THE GOOD NEWS

Today’s 1^st reading brought back tender memories of my 2 sons when they were still babies. It is always true that the love between mother and child is something very precious and would always hold a special place in every heart. The most intimate and unforgettable bonding time we had was when I nurse them. I would hold their tiny hands and would not let go until their asleep and full. While they were breastfeeding I would try to communicate with them in our made up baby language and they would mutter incomprehensible sounds not understandable by verbal language but by the heart. Human relationships are based on human trust, respect and need. And so it is with God’s relationship to us. Isn’t it true that God needed the Virgin Mary to be born, needed John the Baptist to be baptized, needed Simon of Cyrene to help Him carry the cross, needed  the woman in the well to give Him a drink, needed Joseph of Arimathea to give him a place where to be buried and needed the apostles to spread the Good News. God even entrusts Himself to us in Holy Communion. When we hear a cry for help we respond. The Lord is the master and we are the servant, He is the teacher and we are the student and He is strong and we are weak. But He has no hands but our hands to help. He has no lips but our lips to proclaim the good news. Day after monotonous day we must think of God who proved to us His great love by dying on the cross. Let us respond to Him to prove that it is not in vain that he died and rose again for our sake. It should be our inspiration and this should be our prayer, as St. Francis said.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand;

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen. Hallelujah!

Isaiah 66:10-14C
Oh, that you may suck fully of the milk of her comfort, that you may nurse with delight at her abundant breasts! For thus says the LORD: Lo, I will spread prosperity over Jerusalem like a river, and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing torrent. As nurslings, you shall be carried in her arms, and fondled in her lap; as a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; in Jerusalem you shall find your comfort. When you see this, your heart shall rejoice and your bodies flourish like the grass; the LORD’s power shall be known to his servants.

Looking back all these years at the glorious background of our faith that has been handed to us, we can say that we are so blessed among all of God's creation. We have been endowed with such a great blessing beyond our comprehension. Just imagine ourselves meeting someone who is very admirable and impressive, we can't help but be proud and share with others our wonderful experience. That's how it is with the apostles and even more once we've come to know God. We have to be strong and of good courage. Each and every moment is a clear manifestation of God's tremendous love. No words can ever be enough to describe it. Blessed is Mother Mary for believing that what was spoken to her by the Lord would be fulfilled. We can also come to a point when we can also sing our own "Magnificat" and raise our hands to God in prayer and thanksgiving for every gift He has given to us. Even those gifts of sorrow. God is in charge and He will make all things work for the good. We have a God who is fighting our battles for us. God is in control. Although God will not stop every adversity but if we stay in faith, He will see us through. He did not promise life to be smooth sailing all the time but He definitely assured us of a safe landing. God has already lined up the right people, right places at the right time. He has prepared for our victory and so we should be ready for God's favor. I remember when we went to San Francisco we joined the bay cruise, were able to come up very close to the Golden GateBridge and went under it and see the amazing structures that hold it. The engineering of the bridge was amazing and very strongly built. During the cruise we got information that the bridge can withstand the powerful forces of the wind and can hold a tremendous amount of weight. It was as if this bridge was really built to last a long time and still be of service to various forms of transportation. Man's ingenuity is so impressive to come up with such a bridge that used to hold the world's longest suspension span record for a long time since 1937 when it was built. And what's amazing is that it continues to draw people to it up to the present time. Just like this bridge we have to be strong and of good courage as spoken of in Joshua. We can always render service to God in our own personal humble and little ways. And be assured that the Big Boss does not fail a single moment in fully compensating all the work that has been rendered for Him. I know that someday these things that used to impress us will cease to amaze us any longer once we've reached the place that lead us to our eternal destiny with our Almighty God. Today's psalm reading suggests a scene that pictures God's footprints side by side with each person. God makes Himself known to all in every part of the world and every where we turn is indeed a declaration of  God's undeniable presence. Let's open up our senses to the Lord's call and take action. We should give back to our Life Giver what is due Him who make us live another day in order to continue proclaiming God's goodness and mercy. Amen. Hallelujah!

Psalm 66:1-3a, 4-5, 6-7a

R: Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.

...Come and see the works of God, his tremendous deeds among the children of Adam. (R) 6 He has changed the sea into dry land; through the river they passed on foot; therefore let us rejoice in him. 7 He rules by his might forever. (R) 16 Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare what he has done for me. 17 When I appealed to him in words, praise was on the tip of my tongue. (R) 20 Blessed be God who refused me not my prayer or his kindness!

Pope Benedict XVI said that holiness is not doing extraordinary things but following the will of God everyday by living one’s own vocation really well. This we can do through the help of prayer, with the word of God, the sacraments and with the daily effort for consistency to live a humble life like the life of the saints. Humility is often seen in the life of the saints in seeking out the low things of the world. By not striving to seek out the things that are showy that would give worldly respect. The saints respect the humility they saw in our Lord in the Incarnation of God becoming man. The humility of God who lowered Himself and assume our human nature and then He gives us Himself in the Eucharist. He comes to us daily in the outward appearance in the form of bread. Not just the humility but the obedience of God to His Father’s will. The plan of God that Jesus would be offered up, to suffer and die for us. This is extreme humility that even to the point of death, Jesus is obedient. Jesus tells us in the scriptures, “Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart.” St. Augustine in common understanding said that Jesus did not say “Learn from me to make heaven and earth, make wonders and miracles, heal the sick, expel devils, raise the dead but learn of me to be meek and humble of heart.” Humility, St. Thomas said, principally governs the will but also involve the intellect. In our thinking we have to recognize that God alone is the source of all good. He distributes His gifts as He wills. The humble person is not envious of the other people’s gifts as he knows that God is the source of all these gifts. It forms our thinking if we have this reverence for God and know our status as creatures which is the bedrock of humility. As St. Thomas says, it governs the will and our moderate striving to reach things and goals that are beyond us. Humility recognizes that all good and excellence is in God. Thus all creaturely good comes from God. Our pride tells us that we are the source of our own excellence. Jesus always warns us of pride because of feelings of worthiness. Although we strive for virtue we keep falling because we see ourselves as the source and not really depending on God and asking Him for the strength. We are not pleading to Him to win the victory in us. We are still trying to do it ourselves. According to St. Paul we have to cloth ourselves in heartfelt mercy, humility, kindness, meekness and patience. We have to practice humility with our neighbors by bearing with one another and the faults we all have, forgiving the grievances we have against one another as the Lord has forgiven us. Sometimes we tend to say that some sins against us by our brother or sister are unforgiveable in effect. St Paul tells us to put on love that binds all the virtues. Our love for God and our neighbor has to drive all our virtues into perfection.

Galatians 6:14-18

Brothers and sisters: May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither does circumcision mean anything, nor does uncircumcision, but only a new creation. Peace and mercy be to all who follow this rule and to the Israel of God. From now on, let no one make troubles for me; for I bear the marks of Jesus on my body. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.

