Clothe yourself with Love Col. 3:14

Time goes fast! Don’t take any second of your life for granted. It’s a privilege to spend time with those we love and cherish! Today shouldn’t be the only day we are reminded of that. I am hoping to show our gratitude to God every day. We are here indeed to show gratitude! It is the name of the Holy Eucharist: To give thanks! First for the gift of life and also for every resource that the Lord has placed in our lives. This is a day for me to be grateful: A day to re-imagine where I came from and where I am today; a day to discern where the hand of the Lord miraculously transformed my situation. A day to discern when we are facing God’s appointment, and become patient in adversity so that in due time, God would fight for us. I am grateful for those times in my life because they taught me to rely on God at all times. It’s not an encouragement to be passive in life with a fatalistic view of life, but a courage to admit to ourselves that God is ultimately in charge no matter what. Therefo...

Today’s feast of Christ the King presents us a face-to-face meeting between two very different kinds authorities. Some authorities can be very oppressive and others are soothing. We have a meeting between two different authorities: Jesus and Pontius Pilate. The trial begins. Jesus is ushered inside the Governor’s palace and the accusing party, a.k.a, the Jews remained outside because they couldn’t get in and be defiled. Pilate said: “ Are you the King of the Jews ?” Jesus answered: “ Do you say this out of your own accord or did others say it to you about me ?” P: Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the Chief priests have handed you over to me; what have you done ? J: My Kingdom is not of this world; if my Kingdom was of this world, my servants would have fought that I might not be handed over to the Jews. P: So, you are a King? J: You say that I am a King. For this I was born, and for this I have come into this world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my v...

We humans are fascinated by grandiosity. What I mean by that is exploits that are spectacular by human standards. Humans have always wanted to do the impossible. Think about Genesis 11 they said let’s make a tower that reaches the heavens and make a name for ourselves! Think about World Guiness Records. The first human to reach the moon, the first human to climb Mount Everest, the first human to reach the bottom of the Marianna trench. It is the summit of human Art and achievement just like the tallest building in the world, it is to invite us: Come and be fascinated! And we respond: "Wow, this is amazing!" And Jesus was unfazed . What we deem important in our world and think is worth of great admiration, doesn’t even get a 1% admiration from Jesus, the author of life. That in itself, should teach. Now about the magnificent and precious Temple that was built even before Jesus was born by Herod the Great, Jesus simply replied: “ Not one stone will be left here upon another, a...

Today’s Scriptures have one thing in common: It is the profile of a widow. In ancient times, widows needed protection, otherwise they would suffer terribly without help. On one hand, in the OT God commanded the prophet Elijah to be fed by a widow. It turns out as we would expect, she was on her very last meal, yet this is the person God was entrusting his servant to, for his sustenance. It doesn’t seem to make sense right? We usually expect to send a guest to a home that is well to do, instead of one that is poor/ lacking. God does nothing, without a clear purpose: His servant was sent in that household for a reason: to save her and her son. What a clear picture of the character of our God reaching out into the world, to bring Salvation and deep healing into our lives. We also see this same divine care/compassion for a poor widow in the NT: Jesus was in observation mode in the Temple. There she was: A poor widow simply putting two coins in the Temple treasury, which btw was everything...

Jesus asked questions that I think should be at the center of our study. How we respond shows our position in relation to the Kingdom of Heaven. Twice Jesus asked: What do you want me to do for you ? Initially, this question made me think about my own struggles and my most pressing need to be sorted out. What is it that you want God to do for you? Will your choice address your physical needs or your spiritual needs? God cares for both. How hard is it for us to recognize our need to amend our whole way of life to conform to the Bible's New Testament life? Is this the bottom line we are afraid of? That we won't be able to follow Jesus fully? Often our wants and desires show how less concerned we are with our souls’ welfare. Jesus cares about our total healing; a life full of joy and peace. To be perfectly honest, nowadays joy and peace are the most missing or rare ingredients in our lives, why? Because it’s easy to approach life the wrong way: We all have ideas of what will mak...

Why is it important for all Christian believers to study the profile of the rich young ruler? What was he like? What does his life and attitude teach us about our own lives? He is described as a wealthy, good-quality kind of person. Folks, he is us! A person with influence, who has made it in life by his achievements, and we can see it with the kind of respect he gets in the world. He has the right perspective too! He recognizes something valuable in Jesus the Son of God. He worshiped Jesus and asked him a significant question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Those of you who are checklist people, you would love the rich young ruler. By the way, this is how I imagined him to be: He had cross-checked everything in his life! He had succeeded in many things, but this question of everlasting life was still daunting to him. Jesus was his perfect link to it! Of course, he had done well his religion homework ever since he was young! He had obeyed God’s commandments! That's e...

We are unfished products until we meet Christ. What I mean is, we are untransformed until we meet Jesus and become transformed into His likeness. That’s why we often see ourselves in the story of the children of Israel. The Bible describes the rabble among them at the time when they had just been divinely rescued from their Egyptian slavery. We would think they would be grateful to God but Moses was faced with an angry mob. Israelites were craving for Egyptian food. They alarmingly forgot their own character as God’s people and threw a fit: Very disgraceful and ungrateful! They couldn’t wait to be in the promised land and expected a champagne lifestyle all the way. No, there is a bit of suffering on the way to where God is taking you. God is definitely willing to lead us. The trouble is: we act strangely like Israel when we face suffering. We grumble and forget the mountains that the Lord removed for us to be where we are now. Moses couldn’t deal with it. The letter of James attempts ...