A sower went out to sow....

Incarnate Christ 0 comments

Wednesday sixth week of Easter

Dodong went from the provinces to work in Manila. He got a job painting the white line in the middle of the road. On his first day he painted fifty meters, twenty on the second day and only ten on the third. The foreman was rather surprised. He called him in and said, "Dodong, how come you painted fifty meters on the first day, twenty on the second and only ten today?" "Sir," answered Dodong, "can't you see that the can of paint was getting to be farther and farther away!" Poor Dodong's progress was limited by his thinking that the can of paint could only be in one place to which he had to continue to go back. It improved immensely when he found that he could move it along or even bring it with him all the time.

Our faith development and understanding of God can be impeded by our perception of God. If we, as Christians, know what Christ and the Church teach in the doctrinal way only, Christ could be far and far away.

Our life as Christians includes also our efforts to “bring” this Christ in our daily life. It is also to recognize this Christ, who expresses himself in the events of our life, in history, in social situations.

It is to learn to live the Christian message in the humdrum of daily living, which is always new and variable.

The spirit that Jesus sent to us assists us, that we may know how to incarnate the faith in our life.

The Spirit Within 0 comments

Tuesday Sixth Week of Easter

A child, Mei was in prison with her Christian mother during the religious oppression in China in the 1950s. She had a deep faith in what she was taught: that the Holy Spirit comes to the Christians in Confirmation. Mei requested and received the Holy Spirit in this way. Meanwhile, without knowing, Chinese guards let Mei run freely in the prison. When Christians outside the prison found a way to smuggle Communion into the prison, it was Mei who gave it to prisoners-even those in solitary detention. She said, "I'm not afraid: the Spirit is within me."

A clear sign of the works of the Spirit within her.

Another example is from the life of our saint today: Catherine of Sienna. She was the youngest of twenty-five children and was spiritually talented. She had various mystical experiences, and wanted to enter religious life, though her parents did not agree with her. They tried everything to persuade her to leave her dream but it was useless. She became a member of the Third Order of Dominican.

However, all was not sweetness and light; she was afflicted with terrible temptations. After a long struggle of these, she asked the Lord where he was when she was enduring such awful trials. His answer: “I was in your heart, strengthening you by my grace.” In addition to her penances and mystical experiences, she devoted herself to nursing the most horrible of cases. She had the gift of reading people’s minds. She became skilled in diplomacy, and was able to reconcile the conflicting parties within the church. A strong-willed person, she even told the pope “where to go” – i.e. from Avignon back to Rome.

Her life became a clear sign that The Lord, through the Holy Spirit works in her.

What are signs that may indicate the Spirit is at work in my life?

Never give up loving 0 comments

Sixth Sunday of Easter

There was a Hindu who saw a scorpion struggling around in the water. He decided to save it by stretching out his finger, but the scorpion stung him. The man still tried to get the scorpion out of the water, but the scorpion stung him again.

A man nearby told him to stop saving the scorpion that kept stinging him.

But the Hindu said: "It is the nature of the scorpion to sting. It is my nature to love. Why should I give up my nature to love just because it is the nature of the scorpion to sting?

Don't give up loving.
Don't give up your goodness.
Even if people around you sting.

Today we hear Jesus that never gives up loving you says, "If you love me you will keep my commandments." The important word here is "my". Jesus is not speaking of "the", the traditional, Ten Commandments. These belong to the Hebrew Testament. They are still valid, of course, but Jesus goes beyond them. He made this clear in the Sermon on the Mount. He says categorically that he has not come to do away with the Jewish law or the teaching of the prophets but rather to fulfill their inner potential.

Jesus' "commandments" are on a different level. It is HIS commandments we are to keep. What are these commandments of his? Really, there is only one and that is the commandment to love: to love God with all our heart and soul, and to love others as we love ourselves, to love others as Jesus loves us, as he loves the sinner, as he love his enemies.

They include commands to recognize Jesus in the most needy, in the poor, in the sick, in the marginalised, even in the criminal ("I was in prison..."). They include commandments to be agents of healing and reconciliation in a broken and divided world.

There is nothing explicitly about any of this in the Ten Commandments. A good Christian is not just a law-abiding person taking care of oneself. He/she is a loving, caring person reaching out to others in love and service.

Now, Jesus speaks of love as his commandments. Can love really be commanded? In answering this question, we have to believe that “God has loved us first and he continues to do so; we, too, then, can respond with love. God does not demand of us a feeling which we ourselves are incapable of producing. He loves us, he makes us see and experience his love, and since he has ‘loved us first,’ love can also grow as a response within us.”

In order to be able to love, one must also receive love. He cannot always give, he must also receive. Anyone who wishes to give love must also receive love as a gift. Certainly, as our Lord tells us, one can become a source from which rivers of living water flow (cf. Jn 7:37-38). Yet to become such a source, one must constantly drink anew from the original source, which is Jesus Christ, from whose pierced heart flows the love of God (cf. Jn 19:34). We need to abide in the love of Christ. May we, with the gift of Holy Spirit Jesus promises, will be able to love unceasingly.

Never give up in loving!
Don't give up your goodness.
Even if people around you sting.