We are blessed to have a line up of brilliant and anointed preachers who share their knowledge and zeal for the word of God in EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network). But there are only a few people who take on this mission of spreading the word of God because we don't fully realize this as baptized Christians, we are all sent by Christ on this mission. We should accept God's invitation and receive the word of God by living its message. We have a great responsibility in our hands and should respond to His Word for indeed the harvest is abundant but the laborers are few. The time is now to become part of this great harvest. Jesus knows exactly the kind of life we are headed to if we heed His call. What He expects from us is courage to go on and He will do the rest. Let us trust that God is truly the Good Shepherd who never abandons nor forsakes the lambs in the midst of the wolves. We, Catholics believe that God gave human beings reason although it sometimes gets darkened by sin but still human reason can figure out some things. One of the things that human beings figure out without God having to reveal it, is that human beings need to meet 4 qualities to be deemed a human being. The philosopher, before even Plato, Aristotle and Socrates, had this figured out. We find it mentioned in Wisdom 8:7, the 4 virtues or qualities are also called the hinge virtues because it is where all the other virtues or qualities of good people would hinge. The word cardinal means hinge. The Cardinals who surround the Pope are the doorway to the Pope. They are also the ones whom he rely the most for advice. Everything else depends on the cardinal virtues. (Prudence or wisdom, justice, temperance and courage or fortitude) Prudence is the ability to make right decisions in complex situations. They are decisions that lead to the best and right thing. Without this we can be in big trouble. We’ve got to be able to decide in a situation that we’re in what the right thing to do which is the best thing to do. How do we get something done? There are some folks who probably just can’t figure out what to do. There are other folks who look at the problem and they can figure out a solution. It’s a core and they execute that core. It’s practical wisdom. We’ll find in the Book of Proverbs a lot of things about wisdom even in Sirach, Ecclesiastes and all the wisdom literature in scriptures. We can also find all the other 3 cardinal virtues, like justice which means giving each person his or her due. We all know even as kids instinctively how important justice is. The first thing that a kid cries out as soon as he learns how to talk if he has brothers and sisters is “Not fair, he got more than I did” or “You ask me to do more than what that person is doing.” This is because we have instinctively or natively offensive justice. Each person has rights and ought to get their due. There’s also another part of justice that we forget, that is, we have obligations and duties to everyone. A person who is unjust is not a good person. To be just, we need to control our passions. Temperance is a virtue that balances and controls our passions. It is like controlling our desire for that last piece of cake if we know that it belongs to our sister. In order to be just, we’ve got to control our appetites. Make our appetites come into line with justice, truth and goodness. We’ve got to have that balance in our life in order to be a good and effective person. Temperance makes this happen. We also have to be courageous. If we are not courageous then every time a difficulty arises we’re going to shrink back. If there’s any danger involved in doing the right, just and wise thing then we’re just going to crack out and find an excuse because we’re afraid. Courage or fortitude helps us to master fear and not let fear keep us from doing what’s right. We’ve got have all these things but here’s the problem. When Adam & Eve decided to sin they let loose a weakness into our race and nature that impacts all of us. We call it original sin. Sin is not so original, we just copy what other people have done. There’s nothing creative about sin. Adam & Eve’s sin was the only original sin. What they did has an impact on us. By weakening their own nature, sin weakened man’s nature. They passed on to us a weakened nature. They separated themselves and the whole human race from friendship with God and were born into that. There’s a tendency in our nature to go on a downward drift, a drift off course and a tendency to a great degree is dealt with through grace. How do we get grace? Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, God has made possible for us, healing of our humanity. He gives us other gifts, faith, hope and charity that make it possible for us to really have wisdom, justice, temperance and courage. Without faith, hope and charity in this life, no one can really become truly wise. All throughout human history we see people who exercise these gifts. They may not be Christians, deeply spiritual people, or in a state of grace and can exercise some of these potentials here and there. But ultimately original sin means we are going to sin seriously and mess up. We need God’s grace for those 4 great virtues to be perfected. Faith, hope and charity are supernatural. These are things that human beings would never know that they need or could have without God giving them supernaturally that’s why they are called the theological virtues. We only know about them through divine revelation and we couldn’t know about them by reason. We can only have them through God’s grace. The theological virtues, faith, hope and charity are the crown of the first 4 cardinal virtues that transform and make them possible. God doesn’t want us just to be whole human beings and restore us to what Adam & Eve were when they blew it in the Garden. God wants us to be more than that. He wants to elevate our human nature and divinize it. He wants us to share in His own Divine nature. Charity is all about loving with God’s love. Loving as the 3 persons of the Holy Trinity love each other and sharing in that goes way beyond human nature. This is an incredible thing and call. It was only possible because God became man and we can share in his virtue. This is what the real Catholic life is all about. It’s not just about making it or going to heaven by the skin of your teeth after struggling. It’s about growing in holiness and becoming like Jesus all throughout our life, a champion not without struggles. As a matter of fact without the struggles we can never become a champion. It is possible with victory and excellence not with hopelessness, despair and frustration. This is God’s desire for us which is a fantastic calling. The power to do this is given to us. We are never alone because God is always with us. We should be so thankful to God for all the wonderful things He allowed us to think, feel, see and hear. Not only for the things that are visible but also the invisible. God has given us everything that we need, the love, care and protection that a child needs from a Father who loves us so much. The readings for today from the 1st, psalm to the gospel all speak of the importance of our senses. Sometimes we have this tendency to overlook these things and dwell more on the less important things. We must train our minds and hearts to know the top priority which is everything that connects us to God at all times. All we have to do is be aware that God reveals Himself in a very mysterious way that we have to continuously work for a heart and mind that is focused on the Lord, remove all distractions in our life so that He will reveal Himself to us. God is infinite and unlimited in nature and our minds can only comprehend as far as our limited brains allow. Let us seize every moment and opportunity in order to daily grow in our knowledge of the Lord. Let us all come to our senses. Once we've seen, heard, smelled, tasted, touched, felt and experienced who the Lord is in our lives then we are really blessed in the truest sense of the word. Although we can only come to the full understanding and knowledge of God when we die, we can still work our way to knowing God using the best of our abilities for it is written, if we draw near to God, He will draw near to us. Have you ever experienced talking to someone but it seems that he/she is not paying attention. Let us not miss a single detail about our Lord and always be attentive to Him. If we are caught up in our own personal lives then we have a tendency to misunderstand the messages sent our way. Let us develop an attitude of total surrender to God and He in His goodness will make known to us things beyond our understanding. When we're on the phone we sometimes fail to hear what's being said to us on the other line. We can always hear this being said, Hello are you still there? It may be due to a low signal, our lack of attention and other things that disrupt the communication. We are reminded by God through the gospel to remove all hindrances and be able to hear him loud and clear. It is imperative that we heed his call and the time is now. Sometimes we end up doing things that we are not supposed to do and we get confused and that's because we are not attuned to our Life Coach, who is God and no one can lead us to the right direction only Him. We need to sharpen and make our senses very keen so that we will not miss out on anything. Some people who lack one of the senses like for example the blind people develop a keen sense of hearing, feeling and smelling. The blind have mastered well their other senses that they can hear, feel and smell the slightest sound, touch and scent that can be unnoticeable for some.  We should say from this point of view that the lack of one sense can enhance the other senses. We can also say that there are moments in our life when we have to shut out one of our senses, too. There are a lot of things being presented to us day in and out. We should know that some things are better left unsaid and ignored. In times like these we need to know exactly what we need to take in and which of our senses do we need to pay attention to and focus on in order to see and hear what the Lord is showing and telling us and be truly blessed. Amen. Hallelujah!

