In today’s 1st reading we find the reason why we
must submit to God's will. We are created in his "image and likeness"
(Gen.1:26-27) and our ultimate end is to be with God. We are in this world but
we are not of this world. We came from God and we all go back to Him. That is
what our life is really all about since all of us will die someday and each day
that passes should be thought of as a day closer to God. Since our end is God
we should all know how to relate with God. In the beginning God created
everything to be in harmony, man, the land and all creatures. But man sinned
leading to a rupture with God, one’s self and others. We have to go back to
where God had intended it to be. If everything happened by chance there is a
tendency for us to wane in our resolution and our responsibility is
deemphasized. The understanding that a Creator made the world leads to a
fundamental responsibility to it. When we watch these movies about the end of
the world it gives the impression that our world exists by random and we look
upon the universe as a product of chance. Everything that exists comes through
Jesus. Everything in the universe came through Christ. He is the foundation of
all reality. Creation is existent and made through and for Him. It does not
exist by chance and is ruled by God and His plan. Colossians 1:15-16 He is the
image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him were
created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were
created through him and for him. Ephesians 1:3-14 Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual
blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the
world, to be holy and without blemish before him. In love he destined us for
adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will,
for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the
beloved…Hebrews 11:3 By faith we understand that the universe was ordered by
the word of God, so that what is visible came into being through the invisible.
John1:3 All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human
race; Look at creation and see its beauty, in the microscope and telescope. God
is the creator. God shows a great love for everyone in this world not in a
mythological world. Gen 1:27 God created mankind in his image; in the image of
God he created them; male and female he created them. We are capable of reason
because of our mind. God gives choices but we also have a free will we can go
beyond instinct and go against the will of God. We are the image of God and we
have a unique personality because of the dignity of a person. We are
unrepeatable which makes us distinctive and like God. Man and animals have some
similar gifts like emotions and body but what distinguishes us is reason. Our
freedom to choose what is right and wrong is conscience. We choose good and
avoid evil. It is easier said than done. How many people want to lose weight
but it is not easy to lose weight because there are a lot of temptations aside
from food. The same is true with our conscience. In Romans 7:18 it is stated,
For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh. The willing is
ready at hand, but doing the good is not. For I do not do the good I want, but
I do the evil I do not want. The natural law is humanizing, but it is
dehumanizing when we don’t obey the natural law. Human beings should make a
decision to accept Christ as the one mediator so we can go to heaven not in
hell. The speed of light is constant
throughout the universe, even gravity is a constant and because it applies in
the universe that is why we can apply science. There are laws, human beings
have reason and discover these laws. God made us distinct from all animals to
be able to do these things. Psalm 33:6 By the LORD’s word the heavens were
made; by the breath of his mouth all their host. This is a radical statement.
All the pagans believe that God created the world through sex and violence. God
created the world by His word and it came to be. All reality came to being by
God’s word. Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament
proclaims the works of his hands. Christians should study Science not be a
skeptic but to be able to discover the beauty of creation and God’s wisdom in
its order. To display the wonders of God. Wisdom 13:5 Now if out of joy in
their beauty they thought them gods, let them know how far more excellent is
the Lord than these; for the original source of beauty fashioned them. Or if
they were struck by their might and energy, let them realize from these things
how much more powerful is the one who made them. For from the greatness and the
beauty of created things their original author, by analogy, is seen. We look at
the ocean and see how wide it is, the sunset, mountain vastness and outer space
is even more amazing with trillion of stars and millions of galaxies. We have
perception so we do not just see but we have a mind to appreciate it. Romans
1:19-20 For what can be known about God is evident to them, because God made it
evident to them. Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes
of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in
what he has made. As a result, they have no excuse; St. Bonaventure said that
God loves creation so much and took on human nature. The creatures of this
sensible world signify the invisible God. This part of reality we need to
understand. Amen. Hallelujah!
Genesis 1:20-2:4
...Then God said: “Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the
air, and the cattle, and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that
crawl on the ground.”
We have to grow deep in our relationship with God for He
wants us all to be closer to Him. So when things become unpleasant and we start
to feel helpless and feel like we have
no one, then we can look at things like it is all part of God's plan. The
tricky question which I guess no one can give a straight answer is, "Which
comes first, the chicken or the egg?" Furthermore, if we are to look at
creation and all the things that surround us, as in the heavens, the moon and
the stars then we will just be filled with awe and wonder at the greatness of
God's work. It is a masterpiece of the Greatest Artist. What's most
overwhelming is the fact that we have been given the honor of being the
highlight of His work and the top of the line. God has bestowed so much love,
honor and glory in our beings that we need to be in touch with this reality
every single moment of our lives. It is time we become aware of this
overwhelming truth that we are worth more than we'll ever come to know. Just think of the story in the Footprints
when God opted to carry us rather than just walk beside us. But recently with a
new version of the footprints, we've come to a better understanding of who God
is. God's message is that we should become like the Lord in every aspect and
know Him more and more each day and as we grow in our knowledge about God we
notice that we improve daily in our relationship with the Lord. We learn not
just to submit to His will and blend in to His designs for us but most of all
to enjoy being one with God for He is an exciting God who can make us smile,
laugh and even dance with Him. We have a God who will stop at nothing in
revealing His endless love for us in so many ways. We can not confine the
attributes of God to anything for unlike any relationship, nothing compares to
it, be it the best romance, friendship, parent child relationship we ever knew.
