Making Friends With The Lord Jesus

In the present podcast I try to convince you to make acts of faith in God and his providence, that no matter what happens and especially when things look bad, we should repeat having faith in God who knows best. Jesus also teaches us to try not to offend others by the apparent neglect of a duty by arranging things so that we actually fulfill that duty.

The Gospel of the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time brings us to listen to Jesus' words about our treasure. He asks us to have our treasure in Heaven because something less than Heaven would be open to destruction by earthly elements. Then, we will be left with nothing. Investing in Heavenly treasures first means that we need to be vigilant. We should be like basketball players who are so conscious abo...

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. We read in the Gospel of the Holy Mass today the narration of St. Luke about this transfiguration. Jesus removes the veil covering his Divinity and Glory for the three closest of this Apostles to appreciate His attributes. Pay attention that Our Lord just revealed to his apostles that he was going to suffer in the hands of his enemie...

Today we celebrate the memorial of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome. It is the oldest church dedicated to her. It contains many treasures to honor her since the Council of Ephesus in 431 where the Blessed Virgin Mary's greatest honor, namely her divine maternity was defined. Let us not fear of overdoing our honoring her because we can never outdo God in doing so. 

St. Peter is asked by Our dear Lord about what he thought about the Lord. He declared the divinity of Christ. He is the Christ, the son of God. Jesus praised him for this since what he declared was fruit of God's grace sent to him at that moment. Instead of seeing Jesus just like he would of any man, he went deeper by the grace of God to the divine identity of Jesus. He was not only man. He was an...

We have the case of this Canaanite woman in asking for her daughter's cure as an example for us in being patient in asking Our Lord for favors. We should only show our need, our indigence, our weakness to our Lord. The truth is no one wants to show himself in some way weak. But this is the disposition that helps convince Jesus to do a miracle for this woman. We should live a certain kind of streng...

We read from the Gospel according to St. Matthew Chapter 14 about Our Lord walking on the sea after he prayed for the evening after multiplying the five loaves and two fish to feed so many people. St. Peter in a manner of speaking challenged Our Lord asking him to bid him come over the water. Our Lord invited him to come to him. He got distracted by the strong wind and he began to sink. He cried t...

Today we read about Our dear Lord multiplying the bread and fish, only five of the former and two of the latter, to feed at least five thousand men. Our Lord only asked that these meager resources be brought to him and be prayed over. Then he asked his disciples to distribute them to the people. This is the behavior we need to imitate and emulate, that although we may surely feel inadequate in fac...

Our Holy Mother the Church provides for our lesson today, the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time 31 August 2022, the text of St. Luke's Gospel Chapter 12, verses 13-21. Someone in the crowd asked Jesus to act as arbitrator to the conflict of claims between two brothers. Our Lord does not accept the invite but focused on reminding everyone that there in our hearts lurks covetousness or avarice. Hence, we...

We are given for our consideration Matthew 14: 1-12 about Herod murdering St. John the Baptist. He knew of this prophet's teachings and correction about his unjustly taking Herodias who was Herod's sister-in-law. Herodias was married to Herod's brother Philip. But he did not retract or correct his behavior. He only liked to listen to him. But this changed radically when he in a drunken state was p...

The Gospel of today's mass, Saturday of the 17th week in ordinary time 30 July 2022, brings us to the context of Herod the tetrarch capturing and jailing John the Baptist. He ended up chopping off his head because of his promise to grant whatever the dancer--Herodias' daughter--asked. She had them bewitched by her sensual dance. Alcohol helped. But alas! She asked at her mother's instance for the...

Today, I speak about the resurrection of the dead in relation to the obligatory memorial celebrating Sts. Martha, Mary and Lazarus. One of the Gospel options today is the one taken from Luke 10:38-42 where Jesus arrives at the house of these siblings when Lazarus had already died. Martha meets him and poured out her heart about her wishing that Jesus was present when Lazarus was still sick. But sh...