Luke 10:1-12 ; 17-20

Jesus appointed seventy-two others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves... ...Behold, I have given you the power ‘to tread upon serpents’ and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy and nothing will harm you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”

ARE WE SURE ABOUT IT?

In today's 1st reading we are being reminded to take away all the things that are causing our blindness. Things that lead us to failure to recognize what God really wanted for us in our life. God never wanted anything bad to happen to us nor to punish and make things difficult for us. But there are times when we get blinded by our doubts and anxieties in life that we fail to recognize the best things that God has in store for us. Isaac due to his blindness failed to recognize who Esau really was and mistakenly gave his blessing to Jacob. Although God will always make things work for good, it is always wise to be careful in our decision making especially if we are having doubts and uncertainties with regards to it. It will always pay to take a second look and not misjudge things just based on the way they are presented to us. Which reminds me of what happened at St. Martha's Church when the mass was in Spanish. I always have this habit of downloading the english translation of the readings in my cellphone whenever the mass is in Spanish. Since it was a holiday, Sis Marcy was able to attend mass with me so I gave her my cellphone for her to better understand the readings. But the lady beside her mistook it that she was texting and using the cellphone while the mass was going on. It was a good thing she explained it to her that what she was reading the english translations of the scriptures being read in Spanish. I can not blame the lady since we can easily judge a person holding a cellphone that she is using it as suggested but this experience could very well be used as reminder to all of us that things may not always be the way they seem. Amen. Hallelujah!

 

Genesis 27:1-5. 15-29

...Jacob said, “Father!” “Yes?” replied Isaac. “Which of my sons are you?” Jacob answered his father: “I am Esau, your first-born. I did as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your special blessing.” But Isaac asked, “How did you succeed so quickly, son?” ...When Isaac felt him, he said, “Although the voice is Jacob’s, the hands are Esau’s.” (He failed to identify him because his hands were hairy, like those of his brother Esau; so in the end he gave him his blessing.) Again he asked him, “Are you really my son Esau?” “Certainly,” he replied...

It is just always a consolation that despite all our shortcomings and blindness if I may say so, our God is always there to make things right for it is God's will that we all end up in the full knowledge that God is good all the time, in control and above anything else. Amen. Hallelujah!

Psalm 135:1b-2. 3-4. 5-6

r: praise the lord for the lord is good!

...for the LORD has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel for his own possession. (R) 5 For I know that the LORD is great; our LORD is greater than all gods. 6 All that the LORD wills he does in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in all the deeps...

God created us with a brilliant mind and a loving heart. In today's gospel Jesus was questioned by John's disciples, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast (much), but your disciples do not fast?" Sometimes people question us, too. May we think and feel just like Jesus and always be guided in the things we say or do. May we always find ourselves justified in Jesus name. It is not just what we see that matters but what we truly value and treasure in our hearts. Our innermost motives and intentions should always be in line and conformity to the values of Jesus. We may be doing one thing but may be intending to do another, there is no unity in our actions, words and deeds when we are just after the outward appearances and does not really mean what we are doing. Or worse we're just doing something for the sake of just doing it without really putting our hearts into it. We get carried away by what seems to us as important but fail to see what's most essential. People are not blind to all these and we can not deceive people for long or if even sometimes we can, there is a God who knows everything. We are called to conversion and holiness. It is helpful to take hold of the Paschal Mystery of Jesus and  keep this constantly before us. We may want to look at what’s behind the particular mystery of Jesus’ life when He fasted and prayed in the desert for 40 days. Immediately after His prayer and fasting, was the temptation of Jesus in which Jesus rebuffs this attack and points to Adam & Eve’s temptation and Israel’s journey in the desert for 40 years. There are 3 basic temptations represented. Eve was tempted to eat of the fruit because it is pleasing to the eyes. This tempts us to greed because it looks good to eat and can satisfy one’s self. The desires of the flesh tempt us also to lust. It is also said that it is desirable for the knowledge so it can give power and prods a person to pride. From the very beginning since the fall of Adam & Eve in the garden, the devil has capitalized on these 3 things, greed, lust and pride. Even before the fall these were with us already and the devil capitalized on it to trick Adam & Eve hence the fall. As we can see, the devil also used these 3 basic temptations to Jesus. After fasting for 40 days, Jesus was hungry and tempted to turn the stone to bread for satisfaction of the flesh, which is connected to lust. The devil also told Jesus to throw Himself off from the top of the temple since the angels would be there to catch Him. This is the sin to get a hold of power and pride.  The devil asked Jesus to look at all the cities and offered to give Him power and glory which is the sin to greed. As we can see these are the same 3 temptations that Adam & Eve fell into but the devil is dumb to think that Jesus could be tempted with the same temptations. We may also want to look at Israel’s journey in the desert which took them 40 years trying to get to the Promised Land. This is the salvific meaning of Jesus’ 40 days in the desert. He is the new Adam, who remains faithful to fulfill the promise to Israel. He is totally obedient to the divine will and is the devil’s conqueror. He binds satan that tricked Adam & Eve in giving into and robbing us of all the graces we have before the fall. He takes back the plunder and anticipates His further victory at the passion on the cross which is the supreme act of obedience. Jesus’ temptation reveals the Son of God who is the Messiah. He is our high priest who has been tested as we are and yet did not fall into sin. This is the mystery that the Church wants to unite us with, Jesus in the desert who is the same Christ who vanquished the tempter for us. We should always keep this at the back of our minds and connect it to the mystery of Jesus at the desert which has a two fold character. First is by recalling our baptism. What it means to be a baptized person and what does it entail? Do we recognize that? Second is to recognize the need for penance. Think of what we have done to offend God. It is time to reflect at where the state of the world is heading and the culture which we have been disposed of. It calls us to pray more diligently and be faithful to the word of God.  We should become predisposed to a faithful reception of the graces that Christ merited on his death on the cross. We can also observe interior penance which can best be manifested in many ways which the scriptures insist on always. There are 3 forms, prayer, fasting and alms giving. These once again make connections to the mystery of Christ in the desert for 40 days. These 3 forms are what every person struggles with most of the time but can help us in many ways to fight those 3 main temptations. Prayer expresses conversion in our relationship with God. Alms giving make better our relationship with other people to overcome greed and selfishness. Fasting to one’s self which is the focus for today’s readings is to fight against lust and sensuality. It develops mastery over our instincts and attains freedom of heart. In this way, we are recalling our baptism as the Church unites herself to Jesus on the desert. Not to forget the 3 forms of penance which help us in conversion to fight the ancient temptations of pride, greed and lust. Everything we do should always have a clear and sincere intention and motivation to put Jesus in the center of it. If we find Jesus comfortably seated, happy and very contented in the midst of our activities just like a bridegroom on the day of his wedding then we can be assured that we are on the right track. God has always been giving us all kinds of reminders, be it direct or indirect, in the form of a parable or a simple story just like in today's gospel. If we would read on further the gospel for today we would find the practicality of the message being conveyed by Jesus is not only applicable to its direct and obvious meaning with regards to new clothes and wine but most especially to our daily lives. Come to think of it, although we all are very knowledgeable about life after having studied and experienced a lot of things we still end up, at times doing the wrong things and end up ruining not only ourselves but the people close to us. We might as well ask ourselves why we sometimes end up doing crazy things that we know already won't work! We all know that only Jesus can make things right and make us whole. If we only remember, we even sing this often, too. He can give us peace, sweet love, joy and heaven too for only Jesus can satisfy our souls. Amen. Hallelujah!

