Jonah 3:1-10
...it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began his
journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing,
“Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,” 5 when the people of Nineveh
believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on
sackcloth...When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way,
he relented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry
it out.
Organizing
all my daily reflections since 2007 made it easier for me to locate and
retrieve them. I have found it very rewarding and beneficial. It has given me
the opportunity to access with ease, the insights and reflections I wrote in
the past. Thus paving the way to recall, reflect, and share it again. In light
of the readings today I am reminded of Fr. Alex Amayin, the associate priest in
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. His talk was about reconciliation which is very much
in line with the 1st & psalm readings for today. It was centered on 4
things which is 1. SIN 2. GRACE 3. FORGIVENESS 4. RECONCILIATION. He said that
the 1st 3 are all a reality but #4 is only a possibility. There is no doubt
that SIN happens but the GRACE of God is always present and available for us
even before we ask for FORGIVENESS. When we ask FORGIVENESS, God is always
ready to give it. RECONCILIATION calls us to true conversion. We should
always find our way back to God and never doubt His mercy. He cited the example
of 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 can either choose to be the snake or the caterpillar. Take
your pick. It is important that we always maintain a clean heart and a
steadfast spirit so that we are constantly in God's presence. It's not that God
loves us any less, no matter what we do, He will always love us. It's just that
a Holy and Loving God can not dwell in an impure heart and spirit. The sacred
heart of Jesus should be our model and guide as we strive to live out the call
to be a genuine follower of God. “When we open our heart to the love of God and
to others, it makes us capable of shaping history according to God’s
plan.” - said Pope John Paul II. In His fourth apparition to St. Margaret
Mary, our Lord revealed His Sacred Heart, declaring: "Behold this Heart
which has so loved men that it spared nothing, even going so far as to exhaust
and consume Itself, to prove to them Its love.” The center of devotion to the
Sacred Heart of Jesus is the Enthronement of the image of the Sacred Heart in
the home. By the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart, we link the tabernacle of
our parish church to our home, inviting our Lord to be our constant and most
intimate companion. The Enthronement is a way of life. It means that
Christ is King of our hearts, and we desire Him to be present with us always.
In other words, by the Enthronement we signify our desire to make our hearts
and our homes holy, to sanctify our lives in every aspect. God will not refuse
nor turn His back on us if we are truly sorry for our sins and are willing to
mend our ways. Let us not be so naive into thinking that we can get away with
anything and cheat God. Let us be fair and truly square in dealing with things
that concern not just our future but our eternal destiny. Whether it's heaven
or hell, we would have to decide for that not God. If we choose to do evil then
we are surely headed where it's bound but if we remain faithful to God and all
that He represents then we are headed to a place prepared for us by God in
heaven. We are sure to go where our hearts lead us. The problem is that there
is a great propaganda out there. It makes sin appear with all its fun,
excitement and glamour. It makes virtue appear boring, lame, bland and unexciting.
But the truth of the matter is, it’s not. The pleasures that God created in
this world are enjoyed the most by those who don’t abuse them and use it
simply. Who do we think enjoys food most? The person who doesn’t know how to
fast and engorges all the time or a person after a fast experiences a feast?
The virtuous person enjoys life the most. The person who uses creation and all
things according to God’s plan enjoys it the most. It is because pleasure is
God’s idea. All the good things in the world that people want are God’s idea.
Satan can’t invent even one bit of pleasure. But God commands them to be
used so that it leads to life and a part of life is joy. The way to enjoy life
is to follow God’s commands. Life is not all about rules and regulations. God
did not just give us a bunch of rules and regulations that we are supposed to
obey like machines. What we do does not just proceed from who we are but also
makes us who we are. The actions we engage, the words that we say and the
things that we do have an impact on us. We are making ourselves all the time.
God created us when we came out of the womb, our mothers and father have a
great role in that but our creation continues every single day of our lives.
We’re even becoming someone more beautiful, mature and stronger or someone
weaker and more despicable. There’s no middle ground. We’re going one way or
another. Life leads either to heaven or to hell. That’s what the acts that we
commit do. Let us always ask God's mercy for our sins and repent of it. The
Lord said that He is not sent for the well but for the sick. We have a disease
in our souls that if left uncared for can cause death. We all have a terminal
disease called sin, we need a doctor to give us advice. We have been saved by
God but we can lose it just as we can lose our human life for not caring for
it. We go to God who is our Divine Physician to be healed. He alone can make us
whole. God's presence in our lives is inevitable just like the coming of dawn
before the break of day and if we have mastered the art of loving back God then
we become a pleasing sacrifice before Him. And in his good pleasure makes us
prosper, then we find ourselves rebuilding the walls of our boundaries as we
expand our borders. It is of prime importance that we take extra care in
attending not only to our temporal needs but our spiritual as well. We have
this mindset that it pleases God whenever He sees us going through hardships
and difficulties in life. We tend to equate God to an oppressing tyrant that
would pin us down for every wrong move. Or worst to a slave driver that would
not be satisfied unless his subjects exhaust all their strength to his service.
