The 1st reading for today reminded me of my experience in
St. Martha's Church when I was just new in the parish in 2008. I was so
surprised when I saw the statue of Jesus in St. Martha Church here in West Covina . It was a first Friday of Feb 2008 when I
envisioned this statue of Jesus with an extended right arm holding His heart on
his hand. Tita Piling was with me then so I asked her if that is a statue of
the Sacred Heart because I have never seen anything like one before, but she
simply nodded her head. That was how I saw it. It appeared to me like He was
handing over His heart to me. But on the day we went for Sunday mass I found
out that the image/statue which I envisioned was not how I saw it on that day
with Jesus extending his arm offering His heart on his hand. To my surprise when I came closer to the
statue, I realized that it is indeed the Sacred Heart of Jesus but not as I had
seen it on the 1st Friday of that month. The heart of Jesus was not
in His hand but on His chest. I was almost in tears and felt God's love being
offered to me as symbolized by His heart held on His extended hand. A lot of
people may find it hard to believe that I have seen Jesus holding His heart on
His extended hand but the eyes of my faith can not deny it and with that I
proclaim God's miracle for His greater glory. When Moses met God in the burning
bush, Moses asked God “What is your name and whom shall I say sent me?” He said
My name is “I am” not I was nor I will be but I am. God lives in the eternal
now where it is neither past nor future. If we are going to realize that at
this very moment God sees us not only at this lovely day He created but He sees
us already dead, buried, judged and safely home with Him forever for the
ecstasy that He has planned for us. He sees us now as we are worrying and
fretting about a future that may never come. Moses told the Lord, who am I to
go to pharaoh. God did not send Moses with chariots and charioteers but before
God called Moses he had this experience for 40 years as a shepherd caring for
the sheep in Midian. Most of all, God was with Moses as He is with us. He said
I shall be with you and He was with Moses, as He is with us, too. Amen. Hallelujah!
Exodus 3:1-6. 9-12
Meanwhile Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law
Jethro, the priest of Midian. Leading the flock beyond the wilderness, he came
to the mountain of God, Horeb.There the angel of the LORD appeared to him as
fire flaming out of a bush.a When he looked, although the bush was on fire, it
was not being consumed. So Moses decided, “I must turn aside to look at this
remarkable sight. Why does the bush not burn up?”
We can never fathom the wisdom of God but we can always remain
confident in the truth that His kindness is perfect and everlasting. He makes
all things work for good. When we feel so helpless, miserable and alone, never
ever doubt that He can't help but be the loving God that He is. God loves us so
much that he will adjust to our needs and make things work for good. There is
no reason for us to even doubt and hold back anything from the Lord for nothing
is too difficult for Him. If we are confident of God's Providence in our lives then nothing should
even make us doubt that God is able to redeem us and take us out of misery. God
has made known His kindness, mercy and secures justice for all. He knows
exactly what we need at the precise moment and brings forth everything in its
appointed time. Furthermore, God wanted to take our transgressions as far as
the east is from the west. How far is the east from the west? Only God knows.
We know that the distance is unfathomable, that’s what the Lord does with our
sins. How much does He loves us? We know that His love and mercy is
immeasurable. There is really none like our God. And reading part of the psalm
reading made me remember the song "Loving and Forgiving". He is our
best bet for always and there is no one or nothing else that could or should
take first place in our lives more than the Lord. Whenever we receive goodness
and kindness from people we meet we are very much delighted and pleased with
it. How much more would we feel if we have God's favor resting upon us. There
is nothing else better compared to this. We may search long and hard but we can
never really find true satisfaction and remain restless unless we have God in
our life. We only have to believe in God's kindness and mercy and we will
surely see it happen in our life before our very eyes. He is our refuge and
strength. To whom can we go but to God alone. The world’s point of view is very
contradictory to the message that God wanted us to live by. We need to pray hard for the desire to always
follow what is pleasing before the Lord and not forget that it is what really
matters first and foremost. We are so blessed that we did not live during the
time when Christians were being persecuted and martyred and what we are
enjoying right now are already the benefits of God's marvelous work wrought by
His mighty hand. This is why we should stop complaining and just keep our hope
if we truly believe that we have a God and Father who is full of kindness and
goodness. This reminds me of the prophet Amos. He is a prosperous
herdsman/farmer, well educated and traveled. His time (746-786) was an age of
prosperity but severely marked with moral decay and spiritual bankruptcy. He
experienced a luxurious life, lived in the garrison city a place dominated by
people of power and had all the time to study the scriptures. He lived in
affluence, belonged and embraced the "clan system/wisdom" which is a
guild or crusade to maintain the purity of the tradition of the temple of Jerusalem
P S A L M
Psalm 103:1b-2. 3-4. 6-7
R: The Lord is kind and merciful.
1 Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all my being, bless his holy name. 2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. (R) 3 He pardons all your iniquities, he heals all your ills. 4 He redeems your life from destruction, he crowns you with kindness and compassion. (R) The LORD secures justice and the rights of all the oppressed. He has made known his ways to Moses, and his deeds to the children ofIsrael
1 Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all my being, bless his holy name. 2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. (R) 3 He pardons all your iniquities, he heals all your ills. 4 He redeems your life from destruction, he crowns you with kindness and compassion. (R) The LORD secures justice and the rights of all the oppressed. He has made known his ways to Moses, and his deeds to the children of
Matters of the faith are very
difficult to accept and understand for some people for they will always
question and rationalize things. The vision I had of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
is quite difficult to believe. There are some things that can not be explained
and we simply have to pray to God to reveal them in our hearts. This is why
Jesus in today's gospel emphasized the importance of being like the little
children. We, grown ups are always caught up in the cares and concerns of this
world that we sometimes forget who
really is in charge of everything and tend to overpower God. The same way a
child entrusts everything to his/her parents we, too should learn to trust that
God our Father will take care of us. We can learn a lot from the children who
are full of trust and confidence in their parents. I am also reminded of Jude
since he is a product of the Sacred Heart of Jesus miracle. Recently I have
engaged into a serious conversation with my son about a lot of things in the
past that he does not know of. Since I had been consulting with a priest lately
and was advised of the necessity to inform my son of the events surrounding the miracle.
Although this priest told me not to tell about it to my son at first for he is
not yet at the age of reason and may not understand the situation but he also
said that if I think that my son is ready to accept realities and ready, then I
have to tell him. He said that this will help him understand some of his
feelings and sensitivity towards any situations in life. Ever since I have
found it difficult to talk to him regarding this matter but that day finally
came when I was able to tell him everything and was released. He has become
matured and has grown into a fine young man that his mother is very proud of. He
handled the truth so well and was grateful for letting him know about it. But
what’s most reassuring is the fact that he has retained that forgiving and
loving characteristic that he has when he was still a young child. If we
will only learn the secret of the childlike then we can surely acquire the
wisdom of God. If we always maintain in us, a high level of confidence in God
who is our loving Father then we are not far from achieving it. May we acquire
the trusting attitude of the children and continue to discover the wonders of God’s
love as a perfect father to us. Amen. Hallelujah!
Matthew 11:25-27
25 At that time Jesus exclaimed: “I give praise to you,
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.
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