Matthew 9:14-17

14 The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?” 15 Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” ...No one patches an old cloak with a piece of un-shrunken cloth, for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse. 17 People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”

7 TOOLS OF HAPPY PEOPLE

Today’s 1^st reading is a picture of 2 Old Testament personalities who led a holy life which eventually led to a happy life. This calls to mind the 7 tools of happy people that I learned from Bo Sanchez in our LOJ Feast in West Covina.

1. They create their destiny.

2. They accept forgiveness.

3. They nurture connections.

4. They find delight everywhere.

5. They embrace change. They are eternal students.

6. They trust deeply.

7. They work their purpose daily.

Our life is just like coffee, if it is good coffee, it doesn’t matter what cup or kettle we use. If the coffee is good then it is good. We need to focus on the essential part of our lives and not just on the money, job, honor etc. The enemy of happiness is not sadness but fear. Happiness is not a mood or emotion. It is a way of life.  The 7 tools address the different fears in our lives. Fear robs us of happiness. The 3 parts of the brain that control fear are the  brainstem, amygdale and the cortex. The brainstem and amygdale controls the endocrine glands which produces the fear hormones called the adrenaline and cortisone. Stress makes us unhappy. The antidote of fear is love. In 1 John 4:8 it is written, Perfect love casts out all fear. We have to fill our lives with love. Jesus said, I have come that you might have life and live it to the full. Happiness is part of abundance. God allows suffering only because it will bring greater happiness. As it is written, I will turn your sorrow into joy and your mourning into dancing. Happiness is not a product we can buy but a by product. We don’t look for it and find it. If we have the 7 tools then we don’t have to look for happiness because happiness finds us. Amen. Hallelujah!

Genesis 23:1-4, 19; 24:1-8, 62-67

Abraham had now reached a ripe old age, and the LORD had blessed him in every way...Then Isaac took Rebekah into his tent; he married her, and thus she became his wife. In his love for her, Isaac found solace...

We should always keep in mind that if Moses was able to turn back God's anger and withhold His destructive wrath how much more Jesus His only begotten Son who suffered, was obedient to the point of death on the Cross and gave Himself as ransom to redeem us from all our sins. Let us not forget even for a second nor neglect this truth every single minute, hour and day of our lives that we have been ransomed, saved and redeemed by the Precious Blood of Jesus. Our little gods and idols can not do anything for us. They are useless and stupid things. How foolish we can be as a people of God  to do such things and be off track by turning away from where the Lord has pointed out. A lot of terrible things happen when we forget. Important and significant events in our life should always hold a special place in our hearts. We must not ignore those times when we had those special moments with the Lord. These will serve as a constant reminder to us and would definitely help us remain faithful to the Lord. Our memory of this, though very wonderful to forget may sometimes become dull or fade in the background when we are beset by the present and daily cares of this world. We may eventually lose the awe and wonder that we used to feel about it as time passes most especially when we encounter trials and difficulties. Today's psalm tells us to always remember, never forget and always tell our story of the goodness of God. Let us not forget and be mindful always of the love of God. Sometimes when things don't turn out the way we wanted or expected we get sidetracked by the realities of this world then we start to immediately or slowly lose sight of the goodness of God. No matter what our situation is we must not forget that God saved us, had done great and wondrous deeds and He alone has the power to make things happen and not happen in our lives. We have to be in a relationship with the only true God. If there's something we really need to be thankful to God for bringing us to life at this present time that is the fact that we have a glorious background that we can always draw strength, hope and inspiration. We need to focus on this and be aware that we've got so many things in this present life to look back to and be blessed. The timeline of our salvation history demonstrates God's persistent and consistent effort to win our hearts and be in a relationship with us. Not to forget that after Jesus, the saints followed which added to the color of this long time running declaration and evidence of God's great love for us. It's been quite a while already that He has been waiting for our answer much more than a suitor offering his pledge of love to his lady. We should never doubt any single moment that God is good all the time and all we need to do is just give thanks to Him no matter what our circumstances may be. Let us always remind ourselves of the good things God has done in our lives. Let us always count our blessings instead of focus on the negative things. We are constantly reminded in the readings today to always work for the things that win the favor of God. It's not because of any selfish motive but because what we do is born out of great love for the Lord. God calls us to repent and live a new life. There's one very important thing that we should be guided with. We always have to keep in mind that a repentance born out of fear will never last but repentance born out of love will last. We should always keep in mind the great love of God for all of us. Our Lord's instructions are very simple and easy to understand. It is in the following and obeying part that we find difficulty in doing. Let us always focus our eyes on the Lord and remember to follow and keep what the responsorial psalm tells us if we intend to live a blessed life not just in the beginning but to the end. Amen. Hallelujah!

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 106:1b-2, 3-4a, 4b-5

R. (1b) Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Who can tell the mighty deeds of the LORD, or proclaim all his praises? R. Blessed are they who observe what is right, who do always what is just. Remember us, O LORD, as you favor your people. R. Visit me with your saving help, That I may see the prosperity of your chosen ones, rejoice in the joy of your people, and glory with your inheritance. R.

