SIGNS, WONDERS AND MIRACLES

       The readings today speak of opposition gathering and enemies organizing. It’s not just about Jeremiah and Jesus, it’s also about us, our church and the journey of our lives striving to be faithful to God. No matter what those enemies do, the readings speak of the reward of those who are faithful to the Lord and many other passages show us a pattern. As we approach near and prepare for the events for Good Friday like the betrayal of Jesus when his enemies organize and attack, let us not overlook that the one being persecuted and attacked said sing and praise the Lord for He is victorious. The Church wants us to follow this pattern and interpret every persecution and suffering that we undergo in this manner. If we are in a way taken to captivity just as what happened to Jeremiah at that time there is no cause to resist. Jeremiah was even accused to be a traitor and out of his mind. He recognized that they are the instruments for his people to be converted by pla...

      Today’s 1st reading speaks of God promising to Abraham that he’ll be a father of multitude. For the Jews he is the physical father and has an influence greater than anybody in the history of the world. For 75 years he was a pagan and worshipped the god of  Mesopotamia  and had not yet met God. When he met God he was transformed for all the nations of the world. It is ironic for him to be called that name for he has no children yet. His name was changed from Abram to Abraham and exactly what his name means, father of all nations. Abraham was promised that his descendants will be so great just like looking at the stars and not be able to count them. When God gave this promise, he was 99 years old    and Sarah was 90. All he did was trust God. It’s not hard to believe in a God who brought everything out of nothing. Are we going to trust or not? In Gen 18, Abraham was visited by the Lord’s angels. He exercises hospitality to them whereas Sarah laughe...

      Trials, hardships and tribulations are all part of a Christian's life. As gold is tested through fire and so must we if we are indeed true followers of Christ. We may be at a time of difficulty in life when one failure and one disappointment come after another like an endless stream of misfortunes as a person of this world may view it. There are times when we resort to ungodly practices and get carried away by the lure of the extraordinary that arouses our curiosity and wonder. Sometimes we justify our acts by saying that it's just for the fun of it. We do not realize that we are exposing ourselves to danger and allowing the power of the dark side to get a hold of us. We simply take these things for granted and it's a pity that we fail to grasp more than anything else the wonderful and awesome truth of a God who became man for His great love for us. There is nothing more exciting, fun filled and awesome than the truth in this song that says that we ha...

    If we take time to study about the bible and our faith then we will discover things we never knew existed before. We will come to a deep and profound understanding of it which will bring us to greater heights in terms of our knowledge of God. This will lead us to love and service in a very meaningful way. Do you know that there is a commandment before the Decalogue or 10 commandments of God? Yes, there is and it is called Pre-Sinai. It is noteworthy that today's 1st reading points to the reason behind this. I learned this from a Lenten Retreat. When the people of Israel complained to God, He sent them quail and manna as their food in the desert. Every morning they gathered food from the ground and whenever they get more than they could eat for a day they discovered the following morning that the excess got spoiled or rotten. The moral lesson of this commandment is social justice. We should remove greed in our midst and learn to care for others. We should also liv...

     The story of Susanna in today's 1st reading tells us that we are always confronted with choices and decisions to make in our lives. Although hers was a matter of life and death and of a grave and serious matter we should not take for granted the fact that daily we are given choices and decisions to make that reflect and speak of our stand in life. We may have been praying to God for guidance and direction for a specific intention and it was not easy that although some things are already obvious and implied we still have to consider one important thing which is to be patient and learn how to wait. We may have the impression that we are already bombarded by signs and instances that point to a decision but trusting and waiting for the right time before we act on something is always good. This could teach us a lot of things especially with our impatient nature that always seek for immediate and instant results. Just like Susanna although she will be justified in whatever...