Every time I encounter this bible passage from today’s 1st
reading which speaks of the orphan and the widow I am always reminded of my
mother. She is a woman of great faith and courage. I have witnessed as I was
growing up how she was able to storm through all the trials and difficulties of
a widow left with the care of her 3 very young children. She had a great responsibility in her hands
at that time. Although she told us that there were moments when she was
overwhelmed by the sudden shift of all responsibilities and felt inadequate and
incapable of carrying out all the things that needed to be done. Through it all
she saw how God looked after our welfare and never left us. He directed her
steps to the right path and led her to the right people and situations. It was
exactly what made her hold on God’s word and promise. It was also due to this
faith of my mother that I got confidence and assurance that God hears all our
prayers, confirms it and makes us feel that we have a very personal
relationship with Him. What she relied, held on and constantly believed in is
written in today's 1st reading that the Lord would never forsake the widow and
the orphan. The other verses contained
in the 1st reading today also reminds me of the time when I was just
new in the Catholic Charismatic. It is this part stating, “Though your sins be
like scarlet, they may become white as snow; Though they be crimson red, they
may become white as wool.” It has become one of my favorites due to the fact
that I often heard it from my prayer group leader during our prayer meetings
and had naturally quoted and said it over and over myself even without knowing
exactly where is it in the bible. It was quite a number of years already before
I learned where to find it because I didn't memorize it, all I cared about
before was the message that it brings to us, unconditional love and
forgiveness. It was all I ever needed to hear and be assured of and nothing
else matters. It was this impression that God is so forgiving that no sin is
big and grave enough not to be forgiven. In fact, in one of the lenten retreats
I attended I heard a speaker said that he has this personal belief that God's
love is so great, no one will go to hell since Jesus said that it is the will
of the Father that none that was given to Him will get lost. I agree with him
since it is the will of God the Father, but the question lies in the truth that
only we can answer. Is it also our own free and honest will? It's time we
answer this question truthfully and really set things right. Amen. Hallelujah!
Isaiah 1:10, 16-20
10 Hear the word of the Lord, princes of Sodom ! Listen to the instruction of our God,
people of Gomorrah !
16 Wash yourselves clean! Put away
misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil; 17 learn to do good.
Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the
widow. 18 Come now, let us se
God saves. There is no question about that but we have to
also be diligent in fulfilling our part of the bargain. This reminds me of the
vow I have made when it was impressed to me way back Oct. 7, 2007 in the
reading from Book of Habakkuk 1,2-3.2,2-4. “Then the LORD answered me and said:
Write down the vision clearly upon the tablets, so that one can read it
readily. For the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will
not disappoint; If it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be
late.”
From then on I've been writing daily reflections that can be
read by everybody and to my surprise it has become integrated in my daily
activities. As time and days go by, a lot of things started to unfold before
me, most especially the enormous message contained in that prophecy in
Habakkuk. This has given me inspiration and joy to continue doing it.
Definitely God is not asking us to resort to some extreme or out of this world
act. The emphasis is on the importance of following the commandments of God and
doing what we've got to do. We need not wait any longer and see any further for
God wants us to start paying attention to His commandments and apply it in our
very own lives in order to make a return for all the good He has done. There
are times when we just have to ignore what other people may say or think and
continue in the belief that we are God's people and have to be obedient in what
He has asked us to do and stay loyal to Him no matter what the cost is. We've
got to make things very clear for us. Sometimes we insist on doing things our
way and more often than not we end up in trouble. It's about time we realize
that there is no other way but the Lord's way. We get the impression that if we
do one good thing for the Lord then the rest of our actions are already covered
and justified. Well, that's what the enemy wants us to think so we can go on
doing our own thing without much care whether is it really pleasing to God or
not. Our God is perfectly and wholly good in every aspect and we can't expect
Him to yield to a partly good and bad child. Because He loves us, we need to be
disciplined in order for us to straighten up. There is this Catholic convert
who was raised in the belief that the Catholic Church is the whore of Babylon . When he
encountered for the first time listening to the Palestrina, he said that it
doesn't sound like it came from hell and sounded much more like what the angels
sound in heaven. When he visited for the first time, St. Patrick's Cathedral in
New York City , he figured that the whore of Babylon could not be
something this beautiful. He realized and understood that there could not be
such a disconnection of what could be so beautiful and what is good and true.
