Jesus is the Master who calls us and equips us for service. Who should be grateful to who?

"Is he [the Master] grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded?   So should it be with you. When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do."  (Luke 17: 9 - 10).

Jesus Christ is the Master who calls us to service in His Kingdom on Earth and gives us every single gift we bring to the service.  "He equip you with everything good for doing his will."  (Hebrews 13: 21).

"Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.  Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ."  (Ephesians 4: 11 - 12)

Now use your gifts to build up the Body of Christ.

"I will praise the Lord at all times.
I will constantly speak his praises. I will boast only in the Lord; let all who are helpless take heart."  (Psalm 34: 1 - 2).

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Forgive Always. Forgive Everywhere. Forgive Everything.

"If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.  And if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times saying, ‘I am sorry,’ you should forgive him.”  (Luke 17:  3 - 4).

Forgive always.
Forgive everything.
Forgive everywhere.
Forgive anyone that offends you.
Forgive immediately.  At once.

Why should you forgive?
#1. The Lord has commanded it.
#2.  He forgives everything.
#3.  Jesus blots out the record of your sins and gives you a clear conscience that enables you to to live in peace and sleep well.
#4.  If you refuse to forgive others, the divine forgiveness extended to you will be retracted and you will be required to pay your debt to the full.
#5. Without forgiveness, you may pray but you will gain no favors from God.
#6.  When you bury grievances and unforgivenness, you suffer alone. Your victim is unaware of the pain in your heart.
#7.  Finally, forgive immediately. At once. Don't wait to evaluate the harm done to you. Do it at once.

"Be on your guard!" (Luke 17: 3). Do not fall victim to the evil spirits of unforgivenness.

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Stay awake for you do not know when your Lord will come.

"Jesus told his disciples this parable:
“The kingdom of heaven will be like ten Virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.  Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 
The foolish ones, when taking their lamps, brought no oil with them, but the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps."  (Matthew 25:  1 - 4).

The foolish virgins did not anticipate a delay and were unprepared when the bridegroom was long delayed. (v5)

St. Augustine in his Sermons, 93 wrote: "Watch with the heart, watch with faith, watch with love, watch with charity, watch with good works […]; make ready the lamps, make sure they do not go out […], renew them with inner oil of an upright conscience; then shall the Bridegroom enfold you in the embrace of his love and bring you into his banquet room, where your lamp can never be extinguished."

"Stay awake and be ready!
For you do not know on what day your Lord will come."  (Matthew 24: 42, 44).

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You cannot serve God and mammon.

"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 God and mammon.”  (Luke 16: 13).

What is mammon?

Lust of the flesh
Lust of the eye
Pride of life
Food
Comfort
Sports and pastimes
Riches
Honors
Praise of men

"I am the bread of life. No one who comes to me will ever hunger; no one who believes in me will ever thirst." (John 6: 35)

You cannot serve God and mammon. Both are mutually exclusive. If you pick up one, you drop the other. The Bread of life destroys hunger for mammon in our lives. Hunger for mammon destroys hunger for the Bread of life. It is either one or the other. Never the two at the same.
Jesus the Bread of life is the antidote against mammon.

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The Lord made him a priest forever.

"The Lord established for him a covenant of peace, and made him the prince, that he might have the dignity of the priesthood for ever."  (Sirach 45: 30)

Today is the Memorial of St Leo the Great.  Who is this man?  He was Pope and Doctor of the Church who lived in the 5th century and helped to define what we know today as the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church.

"God, who never allow the gates of hell to prevail against your Church,
firmly founded on the apostolic rock, grant her, we pray, that through the intercession of Pope Saint Leo, she may stand firm in your truth and know the protection of lasting peace.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever."  (Collect on the Feast of St Leo the Great).

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The Sanctuary is the source of every blessing from God.

"I saw water flowing from the temple, and all who were touched by it were saved."  (Cf Ezekiel 47: 1, 9).

"Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of every kind shall grow; their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail.
Every month they shall bear fresh fruit, for they shall be watered by the flow from the sanctuary.
Their fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for medicine.”  (Ezekiel 47: 12).

Water and fire are popular images for the Holy Spirit. In the above Scripture, we are told that all types of blessings flow from the Sanctuary.  The Sanctuary is where the Church calls upon the Holy Spirit to transform the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.  From the Sanctuary flows the blessings of salvation to the waiting world.

