Making Friends With The Lord Jesus

Today, Third Sunday of Easter, we have three readings in the mass for the day. They all encourage us to repent and turn to the Lord. This message is directed to all sinners, you and I. Hence, we are encouraged to repent frequently and return to the Lord. In this way, we turn to the Lord frequently each day. What a wonderful devotion it is to make many acts of contrition!

I remember listening briefly to a preacher of one of the denominations of religion who declared that Jesus is not God because He died. I could not believe my ears. Of course, He died in so far as He is human. But since it was the second Person of the Blessed Trinity who assumed human nature, He continued to be divine also. Now, we have the mystery of the Hypostatic Union. There is one divine Perso...

Any instrument compared with the results accomplished by the author or main actor is always disproportionally small. A pen is nothing and can do nothing unless it is found in the hands of an author or writer. But in their hands, that pen will be able to compose symphonies, masterpieces in literature, etc. The meager food the Apostles had was not a problem at all for Jesus. He converted the five lo...

The Gospel today tells us about the value of truth. It is by itself and it stands by itself. There are movements from some quarters of the world that want to manipulate the truth to deceive people. In ancient times, the truth was manipulated by those with power, money, influence, etc. The truth in itself was without value. The truth is simply what you wanted it to be. This tragedy is being repeate...

Today, we read the continuation of the meeting between Jesus and Nicodemus. Our Lord speaks about being born again via Baptism by water and the Spirit. But our Protestant brethren underscore the importance of accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior to be saved. Our Lord never said anything like that. So, we need to read the Bible with the discernment of God's word as a unity. What...

I have many times heard of having to be reborn to be saved. My protestant friends from university brought this up many times. That happens in a way that sounded so strange to me, although it also sounded somewhat right. You only need to accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. But the Gospel of today's mass does not say anything about that. We need to be baptized by water and the Spirit. And...

Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord. This was the first open date where this feast could be moved. This solemnity is usually celebrated 9 months before December 25. That would be March 25. However, it was impeded because it fell on Holy Week, whose liturgy is much more important for celebration. So, it was transferred to today. We recall especially the reply of Mary t...

Our Lord appears again to His apostles. Now, St. Thomas, also known as the Doubting Thomas, was with them. They had shared with him that the risen Lord had appeared to them the previous Sunday. But he demanded that before believing in the Resurrection, he check the holes left by the nails on His hands and feet. He required verification by inserting his hand into the Lord's open side. Our Lord gree...

Our Lord met with His disciples. He reproached them for not believing the ones who had seen Him risen. This is a crucial stage in the transmission of the faith. I received my faith from God through my parents and religious teachers in school. They taught me about the tenets of the Catholic faith. This happened when they told me that the Lord rose from the dead. I believed them. I never thought tha...

Today, we read about the second miraculous catch of fish. This instance had different circumstances from the previous miraculous catch of fish. There are fewer people now. The number of fish is identified by the gospel. 153 large fish! The risen Lord invites them to breakfast when they arrive at shore. No one dares to ask Him who He was. They know He was the same Jesus Christ, their dear Friend wh...

When one claims that to go to Heaven it would be enough to be good, he would need to be a bit skeptical about it. The reason is that the good is not easily agreed upon by many. Granting that we unite around what we need to do good, it would still not be enough to make it. We would need to believe certain truths of Faith that Jesus Christ would want us to lay our lives down for. One of these truths...

Today, we read about the meeting of two disciples on their way to Emmaus with the risen Jesus. He also appeared to be traveling in the same direction as them. He did not let them recognize Him. He joined them. They were dejected and forlorn. Their high hopes in Jesus' ascension to the throne of David His ancestor were dashed to the ground. But He explained to them the Scriptures beginning with the...

Mary of Magdala was weeping inconsolably. An angel asked her for the reason. Jesus asked her too, without her knowing it was Jesus asking. Why are you weeping? She did not know where the Lord's body was. Well and good, right? As in our case, we have different reasons why we are moody, why we are weeping, why we are troubled, etc. Many times it is not because we were looking for Jesus Christ.

With the resurrection of Jesus, the Apostles preached this awesome truth far and wide. With this great miracle of resurrecting, the Church proceeded to sail outwards to teach this and other teachings of Jesus Christ.

Life has conquered death! Jesus resurrects, as He had prophesied. This last miracle proves to be the greatest of them all. He dies and He rises from the dead. He is divine. He is divine! The Church has been proclaiming this truth through the centuries. She brings up this truth to encourage herself, to energize her missionaries and members to go for the goal, namely, eternal life. Death had always...

The Church is very silent today because its Founder has died. Today is a great day to let our contemplative gaze at the Lord's last hours of life on earth. He truly died because the Roman soldiers usually made sure they executed the condemned criminals. The Sabbath was about to fall on them, and they pushed for the crucified persons to be brought down and buried. They broke the legs of the thieves...

The Church today contemplates the dead body of Jesus on the Cross. There is silence among us. We almost cannot believe man has done this to Him, who was so good to us, who respected us, loved us, cured us, been patient with us, and so forth. How ungrateful have we been!

The first reading tells us the background of today's feast among the Jews. They celebrated the holy Passover. God had instructed the Israelites to slaughter a lamp with certain characteristics and use the blood to mark their doorposts to tell the avenging angel to preserve the occupants. The Egyptians were struck by that Angel. All first-born of man or beast perished. So, the Lord had His Last Sup...

We read in the first reading of the mass of Holy Wednesday liturgy another text about the Suffering Servant from one of the four songs about his Servant. Only from the point of view of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ that this Servant is Jesus Himself. Emphasis is placed on the tongue of the disciple. The disciple learns to listen and to transmit what he learns. He speaks when he needs to and...

We read for the first reading of the Good Friday service about our calling on earth. Each of us is called to imitate Christ--hence, we are called Christians--in dying on the Cross through our circumstances so that we would be with Him in His resurrection.

This law of the universe is universal. We find it in the plots of all our movies stories, or plays. There is a status quo of order and then the plot thickens when there is a disruption of the peaceful status quo. Thus, the tendency is to restore the original state of things. Thus, when one sins, he needs to be responsible to answer for that sin and make amends for it. So, these days of Holy Week,...

The Church introduces us to the Week of the Lord's Passion by celebrating Palm Sunday. It is called this way because of the palms and branches people waved to Our Lord as He made His way to Jerusalem on a donkey. They laid their clothes and other garments on the path of this lowly animal, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel!" Hosanna was mea...

The reading of today's mass, Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent, tells us of God laying claim of His people in Israel. This membership used to be by blood and circumcision. After the Lord Jesus Christ's redeeming death on the cross, we become part of His Chosen People if we do His Will. We affirm this in the Our Father when we say, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven..."

The first reading of the mass today, Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent, reminds us of the example of Jeremiah. This Old Testament prophet of God complained to God about how he was received by the people of God. Such animosity against him stemmed from his fidelity to God's instructions. Jeremiah prophesied disaster befalling the Israelites if they do not repent. The people did like to be reminded of...

Jesus is the Messiah promised of old. God had promised Abraham to make his descendants as numerous as stars in the night sky or the grains of sand in the seashore. It is among his descendants that the Messiah will come forth. Jesus Christ is the son of Joseph, who is of the line of David. Just as Jesus is a descendant of David, not by hereditary rules because Joseph was only the putative father of...