Our God is incomparable for He loves us with a love greater
than any other. From the moment we were conceived in our mother's womb, even
before we were born, God already knows each one of us by name. Let us always align our will, intentions,
motives and actions with God. It is always good to check ourselves constantly
and regularly at every given opportunity. Nothing is ever wasted nor considered
useless for as long as we offer it to God. We have all been called by God for a
purpose. He already had a plan laid out for us even before we were born. We are
that special to God. Let us not forget our holy calling from God. Let us become
the man or woman God has meant us to be and live each day of our lives in
answer to this call. The readings for today continue to reflect on the Holy
Servant Songs of Jesus. The mention of being called even from a mother’s womb,
the 2 edged sword and polished arrow are symbols of God’s words. The Word that
reaches to the ends of the earth, penetrates the hearts of people and able to
separate soul and spirit. The passion
and death of our Lord Jesus is the fulfillment of prophecies more than 500
years before this event took place. It is part of the plan that God revealed to
the world. We have to develop an awareness of these things and Jesus Christ
Himself. Let us constantly build our confidence in God who never fails. There
is really nowhere else to go but to Him alone. By just looking back at our past
and present we can only come up with just one thing which is God is constantly
at work and in charge of our lives for as long as we live even unto death. Many
of our brothers and sisters all over the world suffer persecution for their
faith. This is a fundamental human right proclaimed to be enjoyed by everyone.
Religious freedom is the path to peace according to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.
It is a sacred right to have religious freedom. Without openness to the
transcendent, a human being withdraws to himself and fails to experience
authentic freedom which leads to violation of other human rights as well. This
is vital in building a just society.
Wherever religious freedom is denied human dignity is offended with a
resulting threat to justice and peace. We can not deny the assistance and
various contributions of religious communities and believers. It has proven to
be effective for the promotion of the common good. This is a force that could
not be reckoned with or the truth that we can not deny. No matter how radical
secularization tries to eliminate any reference to religion or any input the
voice of religion may have. It can not ignore the religious dimensions of a
society. This is a truth that we can not deny. Authentic religiosity is the
source of a loving approach of brothers and sister as a whole family. It has to
be freely chosen according to one’s conscience and not violently imposed. God
beckons humanity with a loving plan and calls for a free and responsible answer
that engages the whole heart. In Romans 7:19 it is written, For I do not do the good I want, but I do the
evil I do not want. Fr. Dennis gave us a sensible answer as to why St. Paul
Isaiah 49:1-6
Hear me, O coastlands, listen, O distant peoples. The LORD
called me from birth, from my mother’s womb he gave me my name. He made of me
a sharp-edged sword and concealed me in the shadow of his arm. He made me a
polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me. You are my servant, he said to me, Israel ,
through whom I show my glory. Though I thought I had toiled in vain, and for
nothing, uselessly, spent my strength, yet my reward is with the LORD, my
recompense is with my God. For now the LORD has spoken who formed me as his
servant from the womb,...
Technology has become so advanced nowadays that nothing
remains unknown for long. With the latest in probes, sensors and the like in
just one click of the computer everything is laid before us. Sometimes it just
goes too far and out of bounds and we fail to conform and align all these
innovations to the Author and Inventor of all these things. Let us not forget,
He is the source of everything there was, is and will be. In the midst of all
the trouble we're going through it is always a consolation to know that we have
a God who knows every single thing that is going on with us and He cares and
loves us a lot. For indeed in today's psalm reading is another confirmation
that God knows our deepest thoughts and longings. We should always be aware of
this undeniable truth that God's Spirit dwells in each one of us. There is no
reason to doubt what today's psalm speaks about with regards to our
relationship with our Creator. May we not forget and always remember who we are
before the eyes of God. We can never allow our flesh, things of this world and
the enemy to lure, confuse and deceive us any longer. It helps to always
remember what St. Paul
wrote in Ephesians 6:11-13, "Put on the armor of God so that you may be
able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil. For our struggle is not
with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the
world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.
Therefore, put on the armor of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil
day..." We are who we are in the
eyes of God and not what the flesh, the world and the destructive enemy wants
us to believe. We are special to God, He
calls each one of us by name. We should all value the special care and attention
that God has given to us as His most valued among all of His creation.
This reminds me of this lady who used to ask me, "How
do I look?" I would always reply, "You're beautiful." But she
would say in return, "Oh you're full of baloney" and every time I would
just laugh back at her. Eventually I got inspired to respond to her differently
when I told her that it is not baloney but it's biblical that we are all
beautiful. In fact the Tagalog translation in text message that I have received
is quite funny, it goes something like this, "Kilabot sa ganda,
nanginginig pa" (I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made;
wonderful are your works.) which is stated right here in today's psalm. As man,
we have the concupiscence or the natural inclination to the flesh, lust, greed
and pride. The perfect formula for self destruction is based on this popular
and well subscribed saying that goes like this, "If it feels good just do
it." Pope John Paul II in his book, "Splendor of Truth" said
that the power to decide what is good and evil is not within the power of man.
This is clear in the book of Genesis when He forbid our 1st parents to eat of
the fruit from the tree of good and evil. God gave us the free will and the
source of conflict came from the inability to acknowledge God as our Creator
and that only Him can define morality. Man doesn't make rules of morality, we
only discover it. The 10 commandments are an expression of God's love and the
means to have true freedom which means the ability to do what we ought to do
and not what we want to do. Catholic Morality is under attack as issues on
abortion and artificial contraception have become so liberated. We should be
firm in our stand not give in or budge an inch as we stand by the teachings of
the Church. We should all value the special care and attention that God has
given to us as His most valued among all of His creation. Our life is precious
this we know is true as stated in today's psalm. Amen. Hallelujah!
