Making Friends With The Lord Jesus

The 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time tells us about how God cares for us. He saw the crowd meeting Him like sheep without a shepherd. Directionless! Very capable of getting lost! And so God sets to work to guide them. His apostles were chosen help Him in teaching them about the truths that would them to Heaven.

Our dear Lord Jesus Christ asks the ones whom He cured not to spread the news. This is especially because they still do not have the entire picture about Him. The Jews were all awaiting the advent of the Messiah. Their expectation was for a warrior leader concerned with earthly glory and conquests of land and kingdoms. They yearned for a leader like King David who could lead them against the Roman...

Our dear Lord explains to the strict and rigid minds of the Pharisees that the Sabbath was not the supreme standard to determine what can or cannot be done on the Sabbath. One needs to check the circumstances of a situation to discern what needs to be done or not done. Such conditions are providential, too. God is the supreme standard over the Sabbath, and not the other way round.

We all experience the effects of modern city living. With the traffic mess and jams compounding the problems, stress and anxieties from the work place, one can easily feel being overburdened. The dire effects of fears of what the future would offer, a weight no one would like to carry. We arrive home with still more issues to face. Add to this mix the hurried nature of living. Wow! We can easily b...

Jesus tells us that His Father is discriminating when it comes to sharing His secrets. Learn to deal with Him. Adopt the attitudes that will ensure your unlocking his VAULT OF SECRETS.

Jesus was disappointed by the lack of repentance exhibited by the inhabitants of towns where He did many miracles. He warned them that had He had dome such miracles in Sodom, for example, they would have repented. But since these inhabitants during His time refused to repent, then He warned them of more severe judgement on Judgement Day. So, what we need to do is to get used to repenting from our...

Our dear Jesus instructs His apostles to bring nothing superfluous in their journey to look for the lost sheep of Israel. No bread, no haversack, no, coppers, no spare tunic... He asks them to trust Him. Their needs will be attended to, perhaps by the very people they are going to teach. This lesson is still relevant to present day apostles of Christ. A big temptation comes in the form of trusting...

Our dear Lord makes it plain to us that if they gave a hard time to Him, their teacher and master, they, His disciples, should at least expect the same treatment. No student is better off than the teacher. Jesus wants us to make a stand for Him, and not to cower before the powers and threats of this world. If we disown Him here, He would disown us in the afterlife.

The Lord sends His apostles to do the same things as He did to the people. He sent them like sheep. They indeed belonged to His sheepfold. Be warned them that they would be going to meet wolves. Their personal freedom would be compromised. He encouraged them to use their talents extensively to outwit their enemies. In case they'd have to speak, they are not to worry because the Spirit will let the...

We might say that in the world, the basic tendency we have is to see the others as opportunities to get from. This is not a Christian attitude. This is so foreign from following Christ, as the east is from the west. We are to be gifts to the others all the time. Jesus instructs His apostles when He sent them out that they received without charge, and so they should not charge when they give to the...

Today, we read in Gospel of the Mass about Jesus' instructions to His disciples. Her shared with them His power to cure diseases and cast out demons. Awesome power! But Jesus directs them to look for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Pay attention to them, He says. This is another version of His seeking the sick because the sick are those who need the Doctor.

Starting with the miracle of curing a man possessed by a dumb devil, Jesus shows us today the importance of being cured. The dumb devil makes its victim unable to speak about his symptoms in the soul. He is then unable to report them to the doctor. In this case, we think of Jesus as the divine Doctor.

It is incredible that we read again in today's Gospel in the mass about the two women who receive their respective miracles by the faith of the protagonists involved in the narration. It is by their faith that they are cured. Shouldn't we ask for more faith?

We learn this lesson today from the Gospel. Jesus visits Nazareth. Its inhabitants were familiar with Him, His family, His work, and training, etc. They Know Him well and because of that, they could not figure out why Jesus was so knowledgeable, so able to do miracles in other places, etc. They did not accept Him as their own. He must be an impostor or something. Such attitudes made Jesus unable t...

Our dear Jesus teaches us to appreciate our being in His Presence. If we believe that, then we don't need to fast. That means we can only expect good to come from Him. With Him, too, we need to realize that He is bringing to the table something new. He did not come simply to continue the extant Judaism. He ushers in the new covenant. This is what is indicated by His references to new wine needing...

Our Lord Jesus Christ declares this in the Gospel today, where He calls St. Matthew, a prominent tax collector. Later, he throws a party. Many tax collectors attend it. They looked at the tax collectors as public sinners. Jesus was one of the guests. The Pharisees were scandalized by Jesus eating with them. Jesus justifies His associating with them by saying that He was looking for sinners. But th...

We read in the Gospel today about Jesus forgiving the sins of the paralytic brought to His presence. Perhaps what they were expecting was a physical cure only. Some scribes present, heard of these blasphemous words of this man called Jesus. So, they cried foul! Jesus challenged them by asking them which was easier to do, to forgive his sins, or to get the paralytic to get up and walk. Jesus got hi...

St. Thomas surrendered his being before what he beheld of the scars of the nails and lance on His risen body. He exclaimed, "My Lord and my God!" He was able to prove his faith when he was martyred. Shouldn't we utter that act of faith many times a day when we behold God interfering with us so eager to get done what we want to do? It is the risen Lord seeking us out in those sacrifices during the...

We read today St. Matthew's version of the calming of the wind and sea in the sea of Galilee. We read some days ago about St. Mark's version. They are practically the same but St. Matthew's version displays certain features. St. Matthew describes Jesus as standing up from sleeping, supposedly in a horizontal position. That conveys more authority. He commands the sea and wind as if they were His pe...

Jesus enlightens us about discipleship, The standards are very high.

The Gospel presents to us two miracles that involve women. Jesus shows us how He deals with them. They are also recipients of His favors. One was a woman suffering for many years from a hemorrhage, and the other was dead already. The former demonstrated her deep faith in merely having to touch His clothes for her to be cured. The latter simply followed Jesus' command to rise. He shows His care for...

Today, we celebrate these two saints. We learn from them by contemplating and imitating them. Peter was assigned to be just that, i.e., the rock foundation of the Church. The gates of Hell cannot prevail against it. Paul shows us his total self-giving to his call to be an apostle. Both teach us that our being founded on rock does mean that we as members are not to be static and remain only in plac...

Jesus expresses His willingness to cure the leper. This poor man got our Lord to cure him by introducing his petition saying that He could cure him if He wanted to. That way seems to get Jesus to cure Him. His was an act of faith in that Jesus could cure him if He wanted to.

Jesus explains to us today that to enter Heaven, we need to do God's Will. To know God's Will, we need to communicate with Him. This communication involves reading and studying His Letters to us in Sacred Scriptures. We need to discern His desires. We will fail in that if we do not pray, spend time with Him, and use our reason and other faculties in finding out what He wants. Wisdom is attained wh...

Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Josemaria Escriva, Founder of Opus Dei. During his canonization mass, St. Pope John Paul II referred to him as the saint of the ordinary. The gospel for the feast tells us about the miraculous catch of fish, where Jesus tells Simon Peter, and all of us, not to be afraid of Him because of our sinfulness. He will count on us to establish and spread the Church He...