Acts 1:15-17. 20-26
15 Peter stood up in the midst of the brothers (there was a
group of about one hundred and twenty persons in the one place). He said, 16
“My brothers, the scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke
beforehand through the mouth of David, concerning Judas, who was the guide for
those who arrested Jesus. 17 He was numbered among us and was allotted a share
in this ministry. 20 For it is written in the Book of Psalms: ‘Let his
encampment become desolate, and may no one dwell in it.’ And: ‘May another take
his office.’ ... Then they prayed, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show
which one of these two you have chosen... they proposed two, Joseph called
Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias...and the lot fell upon
Matthias, and he was counted with the eleven apostles.
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 which houses the "Ark of
the Covenant". He saw the evil of excess in Tekoa, he witnessed the
"left" (poverty) and the "right" (wealth and affluence)
side. Being himself a dresser of the sycamore tree who worked with his people,
he also saw the plight and injustice that is existent during that time. His
prophetic mission emerged as an offshoot of his kingly and priestly status and
was able to go through all these stages making him a good "nabi"
hebrew word for prophet. We, too as followers of Jesus should also go through
certain stages and fulfill our call or mission to be king, priest and prophet
in our own personal lives. What I learned in the bible study about the very
relevant and essential Hebrew word "pescher" which means repetitious
study, reading and pronunciation of the word of God is a tool to achieve this
goal and always be reminded about the goodness and benefits of being a genuine,
equipped and well fulfilled follower of Jesus. The God of yesterday, today and
forevermore. Amen. Hallelujah!
Psalm 103:1-2. 11-12. 19-20ab
R: The Lord has established his throne in heaven.
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) 11
For as the heavens are high above the earth, so surpassing is his kindness
toward those who fear him. 12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has
he put our transgressions from us.
An All
Powerful God becoming a dependent human baby on the eve of Christmas day is
very overwhelming. It points to the truth that the meaning of Christmas is
shocking but it is because of love. St.
John of the Cross, a Carmelite said, "At the
evening of this life we will be judged by love." Even Pope John Paul II in
his book about the role of Christian family said that the human person's
fundamental and innate vocation is to love. No other love is greater than the
love that God has for each one of us. If only we are fully aware of this then
we will all be compelled to share this great love. Let us always be reminded of
this so that our thought, word and action resounds this truth. This reminds me
of a friend who asked me how I see myself in the next five years. Instead of
answering his question I returned the question to him. He said that the last 5
years of his life just passed him by without anything remarkable happening to
him and his family. He said that he would make sure that it would be different
this time. At first we were into some business opportunity conversation but
later on without me thinking about what to say I was already speaking and
quoting about famous bible passages in the bible. He appeared to be listening and holding on to
every word I said as if he was ready to ask for more. Indeed the word of God is
like a double edged sword which cuts through deep into your soul. It all ended
with my invitation for him and his family to attend one of our local feasts or
prayer meetings being held in West
Covina and my fervent hope and prayer that he will
respond to it positively. It’s my way of extending God’s love to him and his
family and the choice is his to make. Amen. Hallelujah!
1 John
4:11-18
We have come
to know and to believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever
remains in love remains in God and God in him. 17 In this is love brought to
perfection among us,...There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out
fear...
We can not discount the fact that evil is lurking in this
world and temptations never stop to assail us. Remember that Satan is the
father of lies and have gone to a great extent to lure people to his malice and
schemes. It is evident how we see the world has become today. We tend to change
loyalty and be convinced of the intricate and elaborate strategy of the enemy.
He just doesn’t take things sitting down. He is definitely at work and should
never be underestimated. We already have the victory in our hands but sometimes
we just let it slip by. We’ve got to learn more and more from Jesus and know
who is Master of our lives. Jesus is the hallmark sign of humility. He is
obedient to the Father’s plan to the point of suffering and death. It went as
far as taking up the cross for our salvation. As scriptures say, “Learn from me
for I am meek and humble of heart.” St.
Augustine said that Jesus did not say, learn from me
to do wonders and miracles, heal the sick, cast out devils, raise the dead but
learn of me to be meek and humble of heart. God doesn’t expect the great signs,
wonders and deeds. He does expect meekness and humility from us. Meekness is
the virtue that moderates anger. Humility is so powerfully a Christian virtue
and not as the pagan philosophers believe it to be. It is thinking that God
alone is good and the source of all goodness. He distributes His gifts to all
of us and is the goodness in all that we see. From this point of view we can
say that to sin is being envious of God. When we sin it means we are jealous of
God. It is our will, thinking and the intellect that primarily decides. It is the appetite of the will that keep us
from the moderate striving to reach our goal. We can cross the line from being
the creature and the creator and try to procreate the things that belong to
God. St. Paul
says, that whatever we do, we do it for the name of the Lord. We do it because
He directs, guides and inspires us to do it for His honor and glory and not our
own We have to be void of pride and vain glory. We must not pride and delight
in ourselves of any good deed that the Lord worked through us. Rather what we
own and what is truly ours is our vices and sin. Beware of the wisdom of the
world to have more and more. Jesus tells us to stop running after things and be
anxious about them and always speaking about them. We ought to speak of the Kingdom of God first and everything will be added
unto us. St. Francis warns us of practicing religion and saying beautiful words
and always be concerned of how it looks like and how it shows to other people
but care little about the deed. Love is what love does. Our love must be
expressed in action. The spirit of the world wants the holiness that is ours to
be apparent to people for a show. The interior spirit is what we should
exemplify in. We must keep our eyes focused in God and do it to a certain degree.
We must be patient when we suffer and things go bad. It is part of humility as
well to have patience and persevere. We should keep pressing in our minds that
we grow to a greater degree in our internal life when we fall in various trials
and endure anguish of soul and body. St. Francis says that, what a man is
before God, that he is and nothing more. How does God see us? What we are
before God is the status that we need to believe and not the values of the
world. We must not measure up to world’s standards and categories, live in
another person’s place and be concerned of what they think of us. It is a consolation to know that we are
protected by God at all times. Everything has already been given to us. If
there are moments when we don’t feel like it then we must realize that it is a
deception. We must accept correction and achieve a holy state of life. It is
about time that we clear things up and finally see what we are missing all
along. We are assured in today's gospel that we are protected from the evil one
for as long as we are consecrated in truth. We should always have an attitude
to shun away from the false values of this world and draw ourselves closer to
nothing but the truth. May we always seek the truth, stay in it and live it in
our lives. Amen. Hallelujah!
Jn 17:11b-19
...I do not ask that
you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one...
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