To make disciples we need disciplers. Evangelize. St. Paul said “I am a disciple of Jesus, imitate me.” Live the gospel, become living witnesses and role models. The disciples leave many things behind. In today’s gospel we see that despite of who Matthew is God loves him. He was greedy and a corrupt man. When he got up and followed Jesus he left his office. We have to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal things to us. We have to throw away all our garbage in our character and relationship like vices, lust, pride, anger, materialism, being stingy in giving treasures to the Lord. We still have a lot of things to be transformed in our lives. As in John 10:10, A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly. We need to remove the fear of surrendering to the Lord. The disciples of Jesus love to be in the company of the Master. They talked, walked, ate and spent time with Jesus to learn. They were with Jesus 24 hours a day and so must we to be His disciple. Here are some recommendations from our retreat in order to be a disciple. First, we have to greet and thank God before we get out of bed and wake up. Say our prayers and read the bible. When we worship God we close our eyes. Make a habit of praying before starting and after work. Pray before meals even in public places. Pray for safety when we travel and pray before we go to bed. A disciples transforms his/her past for God’s purposes. God uses all our past experiences for us to attain the kingdom of God. Jeremiah 17:10, I, the LORD, explore the mind and test the heart, Giving to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their deeds. We should obey God and be willing to live in the edge and take risks. During our clinical rotations when I was just a student nurse I have encountered several patients who are already terminally ill. One of them can no longer tolerate his oral medicines and just vomit it out. When they tried to give it intravenously the veins ruptured. No amount of medicine can heal a terminally sick person. Let us not wait for the time when we are already too sick to respond to God's healing and end up rejecting it rather than accept it. It is written in Isaaih 55:6, “Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near.” And also in Ephesians 5:15-17, “Watch carefully then how you live, not as foolish persons but as wise, making the most of the opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not continue in ignorance, but try to understand what is the will of the Lord.” We all know too well, that God will never get tired of loving, caring and running after us, for He is a perfect God  but we are imperfect and the problem lies not on the love of God but on our response to His love. If only love can be forced then God would have done that to us but He never did and never will. Love is perfect, patient and kind. Let us respond to this love while we're still in perfect shape. Jesus has the biggest and most compassionate heart for sinners especially those who choose to respond to His call, leave everything behind and follow Him. Despite the stigma attached to tax collectors and sinners during His time, He did not hesitate to call them. We are all being called to live a life with Him no matter what our situations are. Whatever we may be going through right now, a problem, difficulty or sin that is preventing us from responding to His call, we have to always believe that God can overcome all of these if we are willing to give Him room to act in our lives. Once we turn our backs on our sins, leave it behind and give God the go signal then He can accomplish almost anything. If we really believe this then it doesn't matter if we may be experiencing already a life of comfort and ease, our acceptance and consent to shifting to the unknown will only serve to emphasize the extraordinary nature of both our unwavering faith and the grace of God. The grace of God is worth celebrating as it can bring about wonders that will stretch the ability of our imagination. And we can not deny the fact that we’ve been privileged to watch this happen not only in the lives of people on a number of different occasions as in the life of our forefathers like Abraham, Jacob, Moses, the life of the Blessed Mother but also to us. For He doesn't only call the qualified but He also qualifies the called. No one is hopeless and desperate for God. Nothing is beyond His healing love and mercy. We must not be impatient or judgmental of our brothers and sisters who have strayed from the Lord. We must keep in mind that He has a special eye for the sick and the sinners. We have all sinned and fallen ill because of the disease that sin brings to us. No matter how big and grievous our sins are, God is always able to heal us. This song tells us about it, "He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities and the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him for by His wounds we are healed." It should inspire us to reach out to Him more than anyone or anything else. God is indeed an Almighty God who knows our specific needs be it spiritual, emotional or physical and He will surely heal every single one of them. He is a God who makes us whole. Amen. Hallelujah!

Matthew 9:9-13

As Jesus passed by, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples. The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” He heard this and said, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

GOD’S CHAMPION

The knowledge of God is encompassing and strives to reach the height and depth of God's unfathomable love. Abraham is the 1st recipient of God's revelation of Himself to mankind. He is considered as one of the Patriarchs to whom God chose to establish his covenant. Salvation history tells us of God's faithful love and continues to restore and bring back the broken relationship of God and man. It was through Abraham's total surrender to God's will to offer his son Isaac  that he foreshadowed the sacrifice of Jesus  as the Lamb of God. It is true that God started to reveal Himself to us through Abraham and the ultimate revelation was in Jesus. God spared Isaac, Abraham’s son but did not spare His only begotten for our sake. The victimhood of Jesus to conquer evil not by slaying evil but by allowing Himself to be killed is the height of God's love. It should always be a treasure embedded in our hearts. Let us make this clear, it is God who first took the initiative and not the other way around. He was the one who first loved us and we are just responding to that love. Sometimes we get confused when we think that blessings and graces only come our way because we obeyed God. We sometimes fall into the trap of believing that it's because we are righteous and obedient that God blesses us. We may have encountered people who believe that in order for God to answer our prayers we should do this and that. It is like having a list of dos and don’ts and treats God like a vending machine that if we place the right amount of money or pressed on the right button we will get exactly what we wanted. There is nothing wrong with it if we have a programmed way of serving and praying to God but it sometimes keeps us off track when we start to focus more on our efforts that can produce results rather than on this most important truth, it is not God who changes but us who needs to change. God is good all the time and there is nothing wrong with Him for He is All Perfect, Almighty and All Powerful. He is perfectly able to do everything in His power all He has to do is will it. His wisdom and understanding surpasses all knowledge. It would be best if we try to look at the whole scenario of God's great goodness and love from the very beginning. Abraham knew it from the start that's why he was willing to give up his son, Isaac. He is very aware of the truth that only He can give and take, it is not for us to question His will. We maintain our belief that God knows best and all we have to do is obey. Amen. Hallelujah!

Genesis 22:1-19

1 God put Abraham to the test. He called to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. 2 Then God said: “Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him up as a holocaust on a height that I will point out to you.” 3 Early the next morning Abraham saddled his donkey, took with him his son Isaac, and two of his servants as well, and with the wood that he had cut for the holocaust, set out for the place of which God had told him. 4 On the third day Abraham got sight of the place from afar. 5 Then he said to his servants: “Both of you stay here with the donkey, while the boy and I go on over yonder. We will worship and then come back to you.” 6 Thereupon Abraham took the wood for the holocaust and laid it on his son Isaac’s shoulders, while he himself carried the fire and the knife. 7 As the two walked on together, Isaac spoke to his father Abraham. “Father!” he said. “Yes, son,” he replied. Isaac continued, “Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the sheep for the holocaust?” 8 “Son,” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the sheep for the holocaust.” Then the two continued going forward. 9 When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. Next he tied up his son Isaac, and put him on top of the wood on the altar. 10 Then he reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11 But the LORD’s messenger called to him from heaven, “Abraham, Abraham!” “Yes, Lord,” he answered. 12 “Do not lay your hand on the boy,” said the messenger. “Do not do the least thing to him. I know now how devoted you are to God, since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son.” 13 As Abraham looked about, he spied a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. So he went and took the ram and offered it up as a holocaust in place of his son. 14 Abraham named the site Yahweh- yireh; hence people now say, “On the mountain the LORD will see.” 15 Again the LORD’s messenger called to Abraham from heaven 16 and said: “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you acted as you did in not withholding from me your beloved son, 17 I will bless you abundantly…

We are the temples of the Holy Spirit. We do not have the Holy Spirit as a birth right but a gift. We are born with original sin and this redemption from sin and the kingdom of darkness is what makes it possible for us to receive of the Holy Spirit. A lot of people in our society do like the part that we are temples. We claim that our bodies are temples so we have to treat it well and take care of it by doing exercise. But too often we say that we are temples but we don’t say of what. When we listen to the way we speak we find that we are temples of ourselves. Like the New Agers who consider themselves to be god. We see our bodies as the temple of ourselves because we see ourselves to be god. Each body should be treated with respect since it is the place where God can be worshipped which is derived from the presence of the Holy Spirit. This should be our purpose when taking all the aspects of our body with its wide variety of urges and desires. We can bring it all under the power of the Holy Spirit if only the body is well oriented to the worship of the Holy Spirit.

Despite the unpleasant situation in the world's point of view that we may be in right now we continue to see and look beyond what this present situation is showing us by remaining steadfast in our faith in God just like Abraham who never doubted God's protection for his family. May we all see God as our family's help and shield. We’ve got to straighten up some things about God. Who He is and what He wants for our life. What is our picture of God? 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 are 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, he 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 and Living God. God is very persistent in reminding us not to stray away from the path and persevere in the true faith. Sometimes we associate God with all the nice and wonderful things in our lives which is right but we should also keep in mind to focus most on the Giver and not on the gift. As the psalm tells us today, “All glory and honor we give to you alone.” Always remind us Lord to keep our feet on the ground for everything comes to us in the name of Jesus. Amen. Hallelujah!

