THE NARROW GATE
God's daily assurance to us is written in the 1st reading today. We should be thankful to God that with each passing day He never fail to remind us of His love and mercy that no matter what happens we should continue to be hopeful in the promises of God our Savior. I would like to share with you these words of wisdom in Sabbath magazine which I am fully convinced and agree with 100%. THE PROMISES OF GOD FOR US Romans Chapter 8 is the centerpiece of Pauline theology on the nature of Christian life as we should live it. Verses 28-30, talks about the promises that God made long ago to make us all as it were the eldest of many brothers — that is, we receive the fullness of the inheritance that God has for us. (Under Jewish Law, the eldest son inherited virtually everything and it was his responsibility to provide for his siblings.) Paul tells us that for those who have faith in God, whatever situations we encounter in life will turn to our good. This may be difficult to believe at times but then God never promised us that life would be easy and simple. There will always be challenges to face and opportunities to exercise our faith. Thus it is important during better times to store up memories of God’s blessings so that they will help us to endure the lean times where His presence and blessings are more difficult to discern. This is also why God calls us to live in Christian communities with varying levels of commitment — so that we can avail ourselves of the support of each other during difficult times. It is good to be grateful for the gift of her as our mother, too. Jesus gives her to us from the cross so that she can be a comfort and support to us all. Often it is only through her faith and intercession that we are able to endure our trials, just as it was our mothers’ support that helped us through many difficult situations in our childhood. The greatest gift we can give to Mary on this day is to commit to a more faithful following of the call of Jesus. Let us pray to God for this grace through her intercession. Fr. Steve Tynan, MGL
There are 7 habits that have been identified for the last 2000 years that will lead us to success, excellence in every aspect of human life and holiness. The most important of human life is our relationship with God. But every other aspect like our relationship with other people, family, the way we are in the work place and all these things are governed by these 7 habits, patterns or qualities. These habits we can find in scriptures and see it in the life of saints. Even before God begin to reveal Himself to His people in Israel , human nature is smart and wise enough to see some things on its own. We, Catholics believe that God gave human beings reason although it sometimes gets darkened by sin but still human reason can figure out some things. One of the things that human beings figure out without God having to reveal it, is that human beings need to meet 4 qualities to be deemed a human being. The philosopher, before even Plato, Aristotle and Socrates, had this figured out. We find it mentioned in Wisdom 8:7, the 4 virtues or qualities are also called the hinge virtues because it is where all the other virtues or qualities of good people would hinge. The word cardinal means hinge. The Cardinals who surround the Pope are the doorway to the Pope. They are also the ones whom he rely the most for advice. Everything else depends on the cardinal virtues. (Prudence or wisdom, justice, temperance and courage or fortitude) Prudence is the ability to make right decisions in complex situations. Decisions that lead to the best and right thing. Without this we can be in big trouble. We’ve got to be able to decide in a situation that we’re in what the right thing to do which is the best thing to do. How do we get something done? There are some folks who probably just can’t figure out what to do. There are other folks who look at the problem and they can figure out a solution. It’s a core and they execute that core. It’s practical wisdom. We’ll find in the Book of Proverbs a lot of things about wisdom even in Sirach, Ecclesiastes and all the wisdom literature in scriptures. We can also find all the other 3 cardinal virtues, like justice which means giving each person his or her due. We all know even as kids instinctively how important justice is. The first thing that a kid cries out as soon as he learns how to talk if he has brothers and sisters is “Not fair, he got more than I did” or “You ask me to do more than what that person is doing.” This is because we have instinctively or natively offensive justice. Each person has rights and ought to get their due. There’s also another part of justice that we forget, that is, we have obligations and duties to everyone. A person who is unjust is not a good person. To be just, we need to control our passions. Temperance is a virtue that balances and controls our passions. It is like controlling our desire for that last piece of cake if we know that it belongs to our sister. In order to be just, we’ve got to control our appetites. Make our appetites come into line with justice, truth and goodness. We’ve got to have that balance in our life in order to be a good and effective person. Temperance makes this happen. We also have to be courageous. If we are not courageous then every time a difficulty arises we’re going to shrink back. If there’s any danger involved in doing the right, just and wise thing then we’re just going to crack out and find an excuse because we’re afraid. Courage or fortitude helps us to master fear and not let fear keep us from doing what’s right. We’ve got have all these things but here’s the problem. When Adam & Eve decided to sin they let loose a weakness into our race and nature that impacts all of us. We call it original sin. Sin is not so original, we just copy what other people have done. There’s nothing creative about sin. Adam & Eve’s sin was the only original sin. What they did has an impact on us. By weakening their own nature, sin weakened man’s nature. They passed on to us a weakened nature. They separated themselves and the whole human race from friendship with God and were born into that. There’s a tendency in our nature to go on a downward drift, a drift off course and a tendency to a great degree is dealt with through grace. How do we get grace? Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, God has made possible for us, healing of our humanity. He gives us other gifts, faith, hope and charity that make it possible for us to really have wisdom, justice, temperance and courage. Without faith, hope and charity in this life, no one can really become truly wise. All throughout human history we see people who exercise these gifts. They may not be Christians, deeply spiritual people, or in a state of grace and can exercise some of these potentials here and there. But ultimately original sin means we are going to sin seriously and mess up. We need God’s grace for those 4 great virtues to be perfected. Faith, hope and charity are supernatural. These are things that human beings would never know that they need or could have without God giving them supernaturally that’s why they are called the theological virtues. We only know about them through divine revelation and we couldn’t know about them by reason. We can only have them through God’s grace. The theological virtues, faith, hope and charity are the crown of the first 4 cardinal virtues that transform and make them possible. God doesn’t want us just to be whole human beings and restore us to what Adam & Eve were when they blew it in the Garden. God wants us to be more than that. He wants to elevate our human nature and divinize it. He wants us to share in His own Divine nature. Charity is all about loving with God’s love. Loving as the 3 persons of the Holy Trinity love each other and sharing in that goes way beyond human nature. This is an incredible thing and call. It was only possible because God became man and we can share in his virtue. This is what the real Catholic life is all about. It’s not just about making it or going to heaven by the skin of your teeth after struggling. It’s about growing in holiness and becoming like Jesus all throughout our life, a champion not without struggles. As a matter of fact without the struggles we can never become a champion. But with victory and excellence not with hopelessness, despair and frustration. This is God’s desire for us which is a fantastic calling. The power to do this is given to us through the Holy Spirit. Amen. Hallelujah!
