"Yes, God so loved the world that He gave His only Son..."
It is Trinity Sunday. And we are called to reflect on God as a mystery of Love in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Yet, God is One. And He is a unity. A unity in Trinity. A mystery we are called to believe in faith.
God as Father, created the world and gave humankind and all living things life that they may live in peace and unity. However, sin continues to enter the hearts of humankind and in so doing, caused man to forget God and to love things rather than the Spirit. It seeks power in the world, riches in the world, and all the pleasures which the world can give. In so doing humankind is pulled into a direction that is not of God. But God does not condemn the world. In reality, He sent His Son, born of a woman. Born of a virgin. That He may save us from our sins.
And through the mystery of the Incarnation, His Son, Jesus, was given to us, so that we may believe in Him and regain the salvation that rightly belong to us as God's children. However, our salvation was regained by the sacrifice of Christ's life on the cross. He Himself taught us that what is important is not the power of this world nor the riches of this world. For the Evil One can use our desire of this to tempt us to go into a direction that is not of God. A direction of sin and darkness, rather than of grace and light.
When Jesus gave His life for us on the Cross, He showed how much God loves us; how much the Father loves us through Him. And He did not leave us orphans when He ascended back to heaven. Rather, He promised to send an Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to be with us and to guide us so that we may continue to believe in Christ and His teachings. And that Spirit that the Father has sent through Jesus, is now present in the Church.
We are thus called to follow the Spirit of God, through the teaching of Christ in our daily lives. As we frequent more the sacraments and follow the teaching of the Church, we will be assured of a direction that leads us to salvation and to eternal life. Christ is the Way, the Life and the Truth. In Him lies our salvation alone. If we but believe in Jesus, we will not be condemned but receive the forgiveness and mercy of God.
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Sunday, May 15, 2005
Pentecost Sunday, Year A
"Receive the Holy Spirit"
In the Acts of the Apostles, we are told of the story of how before the Holy Spirit came down upon the apostolic community of Jesus, they were in a spirit of prayer and community. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, He promised to the apostles that He would not leave them orphaned. Rather, He would ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit so that He would indwell in their minds and hearts and souls and grant them the courage to preach His gospel to the whole world. So, in a spirit of prayer, they awaited the time until the Spirit of Jesus descended upon them and came upon them like the sound of a strong wind and alighted upon their heads like tongues of fire.
The Spirit that the apostles received at Pentecost is the Spirit of truth - the Spirit of unity and peace and love. The Spirit comes down only when at least two or three are gathered together in prayer and in Jesus name. It is prayer that invites the Spirit to the hearts of anyone who desires Him in their lives. And it is also the presence of the Spirit in our hearts that helps us to pray as we ought: as individuals or in a community.
Today, in a world where there is so much commercialism, materialism, and too much attention to things external, people forget the reality of the Spirit - and the life of peace and love that only the Spirit of God can give. So much attention is given to things modern and to things that do not reflect our Christian values that we often forget that at our baptism, we were made to be Temples of the Spirit. Our bodies and souls are cleansed from sin and made sacred by the indwelling of the Spirit in us. The only way we can regain this life in the Spirit is if we learn to renew ourselves and begin again to live a committed life of prayer - one that looks within and sees the Spirit dwelling in our entire being - seeing Him as the One who is the source of life wherein we move, live and have our being.
Let us thank the Lord for the gift of the Spirit. For without the gift of the Spirit, we will be surely led into a direction that is not of God: a direction coming from our own sinful self, the influence of the world, and the temptations of the Evil One. Let us pray especially also to the Spirit for His guidance upon our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, that he may guide the Church into paths led by the Spirit - a path leading to the light of the Resurrection eventually to the light of Pentecost - the Light of Life.
In the Acts of the Apostles, we are told of the story of how before the Holy Spirit came down upon the apostolic community of Jesus, they were in a spirit of prayer and community. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, He promised to the apostles that He would not leave them orphaned. Rather, He would ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit so that He would indwell in their minds and hearts and souls and grant them the courage to preach His gospel to the whole world. So, in a spirit of prayer, they awaited the time until the Spirit of Jesus descended upon them and came upon them like the sound of a strong wind and alighted upon their heads like tongues of fire.
The Spirit that the apostles received at Pentecost is the Spirit of truth - the Spirit of unity and peace and love. The Spirit comes down only when at least two or three are gathered together in prayer and in Jesus name. It is prayer that invites the Spirit to the hearts of anyone who desires Him in their lives. And it is also the presence of the Spirit in our hearts that helps us to pray as we ought: as individuals or in a community.