Psalms 115:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9

R: I will walk in the presence of the Lord, in the Land of the living.

1 Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name give glory because of your kindness, because of your truth. 2 Why should the pagans say, “Where is their God?” (R) 3 Our God is in heaven; whatever he wills, he does. 4 Their idols are silver and gold, the handiwork of men. (R) 5 They have mouths but speak not; they have eyes but see not; 6 they have ears but hear not; they have noses but smell not. (R) 8 Their makers shall be like them, everyone that trusts in them. 9 The house of Israel trusts in the LORD; he is their help and their shield. (R)

The gospel for today urges us once again to look beyond not only what the situation suggests but beyond the words being said to us by Jesus. The scribes were not only very shortsighted and  but also short of hearing in the sense that they chose to entertain evil thoughts rather than on the most essential and most important things which are the only ones that could bring healing and fulfillment in our lives. Sometimes we fail to understand and see what the situation or words being said to us really meant. We should always think that God who is Holy and All Good can never be capable of willing something bad to happen to us. Although it is a truth that almost all Christian believers would agree to, it is not always the case when it comes to the kind of life we live. Sometimes our own lives do not reflect the faith that we profess. Just like the scribes in today's gospel who are supposed to be the learned and well versed when it comes to the word of God but failed to live it in their lives. We are also guilty of this despite our frequent attendance to prayer meetings, bible, Catholicism studies and having experienced and witnessed the wonders and miracles God has done in our life, still there is a moment when we succumb to despair and doubt. May we always focus on the goodness of God and disregard the evil tendencies and inclinations that we often harbor in ourselves. 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 stronger 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. Virtuous acts build in us strength. The word virtue comes from the word manly which is strength and power. Virtue is a habit that makes it easy and pleasurable to do the right thing. Golden virtue isn’t always easy. It is hard. But what is vice, it is a habit that makes it easy to do the wrong and evil thing. Let’s take exercise as an example. People make it their New Year’s resolution and people who go to the gym noticed that it’s packed on January but they’re gone by the 3rd week. If we’ve ever engaged in an exercise program for the first time, we know that we feel bad, tired, exhausted and wake up sore. This is because we do not have the habit of exercise. We have not trained and our bodies are not used to it. It hurts and it’s hard the first time we work out. If we persevere past the first few weeks and developed a habit of regular exercise then we end up getting used to it and become easy that when we don’t exercise we feel bad. What happens is that we build up the power or the virtue. We’ve conditioned ourselves so that it becomes second nature to us. If we want a progressive course we need to do something hard. No pain no gain. The next time we work out we add up a little bit more since we are stronger. We can move forward and grow in our ability to lift weights. This is the deal. The actions we do have an impact of what we are. It’s like when we start lifting weights we start to change and look different. We look like someone who has strength, power and endurance. This is the point, God is about building champions. The goal of the Christian life is to build champions. Well, not necessarily athletic champions but spiritually. A real champion in every aspect of life. God wants us to be strong, loving, wise and to have the power to live. It’s not so much what we do that counts but it’s who we become. That’s what the commandments, teachings and God is all about.

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. What about hell? Let’s look what vice is about. A habit that instead of building up, deteriorates us. It starts small just like exercise. There was a guy named Ted Bundy, who was executed in the State of Florida for horrible sexual crimes, murder and all sorts of perversion. He was sorry for what he did. He didn’t ask for mercy but he warned people before he died. He was interviewed and narrated how did this road begin. It began with looking at pornographic books which incited in him the wrong kind of attitude  towards other human beings and the opposite sex. It became in his mind, instruments and play things. One thing led to another and just gradually led him to murder, rape and all sorts of horrible things. That’s the way it is with every sin. Sins that we commit are traps and tricks that will lead us to habits and patterns of behavior that will change us. When we tell the first lie we may not be a liar yet but it makes a lot more prone to lie again. We start with kids maybe stealing a pack of candies from the store. If we don’t stop that, the next time it will be bigger. Maybe for teens it may be something like breaking in to a house and steal things. It just keeps on going and it becomes easier and easier to do more horrible things. Then we become a thief, an unjust person with just one little act. There’s a little thing that illustrates all these. Sow a thought, reap an act, sow an act, reap a habit, sow a habit, reap a lifestyle, sow a lifestyle, reap a destiny. It all begins with a decision or thought, an act and then it becomes a pattern. It has dared us to become who we are. There are 7 habits that have been identified for the last 2000 years that will lead us to success, excellence in every aspect of human life and holiness. The most important of human life is our relationship with God. But every other aspect like our relationship with other people, family, the way we are in the work place and all these things are governed by these 7 habits, patterns or qualities. These habits we can find in scriptures and see it in the life of saints. Even before God begin to reveal Himself to His people in Israel, human nature is smart and wise enough to see some things on its own. We, Catholics believe that God gave human beings reason although it sometimes gets darkened by sin but still human reason can figure out some things. One of the things that human beings figure out without God having to reveal it, is that human beings need to meet 4 qualities to be deemed a human being. The philosopher, before even Plato, Aristotle and Socrates, had this figured out. We find it mentioned in Wisdom 8:7, the 4 virtues or qualities are also called the hinge virtues because it is where all the other virtues or qualities of good people would hinge. The word cardinal means hinge. The Cardinals who surround the Pope are the doorway to the Pope. They are also the ones whom he rely the most for advice. Everything else depends on the cardinal virtues. (Prudence or wisdom, justice, temperance and courage or fortitude) Prudence is the ability to make right decisions in complex situations. Decisions that lead to the best and right thing. Without this we can be in big trouble. We’ve got to be able to decide in a situation that we’re in what the right thing to do which is the best thing to do. How do we get something done? There are some folks who probably just can’t figure out what to do. There are other folks who look at the problem and they can figure out a solution. It’s a core and they execute that core. It’s practical wisdom. We’ll find in the Book of Proverbs a lot of things about wisdom even in Sirach, Ecclesiastes and all the wisdom literature in scriptures. We can also find all the other 3 cardinal virtues, like justice which means giving each person his or her due. We all know even as kids instinctively how important justice is. The first thing that a kid cries out as soon as he learns how to talk if he has brothers and sisters is “Not fair, he got more than I did” or “You ask me to do more than what that person is doing.” This is because we have instinctively or natively offensive justice. Each person has rights and ought to get their due. There’s also another part of justice that we forget, that is, we have obligations and duties to everyone. A person who is unjust is not a good person. To be just, we need to control our passions. Temperance is a virtue that balances and controls our passions. It is like controlling  our desire for that last piece of cake if we know that it belongs to our sister. In order to be just, we’ve got to control our appetites. Make our appetites come into line with justice, truth and goodness. We’ve got to have that balance in our life in order to be a good and effective person. Temperance makes this happen. We also have to be courageous. If we are not courageous then every time a difficulty arises we’re going to shrink back. If there’s any danger involved in doing the right, just and wise thing then we’re just going to crack out and find an excuse because we’re afraid. Courage or fortitude helps us to master fear and not let fear keep us from doing what’s right. We’ve got have all these things but here’s the problem. When Adam & Eve decided to sin they let loose a weakness into our race and nature that impacts all of us. We call it original sin. Sin is not so original, we just copy what other people have done. There’s nothing creative about sin. Adam & Eve’s sin was the only original sin. What they did has an impact on us. By weakening their own nature, sin weakened man’s nature. They passed on to us a weakened nature. They separated themselves and the whole human race from friendship with God and were born into that. There’s a tendency in our nature to go on a downward drift, a drift off course and a tendency to a great degree is dealt with through grace. How do we get grace? Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, God has made possible for us, healing of our humanity. He gives us other gifts, faith, hope and charity that make it possible for us to really have wisdom, justice, temperance and courage. Without faith, hope and charity in this life, no one can really become truly wise.

