Our Lord in today's gospel shows us how much He values man and his salvation relative to the swine that were in the area. The thing is the demons asked Him that they move to the swine. After He gave them leave, they entered the pigs and rushed them over the cliff to drown in the sea. The swineherds relayed this story to the villagers who naturally did not like what Jesus did. So, they asked Him to leave their village. Our Lord is ready to be rejected just to belabor the point that those demoniacs deserved better and much more than the value of those swine. He was willing to lose them but not those men.

Lord, save us! That was how the disciples woke Jesus up in the midst of that raging storm. What could you expect them to do? The waves were swamping the boat that they feared for their lives. Jesus got up without any care in the world. This is peanuts! Anyhow, He rebuked those forces of nature and everything returned to calmness. He addressed them criticizing their little faith. We should admit to our little faith too, and that it should be more and grow. How will it grow if there is no occasion for it to grow? True, God gives us more faith but there have to be times when more faith is required and we face the reality of our puny faith.

Let us observe the Sacred Humanity of Our Lord. Since He is perfect man, His most attractive. People wanted to follow Him. But do you have what it requires to follow Him?

We celebrate today two of the greatest apostles of Jesus Christ. Their witness and example should spur us on also in loving Jesus with deeds, even when we are beset by personal weaknesses and sins. The Lord did not choose them because they were perfect or near perfect. They were weak, proud, and cowardly, but they took seriously their moment of conversion. They lived Jesus in return, even to the point of martyrdom.

After the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we now look into the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I recall from my teenage years what the adults called dirty, like dirty jokes, dirty pictures, dirty movies, etc. I wondered what was dirty. Was it sex? Was it something related to the marital embrace? Was it about the human body, or the female body? Anyhow, I found out later that what was dirty was not what God designed and created. What was dirty was the disorder involved, the taking out of proper context and from God's design or laws certain human realities. That was where sin reigned. That was where the dirt was. Anyway, Mary's Heart is referred to as Immaculate, i.e., clean. It was clean because of its content. Let us explore this Heart in today's gospel.

Today, the Church wants us to know the Heart of Jesus! It is Valentine's Day between God and Man, Man collectively, but especially man in particular, i.e., each one of us. Indeed, God wants to have a personal relationship with each one of us. Explore the Sacred Heart of Jesus as we can appreciate in the gospel of today's mass.

Let us not kid ourselves. Today's gospel only reinforces our conviction about the fact that we can be led astray by deceitful people. Adam and Eve's experience with the serpent continues nowadays. Satan is always on the prowl looking for fresh victims. Hence, our dear Lord Jesus Christ asks us to beware of false prophets. These latter can come nowadays to our homes and bedrooms because of TV, movies, etc and the pervasive Internet. Satan continues to hunt for victims to deceive and lead away from the truth and moral goodness. Jesus reveals a method to detect this before it harms us. Check their fruits, their products, their graduates, their later lives, etc. If the results show fruits that are not good, then we should be wary of the danger present in such teachers, or prophets.

We celebrate the birthday of St. John the Baptist. Discover the reasons we do this in the Catholic Church. Aside from his birthday, we also celebrate those of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ. What makes this cousin of Jesus significant?

It is good policy to check ourselves in the mirror during the day. We do have a good image of physical selves but we need to verify and check whether that is actually the case. If we do this with respect to our physical selves, we also need to do this with respect to our heart and souls. We may have a false and erroneous idea of ourselves. This happens also in the way we judge others.

We celebrate today the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We give witness to the world of the Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist. Hidden under the appearance of bread and wine is the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of the Second Person of the Second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity. Jesus is truly Emmanuel, God with us, I our Tabernacles.