COME TO YOUR SENSES

Today's 1st reading reminds me of this song.

When I look into Your holiness,

When I gaze into Your loveliness

When all things that surround me

Become shadows in the light of  you

When I found the joy of reaching Your heart,

When my will becomes enthroned in Your love.

When all things that surround me

Become shadows in the light of  you

I WORSHIP YOU,      I WORSHIP YOU

THE REASON I LIVE   IS TO WORSHIP YOU.

This song makes a lot of sense for our life should be a testimony of our worship to God. Amen. Hallelujah! 

Job 42: 1-3, 5-6, 12-17

1 Then Job answered the LORD and said: 2 I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be hindered. 3 I have dealt with great things that I do not understand; things too wonderful for me, which I cannot know. 5 I had heard of you by word of mouth, but now my eye has seen you.

Another interesting event I am reminded of is one of the MI (Militia Immaculata) Meetings we had in the past  wherein we were asked to introduce ourselves briefly by saying our names, parishes where we belong and the time when we were consecrated to the Mother Mary. I can never forget the date I was consecrated (March 15, 2008) since it was the same date, but in 1995, of my mother's death anniversary but I would rather call it her birth to eternal life. It was highlighted by another significant event which was a dream I had at that same time of my aunt, Tita Edna who also passed away on the same month, March 24 in the year 1992. The dream was quite interesting and very vivid because I saw Tita Edna  riding in a van and the moment I saw her I took off immediately and ran after the van which I almost missed if I did not leap and managed to make it to the door of the van from which I almost fell. When I finally made it inside the van, I saw that she was about to eat so I offered her a hand sanitizer and saw that it made her so glad that I had it. She immediately applied it in her hands and thanked me for it. It suddenly gave me the impression that the van could be a symbol of our transportation to heaven. It is very difficult to catch that ride, we have to be always alert and vigilant we might end up missing it and worst never be able catch the ride ever again. That is, if we are too busy with other things we tend to neglect what should we be paying attention to and end up missing out on our ride and get a different ride which instead of bringing us to heaven, be brought to another destination which I guess none of us would like to be. We must always know on whose authority we are basing our actions. It will always help to examine ourselves and really be aware where our loyalty lies. Are we for God or against God or are we just for God in the superficial sense?  If we are deeply rooted in Him then we can withstand that horrible day of trial  and still find ourselves persevering in our faith. Just the thought of ending up in hell should really make us pray fervently to God.  Today's psalm teaches us the way to always be attuned to God's Spirit in order for us to truly see the word of God, as the light shining like a lamp for our feet. If we really want to be truly happy then there is just one thing we have to always do that is to always keep ourselves blameless before the Lord. We can never run away from the probing eyes of God because nothing is hidden from Him. We sometimes have this impression that our God requires impossibilities from us. We misinterpret and take things in a different way whenever we hear of rules and regulations to be followed. The decrees of our Lord are not meant to make things difficult for us nor do they burden or tie us down. This is the deception and we should start looking at it the right way. Just imagine life without God's decrees to guide us, it would be very disorderly and chaotic. It's like driving in the freeway wherein one can just go his or her own way without any regard for any traffic rules and regulations. Real freedom is the ability to follow God and being totally free of the grasp and hold of sin that brings death. Some sins bring instant death but others just like cancer slowly creep in and before we know it has already eaten us up whole.  God loves us so much that He has given us His decrees because it is in following them that we become totally free and live. The only way to true freedom is by following God's commands. In doing this we become free of the bondage of sin and live a power filled life based on the Truth. We should believe that if there is someone in and out of this world who is most reasonable, just, fair and at the same time loving, caring, slow to anger and rich in kindness that is no other than our God. One thing for sure, if He requires us something, He will definitely equip us for it because it is written, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." If we commit ourselves to following God then we will surely be blessed. Allow me to use the word "luck" or "swerte" in Tagalog in lieu of any other more appropriate word like blessed or pinagpala in Tagalog since I have always been hearing this word being used very often by some people in reference to certain situations within the broad context of this word. I just couldn't help but share it, first and foremost due to some personal circumstances. We often hear people say to another who is about to embark on something challenging, “good luck” If the word luck may have been associated with whatever negative meaning then consider it excluded from here and out of context for the mean time. Let's just say we would like to broaden the scope of our vocabulary. This is to further drive the point or message in today's psalm and is actually the catch here. This is to come up with an induction that following the law of the Lord is just as synonymous to being blessed, lucky, swerte or pinagpala or any other word that we could closely associate with this. It is not very easy to lead a life like that of the saints who followed the example of Jesus. Ignorance is not an excuse. We should always seek to enrich our knowledge about God so that we will continuously grow in our faith. Our world is ever changing with all the new technology coming up, it's so surprising that whatever is considered the latest and gold standard today may not hold true the following day. If there's one thing we should rely and hold on to in this very dynamic world of ours, then it should be something constant and enduring.  It gives us great consolation that we have a God who is true to His word. We may have heard it but we haven't learned yet. It is a lifelong journey and quest to know God better. Nothing can be more rewarding than having great peace in our lives. We can make this possible by adhering to God’s law and committing to following it in word and deed. It will always be well for us to consult the scriptures that shed light and give understanding. We've got to make sure that what we sought and yearn for, is what should bring us genuine riches, true delight and the most precious treasure which the world can not give and only God can bring about. It is only right that we follow the law of the Lord if we are really for God then our works should follow us and testify to who we really are. Amen. Hallelujah!

