Colossians 3:12-17
12 Brothers and sisters: Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy
and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and
patience, 13 bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a
grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.
14 And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection. 15 And let
the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also
called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you
richly, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, singing psalms,
hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever
you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving
thanks to God the Father through him.
Our Catholic faith
teaches us that once a person breathed his last then that's it, only we, the
living and those left behind, can still offer prayers and take advantage of
every breath we are still able to make. While we still can, we give praise to
God in our prayers with the hope of being able to rise again and come to the
glory of seeing God face to face together with all our dear faithful departed
ones who already breathed their last and have gone ahead of us. Another thing I
am reminded of in today’s psalm is the article of Rev. Ronald Rolheiser, OMI
entitled, “Religious language as icon” in the Tidings newspaper dated September
4, 2009. Especially the one about his narration of Henri Nouwen who wrote the
book “Return of the Prodigal son” which became his signature work. Just like
the prodigal son we all have to return to God and we better be prepared for it
and do as the author did. He said that before he wrote the book he went to the
Hermitage museum in Russia
and sat for whole days contemplating Rembrandt’s famous painting of the
prodigal son. He was given permission to study the painting from various angles
letting it speak to him in varying moods which resulted in one of the finest
commentaries ever written on both Rembrandt’s painting and on the meaning of
that famous parable in the Gospels. He said that what Henri Nouwen did is what
we need to do with a lot of the classical language of Scripture, the creeds and
dogma. It should put us in touch with something that we can know but struggle
to conceptualize and explain. It is meant to be grasped at levels beyond just
the intellect. We cheat ourselves of meaning whenever we treat Scripture, the
creeds, and the dogmas of our faith as simple statements of history and
newspaper accounts in literal language. We risk our very lives on this truth
because they speak to us more as does an icon than as does yesterday’s
newspaper. It is meant to be studied, contemplated, meditated, knelt-before and
prayed-with, rather than taken literally. What we are experiencing right now we
can relate to the scriptures and can give meaning based on our personal
encounters with certain bible passages. If we frequent the word of God we would
find that they are undeniably related and significant which should inspire us
to take note of the different and several meanings we were able to grasp,
contemplate, understand and absorb in the heart with every life mystery as Rev.
Rolheiser puts it. Honor, power and glory be to our God forever and ever and as
the psalm today tells us let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Amen.
Hallelujah!
Psalm 150:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6
R: Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
1 Praise the LORD in his sanctuary, praise him in the
firmament of his strength. 2 Praise him for his mighty deeds, praise him for
his sovereign majesty. (R) 3 Praise him with the blast of the trumpet, praise
him with lyre and harp, 4 praise him with timbrel and dance, praise him with
strings and pipe. (R) 5 Praise him with sounding cymbals, praise him with
clanging cymbals. 6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Alleluia.
Today's gospel inspired me to share about my mother. I could
never forget this passage because it is one of her favorites since I grew up
always hearing her quote this. (Give and gifts will be given to you; a good
measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing…) My mother was widowed
at a very young age of 32 and left with our care when we were still very young,
aged 4, 3 and 1. She never remarried and just devoted her life to us. She was
not just our mother but stood as our father at the same time. She worked hard
in order to provide for all our needs. As far as I can remember, we were never
in want at any single time. My mother would always attribute this to God our
Provider. She often said that widows and orphans are very special to the Lord.
Another thing I am reminded of is my experience before when I was just new in
the Charismatic Renewal and still in the honeymoon stage with the Lord. I was
boldly declaring about my new found relationship with God and Mama Mary and
somebody who happened to be a "born again" Christian kept on bluffing
me. I should have been irritated and annoyed with her because I wasn't doing
anything wrong with my outward display of faith. Instead of giving in to her I
decided to keep up a nice face, still be gracious to her and just kept silent. I
could have answered back and defended myself but I felt in my heart that it
won't do any good to both of us. Although it should not always be the case we
should fervently pray that we will always strive to be good and trust God. He
knows perfectly well what's in our minds and hearts and what matters most is that
we think, speak and act exactly the way Jesus would. Whenever we feel that
someone doesn't like us we should still treat that person with the same kindness
we treat a person who likes us. We must not have special preferences in people
and try to treat them equally as best as we can. It is very difficult but if we
continue to pray to God for grace then we can carry on with it and do exactly
what the gospel says. Amen. Hallelujah!
Luke 6:27-38
...32 For if you love those who love you, what credit is
that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to
those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same...Give
and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down,
and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you
measure will in return be measured out to you.”
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