Let us not harbor any ill feelings, negative thoughts and
guilt in us. It is a very heavy burden that we are needlessly carrying along
with us. We may not be fully aware of it but these things are going to pull us
down if not abruptly then gradually. Before we even know it we are already
stuck in the mud of this vicious and malicious deception of the enemy. Let us always maintain a good disposition no
matter how difficult and wearisome our situations are. Whatever painful or hard
situations we are going through right now is just part of God's plan to bring
out the best in us. If we stay in faith and turn away from sin with a firm and
good heart then we will surely see the path of the Lord very clearly before us.
The East San Gabriel/Pomona Valley Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women
District Meeting (ACCW) was a very rewarding and productive experience because
the speakers were all good. Sister Rose Marie Tulacz of the Sisters of Notre
Dame gave a talk entitled, "A Future Full of Hope: Growing Spiritually in
a Time of Scarcity and Lack" She said that we should always bring to God
all our burdens and sufferings most especially during the time of consecration
during the mass. Jesus has the power to transform us and make us better and not
bitter persons. She said that when Jesus came to this world, He did not talk
about being rich, famous and powerful rather he talked about the poor and
simple and becoming better through it all. In her prayer she said, "God
open the door that You want us to walk through, close the door that You don't
want us to walk through and place us in the center of Your will.” In today’s 1st
reading, we are called in this conclusion of the Book of Hosea to respond to
God’s love. It is a calling to all people to a change of heart as it says,
Return, O Israel, to the LORD, your God; you have collapsed through your guilt.
Though, it speaks of a golden age of God’s love for His people to heal their
defection, love them freely and the beauty of this time that is to come. As we
look at our world today we see so many things that cause sorrow. We are assured
from today’s 1st reading that a Christian revolution is emerging
which is changing without any noise to build a civilization of love. It will
change the minds and hearts of people from a culture of death to a culture of
life and love. Amen. Hallelujah!
Hosea 14:2-10
2 Thus says the LORD: Return, O Israel, to the LORD, your
God; you have collapsed through your guilt. 3 Take with you words, and return
to the LORD; Say to him, “Forgive all iniquity, and receive what is good, that
we may render as offerings the bullocks from our stalls. 4 Assyria
will not save us, nor shall we have horses to mount; We shall say no more, ‘Our
god,’ to the work of our hands; for in you the orphan finds compassion.” 5 I
will heal their defection, I will love them freely; for my wrath is turned away
from them. 6 I will be like the dew for Israel:
he shall blossom like the lily; He shall strike root like the Lebanon cedar, 7 and put forth his
shoots. His splendor shall be like the olive tree and his fragrance like the Lebanon
cedar. 8 Again they shall dwell in his shade and raise grain; They shall
blossom like the vine, and his fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon. 9 Ephraim! What more has
he to do with idols? I have humbled him, but I will prosper him. “I am like a
verdant cypress tree” — Because of me you bear fruit! 10 Let him who is wise
understand these things; let him who is prudent know them. Straight are the
paths of the LORD, in them the just walk, but sinners stumble in them.
Organizing all my daily reflections since 2007
made it easier for me to locate and retrieve them. I have found it very
rewarding and beneficial. It has given me the opportunity to access with ease,
the insights and reflections I wrote in the past. Thus paving the way to
recall, reflect, and share it again. In light of the readings today I am
reminded of Fr. Alex Amayin, the associate priest in St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.
His talk was about reconciliation which is very much in line with the 1st &
psalm readings for today. It was centered on 4 things which is 1. SIN 2. GRACE
3. FORGIVENESS 4. RECONCILIATION. He said that the 1st 3 are all a reality but
#4 is only a possibility. There is no doubt that SIN happens but the GRACE of
God is always present and available for us even before we ask for FORGIVENESS.
