Reflection for Sunday June 2, The Ascension of the Lord: Luke 24:46-53

Gospel: Luke 24:46-53

Jesus said to his disciples: “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold I am sending the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” Then he led them out as far as Bethany, raised his hands, and blessed them. As he blessed them he parted from them and was taken up to heaven. They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God.

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Reflection:

There is a story about a father who was about to leave for work in a faraway place. Before leaving he reminded his eleven children not to forget to do their responsibilities that he assigned to them. He also told them that if there would be any problem. They should communicate with him immediately using facebook or skype. And he would be there for them.    

After forty days upon His resurrection and after many appearances to His disciples. It is now mission accomplished for Jesus. He will leave his apostles to ascend into heaven to be with God.

What does the ascension signify to the apostles? This signifies that the responsibility to spread the gospel lies now in their hands. So, they should not sit idly for in their hands lies the great responsibility of propagating the faith.  Did the apostles succeed in spreading the faith? Yes they were all successful. But it was not a walk in the park for them. They had to go through difficulties yet amidst the difficulties they did their mission with aplomb.

The Ascension of Jesus reminds us as well about our sacred responsibilities to spread the faith for we now are the modern-day disciples. In our broad shoulders now rest this great responsibility. Are we up to this responsibility?  

Sometimes we are afraid to embrace this responsibility because of our limitations. For example, we may say, “How can I evangelize when I am not a good speaker?” How can I evangelize when I have no talent and resource for this kind of endeavor? But evangelization is not solely limited through speaking, talent and resources.

We can also evangelize through our acts of love, humility and kindness. Lest we forget, our actions speak more than our words. We can now even evangelize using the internet by writing our thoughts about Jesus and His gospels. Or simply by sharing the words of God and this is also a good form of evangelization.

We think we can’t help Jesus spread the good news because we are imprisoned by our limitations. Or perhaps we fear being ostracized. The feeling of fear has no place in the environment of evangelization, we have to be courageous. Why? Because God the Holy Spirit is always there for us.

As Jesus ascends into heaven we are now given the task to evangelize and spread the faith. Can you measure up to this task? – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for June 1, Saturday: Memorial of Saint Justin, Martyr; John 16:23b-28

Gospel: John 16:23b-28

Jesus said to his disciples: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. Until now you have not asked anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.

“I have told you this in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures but I will tell you clearly about the Father. On that day you will ask in my name, and I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you. For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have come to believe that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world. Now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”

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Reflection:

A  woman asked Jesus to make her rich, so she prayed for it. After three months of asking and praying the woman never received his prayer petition. She was deeply puzzled why she had not received what she wanted.

 Until she had a dream wherein Jesus told her this, “You did not receive what you prayed for because you just relaxed in your house. You never exerted effort to realize what you want. So the next day the  woman prayed once again and she coupled her prayer with action and after a period of time she was able to achieve what she was asking from the Lord.

Our petitions for Jesus must not end with our vocal prayers only. We must see to it that we follow it up with actions. For example, we desire something, of course we have to pray and it must not end with our prayers. We must work very hard to realize what we are praying for.

Jesus will generously help us achieve what we want to happen in our lives for as long as we will exert every ounce of effort to have it. In other words it must always be prayers with actions and not prayers alone. – Marino J. Dasmarinas 

Reflection for May 31, Friday: Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary; Luke 1:39-56

Gospel: Luke 1:39-56

Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”

And Mary said: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name.

He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm,he has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children for ever.”

Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.

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Reflection:

Would you exert effort to give a relative a surprise visit? Many of us are very busy that we hardly have time for this kind of noble effort. But if many of us have no time to reach out to our relatives the Blessed Mother always has time.

Just imagine the Blessed Mother travelling for days on a donkey while pregnant just to give cheer to her pregnant cousin Elizabeth. Who among us would do that? Perhaps only a few because many of us have no time. 

We have already allowed this world to dictate upon us to always get busy with things of this world. Get busy at the expense of strengthening our bond with our friends and relatives? Yes, when we allow ourselves to become overly busy with worldliness. The tie that binds us to our friends and relatives take a backseat and this is not good.

But not the Blessed Mother for she is an extra ordinary Blessed woman who is always full of love, care and compassion towards her relatives and to us also. The Blessed Mother never thought of her own safety and her own predicament (Because she was also pregnant at that time). She braved the very long distance and the stress on herself just to give herself to her cousin Elizabeth.

