I WILL NEVER FORGET YOU

The love of God knows no limits. Today’s 1st reading reminds me of this Tagalog song entitled, “Hindi Kita Malilimutan” which is taken from this very reading. I am a mother myself and I could not imagine forgetting my infants, (I had 2, now fully grown ) or be without tenderness for them and I couldn’t even come close to being perfect. So every time I hear it and basing from this love I have for my sons, I just can’t help feeling that gush of emotion coming from the fact that God has so much more, an immeasurable love for us. Amen. Hallelujah!

Isaiah 49:8-15
...Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.

There is no more reason to doubt what the psalm reading today is telling us. Amen. Hallelujah!

Psalms 145:8-9, 13-14, 17-18
R: The Lord is gracious and merciful.
...slow to anger and of great kindness. 9 The LORD is good to all and compassionate toward all his works. (R) 13 The LORD is faithful in all his words and holy in all his works. 14 The LORD lifts up all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. (R) 17 The LORD is just in all his ways and holy in all his works. 18 The LORD is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth.

The Pharisees persecute Jesus for His healings on the Sabbath. It is a supposed day of rest for them but God is always at work. The call upon us, is to live in faith that God is always at work. In the midst of poverty and difficulty, it seems hard to believe that but God is the fullness of life and always self giving in generosity. The term rest does not apply for there is no such thing as Divine inactivity. John Paul II referred to this rest on the Sabbath as the lingering gaze of God at what has been accomplished. God enjoys looking at what has been achieved like the beauty of creation. Men are invited to rest, especially enjoy communion with God and establish a special relationship with Him. Jesus speaks of these things from this passage and tells us that whoever believes has eternal life and can pass through death to life. This is the beginning of Jesus’ marvelous teachings which is followed by the Eucharist in John 6. He speaks of the fullness of the sacramental life, the gift of the Eucharist. He said that the one who feeds in Him will have life. The Father gives the son the power to exercise judgment. All good deeds will go to the resurrection and the bad deeds for final separation. There is the conquering of evil and those who obey are called to the fullness of life. Jesus emphasizes to us the truth that God is His Father. Only the son knows the father and He comes to reveal the father. God is in eternity and created the world from nothingness. We are called to enter into His world, into his eternity, in fatherhood and sonship. He is revealing the mystery of God and making visible the invisible. The Father gives life and He gave to the Son possession of the life. Furthermore following today’s gospel in John 6, He said that “I have life because of the Father.” He gives us the same life and this is a very profound statement. He is giving us eternal life in the Trinity. There is an eternal activity in the Father in union with the Son and expressed in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. They are equal in glory and co-eternal in majesty. He is the beginning and the end but not as we understand it. Jesus is trying to tell us that God is at work, expelling demons and granting healings. The sacramental life is still being performed for us to this very day and still in us through communion with him in the Holy Eucharist, confession and worshipping at mass. This lent we are invited to live it to the fullest of ways because it is still being poured upon us and still at work today. Amen. Hallelujah!

John 5:17-30
17 Jesus answered them, “My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.” 18 For this reason the Jews tried all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the sabbath but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God. 19 Jesus answered and said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, a son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees his father doing; for what he does, his son will do also. 20 For the Father loves his Son and shows him everything that he himself does, and he will show him greater works than these, so that you may be amazed. 21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes. 22 Nor does the Father judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to his Son, 23 so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life. 25 Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to his Son the possession of life in himself. 27 And he gave him power to exercise judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation. 30 “I cannot do anything on my own; I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.”