I could never forget when I went jogging at the grounds of the Pacific Palms
Hotel where I came across someone who was also jogging with his 2 dogs. I was
really impressed to see that his dogs were not on a leash and simply jogging
along his side without straying away from him. They looked so disciplined and
focused on their master. I really love the way they look. The man was just
jogging and looking straight ahead while his dogs jogged close to his side and
was looking at him from time to time as if making sure that they don't miss a
single thing from their master. This is the first time I have seen something
like this and to think that it was an open space where they could easily ran
off. I guess, these dogs were really trained and have developed a deep trust in
their master's voice and command. I have seen many dog lovers and we would just
be amazed to see how they love and care for their pets. It may sound outrageous
but sometimes it went as far as the extraordinary to the point of exceeding the
love and care a person would give to another human being. Come to think of it,
if this is possible then how come we humans can not even be as half obedient to
God the way a lowly dog is to its master. Humans rank as the topmost creature
in the hierarchy of God's creation. In fact the bible says in Psalm 8:5-7 What
are humans that you are mindful of them, mere mortals that you care for them?
Yet you have made them little less than a god, crowned them with glory and
honor. You have given them rule over the works of your hands, put all things at
their feet and in Psalm 139:14 I praise you, so wonderfully you made me;
wonderful are your works! My very self you knew; my bones were not hidden from
you, When I was being made in secret, fashioned as in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes foresaw my actions; in your book all are written down; my days were shaped,
before one came to be. Let us not just know this bible passage but proclaim it
with dignity and conviction knowing that we should live up to who God made us
to be. Jeremiah reminds us today that we ought to follow God's commands. He
even reminded us of the day His people left the land of Egypt Egypt . Each of
the plagues were all attached to Egyptian deities like frogs and flies. By
using these plagues God has clearly demonstrated His power to defeat Egypt and showed that their gods is
not god at all. We should not be lacking in understanding how great the power
of God is and finally come to our senses that our faith should rely on the one
true God alone. Amen. Hallelujah!
Jeremiah 7:23-28
23 Thus says the LORD: This is what I commanded my people: Listen to my voice;
then I will be your God and you shall be my people. Walk in all the ways that I
command you, so that you may prosper. 24 But they obeyed not, nor did they pay
heed. They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts and turned their backs,
not their faces, to me. 25 From the day that your fathers left the land of
Egypt even to this day, I have sent you untiringly all my servants the
prophets. 26 Yet they have not obeyed me nor paid heed; they have stiffened
their necks and done worse than their fathers. This is the nation which does
not listen to the voice of the LORD, its God, or take correction. Faithfulness
has disappeared; the word itself is banished from their speech.
Today's psalm reading is used as a preparatory psalm in the
Liturgy of the Hours just as it was used in the Old Testament. Each time we
hear it, there is an emphasis to the fact that is just the same as it is
proclaimed today. During the time of Moses there had been an incident of great
rebellion and testing on the part of the chosen people of God. The same message
is being said to us because there is a possibility that we also harden our
hearts today. Massah means rebellion and Meribah means testing. It refers to
the time they rebel when they had no water. Moses struck the stone in the desert
and water came out. We can read in Numbers 13 when Moses sent out spies to
check out the promise land and when they returned in Numbers 14 they were full
of discouragement. They came back and reported that the Land of Canaan Canaan .
But the people believed the spies and concluded that it’s impossible to
overcome these barriers. They wanted to choose new leaders and kill Moses &
Aaron and go back to slavery in Egypt .
Due to their unbelief the whole generation never entered Canaan
only the new generation with both Joshua & Caleb did. The goal is to enter
into rest in the land of Canaan but they refused because they believed their
fears rather than believe what they’ve already seen in God’s miracles in Egypt . Psalm 95
is used so often in the Liturgy of the Hours and encourages us how today we
must listen well. They do not just apply to the people in Numbers 13 & 14.
It also applies to the Church and we consider ourselves the New Israel. Let God
call us to attention. We don’t have to fall back to the same sin of disbelief.