How many of us are still willing to forget ourselves just to visit our relatives and friends to make them happy with our presence? – Marino J. Dasmarinas 

Reflection for May 30, Thursday: Sixth Week of Easter; John 16:16-20

Gospel: John 16:16-20

(Jesus said to his disciples) “A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me.” So some of his disciples said to one another, “What does this mean that he is saying to us, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” So they said, “What is this ‘little while’ of which he speaks? We do not know what he means.” Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Are you discussing with one another what I said, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.”

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Reflection:

It’s always heartbreaking when somebody permanently say goodbye to us most especially if they’re very close to us. Tears will flow like a stream and our life will never be the same anymore because a deep void has been created by that person who left us.

Jesus is mysteriously saying His goodbye to the disciples and they could not understand it. They were puzzled and somewhat melancholy. But then Jesus is also saying to them that you will be seeing me soon after also.  

Unlike the permanent goodbye of a friend or relative, Jesus’ goodbye is temporary. He comes back to us the moment we sought Him back again. Actually it’s not Jesus who leaves us; it’s us (by way of our sinfulness) who run away from HIM. This occurs when we purposely forget HIM to embrace sin.

But why do we embrace sin (knowing that it will only give us nothing but problems)? Perhaps we think that we could escape the consequence of our sins. But it has been proven time and again that we always pay for our sinfulness whomever we are. It may take time but certainly we will pay, there’s no free ride in this world most especially in matters of sin. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for May 29, Wednesday: Sixth Week of Easter; John 16:12-15

Gospel: John 16:12-15

Jesus said to his disciples: “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.”

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Reflection:

There’s a story of a prayerful wife who would always make the first move to reconcile with her husband whenever they had problems. In their twenty five years of marriage it was always her who initiates the reconciliation. And she was always successful with her peace initiative towards her husband.

Who impels her to reconcile? It’s the Holy Spirit, it guides her; it speaks to her mind and it tells her to be humble enough to make the first move to reconcile. Why does she listen? She discerns and pays attention to the voice of the Holy Spirit because she is prayerful.

God the Holy Spirit is our guide, our advocate that has been with us since our Baptism. Its presence within us was further strengthened during our Confirmation. But not all of us are aware of its presence in our life.

 Not all of us are aware that it's always there ready and willing to guide us. Why? Because we are not prayerful!  Our prayerful life lays the groundwork for us to discern the presence of the Holy Spirit within us.

Are you always prayerful? Are you aware of the Sacred presence of the Holy Spirit in your life? If not yet, then please be prayerful and slowly but surely you will have an awareness of the Holy Spirit’s presence in your life. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for May 28, Tuesday: Sixth Week of Easter; John 16:5-11

Gospel: John 16:5-11

(Jesus said to his disciples) “Now I am going to the one who sent me, and not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I told you this, grief has filled your hearts. But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes he will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation: sin, because they do not believe in me; righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.”

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Reflection:

Departures are always filled with sorrow, for example a loved one or a dear friend who dies. Or somebody close to our hearts whom we would not be seeing for so many years. These kinds of scenarios are heart wrenching and always filled with tears and grief. However, this is only physical disconnection the memories and the good things will always remain.  

In our gospel for today Jesus is slowly disconnecting Himself from HIS disciples (Now I am going to the one who sent me, John 16:5). This disconnection is only physical in nature because God the Holy Spirit would be upon them soon.

It’s a fact of life that we will be leaving this world permanently. We don’t know when will it be but we will be leaving this world for sure. Do you want to permanently carve a permanent dwelling in the hearts of those who know you? Then, always do good and be like Jesus.

More than two thousand years have passed since Jesus walked on this earth yet Jesus is still in our hearts. Why? For the reason that HE did good all the time, HE helped the poor, HE was the personification of simplicity, humility and kindness.

We only exist once in this world, let us live like Jesus lived. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for May 27, Monday: Sixth Week of Easter; John 15:26—16:4a

Gospel: John 15:26—16:4a

Jesus said to his disciples: “When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.

                                                          

“I have told you this so that you may not fall away. They will expel you from the synagogues; in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God. They will do this because they have not known either the Father or me. I have told you this so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you.”

