POINTS TO PONDER

Man has a spirit and a body that are equally important. But having a spirit sets man apart from all other creation. Everything else has a body, but Adam received an infused knowledge of God and self consciousness that can make us distinguish one thing from the other and transforms it to experience. God created the garden with the tree of good and evil. Man is a person and is subject to God but we are invited to experience a relationship with God unlike any other beings. Man has the glory of being on top of creation. We are called to respond to this privilege in order to participate with God and enjoy being good, submissive, obedient, humble and all other virtues. It is just sad that this is something that sometimes we all don’t do. We still suffer from the weakness of original sin. As in Romans 7:19, For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want. We have been given the tree to make a choice to do right or wrong. That is theoretical and practical as we experience this personal awareness of this tree. This establishes what man should be but what we experience in life now is not characterized with a life of good. We have the freedom of choice from within through our self consciousness and self determination that has a will through intelligence. This allow us to demonstrate that man alone being on top among all other creation possess these qualities in the entire world to dominate others and makes us able to be in relationship with God. In sin we lose grace and break this relationship which is manifested as earth resists our possessive domination when we try to use and abuse creation in contrary to the Creator’s will. This we have seen in various natural calamities. The Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts where our will is formed in grace with loving obedience to God and form actions that show integrity. Although this should be the case we sometimes do not reflect it but act in rebellion and contrary to how God created the universe. In order for us to realize what we’re created to be we have been permitted by God to form our knowledge and experiences to manipulate our feelings.  Let us fervently hope and pray that what comes out of us is His word, His love and not our own so as to be rather than just to seem to be, a friend of God. Sometimes we are so obsessed of something without realizing that God has given us a lot of things, everything we need.  In today's 1st reading we are reminded that we need not insist on that one single thing that we are completely aware is forbidden and instead divert our attention on the many opportunities and blessings that are already within our reach.

We’ve got to straighten up some things about God. Who He is and what He wants for our life. What is our picture of God? It’s not surprising to know that most of us think that God doesn’t want us to have fun. It’s like all the things that we want to do with our friends that are interesting and exciting when we were young are against God’s commandments. It may seem like we have to settle for less. What’s worse is that all the faithful Catholics get less out of life. This is part of the propaganda way back in the Garden of Eden. God gave us a magnificent paradise wherein there is perfect intimacy and no shame with each other. In the Garden they have everything they need but gave just one limit, not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This is very interesting because God said, “Don’t do this because you will die.” The reason why God commands us something is because He is a loving Father who cares for us. He wants us to have the best. But then came the serpent, he didn’t create Adam & Eve, nor gave the garden or anything at all. All the serpent gave was a lie and told Adam & Eve not to listen to God or they’ll lose out and won’t become like God. They were made to believe that God is holding out something from them and is actually their rival because God doesn’t want them to have what He has. So instead of trusting the one who gave them everything, they trusted a stranger. They disobeyed God and listened to the liar. They were hooked into a downward spiral of destruction. This is what sin is all about. It is a trap. It is disguised as an apparent good because the fruit looks good and desirable but it ends in disaster. The relationship with God is messed up and so creation turned against them, thorns and thistles appear and things in life become hard. This is what sin does, it seemed small but it gets out of control. Things get worse and worse and there are broken lives everywhere. This is the reality about sin. We are draining life out of ourselves. It's time we know who we should listen to for the enemy is wise and deceiving so let us not be duped any longer.  Amen. Hallelujah!

Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7

...Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals that the LORD God had made. The serpent asked the woman, “Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?” The woman answered the serpent: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, “ ‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman: “You certainly will not die! No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad.” The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it...

The problem is that there is a great propaganda out there. It makes sin appear with all its fun, excitement and glamour. It makes virtue appear boring, lame, bland and unexciting. But the truth of the matter is, it’s not. The pleasures that God created in this world are enjoyed the most by those who don’t abuse them and use it simply. Who do we think enjoys food most? The person who doesn’t know how to fast and engorges all the time or a person after a fast experiences a feast? The virtuous person enjoys life the most. The person who uses creation and all things according to God’s plan enjoys it the most. It is because pleasure is God’s idea. All the good things in the world that people want are God’s idea. Satan can’t invent even one bit of pleasure.  But God commands them to be used so that it leads to life and a part of life is joy. The way to enjoy life is to follow God’s commands. Life is not all about rules and regulations. God did not just give us a bunch of rules and regulations that we are supposed to obey like machines. What we do does not just proceed from who we are but also makes us who we are.  The actions we engage, the words that we say and the things that we do have an impact on us. We are making ourselves all the time. God created us when we came out of the womb, our mothers and father have a great role in that but our creation continues every single day of our lives. We’re even becoming someone more beautiful, mature and stronger or someone weaker and more despicable. There’s no middle ground. We’re going one way or another. Life leads either to heaven or to hell. That’s what the acts that we commit do. Let us always ask God's mercy for our sins and repent of it. Amen. Hallelujah!

Psalms 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14, 17

R: Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.

1 [3] Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. 2 [4] Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me. (R) 3 [5] For I acknowledge my offense, and my sin is before me always. 4 [6] “Against you only have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight.” (R) 10 [12] A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me. 11 [13] Cast me not out from your presence, and your Holy Spirit take not from me. (R) 12 [14] Give me back the joy of your salvation, and a willing spirit sustain in me. 15 [17] O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.

We can never outdo the generosity of our God. Thus we should always look at the positive side of things. We should dwell on the goodness of God rather than on the misconceptions or wrong mindset we have of God. We could probably have a better understanding of God if we are truly open to the truth that we have a God who is abounding in grace and mercy who can always give and provide whatever we need whether it be material, spiritual and any other aspect that God is able to make right. We have to be more inclined to think of the greatness and infinite love of God our Father. God doesn’t want us just to be whole human beings and restore us to what Adam & Eve were when they blew it in the Garden. God wants us to be more than that. He wants to elevate our human nature and divinize it. He wants us to share in His own Divine nature. This is an incredible thing and call. It was only possible because God became man and we can share in his virtue. This is what the real Catholic life is all about. It’s not just about making it or going to heaven by the skin of your teeth after struggling. It’s about growing in holiness and becoming like Jesus all throughout our life, a champion not without struggles. As a matter of fact without the struggles we can never become a champion. But with victory and excellence not with hopelessness, despair and frustration. This is God’s desire for us which is a fantastic calling. The power to do this has already been given to us. We should continuously be thankful that though we deserve to be punished for all our sins, Jesus took it upon Himself because of His great love for us. We are truly blessed! Amen. Hallelujah!

Romans 5:12-19

Brothers and sisters: Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all men, inasmuch as all sinned. If by that one person’s transgression the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many. For if, by the transgression of the one, death came to reign through that one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace

and the gift of justification come to reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. In conclusion, just as through one transgression condemnation came upon all, so, through one righteous act acquittal and life came to all. 19 For just as through the disobedience of one person the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one the many will be made righteous.

