Are You at Peace?

27 March 2011 Third Sunday of Lent
Exodus 17: 3-7; Psalm 95; Rom 5:1-8; John 4: 5-42

Note: This is a scheduled post. Every article for the 2011 Sundays of Lent and Easter published in this blog has been written long before the 11th of March 2011, the beginning of my 30-day retreat. The rest will come out at the date and time I have programmed it in Blogger. A big favor to ask: please pray for 8 Jesuits, including myself, doing the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. My prayers also for all of you who have sustained me and encouraged me to blog since 2005.

Today, let us take the message from the 2nd reading. St. Paul writes to the Romans. He said that we are justified by faith and are at peace with God through our Lord. St. Paul shows that the Old Testament promise of a Savior and a Messiah is realized in Christ. This is the message of the Transfiguration last Sunday. The greatest figures of the Old Testament are witnesses of the Transfiguration of Christ. Moses with the Law and Elijah with the prophets. By His sufferings and death, Christ conquered sin. And thus, St. Paul says that Christ then reconciles all people, justifies all of us, and therefore brings peace between us and God. Sin destroys our relationship with the Lord, and therefore, when sin is overcome, then our relationship with God is restored.

But we all know that sin is not completely destroyed in each one of us. The objective of Lent is to help us see the venom of our own sins and how it destroys our relationship with ourselves, with others, with nature and with God. During this struggle of ours, Christ is our peace if we trust and follow Him. This was the message last Sunday, God says to us, “This is my beloved Son, on whom my favor rests. Listen to Him” (Matt 17:5).

Christ then is our peace and the source of grace. Peace is the message of the life of Christ. When Christ was born, peace was announced by the angels. Peace was declared by the disciples as Christ entered Jerusalem in a triumphant procession which we will remember on Palm Sunday. Even when He was rejected at his birth in Bethlehem or by the people in Jerusalem, He continued to offer peace.

He always say, “Go in peace” as a sign of farewell to those He has healed. “Go in peace” was His admonition that accompanied the grace of forgiveness when He absolved the sinner. In the name of peace, Christ commissioned his disciples to advance the frontiers of God’s kingdom when He sent the disciples to the towns and on His ascension into heaven. (Incidentally, do you recognize “Go in peace” at mass and at the Sacrament of Reconciliation?)

Where do we find this peace? St. Paul says that Christ is our peace because He establishes this peace in our hearts. He has reconciled us to God and to each other. And therefore, we cannot find peace until our hearts rests in God (St. Augustine).

When Paul wrote to the Ephesians, He said, “It is He who is our peace, and who made the two of us one by breaking down the barrier of hostility that kept us apart ... reconciling both of us to God in one body through his cross, which put that enmity to death. He came and announced to the good news of peace to you who were far off, and to those who were near” (Eph 2: 14, 16, and 17).

In our hearts, the peace of Christ is stable. It does not rely on any other element but reconciliation with each other. Only when we are united in the Holy Spirit, with one heart and soul, do we find this peace since we are the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts: “The love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given us” (Rom 5:5). And by sharing His life, we have a stable peace: “Live in harmony and peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you” (2 Cor 13:11).

In our lives, we are therefore encouraged to cooperate with this peace that the Lord has given in our hearts. We are to imitate God as a peacemaker (Matt 5:9). To do the best that we can to establish peace in the world is to imitate God. And thus, in the interest of peace, we use our time and talents to establish unity and tranquility in people’s lives.

This is very relevant in a world of war and conflict. Think of the unrest in this world and how a country in conflict affects others. Think Iraq, Pakistan, Egypt or Libya. Think of civil strife. Think of discontentment in our government. Reflect on disunity and disillusionment in the Church. Reflect on destroyed or strained relationships within our organizations and personal circles.

By working for peace, we can lead others to God. By working for people who are “not at peace” because of several reasons such as illnesses, hurts, or poverty, we can somehow help by visiting and providing opportunities to have someone to talk to. We can work to help those suffering from environmental calamities as a result of global warming. We can work for justice before God, by overcoming sin that always disturbs and destroys us. Or we can help restore justice in our society.

We can use this Season of Lent to ask this question: When have I become a source of peace? And when have I become a source of conflict and division? What have I done or have been doing to restore peace in the world, or in our own personal worlds, today?

