Reflection for Tuesday, February 26; Seventh Week in Ordinary Time; Mark 9:30-37

Gospel: Mark 9:30-37

Jesus and his disciples left from there and began a journey through Galilee, but he did not wish anyone to know about it. He was teaching his disciples and telling them, "The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise." But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him.

They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, he began to ask them, "What were you arguing about on the way?" But they remained silent. They had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest. Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, "If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all." Taking a child, he placed it in the their midst, and putting his arms around it, he said to them, "Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.

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Reflection:

Why do you follow Jesus?

As Jesus and the disciples were walking He told them: “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.” But they did not pay much attention to what Jesus told them because they were also busy conversing as to who amongst them is the greatest.

We assume that Jesus and the disciples were just through doing their mission of preaching the kingdom of God. They performed miracles such as: Healing the sick, expelling demons and a lot more. Because of these miraculous acts that they have done the disciple’s high regard for themselves got the better of them. They were already angling to covet the title as the greatest among the disciples.

Are not many of us like the disciples? Do we not have hidden motives when we do acts of kindness? Do we not desire to be praised for what we do?  Do we not feel proud when we do good things? Was it possible that the disciples were feeding their own egos that is why they were already discussing who was the greatest amongst them?

In the midst of their bloated egos, Jesus gave them a valuable lesson about humility and on how it is to become humble servants of the Lord and the people. Thus He told them: “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.”

In other words if you want to be the leader then be a humble servant leader who is always ready to serve not minding the accolades and honors. Inside the heart of a true leader is the desire to humbly serve, he is always there silently walking his talk, practicing what he preaches. This is what Jesus wanted the disciples to imbibe: For them to become humble servants.

This is also what Jesus wants for us but some of us are the opposite of the servant leader that Jesus wants the disciples to become. Instead of putting the title leader into our hearts we put it instead into our heads. That is why we become fake and arrogant leaders who only want to give orders. Who only want to abuse and take advantage of our innocent followers.

We therefore only want to serve our own personal interest. The servant leadership that Jesus wants us to have is permanently eased out from our system because what takes over is our greed for power, our ego and our arrogance.

What must we do so that we can rightfully claim that we truly follow the greatest servant leader who ever walked this earth?  We must be humble at all times, we must continuously decrease while Jesus continuously increase through our acts of humility.

The mistake of many of us who follow Jesus is we often times act without humility. We feel that we are above all because we have this distorted sense that we are close to Jesus when in fact we are not. Our closeness or intimacy with the Lord is not defined by our religious titles, ranks and position neither it is defined by the frequency of our worship for Him.

Our closeness to Jesus is determined by how we live HIS virtue of humility. – Marino J. Dasmarinas 

Reflection for Monday, February 25; Seventh Week in Ordinary Time; Mark 9:14-29

Gospel: Mark 9:14-29

As Jesus came down from the mountain with Peter, James, John and approached the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and scribes arguing with them. Immediately on seeing him, the whole crowd was utterly amazed. They ran up to him and greeted him. He asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” Someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I have brought to you my son possessed by a mute spirit. Wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive it out, but they were unable to do so.” He said to them in reply, “O faithless generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I endure you? Bring him to me.” They brought the boy to him. And when he saw him, the spirit immediately threw the boy into convulsions.

As he fell to the ground, he began to roll around and foam at the mouth. Then he questioned his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” He replied, “Since childhood. It has often thrown him into fire and into water to kill him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” Jesus said to him, “‘If you can!’ Everything is possible to one who has faith.” Then the boy’s father cried out, “I do believe, help my unbelief!” Jesus, on seeing a crowd rapidly gathering, rebuked the unclean spirit and said to it, “Mute and deaf spirit, I command you: come out of him and never enter him again!” Shouting and throwing the boy into convulsions, it came out. He became like a corpse, which caused many to say, “He is dead!” But Jesus took him by the hand, raised him, and he stood up. When he entered the house, his disciples asked him in private, “Why could we not drive the spirit out?” He said to them, “This kind can only come out through prayer.”

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Reflection:

Is it possible for the disciples to lack faith? Yes, even if they were always with Jesus it was very possible for them to lack faith. Perhaps because they were with Jesus everyday it became ordinary for them already that they treated Jesus as one of them. Their extraordinary discipleship with Jesus became ordinary for them.

That’s why they did not have anymore that strong faith and add to this was their lack of prayerful life. The end result of their lack of faith and prayer was their failure to drive out the bad spirit from the boy. Therefore, Jesus admonished them to strengthen their faith and give more fire to their prayer life.

