Making Friends With The Lord Jesus

Today's gospel reveals to us a certain frustration of Jesus. Capharnaum became His second residence, after Nazareth. He adopted the city as His HQ for His public phase of His stay on Earth. He performed many miracles there, but still its population resisted Jesus and His message. So, our Lord makes it plain that they would suffer more than what Sodom and Gomorrah underwent when God sent fire and brimstone from Heaven to destroy them. This episode should spur us to wake up our sense of responsibility to respond generously to Our Lord's invitation to conversion and more self-giving.

Jesus explains clearly today what He wants from His followers. He does not mince words. He does not hide behind euphemisms. Nobody will be able to say that any of His demands or requirements were not clearly made plain. He employs strong words. His standards are clear. He demands that He is above every consideration: above family, above parents or any creature we may take fancy with.

The gospel today addresses these two very important questions, namely, eternal life and the identity of our neighbor. Let us be open to the words of Jesus so we could adopt whatever measure or make necessary adjustments in our lives to incorporate Jesus' commands in our circumstances.

Be not afraid! We address those bad fears in today's gospel!

The Lords sees us all as sheep without a shepherd. We tend to be defenseless when facing the enemies of our soul, especially the devil and his two allies, namely, worldliness and our fallen nature. Hence, He reveals to us today that He is the shepherd of us sheep. We might fall prey to deceptions and lies the devil expertly spreads around disguised as ideologies, wokeness, materialism and consumerism, etc. Shall we permit Him to shepherd us by faithful to listening to Him in prayer, in getting regular instruction in our faith and morals, in going to frequent confession and spiritual direction and the like.

The Lord asks us to be generous since He has been generous with us. His gifts are totally gratuitous. He was never obliged to give us anything, least of all to award us the gift of existing and is that of being destined to be with Him for eternity. The reality is obvious, namely, that He has given us so many things that we absolutely do not deserve having and that we are totally obliged to be thankful to Him for. Then, we need to be generous also with our neighbor.

Being summoned by God is something we need to get used to. Today's gospel particularly illustrates this. Jesus called some of his disciples and sent them as His apostles. He calls us all the time because He is always in touch with us. Our problem is that we are not disposed well enough to be sensitive to His summons consciously. We are His creatures. In man's case, each man is specifically and individually summoned by God from nothing. He thought and freely willed each of us to existence, when we were conceived and from then on for eternally, in whatever circumstances that happened, whether by the marital embrace, or by rape, or by a lab technician in a petri dish.

Haven't you experienced those moments when you felt that you needed help, or you had questions, or felt that you needed to accept or acknowledge responsibility for something, etc? We all have gone through them. We actually continue to experience those occasions when we omitted to say something when we should have. The gospel reveals to us today the existence of kinds of devils. Today, we are introduced to the mute and dumb devil. He prods us to shut up, hide certain things inside our hearts or minds. Practically, this is all about keeping secrets the devil. This arrangement is dangerous.

Our relationship with God boils down to trusting Him. The gospel today provides us two miracles-both happening to women-where trust in Jesus is highlighted. Explore this in the homily.

Today, the Lord tells us about our role in the Church. We are like ambassadors of Christ. We are the face of Christ to the others. They will be attracted or repelled by Christ depending on each of us showing the face of Christ to them.

The gospel today sends us to contemplate Jesus explaining to the Jews the reason why His disciples did not fast just like them. They were proud about themselves being able to fast so much, such that they were critical of Jesus' followers who did not fast. Jesus clarified that He was still around. Only when He is gone when He dies on the Cross will they begin to fast. But as it is, He was still with them. Those Jews were envious of them because they thought themselves better being able to fast much.

Jesus is Saviour. Hence, He came looking for sinners, like you and I. We should approach Him with confidence and simplicity. We should accept that we are sinners. We are not past sinners. We are sinners now. Hence, we need the doctor to help us heal.

We need to live our Faith, not only saying it or reciting some formula. We need to struggle to live according to its demands.

