Luke 19: 45-48 (Friday, November 23, 2007)

God’s house is indeed a house of prayer. One question we must ask ourselves today and sincerely try to answer is this, what is God’s house to me personally? We need not find the answer in our Baltimore catechism or in some Church book. We must find the answer from within ourselves. This reading challenges us to access the things we do in the Church and how we respond to the things other people do in the Church. Do you chew gum in the Church? Do you make noise or deliberately cause distractions in the Church? How do you respond to people that do these things? In some Churches, Bingo or raffle tickets rank almost higher than the Eucharistic celebration. For others, it is all about offertory and fundraisers rather than preaching the Word and praying. Do you courageously speak against these practices with the pastor or through the parish council? That is what Jesus did in today’s gospel. He knew this might cost his head, but he courageously did it because he knew that was the right thing to do. You are called to speak against evil in the Church, irrespective of who is involved.

Prayer:
Lord, give us the courage to always stand by you and speak strongly against all evil in your house. May you help us to make your house to be truly a place of prayer by the way we conduct ourselves.

Luke 17: 11-19 (Thursday, November 22, 2007 – Thanksgiving Day, USA)

Today is a special day in which we thank God for all he has done for us in the previous year. In the gospel of today, Jesus praises the Samaritan leper because he returned to him. The offer of salvation extended to him by Jesus is not so much that Jesus wanted his praise or the praise of the other nine, but what it exemplified is his total dependence on Jesus as the source of his existence and salvation. As we pray in one of the prefaces to the Eucharistic prayers, “our prayer of thanksgiving adds nothing to your greatness, yet our desire to praise you is itself a gift from you.”

Jesus taught us to always be thankful to God. He showed this by his own life of thanksgiving. Not only that he offered his life and continues to offer his life as a thanksgiving sacrifice, but again and again in the scriptures, he paused to praise the Father for all the work he has accomplished through him.

We come to thank God because that is what our faith teaches us to do. St. Paul tells us in Colosians 2:7 that our lives should be rooted in Christ and be full of thanksgiving. Our whole lives should be full of thanksgiving. If not for anything, but for what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. We may look back the whole year and say, what have I to thank God for? You may ask, where was he when my spouse was diagnosed of cancer? Where was he when my home was foreclosed? Where was Jesus when I was fired from my job? Where was he when I had that terrible car crash? You may conclude that there is no need to celebrate this thanksgiving. St. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, for all things, be thankful to God. We are called not to be thankful in only the good things that happened to us. We got to be thankful for everything - for the joys, the sorrows, the pains, the lost, the illnesses, the success, and the deaths. Be thankful in everything. I want to assure you that God was present all the way and he is the reason you are here today. If he left you for a moment, you would have been dead. With joyful hearts, let us praise him.

Prayer:
Thank you Jesus for the food, the shelter, the clothing, and above all, for the breath of life. We praise and worship you. We say may you receive all the glory, honor, adoration, power and majesty, in heaven and on earth.

Luke 19: 11-28 (Wednesday, November 21, 2007) - Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

It is important that we put into action the gifts that we have received from God. God has richly blessed us with various gifts but some times we do not use these gifts to further God’s kingdom on earth. How can we be better stewards of the resources that he has entrusted to us? I believe this is what the last judgment would be. Are we going to be like the first two servants who invested the master’s treasures or are we going to be like the last servant who did not invest? As members of Christ’s family, we are called to be investors of the treasures entrusted to us. When the Apostles received the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday, they did not go back to the upper room; they used their gifts to minister to other people. We also are invited to be active in ministry. The most rewarding ministry we can do is the ministry of our lives - living radically our Christian vocation in the midst of the world.


Prayer:
Lord, help us to be better investors of the treasures you have given to us. Mold our lives according to your Christian image that we may daily minister with our lives to others.

Luke 19: 1-10 (Tuesday, November 20, 2007)

Zacchaeus story is an invitation to stretch out to the Lord. He wants to encounter the living God and nothing will stop him from encountering Jesus. He does not let his height stop him; he doesn’t let the crowd stop him; he doesn’t let his riches stop him; he would not let his life of sinfulness stop him. All he wants is to see Jesus. He fought all barriers that would have stopped him from seeing Jesus and he was victorious. The moment he encountered Jesus, he received the gift of salvation. In our own lives too, sometimes we want to see Jesus but we cannot because of certain barriers: disease, family, poverty, wealth, our jobs, sin, etc. Like Zacchaeus, we must keep stretching, keep making efforts and we must overcome all these barriers and proclaim our victory. If we stretch hard enough, we will see Jesus and in his presence there is healing, joy, peace, happiness, and above all, the fullness of love.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus Christ, we want to see you. We want to be in your glory. Give us the courage and the power to overcome all that stand our way and prevent us from seeing you.

