Making Friends With The Lord Jesus

The Lord impresses on us today in the gospel that those who are not expected in heaven make it to heaven. It goes without saying that those who were expected there are not there. The message is the same. Let us not push our luck by leaving our conversion to the very end when Jesus is just about to return.

The Church helps us continue to be prepared for the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. But this time, the setting is our looking forward to Christmas, which is the remembrance and celebration of the first coming of the Lord. It is her wise design to place this overlay on the second coming expectation. Our preparation for Christmas should be how we ready ourselves to stand erect when the Lord...

The Lord tells us in the gospel on this feast day of the Apostle Andrew that He called him and his brother Peter while they were working on their nets as they were fishermen. Then, He calls also another pair of brothers down the seashore from the boat of Simon Peter. They were James and John, sons of Zebedee. The details of their calling are an example to us.

Today, the Lord appeals to our reason to stay ready for the end when we would be judged. He reminds us about the standard we would be judged. That standard will not be something from this world or something that caught our fancy. Our Lord warns us that His Words will not pass away. Those will be yardstick to measure us, our deeds, misdeeds, omissions, in thought, desire and action.

Our Lord Jesus Christ made this prophecy in the gospel today. Still within the Church's lesson plan of teaching us about justice and mercy of God. Everything will be accounted for. Since the Jerusalem rejected her Redeemer in Jesus Christ and murdered Him, she would be destroyed to the ground. Her precious Temple would be razed to the ground. Justice will be served. But we should not forget that G...

Our Lord was very clear with His followers about the difficulties in following Him. However, He assures us of His Providence. All He asks is that we trust Him and persevere with Him.

Jesus foretold the destruction of Jerusalem and her Temple. The gospel warns us of some cataclysmic destruction of the world as we know it at present. There will be signs before this would happen. While Jesus was prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem, He drew the parallelism of such destruction also happening at the end of time. Thus, He draws for us all the lesson of not putting all our eggs i...

Jesus reveals to us what pleases Him and what He appreciates from us. He observes the contrast between the contribution to the Temple Treasury of rich people and that of a poor widow. The former give a lot of money, relative to the tiny amount the poor widow gave. But Jesus is more pleased by what this woman gave. Check out the gospel of today's mass.

This last Sunday and solemnity of our liturgical year reminds us about the reality of our hearts being an altar or a throne. Who occupies that throne? Who do we sacrifice ourselves, our time, our energies, and so forth, to? Our lives are simply this. Either we recognize God as our King or ourselves as the king. This rivalry is the substance of our decisions and activities. History is merely a narr...

Today, Our dear Lord invites us to imitate Peter, who He identified to be the Rock of the Church. That rock is so solid and strong that He had no qualms on building His Church on it. He describes its strength with the words "...and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it..." What made Peter, who was a sinner who vacillated in following our Lord, who denied Him three times, and so...

We read in the gospel of the mass today the first story contained in chapter 25 of St. Matthew's gospel. The story goes that there were 10 bridesmaids , 5 were foolish and 5 were wise. What contrasted them was the fact that the wise ones brought extra oil with them to keep their lamps lit as they wait for the bridegroom to arrive. Even when he is late, they had provision for it. They foresaw that...

Jesus' mother and brothers wanted to speak with Him that day. They were having difficulties in reaching Him because of the crowd. So, someone informed Him about this. But Jesus asked rhetorically about who was His mother and His brothers. He replied to His own questions but gesturing to His disciples and He identified them as His mother and His brothers because they had given up other options and...

God, portrayed as the king in the gospel today, gives us each a set of resources to fulfill the design and purpose of our lives here on earth. His parable states that each of the ten servants is given a gold coin to do business with. All except one servant are productive and they are rewarded. This is a law in God's Universe, that is, that when follows the design of God regarding His gifts to us,...

If you feel or think that you are lost from the Church or from the Lord, the gospel today is for you. He came to seek and to save YOU! Check out Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector who wanted to see Jesus. He was short. So, he climbed a tree to be able to see Jesus as He passed by. At that instant He did, He looked up and startled the tax collector. He surprised him with perhaps the most consequentia...

Today, the gospel tells us about how we can grow in faith. The situation was that Our Lord walked to the boat that was having difficulty in navigating against the strong wind and waves. They thought it was a ghost. Our Lord assured them that it was only Him. Then, Peter asked Him to let him walk on the water too. He asked him to come to Him then. He did but was cut short because he noticed the str...

We profess faith in the second coming of Jesus Christ whenever we recite the Apostles' Creed. "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth;  and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the...

Our Lord assures us about this speedy aid coming from God. However, He lets us in into what He judges to be the problem in our prayer life. We lack faith! With faith lacking in our petitions, then the Lord delays... The Lord always in doing something. He replies to our petitions readily. But the problem is in our lack of faith.

Our Lord this time tells us of the coming of the Son of Man on a day and time we do not know. He provides the experience of those who did not heed the warnings of Noah and in Sodom. They suffered the consequences of being wiped out from the face of the earth. Likewise, the dispositions of some people will be similar to the announcement of the Lord's second coming. We need to be forewarned and read...

Our Lord this time tells us of the coming of the Son of Man on a day and time we do not know. He provides the experience of those who did not heed the warnings of Noah and in Sodom. They suffered the consequences of being wiped out from the face of the earth. Likewise, the dispositions of some people will be similar to the announcement of the Lord's second coming. We need to be forewarned and read...

That is a very interesting question indeed! Someone asked Jesus once--and we read about this in today's gospel--about when the kingdom of the Son of Man would come. Jesus reveals not when, but where that kingdom would be. He declares that that kingdom is among us. Quite enigmatic! It turns out that Jesus Christ Himself is the Kingdom of God. And we need to pattern ourselves to Him and His Life, Hi...

There were ten lepers who begged our dear Lord to cure them. They manifested their petition from a distance. His reply was for them to go report to the priests. They obediently complied. It was only on the way to the priest that they were cured of their leprosy. Wow! But only one returned to Jesus to thank Him. Surprisingly, it was a Samaritan, a much disliked people by the Israelites since they w...

Jesus tells us today about our attitude in doing what we have duty to do. Many times we do things to get thanks and appreciation of the others. However, He corrects this by teaching that we need to be humble and realistic about the fulfillment of our duties and obligations. We should be upright in our intentions. We carry them out because they are good things to do. God wills them, and we are His...

The Lord Jesus reminds us today in the gospel of the mass that our Christian duty is to forgive our neighbor. There is no limit to doing it. It is to be applied to any crime against us, for any number of times committed, as long as the offending party says he is sorry. Repentance is necessary for the forgiveness to be given. While waiting for the repentance, we should begin forgiving the persons c...

The title of the homily today focuses on the second part of the gospel in mass. Jesus observes how different people were dropping in the treasury box their contributions. Rich people put in large sums. But a poor widow just gave her two small coins. Relative to the rich people's donations, hers was inconsequential. But Jesus praised her and her contribution because she gave all she had while the r...

Jesus today teaches us in the gospel that His Body is a Temple. His listeners at that time were the usual Pharisees, and they misunderstood Him to have referred to the physical structure of the Temple of Jerusalem. Hence, they had a difficult time believing Him to destroy it and raising it up on the third day. But Jesus was referring to His Body as the Temple that was going to be destroyed. Today,...