Our relationship with God is capable of reaching insurmountable heights for He
will always be the Perfect Partner for each one of us. God has created man
worth more than anything that He created. We can all say that our beauty
surpasses all creatures on earth. As days, months and years go by we must
realize how important each and every day for it is an opportunity to discover
more things about our Infinite God. If we want to reach the highest pinnacle of
God's love then seize each day for His greater glory. This passage from today’s
psalm was also instrumental to my being able to discover my authority over all
things including a lot of unfounded fears that used to torture me. My family was
very over protective of us since we were orphaned when my father died when we
were just very young, my grandparents and single aunt were the ones who helped
my mother take good care of us. We were sheltered and protected in the most
delicate way maybe because they felt sorry for us since we have to grow up
without a father. All I know and remember is that I am scared of a lot of
things that even the most simple thing like turning on the stove, plugging an
electrical cord, seeing a frog, lizard and all those creepy little animals that
seem to be very harmless make me nervous.
I don't know if my being the only girl in our family of three
contributed to this. I could still remember when I got so scared of a cat who
just gave birth. It was lying on a chair right next to the switch of the lights
in our chapel in my former office in the Philippines (DOST) and when I
approached it, it suddenly growled at me and got so scared. But a sister in the
community, Sis Au bravely rebuked the cat and fearlessly approached it and just
switched on the lights like the cat never existed. I was so impressed at her
and she quoted to me this bible passage that we have rule over all of creation
and everything is under our feet which has helped me from then on to overcome a
lot of my fears. Those days are gone, we should know who we are and what God
made us to be, on top of all His creation. We should be free of all fears. Amen. Hallelujah!
Psalms 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
R: O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the
earth!
...When I behold your heavens, the work of your fingers, the
moon and the stars which you set in place — 4 [5] what is man that you should
be mindful of him, or the son of man that you should care for him? (R) 5 [6]
You have made him little less than the angels, and crowned him with glory and
honor. 6 [7] You have given him rule over the works of your hands, putting all
things under his feet.
The Pharisees and the scribes in today’s gospel are so
obsessed about the tradition but have missed the most important point. The
scribes and Pharisees put a fence around the law to make sure they do not break
the law. An example of this is the 2nd commandment which is “Thou shall not use
the Lord’s name in vain.” In order to make sure that they don’t break the law
they were not allowed to even say the Lord’s name at all. Jesus does not tell
us that tradition is bad but if it goes to the point of disregarding the spirit
of the law which is love then it is just for nothing because it does not please
God at all. Since it goes beyond to the point where some use the details of the
law to undercut the law. The worst part here is when criminals go free. This
mentality applies to certain laws. In everything we do we have to be clear with
our motivations and agenda that we don’t tip the scale and do one thing for the
extreme reasons and neglect a whole lot of things. This reminds me of certain
rules that we needed to strictly follow during the feeding of the homeless like
the wearing of hairnets and gloves. We found out that there was a particular
incident in one Church during a feeding when somebody was sued for not wearing
a hairnet while in the kitchen. Sometimes these rules which were meant to
protect the people can be used to the detriment of unsuspecting people most
especially the ones who only meant to help and be of service to the needy. What
God is telling us is to go back to the source of scriptures and not use our own
imagination to use the law for our personal agenda. We sometimes hear people
say that they do not have any sins since they have not killed anybody.
Sometimes we tend to make a criminal like Al Capone as the norm. We have to
stop comparing ourselves to the worst kind of criminals. We have to go back to
the real source of the scriptures and the laws. Jesus is our moral source and
He should be our model. What God intends us to do is to examine our conscience
to live our Christian life well. We need to prepare for a deeper repentance so
we don’t get called hypocrites by our Lord but instead welcome us to fidelity
to Him and the gospel. We ought to be very careful in the conduct of our
affairs. We may think that we are good enough Christians and not missing on the
obligations we are all expected to fulfill. Today's gospel gives us a specific
account of the things we must avoid doing. These are things that stain our
soul. If we don't watch it we may be going through life without realizing what
we've made of our souls. We may be looking all good on the outside but full of
filth in the inside. When we leave earth we don't bring our bodies with us. We
leave them behind what we bring with us is our soul. Let us make sure we render
it clean all the time so that when the time comes we can finally inherit the
gift of eternal life. As in Rev. 7:14, "These are the ones who have survived
the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in
the blood of the Lamb. Let us not end up beyond recognition by the Lord and be
told as spoken frequently in the gospels, I do not know you. Every single thing
has been spelled out for us by Jesus in order for us not to be led astray. We
can no longer make excuses and justifications. No need to confuse ourselves any
further with the rigid rules of our faith. All we have to do is come to Him in
prayer at all times. God can make all things possible. We simply have to decide
for God who is love in all our actions. We should always trust that God would
do for us exactly what He deemed is best for all of us. Amen. Hallelujah!
...So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, “Why do your
disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with
unclean hands?” 6 He responded, “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites,
as it is written: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are
far from me; 7 In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human
precepts.” 8 You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”
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