Jesus said: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.” Although Jesus used this figure of speech, they did not realize what he was trying to tell them.
So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”
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Reflection:
Do you consider yourself a good shepherd? Everyone of us is a shepherd in our own little way. For example, if you are a parent, you have your own children to shepherd or guide. What kind of shepherd are you to your children?
Are you a good shepherd to them? Have you taught them already about your faith? Do you bring them to church for Holy Mass? Have you opened the bible to them and taught them about the life of Jesus? The model shepherd is Jesus, he is the one whom we should emulate.
Jesus tells us in the gospel: I am the gate for the sheep (John 10:7). Do we shepherd our own respective families going to Jesus? Or we instead lead them away from Jesus by exposing them to the things of this world?
Who is the gate that Jesus mentions to us in the gospel? The gate is Jesus Himself! He is the good shepherd for He gave His very life for us. He established the church for us and He instituted the Eucharist for us His sheep. So that we would be guided properly as we continue our temporary journey in this world. We will never go wrong if we would let Jesus shepherd us and if we would follow the shepherding style of Jesus.
Let us reflect on who is shepherding us right now and on how we have been shepherding those who are under our care and guidance. – Marino J. Dasmarinas
Many of Jesus' disciples who were
listening said, "This saying is hard; who can accept it?" Since Jesus
knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, "Does
this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he
was before?
It is the spirit that gives life, while
the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.
But there are some of you who do not believe." Jesus knew from the
beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him. And
he said, "For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me
unless it is granted him by my Father."
As a result of this, many of his disciples
returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. Jesus then
said to the Twelve, "Do you also want to leave?" Simon Peter answered
him, "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We
have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God."
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Reflection:
What should be our guiding principle if we
decide to follow Jesus? It must always be forever! We will not only follow
Jesus in good times we must also learn to follow Jesus in our most trying
times. We will stay with Jesus even if it’s hard to believe that He is
comforting us in the midst of our sufferings and tribulations.
The very large crowd (More than five
thousand of them) who were with Jesus when He multiplied the loaves and fish
suddenly became very few. Only the twelve apostles remained many of those who
followed Him returned to their former way of life. Why? Because they couldn’t
accept Jesus’ continuous insistence that He is the true bread of life that
whoever believes in Him will never hunger and thirst (John 6:35).
They rapidly had amnesia because they all
of a sudden forgot that it was Jesus who feed them when they were all hungry.
It was Jesus who healed them when they were sick and it was Jesus who gave them
hope when they were hopeless.
Such is the behavior of many of us, we
quickly question or even leave Jesus when we go through trials. We never
remember or perhaps we purposely forget the many blessings that He had given us
in the past. Let us never leave Jesus no matter how difficult our present
circumstances are right now. Let us always choose to be with the Lord in
sickness and in health, in our good times as well as in our difficult times.
What are we going to do if we leave Jesus?
We embrace Satan and his worldly teachings? – Marino J. Dasmarinas
The Jews quarrelled among themselves, saying,
"How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?" Jesus said to them,
"Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and
drink his Blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my Flesh and
drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my
Flesh is true food, and my Blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in
me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of
the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This
is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and
still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever." These things he
said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
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Reflection:
What is the difference between a person who is a
regular Communicant and the person who doesn’t partake of the Body of Christ at
Holy Communion? The person who devoutly goes to Holy Mass and who lets himself
be nourished by the Body of Christ is slowly but surely being transformed by
the Body of Christ to become Christ like.
What do this mean to us? It means that the very moment
we allow the Body of Christ to enter our body. We also open ourselves to be an
alter ego of Jesus. In other words it simply means that we become an ambassador
of Jesus when we receive Him.
But do we really allow this to happen to us? Do we
really allow the Body of Christ to spiritually nourish and transform us? Many
of us go to Holy Communion regularly but we never change. There’s no positive
behavioral and spiritual transformation that occurs within us. This is for the
reason that we don’t allow the Body of Christ to transform us.
One sure sign that the Body of Jesus Christ is
transforming us already is when we are able to share and live His teachings.
When we are able to forgive those who’ve hurt us, when we are able to overcome
our own sinfulness and our own arrogance and pride.
