’s ever present help can be found in the scriptures. It's just like a soldier going to battle wearing the armor of God. It never fails and always there to defend and protect from the snares of the evil one. So always take up our sword which is the word of God. God's perfect word can refresh the soul. Have you ever wondered really how it feels to be refreshed? Whenever we take a shower or a warm bath and put on clothes that are well fitted and comfortable it refreshes our body. It could also be whenever we go to a place where we can unwind, relax, be away from the tensions, stresses, noise and turmoil of the fast paced lives that we lead and just appreciate the beauty of nature that surrounds us and the peace and quiet it offers to our tired bodies in order to be more in touch with God's voice in us. It is so refreshing it gives our minds and hearts a better view and perspective of how to live our lives. The same thing with our souls, we should always keep it clean, healthy and clothed with maximum security, protection but comfortable enough we don't even know it's there. Like it has become fused in us, there's nothing more right than following and obeying the law of God. Today's psalm reading guides us on how we should go about with our lives by always keeping in mind God's laws. None of us is perfect but through our imperfections we can always run to God for help and guidance. He will never refuse nor forsake us for He can only love and care for us. There are people who have alienated themselves from God and we can’t just force them to go back. God does not do that, it’s not how the Lord works, instead we pray and pray for them. If we wait long enough and adhere to God’s precepts then we will finally obtain joy in our hearts. As water prevails over the rock throughout the course of time so does the Holy Spirit that is continuously flooding or washing over the man’s heart.  The Holy Spirit moves in and continues to work upon us and tenderizes us. The song entitled, "Your Words Are Spirit and Life" by Bernadette Farrell was impressed to me. It is a beautiful song that I have always loved to sing and I just realized that the words of this song are taken from this psalm which made me start singing it. Well, we just have to fully discover what the words of God can make us do. When things get out of hand we have no one to blame but ourselves for God is surely not lacking in everything that He has given us for our own welfare. We've got everything we need because there's nothing more that God could and should do for us that He has not done. All we have to do is completely trust and obey the judgments of the Lord. GOD'S LAW MAKES US LIVE A VIRTUOUS LIFE (CCC 1803 "Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.") May we truly recognize the genuine and precious treasures that we should all strive to achieve and work for which is none other than these things spoken of in today's psalm. Amen. Hallelujah!  


P S A L M
 Psalm 19:2-3. 4-5
R: The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
1 [2] The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. 2 [3] Day pours out the word to day, and night to night imparts knowledge. (R) 3 [4] Not a word nor a discourse whose voice is not heard; 4 [5] through all the earth their voice resounds, and to the ends of the world, their message.

What comes to mind the moment I read today’s gospel is a dead rat. It stinks very badly and unless we get rid of it then it is there to stay. No matter how much we clean our house if we can not locate where the dead rat is then we remain stinky. We have to search every crack, crevice and the most hidden places in our home and locate where it is in order to get rid of it. It’s just like when we do something wrong we don’t want people to know about it and try our best to hide it. Or worse we have become calloused of our sins that we don’t care anymore by justifying and making all kinds of excuses. There is not much difference between the two because both are means of covering up. The first one is the literal cover up and the other one is the figurative. As the word itself suggests, we cover up our sins literally by not letting other people know and figuratively when we expose ourselves to others but instead of owning the wrong we have done we make excuses and justifications, point a finger or divert the blame to others and not confront the real issue. We are all guilty of it one way or another. We have to realize it literally and figuratively and be wise rather than fools.  In the midst of a chaotic world, we should always find an inner peace within ourselves. It is always what's inside and deep within us, that is most important. Sometimes we get caught in the prevailing and acceptable standards of this world we tend to be mechanical in the things we do and find our motivations empty and meaningless. When we are driven to action and our purpose is superficial and is just meant to create an impressive image and show off for others to see, then we become no better than the Pharisees in today's gospel. Jesus encourages us to be wise and not fools by going beyond the superficial and go deeper into the heart of goodness which in turn will gain for us everything. Amen. Hallelujah! 

Luke 11:37-41

... The Lord said to him, “Oh you Pharisees! Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil. 40 You fools! Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside? 41 But as to what is within, give alms, and behold, everything will be clean for you.” 

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