No matter how hard the world makes us do so. The Church is beginning to
experience persecution. Today we have to keep in mind what God already said in
the past especially as we hear the words of His Son today. Jesus Himself gives
us a greater authority than the prophets and the angels. When we look at our
day, there are a number of strains that we have to alert ourselves. There are New Age beliefs that everything is
God including the forces of nature. It is moving towards the act of
depersonalizing God by a vague force. It clouds the truth of God the Father,
God the Son & God the Spirit. There is this New Age notion vs. the Christian
notion of God. The catch here is the fact that there are no demands upon the
faithful to be obedient. A hardened heart is equivalent to disobedience. There
is no longer a clear distinction about the truths of the faith. It's just a
matter of loving nature and taking care of the environment. No other demands
like obeying the 10 commandments. The truth is not existent with the New Age.
They water down the Person of Jesus and lead others to disbelieve in Him.
Certain scholars deny Him as a historical figure or is believed that He had a
wife as depicted in the fictitious Da Vinci Code. These are all things that are
far from the authentic gospel. The image of Jesus is being shaped to imitate
our worst moments and sins. It makes him appear like He is no better than we
are and attack His moral character. It is an act of impunity to God’s character
as if He is just a character of fiction. It looks like God is on the dock as C.
S. Lewis put it. Instead of us being on trial, God appears to be the one who’s
on trial. Let us not fall into this kind of thinking nor continue in our lack
of faith or let anything shake our faith. Some dogs are amazing in their
ability to show devotion and faithfulness although they do not even measure up
to the dignity and standing of human beings they are capable of obeying their
master with so much love and respect.
This should make us realize all the more can we do it and a whole lot
better than that. We have to make a decision to be with Christ. God is the Good
Shepherd. He will not scatter but draw people to holiness, righteousness and
goodness. How can we be lost or led astray? There are things we need to do if
we want to be under the care of the Good Shepherd, listen to His voice, follow
His guiding hand and stay within the circle of the flock He tends. The truth is
that we should never have any doubts about our decisions for as long as we know
that it is all for the glory of God first and foremost and everything else will
follow. We have this faith and confidence in God as in Philippians 4:6-8,
"Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with
thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that
surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just,
whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any
excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these
things." When someone speaks to us we sometimes ignore, refuse to listen,
simply pretend that we haven't heard anything or misunderstood what we heard
because we are too distracted or busy to give time to listen well. Let us
always open our hearts and mind so that we become sensitive to the voice of God
talking to us. Surely there were times
when we heard and experienced the voice of God giving us “out of this world”
instructions and we responded nonchalantly as if we never heard anything,
refused outright and rejected it. If before we just choose to do it whichever
way we wanted it without much thought from now on let us respond to God in the
best way we can with hearts full of love and obedience. When we grumbled and
complained we all know for a fact that it didn't make things any better. We
would have to practice more and make perfect the art of trusting and hearing
God's voice. God is never short of anything. God is God and He will always be.
Let us no longer confuse ourselves with the inaccuracies and discrepancies of
our human hearts and minds. Let us keep it focused on Him who is Holy and
Perfect. Let us all acculturate ourselves to the Kingdom of God
Psalms 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9
R: If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
...For he is our God, and we are the people he shepherds,
the flock he guides. (R) Oh, that today you would hear his voice: 8 “Harden not
your hearts as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the desert, 9 where your
fathers tempted me; they tested me though they had seen my works.”