Today, in a world where there is so much commercialism, materialism, and too much attention to things external, people forget the reality of the Spirit - and the life of peace and love that only the Spirit of God can give. So much attention is given to things modern and to things that do not reflect our Christian values that we often forget that at our baptism, we were made to be Temples of the Spirit. Our bodies and souls are cleansed from sin and made sacred by the indwelling of the Spirit in us. The only way we can regain this life in the Spirit is if we learn to renew ourselves and begin again to live a committed life of prayer - one that looks within and sees the Spirit dwelling in our entire being - seeing Him as the One who is the source of life wherein we move, live and have our being.
Let us thank the Lord for the gift of the Spirit. For without the gift of the Spirit, we will be surely led into a direction that is not of God: a direction coming from our own sinful self, the influence of the world, and the temptations of the Evil One. Let us pray especially also to the Spirit for His guidance upon our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, that he may guide the Church into paths led by the Spirit - a path leading to the light of the Resurrection eventually to the light of Pentecost - the Light of Life.
Sunday, May 01, 2005
6th Sunday of Easter, Year A
"The command I give you is this: that you love one another"
When we hear often the word love, we often associate it with the way the world usually defines it: romantic love and the love that is commercialized in the media. However, love as we know is really of God and is a mystery that we can only live out in life. It is the denying of ourselves, taking up of our cross and following Jesus in many ways in life.
Jesus commandment to us this Easter time and through all the years of our life is really simply just to love one another. And Jesus defines this Christian love by His teaching and by His actions and deeds of healing and ministering to the poor and the orphans.
The call to love our neighbor is not an easy call to follow. It is not easy because often, there are some people, who for some reason, we simply dislike. But this is exactly what we are called to do. We are called to go beyond our dislike of the person and move towards doing what is good for the person. That is why Jesus tells us that we are even called to love our enemies because with enemies, we do not even dislike the person, we may even feel hatred towards the person. And it would be really Christian if we move from hatred to an action of love.
What would be most moving is when we see or hear about stories in the war about soldiers belonging to opposite camps. There are stories of how some soldiers were kind to their opponents in the war even after they were able to defeat them in battle. Now this is what we really are called to do: to go beyond our prejudices, our dislikes, our negative perceptions of the person, and do what would be right for the person.
The parable of the Good Samaritan is also a case in point with regard to the theme of today's Gospel. Jews and Samaritans dislike each other. Jews think themselves of as being a pure race while they look down at Samaritans for mixing their race with others. However, one day, a Jew was seen as if dead by the roadside after he was laid waste by robbers. A Levite came along, and then a priest, but both of them just passed him by. However, when a Samaritan came by, he took pity on the Jew and took him and placed him in an inn where they would take care of him. This parable of Jesus truly exemplifies all what He teaches about love. Loving your neighbor. And loving your enemies.
When we hear often the word love, we often associate it with the way the world usually defines it: romantic love and the love that is commercialized in the media. However, love as we know is really of God and is a mystery that we can only live out in life. It is the denying of ourselves, taking up of our cross and following Jesus in many ways in life.
Jesus commandment to us this Easter time and through all the years of our life is really simply just to love one another. And Jesus defines this Christian love by His teaching and by His actions and deeds of healing and ministering to the poor and the orphans.
The call to love our neighbor is not an easy call to follow. It is not easy because often, there are some people, who for some reason, we simply dislike. But this is exactly what we are called to do. We are called to go beyond our dislike of the person and move towards doing what is good for the person. That is why Jesus tells us that we are even called to love our enemies because with enemies, we do not even dislike the person, we may even feel hatred towards the person. And it would be really Christian if we move from hatred to an action of love.
What would be most moving is when we see or hear about stories in the war about soldiers belonging to opposite camps. There are stories of how some soldiers were kind to their opponents in the war even after they were able to defeat them in battle. Now this is what we really are called to do: to go beyond our prejudices, our dislikes, our negative perceptions of the person, and do what would be right for the person.
The parable of the Good Samaritan is also a case in point with regard to the theme of today's Gospel. Jews and Samaritans dislike each other. Jews think themselves of as being a pure race while they look down at Samaritans for mixing their race with others. However, one day, a Jew was seen as if dead by the roadside after he was laid waste by robbers. A Levite came along, and then a priest, but both of them just passed him by. However, when a Samaritan came by, he took pity on the Jew and took him and placed him in an inn where they would take care of him. This parable of Jesus truly exemplifies all what He teaches about love. Loving your neighbor. And loving your enemies.
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