Reflection for January 14 Wednesday of the First Week; Mark 1:29-39

Gospel: Mark 1:29-39

On leaving the synagogue Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever. They immediately told him about her. He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up. Then the fever left her and she waited on them.

When it was evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons. The whole town was gathered at the door. He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons, not permitting them to speak because they knew him.

Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed. Simon and those who were with him pursued him and on finding him said, “Everyone is looking for you.” He told them, “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come.” So he went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.

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Reflection:

Is prayer for healing always part of your daily petitions to Jesus? Perhaps not because we oftentimes confine Jesus’ healing to physical sickness. But in reality Jesus  doesn’t only heal physical sickness He can heal everything that ails us. For example our sickness called arrogance, our sickness called greed, our sickness called lust and so forth. All of these can be healed by Jesus.

There’s a story of an arrogant man who would always want to dominate anyone who would be associated with him. Eventually he noticed that he would always be deserted by his friends. He also became aware that even his family would oftentimes avoid being associated with him.

He knew deep in his heart that the reason of their aversion towards him was caused by his dominating and arrogant behavior. So he prayed to Jesus and asked Him to heal him of his arrogance. After a few weeks he notice a change in his behavior from being arrogant he became more humble, understanding and not anymore dominating like a boss. With His healing of his arrogance he gained more friends and his harmony with his family was restored.  

We must not confine Jesus healing to physical healing only for the simple reason that Jesus physical healings are but a surface of His healing power. Jesus can heal everything that ails us, including sickness that nobody knows except us; we simply have to prayerfully ask Him for this healing.

Have we prayed to Jesus to heal us of our arrogance our greed, our domineering attitude and our many more hidden sickness that nobody  knows except us? – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for January 13 Tuesday of the First Week; Mark 1:21-28

Gospel: Mark 1:21-28

Jesus came to Capernaum with his followers, and on the sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught. The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are–the Holy One of God!” Jesus rebuked him and said, “Quiet! Come out of him!” The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him. All were amazed and asked one another, “What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him. His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.

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Reflection:

What are the modern day unclean/evil spirits that could possess us now? It’s our greed, our lack of concern for others, our arrogance, our lustful desires and so forth. Who can defeat these evil spirits that enslaves us? It’s our faith in Jesus! But the big question is do we still have faith in Jesus? Do we always communicate with Jesus through our prayers? Do we thirst for Jesus by always desiring to partake of His body at Holy Mass?

Evil/unclean spirit has no chance to possess us when we are always in union with Jesus. Those who are possessed by evil spirits are those who distance themselves from Jesus. Just try to always get connected with Jesus and you will see that you will always be shielded from the possession of the evil one.

In our gospel for today, Jesus powerfully told the evil spirit that possessed the man to come out of him. And the evil spirit had no choice but to obey the authoritative command of Jesus. Why? Because Jesus has power and authority over anything including the many modern day evils that controls us!

But come to think of it, why was the man in our gospel for today possessed by an unclean spirit? Why was he among the many people in the synagogue? He was lacking in faith in Jesus otherwise he would have not been possessed.   

Let us always strive to always get in touch with Jesus for He is always there for us. By doing so we free ourselves from the possession of the devil and the many modern day evils that lurks around us today.

Do you always create time to prayerfully reach out to Jesus? – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for January 12 Monday of the First Week in OT; Mark 1:14-20

Gospel: Mark 1:14-20

After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God: This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel. As he passed by the Sea of Galilee he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea; they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men. Then they left their nets and followed him. He walked along a little farther and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They too were in a boat mending their nets. Then he called them. So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him.

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Reflection:

There’s a saying that death is like a thief in the night it comes to us when we least expect it. What if for example death surprisingly visits us at night? What would happen to our soul? Where would we end-up? We don’t know when death will come to us, we don’t also know what will happen to us and where would we end-up. Only God with His infinite wisdom knows about it.

In the gospel Jesus calls for repentance and belief in His gospel message. What is the relationship of death to Jesus call of repentance and fidelity to the gospel? Since death is unpredictable Jesus prepares us for this eventuality anytime by calling for our repentance and belief in His gospel message.

This call of repentance of Jesus is not a once in a lifetime call. This is a lifetime call of Jesus for us. He calls us to repentance for as long as we live. For He knows all about our sinfulness; even the sin/s that nobody knows except us, Jesus knows about it also!

What if we don’t heed this call of repentance of Jesus? We then continue to sin we continue to allow the devil to get hold of us and this is very frightening! For the devil will not bring us any good, we may enjoy the enticements of the devil for a period of time. However, time will come that it will eventually destroy us.

Therefore we must listen to this call of repentance of Jesus and we must also read, live and believe His gospel. Our life will turn for the better once we decide to repent and embrace the gospel message of Jesus.

Are we willing to repent and embrace Jesus gospel message? -  Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for January 10 Saturday after Epiphany, John 3:22-30

Gospel: John 3:22-30

Jesus and his disciples went into the region of Judea, where he spent some time with them baptizing. John was also baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was an abundance of water there, and people came to be baptized, Now a dispute arose between the disciples of John and a Jew about ceremonial washings. So they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing and everyone is coming to him.” John answered and said, “No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said that I am not the Christ, but that I was sent before him. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man, who stands and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made complete.  He must increase; I must decrease.”

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Reflection:

What usually is the common downfall of those who preach about Jesus? It’s to present themselves bigger than Jesus. It’s to sell his /her teachings than the teachings of Jesus. They use Jesus as their vehicle so that they could reach their selfish objective rather than advance the objectives of Jesus.

