CHOICES

I believe that if we offer all our choices to God he will not refrain from blessing us in so many ways. We have the power to make our lives prosperous and filled with blessings. All we have to do is make that decision and take charge. God gave us the freedom to choose let us hope and pray that we are always inclined to do the will of God in our lives to carry out His plan of prosperity in our life. We always have a choice. It's all up to us whatever we want to choose and it would help a lot if we will always be guided by these bible verses in today's 1st reading from Deuteronomy. The instructions are all very clear and specific and all we have to do is resolutely follow with all our might and strength what God is asking us and never yield to the deceptions and false presentations of the enemy. At this early stage of Lent, the Church calls us to look at the summons of Moses in today’s 1^st reading. This should make us consider our own lives and reflect on it. The summons call us to a moral decision about one’s faith. Do we choose evil or goodness, prosperity or doom? The goodness of the law and our Lord is something we must choose or destruction must come upon us. The commandments of God are given for our own good. It is not simply an imposition of something to spoil what we think is fun.  Why is it good to follow the commandments? Think of our parents preventing us when we were still young from playing ball in a wide street. They are doing this not just to spoil the fun but to protect us. This is a cause for reflection to make us think of the commandments that God has given us to follow. When we realize that our parents do this to protect us and work for our own good, this will help us to understand God’s commandments. Part of the Lenten season is to obey the commandments. If we may recall, in the year 587, Judah was conquered by the Babylonians but maintained their identity and continued their Jewish tradition. Their difference from people in the north lies in the fact that they have the stronger propensity to worship Baal and pagan gods. Those from the north diffused their faith in the Lord their God. They lost their identity and ceased to exist as tribes. In fact studies show that there is no trace or any idea where they are right now. They were just known as the 10 lost tribes of Israel. Whereas the tribe of Judah listened to the prophets, like Isaiah and Ezekiel, while in Babylon and continued to worship the one true God. We may identify with them in our present life. We have forces that would tear us away from God. We need to cling and hold fast to God by loving and obeying His commandments. This is what will preserve our identity. We are a nation under one God, indivisible. Amen. Hallelujah!

Dt 30:15-20

Moses said to the people: “Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom. If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin on you today, loving him, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the LORD, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy. If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen, but are led astray and adore and serve other gods, I tell you now that you will certainly perish;… I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, 20 by loving the LORD, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him. For that will mean life for you, a long life for you  to live on the land which the LORD swore he would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