When we ask FORGIVENESS, God is always ready to give it. RECONCILIATION
calls us to true conversion. We should always find our way back to God and
never doubt His mercy. He cited the example of a snake and caterpillar since
both of them undergoes conversion. The snake sheds off its old skin but comes
out the same while the caterpillar emerges into a butterfly. We can either
choose to be the snake or the caterpillar. Take your pick. It is important that
we always maintain a clean heart and a steadfast spirit so that we are
constantly in God's presence. It's not that God loves us any less, no matter
what we do, He will always love us. It's just that a Holy and Loving God can
not dwell in an impure heart and spirit. The sacred heart of Jesus should be
our model and guide as we strive to live out the call to be a genuine follower
of God. “When we open our heart to the love of God and to others, it makes us
capable of shaping history according to God’s plan.” - said Pope John
Paul II. In His fourth apparition to St. Margaret Mary, our Lord revealed His
Sacred Heart, declaring: "Behold this Heart which has so loved men that it
spared nothing, even going so far as to exhaust and consume Itself, to prove to
them Its love.” The center of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the
Enthronement of the image of the Sacred Heart in the home. By the Enthronement
of the Sacred Heart, we link the tabernacle of our parish church to our home,
inviting our Lord to be our constant and most intimate companion. The
Enthronement is a way of life. It means that Christ is King of our hearts, and
we desire Him to be present with us always. In other words, by the Enthronement
we signify our desire to make our hearts and our homes holy, to sanctify our
lives in every aspect. God will not refuse nor turn His back on us if we are
truly sorry for our sins and are willing to mend our ways. Let us not be so
naive into thinking that we can get away with anything and cheat God. Let us be
fair and truly square in dealing with things that concern not just our future
but our eternal destiny. Whether it's heaven or hell, we would have to decide
for that not God. If we choose to do evil then we are surely headed where it's
bound but if we remain faithful to God and all that He represents then we are
headed to a place prepared for us by God in heaven. We are sure to go where our
hearts lead us. The problem is that there is a great propaganda out there. It
makes sin appear with all its fun, excitement and glamour. It makes virtue
appear boring, lame, bland and unexciting. But the truth of the matter is, it’s
not. The pleasures that God created in this world are enjoyed the most by those
who don’t abuse them and use it simply. Who do we think enjoys food most? The
person who doesn’t know how to fast and engorges all the time or a person after
a fast experiences a feast? The virtuous person enjoys life the most. The
person who uses creation and all things according to God’s plan enjoys it the
most. It is because pleasure is God’s idea. All the good things in the world
that people want are God’s idea. Satan can’t invent even one bit of
pleasure. But God commands them to be used so that it leads to life and a
part of life is joy. The way to enjoy life is to follow God’s commands. 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. Let us always ask God's
mercy for our sins and repent of it. The Lord said that He is not sent for the
well but for the sick. We have a disease in our souls that if left uncared for
can cause death. We all have a terminal disease called sin, we need a doctor to
give us advice. 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 go to God who is our Divine
Physician to be healed. He alone can make us whole. God's presence in our lives
is inevitable just like the coming of dawn before the break of day and if we
have mastered the art of loving back God then we become a pleasing sacrifice
before Him. And in his good pleasure makes us prosper, then we find ourselves
rebuilding the walls of our boundaries as we expand our borders. It is of prime
importance that we take extra care in attending not only to our temporal needs
but our spiritual as well. We have this mindset that it pleases God whenever He
sees us going through hardships and difficulties in life. We tend to equate God
to an oppressing tyrant that would pin us down for every wrong move. Or worst
to a slave driver that would not be satisfied unless his subjects exhaust all
their strength to his service. The people during the time in the Old Testament
could borrow a good excuse for having this kind of mindset because Jesus has
not come yet. We who live in this time of the New Testament do not have a good
alibi because God already demonstrated the greatest expression of His love for
mankind when He sacrificed His only begotten son, Jesus, to suffer and die for
our sake. With this truth always engraved in our hearts and minds we could no
longer harbor wrong impressions and mindsets of our God. Whenever a particular
human right is being violated certain activist groups passionately rally to
defend such right that is in question. What about the right of God? We are so
concerned about our own personal agenda and we fail to realize that we need to
address it more than anything else. According to Pope Benedict XVI, Jus Divinum
is the right of God which constitutes the proper and correct response of God’s
creatures such as man to his Creator. This we ought to realize and take action.
We should do all the good that we are supposed to do to a God who created us. There is something more to what we
see, hear and feel about people. We really couldn't judge a book by its cover.
