A Glimpse of His Love

7th Sunday of Easter Solemnity of the Pentecost IN TODAY'S GOSPEL (John 7.37-39), the Beloved Apostle recalled Jesus speaking before the Jews in the synagogue during the last and greatest day of the feast. The Lord invited the people of Israel who thirst amid the evils of life to come to Him and be filled. Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink.  Interestingly, the Lord did not invite those who do not thirst to come to him. And this lack of invitation has profound meaning to reflect upon. He did not invite them because either (a) they are self-sufficient in their lives and think they do not need the Holy Spirit, or (b) they are so close to the Lord anyway no invitation would be necessary. The first group of people believed they do not need a drink; the second are already drinking what the Lord can give. Above all that, the Lord sought to fill those who thirst. He came to bring everlasting water to those whose souls thirsted for God. Lord, I thirst for you all through my...

Seventh Saturday of Easter TODAY'S GOSPEL (John 21:20-25) tells of a final scene before the Lord ascended into Heaven. As the newly appointed leader of the Church that would take care of the Lord's sheep  when He physically goes back to His Father, Peter had started thinking of maximizing the Apostles and disciples under him in order to reach as many Jews and Gentiles as possible. But obviously, he had nothing in mind for the beloved apostle, John. So he asked the Lord, what about him? And the Lord replied: What if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours? The Lord concluded His response with an exhortation for Peter to do instead: You follow me .  In this account from John, the Lord reminds us of the primacy of God's will as the purpose of our lives. He tells us that our vocations are personal calls of a personal God. And only the person being called can exactly understand that call.  Neither must we concern ourselves for the fut...

Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles TODAY'S GOSPEL (Mk. 16: 15-18) Jesus directs the Eleven on the focus of their mission before he ascends to Heaven. His central message constitutes the role of faith and baptism in human salvation-- whosoever believes and is baptized will be saved . And that doing the opposite will bring man to damnation-- whoever does not believe will be condemned . Inherent in the act of faith is the act of total surrender to the love of God and to His will. Without this act of surrender there will be no faith as Jesus defined it. This total faith transforms the human heart totally into a soul consumed by God's love in the same way that a "partial faith" (if such is by definition possible) will not allow God's love to trasform the human soul because the reservation against faith becomes a stumbling block of that transformation. That stumbling block lets the seed of fear grow and fester the heart of man so ...

13th Thursday in the Ordinary Time TODAY'S GOSPEL (Luke 13:18-21), the Lord described before the disciples the all-encompassing love that the Christian community is called to be for the rest of the Creation. This love is not our own but an offshoot of the seed of love that God has placed in our hearts at the time we were conceived. The God of love calls us to be children of love, elder creatures called to take care of the Father's creation. As we can see, God's love is not meant to be exclusive, neither it is meant to be confined to ourselves. The God who loves all the Creation called us to love those outside ourselves too. Even married couples are not meant to confine their conjugal love between each other. They too are called to love their children and the community outside their homes. It is this expansive love that tells us how God of love cannot help but love us. It is simply in his nature to love. God is the Father who nurtures us no matter what. God is the...

13th Monday in Ordinary Time IN TODAY'S GOSPEL (Luke 13:10-17) the Lord has made manifest to us another glimpse of his boundless love. Despite the darkness in the heart of the woman bound to Satan for 18 years, he looked unflinchingly in that darkened heart, and dispel it from there. And did it from the overflowing love he had for the woman. In the heart of the woman, his love conquered the darkness finding its home there.   The scene also tells how legalism can be a serious obstacle in the free expression of love. The heart that serves justice and upholds what is right has the tendency to harden in the process because justice and right will find compassion unacceptable, weak, and unstable. Of all the sense of justice and rightness in the heart of the Pharisees watching Jesus deliver the woman from hands of darkness, they failed to understand the compassion streaming from the Lord's heart. They can only see what made the action wrong; not what made the action-loving. ...