Reflection for October 8, Thursday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time: Luke 11:5-13

Gospel: Luke 11:5-13

Jesus said to his disciples: “Suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him,’ and he says in reply from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.’I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.

“And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

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Reflection:

Isn’t God all knowing? Doesn’t He read our mind? So why do we need to badger Him about our needs? God is all knowing and God reads our minds but we still need to persistently let Him know what we want Him to do for us. Why? For the simple reason that it’s through our persistence that we develop an intimacy with Him. It’s through our persistent prayer that we obtain the grace to get to know Jesus better.

What if we would not persist? We miss the chance to know Jesus more deeply  and we miss the opportunity to develop a much deeper intimacy with Him.  Take for example our Sunday Mass obligation, what would happen to us if we wouldn’t keep on attending it every Sunday? We miss the chance to know Jesus deeply, we miss the chance to be showered by His many blessing. And we miss the opportunity to grow in faith and the like.

Yes, God knows everything about us already but we still need to be persistent before Him. For this is where He would know how deep is our love for Him. When we don’t give up on Jesus and when we continue to let Him know that we always hunger for Him. Surely Jesus will not be deaf and blind to our petitions before Him.   

Surely Jesus will smile at us and tell us: Here it is that you want I’m giving it to you now because you did not give-up. – Marino J. Dasmarinas  

Reflection for October 7, Wednesday, Our Lady of the Rosary: Luke 11:1-4

Gospel: Luke 11:1-4

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test.”

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Reflection:

Has anyone asked you to teach him/her to pray? Or have you taught somebody to pray?

It’s an honor and we experience a humbling feeling if somebody would ask us to teach him/her to pray. Just like the same petition that the disciples of Jesus told Him. But before we could expect people to ask us to teach them how to pray we must learn to live our prayer first.

For example if we pray for humility it is incumbent upon us to live humbly. If we pray for forgiveness we should be forgiving as well. If we pray for peace in our lives we should live a peaceful life. In other words we should always learn to live our prayers before Jesus.  

What will force our fellowmen to ask us to teach them how to pray? We should ensure that we live our prayers with humility. This is how Jesus lived His life; He always ensured that His prayers are always accompanied by humble acts of faith.

Just like Jesus, we too must see to it that we live what we pray or we walk our talk so that others may see in us Jesus. We become like magnets for Jesus if we live our prayers and we live it with humility.

Has anyone asked you to teach him/her to pray? Or have you taught somebody to pray? – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for October 6, Tuesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time: Luke 10:38-42

Gospel: Luke 10:38-42

Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.” The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”

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Reflection:

What does habitual prayer do to us? What does daily bible reading do to us? What does consistent presence at the Celebration of the Holy Mass do to us? These actions if done with piety would bring us closer to Jesus.

In today’s gospel our attention is brought on the two actions of sisters Mary and Martha with Jesus at the center of it all.

When Mary recognized her Lord and Savior she didn’t do anything except to sat and listen to His wisdom and life changing words. This is what we do when we pray, this is what we do when we read the bible with all of our being and this is what we do when we reverently worship Jesus when we attend the celebration of the Holy Eucharist (Mass).

Jesus obviously favored the worshipful action of Mary for it is through this she could grow in closeness with Jesus. This is what Jesus wants for all of us too: To be close to Him. What does our closeness to Jesus do to us?

It creates awareness within us that life in this world is temporary and fleeting, it opens our minds to the immense blessings that we can have the moment we spend time with Jesus. It teaches us that we must always live and share our lives with others especially to those who are in need.

How about Martha? She did no wrong to Jesus in fact what she was doing was for the benefit of Jesus. However, it would have not cost her much time if she first listened to the life changing words of Jesus before doing her work.

As we continue our temporary journey; we will be compelled by the demands of this world to get busy and to work for our survival. But amidst these worldly things let us not forget to first allocate time for God. Let us first listen to the wisdom of God and the life changing words of Jesus.

Do you always give time first for Jesus before doing your daily activities? – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for October 5, Monday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time: Luke 10:25-37

Gospel: Luke 10:25-37

There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead. A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn, and cared for him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, ‘Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.’ Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

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Reflection:

Is there such a word as perfect love? Yes, there is it’s when we are able to live our love for God and neighbor. To love God is to worship Him with all our being and to love our neighbor is to humanize our love for God.

It was very ironic that the priest who was supposed to be a lover of God failed to humanize his love for God same as with the Levite who was also involved in the service for God. Both the priest and the Levite failed the test of true love and discipleship because they simply ignored the man in need of their help.

They might have reasons for ignoring the man in need but whatever reasons that they may have don’t justify their indifference. What if the Samaritan did not pass by? The victim may have died due to the indifference of the two.