It's in knowing what is hidden in the heart that we can truly say for sure what
is real. But who can see through our hearts? Nobody but God alone. What is
unknown and hidden from us, God knows. We may be able to hide from men but
never from God. We can only pray to God to create in us a clean heart. For
where our treasure is, there also will be our hearts. This should all be our
prayer, “Change me Oh God, mold me in accordance to your pattern and plan and
not mine” Dirt stain in clothes sometimes doesn't want to come off even after
several times it has been machine washed. There are really some dirt and stain
that do not go away that easily with regular washing. There is a need to scrub
it manually with soap and water so that it will come out clean. Our souls are
just like clothes which are stainable by our sins. It is a consolation to know
that our sins are washable in the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. We can always
come to Him and acknowledge our sins with a sincere and repentant heart so He
can cleanse us, wipe out our offenses and blot out all our guilt. There is
nothing that could separate us from the love of God. Let us not be deceived nor
dissuaded to believe otherwise. Just like clothes that need to be washed after
being worn and got dirty so our souls need to be cleansed too by the blood of
the Lamb. God’s love ever present in the body and blood of Christ is always
present and available for us. All we need to do is reach out for it because God
is a gentleman and would never force Himself on us. There has always been a
raging battle between God and satan. Though it has already been won, satan just
won’t give up. He continues to wreak havoc and evil among us in his desperation
to bring misery into our lives and share in his condemnation. He doesn’t have
the tiniest power over us and he can only have it if and only if we give in to
his lies, deceptions and false promises. We need to make this conscious
decision each and every single day for the Lord. We need to purge ourselves of
the impurities of our souls we have to go through a certain process that will
render us with a clean heart. As we strive to nurture a heart that beats for
God alone we also go through a process of cleansing as stated in the psalm
today. God's mercy is greater than any of our sins. If we are to repent and
turn away from our sins then we've got to do it right now and really do it
fast. God sees through our hearts, our motives and intentions. What God wants
of us is to truly acknowledge His great mercy and goodness to us that in doing
so will abound a natural inclination to repent and repair all our iniquities
and lead to a brand new, wholesome and clean Christian in the truest sense of
the word. We need to stand in all humility before God and confess our sins. The
body and soul are good but it demands a need for physical asceticism. We have
to submit our bodies to an act of sacrifice without neglecting that conversion
is first of all interior. Total conversion demands not only expression in works
of penance but also of the heart. God is able to do anything. All the more
should we be full of confidence that He can create a clean heart and steadfast
spirit for us if we truly ask for it. God our Father will never turn His back
on us. Let us get this straight, it is the sin that God hates and not the
sinner. If we are in sin then that's the time we drive away God's Holy Spirit
dwelling in us for it is impossible for God's presence to exist with sin. It's
our call then to respond to the psalm's invitation to rise and go to God or
remain slumped in the mud of sin. Our God will always be the best Father a
child could ever have, the best Brother/Friend and the best Comforter and Guide
all in one. Bottom line, to Him alone shall we go because we don't know that
much and if we don’t then we end up doing one of these things, take for
granted, ignore, forget or neglect the things God is telling us to do. What's
worse it could be all of the above! We get blinded and become preoccupied with
a lot of things that lure us away from doing what God wants us to do. We are
deceived into believing all the lies of this world disguised and packaged by
the enemy in an inviting and convincing truth. We should realize that it is
always for our own good that He commands us to do the right thing. It is not
merely to impose but for us to freely decide for a life lived to the full.
There is no other way to maintain the Holy Spirit dwelling in us but to let it
reside in a clean heart. We drive away God's Spirit in us if we don't
strive to let our hearts remain clean. Today's psalm is a song that I have come
to know and sing by heart without the aid of a song book. I always love to sing
it and hear it being sung most especially by the choir during mass. It is well
for us to not just love to sing it with our voices but with the sincerity of
our hearts. The words "take not your Holy Spirit from me" made me
realize that God has the power to give and take. The thought of the Holy Spirit
being taken away from us is the worst thing that could ever happen. If we don't
feel God's presence in our life anymore and we've become numb and insensitive
to the promptings and guidance of the Holy Spirit then now is the time to reconnect
and realign ourselves to God's Spirit most especially during this Lenten
season. It is important that we always maintain a clean heart and a steadfast
spirit so that we are constantly in the God's presence. It's not that God loves
us any less, no matter what we do He will always love us. It's just that a Holy
and Loving God can not dwell in an impure heart and spirit. It is of
prime importance that we take extra care in attending not only to our temporal
needs but our spiritual as well. Amen. Hallelujah!
