Everything happens for a reason and there is always a
mission that goes with it. Sometimes we tend to get discouraged and
disappointed when our plans do not turn out the way we wanted it to happen. We
struggle at times and lose our direction. We fail to sometimes realize that our
God is always in control and on top of everything. We should always have this
mindset that He is a God who can make things happen. If it doesn't work out the
way we expected things to be then be at peace that God has something better for
us or the best is yet to come. What's most important is that we always pray for
guidance and enlightenment from the Holy Spirit to direct us to the right path,
make us sensitive and obedient to the Holy Spirit. If we seek God's will in our
lives and consciously live out the teachings of the life of Jesus then we can
be assured that we will never be led astray. Everything comes from God. All
good things come from God. All blessings come from God. God pours out to us the
all abundant love in every possible way. Love and life is not simple other wise
we will be living in a heavenly world where there is no strife, deceit,
injustice and division. The world we
live in is fractured, unless we stop doing mundane and distracting things that
pulls us away from visualizing the things of God then we will just find
ourselves distracted and unfocused. We just might find ourselves going in all
directions but not really finding where we are supposed to go. God sends us
various messages that could be in the form of a vision or dream just like in
today’s 1st reading. It tells us how Paul and the others traveled from place to
place spreading the word of God with the guidance of the Holy Spirit directing
them every step of the way. This is how we should relate to God by aiming to
encounter Him in an intimate and personal way. Amen. Hallelujah!
Acts 16:1-10
…During the night Paul had a vision. A Macedonian stood
before him and implored him with these words, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 When he
had seen the vision, we sought passage to Macedonia at once, concluding that
God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.
The Jews knew of the prophecy that from King David’s lineage
would come forth a King, the foretold Messiah of Israel. During the reign of
King Ahaz and all other kings of Israel who did evil things the
royalty was cut off. During the Babylonian captivity and in exile, those born
of the line of David, of royal blood went in hiding for fear of being killed.
Even though the divinic dynasty was cut off, from the tree of Jesse, the father
of King David, came forth the shoot that brought forth the King. We remember
that it was prophesied in Isaiah 11:1 And there shall come forth a rod out of
the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” The genealogy of
Jesus in Matthew 1 tells of this family tree. We would find at the end of this
lineage, Joseph who is the husband of Mary the mother of Jesus. Joseph is not
king but a carpenter and being Jew knew of the prophecy as foretold by the
prophet including this one from Isaiah 7:14 … the Lord Himself shall give you a
sign, “Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call His name
Emmanuel.” as spoken to him by the angel who appeared to him. He finally
understood the fulfillment of God’s promise to Israel . Isaiah is important to better
understand Jesus. Joseph knew of the need for secrecy and not to make public
these things because the reigning king at that time is Herod. He is not Jew but
an Edomite who was just appointed by the Romans to be king. He is king not for
the Jews but for the Romans to collect taxes for them. This is mainly the
reason why Herod wants all male babies born at the time of Jesus, dead. Joseph
dreamed a lot of dreams and it was through them that Joseph was able to
successfully carry out his mission as the protector of the baby Jesus. Another
point of reference here is the fact that in the Old Testament (OT) there was a
foreshadowing of the Magi or Wise Men who came to worship Jesus in the manger.
It was at the time of the reign of Balak an evil king in the OT when Balaam
also a wise man from the East prophesied in Numbers 24:15,18 that there shall
come a Star out of Jacob and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel who will dispossess Edom . He was asked to exact a curse
upon Israel
but from his mouth came forth a blessing. A star and a scepter signifies
kingship. In parallel, it was also the 3 wise men who were looking for a star
that would direct them to the newborn King of Israel who would inform Herod of
his whereabouts but warned in a dream not to go back to him in a dream. Jesus
is truly our King. The Kingship of Jesus is accompanied by many more wonderful
things that we still have to know of. In the Jewish tradition the # 3 and 7
stands for perfection and completeness. It is somehow puzzling to know that
there are 3 sets of 14 generations from the time of Abraham to the exile to the
time of Jesus. So why the #14? The significance of the #14 stands for the name
of King David which is equivalent to 14 in Hebrew. The 3 sets of 14 stands for perfect royalty
and king that all leads to Jesus. It could also be equivalent to 6 sets of 7.
The #6 signifies the date when the beast is made or the beginning thus the #666
which signifies the beast of all beasts. The 6 of 7 sets could mean the
beginning of the 7th set. 7 is also the Sabbath. The new 7 is the new creation.
Jesus is the beginning of the 7th set. Why the fuss in all of these? It is a
consolation to know that we have a God who is King. The King of kings and the
Lord of lords. We will eventually come face to face with our Creator and God
who made heaven and earth. The time is now to make a conscious move to be in
touch with this truth. It is such a waste that we don't always realize God's
presence among us. When there is nothing more rewarding than to always be aware
of God's presence and cry out to Him in joy. Whenever we are in a relationship
with someone and give our 100% into it then we can not help but expect it to
work. But there are times too when we have given our all and yet it doesn't
seem to be enough. We sometimes are bound for disappointments. When these
things happen then is really no reason to be sad for we can always go to God
for consolation whose love for us endures forever. We are all called to become
partakers and residents of the eternal Kingdom of God Elm Street " every time the girl in
this movie falls asleep, her nightmare begins and Freddie Krueger appears to
wreak evil and havoc in her life. She has to stay awake or else something
really bad happens to her and the people around her. Somehow this should make
us realize the importance of being awake, conscious and in touch with reality.