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Don't be intimidated by the cost of discipleship.

"Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion?"  (Luke 14: 28).

What is the cost of following Jesus? Read the Gospels and you will find that the cost of the discipleship is all time, all talent and all treasure.  Does Jesus deserve less? Absolutely No!  Some people commit everything to their work or business.

The first Commandment comes to mind again:

"Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength."  (Mark 12: 29 - 30).

With the constant availability of the Holy Spirit, nothing can overcome us. (Cf Romans 8: 31 - 32).  No towers to construct. No army to vanquish.

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The King gave a great dinner and those invited brazenly rejected the invitation.

“A man gave a great dinner to which he invited many.  When the time for the dinner came, he dispatched his servant to say to those invited, ‘Come, everything is now ready.’  But one by one, they all began to excuse themselves."  (Luke 14:  16 - 18).

The Great Dinner represents the Heavenly Banquet, the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.  The Sunday Eucharist is a replica, a rehearsal of the Heavenly Banquet. The Host of the Banquet is the Lord Jesus Himself.

Why should anyone reject such an invitation?  Such brazen insult reminds one of the Sin against the 1st Commandment:

#1. " I am the Lord your God:  You shall have no strange gods before Me."  (Exodus 20: 3).

Do I love anybody or anything more than God?

Do I give God time everyday for prayer?  Do I seek to love him with my whole heart?  Have I been involved with superstitious practices?  Have I been involved with the occult?  Do I seek to surrender myself to God’s Word as taught by the Church?  Have I ever received Communion in a state of mortal sin?

"Go out to the highways and hedgerows and make people come in that my home may be filled."  (Luke 14: 23)

The Lord Jesus wants the Sunday Mass to be filled to capacity.
"Make holy the Lord's Day."

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When you have a party, invite those who cannot repay you.

"Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;  blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”  (Luke 14: 13 - 14).

Jesus it would appear looks forward to dinner invitations since it gives Him a teaching moment to meet the kind of crowd He did not reach on daily basis.  Here Jesus gives a difficult lesson to the aristocratic group gathered for the dinner and frankly to us as well.

Why are humans so self centered? Even little children act always in a quid pro quo manner.  Jesus set a new rule in the Kingdom He gave His life for. Act like your Heavenly Father, who is lavishly generous to All His children, Jesus admonishes.

"All you who are thirsty, come to the water!
You who have no money, come, buy grain and eat; Come, buy grain without money,
wine and milk without cost!"  (Isaiah 55: 1).

Jesus offers the Bread of life free of charge.

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11-6

"Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;  blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”  (Luke 14: 13 - 14).

Jesus it would appear looks forward to dinner invitations since it gives Him a teaching moment to meet the kind of crowd He did not reach on daily basis.  Here Jesus gives a difficult lesson to the aristocratic group gathered for the dinner and frankly to us as well.

Why are humans so self centered? Even little children act always in a quid pro quo manner.  Jesus set a new rule in the Kingdom He gave His life for. Act like your Heavenly Father, who is lavishly generous to All His children, Jesus admonishes.

"All you who are thirsty, come to the water!
You who have no money, come, buy grain and eat; Come, buy grain without money,
wine and milk without cost!"  (Isaiah 55: 1).

Jesus offers the Bread of life free of charge.

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The Lord is angry with His priests.

"And now, priests, this commandment is for you: If you do not listen,
And if you do not take to heart giving honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts,
I will send a curse upon you and your blessing I will curse."  (Malachi 2: 1 - 2).

A chilling warning for our priests.  How do we support our priests in their onerous vocation?  The one that comes to mind is to pray for them.  I do this every day but I could and should do more.

God's anger is not abated against His priests. The Almighty God continues:

"But you have turned aside from the way, and have caused many to stumble by your instruction;
You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of Hosts. I, therefore, have made you contemptible and base before all the people,
For you do not keep my ways, but show partiality in your instruction."  (Malachi 2:  8 -  9).

What fraternal advice can we offer to our priests in the light of this terrible indictment?

Do you preach but not practice?
Then practice what you preach.

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He chose and called me.

"For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable."(Romans 11: 29 NRSV).

"For the gracious gifts of God and his calling are irrevocable." (Revised English Bible). 