Today’s psalm brought back memories of what I witnessed on television in 2010 when miners in Chile had to be rescued in a mine. Nobody would ever want to be trapped in a dark mine that is 2000 feet below. What caught my attention was the fact that although some of them had been rescued and brought up to the light they were still prevented from exposing their eyes to the light and were given dark shades to wear to protect them. This is what happens when we dare to step into the darkness and stay there too long we adapt to it and wanting to go back to the light instantly could be harmful. Let us not be led into the dark and imbibe it for too long that we find it difficult to adapt to light. Until now, we have no idea who we are and still in a conflict. Look at the things we do and engage in. This is because we don’t understand who we are. We will be judged by God according to our behavior. We should have God in the core of our identity. What builds our confidence? Think about it. This same reason should apply in our relationship with God. If we know and are aware of how we look right before God, then we should have the confidence of a beloved child of the God most high. How can we not be, knowing that we are covered by the most precious blood of His Son Jesus who took all our sins and died on the cross for our sake then we should be the most confident person of all. Remember, we have the composure of a child of God.  Nothing should stop us from behaving in the way He has meant us to be, lifted up on a pedestal as His very dear children. Today's psalm tells us that if we follow the Lord we will not be in darkness and will have the light of life. God is true to His word and we can always hold on to it more than we can hold to our life. Just like any person striving to maintain a good standing in any aspect of life there are some rules to be followed. People nowadays have become increasingly divided, there are the poor and the wealthy and sometimes we see the not so good, arrogant, bad people cheat in order to get money and get away with it. We must always have this hope in God and not be tempted by the evildoers of their taunting that despite the goodness we do we are not getting anything out of our sacrifices. God knows the private conversations and thoughts and He exposes them and records everything. The idea that we can get away with anything we do is not a good idea. God knows our words, thoughts and deeds. Fear of the Lord in a positive way is one of the greatest virtues as in the book of Wisdom. It is stated that it is the beginning of wisdom if it is paralleled with trust that we will not be put to shame. Those wicked people who think that they have a lot of money, power, disobey God and don't use their resources in accordance to God's will can be compared to chaff that can easily be burned. If we have the right relationship with God then we too can be exposed to the heat of God's love like the sun that can make things go on fire but instead of burning becomes a source of healing like the rays of light shown in a monstrance which symbolizes being in God's presence. We should never lose hope nor fall into despair. Whenever we sin, we must not just acknowledge it. The lesson we always have to remember is to have humility to approach Christ as we acknowledge our sins. This should remind us of Peter and Judas, they both sinned and acknowledged it. Peter wept bitterly after denying Jesus 3x while Judas threw away the silver coins that were paid to him. The difference lies in the fact that Peter as the scriptures say, when he wept, looked at Jesus with a heart, humble and contrite, which God would not despise and ran to Mary. While Judas, fell into despair and hanged himself. Thus we remember these things and always run to God with humility and also to Mary, the mother of Christ who will obtain for us true contrition. There is really a need for God's people to always be connected to Him in order to survive whatever is going on at present and what is to come. We've got to always keep ourselves motivated to do all in our power for the glory of God. All other things fade in the background and should not get our attentions any more than we ought to believe that God is our only hope. We may have started at the peak but as time goes by we may have started to lag or worse go on a downward path. Or could have started off but never worked our way up then it's time we get things straight and be focused so as not to lose sight of the unsurpassed and unfading trophy and blessing that await those who are victorious in the Lord. Today’s psalm continues to give us the guidelines we need to live by to truly prosper in the Lord. God assures us that even though life may bring us so many heartaches and pains we can still stand firm and hope that we will have the light of life if we will persevere, not waver nor falter in following the Lord. Let us choose to live in the light rather than stay in the dark.  God gave us the freedom to choose let us hope and pray that we are always inclined to do the will of God in our lives to carry out His plan of prosperity in our life. It has been impressed to me that God has already given us the gift, all we have to do is open it and use it as intended to serve its purpose. Sometimes we remain stubborn in our old ways we don't realize that everything is just within our reach, it's just a matter of committing and deciding what is right before God. We all know that life becomes difficult when it comes to commitments and making decisions but it will always be worth it after all the hard work as implied in the psalm reading. It doesn't matter who or what we are, whether young or grown up, God will always find a way to bless us in various ways. We just have to open ourselves to Him and always draw near to Him and never stray away from His side. The scriptures say it all. We need not hesitate, stall, delay nor look for anything else further but just follow what the scriptures tell us to do. In fact the bible has an acronym which stands for (B) Basic (I) Instructions (B) Before (L) Leaving (E) Earth. Another thing I am reminded of is my son Jude when he was just a little boy aged 6. When my mother was hospitalized I was the one taking care of her during the day and my brother who is the eldest is the one who slept in the hospital at night and stayed by her bedside. When she died we were both not by her side or no one for that matter because she was brought to a different room for removal of water in her lungs and also the time when my brother and I had changed shift. I just arrived home coming from the hospital and had no thought whatsoever that my mother already passed away. I was in complete denial of the fact that she would be leaving us soon during that time, I had always hoped for a miracle and extension of her life although my mother kept on telling us back then that she is ready to go anytime. I could never forget when I was just entering our home, my son Jude suddenly came up to me while holding a bible in his hand and opened a page in front of me with a picture of a tree beside a river and animals grazing on the land. What my son told me was this, "Nanay (Mother) let’s do a bible study." Since I was so tired, I got the bible from him closed it and told him that we'll do it later. But he was persistent he opened the bible again and lo and behold saw the same picture and page that he showed me a few seconds ago. He did it again for the 3rd time and the same page in the bible was showing up. Because of that I was prompted to finally give in to his persistence and read the bible passage underneath the picture. It was exactly the same message in today's psalm reading. After reading it something in me prompted me to say to him that her grandmother is already healed and will soon be coming home to us from the hospital. This is without knowing yet that it was the same time too when she passed away. Later on I realized that it was God's way of telling us that indeed my mother is healed and has gone home although not to our earthly house but to a place of eternal rest and perpetual light, in paradise. Amen. Hallelujah!

Psalm 1:1-2. 3. 4 and 6

R: Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

1 Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, 2 but delights in the law of the LORD and meditates on his law day and night. (R) 3 He is like a tree planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers. (R) 4 Not so the wicked, not so; they are like chaff which the wind drives away. 6 For the LORD watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes.

May we always be focused on the truth above all truths and not be distracted by the clamor of this world as presented in today's gospel. Whatever it is we are going through right now, it is always best to always focus on Jesus on the cross, King and Lord, but chose to be man and suffer for our sake. May we be able to come up with this thought that if Jesus, the Son of God went through all of these torments and sufferings but with all power and glory resurrected from the dead, then we too as His faithful followers should not be moved and be reminded always of what truly matters no matter how heavy our trials and difficulties may be for Jesus is our mighty Savior and Redeemer. We must not lose the sense of who we are as a people. We are given choices, life or goodness, death or destruction.  This choice is a moral choice. It does not mean that if we obey God we are going to win big prizes. It means also that we are picking up the cross and following Him. This is the season of prayer and fasting in preparation for holy week when we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus. He calls us to do the same by picking up the cross to which we die. We all know that we actually don’t die daily but only once but there is a sense of dying when we daily pick up our cross and die spiritually. The evil within us dies so that we can respond to our daily call to follow Jesus. It is to have a daily conversion to follow Jesus to choose goodness and life over death and evil, so we’ll have the power to die to our cross and do what is for ourselves possible. Somehow when we die to ourselves we lose a certain type of prosperity by following Christ. We don’t acquire great riches but that doesn’t mean failure. As the gospel tells us today, we gain eternal life, salvation in heaven and inherit the kingdom that God has prepared for us. Amen. Hallelujah!

Lk 9:22-25

Jesus said to his disciples: “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected

by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.” Then he said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?”