Letter to the Romans 8,26-30.
"....We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose...."
If we continue to be faithful to God he will give us joy in our hearts, not just joy in good times but also a heart that overflows with gladness in all kinds of situation, a heart that beats for the Lord and will always find rest and satisfaction in Him. To belong in the flock of the Lord under the Good Shepherd's care makes us want for nothing more. Just think of this, if certain animals are capable of such a noble and admirable act of love toward their young, how much more us, humans. To top it all we are assured of the love and care of the most perfect human mother who ever lived on earth. Praise and thank God for His goodness in sharing to mankind His mother, Mary, a heavenly mother. It was through the total surrender of the Blessed Mother Mary to God’s will that the Word of God is manifested in her life. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary. We can learn a lot from the kind of life that Mary lived and ask her to intercede for us. For who could better show us the way to Jesus other than her who gave birth to our Savior Jesus Christ. We also in our own way can conceive Jesus although not in our wombs but in our hearts and who could better teach us to do this other than the mother of Jesus whom He gave to mankind at the foot of cross, “Behold your Mother.” She understands for there is nothing that she doesn’t understand since she experienced the killing of her Son. So we ask her today to lead us to Jesus. Amen. Hallelujah!
Psalms 13:4-5, 6
R: My hope, O Lord, is in your mercy.
3 [4] Look, answer me, O LORD, my God! Give light to my eyes that I may not sleep in death 4 [5] lest my enemy say, “I have overcome him”; lest my foes rejoice at my downfall. (R) 5 [6] Though I trusted in your mercy. Let my heart rejoice in your salvation; let me sing of the LORD, “He has been good to me.” (R)
I am reminded of this old lady whenever her birthday is upcoming her loved ones who always throw a party for her would tell her that she needs to be strong enough so that she can enjoy it. She said that it was not easy for her to do her daily walking exercises most especially after she had fallen. She had become so unstable every time she stands up to walk but she painstakingly works on it despite the difficulty it was causing her. This bible passage from today's gospel somehow reminded me of it. I can't help but think of her the moment I read it. I could remember very well the words, “strong enough” that was specifically spoken to her. She knew what was required of her to achieve this as advised by her Physical Therapist (PT), to keep on walking as much as she can. We can see from the reading that Jesus advised the man to strive to enter through the narrow gate. It is not like anybody can just enter the narrow gate since it is stated that not all will be strong enough to do so. Just like this old lady who committed to her physical regimen despite her discomfort in order to achieve her goal, we too should devise a plan on how to be strong enough on that final day. It is never easy for an old lady who just suffered a fall and is afflicted with other illnesses to do such a thing. I have heard a lot of amusing statements on growing old like, “It isn’t any fun getting old, growing old ain’t for sissys, stay young and never grow old.” I guess being old itself is already a narrow door that we have to face with God’s grace if ever we will be given the chance. We all have our discomforts and difficulties that we have to tackle in life. The same thing is true with my son, Allan. When he was in college he used to train really hard to the point of having to wake up as early as 4am daily to swim at least 20 laps before going to school. On top of this was the need for him to comply with all the demands of his academic subjects. He had always been very positive with a lot of things and full of confidence with the rate he was going with his physical stamina. He trained rigorously and regularly. He was very committed to his goal and did everything that was needed in order for him to improve and excel. He went a long way already from that overweight kid in LSM (Lourdes School of Mandaluyong) Grade School to a varsity swim team captain in DLSU (De La Salle University). As far as his physical state was concerned, he achieved his tip top shape. The need to be strong enough to enter the narrow gate as gospel today mentions is not about the physical strength that we can build up through training and workout but the strength of our souls. If we can gain insight from this it is the fact that just like Allan's physical regimen, we need strength training, workout and dedication too for our souls to last through eternity. Perseverance is the key! Not everybody we expect to be first always turns out to be first. Sometimes, things don't work out the way we thought it would be, happen the way we planned it, or look the way it may seem. All our hard work will be for nothing if we will not persevere, while holding on to His promise that He will be faithful to complete what He has started in us. Serving the Lord is not a bed of roses 'coz there are times when we fail and falter. We must always reconcile ourselves to Him lest He find us in an unprepared state and everything we've worked for will all be for nothing. The present time is what counts so let us always choose the "narrow gate" leading to God. "For many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough." May we always nourish our soul so that we will cultivate a strong faith in God. Amen. Hallelujah!
Luke 13:22-30
Jesus passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem . Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” He answered them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough. After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ He will say to you in reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ And you will say, ‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’ Then he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!’ And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God kingdom of God
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