Making Friends With The Lord Jesus

We read about one of the miracles of Jesus on a blind person that took quite some time to happen. It was unlike the rest that were instantaneous. Jesus led the blind person out of the village. He made spittle and applied it to his eyes. His sight somewhat returned, with him able to see men walking about like trees. He proceeded to the second stage, involving another application of His hands on the...

This warning call is what we all need now. Our Lord sounds it off throughout the world. Why? Because the Enemy is more intent now in finding more victims to his traps and machinations. He is allied with the world and the flesh! This triple threat to man's eternal salvation is real, although the devil has certainly achieved some inroads in deceiving souls. Imagine! The enemy convinces you he does n...

The Chosen People of God were waiting for the Messiah to come. God promised a redeemer. They were on the lookout for the signs of His arrival. When Jesus took up the scroll to read in the synagogue of His hometown, He read that prophecy of Isaiah that indicated the signs of His coming. He rolled up the scroll, returned it to the attendant and sat down. Everyone was waiting for Him to say something...

Jesus had a bit of a difficult time in teaching this matter. Perhaps it was because of the deep and well-entrenched disposition especially of the religious teachers of Israel to be concerned about mere fulfillment of requirements. Moreover, they tended to create even more obligations for the average Jew to fulfill. Today's gospel is one case in point. The controversy was about washing of hands--an...

Today, we listen to the gospel of Mark, chapter 7. Our Lord Jesus addresses the issue of the Pharisees' exacting attitude regarding the most trivial matters like washing hands before eating. This was not about hygiene, but about a requirement they invented, to specify certain demands from the point of view of their faith. Our dear Jesus condemned this attitude. He described their hearts being from...

Today, we read of the Lord's healing of so many sick people. They imitated the woman afflicted by a years old hemorrhage. They only needed to touch a part of His clothing to be cured. Their faith welled up in doing this, and they were cured. We are just like them. Perhaps we may even be worse than them, not externally, but internally, in the soul. We can live this gospel today by imitating those p...

Today, we read in the gospel the account of the call of Simon, who was later renamed Peter while he beheld the goodness of Jesus in granting a miraculous catch of fish. So copious was the catch that even two boats straining to take in the overloaded nets were sinking. Simon recoiled in unworthiness and fear before the majesty of Jesus, that he asks Him to begone. But Jesus is never afraid of our m...

Our Blessed Lord stands up to read a text from Isaiah, that speaks of a prophecy. In the end, Jesus declares that those words were being fulfilled now with Him. The Holy Spirit is also spoken of as a protagonist in the era of the Messiah. Take a listen to what all this means.

Today we celebrate his conversion and the end of the Christian Unity Octave. They are related to each other because unity with everyone is rooted in conversion. We need to change for the better so that we become more likable, more attractive, more charitable and so forth. The closer we are to Jesus via conversion, then the closer we are to each other.

The blessed Lord looks for sinners and He showed this in calling the tax collector Matthew or Levi. He also liked to be in the company of sinners. This was another evident feature of His preaching and teaching. He did not stay away from what the Pharisees and scribes referred to as sinners, as if they were not sinners themselves. They wondered and found it strange that Jesus would do that. The Lor...

Jesus tells us in the gospel of today's mass the challenge we all face, namely, either to choose God or creatures, either to trust God at His Word or creatures with what they offer us. Jesus exemplifies this dynamic with His experience with the rich young man who asked Him what he needed to do to gain eternal life. Jesus asked him about the commandments, to which the man replied that he had follow...

The gospel today immerses us in the scene of Jesus and the leper, who begs Him to cure him. He does so by appealing to Our Lord's good Will. Jesus accedes to the request. We can live this gospel by imitating this leper.

Jesus continued to teach with that special authority, namely, He spoke on His own authority and He supported His teachings but curing people of diseases and He drove out demons. The gospel teaches that we enjoy these cures so that we be useful for the Lord's plans and designs. Our very existence is a gift to us, always for a purpose, that we need to find out and fulfill freely and lovingly. The go...

The people noticed the preaching and teaching style of Jesus to be different from the usual rabbi or teacher they had. Jesus spoke in first-person singular. He taught on personal authority, and did not allude or refer to another's authority to substantiate His own. Next, He performed miracles to back up His teaching. If He had the power to do them, then His teaching must be true. Nobody else taugh...

The gospel brings us to the opening salvo of Jesus as He transitions to His Public Life phase of His stay on earth. He goes public by preaching and reaches out to people everywhere in Palestine. The first line of His message is that we need to repent and believe in the Gospel. The Gospel refers to the Good News. This news consists of God sending His only-begotten Son to die for our sins to save us...

The Christmas season in the Church officially ends today with the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Here He is seen already an adult, ready to begin His public life. His baptism in the hands of St. John the Baptist highlights the action of the Holy Spirit. He descends in the bodily form of a dove when Jesus arises from the water. There is the voice of the Father declaring His relationship with God...

Today's gospel shines on the humility of St. John the Baptist. He knew his place very well. Now, that the Lord was baptizing more people than him, did not faze or affect him. There was no envy or jealousy on his part. In fact, since he knew, and he clarified it to the people--who had thought he was the Christ--that he was not the messiah, it was to be expected that Jesus would increase in prominen...

The gospel narrates to us the cure of a leper. It would be just like the other cures He did, but in this case, the way it was requested proves to be interesting. The leper begged for his cure by introducing his petition with a conditional. That is, "...If you wish..." Our Lord affirmed that He wanted to and He ordered his cure. The leprosy left him instantly. If you wish... If someone asks me a fa...

Today, we celebrate the feast of Jesus the Nazarene in the Philippines. It is based on the devotion to the Lord crucified on the cross. On the cross was posted the crime of the criminal crucified. In Jesus' case, it was "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews." Hence, today the mass to be celebrated is that of September 14, the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. We look up to the cross very much,...

The gospel today reveals to us Jesus' attitude to His prayer life. No relationship with God will survive, and much less, prosper, if there is no prayer to nourish that relationship. Listen to the homily for other details regarding His walking on the sea.

St. Mark tells us today about the famous story of Jesus multiplying the five loaves of bread and two fish to feed thousands of his listeners who have been with Him for some days. He had compassion for them that He wanted to provide them something to eat. He performed this miracle. We are the face of God to the others. Our neighbors will appreciate who God is when we show them that God is taking ca...

We are inspired by today's gospel to accept the invitation of the Jesus. He began to reach the greater public when He moved from Nazareth to His new place in Capernaum. It is there that He started to ask people to repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand. If we don't, we do not make it to Heaven. If we do not engage in prayer or in imitation or living His life, we will not be ready for Heaven....

Today, we appreciate a number of things from the gospel on the wise men from the east bringing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh for the Lord in Bethlehem, the city of David. Bringing gifts or giving gifts to someone is significant. The one given is recognized for being someone. In this case, the gifts signify something of Jesus' identity. Gold signifies Jesus's being a king. In fact, He is a...

This is one of the messages in the gospel in today's mass. We have found the Child Jesus! We have found the risen Lord! We have found the Lord in the Holy Eucharist in the Blessed Sacrament! If we have, then we need to act like it. It will please the Lord Jesus if we take our having met Him with us during our activities, places we go to, our families, entertainment, etc. Do we? Take a listen to th...

The gospel today is from John chapter 1 vv29-34. We are reminded by it that John the Baptist pointed to Christ by calling Him the Lamb of God. The Jews were familiar with this because the center of their lives was the Temple sacrifices. The Passover renewal in the temple consisted of slaughtering a lamb. Jesus was identified by the Baptist as the Lamb of God. That is the Lamb to be sacrificed duri...