No one I guess, in this whole wide world can look at a
rainbow and not be amazed by the beauty it holds. We can all appreciate its
colorful array and marvel how such an image can be painted in the sky. There is
more to it than what we see. The most important and precious thing about a
rainbow is revealed in today’s 1st reading. Nothing beats the
beautiful, sweet and marvelous way of God in conveying to us His great pledge
of love. Let us always be reminded of this covenant and never take its real
meaning for granted. I have always wanted to know where to find the bible passage
which was quoted by Sis Au, a sister in my DOST prayer group in the Philippines.
I have shared several times already about the frightening experience I had
during one of our prayer meetings at the DOST Chapel when I was almost bitten
by a cat who just gave birth to her kittens. I was not aware of the cat and her
kittens lying down in a chair situated near the switch of the lights so when I
came near it to turn on the lights the cat growled at me fiercely as if it can swallow
me in one piece and tear me apart, whew! I got so scared and startled, I forgot
where I was and screamed. Sis Au who was there started to walk near the cat
where the light switch was. I warned her not to come near it but instead of
backing off she continued to come close to it while saying these words, as if
she was talking to the cat, "Hey you cat, you are under my power and I am
above and over you because that was what God said when He created everything in
this world including you and me!" I can never forget how the cat looked
like, it was suddenly subdued and did not even growl at her. Wow, I was so
impressed and have always made use of what I've learned from that experience
whenever I am confronted with situations
with fierce animals including cats and dog which are sometimes not friendly and
cuddly. I am just so grateful today that I am reminded of this bible passage again and know where to find it. Amen. Hallelujah!
Genesis 9,1-13.
...Dread fear of you shall come upon all the animals of the
earth and all the birds of the air, upon all the creatures that move about on
the ground and all the fishes of the sea; into your power they are delivered. ... “This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come,
of the covenant between me and you and every living creature with you: 13 I set
my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the
earth.”
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!
Psalms 102:16-18, 19-21, 29, 22-23
R: From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.
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)
The word of God never fails. It has always been a source of enlightenment, assurance and encouragement especially at times when we needed it the most. It has been consistently living up to what it stands for from Ephesians 6:17 as sword of the Spirit. Also in Hebrews 4:12, "Indeed, the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart." We can always prove this to be true if we will constantly consult the word of God in the daily readings, we will find that it always perfectly fits the situation that we are presently in for we have a God who knows everything that is going on with us, is always around and never leaves us. We want to do things the easy and the quick way and this is not very surprising at all. Even St. Peter himself did not want to hear about the passion and death of Christ in today's gospel. We might be tempted to think that Jesus is a sadist because He wants to go through all the pain and suffering that the cross entails rather than be spared from it when He can obviously will anything to happen because He is God. Jesus wanted to set a good example for us by being obedient to the will of God the Father. It is only by dying on the cross that the resurrection can have meaning. Jesus wanted to show us that we may not be able to eliminate the harsh realities in life but we can always hope for a deliverance and resurrection in Him. Sometimes in life it is by going through something even the very difficult experiences that we learn great lessons. It is a brutal teacher indeed but we gain knowledge from it. We can always look to something and be assured that God will not let us go through something without seeing us through it. We better hold on to God and never let go rather than be won over by the false propaganda of Satan and end up a loser. In today’s gospel also we hear Jesus pose this question to His disciples, “Who do you say I am?” and in all places asked this in Caesarea Philippi. History tells us that this place is the center of paganism during that time. His disciples answered Him with a variety of things with regards to who He is. This is a question we ought to answer ourselves. The true meaning of His kingship is revealed on the cross. There is a newness in it, that He is a king who came not to be served but to serve. He speaks in riddles and parables but today’s gospel is the turning point as He speaks more openly and clearly although He still doesn’t want to tell everybody because they might misunderstand. It is difficult to understand the authentic identity of Jesus apart from the cross. This is why Jesus rebuked Peter when he tried to stop Him while talking about his suffering and death. He is trying to teach us that He’s the Savior and that God alone saves. He is the Messiah indeed through the Paschal mystery (suffering, death and resurrection). In this context we should learn to deny ourselves, take up our own crosses and follow Him. We must realize that no servant is greater than His master. If Jesus embraced His cross, so must we. We should not look at Jesus and see Him as someone who just taught us beautiful things as a teacher. We should go further and not allow Satanic temptation to pull us away from Jesus on the cross. It is the devil’s goal to pull us Christians away from the cross at all cost. Satan can easily lead us away from the cross because our human nature does not want to embrace the cross. It is just a natural reaction because we don’t want to suffer and lose our lives for this world. Jesus does not ask us but we’re invited to share in His Paschal Mystery and in His cross. The world oppresses us to deny the gospel because our ego dictates us to do it our way. We have to deny ourselves and let go of our ego. The world pushes us to live by our own rules. We need to relinquish ourselves and trust Him who is the Savior rather than trust ourselves with our own will. We are tempted by the world to go to a different direction which is not in alignment with the gospel and contrary to the spirit of the gospel. We must be aware of the struggles as spoken of in Daniel 7 where he speaks of end times, the struggle in this worldly kingdom and how God’s kingdom will triumph. We have to trust and believe in Him. Is it really in our gut that we are going to follow Jesus on the cross? The world is not taking us there rather it is the faith that we profess. He is the Savior. He saves us through the cross. Let us strive and choose to think the way God does and not as human beings do. Amen. Hallelujah!
Mark 8:27-35
Jesus and his disciples set out for the villages of Caesarea Philippi. Along the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They said in reply, “John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others one of the prophets.” And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter said to him in reply, “You are the Messiah.” Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him. He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days. He spoke this openly. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”...“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.”
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