EVERLASTING LOVE

 We can sometimes easily change our minds and decide against something that we were just considering at one moment. It could be contradictory to what we were earlier stating but it happens to all of us and can not deny that's how we are at times. Our minds can only be occupied with and focused on a few things if not just one at a particular time. No matter how good and brilliant we may be, we all have our limitations. We may be up to something yesterday but can suddenly change today and could definitely not tell what tomorrow may bring. Everything seems to be uncertain except for the fact that we have a God that is the same yesterday, today, tomorrow and forever as in today's 1st reading and that is all that matters. There is none like God. There is no one and nowhere to go but only to God. We have to decide once and for all to live for Jesus alone.  It is time we have a grasp of the depth of God's love and mercy. Without realizing this we can never come to appreciate how much God wanted us to be in a relationship with Him. Today's 1st reading tells us that He is willing to go as far as the unreachable just so He can get this everlasting love across to us. We always see these words of Jesus in the gospel, "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” As the Apostle Paul says, “On behalf of Christ, we are acting as ambassadors and appealing that you return to God.” God is appealing to us to be reconciled to Him through Christ. What could be done so that God is pleased with us rather than angry at us? Who can have qualms about God's mercy if we seriously return to Him? He will certainly welcome those who return as the Loving Father to His prodigal son. We are free to sin but later on must pay the heaviest penalty of the consequences of sin. When we have returned to God how can we can continue receiving His forgiveness and remain His friends, sons and daughters. What does He asks of us? Nothing except that we keep His commandments. The Apostle John explains that His commandments are not burdensome, if it is to us how much more are the torments of hell. Unless we are mad, we don't dare want to experience it. We have to think of it over and over again and never forget. Now is the time of mercy but later the time of justice. One can easily square accounts with God with a small effort of repentance we can gain great forgiveness. With a brief mourning one can avoid eternal wailing. But later the riches of the whole earth could not even gain a single drop of cold water or a dip in a burning tongue as in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:24). On the other hand any good work done now in account of charity can obtain the kingdom of heaven. What could be clearer than what the 1st reading is telling us today? The time to act is now. Amen. Hallelujah!

                                 

Micah 7:14-15, 18-20
…Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old; as in the days when you came from the land of Egypt, show us wonderful signs. 18 Who is there like you, the God who removes guilt and pardons sin for the remnant of his inheritance; who does not persist in anger forever, but delights rather in clemency, 19 and will again have compassion on us, treading underfoot our guilt? You will cast into the depths of the sea all our sins;20 you will show faithfulness to Jacob, and grace to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from days of old.

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!

Psalms 103:1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12

R: The Lord is kind and merciful.

Delivers your life from the pit, surrounds you with love and compassion, ...As the heavens tower over the earth, so God's love towers over the faithful...Not according to our sins does he deal with us, nor does he requite us according to our crimes. (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.

We will never ever come to the full realization of this great and immense love that God has for us until the time we come into perfect union with God in heaven. For that to happen we have to die first, leave our human bodies and depart from earth. For the mean time God is trying to get this across to us in a variety of ways that we can relate to, in the things that we are familiar of, here on earth. Today's gospel, Jesus cited not just 1 but 3 parables like the love of  the Holy Trinity, just to get His message across. The story of the Prodigal son never ceases to amaze us. By man's standards what the son did was unforgivable for it is an act of disrespect and dishonor for a father. By God's standards we may not fully understand for it is simply His nature to love us with such careless abandon even if we don't measure up. In other words we have a God who loves us to the max, no holds bar. Thus, these passages of the Parable of the Prodigal Son from the gospel today invite us especially during this Lent to be like the son who rehearses his lines when he said “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.” In response, his father ordered his servants, ‘Quickly bring the finest robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Take the fattened calf and slaughter it. Then let us celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.’ Or we could be like the older son who became angry and when he refused to enter the house, his father came out and pleaded with him. He said to his father in reply, ‘Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf.’ He said to him, ‘My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. Judging from these we can say that neither of these sons younger or old truly knew their father. When the younger son squanders the property and said "I am not worthy, just treat me like your hired hands." He did not grasp the depth of His father's love and mercy. Sometimes we are like this when we are not totally convinced that God will receive us back. Many of us can identify with the older son upon coming back and hearing the celebration instead of welcoming back his younger brother was dominated with the hardness of his heart. When his father came to him, the oldest son reveals his depravity and voices out his bitterness as he recounts the sins of the younger brother. This is what resentment does, he makes his own the sins of his brother. He was not able to welcome back the younger brother. He is in fact like the younger brother to a certain degree. This is because every single thing that he does he will calculate as shown by his words as he said that all these years the father hasn’t given him a darn thing. This is deep seated resentment and bitterness. Both sons wanted to lay claim of all that their father possess. They just wanted to take hold of what their father has. All that the father wanted them to do is to be like him. This is very important in our relationship with God our Father. We need to become better in whatever relationship we presently have with God. We could be one of the 2 sons and could definitely learn a lesson from this. There is a need for us to assess what kind of relationship we have with God. We might think we are in a higher level of relationship with God but we could be wrong. In the same way that the older son taught that what he and his father had was the real thing. It turned out that he had not perfected yet the kind of love that God wanted us to have in our hearts. We sometimes fall into the same trap when we think we are doing everything that is good. Our love should know no boundaries in the same way that God loves us. We should realize that if we become like God the Father that’s when we truly inherit everything. Do we truly know our heavenly father? Well, we can do better than these two sons, if we wish to lay hold of heaven and the glory that is His.  The beautiful thing to effect here is that God has given us Jesus and the way to do it is through Him. Jesus knows the Father and He and the Father are one. Since the story tells us of a father's great and unconditional love for his son this reminds me of the 4 levels of happiness. The 1st level is known as laetus which is short lived just like eating a favorite dish. The 2nd one is felix and is much like the 1st one also. It could be something that we've been hoping to have and received as a gift from someone. Although the happiness here is not as short lived as the 1st and may last longer it would still eventually wear off. The 3rd is beatitudo which is the happiness coming from service to others and emanates from the joy that we feel when we help other people. We could probably take the example of the saints who lead a selfless life dedicated to others. This is long lasting happiness. Although this definitely lasts longer than the 1st and 2nd it is still not everlasting happiness. The 4th level of happiness is gaude which is perfect since it is depicted by agape, unconditional love of God. This produces everlasting happiness. Let us not settle for anything less. It should drive all of us to attain and reach this level as the father who loves his son so dearly in today's parable in the gospel. Amen. Hallelujah!

Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

...“A man had two sons, 12 and the younger son said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’ So the father divided the property between them. 13 After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings and set off to a distant country where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation. 14 When he had freely spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he found himself in dire need. 15 So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to his farm to tend the swine. 16 And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any. 17 Coming to his senses he thought, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here am I, dying from hunger. 18 I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.” ’ 20 So he got up and went back to his father. While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. 21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.’ 22 But his father ordered his servants, ‘Quickly bring the finest robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Take the fattened calf and slaughter it. Then let us celebrate with a feast, 24 because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.’ Then the celebration began. 25 Now the older son had been out in the field and, on his way back, as he neared the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing. 26 He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean. 27 The servant said to him, ‘Your brother has returned and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ 28 He became angry, and when he refused to enter the house, his father came out and pleaded with him. 29 He said to his father in reply, ‘Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. 30 But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf.’ 31 He said to him, ‘My son, youare here with me always; everything I have is yours. 32 But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ ”