What is God's will
for us? He wants us to live and not die. If we do what is right and just then
we are headed in the right direction which is to live, but if we end up doing
the opposite then we're doomed. Sounds so simple and yet most of the time we
think, say and act in an entirely different way than what God expects of us. If
we really want to live in the real sense of the word then we should think very
carefully what these words in today's 1st reading are telling us. It is in
discovering the truth in these words from today's 1st reading that we will
surely live. Amen. Hallelujah!
Ezekiel 18:1-10, 13b, 30-32
5 If a man is virtuous– if he does what is right and
just,...that man is virtuous he shall surely live, says the Lord GOD ...all
lives are mine...only the one who sins shall die.
...31 Cast away from you all the crimes you have committed,
and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit...Return and live!
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. 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 51:12-13, 14-15, 16-17
R: Create a clean heart in me, O God.
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. (R) 12 [14] Give me back the joy of your
salvation, and a willing spirit sustain in me. 13 [15] I will teach
transgressors your ways, and sinners shall return to you. (R) 14 [16] Free me
from blood guilt, O God, my saving God; then my tongue shall revel in your
justice. 15 [17] O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall proclaim your
praise.
Let us strive to become like the children who are always
open to the truth and do not settle for lies. We ought to be like the little
children who possess a clean and totally surrendered heart to the Lord in order
to get a hold of our inheritance and belong to the kingdom of heaven. Today’s
gospel should also make us realize how true and correct the Church teaching is
with regards to children. The world’s point of view is totally different from
this. According to a social scientist named
Stephen Mosher who works for the Population Institute in the US he was struck
by the fact that the Church does not only have the fullness of the truth in
matters of faith and morals but also in the socioeconomic and all possible
truth seeking levels. He cited the example whether the children are burden or a
blessing. He quoted the Church and bible saying that children are a blessing
from God and made in the image of God. The world does not see it this way
because it says that it takes $200,000 to raise an infant to adulthood and so
they are a burden on family, society and the planet. But he also said that if
calculated we’ll see that the average child in the US
Matthew 19:13-15
13 Children were brought to Jesus that he might lay his
hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked them, 14 but Jesus said, “Let the
children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs
to such as these.” 15 After he placed his hands on them, he went away.
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