We need to observe the Sabbath and not just follow our own
pursuits. People are into a real busy work week and do not even go to church.
Do we make time for God? Do we reflect on God and worship Him? Are we endlessly
just trying to do as much as we can in order to have as much as we can? We need
to realize that once we recognize God’s law then we quickly recognize our need
for grace that brings us to prayer life. There is a constant force of the
culture, the temptations to live an extravagant and impure life, and the force
of our fallen human nature that make us give in to sin. We better recognize sin
in our life. Things can get difficult and we can not do all in our strength. We
struggle with sin most of the time. Our sins isolate us. We’ve got to change,
admit to ourselves and then to a priest. We should avail of the sacrament of
confession and do away with fear of what the priest might think. This is our
human nature. Confession is a beautiful experience when we hear those words of
absolution. Our sins are gone and forgotten and we are forgiven. To tell
another person could be so liberating, it helps us to believe in God’s acceptance
and forgiveness. It awakens something in us to help us believe in God’s love
for us. The priest in the confession is like the father in the Prodigal son.
Waiting in the confession chamber is a duty to the priest. He makes himself
available for us and just be there for people to experience God’s forgiveness.
God's faithful people will always find consolation and assurance as stated in
today's 1st reading which reminds me of the several experiences I had. First,
it was my visit to this monastery with a friend. We were about to get lost
because my friend forgot the map and was not able to search in the internet
prior to our trip the directions to the place. Although she's been there once
already she felt that we are not going the right way as we were driving down
the road. Though, we've been thinking already that not a lot of people know
about that place and we might not be able to find it. We continued to be
positive and hoped in our God who sends angels ahead of us to lead us to the
right path. She decided to stop over at
McDonald's to use the restroom and ask somebody who might know the directions
going there. We never expected that the first person whom we came across to ask
for directions knows exactly the way. He was sitting there like an angel waiting
for us to come in order for us to find our way and not get lost. It was a very
wonderful feeling on our way to the monastery that despite the still long road,
twists and turns that we traveled we never got lost for the directions given to
us were so precise and without a slight
mistake from the time calculation, streets and landmarks. Considering that the
man whom we talked to was maybe already in his early 80s and yet he was able to
direct and guide us without fail. Another overwhelming treat for us in going to
that place was when we were welcomed by the scenic beauty that envelopes this
monastery in Valyermo. The long and winding roads which lead to the monastery
are along the mountain ranges and it was simply exhilarating just looking at
the breathtaking and awesome views that surround us. Upon arriving the place we
were greeted by the major changes in the monastery which used to be according
to my friend, secluded and undeveloped, but has underwent several improvements
including the newly built buildings and chapels. There was also an additional
building for the Arts &
Crafts Center
Another thing that I am reminded of are my 2 sons, Allan and
Jude. They have always been a light and inspiration for me. I just shared about
how my eldest son, Jude when he was still a little child showed me a bible
passage which contains the same message that is in today's 1st reading, on the
day my mother died. It happened too that the bible he showed me has a picture
of a beautiful garden by the spring with animals grazing in it and looks like
paradise. I was suddenly reminded too of how my mother used to spearhead an
activity in church. She used to solicit for the poor and distribute the goods
to them during the Christmas season. This I just realized upon reading a part
of today's 1st reading, "...if you bestow your bread on the hungry and
satisfy the afflicted..." which I guess is part of the exact bible passage
that my son Jude showed me on the day my mother died. Although it happened
quite a long time ago already I could never forget it. By the way he already graduated with a Bachelor's degree in
Chemical Engineering and is currently working as a Process Development Engineer.
As for my younger son, Allan, I have always been inspired by his
pacifying and assuring words whenever a conflict is about to break out. He has
in several occasions became cool and refreshing water for me whenever I am
about to get fired up by worry, panic and anger. We all have a tendency to,
accuse people, pigeon hole them and succumb to malicious speech and sarcasm.
And in today’s 1st reading we find a warning for the people to stop
false accusation. These occasions with my 2 sons I have always treasured in my
heart which I have always been reminded of through the words of God in the
scripture. The endless connections, signs and wonders that God continues to
display is just too much of a coincidence since there is no such thing as
coincidence with God only divine intervention. Amen. Hallelujah!