Why are there marriage failures? It’s because both spouses often times forget to have faith on the sacredness of their marriage. By being together everyday they become very familiar with each other. That their treatment with each other becomes ordinary. There’s no more fervent unifying prayer life in their marriage thus their marriage becomes the casualty.

Let us take personally the admonishment of Jesus to the disciples to have faith and to have a more blazing prayer life. Let us take it as an advice also for us to have a more prayerful life inside our married life.

If only we would invest more prayer in our respective marriages. Perhaps, there would be no more failures in marriage. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for Sunday February 24, Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time: Luke 6:27-38

Gospel: Luke 6:27-38

Jesus said to his disciples: “To you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic. Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. For if you love those who love you what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, and get back the same amount. But rather, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as also your Father is merciful.

“Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.

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Reflection:

A man would always feel pain in his heart whenever he sees her sister who had done him wrong. It was always like that for many years until he had a near fatal heart attack. He reflected deeply about what happened to him until he finally decided to forgive his sister.   

What will liberate us from hatred and negative emotion? Its forgiveness and love. The moment we truly forgive and love every form of hatred and negativity disappears in our hearts. We become free we exude nothing but positive aura to our fellowmen. But human as we are we from time to time succumb to hatred thus we allow it to control us instead of us controlling it.

What is the cure for hatred? Its love, forgiveness and humility; these three can conquer hatred. And it can free us from emotions that bring nothing to us but disgust and negativity. This could even result to the disruption of our day hence we will not be able to function properly.

In our gospel reading Jesus tells us to love our enemies, to do good to those who hate us, to bless those who curse us, to pray for those who mistreat us (Luke 6:27-28). Difficult as it may seem; nonetheless if we want to be free from the enslavement of hatred and negative emotions, we have to follow what Jesus is telling us.

It’s only through forgiveness that we would be free from hatred. It’s only through the way of love that we could become true followers of Jesus. There’s no other way but the way of love and forgiveness.

Would you be willing to forgive those who’ve done you wrong? -  Marino J. Dasmarinas 

1Reflection for Saturday, February 23; Saint Polycarp, Bishop and Martyr; Mark 9:2-13

                                                                      Gospel: Mark 9:2-13

Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, "Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; then from the cloud came a voice, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him." Suddenly, looking around, the disciples no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them.

As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant. Then they asked him, "Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?" He told them, "Elijah will indeed come first and restore all things, yet how is it written regarding the Son of Man that he must suffer greatly and be treated with contempt? But I tell you that Elijah has come and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written of him."

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Reflection:

Do you want to be in heaven with the Lord when your journey in this world is already over?

Jesus showed to the three apostles what heaven was like; He gave them a fleeting taste of heaven. But then, He said not yet; let us go down first and continue my mission of salvation. By doing so He would go through severe hardship, pain and betrayal. But at the end of these all Jesus rose up triumphantly to defeat the darkness of evil.   

Before we achieve success, we must toil in the sun and sacrifice. Before we go to heaven we have to do something for the Lord and His church. And this will surely entail sacrifice even hardship.

Why? Because that’s how it is, there are no shortcuts to triumph. We must go through the eye of the needle to fully enjoy the sweetness of our victory and success. Free riders and freeloaders have no place in the mission for Christ.

We have to sacrifice if we want to be with the Lord in heaven someday. We have to sweat it out if we want to taste success in this world. There are no shortcuts.   – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for Friday, February 22; Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter, Apostle; Matthew 16:13-19

Gospel: Matthew 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:

Can we know Jesus deeply by our own effort and can we have deep friendship with Jesus by our own will? No, because everything that we know about Jesus and our faith is a gift from God. Through God’s own doing we know something about HIM and our faith, everything is grace and we are mere facilitators of this grace.

When Simon Peter was able to point out the true identity of Jesus. He was subsequently told by Jesus that he know HIM because of the grace of God. Why did Jesus told Peter that what he knows about HIM is a gift from God? Perhaps it was Jesus way of telling Simon Peter that he must humbly use his knowledge about God to bring others to God and not to bring unto himself the glory that is due to God alone.

Today is, also the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter one of the  two pillars of the church. Why is Peter successful in his mission to spread the faith? This is for the reason that remained humble in doing his ministry. Peter, did not raise himself to the altar of significance and prominence. Peter remained a humble missioner for Jesus.  

This is also a very good reminder for all of us who share the words of God. When we share, preach or write about God let us always see to it that we don’t highlight anyone else except God alone.  As Saint John the Baptist said, I must decrease and HE must increase (John 3:30). – Marino J. Dasmarinas

1Reflection for Thursday, February 21; Sixth Week in Ordinary Time; Mark 8:27-33

Gospel: Mark 8:27-33

Jesus and his disciples set out for the villages of Caesarea Philippi. Along the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They said in reply, “John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others one of the prophets.” And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter said to him in reply, “You are the Christ.” Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.

