GRAVE’S EDGE

God spans through time and space in a manner that we, humans can never fully understand. God owns time and eternity. Throughout the length of time God has always been trying to have a relationship with man since the time when time itself was not known. Today's reading taken from the Old Testament is about the passion and death of Jesus as foretold by Zechariah and took place more than 500 years later. The prophecy has been fulfilled in Jesus and has become the source of grace and fountain that purifies us of our sins. This very act of God that offers His only Begotten Son for our sake testifies to the tremendous love of God for us. There could be no greater tragedy in our life than that we should come to the grave's edge and not know this God of love who wants to spend eternity with us. This is eternal life that we may know God our Father and Him whom He had sent. The Lord is likening Himself to a shepherd to the sheep when He said, "I know mine and mine know me." Amen. Hallelujah!

Zechariah 12:10-11; 13:1

10 Thus says the LORD: I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and petition; and they shall look on him whom they have thrust through, and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only son, and they shall grieve over him as one grieves over a first-born. 11 On that day the mourning in Jerusalem shall be as great as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 13: 1 On that day there shall be open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, a fountain to purify from sin and uncleanness.

Only the love of our Lord God can satisfy all our longings and desires. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. We can never find true satisfaction unless we find Jesus. “My soul is restless until it rests in You” (St. Augustine) No amount of wealth, fame and glory in this world can satisfy our longings. What are we doing on this earth? We are here to know, love and serve God. Where is our God? He is nearer to us than we are to ourselves. He is in the depths of our being every moment of day and night. St. Augustine said, "It is in knowing God that we know of ourselves." To know and to love God is to do the same for ourselves. We love our family, friends and work but do we stop at the gifts and miss the Giver. Remember, however weak or wayward or wicked we may be, God is madly in love with us whether or not we love Him because His nature and name is love. In an act of love he drew us out of nothing in the yesteryears and that love has sustained and enveloped us every single moment of our life. It is an act of love that we are still able to draw the next breath of life. The moment He cease to love us for an instant, we will cease to be. How easy it is to put ourselves in the center of the universe. All we think about is our comfort, health, wealth and work. We are not the center of the universe, God is. We are here on this earth for a few fleeting years in which to serve God. St. Theresa of Avila took a private vow or oath never to waste a moment of time. She knew that the moment which secured heaven for the good seed would secure it for us too. Amen. Hallelujah!

Psalm 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9 (2b)

R: My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.

1 [2] O God, you are my God whom I seek; for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water. (R) 2 [3] Thus have I gazed toward you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory, 3 [4] for your kindness is a greater good than life; my lips shall glorify you. (R) 4 [5] Thus will I bless you while I live; lifting up my hands, I will call upon your name. 5 [6] As with the riches of a banquet shall my soul be satisfied, and with exultant lips my mouth shall praise you.

When it's all over and the battle has been won, what is our destiny? We are told that we shall see God face to face as in the book of Revelations 22:2-5,14 "They will look upon his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. Night will be no more, nor will they need light from lamp or sun, for the Lord God shall give them light, and they shall reign forever and ever." and "Blessed are they who wash their robes so as to have the right to the tree of life and enter the city through its gates." This is our destiny. Being a member of the one big family of God is a great honor and privilege that we sometimes are not aware of. When we were baptized we all became God's children and that is one truth that we should all consciously live up to.  Let us no longer be deceived, indifferent, unaffected or despondent or whatever word we can think of that lessens its impact and efficacy or make us totally oblivious of this truth. We are children of God and heirs of His kingdom.  Amen. Hallelujah!

Galatians 3:26-29

26 Brothers and sisters: Through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendant, heirs according to the promise.

There are times when our judgment gets clouded with the trials and difficulties we encounter in life. We always expect things to happen the way we expected and planned it to be. We sometimes overlook things because we are so preoccupied with other things. There are times when we fall into the trap of irritability and anger whenever our situation does not look good. Instead of succumbing to it, we should just thank God in whatever circumstance we are in and count our blessings instead. We have to remain calm. It is all worth it, because we are able to practice patience. These experiences, no matter how little, insignificant or not noteworthy they are, we can still learn some lessons from them which can make us better every little step of the way. Just like Peter in today's gospel, his constant following, closeness and interaction with Jesus eventually brought him to his present place and standing in our Church. But we all know how this relationship of Peter with Jesus started out and tried several times especially with Peter's denials. Even then we can always hope and aspire that as we go along life and grab or take advantage of opportunities that God sends our way or allows to happen, we can develop a better understanding of who really God is in our life and what He is doing with our life which will eventually turn out for the best. Just as His suffering and death on the cross paved the way for His resurrection and our salvation we should always believe that God has the best reason for everything. Our life is full of choices. We need to make the right choice. We need to make a good judgment with regards to the choices we make. It is not wise to go by the prevailing standard that is being offered by the world. We may find ourselves secured now but not later; happy and contented for the time being but not meant to last; and at peace with the world but is shallow and easily disturbed. Sometimes when we have solicited the support of the majority or won the people’s approval, we have a tendency to cloud our judgments especially when our egos become inflated with pride. Rather than focus on what is right and proper before the Lord we go by popularity.  We should always keep in mind that the saying, “Majority wins” is not always what is right before the Lord. Nor should we be bothered by the opposition of other people if we do not go with the flow. In today’s gospel it is very clearly illustrated that the crowds are greatly misled and only Peter got it right. It doesn't matter what others may say or if some or most people disagree or are not pleased with our decisions what matters most is that we are right and at peace before God.  The top choice should always be Jesus if we truly wish to be saved. God is the ultimate and perfect lover whom we can not compare to the fleeting and passing love of this world. And as sure as the dawning of this new day, is the precise message of the intense, sacred, deep and indescribable love that is reserved and attributed to God alone. Our conviction and stand on certain things should always be dependent on what Jesus tells us for He is the way, the truth and the light. Amen. Hallelujah! 

Luke 9:18-22

...Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter said in reply, “The Messiah of God.” 21 He rebuked them and directed them not to tell this to anyone. 22 He said, “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.”