Psalm 139:1b-3, 13-14ab, 14c-15
R: I praise you for I am wonderfully made.
1 O LORD, you have probed me and you know me: 2 you know
when I sit and when I stand; you understand my thoughts from afar. 3 My
journeys and my rest you scrutinize, with all my ways you are familiar. (R) 13
Truly you have formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb. 14 I
give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made; wonderful are your
works. My soul also you knew full well; 15 nor was my frame unknown to you when
I was made in secret, when I was fashioned in the depths of the earth.
We belong to God's family. If everything is clear about this
truth then we ought to think, speak and act in accordance to it. Let us not
make of ourselves a disgrace and dishonor to the family we all belong to. Let
us uphold and carry out the prophetic, priestly and kingly ministry we have all
been given as part of this one and great family of God. May we, like David from
whom a Savior has been born become a well from which springs forth a generation
that God will surely be proud of. Let us firmly hold fast to the principles of
Catholic Morality (from our Catholicism study by Atty. Jess Moya). Morality is
defined in the dictionary as conformity to ideals of right human conduct but
based on Catholic principles is further defined as fully conformed to God and
His will, an expression of our love for God and follows the moral law. It is
clear that God has defined morality and not man. Morality is objective. It is
defined by God's revelation not subject to man's will. We are warned not to be
enticed by the tempting appearance and enticing call of this world like the
flies attracted to sugary coating of the fly paper, got trapped, unable to get
out and eventually ended up dead. In Rom
12:2, it is said that we should not conform ourselves to this age but be
transformed by the renewal of our mind, that we may discern what is the will of
God, what is good and pleasing and perfect. That is in order for us to have the
right relationship conformed with God by obeying the teachings of the church
which is an extension of the Body of Christ meaning God is with us. God has
equipped us with the totality of the means of salvation and we can overcome
anything with the grace of God and achieve true freedom and joy.
Moral law is known by human reason (Natural Moral Law) and
perfected by Divine Revelation. Divine revelation is God's way of communicating
His will to us. We submit to God's will because we are created in his
"image and likeness" (Gen.1:26-27) and our ultimate end is to be with
God. We are in this world but we are not of this world. We came from God and we
all go back to Him. That is what our life is really all about since all of us
will die someday and each day that passes should be thought of as a day closer
to God. Since our end is God we should all know how to relate with God. In John
1:12 it is said that we are the adopted children of God. We are partakers of
the divine nature of God (2Peter 1:3-4)
Morality is Universal. It applies to all people in all
places and at all times. Holiness is our objective and by doing so we should be
closely united with God. We have a higher dignity than that of the animals and
we should not degrade ourselves since man is a spiritual being. Animals do not
communicate with God only humans pray. St.
Augustine said, "Our hearts are restless until it
rests on God." We are compared to a donut which has a hole in the center
that needs to be filled in by God.
Man has the duty to educate his conscience. An uneducated
conscience can err. Everybody has to keep on forming our conscience and our
standard is the word of God and the Holy Spirit. It helps to know of the fruits
of the Holy Spirit: love, peace, joy, long suffering, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, humility and self control. The Church is the final and infallible
interpreter of moral law. This is not dependent on the kind of church ministers
we have. Law of Catholic Morality is the
purest and highest form because it comes from God. A famous man once said,
"I do not need a Church to tell me that I am wrong when I know that I am
wrong, what I need is a Church that tells me I am wrong when I think that I am
right." Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI rallies against the principle of
Moral Relativism which relies on the "it depends" justification. We
all have the "Freedom of Conscience" and we can choose to have a
good, lax or bad conscience depending on whether we will not or will adhere and
obey the teachings of the church. Another principle that almost all people of
this world fall prey into is the "Fundamental Option" which states
that if there is no specific rejection of God in my heart then there is no sin
committed. This is where the issue of a lax conscience falls. A person shapes
God according to his/her own image instead of us, humans, His creatures adjusting
to God's own image and likeness. Morality is unchangeable for God does not
change. We are obligated to conform our conscience to the will of God. There is
so much chaos and darkness prevailing in the world today because of the endless
redefining and constant injection of other beliefs into our moral values which
was long before established in the 10 commandments by Moses. And even before
Jesus came for He Himself said that He came not to abolish the law but to
fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). Amen. Hallelujah!
Acts 13:22-26
22 In those days, Paul said: “God raised up David as king;
of him God testified, ‘I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own
heart; he will carry out my every wish.’ 23 From this man’s descendants God,
according to his promise, has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus. 24 John
heralded his coming by proclaiming a baptism of repentance to all the people of
Israel ;...“My
brothers, children of the family of Abraham, and those others among you who are
God-fearing, to us this word of salvation has been sent.”
Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Nativity of John the
Baptist. We can never deny the awesome and wonderful signs that God has wrought
in the life of St. John
the Baptist from the moment he was conceived, the time of his birth until he
fulfilled the ministry and call that God has given to him. If we are to look
very closely and intently at our own lives there is no denying to the truth
that the hand of the Lord is always with us. It is up to us how we live this
truth, whether we grow and become strong in spirit like John the Baptist is a
choice we have to make. He is a well known figure in our Christian faith. We
can surely learn from his example and live out God's mission for each one of us
to its fulfillment. Amen. Hallelujah!
Luke 1:57-66, 80
...All who heard these things took them to heart, saying,
“What, then, will this child be?” For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.
80 The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the desert until
the day of his manifestation to Israel .
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