THE TRUTH

It will soon be goodbye to the year 2011 and hello 2012. The 1st reading reminds me of a friend who has a habit of saying, "It's ok." There was a time when her name on the certificate given to her was grossly misspelled, it made me really laugh. I couldn't stop myself from laughing all the more when she started to say those words again. That was when I took the initiative to ask the organizers of the conference to correct her name and issue another certificate. People have become accustomed to saying, "It's ok." when the truth, most of the time, is it's really not ok. How many times have you heard others say that "God will understand, it's just a white lie." Of course God always understand but the problem here is the consequence of our wrongdoing or sin since God is truth and He can not be otherwise. When we sin we are opposed to God. We exclude ourselves from God thereby rejecting that we belong to Him. If we give up our citizenship in God then we lose all the benefits that go with it. What a waste, so we better think twice before we sin. This also made me think about predestiny. We may have heard about this from people of our faith but it remains a mystery for us. We may have encountered an argument about this saying that if we have been predestined to be saved then what's the use of striving to do what's good since we are already saved so nothing that we do can change that. We can come up with a lot of debatable issues regarding predestiny and even twist it in accordance to our own personal convictions, beliefs and sad to say for our own conveniences and justification. I believe that what matters most is what truly lies in the unseen and deepest recesses of our hearts where only God can see. Mother Angelica in her EWTN program said to a lady who called that no ne has the right to stop her from her devotion like kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament. For it is written in Rom. 14:11, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bend before me, and every tongue shall give praise to God." and Philippians 2:10, "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,..." We are called to stand firm in our faith. Let us not give in to any kind of pressure or oppression that hinders us from proclaiming the truth. Amen. Hallelujah!

1 John 2,18-21.
Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. Thus we know this is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not really of our number; if they had been, they would have remained with us. Their desertion shows that none of them was of our number. 20 But you have the anointing that comes from the holy one, and you all have knowledge. 21 I write to you not because you do not know the truth but because you do, and because every lie is alien to the truth.

A lot of things have happened this year and we must proclaim with all our heart, mind and soul how faithful our God is to us. Now that the year is about to end it should become an opportunity for us to really praise and thank God wholeheartedly for whatever happened to us. God is faithful. If we will try to look back at the sequence of events that took place in our life then we will find that everything have all been a testimony that God never leaves nor forsakes us. We may not have received all the things we have been asking for specifically but we must believe that God in His goodness and mercy did answer all our prayers in the way that He deemed is best. It doesn't change the fact that He is God and is always in control. Every single thing works according to His master plan and divine purpose. Jesus came and entered humanity in the most humble way. He loved us as we are and was willing to be born in a manger. He doesn't wait for us to transform ourselves but take us for who we are. It is very consoling to know that we have a God who was willing to be born into the messiness of our lives. We can be assured that He will carry out the plan He has for us, as in Jeremiah 29:11, For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare, not for woe, plans to give you a future full of hope. It is always worth our all when we stand by the principles of God. With that we must continue to sing of His greatness. The Responsorial Psalm says, "Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice!" It is telling us that if we trust in God completely then we are all predestined to be saved and granted victory in all our battles.
Amen. Hallelujah!

Psalms 96:1-2, 11-12, 13
R: Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice!
1 Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all you lands. 2 Sing to the LORD; bless his name; announce his salvation, day after day. (R) 11 Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice; let the sea and what fills it resound; 12 let the plains be joyful and all that is in them! Then shall all the trees of the forest exult before the LORD. (R) 13 The LORD comes; he comes to rule the earth. He shall rule the world with justice and the peoples with his constancy.


God is with us! That's all we have to know and we are all set for another year. God is reminding us that we are His children and we are heirs of everything He owns. There is no better way to start this year 2012 than to glory in this truth that we have a loving Father who will never forsake nor abandon us and will always provide for all our needs. God showed us the greatest proof of His love when He became man, like one of us, visited us, and really dwelt among us. We are sometimes led astray from the truth by the cunning deceptions and camouflaged lies of this world, we should always realize that nothing is worth more than the privilege of being a faithful and loyal child of God. Let us not be duped by the enemy and firmly hold on to our rights as a legitimate citizen of God's Kingdom. When we encounter disappointments and tend to succumb to hopelessness and despair because we have a feeling that God is so far away from us then we need to realize that there is nothing and no one that is beyond the reach of God. This idea and notion is coming from the pits of hell. We clearly have no reason to despair because each one of us is touched by God. God is with us. This is the truth, He is not distant and no stranger. He has a face in Jesus. God has a desire to redeem each soul He has created. This message is ever new, ever surprising and surpasses even our hope. Pope Benedict XVI said that the Incarnation is the culmination of Creation. It has reached its highest point when God entered into that communion of love to be one with the beloved. The Word is made flesh because of love in order to be with the beloved. Only those who love are involved in the mystery of Christmas. It occurred in history and is transcending history. This is the greatest love story of all. We are invited to enter into that mystery of love to have faith in God who loves and loves us. Amen. Hallelujah!

John 1:1-18
...the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. A man named John was sent from God. He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him. But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man's decision but of God.
...the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.