He could find all of these elements of goodness, beauty and truth in the
Catholic church and what eventually brought him to the faith. The beauty that
the faith produces is something that shines throughout more than 2000 years of
the Church. We are not supposed to engage in a battle that is not destined to
win at all. If we know that we are losing in the first place why pursue it?
There are so many battles in life that we have to face everyday but there is no
need to fight them all. It is not about us but about God. The only guarantee
that we are going to win it through and through is to be sure first which side
we are on and make sure that it is God's side. Let our words coincide with our
work and action so that men will see and become convinced that we are God's
obedient people. Sometimes we say one thing and mean something else. If we can
confuse, convince and win people over to our side then we are definitely wrong
if we think that we can do the same with God or even get away with it. If
there's something we should be doing with our life then that is to be upright
before the Lord first and foremost and everything will follow. It is not wise
to gain the admiration of men at the expense of losing the approval of God.
Nothing else matters more than being upright in the eyes of God. No matter how
difficult things may seem to be at present we can always count on God at all
times. The Lord hears our cries and supplications. He knows and sees all and He
will surely make things right for us. No matter what happens to us we can
always be assured of a God who will always look after us and will make sure
that we are not taken advantage of. If God is for us, who can be against us? If
we respond to His call and faithfully follow His precepts and be the person He
has meant us to be then we are assured of His saving power. There are moments in our life when things happen to us and
we feel that God is touching us in a special way. It seems so obvious that God
is speaking to us in a variety of ways through our situations and
circumstances. Today’s psalm reading tells us something very specific. It says
that God will not just make us feel that we can somehow conclude that He is
trying to communicate something to us but really show and demonstrate to the
upright His saving power. There will always be times when we seem to not
know where to go. No matter how difficult our situations may be, God will never
leave us groping in the dark. All we have to do is to really take into serious
consideration the words in today's psalm reading. The present civilization is
in decline. There is so much moral decline and decay going on around us. The
solution can be found in the psalm today. We have to have self discipline and
will power to put a stop to the atheistic society that is on the rise. We need
to become an active participant of the on going seminar for self restraint to
control our appetites. To not pursue our own selfish good but the common good
in order to rebuild our society and witness the saving power of God. Amen.
Hallelujah!
Psalms 50:8-9, 16-17, 21, 23
R: To the upright I will show the saving power of God....“Why do you recite my statutes, and profess my covenant with your mouth, 17 though you hate discipline and cast my words behind you?” (R) 21 “When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it? Or do you think that I am like yourself? I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes. 23 He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me; and to him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God.”
We should always maintain a humble spirit and heart before
God. Only God knows what's going on inside our minds and hearts. He will always
lift up those who trust in Him. Let us offer to God all our brokenness and downtrodden
selves and He will be the one to lift us out of it. God loves everybody but
more so those who are being oppressed.
Do not despair. If we sometimes feel that life is so unfair and things
have become so unfortunate that nothing or no one can help us then still be
thankful that we've arrived in this situation for God who sees all things will
definitely not allow such injustice and will surely uphold what is right and
the truth. It is not enough that we follow and obey without understanding.
There is a need to know our motivations and intentions in doing something. We
should live by example. It is not enough that we claim to be good Christians
for there is something more to that than just being called one but to live like
one is another and most important at that. God's persistent reminder to
constantly hear the word of God must compel us to really put it in our hearts
and minds and drive us to act on it. There are so many points to consider in
life. There are various faces and appearances that seem to present a certain
thing but could bring about an entirely different or opposite thing. Just like
in today's gospel, how could one thing mean something and bring about the
opposite. It's all a mystery and behind all of it is a God who can make all
things beautiful. He is able to bring about good things even in the most
unlikely situations when we least expect it. In the gospel Jesus addressed the
scribes and the Pharisees, He compliments but criticizes strongly. The
Pharisees represent the lay party and the priesthood the Sadducees. At the time
of Jesus during the Roman rule, they figured the way to peace is through
adaptation. The houses of priests are decorated just as the Romans, as in Pompeii and very much
like it. They had identified themselves with the oppressive dominant culture
and though they kept some Jewish law they denied judgment, heaven, hell, and
eternity. On the other hand, the Pharisees or the lay counteract the way
priests are living. They had 2 principles, to take the rules of ritual purity so
that the laity would be pure as they offer sacrifices like a kingdom of priests
as in Exodus 19:6 “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. That
is what you must tell the Israelites."
