In today's 1st reading we are being reminded to take away
all the things that are causing our blindness. Things that lead us to failure
to recognize what God really wanted for us in our life. God never wanted
anything bad to happen to us nor to punish and make things difficult for us.
But there are times when we get blinded by our doubts and anxieties in life
that we fail to recognize the best things that God has in store for us. Isaac
due to his blindness failed to recognize who Esau really was and mistakenly
gave his blessing to Jacob. Although God will always make things work for good,
it is always wise to be careful in our decision making especially if we are
having doubts and uncertainties with regards to it. It will always pay to take
a second look and not misjudge things just based on the way they are presented
to us. Which reminds me of what happened at St. Martha's Church when the mass
was in Spanish. I always have this habit of downloading the english translation
of the readings in my cellphone whenever the mass is in Spanish. Since it was a
holiday, Sis Marcy was able to attend mass with me so I gave her my cellphone
for her to better understand the readings. But the lady beside her mistook it
that she was texting and using the cellphone while the mass was going on. It
was a good thing she explained it to her that what she was reading the english
translations of the scriptures being read in Spanish. I can not blame the lady
since we can easily judge a person holding a cellphone that she is using it as
suggested but this experience could very well be used as reminder to all of us
that things may not always be the way they seem. Amen. Hallelujah!
Genesis 27:1-5. 15-29
...Jacob said, “Father!” “Yes?” replied Isaac. “Which of my
sons are you?” 19 Jacob answered his father: “I am Esau, your first-born. I did
as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me
your special blessing.” 20 But Isaac asked, “How did you succeed so quickly,
son?” ...When Isaac felt him, he said, “Although the voice is Jacob’s, the
hands are Esau’s.” 23 (He failed to identify him because his hands were hairy,
like those of his brother Esau; so in the end he gave him his blessing.) 24
Again he asked him, “Are you really my son Esau?” “Certainly,” he replied...
It is just always a consolation that despite all our
shortcomings and blindness if I may say so, our God is always there to make
things right for it is God's will that we all end up in the full knowledge that
God is good all the time, in control and above anything else. Amen. Hallelujah!
Psalm 135:1b-2. 3-4. 5-6
r: praise the lord for the lord is good!
...for the LORD has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel
for his own possession. (R) 5 For I know that the LORD is great; our LORD is
greater than all gods. 6 All that the LORD wills he does in heaven and on
earth, in the seas and in all the deeps...
God
created us with a brilliant mind and a loving heart. In today's gospel Jesus
was questioned by John's disciples, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast
(much), but your disciples do not fast?" Sometimes people question us,
too. May we think and feel just like Jesus and always be guided in the things
we say or do. May we always find ourselves justified in Jesus name. It is not
just what we see that matters but what we truly value and treasure in our
hearts. Our innermost motives and intentions should always be in line and
conformity to the values of Jesus. We may be doing one thing but may be
intending to do another, there is no unity in our actions, words and deeds when
we are just after the outward appearances and does not really mean what we are
doing. Or worse we're just doing something for the sake of just doing it
without really putting our hearts into it. We get carried away by what seems to
us as important but fail to see what's most essential. People are not blind to
all these and we can not deceive people for long or if even sometimes we can,
there is a God who knows everything. We are called to conversion and holiness.
It is helpful to take hold of the Paschal Mystery of Jesus and keep this
constantly before us. We may want to look at what’s behind the particular
mystery of Jesus’ life when He fasted and prayed in the desert for 40 days.
