JUDE’S MATURITY

The 1st reading for today reminded me of my experience in St. Martha's Church when I was just new in the parish in 2008. I was so surprised when I saw the statue of Jesus in St. Martha Church here in West Covina.  It was a first Friday of Feb 2008 when I envisioned this statue of Jesus with an extended right arm holding His heart on his hand. Tita Piling was with me then so I asked her if that is a statue of the Sacred Heart because I have never seen anything like one before, but she simply nodded her head. That was how I saw it. It appeared to me like He was handing over His heart to me. But on the day we went for Sunday mass I found out that the image/statue which I envisioned was not how I saw it on that day with Jesus extending his arm offering His heart on his hand.   To my surprise when I came closer to the statue, I realized that it is indeed the Sacred Heart of Jesus but not as I had seen it on the 1^st Friday of that month. The heart of Jesus was not in His hand but on His chest. I was almost in tears and felt God's love being offered to me as symbolized by His heart held on His extended hand. A lot of people may find it hard to believe that I have seen Jesus holding His heart on His extended hand but the eyes of my faith can not deny it and with that I proclaim God's miracle for His greater glory. When Moses met God in the burning bush, Moses asked God “What is your name and whom shall I say sent me?” He said My name is “I am” not I was nor I will be but I am. God lives in the eternal now where it is neither past nor future. If we are going to realize that at this very moment God sees us not only at this lovely day He created but He sees us already dead, buried, judged and safely home with Him forever for the ecstasy that He has planned for us. He sees us now as we are worrying and fretting about a future that may never come. Moses told the Lord, who am I to go to pharaoh. God did not send Moses with chariots and charioteers but before God called Moses he had this experience for 40 years as a shepherd caring for the sheep in Midian. Most of all, God was with Moses as He is with us. He said I shall be with you and He was with Moses, as He is with us, too. Amen. Hallelujah!

 Exodus 3:1-6. 9-12

Meanwhile Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. Leading the flock beyond the wilderness, he came to the mountain of God, Horeb.There the angel of the LORD appeared to him as fire flaming out of a bush.a When he looked, although the bush was on fire, it was not being consumed. So Moses decided, “I must turn aside to look at this remarkable sight. Why does the bush not burn up?”

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!

P S A L M

Psalm 103:1b-2. 3-4. 6-7

R: The Lord is kind and merciful.
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) 3 He pardons all your iniquities, he heals all your ills. 4 He redeems your life from destruction, he crowns you with kindness and compassion. (R) The LORD secures justice and the rights of all the oppressed. He has made known his ways to Moses, and his deeds to the children of Israel .

Matters of the faith are very difficult to accept and understand for some people for they will always question and rationalize things. The vision I had of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is quite difficult to believe. There are some things that can not be explained and we simply have to pray to God to reveal them in our hearts. This is why Jesus in today's gospel emphasized the importance of being like the little children. We, grown ups are always caught up in the cares and concerns of this world that we sometimes forget  who really is in charge of everything and tend to overpower God. The same way a child entrusts everything to his/her parents we, too should learn to trust that God our Father will take care of us. We can learn a lot from the children who are full of trust and confidence in their parents. I am also reminded of Jude since he is a product of the Sacred Heart of Jesus miracle. Recently I have engaged into a serious conversation with my son about a lot of things in the past that he does not know of. Since I had been consulting with a priest lately and was advised of the necessity to inform my son of the events surrounding the miracle. Although this priest told me not to tell about it to my son at first for he is not yet at the age of reason and may not understand the situation but he also said that if I think that my son is ready to accept realities and ready, then I have to tell him.  He said that this will help him understand some of his feelings and sensitivity towards any situations in life. Ever since I have found it difficult to talk to him regarding this matter but that day finally came when I was able to tell him everything and was released. He has become matured and has grown into a fine young man that I, his mother is very proud of. He handled the truth so well and was grateful for letting him know about it. But what’s most reassuring is the fact that he has retained that forgiving and loving characteristic that he has when he was still a young child. If we will only learn the secret of the childlike then we can surely acquire the wisdom of God. If we always maintain in us, a high level of confidence in God who is our loving Father then we are not far from achieving it. May we acquire the trusting attitude of the children and continue to discover the wonders of God’s love as a perfect father to us. Amen. Hallelujah!

Matthew 11:25-27

25 At that time Jesus exclaimed: “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.