Isaiah 58:9-14
...If you remove from your midst oppression, false
accusation and malicious speech; 10 if you bestow your bread on the hungry and
satisfy the afflicted; then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the
gloom shall become for you like midday; 11 then the LORD will guide you always
and give you plenty even on the parched land. He will renew your strength, and
you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails...If
you hold back your foot on the sabbath from following your own pursuits on my
holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight, and the LORD’s holy day honorable;
if you honor it by not following your ways, seeking your own interests, or
speaking with malice — 14 Then you shall delight in the LORD, and I will make
you ride on the heights of the earth; I will nourish you with the heritage of
Jacob, your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
We have to be grateful to God for He is indeed merciful and
gracious in all His ways. He gives us not just one but various options when it
comes to accessing the graces He is dispensing and showering upon us. God
provides all means in order for us to avail of all the blessings He wants to
give us. When things are about to come to an end or maybe has reached its final
stages and been waiting for quite a long time already and yet things are still
uncertain as to how it will all turn out then we are placed in a very challenging
situation as to how we are to react. Whether in despair or continue to hope in
the Lord is always a choice we have to make. But oftentimes, things are easier
said than done but it is always a consolation to know that we have a God who
always shows us the way. It is a reality that we have to attend to a lot of
things waiting for us to be done. God wants us to become individuals capable of
handling things in our lives with balance, in whatever we do, He is always with
us. We may have been surprised by some
kind of news from somebody while thinking about a particular concern and even
before we can come up with a solution it was already addressed. It is a
blessing from the Lord that when times like these come when we are having a
dilemma or unable to access of one option there are still other choices left
that we can make use of. God never leaves us empty handed, He always has
reinforcement and a back up. Let us not lose sight of the Lord who loves us and
will always rescue us in our miseries and make us glad. Life is not all about
rules and regulations. God did not just give us a bunch of rules and
regulations that we are supposed to obey like machines. What we do does not
just proceed from who we are but also makes us who we are. The actions we engage, the words that we say
and the things that we do have an impact on us. We are making ourselves all the
time. God created us when we came out of the womb, our mothers and father have
a great role in that but our creation continues every single day of our lives. We’re
even becoming someone more beautiful, mature and stronger or someone weaker and
more despicable. There’s no middle ground. We’re going one way or another. Life
leads either to heaven or to hell. That’s what the acts that we commit do.
Virtuous acts build in us strength. The word virtue comes from the word manly
which is strength and power. Virtue is a habit that makes it easy and
pleasurable to do the right thing. Golden virtue isn’t always easy. It is hard.
But what is vice, it is a habit that makes it easy to do the wrong and evil
thing. Let’s take exercise as an example. People make it their New Year’s
resolution and people who go to the gym noticed that it’s packed on January but
they’re gone by the 3rd week. If we’ve ever engaged in an exercise program for
the first time, we know that we feel bad, tired, exhausted and wake up sore.
This is because we do not have the habit of exercise. We have not trained and
our bodies are not used to it. It hurts and it’s hard the first time we work
out. If we persevere past the first few weeks and developed a habit of regular
exercise then we end up getting used to it and become easy that when we don’t
exercise we feel bad. What happens is that we build up the power or the virtue.
We’ve conditioned ourselves so that it becomes second nature to us. If we want
a progressive course we need to do something hard. No pain no gain. The next
time we work out we add up a little bit more since we are stronger. We can move
forward and grow in our ability to lift weights. This is the deal. The actions
we do have an impact of what we are. It’s like when we start lifting weights we
start to change and look different. We look like someone who has strength,
power and endurance. This is the point, God is about building champions. The
goal of the Christian life is to build champions. Well, not necessarily
athletic champions but spiritually. A real champion in every aspect of life.
God wants us to be strong, loving, wise and to have the power to live. It’s not
so much what we do that counts but it’s who we become. That’s what the
commandments, teachings and God is all about. Nowadays, a fatal disease is no
longer fatal but just a life threatening disease if left uncared for. Modern
Science has come up with several interventions to combat these diseases. When
we don’t feel well, we consult a doctor for advice on how to care for
ourselves. An example could be hypertension, before people just die of it
without prior treatment but since the dawn of anti hypertensive medicines and
proper care to maintain a good blood pressure there has been significant
improvement on such cases. The same with our souls we have a disease that if
left uncared for can cause death. It would be better to think of our souls as
such. It’s easier to be receptive to the gospel if we consider ourselves lost.
We have been saved by God but we can lose it just as we can lose our human life
for not caring for it. We all have a terminal disease called sin, we need a
doctor to give us advice. Our souls need a Divine Physician and consult the
sacred scriptures in order to know the things to follow. The sacraments serve
as the medication that we can compare to medicine from the doctor that we don’t
understand how it works. It is the same with the sacraments although we may not
understand fully how it works just like how medicines work to cure our
diseases. In the spiritual life our physician is Jesus Christ, He tells us what
to do on how to be healed. We must not follow quacks and pseudo scientists. We
must trust our souls not to quacks but to God. We follow the saints who have
lived their life in an exemplary nature. We should also follow the example of
the great men in the bible who never doubted God's goodness and mercy. In this
way we become free of the serious symptoms of the sicknesses of the soul like
pride, covetousness, envy, lust, sloth, anger and gluttony. We seek the truth
and the truth will make us free. Amen. Hallelujah!
Psalms 86:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
R: Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.
1 Incline your ear, O LORD; answer me, for I am afflicted
and poor. 2 Keep my life, for I am devoted to you; save your servant who trusts
in you. 3 You are my God. (R) Have mercy on me, O Lord, for to you I call all
the day. 4 Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my
soul. (R) 5 For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in kindness to
all who call upon you. 6 Hearken, O LORD, to my prayer and attend to the sound
of my pleading.
We have to check ourselves for any disease of the soul like
that of harboring guilt and mistakenly taking it as a form of repentance which
is not. We should make a distinction between a contrite heart and a heart full
of guilt. We should have a disposition that though we are sinners, we know that
we have been forgiven and should maintain a spirit of joy and love in response
to this. Whereas, if we wallow in guilt and misery then we remain despondent of
the great love and overwhelming affection that God has given us all. The
greatness of God's love and sacrifice for all of us can overcome and can make
all things well. All is well with Jesus. God is the greatest physician of all
times, no matter what our ailments are, be it physical, emotional or mental He
can cure our infirmities and make us whole again. God reminds us though, in
order to find our way back to perfect health in all aspects of our life we have
to repent and not just be sorry for our sins but repair what we've done and
resolve to become the person God has meant us to be because no matter how
broken we are God can do wonders with us if we only trust in Him and be
confident that He will make us new. He has already paid the price for our sins
when He took it upon Himself by dying on the cross. Today’s gospel brings our
focus on the life of Levi the tax collector or more popularly known as St.
Matthew. Pope Benedict XVI on reflecting on his life said that Jesus does not
exclude anyone from His friendship. Tax collectors and prostitutes during the
time of Jesus are considered public sinners. They work for Rome and can set their own commission from
taxes they collect from the locals. They are despised for this no less than the
prostitutes. Jesus called Peter, James & John while they were fishing and
did the same for the tax collectors. We are mistaken to think that God thinks
as men do. He chooses whom He wills and gives grace to those He wills to
Himself. This is the heart of the good news of the gospel. God does not abandon
us to our sins. He offers grace to sinners. We may want to recall the story in
the gospel of the Pharisee praying in the front row of the temple and the tax
collector at the farthest end beating his breast. He prays to God as a
repentant sinner would and felt closer and came out justified to God. The
repentant tax collector can be a model for us. Although he sinned, he did not
stay in his sinful habit and converted. We can experience God’s forgiveness in
the confession. This is one way we can draw closer to Him and come to know Him
in an amazing way. For all of us, to some degree we can come up with reasons
not to go to confession. As Pope John Paul II said, the sin of modernity is
that people have lost the sense of sin. We have to recognize the evil that we
have done and must repent. The absolute bedrock of spiritual life is to follow
the 10 commandments, work against sin and stop sinning. We are sometimes misled
and think that if we have a type of prayer we think that we already have a
spiritual life. We’ve got to have the humility to say that God is smarter than
we are and follow and obey what we are told in the 10 commandments. Matthew is
a model of conversion and change. He did not just stay where he was at. Faith
led him to change, he got up and followed him. He left his livelihood and left
his post. What false idols do we have in
our life? Let us pray for grace to see in our lives clearly what we’re attached
to and pour them down. Are we really in God’s disposal? Can He do to us what He
wants to do with us? Or are we still caught up in sin? Let’s pray for freedom
and imitate St. Matthew. It is not impossible to really be in touch with God's
wonderful and amazing ways. If only we will have the courage to be just like
St. Matthew/Levi in today's gospel who got up, followed Jesus and left
everything behind. Amen. Hallelujah!
Luke 5:27-32
Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs
post. He said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And leaving everything behind, he got up
and followed him. Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, ...“Why do you eat and drink with tax
collectors and sinners?” 31 Jesus said to them in reply, “Those who are healthy
do not need a physician, but the sick do. 32 I have not come to call the
righteous to repentance but sinners.”
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