Psalm 51:3-4, 8-9, 12-13, 14, 17R: My mouth will declare
your praise.
1 [3] Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the
greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. 2[4] Thoroughly wash me from
my guilt and of my sin cleanse me. (R) 10
[12] A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within
me. 11 [13] Cast me not out from your presence, and your Holy Spirit take not
from me.
God is indeed talking to us personally in each and every
situation we have. The gospel reminded me of two wonderful homilies that I
heard on a Christmas day. The first priest said something unexpected almost like a
paradox. He said that there is no argument and doesn't discount the fact that
Jesus is the true reason for the season but he emphasizes
that God is madly in love with us for Him to take the form of man to be with us
which therefore makes us the reason for the season. He came in the most humble
way a King could ever have not even in an inn that could at least keep him warm
and comfortable but in a manger housed together with the farm animals.
Gathering from this point of view I should say without a doubt that we are
indeed the reason for the season. For God humbled himself and took the form of
man to show us the way. There is no wonder why there is a sudden shift from the
festive mood of the gospel for Christmas to the grim reality of this
world in today's gospel. There is a need for us to look beyond the
season and live it farther down the road of life persevering to the end. It
was on a Christmas eve when I read a
very bad medical report of a loved one. It was just so consoling that
immediately the Lord assured me in the homily of the priest the following day
which was Christmas day when I heard him say the very words which I have been
holding on to as if my life depended on it. He said that there is no reason to
be afraid. God can turn our fears into hope and joy. He takes delight in His
people for Him to take the form of man to be with us. What a way to demonstrate
that awesome and reckless love of God for man that He allowed Himself to go
this far and even much farther to a cross in Calvary.
This is something we should all treasure in our hearts. This is also coupled
with another miracle in the recovery of an uncle from an auto immune disease
which rendered him paralyzed at about the same time I found out about the
worsening condition of another loved one. He has recovered and could now walk
by himself. What an assuring God we have that there is really nothing more we
can do but focus on Him who alone can save us in all our distress. Though the
grim reality of this world is undeniably present among us and continues to
assail us as highlighted in today's gospel in the form of a warning to all of
us. We have to persevere to the end and never lose heart, for only the
steadfast will finish the race and win the crown of salvation. There is a need
for us to look beyond our fears and live with hope and joy persevering to the
end. Whatever we are going through, it could be something that we are presently
enjoying or suffering at the moment, we need to keep in mind that all things
will soon come to pass. Not a single thing in this world will remain, as the
scriptures say, “Heaven and earth will fail but God’s words will still remain.” These things we need to be aware and
completely confident of because we are facing a lot of challenges in life and
we need to make decisions and choices with regards to it. How many times have
we experienced waiting and getting ready for something but due to some delays
we started to lose patience and wonder if it’s going to come at all. Or we
began to be preoccupied with other things that we’ve lost our focus. We start
off with wonderful beginnings but not a happy ending. When we begin to conform
to values of this world and start to forget who we really are and what we are
called for then the worst happens. God is the author of our life and He has
written for us a wonderful beginning and it’s all up to us to live it towards
its beautiful ending by walking down the path that the Lord Himself prepared
for us. He has loved and respected us so much that He has given us our free
wills. At the final hour, nothing we did in the past whether it’s good and
noble would ever count if we have fallen into the enemy’s trap because only the
one who perseveres and endures to the end will be saved. This is the only
winning chance of satan, to lure us into that situation as his only and last
ditch effort. We have already been saved and this status of continuously being
saved until we breathe our last depends solely on us. Whether we allow
ourselves to be duped by the enemy or treasure this everlasting gift from God
is completely up to us. Amen. Hallelujah!
Matthew 10:17-22
17 Jesus said to his disciples: “Beware of people, for they
will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, 18 and you
will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and
the pagans. 19 When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak
or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say.
20 For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking
through you. 21 Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his
child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. 22 You
will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be
saved.”
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