Team Jesus

The gospel for today talks about the rapture. That there will come a time that some of us will just disappear without any trace and some of us will remain on this earth. This will be a sign that the coming of the Lord is near. It is stated that it is not known and will never be known to us when this will happen. The gospel only reminds us to prepare for it. Have you ever experienced something that you weren't prepared for? A pop quiz, a failing grade even though you studied so hard, seeing someone you weren't expecting to see and the like. How did it feel? It didn't feel good right? So we learn from it. We try to better ourlselves in dealing with such situations, we plan things in our minds that in case it'll happen again, we'll be able to do this or say that. We will now study or review our lessons from time to time because if ever our teacher would decide to have a quiz, we'll be prepared for it. We will now figure out on which areas we should improve or

There are times that we doubt about God because everything seems to go out of plan. Sometimes we feel that God is not answering what we're asking for because maybe He has something much better for us. When we present a specific solution for our problems, we are telling God what should happen. If we pray, we should lift up all our problems because God will help us get through it. We should surrender everything to God by putting aside what we want in order to allow God to enter more deeply into our lives. Never tell God what should happen because only He knows what will happen to us. We are just characters in His story.  Prayer is never rejected as long as we don't cease in praying. When God delays in answering our prayers, we feel disappointed until we reach to the point that we want to give up. God tests our faith with unanswered prayers. We pass the test if we don't give up and we still keep on praying to God with the same faith. The value of persistent prayer

I remember a friend who loves to count her mistakes and mishaps instead of her blessings. Early in the morning she complains about the heavy traffic, the lagkit feeling in the jeepney and the exhausting stairs. When she commits a mistake in a quiz, she nags at herself and punishes herself with harsh words like "grabe ka tanga ko uy." She lives & complains every single day. And what does it make her? It makes her into a degrading-negative person.  Because of this, she closes her mind from all the Wonderful little and big miracles that pass her by like: Being able to ride a jeep despite the busy morning. That was something to be thankful for. Having complete body parts and being able to walk and climb up the stairs. That's another thing to be thankful for.  She correctly answered some questions from the quiz ... Plus she can now learn from the mistake she committed. Another thankful moment. But sometimes, were like that. We like to punish oursel

The gospel today is taken from Luke 17:5-10.  Today we reflect on the gift of faith. How strong is your faith in God and how can you grow in it? Faith is not something uncertain, or something which requires a leap of the imagination or worse, some kind of blind allegiance. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Faith is all about trust and belief in what is reliable, truthful, certain, and real. To have faith is to believe and trust in someone or something.  We believe in the power of electricity even though we can't visibly see it. We know we can tap into that power and use it to do things we could not do by our own human power. Faith in God works in a similar way. When God reveals himself to us he gives us the assurance and conviction that his power and presence and glory is just as real, and even more real, than our experience of the physical world around us. Things around us change, but God never changes. He is constant, ever true to his word, and always fa

The Gospel today is taken from Luke 16: 19-31. Humility, as defined in the dictionary, is the quality or state of not thinking you are better than other people. But for us Christians, humility is something more. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit for us to live a life as how God planned it for us. It is the gift that connects us not just to other people, but to God as well. All of us possess this gift within us. However, like the rich man in Jesus’ parable, some of us fail to apply this gift in our lives. Every one of us has experienced certain situations in our lives that we shine and excel. For example, having high scores in the exams, winning competitions or being commended by teachers, classmates, friends or even family members because of something that we have done. And because of the praise that other people give us, we are sometimes blinded by pride because we think highly of ourselves. We think highly of ourselves to the point that we look down upon others because they

The gospel today is taken from Luke 16:1-13. Jesus talks about a steward who cheated on his master. Here are some lines that Jesus said after telling the parable:  “The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones.  If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with true wealth?  If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another, who will give you what is yours?  No servant 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 both God and mammon.” Trust is seldom given; most of the time, it is earned. We are called to trust and have faith in God for He is our gracious Father and our Almighty Creator. We are also taught to trust in His divine providence from the moment we wake up and the time before we sleep. We pray the