"There is no change of mind on God's part about the gifts he has made or his choice." – (New Jerusalem Bible).

"God’s gifts and God’s call are under full warranty—never canceled, never rescinded."  (MSG).

"For God’s gifts and his call can never be withdrawn; he will never go back on his promises."  (TLB).

"For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable [for He does not withdraw what He has given, nor does He change His mind about those to whom He gives His grace or to whom He sends His call].  (AMP).

The original application of Romans 11: 29 are the Jewish people, our Elders in the Faith.  But there is also an individual application for all of us.  Rejoice fellow Christians in the gracious mercies of Abba Father.

This Scripture is so critical to my self understanding that when it was revealed to me, I tried to read all the versions of it I saw.
I shudder when I apply this Scripture to myself. I flash back to my high school days when I had a great desire to be a friend and companion of Jesus. I abandoned the dream for many years.  Then many years ago, the dream started slowly but surely to come back to me. Today I regard everything rubbish compared with the hope of knowing the Heart of Jesus intimately, loving Him passionately and following Him everywhere. I want to be a friend and companion of Jesus. Certainly God has not revoked his gracious gifts to me or His calling.

My God, I thank You for Your faithful love and mercies. May Your gifts and call to me not be ineffective in Jesus name. Amen!

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They kept silent.

"Jesus spoke to the scholars of the law and Pharisees in reply, asking,
“Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath or not?”
But they kept silent; so he took the man and, after he had healed him, dismissed him."  (Luke 14: 3 - 4)

Why did they keep silent?  Probably because of malicious intent.  They did not care for the condition of the man with dropsy and watched intently to see what Jesus would do on the Sabbath.

Only a few days ago, we read:
"Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath.  And a woman was there who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spirit; she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect."  (Luke 13: 10 - 11).

The Pharisees and the law makers opposed her healing.

Who are the scholars of the law and Pharisees today?  May we say politicians and law makers, community leaders and all of us who are unaware of the reason for our vocation in life:  to enhance and save lives.  Man needs God today more than ever before in the history of the world

"My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me." (John 10: 27).

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First Friday in November: the 4th. Honor the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

November 4th, 2017 First Friday in November.

The 12 Promises of the Sacred Heart of Jesus:  Jesus promised 12 special favors to all those who will honor His Sacred Heart especially on the First Friday of every month.  In the 11th month of the year, we look at Promise #11.

#11. "Those who propagate this devotion shall have their name written in My Heart, and it shall never be effaced."

I love this promise. I covet it.  How do I live out this promise?  I invest a tiny amount of money on 500 First Friday cards with the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the 12 Promises of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.   I drop some of the cards in the Narthex of my parish Church and two other Churches during the week.  If I have the opportunity to hand them to someone face to face, I point out Promise #11.

Honor the Sacred Heart of Jesus on Friday, November 4th.

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For the 12 Promises of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, click the link below:

http://seekfirst.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-12-promises-of-sacred-heart-of-jesus.html?m=1

The 12 Promises of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus!!!

Below are the Twelve Promises of the Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary:

1. I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life.

2. I will give peace in their families.

3. I will console them in all their troubles.

4. They shall find in My Heart an assured refuge during life and especially at the hour of death.

5. I will pour abundant blessings on all their undertakings.

6. Sinners shall find in My Heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy.

7. Tepid souls shall become fervent.

8. Fervent souls shall speedily rise to great perfection.

9. I will bless the homes in which the image of My Sacred Heart shall be exposed and honored.

10. I will give to priests the power to touch the most hardened hearts.

11. Those who propagate this devotion shall have their name written in My Heart, and it shall never be effaced.

12. The all-powerful love of My Heart will grant to all those who shall receive Communion on the First Friday of nine consecutive months the grace of final repentance; they shall not die under My displeasure, nor without receiving their Sacraments; My Heart shall be their assured refuge at that last hour.

+ Imprimatur: E. Morrogh Bernard, Vic. Gen.,  Westmonasterii, 1954

“Jesus knew and loved us each and all during his life, his agony and his Passion, and gave himself up for each one of us.  ‘The Son of God ….loved me and gave himself for me.’  He has loved us all with a human heart.  For this reason, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced by our sins and for our salvation, ‘is quite rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that …. love with which the divine Redeemer continually loves the eternal Father and all human beings’ without exception.”  (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #478

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Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed.