Live in Hope

20 March 2011. 2nd Sunday of Lent
Gen 12:1-4; Psalm 33; 2 Tim 1:8-10; Matthew 17:1-9

Note: This is a scheduled post. Every article published in this blog has been written long before the 11th of March 2011, the beginning of my 30-day retreat. The rest will come out at the date and time I have programmed it in blogger. A big favor to ask: please pray for 8 Jesuits, including myself, doing the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. My prayers also for all of you who have sustained me and encouraged me to blog since 2005.

Last Sunday, the first sunday of Lent, we heard of the temptations of Jesus. We were encouraged to do likewise, to overcome our temptations in our lives. But we know now, that it is not easy to refuse the offers of Satan. It is even difficult to be aware of some temptations, much more so, it is challenging to refuse the evil spirit’s various seductions. Our lives witness to many failures in this difficult task, by the repetitive and ‘favorite’ sins we confess at the Sacraments.

Today, the Gospel about the Transfiguration of Jesus gives us the hope and encouragement we need to continue on our journey. Pilgrims will find it very difficult to move on if they don’t know where their going. By persevering in overcoming temptations and enduring our sufferings, we hope to transfigure our lives by the grace of our Lord.

Before the Transfiguration, our Lord predicts his passion and death. Matthew says, “From then on, Jesus started to indicate to his disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly there at the hands of the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be put to death, and raised up on the third day” (16:21). This shocked the disciples because it is different from their concept of the Messiah who was thought to be like a victorious king, as David, who will liberate Israel from the oppression of Rome. And therefore, in the minds of the disciples and the people, for the Messiah to be handed over to the Gentiles for punishment is a total disgrace and destruction of what they popularly thought a Messiah to be.

And so, the disciples needed an assurance in the future that He is indeed the Messiah, the Son of God, though not in their frame of mind, but in the mold of the mind of God. By witnessing to the Transfiguration, they are assured that Jesus is indeed the Son of God. They are witnesses to the glory of the Divine and Human Jesus as they have seen the face of Christ shine like the sun (Matthew 17:2) and the clothes of Christ are as bright as light (Matthew 17:3). After the event of the Transfiguration, the Apostles gave testimony of its truth to others (Matthew 17:9).

What is the effect of the Transfiguration to the Apostles? It simply become the cause of their hope in Christ. Thus the memory of the Transfiguration sustains the Apostles in the darkest moments of Christ’s suffering and death, and their own pains and sorrows in their future mission. In addition, it confirms who really is Jesus. Peter’s answer, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God” (Matt. 16:16) is confirmed by the Transfiguration.

In our lives today, the Transfiguration brings us hope. By trusting in the word of the disciples who were the witnesses and the Word of God in Scripture, we know that our faith in Jesus is true. This is important when there are many anti-Christ or anti-Christianity movements (though some parade themselves as pro-humanity). They may not deny Christ, but water down or deny His Divinity. Thus, the Transfiguration gives us hope that indeed there is meaning and importance in our struggle to overcome temptations and enduring our sufferings.

Second, it tells us that our suffering for Christ in our lives is a participation in His sufferings. We sometimes tell ourselves that we offer whatever we endure in trying to become a good Christian to the Lord. We now know that suffering is the path to glory. That our efforts at studying is the sure path to success. That our travails of our work for our family or our future is the way to a secure future. That the cross that comes in our loving leads towards the resurrection. St. Paul said, “I consider the sufferings of the present to be as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed to us” (Rom 8:18).

Finally, the Transfiguration becomes our goal in our pilgrimage here on earth, therefore it becomes the destination in our lives. A person on a journey is given much encouragement when we know where we are going. The same thing in every endeavor that we do: if we know the why of every single project or work, we are inspired to exert greater effort when we grow tired and weary. A student who walks in life with a purpose will find studying meaningful than a someone without a goal.

The same things when we practice virtue. In the Season of Lent, when we grow tired and discouraged in being good or in trying to live a true Christian life, it would be profitable to reflect on the Transfiguration. Here we know that to be a Christian means to be transfigure into the likeness of Christ, as Genesis reminds us, that we are made in God’s image and likeness.

And so today, gaze on the Lord who is Transfigured and never to turn your eyes away from Jesus, the Son of God. St. Paul urges us to live in hope when he says, “And this hope will not leave us disappointed, because the love of God has been poured in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom 5:5).

Live in hope. Listen to Him (Matt. 17:5).