Today's gospel speaks of an important aspect of the season of Lent and the particular mystery of Jesus’ life when immediately after He fasted and prayed in the desert for 40 days was tempted by the devil. Jesus rebuffs this attack and points to Adam & Eve’s temptation and Israel’s journey in the desert for 40 years. What is represented there are 3 basic temptations. Eve was tempted to eat of the fruit because it is pleasing to the eyes. This tempts us to greed because it looks good to eat and can satisfy one’s self. The desires of the flesh tempt us also to lust. It is also said that it is desirable for the knowledge so it can give power and prods a person to pride. From the very beginning since the fall of Adam & Eve in the garden, the devil has capitalized on these 3 things, greed, lust and pride. Even before the fall these were with us already and  the devil capitalized on it to trick Adam & Eve hence the fall. As we can see, the devil also used these 3 basic temptations to Jesus. After fasting for 40 days, Jesus was hungry and tempted to turn the stone to bread for satisfaction of the flesh, which is connected to lust. The devil also told Jesus to throw Himself off from the top of the temple since the angels would be there to catch Him. This is the sin get a hold of power and pride.  The devil asked Jesus to look at all the cities and offered to give Him power and glory which is the sin to greed. As we can see these are the same 3 temptations that Adam & Eve fell into but the devil is dumb to think that Jesus could be tempted with the same temptations. We may also want to look at Israel’s journey in the desert which took them 40 years trying to get to the Promised Land. This is the salvific meaning of Jesus’ 40 days in the desert. He is the new Adam, who remains faithful to fulfill the promise to Israel. He is totally obedient to the divine will and is the devil’s conqueror. He binds satan that tricked Adam & Eve in giving into and robbing us of all the graces we have before the fall. He takes back the plunder and anticipates His further victory at the passion on the cross which is the supreme act of obedience. Jesus’ temptation reveals the Son of God who is the Messiah. He is our high priest who has been tested as we are and yet did not fall into sin. This is the mystery that the Church wants to unite us with each year, Jesus in the desert who is the same Christ who vanquished the tempter for us. These solemn 40 days of Lent should make us keep this at the back of our minds and connect it to the mystery of Jesus at the desert which has a two fold character. First is by recalling our baptism or those preparing for it like the catechumens preparing to be baptized at the Easter vigil of the church on Holy Saturday. What it means to be a baptized person and what does it entail? Do we recognize that? Second is to recognize it as a time of penance. Think of what we have done to offend God. It is a time to reflect at where the state of the world is heading and the culture which we have been disposed of. It calls us to pray more diligently and be faithful to the word of God.  This is also a time of preparation for Easter so that we become predisposed to a faithful reception of the graces that Christ merited on his death on the cross. We can also observe interior penance which can best be manifested in many ways which the scriptures insist on always. There are 3 forms, prayer, fasting and alms giving. These once again make connections to the mystery of Christ in the desert for 40 days. These 3 forms are what every person struggles with most of the time but can help us in many ways to fight those 3 main temptations. Prayer expresses conversion in our relationship with God. Alms giving make better our relationship with other people to overcome greed and selfishness. Fasting to one’s self which is the focus for today’s readings is to fight against lust and sensuality. It develops mastery over our instincts and attains freedom of heart. In this way, we are preparing ourselves for the fruitful celebration of Easter by recalling our baptism as the Church unites herself to Jesus on the desert. Not to forget the 3 forms of penance which help us in conversion to fight the ancient temptations of pride, greed and lust. Amen. Hallelujah!

Matthew 4:1-11

1 At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2 He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. 3 The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” 4 He said in reply, “It is written: ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.’ ” 5 Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the temple, 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you’ and ‘with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ” 7 Jesus answered him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.’ ” 8 Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, 9 and he said to him, “All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.” 10 At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written: ‘The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.’ ” 11 Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him.

GET UP AND FOLLOW

We need to observe the Sabbath and not just follow our own pursuits. People are into a real busy work week and do not even go to church. Do we make time for God? Do we reflect on God and worship Him? Are we endlessly just trying to do as much as we can in order to have as much as we can? We need to realize that once we recognize God’s law then we quickly recognize our need for grace that brings us to prayer life. There is a constant force of the culture, the temptations to live an extravagant and impure life, and the force of our fallen human nature that make us give in to sin. We better recognize sin in our life. Things can get difficult and we can not do all in our strength. We struggle with sin most of the time. Our sins isolate us. We’ve got to change, admit to ourselves and then to a priest. We should avail of the sacrament of confession and do away with fear of what the priest might think. This is our human nature. Confession is a beautiful experience when we hear those words of absolution. Our sins are gone and forgotten and we are forgiven. To tell another person could be so liberating, it helps us to believe in God’s acceptance and forgiveness. It awakens something in us to help us believe in God’s love for us. The priest in the confession is like the father in the Prodigal son. Waiting in the confession chamber is a duty to the priest. He makes himself available for us and just be there for people to experience God’s forgiveness. God's faithful people will always find consolation and assurance as stated in today's 1st reading which reminds me of the several experiences I had. First, it was my visit to this monastery with a friend. We were about to get lost because my friend forgot the map and was not able to search in the internet prior to our trip the directions to the place. Although she had been there once already she felt that we are not going the right way as we were driving down the road. Though, we thought already that not a lot of people know about that place and we might not be able to find it. We continued to be positive and hoped in our God who sends angels ahead of us to lead us to the right path.  She decided to stop over at McDonald's to use the restroom and ask somebody who might know the directions going there. We never expected that the first person whom we came across to ask for directions knew exactly the way. He was sitting there like an angel waiting for us to come in order for us to find our way and not get lost. It was a very wonderful feeling on our way to the monastery that despite the still long road, twists and turns that we traveled we never got lost for the directions given to us were so precise and without  a slight mistake from the time calculation, streets and landmarks. Considering that the man whom we talked to was maybe already in his early 80s and yet he was able to direct and guide us without fail. Another overwhelming treat for us in going to that place was when we were welcomed by the scenic beauty that envelopes this monastery in Valyermo. The long and winding roads which led to the monastery were along the mountain ranges and it was simply exhilarating just looking at the breathtaking and awesome views that surrounded us. Upon arriving the place we were greeted by the major changes in the monastery which used to be according to my friend, secluded and undeveloped, but has underwent several improvements including the newly built buildings and chapels. There was also an additional building for the Arts & Crafts Center. I was able to see all kinds of ceramics molded into the images of almost all the saints, angels, the Blessed Mother Mary and Jesus. I was so full of joy and excitement upon seeing all those works of art. It was like I can spend the entire day just staring and appreciating each one of them. It was like I am so close to them in their perfect abode of endless peace and joy in heaven. And to think that on the day I went there the title of my reflections was “In Paradise” without having any idea that I will be going to this place which was almost like you are in paradise. It was indeed a very rewarding pilgrimage which paved the way not only for spiritual blessings to abound but was also a time of refreshing. We were able to make the way of the cross on the mountain/hill with each and every station rising higher until we reached the summit. We also had a chance to attend Holy Mass in their chapel celebrated by all the monks, abbots and brothers in the Monastery. We had lunch with them, too and were served soup by the monks/brothers themselves. It was a very rewarding experience, I can never forget a single thing about it. It was really as if heaven is just a stone's throw away.