Our Lord in today's gospel shows us how much He values man and his salvation relative to the swine that were in the area. The thing is the demons asked Him that they move to the swine. After He gave them leave, they entered the pigs and rushed them over the cliff to drown in the sea. The swineherds relayed this story to the villagers who naturally did not like what Jesus did. So, they asked Him to leave their village. Our Lord is ready to be rejected just to belabor the point that those demoniacs deserved better and much more than the value of those swine. He was willing to lose them but not those men.

Lord, save us! That was how the disciples woke Jesus up in the midst of that raging storm. What could you expect them to do? The waves were swamping the boat that they feared for their lives. Jesus got up without any care in the world. This is peanuts! Anyhow, He rebuked those forces of nature and everything returned to calmness. He addressed them criticizing their little faith. We should admit to our little faith too, and that it should be more and grow. How will it grow if there is no occasion for it to grow? True, God gives us more faith but there have to be times when more faith is required and we face the reality of our puny faith.

Let us observe the Sacred Humanity of Our Lord. Since He is perfect man, His most attractive. People wanted to follow Him. But do you have what it requires to follow Him?

We celebrate today two of the greatest apostles of Jesus Christ. Their witness and example should spur us on also in loving Jesus with deeds, even when we are beset by personal weaknesses and sins. The Lord did not choose them because they were perfect or near perfect. They were weak, proud, and cowardly, but they took seriously their moment of conversion. They lived Jesus in return, even to the point of martyrdom.

After the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we now look into the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I recall from my teenage years what the adults called dirty, like dirty jokes, dirty pictures, dirty movies, etc. I wondered what was dirty. Was it sex? Was it something related to the marital embrace? Was it about the human body, or the female body? Anyhow, I found out later that what was dirty was not what God designed and created. What was dirty was the disorder involved, the taking out of proper context and from God's design or laws certain human realities. That was where sin reigned. That was where the dirt was. Anyway, Mary's Heart is referred to as Immaculate, i.e., clean. It was clean because of its content. Let us explore this Heart in today's gospel.

Today, the Church wants us to know the Heart of Jesus! It is Valentine's Day between God and Man, Man collectively, but especially man in particular, i.e., each one of us. Indeed, God wants to have a personal relationship with each one of us. Explore the Sacred Heart of Jesus as we can appreciate in the gospel of today's mass.

Let us not kid ourselves. Today's gospel only reinforces our conviction about the fact that we can be led astray by deceitful people. Adam and Eve's experience with the serpent continues nowadays. Satan is always on the prowl looking for fresh victims. Hence, our dear Lord Jesus Christ asks us to beware of false prophets. These latter can come nowadays to our homes and bedrooms because of TV, movies, etc and the pervasive Internet. Satan continues to hunt for victims to deceive and lead away from the truth and moral goodness. Jesus reveals a method to detect this before it harms us. Check their fruits, their products, their graduates, their later lives, etc. If the results show fruits that are not good, then we should be wary of the danger present in such teachers, or prophets.

We celebrate the birthday of St. John the Baptist. Discover the reasons we do this in the Catholic Church. Aside from his birthday, we also celebrate those of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ. What makes this cousin of Jesus significant?

It is good policy to check ourselves in the mirror during the day. We do have a good image of physical selves but we need to verify and check whether that is actually the case. If we do this with respect to our physical selves, we also need to do this with respect to our heart and souls. We may have a false and erroneous idea of ourselves. This happens also in the way we judge others.

We celebrate today the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We give witness to the world of the Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist. Hidden under the appearance of bread and wine is the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of the Second Person of the Second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity. Jesus is truly Emmanuel, God with us, I our Tabernacles.

We cannot serve two masters. Jesus n tells us so much. But He does not only mean that we follow and obey Him. He also means that we trust HIM. Our trust in Him is tested all the time. The devil only wants us to distrust Him. That's how he got our first parents to sin.

Where does your heart go during the day? What consumes your heart as you go about your day? Jesus wants us to examine ourselves to answer these questions derived from the gospel today. In theory, that center where our heart should revolve around is God. Is it? Or is it a creature or creatures that we have decided to be worth giving up our hearts to?

