Joel 2:12-18
12 Even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole
heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; 13 rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the
LORD, your God. For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in
kindness, and relenting in punishment.
Organizing all my daily reflections since 2007 made it
easier for me to locate and retrieve them. I have found it very rewarding and
beneficial. It has given me the opportunity to access with ease, the insights
and reflections I wrote in the past. Thus paving the way to recall, reflect,
and share it again. In light of the readings today I am reminded of Fr. Alex Amayin,
the associate priest in St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. His talk was about
reconciliation which is very much in line with the 1st & psalm readings for
today. It was centered on 4 things which is 1. SIN 2. GRACE 3. FORGIVENESS 4.
RECONCILIATION. He said that the 1st 3 are all a reality but #4 is only a
possibility. There is no doubt that SIN happens but the GRACE of God is always
present and available for us even before we ask for FORGIVENESS. When we ask
FORGIVENESS, God is always ready to give it.
RECONCILIATION calls us to true conversion. We should always find our
way back to God and never doubt His mercy. He cited the example of a snake and
caterpillar since both of them undergoes conversion. The snake sheds off its
old skin but comes out the same while the caterpillar emerges into a butterfly.
We can either choose to be the snake or the caterpillar. Take your pick. It is
important that we always maintain a clean heart and a steadfast spirit so that
we are constantly in God's presence. It's not that God loves us any less, no
matter what we do, He will always love us. It's just that a Holy and Loving God
can not dwell in an impure heart and spirit. The sacred heart of Jesus should
be our model and guide as we strive to live out the call to be a genuine follower
of God. “When we open our heart to the love of God and to others, it makes us
capable of shaping history according to God’s plan.” - Pope John Paul II. In His fourth apparition
to St. Margaret Mary, our Lord revealed His Sacred Heart, declaring: "Behold
this Heart which has so loved men that it spared nothing, even going so far as
to exhaust and consume Itself, to prove to them Its love.” The center of
devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the Enthronement of the image of the
Sacred Heart in the home. By the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart, we link the
tabernacle of our parish church to our home, inviting our Lord to be our
constant and most intimate companion.
The Enthronement is a way of life. It means that Christ is King of our
hearts, and we desire Him to be present with us always. In other words, by the
Enthronement we signify our desire to make our hearts and our homes holy, to
sanctify our lives in every aspect. God will not refuse nor turn His back on us
if we are truly sorry for our sins and are willing to mend our ways. Let us not
be so naive into thinking that we can get away with anything and cheat God. Let
us be fair and truly square in dealing with things that concern not just our
future but our eternal destiny. Whether it's heaven or hell, we would have to
decide for that not God. If we choose to do evil then we are surely headed
where it's bound but if we remain faithful to God and all that He represents
then we are headed to a place prepared for us by God in heaven. We are sure to go
where our hearts lead us. 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. Let us always ask God's
mercy for our sins and repent of it. The Lord said that He is not sent for the
well but for the sick. We have a disease in our souls that if left uncared for
can cause death. We all have a terminal disease called sin, we need a doctor to
give us advice. We have been saved by God but we can lose it just as we can
lose our human life for not caring for it. We go to God who is our Divine
Physician to be healed. He alone can make us whole. God's presence in our lives
is inevitable just like the coming of dawn before the break of day and if we
have mastered the art of loving back God then we become a pleasing sacrifice
before Him. And in his good pleasure makes us prosper, then we find ourselves
rebuilding the walls of our boundaries as we expand our borders. We have this mindset that it pleases God whenever He
sees us going through hardships and difficulties in life. We tend to equate God
to an oppressing tyrant that would pin us down for every wrong move. Or worst
to a slave driver that would not be satisfied unless his subjects exhaust all
their strength to his service. The people during the time in the Old Testament
could borrow a good excuse for having this kind of mindset because Jesus has
not come yet. We who live in this time of the New Testament do not have a good
alibi because God already demonstrated the greatest expression of His love for
mankind when He sacrificed His only begotten son, Jesus, to suffer and die for
our sake. With this truth always engraved in our hearts and minds we could no
longer harbor wrong impressions and mindsets of our God. Whenever a particular
human right is being violated certain activist groups passionately rally to
defend such right that is in question. What about the right of God? We are so
concerned about our own personal agenda and we fail to realize that we need to
address it more than anything else. According to Pope Benedict XVI, Jus Divinum
is the right of God which constitutes the proper and correct response of God’s
creatures such as man to his Creator. This we ought to realize and take action.
We should do all the good that we are supposed to do to a God who created us.
