Team Jesus

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...

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 gath...

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...