Reflection for January 20, Wednesday of the Second Week; Mark 3:1-6

Gospel: Mark 3:1-6

Jesus entered the synagogue. There was a man there who had a withered hand. They watched Jesus closely to see if he would cure him on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him. He said to the man with the withered hand, “Come up here before us.” Then he said to the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” But they remained silent. Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart, Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death.

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Reflection:

Do you strictly observe the law or  you  sometimes bend the law so that the mercy, love and compassion of Jesus could be seen through you?

The question of observing the Sabbath day crops up again in the gospel.  Jesus proves once again that it is far more important for Him to make a big difference in the lives of the people than observe the Sabbath day as what He did when He cured a man with a withered hand amidst the protestation of the Pharisees.

The gospel is silent if the sick man had faith but he was obedient, when Jesus told him: “Come up here.” He simply followed without question. Our obedience to the teachings of the good Lord can do us a lot of good if only we would learn to follow it.

On the other hand Jesus was well aware of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. He knew that they were there to watch and denounce His every move. For the simple reason that He was slowly becoming a threat to their dominance in their society.

In the same manner, Jesus is also well aware of our own hypocrisy towards Him. If we are only using His name to gain dominance and popularity in our respective field of influence. And if we are only using His name to advance our own selfish interest. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for January 19, Tuesday of the Second Week; Mark 2:23-28

Gospel: Mark 2:23-28

As Jesus was passing through a field of grain on the sabbath, his disciples began to make a path while picking the heads of grain. At this the Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?” He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry? How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the bread of offering that only the priests could lawfully eat, and shared it with his companions?” Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”

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Reflection:

What is a Sabbath?

Sabbath is a day of rest and worship based on this command: “Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day. Six days you may work and do all your occupation, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD, your God. No work may be done then.” (Exodus 20:8-10)

 Whenever there is a rule there is also a valid exception. And this is what Jesus was pointing out to the Pharisees. For Jesus the fulfilment of a human need is more important than fulfilling the law in this case the Sabbath law.

Law/s should always serve the good of humanity, laws are there to serve humanity not to punish or restrict humanity. 

Some of us create restrictive and oppressive laws inside our own respective fields. Not to serve its purpose but to serve our own selfish purpose and interest. At the end, due to our insistence of fulfilling our self created and self serving laws. It results to enmity and discord among us.

And the law that we have created to create order becomes the very reason for disorder, conflict and disunity. – Marino J. Dasmarinas 

Reflection for January 18, Monday of the Second Week; Mark 2:18-22

Gospel: Mark 2:18-22

The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast. People came to Jesus and objected, “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls away, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”

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Reflection:

A renewed catholic has said that his life was never the same since he had a personal relationship with Jesus. He said that since he met Jesus he was always joyful.  And even if there were problems he always ensures that it would never ruin his day. His reason for his newfound joyfulness and happiness is his re-energized faith in Jesus.

Fasting in the context of our gospel reading for today is connected with self-sacrifice or self-denial. Which is actually not bad because it strengthens a person’s faith and dependence on God. But there is something that is very much supreme than fasting and it’s no other than Jesus! If Jesus is within our lives already there’s no more need for superficial fasting.

For the reason that Jesus will teach us to fast without anyone else knowing it and this is the more important form of fasting: fasting that is not for show and fasting that is not seen and known by anyone except Jesus .

The disciples of John and the Pharisees in our gospel were after the exterior fasting. Fasting that could be seen by our naked eyes and Jesus surely hates this kind of superficiality. If we are already with Jesus we would not be concerned anymore about superficial fasting. For the simple reason that we will fast without broadcasting it for the world to hear and see.

Nobody will know about this kind of fasting except you and Jesus. And this would surely happen once you learn how to surrender yourself to the Love, Mercy and Compassion of Jesus. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Reflection for Sunday January 17, Second Sunday in Ordinary Time; John 2:1-11

Gospel: John 2:1-11

There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told them, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it.And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing where it came from — although the servers who had drawn the water knew —, the headwaiter called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but you have kept the good wine until now.” Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs at Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him.

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Reflection:

How influential is your mother to you? Do you always listen to her whenever she speaks to you?  Influence is something that Mary has over her son Jesus not only that she exercised influence over Jesus. She also has the listening ear of Jesus.

The backdrop of Jesus’ first miracle is the wedding at Cana that run out of wine. The wedding feast could have already been over in that instance but Mary was there to save the day. She went to Jesus for the reason that she knows that she exercised influence over her son. Mary also knows that she has the listening ear of Jesus. 

What does Mary teach us? She teaches us that we always have to go to Jesus when we have issues in our life. We have to let Jesus take over the driver seat not us taking over, we have to be patient and not be demanding toward Jesus.

