Nobody knows the exact time or hour of our departure here in
this world. One thing is sure it will come. No one is assured of tomorrow. Life
is never easy most especially if we commit to a life dedicated to follow the
example of Jesus Christ. It is always easier said than done but we can always
focus on the reward that awaits us just like any victorious battle the champion
emerges with the trophy and prize. It challenges us to always dwell on these
promises that can never be broken. If a trustworthy and honest person gave his
word we are confident that he/she will honor it. All the more should we be
confident of God’s word. If God spoke and promised then He will surely grant
it. We can never find lasting peace and happiness in this world. It is only in
the Lord that we can be assured of something permanent and lasting which we
could definitely not find in this world. If we think that we can always
procrastinate and still be given a second time then wait and think very
seriously about what the 1st reading is telling us. The urgency of our life's
purpose and mission should always take first place. Amen. Hallelujah!
1 Corinthians 7:25-31
29 I tell you, brothers, the time is running out... For the
world in its present form is passing away.
We are all on the building business, building a life that
will endure, we are each a foreman to our building, we are our own masters of
our own faith. Others take a material to build a shack or a cathedral, or worse
to build a tragedy , as William Shakespeare says, “to be or not to be” We are
each given a bag of tools, a stepping stone or a stumbling block. The buildings
we build could be tested in the loss of a loved one, broken relationship and
the like. How we react to them depends on whether we have built a house on sand
or rock, the test is the daily grind.
There is no end to the daily grind. We just have to live one day at a
time. The success of our challenges depends on whether we have taken the words
of our Lord seriously. To take the extra mile we must realize that nothing is
built on hatred. Nothing lasts until it is built on love. Forgiveness is
important. A person who is unforgiving suffers from various ailments. Pope John
Paul II forgave the person who tried to kill him. Is the Lord right? Have we
built our life on Him who is the rock? Or think that we know better. Our house
is in ruin only when we invite the Lord to come can we make it a fitting
dwelling. The only way to an everlasting love from which wells forth all other
good things is to listen to God's voice and do as we are told. Whenever we ask
the intercession of the Blessed Mother Mary we can already imagine the Queen of
Heaven in God's Kingdom mediating for us at the throne of the Most High God. I
have this perfect trust in a mother like the Blessed Virgin Mary. I remember my
2 sons, Allan and Jude when they were still very young, the moment I come home
from work they all get too excited and always looking forward to my kiss and
embrace. That's why I also ran to the Blessed Mother with the same excitement
that children have for their mothers. Mary is our queen who deserves everything
that God has blessed her with. She is indeed an inspiration and model for us to
follow. Where she is right now we also hope to be some day as we strive to
become bearers of Jesus and formers of the image of God in our own way. Though,
we can not physically give birth to Jesus we can spiritually give birth to Him
in our hearts. Amen. Hallelujah!
Psalm 45:11-12, 14-15, 16-17
R: Listen to me, daughter; see and bend your ear.
10 [11] Hear, O daughter, and see; turn your ear, forget
your people and your father’s house. 11 [12] So shall the king desire your
beauty; for he is your lord, and you must worship him...They are borne in with
gladness and joy; they enter the palace of the king.
