My Reflections will resume soon please comeback. God bless you!

My Reflections will resume soon please comeback. God bless you! - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for Monday December 1, Monday of the First Week of Advent; Matthew 8:5-11

Gospel: Matthew 8:5-11

When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.” He said to him, “I will come and cure him.” The centurion said in reply, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven.”

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Reflection:

What brought the centurion to Jesus? It was his great faith, when the centurion went to Jesus for help for his servant he had nothing except his great faith. He firmly believed in Jesus power to heal and he used his mighty faith to convince Jesus to cure his servant.

Who is this centurion? He is a roman officer that has people under his command, he also is not a follower yet he has great faith in Jesus. Don’t we want this kind of faith also? Of course we all want our faith to be like the centurions. Therefore we must prayerfully ask Jesus to give us the same faith. But do we ask Jesus to give us the gift of faith? Is the gift of faith always part of our prayer request for Jesus?

If Jesus could give that great faith to a non-follower like the centurion why can’t He give us the same faith considering that we are his followers? Faith is a gift that Jesus freely and generously gives to anyone who prays for it.

What is our usual prayer to Jesus? Is it always to have the things of this world. Let us not forget that the things of this world are passing and temporary. While faith will not pass, it’s not also temporary.   

Faith will be with us until forever, it will accompany us in our journey beyond this world going to the eternal Kingdom of the King of Kings no other than Jesus Himself.

Give us the gift of faith O Lord Jesus, most especially the one who is reading this reflection right now. Amen. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for Sunday November 30, First Sunday of Advent; Mark 13:33-37

Gospel: Mark 13:33-37

Jesus said to his disciples: “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come. It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his own work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch. Watch, therefore; you do not know when the Lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’”

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Reflection:

What does it mean to be watchful? It means to always be prepared and alert for anything that may happen or arrive. But why do we need to be watchful? Why not simply become passive and complacent? We need to be watchful because this is what Jesus wants us to become for He will manifest His presence to us at any moment of our lives.

Why did Jesus told the disciples to be watchful when He was still with them? Jesus was actually preparing already His disciples for His eventual arrest and separation from them. And as they do their mission without Him, they should always do it with vigor, motivation and with clean intention. For He may manifest Himself again to them anytime, therefore they must never be complacent and passive.  

Today is the first Sunday of advent, this means coming or arrival of something very important. What is the significance of this command of Jesus for us? We too are being encouraged by Jesus to be watchful and prepared for His coming.  But how should we prepare?

First is by submitting ourselves to the Healing Sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession. All of us are sinful; we sin through our Thoughts, Words and Actions. These many sins that we commit make us ill-prepared for the coming of Jesus.   

Second is we have to forgive those who caused us pain,  if this tells us that we have to reach-out  to them in humility so be it. This is very difficult to do but if we say that we know Jesus then we must be prepared to embody Jesus. By doing so we bring Jesus to them and who knows it may be through us that they will have an awareness of the living presence of Jesus in their lives. 

Are we prepared to be watchful? - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for Saturday November 29, Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time; Luke 21:34-36

Gospel: Luke 21:34-36

Jesus said to his disciples:“Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap. For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth. Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.”

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Reflection:

What would make us succumb to disorderly behavior, drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life? We will succumb to this unhealthy behavior/lifestyle when we close our hearts to the love of Jesus. Lest we forget, the devil is always present in our environment and always trying to look for the right opportunity to snatch us away from the love of God.

Some of us may not believe that the devil is present in our environment but he is. This is the reason why there are evil events and things around us. If there’s no active presence of the devil in our environment there would have been no crimes and other evil things but the devil is present.

In our gospel for this Saturday, Jesus tells us this: :“Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap (Luke 21:34).

The cure for this warning of Jesus is none other than Himself! If we have a close and personal relationship with Jesus we would be able to ward off any kind of temptation that the evil one will cleverly throw at us.

