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Tag: A Dose of God Today

  • We are all part of God’s Wonderful Plan

    We are all part of God’s Wonderful Plan

    December 20, 2020 – Fourth Sunday of Advent

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122020.cfm)

    Homily

    We are very close now of that wonderful historical event in our Christian faith. This week is the last stretch of our joyful and hopeful waiting leading us towards that humble yet unique and crucial event in our history. Definitely, it is very important that we don’t lose sight of the great meaning of the birth of Jesus by making ourselves rooted in this Season of Advent.

    We could have been stunned with a lot of concerns these days, or the pandemic could have still gripped us into fear and anxiety, or the highly commercialized Christmas celebration could intoxicate us, however, let us bring ourselves, our hearts and our minds into focus.

    At the beginning of this Season of Advent, we were called to “stay awake, to be alert and to be vigilant.” We are constantly reminded of God’s surprise visits and of God’s promise to be with us. Today, on this Fourth Sunday of Advent where we also lighted the fourth candle, called as the Candle of Angels or the Candle of Love, we are being trailed into the fulfillment of God’s promise. Thus, I invite you now that we look again the readings this Sunday and discern together how God brings us into a greater awareness that each of us today take part in God’s wonderful plan.

    The Second Book of Samuel tells us how God renews the covenant with David. David who felt guilty for being in the palace while the Ark of the Covenant was in a tent, was reminded of God’s favor. God promised David that his house shall be blessed. It is God who will build a house for the people. In this house, God will be our Father.

    What the Prophet proclaims to us is the very hope and joyful expectation of the fulfillment of God’s promise. This covenant rests now in that relationship with God as a father. This is the first invitation today, that we take comfort in God’s promise because God is our Father.

    This promise and close relationship with God is what our Psalm sings to us today. The people at that time endured a great amount of suffering. In their anguish and fear, they recalled the covenant with God and recognized the “everlasting kindness of God.” God is faithful indeed, and God is our father. This was what they felt in the midst of their suffering.

    Somehow, this was a longing in their heart that they continued to hold on for this gave them hope and joy in life despite the gloomy and dark situation. Therefore, the Psalm sings, “Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.” This is the second invitation for us today where we are called to have a greater awareness, so that we are able to recognize the goodness of God.

    Such goodness of the Lord had been fulfilled. God is certainly our Father. The Lord is faithful to our covenant. The readings all point us to what the Angel Gabriel announced to Mary. The person of Mary was not random. God planned it all along. Mary was betrothed to Joseph who was from the lineage of King David. This lineage brings us into the covenant made by God with David. Mary as well was a cousin of Elizabeth who was from the priestly lineage of Aaron. This tells us that the Messiah is indeed a royal and a priest.

    More to this, God’s kindness is truly from everlasting and God’s plan works in our human story. And in our human story God brings us what love can do. What the Angel Gabriel announced was in fact LOVE. Mary having favored by God, was filled with God’s grace. In that fullness, Mary’s love was overflowing. This is what happened when the Holy Spirit is welcomed and received.

    Her response to God despite her confusion and fear, allowed her to be more conscious that she was loved and was called to love. That awareness of God’s presence moved Mary to participate fully in God’s plan. Mary was not passive. She was not indifferent to God’s invitation. Mary took part by making the promise of God fulfilled through her by loving concretely.

    The words of Mary to the Angel Gabriel, “Let it be done to me according to your word,” was a statement of faith and also a statement of loving. As God fulfills the promise, God also asks us to participate. This is the third invitation for us today, to allow ourselves to participate in God’s wonderful plan.

    Let our words, let our actions and let our very person become the embodiment of God’s presence today. The Season of Advent, after all, invites us that we become love and become loving in order to receive that greatest gift of love. Hinaut pa.

  • Are your burdens heavy? Come to Jesus.

    Are your burdens heavy? Come to Jesus.

    December 9, 2020 – Wednesday 2nd week of Advent

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120920.cfm)

    Homily

    Are you carrying some burdens now? Are you worried at the moment? Are you afraid of something? Recognizing these questions tell us about our dispositions and even tell us about what we are hoping for. We hope to be freed from our burdens, from worries and anxieties. Yet, we cannot do this alone. We need the company of others to help us.

    Thus, we ask God to help us in our problems and concerns. However, sometimes we demand God to take them away immediately from us. But, there is a danger around here. There is a temptation in us to think of a God who does magic and can take away all those concerns that burden us at once.