The Test of Freedom

13 March 2011 1st Sunday of Lent
Genesis 2: 7-9, 3:1-7; Psalm 51; Romans 5: 12-19; Matthew 4:1-11

Note. This is a scheduled post. Blogger publishes this entry at the date I intended it to come out in my blog. Please pray for us, 8 Jesuits, making the 30-Day Retreat, the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.

We begin with an anthropology of what we are in the view of Christianity: we are most human when we serve, praise and reverence God (Principle and Foundation, Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius of Loyola). We sometimes refer to this when we say that the glory of God is humanity fully alive -- but when? When we behold the face of God and do God’s will. And therefore, our understanding of original sin is having the ability of a created being to deny God. It is possible for each one of us to make a choice for God or our self.

Grace does not force our will, so that everything that we do is motivated by our love for God. Thus, in every turn, we are tempted in order for us to make a choice: to curtail or impede our freedom or to respect our very humanity.

There are two dictionary meanings of the word, temptation. First, to tempt means to seek to seduce into evil. To tempt means to lure people to sin. To tempt is better envisioned like a seductress to a man, or a seducer to woman. To tempt means to persuade one to enter into an illicit relationship. In Scripture, however, the verb peirazein is often better translated by the word, test.

In the Old Testament, we read the story of Abraham and Isaac, when God tested the loyalty of Abraham by seeming to demand the sacrifice of his only son. The passage goes, “And it came to pass that God did tempt Abraham” (Genesis 22:1). Obviously, the word tempt as to seduce to sin, cannot be used here because it is something God would never do --- to lead one into sin. It means rather, that Abraham has to submit to a test of loyalty and obedience.

In its New Testament usage, to tempt a person is not so much to seduce him or her to sin, as in the first meaning, but to test his strength, loyalty and his ability for service. In the Temptations of Jesus, it is said, “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1). If we take again the word tempt here as in the first meaning as to lead one to sin, it means that the Holy Spirit is partner in the attempt to compel Jesus to sin.

Thus, in the Bible, to tempt has the idea of testing, to test one’s loyalty and obedience, to test one’s strength. Here is one precious truth about temptations. Temptation is not designed to make us fall. Temptation is designed to make us stronger and better persons. Temptation is not designed to make us sinners. It is designed to make us good, and to make us holier. We may fail the test, but we are not meant to. We are meant to emerge stronger, with much dignity and worth. Temptation is not so much our penalty, but our glory. If a metal is to be used for bridges, the metal is tested at stresses and strains far beyond those which it likely has to bear.

So how should we regard temptations? Take it as a challenge: the object is not to yield, but overcome it. It is like talent shows with judges to critique like the Master Chef, American Idol or Pilipinas Got Talent. Their harsh words is suppose to coax the contestant to give out the very best.

There are four steps to face temptations. First, you must not be weakened by your situation. For example, if you are already handsome and intelligent, you could easily yield to the temptation of being seduced. Second, you must not be deceived by the persuasion. You see your tempter will have the right words and will be very persuasive. “Sige na, by doing this you will prove you really care for me.” “Ngayon lang. Sa susunod wala na.” “Nalulungkot kasi ako, maiintindihan naman ng Diyos.” Baits can come each day--- the internet, television, magazines or peer pressure.

Third, you must not be gentle with your emotions. Huwag alagaan ang mga nararamdaman, huwag magpapadala sa emosyon! Often at the peak of our emotions, we decide and act what we will soon regret. St. Ignatius gives this advice: Don’t decide when you are at extremes--- too happy or too sad, too angry or super so kilig.

Finally, you must not be confused with the immediate results. You may lose your friends. You may lose your lover. You may lose acceptance in a group or be ridiculed. I suggest, then so be it: we do it in the principle that our loyalty is first and primarily to Christ and no one else. We owe it to who we really are--- as a child of God--- and to our family. Most of all, you owe it to God.

And so when we use our freedom, understood as the ability to make a choice for God (not one’s self), then we become better human beings. If we yield to temptation, failing the test and violating our freedom, we become deformed.

Jesus, in the Gospel today, sets the example of how to become fully alive. In the first Sunday of Lent, it is good to know what we are meant to be.

