Letter to the Hebrews 13,1-8.
...Let marriage be honored among all and the marriage bed be
kept undefiled, for God will judge the immoral and adulterers. Let your life be
free from love of money but be content with what you have, for he has said,
"I will never forsake you or abandon you." Thus we may say with confidence: "The Lord is my
helper, (and) I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?" Remember
your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their
way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Brothers and sisters, if we are confident that we are where we
are supposed to be and the Lord allowed things to happen in our life the way
they are happening right now then we should be still and know that God is in
control. We need to understand the mysteries of our faith in order to
appreciate it better. We have to go near as much as possible to the Word of God
and experience it come to life and see His glory shining on us. As we go near
Him we see his face and feel His love. We always have hope in the Lord who
knows what's best for each one of us. There should be no doubt in our minds
that He answers prayers. All we have to do is call on the Lord, trust that He
hears the sound of our call and wait for Him with courage. When we get carried
away by all the commotion there is a tendency that we neglect the essential and
most central issue which is to always believe that we shall see the good things
of the Lord in the land of the living. There is really nothing that we should
worry about if we always hold in our hearts the truth about Jesus. There may be
times when we encounter disappointments and setbacks in life but this doesn't
mean that God has stopped becoming the Loving God that He is, who suffered His
only Begotten Son to die on the cross for our sake. Our focus should be on the
truth of this love and everything that it stands for. This reminded me of a
mini play staged in EWTN of a passenger waiting to be boarded on the airplane.
He was the 1st and only person in the boarding area waiting patiently for his
seat reservation to be called. He got surprised when someone came along and
hardly ever waited when his seat number was called. He felt somehow annoyed at
the idea of someone who just came and did not wait but got on the plane first
although he managed to stop himself from making a scene. A lady with her young
child also came and looked very excited to board the plane but he tried to warn
them not to keep their hopes up too much because it would definitely take time
and said that he had been waiting for a long time and came early but his number
had not been called yet. To his surprise their numbers were called and happily
boarded while he was once again left behind. He simply couldn't stand it
anymore when a pleasant young lady came with all smiles on her face and
speaking of how excited she is to board an airplane for the first time. The
company of this nice lady kept her impatience at bay. She advised him to stop
thinking about how the others were able to get there quickly but rather think
of the joy he would have once he gets there. She assured him to just relax and
make the most of his time because he has a reservation and a ticket all he
needs to do is just wait. He did exactly just that and found himself at peace
until the time his number was called. The same thing happens to the best of us
when we are confronted with a tedious and exasperating process of waiting. We
tend to lose our peace and joy and succumb to worry and doubt. If we are
holding on to something that was assured to us by a trustworthy and reliable
source we can put our worries to rest. Although sometimes anxiety can still
find its way to our hearts and forget on whom our confidence lies. If we remain in the Lord and put our trust in
Him then there is nothing we should worry about. In life, there are 4 things
which are 1. sin 2. grace 3. forgiveness 4. reconciliation that we could all
learn a lot from. The 1st 3 are all a reality but #4 is only a possibility.
Reconciliation calls us to true conversion. An example that fits this is 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 have to ponder and think about setting our goals high, keeping
our thoughts positive and coming up with new solutions. There is no room for
fear for He is consistent to His nature as God. Let us strive to become the
child He has meant us to be. Another thing we could learn something about is a
puzzle. I am one person who never even thought of working on a jigsaw puzzle. I
am not the type of person who would bother to even buy one. It just happened
that when I was in Japan
and saw all sorts of things which are being sold in a bazaar, I ended up buying
one for no reason at all. In fact it took years before I finally opened it and
put the puzzle together. That was when I actually experienced how to do it. It
takes patience and perseverance to do it especially with the complicated
puzzles. Sometimes in life we just back out and give up when things become
complicated and when we do, we fail to witness the bounty of the Lord. As today
psalm tells us, we've got to wait with courage and be stout hearted. We should
all long for the day when we will have 100% confidence level in all our
decisions for God. When the time comes it will totally remove all forms of anxiety
and fear and incline ourselves to Him at all times. It should be our ultimate
desire and nothing else, to always be in the presence of the Lord. To abide in
Him at all times even when things are not very good. I could never forget and
would always remember those times when I used to pick figs at Sis Loreta's
garden. It was then that a thought came to my mind while I was climbing a
ladder in order to get the figs in hard to reach places. Despite the fact that
I was already on top of the ladder there were still some figs that I was not
able to see and pick up right away although it was already right in front of
me. They are being covered by the leaves of the tree and some are hidden in
between branches. I just realized that it could be compared to how God showers
us with all the blessings and graces that we need. There are times when we fail
to see it though it is already right in front of us. Sometimes we have to
really look very closely and try to turn our gaze into different angles in
order to see it. What's funny was that when I thought that I've got almost
every ripe fig in the tree, I noticed one big ripe fruit at the lowest part of
the tree, there was even no need to use a ladder in order to get it. Sometimes
in life we resort to a lot of means that are sometimes no longer necessary. All
we have to do is believe that we will see the good things of the Lord in the
land of the living if we will just be patient and full of courage. We ought to
realize that if we wait on the Lord patiently and persevere long enough we will
never be disappointed for He alone is our light and salvation. Amen.