Our Lord teaches us today how we are to pray. We need to underscore that Jesus teaches us HOW we are to connect with God. Perhaps we do not need to say this prayer all the time, but we have here the model and pattern of HOW we need to pay. Hence, we have here the absolute elements of prayer.

Let us take care of our personal formation, where we strive to go for real work on acquiring virtues, rather than being satisfied with a mere image or reputation. We might fall into the trap so rampant nowadays of being superficial in improving ourselves. Let us not only look good. Let us be good! Let us be truthful, rather than be satisfied with getting the news out first without having verified the veracity of the news.

Today's gospel is simple. Love your Enemies!

We have heard the principle, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." Our Lord requires His followers not to seek revenge, but to be merciful. This is the most difficult challenge perhaps in Christianity. Anyhow, Jesus never said it would be easy to follow Him. We need to let the Holy Spirit help us. We need to pray for it.

Today we celebrate our faith's highest mystery. Let's learn how to live it in our lives.

Honesty and simplicity may not be in vogue nowadays. What is in is complicatedness, wordiness, falsehood, misinformation, etc. Jesus reminds us in today's gospel about the importance of truthfulness and the commitment we each make in declaring each truth.

We read today's gospel about Jesus teaching about the requirements of His Law. He discusses the nature of sin originating in man's higher powers. Hence, any sin begins in our thinking and willing. Then, He instructs us to flee from occasions of sin. Lastly, He clarifies the evil of divorce.

We celebrate today the best gift we have in Jesus Christ as the Priest. With His priesthood we have been saved. All His actions on earth were transformed by His priestly nature and mission that we can now enjoy filiation with God and destiny in Heaven. We are all called to assume a priestly soul, in imitation of Christ.

Our Lord Jesus Christ reveals in the gospel today His mind and intentions with regard to the Law that Was revealed before His coming. He had no intention of changing it, but to fulfill it. Just like what we saw yesterday when He introduced a clarification regarding the sixth commandment. Adultery is not only committed in physical terms, but also in the realm of thinking and willing.

What would you say of a lighted bulb not giving off light? Or a live charcoal not giving off heat? A Christian is supposed to change his environment and to bring it closer to God.

Jesus gave us His Mother to be our Mother too! Mater Dei, Mater nostra! Children look like their parents. How do we try better to imitate her?

Today, the Church opens so officially with the coming of the Holy Spirit in the fullest sense, enough to send each of the weak and fearful apostles to evangelize the Church, and even face martyrdom. We need Him more, nowadays.

We end the reading of the gospel written by St. John, the Apostle. This ending comes with two details. The first one is about the preoccupation of St. Peter for the future of St. John. St. Peter just received his mandate to take care of Jesus' flock even though he had denied Jesus three times. Jesus only asked for his love. Jesus admonishes him not to be concerned about what the vision of the others would require of them. He demands that we only follow Him. The second detail is about the fact of Sacred Scriptures not being able to contain all of Jesus' activities and words. In other words, there is another source of Sacred Revelation, i.e., Sacred Tradition.

St. John, the Evangelist's gospel ending is the focus of today's mass. He tells us two things. First, St. Peter, after having been told about how he would die, wondered what would happen to St. John. Jesus teaches us also about focusing ourselves in fulfilling God's Will for us personally, instead of making the call of others a factor in how we respond to our calling. Second, St. John assures us that the written Word of God is limited. That means that there are other details of Divine Revelation that are preserved elsewhere in Sacred Tradition, which is the unwritten Word of God.

Today's gospel reveals to us God's attitude and disposition with respect to any of us sinners. He only asks us one question. Our imagination and egoism worry us with meant questions to rob us of self- worth and peace. "Do you love me?"is all He is interested in. That question launches us to the great adventure of working together with God to become a saint and help others to become one as well.

Let us each contribute our share to seek unity in the Church.

The gospel today brings up the matter of Jesus' priestly prayer for unity. It is a divine attribute. Jesus prays that we be one with Him. Unity is a attribute of the divine nature. He is One, indivisible in Himself where everything in Him is identified with His nature, although we by the limitation of our knowing and nature, we see Him to be composed of different parts; He is One because there cannot be two or more Gods aside from Him. Since He is One, He prays to His Father that we are one with Him and that we are one with one another. This unity with one another is respectful to our identities. Although we are to be one with God, each of us preserves our individualities. The demon is the source of disunity.