John did not experience any downfall in his mission as the precursor or herald of Jesus. His disciples always looked-up to him with respect because never did he advance himself, Jesus was always first in his mind. This is the reason why John said, He must increase and I must decrease (John 3:30).

John was content to be in the background, he rejoiced as he humbly erased himself from the limelight so that Jesus could be in the spotlight. This is so difficult to do! To give way when we actually could have our own way!     

Many of us have this mistaken notion that to be respected we always have to be in the forefront.  To be respected our voice must always be heard and we must always be popular and visible.

But John proves us all wrong because even if he decreased himself and even if he faded away for the sake of Jesus. His acts of humility remains to be one of the biggest guiding lights of our time.

Are you willing to be like John? – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for January 9, Friday after Epiphany, Luke 5:12-16

Gospel: Luke 5:12-16

It happened that there was a man full of leprosy in one of the towns where Jesus was; and when he saw Jesus, he fell prostrate, pleaded with him, and said, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said “I do will it. Be made clean. And the leprosy left him immediately. Then he ordered him not to tell anyone, but “Go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them. The report about him spread all the more and great crowds assembled to listen to him and to be cured of their ailments but he would withdraw to deserted places to pray.

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Reflection:

Why was the man with leprosy cured by Jesus? He was cured because he humbled himself before Jesus. The man sick with leprosy humbly pleaded to Jesus to heal him of his dreaded and contagious disease (Luke 5:12). What else did the sick man do? He was also crying while pleading Jesus to heal him.

In His humanity perhaps Jesus was also wary of the man’s contagious disease. But when He saw the humility of the sick man Jesus suddenly throw cautions to the wind. Jesus stretched His hand and touched the man and during that instance he was instantly healed by Jesus. His acts of humility opened the merciful heart of Jesus.

There shall be time that we will also get sick for this is the reality of life. As we grow old we become more vulnerable to sickness. Will we also humble ourselves before Jesus? Will we also cry while pleading Jesus to heal us?  Of course we will do these so that we would be healed by Jesus.

However it will not be all the time that we will receive healing from Jesus. Time will come that we will reach the end-point of our temporary journey in this world. We will cease breathing, what are we going to do by then? Should we stop praying? Of course not! For as long as we have consciousness we continue to plead Jesus.

Not anymore for healing but for mercy and for forgiveness of our many sins. Let us not wait for that time for it may be years from now. Let us do it right now while we are still healthy, let us beg Jesus for His mercy and forgiveness. This we could best do if we humbly submit ourselves to the healing Sacrament of Confession.       

Will you submit yourself to the healing Sacrament of Confession? – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for January 8 Thursday after Epiphany, Luke 4:14-22

Gospel: Luke 4:14-22

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit and news of him spread throughout the whole region. He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all.

He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.

Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing. And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.

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Reflection:

Do you always see to it that the words that you say are always motivating and remarkable? For example in your house, do you always see to it that you avoid negative words or words that create a stigma on those who hear and receive it?

Our words are very powerful it can build or destroy a person or a child. If our words are always words that condemn or words that brings down the dignity of a person or a child. We can be sure that this person or child will have an inferiority complex. He will lose confidence in himself which is very important for a person growth and development.

When Jesus preached in their synagogue He spoke words that build, words that gently informs and words that heals and motivates. Why? Because this is the innate character of Jesus, He would always see to it that when He speaks His words would be forever treasured in the hearts of those who receive it. And up until today when His words are read in the bible those who read it are moved and changed toward a better life.  

In our gospel, after Jesus preached in the synagogue those who’ve heard Him had nothing but respect and admiration toward Him (Luke 4:22). This is for the fact that Jesus words are always healing and motivating. Never words that curses, never words than injures the feelings and never words that downgrades the human dignity.

How about us? What are the usual words that come out from us? - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for January 7 Wednesday after Epiphany, Mark 6:45-52

Gospel: Mark 6:45-52

After the five thousand had eaten and were satisfied, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side toward Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. And when he had taken leave of them, he went off to the mountain to pray. When it was evening, the boat was far out on the sea and he was alone on shore. Then he saw that they were tossed about while rowing, for the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them. But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out. They had all seen him and were terrified. But at once he spoke with them, “Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid! He got into the boat with them and the wind died down. They were completely astounded. They had not understood the incident of the loaves. On the contrary, their hearts were hardened.

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Reflection:

What do our closeness with Jesus do to us when we are in the midst of a difficult problem? It calms us, it gives us hope and it assures us that everything will be OK for as long as we believe in Him. All of us have been into many difficult situations and time and again our faith in Jesus is always our safe refuge.

In our gospel for this Wednesday the disciples were being heavily battered by huge waves. Perhaps they already thought that it was already the end of their lives. Then, lo and behold in the midst of the violent storm here comes Jesus walking on sea going to them. After which Jesus told His disciples, “Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid! He got into the boat with them and the wind died down (Mark 6:50-51).

From being hopeless, from being on the verge of disaster even death the disciples were miraculously saved by Jesus. They did not call on Jesus to save them yet Jesus came to rescue them.

What is the implication of this saving action of Jesus to us? Nobody of us have a worry free life in this world, we will be encountering trials and problems for as long as we live. Nevertheless we have nothing to fear and there’s always hope for as long as we have Jesus in our lives.

Do you have Jesus in your life? Do you always reach-out to Him through your prayers, through your presence at Holy Mass and by reading His living words in the bible? - Marino J. Dasmarinas