"The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction. (Wisdom 3: 1 - 3).

Today is All Souls Day. The Church commemorates All the Faithful Departed this Day. Who are the Souls involved here? Let the Church speak:

"All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven."  (CCC 1030)

Also:

"The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned..... (CCC 1031).

"But they are in peace."  ( Wisdom 3: 3)
The souls in Purgatory are in peace because they hope that one day, they will be welcomed into Heaven.

"Brothers and sisters:
Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our heart through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us."  (Romans 5: 5).

"Come, you who are blessed by my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."  (Matthew 25: 34).

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Solemnity of All Saints.

"After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands."  (Revelation 7: 9).

The Church celebrates the Solemnity of All Saints today.  A holy day of obligation.

Who are the Saints? Our brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, children, neighbors, ancestors who have died and are already enjoying the blessed assurance of immortality.

How can one join the club?
“[Saints] are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."  (Revelation 7: 14).

What does the above Scripture mean? This world is not our home. We are on a long Journey? There will be delays, disappointments, obstacles, frustrations, bumps, hunger, wars, refugees, immigrants dumped on us on the way.  How do you handle these unforeseen developments? How you do cope with these makes you a Saint or not.

"As we adore you, O God, who alone are holy and wonderful in all your Saints, we implore your grace,
so that, coming to perfect holiness in the fullness of your love,
we may pass from this pilgrim table
to the banquet of our heavenly homeland.
Through Christ our Lord."  (Prayer after Communion on All Saints).

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My friend, wait for the Lord with courage.

"For in this hope we were saved.But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?  But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently."  (Romans 8: 24 - 25).

Beautiful HOPE has been the dominant theme since we started reading Romans in daily liturgical cycle. I hope you are uplifted by the message. You must be if you nurse some secret hope in your heart.  I am immersed in immense joy and consolation.  As a young school boy, we bantered with this phrase frequently:  "Where there is hope, there is life."  How true! But the Bible puts it better:  "Hope never fails." (Romans 5: 5).

The Prophet Jeremiah who suffered a great deal and waited and waited for the Lord, knew one or two things about trusting, hoping and waiting.  He committed his experience in these immortal words :

“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.
They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water.
Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought.
Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit."  (Jeremiah 17: 7 - 8).

"Wait patiently for the Lord.
Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord."  (Psalm 27: 14)

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Woman, you are free of your infirmities.

"Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath.  And a woman was there who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spirit; she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect."  (Luke 13: 10 - 11).

This story of a woman incapable of standing erect reminds me of Caroline.  Caroline was in her seventies when I met her in morning Mass.  After the Mass, she approached me and gave me a  miraculous medal. I accepted it and believed her testimony about it. Although I upgraded the medal and the chain, the miraculous medal found a comfortable home around my neck for the past 20 years.

Although Caroline may still be bent over, Jesus must have said to her before we met:  “Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.”  (Luke 13: 12). Our greatest infirmities are not bodily but spiritual.  St Paul teaches:  "For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, “Abba, Father!”  (Romans 8: 15).

Abba Father, give us the light, the grace, and the power of the Holy Spirit!  Strengthen us in this Spirit, that we may never lose Him, never sadden Him, and never allow Him to become weaker in us. Amen.

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No possibility of migration, no Church.

“You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the greatest and the first commandment.  The second is like it:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself."  (Matthew 22:  37 - 39).

Who is your neighbor? How do you love him?

"You shall not oppress or afflict a resident alien, for you were once aliens residing in the land of Egypt. You shall not wrong any widow or orphan.  If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely listen to their cry.  My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword; then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans."  (Exodus 22:  20 - 23).

Why did God bless America more than other nations. Certainly not because we are the most hard working or honest. It is because our forebears who never forgot they were immigrants opened their hearts to migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.

God is good and powerful enough to create a world without the necessity for migrations.  But for His own mysterious purposes, He created a world where like the poor, the migrants will always be with us whether we like it or not.

Migrants in the Bible:
Mary, Joseph and Jesus.
Abraham and Jacob.
David
All the 12 Apostles.

Without the possibility of migration, the Church would have died in infancy when Rome destroyed Jerusalem completely in 70 AD.

"This I command you:  Love one another."  (John 15: 17).

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