    God does not offer us magic what God offers us rather, is his gentle, empowering and understanding kind of friendship. The Book of Prophet Isaiah tells us of this friendship with God. God does not grow tired or weary. God even gives us strength and life. Isaiah proclaimed this to the Hebrew people when they became hopeless because of the suffering they endured while at their exile in a foreign land. They displayed weariness and boredom because of the long wait of the coming of the Messiah. Isaiah reminded them of God who never forgets for his knowledge is without limit.

    This is what Matthew proclaimed in the Gospel. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened!” Jesus invites us to come to him and to welcome him in our life that we may be liberated from our burdens and sins, to be free from worries and anxieties.  

    Jesus tells us that God does not terrorize us with God’s might and power nor subjects us with his influence nor does magic to remove all our difficulties at once. Jesus gives us a humble invitation to come to him as our friend – a true friend who is gentle, humble and compassionate, willing to walk with us.

    As our friend,  Jesus offers us his yoke.  A yoke was put on the necks of two animals to plow the field for planting. There were usually two cows so that the weight becomes lighter and the plowing easier and faster. The yoke that Jesus speaks about is from this image. That yoke symbolizes the Gospel that we receive today – and that Gospel is Jesus the Lord himself.

    Jesus offers himself as our friend. He is not promising us to remove all troubles in life at once, as his life was also filled with pain and suffering. He tells us today that though life may be filled with worries and anxieties, fears, failures and insecurities, with shame and guilt, yet, we will never be alone in our struggle for he renews and strengthens us.

     Jesus invites us to carry those troubles with him, to pull our burdens with him, to share our trials with him, to draw strength from him and to allow him to help us. Remember, the Lord does not do good things for us, but rather, he does great things with us. He does not do miracle for us but he does it with us.

    With this experience with Jesus, we may also become willing and generous people – who will be ready to cheer up a friend filled with doubts, ready to give comfort to a friend suffering from grief and sorrow, ready to listen to a friend who needs someone to talk to, so that we too will become God’s instrument of brining freedom and inner peace to our overburdened brothers and sisters in this Season of Advent and Christmas. Hinaut pa.

  • Where are you?: God Finding Us

    Where are you?: God Finding Us

    December 8, 2020 – Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

    Click here for the Liturgy in PDF File (https://adoseofgodtoday.com/sunday-liturgy/)

    Homily

    “Where are you?” God’s voice must have been echoing in the garden looking for humanity. God’s voice also echoes today in every heart of man and woman, waiting to be heard. Though God knows where we are, but God waits until we show ourselves to Him in humility. This is the very scene that the Book of Genesis is depicting to us on this Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the woman consecrated to God.

    Now, let us see a bit how sin destroys our relationship with God and with one another, and on how grace also restores that relationship and brings new life through the person of Mary.

    Sin leads us to fear. Fear is filled with guilt and shame. This is the reason why Adam and Eve were hiding. Their nakedness tells us of their guilt. Yet, their guilt never assumed the responsibility that they have sinned. As a result, what happened was the chain of blaming. Adam blamed Eve. And Eve blamed the Serpent.

    Because of sin, the intimacy between man and woman was shattered. In the same way, they lost their closeness with God. It was them who distanced from God. Thus, sin makes us to hide yet, it leads to destruction and to death.

    Moreover, in this occasion of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, we are reminded of the original grace in each of us, of that grace given by God to us. In Mary, that grace was preserved. The Gospel of Luke that recounts the annunciation to Mary sheds the light of this mystery.

    What we see in the life of Mary is this –  that grace leads to confidence and faith. Such confidence and faith made Mary to conceive God in her womb. She became pregnant with God. Mary’s willingness and availability for God and for others allowed God to work wonderfully and beautifully in the life of Mary. This reminds us now that grace indeed, overflows and it creates and inspires life.

    After all, God continues to find us not to condemn us and to destroy us but to renew us, to recreate us, to give us the fullness of God’s grace and presence.

    Through the fullness of grace in Mary, God initiates to restore our relationship with Him. This has been fulfilled through the participation of Mary by expressing her freedom that she chose God, she chose grace not sin, and that she chose life and not death.

    How is God calling us now through the Immaculate Conception of Mary?

    First, as the Book of Genesis tells us, God calls and finds us when we try to hide because of shame and guilt. God does that, not to condemn us to death and to eternal misery but to restore and renew us. Allow God to find us.

    Second, when we ty to separate and distance from God, God initiates to come to us to invite us to come closer to Him in humility. Thus, let not our fear, guilt and shame prevent us from seeking God’s mercy. Our sacraments are God’s initiative too to make us ever closer to Him. Allow God to forgive us.

    Third, God desires that we too shall be filled with grace so that like Mary, God’s grace will also overflow in our life. The pregnancy of Mary and becoming the Mother of Jesus, was that overflowing grace of God to Mary. When we choose the Lord today and every day, God blesses us and fills us with grace. Grace makes us discerning and understanding, joyful and generous. Moreover, grace does not only renew us but also grace inspires and creates life through us. Thus, allow God today to fill us with grace. Hinaut pa.

  • EXCITED KA NA NAMAN BANG UMASA MULI?

    EXCITED KA NA NAMAN BANG UMASA MULI?

    This Advent Reflection invites us to dwell deeper on the importance of our presence and of God’s presence in our life and in the life of others. The excitement to hope again calls us to hold on to hope, to be hopeful and to be the hope for others.

    Below is a link of the reflection.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SxAewHAmS0

  • Comfort in the midst of darkness and sin

    Comfort in the midst of darkness and sin

    December 6, 2020 – Second Sunday of Advent

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120620.cfm)

    Homily

    To look for comfort once in a while is a human necessity. To take comfort when we are experiencing stress from work allows us to relax. To take comfort when our relationship becomes suffocating allows us to gather our mind. To take comfort when we are sad, sorrowful and suffering allows us to breath, to be heard and to be embraced. For this very reason we seek the things that we know would give us some comfort like the presence of our friends and family members, the people who care and love us. Others can also take comfort even from small and simple things like eating their favorite dish, going to a fun-filled place, taking a vacation in a peaceful beach or just retreating into the recesses of their rooms and personal space.

    Some forms of comfort too would sometimes develop into unhealthy habits and even addictions. In the search of experiencing comfort and joy, we could also fall into traps. We may believe that it is the comfort that we have been looking for, yet, because it is easy and can be made available then we settle for it. This is the case when we begin to foster a cycle of habit, the early stage of addiction, and later on will also become a compulsive behavior in us. This can compulsion can be in any form. This is not limited to chemical substances but also in relationships and in our attitudes to material things. Thus, those that become excessive in us can be forms of obsessions and addictions that are actually expressions of our desire to be comforted.

    Such desire to be comforted brings me now into the theme on this Second Sunday of Advent. Today, we light the second candle, which is the candle of peace. Is it not that we indeed desire peace – peace in our hearts, peace in our homes, peace in our communities? This desire for comfort which peace will bring to us, is what we also hear in our readings today.

    The first reading from the Book of Isaiah wonderfully proclaimed to us God’s response to the people who longed for peace. “Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated.” This passage was proclaimed to the people of God who were exiled to Babylon and were made slaves. They were in a foreign land, captives of foreign masters, removed from their homeland, subjected to suffering and misery. Indeed, they longed for comfort in midst of darkness and sin which can only come from God.

    But, at last, the exile shall come to an end, for God is faithful and merciful. The sins of the people were forgiven and peace shall be theirs.

    This promise of God to give comfort to the people shall be delivered by God himself and not just by any messenger. God comes to comfort the people because God’s presence means peace. That is why, Isaiah tells us too that when God comes, God will be like a Good Shepherd to us. The Lord will gather us in his arms, carry us in his bosom and lead us with care.

    These images of God’s actions tell us that God also longs for us. God longs to be closer with us. God desires to be really with us. This is peace. This is the true comfort that we too are looking for.

    Moreover, in order for us to be more welcoming and accepting of God’s comfort, Isaiah tells on what to do. What Isaiah proclaimed was also re-echoed in our Gospel today, through the person of John the Baptist. It says, “prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.”

    John reminds us that salvation is possible, that peace and freedom from sin is possible. Thus, comfort of peace will dawn on us when we start recognizing our sinfulness rather than the sins of others. Peace is felt when we humble ourselves before God to accept that we are in need of mercy.

    However, we too might feel impatient with God because we expect that we should be comforted right away and immediately when we need it. Peter in his second letter reminds us today also, he said, “Do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard “delay,” but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

    Therefore, as we welcome the Lord to come and comfort us with peace, let us also make ourselves ready by preparing our heart. Let us reflect today, “What are my unhealthy habits or even forms of obsessions and addictions that prevent me from welcoming God? What are my un-confessed sins, my selfish tendencies and desires that are keeping me away from my true self, from others and from God?

    As the candle of peace has been lit, may this promise of God to us today, ignite for our desire to be comforted by God’s presence dwelling among us. Hinaut pa.