Friday, July 18, 2014
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Reflection for Saturday 19, Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time; Matthew 12:14-21
Gospel: Matthew
12:14-21
The Pharisees went
out and took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. When Jesus realized
this, he withdrew from that place. Many people followed him, and he cured them
all, but he warned them not to make him known. This was to fulfill what had
been spoken through Isaiah the prophet: Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,
my beloved in whom I delight; I shall place my Spirit upon him, and he will
proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not contend or cry out, nor will
anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, a
smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory. And in
his name the Gentiles will hope.
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Reflection:
What are we going to
do if we know that powerful people are after our life? Of course we will do
what Jesus did; we will also withdraw to a place where we will be safe. But
unlike Jesus who continued to do HIS acts of mercy even if HIS life was already
in danger. We may not do anything except to hide and protect our life, this is what
separate Jesus from us.
For Jesus the
greater good is not to protect HIS life but to continue to serve the people
that HE dearly loved so much. This love for HIS people eventually culminated in
HIS death on the cross.
But not all of us
are afraid to give our very life for the sake of our fellowmen. There are
others who selflessly gave their lives so that others may live and be free.
This is best exemplified by our heroes who selflessly gave their lives for our
sake.
In hindsight, what
is the reason why we want to protect our life to the detriment of our
fellowmen? The simple reason perhaps is we love our life more that we love
Jesus and our fellowmen. We perhaps are simply unconcerned with the greater
need of our fellowmen otherwise we would not think twice to give our treasured
time and life for others.
Self-preservation is
never an option for those who truly follow Jesus. - Marino J. Dasmarinas
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
My Reflection for Thursday June 26, Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time, Matthew 7:21-29
Gospel: Matthew
7:21-29
(Jesus said to his
disciples) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom
of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will
say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we
not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’ Then
I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you
evildoers.’
“Everyone who
listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who
built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and
buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock. And
everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be
like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and
the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely
ruined.”
When Jesus finished
these words, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as
one having authority, and not as their scribes.
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Reflection:
Where is your life anchored
today? Is it anchored on this world or anchored on no one else but God? It’s
very tempting to anchor our life to this world. For who would not want riches,
influence, power and the like? We would be hypocrite if we say that we don’t
want these all.
Yes we do want these
all, however what will happen to us if we become worldly? If God simply becomes
just an option for us where we go when we are in need of HIM and when we are
not anymore in need of HIM we don’t go to HIM anymore.
the reality of our
life is we were not created to become permanent citizens of this world. We are
mere temporal passersby in this world, sooner or later we will leave this world
and all the worldly possessions that we have accumulated. Where would we end-up
in the afterlife if we only live for this world?
It’s always better
if we accumulate our life with God, this means that we worship God and we do
what HE wants us to do. But this is not always the case we often times worship
HIM only and we don’t do what Jesus wants us to do.
Therefore we continue to
become slaves of this world.
Saturday, June 14, 2014
1Reflection for June 15, Sunday; Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity; John 3:16-18
Gospel: John 3:16-18
16 For God so loved
the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not
perish but have eternal life. 17 For God sent the Son into the world, not to
condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. 18 He who
believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
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Reflection:
How do we give our
love to our spouse or to our friend perhaps? There are times that this love is with
condition, we love when we receive love in return. But when the love that we
give is unrequited this love wanes until it finally evaporates from our hearts
and this is how we normally love.
In our readings for
this Sunday most especially the gospel, God opens our hearts to a much deeper
kind of love. A love that cannot be measured by anything, love that has no limits and a love that is coupled with humility and
sacrifice.
God’s love is not like
how we express our love. For we are always conscious about what we could get
back in return for the love that we give. This is the complete opposite of God’s
love. Love in the eyes of God is when we are willing to sacrifice even at the
cost of our very own life.
Today is the solemnity
also of the Holy Trinity, the three persons in one God. How are they able to
exist without any conflict? How could they be one yet three? They harmoniously co-exist
because they have the love of God.
The Holy Trinity for
many of us is a mystery but not anymore for some of us. Why? Because they already
have in their hearts the love of God, let us therefore ask the Holy Trinity
covert our hearts according to His love.
If God lovingly gave
HIS very own son so that we may live and have life, what can we give God in
return?