A Common Day of Mourning

9 March 2011 Ash Wednesday
Joel 2:12-18; Psalm 51; 2 Cor 5:20-6:2; Matthew 6:1-18

There are varied ways in Catholic Rites to celebrate the beginning of Lent. For many Catholic churches of the Eastern Rite such as the Orthodox Churches, they begin it two days ahead of us from the Roman or Latin Rite. So they started Lent last Monday, the 7th, while we begin it today, Wednesday. Lent means the same for all of us, but we place a significant attention to the biblical number of 40. Elijah and Jesus spent 40 days and nights of prayer and fasting in the desert.

Thus, Easter is 40 days from Ash Wednesday. We determine Easter by the day of the full moon in April, and then we count backwards to determine the time we mark ourselves with the cross on our foreheads.

The color of Lent is purple which is liturgically associated with mourning and repentance. In ancient times, fabrics dyed with this color were very expensive. Thus, the color was only accessible to the rich, and most especially associated with royalty. I guess today, when we celebrate liturgical seasons peppered with the theme of reconciliation such as Advent and Lent, we prepare ourselves for the death of royalty - our royalty - to order ourselves to the real Royalty, our God and King! These seasons of preparation redirects our attention to Jesus, at Christmas and Easter.

The Season of Lent is inseparable with Easter. It prepares and leads us to this peak of our faith. First, the sorrow of Lent in the symbol of the ash. In the Old and New Testament, a repentant sinner wears sackcloth and covers himself with ashes. The ash that is placed on our forehead symbolizes repentance. But these are outward signs of repentance. Ash Wednesday begins a journey of repentance, return to the Lord, and then supporting each other in this common enterprise of holiness.

The Lord tells us in the first reading that we should rend, not our clothes, but our hearts. We should return to the Lord with all our hearts, with fasting and weeping, begging on our knees for the Lord’s forgiveness and mercy. The kind of heart that is asked in the Lenten season is a contrite heart; its sorrow is deep and inward. We can call this feeling as a holy and blessed sorrow because this is about our relationship with God. It is not the tears that comes from an actor’s eyes, or from a broken-hearted, or from our experience of death and hurt. This time it is not about us as victims of pain; but us as the cause of another’s pain. It is about another, and this time, it is about God. It is a sorrow because we have hurt someone else and we would like to repair the damage that we have done. We cry because our relationship with another has been severed and it is constantly bleeding. We weep because we have contributed to the injustice in our society.

We are haunted by cultural and societal sins, meaning, we cannot wash our hands and say, I have not contributed to the perpetuation of discrimination, abuse, unrest, graft and corruption. When we hear the civil strife in Egypt and Libya, or scandalous corruption in the Philippine military, we know what we mean by societal evil. When Christians --- yes, not just Catholics --- put ashes on their forehead, we, as a community, declare a worldwide day of repentance. We acknowledge that our sins affect others.

Second, the return to the Father is the joy of Lent. This may come as a surprise, but it isn’t. It is like coming to home where we are assured of warmth. We look at our sins in the background of the love of God. We are sorry for our offenses because God continually loves us despite our unfaithfulness. That means when we repent, we know that God will forgive us because God is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger and rich in kindness.” Psalm 51 is a celebration of God’s mercy towards us. Mercy and a renewal of heart are guaranteed to those who sincerely asks for forgiveness. The Anglo-Saxon word for Lent is spring. Ash Wednesday marks the first day of our transition from winter to spring! Psalm 126 says, “May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy!” Thus, our joy comes from contrition and penance. In our lives, this is illustrated by the joy we experience when someone forgives us; when having offended our parents and being forgiven, we weep with comfort, relief and joy!

Thus, the meaning of Lent becomes profoundly true in view of spring, in view of Easter. The Gospel reminds us that we should not appear fasting like the hypocrites. Our faces should be washed clean like those with assured joy. It is a tragedy that many of us remain in Lent, and forget the joy of Easter. We think Christianity is centered on sorrow, and not on joy. This is why we have contributed to a dark and gloomy Christianity. We must not miss the point of repentance. We repent because we want to return to the embrace of God, as the son returns to his loving father in the parable of Jesus. It is therefore not an accident that we call the Season of Lent a celebration. Like all celebrations, the most successful event is a result of thorough preparation. Lent prepares us for the overwhelming joy of Easter.

