ABOVE SOME POINT OF VIEW

God permitted our present situations and for sure after all we've been through and done with much prayers and supplications that whatever may be the outcome it will always be for the best. We should always believe that if God deemed it necessary that we go through something then it is for the best. This is what most of us fail to understand when we have to go through some challenges and trials. We should thank God for the experience gained and lessons learned during these times.  Although we sometimes still feel uncertain and anxious but what should keep us going is the assurance that God is giving us daily in His word. Just like Paul who had to go through a mountain load of problems and be faced with difficult decisions and compelled to take a specific action in response to God's call we should take courage because the Lord said so. We bear the name of Jesus and with that come the courage to take each step to go forward and beyond the road where God brings us. We believe in God and we have a reverence that God is greater than ourselves. We should exemplify all virtues and radiate them. The truth of our faith is so important and so true that nothing can change them no matter where you are and who you are. We must believe to the point that we are willing to die for God. We should believe and show the world that we know what is true and nothing can change that. We have to take courage because it is not enough that we know the truth but that it is harder to keep the truth and make an impact in our lives. Amen. Hallelujah!

Acts 22:30; 23: 6-11

...the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage. For just as you have borne witness to my cause in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness in Rome.”

I have always been amazed of the fact that the scriptures of the Old Testament has always been spoken of as the foreshadowing of the New Testament which is the fulfillment of everything that was written. The apostles were able to connect Jesus to the scriptures in the Old Testament and became very convinced that He is indeed the Messiah and Savior of the world. The 1st reading and the Psalm reading for today were written a thousand years apart. This is judging from the timeline of the reign of King David (1000BC) to whom the Psalms were attributed  but we can detect the uniformity of the message regarding the end times and the resurrection. We live in a dynamic world and it changes so fast. They say that nowadays, whatever we hold true for now may not be the case later. It is a consolation to know that in the midst of this unsure world we still have something that we can hold on to. The words of God can stand the test of time and will remain to be true from generation to generation. There may be some negative speculations and forecasts that are being hurled right in front of us about our present situations most especially with the uncertainty and unpredictability of prevailing conditions. We need to keep this in mind, only God can keep us safe from all harm. A holy man once said this, "If we don't go to the desert we have nothing to bring in the marketplace." If we have no prayer then nothing works. We have to pray. We need to take time to be alone with God because if we don't, then we make ourselves vulnerable to the enemy. The scriptures tell us of stories based on real life experiences of holy men and women who lived at a different time and period than today. It is a consolation to know that the God of yesterday is still God of today and tomorrow. This gives us the confidence to really hold on to Him for He is living and true now and forevermore. The message of the readings tells us to turn our gaze on the inevitable which is sure to come. If we try to look at the facts of life there are very few things that we can permanently hold on to. All these things will come to pass and we will all eventually leave this world no matter how long we may have lived already, it will eventually come to an end. When that final day comes we must be found prepared and ready for the inheritance that God gives us. When we went to Las Vegas I saw that one of the shows we can watch for entertainment is a magician named Angel. I was reminded of the time when he was a guest in Oprah. He wowed the viewers and the crowd by being able to predict 5 days before the show the things that Oprah and 2 random guests from thousands of people from  the audience are going to say. He wrote in a piece of paper these three things: delicious, John and Kevin and kept them in a suitcase with a surveillance camera on for 5 days so that no one can see it or even come near it before the show. What’s very interesting was the fact that on the day of the show when Oprah was asked what word comes to her mind she answered, “delicious” and the other 2 who were chosen randomly from almost more than a thousand crowd along Michigan Ave. in Chicago. It was done by throwing a ball and whoever catches it will be the one who will be asked. The man from the crowd who got the ball was asked the name of his first pet and he answered, “John” while the woman who  got the other ball was asked who was her first kiss and she answered, “ Kevin”. All of their answers matched the 3 things that he wrote 5 days in advance. It was kind of unbelievable to see something like this and couldn’t quite come up with a good explanation how it came to be. If it was just a trick he did make a good presentation because it appeared very convincing. How can a man predict in advance the things that these people are going to say? If this man who claims to have the power of prediction was able to do it all the more can a powerful God predict our future. But we must keep in mind that it’s choice not chance that determines our destiny. There is only one real failure in life that is possible and that is not to be true to the best one knows. We should always settle for best and make God our choice. For there is nothing more assuring than the fact that we have a loving God and Father who surely has our destiny secure. We must be secured in the knowledge that as children of God our Father we are heirs of His Kingdom and co-owners of this vast creation. May we find the Lord as the only treasure in our lives worth keeping. When God calls us for a task we should always be ready, willing and able to follow Him no matter what the cost. Always follow where the Lord leads us. Nothing else could be worth more than God's inheritance. Sometimes we are confronted with so many allurements that we begin to be influenced by the way the world judges things. Let us always hold fast to God's views and ideals that we may not lose sight of the path to life and our inheritance. Amen. Hallelujah!