Have we already shared and lived Jesus? Have we
already asked Jesus to help us overpower our own sinfulness, arrogance and
pride? - Marino J. Dasmarinas
Jesus said to the crowds: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets: They shall all be taught by God.
Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.
Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world.”
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Reflection:
How can you have eternal life? You have to regularly receive the Body of Christ at Holy Mass. Always receive it with reverence and piety never doubt and don’t think of it as a simple bread because what you receive is Jesus Himself!
Just imagine the enlightenment and unfathomable blessing that it will bring you if you would always partake of the body of Christ. Just imagine the countless spiritual blessing that it would bring you if you would believe that Jesus is the Consecrated Host that you receive during Holy Communion.
Your belief and faith in the bread of life will open your mind to the many truths about Jesus and the church that He founded. Things that are hard to explain but is real and felt by the heart, all you have to do is to believe and have faith.
For without faith and belief you will not fully comprehend how this small and ordinary bread becomes the body of Jesus after it is consecrated by the priest. How this ordinary bread becomes your life and your reason for existing in this world. – Marino J. Dasmarinas
Jesus said to
the crowds, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and
whoever believes in me will never thirst. But I told you that although you have
seen me, you do not believe.
Everything
that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who
comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will
of the one who sent me.
And this is
the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he
gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day. For this is the will of my
Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal
life, and I shall raise him on the last day.”
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Reflection:
What would we
gain if we worship Jesus and become friends with Jesus? We will gain countless
benefits. For example, Jesus mentions to us in our gospel for today that if we
go to Him and believe in Him we will never hunger and thirst anymore. How could
this happen? We will not know until we try, we will not know until we develop
that especial relationship with Jesus.
Many of us don’t feel the big impact that Jesus does
in our lives because we don’t dare take Him seriously. We oftentimes leave Him
in favor of this world yet there are times also that we go to Him on bended
knees because we are in need of Him.
But after the storms in our lives we again start to
distance ourselves from Jesus and we begin again to embrace the world. How
would we know the big impact that Jesus is capable of making in our lives if we
don’t take Him seriously? If we treat Him like a thing which we only get when
we are in need?
We will really not thirst and hunger anymore if only
we would create a home for Jesus in our hearts. This is the key: To create a
home for Jesus in our hearts so that we will personally feel that what He is
saying is true.
Have you already opened your heart to Jesus? -
Marino J. Dasmarinas
Jesus
appeared to the Eleven and said to them: “Go into the whole world and proclaim
the Gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved;
whoever does not believe will be condemned.
These signs
will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they
will speak new languages. They will pick up serpents with their hands, and if
they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the
sick, and they will recover.”
Then the Lord
Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at
the right hand of God. But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the
Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.
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Reflection:
Have we done
something to share the good news about Jesus?
One of our foremost mission as follower of Jesus is to
share Him. If we have no idea on how we would share Him we can also live His
life. Evangelization is not only confined to sharing with our vocal words for we
can also evangelize by the way we live.
When the disciples were sent by Jesus through their
mission one of the unwritten commands of Jesus for them was to live His way of
life. For they wouldn’t be successful missioners for Jesus without immersing
their very lives in Jesus' way of life.
The challenge for us therefore is to share Jesus like
how the disciples shared Him. We also have to live the way of life of Jesus.
For without living the life of Jesus we will not become His true follower and
evangelizer.
Many in the church or outside of the church profess to
follow Jesus but they do not live His life. Thus, their evangelization is
superficial it doesn’t take root in the hearts of those who listen to them.
Therefore, an effective evangelizer is one who shares and lives the life of the
Lord.
Have you shared Jesus and are living Jesus' life of
humility and simplicity? – Marino J. Dasmarinas
22 On the next day the people who remained
on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and
that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples
had gone away alone. 23 However, boats from Tiber'i-as came near the place
where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 So when the people
saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the
boats and went to Caper'na-um, seeking Jesus.
25 When they found him on the other side
of the sea, they said to him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?" 26
Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me, not because
you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not labor for
the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which
the Son of man will give to you; for on him has God the Father set his
seal." 28 Then they said to him, "What must we do, to be doing the
works of God?" 29 Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that
you believe in him whom he has sent."
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Reflection:
Do we still have time to reflect about the
present state of our spiritual life? We do this to see if we are still living a
life of purpose. Many of us today don’t have time anymore to reflect about the
present state of our life with Jesus. Instead what we have time for is to think
on how we could earn more to assure our future in this world.
