Reflection for Wednesday May 10, Fourth Week of Easter: John 12:44-50

Gospel: John 12:44-50

Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me believes not only in me but also in the one who sent me, and whoever sees me sees the one who sent me. I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness. And if anyone hears my words and does not observe them, I do not condemn him, for I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world. Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words has something to judge him: the word that I spoke, it will condemn him on the last day, because I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak.  And I know that his commandment is eternal life. So what I say, I say as the Father told me.”

+ + + + + + +

Reflection:

Are you sometimes quick to condemn or judge?

Based on His pronouncements in the gospel for today, patience is a word that we can always attribute to Jesus. He tells us this: “If anyone hears my words and does not observe them, I do not condemn him, for I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world. (John 12:47)” These are profound words that give us hope no matter how sinful we are and no matter who we are.

Jesus doesn’t look at our sinfulness no matter how grave it is! For He became man not to judge us but to save us, if we are very quick to condemn Jesus doesn’t condemn. If we easily judge our fellowmen based on their appearance Jesus doesn’t for Jesus always looks at the heart.

Instead of condemning and judging our fellowmen let us give them hope and let us forgive them for the bad things that they’ve done to us. No one deserves to be judged or condemned for the reason that everyone of us is within reach of the mercy and enlightenment of God.  

Let us therefore reflect and try recalling the many condemnations and judgments that we undeservingly heaped on our fellowmen. Let us pause for a few seconds and humbly ask Jesus to forgive our condemning and judgmental minds. – Marino J. Dasmarinas 

Reflection for Tuesday May 9, Fourth Week of Easter: John 10:22-30

Gospel: John 10:22-30

The feast of the Dedication was taking place in Jerusalem. It was winter. And Jesus walked about in the temple area on the Portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you and you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify to me. But you do not believe, because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”

+ + + + + + +

Reflection:

How can we have an encounter with Jesus? We simply have to abide with what Jesus tells us in the scriptures. If He tells us that He and the Father are one we have to believe it without any doubt. For the simple reason that all of Jesus pronouncements are not empty, it is solidly supported by other passages in the bible.

What separates those who believe and those who don’t? Those who believe receive the full graces of the power that emanates from Jesus. For example, their lives are changed, their faiths are strengthened. And they themselves become an agent of positive change in their own respective environments.

Those who do not believe Jesus are left-out in terms of spiritual graces, their individual faith life is not strengthened. They are more vulnerable to the many forces of evil and they don’t have the spiritual strength that believers normally have.

What is the secret for us to believe? We have to humble ourselves before Jesus. We have to accept with faith every word that He tells us in the bible. And the moment we do, this would be the beginning of our new journey with Jesus. – Marino J. Dasmarinas   

Reflection for Monday May 8, Fourth Week of Easter: John 10:11-18

Gospel: John 10:11-18

Jesus said: "I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father."

+ + + + + + +

Reflection:

There is this story of a family man who had a terminal ailment, instead of just waiting for his death to come. He still worked very hard for his family and he never neglected to bring his family every Sunday to church for Mass. He did his best to provide for the material and spiritual needs of his family. In his last few days he gathered his family and he told them that he had done everything for them. So that they could have the best future that they could ever dream of, then after a day he died.     

This father in our story is a good shepherd to his family for he worked very hard for them to ensure their future. How many fathers are like this father in our story? There are many but there are many more who are fathers in name only. They don’t care about the future of their family they instead focus on their many vices to satisfy themselves. They don’t allow Jesus to shepherd them they instead cling to the dictates of this world and they make it their shepherd.

The family man is somewhat like Jesus who gave His life for our salvation. Do we completely trust our lives to Jesus our good shepherd? Or we trust more on ourselves where we give more priority to our own personal needs rather than our need for Jesus. 

For example our Sunday obligation of going to Mass we sometimes take this for granted because we give more importance to our own agendas. How can we be properly shepherd by Jesus if we don’t give much importance to the celebration of the Holy Mass? How can we be shepherd by Jesus if we don't even read the bible?

Trusting Jesus our good shepherd takes patience we may not see now what we want from Him. But we must still continue to trust our lives in Him and never on our own selves. – Marino J. Dasmarinas 

Reflection for May 7, Fourth Sunday of Easter; John 10:1-10

Gospel: John 10:1-10

Jesus said: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.” Although Jesus used this figure of speech, they did not realize what he was trying to tell them.

So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”

+ + + + + + +

Reflection:

Maria is a single parent who tried very hard to provide her three children. She worked very hard for them and she taught them also about the role of God in their lives. Her three children eventually became very successful courtesy of her proper shepherding.

Jesus wants nothing but the best for us as well this is the reason why He patiently shepherds us. And His end objective is for us to live our lives according to what He desires it for us. However, we oftentimes veer away from the shepherding of Jesus and we sadly choose to be shepherded by this world.