Another thing that I am reminded of are my 2 sons, Allan and Jude. They had been a light and inspiration for me. I shared in the past about how my eldest son, Jude when he was still a little child showed me a bible passage which contains the same message that is in today's 1st reading, on the day my mother died. It happened too that the bible he showed me has a picture of a beautiful garden by the spring with animals grazing in it and looks like paradise. I was suddenly reminded too of how my mother used to spearhead an activity in church. She used to solicit for the poor and distribute the goods to them during the Christmas season. This I was reminded over again upon reading a part of today's 1st reading, "...if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted..." which was part of the message of the bible passage that my son Jude showed me on the day my mother died. Although it happened quite a long time ago already I could never forget it. By the way he already graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering and is currently working as a Process Development Engineer. As for my younger son, Allan, I had been inspired also in the past by his pacifying and assuring words whenever a conflict is about to break out. He has in several occasions became cool and refreshing water for me whenever I am about to get fired up by worry, panic and anger. We all have a tendency to, accuse people, pigeon hole them and succumb to malicious speech and sarcasm. And in today’s 1^st reading we find a warning for the people to stop false accusation. These occasions with my 2 sons I have always treasured in my heart which I have always been reminded of through the words of God in the scripture. The endless connections, signs and wonders that God continues to display is just too much of a coincidence since there is no such thing as coincidence with God only divine intervention. Amen. Hallelujah!

Isaiah 58:9-14

...If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech; 10 if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday; 11 then the LORD will guide you always and give you plenty even on the parched land. He will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails...If you hold back your foot on the sabbath from following your own pursuits on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight, and the LORD’s holy day honorable; if you honor it by not following your ways, seeking your own interests, or speaking with malice — 14 Then you shall delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will nourish you with the heritage of Jacob, your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

We have to be grateful to God for He is indeed merciful and gracious in all His ways. He gives us not just one but various options when it comes to accessing the graces He is dispensing and showering upon us. God provides all means in order for us to avail of all the blessings He wants to give us. When things are about to come to an end or maybe has reached its final stages and been waiting for quite a long time already and yet things are still uncertain as to how it will all turn out then we are placed in a very challenging situation as to how we are to react. Whether in despair or continue to hope in the Lord is always a choice we have to make. But oftentimes, things are easier said than done but it is always a consolation to know that we have a God who always shows us the way. It is a reality that we have to attend to a lot of things waiting for us to be done. God wants us to become individuals capable of handling things in our lives with balance, in whatever we do, He is always with us.  We may have been surprised by some kind of news from somebody while thinking about a particular concern and even before we can come up with a solution it was already addressed. It is a blessing from the Lord that when times like these come when we are having a dilemma or unable to access of one option there are still other choices left that we can make use of. God never leaves us empty handed, He always has reinforcement and a back up. Let us not lose sight of the Lord who loves us and will always rescue us in our miseries and make us glad. Life is not all about rules and regulations. God did not just give us a bunch of rules and regulations that we are supposed to obey like machines. What we do does not just proceed from who we are but also makes us who we are.  The actions we engage, the words that we say and the things that we do have an impact on us. We are making ourselves all the time. God created us when we came out of the womb, our mothers and father have a great role in that but our creation continues every single day of our lives. We’re even becoming someone more beautiful, mature and stronger or someone weaker and more despicable. There’s no middle ground. We’re going one way or another. Life leads either to heaven or to hell. That’s what the acts that we commit do. Virtuous acts build in us strength. The word virtue comes from the word manly which is strength and power. Virtue is a habit that makes it easy and pleasurable to do the right thing. Golden virtue isn’t always easy. It is hard. But what is vice, it is a habit that makes it easy to do the wrong and evil thing. Let’s take exercise as an example. People make it their New Year’s resolution and people who go to the gym noticed that it’s packed on January but they’re gone by the 3rd week. If we’ve ever engaged in an exercise program for the first time, we know that we feel bad, tired, exhausted and wake up sore. This is because we do not have the habit of exercise. We have not trained and our bodies are not used to it. It hurts and it’s hard the first time we work out. If we persevere past the first few weeks and developed a habit of regular exercise then we end up getting used to it and become easy that when we don’t exercise we feel bad. What happens is that we build up the power or the virtue. We’ve conditioned ourselves so that it becomes second nature to us. If we want a progressive course we need to do something hard. No pain no gain. The next time we work out we add up a little bit more since we are stronger. We can move forward and grow in our ability to lift weights. This is the deal. The actions we do have an impact of what we are. It’s like when we start lifting weights we start to change and look different. We look like someone who has strength, power and endurance. This is the point, God is about building champions. The goal of the Christian life is to build champions. Well, not necessarily athletic champions but spiritually. A real champion in every aspect of life. God wants us to be strong, loving, wise and to have the power to live. It’s not so much what we do that counts but it’s who we become. That’s what the commandments, teachings and God is all about. Nowadays, a fatal disease is no longer fatal but just a life threatening disease if left uncared for. Modern Science has come up with several interventions to combat these diseases. When we don’t feel well, we consult a doctor for advice on how to care for ourselves. An example could be hypertension, before people just die of it without prior treatment but since the dawn of anti hypertensive medicines and proper care to maintain a good blood pressure there has been significant improvement on such cases. The same with our souls we have a disease that if left uncared for can cause death. It would be better to think of our souls as such. It’s easier to be receptive to the gospel if we consider ourselves lost. We have been saved by God but we can lose it just as we can lose our human life for not caring for it. We all have a terminal disease called sin, we need a doctor to give us advice. Our souls need a Divine Physician and consult the sacred scriptures in order to know the things to follow. The sacraments serve as the medication that we can compare to medicine from the doctor that we don’t understand how it works. It is the same with the sacraments although we may not understand fully how it works just like how medicines work to cure our diseases. In the spiritual life our physician is Jesus Christ, He tells us what to do on how to be healed. We must not follow quacks and pseudo scientists. We must trust our souls not to quacks but to God. We follow the saints who have lived their life in an exemplary nature. We should also follow the example of the great men in the bible who never doubted God's goodness and mercy. In this way we become free of the serious symptoms of the sicknesses of the soul like pride, covetousness, envy, lust, sloth, anger and gluttony. We seek the truth and the truth will make us free. Amen. Hallelujah!

Psalms 86:1-2, 3-4, 5-6

R: Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.

1 Incline your ear, O LORD; answer me, for I am afflicted and poor. 2 Keep my life, for I am devoted to you; save your servant who trusts in you. 3 You are my God. (R) Have mercy on me, O Lord, for to you I call all the day. 4 Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. (R) 5 For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in kindness to all who call upon you. 6 Hearken, O LORD, to my prayer and attend to the sound of my pleading.

