How many chances do
you think is God willing to give us? Every single day that we wake up is
another chance for all of us to claim and fight for God's promises in our
lives. There is always hope.
Amos 9: 11-15
I will bring about the restoration of my people Israel ;
they shall rebuild and inhabit their ruined cities, plant vineyards and drink
the wine, set out gardens and eat the fruits.
What a wonderful world this place that we live in could be
if only we listen to the instructions constantly being given to us in the
scriptures. We have an awesome God who always speaks to us in a very timely and
specific manner. His messages are fitted to the situation we are presently
experiencing right now. We should remain confident that God will make a way.
There is really nothing more that God can do for us that He has not done. God
is never short of blessings to shower on us. He has made it all available to us
through His Son. All that is needed is for us to make our move. Let us open
ourselves to God's presence in our lives and know that there is never a moment
in our life when He is away from us for it is always the other way around. For
we are the ones turning away from Him and placing blocks and hindrances between
us whenever we can't find Him.
We are constantly being faced by challenges to our faith
especially at this present time. It is easier to be firm in our faith when
times are easy but when tough times come that is when we are put to the test.
No matter how difficult things may seem we should never give in to the pressure
and remain steadfast. We can always choose to do the right thing if we
safeguard in our hearts the truth about God knowing that it is always for the
best. We need not be afraid of anything although this is something that we all
find very difficult to do. They say faith and reason do not work together just
like science and religion. This is not a fact but a fallacy. These things in
fact compliment each other because one supports the other. There is no faith
without reason and vice versa. We can not just have one and lack the other.
This has to be very clear in our heads. We should always try to condition
ourselves in the atmosphere of God's presence. We should gear ourselves toward
that direction so that we place ourselves within His reach, it's not that God
can not reach us but we hinder God from reaching out to us. When we do not
respond to His call and shut off our ears although we are within hearing range,
we fail to get the message. Which reminds me of Bernadette's ear, when we went
to her doctor she underwent a procedure (ear lavage) in order to unclog her
left ear but prior to that she was already instilling ear meds for 4 days. The
nurse explained to her that it can be painful and can cause her to feel dizzy
and asked her if she still wants it done and she agreed. Sometimes we have to
resort to very uncomfortable measures in order to be cured in the same way we
should maintain such condition spiritually so that we can always keep our ears
open to God's word. Wherever God is, there is always peace and prosperity. It
is only natural that we have longings and desires because God Himself planted
it in our hearts. We all long for the good things in life and God Himself can provide
for all these things. It is just sad that we reach out for other things that we
thought are good for us. We do not realize that we have to seek first the Kingdom of God
Psalm 85: 9ab and 10, 11-12, 13-14R: The Lord speaks of
peace to his people.8 [9] I will hear what God proclaims; the LORD-for he
proclaims peace. To his people, 9 [10] Near indeed is his salvation to those
who fear him, glory dwelling in our land.
God
created us with a brilliant mind and a loving heart. In today's gospel Jesus
was questioned by John's disciples, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast
(much), but your disciples do not fast?" Sometimes people question us,
too. May we think and feel just like Jesus and always be guided in the things
we say or do. May we always find ourselves justified in Jesus name. It is not
just what we see that matters but what we truly value and treasure in our
hearts. Our innermost motives and intentions should always be in line and
conformity to the values of Jesus. We may be doing one thing but may be
intending to do another, there is no unity in our actions, words and deeds when
we are just after the outward appearances and does not really mean what we are
doing. Or worse we're just doing something for the sake of just doing it
without really putting our hearts into it. We get carried away by what seems to
us as important but fail to see what's most essential. People are not blind to
all these and we can not deceive people for long or if even sometimes we can,
there is a God who knows everything. We are called to conversion and holiness.
It is helpful to take hold of the Paschal Mystery of Jesus and keep this
constantly before us. We may want to look at what’s behind the particular
mystery of Jesus’ life when He fasted and prayed in the desert for 40 days.
