House on rock

If we sometimes feel like nothing good is ever going to happen with our situation to the point of wanting to give up and run away from it all then we should stop awhile and look at today's 1st reading. Hagar was so desperate then but God did not abandon her by sending an angel to her who told her that God has heard and answered her. We, too may feel so oppressed at times just like Hagar but we can always be assured that God hears and answers all our prayers. Amen. Hallelujah!

Reading 1
Gn 16:1-12, 15-16 or Gn 16:6b-12, 15-16
...Sarai then abused her so much that Hagar ran away from her. The LORD's messenger found her by a spring in the wilderness, the spring on the road to Shur, and he asked, "Hagar, maid of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?" She answered, "I am running away from my mistress, Sarai." But the LORD's messenger told her: "Go back to your mistress and submit to her abusive treatment. I will make your descendants so numerous," added the LORD's messenger, "that they will be too many to count. Besides," the LORD's messenger said to her: "You are now pregnant and shall bear a son; you shall name him Ishmael, For the LORD has heard you, God has answered you...

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. Amen. Hallelujah!

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 106:1b-2, 3-4a, 4b-5
R. (1b) Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
...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.

If we really love God then we will listen to His word and act on His will. The love of God is inseparable to love of His 10 commandments. The gospel reading for today compelled me to share the lecture of Atty. Jess Moya on the Fundamental Catholic Moral Principles.
1. We can never do evil (i.e. "intrinsically evil") to bring about good. The end never justifies the means, Rom 3:8; Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) 1753, 1754 & 1756) Examples that were given are killing to save lives/abortion/euthanasia/artificial contraception/ethnic cleansing. The error of "Consequentialism" states that good intention is not enough. We may have the grandest intention but if your means of attaining it is not good then we should never resort to doing it at all. The same is true with the error of "Proportionalism" wherein the good desired outweighs the evil. These are just means that mitigate the problem and can never be a solution. If worse comes to worst then it can even aggravate it.

2. The principle of double effect can be applied if a good act may have evil side effect (CCC 1737) and have fulfilled the following conditions: good must be willed, must not be the result of the tolerated evil and good desired must equal/outweigh the evil effect. An example given for this is a mother who needs to undergo a life saving operation (tumor has to be removed) while she is pregnant but in the process miscarriaged her baby. The miscarriage was not intended or deliberate but is just a result of the operation done.

3. The principle of Totality states that for health reason, may mutilate, modify or remove an organ or body part. An example is removing a gangrenous arm or leg in order to save or extend the life of a person or mastectomy-breast removal due to cancer.

4. We may choose the lesser of Two Evils if the conditions are: both are unavoidable evils and must not intend the evil outcome. An example is a pilot left with no other choice but to crash the plane on a school or a residential house and he has only a few seconds to decide before he ejects himself and he decided the lesser evil which is crashing the plane in the residential house.

5. Counseling the Lesser Evil only if we are faced with an unavoidable evil and the evil outcome must not be intended. An example is if you are being robbed and instead of being shot with a gun suggested that he steals everything he/she has just to spare his/her life. To advise a robber to steal is not good in itself but is a lesser evil if we are faced with an unavoidable situation of being killed when pointed with a gun.

"God has equipped us with the totality of the means of salvation and we can overcome with the grace of God." Let us continue to call on the Lord but be sure to do His will by acting on the words that we heard from God and be like a man who built his house on rock. Amen. Hallelujah!

Gospel
Mt 7:21-29

Jesus said to his disciples: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven..."Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.