Mary is also silently teaching us about humility, patience and acceptance of the will of God for our life. – Marino J. Dasmarinas.

1Reflection for Sunday January 17, Feast of the Sto. Nino; Luke 2:41-52

Gospel: Luke 2:41-52

Each year his parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom. After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances, but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them. He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced [in] wisdom and age and favor before God and man.

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Reflection:

Do you always bring your children to church for Holy Mass?

As we celebrate today the feast of Sto. Nino we will obviously be seeing many processions, motorcades and parades in honor of the baby Jesus. But some of those who will be joining this celebration will not be in the church for Mass. Some will be giving more importance to the parades than to their worship for Jesus at Holy Mass.

Joseph and Mary absolutely knew the importance of introducing their child to their Jewish faith. That is why they brought the twelve years old Jesus to worship God during the yearly celebration of the feast of Passover. Joseph and Mary completely knew also that their worship for God will help form the young mind of Jesus. By doing so Jesus would learn to love and honor God more than anything else in this world.

The primary duty of parents is to teach their child/children to love and honor God and this they could do by bringing their children to church for Holy Mass. Because the moment they always bring their child for Holy Mass everything that is good and Godly is inculcated in their young minds. And it will become their guiding light as they grow-up.

Bring your children to church for Holy Mass, teach them to love and honor God, and teach them also about your faith. – Marino J. Dasmarinas 

Reflection for January 16, Saturday of the First Week; Mark 2:13-17

Gospel: Mark  2:13-17

Jesus went out along the sea. All the crowd came to him and he taught them. As he passed by, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting at the customs post. Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed Jesus. While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners sat with Jesus and his disciples; for there were many who followed him. Some scribes who were Pharisees saw that Jesus was eating with sinners and tax collectors and said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus heard this and said to them, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

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Reflection:

Why did Jesus called Levi to follow Him notwithstanding his notorious reputation as a corrupt tax collector? This is for the reason that Jesus loves sinners. He walked on this earth primarily to save the sinners and to call them all  to follow Him.

 Jesus is pro sinners, He loves sinners, He favors the sinners, He seeks the sinners and He doesn’t judge and discriminate the sinners. This is what happened to Levi or Matthew being a sinner Jesus went to Levi to express to him that He still love him even if he is a sinner.

No matter how sinful we are, God is continuously calling us to conversion and to follow Him just like what He has done with Levi. He doesn’t judge us by our sins; He rather looks at our desire to leave behind us our sinfulness. The moment we decide to change our sinful ways we can always be assured of His peace and His abiding presence.

It is always us who creates detachment from Jesus and not Jesus detaching Himself from us.   This occurs when we commit sins and continuously ignore Jesus’ call for repentance. Jesus is just a prayer away, ever ready to embrace us with His love and forgiveness the moment we decide to walk away from our sinful ways.

When are you going to respond to Jesus call of repentance? – Marino J. Dasmarinas 

Reflection for January 15, Friday of the First Week; Mark 2:1-12

Gospel: Mark 2:1-12

When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it became known that he was at home. Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them, not even around the door, and he preached the word to them. They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him. After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to him, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves, “Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins?” Jesus immediately knew in his mind what they were thinking to themselves, so he said, “Why are you thinking such things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, pick up your mat and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth” –he said to the paralytic, “I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home.” He rose, picked up his mat at once, and went away in the sight of everyone. They were all astounded and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”

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Reflection:

Would you be willing to help a person in need?

We can gain a lot of valuable insights in today’s gospel reading, insight on faith by the four men who brought to Jesus the paralytic. Insights on, forgiveness of our sins, spiritual as well as physical healing.

However, there are two more insights that we can learn in this gospel. Insight on humility; the four that brought the paralytic to Jesus were so humble that they immediately evaporated after they’ve brought the sick man to Jesus. They did not care if they would be recognized for their heroic act. The four men obviously had no bloated egos. So unlike of us who always want to be recognized and seen whenever we do something for our fellowmen.

The other insight that we can learn here is to be more sensitive to the needs of those who are in greater need than us. Sometimes we are so concerned about our own needs that we tend to forget the greater need of others. We become very selfish instead of selfless.

The four humble men were selfless, perhaps they were also in need of Jesus’ healing but they saw that the paralytic was in greater need than them and need to be healed immediately healed by Jesus. They’ve sacrificed their own need to address the pressing need of the paralytic. They channelled every ounce of their energies so that they could help the paralytic, even opening up the roof of the house to bring him in-front of Jesus.

Would you also be willing to help someone in need? – Marino J. Dasmarinas