He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days. He spoke this openly. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

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Reflection:

Have you suffered for someone you love?

Suffering is part and parcel of loving, there’s no real love without suffering for that love. For so long as you love you should expect some big and little sufferings along the way. Why? Because suffering perfects and purifies love, love without suffering is not love it’s simply lust or a shallow object of attraction. 

For example, a man and a woman decided to marry. So, after their marriage they move to a place to be together.  After a few months the man found out that his partner is sick of cancer so he decided to leave her.  It was not real love that attracted the man to the woman. It was simply lust for he was not willing to suffer for his beloved.

Jesus in the gospel gives us the best example of perfect love when He said that the Son of man must suffer greatly. To whom did Jesus suffer? For us, He suffered out of His great love for us; He could have avoided going thru intense suffering for He was God too. But He chose to tread the road of suffering so that we can be redeemed from our sinfulness.

Have you done something to reciprocate this perfect love of Jesus? – Marino J. Dasmarinas 

1Reflection for Wednesday, February 20; Sixth Week in Ordinary Time; Mark 8:22-26

Gospel: Mark 8:22-26

When Jesus and his disciples arrived at Bethsaida, people brought to him a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. Putting spittle on his eyes he laid his hands on the man and asked, “Do you see anything?” Looking up the man replied, “I see people looking like trees and walking.” Then he laid hands on the man’s eyes a second time and he saw clearly; his sight was restored and he could see everything distinctly. Then he sent him home and said, “Do not even go into the village.”

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Reflection:

A woman who was a come and go Catholic suddenly decided to leave the church in favor for another Christian denomination. When she was asked why she decided to leave she said: “The protestant faith opened my eyes to the real Christian church.”

Perhaps we know of Catholics who are not well versed about the basic teachings of the church. They are also vulnerable to abandon the faith. What should we do? We must be the vehicle for their enlightenment about the truths of the catholic faith.

Let us open their eyes and let them know that we don’t worship the saints. Let us open their eyes and let them know that the Catholic church was founded by Jesus through Peter. Let us open their eyes and let them know that the Holy Bible is the book of the church that we must always read.

There are many more truths about the church that our fellow Catholics do not know yet. Let us allow ourselves to be Jesus’ vehicle so that their eyes of faith will be opened. So that they will not anymore be blinded to decide to leave the church which Jesus founded through Peter. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for Tuesday, February 19; Sixth Week in Ordinary Time; Mark 8:14-21

Gospel: Mark 8:14-21

The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. Jesus enjoined them, “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. They concluded among themselves that it was because they had no bread. When he became aware of this he said to them, “Why do you conclude that it is because you have no bread? Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear? And do you not remember, when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many wicker baskets full of fragments you picked up? They answered him, “Twelve.” “When I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many full baskets of fragments did you pick up?” They answered him, “Seven.” He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”

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Reflection:

Power corrupts people who don’t know how to handle it.

The Pharisees and King Herod were very powerful but they did not use their power responsibly they in fact abused it. They used it to oppress and manipulate people. Eventually they allowed the same power that they have to corrupt them.

Opposed to the manipulative and arrogant power of the Pharisees and Herod is the power of Jesus that emanates from God. Power that is used to sincerely help and power that is used with humility and purity. This power was shown to them by Jesus when He feed twice the thousands of people.

Many of us handle power like how the Pharisees and Herod handled it. We use it to manipulate, we use it to advance our selfish agendas. Many politicians use their power to steal money from the government in the guise of helping the poor. The power of the Pharisees and King Herod is temporary it doesn’t last and this kind of power has a retribution factor in the end.

Of course, we know the power of Jesus; it forever leaves an imprint in our hearts. It’s power firmly rooted in humility and power that will bring us safely to God’s kingdom someday.

Whose power do you embrace? – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for Monday, February 18; Sixth Week in Ordinary Time; Mark 8 11-13

Gospel: Mark 8:11-13

The Pharisees came forward and began to argue with Jesus, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation. Then he left them, got into the boat again, and went off to the other shore.

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Reflection:

What does it mean when we seek signs from the Lord Jesus? It means weakness of faith, it means that Jesus is not yet enough for us to hold on for our salvation for we still need signs and wonders from Jesus. A true believer and a person of faith will not anymore seek a sign from the Lord. He/She will trust the Lord Jesus regardless of if he/she will see or not see signs from Him.

