DWELLING PLACE

We associate a lot of things to places where we live. How about associating things to ourselves by examining closely who lives in us. We are without a trace of any doubt as proclaimed in today's 1st reading a dwelling place of God. Just like any other places where we can live, if the conditions are no longer favorable, or we are forced to relocate due to work reasons, buy a new house and move to a place where we can call our own and other reasons we can all think about when transferring to a new place to live. Sometimes we can use this analogy to ourselves as God's dwelling place. Are we trying our best to make feel God at home in our lives or are we driving Him away from us? For God is always the perfect gentleman and would never force Himself if we do not welcome Him the way we should. Let us be careful just as what sometimes happen when we may not be aware of it but we are already kicking Jesus out of our lives. He patiently waits for us to open the doors of our hearts. We prevent God's miracles in our lives when we suppress it by our wrongdoings. Why not allow the Spirit of the Lord that dwells in us triumph, unchain the spirit and unleash its power to work in us. Amen. Hallelujah!

Romans 8:1-11
...If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you.

This is the covenant: we belong to the Lord and He belongs to us for we are His people and He is our God. I heard a story about God's radiating and blinding light that when we stand before Him nothing is hidden from Him, He will never turn away from us but if we ourselves are tainted with the guilt of our sins then we can not withstand His presence and will definitely hide and ran away from Him, far from His ever blinding Light that penetrates us. Let us all hope that when that day comes we can stand in His Holy Presence and claim with confidence our rightful place in His Kingdom. Amen. Hallelujah!

P S A L M
Psalm 24:1b-2. 3-4ab. 5-6
R: Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
1 The LORD’s are the earth and its fullness; the world and those who dwell in it... Who may go up the mountain of the LORD? Who can stand in his holy place? "The clean of hand and pure of heart, who are not devoted to idols, who have not sworn falsely. They will receive blessings from the LORD, and justice from their saving God.

This covenant with God if we read today's gospel reminds us that just like any other agreement there is specified period which only lasts until we are still alive once we die, the contract is considered fully paid by Jesus but there are some conditions that apply. Let us examine our part of the deal and make sure that we don't end up like this fig tree in the parable it might finally be cut down unless we take action, allow ourselves to be cultivated, respond positively and bear fruit. The figure of speech used in the passages sounds scary. They were meant to give emphasis on the need to bear fruit as heirs of the kingdom of God, endowed with a gift, we should not waste our inheritance and be aware that although we have a merciful and loving God, He too is a God of justice and order. He has to be consistent to His nature. God is always patient with us but He must also discipline us, if at the appointed time we haven't responded yet after so many pleadings from the Lord then it is not Him who turned away from us, it is by our own decisions that we strayed far away from God, though, He is God, He can easily snatch us from the enemy lines where we have lead ourselves, He can not force us to be in a situation because He loves us so, He has given us the freedom to choose. Although, we know that we should choose the path to God, the distance and hindrances, represented by our sinfulness, have become so great that it will be more difficult for us to find the right path. An example of this is when we decide to go on a trip away from home the longer the distance traveled the longer the time needed, we sometimes grow weary and tired that in our stubborn ways we just opt to stay behind and lose our way. If we haven't prepared ourselves for this trip then we fail to reach our final destination and get lost. I pray that we will prepare wisely for our journey in this present life that we may find ourselves in the loving embrace of the Lord. We must praise and thank God for the patience, opportunity, time and attention He has been giving us in order for us to grow and prosper most especially in the aspects of our life where we really need to improve. God does not give up on us. We all have a reservation in heaven but just like any reservation, it has a validity period and can be forfeited. We don't want that happening to us. We would surely want to avail of it when the appointed time comes. There is a need to fulfill certain requirements in order to fully enjoy it. It is a consolation to know that the hardest part of the requirement has been fulfilled by our Lord Jesus. All that is left for us to do is to respond to it the way the fig tree in the gospel is supposed to do after it has been cultivated and fertilized, bear much fruit. Amen. Hallelujah!

Luke 13:1-9
...And he told them this parable: “There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, 7 he said to the gardener, ‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. [So] cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’ 8 He said to him in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; 9 it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.’ ”