We have to check ourselves for any disease of the soul like that of harboring guilt and mistakenly taking it as a form of repentance which is not. We should make a distinction between a contrite heart and a heart full of guilt. We should have a disposition that though we are sinners, we know that we have been forgiven and should maintain a spirit of joy and love in response to this. Whereas, if we wallow in guilt and misery then we remain despondent of the great love and overwhelming affection that God has given us all. The greatness of God's love and sacrifice for all of us can overcome and can make all things well. All is well with Jesus. God is the greatest physician of all times, no matter what our ailments are, be it physical, emotional or mental He can cure our infirmities and make us whole again. God reminds us though, in order to find our way back to perfect health in all aspects of our life we have to repent and not just be sorry for our sins but repair what we've done and resolve to become the person God has meant us to be because no matter how broken we are God can do wonders with us if we only trust in Him and be confident that He will make us new. He has already paid the price for our sins when He took it upon Himself by dying on the cross. Today’s gospel brings our focus on the life of Levi the tax collector or more popularly known as St. Matthew. Pope Benedict XVI on reflecting on his life said that Jesus does not exclude anyone from His friendship. Tax collectors and prostitutes during the time of Jesus are considered public sinners. They work for Rome and can set their own commission from taxes they collect from the locals. They are despised for this no less than the prostitutes. Jesus called Peter, James & John while they were fishing and did the same for the tax collectors. We are mistaken to think that God thinks as men do. He chooses whom He wills and gives grace to those He wills to Himself. This is the heart of the good news of the gospel. God does not abandon us to our sins. He offers grace to sinners. We may want to recall the story in the gospel of the Pharisee praying in the front row of the temple and the tax collector at the farthest end beating his breast. He prays to God as a repentant sinner would and felt closer and came out justified to God. The repentant tax collector can be a model for us. Although he sinned, he did not stay in his sinful habit and converted. We can experience God’s forgiveness in the confession. This is one way we can draw closer to Him and come to know Him in an amazing way. For all of us, to some degree we can come up with reasons not to go to confession. As Pope John Paul II said, the sin of modernity is that people have lost the sense of sin. We have to recognize the evil that we have done and must repent. The absolute bedrock of spiritual life is to follow the 10 commandments, work against sin and stop sinning. We are sometimes misled and think that if we have a type of prayer we think that we already have a spiritual life. We’ve got to have the humility to say that God is smarter than we are and follow and obey what we are told in the 10 commandments. Matthew is a model of conversion and change. He did not just stay where he was at. Faith led him to change, he got up and followed him. He left his livelihood and left his post.  What false idols do we have in our life? Let us pray for grace to see in our lives clearly what we’re attached to and pour them down. Are we really in God’s disposal? Can He do to us what He wants to do with us? Or are we still caught up in sin? Let’s pray for freedom and imitate St. Matthew. It is not impossible to really be in touch with God's wonderful and amazing ways. If only we will have the courage to be just like St. Matthew/Levi in today's gospel who got up, followed Jesus and left everything behind. Amen. Hallelujah!

Luke 5:27-32

Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him. Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house,  ...“Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus said to them in reply, “Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”

ANCIENT TEMPTATIONS

This Lenten season we may want to think of ourselves on a spiritual journey. We should travel very lightly and take no baggage at all. In this so called journey we might want to consider also how each of us has been planted with a seed. We should develop but must not miss the fact that in the parable of the sower it didn’t all grow. All developments grow in a hostile environment especially if we are engaged in spiritual warfare. Life is a battle with evil that we can see in our own selves, in the world and the principalities. The kingdom of God suffers violent assault as St. Paul puts it and uses the army of salvation (Ephesians 6:10-11). It helps to make use of these analogies. We must keep in mind that those who are not willing to battle for good in this world may not accomplish anything. Although it is also written that those who take the sword will perish by the sword but there are battles in other forms that we clearly should make a stand on.  As today’s 1st reading calls us to do, we should release our brothers and sisters from the fangs and claws of our present day culture of death. The battle of pro-life against abortion to defend our helpless fellow human beings who could not fight to preserve their own lives is one. We may not be totally aware of the gravity of this act but it is slowly eating away the moral fabric of our beings. This is something that we should all face and not turn our backs on. We are called by God to cooperate in His Divine will in maintaining justice and peace among His people, young or old. The Lord is calling us to go much further from the fast that we have all been used to doing. We need to come up with concrete effects within ourselves and the people around us when we fast as specifically stated in today's 1st reading. We can not just go on fasting for the sake of obligation but we need to do better than that. We have to do things right in order to really benefit from it. When we always associate fasting with food I'd like to quote, Mother Angelica from EWTN when she said that it isn't our stomachs that's in bad shape but it's our souls. Sometimes our souls could be very calloused and desensitized to sin and error that goes on today. It's the worst kind of evil when people totally push aside the truth and doctrines of the Church. It is extremely necessary that we become sensitive to error. Our thoughts are important to God. The worries of our lives is a form of penance and always offer the sacrifice of the moment to God. It should be a daily thing and should keep on going and live it up even after Lent and not end up being good for nothing. Sometimes we get too focused on the fasting and abstinence issue during the Lenten season, we tend to overlook and fail to see the real meaning of what we are doing. We are reminded to go further in our commitment to the Lord. God challenges us to face our daily struggles in life with a brave and courageous spirit. We should be true and genuine Christians inside and out. Amen. Hallelujah!

Isaiah 58:1-9a

...“Why do we fast, and you do not see it? afflict ourselves, and you take no note of it?” Lo, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits, and drive all your laborers. 4 Yes, your fast ends in quarrelling and fighting, striking with wicked claw. Would that today you might fast so as to make your voice heard on high! 5 Is this the manner of fasting I wish, of keeping a day of penance that a man bow his head like a reed, and lie in sackcloth and ashes? Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? 6 This, rather, is the fasting that I wish releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; 7 sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own. 8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed; your vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. 9 Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am! If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech;

