Today's 1st reading is about a widow and reminded me time and time again of my nanay's (mother) strong faith in God when she was still living. My brothers and I were still very young when my mother was widowed. We were aged 3,2, and 1. We were such a pitiful sight then when we lost our father in a very sudden and unexpected way but my mother weathered through it all for she had always believed and held on to God's promise. The story of Elijah in today's 1st reading arouses a certain sense of confidence and trust in a Supreme Being who has everything under control. If we are to read a few verses before today’s 1st reading we will find that at first Elijah was asked to hide beside a brook and when it ran dry he was instructed to stay with this widow in Zarephath. If we try to examine our own life experiences we'll find that we do not differ that much from Elijah in the sense that we too are undeniably led and guided by the Lord. The only difference lies in the fact that we simply ignore, neglect and deny the constant act of God directed and moving in our lives. We come to a point where we miss it altogether. We sometimes end up bitter and feeling abandoned when we are not supposed to. God always has something good going on for us. The problem lies with us when we fail to grasp the entire meaning of how an Almighty God looks after our welfare. Amen. Hallelujah!
1 Kings 17:10-16
He left and went to Zarephath. As he arrived at the entrance of the city, a widow was gathering sticks there; he called out to her, “Please bring me a small cupful of water to drink.” She left to get it, and he called out after her, “Please bring along a bit of bread.” “As the LORD, your God, lives,” she answered, “I have nothing baked; there is only a handful of flour in my jar and a little oil in my jug. Just now I was collecting a couple of sticks, to go in and prepare something for myself and my son; when we have eaten it, we shall die.” “Do not be afraid,” Elijah said to her. “Go and do as you propose. But first make me a little cake and bring it to me. Then you can prepare something for yourself and your son. For the LORD, the God of Israel, says, ‘The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, until the day when the LORD sends rain upon the earth.’ ” She left and did as Elijah had said. She was able to eat for a year, and he and her son as well; The jar of flour did not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, as the LORD had foretold through Elijah.
Not once did the word of God ever failed. My mother used to say that God loves the fatherless and the widow in a very special way as if nothing else matters. I grew up as a child constantly hearing her say this and believing it myself as I was growing up and knowing more about the Lord. She has greatly influenced my faith in God. I should say that wherever she may be right now, which I feel, think and believe is in the company of God with all His angels and saints in heaven, her memory will live on forever in my heart and the hearts of the people whose lives she touched. According to St. Therese, the poorer you are the more Jesus will love you. The world's point of view is very contradictory to the beatitudes. The world chooses strength over weakness and poverty. What seems to be foolish for the world and folly to man is wisdom to God. Jesus is attracted to our poverty and weakness because it is where we meet Jesus. Unlike the world who is attracted to strength and hires the smartest and world’s greatest. We have all kinds of difficulties and struggles. These are what drive us to Christ to cling to Him. Instead of always trying to complain and talk about it what we do is keep our eyes on the Lord. Sometimes He places something before us that He wants us to do. The challenge for us is to turn to Him in our weakness and cling to Him in prayer, faith, hope, love and abandon ourselves to Him. Let us trust God's mastery and expertise to mold and make of us a masterpiece, a genuine work of His hands. Today’s psalm reading mentioned the word captives which reminded me of priest’s talk on “New Kind of War” several years ago. There are always captives in war and he mentioned that we, Christians must be aware of the war that our adversary, the devil is waging on us. We have a very committed and determined adversary. Looking at the present moral condition of people here in the US he said that he is not surprised at all at how things are turning out in the present moment since the moral demise of a country precedes the ultimate demise. Whatever may be happening around us and could be getting worse with each passing day, we can be assured that God will help His friends but not His enemies. We need to know on which side we are. It is indeed a difficult battle we are facing in our lives but we must remember that human beings do not do well when all is well. We are strengthened by the trials just like steel that is subjected to heat in order to temper it. Greatness is forced on a lot of people just like what happened to those people after the incident in the Sept. 11 tragedy. It is pushed in the crucible of tribulation but despite of it we can be assured of the promises stated in today psalm. We should continue to rely on our one true source of help for only Him can satisfy our soul. God's help is all the help we need, nothing more and nothing less. We ought to realize by now what the wisest thing to do is not based in the standard of the world but of the Lord our God. Our confidence and trust must rest on the Lord alone who makes all good things possible. If we will always fill our hearts with gratitude and praise for the Lord then we will realize how things in our life turned out for good which seem to be not the case at the time it was happening for our God is faithful and everything that is said in today's psalm. Our hope should only be in the Lord for He alone keeps faith, secures justice, gives good, sets captives free, gives sight to the blind and raises up the lowly. It is a consolation to know and be reminded of it so as to always keep in mind that we have a God who is everything that we ever need, want and long for.
