The Lord is giving me some time to write...so I'm baaaaack!
Can you believe it? It's December 1 already...the year is almost coming to an end. I'm growing lots of gray hair, were having our 3rd baby soon, my children are getting bigger...man! I'm getting old! But I am still young at heart :)
I honestly have not read today's Gospel until today, I don't read in advance. It has a striking connection to the readings and messages from yesterday... "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the Good News!" and "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men". Now in today's Gospel (and I'm not trying to scare you), what did Jesus say to his disciples? "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven". Kinda scary isn't it? I know I was guilty of this for years, having known Jesus, but I did not have the courage to share it with others, most likely due to the fact that I did not have a personal relationship with Him, and that my sins and sins of the past are bringing me down, so I was in the mud pit for years. But now I am redeemed, and yes! I am worthy of the mercy of Christ!
I think there are two kinds of fear of the Lord, the one that is associated with being scared, and the other associated with being in love with the Lord. I used to be scared of the Lord, scared in a sense that because I am sinful, I am not worthy of being in His presence, and it wasn't good because I could not see beyond the fact the Jesus is merciful and forgiving no matter how sinful I am. But now, I am still scared of Him in a sense that is associated with love of Jesus, for example, I fear of being separated from Him again...do you get it? Either way both fear is good (I think) for as long as you recognize God and it makes you long for Him. But to me the latter is good, because you do things not because you are scared of God, but because you love Him. Amen?!?
I think today's readings is easy enough to understand, right? I mean straight forward, if you don't do the will of God you can't get into the Kingdom of Heaven. But let's dissect it even more. Let's go to the verse :
"He humbles those in high places,
and the lofty city he brings down;
He tumbles it to the ground,
levels it with the dust.
It is trampled underfoot by the needy,
by the footsteps of the poor."
and the lofty city he brings down;
He tumbles it to the ground,
levels it with the dust.
It is trampled underfoot by the needy,
by the footsteps of the poor."
Let's talk about high places and lofty city. How many times in our lives have we thought of God when we are happy? When we have so much money? When we are attaining praise from other people? When you are put in the highest position? When we are so successful in life? How many rich people have you seen that are really happy and have a personal relationship with Jesus? Very rare right? That is because material things and the pleasures of this world blinds us from seeing Jesus. So what does Jesus wants us to do? He wants us to humble ourselves, bring the pleasures of this world out of our lives and level it to dust. When you are humbled and lowered down to a level that you see yourself being worthless without Christ, then you can call yourself needy, and when you cling on to Christ you will trample those worldly desires under your foot. This is why Christ uses the poor as an example, because the poor lives simply and humbly and there are no complications in life. They only think of simple matters, and because of that they have time to think of Jesus, they rely on God's mercy to survive. He wants us to do the same thing, He wants us to totally rely on Him in everything that we do. He wants us to listen to His words and act on them!
"Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.
And everyone who listens to these words of mine
but does not act on them
will be like a fool who built his house on sand.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
And it collapsed and was completely ruined."
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.
And everyone who listens to these words of mine
but does not act on them
will be like a fool who built his house on sand.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
And it collapsed and was completely ruined."
Do you see the message? You stick with Jesus He will protect and will provide for you. You do His will and act on it, he will raise you up! Brothers and Sisters don't be like the fool anymore. I was once like that and I totally regret it, I don't want to offend God anymore. Before my conversion, my highest attainment in life is to just make it to Purgatory, I thought that was good enough. I turns out it was affecting my spiritual life, I was being lousy, I wasn't doing my best for the Lord. But now I want to be in Heaven! Yes! I want to be in Heaven, straight to the place that Jesus has prepared for me and the faithful ones!
So, have you listened to His words? Have you acted on them?
God loves you
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