Luke 18: 35-43 (Monday, November 19, 2007)

The story in today’s gospel teaches us two things: persistence in prayer and response to the needs of those around us. The blind man continues to beckon on Jesus to have pity on him even when the followers of Jesus tried to stop him. He knows that Jesus can change his situation. Although Jesus was very much engaged ministering the word to his companions, he knew that he must stop and respond to the immediate needs of this blind man. Jesus Christ asked him directly what he wanted and without any mincing of words, the man responded that he want to see. Some times even when we want a miracle, we are afraid to receive it. Like St. Augustine who use to pray, “Lord give me chastity, but not now,” sometimes that is the way we approach God when we bring our problems to him. We want to receive solutions but at the same time we are afraid of the radical changes that this encounter with the Lord might bring to our lives. Like the blind man, let us directly tell the Lord what we want him to do for us and let us joyfully accept his gift of healing that he offers us.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus Christ, like the blind man in today’s gospel, we bring to you all the blind spots of our lives. Some of them we are even ashamed of sharing with you. We ask you to heal us and make us whole again.

Malachi 3: 19-20a; 2Thessalonians 3: 7-12; Luke 21: 5-19 (Sunday, November 18, 2007 – 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time)

Today’s readings point us to the things that would happen during the day of the Lord. We hear that they would be earthquakes, kingdoms divided, massive destructions, epidemics, wars and rumors of wars, false prophets, persecutions, etc. All these signs have been with us for more than 2000 years. The early followers of Jesus saw these signs and thought that the day of the Lord was almost at hand. St. Paul will tell the people of Corinthians who are not married to stay that way because it is useless to get married when God is almost here.

When Jesus spoke about the destruction of the temple in the gospel of today, the apostles were overwhelmed with fear. The destruction of the temple meant a lost of everything they have. The temple was the one most important thing for Jewish people. This means that they were going to be down to nothing. What they did not understand is that God is going to be up to something in their life. God made a promise to them, I will be with you and I will help you through all this time of suffering. Not even a hair in your head will be hurt. All I ask of you is perseverance and endurance, at the end you would be victorious. At the end, the “Son of Justice” is going to be up to something in their life and that would be the victory over evil as the first reading of today tells us.

Christians today like the early apostles are always afraid about issues of the last judgment. Some preachers read the signs of the time and argue that the day of the Lord has started. They even fix dates when it started. Hal Lindsay in 1970 wrote in his book, “Death of the Great Planet Earth” that, the day of the Lord started with the creation of the state of Israel. As Jesus tells us in the gospel, no one knows the time that this will come. The only motto for Christians should be “Always be ready.” I often ask people what they will do if they knew the Lord was coming tomorrow. I usually get interesting responses. Some will say they will spend the whole day in the church praying; others will say they will confess their sins and ask for forgiveness, for others, they will reconcile with all those they have wronged or who have wronged them. My response is that you don’t want to wait to know when the Lord will come before you begin to do these things. You have to start leaving your Christian life as you should, so that when the Lord comes he will find you doing the good work you always do.

Jesus does not delude his followers that their life would be easy. It would be a challenging life. They will be persecuted because they have chosen to follow him. The evil people would seem to be the ones that are succeeding and they will Lord it over the Christians. Christians would even be called to give testimonies. Jesus says, don’t worry about what you have to say. All Christians need is endurance. All they need is perseverance. If they endure and persevere, they would be victorious. The Cross is Christian victory. When all the battles are over, God is going to restore us to where we belong. We do not belong to this world. The “Son of Justice” will bring us healing from all our diseases that seem incurable; He will bring peace upon us; He will give us love and destroy all divisions. He will be the all in all of our lives.

Let us persevere. Let us endure. Let us not be afraid of the day of the Lord. In fact, let us anticipate it. Rather than bringing us destruction, it will bring us victory.

Luke 18: 1-8 (Saturday, November 17, 2007)

Jesus invites us in today’s gospel to never get wearied praying. It is very easy for us to give up. How often do we hear people say, “I have tried, I am giving up.” When we give up, we cut off the channel to our blessings. Prayer is our open channel to God. While sometimes we may think that God is not listening our prayers, it is not true that he isn’t listening. He listens to every petition we make. God even knows what we want to ask for before we open our lips to pray. Sometimes God wants us to persevere, to see how much you trust and love him. At other times, God feels what you ask for is not just right for you at the moment. You have to keep asking until when it is right, he will give it to you. If you cut off the channel of communication with him just because he did not give you what you ask for immediately, when the time is right for him to give you what you asked for, you will not be available to receive it. Today I encourage you to stay in pray even when nothing seems to happen. God works in that nothingness.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus Christ, give us the perseverance we need to always stay in prayer. Strengthen us in prayer that we would always be open to your gifts and blessings to us in our lives.