But what will happen to us if all we think
about is how to ensure our future in this world? We will become people of this
world that is completely alien to the significant role of Jesus in our lives.
As we exist in this world we must not also
forget to think about our relationship with Jesus. If we are able to feed our
bodies with food to make us strong and healthy. Then, it is also incumbent upon
us that we nourish our hungry spirits as often as we nourish our mortal bodies
with its worldly needs.
Why do we desire to follow Jesus? Is it
because we want to have material prosperity so that we can feed ourselves with
the best food that this world can offer? And so that we can buy whatever we
want from this world? Or we follow Jesus for the reason that we want to feed
our thirsty spirits?
In our gospel for today the crowd is
chasing Jesus not because they want to feed their hungry spirits. They simply
want to feed their hungry stomachs. – Marino J. Dasmarinas
That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus' disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
He asked them, "What are you discussing as you walk along?" They stopped, looking downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, "Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?" And he replied to them, "What sort of things?"
They said to him, "The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his Body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive.
Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see." And he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures.
As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther. But they urged him, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over." So he went in to stay with them. And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight.
Then they said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?" So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the Eleven and those with them who were saying, "The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!" Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
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Reflection:
Do you always have an awareness of the presence of Jesus in your life?
Cleopas and his companion were walking going to Emmaus, they were downcast, sad and lonely. However, as they were going to Emmaus they did not recognize that the Risen Christ was already walking and conversing with them.
So, Jesus asked them, "What are you discussing as you walk along?" (Luke 24:17) They told Him their story and false expectations about Jesus.
Why false expectation? Because Cleopas and his companion were expecting Jesus to liberate the people from the oppression of the powerful religious leaders. Jesus was already their superhero so to speak. Who would not consider Jesus as superhero when He can make the lame walk, when He can make the blind see again and so forth. They thought that it was now all bed of roses for them since they were now following Jesus. But it was not meant to be that way.
Because Jesus their superhero became a helpless captive who was eventually killed with the instigation of the powerful religious leaders.
What is the lesson for us in this gospel episode? This tells us that we should not expect that everything would be turning out right for us since we are now followers of Jesus. There would still be trials, persecutions and disappointments for these are part of our walk of faith with Jesus.
Let us learn to persevere because sooner or later redemption will come to us also. Our feelings of loneliness will be replaced by happiness, our feelings of lowness of spirit will be replaced by an indisputable feeling of hope. Why? Because Jesus will come to us as well just like when the Lord appeared to Cleopas and his companion as they were walking going to Emmaus. – Marino J. Dasmarinas
When it was evening, the disciples of Jesus went down to the sea, embarked in a boat, and went across the sea to Capernaum. It had already grown dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.
The sea was stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they began to be afraid. But he said to them, “It is I. Do not be afraid.” They wanted to take him into the boat, but the boat immediately arrived at the shore to which they were heading.
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Reflection:
Do you fear the unknown? Do you fear darkness? The disciples in the gospel were fearful of both the unknown and darkness. They were at sea in pitch darkness and being tossed by the waves, perhaps it was just fair for them to be fearful.
In total darkness and coupled with stormy seas. The disciples in the gospel were afraid when they saw Jesus walking towards their boat. Why were they afraid considering that they know Jesus? Perhaps they did not recognize Jesus at sea walking towards them thus they mistakenly labelled Jesus as a ghost.
There would be trials and problems that we will encounter for as long as we exist in this world. But in the midst of our trials, problems and fears we are also always assured of Jesus abiding presence in our lives. He is always with us notwithstanding the waves of trials, fears and problems that we’re going through.
All we need to do is to call upon Him, aspire to have a deep friendship with Him and we will be alright. We will not anymore fear the unknown and even the darkness we will not fear either. For the simple reason that we have Jesus who is ever ready to help and save us whenever we pass though the many trials, darkness and trepidations of life. – Marino J. Dasmarinas
Jesus went
across the Sea of Galilee. A large crowd followed him, because they saw the
signs he was performing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there
he sat down with his disciples. The Jewish feast of Passover was near. When
Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, he said to
Philip, “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?”
He said this
to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered
him, “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each
of them to have a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon
Peter, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two
fish; but what good are these for so many?”