The people of Israel
is a kingdom of priests and they put a fence around the law so that no one
would break the law. An example is “Thou shall not use the Lord’s name in vain”
In order to make sure they don’t break the law, no one is allowed to say the
Lord’s name. A death penalty is given to those who break it. This is precisely
the oral tradition that our Lord is talking about in the gospel. The Pharisees
were not helping people live the law because they didn’t practice it themselves
and made life complicated. In Chorazin, there was a seat of Moses for the Rabbi,
which symbolizes the authority to teach in the synagogue. The Lord said pay
attention to what they teach but don’t do what they do. One of the things they
were being criticized for is pride and arrogance. Jesus warns us against that
vice especially for religious people although not so much for the people
outside. Church people just like us can try to show that we are holy so that
people would compliment us and they would think that we’re religious and others
are not. This is a constant problem for religious people at all levels, whether
laity or the priesthood. The devil will try to tempt us with whatever works, if
we’re not religious he can use things of the flesh to tempt us, but if we are
religious then he can tempt us with our pride and change it into something
spiritual. It is impossible to detect pride in ourselves. People around us will
know so it’s important to pay attention to what they say to us so that so we
learn from it. It is too difficult to detect a vice on our own because it is
easier to detect it in other people or to listen to what other people say.
Jesus mentions about those who widen their phylacteries and lengthen their
tassels. Jewish men wear a phylactery which is a small leather box that they
wear on their forehead and one on their left arm as in Deut 6:8, Bind them at
your wrist as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead. They took it literally as a part of the way
to obey the law. They made it really big so to show people that they are more
pious than others and because it is bigger they stand out more than them. The
tassel is a sign of royalty in the ancient times. Jewish men wear this to show
that they are a kingdom of priests for God. They even tie 613 knots in the
tassel which represents one tie for every 613 laws as a sign of obeying the
entire commandment. Jesus wears a tassel Himself if we can recall the woman who
touched the tassel of Jesus and got healed. He’s not against it, but feeding
the pride is the issue. He mentioned not to be called Rabbi or teacher which is
important in this context because at that time there were different rabbis that
start various sects called a House. They are rival sects of Pharisees and
disagree among themselves which can be found in the collection of Rabbinic
sayings, the Mishnah. What He is speaking about here is that we may not call
anyone a Rabbi for He did not want us to be divided. Oneness is an important
virtue that He commends among His disciples. He did not want Christianity to be
divided and wanted us to submit to the oneness of the Church. Humility is the
antidote to the pride as He said that the least is the greatest. We have to
keep in mind the division among the Pharisees is the underlying reason for this
restriction of why they should not be called rabbi or father. In Corinthians,
Paul insists on being called a Father because he preaches to them. There is
nothing wrong with it because he knows that the real work is done by the Holy
Spirit and he is part of a community and known as a spiritual father but not in
the sense of a father that Christ is speaking of in the gospel like sects which
is something that we’re not supposed to do. Christ calls us to respond out of
the ordinary and set things right. All of us need to have the sense to rid
ourselves of religious pride. The readings call us to humility. It does not
mean putting ourselves down but rather saying the truth about ourselves, not
more not less. Pride is looking down at other people who are below us. We need
to think of it in a way that when we look down on people, Christ hits us at the
back of the head. We better just look up at people. When we are
looking up at the skies, we feel small, so how much more would we feel looking
up to God. That’s when we realize what humility is all about. We see our
sinfulness and smallness in reference to God, which is the antidote to our
pride. If we do, then Christ will save us and bring us to the joys of heaven.
Amen. Hallelujah!
Matthew 23:1-12
1 Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 saying,
“The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. 3
Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not
follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice. 4 They tie up
heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will
not lift a finger to move them. 5 All their works are performed to be seen.
They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. 6 They love places of
honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues, 7 greetings in marketplaces,
and the salutation ‘Rabbi.’ 8 As for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’ You have
but one teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 Call no one on earth your father;
you have but one Father in heaven. 10 Do not be called ‘Master’; you have but
one master, the Christ. 11 The greatest among you must be your servant. 12
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be
exalted.”
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