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Reflection:               

What strengthens our resolve to continue to move on with our lives? It’s our prayerful connection with God and Jesus. Our prayerful connection to both God and Jesus inspires us and gives us hope whenever we are down and weary.

Through our connection with God and Jesus we are given the gift of discerning the presence of the advocate or the Holy Spirit within our midst. For this reason, we have to have regular connection with God and Jesus. For both of them are facilitators of the presence of the advocate within our lives.

In our gospel, Jesus mentioned to the disciples the advocate whom He will send to them courtesy of His Father (John 15:26). The advocate will continue to inspire them to be steadfast in their mission no matter the difficulties that they may encounter. It will protect them from dangers and it will lead them to do what is right.

We too can have an awareness of the presence of the advocate or the Holy Spirit if we are always connected with the Lord. And how could we have a connection with the Lord? We have to be prayerful.  – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for Sunday May 26, Sixth Sunday of Easter: John 14:23-29

Gospel: John 14:23-29

Jesus said to his disciples: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.

“I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe.”

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Reflection:

A story is told about a woman who pledged his undying love for God through her involvement in a charismatic prayer group.  But the irony of her vocal profession of her love for God was she wanted to forcibly establish her leadership in the charismatic group. Even if many were against her leadership. Does this woman love God and does she keep the commandments of God? 

In our gospel Jesus talks about love, the Holy Spirit and peace. How can we justify our love for God if we don’t keep His words? How can we invite the sacred presence of the Holy Spirit and peace in our lives if we shoo it away by our superficial love for God?

Many of us profess that we love God, that we believe that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one and the same. Yes, we go to Mass every Sunday but our actions are very much contrary to what we do and profess.

In other words, what comes out from our mouths are not in harmony with what we are doing. We have to ponder on this and think of how we can make a radical transformation in our life of faith. So that we can truly say that we are keeping and living the words of God.

Someday we will depart from this world. By that time we will not be thinking of anything except of what would happen to us when we depart this world. Where would we be: would we be in heaven or hell?

One sure way for us to enter heaven is quite simple. And that is to love God and to keep His commandments to the core of our hearts and minds.  – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for May 25, Saturday: Fifth Week of Easter; John 15:18-21

Gospel: John 15:18-21

Jesus said to his disciples: "If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you, 'No slave is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. And they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me."

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Reflection:     

How can we be hated by this world? We would be hated by this world when we don’t conform to its many dictates. For example, when we avoid the company of those people who do no good. What they always do is to satisfy their cravings for this world even if it makes them sin. They would slowly label us as killjoy or somebody who doesn’t belong to this world. If this is the case then by all means let us not be afraid to be hated by this world.

What does this world offer us? Happiness, riches, sin, sickness and after which it offers us death. And after death or even while we are sick this world will not anymore matter to us what will matter now is our faith and love for Jesus. What if we have no faith, we don’t love Jesus and we perpetually commit sin while we are in this world?

Jesus discourse with HIS disciples is an eye opener for all of us, for it gives us insights about the mind of Jesus. HIS mind is not conformed to this world as how the mindset of many of us are conditioned to this world.

Jesus teachings are always contradicting the dictates of this world and this is quite hard to accept for many of us. Why? For the reason that we are starting to love this world more than we love Jesus. And this is very dangerous, what will happen to us if we love this world more than we love Jesus? What will happen to us if our joy and happiness are all based in this world?

We walk on this world barren and empty. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for May 24, Friday: Fifth Week of Easter; John 15:12-17

Gospel: John 15:12-17

Jesus said to his disciples: “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.”

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Reflection:              

What would happen if the love of Jesus is present in the family? There would be no conflict, no arrogance, no dominant behavior and no misunderstanding. There would also be forgiveness and humility. All of these factors are present because of the presence of the love of Jesus.

Let us say that we take away the love of Jesus, surely, there would be conflict inside the family. This is brought about by arrogance, domination, infidelity, lies and so forth.

When Jesus commanded His disciples to love one another as He loved them (John 15:12). He envisioned harmony, forgiveness, trust and everything that is good for His disciples.  This is for the reason that Jesus wanted His disciples to become successful in their mission of evangelization. And this could only be possible if they love one another.

Jesus perfectly knew that without love that originates from Him the disciples will not become successful in their mission. Their efforts would simply be in vain because they will simply be pulling each other’s leg downward. And there would be jealousy, arrogance and misunderstanding among His disciples. Therefore there would be failure of their mission of evangelization.