Organizing all my daily reflections since 2007 made it easier for me to locate and retrieve them. I have found it very rewarding and beneficial. It has given me the opportunity to access with ease, the insights and reflections I wrote in the past. Thus paving the way to recall, reflect, and share it again. In light of the readings today I am reminded of Fr. Alex Amayin, the associate priest in St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. His talk was about reconciliation which is very much in line with the 1st & psalm readings for today. It was centered on 4 things which is 1. SIN 2. GRACE 3. FORGIVENESS 4. RECONCILIATION. He said that the 1st 3 are all a reality but #4 is only a possibility. There is no doubt that SIN happens but the GRACE of God is always present and available for us even before we ask for FORGIVENESS. When we ask FORGIVENESS, God is always ready to give it.  RECONCILIATION calls us to true conversion. We should always find our way back to God and never doubt His mercy. He cited the example of a snake and caterpillar since both of them undergoes conversion. The snake sheds off its old skin but comes out the same while the caterpillar emerges into a butterfly. We can either choose to be the snake or the caterpillar. Take your pick. It is important that we always maintain a clean heart and a steadfast spirit so that we are constantly in God's presence. It's not that God loves us any less, no matter what we do, He will always love us. It's just that a Holy and Loving God can not dwell in an impure heart and spirit. The sacred heart of Jesus should be our model and guide as we strive to live out the call to be a genuine follower of God. “When we open our heart to the love of God and to others, it makes us capable of shaping history according to God’s plan.”  - said Pope John Paul II. In His fourth apparition to St. Margaret Mary, our Lord revealed His Sacred Heart, declaring: "Behold this Heart which has so loved men that it spared nothing, even going so far as to exhaust and consume Itself, to prove to them Its love.” The center of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the Enthronement of the image of the Sacred Heart in the home. By the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart, we link the tabernacle of our parish church to our home, inviting our Lord to be our constant and most intimate companion.  The Enthronement is a way of life. It means that Christ is King of our hearts, and we desire Him to be present with us always. In other words, by the Enthronement we signify our desire to make our hearts and our homes holy, to sanctify our lives in every aspect. God will not refuse nor turn His back on us if we are truly sorry for our sins and are willing to mend our ways. Let us not be so naive into thinking that we can get away with anything and cheat God. Let us be fair and truly square in dealing with things that concern not just our future but our eternal destiny. Whether it's heaven or hell, we would have to decide for that not God. If we choose to do evil then we are surely headed where it's bound but if we remain faithful to God and all that He represents then we are headed to a place prepared for us by God in heaven. We are sure to go where our hearts lead us. The problem is that there is a great propaganda out there. It makes sin appear with all its fun, excitement and glamour. It makes virtue appear boring, lame, bland and unexciting. But the truth of the matter is, it’s not. The pleasures that God created in this world are enjoyed the most by those who don’t abuse them and use it simply. Who do we think enjoys food most? The person who doesn’t know how to fast and engorges all the time or a person after a fast experiences a feast? The virtuous person enjoys life the most. The person who uses creation and all things according to God’s plan enjoys it the most. It is because pleasure is God’s idea. All the good things in the world that people want are God’s idea. Satan can’t invent even one bit of pleasure.  But God commands them to be used so that it leads to life and a part of life is joy. The way to enjoy life is to follow God’s commands. Life is not all about rules and regulations. God did not just give us a bunch of rules and regulations that we are supposed to obey like machines. What we do does not just proceed from who we are but also makes us who we are.  The actions we engage, the words that we say and the things that we do have an impact on us. We are making ourselves all the time. God created us when we came out of the womb, our mothers and father have a great role in that but our creation continues every single day of our lives. We’re even becoming someone more beautiful, mature and stronger or someone weaker and more despicable. There’s no middle ground. We’re going one way or another. Life leads either to heaven or to hell. That’s what the acts that we commit do. Let us always ask God's mercy for our sins and repent of it. The Lord said that He is not sent for the well but for the sick. We have a disease in our souls that if left uncared for can cause death. We all have a terminal disease called sin, we need a doctor to give us advice. We have been saved by God but we can lose it just as we can lose our human life for not caring for it. We go to God who is our Divine Physician to be healed. He alone can make us whole. God's presence in our lives is inevitable just like the coming of dawn before the break of day and if we have mastered the art of loving back God then we become a pleasing sacrifice before Him. And in his good pleasure makes us prosper, then we find ourselves rebuilding the walls of our boundaries as we expand our borders. It is of prime importance that we take extra care in attending not only to our temporal needs but our spiritual as well. We have this mindset that it pleases God whenever He sees us going through hardships and difficulties in life. We tend to equate God to an oppressing tyrant that would pin us down for every wrong move. Or worst to a slave driver that would not be satisfied unless his subjects exhaust all their strength to his service. The people during the time in the Old Testament could borrow a good excuse for having this kind of mindset because Jesus has not come yet. We who live in this time of the New Testament do not have a good alibi because God already demonstrated the greatest expression of His love for mankind when He sacrificed His only begotten son, Jesus, to suffer and die for our sake. With this truth always engraved in our hearts and minds we could no longer harbor wrong impressions and mindsets of our God. Whenever a particular human right is being violated certain activist groups passionately rally to defend such right that is in question. What about the right of God? We are so concerned about our own personal agenda and we fail to realize that we need to address it more than anything else. According to Pope Benedict XVI, Jus Divinum is the right of God which constitutes the proper and correct response of God’s creatures such as man to his Creator. This we ought to realize and take action. We should do all the good that we are supposed to do to a God who created us. There is something more to what we see, hear and feel about people. We really couldn't judge a book by its cover. It's in knowing what is hidden in the heart that we can truly say for sure what is real. But who can see through our hearts? Nobody but God alone. What is unknown and hidden from us, God knows. We may be able to hide from men but never from God. We can only pray to God to create in us a clean heart. For where our treasure is, there also will be our hearts. This should all be our prayer, “Change me Oh God, mold me in accordance to your pattern and plan and not mine” Dirt stain in clothes sometimes doesn't want to come off even after several times it has been machine washed. There are really some dirt and stain that do not go away that easily with regular washing. There is a need to scrub it manually with soap and water so that it will come out clean. Our souls are just like clothes which are stainable by our sins. It is a consolation to know that our sins are washable in the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. We can always come to Him and acknowledge our sins with a sincere and repentant heart so He can cleanse us, wipe out our offenses and blot out all our guilt. There is nothing that could separate us from the love of God. Let us not be deceived nor dissuaded to believe otherwise. Just like clothes that need to be washed after being worn and got dirty so our souls need to be cleansed too by the blood of the Lamb. God’s love ever present in the body and blood of Christ is always present and available for us. All we need to do is reach out for it because God is a gentleman and would never force Himself on us. There has always been a raging battle between God and satan. Though it has already been won, satan just won’t give up. He continues to wreak havoc and evil among us in his desperation to bring misery into our lives and share in his condemnation. He doesn’t have the tiniest power over us and he can only have it if and only if we give in to his lies, deceptions and false promises. We need to make this conscious decision each and every single day for the Lord. We need to purge ourselves of the impurities of our souls we have to go through a certain process that will render us with a clean heart. As we strive to nurture a heart that beats for God alone we also go through a process of cleansing as stated in the psalm today. God's mercy is greater than any of our sins. If we are to repent and turn away from our sins then we've got to do it right now and really do it fast. God sees through our hearts, our motives and intentions. What God wants of us is to truly acknowledge His great mercy and goodness to us that in doing so will abound a natural inclination to repent and repair all our iniquities and lead to a brand new, wholesome and clean Christian in the truest sense of the word. We need to stand in all humility before God and confess our sins. The body and soul are good but it demands a need for physical asceticism. We have to submit our bodies to an act of sacrifice without neglecting that conversion is first of all interior. Total conversion demands not only expression in works of penance but also of the heart. God is able to do anything. All the more should we be full of confidence that He can create a clean heart and steadfast spirit for us if we truly ask for it. God our Father will never turn His back on us. Let us get this straight, it is the sin that God hates and not the sinner. If we are in sin then that's the time we drive away God's Holy Spirit dwelling in us for it is impossible for God's presence to exist with sin. It's our call then to respond to the psalm's invitation to rise and go to God or remain slumped in the mud of sin. Our God will always be the best Father a child could ever have, the best Brother/Friend and the best Comforter and Guide all in one. Bottom line, to Him alone shall we go because we don't know that much and if we don’t then we end up doing one of these things, take for granted, ignore, forget or neglect the things God is telling us to do. What's worse it could be all of the above! We get blinded and become preoccupied with a lot of things that lure us away from doing what God wants us to do. We are deceived into believing all the lies of this world disguised and packaged by the enemy in an inviting and convincing truth. We should realize that it is always for our own good that He commands us to do the right thing. It is not merely to impose but for us to freely decide for a life lived to the full. There is no other way to maintain the Holy Spirit dwelling in us but to let it reside in a clean heart.  We drive away God's Spirit in us if we don't strive to let our hearts remain clean. Today's psalm is a song that I have come to know and sing by heart without the aid of a song book. I always love to sing it and hear it being sung most especially by the choir during mass. It is well for us to not just love to sing it with our voices but with the sincerity of our hearts. The words "take not your Holy Spirit from me" made me realize that God has the power to give and take. The thought of the Holy Spirit being taken away from us is the worst thing that could ever happen. If we don't feel God's presence in our life anymore and we've become numb and insensitive to the promptings and guidance of the Holy Spirit then now is the time to reconnect and realign ourselves to God's Spirit most especially during this Lenten season. It is important that we always maintain a clean heart and a steadfast spirit so that we are constantly in the God's presence. It's not that God loves us any less, no matter what we do He will always love us. It's just that a Holy and Loving God can not dwell in an impure heart and spirit.  It is of prime importance that we take extra care in attending not only to our temporal needs but our spiritual as well. Amen. Hallelujah!  