The people during the time in the Old Testament could borrow a good excuse for
having this kind of mindset because Jesus has not come yet. We who live in this
time of the New Testament do not have a good alibi because God already
demonstrated the greatest expression of His love for mankind when He sacrificed
His only begotten son, Jesus, to suffer and die for our sake. With this truth
always engraved in our hearts and minds we could no longer harbor wrong
impressions and mindsets of our God. Whenever a particular human right is being
violated certain activist groups passionately rally to defend such right that is
in question. What about the right of God? We are so concerned about our own
personal agenda and we fail to realize that we need to address it more than
anything else. According to Pope Benedict XVI, Jus Divinum is the right of God
which constitutes the proper and correct response of God’s creatures such as
man to his Creator. This we ought to realize and take action. We should do all
the good that we are supposed to do to a God who created us. There is something more to what we
see, hear and feel about people. We really couldn't judge a book by its cover.
It's in knowing what is hidden in the heart that we can truly say for sure what
is real. But who can see through our hearts? Nobody but God alone. What is
unknown and hidden from us, God knows. We may be able to hide from men but
never from God. We can only pray to God to create in us a clean heart. For
where our treasure is, there also will be our hearts. This should all be our
prayer, “Change me Oh God, mold me in accordance to your pattern and plan and
not mine” Dirt stain in clothes sometimes doesn't want to come off even after
several times it has been machine washed. There are really some dirt and stain
that do not go away that easily with regular washing. There is a need to scrub
it manually with soap and water so that it will come out clean. Our souls are
just like clothes which are stainable by our sins. It is a consolation to know
that our sins are washable in the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. We can always
come to Him and acknowledge our sins with a sincere and repentant heart so He
can cleanse us, wipe out our offenses and blot out all our guilt. There is
nothing that could separate us from the love of God. Let us not be deceived nor
dissuaded to believe otherwise. Just like clothes that need to be washed after
being worn and got dirty so our souls need to be cleansed too by the blood of
the Lamb. God’s love ever present in the body and blood of Christ is always
present and available for us. All we need to do is reach out for it because God
is a gentleman and would never force Himself on us. There has always been a
raging battle between God and satan. Though it has already been won, satan just
won’t give up. He continues to wreak havoc and evil among us in his desperation
to bring misery into our lives and share in his condemnation. He doesn’t have
the tiniest power over us and he can only have it if and only if we give in to
his lies, deceptions and false promises. We need to make this conscious
decision each and every single day for the Lord. We need to purge ourselves of
the impurities of our souls we have to go through a certain process that will
render us with a clean heart. As we strive to nurture a heart that beats for
God alone we also go through a process of cleansing as stated in the psalm
today. God's mercy is greater than any of our sins. If we are to repent and
turn away from our sins then we've got to do it right now and really do it
fast. God sees through our hearts, our motives and intentions. What God wants
of us is to truly acknowledge His great mercy and goodness to us that in doing
so will abound a natural inclination to repent and repair all our iniquities
and lead to a brand new, wholesome and clean Christian in the truest sense of
the word. We need to stand in all humility before God and confess our sins. The
body and soul are good but it demands a need for physical asceticism. We have
to submit our bodies to an act of sacrifice without neglecting that conversion
is first of all interior. Total conversion demands not only expression in works
of penance but also of the heart. God is able to do anything. All the more
should we be full of confidence that He can create a clean heart and steadfast
spirit for us if we truly ask for it. God our Father will never turn His back
on us. Let us get this straight, it is the sin that God hates and not the
sinner. If we are in sin then that's the time we drive away God's Holy Spirit
dwelling in us for it is impossible for God's presence to exist with sin. It's
our call then to respond to the psalm's invitation to rise and go to God or
remain slumped in the mud of sin. Our God will always be the best Father a
child could ever have, the best Brother/Friend and the best Comforter and Guide
all in one. Bottom line, to Him alone shall we go because we don't know that
much and if we don’t then we end up doing one of these things, take for
granted, ignore, forget or neglect the things God is telling us to do. What's
worse it could be all of the above! We get blinded and become preoccupied with
a lot of things that lure us away from doing what God wants us to do. We are
deceived into believing all the lies of this world disguised and packaged by
the enemy in an inviting and convincing truth. We should realize that it is
always for our own good that He commands us to do the right thing. It is not
merely to impose but for us to freely decide for a life lived to the full.