There is something more to what we see, hear and feel about people. We
really couldn't judge a book by its cover. It's in knowing what is hidden in
the heart that we can truly say for sure what is real. But who can see through
our hearts? Nobody but God alone. What is unknown and hidden from us, God
knows. We may be able to hide from men but never from God. We can only pray to
God to create in us a clean heart. For where our treasure is, there also will
be our hearts. This should all be our prayer, “Change me Oh God, mold me in
accordance to your pattern and plan and not mine” Dirt stain in clothes
sometimes doesn't want to come off even after several times it has been machine
washed. There are really some dirt and stain that do not go away that easily
with regular washing. There is a need to scrub it manually with soap and water
so that it will come out clean. Our souls are just like clothes which are
stainable by our sins. It is a consolation to know that our sins are washable
in the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. We can always come to Him and
acknowledge our sins with a sincere and repentant heart so He can cleanse us, wipe
out our offenses and blot out all our guilt. There is nothing that could
separate us from the love of God. Let us not be deceived nor dissuaded to
believe otherwise. God’s love is always present and available for us. All we
need to do is reach out for it because God is a gentleman and would never force
Himself on us. There has always been a raging battle between God and satan.
Though it has already been won, satan just won’t give up. He continues to wreak
havoc and evil among us in his desperation to bring misery into our lives and
share in his condemnation. He doesn’t have the tiniest power over us and he can
only have it if and only if we give in to his lies, deceptions and false
promises. We need to make this conscious decision each and every single day for
the Lord. We need to purge ourselves of the impurities of our souls we have to
go through a certain process that will render us with a clean heart. As we
strive to nurture a heart that beats for God alone we also go through a process
of cleansing as stated in the psalm today. God's mercy is greater than any of
our sins. If we are to repent and turn away from our sins then we've got to do
it right now and really do it fast. God sees through our hearts, our motives
and intentions. What God wants of us is to truly acknowledge His great mercy
and goodness to us that in doing so will abound a natural inclination to repent
and repair all our iniquities and lead to a brand new, wholesome and clean
Christian in the truest sense of the word. We need to stand in all humility
before God and confess our sins. The body and soul are good but it demands a
need for physical asceticism. We have to submit our bodies to an act of
sacrifice without neglecting that conversion is first of all interior. Total
conversion demands not only expression in works of penance but also of the
heart. God is able to do
anything. All the more should we be full of confidence that He can create a
clean heart and steadfast spirit for us if we truly ask for it. God our
Father will never turn His back on us. Let us get this straight, it is the sin
that God hates and not the sinner. If we are in sin then that's the time we
drive away God's Holy Spirit dwelling in us for it is impossible for God's
presence to exist with sin. It's our call then to respond to the psalm's
invitation to rise and go to God or remain slumped in the mud of sin. Our God
will always be the best Father a child could ever have, the best Brother/Friend
and the best Comforter and Guide all in one. Bottom line, to Him alone shall we
go because we don't know that much and if we don’t then we end up doing one of
these things, take for granted, ignore, forget or neglect the things God is
telling us to do. What's worse it could be all of the above! We get blinded and
become preoccupied with a lot of things that lure us away from doing what God
wants us to do. We are deceived into believing all the lies of this world
disguised and packaged by the enemy in an inviting and convincing truth. We
should realize that it is always for our own good that He commands us to do the
right thing. It is not merely to impose but for us to freely decide for a life
lived to the full. There is no other way to maintain the Holy Spirit dwelling
in us but to let it reside in a clean heart.
We drive away God's Spirit in us if we don't strive to let our hearts
remain clean. Today's psalm is a song that I have come to know and sing by
heart without the aid of a song book. I always love to sing it and hear it
being sung most especially by the choir during mass. It is well for us to not
just love to sing it with our voices but with the sincerity of our hearts. The
words "take not your Holy Spirit from me" made me realize that God
has the power to give and take. The thought of the Holy Spirit being taken away
from us is the worst thing that could ever happen. If we don't feel God's
presence in our life anymore and we've become numb and insensitive to the
promptings and guidance of the Holy Spirit then now is the time to reconnect
and realign ourselves to God's Spirit most especially during this Lenten season.
It is important that we always maintain a clean heart and a steadfast spirit so
that we are constantly in the God's presence. It's not that God loves us any
less, no matter what we do He will always love us. It's just that a Holy and
Loving God can not dwell in an impure heart and spirit. It is of prime importance that we take extra
care in attending not only to our temporal needs but our spiritual as well.
Amen. Hallelujah!
Psalms 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14, 17
R: Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.
1 [3] Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the
greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. 2 [4] Thoroughly wash me from
my guilt and of my sin cleanse me. (R) 3 [5] For I acknowledge my offense, and
my sin is before me always. 4 [6] “Against you only have I sinned, and done
what is evil in your sight.” (R) 10 [12] A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me. 11 [13] Cast me not out from your
presence, and your Holy Spirit take not from me. (R) 12 [14] Give me back the
joy of your salvation, and a willing spirit sustain in me. 15 [17] O Lord, open
my lips, and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.