If there's one thing that we have to always be aware of, that is God has our
best interest in mind. It may not be easy to see, understand and have a grip on
this reality always especially at times when we seem down and out as in falling
flat on bed without a care in the world like dumb sleepyheads. We have to rise,
wake up and shine. We ought to always get a hold of this truth in today's psalm
and never let it leave our consciousness. We will eventually come face to face
with our Creator, and the time is now to make a conscious move to be in touch
with this truth. Our devotion to God should have no limits for He is Almighty, All
Powerful and Holy. We should remain faithful to God and never stray away from
the path where He leads us. Let us stay within the flock that God has formed
for us. When we are being cared for by God who is constantly and consistently
good, kind and faithful forever and ever then we are confident that we are safe
and secure in the fold where we belong like a flock tended by the Good
Shepherd. We should always remember that we have a God who cares for all our
needs for we belong to Him. May we all take part in the grand banquet that God
has prepared for us in heaven. Amen. Hallelujah!
Psalm 100:1b-2, 3, 5
R: Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
1 Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands; 2 serve the LORD
with gladness; come before him with joyful song. (R) 3 Know that the LORD is
God; he made us, his we are; his people, the flock he tends. (R) 5 The LORD is
good: his kindness endures forever, and his faithfulness, to all generations.
We have to realize that we are living in a sinful world that
we have to be very careful that we are not enticed by its call. Sometimes we do
things in order to cope with the present times without realizing that we are
already compromising the most essential truth about us. We are just passing by
and temporary residents of this world, what will matter most is for us to
prepare for our one true inheritance from God, live forever in His kingdom.
Life is never easy and fair at times. Jesus Himself said something like it in
today's gospel. If we go through trials and hardships on account of His name
and sometimes lose heart when confronted by the doubting and questioning minds
of some people then we should always stand firm in our principles and
convictions anchored in Jesus. No matter how difficult it may seem we must not
lose sight of what kind of suffering Jesus had to go through and all our
problems will fade in the background. We should always have the attitude of
humble acceptance and complete surrender clinging only to God and not on any
person, thing, situation or possession in life. These experiences will all
amount to something great in the end. Which reminds me of the story of a
silversmith (narrated by Fr. Joseph Magdaong) who purifies silver by allowing
it to sit on the fire at its extreme heat until it finally comes out pure. The
silversmith knows that the work is done once the silver starts to reflect the
image of the silversmith/refiner. Allow this to sink in to our souls for in
time we will all come to know that we are in truth blessed and full of grace.
And just like the Blessed Mother's response to the angel's announcement we also
should say, "Thy will be done." In order for us to do this we must
realize that all of us because of original sin has an innate weakness to sin.
This is concupiscence which detaches a person from divine love. It is the
counterfeit of love that Satan has introduced to the world to deceive and rid us of the true and authentic love.
The enemy counterfeits love and the only manner we can defeat this is by
receiving God’s divine love. In a world where we have lost divine love and
participated in sin there is a demand to know the divine love. It is holistic
and brings the person together. The enemy can not derail this love. It is the
kind of love that interacts with creation and does not pillage it. It respects
everything in creation. It changes, elevates and renews the human heart. It defends, protects and strengthens us over
the power of concupiscence. This love could be very demanding and could be
overwhelming in the sense that the world could hate us for this in the same way
that Jesus is telling us today in the gospel. We have to realize that man can
not live without God’s love. We need to experience, encounter, and make it as
our own in order to participate intimately in it. Can we live in an
impoverished and imperfect love? The answer is no. It is the injustice and
imbalance that it causes in our nature that creates the lost peace. The
circumstances that follow are catastrophic and will prevail unless we infuse
ourselves with the living divine love that comes from God. Only Jesus can teach
us how to live and receive it. God creates this place, the heart, where the
lover can love the beloved and the beloved reciprocates that love. It freely
gives to each other without condition and does not hope for anything in return.
How can we live through the demands of this love? Remember, Jesus does not
expect us to love with a divine love with our human power but it is through the
power of the Holy Spirit that dwells in us. It will empower us to live the
exigencies of this love. The Comforter and Advocate remains with us and is
given to us. It moves and enables us to love one another. Allows us to see as
He sees, forgive as He forgives and love as He loves. Unless we invite Jesus
into our human hearts and allow Him to nourish and form it we remain
impoverished and lost. We have to rise up from this and seek to attain the
intimacy of the love that is precious and seek only to give. We need to enter
into this level knowing that God makes all things possible. Amen. Hallelujah!
John 15:18-21
18 Jesus said to his disciples: “If the world hates you,
realize that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, the world
would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have
chosen you out of the world, the world hates you.
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