So what happens to us when we allow this world to shepherd us? We endlessly labor for this world to acquire its temporal things. Temporal thing that amounts to nothing at the end for the simple reason that it will not satisfy us.

In our gospel Jesus tells us this: “I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture (John 10:9).” If only we would deeply reflect on this statement of Jesus we would find out that the way to discover the true meaning of life. The way through finding peace and contentment in this temporal world is through the shepherding of Jesus only.

Would you allow Jesus to shepherd your life from here on? – Marino J. Dasmarinas     

Reflection for Saturday May 6, Third Week of Easter: John 6:60-69

John 6:60-69

Many of Jesus' disciples who were listening said, "This saying is hard; who can accept it?" Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, "Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe." Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him. And he said, "For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father."

As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, "Do you also want to leave?" Simon Peter answered him, "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God."

+ + + + + + +

Reflection:

What should be our guiding principle if we decide to follow Jesus? It must always be forever, we will not only follow Jesus in good times we must also learn to follow Jesus in our most trying times.  We will stay with Jesus even if it’s hard to believe that He is comforting us in the midst of our sufferings and tribulations. 

The very large crowd (More than five thousand of them) who were with Jesus when He multiplied the loaves and fish suddenly became very few. Only the twelve apostles remained many of those who followed Him returned to their former way of life. Why? Because they couldn’t accept Jesus’ continuous insistence that He is the true bread of life that whoever believes in Him will never hunger and thirst (John 6:35). 

They rapidly had amnesia because they all of a sudden forgot that it was Jesus who feed them when they were all hungry. It was Jesus who healed them when they were sick and it was Jesus who gave them hope when they were hopeless.

Such is the behavior of many of us, we quickly question or even leave Jesus when we go through trials. We never remember or perhaps we purposely forget the many blessings that He had given us in the past.

Let us never leave Jesus no matter how difficult our present circumstances are right now. Let us always choose to be with Him in sickness and in health, in our good times as well as in our difficult times.

What are we going to do if we leave Jesus, we embrace the devil and its worldly teachings? – Marino J. Dasmarinas 

Reflection for Friday May 5, Third Week of Easter: John 6:52-59

Gospel: John 6:52-59

The Jews quarrelled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?" Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my Flesh is true food, and my Blood is true drink. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever." These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

+ + + + + + +

Reflection:

What is the difference between a person who is a regular Communicant and the person who doesn’t partake of the Body of Christ at Holy Communion? The person who devoutly goes to Holy Mass and who lets himself be nourished by the Body of Christ is slowly but surely being transformed by the Body of Christ to become Christ like.

What does this mean to you? It means that the very moment you allow the Body of Christ to come into you. You also open yourself the opportunity to be an alter ego of Jesus. In other words it simply means that you become an ambassador of Jesus when you receive Him.

But do we really allow this to happen to us? Do we really allow the Body of Christ to spiritually nourish and transform us? Many of us go to Holy Communion regularly but we never change. There’s no positive behavioral and spiritual transformation that occurs within us. This is for the reason that we don’t allow the Body of Christ to transform us.

One sure sign that the Body of Jesus Christ is transforming us already is when we are able to share and live His teachings. When we are able to forgive those who’ve hurt us, when we are able to overcome our own sinfulness and our own arrogance and pride.

Have we already shared and lived Jesus? Have we already asked Jesus to help us overpower our own sinfulness, arrogance and pride? - Marino J. Dasmarinas 

Reflection for Thursday May 4, Third Week of Easter: John 6:44-51

Gospel: John 6:44-51

Jesus said to the crowds: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets: They shall all be taught by God.

Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world.”

+ + + + + + +

Reflection:

How could you have eternal life?  You have to regularly receive the Body of Christ at Holy Mass. Always receive it with reverence and piety never doubt and think of it as a simple bread. Because what you receive is Jesus Himself.

Just imagine the enlightenment and unfathomable blessing that it will bring you if you would always partake of the body of Christ. Just imagine the countless spiritual blessing that it would bring you if you would believe that Jesus is the Consecrated Host that you receive during Holy Communion.

Your belief and faith in the bread of life will open your mind to the many truths about Jesus and the church that He founded. Things that are hard to explain but is real and felt by the heart, all you have to do is to believe and have faith.

For without faith and belief you will not fully comprehend how this small bread becomes the body of Jesus after it is consecrated by the priest. How this small bread becomes your life and your reason for existing in this world.

Don’t wait for a Eucharistic miracle to happen before you for it may not happen in your lifetime. Simply believe and have faith in our Bread of Life. Which is Jesus Himself and you yourself will become a living and breathing miracle for those who know you. – Marino J. Dasmarinas