Building up on the Gospel of the day, Thursday of the 17th week in Ordinary Time July 28, 2022, from Matthew 13:47-53 where we find the familiar parable of the The Lord about fishermen and the catch of fish when the fishermen segregate  the good from the bad in the items caught by the net. Jesus reveals the reality of hell symbolized by the items thrown into a certain furnace where there will...

Two persons were compared by Our dear Lord Jesus Christ in today's Gospel. Jesus declared the second one to be pleasing to God. And that is the prayer of the tax collector who simply said "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." This shows lots of humility which pleases God so much. There is nothing like speaking the truth about oneself to the One who is everything and more. The first one's prayer belo...

Jesus asked this of his disciples one day. He addresses each one of us about this all important matter. If Jesus was just any Tom, Dick or Harry to you, then we would not have to change our lives. If Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Son of God, then we would need to change our ways. Peter spoke up protesting about Our Lord's announcement that he would suffer and die at the h...

Today we are presented by our Mother the Church the following scene in the Gospel. He is brought a blind man they beg him to cure. He removes him from the village they are in. Jesus puts spittle on his eyes and asks him how he is with his sight. He replies that he saw people but they were like trees moving about. So Jesus proceeds to put in hand on him again and only then could the man see clearly...

Jesus asks this question of his disciples who were worrying themselves about forgetting to bring bread with them on their trip by boat. The Gospel tells us they brought only one loaf. That loaf referred to the living bread from Heaven, i.e., Jesus himself. Being aware of that still made them worry about not bring bread. Our Lord asked them what they witnessed recently of how He multiplied the loav...

Today we greet each other Happy Valentine's Day. Flowers and roses are sent to our beloved women in our lives. Today we also celebrate important historical anniversaries in Opus Dei, a personal prelature of the Catholic Church, namely, the anniversary of the start of the apostolate of Opus Dei with women and the anniversary of the foundation of the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross. Both these la...

Today we read about the version of St. Luke of the Beatitudes. We are more familiar perhaps with the version of St. Matthew. Anyhow, we read about them in today's Gospel. Let us remember that the Greek term makarios  usually translated to Blessed can be translated as Happy or Lucky. So we can keep this in mind when we read these Beatitudes. These are the features of those of follow Christ. He...

Today Our Lord and his disciples met the challenge of feeding about four thousand people who had gone with him for three days. He was concerned that if he asked them to go home they might faint on the way. So he asked his disciples what they had: some loaves of bread and fish. He asked for them. This is a good example for us all when we meet any challenge. We have to check what we really have inst...

Today we are presented by the Gospel in mass a scene of Jesus on his way to the Decapolis. He is presented a deaf mute. They ask him to cure him. He draws him aside and puts his finger into his ears and touches his tongue with spittle. This is amazing! Then He uttered, "Be opened". He was cured. He began to speak and hear. We also need this miracle so that we can speak when we are supposed to in o...

This time we find Jesus in a repartee with a Syrophoenician woman who was begging him to cure her daughter of an unclean spirit. Although Jesus begins apparently rebuffing her reaffirming his main purpose on earth was to save the chosen people of God. She did not make much of this. She just insisted in playing along in repartee with Jesus who was won over by her intelligent and creative replies. O...

Man realizes he is not a god. He is a creature beset by limitations and weaknesses. Therefore, he has this concern about what happens to him when he passes this life. The Jews were sticklers for cleansing themselves although they underscored the externals only. I suppose that was not so in the beginning but more and more these cleansings were limited to superficial manifestations that Our dear Lor...

The Lord today in the Gospel of the mass today makes us think about this matter. He called the attention of the scribes and Pharisees because they expertly make up policies on practices and make them traditions for the ordinary Jew to follow. They finagle things things so that theses practices supersede the laws of God. This is another manifestation of man acting like gods, obviously a desire our...

Oh how the crowds followed Our dear Lord Jesus as he went from one place to another! They all wanted to touch him or at least the fringe of his cloak. Our Lord did not stop them. He wanted it so as to communicate with them and transmit to them his saving power. At a deeper level he was establishing the grounds for setting up the economy of the sacraments. For especially the people that will come a...