The
disciples of John approached Jesus and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast
much, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding
guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when
the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one patches
an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for its fullness pulls away from
the cloak and the tear gets worse. People do not put new wine into old
wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are
ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are
preserved.”
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Reflection:
What can we learn from our gospel today? We learn that when we already have Jesus in our lives we are already like a fresh wineskin. Fresh or new wineskin is
sturdy and strong. It can withstand the pressure when a new wine is poured into it.
This is
what we become when we already have Jesus in our lives. We can withstand
whatever problems that life would bring to us. Nobody and no problem no matter
how difficult can break us because we have Jesus in our lives.
It’s so
hard for many of us to feel the presence of Jesus because we
hardly have time for Him. We don’t invest time with Jesus yet we can invest
time for other things. Some of us would even reason out that we hardly have time
to be with Jesus because of the many pressures of life.
But how
come we have time for other things? For example, why is it that we can squeeze time
to do facebook and for other worldly things? If we can do facebook and for other worldly
things. Why can’t we have time for Jesus our life giver? This is the paradox of
our modern time right now: We don’t have time for Jesus yet we create time for other worldy things.
If you
want to have a fresh and positive viewpoint about your future and about life in
general. Let Jesus come into your life do not close your heart to Him in favor of
the things of this world. Which would bring you nothing in the end except more
troubles and pressures.
Is Jesus
already an important component of your life? – Marino J. Dasmarinas
Thomas,
called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the
other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But Thomas said to them, “Unless
I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and
put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” Now a week later his disciples were
again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were
locked, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to
Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it
into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Thomas answered and said
to him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe
because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have
believed.”
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Reflection:
Do you sometimes
need an affirmation of your faith in Jesus? That is perfectly ok because it show
signs of your growing faith. If you want your faith in Jesus to be affirmed you
simply have to be sensitive to the movement of Jesus in your life.
For
example the new life that is given to you every morning. It’s not a routinary flow of life that you wake-up every morning. It’s Jesus giving you a new life
every morning! If you are sensitive to the movement of Jesus in your life. You
would discover that the dawning of a new day that you experience every morning is
a miracle from Jesus.
Thomas
needed an affirmation of his faith from his Lord and Master (John 20:25). He
wanted to see first the wounds of Jesus before he believes. He wanted to touch it and put his finger into the very wounds of Jesus before he believes that Jesus had resurrected (John 20:25).
Are we
not like Thomas too? We often times want our faith in Jesus to be affirmed by
His signs? Jesus has been giving us signs that He moves in our lives everyday,
we simply have to be sensitive to these signs. – Marino J. Dasmarinas
After
entering a boat, Jesus made the crossing, and came into his own town. And there
people brought to him a paralytic lying on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their
faith, he said to the paralytic, “Courage, child, your sins are forgiven.” At
that, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” Jesus
knew what they were thinking, and said, :Why do you harbor evil thoughts? Which
is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But
that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”– he
then said to the paralytic, “Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.” He
rose and went home. When the
crowds saw this they were struck with awe and glorified God who had given such
authority to men.
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Reflection:
What does
this story of the paralytic who was brought to Jesus tells us? It tells us that
we too need to go to Jesus for Him to heal us and to forgive us of all our
sins. This tells us also that we also need to bring others to Jesus to be
healed and forgiven by Him too!
We all
have a need for Jesus in our lives. We may not need Him now because we are in
the pink of health. But time will certainly come that we will be forced to go
to Him even beg Him so that Jesus could heal us also.
Let us
not anymore wait for that time to come when we are already sick before we go to
Jesus. Let us go to Him now while we are healthy or in the pink of health Let
us not delay for tomorrow may be late already.
In like
manner we too are encouraged by the gospel to bring others to Jesus. This we
could do best through our acts of love, mercy and compassion. For we can’t
bring others to Jesus without loving them, without showing them our mercy and
compassion.
We
certainly can’t bring others to Jesus if we judge them. Let us
rather help them and try to understand them and be more patient with them. So
that they could be enlightened by Jesus as Jesus has enlightened us. – Marino
J. Dasmarinas
As Jesus
got into a boat, his disciples followed him. Suddenly a violent storm came up
on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves; but he was asleep. They
came and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” He said to them,
“Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?” Then he got up, rebuked the
winds and the sea, and there was great calm. The men were amazed and said,
“What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the sea obey?”
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Reflection:
Do you always
seek the help of Jesus when you pass through the storms of your life?
While in
the boat with Jesus the disciples encountered a very powerful storm. They were
naturally terrified so they asked Jesus for help, they said to Him; “Lord save us we
are perishing (Matthew 8:25)!”
How many
times have you encountered storms in your life? Many time over perhaps, in
every storm that you encounter always remember that Jesus is always there for
you. Ever ready to help you and bring you out safely of these storms that you
encounter and may encounter still.
What if
Jesus was not with the disciples during that fateful night when their boat was
being battered by the storm? To whom would they be asking for help? To no one,
they could have all perished in that violent storm. But Jesus was there to save
them all.
This is
the advantage of having Jesus in your life. You always have somebody very
powerful to rescue you whenever you are in distress. You always have somebody
who will take away your fears, even your biggest and greatest fears.
Do you
always seek the help of Jesus whenever you pass through the storms of your
life? – Marino J. Dasmarinas
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:
Do you
know Jesus? Yes you know Jesus but do you feel the presence of Jesus in your
life? Knowing and feeling Jesus are two different things. Many of us know Jesus
but not as many feel His majestic presence in our hearts. We don’t feel the presence of Jesus in our hearts because we lack time for Jesus, that’s how
simple it is. We don’t feel the presence of Jesus in our lives for the
simple reason that we lack time for Him.