Psalms 51:3-4, 5-6, 18-19

R: A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.

1 [3] Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. 2 [4] Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me. (R) 3 [5] For I acknowledge my offense, and my sin is before me always. 4 [6] “Against you only have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight.” (R) …For you do not desire sacrifice; a burnt offering you would not accept. My sacrifice, God, is a broken spirit; God, do not spurn a broken, humbled heart.

God created us with a brilliant mind and a loving heart. In today's gospel Jesus was questioned by John's disciples, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast (much), but your disciples do not fast?" Sometimes people question us, too. May we think and feel just like Jesus and always be guided in the things we say or do. May we always find ourselves justified in Jesus name. It is not just what we see that matters but what we truly value and treasure in our hearts. Our innermost motives and intentions should always be in line and conformity to the values of Jesus. We may be doing one thing but may be intending to do another, there is no unity in our actions, words and deeds when we are just after the outward appearances and does not really mean what we are doing. Or worse we're just doing something for the sake of just doing it without really putting our hearts into it. We get carried away by what seems to us as important but fail to see what's most essential. People are not blind to all these and we can not deceive people for long or if even sometimes we can, there is a God who knows everything. We are called to conversion and holiness. It is helpful to take hold of the Paschal Mystery of Jesus and  keep this constantly before us. We may want to look at what’s behind the particular mystery of Jesus’ life when He fasted and prayed in the desert for 40 days. Immediately after His prayer and fasting, was the temptation of Jesus in which Jesus rebuffs this attack and points to Adam & Eve’s temptation and Israel’s journey in the desert for 40 years. There are 3 basic temptations represented. Eve was tempted to eat of the fruit because it is pleasing to the eyes. This tempts us to greed because it looks good to eat and can satisfy one’s self. The desires of the flesh tempt us also to lust. It is also said that it is desirable for the knowledge so it can give power and prods a person to pride. From the very beginning since the fall of Adam & Eve in the garden, the devil has capitalized on these 3 things, greed, lust and pride. Even before the fall these were with us already and the devil capitalized on it to trick Adam & Eve hence the fall. As we can see, the devil also used these 3 basic temptations to Jesus. After fasting for 40 days, Jesus was hungry and tempted to turn the stone to bread for satisfaction of the flesh, which is connected to lust. The devil also told Jesus to throw Himself off from the top of the temple since the angels would be there to catch Him. This is the sin to get a hold of power and pride.  The devil asked Jesus to look at all the cities and offered to give Him power and glory which is the sin to greed. As we can see these are the same 3 temptations that Adam & Eve fell into but the devil is dumb to think that Jesus could be tempted with the same temptations. We may also want to look at Israel’s journey in the desert which took them 40 years trying to get to the Promised Land. This is the salvific meaning of Jesus’ 40 days in the desert. He is the new Adam, who remains faithful to fulfill the promise to Israel. He is totally obedient to the divine will and is the devil’s conqueror. He binds satan that tricked Adam & Eve in giving into and robbing us of all the graces we have before the fall. He takes back the plunder and anticipates His further victory at the passion on the cross which is the supreme act of obedience. Jesus’ temptation reveals the Son of God who is the Messiah. He is our high priest who has been tested as we are and yet did not fall into sin. This is the mystery that the Church wants to unite us with, Jesus in the desert who is the same Christ who vanquished the tempter for us. We should always keep this at the back of our minds and connect it to the mystery of Jesus at the desert which has a two fold character. First is by recalling our baptism. What it means to be a baptized person and what does it entail? Do we recognize that? Second is to recognize the need for penance. Think of what we have done to offend God. It is time to reflect at where the state of the world is heading and the culture which we have been disposed of. It calls us to pray more diligently and be faithful to the word of God.  We should become predisposed to a faithful reception of the graces that Christ merited on his death on the cross. We can also observe interior penance which can best be manifested in many ways which the scriptures insist on always. There are 3 forms, prayer, fasting and alms giving. These once again make connections to the mystery of Christ in the desert for 40 days. These 3 forms are what every person struggles with most of the time but can help us in many ways to fight those 3 main temptations. Prayer expresses conversion in our relationship with God. Alms giving make better our relationship with other people to overcome greed and selfishness. Fasting to one’s self which is the focus for today’s readings is to fight against lust and sensuality. It develops mastery over our instincts and attains freedom of heart. In this way, we are recalling our baptism as the Church unites herself to Jesus on the desert. Not to forget the 3 forms of penance which help us in conversion to fight the ancient temptations of pride, greed and lust. Everything we do should always have a clear and sincere intention and motivation to put Jesus in the center of it. If we find Jesus comfortably seated, happy and very contented in the midst of our activities just like a bridegroom on the day of his wedding then we can be assured that we are on the right track. God has always been giving us all kinds of reminders, be it direct or indirect, in the form of a parable or a simple story just like in today's gospel. If we would read on further the gospel for today we would find the practicality of the message being conveyed by Jesus is not only applicable to its direct and obvious meaning with regards to new clothes and wine but most especially to our daily lives. Come to think of it, although we all are very knowledgeable about life after having studied and experienced a lot of things we still end up, at times doing the wrong things and end up ruining not only ourselves but the people close to us. We might as well ask ourselves why we sometimes end up doing crazy things that we know already won't work! We all know that only Jesus can make things right and make us whole. If we only remember, we even sing this often, too. He can give us peace, sweet love, joy and heaven too for only Jesus can satisfy our souls. Amen. Hallelujah!

Matthew 9:14-15

14 The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?” 15 Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

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?”

ASH WEDNESDAY

Today is the beginning of Lent. It is Ash Wednesday. We are called by the Church to a supreme act of obedience to God the way Jesus did. This is the time of fulfillment to repent and believe in the gospel. We have to do it now and everyday. Lent brings that message at the forefront. We are called by the Church as Catholics to take advantage of this Lenten season to receive God's grace and mercy. Our first conversion is in baptism when we are made into a new creature. Our 2^nd conversion should take place daily, the act of having to turn from sin and turn to God everyday. This is why we practice abstinence and fasting as part of our penitential practices that express our change of heart and conversion during this season. The Liturgical seasons bring into focus the different mysteries especially the need for penance and repentance. We are always in need of purification. We should constantly follow the path of penance and renewal. This is the sign of ashes. The sign of repentance that reminds us that we are dust and unto dust we shall return. We are sinners and mortals that are destined to one day die. We are on a journey and everything we see here is passing. This is the despair of men when we trust in ourselves and become hopeless without God. We need Him for conversion. The outward sign we bring to the world is the ashes on our forehead. We acknowledge Jesus and the power of the cross. We admit that we are sinners. In doing this, as to acknowledge and admit who we are before God is a relief. We should know why, as the 1^st reading tells us today, the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment. Everything that the bible tells about God is true. There is no doubt about this but can we truly testify to this with all our hearts, minds and souls? Are we really convinced about this truth all the time? If not then we should, because we have the Most Perfect God whose love for us knows no boundaries. There is no out giving or over praising a God of Infinite Mercy, Goodness and Love. I guess we can only give to God and do so much as provided by our imperfect and limited nature. But since our God is Perfect and Limitless then there is only one solution to that, to always go back to God who alone can make all things beautiful and perfect. There is really nowhere to go but to God. This we should have figured out by now. How come we kept on doing the same old wrongs over and over again? This is precisely why we have to be reminded always. Amen. Hallelujah!

