Today’s 1st reading
brought back tender memories of my 2 sons when they were still babies. It is
always true that the love between mother and child is something very precious
and would always hold a special place in every heart. The most intimate and
unforgettable bonding time we had was when I nurse them. I would hold their
tiny hands and would not let go until their asleep and full. While they were
breastfeeding I would try to communicate with them in our made up baby language
and they would mutter incomprehensible sounds not understandable by verbal
language but by the heart. Human relationships are based on human trust,
respect and need. And so it is with God’s relationship to us. Isn’t it true
that God needed the Virgin Mary to be born, needed John the Baptist to be
baptized, needed Simon of Cyrene to help Him carry the cross, needed the woman in the well to give Him a drink,
needed Joseph of Arimathea to give him a place where to be buried and needed
the apostles to spread the Good News. God even entrusts Himself to us in Holy
Communion. When we hear a cry for help we respond. The Lord is the master and
we are the servant, He is the teacher and we are the student and He is strong
and we are weak. But He has no hands but our hands to help. He has no lips but
our lips to proclaim the good news. Day after monotonous day we must think of
God who proved to us His great love by dying on the cross. Let us respond to
Him to prove that it is not in vain that he died and rose again for our sake.
It should be our inspiration and this should be our prayer, as St. Francis
said.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be
consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
Hallelujah!
Isaiah 66:10-14COh, that you may suck fully of the milk of her comfort, that you may nurse with delight at her abundant breasts! For thus says the LORD: Lo, I will spread prosperity over
Looking back all these years at
the glorious background of our faith that has been handed to us, we can say
that we are so blessed among all of God's creation. We have been endowed with
such a great blessing beyond our comprehension. Just imagine ourselves
meeting someone who is very admirable and impressive, we can't help but be
proud and share with others our wonderful experience. That's how it is with the
apostles and even more once we've come to know God. We have to be strong and of
good courage. Each and every moment is a clear manifestation of God's
tremendous love. No words can ever be enough to describe it. Blessed is Mother
Mary for believing that what was spoken to her by the Lord would be fulfilled.
We can also come to a point when we can also sing our own
"Magnificat" and raise our hands to God in prayer and thanksgiving
for every gift He has given to us. Even those gifts of sorrow. God is in charge
and He will make all things work for the good. We have a God who is fighting
our battles for us. God is in control. Although God will not stop every
adversity but if we stay in faith, He will see us through. He did not promise
life to be smooth sailing all the time but He definitely assured us of a safe
landing. God has already lined up the right people, right places at the right
time. He has prepared for our victory and so we should be ready for God's
favor. I remember when we went to San
Francisco we joined the bay cruise, were able to come up
very close to the Golden Gate
Bridge
Psalm 66:1-3a, 4-5, 6-7a
R: Let all the earth cry out to
God with joy.
...Come and
see the works of God, his tremendous deeds among the children of Adam. (R) 6 He
has changed the sea into dry land; through the river they passed on foot;
therefore let us rejoice in him. 7 He rules by his might forever. (R) 16
Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare what he has done for me. 17
When I appealed to him in words, praise was on the tip of my tongue. (R) 20
Blessed be God who refused me not my prayer or his kindness!
Pope Benedict XVI said that holiness is not doing
extraordinary things but following the will of God everyday by living one’s own
vocation really well. This we can do through the help of prayer, with the word
of God, the sacraments and with the daily effort for consistency to live a
humble life like the life of the saints. Humility is often seen in the life of
the saints in seeking out the low things of the world. By not striving to seek
out the things that are showy that would give worldly respect. The saints
respect the humility they saw in our Lord in the Incarnation of God becoming
man. The humility of God who lowered Himself and assume our human nature and
then He gives us Himself in the Eucharist. He comes to us daily in the outward
appearance in the form of bread. Not just the humility but the obedience of God
to His Father’s will. The plan of God that Jesus would be offered up, to suffer
and die for us. This is extreme humility that even to the point of death, Jesus
is obedient. Jesus tells us in the scriptures, “Learn from me for I am meek and
humble of heart.” St. Augustine in common understanding said that Jesus did not
say “Learn from me to make heaven and earth, make wonders and miracles, heal
the sick, expel devils, raise the dead but learn of me to be meek and humble of
heart.” Humility, St. Thomas
said, principally governs the will but also involve the intellect. In our
thinking we have to recognize that God alone is the source of all good. He
distributes His gifts as He wills. The humble person is not envious of the
other people’s gifts as he knows that God is the source of all these gifts. It
forms our thinking if we have this reverence for God and know our status as
creatures which is the bedrock of humility. As St. Thomas says, it governs the will and our
moderate striving to reach things and goals that are beyond us. Humility
recognizes that all good and excellence is in God. Thus all creaturely good
comes from God. Our pride tells us that we are the source of our own
excellence. Jesus always warns us of pride because of feelings of worthiness.