If we truly love the Lord and if we have faith in the Lord we will not anymore ask for a sign from Him. Why? Because His name alone is more than enough to deliver us from all of our fears and doubts.  This is for that reason that we always feel His abiding presence in our lives.

The Lord is with us the moment we reverently attend Holy Mass most especially when we partake of His Body and Blood during Holy Communion. The Lord speaks to us the moment we reverently read His words in the bible. Jesus is with us the moment we pray with reverence the Holy Rosary.  

If only we would invest time to dive deeper into the life of Jesus and our catholic faith we will not anymore ask for any signs from Jesus. Because as we invest time for Him, we will also notice slowly but surely His abiding presence in our life.

Let us not ask for signs let us instead get intimate with Jesus and our faith by our faithful presence at Holy Mass. By having a daily habit of reading our bible and by having a daily quite time in prayer with Him. – Marino J. Dasmarinas  

Reflection for Sunday February 17, Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Luke 6:17, 20-26

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Gospel: Luke 6:17, 20-26

Jesus came down with the Twelve and stood on a stretch of level ground with a great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon. And Raising his eyes toward his disciples Jesus said:

“Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man.

Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.

But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”

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                                                                      Reflection:

There’s a story of a man in his late thirties who had a successful life in this world. Name it and he had it: women, riches, power and the like. It may seem that he was enjoying what he was going through but he was empty deep inside. So, he resigned from his high paying job and he subsequently joined a catholic organization that serves the poor.

His life there was simple but he found real happiness and fulfillment. Many of his friends hated and insulted him for what he did. However, he did not mind them because he found Jesus in that organization and subsequently built a deep friendship with the Lord.

What is the main requirement to get closer to Jesus? It’s to suffer for the sake of the advancement of His kingdom in this world. Without suffering for Christ there would be no close friendship with him.

 Many of us are so afraid to suffer for Christ sake because this will disturb us. If we have this mentality, we therefore are only thinking of ourselves and not thinking of the welfare of others. We only are concerned of what we can get from this present world (wealth, power and the like). And forget about what is there for us after this world.

We may be stripped of our riches in the process of our desire to get closer to Jesus. Many will hate us even distance themselves from us. But what the heck! We have to understand that we don’t live in this world to be in this world. We live in this world now so that we can go to heaven and be with the Lord someday.

Our motivation in existing in this world should always be heaven to be with Jesus. Otherwise if our motivation is centered in this world alone, we would never have peace. We may have all the things in this world but we still will have no peace for there’s an absence of Christ in our life.

In this Sunday’s gospel Jesus tells us: Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man (Luke 6:22).

Therefore, let us not be afraid of the challenges. That we might face for the sake of advancing the kingdom of God in this world. For this is the reason of our existence. God made us to exist in this world so that we could bring others closer to Jesus.

Have you already suffered for Christ and have you already brought somebody closer to him? If your answer is yes, you are truly blessed! – Marino J. Dasmarinas    

Reflection for Saturday, February 16; Saturday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time; Mark 8:1-10

Gospel: Mark 8:1-10

In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat, Jesus summoned the disciples and said, “My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance. His disciples answered him, “Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?” Still he asked them, “How many loaves do you have? They replied, “Seven.” He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd. They also had a few fish. He said the blessing over them and ordered them distributed also. They ate and were satisfied. They picked up the fragments left over–seven baskets. There were about four thousand people.

He dismissed the crowd and got into the boat with his disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha.

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Reflection:

What kind of God is Jesus? He is a God of compassion and mercy, Jesus feels our loneliness when we are lonely. Jesus cries with us when we cry. Jesus feels the heavy load that we carry when we are so burdened by it. Does this feeling of compassion and mercy stops with Jesus empathy? No, Jesus never stops of thinking of ways on how He can make light the burdens that we carry.

We see this deep compassion and mercy of Jesus in our gospel today. When Jesus saw the crowd who had been following them for days He had deep compassion with them for they were already hungry. And His mercy and compassion led Him to think on how He could feed them.

So Jesus asked His disciples for whatever food that they may have and out of seven loaves and few fish Jesus miraculously multiplied it to feed almost four thousand. This is how merciful and compassionate Jesus is to those who follow Him.

What does this gospel tell us? This tells us that we will never go hungry the moment we decide to faithfully follow Jesus! Jesus will never let us go hungry for He will take care of our food and He will take care of our needs. This may be hard to believe for others but this is very true! Jesus provides for those who faithfully follow Him.