If God is able to do all things then there is really nothing to fear. We can always count on God to make things turn out for the best. Let us not be dismayed or discouraged by our circumstances for He will surely fulfill what He has promised. Amen. Hallelujah!
Psalm 146:7, 8-9, 9-10
R. (1b) Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
Alleluia.
The LORD keeps faith forever, 7 secures justice for the oppressed, gives good to the hungry. The LORD sets captives free. (R) 8 The LORD gives sight to the blind; the LORD raises up those that were bowed down. The LORD loves the just. 9 The LORD protects strangers. (R) The fatherless and the widow he sustains, but the way of the wicked he thwarts. 10 The LORD shall reign forever; your God, O Zion, through all generations. Alleluia.
It may sound morbid for some but one of the things that I can never forget are the last few weeks of my mother here on earth. She was still up and about and not yet hospitalized, although she had been feeling very weak already due to a terminal illness, when she secretly confided to a trusted friend where to find all the things she will be leaving behind if she passes away and made sure that everything is in order. She knew that I was not ready to lose her yet because I always get mad whenever she starts to talk about her leaving us soon. She always said that she had done her mission on earth and she was ready at any time when the Lord would call her back home. During that time I can not even think of that possibility and was really praying hard for God to extend her life even longer. She knew that I was clinging to her more than I should. I just realized now how much it hurt her that I was not ready to confront the fact that she might go soon. She tried her best to put up a good fight and remained hopeful for our sake so that she could spare me of the pain of losing her. She was not able to say the things she needed to tell me since I would always stop her from saying anything more when she starts to talk about leaving us and refused to listen to her. It was our town fiesta in San Luis and we had a bishop and several priests as guests at home when she suddenly told them that she would like them to celebrate her funeral mass when she dies. Of course, they were surprised and refused to even entertain the thought but my mother was vehement about it that they finally agreed and said yes. My mother died in March 15, approximately 2 weeks after she said it. Her funeral mass became one of the grandest funeral that our town would always remember since it was concelebrated by Bishop Quizon and more than 10 priests in all. She was one of the active parishioners in our church who participated in the renovation of the church which reminds me of the people whom I met at San Lorenzo in Walnut who had been actively participating in the building of their new church. I should say that my mother was really one of those people that eagerly awaited the Lord and is now with God. The gate of heaven has been opened through Jesus and we have gained for ourselves an access to heaven. The tomb is empty and the fullness of His glory is truly present in us all. Jesus both God and Man has taken humanity into a new intimacy with God and invites us to a communion in Jesus Christ. He is the one who ascends to heaven, something that we can not do of our own power. But He enters into the fullness of His priesthood just like what the 2nd reading tells us today in Hebrews. We are all called by God to receive the promised eternal inheritance. No one is exempted or excluded from it only those who by their own free will refuse to respond to this wonderful gift. It sometimes happens when we tend to take for granted what is being given to us by setting it aside and forgetting about it. Let us be perfectly aware of this gift and get a hold of it for it is ours to keep. Amen. Hallelujah!
Hebrews 9:24-28
For Christ did not enter into a sanctuary made by hands, a copy of the true one, but heaven itself, that he might now appear before God on our behalf. 25 Not that he might offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters each year into the sanctuary with blood that is not his own; 26 if that were so, he would have had to suffer repeatedly from the foundation of the world. But now once for all he has appeared at the end of the ages to take away sin by his sacrifice. 27 Just as it is appointed that human beings die once, and after this the judgment, 28 so also Christ, offered once to take away the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to take away sin but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await him.
The instructions I received from my mother who was widowed when I was still very young have become a strong foundation of my great love for God. Her dedication to Him served as an example of a life lived for the Lord. Sometimes we are tempted not to pray anymore and not make any special effort to do good. Faith is friendship with God and it should never be just like aiming for the bare minimum because that is not what friends do. It is simply not true that we don't need God. We have to be glad that God didn't permit us to stop relying on Him. It would have been easy to fall into sin and stop befriending God. It is a betrayal of our friendship with God. We need to love Him more and more each day by spending many years of friendship with Him. One way to make sure that we don't forget how much we need Him is to always ask Him to bless us in all we do. We can do this by offering everything to God. I believe that God has perfectly planned for good every single event that happened, is happening and will happen in our lives. All we have to do is give in and totally surrender everything to God and just like this widow in the gospel may we find our longing and feeling of loss satisfied by the one, true, perfect husband or partner for all men and women alike in God our Savior. Amen. Hallelujah!
Mark 12:38-44
...A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. 43 Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. 44 For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”
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