All throughout human history we see people who exercise these gifts. They may not be Christians, deeply spiritual people, or in a state of grace and can exercise some of these potentials here and there. But ultimately original sin means we are going to sin seriously and mess up. We need God’s grace for those 4 great virtues to be perfected. Faith, hope and charity are supernatural. These are things that human beings would never know that they need or could have without God giving them supernaturally that’s why they are called the theological virtues. We only know about them through divine revelation and we couldn’t know about them by reason. We can only have them through God’s grace. The theological virtues, faith, hope and charity are the crown of the first 4 cardinal virtues that transform and make them possible. God doesn’t want us just to be whole human beings and restore us to what Adam& Eve were when they blew it in the Garden. God wants us to be more than that. He wants to elevate our human nature and divinize it. He wants us to share in His own Divine nature. Charity is all about loving with God’s love. Loving as the 3 persons of the Holy Trinity love each other and sharing in that goes way beyond human nature. This is an incredible thing and call. It was only possible because God became man and we can share in his virtue. This is what the real Catholic life is all about. It’s not just about making it or going to heaven by the skin of your teeth after struggling. It’s about growing in holiness and becoming like Jesus all throughout our life, a champion not without struggles. As a matter of fact without the struggles we can never become a champion. But with victory and excellence not with hopelessness, despair and frustration. This is God’s desire for us which is a fantastic calling. The power to do this is given to us. It is by knowing the virtues and the habits of a champion. Amen. Hallelujah!

Matthew 9:1-8

...When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Courage, child, your sins are forgiven.” At that, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said, “Why do you harbor evil thoughts? ...

GO PAST IT

It can be told, we are God's dwelling place. Thus we ought to do everything in our power to make ourselves pleasing and holy before the Lord. When we speak of physically constructing something like a temple we've got to have all the necessary funds and materials to build it. It really costs a lot to build especially at this time when there is economic distress all over the world. Spiritually, it is not like we are lacking in resources of any kind to fulfill this. The Holy Spirit has the gifts, well equipped and will never run low to carry out this task of building us into a temple of God. Isn't it a relief, all we have to do is desire and ask for it with a pure and sincere heart. There is no reason to be afraid as we are assured in today's 1st reading by God that there is really no reason to be. Death may be a time of grief but it is also a time of hope. For the Lord has promised to prepare a place for us so that where He is, we may also be. As we all strive to know God in a special way may we come to a point where we realize the essence of this message conveyed to us in today’s 1^st reading.  Amen. Hallelujah!

Ephesians 2:19-22

Brothers and sisters: You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

We find in the story of Paul that he eventually regained his eyesight and started proclaiming Jesus as the Son of God. Wherever we're coming from we should strive to follow his example of groping for the truth about the light while he was in darkness and blind. We have a responsibility in our hands which is very clearly proclaimed in today's psalm. As we find our way to God may we find ourselves taking part in the mission and call that Paul himself obediently followed and fulfilled. We are not just listeners and onlookers, we apparently have to do what the psalm reading tells us today. We have all been commissioned to go out to all the world and tell the Good News. No matter who we are, what we are, where we're from and where we are. We need to strive to do our best to improve our knowledge of God for He has great plans for all of us. There is really a need to equip ourselves in order to respond as best as we can to His call. We are the temples of the Holy Spirit, that's why we should take care of our bodies too. Just think of it, whenever we are preparing to receive guests in our home we always try our best to make it look presentable and go through extraordinary efforts to make it special. I believe that we should develop this kind of attitude each day as we bear in our minds that God dwells in us. It is our duty to make Him feel at home and make it a fitting dwelling place for Him. Let us make ourselves a living testimony of the gospel. What a way to live if by just looking at us people will be blessed and praise God for we become proof of His steadfast kindness and fidelity. Sounds very difficult but as God our Father is Almighty we continue to hope that all things are possible and we can do all things through Him. God is so good indeed, and reminded about my son’s allergy. If not for it I wouldn't have known of his drinking spree and could have failed to remind and emphasize to him what a few bottles of beer could have led him. I am thankful that as early as possible it has already been put to a stop. Although I would like to give my son the benefit of the doubt that even without the allergy I know that Allan knows his limitations and can very well overcome any possible addiction that is being hurled right in front of him by the enemy for he is a Youth for Christ. As parents we need to look after the welfare of our children and give them sound advice. There is indeed a need to speak up, be bold and courageous. There is really a need to remind ourselves constantly of this truth in order to respond as best as we can to this call in today's psalm reading. Once we've made a decision to embrace the truth and turn our backs on our old ways which are not headed to the path that God wants us to travel then we can be assured that we are right on track. Shout it out to the whole world and let it be known by everyone. Amen. Hallelujah!

Psalm 117:1bc. 2

R: Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.

1 Praise the LORD, all you nations; glorify him, all you peoples! (R) 2 For steadfast is his kindness toward us, and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever. (R)

The gospel today is about the story of "Doubting Thomas" which is also the story of each one of us. One time or another we can not deny that we've been like Thomas, too. We also doubted God in our own personal lives sometimes even without knowing it through our words and actions. Our experiences at times are mostly occasions that lead us to doubt. We all come to a point in our lives when our faith is greatly tested. But just like those holy and faithful souls including Father Abraham and the rest of our ancestors in the Old Testament whom the church said were in limbo before the coming of Jesus Christ, who waited and were rewarded with Heaven we, too should be hopeful that our time will come. Instead of dwelling on the negative we should realize that despite the locked doors in our lives God always stand in our midst and give His peace. We should be thankful to God for the several occasions in our life when we encountered difficulties for those were times when we discovered that God never left us. These experiences that cause fear and pain sometimes make us turn away from God and doubt Him. This is very common nowadays as we see people live their lives as if there is no God.  Today's gospel is very appropriate for the kind of generation we have right now, a doubting and unbelieving race of people who no longer believe anything without first seeing. In the encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI entitled, "Spe Salvi" we are asked to nourish our faith, hope and love through prayer,  unity of our own sufferings to that of Jesus Christ and belief in the reality of judgment. We are so blessed to have Pope Benedict XVI who was a teacher before he became pope. This present generation definitely benefited from his papacy. We must not assume that we are already good in our faith rather we must have the humility to admit that we still have a lot to learn before we can profess the words of Thomas with the same love and conviction. In today's gospel Jesus calls us to go beyond the boundaries and limitations of this world. It is not just the visible aspect that we should focus on. Let us all examine ourselves and evaluate what we have been doing for God and if we think we've reached the end of the line and we've given it our best shot then we are wrong. Our God is awesome, infinite and endless in glory that each day we have is an opportunity to improve our best.  If we can go past it then we are truly blessed. Believe the unbelievable although we don't have proof. Just trust the peace emanating from Christ, the kind of peace that dwells in our hearts, feels very much at home and there to stay no matter what happens. Amen. Hallelujah!

John 20:24-29

Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” 26 Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” 28 Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

ARE WE ON THE SAME BOAT?

Today's 1st reading reminded me of our rigorous and challenging climb in the hills of Schabarum Park. It was an unforgettable trek at the topmost part of the park which happened many years ago. We've been there many times already so Bernadeth and I noticed the very narrow and steep trail up the highest hill and considered climbing it. We finally decided to go up that trail in order to experience it for ourselves. We found out on our way up that it was really steep almost like a 90 degree angle and was quite a long climb not as we expected judging from below. On our way up there were some parts of the trail that almost made me slip down and fall that I really needed to secure each and every step I made. Although it was really very risky and was almost like an extreme challenge it felt good when we finally reached the top. We walked on and continued to search for an easier way down but our several attempts failed because all the trails that we found have been blocked due to the overgrown bushes that have totally covered it. We were forced to look for another way and even went back where we climbed up but still ended up using another trail. I was getting sweaty, nervous and started to pray. I thought to myself that if it was very difficult climbing up, I realized that it is more difficult going down since the pull of gravity could force me down uncontrollably and we both have nothing on our hands to hold on to except for the thorny bushes that could easily break loose when placed with too much weight. We both decided without saying a word to each other that we really have to find our way down fast since it was getting late and the topmost part of the hill that we climbed looked abandoned and undisturbed as if no one had ever dared to climb it before. The worst part was the nagging thought in my mind about the warning signs in the place of rattlesnakes and stray mountain tigers. I was already thinking that if worse comes to worst and we couldn't find a trail going down which is less steep than the one we climbed up then we would just be forced to sit and slide ourselves down in the middle of the rocky and thorny bushes. This we eventually did because we couldn’t find any other way. It was like hearing the very words in today’s 1^st reading, “…Flee for your life! Don’t look back or stop anywhere on the Plain. Get off to the hills at once, or you will be swept away.” We were really agonizing on our way down to safety since the thorny bushes were pricking us from all over. When we finally did it, that was when we bothered to look at the damage caused to ourselves. Bernadeth had scratches in her legs since she was wearing only knee long pants it was a good thing I wore long jogging pants, though I also had some due to the thorns that went through my pants. Although it was very challenging and not very safe this experience reminded me of what the Lord is telling us about the road to perdition being wide and easy but the road that leads to Him is narrow and difficult. Especially when I looked at my hand which I accidentally poked with something that caused it to bleed and showed it to Sis Marcy and Sis Rose after we finally met up with them, Sis Marcy noticed that it looked as if I had a stigmata on my hand. Having heard that, I should say that all our hardships and struggles are all worth it if offered to the Lord. Just like Lot's family who went through a lot of struggles before they reached safety unfortunately his wife turned into a pillar of salt for not obeying the angel's instruction, it somehow shows us our own hard headedness and we have hesitations when we know we will face difficulties and uncertainties. Let us always believe that God sends us His angels as a constant assurance that He will bring us to safety if we just follow and obey Him. Amen. Hallelujah!

Genesis 19:15-29

15 As dawn was breaking, the angels urged Lot on, saying, “On your way!...When he hesitated, the men, by the LORD’s mercy, seized his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters and led them to safety outside the city...“Flee for your life! Don’t look back or stop anywhere on the Plain. Get off to the hills at once, or you will be swept away.”...

Sometimes we really have to be put to the test which is not new to everybody. We've heard several kinds of test already, an example of one is the board exam in order to secure a license and prove our competence in the profession we choose to practice. The same with our God we need to go through a process in order to stand firm and confident in our faith in God. Amen. Hallelujah!

P S A L M

Psalm 26:2-3. 9-10. 11-12

R: O Lord, your mercy is before my eyes.

2 Search me, O LORD, and try me; test my soul and my heart... My foot stands on level ground; in the assemblies I will bless the LORD.

The gospel for today is another scene at the Sea of Galilee which should made us think and recall once again all the unforgettable, awe inspiring and amazing events whether in our own life or in the life of the apostles during that time that are related to it. We may have heard of this story of a mountain climber who fell and was hanging on a rope and prayed to God for help. He heard a voice telling him to let go of the rope. It was dark and could not see what’s below him and so did not follow the voice. It was already morning when he found out that he was just one foot above the ground. How attached are we to our own rope? Examples of most common attachments are the following. Belief that they were born poor and lowly with a low self worth.  They forget that they are children of God and become weak. God wants to bless the poor to have a rich and comfortable life. We have some unpleasant character and attitude that we find hard to believe can still be changed. We must believe that by the grace of God everybody can change. We have to overcome bad practices like being habitually late, TV addiction and gossiping. Vices and sins like smoking, drinking, drugs, gambling, fornication and illicit sexual relationships. Old ways or bad habits can be attributed to “homing instinct” This happens when we keep on going back to the same old same environment where we came from despite bitter memories and pain in the past. This may sound unimaginable but we feel comfortable with the old ways, beliefs and environment. Will we let go of our attachments? It is written in Isaiah 41:13 For I am the LORD, your God, who grasp your right hand; It is I who say to you, Do not fear, I will help you. How will we counter these attachments? First we need to admit it and open the door of change. Then we act on it and rebuild. Whenever we are tempted we have to do the opposite. We have to pray constantly for change, improvement and growth. In the gospel we are reminded to take courage. Here are some guidelines that can help us overcome our attachments. Identify our common attachments hindering growth of our Christian life. Explain. How real is “homing instinct” in our life? Knowing our present attachments, what are our steps to counteract them and grow?  There is no doubt really to the amazing power of God that could make all things possible. But what was impressed to me today was the fact that we have to be sure that we are riding on the same boat where Jesus is. If we are caught in a violent storm at sea and we have Jesus on board then there is really nothing to worry about. What should make us worry is that if we know that we did not get into same boat where Jesus is. We have to look back and recall or even go back to the shore of the Sea of Galilee in our lives when Jesus was calling us if we indeed obeyed and followed Him and boarded on the same boat where He got into. Sometimes in our lives when Jesus calls us to do something we end up making decisions for ourselves that are not in accordance to His will so when a great storm comes we become shipwrecked since we were not on the same boat where Jesus was. How many times in our lives have we encountered the most violent storms in our lives but we remained steadfast and unmoved by it and still emerged peaceful and calm? And how many times have we encountered much less violent storms and we ended up terrified and at a loss? In both occasions we can all benefit from it if we look closely at our own lives during these trying times and figure out what could have caused the shipwreck. Or even recall what happened to Lot's wife in the 1st reading when she failed to follow instructions and turned into a pillar of salt. I am sure that we can all find that if and only if we obey and follow Jesus and go on board in the boat of our lives where He is leading us then we can truly be at peace no matter how violent the raging storm is around us. Amen. Hallelujah!

Matthew 8:23-27

As Jesus got into a boat and his disciples followed him. Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves; but he was asleep. They came and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” He said to them, “Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?” Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm. The men were amazed and said, “What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the sea obey?”