Inspirations at your Fingertips!

Thursday of week 31 in Ordinary Time Luke 15:1-10 The common theme on the end of time is judgment.  Only God knows how he will judge us.  The question is: Where did passing judgment to other come from? Whatever the sources are, we admit that we pass judgment to others more than we do to ourselves.  We simply are playing gods in the process. It's clear to St. Paul in the first reading:  "This is also why you should never pass judgement on a brother or treat him with contempt, as some of you have done."  We simply don't have the right! In the Gospel, God rejoices in one repentant sinner.  What must we do then? First, there is a colloquial in the business world that says, "Mind your own business!"  This statement is not derogatory at all.  It simply means we have to take care of our affairs more than we belittle others or pass judgments to others while remaining fruitless in all our endeavors. Second, possess the heart of God.  ...

Luke 10:38-42 The people and  beasts of Niniveh starting from the king down to the least, repented in sackcloth and ashes.  But in the Gospel, Jesus had to reprimand Martha for being too preoccupied with the household chores that she forgot to pay attention to Jesus. Before we can proceed with asking for forgiveness, we have to know when we have sinned.  The trouble with our generation is that it forgot to understand what constitutes sin or not.  People who constantly excuse themselves for not serving the Lord because of a busy schedule; people living in without the benefit of the sacraments; people justifying how they hurt others in the name of justice, people who justify abortion as a way of life, divorces everywhere - we have lost sight of what is true and good. Only in admitting that we have sinned could we start the road to repentance.  Humility, the grace to understand that we have fallen short of the kingdom of God, becomes an imperative for forgive...

Tuesday of week 11 in Ordinary Time Matthew 5:43-48 How does one love the enemy?  Though at first glance, we feel that this is totally impossible, actually, it's not. It just goes to show that forgiveness is not our property, but God's.  Hear this saying, "To err is human; to forgive is divine."  When we forgive, we are partaking in God's own divinity. Second, forgiveness is like medicine; it takes time to heal.  It is like antibiotic; it needs to be taken every 3 or 4 hours everyday for 7 days.  It takes a process to forgive. Third, when we forgive, we identify with Jesus in his most supreme act of self-offering, "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they do."  At that exact moment, heaven is offered to all enemies in every age to receive God's forgiveness. For God loves all people, especially sinners.

Life of forgiveness Matthew 18:21-35 Azariah prays to the Lord to deliver them from the fiery furnace using the mercy of God. In the gospel, Jesus gives an invaluable lesson on forgiveness - that as God forgives, so too must we forgive in the same measure. What can we learn from forgiveness as a way of life? 1. Forgiveness gives importance to the salvation rather than the condemnation of the other. 2. Forgiveness establishes who we are before God. - that we are mere human beings who have no power except that which comes from God who forgives us almost endlessly. 3.  Forgiveness strengthens our mission to do what we need to do in this world - to reconcile others to one another and to Christ.

Forgive  Matthew 18:21-35 The tone of today's readings is one filled with reparation ... showing man's utter nothingness and the overwhelming power of God. But God is not one-sided. The compassion of a repentant, contrite heart hits his own heart. In the gospel, we are also asked to forgive seven times seventy times. Why should we forgive? 1. because forgiveness is a mark of being human. 2. we should forgive because it is our divine nature. Forgive is the way this world should go.  And God taught us how to save the world: by forgiveness.

Father, forgive them As Jesus lay hanging on the cross, the first words he uttered are words of forgiveness instead of hatred and vengeance, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." There are two realities to this: first, Jesus' willingness to forgive not a few, but all of us.  But the second one is worth reflecting: "for they know not what we do." It pays to realize that we do not know what we are doing in this world.  If we know what we are doing, we could not have acted the way we are doing today, considering the coldness of our actions and dedication to God while we pour out all efforts making things work in our companies where we are paid.  We may not know it, but because we know not what we do, we consequently put Jesus on the cross. We know not what we do when we think that life is simply eating and drinking, raising a family, doing a bit of good, and dying. We know now what we are doing when we think religion is for kids. We k...