Today's 1st reading impressed in my heart the words requests and favoring. This made me remember the many works of charity and mercy that I have witnessed in the community of God. We have all been to a point in our lives when we have experienced that our requests are granted and are given favors. It feels good when we encounter brothers and sisters in Christ, who have in one way or another shown their dependability and being an accommodating friend to us. We must not forget and always remember that these are all coming from the Lord and as we appreciate them we are also giving glory to God whose favoring hand is upon us. Amen. Hallelujah!
Nehemiah 2:1-8
...The king granted my requests, for the favoring hand of my God was upon me.
The psalm reading reminded me of my co-participant in a training that I attended in Japan. He is from Korea. The duration of the training is almost one year so it is important to have a good rapport among the participants. Unfortunately, our personalities do not go well together. I sensed something different about him and was confirmed when I found out that he didn't believe that there is a God. He claimed to be an atheist. At first, I was trying to be really extra careful and nice to him and was even injecting discreetly some Christian values and ideas to him whenever we are engaged in a conversation. I should say that next to the challenge of my research work there in Japan, he posed to me a difficulty that I never thought I would be able to handle and surpass. Everyday especially during our 1st few months in Japan, I would pray hard for strength in order to withstand whatever challenges that lie ahead of me during the day. This involves putting up with his manners and attitude on top of the fact that we are from different countries with very diverse cultural background and beliefs. After several weeks of constantly praying and putting on hold my temper and practicing patience, gentleness and courtesy to the best of my ability, I finally succumbed to the pressures I've been experiencing then and blurted out all my repressed and bottled up anger. Whew! You could just imagine what I did by how everybody who saw me reacted. They had the impression that I am the Filipina who can pulverize people with an iron fist like Pacquiao. Although it worked since he stopped bothering me from then on, I also regretted what I did for I know that getting back at someone in that manner is not pleasing before the Lord. I am a professed believer of God and should embody this faith. Just like what the 1st reading tells us, I am sure that what I did is not a reflection of a person who believes in God. It is imperative that we act what we believe in our thoughts and words. God arranged for something else to happen. Another participant got very sick and was hospitalized and we ended up visiting her together. On our way to the hospital, I started a conversation with him which unexpectedly led to his unbelief in God and the theory of the evolution. Judging from where it was going I thought it would end up in disaster that is why I am still in awe at how things happened the way it did. I could never understand or figure out up to this time how I was able to speak those words that I spoke to him. It was as if someone else was speaking in my behalf. Instead of opposing his ideas I just found myself even agreeing with him. This is what I said, “Let us say the evolution theory is true, but consider even for a moment the hardship with my research work wherein I needed to transform the microorganism or simply put it as, improve the strain. I need not change the microorganism which was a fungus to another microbe like a bacterium but just introduce a tiny bit (DNA) of characteristic to improve it. Just the thought of changing fungi into bacteria is already an impossibility that I could never even think about since the transformation alone and the maintenance in itself is already hard work. I told him I've been putting all my efforts and whatever intelligence left in my brains after slaving myself to work beyond midnight just to succeed in my experiments and there was no room for mistake or even a short period of neglect for timing and strict maintenance is a must or else everything I worked for will be gone. I asked him in the light of his being a science researcher himself, that if he believes that humans evolved from a single cell to a very complicated human body like we have right now, a genius must have sustained, maintained and watched over our evolution to our present condition, wonderfully made and crafted by none other than the greatest Genius, Researcher and Scientist of all time.
Today's psalm encourages us to be firm in our beliefs in God. This is especially true during times when terrible things happen and causes us so much sorrow. We can not help but be full of grief. In spite of all of these we can always look to God and not forget that He never forsakes nor abandon. There are times when we forget or simply keep silent about the goodness done to us by other people and the Lord. Though, it doesn't mean that we don't appreciate or have gratitude to them. What's most important is that every good thing done whether in secret or public can not escape the notice or attention of God who will definitely act according to what an All Knowing, Almighty, Holy and Immortal God deem fit and proper. We have our own personal reasons for not making it known or just simply forgetting about it and making it known. The psalm reading encourages us to always give praise to God in words, thoughts and deeds. It is indeed very unfortunate if we are not aware of how great our God is. There is no greater joy and treasure than having the full knowledge about God. Which makes me think of Tita Neds right now. We both have the computer and the internet connection but Tita Neds doesn't know how to use it. There was a time when my 2 sons were not home for our chat time. Though, they gave her already the instructions to just accept my call to their Yahoo Messenger but she was not able to do it. She's been texting me in my cellphone that she doesn't know how to accept the call so I gave up and forgo of our chat that day. There are times when everything is already within our reach and right before us, what's keeping us from doing the right thing although we're taught how to do it, is that we forget and do not remember.
Amen. Hallelujah!
P S A L M
Psalm 137:1-2. 3. 4-5. 6
R: Let my tongue be silenced if I ever forget you!
By the streams of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. On the aspens of that land we hung up our harps. R. Though there our captors asked of us the lyrics of our songs, And our despoilers urged us to be joyous: “Sing for us the songs of Zion!” R. How could we sing a song of the LORD in a foreign land? If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand be forgotten! R. May my tongue cleave to my palate if I remember you not, If I place not Jerusalem ahead of my joy. R.
If we are just going to look back and recall all the things that have happened in our life then we can never deny the presence of guardian angels as spoken of in today's gospel. God always makes His messages known to us in various ways but He confirms them to us too. God is assuring us that there is no need to be afraid because He directs us always to the right path and if ever we are led astray He constantly searches for us to lead us back to Him. We should remain eternally trusting in our faith in God as a child is with his/her parents. It is faith that must become the foundation of all that we do. If we are just going to look back and recall all the things that have happened in our life then we can never deny the presence of guardian angels as spoken of in today's gospel. There is this very interesting detail I read with regards to the instinctual behavior of oriental breed sheep whenever they get lost. According to this study, upon sensing such a misfortune, they stop their frantic wandering and just stay still. Instead of searching the right way on their own, they prefer to sit still and just wait instead until they are found by the shepherd. This somehow explains how Jesus in today's parable left the 99 in search of the astray. In our own lives we, too experience being lost and led astray. Sometimes we are too wrapped up in our problems and miseries that we just kept on searching for ways and means to get out of it. The more we do this the more exhausted we become and the less likely we find a solution. God our Father and Good Shepherd knows exactly what we are going through and He already figured out what to do. Instead of relying on our own efforts which are obviously no match for God's plan and design we might as well stop our frantic wandering and just stay still if we want God to find us. Another interesting message in today's gospel reading is the fact that the quantity is irrelevant and looks after every person for God cares for each one of us. God wants to put emphasis on this point that He is always with us and knows our deepest thoughts and concerns. Jesus makes all things possible for we are adopted sons and daughters of God.
Amen. Hallelujah!
Matthew 18:1-5. 10.
The disciples approached Jesus and said, “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?” He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me. “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.”
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