Everything is grace from God. We came to this world naked and with nothing. We can not claim anything as our own except for our sins. We must not forget that God alone is the reason that everything came to be. We must have every confidence in the ability of our God to make happen and make possible what is to be and is to come for in His glory, honor and power we place all our trust. Amen. Hallelujah!
Revelation 4:1-11
...“Worthy are you, Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things; because of your will they came to be and were created.”
Our Catholic faith teaches us that once a person breathed his last then that's it, only we, the living and those left behind, can still offer prayers and take advantage of every breath we are still able to make. While we still can, we give praise to God in our prayers with the hope of being able to rise again and come to the glory of seeing God face to face together with all our dear faithful departed ones who already breathed their last and have gone ahead of us. Another thing I am reminded of in today’s psalm is the article of Rev. Ronald Rolheiser, OMI entitled, “Religious language as icon” in the Tidings newspaper dated September 4, 2009. Especially the one about his narration of Henri Nouwen who wrote the book “Return of the Prodigal son” which became his signature work. Just like the prodigal son we all have to return to God and we better be prepared for it and do as the author did. He said that before he wrote the book he went to the Hermitage museum in Russia and sat for days contemplating Rembrandt’s famous painting of the prodigal son. He was given permission to study the painting from various angles letting it speak to him in varying moods which resulted in one of the finest commentaries ever written on both Rembrandt’s painting and on the meaning of that famous parable in the Gospels. He said that what Henri Nouwen did is what we need to do with a lot of the classical language of Scripture, the creeds and dogma. It should put us in touch with something that we can know but struggle to conceptualize and explain. It is meant to be grasped at levels beyond just the intellect. We cheat ourselves of meaning whenever we treat Scripture, the creeds, and the dogmas of our faith as simple statements of history and newspaper accounts in literal language. We risk our very lives on this truth because they speak to us more as does an icon than as does yesterday’s newspaper. It is meant to be studied, contemplated, meditated, knelt-before and prayed-with, rather than taken literally. What we are experiencing right now we can relate to the scriptures and can give meaning based on our personal encounters with certain bible passages. If we frequent the word of God we would find that they are undeniably related and significant which should inspire us to take note of the different and several meanings we were able to grasp, contemplate, understand and absorb in the heart with every life mystery as Rev. Rolheiser puts it. Honor, power and glory be to our God forever and ever and as the psalm today tells us let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Amen. Hallelujah!
Psalm 150:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6
R: Holy, holy, holy Lord, mighty God!
1 Praise the LORD in his sanctuary, praise him in the firmament of his strength. 2 Praise him for his mighty deeds, praise him for his sovereign majesty. (R) 3 Praise him with the blast of the trumpet, praise him with lyre and harp, 4 praise him with timbrel and dance, praise him with strings and pipe. (R) 5 Praise him with sounding cymbals, praise him with clanging cymbals. 6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Alleluia.
Our God is an all or nothing God. It's either you are with Him or against Him because there is no in between. We've got to make a stand whether we are really for God in all aspects of our life. We can never be a half hearted Christian or a Sunday Catholic but not for the rest of the days. Sometimes we think that we can fool God by not totally committing to Him and still think that we can play safe by continuously patronizing both worlds that of God's and the enemy. Today's parable shows us what will happen if we do not take the right course of action and fail to make the right move. In the end, we have to be ready for the pros and cons of our action. The Lord is a just God and will reward us according to his riches and glory. Let us never doubt a single minute that whatever we are working for at this present time will never be in vain if we offer everything to God. Whatever it is that we devote our time, money and effort, we often hear this question, "Is it worth it?" God is always worth it. After all these things are done, may we find ourselves in the shoes of the trusted servant in the gospel. Let us pray that we'll not end up like this unworthy servant that even the little he had was taken away. May the Lord find us worthy of the blessings He has given us and we continue to cultivate whatever is entrusted to us, be it a big or small blessing and find ourselves bearing fruit for the greater glory of God. Sometimes we commit the same mistakes over and over again and we never seem to learn. There has got to be a time when we have to learn and change for the better. We just can't keep on doing it and be sorry for it repeatedly and not change the vicious pattern. Eventually we will have to take responsibility for all those things and suffer the consequences. Today's gospel is more of a reminder that we can't get away with things by playing around the rules. It has to be clear for us what specific course of action we have to take. Or else we might end up in trouble with the game we wanted to play and find out that the trick is on us. As in Jesus' words from the gospel, "‘With your own words I shall condemn you,..." We can't expect to get away with something that we are responsible of. We need to realize that the servant who was punished by being deprived of even the little he has was not totally wicked as compared to those who despised the master, don't want him as king and rallied against him. This servant was discreet enough, so he thought, not to make any bold or open move as to announce publicly that he dislike the master. He is neutral in the sense that he still accepted the gold coin entrusted to him but decided not to do anything about it. He was punished not for doing something bad like the enemies of the master or for what he did but for what he did not do. Sometimes we think that by being neutral, not making a stand or playing safe is safe enough. Well it isn't. The Lord encourages us to take an active part in our salvation. Living life to the full is a risk. But we should be willing to take that risk unlike that servant in the gospel today because nothing is too risky when we know that we've got what it takes to succeed. We are children of God and being that, more will be given. It is something that we have to respond in the most enthusiastic, productive and effective way just like those 2 other servants who were entrusted with more. Now this is safe enough. Amen. Hallelujah!
Luke 19:11-28
...“A nobleman went off to a distant country to obtain the kingship for himself and then to return. He called ten of his servants and gave them ten gold coins and told them, ‘Engage in trade with these until I return.’ His fellow citizens, however, despised him and sent a delegation after him to announce, ‘We do not want this man to be our king.’ But when he returned after obtaining the kingship, he had the servants called, to whom he had given the money, to learn what they had gained by trading. The first came forward and said, ‘Sir, your gold coin has earned ten additional ones.’ He replied, ‘Well done, good servant! You have been faithful in this very small matter; take charge of ten cities.’ Then the second came and reported, ‘Your gold coin, sir, has earned five more.’ And to this servant too he said, ‘You, take charge of five cities.’ Then the other servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your gold coin; I kept it stored away in a handkerchief, for I was afraid of you, because you are a demanding person; you take up what you did not lay down and you harvest what you did not plant.’ He said to him, ‘With your own words I shall condemn you, you wicked servant. You knew I was a demanding person, taking up what I did not lay down and harvesting what I did not plant; why did you not put my money in a bank? Then on my return I would have collected it with interest.’ And to those standing by he said, ‘Take the gold coin from him and give it to the servant who has ten.’ But they said to him, ‘Sir, he has ten gold coins.’ ‘I tell you, to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. Now as for those enemies of mine who did not want me as their king, bring them here and slay them before me.’ ”
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