We too will not become successful in our mission for Jesus and we will not have harmony inside the family. Unless we learn to imbibe, share and live this love commandment of Jesus. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for May 23, Thursday: Fifth Week of Easter; John 15:9-11

Gospel: John 15:9-11

Jesus said to his disciples: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.

“I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete.”

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Reflection:

What will separate us from the love of Jesus? It’s none other than sin! Every time we sin we create a space between us and Jesus. How about Jesus? Does He distance Himself from us whenever we sin? Jesus is always on the move towards us always offering us His unconditional love, regardless if we sin or not.

Such is the love of Jesus for all of us. Always forbearing and patient it stretches until eternity always ready to embrace us once again. But we must not also try to test the limits of Jesus love for us. For example, we continue to sin because at the back of our minds we know that we can go to Jesus anytime. And ask for His forgiveness through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

What if in the process of committing sin we meet a tragic accident? Where will we end up? Of course it’s no brainer that we will be in the fiery furnace of hell. That’s why it’s very important for all of us to take advantage of this offer of Jesus to remain in His love by repenting from all of our sins while we still have time.

Do you always try your very best to always remain in Jesus’ love? – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for May 22, Wednesday: Fifth Week of Easter; John 15:1-8

Gospel: John 15:1-8
Jesus said to his disciples:“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

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Reflection:

Where does life lead us without Jesus? It leads us to nowhere and nothingness. Our life is without meaning without Jesus. We are like a boat being buffeted by waves that has nowhere to go.

Life is meaningless without our connection with Jesus, we may have an abundance of everything that this world could give us. But these are all temporary, all of these we will leave behind someday. All of these worldly things will not give us peace of mind, it will even create disturbance in our minds.

Jesus through the gospel for this Sunday tells us: You will never bear fruit unless you remain in me (John 15:4). Yet Jesus tells us also that we will bear much fruit if only we would decide to remain in Him.

Therefore let us always decide to be connected with Jesus, through our presence at Holy Mass. through the Sacraments, Through Adoration and through reading His words in the Bible. Let us not let go of Jesus even if life brings us tons of trials. Because no trials are insurmountable for Jesus, if we are connected with Him nothing can bring us down. Nobody could tear us apart for His abiding presence is with us. 

As the branch cannot survive without its connection to the vine. We too will not be able to survive without our connection with Jesus. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

1Reflection for May 21, Tuesday: Fifth Week of Easter; John 14:27-31a

Gospel: John 14:27-31a

(Jesus said to his disciples) “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe. I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me, but the world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me.”

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Reflection:

What is this peace that Jesus mentions to us in the gospel? It’s the peace that no one in this world can ever give us. We cannot find this peace with worldly power or riches. Because the more worldly power and riches we have the more that we’ll have no peace in our hearts.

Many of us think that we will have peace by having power and wealth that’s why we aspire for it! We don’t even care if we sin as long as we could have this corrupted wealth and power. But we must be wary for the reason that the devil has always a concession for us to have immoral wealth and power and the concession is sin.  And by accepting the offer of the devil we are permanently under the devil’s devious spell until we die and we end up in hell.

On the contrary, Jesus offers us His peace. Peace that no amount of worldly power and wealth could measure up.  Peace that will keep us permanently away from sin and peace that will plant contentment in our hearts. Therefore, we must embrace this peace that Jesus offers us.

Do you already have the peace of Jesus in your heart? – Marino J. Dasmarinas   

Reflection for May 20, Monday: Fifth Week of Easter; John 14:21-26

Gospel: John 14:21-26

Jesus said to his disciples: “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” Judas, not the Iscariot, said to him, “Master, then what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.

“I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name—he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.”

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Reflection:

A retired man was often present at daily Mass. He looked pious and devoted to the faith but when he’s home he unravels himself. He acts as the lord and master of their household.

Does he truly love God? I don’t think so; his love for God is superficial and is limited inside the four walls of his church. In the gospel Jesus says: “Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”

Certainly, Jesus and the Father the first two persons of the trinity have not revealed themselves to this man. Jesus further states: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.”

Sometimes it’s very hard for us to understand the mysteries of our faith for the reason that we are not true to our faith. Yes, we worship Jesus at Holy Mass but we don’t allow the grace of the Holy Mass to change us. – Marino J. Dasmarinas