Joel 2:12-18

12 Even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; 13 rend your  hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God. For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment.

Organizing all my daily reflections since 2007 made it easier for me to locate and retrieve them. I have found it very rewarding and beneficial. It has given me the opportunity to access with ease, the insights and reflections I wrote in the past. Thus paving the way to recall, reflect, and share it again. In light of the readings today I am reminded of Fr. Alex Amayin, the associate priest in St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. His talk was about reconciliation which is very much in line with the 1st & psalm readings for today. It was centered on 4 things which is 1. SIN 2. GRACE 3. FORGIVENESS 4. RECONCILIATION. He said that the 1st 3 are all a reality but #4 is only a possibility. There is no doubt that SIN happens but the GRACE of God is always present and available for us even before we ask for FORGIVENESS. When we ask FORGIVENESS, God is always ready to give it.  RECONCILIATION calls us to true conversion. We should always find our way back to God and never doubt His mercy. He cited the example of a snake and caterpillar since both of them undergoes conversion. The snake sheds off its old skin but comes out the same while the caterpillar emerges into a butterfly. We can either choose to be the snake or the caterpillar. Take your pick. The sacred heart of Jesus should be our model and guide as we strive to live out the call to be a genuine follower of God. “When we open our heart to the love of God and to others, it makes us capable of shaping history according to God’s plan.”  - Pope John Paul II. In His fourth apparition to St. Margaret Mary, our Lord revealed His Sacred Heart, declaring: "Behold this Heart which has so loved men that it spared nothing, even going so far as to exhaust and consume Itself, to prove to them Its love.” The center of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the Enthronement of the image of the Sacred Heart in the home. By the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart, we link the tabernacle of our parish church to our home, inviting our Lord to be our constant and most intimate companion.  The Enthronement is a way of life. It means that Christ is King of our hearts, and we desire Him to be present with us always. In other words, by the Enthronement we signify our desire to make our hearts and our homes holy, to sanctify our lives in every aspect. God will not refuse nor turn His back on us if we are truly sorry for our sins and are willing to mend our ways. Let us not be so naive into thinking that we can get away with anything and cheat God. Let us be fair and truly square in dealing with things that concern not just our future but our eternal destiny. Whether it's heaven or hell, we would have to decide for that not God. If we choose to do evil then we are surely headed where it's bound but if we remain faithful to God and all that He represents then we are headed to a place prepared for us by God in heaven. We are sure to go where our hearts lead us. The problem is that there is a great propaganda out there. It makes sin appear with all its fun, excitement and glamour. It makes virtue appear boring, lame, bland and unexciting. But the truth of the matter is, it’s not. The pleasures that God created in this world are enjoyed the most by those who don’t abuse them and use it simply. Who do we think enjoys food most? The person who doesn’t know how to fast and engorges all the time or a person after a fast experiences a feast? The virtuous person enjoys life the most. The person who uses creation and all things according to God’s plan enjoys it the most. It is because pleasure is God’s idea. All the good things in the world that people want are God’s idea. Satan can’t invent even one bit of pleasure.  But God commands them to be used so that it leads to life and a part of life is joy. The way to enjoy life is to follow God’s commands. Life is not all about rules and regulations. God did not just give us a bunch of rules and regulations that we are supposed to obey like machines. What we do does not just proceed from who we are but also makes us who we are.  The actions we engage, the words that we say and the things that we do have an impact on us. We are making ourselves all the time. God created us when we came out of the womb, our mothers and father have a great role in that but our creation continues every single day of our lives. We’re even becoming someone more beautiful, mature and stronger or someone weaker and more despicable. There’s no middle ground. We’re going one way or another. Life leads either to heaven or to hell. That’s what the acts that we commit do. Let us always ask God's mercy for our sins and repent of it. The Lord said that He is not sent for the well but for the sick. We have a disease in our souls that if left uncared for can cause death. We all have a terminal disease called sin, we need a doctor to give us advice. We have been saved by God but we can lose it just as we can lose our human life for not caring for it. We go to God who is our Divine Physician to be healed. He alone can make us whole. God's presence in our lives is inevitable just like the coming of dawn before the break of day and if we have mastered the art of loving back God then we become a pleasing sacrifice before Him. And in his good pleasure makes us prosper, then we find ourselves rebuilding the walls of our boundaries as we expand our borders. We have this mindset that it pleases God whenever He sees us going through hardships and difficulties in life. We tend to equate God to an oppressing tyrant that would pin us down for every wrong move. Or worst to a slave driver that would not be satisfied unless his subjects exhaust all their strength to his service. The people during the time in the Old Testament could borrow a good excuse for having this kind of mindset because Jesus has not come yet. We who live in this time of the New Testament do not have a good alibi because God already demonstrated the greatest expression of His love for mankind when He sacrificed His only begotten son, Jesus, to suffer and die for our sake. With this truth always engraved in our hearts and minds we could no longer harbor wrong impressions and mindsets of our God. Whenever a particular human right is being violated certain activist groups passionately rally to defend such right that is in question. What about the right of God? We are so concerned about our own personal agenda and we fail to realize that we need to address it more than anything else. According to Pope Benedict XVI, Jus Divinum is the right of God which constitutes the proper and correct response of God’s creatures such as man to his Creator. This we ought to realize and take action. We should do all the good that we are supposed to do to a God who created us. There is something more to what we see, hear and feel about people. We really couldn't judge a book by its cover. It's in knowing what is hidden in the heart that we can truly say for sure what is real. But who can see through our hearts? Nobody but God alone. What is unknown and hidden from us, God knows. We may be able to hide from men but never from God. We can only pray to God to create in us a clean heart. For where our treasure is, there also will be our hearts. This should all be our prayer, “Change me Oh God, mold me in accordance to your pattern and plan and not mine” Dirt stain in clothes sometimes doesn't want to come off even after several times it has been machine washed. There are really some dirt and stain that do not go away that easily with regular washing. There is a need to scrub it manually with soap and water so that it will come out clean. Our souls are just like clothes which are stainable by our sins. It is a consolation to know that our sins are washable in the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. We can always come to Him and acknowledge our sins with a sincere and repentant heart so He can cleanse us, wipe out our offenses and blot out all our guilt. There is nothing that could separate us from the love of God. Let us not be deceived nor dissuaded to believe otherwise. God’s love is always present and available for us. All we need to do is reach out for it because God is a gentleman and would never force Himself on us. There has always been a raging battle between God and satan. Though it has already been won, satan just won’t give up. He continues to wreak havoc and evil among us in his desperation to bring misery into our lives and share in his condemnation. He doesn’t have the tiniest power over us and he can only have it if and only if we give in to his lies, deceptions and false promises. We need to make this conscious decision each and every single day for the Lord. We need to purge ourselves of the impurities of our souls we have to go through a certain process that will render us with a clean heart. As we strive to nurture a heart that beats for God alone we also go through a process of cleansing as stated in the psalm today. God's mercy is greater than any of our sins. If we are to repent and turn away from our sins then we've got to do it right now and really do it fast. God sees through our hearts, our motives and intentions. What God wants of us is to truly acknowledge His great mercy and goodness to us that in doing so will abound a natural inclination to repent and repair all our iniquities and lead to a brand new, wholesome and clean Christian in the truest sense of the word. We need to stand in all humility before God and confess our sins. The body and soul are good but it demands a need for physical asceticism. We have to submit our bodies to an act of sacrifice without neglecting that conversion is first of all interior. Total conversion demands not only expression in works of penance but also of the heart. God is able to do anything. All the more should we be full of confidence that He can create a clean heart and steadfast spirit for us if we truly ask for it. God our Father will never turn His back on us. Let us get this straight, it is the sin that God hates and not the sinner. If we are in sin then that's the time we drive away God's Holy Spirit dwelling in us for it is impossible for God's presence to exist with sin. It's our call then to respond to the psalm's invitation to rise and go to God or remain slumped in the mud of sin. Our God will always be the best Father a child could ever have, the best Brother/Friend and the best Comforter and Guide all in one. Bottom line, to Him alone shall we go because we don't know that much and if we don’t then we end up doing one of these things, take for granted, ignore, forget or neglect the things God is telling us to do. What's worse it could be all of the above! We get blinded and become preoccupied with a lot of things that lure us away from doing what God wants us to do. We are deceived into believing all the lies of this world disguised and packaged by the enemy in an inviting and convincing truth. We should realize that it is always for our own good that He commands us to do the right thing. It is not merely to impose but for us to freely decide for a life lived to the full. There is no other way to maintain the Holy Spirit dwelling in us but to let it reside in a clean heart.  We drive away God's Spirit in us if we don't strive to let our hearts remain clean. Today's psalm is a song that I have come to know and sing by heart without the aid of a song book. I always love to sing it and hear it being sung most especially by the choir during mass. It is well for us to not just love to sing it with our voices but with the sincerity of our hearts. The words "take not your Holy Spirit from me" made me realize that God has the power to give and take. The thought of the Holy Spirit being taken away from us is the worst thing that could ever happen. If we don't feel God's presence in our life anymore and we've become numb and insensitive to the promptings and guidance of the Holy Spirit then now is the time to reconnect and realign ourselves to God's Spirit most especially during this Lenten season. It is important that we always maintain a clean heart and a steadfast spirit so that we are constantly in the God's presence. It's not that God loves us any less, no matter what we do He will always love us. It's just that a Holy and Loving God can not dwell in an impure heart and spirit.  It is of prime importance that we take extra care in attending not only to our temporal needs but our spiritual as well. Amen. Hallelujah!  

