5TH GOSPEL

If we take time to study about the bible and our faith then we will discover things we never knew existed before. We will come to a deep and profound understanding of it which will bring us to greater heights in terms of our knowledge of God. This will lead us to love and service in a very meaningful way. Do you know that there is a commandment before the Decalogue or 10 commandments of God? Yes, there is and it is called Pre-Sinai. It is noteworthy that today's 1st reading points to the reason behind this. I learned this from a Lenten Retreat. When the people of Israel complained to God, He sent them quail and manna as their food in the desert. Every morning they gathered food from the ground and whenever they get more than they could eat for a day they discovered the following morning that the excess got spoiled or rotten. The moral lesson of this commandment is social justice. We should remove greed in our midst and learn to care for others. We should also live within our means and not desire something that is beyond our reach. The Israelites were so discontented despite of the presence of manna in their midst. They did not appreciate and were not grateful that God has provided them food. They sinned against the Lord and directly rejected God's grace. Thus placing themselves outside the protection of God and being predisposed to danger and calamity which was exactly what happened to them when bitten by serpents in the desert. In their journey to the Promised land, Canaan, the 5th gospel which is now known as Palestine, the Israelites strayed away from God's path and went their own way. We should learn the lesson of their story and choose to always stay within the protective grace of God so as to attain the 5th gospel and Promised Land of God in our own lives. The bible covers a span of more or less, 2000 years. Basing it on the outline of the salvation history or covenant history which goes back to the time of Adam & Eve and Noah and dates way back to 1800 BC during the time of Abraham, Moses (1200), David (means the favored one,1000), Exodus (600) to the birth of our Lord Jesus. We can see from this time line significant events that happened from the time of Creation when God created man who fell into sin and became unfaithful and how God continuously called us back to Him by showing us who He really is throughout the length of time. It is so amazing how events which are more than a thousand years apart can be connected and how God was able to make things fall into perfect place like signs, wonders and miracles made by His mighty hand throughout the length of time. Today's 1st reading is one of the many discoveries I had or should I say made me look at things with a new perspective.  It is a foreshadowing of Jesus crucified on the Cross and its power which became a source of healing and salvation for us all. Ever since I have joined a bible study group, Apologetics class and the like I have been discovering the wealth and treasure of our Catholic faith. Thank and praise God for activities like these that continue to shed light on our faith. I have always heard bible teachers say that in order to have a better understanding of the scriptures we have to read the bible starting from the New Testament before proceeding to the Old Testament. It is true that the Old Testament is a foreshadowing of the New Testament which is the full revelation of God's great love for us. Just like in today's 1st reading we can establish a relationship between Jesus Christ dying on the cross up on Mt. Calvary to save us from death due to our sins with the healing brought about by the bronze serpent mounted on a pole. It is good to have a realization of this great love of God for us first and foremost so that when we encounter somehow disturbing and difficult to understand scenarios in the Old Testament we can always try to zero in on the truth that behind all these things that took place is a God who has a love for us greater than any other known in this world. God wants all people to be saved but we have to believe. We need to come to the core of the revelation. God wants to rescue His people and save them. He sets us free from this dominion of sin but we fail to trust Him. Just as we see in today's 1st reading  "...But with their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses." We too are guilty of the same attitude at times. Sometimes we complain too much without realizing that Jesus, who is God the Son obediently followed without a word of protest when He died brutally on the Cross. And to think that we complain right away about trivial and petty things. There is really a need to always look back and recall what God did for us rather than focus on just the here and now. Instead of falling into the trap of dissatisfaction and despair we should look at Jesus crucified on the cross to always be reminded of what He had to go through just to prove His great love for us. It would be nice if at once we received Jesus then we will be ushered into the perfect freedom, inability to sin anymore and the resurrection from death. Nevertheless, we still have this journey to make, have to battle, and fight even when they came in the promised land. We're all in a journey. Looking back at these very people in Deuteronomy 1. It took them 40 yrs to travel in the desert when all it takes is just 2 weeks. They wandered because of their lack of trust. They initially went to scout the land and came back with a report. The majority said that they can't do it because there are giants in the promised land and would just be like grasshoppers. They're stupid and forgot one basic fact, God is giving them the land. They forgot who was talking to them. When we are in doubt, the great exile should come to mind, when they were freed from Egypt and should speak confidence. In our present time we should believe that we can overcome, social injustice, sin and the culture of death. We have to believe in that because it is Almighty God telling them to come. We don't fault them for seeing those realities, the giants and scary things in the promised land but we fault them for not trusting. When they complained against God, it is an insult to God for 2 reasons, first they forgot that God provides and God did provide the manna all the time and also of water from the rock through God's power. In fact in 1 Cor. St Paul speaks of this water from the rock that followed them as they journeyed and the rock was Christ, "I AM" Jesus was with them in the desert. He is the same God as yesterday. We must trust God at all times. These people in the desert lost their patience however, was worn out and complained. We do an examination of conscience, do we grumble like this? Sometimes we doubt if Jesus is really with us in this journey. When we are trying to live the faith, being ridiculed, made fun of while others are having all the fun. Whenever we are fasting and resisting temptation we also may come to a point when like these people would rather go back to Egypt and slavery. When we embark the journey of the Christian faith and indeed try to live up to all the teachings of the church, time will come when it is easier to say to say “Let's go back to our own Egypt.” But Jesus said, my yoke is easy and burden light. Let us not be fooled for the sins are the heavier burden. We have to embrace Jesus, the one who comes to save and have more confidence than ever in “I AM” that sets us free and truly believe we have eternal life. Amen. Hallelujah!