If the devil is always around waiting for the right timing to temp us. Jesus is always there also always knocking at our hearts so that he could enter our lives. And once we already have Jesus in our lives the devil will flee from our environment. Therefore we must always open our hearts to Jesus for as long as we exist in this world.

Are we willing to open our heart to Jesus so that He could exorcize our many evils? - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for Friday November 28, Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time; Luke 21:29-33

Gospel: Luke 21:29-33

Jesus told his disciples a parable. “Consider the fig tree and all the other trees. When their buds burst open, you see for yourselves and know that summer is now near; in the same way, when you see these things happening, know that the Kingdom of God is near. Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”

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Reflection:

A man was asked, what is your greatest fear in Life? The man replied, I fear death for I don’t know what would happen to me when I die.

We all have our own set of fears, we fear losing somebody we love, we fear losing our job. And the worst fear perhaps is the same as with the man who was asked about his greatest fear.  However why fear when Jesus is always there to soothe and take away our fears?

Many of us have so many fears for the reason that we don’t have Jesus in our lives and we don’t have a personal relationship with Him.  This is basically the reason why we have so many fears. But, why don’t we try to have discover more about Jesus through our faithful presence at Holy Mass? Why don’t we try to discover more about Jesus  by reading about His life in the bible?

Jesus in our gospel tells us that heaven and earth will pass away but His words will not pass away (Luke 21:33). Indeed, everything will pass away or we may pass away first before everything pass away. Nevertheless whatever happens and whomever passes away first we have nothing to fear for as long as we have Jesus in our lives. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for Thursday November 27, Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time; Luke 21:20-28

Gospel: Luke 21:20-28

Jesus said to his disciples: “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, know that its desolation is at hand. Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains. Let those within the city escape from it, and let those in the countryside not enter the city, for these days are the time of punishment when all the Scriptures are fulfilled. Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days, for a terrible calamity will come upon the earth and a wrathful judgment upon this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword and be taken as captives to all the Gentiles; and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on earth nations will be in dismay, perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.”

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Reflection:

There are two sets of human sufferings that come to us. The first set of suffering is one that we create for ourselves. For example a drunkard who has been told time and again by his relatives to stop for it would result to his getting sick eventually. But the drunkard would not listen to the wise counsel, eventually he ended-up with cancer of the liver caused by his excessive addiction to liquor.

The second set of sufferings that comes to us are those sufferings that we don’t bring to ourselves. Example of this is sickness that comes with getting old or any kind of suffering that we don’t create for ourselves.

In our gospel for this Thursday Jesus speaks about the destruction of Jerusalem and its people. They could have easily avoided this kind of sufferings if they listened to the messengers of God (the prophets) who called on them to leave behind their sinful ways. But they did not, they continued to sin they killed the messengers that God sent them including His Son Jesus.

As we close the curtains of this liturgical year and as we enter Advent. We are called by God to listen to His voice who calls upon us to humbly repent from our sinfulness. And the best response that we could ever do is to humbly submit ourselves to the Healing Sacrament of Confession.   

    

We are all sinful and we are all in need of Jesus’ Mercy, Forgiveness and Healing. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for Wednesday November 26, Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time; Luke 21:12-19

Gospel: Luke 21:12-19

(Jesus said to His disciples)  Before the end happens, however, They will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name. It will lead to your giving testimony. Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand, for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute. You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives.”

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Reflection:

Jesus talks about persecution. Jesus tells the disciples: They will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name (Luke 21:12).  

Persecution is a reality for all of us followers of Jesus it comes to us in many forms such as through condemnation, isolation and the worst is death. Should we be troubled about being persecuted for our Catholic faith?

Yes and No, yes; for the reason that we are humans we have fears and once we allow this fear (Such as fear of being persecuted for our faith) to dwell in our hearts this is torture. 

No because we have hope and faith in Jesus and this hope and faith in Jesus can conquer our fear of persecution. Our hope and faith in Jesus will even fuel us to face peacefully our persecutors even at the cost of our own lives. – Marino J. Dasmarinas