Do you faithfully follow Jesus? – Marino J. Dasmarinas   

Reflection for Friday, February 15; Friday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time; Mark 7:31-37

Gospel: Mark 7:31-37

Again Jesus left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis. And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!”— that is, “Be opened!” — And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly. He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it. They were exceedingly astonished and they said, “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

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Reflection:

There’s a story of a man who was diagnosed to have a terminal sickness, of course he was bothered, who would not be? But the man had great faith in Jesus so he earnestly prayed.  He went to Mass everyday, he prayed the rosary regularly and he read his bible fervently.  

As the days, weeks and months passed by there was observable decline on his physical appearance. But those around him noticed also the increase in his faith and confidence in Jesus. They’ve noticed the peacefulness and calmness that he exudes so unlikely of a dying man.

We are presented in the gospel a story of physical healing, a deaf man was able to speak again through the healing power of Jesus.  With the help of those around him the deaf man was brought closer to Jesus. After which he begged Jesus to lay His hand on him.

Jesus took the man away from the crowd. And in the stillness of the environment Jesus groaned and said, “Ephphatha!” which means be opened. The man was immediately healed, he was able to hear and speak once again.

Eventually, everyone of us will get sick and everyone of us will also pray for physical healing from Jesus. But not all of us would experience physical healing like what the deaf man experienced in the gospel. Some of us would experience deep spiritual healing, the same spiritual healing that the terminally sick man in our story received from Jesus.

We must therefore take steps also to get closer and build a relationship with Jesus. Let us take the initiative and do it by ourselves now. Let us not wait for the time to come that we will go to Him because we are already in dire need of Him. – Marino J. Dasmarinas 

Reflection for Thursday, February 14; Saints Cyril, Monk, and Methodius, Bishop; Mark 7:24-30

Gospel: Mark 7:24-30

Jesus went to the district of Tyre. He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it, but he could not escape notice. Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” She replied and said to him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.” Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.” When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

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Reflection:

What is the key for us to have what we want from Jesus? It’s persistence, if we think that Jesus doesn’t hear our prayers, we should continue to beg Him to grant us what want. We should never give up because giving up is a sign of our lack of faith in Jesus.

The Syrophoenician woman in our gospel never gave up on her prayer request even if she was already being tested by Jesus. She persisted and humbly beg Jesus to cure her daughter possessed by the devil. Eventually her persistence bore fruit for when she went home she found out that her daughter was not anymore possessed by the devil.

As we continue our journey in this temporal world, we surely will be facing a lot of problematic situations. Let us not let these disappointing events bring us down and let us not let these situations separate us from Jesus. The more we encounter trials in our lives the more that we go persistently to Jesus for help.

For it’s only Jesus and it’s only through Jesus that we would be able to survive the many trials and tribulations in this world.  What if for example we persistently pray to Jesus for help and he does not help us? Would this be possible that we pray and we don’t receive any help from Jesus? Yes this is very possible but this should not be a reason for us to give up and distance ourselves from Jesus.

Are you always persistent when you pray to Jesus? – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for Wednesday, February 13; Fifth Week in Ordinary Time; Mark 7:14-23

Gospel: Mark 7:14-23

Jesus summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.” When he got home away from the crowd his disciples questioned him about the parable. He said to them, “Are even you likewise without understanding? Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) “But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him. From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.”

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Reflection:

Where does the desire to commit sin emanates? It first emanates from within us. It begins when we think about it and if we don’t stop thinking about our desire to commit sin it slowly progresses. Until we actually give flesh to our desire to sin by actually doing it.

For example, the desire of a husband/wife to betray their marriage vows. It starts by thinking about it and when she/he sees that the situation is conducive to commit the act of sin/betrayal. The spouse will now succumb to commit this immoral sin. Therefore, the desire to commit sin originates from within us.

How then could we avoid sin? We pray to Jesus and ask His help to exterminate whatever sinful desires that we have in our minds. Then we also have to do our part by taking action to rid ourselves of the desire to sin and by running away from sin. Because if we pray yet our actions are not according to what we have been praying for we would still commit sin sooner or later. As the saying goes God help those who help themselves.

But come to think of it, why do we commit sin? The simple answer is we don’t take our faith in Jesus seriously this is the reason why we commit sin when we want to commit it. Are we not tired yet of sinning? Are we not tired yet of mortgaging our lives to the devil? When we continuously mortgage our lives to the devil through sin, there is the danger that we may not anymore be able to get out of it!

It’s about time that we change this cycle of sin, it’s about time that we rid ourselves of any sinful thoughts and desires. It’s about time that we free ourselves from any problems and complication brought about by sin.  This could only happen if we ask Jesus to come into our lives.  

Would you be willing to humbly pray to Jesus to come into your life? –  Marino J. Dasmarinas