Jesus said,
“Have the people recline.” Now there was a great deal of grass in that
place. So the men reclined, about five thousand in number. Then Jesus took
the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were reclining, and
also as much of the fish as they wanted. When they had had their fill, he
said to his disciples, “Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be
wasted.”
So they
collected them, and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments from the five
barley loaves that had been more than they could eat. When the people saw the
sign he had done, they said, “This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come
into the world.” Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him
off to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain alone.
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Reflection:
Do we thirst
for the spotlight after we’ve done something important? More often than not
it’s yes! We all want to be in the spotlight to be the one holding the starring
role. In other words we want attention and honor given to us.
But how did
Jesus handle Himself after miraculously feeding the five thousand who were
following Him? Not minding the adulation and spotlight, Jesus simply
walked away from them all and went to the mountain to be alone with God.
Jesus was
supposed to be proclaimed king by those He fed. But Jesus did not want that
kind of worldly honor and attention. What was important for Jesus was He did
what was expected of Him. Jesus is so unlike with all of us, we who always
thirst for honor and recognition.
By His action
of shunning recognition and honor Jesus is teaching us humility. He is teaching
us that after we have done our part for the greater glory of God it’s time to
move on. It’s time to silently evaporate from the prying eyes of the crowd and
be alone with God so that God could strengthen us and make us humbler.
Let us not
look for the spotlight when we serve God or when we do things for God. Let us
be content to silently fade away and let the goodness of God create a lasting
impression in the hearts of those that we serve. – Marino J. Dasmarinas
The one who comes from above is above all.
The one who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of earthly things. But the
one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and
heard, but no one accepts his testimony. Whoever does accept his testimony
certifies that God is trustworthy.
For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God. He
does not ration his gift of the Spirit. The Father loves the Son and has given
everything over to him. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but
whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon
him.
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Reflection:
What would happen to us if we would detach ourselves
from Jesus? We become citizens of this world everything that we do in this
world is anchored in this finite world alone. Many people live for this world alone
they think that there’s no God and there’s no heaven and hell.
So when trials or problems come along their way they
have no other recourse but to solve their trials based on what this world has
taught them to do. And when they are not able to solve their trials. They begin
to lose hope in this world and in themselves as well and it seems that it is
the end of the world for them already. And sad to say some of them would
choose to end their lives.
What would happen to us if we have Jesus in our lives?
We would be full of hope even if the situation around us seem hopeless. This is
the great difference of having Jesus in our lives. We would be full of hope and
we would see things differently as opposed to someone who doesn’t have Jesus in
his/her life.
In our gospel for this Thursday it says: Whoever
believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not see
life, but the wrath of God remains upon him.
The choice is ours to take, if we would allow Jesus to
come into our lives or we would continue to shut the doors of our hearts to
Jesus. Let us say that we allow Jesus to become part of our lives, we
would always have hope even if the world around us seems hopeless. – Marino J.
Dasmarinas
God so loved the world that he gave his
only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but
might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn
the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in
him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been
condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of
God.
And this is the verdict, that the light
came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their
works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does
not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever
lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as
done in God.
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Reflection:
Can you measure God’s love for you? No you
cannot. God loves you infinitely that He even gave His only begotten son for
you. How about you can God measure your love for Him? Of course! If God’s love
for us is infinite, our love for God is finite it has boundaries. It only
extends up to a certain point, once that point is reached our love for God
starts to decline also.
But why do we limit our love for God? Why
can’t we love God as He loves us? This is for the reason that we are afraid to
lose our earthly liberty for God. To love God infinitely is to follow the
teachings of God without any preconditions.
However, the paradox of infinitely loving
God is we also have to begin to hate many of the things that this world offers
us. Number one on the list that we must hate from this world is sin. Number two
is our very high regard for ourselves for we always want to be above everyone
else. We often look down on those whom we perceive to be inferior, weak and
those not in our level. These are but a few of the things that prevent us from
loving God infinitely.
Come to think of it, if God loves us
infinitely then we must be prepared to do the same. We must reciprocate God’s
love for us by loving those who are difficult to love such as those who’ve hurt
us badly. Loving them means forgiving them of the many hurts that they’ve
carved in our lives.
Are you prepared to reciprocate God’s
infinite love for you? – Marino J. Dasmarinas