Psalm 119:66, 71, 75, 91, 125, 130

R: Lord, let your face shine on me.

It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes. (R) 75 I know, O LORD, that your ordinances are just, and in your faithfulness you have afflicted me. (R) According to your ordinances they still stand firm: all things serve you. R. I am your servant; give me discernment that I may know your decrees. R. The revelation of your words sheds light, giving understanding to the simple.

We are blessed to have a line up of brilliant and anointed preachers who share their knowledge and zeal for the word of God in EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network). But there are only a few people who take on this mission of spreading the word of God because we don't fully realize this as baptized Christians, we are all sent by Christ on this mission. We should accept God's invitation and receive the word of God by living its message. We have a great responsibility in our hands and should respond to His Word for indeed the harvest is abundant but the laborers are few. The time is now to become part of this great harvest. Jesus knows exactly the kind of life we are headed to if we heed His call. What He expects from us is courage to go on and He will do the rest. Let us trust that God is truly the Good Shepherd who never abandons nor forsakes the lambs in the midst of the wolves. We, Catholics believe that God gave human beings reason although it sometimes gets darkened by sin but still human reason can figure out some things. One of the things that human beings figure out without God having to reveal it, is that human beings need to meet 4 qualities to be deemed a human being. The philosopher, before even Plato, Aristotle and Socrates, had this figured out. We find it mentioned in Wisdom 8:7, the 4 virtues or qualities are also called the hinge virtues because it is where all the other virtues or qualities of good people would hinge. The word cardinal means hinge. The Cardinals who surround the Pope are the doorway to the Pope. They are also the ones whom he rely the most for advice. Everything else depends on the cardinal virtues. (Prudence or wisdom, justice, temperance and courage or fortitude) Prudence is the ability to make right decisions in complex situations. They are decisions that lead to the best and right thing. Without this we can be in big trouble. We’ve got to be able to decide in a situation that we’re in what the right thing to do which is the best thing to do. How do we get something done? There are some folks who probably just can’t figure out what to do. There are other folks who look at the problem and they can figure out a solution. It’s a core and they execute that core. It’s practical wisdom. We’ll find in the Book of Proverbs a lot of things about wisdom even in Sirach, Ecclesiastes and all the wisdom literature in scriptures. We can also find all the other 3 cardinal virtues, like justice which means giving each person his or her due. We all know even as kids instinctively how important justice is. The first thing that a kid cries out as soon as he learns how to talk if he has brothers and sisters is “Not fair, he got more than I did” or “You ask me to do more than what that person is doing.” This is because we have instinctively or natively offensive justice. Each person has rights and ought to get their due. There’s also another part of justice that we forget, that is, we have obligations and duties to everyone. A person who is unjust is not a good person. To be just, we need to control our passions. Temperance is a virtue that balances and controls our passions. It is like controlling our desire for that last piece of cake if we know that it belongs to our sister. In order to be just, we’ve got to control our appetites. Make our appetites come into line with justice, truth and goodness. We’ve got to have that balance in our life in order to be a good and effective person. Temperance makes this happen. We also have to be courageous. If we are not courageous then every time a difficulty arises we’re going to shrink back. If there’s any danger involved in doing the right, just and wise thing then we’re just going to crack out and find an excuse because we’re afraid. Courage or fortitude helps us to master fear and not let fear keep us from doing what’s right. We’ve got have all these things but here’s the problem. When Adam & Eve decided to sin they let loose a weakness into our race and nature that impacts all of us. We call it original sin. Sin is not so original, we just copy what other people have done. There’s nothing creative about sin. Adam & Eve’s sin was the only original sin. What they did has an impact on us. By weakening their own nature, sin weakened man’s nature. They passed on to us a weakened nature. They separated themselves and the whole human race from friendship with God and were born into that. There’s a tendency in our nature to go on a downward drift, a drift off course and a tendency to a great degree is dealt with through grace. How do we get grace? Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, God has made possible for us, healing of our humanity. He gives us other gifts, faith, hope and charity that make it possible for us to really have wisdom, justice, temperance and courage. Without faith, hope and charity in this life, no one can really become truly wise. All throughout human history we see people who exercise these gifts. They may not be Christians, deeply spiritual people, or in a state of grace and can exercise some of these potentials here and there. But ultimately original sin means we are going to sin seriously and mess up. We need God’s grace for those 4 great virtues to be perfected. Faith, hope and charity are supernatural. These are things that human beings would never know that they need or could have without God giving them supernaturally that’s why they are called the theological virtues. We only know about them through divine revelation and we couldn’t know about them by reason. We can only have them through God’s grace. The theological virtues, faith, hope and charity are the crown of the first 4 cardinal virtues that transform and make them possible. God doesn’t want us just to be whole human beings and restore us to what Adam & Eve were when they blew it in the Garden. God wants us to be more than that. He wants to elevate our human nature and divinize it. He wants us to share in His own Divine nature. Charity is all about loving with God’s love. Loving as the 3 persons of the Holy Trinity love each other and sharing in that goes way beyond human nature. This is an incredible thing and call. It was only possible because God became man and we can share in his virtue. This is what the real Catholic life is all about. It’s not just about making it or going to heaven by the skin of your teeth after struggling. It’s about growing in holiness and becoming like Jesus all throughout our life, a champion not without struggles. As a matter of fact without the struggles we can never become a champion. It is possible with victory and excellence not with hopelessness, despair and frustration. This is God’s desire for us which is a fantastic calling. The power to do this is given to us. We are never alone because God is always with us. We should be so thankful to God for all the wonderful things He allowed us to think, feel, see and hear. Not only for the things that are visible but also the invisible. God has given us everything that we need, the love, care and protection that a child needs from a Father who loves us so much. The readings for today from the 1st, psalm to the gospel all speak of the importance of our senses. Sometimes we have this tendency to overlook these things and dwell more on the less important things. We must train our minds and hearts to know the top priority which is everything that connects us to God at all times. All we have to do is be aware that God reveals Himself in a very mysterious way that we have to continuously work for a heart and mind that is focused on the Lord, remove all distractions in our life so that He will reveal Himself to us. God is infinite and unlimited in nature and our minds can only comprehend as far as our limited brains allow. Let us seize every moment and opportunity in order to daily grow in our knowledge of the Lord. Let us all come to our senses. Once we've seen, heard, smelled, tasted, touched, felt and experienced who the Lord is in our lives then we are really blessed in the truest sense of the word. Although we can only come to the full understanding and knowledge of God when we die, we can still work our way to knowing God using the best of our abilities for it is written, if we draw near to God, He will draw near to us. Have you ever experienced talking to someone but it seems that he/she is not paying attention. Let us not miss a single detail about our Lord and always be attentive to Him. If we are caught up in our own personal lives then we have a tendency to misunderstand the messages sent our way. Let us develop an attitude of total surrender to God and He in His goodness will make known to us things beyond our understanding. When we're on the phone we sometimes fail to hear what's being said to us on the other line. We can always hear this being said, Hello are you still there? It may be due to a low signal, our lack of attention and other things that disrupt the communication. We are reminded by God through the gospel to remove all hindrances and be able to hear him loud and clear. It is imperative that we heed his call and the time is now. Sometimes we end up doing things that we are not supposed to do and we get confused and that's because we are not attuned to our Life Coach, who is God and no one can lead us to the right direction only Him. We need to sharpen and make our senses very keen so that we will not miss out on anything. Some people who lack one of the senses like for example the blind people develop a keen sense of hearing, feeling and smelling. The blind have mastered well their other senses that they can hear, feel and smell the slightest sound, touch and scent that can be unnoticeable for some.  We should say from this point of view that the lack of one sense can enhance the other senses. We can also say that there are moments in our life when we have to shut out one of our senses, too. There are a lot of things being presented to us day in and out. We should know that some things are better left unsaid and ignored. In times like these we need to know exactly what we need to take in and which of our senses do we need to pay attention to and focus on in order to see and hear what the Lord is showing and telling us and be truly blessed. Amen. Hallelujah!

Luke 10:17-24

...Behold, I have given you the power ‘to tread upon serpents’ and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy and nothing will harm you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” 21 At that very moment he rejoiced [in] the holy Spirit and said, “I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will... anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him...Turning to the disciples in private he said, Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. 24 For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.