Saturday, May 31, 2014
Reflection for June 1, Sunday; Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, Matthew 28:16-20
Gospel: Matthew
28:16-20
The eleven disciples
went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they saw
him, they worshiped, but they doubted. Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All
power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded
you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
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Reflection:
A military man was
about to be assigned in a faraway place so he said to his wife: Properly take
care of the children. Teach them about our faith and teach them values so that they’ll grow-up to become
responsible and God fearing individuals. The wife seriously followed the
command of his husband. She taught their children the basic tenets of the faith
and she educated them about good manners and values. After fifteen years he
came back, his children were all grown-up and he was so happy for the reason
that they were all responsibly brought-up by her wife.
Jesus in our gospel
episode for this Sunday is about to leave HIS disciples for heaven but before
doing so. He gave them this marching order: Go, therefore, and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And
behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age (Matthew 28:19-20).” The
disciples lived to the hilt this command of Jesus. In fact many of them were
martyred for the sake of advancing the gospel of Jesus.
To whom does these
powerful words of Jesus speaks to now? It speaks to us with the same fervor
during this very moment. Who is our
target? Is it the population at large? The target is not the population at
large, the target is the members of our family, let us creatively share Jesus’
teachings with them. And let us encourage them to attend Holy Mass.
The words of Jesus are
like endless stream of pure water it flows with the passing of time and it
speaks to us now. What will be our response?
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
My Reflection for Tuesday April 29 Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church John 3:7-15
Gospel: John 3:7-15
Jesus said to
Nicodemus: “‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it wills, and
you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or
where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus
answered and said to him, ‘How can this happen?” Jesus answered and said to
him, “You are the teacher of Israel and you do not understand this? Amen, amen,
I say to you, we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but
you people do not accept our testimony. If I tell you about earthly things and
you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No
one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son
of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son
of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal
life.”
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Reflection:
What does our firm
faith in Jesus gives us? It gives us the courage to face the many challenges of
our lives. It gives us the confidence that after our pilgrimage in this world
is over we would now be having our eternal life with Jesus in heaven.
Faith is a gift that
Jesus freely gives to each and everyone of us. However, even if it’s a gift we
must also ask for it. For example if children want something from their parents
they would ask for it from them. And once the parents realize that what their children
are asking is reasonable then they would give it to them with love.
The same is true
with faith; it’s a gift that we must ask Jesus to give us we ask for it in
humble prayer. And if we do this Jesus would never refuse us He will freely
give us this gift of faith. This same faith will now give us the confidence to
always look-up and pray to Jesus on the cross.
In our gospel Jesus
said to Nicodemus: ‘You must be born from above. Perhaps Jesus is asking
Nicodemus to have more faith in Him and not to have faith on himself and on
this world. Perhaps, this is also what Jesus is asking from us today. We must
also be born from above and never be born from this world. We must have our
faith in Him and not have our faith in this world.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Saturday, February 22, 2014
My Reflection for Saturday February 22, Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter, Apostle; Mark 16:13-19
Gospel: Mark 16:13-19
When
Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, “Who do
people say that the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist,
others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them,
“But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Christ,
the Son of the living God.”Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon
son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly
Father.
And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon
this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not
prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Whatever
you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth
shall be loosed in heaven.”
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Reflection:
When
Jesus asked the disciples, Who do the people say that the son of Man is? No one
was able to correctly answer except Simon Peter, who told Jesus: “You are the
Christ the son of the living God. But Jesus immediately told Peter, it’s not by
your own intelligence that you know me; it’s through the grace of my heavenly
Father that you know who I am.
Why did
Jesus told Simon Peter that it was not through his effort that he knows Him? Perhaps
Jesus wanted to temper the behavior of Peter. Perhaps Jesus doesn’t want Simon
Peter to boast about what he knew about Him.
In our
continuing journey with Jesus there may be times also that we might be tempted
to brag or boast concerning what we know about Him. This we must not do because
everything is a gift, everything is a grace. What we know about Him is from Him
alone, not from us; not from our own effort.
How many
times have we boasted about our knowledge regarding Jesus and our faith? How
many times have we acted as if we knew everything about God? Have many times
have we acted as if we are the masters of the universe?
Let us
pause and reflect about this. …
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Sunday, January 05, 2014
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
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