Immediately after His prayer and fasting, was the temptation of Jesus in which
Jesus rebuffs this attack and points to Adam & Eve’s temptation and Israel ’s journey in the desert for
40 years. There are 3 basic temptations represented. Eve was tempted to eat of
the fruit because it is pleasing to the eyes. This tempts us to greed because
it looks good to eat and can satisfy one’s self. The desires of the flesh tempt
us also to lust. It is also said that it is desirable for the knowledge so it
can give power and prods a person to pride. From the very beginning since the
fall of Adam & Eve in the garden, the devil has capitalized on these 3
things, greed, lust and pride. Even before the fall these were with us already
and the devil capitalized on it to trick Adam & Eve hence the fall. As we
can see, the devil also used these 3 basic temptations to Jesus. After fasting
for 40 days, Jesus was hungry and tempted to turn the stone to bread for
satisfaction of the flesh, which is connected to lust. The devil also told
Jesus to throw Himself off from the top of the temple since the angels would be
there to catch Him. This is the sin to get a hold of power and pride. The
devil asked Jesus to look at all the cities and offered to give Him power and
glory which is the sin to greed. As we can see these are the same 3 temptations
that Adam & Eve fell into but the devil is dumb to think that Jesus could
be tempted with the same temptations. We may also want to look at Israel ’s journey in the desert
which took them 40 years trying to get to the Promised Land. This is the
salvific meaning of Jesus’ 40 days in the desert. He is the new Adam, who
remains faithful to fulfill the promise to Israel .
He is totally obedient to the divine will and is the devil’s conqueror. He
binds satan that tricked Adam & Eve in giving into and robbing us of all
the graces we have before the fall. He takes back the plunder and anticipates
His further victory at the passion on the cross which is the supreme act of
obedience. Jesus’ temptation reveals the Son of God who is the Messiah. He is
our high priest who has been tested as we are and yet did not fall into sin.
This is the mystery that the Church wants to unite us with, Jesus in the desert
who is the same Christ who vanquished the tempter for us. We should always keep
this at the back of our minds and connect it to the mystery of Jesus at the
desert which has a two fold character. First is by recalling our baptism. What
it means to be a baptized person and what does it entail? Do we recognize that?
Second is to recognize the need for penance. Think of what we have done to
offend God. It is time to reflect at where the state of the world is heading
and the culture which we have been disposed of. It calls us to pray more
diligently and be faithful to the word of God. We should become
predisposed to a faithful reception of the graces that Christ merited on his
death on the cross. We can also observe interior penance which can best be
manifested in many ways which the scriptures insist on always. There are 3
forms, prayer, fasting and alms giving. These once again make connections to
the mystery of Christ in the desert for 40 days. These 3 forms are what every
person struggles with most of the time but can help us in many ways to fight
those 3 main temptations. Prayer expresses conversion in our relationship with
God. Alms giving make better our relationship with other people to overcome
greed and selfishness. Fasting to one’s self which is the focus for today’s
readings is to fight against lust and sensuality. It develops mastery over our
instincts and attains freedom of heart. In this way, we are recalling our
baptism as the Church unites herself to Jesus on the desert. Not to forget the
3 forms of penance which help us in conversion to fight the ancient temptations
of pride, greed and lust. Everything we do should always have a clear and
sincere intention and motivation to put Jesus in the center of it. If we find
Jesus comfortably seated, happy and very contented in the midst of our
activities just like a bridegroom on the day of his wedding then we can be
assured that we are on the right track. God has always been giving us all kinds
of reminders, be it direct or indirect, in the form of a parable or a simple
story just like in today's gospel. If we would read on further the gospel for
today we would find the practicality of the message being conveyed by Jesus is
not only applicable to its direct and obvious meaning with regards to new
clothes and wine but most especially to our daily lives. Come to think of it,
although we all are very knowledgeable about life after having studied and
experienced a lot of things we still end up, at times doing the wrong things
and end up ruining not only ourselves but the people close to us. We might as
well ask ourselves why we sometimes end up doing crazy things that we know
already won't work! We all know that only Jesus can make things right and make
us whole. If we only remember, we even sing this often, too. He can give us
peace, sweet love, joy and heaven too for only Jesus can satisfy our souls.
Amen. Hallelujah!
Matthew 9:14-17
14 The disciples of John
approached Jesus and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your
disciples do not fast?” 15 Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn
as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom
is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” ...No one patches an
old cloak with a piece of un-shrunken cloth, for its fullness pulls away from
the cloak and the tear gets worse. 17 People do not put new wine into old
wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are
ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are
preserved.”
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