It was good that the exemplar of perfect love (Samaritan) passed by otherwise the victim might have bleed to his death.

Many of us who love and worship God fails to translate this love to a love for our fellowmen, some of us are able to translate this love for God to a love for our neighbor but we oftentimes limit our love for our neighbor to those whom we only know and to those who are only good to us.

If the person in need of our help is alien and not good to us we just pass them by and ignore them just like what the priest and Levite did. Jesus urges us to follow the example of the Good Samaritan who exemplified prefect love, who took care of the victim even if he doesn’t know him.

Are you willing to listen to this urgings of Jesus? – Marino J. Dasmarinas 

Reflection for Sunday October 4, Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time; Mark 10:2-16

Gospel: Mark 10:2-16

The Pharisees approached Jesus and asked, "Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?" They were testing him. He said to them in reply, "What did Moses command you?" They replied, "Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her." But Jesus told them, "Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate." In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this. He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."

And people were bringing children to him that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them, "Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it." Then he embraced them and blessed them, placing his hands on them.

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Reflection:

A blind man fell in love with his neighbor. When he was asked by his parents what made him love the woman, he said I can sense her inner beauty. Her caring and loving ways she also has a very gentle and good heart.

Eventually this man was cured from his blindness and he now has a clear picture of the physical appearance of the woman which he fell in love. He saw that the woman was not physically beautiful nevertheless he still decided to marry her.  After a few months the lack of physical beauty somehow diminished his love for her. Soon after, he deserted her for a young and physically attractive woman.

In this Sunday’s gospel, Jesus talks about the insolubility of the marriage covenant between a man and a woman. That nobody has the right to dissolve this marriage, Jesus himself said: What God has joined together, no human being must separate (Mark 10:9).

However, many of us still violate with impunity the sanctity of the marriage covenant. Many of us are like the man in the story, we still allow ourselves to be smitten by the external appearance of a person even if we are already forbidden. But what is external beauty when it will eventually fade away?

There is far more important than the external appearance of a person and that is the inner character of a person. Inner beauty is far more valuable than what is seen by our eyes. The attitude, the goodness, the gentleness counts far more than physical appearance.

Let us be faithful to our marriage covenant! Let us not give room for the devil to destroy this marriage covenant! The devil which comes to us with a beautiful/handsome face and a beautiful body. – Marino J. Dasmarinas  

Reflection for October 3, Saturday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time: Luke 10:17-24

Gospel: Luke 10:17-24

The seventy-two disciples returned rejoicing and said to Jesus, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name.” Jesus said, “I have observed Satan fall like lightning from the sky. Behold, I have given you the power ‘to tread upon serpents’ and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy and nothing will harm you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”

At that very moment he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”

Turning to the disciples in private he said, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”

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Reflection:

Long time ago there was a religion that had a penchant of arrogantly showing their influence. They would boast that they are the true religion and that nobody would go to heaven except their members. Instead of attracting others to join them they were instead shunned by those they thought could be their future members. Eventually this religion stopped growing until it evaporated in the religious landscape.

What could attract people to join a religion? It’s certainly not arrogance but humility. Arrogance is generally disliked by many as opposed to humility which is very much liked by the majority. Humility is like a magnet that attracts and gains the sympathy people.

For example, would you prefer to belong to a religion that arrogantly flaunts its misplaced influence? Of course not! Would you prefer to befriend an arrogant person or a humble person? Of course you would prefer to befriend the humble one.

In like manner, we could bring more people to our faith and we would become more effective fishers of men. If we live humility and if we become breathing example of Jesus’ humility. – Marino J. Dasmarinas  

Reflection for October 2, Friday the Holy Guardian Angels: Matthew 18:1-5, 10

Gospel: Matthew 18:1-5, 10

The disciples approached Jesus and said, “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?” He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.”

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Reflection:

Try looking at the face of a child, try also looking at the face of an adult. Which of them give you more joy? Of course it’s the face of the child.

Jesus in the gospel gives us the secret on how we can enter the kingdom of heaven. No other than to become like children or to be childlike, why? It’s for the reason of the pureness of their thoughts and the absence of sin.  No wonder being childlike is the key for us to enter God’s kingdom in heaven.

But are we childlike in terms of the pureness of our thoughts and absence of sin? Of course we are not! Who among us could say that our thoughts are as pure as a child?  Who among us could say that we are without sin? Of course nobody because we are all sinners we sin through our words, actions and thoughts.

Nevertheless, it’s not yet late for us to go back to Jesus and be childlike before Him. Jesus through the Sacrament of Reconciliation/Confession is always inviting us to humble ourselves before Him. To be like a child who humbly runs to his parents with reckless abandon once he sees them coming home.

It takes childlike humility for you to go to Confession, are you humble like a child? – Marino J. Dasmarinas