Letter to the Hebrews 13,1-8.
...Let your life be
free from love of money but be content with what you have, for he has said,
"I will never forsake you or abandon you." Thus we may say with confidence: "The Lord is my
helper, (and) I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?" Remember
your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their
way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Brothers and sisters, if we are confident that we are where
we are supposed to be and the Lord allowed things to happen in our life the way
they are happening right now then we should be still and know that God is in
control. We need to understand the mysteries of our faith in order to
appreciate it better. We have to go near as much as possible to the Word of God
and experience it come to life and see His glory shining on us. As we go near
Him we see his face and feel His love. We always have hope in the Lord who
knows what's best for each one of us. There should be no doubt in our minds
that He answers prayers. All we have to do is call on the Lord, trust that He
hears the sound of our call and wait for Him with courage. When we get carried
away by all the commotion there is a tendency that we neglect the essential and
most central issue which is to always believe that we shall see the good things
of the Lord in the land of the living. There is really nothing that we should
worry about if we always hold in our hearts the truth about Jesus. There may be
times when we encounter disappointments and setbacks in life but this doesn't
mean that God has stopped becoming the Loving God that He is, who suffered His
only Begotten Son to die on the cross for our sake. Our focus should be on the
truth of this love and everything that it stands for. This reminded me of a
mini play staged in EWTN of a passenger waiting to be boarded on the airplane.
He was the 1st and only person in the boarding area waiting patiently for his
seat reservation to be called. He got surprised when someone came along and
hardly ever waited when his seat number was called. He felt somehow annoyed at
the idea of someone who just came and did not wait but got on the plane first
although he managed to stop himself from making a scene. A lady with her young
child also came and looked very excited to board the plane but he tried to warn
them not to keep their hopes up too much because it would definitely take time
and said that he had been waiting for a long time and came early but his number
had not been called yet. To his surprise their numbers were called and happily
boarded while he was once again left behind. He simply couldn't stand it
anymore when a pleasant young lady came with all smiles on her face and
speaking of how excited she is to board an airplane for the first time. The
company of this nice lady kept her impatience at bay. She advised him to stop
thinking about how the others were able to get there quickly but rather think
of the joy he would have once he gets there. She assured him to just relax and
make the most of his time because he has a reservation and a ticket all he
needs to do is just wait. He did exactly just that and found himself at peace
until the time his number was called. The same thing happens to the best of us
when we are confronted with a tedious and exasperating process of waiting. We
tend to lose our peace and joy and succumb to worry and doubt. If we are
holding on to something that was assured to us by a trustworthy and reliable
source we can put our worries to rest. Although sometimes anxiety can still
find its way to our hearts and forget on whom our confidence lies. If we remain in the Lord and put our trust in
Him then there is nothing we should worry about. In life, there are 4 things which
are 1. sin 2. grace 3. forgiveness 4. reconciliation that we could all learn a
lot from. The 1st 3 are all a reality but #4 is only a possibility.
Reconciliation calls us to true conversion. An example that fits this is 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 have to ponder and think about setting our goals high, keeping
our thoughts positive and coming up with new solutions. There is no room for
fear for He is consistent to His nature as God. Let us strive to become the
child He has meant us to be. Another thing we could learn something about is a
puzzle. I am one person who never even thought of working on a jigsaw puzzle. I
am not the type of person who would bother to even buy one. It just happened
that when I was in Japan
and saw all sorts of things which are being sold in a bazaar, I ended up buying
one for no reason at all. In fact it took years before I finally opened it and
put the puzzle together. That was when I actually experienced how to do it. It
takes patience and perseverance to do it especially with the complicated
puzzles. Sometimes in life we just back out and give up when things become
complicated and when we do, we fail to witness the bounty of the Lord. As today
psalm tells us, we've got to wait with courage and be stout hearted. We should
all long for the day when we will have 100% confidence level in all our
decisions for God. When the time comes it will totally remove all forms of
anxiety and fear and incline ourselves to Him at all times. It should be our
ultimate desire and nothing else, to always be in the presence of the Lord. To
abide in Him at all times even when things are not very good. I could never
forget and would always remember those times when I used to pick figs at Sis
Loreta's garden. It was then that a thought came to my mind while I was
climbing a ladder in order to get the figs in hard to reach places. Despite the
fact that I was already on top of the ladder there were still some figs that I
was not able to see and pick up right away although it was already right in
front of me. They are being covered by the leaves of the tree and some are
hidden in between branches. I just realized that it could be compared to how
God showers us with all the blessings and graces that we need. There are times
when we fail to see it though it is already right in front of us. Sometimes we
have to really look very closely and try to turn our gaze into different angles
in order to see it. What's funny was that when I thought that I've got almost
every ripe fig in the tree, I noticed one big ripe fruit at the lowest part of
the tree, there was even no need to use a ladder in order to get it. Sometimes
in life we resort to a lot of means that are sometimes no longer necessary. All
we have to do is believe that we will see the good things of the Lord in the
land of the living if we will just be patient and full of courage. We ought to
realize that if we wait on the Lord patiently and persevere long enough we will
never be disappointed for He alone is our light and salvation. Amen.