Although we strive for virtue we keep falling because we see ourselves as the
source and not really depending on God and asking Him for the strength. We are
not pleading to Him to win the victory in us. We are still trying to do it
ourselves. According to St. Paul
we have to cloth ourselves in heartfelt mercy, humility, kindness, meekness and
patience. We have to practice humility with our neighbors by bearing with one
another and the faults we all have, forgiving the grievances we have against
one another as the Lord has forgiven us. Sometimes we tend to say that some
sins against us by our brother or sister are unforgiveable in effect. St Paul tells us to put on
love that binds all the virtues. Our love for God and our neighbor has to drive
all our virtues into perfection.
Galatians 6:14-18
Brothers and sisters: May I never boast except in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and
I to the world. For neither does circumcision mean anything, nor does
uncircumcision, but only a new creation. Peace and mercy be to all who follow
this rule and to the Israel of God. From now on, let no one make troubles for
me; for I bear the marks of Jesus on my body. The grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.
We are blessed to have a line up of brilliant and anointed
preachers who share their knowledge and zeal for the word of God in EWTN
(Eternal Word Television Network). But there are only a few people who take on
this mission of spreading the word of God because we don't fully realize this
as baptized Christians, we are all sent by Christ on this mission. We should accept
God's invitation and receive the word of God by living its message. We have a
great responsibility in our hands and should respond to His Word for indeed the
harvest is abundant but the laborers are few. The time is now to become part of
this great harvest. Jesus knows exactly the kind of life we are headed to if we
heed His call. What He expects from us is courage to go on and He will do the
rest. Let us trust that God is truly the Good Shepherd who never abandons nor
forsakes the lambs in the midst of the wolves. We, Catholics believe that God
gave human beings reason although it sometimes gets darkened by sin but still
human reason can figure out some things. One of the things that human beings
figure out without God having to reveal it, is that human beings need to meet 4
qualities to be deemed a human being. The philosopher, before even Plato,
Aristotle and Socrates, had this figured out. We find it mentioned in Wisdom
8:7, the 4 virtues or qualities are also called the hinge virtues because it is
where all the other virtues or qualities of good people would hinge. The word
cardinal means hinge. The Cardinals who surround the Pope are the doorway to
the Pope. They are also the ones whom he rely the most for advice. Everything
else depends on the cardinal virtues. (Prudence or wisdom, justice, temperance
and courage or fortitude) Prudence is the ability to make right decisions in
complex situations. They are decisions that lead to the best and right thing.
Without this we can be in big trouble. We’ve got to be able to decide in a
situation that we’re in what the right thing to do which is the best thing to
do. How do we get something done? There are some folks who probably just can’t
figure out what to do. There are other folks who look at the problem and they
can figure out a solution. It’s a core and they execute that core. It’s
practical wisdom. We’ll find in the Book of Proverbs a lot of things about
wisdom even in Sirach, Ecclesiastes and all the wisdom literature in
scriptures. We can also find all the other 3 cardinal virtues, like justice
which means giving each person his or her due. We all know even as kids
instinctively how important justice is. The first thing that a kid cries out as
soon as he learns how to talk if he has brothers and sisters is “Not fair, he
got more than I did” or “You ask me to do more than what that person is doing.”
This is because we have instinctively or natively offensive justice. Each
person has rights and ought to get their due. There’s also another part of
justice that we forget, that is, we have obligations and duties to everyone. A
person who is unjust is not a good person. To be just, we need to control our
passions. Temperance is a virtue that balances and controls our passions. It is
like controlling our desire for that last piece of cake if we know that it
belongs to our sister. In order to be just, we’ve got to control our appetites.
Make our appetites come into line with justice, truth and goodness. We’ve got
to have that balance in our life in order to be a good and effective person.
Temperance makes this happen. We also have to be courageous. If we are not
courageous then every time a difficulty arises we’re going to shrink back. If
there’s any danger involved in doing the right, just and wise thing then we’re
just going to crack out and find an excuse because we’re afraid. Courage or
fortitude helps us to master fear and not let fear keep us from doing what’s
right. We’ve got have all these things but here’s the problem. When Adam &
Eve decided to sin they let loose a weakness into our race and nature that
impacts all of us. We call it original sin. Sin is not so original, we just
copy what other people have done. There’s nothing creative about sin. Adam
& Eve’s sin was the only original sin. What they did has an impact on us.
By weakening their own nature, sin weakened man’s nature. They passed on to us
a weakened nature. They separated themselves and the whole human race from
friendship with God and were born into that. There’s a tendency in our nature
to go on a downward drift, a drift off course and a tendency to a great degree
is dealt with through grace. How do we get grace? Through the death and
resurrection of Jesus, God has made possible for us, healing of our humanity.