There is no other way to maintain the Holy Spirit dwelling in us but to let it
reside in a clean heart. We drive away God's Spirit in us if we don't
strive to let our hearts remain clean. Today's psalm is a song that I have come
to know and sing by heart without the aid of a song book. I always love to sing
it and hear it being sung most especially by the choir during mass. It is well
for us to not just love to sing it with our voices but with the sincerity of
our hearts. The words "take not your Holy Spirit from me" made me
realize that God has the power to give and take. The thought of the Holy Spirit
being taken away from us is the worst thing that could ever happen. If we don't
feel God's presence in our life anymore and we've become numb and insensitive
to the promptings and guidance of the Holy Spirit then now is the time to
reconnect and realign ourselves to God's Spirit most especially during this
Lenten season. It is important that we always maintain a clean heart and a
steadfast spirit so that we are constantly in God's presence. It's not that God
loves us any less, no matter what we do He will always love us. It's just that
a Holy and Loving God can not dwell in an impure heart and spirit. It is
of prime importance that we take extra care in attending not only to our
temporal needs but our spiritual as well. Amen. Hallelujah!
Psalms 51:3-4, 12-13, 18-19
R: A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
1 [3] Have mercy on me, O God, in
your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. 2 [4]
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me. (R) 10 [12] A clean
heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me. 11 [13]
Cast me not out from your presence, and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
(R) …For you
do not desire sacrifice; a burnt offering you would not accept. My sacrifice,
God, is a broken spirit; God, do not spurn a broken, humbled heart.
Stubborn, stiff necked, hard headed and what else can we say
to ourselves when we still doubt and falter in our faith in God. For so many
times already, God has moved and shown His mighty power working in our lives in
many instances and yet we still fail to act and respond in accordance to what
God has done for us. We still insist on doing things in our own way instead of
acknowledging the truth that there is nothing really more we ought to see and
witness. For the love of God manifested
in Jesus is the greatest love and sacrifice ever known. If we can think of
something greater than this then maybe we can continue to be stubborn and be
justified in our evil ways but we can search long, far and wide and find none.
Sometimes we rely on our feelings, intuition, prevailing situation, by trend
and popular choice. Sometimes too there is nothing wrong with it because these
are all part of our human nature. Our God relates to us in a very personal way.
He knows the exact message that we need at the right moment. God in His
Infinite goodness and intelligence wanted to communicate His love and mercy to
us but we are limited in our capacities to understand everything that there are
times when these creative means as in signs help us when we make decisions. God
never stopped showing us in a variety of means His great love and mercy for us
throughout generations. It is very sad that in spite of it all we sometimes
just don't get it. How many more signs are we waiting for to come to us before
we do what we have to do? In the fullness of time God has already sent the most
perfect sign of all. Let us no longer be like this evil generation who continue
to be blind of it. Let us not look any further. Let us not be fooled or tempted
by the false propaganda of the world and its lies. If we are to look very
closely and think deeply we are not going to end up making the wrong decisions
and choices. God never runs out of things, situations and circumstances that
constantly remind us of what we are supposed to do. We should be grateful for
all these experiences that keep on coming one day after another to us. We must
admit that somehow it gives us a boost in the midst of all the turmoil in this
world we live in. Sometimes we take these things for granted and become
insensitive. We fail to see the real meaning of the things we encounter and
continue in our careless and stubborn ways. When this happens we end up missing
the real point, the so called "greater than Jonah here". If we
continue this attitude day in and out then we might find ourselves being
condemned. Today's gospel warns us of this fate if we keep on passing up on all
the countless signs that God has given us from the very beginning most
especially the biggest and greatest sign. We ought to keep our hearts, minds
and souls open to these inspirations that God gave, is giving and continues to
give and not miss the greatest sign ever known. There is indeed something
greater than Jonah that we ought to have seen by now. There is no other sign
that could best lead us to the right path than the sign of God's love. What our
human minds can not fathom God communicated to us in the flesh in no less than
His only Beloved Son who came down from heaven in order to suffer and die on
the cross and save us from our sins. Amen. Hallelujah!
Luke 11:29-32
29 While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said
to them, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign
will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. 30 Just as Jonah became a sign to
the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. 31 At the judgment
the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will
condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of
Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. 32 At the judgment
the men of Nineveh
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