Hallelujah!
Psalms 27,1.3.5.8-9.
R: The Lord is my light and my salvation.
...The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom do I fear?
The LORD is my life's refuge; of whom am I afraid?
Though an army encamp against me, my heart does not fear;
Though war be waged against me, even then do I trust.
For God will hide me in his shelter in time of trouble, Will
conceal me in the cover of his tent; and set me high upon a rock...
It is just very sad that despite the many times God tries to
convey His love to us, we still sometimes back away. We've got to stand firm,
hold our ground and not give in to the world's pressures. Let us not end up
like Herod who came as close to knowing what is righteousness and holiness but
never really got to the doing and acting part. In the Philippines we
have a habit of calling people names. For someone to be called Herod or Herodes
means being really naughty and bad. We may all claim to know what is right but
we have to realize that we may never be able to come to a point where we can
claim to be a better person than Herod. We may have this impression that we are
far better Christians than any of the others we know but we may be wrong. For
all we know we are not far from being like Herod or much worse. Let us hope
not. For there is really more to being a Christian than what we actually know. We sometimes don't realize it, but we may also be
guilty just like Herodias. We may have not beheaded someone but we
too succumb to the temptation of eliminating the people and circumstances
around us that is a source of inconvenience or simply not conformed to our
personal statement and views. We also make use of other people to camouflage or
hide our true intentions in order for us to carry out our plans without the
guilt of having participated in it. We resort to all kinds of disguise without
knowing that in the process of doing so we are headed for the worst kind of
situation. Let us not further aggravate
it and know in our heart, mind and soul that all areas of our life needs to be
totally surrendered to God not just a part, half but our entire being. In doing so with the gift of free will we
allow ourselves to enjoy life at its fullness because we are not bound or tied
and can exercise this gift as much as we want and never run out. We should not
be too carried away though and forget that it is also because of this free will
that we are also presented with horrible things as in today's gospel that are
products of the wrong use of this gift. It is of prime importance that we
exercise, use and handle this gift with much care. This is the reflection
question and prayer that I read in Didache: What do you do when you are under
pressure? Do you stand up for what is right or you just go with the crowd
because everyone else is doing it? Lord, grant me the wisdom and the courage to
do what is pleasing in Your sight even if the world laughs at me. And in
Companion, Fr. Martin Macasaet said the following words. "Yes, we, too,
are called and challenged to imitate John the Baptist’s courageous act of
witnessing —not necessarily in the form of a bloody beheading, of course.
Today’s Christian martyrdoms are certainly more of a subtle and sophisticated
kind. But perhaps, they are just as compelling and exigent — as when our moral
principles are tested in our workplaces, or when our senses are bombarded by
sexually suggestive images, or when we are scandalized by the bad examples of
our leaders and celebrities, and so on." We all have our own personal
Herod, Salome and worst our Herodias tendencies in life. Only we ourselves know
these and what specific aspect it is in our lives. Unless we acknowledge them,
firmly reject and stand up against it instead of yielding to it then we are no
better than any of them. In today's gospel we are also reminded of our
stubbornness when we insist on doing things our way. We could somehow relate
this to those who insist on wearing something even if it doesn't fit them just
because it is the "in" thing. The same way with our life we end up
looking foolish when we insist on keeping up with the latest trend and fashion
that this world offers when the only thing that is well fitted to us is to
always wear the clothes of Jesus which is fashioned in the passion of the cross
in order to be the best dressed Christian. People may not be able to know it by
just looking at us and we can easily get away with our wrong doings which we
have kept in secret or hidden in our thoughts and feelings which no human
person can see but God does. We’ve got to believe that there is really somebody
watching us as the song says. Sometimes we forget that God can see through us
and knows exactly what's inside our hearts and minds. Let us not wait for the
time when we like the scribes and Pharisees will be spoken to by God in this
manner. Let us choose to hear words of commendation from the Lord rather than
be called a hypocrite. Let us truly be the person that God wants us to be,
whether there are people who can see our goodness or not. Amen. Hallelujah!
Herodias harbored a grudge against him and wanted to kill
him... “I want you to give me at once on a platter the head of John the
Baptist.”The king was deeply distressed, but because of his oaths and the
guests he did not wish to break his word to her. So he promptly dispatched
an executioner with orders to bring back his head. He went off and beheaded him
in the prison. He brought in the head on a platter and gave it to the girl.
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