Finally, the journey to the Father is not just done alone. We support each other because to be holy is difficult. Thus the role of the community is important, the way our social environment forms our moral behavior. Paul exhorts us that we should work together to receive the grace of God. Thus, we should help each other create the environment for repentance and re-formation. It can mean physical space like dried twigs on church altars, simple music for masses during Lent or communal participation in reconciliation services. It also means that we can encourage one another, that indeed this is the “acceptable time” to return to God. Many people come to Ash Wednesday mass because the hope in the possibility of returning to God is enkindled. There is in our hearts parts that we hold back and needs to be re-joined to God. Or for many, the time to once more strengthen one’s faith is created when members of the Christian community work together to make the Lenten Season meaningful. Ash Wednesday then is an acceptable time, the day of our salvation!

Shut Up!

6 March 2011 9th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Deuteronomy 11:18-32; Psalm 31; Romans 3:21-28; Matthew 7:21-27

Jesus says in the Gospel today, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven." If not everyone, then some will. Who will then qualify? He continued, "only the one who does the will of My Father in heaven." Further on, He adds, "everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them."

In other words, there are prerequisites in being with God in heaven. First, we listen to God's words. Second, we find God's will for each one of us. He wants us to follow the teachings of Jesus such as those from the Sermon on the Mount (loving one’s enemies) and the Last Judgment (feeling the hungry, visiting the sick, etc).

Finally, we act on them according to our capacities and abilities. God wants us to live out the plan He had in mind for us when He created us. What is that plan? It is to use the talents God gave us, not for our own selfish agenda, but for the advancement of God’s Kingdom on earth. This is what we say when we pray the Our Father: “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

In our world today, to find the starting point of our actions---God's desire for each one of us---is proving to be challenging. The world today has a culture of talk. Everyone is encouraged to "speak up and be heard." The internet has various platforms to articulate and express our ideas, opinions and even rants about anything and everything. Mobile devices does not allow a waiting period to regurgitate our ideas before it comes out. We can text, call, chat, and post instantly from literally our hands.

It is easy then to claim that we are right; that we hold the truth; that we are in tune with God's will, while other people's take on an issue isn't. It is easier then to tell everyone, that we do call on the Lord, therefore, they should believe us. Especially when we hold some power: as celebrities, as personalities with cult followers on Twitter or Facebook.

The challenge then is not to speak up, but to shut up. To close our mouths, in order to quiet down, listen, pray, research, reflect and think before we speak up, post or tweet. God speaks in the quiet of our hearts. Unless we are trained to do these, many of our opinions will be baseless, our tweets useless, our blog posts contentless, and our statuses trite and trivial. Worse, we might feed spoiled information to people who might not have the time to verify what you say because they have held on to your word by virtue of your personality.

And if our house, as the Gospel tells us, is built on sand, we expect it to crumble when the storms come. Sadly it is already happening in a culture of meaninglessness and hopelessness. As we approach the Season of Lent beginning Ash Wednesday this week, we allow ourselves some time to shut up.

What Attracted You to the Faith?

2 March 2011. Wednesday of the 8th Week in Ordinary Time
Sirach 36: 1-17; Psalm 79; Mark 10: 32-45

What attracted you to the faith? Yes, I know, I was like you: I was baptized when I was an infant. But there was a point in our lives when, we had to own the faith. We were initially ‘seduced’ into it by some things which we think was important.

Believe it or not, I was attracted to the Jesuits because of food and music. Shocked? Yes, no matter how shallow, that was the truth. I didn’t know about the Jesuits until high school because I was raised in a Franciscan parish; educated by the Benedictines in grade school and then the Dominicans in high school. What began as a prospect of fun and adventure in a city two hours away from home, ended with me following God’s call.

It first began with the meals the Jesuits offered during the Vocation seminar in Naga. I loved the food! And then, the event ended with a mass. In the liturgy, I discovered the songs I loved to play at our parish were composed by Jesuits. St. Augustine said that God’s grace builds on one’s nature. St. Ignatius said that God begins from where we are. What these great figures of spirituality said were true to me.

Good thing, I was not alone. Some were attracted to the Church because of the promise of healing. Some were attracted by power and fame. Some were attracted by the opportunity of being known in the community. Business-owners in Quiapo, Philippines, clamored to have the image of the Black Nazarene turn to their stores during the January procession for a year of luck. In addition, I knew of some choir members who first began their service because their crush was there. Never mind. Never undermine the power of God.