Hallelujah!
Psalms 27,1.3.5.8-9.
R: The Lord is my light and my salvation.
...The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom do I fear?
The LORD is my life's refuge; of whom am I afraid?
Though an army encamp against me, my heart does not fear;
Though war be waged against me, even then do I trust.
For God will hide me in his shelter in time of trouble, Will
conceal me in the cover of his tent; and set me high upon a rock...
It is just very sad that despite the many times God tries to
convey His love to us, we still sometimes back away. We've got to stand firm,
hold our ground and not give in to the world's pressures. Let us not end up
like Herod who came as close to knowing what is righteousness and holiness but
never really got to the doing and acting part. In the Philippines we have a habit of
calling people names. For someone to be called Herod or Herodes means being
really naughty and bad. We may all claim to know what is right but we have to
realize that we may never be able to come to a point where we can claim to be a
better person than Herod. We may have this impression that we are far better
Christians than any of the others we know but we may be wrong. For all we know
we are not far from being like Herod or much worse. Let us hope not. For there
is really more to being a Christian than what we actually know. As what have
been mentioned in the 1st reading about the sanctity of marriage, it is now
being emphasized once more in today's gospel. John the Baptist paid a great
price for this truth. We sometimes don't realize it, but we may also be guilty
just like Herodias. We may not be committing adultery like her but we too
succumb to the temptation of eliminating the people and circumstances around us
that is a source of inconvenience or simply not conformed to our personal
statement and views. We also make use of other people to camouflage or hide our
true intentions in order for us to carry out our plans without the guilt of
having participated in it. We resort to all kinds of disguise without knowing
that in the process of doing so we are headed for the worst kind of situation. Let us not further aggravate it and know in
our heart, mind and soul that all areas of our life needs to be totally
surrendered to God not just a part, half but our entire being. In doing so with the gift of free will we allow ourselves to
enjoy life at its fullness because we are not bound or tied and can exercise
this gift as much as we want and never run out. We should not be too carried
away though and forget that it is also because of this free will that we are
also presented with horrible things as in today's gospel that are products of
the wrong use of this gift. It is of prime importance that we exercise, use and
handle this gift with much care. This is the reflection question and
prayer that I read in Didache: What do you do when you are under pressure? Do
you stand up for what is right or you just go with the crowd because everyone
else is doing it? Lord, grant me the wisdom and the courage to do what is
pleasing in Your sight even if the world laughs at me. And in Companion, Fr.
Martin Macasaet said the following words. "Yes, we, too, are called and
challenged to imitate John the Baptist’s courageous act of witnessing —not
necessarily in the form of a bloody beheading, of course. Today’s Christian
martyrdoms are certainly more of a subtle and sophisticated kind. But perhaps,
they are just as compelling and exigent — as when our moral principles are
tested in our workplaces, or when our senses are bombarded by sexually
suggestive images, or when we are scandalized by the bad examples of our
leaders and celebrities, and so on." We all have our own personal Herod,
Salome and worst our Herodias tendencies in life. Only we ourselves know these
and what specific aspect it is in our lives. Unless we acknowledge them, firmly
reject and stand up against it instead of yielding to it then we are no better
than any of them. In today's gospel we are also reminded of our stubbornness
when we insist on doing things our way. We could somehow relate this to those
who insist on wearing something even if it doesn't fit them just because it is
the "in" thing. The same way with our life we end up looking foolish
when we insist on keeping up with the latest trend and fashion that this world
offers when the only thing that is well fitted to us is to always wear the
clothes of Jesus which is fashioned in the passion of the cross in order to be
the best dressed Christian. People may not be able to know it by just looking
at us and we can easily get away with our wrong doings which we have kept in
secret or hidden in our thoughts and feelings which no human person can see but
God does. We’ve got to believe that there is really somebody watching us as the
song says. Sometimes we forget that God can see through us and knows exactly
what's inside our hearts and minds. Let us not wait for the time when we like
the scribes and Pharisees will be spoken to by God in this manner. Let us
choose to hear words of commendation from the Lord rather than be called a
hypocrite. Let us truly be the person that God wants us to be, whether there
are people who can see our goodness or not. Amen. Hallelujah!
...John had said to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to
have your brother's wife."
Herodias harbored a grudge against him and wanted to kill
him... “I want you to give me at once on a platter the head of John the
Baptist.”26 The king was deeply distressed, but because of his oaths and the
guests he did not wish to break his word to her. 27 So he promptly dispatched
an executioner with orders to bring back his head. He went off and beheaded him
in the prison. 28 He brought in the head on a platter and gave it to the girl.
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