Making Friends With The Lord Jesus

The Devil may use our perception of our sinfulness or our many sins to discourage us. The Gospel today describes what we need to do in such situations. This woman of the street expressed her love in a very special way with details of affection. She used her obvious gifts to please Jesus, instead of using them for her selfish purposes. She wept, repenting from her many sins, and used her tears to wash Jesus' feet. Likewise, she used her hair to dry them. Furthermore, she used the ointment and anointed His feet. The critical judgement of the host Pharisee learned his lesson c/o Jesus, who pointed out to him his carelessness in according to Him the customary gestures to a guest in the house. Because she loved much, her sins, many though they are, were forgiven.

We find Our Lord Jesus expressing His frustration. He expressed it by describing what He thought of the people of His generation, although what He describes is applicable to people of any generation. "We played the pipes for you, and you wouldn't dance; we sang dirges, and you wouldn't cry." Our Lord tries to win people to check themselves to be aware of their need to be saved: He employed miracles, parables, and corrections. He expressed His frustration with some people who did not heed Him.

Today, we read in the gospel of the mass about a widow who has the huge problem of finding out how she would support herself, now that her husband had died and her only son just died. She was burying her in the gospel scene. Jesus meets the funeral procession. He stops the column of wailing people. He reads deeply into the plight of this widow. Moved by compassion, He resurrects the young man and returns him to his surprised mother. God loves and cares for our misfortunes and plights. Let us only take care of what we read in the last line of the Psalm II of the Book of Psalms in the Old Testament, "Blessed are they who put their trust in the Lord."

Today, we read in the Gospel of the Mass of the encounter of Jesus with the centurion. A centurion was an officer in the Roman Army in charge of a hundred men. He had a servant he was fond of and who was sick and near death. He sent Jewish friends to ask Jesus for the favor of curing the servant. Jesus goes, but when He was closer to the house, the centurion sent Him a message. It said that he did not presume that Jesus come into his dwelling. The Jews were very careful in being pure and clean. Coming in touch with a Gentile or entering a Gentile's house would get them into trouble with respect to the purity laws. Anyhow, Jesus intended to enter his house to do the cure. But the centurion, knowing of this provision of the purity laws, wanted to avoid this problem for Our Lord. Of course, since He was divine, He had no difficulties in being defiled by a Gentile's house. The centurion's message consisted of expressing his unworthiness in having Jesus in his dwelling. His proposal was for Jesus simply to say the word, and that would suffice to get his favorite servant well. Jesus was amazed at the faith of this soldier. He cured the servant from where He was. We can grow in trusting the Lord by repeating this prayer of the centurion, modified a bit to refer to our cure. “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word and I shall be healed."

We are unable to celebrate liturgically the memorial of the Sorrowful Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the foot of the Cross. However, the gospel of the Mass provides us with a text that directly challenges all of us who desire to follow Jesus. Jesus declares that He was destined to suffer. That was a shocker to the ears of those apostles, and it reverberated in the ears of Christians ever since. How can that happen to Jesus, who is all powerful? Truly mysterious! After that, we should inevitably need to ponder on our following Jesus' footsteps in this life. Each of us is also destined to suffer. Mary learned that in a most special way when she witnessed the torture and murder of her Son. We should learn this lesson too!

Today is the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. We remember the value of the Cross of Jesus. God was not constrained to save us by dying on the Cross. He could have chosen another way to do this. However, in His infinite wisdom, He selected this way of the Cross. We can see why. Anyone, let alone a God who undergoes this torturous death, who suffers to this extent to save His people from sin and death, proves to the utmost degree his love for the people he dies for. We need to imitate Him. If He gives Himself to us to save us, then the least we can do is to approximate that by also giving ourselves up in carrying the Cross of each day.

Jesus talks about the problem with the blind leading the blind. Both will simply fall into the pit. We remember that we are all on a trip to Heaven. Thus, we need to know the correct way to get there. We need guidance, insofar as going to that place is not that clearly marked out. Take, for example, today being Friday coinciding with the 13th of the month. What does that say to you? People may be superstitious and read more into this coincidence than the mere fact. The light of Christianity is granted us by the Redeemer and His Spouse the Holy Catholic Church. We all need the light of God to guide us regarding our moral choices. Otherwise, we seek other gods that are apparently able to discern truth from falsehood. These are the blind, i.e., creatures taken to have some divine attribute to guide the blind. Actually, such false gods are blind trying to lead the blind. Our Lord warns us that they will fall into a pit!

Today, Jesus encourages us to learn to face the music. If we do something deserving a penalty, then we need to expect that penalty to come upon us. Some escape with impunity in this world. But we will never be able to escape the divine judgment.

We hear Jesus telling us today that we need to love our enemies. We need to be merciful so that God show us mercy as well. We pray in the Lord's Prayer that God forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

This might make us look weak since we do not go by the way of revenge. It is most difficult to forgive instead. To forgive makes us most Godlike, since it is proper of God to be forgiving of our offenses, as long as we ask for forgivenes.

Our world is fallen. We are all fallen. We have in our souls the aspiration to infinity and perfection for eternity. However, this world cannot provide us with any of that. They will come only in the next world. Here is a valley of tears, suffering and pain. We can only expect disappointments and the sort. The Lord, however, gives us today in the Gospel of the Mass, another perspective. What and how we suffer here actually assure us of some reward in the next life, in the new earth and new heavens that Jesus promised us that will come about when this world ends in time. Find out how we are actually fortunate!

How He does it is the subject of this Gospel and homily. He prays the entire night before He chooses them. Then, we chooses not in the manner we choose people who would be like salesmen of His teachings and get others to learn them. He does not decide on the best. In fact, He picks mere fishermen. Most of them were experts in catching fish. They were not educated like the Pharisees were educated. The one who betrayed Him was perhaps the one with the best credentials. That is why he was made in charge of their money bag. But he committed suicide. It is fortunate that He does not select like we do on earth because none of us could make the standard of holiness or perfection. Thank God, He does not select His priests and bishops like directors do in their search for the actor for a role.