Take Care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions. - Luke 12:15

As I have gone on today’s readings it only implies one thing which is striving for God and God alone. And that it is important to store up treasures in heaven so that we would inherit eternal life. Let us fully understand the message with these questions.

WHAT AM I STRIVING FOR EVERYDAY? It should be Christ who we need to seek for everyday, for he is our fulfillment. He turns our sorrow into joy, our weaknesses into strengths and he is our way to the Father. How to do so? We must have that desire of waking up every morning for the purpose of thanking God for the life that he gave us. On the first reading he points out vanity which brings anxiety to men. Let us abolish vanity which is an excessive pride in one’s appearance, qualities, abilities and achievements and rather rely on him let him govern our life because we all know that he only thinks of what’s good for all of us. And always remember that pride is the most treacherous of sins because it blinds our understanding, and if we are not aware of the truth, we are likely to go on, day by day, in a spiritual self-delusion, thinking of our acts to be good and virtuous when certain habits actually may be vicious. When we are blinded by pride, we do not consider our talents and abilities as God's gifts to us, but attribute our good qualities to ourselves, with the right to use them as we see fit.

DO I LOVE MY NEIGHBOR AS OF MYSELF? Our love towards our neighbor should equal to the love we are expressing to God and to our selves. As I ponder, I remember what our teacher in theology taught us about the types of love and which one is the best to be live out among the four.  I will share to you the Three types of love so that we could see which type of love is the best.

THREE TYPES OF LOVE

a. Eros- means erotic love. It is based more on "self-benefit", of what can benefit you rather than the other person. This is "I love you because it feels good, and makes ME happy loving you." See? The keyword is the word "ME". 

b. Philos -  Philos love is a love based on "give-and-take", where two people benefit each other in a mutual way. 

    c. Agape- unconditional love. an unconditional love that sees beyond the outer surface and accepts the recipient for whom he/she is, regardless of their flaws, shortcomings or faults. It is also called sacrificial love giving without expecting in return.

For you what type of love is the BEST? 

We should have this Agape type of love. Because Agape love is above Philos love and Eros love. It is a love that is totally selfless. Say, you help out a person, even though that individual hates you and thinks that you are a nuisance but still you extended your arms and offer some assistance. In this situation you are being selfless you disregard everything that is not nice but focus on doing what is right to the person. Another example to this is the love we show our parents, taking care of them when they are sick and tired from work. But the very thing that I did not forgot from what our teacher imparted to us is I quote “the highest type of agape love is not human at all, but divine and it is God's unconditional love for us, His children. He sent his only son Jesus Christ to his suffering and death on the cross for our salvation. There is no greater love than this. Jesus had no obligation to die for us, but He chose to. It is His gift, His ultimate gift.”

It feels good when you are at peace with everyone in a community right? Wherein there is harmony and that people around you treats you nicely. What must we do in order to have a good relationship with others?..... It is simple. We need to know this 7 letter word which is RESPECT. We often hear this word but not fully value and understand its importance. No man is an island we constantly interact with other people and time and again we violate others rights like for example inside the classroom our teacher is talking and we tend to talk with our seatmate. If we do respect our teacher we would most likely listen and refrain from talking to our seatmate. Another example is when we go out late in the evening and do party all night with our friends and we let our parents worry. If we do respect them we should inform them where we are, who we are with and we come home early. Respect is considering others right. This word is easily said than done. That is why we need to pray and ask for guidance.

LASTLY DO I LOVE GOD and AM I STORING UP TREASURES IN HEAVEN? In this fast changing world governed by technology and money, are our values still intact? Do we still think of storing up treasures in heaven? Or are we enslaved by money and earthly possessions? It is not against God to work for a living, earn some money, gain wealth and to be the best. But an excess of the desire of wanting is bad. Because of man’s ill yearning for power and riches, we tend to do things that do not coincide with the Father’s plan. I’ll give you an example on how man’s ill desires can greatly influence his actions. For an instance in school, you want to garner the highest score, be on top, you want to be famous and you want your parents to be proud of you. So what you did is you cheated and defy the rights of your classmates. In this circumstance there is what we called the excessive desire, and the means of satisfying the end is not acceptable to God. This mere event of cheating in the classroom, if tolerated, could be a stepping stone for a greater defiance in the society. There are feelings we ought to think and think what we ought to feel in order to avoid mistakes.

If we truly love God we will only desire of what is good and do what is right. Remember, it was said in Matthew Chapter 6 verse 24 “No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”, and if we let power and riches preside over our hearts and consume our beings they will become our possessors. We will be like the rich man in the parable and end up being called by God as a fool. It is important that we look beyond this earthly life and view of what we will be in the life after death.

May God our Father bless and protect us always .

- Daphnie Ba-aco