DON'T WASTE IT

 How many chances do you think is God willing to give us? Every single day that we wake up is another chance for all of us to claim and fight for God's promises in our lives. There is always hope.

Amos 9: 11-15

I will bring about the restoration of my people Israel; they shall rebuild and inhabit their ruined cities, plant vineyards and drink the wine, set out gardens and eat the fruits.

What a wonderful world this place that we live in could be if only we listen to the instructions constantly being given to us in the scriptures. We have an awesome God who always speaks to us in a very timely and specific manner. His messages are fitted to the situation we are presently experiencing right now. We should remain confident that God will make a way. There is really nothing more that God can do for us that He has not done. God is never short of blessings to shower on us. He has made it all available to us through His Son. All that is needed is for us to make our move. Let us open ourselves to God's presence in our lives and know that there is never a moment in our life when He is away from us for it is always the other way around. For we are the ones turning away from Him and placing blocks and hindrances between us whenever we can't find Him.

We are constantly being faced by challenges to our faith especially at this present time. It is easier to be firm in our faith when times are easy but when tough times come that is when we are put to the test. No matter how difficult things may seem we should never give in to the pressure and remain steadfast. We can always choose to do the right thing if we safeguard in our hearts the truth about God knowing that it is always for the best. We need not be afraid of anything although this is something that we all find very difficult to do. They say faith and reason do not work together just like science and religion. This is not a fact but a fallacy. These things in fact compliment each other because one supports the other. There is no faith without reason and vice versa. We can not just have one and lack the other. This has to be very clear in our heads. We should always try to condition ourselves in the atmosphere of God's presence. We should gear ourselves toward that direction so that we place ourselves within His reach, it's not that God can not reach us but we hinder God from reaching out to us. When we do not respond to His call and shut off our ears although we are within hearing range, we fail to get the message. Which reminds me of Bernadette's ear, when we went to her doctor she underwent a procedure (ear lavage) in order to unclog her left ear but prior to that she was already instilling ear meds for 4 days. The nurse explained to her that it can be painful and can cause her to feel dizzy and asked her if she still wants it done and she agreed. Sometimes we have to resort to very uncomfortable measures in order to be cured in the same way we should maintain such condition spiritually so that we can always keep our ears open to God's word. Wherever God is, there is always peace and prosperity. It is only natural that we have longings and desires because God Himself planted it in our hearts. We all long for the good things in life and God Himself can provide for all these things. It is just sad that we reach out for other things that we thought are good for us. We do not realize that we have to seek first the Kingdom of God and everything else will follow. We fail to follow this sure and no fail formula that is not a secret. In fact it is not hidden in the bible since it is often quoted, sang and regularly assigned in the gospel readings. It is in really living this truth that we can witness for ourselves the glory of God dwelling in our land. Let's just keep our eyes always focused on the Lord no matter how long the road we're travelling is and how heavy the burden we're carrying may seem to be for the Lord is our Good Shepherd. If things about God are very clear in our minds then there is no need to doubt that God is the only authority that is worthy of obeying more than anyone and anything in this whole wide world. If we will just look very closely at what's happening in our lives then we'll see that God has our best interests in mind. We simply have to believe and obey Him with all our hearts. God will never stop in sending out His message to us. All we have to do is be attentive and receptive to what He's telling us. Day in and day out we are bombarded by the realities of life. There are times when we just can't help but be worried and anxious of so many things. It even comes to a point when we feel like giving up but we should always keep in mind that there is hope, for the glory of the Lord will dwell in our land. Only God can give us the peace that the world can not give. Amen. Hallelujah!

Psalm 85: 9ab and 10, 11-12, 13-14R: The Lord speaks of peace to his people.8 [9] I will hear what God proclaims; the LORD-for he proclaims peace. To his people, 9 [10] Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him, glory dwelling in our land.

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.”