Numbers 21:4-9

...with their patience worn out by the journey, 5 the people complained against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!”... ...Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you. Pray the LORD to take the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people, 8 and the LORD said to Moses, “Make a saraph and mount it on a pole, and if anyone who has been bitten looks at it, he will recover.” 9 Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

I could never forget the topic for the Lenten Retreat which was about prayer. Our speaker started the talk by stating that life is a mystery. Faith is a mystery.
I. The Church professes the mystery of our faith repeatedly in the CREED. I believe in God... In these repetitions, we hope to eventually imbibe and absorb this mystery as best we can.
II.  We celebrate this mystery through the LITURGY & SACRAMENTS. In the celebration, we hope to grow in our understanding of the fullness of the Holy Trinity. The sacraments are the vessels of grace. There is something greater than this that we should come to understand. We are the vessels of grace and the sacraments serve as a reminder of this. The sacrament of matrimony depicts the love of a man and a woman with God in the center. We can only hope to have a better understanding of these mysteries as we celebrate and partake of it.
III. Morality. We live the mystery in accordance to the life of Jesus, an authentic Christian life.

IV. PRAYER. is the litmus test or yardstick of our faith. Our souls have holes that need to be filled or plugged and it is in prayer that we don't end up placing the wrong plugs that fit our souls. We develop a discerning power through prayer. The way of prayer is not a feeling but a decision. Prayer could very well be patterned after the seasons of the church. There's a part of our life when we need to die, suffer and rise and so are prayers should always be full of faith, hope and love. It prepares us to live a life of relationship. At the end of the day it's all about relationship. We might not be fully aware of this but we engage in relationships every single day of our life and they all contribute to this life of mystery we have. We just have to be careful by checking first with whom we are building a relationship with. We've got to make sure that we are progressing towards the fullness of our relationship with God. We need to remove the restrictions that we place on prayer. Though, we need to test if it's really God's Spirit. We need to keep in mind that we are in a journey to God and we are obliged to study and learn all there is to know because wrong spirit could be in the form of ignorance. I just found out that the word anti means in lieu. Satan is so envious of Jesus he wants to be Jesus and every time we do not decide for Jesus in our actions then we choose the act in lieu of Jesus and in effect become an anti-Christ. We need to be aware that whenever we are about to pray, go to church and do something good, Satan would do everything in his power to distract us. We need to cultivate our soul in order to grow. Anything that improves our relationship with God is prayer. In fact, the mere act of suddenly remembering to give a loved one a call is already a form of prayer. The way we relate to our loved ones, family, friends, relatives and the people around us could already be a form of prayer. When we are in the middle of a breath taking scenery in nature and become full of joy and awe brought about by it, it's almost like a prayer of appreciation for God's wonderful work and creation. The language of intelligence relies on rational thinking while the language of the soul appreciates beauty and makes use of images. In order to understand this more deeply we have to look at the Parable of the Seed and the Sower. This parable contains a lot of imagery to convey its message. Although the parable is about the seed and the sower, the soil is of utmost concern in this story. You know why? We are the soil. It is our soul and spirituality.  In fact the name of Adam, the first man created by God was derived from the Hebrew word Adama, which means soil.  We need to cultivate the soil, Prayer is the fuel that cultivates our soil. Prayer is God's gift. God's perfect love reaches out to us when we sin or commit mistakes. Remember when Adam & Eve fell into sin, God immediately searched for them, in Gen. 3:9, "Where are you?" Prayer is an act of raising one's mind to God. We need humility for it to be perfect. Humility comes from the word humus which means dirt. If only Adam & Eve were humble enough to admit their wrongdoings instead of point fingers at each other as in Genesis 3:11-13 ...You have eaten, then, from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!" The man replied, "The woman whom you put here with me--she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it." The LORD God then asked the woman, "Why did you do such a thing?" The woman answered, "The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it." Who knows we could have had a different story and could still be in paradise if they had instead admitted, asked for forgiveness and prayed in a posture of humility.  We have a universal call to prayer thus our yearning for God. The bronze serpent became the source of healing as they looked at the object. God allows certain objects to become a source of blessing from Him as we focus on our faith in God, our hearts can communicate better. As humans we are sometimes prone to distraction that we sometimes need visual aids/reminders to refocus our gaze on the Lord. Man is naturally in search of God. It is God who called and thirsted for us first. Prayer is a response to man's thirst for the thirst of God. It is a response of faith to a God who is reaching out to us. God gives us the Living Water that will not make us thirst anymore. Whenever we see a particular race of people, we'll know right away where they belong because of how they look, the language they speak and other peculiar things that is characteristic of them. This should also be the case with us, a people who belong to God. We should develop in us all the characteristics that will set us apart as a people of God. We should never ever doubt that God has His eyes always upon us. He is always looking out for our welfare. No matter how hard things may seem to be at present we can always count on the Lord who looks down on the earth from heaven. We can always count on God for all our needs. Let us not be discouraged by the things we see and hear but rather keep our focus on God who answers prayers. Let us keep our hope and faith in the Lord who never turns His back on those who continue and persevere in their prayers and pleas to God. God knows the perfect time for everything. It is not a matter of delaying and withholding His blessings but rather a matter of perfect timing. Amen. Hallelujah!