Take courage, I have conquered the world! We should listen to these words of Jesus all the time to remind ourselves that we belong to the Easter people and Alleluia is our song, borrowing the words of St. John Paul II. He conquered death. He won our salvation. We fear nothing now. What the devil does is try to scare us, make us doubt, etc. Events, tragedies, failures, uncertainties etc may stagger us. But hear those words of Jesus! They are the positive version of the usual "Do not fear."

We celebrate today the Lord's departure for Heaven in His Ascension to Heaven to sit at the right hand of His Father, from there He shall come to judge the living and the dead. This is what we contemplate in the second mystery of the Glorious Mysteries. I we have been looking at Him when He was on earth, we will then continue to look up to Him, eager to join Him there. Against our tendencies to fall down for creatures, we oppose them by looking at Jesus. We look upwards. We look for the things in Heaven. These things are the permanent values of the Good, the Truth and the Beautiful. Creatures have different amounts of these. Thus, we should not be fooled by pursuing creatures as if they were divine. They should lead us to God.

Let us rush to do good, like Mary making haste to help her cousin.

Today, the gospel continues to tell us about joy. That no one will remove our joy from us is what Jesus assures us. Very much part of our Christian vocation is being joyful. Are we happy? We should be happy--not in the sense of an animal that is excited because it is going to eat--in the sense of celebrating life. We are joyful because we are headed for Heaven. We are joyful because God is our Father. If our joy is dependent on external factors, then we should expect our joy to be unstable. One who keeps his sights on the goal of a trip, he will maintain his hopes up. One who forgets the goal or when one neglects to keep in mind that goal, we would expect that he or she would become sad at times. Hope gives us life. New life cheers us up.

Our dear Lord Jesus seems to like to play hide and seek. Life is full of this, just like He made Our Lady and St. Joseph look for Him for the 3-4 days He was missing and was found in the Temple. In today's gospel, He apparently meant something like that, that He was leaving His apostles and that He would be found after a short while. Listen to the homily about this.

Jesus reminds us that the Holy Spirit will come. He will guide them to the Truth. Normally, we depend on our thinking power to navigate through our lives. Jesus reveals to us that He will send the Spirit to guide us. That guidance will come in the form of enlightenment so that we can see better. The Lord has already revealed all the truths He needed to leave with us in the Church regarding the journey we all make to Heaven. However, we must face such challenges as our proneness to error, of limited intellectual capacity, the influence of the environment, contrary views and examples of living, etc. Hence, we should set out to deal with and receive the Holy Spirit's assistance with His Light, Gifts and grace.

The Lord Jesus prepares His followers for His departure. He explains to them the reason He needed to leave them, even though this would bring them grief. He emphasized to them, and to all of us and those who will follow Him till the end of time, that the Holy Spirit should come to act on us, to transform us to another Christ, Christ Himself!

The Church in today's liturgy of the word is more explicit in mentioning the Holy Spirit, Who will be sent from the Father. Jesus says that He is another Advocate for us in front of God. He is also the witness of Jesus before us. The reason is that He is the Author of our sanctification, that is, us becoming more and more Jesus Christ. This is to be expected because the life of grace is the very life of Jesus Christ, that is of God, in our souls.

Today, the Church proceeds in Her plan to introduce to us the Third Person of The Blessed Trinity, namely, the Holy Spirit. For that, she continues to preach about love. A result of love is unity. The bond of the Blessed Trinity is the Love of God. In fact, God is Love! Now, the Holy Spirit is the Love of the Father for the Son and vice versa. The Blessed Trinity is a solid Unity because of this unbreakable love between the Persons of the Trinity. Further, Jesus calls us to be one with God, just as God is one. We need to possess this unity. Without it we cannot think that we could enjoy being with God, or the Blessed Trinity, for eternity. To become one with God never means that we are called to lose our individuality. We are to remain as each is, but to be one in the Blessed Trinity.