Psalms 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14, 17

R: Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.

1 [3] Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. 2 [4] Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me. (R) 3 [5] For I acknowledge my offense, and my sin is before me always. 4 [6] “Against you only have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight.” (R) 10 [12] A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me. 11 [13] Cast me not out from your presence, and your Holy Spirit take not from me. (R) 12 [14] Give me back the joy of your salvation, and a willing spirit sustain in me. 15 [17] O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.

We should not delay in doing any good thing. Let us not put off for tomorrow what we can do today. A day spent is past and over but we still have today and we should make good use of it while we still can. We are called in today’s 2^nd reading to be no less than anything or anyone else for we are ambassadors for Christ. It is through Jesus that we are now enjoying the gift of eternal salvation, let us not forfeit nor miss this great opportunity of accepting wholeheartedly this gift that is above any other and greater than anything that we can ever receive here on earth. Let us seize the time and opportunity to be the best child our Father could have, the best brother/sister/friend and most obedient Christian to the inner voice/Spirit of God dwelling in us. Amen. Hallelujah!

2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2

20 Brothers and sisters: We are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. 6: 1 Working together, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For he says: “In an acceptable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

We should respond to God in a way that is coming from our hearts and not just our minds alone. If we feel that at the moment God is not answering our prayers then we ought to be thankful that God is still giving us all the chances to earn more and receive more in ways that may not be known or visible to us. It is only right that we work to our full potentials and give our best to God. We can sometimes work our way out to win the approval and favor of men, how much more our God who only wants the best things for us. For God sees everything and nothing is in vain if we offer all our sacrifices and sufferings to God whether it be known or unknown to everyone. We can be assured that every single thing that we do for his greater glory and honor will go back to us in full recompense and to the overflowing for nothing compares to God's payback. Whatever difficulty we may all be going through let us always have a good disposition and be very confident of the God in whom we place our trust that no one would even guess that we are experiencing something really problematic knowing that God got us covered. Whatever problems we are encountering at the moment just think that we are on a fast. Fasting on worries, fears and anxieties causes us not to be troubled and brings about the fruits of the Holy Spirit due to our confidence in God's loving providence. We live in a physical world and we can't help it when we conform to its standard. Though, we must keep in mind what St. Paul says in Romans 12:1-2 "I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect." When we speak of spiritual things we are sometimes bound to the unseen and hidden things of this world we are in. This should not discourage us to grow in this aspect because we are assured by the Lord Himself when He pointed out in today's gospel that whatever we have worked and done for the glory of God's Kingdom will never go unnoticed before Him. Nothing is hidden from the Lord. He knows every single thing we do, whether good or bad, because He knows and sees all. We need not worry about anything at all, nothing is ever wasted if we entrust all our concerns to God. Though there are times when it doesn't seem to be the case, for as long as we have strived hard and done what is expected of us then it doesn't really matter what may seem to be. What matters most is that God doesn't just seem to be who He is but is truly, deeply and genuinely who He really is. All knowing, loving and always act accordingly in the most acceptable time. This is why the gospel warns us today of the danger of putting on a big show without real change in our hearts. Interior conversion is primary. If our main goal is that we want men to see our penance then it is just for nothing. To truly repent of our sins is the start which is what happens in baptism. We need to change in relation to ourselves, God and to others. Fasting aids in a change in regards to self. Alms giving is in relation to our neighbors. Through these things, real growth is experienced here. If we spend more time in prayer then we can experience prayer growth. It fights the threefold concupiscence in our being which is a disordered drive to satisfy the flesh that our culture is so adept in presenting to us. The distractions that we are confronted with in the form of various entertainments that make us fall into lust are the tools of satan. This enemy is having a field day in our culture by bombarding us with these thoughts of wanting to have more and more. We aim for what seems to be pleasing in the eyes of others and to be in control. This is pride when we want to be the one who call the shots. Satan can device all forms of marketing strategies to get our attention and interest. We need to taper our desires and come to a point when we fast from it. We need to be open and docile to the Lord. We can begin the day by looking at the crucifix. We can see Jesus who followed His Father’s will. We are not out here to accumulate in worldly achievements but rather to follow more and more God’s will for us. We should turn from evil and reclaim the filial relationship with God. We can learn much from what Jesus demonstrated to us especially in the desert when He was tempted. We just surrender and cling to Him with all our beings. We should never doubt God's perfect timing in everything that happens in our lives. Our God is a generous God, He will not withhold from us every blessing  so let us always keep in mind that everything we do for the Lord is never in vain.  Amen. Hallelujah!

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Jesus said to his disciples: “Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father. When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you...But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.”