Psalm 102:2-3, 16-18, 19-21
R: O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
...Hide not your face from me in the day of my distress. Incline your ear to me; in the day when I call, answer me speedily. (R) 15 [16] The nations shall revere your name, O LORD, and all the kings of the earth your glory, 16 [17] when the LORD has rebuilt Zion and appeared in his glory; 17 [18] when he has regarded the prayer of the destitute, and not despised their prayer. (R) 18 [19] Let this be written for the generation to come, and let his future creatures praise the LORD: 19 [20] “The LORD looked down from his holy height, from heaven he beheld the earth, 20 [21] To hear the groaning of the prisoners, to release those doomed to die.”

In today's gospel it is written that many came to believe in Jesus. "Are we not among them? Those who come to believe and embrace Him especially as we come near the final part of this Lenten journey. All who have been baptized should live this faith. Jesus described in the gospel that He is going away. It is a prediction of His passion, death and resurrection. Jesus is lifted up in the crucifixion and resurrection and these are the events that lead to eternal life. He said to the Pharisees, "Where I am going you cannot come" and also said,"...the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world.” It is not passed on like whispering a secret but the Christian truth is proclaimed from the roof tops. Jesus had spoken in the temple area and also in the church being proclaimed daily to the world. God wants all people to be saved but we have to believe. We need to come to the core of the revelation. What is Jesus saying? Going back to Moses when he asked what he's going to tell the people, God said, "I AM" Jesus too, said "I AM." He is claiming to be Divine and He is God. They refuse to accept. Those who do not believe that He is God only tell that He is just, upright and righteous. We have to realize that an upright and devout man does not claim to be God, it's either he is really God or a lunatic. The title "I AM" is always taken from the context of God saving his people from distress, captivity and slavery. God has heard His people cry, wanted to set them free and claim their promised land. We can also see from Isaiah 45, God raised up King Cyrus to set the people free, and several times mentioned God referred to as "I Am" This is to emphasize that God wants to rescue His people and save them. Jesus said again, "I AM" talking in the context of freedom from sin. He said, For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.” He sets us free from this dominion of sin but we need to trust Him. Amen. Hallelujah!

   

                                                                                                 
John 8:21-30
He said to them, “You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above. You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world. 24 That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.” 25 So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning. 26 I have much to say about you in condemnation. But the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world.” 27 They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father. 28 So Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. 29 The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him.” 30 Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.