Psalms 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11

R: Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.

...LORD, my allotted portion and my cup, you have made my destiny secure...

 I set the LORD ever before me; with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed. (R) 9 Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices, my body, too, abides in confidence; 10 because you will not abandon my soul to the nether world, nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption. (R) 11 You will show me the path to life, fullness of joys in your presence, the delights at your right hand forever.

Our confidence lies in the truth in today's gospel. Jesus cares for us, he even prayed for us. If only we will truly be one with Jesus in all aspects of our lives and be totally united with Him then there is no more room for doubt that God who is Almighty, All Powerful, Immortal and Holy is able to make good things happen in our life and be a living testimony and reflection of God. What binds all the virtues together is love. All virtues should be motivated by love which articulates them all. We can use love for the service of God. Love is our motivation that makes the machine of an organism move and to speak God and His will. Love inspired in our hearts makes us give ourselves to others. We have to guard ourselves, too. There are times when we fight for a good cause which takes anger to keep us moving. We become driven by anger and we need to be above these things. It must be humble work and we have to be above some point of view. It should exactly be the kind of love that today's gospel speaks about. It is also noteworthy that chapter 13 of John up to today’s gospel which is taken from chapter 17 is parallel with the 5 books of the Old Testament. Chapter 13 speaks of the  last supper and a farewell speech of Jesus which is parallel to Deuteronomy 32, the long prayer of Moses wherein he encouraged and emphasized the importance to obey the law and concludes the book with long prayers in chapters 32-33. We have to pay attention to how our Lord Jesus is doing something similar to what Moses has done. Putting together what Moses had done we would find that Christ is doing the same. It is important for us to keep coming back to all the gospels. If we may recall, at the very beginning of John 2 Jesus starts his public ministry at the wedding of Cana when he responded to the request of Mary that His hour has not come. While in chapter 13, he said that the hour has come. Obviously, the sense of the hour is to designate the final movement by which He redeems the world through obedience to the Father. He wanted to bring this out through the gospel. In chapters 5 and 8 we repeatedly read Jesus saying that the Father and I are one. He also asks the Father to give Him glory but He does not cling to the gifts that the Father gives Him but always return the glory to God. He would always say that everything of mine is yours. Christ is giving us an inner life, a deeper insight to the true meaning or the substance of the divinity through Him. No mere creature would be capable of accepting infinity from the Father only the Infinite Son but it is His nature to give it back to the Father and not cling to it. St. Augustine said that mutual self giving of one person to the other personifies the Holy Spirit. The gift of eternal life is the very purpose that the Father sent Him to the world. In John 6 the purpose of giving Himself through the Eucharist is the way to have eternal life.  He reveals the name of God which is Father. It is so powerful that it makes them one. Some denominations have stopped baptizing in the name of the Father. The name Father can not be eliminated from our faith since it gives strength and make us one. Jesus always say, “I have not come to do my will but the will of my Father. My disciples are those who keep my word. Those who remain in Him the Father and the Son will remain in Him.” The words of Jesus has the power to unify us with the Father & Son and bring us to eternal life. It is well to meditate on these words of Jesus and imbibe wisdom which is the key to understanding the relationship of Jesus and the Father by which we are to live and bring us to eternal life. Amen. Hallelujah!

John 17:20-26

20 Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying: “I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me… I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.”