The Sermon on the Plain in the gospel of Luke speaks of the
conditions of the heart. In fact when analyzed it was counted as 6/9 since 6 of
them is about humility of the heart. Luke is a very good writer and devoted
himself to the study of the scriptures. To understand Luke and his writings,
one must understand Eastern and Ancient philosophy about the mind and the
heart. The purity of desire, cleanliness of intentions and nobility of character
all dwell in the heart of man. Eastern culture especially Near
East thinks with its heart. God does not look on appearance but
into one's heart. The Eastern definition of humility which comes from the word
humus or soil are: 1. thinking of others before yourself, using the "we
language rather than "I" 2. Knowing our place in the grand scheme of
things. We must remember that "We are not the Messiah" and must be
free of any "Messianic complex" by excluding arrogance which connotes
violence, deceit, jealousy, conniving and manipulative. God prefers it that
Jesus is the Messiah because we mess things up. We must know where we are
supposed to stand. St. Thomas
said that in order to see the perfect exemplification of the beatitudes, we
have to look to Christ. Jesus is a happy man, a picture of freedom and joy. He
loved doing the will of His Father. We have to look to our Lord on the cross
and despise what He despised on the cross. They are the 4 things which we
physically seek in this life, wealth, pleasure, power and honor. Wealth, he has none he was stripped naked
even of His clothes. Pleasure he was at the limit of physical and psychological
suffering. Power, he was nailed on the cross. Honor, he was mocked as he was
publicly displayed and crucified. The main point here is detachment. Jesus is
detached from the things which we typically seek. On the cross, he is the
ultimate peace maker and the bringer of divine mercy, if Aquinas is right then
Jesus on the cross is a picture of a happy man. Today I am reminded of my
mother (nanay). She has totally surrendered her life to the Lord during the
time of her sickness despite the opposition and difficulty I have imposed upon
her brought about by my narrow and selfish thinking. We would often argue
whenever I hear her say words like I am ready anytime God calls me to be with
Him. I was only open to the possibility of her physical healing but never
entertained in my mind that she would die soon. It must have been very painful
at that time to be afflicted with terminal cancer and at the same time see her
children still clinging to her and praying for an extension to her life. Now I
know how my mother must have felt back then while fighting her illness at that
time with an only daughter clinging tightly to her and not yet open to the
possibility of being left behind. Looking back, now I understand why she chose
to die alone without anyone of us, her loved ones by her side. She knew back
then that I was not ready for it. Even my eldest brother who was there in the
hospital was not by her side. She was just brought to the operating room for
removal of water in her lungs and she never came back. If there's one person
whom I know who was able to face death with so much courage and hope that is
none other than my nanay (mother). Blessed are you indeed, nanay for the kingdom of God St. Augustine wrote, our hearts are restless
until it rests on God. According to Oscar Wilde there are 2 terrible tragedies
in life, not to get what our heart sets upon or to get it. Some of us get this
truth the hard way. Poverty in spirit means that we are empty. By nature of
course we are like a vacuum because we have to be filled with something. But we
are usually filled with things, persons, places and tragically we do not own
them they own us. When we finally get what we long for, that is when we realize
that we can not have them nor could we own them forever. The only way to attain
true happiness is to be possessed by the Lord. It’s a struggle everyday to
break ourselves free so that the Lord can possess us. We have to learn to let
go of yesterday, happiness in the past or the future, we must enjoy God’s gift
to us today. That’s why it’s called the
present. We must learn to find our strengths and staying power in the Lord. We
must learn to face all these challenges with our Lord and be empty of everything
except Him. The beatitudes will serve as our map in our quest to heaven.
Beatitudes are like eyeglasses that help us to see what is important so as not
to lose sight of what is right. Whenever we are to decide and act on something
we might as well ask ourselves, “Is this choice going to bring me closer to
heaven?” The more we get our vision corrected the more we get closer to heaven.
What is going to bring us closer to heaven? St. Francis of Assisi is a pilgrim in search of the glory of
God. He renounced his riches and served God. These are the kinds of choices
that pilgrims make to get closer to heaven. We spend our whole lives to get
closer to God. We are in contact with God and making choices to be closer to
God. If we live our lives as pilgrims in a journey to heaven then we will be
happy. We will be recognized for our love and joy. We are not expected to take
this journey alone and walk in a lonely path. The Church is with us to help us
in this journey and help us to stay in the right path. The sacraments, mass,
baptism and penance are the tools to reach our heavenly destiny. God never
wants us to be discouraged. We can bring all our sins to Him in confession. The
Eucharist the guiding light of our journey is the earthly physical presence of
Christ on earth. It guides, feeds and reminds us of the manna in heaven. We
also have the Blessed Mother when Jesus gave us His own mother at the cross.
She loves us as her children. The final destination of our pilgrimage and
journey is heaven.
Luke 6:20-26
20 Raising his eyes toward his disciples Jesus said:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God
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