There is no neutral or middle thing for the Lord. It is
either we are with Him all the way without any exceptions or we are against
Him. We could not choose to divide our loyalty because it will only destroy us
in the process. It's like we are in a battle and our full strength and
cooperation is needed to keep our defenses up or we end up losing it and
captured by the enemy. We've got to make a clear stand by now in all areas and
aspects of our life whether big or small and from the least to the most
important or significant. We have to be aware of the fact that what we are
dealing with here is a "no fuss and beat around the bush thing". We
have to know on which side we are in and really go for it. Exorcism of demons
is part of Jesus’ ministry. In today's gospel people were amazed at how Jesus
was able to cast out evil spirits. These various evil gods and demons are a
real presence at the time of Jesus and appear to rule even in the ancient
world. The crowd is looking for a sign and they have seen enough to bring them
to amazement but with it go together, the blindness and the hardness of the
heart. This is a perennial problem when people see what God is trying to do but
because of the hardness of heart it just won’t sink in. We have to examine our
conscience and should ask ourselves what are the signs of the presence of God
in our life. How are we paying attention or listening to the signs that God
gives us. This is the call of today’s readings. Christ answered His critics in
the gospel that every kingdom divided against itself will be laid to waste. Is
satan divided against itself? Do we think that satan will tolerate a civil
disobedience in his kingdom? The answer of course is that satan is not divided
against itself, he won’t tolerate that. He will terrorize and make people
absolutely frightened to make them follow his bidding. This is satan's way. As
God works in His mercy, satan operates through terror. Who are we
imitating? There is no doubt that God
can defeat Satan and has already shown this since time immemorial to all
generations. Jesus' ability to cast out
demons is similar to God casting out the power of Egypt . Christ is using the power of
God to liberate his people. He is the new Moses. He is doing a great liberation
from delivering us from satan and sin. Like the multiplication of the loaves
and the manna from heaven. Christ is leading and invading the power of evil and
bringing the kingdom of God into the presence of this darkness, to Israel and the
whole world to gain freedom of the demonic. In His short parable in the gospel
he likened a strong man and his army to satan and his devils. He controlled
people’s lives and continue to debilitate and deform human nature. We are made
in the image and likeness of God but he distorts this image because that’s his
goal. There are other ways he does this, through violence and any of the
capital sins. He uses the lust industry and distorts human love. This demonic
distortion is what Christ wants to conquer. The violence, oppression, anger,
lust and the capital sins are all part of the distortion but Jesus has overcome
and the forces of evil are defeated. He can take souls away from the clutches
of evil but He sets a challenge for us. He said that whoever is not with me is
against me. We see so many forces of the anti Christ in the world today through
violence, avarice and sex which are very rampant. They are the demonic devices
and ways which the evil one works. We should make a decision to always be for
Christ and not compromise with the enemy. Satan is considered as one of the
major obstacles of the Kingdom but we need to know that not everything is due
to Satan's evil schemes. We are reminded that there is also the human
intervention like personal ambition, attitude, ignorance and arrogance of
people who are supposed to be models of faith but turned out to be the
obstacles themselves. Testing the spirit if it is of God’s or not is very
important. We should always remember the WWJD (What would Jesus do?)principle.
We are God's temple and we have to make sure that we are well protected or else
someone is going to take over us. We take note in 1 Peter 5:8 it is written, Be
sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring
lion looking for (someone) to devour. If we are not careful with the way we
live our life before we know it we have already been conquered and defeated. We
have a very cunning and deceitful adversary who is always on the lookout for an
opportunity to attack us in the most discreet and unsuspecting way. If our
enemy is this determined then we too have to get our acts together. We must not
lose heart for we have a company of angels and saints that are surrounding us.
We should remain confident that no other battalion or army can defeat the
entire legion of angels and saints of God in heaven. They are on our side to
guard and defend us. We should feel great knowing that we have a loving God who would move heaven and earth for our sake. We just got to be very
clear on which side we are. Are we for or against God, there is no in between.
Our action will speak for itself. Amen. Hallelujah!
Luke 11:14-23
14 Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute, and when the
demon had gone out, the mute person spoke and the crowds were amazed. 15 Some
of them said, “By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out
demons.” 16 Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven. 17 But he
knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself
will be laid waste and house will fall against house. 18 And if Satan is
divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that it is by
Beelzebul that I drive out demons. 19 If I, then, drive out demons by
Beelzebul, by whom do your own people drive them out? Therefore they will be
your judges. 20 But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons, then
the kingdom of God
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