Peter did
not only know Jesus, he felt also the presence of Jesus in his life. Peter felt
the presence of Jesus in his life
because Peter had time for Jesus. Among the disciples it was Peter who was always with Jesus it was Peter who had more time for Jesus. Peter went with Jesus to the mountain of transfiguration.
When Jesus walked on water Peter saw Jesus and even asked Jesus if she could go
to him. And there were many other events that Peter was always in the company Jesus.
If you
want to feel the gentle, saving and calming presence of Jesus in your life. You
only have to do one thing and that is to spend more time with Jesus. Be with
Him at Holy Mass, hear Him speaking to
you and telling you stories and parable by reading your bible. Hear Him assuring you of
His abiding presence in your life through your prayers. And be with Him by visiting Him in
the Eucharistic Adoration Chapel.
Do you want
to feel the presence of Jesus in your life? – Marino J. Dasmarinas
When Jesus had
crossed again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him,
and he stayed close to the sea. One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus,
came forward. Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him,
saying, “My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on
her that she may get well and live. He went off with him, and a large crowd
followed him and pressed upon him.
There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for
twelve years. She had suffered
greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she
was not helped but only grew worse. She had heard about Jesus and came up
behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. She said, “If I but touch his
clothes, I shall be cured.” Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in
her body that she was healed of her affliction.
Jesus, aware at once
that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who
has touched my clothes?” But his disciples said to Jesus, “You see how the
crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, ‘Who touched me?’ And he looked
around to see who had done it. The woman, realizing what had happened to her,
approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the
whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace
and be cured of your affliction.”
While he was still speaking, people from the
synagogue official’s house arrived and said, “Your daughter has died; why
trouble the teacher any longer? Disregarding
the message that was reported, Jesus said to the synagogue official “Do not be
afraid; just have faith.” He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside
except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they arrived at the
house of the synagogue official, he caught sight of a commotion, people weeping
and wailing loudly.
So he went in and
said to them, “Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but
asleep.” And they ridiculed him. Then he put them all out. He took along the
child’s father and mother and those who were with him and entered the room
where the child was. He took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha
koum,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!” The girl, a child of
twelve, arose immediately and walked around. At that they were utterly
astounded. He gave strict orders that no one should know this and said that she
should be given something to eat.
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Reflection:
What does an
encounter with Jesus do to us? It gives us hope and it cures us. There’s a
story of a woman who had a terminal sickness. She was told by her doctor that
she only had two months to live. But this woman was a woman of strong faith.
She attends Holy Mass every day and does other things to strengthen her faith
in Jesus.
When she was told that
she had two months to live, she told her doctors, I will prove all of you wrong
I’m going to beat this severe sickness with my faith in Jesus. True enough,
after two months the woman of faith was still alive and totally free from her
severe sickness.
We have in our
gospel two stories of faith, hope and healing coursed through an encounter with
Jesus. The first one is the story of
Jairus a synagogue official whose daughter was in death throes. Jairus went to
Jesus to plead Him to cure his young daughter. Seeing the faith of Jairus Jesus
went to his house to cure and bring back to life Jairus’ daughter.
The second story of
faith hope and healing is an unnamed woman who for twelve long years had been
suffering severe hemorrhages. She heard that Jesus would be passing by her way. It gave her hope and it further strengthened her faith. So she did her best to
touch even the cloak of Jesus for she believed that by simply touching it she
would be healed. And she was able to touch Jesus cloak and was indeed
immediately healed.
There could be a
third story of faith, hope and healing by Jesus. And this third story could be
your own story. What is your testimony of faith, hope and healing by Jesus?
Share it so that others faith and hope in Jesus could be strengthened!
All of us one way or
the other have our own story of encounter with Jesus let us not keep this story within
us. Let us share it so that others may know Jesus and hopefully have also an
encounter with Him. – Marino J.
Dasmarinas
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 but the children of the
Kingdom will be driven out into the outer darkness, where there will be wailing
and grinding of teeth. And Jesus said to the centurion, “You may go; as you
have believed, let it be done for you. And at that very hour his servant was
healed.
Jesus
entered the house of Peter, and saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a
fever. He touched her hand, the fever left her, and she rose and waited on him.
When it
was evening, they brought him many who were possessed by demons, and he drove
out the spirits by a word and cured all the sick, to fulfill what had been said
by Isaiah the prophet: He took away our infirmities and bore our diseases.
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Reflection:
Why is
Jesus a magnet to people most especially to who are in need? Because Jesus
never refused anyone who asked for His help most especially those who are presistent. Jesus was always available, Jesus
would always have time for them regardless of who they are and where they came
from.
The
centurion/soldier in our gospel came from a faraway place and certainly not a
follower of Jesus. But he knew Jesus and he heard of His miracles so he
ventured to see Him. And when he saw Jesus he asked him to cure his servant.
Jesus never had any second thought of helping the centurion; he even offered to
go his house to personally cure the centurion’s servant.
This gospel
episode invites us to reflect if we also make ourselves available to those who
are in need of our help. Often times we are not willing to help because it will
disturb us. It will affect our personal finances and schedules but it’s not every day that
we are asked for help.
The best
way to share our faith and to share Jesus is not though eloquent or bombastic preaching. The best way to share our faith and to share Jesus is when
we make ourselves available most especially to those who are in need. And to
those who can’t give back the help that we’ve given them.
Do you
take time to make yourself available to those who are in need of your help most
especially the poor? – Marino J. Dasmarinas