In the gospel, Jesus said, "I tell you, in just the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance." Jesus cited three parables: The Lost Sheep, The Prodigal Son and The Lost Coin. These three parables have the same message, and that is even the lost ones can still find their way back to God. Even though they once lost their way to God, they still managed to return to Him in regret of what they did wrong and ask for forgiveness. What is important is that they have realized their wrong acts and repented to God. After reading the gospel, I have realized that even if a sinner commits a sin, he or she still has the right to repent his or her sins and enter the heaven above with God for God and his angels will be happy for a sinner to realize and repent his or her wrong doings. God will more likely rejoice and celebrate if a sinner has come to Him and has decided to change to be

“Lord, will only a few people be saved?” This question struck me the most as I was reading the gospel. After I read the whole of it, I felt disturbed and so I read it a second time. At first, I felt scared in the sense that maybe very few people only can enter the kingdom of God. But in the end, I was really enlightened and dedicated to serve Him more. We are living our lives to be happy. We have our families, our friends, the youth ministry and all other things that make us happy. We tend to enjoy ourselves too much thinking that we need to remember the saying “You Only Live Once” and disregard what other people say and think about our actions. These situations also lead us to forgetting that we have a mission to fulfill here on earth and that is to follow the will of the Lord. We take into account the things that the Lord keeps on telling us again and again but we are too blinded by the fact that enjoying life means being happy with the material possession that the world offers us.

In the Gospel, Jesus said: "I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?  No, I tell you, but rather division."  Upon reading it, were you confused? Yes, me too. I thought to myself, why would Jesus want to set the world on fire? Why would He want division rather than peace? If you take it literally, you'd find yourself asking the same question. But Jesus wants us to think deeper and find its true meaning.  If you think about it, fire was a very strong symbol during the biblical times. It has represented such powerful and important events, such as the burning bush which was not consumed when God spoke to Moses. It was "associated with God and with his actions in the world and in the lives of his people."  I have had some "fire" moments in my life. Since sometimes, I go home late, I no longer have the luxury of finding a taxi or or a jeepney.

“Gird your loins” , this statement  means to prepare and strengthen  oneself  for what it is to come.   Jesus, in the gospel, tells H is disciples to be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding so that when their master returns, they will be ready to open the door immediately when he comes and knocks. The way I understand this, and I’m assuming and hoping that we have the same understanding of the gospel ,  Jesus wants us to be ready for His return. He wants us to be like  the  servants who await their masters. He wants us to prepare for His coming. He wants us to be vigilant and ready. How many times have we heard these things from a priest during their homilies?  A lot, right?  But have we really taken this seriously? Are we really doing our best to get ourselves ready for His return? For me, honestly, I don’t think I’m  fully  ready for Jesus to return in this world soon because I am far from being worthy for Him to accept me in His Kingdom and sometimes,

In today ’s Gospel, A  man approaches Jesus to arbitrate between him and his brother in a dispute over family inheritance. But instead of acting as mediator, Christ addresses the crowd, “Take care, and be on your guard against all greed, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions,”   Then He proceeds to tell them the parable of the rich fool.   In this parable, a man was blessed by God with great abundance and lavishness. He was a rich man and he produced a bountiful harvest. But the only worry he had in mind was how to manage and take care of his wealth. He was so caught up with his business that he failed to humble himself down. As what the psalmist have said, “If our riches increase, then we are not to set our hearts with them.” Greed is  defined as  an  intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food.   It can overshadow any nobler emotion . Even the most compassionate  man might once have had.  Greed is one of the thi

Since I was little, my parents already instilled in me the daily habit of praying. Before going to bed, I would ask Papa Jesus to take care of my dad, my mom, my lolo, my lola, my yaya... I would recite a list of names each night, and when I ran out of people to pray for, I would conclude my prayer with "and please bless everyone else in the world." As we age, our way of praying changes. Instead of praying for others, we become more focused on ourselves and our needs— "Lord, I pray that I will pass the exam tomorrow" "Lord, please help me lose weight"  or "Lord, sana mapansin nako ng  crush  ko ". Somewhere down the road towards adulthood, we misplaced our compassion for others and became more demanding as a result of its consequence. In today's Gopel, we are invited to reflect upon the importance of prayer in our daily lives. We first encounter Jesus teaching the disciples how to pray, as He says: "When you pray, say: Father, h

Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said ,  “Lord, do you not care  that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?   Tell her to help me.”   – Lk 10:40 The Gospel today talks about Martha and her sister Mary, who chose to listen to Jesus speak rather than help with the serving. In the time today, we usually  get upset when we are troubled and when we ask God to help us but there are  times  like  we feel that He doesn’t answer our prayers. Just like when we’re with our friends and we feel down and helpless, we often want them to pay attention to us, to make us feel better and comfort us. But frankly, there are times when we need to be alone, to reflect on our life and just read the Bible. Sometimes or rather often times, that’s all we need. The answers to all our questions are  there .  Actually, just recently, a friend of mine texted me ;  “Maybe just maybe you feel like you need to gather as much people around you as possible. ” .  She’s a

If there's one thing we all look for and want, it's to have a happy and purposeful life or in this gospel's case, eternal life. We're all just trying to find ourselves in this lifetime. We're all figuring out what exactly we should do for us to have the life we dream of.  Some go through really extreme measures just to be happy with their lives. Those measures I will not quite understand. But we forget what Jesus told the lawyer in today's gospel. It was simple, really. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.  Again, it's all really simple. But that's what we do best, we try to make things seem difficult and complicated when they're not. It's a given that we are to love God with all that we are, I presume. I am a firm believer in not doing things halfway. If you do something, you either go big or go home. What is the point of loving

In Jesus’ day, travelers carried a stick as a defense against wild animals, and used sandals as an aid in traveling along dusty roads and rocky byways.  Likewise, a change of clothing as well as food and drink were thought necessary but Jesus forbade all these. His command was that the disciples should give up even these necessities so as to be both a living act of Faith in God. The disciples were only armed with their Faith and the name of Jesus. They needed nothing more. Their detachment from material goods would enable them to uphold the absolute priority of preaching the Good News. They did not need a staff or provisions because God would take care of them through the people to whom they were to preach.  Today, almost all of us are attached to technology. Our minds are being corrupted and our faith gets weaker. Some of us even don’t go to mass because they are too lazy or they want just to stay on their bed all day facing their phones or laptops. Even at mass, people use their ph

Obedience could be the hardest thing that a person could never really imagine. Oftentimes when we sing along on a mass “Kunin at tanggapin ang alay na ito. Mga biyayang nagmula sa pagpapala mo.” It’s all easy until we usually unconsciously utter “Lahat ng mga lungkot, ligaya’t pagsubok; lahat ng lakas at kahinaan ko; Inaalay ko’ng lahat buong pagkatao. Ito ay  isusunod sa’yo.” Easier said than done.  Looking back, if we check on ourselves, have we really offered everything to God? Are all the things we do were done for the glory of God? Are the problems, big or small, offered to God? Or do we do things for our own sake then just later thank God if it turned out well? Do we make sure that the things that we do honor him—sins included? Do we surrender every burden we have to Him or do we try to make things go our way? Do not be discouraged. This, perhaps, is the biggest challenge we Christians have: to fully be obedient to God’s call. It is indeed a challenge when we have to alw

Before you start reading, I want you to reflect for a short moment and ask yourself... Who do you say that Jesus is? In the gospel, Jesus was praying together with his disciples and He asked them who do they say that He is. The people randomly answered John the Baptist and Elijah... Some people from the crowd even answered that Jesus was an old prophet who has risen. After hearing what the people had said, Jesus shortly asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter immediately answered, "The Christ of God." After this, Jesus tells them that a time will come when the Son of Man must suffer, that He will be rejected by the elders and chief priests, that He will be killed, but will rise again on the 3rd day. Jesus said to them, "If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for My sake, will save it."  Through this gospel

Underserved love yet, given freely.   Ever since before, I've been really confused as to what this passage really means.  I understood it like this:  "The heavier the weight of the sin, the more your gratitude & love to our forgiving God." But is it really about the weight of the sin? Do we need to undergo a shameful bad past just to show a greater love & gratitude to God? Or is it about how we PERCEIVE what God has done for us?  In Jesus' parable, there were 2 debtors who owed money. They were both sinners(debtors). Undeserving of the love of God (the moneylender). No human action, no number of rules obeyed, could ever make them be worthy enough to "claim"  Gods love. It was out of Gods mercy and kindness that they were forgiven. And through the love we have received from God, we become able to love God back.  In the Gospel, there are 2 main characters who encountered Jesus:  Simon the Pharisee (Not Simon Peter) and the sinful Woman. A Phari