The apostles, James and John, for all their leadership in the growth of the Christian faith, fell into something like that. After Jesus explanation and description of His impending suffering and death, James and John totally missed what Jesus was saying. They wanted Jesus to grant them a place in His glory. (In another Gospel, it was their mother who requested this.) They do not know what they were asking.

To some extent today, we are like James and John. We do not know what we are asking. We do somehow miss the objective of our faith. To be like Jesus means to carry our cross and follow Him. To be a Christian means to serve the whole of humanity. Discipleship is following the way of the cross of Jesus in faith, through the service to all. To suffer is a large part of the mission; but it doesn’t deny we do experience deeper happiness in the very struggle within it.

From experience, the cross purifies whatever impure or trivial motivations we have. There are those who easily bail out of the Church when they begin to experience pain within it. There are those who have experienced rejection, scandal, discouragement, disillusionment, or disappointments in the leadership of those in the Church.

But there are those who stayed. After missing the point, they learn, eventually, to get the point. James and John promised Jesus that they are willing to drink from the cup. And they have. Despite the stupidity of some of our leaders, many of us have bravely and courageously stayed and struggled within the Church.

Gone are the days when we thought that being a Catholic or a Christian is to be dining with nice friends in a banquet hall filled with good music. We are not anymore in the clouds, expecting everyone to agree or do what we think is the right thing to do. It is sometimes hard to think that there are more people who will not agree with us, including those whom we believe are educated enough to think what is compassionately right.

Are You Burdened?

27 February 2011 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Isaiah 49:14-15; 1 Cor 4:1-5; Matthew 6: 24-34

There is a lesson we can pick up from my family. Two uncles claim that they have taken the wrong course in their lives. The eldest wanted to become a lawyer, but was forced to take medicine because a doctor gives a family prestige and honor. He bailed out after a few years and became a manager. The youngest, wanted to take medicine, but my grandfather said that he should follow his footsteps, so he took law.

My dad, on the other hand, was independent-minded and stubborn. So, he took what he wanted: agriculture. Since he was happy with it, he raised us to follow our hearts. So far, my brothers and sisters are satisfied following their dreams. Oh, and I am too. Very much.

These raises some questions.

Have you ever felt tired of doing what other people require you to do? Have you ever felt that you are just ‘going through the motions’ like an automated machine or a hotel receptionist with a ready smile when a guest comes in? Have you ever felt that the ‘persona’ you project at work is different from the real you? Or simply, are you so confused about your situation that you feel your heart is divided between what you have to do and what you really want to do?

If your answer to these questions is yes, or moving towards a nod, then perhaps it is time to ask sincerely about whom or what we serve. You might be serving two masters; or at least, trying to give 100% of our one and only life to two things (which is impossible, as Jesus says in the Gospel today).

Unfortunately, for most of us, we are forced to face this choice once a tragedy befalls us or when our values are threatened. If a child of yours tells you that he or she does not want to run the family business which you have painfully put up, what would you say? Your business or your child’s happiness? Or, what would you choose, a well-paying job or a work you are inspired to do, but it not at par with the pay of the former? In the spiritual plane, God’s will or something else?

Second, everything will fall into place after we decide on what or who governs our lives. Jesus said, “Do not worry... Your heavenly Father knows that we need (these things) but seek first the Kingdom of God ... and all these things will be given to you.”

Many of us have experienced some tragedy or failure in our lives, some to a greater extent. When a setback happens, our reaction is usually worry and anger. If God is good, why did He allow this to happen?!!! We would vent out our frustrations and disappointments on God. Sometimes it is good to accept that these things happen. I know this is such a strong statement to blog, but (put all of your frustrations into one simple sentence), indeed, _ _ _ _ happens! I remember one actress who said, “It is not the burden you carry that breaks you, but how you carry it.”

Check nature. One of the my favorite shells is the Venus comb murex. They have spikes, some of them long. In college, I collected shells. I always wondered why the spikes didn’t break up easily with the lash of the waves on rocks on the beach. The reason is simple: they rode with the waves. The same thing, we just have to accept that misfortunes do happen. The difference is in how we face them.

We know that many of our burdens overload us because some are unnecessary. If you have two masters, you carry both of them.

The Gospel tells us that to unburden ourselves, we must be aware that we cannot serve two masters. We have to decide on only one, and put all of our effort to it. (I hope you choose God.) And all other things will fall in place.

For Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ, the former General of the Society of Jesus, he said that “what or whom we are in love with, will decide what we will do daily.” So he said, “Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.”