Immediately after His prayer and fasting, was the temptation of Jesus in which
Jesus rebuffs this attack and points to Adam & Eve’s temptation and Israel ’s journey in the desert for
40 years. There are 3 basic temptations represented. Eve was tempted to eat of
the fruit because it is pleasing to the eyes. This tempts us to greed because
it looks good to eat and can satisfy one’s self. The desires of the flesh tempt
us also to lust. It is also said that it is desirable for the knowledge so it
can give power and prods a person to pride. From the very beginning since the
fall of Adam & Eve in the garden, the devil has capitalized on these 3
things, greed, lust and pride. Even before the fall these were with us already
and the devil capitalized on it to trick Adam & Eve hence the fall. As we
can see, the devil also used these 3 basic temptations to Jesus. After fasting
for 40 days, Jesus was hungry and tempted to turn the stone to bread for
satisfaction of the flesh, which is connected to lust. The devil also told
Jesus to throw Himself off from the top of the temple since the angels would be
there to catch Him. This is the sin to get a hold of power and pride. The
devil asked Jesus to look at all the cities and offered to give Him power and
glory which is the sin to greed. As we can see these are the same 3 temptations
that Adam & Eve fell into but the devil is dumb to think that Jesus could
be tempted with the same temptations. We may also want to look at Israel ’s journey in the desert
which took them 40 years trying to get to the Promised Land. This is the
salvific meaning of Jesus’ 40 days in the desert. He is the new Adam, who
remains faithful to fulfill the promise to Israel .
He is totally obedient to the divine will and is the devil’s conqueror. He
binds satan that tricked Adam & Eve in giving into and robbing us of all
the graces we have before the fall. He takes back the plunder and anticipates
His further victory at the passion on the cross which is the supreme act of
obedience. Jesus’ temptation reveals the Son of God who is the Messiah. He is
our high priest who has been tested as we are and yet did not fall into sin.
This is the mystery that the Church wants to unite us with, Jesus in the desert
who is the same Christ who vanquished the tempter for us. We should always keep
this at the back of our minds and connect it to the mystery of Jesus at the desert
which has a two fold character. First is by recalling our baptism. What it
means to be a baptized person and what does it entail? Do we recognize that?
Second is to recognize the need for penance. Think of what we have done to
offend God. It is time to reflect at where the state of the world is heading
and the culture which we have been disposed of. It calls us to pray more
diligently and be faithful to the word of God. We should become
predisposed to a faithful reception of the graces that Christ merited on his
death on the cross. We can also observe interior penance which can best be
manifested in many ways which the scriptures insist on always. There are 3
forms, prayer, fasting and alms giving. These once again make connections to
the mystery of Christ in the desert for 40 days. These 3 forms are what every
person struggles with most of the time but can help us in many ways to fight
those 3 main temptations. Prayer expresses conversion in our relationship with
God. Alms giving make better our relationship with other people to overcome
greed and selfishness. Fasting to one’s self which is the focus for today’s
readings is to fight against lust and sensuality. It develops mastery over our
instincts and attains freedom of heart. In this way, we are recalling our
baptism as the Church unites herself to Jesus on the desert. Not to forget the
3 forms of penance which help us in conversion to fight the ancient temptations
of pride, greed and lust. Everything we do should always have a clear and
sincere intention and motivation to put Jesus in the center of it. If we find
Jesus comfortably seated, happy and very contented in the midst of our
activities just like a bridegroom on the day of his wedding then we can be
assured that we are on the right track. God has always been giving us all kinds
of reminders, be it direct or indirect, in the form of a parable or a simple
story just like in today's gospel. If we would read on further the gospel for
today we would find the practicality of the message being conveyed by Jesus is
not only applicable to its direct and obvious meaning with regards to new
clothes and wine but most especially to our daily lives. Come to think of it,
although we all are very knowledgeable about life after having studied and
experienced a lot of things we still end up, at times doing the wrong things
and end up ruining not only ourselves but the people close to us. We might as
well ask ourselves why we sometimes end up doing crazy things that we know
already won't work! We all know that only Jesus can make things right and make
us whole. If we only remember, we even sing this often, too. He can give us
peace, sweet love, joy and heaven too for only Jesus can satisfy our souls.
Amen. Hallelujah!
Matthew 9:14-17
14 The disciples of John approached
Jesus and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do
not fast?” 15 Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the
bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away
from them, and then they will fast.” ...No one patches an old cloak with
a piece of un-shrunken cloth, for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and
the tear gets worse. 17 People do not put new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined.
Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”
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