He gives us other gifts, faith, hope and charity that make it possible for us
to really have wisdom, justice, temperance and courage. Without faith, hope and
charity in this life, no one can really become truly wise. All throughout human
history we see people who exercise these gifts. They may not be Christians,
deeply spiritual people, or in a state of grace and can exercise some of these
potentials here and there. But ultimately original sin means we are going to
sin seriously and mess up. We need God’s grace for those 4 great virtues to be
perfected. Faith, hope and charity are supernatural. These are things that
human beings would never know that they need or could have without God giving
them supernaturally that’s why they are called the theological virtues. We only
know about them through divine revelation and we couldn’t know about them by
reason. We can only have them through God’s grace. The theological virtues,
faith, hope and charity are the crown of the first 4 cardinal virtues that
transform and make them possible. God doesn’t want us just to be whole human
beings and restore us to what Adam & Eve were when they blew it in the
Garden. God wants us to be more than that. He wants to elevate our human nature
and divinize it. He wants us to share in His own Divine nature. Charity is all
about loving with God’s love. Loving as the 3 persons of the Holy Trinity love
each other and sharing in that goes way beyond human nature. This is an
incredible thing and call. It was only possible because God became man and we
can share in his virtue. This is what the real Catholic life is all about. It’s
not just about making it or going to heaven by the skin of your teeth after
struggling. It’s about growing in holiness and becoming like Jesus all
throughout our life, a champion not without struggles. As a matter of fact
without the struggles we can never become a champion. It is possible with
victory and excellence not with hopelessness, despair and frustration. This is
God’s desire for us which is a fantastic calling. The power to do this is given
to us. We are never alone because God is always with us. We should be so
thankful to God for all the wonderful things He allowed us to think, feel, see
and hear. Not only for the things that are visible but also the invisible. God
has given us everything that we need, the love, care and protection that a
child needs from a Father who loves us so much. The readings for today from the
1st, psalm to the gospel all speak of the importance of our senses. Sometimes
we have this tendency to overlook these things and dwell more on the less
important things. We must train our minds and hearts to know the top priority
which is everything that connects us to God at all times. All we have to do is
be aware that God reveals Himself in a very mysterious way that we have to
continuously work for a heart and mind that is focused on the Lord, remove all
distractions in our life so that He will reveal Himself to us. God is infinite
and unlimited in nature and our minds can only comprehend as far as our limited
brains allow. Let us seize every moment and opportunity in order to daily grow
in our knowledge of the Lord. Let us all come to our senses. Once we've seen,
heard, smelled, tasted, touched, felt and experienced who the Lord is in our
lives then we are really blessed in the truest sense of the word. Although we
can only come to the full understanding and knowledge of God when we die, we
can still work our way to knowing God using the best of our abilities for it is
written, if we draw near to God, He will draw near to us. Have you ever
experienced talking to someone but it seems that he/she is not paying
attention. Let us not miss a single detail about our Lord and always be
attentive to Him. If we are caught up in our own personal lives then we have a
tendency to misunderstand the messages sent our way. Let us develop an attitude
of total surrender to God and He in His goodness will make known to us things
beyond our understanding. When we're on the phone we sometimes fail to hear
what's being said to us on the other line. We can always hear this being said,
Hello are you still there? It may be due to a low signal, our lack of attention
and other things that disrupt the communication. We are reminded by God through
the gospel to remove all hindrances and be able to hear him loud and clear. It
is imperative that we heed his call and the time is now. Sometimes we end up
doing things that we are not supposed to do and we get confused and that's
because we are not attuned to our Life Coach, who is God and no one can lead us
to the right direction only Him. We need to sharpen and make our senses very
keen so that we will not miss out on anything. Some people who lack one of the
senses like for example the blind people develop a keen sense of hearing,
feeling and smelling. The blind have mastered well their other senses that they
can hear, feel and smell the slightest sound, touch and scent that can be
unnoticeable for some. We should say
from this point of view that the lack of one sense can enhance the other
senses. We can also say that there are moments in our life when we have to shut
out one of our senses, too. There are a lot of things being presented to us day
in and out. We should know that some things are better left unsaid and ignored.
In times like these we need to know exactly what we need to take in and which
of our senses do we need to pay attention to and focus on in order to see and
hear what the Lord is showing and telling us and be truly blessed. Amen.
Hallelujah!
Luke 10:1-12 ; 17-20
Jesus appointed seventy-two others whom he sent ahead of him
in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, “The
harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest. Go on your way; behold, I am sending you
like lambs among wolves... ...Behold, I have given you the power ‘to tread upon
serpents’ and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy and nothing will
harm you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to
you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”
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