Making Friends With The Lord Jesus

Our Lord Jesus Christ made this prophecy in the gospel today. Still within the Church's lesson plan of teaching us about justice and mercy of God. Everything will be accounted for. Since the Jerusalem rejected her Redeemer in Jesus Christ and murdered Him, she would be destroyed to the ground. Her precious Temple would be razed to the ground. Justice will be served. But we should not forget that God's mercy will be manifest too in the end, in that those who accepted our Lord and Savior and followed Him will be rewarded.

Our Lord was very clear with His followers about the difficulties in following Him. However, He assures us of His Providence. All He asks is that we trust Him and persevere with Him.

Jesus foretold the destruction of Jerusalem and her Temple. The gospel warns us of some cataclysmic destruction of the world as we know it at present. There will be signs before this would happen. While Jesus was prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem, He drew the parallelism of such destruction also happening at the end of time. Thus, He draws for us all the lesson of not putting all our eggs in this world. We are all tempted to dream of this world as the definitive place. We make our dreams, and we work to make them a reality. That is all fine and hunky-dory but we are reminded to hope for the real world of God and eternity with Him.

Jesus reveals to us what pleases Him and what He appreciates from us. He observes the contrast between the contribution to the Temple Treasury of rich people and that of a poor widow. The former give a lot of money, relative to the tiny amount the poor widow gave. But Jesus is more pleased by what this woman gave. Check out the gospel of today's mass.

This last Sunday and solemnity of our liturgical year reminds us about the reality of our hearts being an altar or a throne. Who occupies that throne? Who do we sacrifice ourselves, our time, our energies, and so forth, to? Our lives are simply this. Either we recognize God as our King or ourselves as the king. This rivalry is the substance of our decisions and activities. History is merely a narration of how man's freedom has been used. We are reminded today about who our King should be.

Today, Our dear Lord invites us to imitate Peter, who He identified to be the Rock of the Church. That rock is so solid and strong that He had no qualms on building His Church on it. He describes its strength with the words "...and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it..." What made Peter, who was a sinner who vacillated in following our Lord, who denied Him three times, and so forth, the rock of the Church?

We read in the gospel of the mass today the first story contained in chapter 25 of St. Matthew's gospel. The story goes that there were 10 bridesmaids , 5 were foolish and 5 were wise. What contrasted them was the fact that the wise ones brought extra oil with them to keep their lamps lit as they wait for the bridegroom to arrive. Even when he is late, they had provision for it. They foresaw that possibility. However, the others were foolish because they did not bring extra fuel for their lamps. It so happened that the bridegroom was very late. So, when he actually arrived, those who brought extra fuel were ready to meet him because their lamps ran on the extra oil they foresaw to bring. The foolish ones asked them some but they told them to go to the stores to buy more oil because the amount the wise ones brought was only for their needs. They might not have enough for both. So, they left and the groom arrived and entered the wedding feast. And the door was shut. The foolish ones arrived and were not let in anymore. All this story is to remind us to be ready for death when we meet our Lord who will judge us. Let us be ready with that extra oil. This fuel could refer to our good deeds, or our being in the state of grace, and so forth. We need these to be able to enter Heaven.

Jesus' mother and brothers wanted to speak with Him that day. They were having difficulties in reaching Him because of the crowd. So, someone informed Him about this. But Jesus asked rhetorically about who was His mother and His brothers. He replied to His own questions but gesturing to His disciples and He identified them as His mother and His brothers because they had given up other options and pursued the will of His heavenly Father. It was also a subtle way of praising His Mother because she also said yes to God's Will by agreeing to His mother. Mary exercised her freedom by choosing God's will over other possible ways of spending her life on earth. The memorial today of her presentation to God in the temple is apropos to this gospel. Her presentation meant precisely that, that she was given up to the fulfillment of His Will. This sounds dramatic but this is the ordinary life of Jesus' followers. Each of us is awaited by the Lord to give ourselves up to do His Will.

God, portrayed as the king in the gospel today, gives us each a set of resources to fulfill the design and purpose of our lives here on earth. His parable states that each of the ten servants is given a gold coin to do business with. All except one servant are productive and they are rewarded. This is a law in God's Universe, that is, that when follows the design of God regarding His gifts to us, then we are rewarded. If we not do anything and waste His gift--in this parable, this is symbolized by the gold coin--then that which we have, namely the gold coin, will be removed from him. This is then given to the one who did more with his coin. Our Lord extracts this other law in His universe. That is that when we do well to be productive, then we receive more responsibilities. The unproductive servants simply lose the gifts they were given. If we do not use those gifts, then they go to waste. Thus, their gifts are removed from them.

If you feel or think that you are lost from the Church or from the Lord, the gospel today is for you. He came to seek and to save YOU! Check out Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector who wanted to see Jesus. He was short. So, he climbed a tree to be able to see Jesus as He passed by. At that instant He did, He looked up and startled the tax collector. He surprised him with perhaps the most consequential surprise of all his life. Jesus invited Himself to his home. He was so happy. The others murmured against Him because He associated Himself with sinner. Zacchaeus, however, stood his ground and made a public penance. He promised to restitute for all he has gotten dishonestly. Our Lord was always after him to give him the chance to repent from his sins.