We should
not delay in doing any good thing. Let us not put off for tomorrow what we can
do today. A day spent is past and over but we still have today and we should
make good use of it while we still can. We are called in today’s 2nd
reading to be no less than anything or anyone else for we are ambassadors for
Christ. It is through Jesus that we are now enjoying the gift of eternal
salvation, let us not forfeit nor miss this great opportunity of accepting
wholeheartedly this gift that is above any other and greater than anything that
we can ever receive here on earth. Let us seize the time and opportunity to be
the best child our Father could have, the best brother/sister/friend and most
obedient Christian to the inner voice/Spirit of God dwelling in us. Amen.
Hallelujah!
2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2
20 Brothers and sisters: We are ambassadors for Christ, as
if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be
reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin,
so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. 6: 1 Working together,
then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For he says:
“In an acceptable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you.”
Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
We should respond to God in a way that is coming from our
hearts and not just our minds alone. If we feel that at the moment God is not
answering our prayers then we ought to be thankful that God is still giving us
all the chances to earn more and receive more in ways that may not be known or
visible to us. It is only right that we work to our full potentials and give
our best to God. We can sometimes work our way out to win the approval and
favor of men, how much more our God who only wants the best things for us. For
God sees everything and nothing is in vain if we offer all our sacrifices and
sufferings to God whether it be known or unknown to everyone. We can be assured
that every single thing that we do for his greater glory and honor will go back
to us in full recompense and to the overflowing for nothing compares to God's
payback. Whatever difficulty we may all be going through let us always have a
good disposition and be very confident of the God in whom we place our trust
that no one would even guess that we are experiencing something really
problematic knowing that God got us covered. Whatever problems we are
encountering at the moment just think that we are on a fast. Fasting on worries,
fears and anxieties causes us not to be troubled and brings about the fruits of
the Holy Spirit due to our confidence in God's loving providence. We live in a
physical world and we can't help it when we conform to its standard. Though, we
must keep in mind what St. Paul says in Romans 12:1-2 "I urge you
therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living
sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform
yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you
may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and
perfect." When we speak of spiritual things we are sometimes bound to the
unseen and hidden things of this world we are in. This should not discourage us
to grow in this aspect because we are assured by the Lord Himself when He
pointed out in today's gospel that whatever we have worked and done for the
glory of God's Kingdom will never go unnoticed before Him. Nothing is hidden from the Lord. He
knows every single thing we do, whether good or bad, because He knows and sees
all. We need not worry about anything at all, nothing is ever wasted if we
entrust all our concerns to God. Though there are times when it doesn't seem to
be the case, for as long as we have strived hard and done what is expected of
us then it doesn't really matter what may seem to be. What matters most is that
God doesn't just seem to be who He is but is truly, deeply and genuinely who He
really is. All knowing, loving and always act accordingly in the most
acceptable time. This is why the gospel warns us today of the danger of
putting on a big show without real change in our hearts. Interior conversion is
primary. If our main goal is that we want men to see our penance then it is
just for nothing. To truly repent of our sins is the start which is what
happens in baptism. We need to change in relation to one’s self, God and to
others. Fasting aids in a change in regards to self. Alms giving is in relation
to our neighbors. Through these things, real growth is experienced here. If we
spend more time in prayer then we can experience prayer growth. It fights the
threefold concupiscence in our being which is a disordered drive to satisfy the
flesh that our culture is so adept in presenting to us. The distractions that
we are confronted with in the form of various entertainments that make us fall
into lust are the tools of satan. This enemy is having a field day in our
culture by bombarding us with these thoughts of wanting to have more and more.
We aim for what seems to be pleasing in the eyes of others and to be in
control. This is pride when we want to be the one who call the shots. Satan can
device all forms of marketing strategies to get our attention and interest. We
need to taper our desires and come to a point when we fast from it. We need to
be open and docile to the Lord. We can begin the day by looking at the
crucifix. We can see Jesus who followed His Father’s will. We are not out here
to accumulate in worldly achievements but rather to follow more and more God’s
will for us. We should turn from evil and reclaim the filial relationship with
God. We can learn much from what Jesus demonstrated to us especially in the
desert when He was tempted. We just surrender and cling to Him with all our beings.
We should never doubt God's perfect timing in everything that happens in our
lives. Our God is a generous God, He will not withhold from us every
blessing so let us always keep in mind
that everything we do for the Lord is never in vain. Amen. Hallelujah!
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
1 Jesus said to his disciples: “Take care not to perform
righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no
recompense from your heavenly Father. 2 When you give alms, do not blow a
trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets
to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their
reward. 3 But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your
right is doing, 4 so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who
sees in secret will repay you. 5 When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites,
who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that
others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But
when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father
in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you...But when you
fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 so that you may not appear to be
fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is
hidden will repay you.”
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