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Tag: Christian Life

  • Praying as Jesus Prays

    Praying as Jesus Prays

    October 5, 2022 – Wednesday of the 27th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100522.cfm)

    We cannot help that sometimes our way of praying sounds like a demand to God. This could happen especially when we feel desperate. Though we believe that asking or begging God’s grace is certainly a way of praying, yet, this is not everything. When our prayers will only be filled with demands and requests for our own needs or wants, then, we might tend to believe that God is like a vending machine who is 24/7 available to grant our whims.

    Prayer is ought to be our way of life as Christians and not just a mere religious practice to observe from time to time or when we only want it. Prayer as our way of life is a constant discernment of the will of God, of getting closer to the very heart of the Lord. This is what a disciple asked of Jesus in today’s Gospel. The disciple witnessed how Jesus lives a way of life in prayer. The disciple must have seen how prayer empowers Jesus and his ministry by being one with the Father in Heaven through prayer.

    Indeed, Jesus taught his disciples how to pray which we know by heart as well. The Lord’s prayer allows us to put our complete and childlike trust to the Father. Such prayer brings us into a greater awareness of God’s presence working every day in our life and a greater awareness of our true needs, particularly of being at peace and reconciled.

    The prayer Jesus taught and his way of life in prayer have a common thing to reveal to us and that is, to be “in the heart of God.” Others may all this as being “in communion with God or to be one with God.”  Being in the heart of God is to be in a state of allowing the Lord to change us, to transform us that includes our thoughts, our desires, our plans and our very way of life.

    Certainly, what Jesus desires for his disciples and for us is to pray as Jesus prays. The very life of Jesus is founded in being in the heart of his Father in Heaven. With this, Jesus constantly seek his Father’s will and desire for him and for the world. This is what Jesus also wants us to learn, that in our prayer, we may also be in the heart of God so that we may be able to discern and identify God’s desire over our impulses, to know and embrace God’s will over our demands and personal wants.

    This is something that Paul wanted Peter to recognize and embrace as well. Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, reminded Peter of his hypocrisy, biases and wrong belief about God’s desire. Peter refused to eat at the table with Christians who were non-Jews. Peter must have believed at the thought that in order to be a disciple of Jesus one must be first a Jew. Paul confronted him about this and called Peter that God is not like that. God is not limited with Jewish practices. God is not even limited among them and not limited on our personal prejudices. Definitely, Peter was challenged by Paul to rather seek the desire of Jesus and not his or a group’s desire. Such way of knowing Jesus’ desire is to be in the heart of God through prayer.

    Thus, this calls us also today to make our prayer as our way of life so that we may come into the heart of God and know better God’s desire over our personal wants and whims. Kabay pa.

  • The Word of God nourishes and challenges us at the same time

    The Word of God nourishes and challenges us at the same time

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    June 5, 2020 – Friday 9th Week in Ordinary Time; Memorial of St. Boniface

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/060520.cfm)

    The Holy Scriptures or the Bible is of great importance and gift to our Christian faith. The Second Letter of Paul to Timothy tells us that the scriptures will give us wisdom that leads to salvation, through faith is Christ Jesus. This means that by knowing and developing a relationship with Jesus brings us to freedom being experienced as individuals and as a community, as a church.

    Paul reminds us too that “all scripture is inspired by God.” As this is inspired by God, the Bible teaches us how God reveals the Divine Plan of Salvation. Hence, God in his great love for us has become man like us to feel what we feel, that God may be in solidarity with us.

    Moreover, the scriptures also refute error and corrects us. It means that the bible is not merely a passive literary work of some people, but it confronts us of what is wrong with us, of what is unjust and oppressive, of what is sinful. The scriptures then, bring us to be closer to God’s presence and to understand better the wisdom of God working in our life.

    Consequently, the scriptures serve as our guide to follow closely the Lord in our life. This is what Paul shared with Timothy. Following the Lord gives us peace and confidence in what we do yet this will also bring us challenges and difficulties as Paul experienced persecution from people who rejected Jesus.

    Paul was inspired by the Lord and committed his life to God. This was how Paul’s heart was captured by God. Paul’s heart gladdened at the revelation of Jesus to him which made Paul to be converted. This is what we have heard from the Gospel today, “many people came to Jesus and listened to him gladly.”

    That gladness came from that revelation of God, of God speaking to us. As Jesus spoke to Paul, Paul could not keep silent then. This was how Paul turned from being a brutal persecutor to a life-giving apostle of the Lord.

    Today, the Lord invites us that as we celebrate the Liturgy of the Word, let us also listen gladly to the Lord.

    Thus, let us allow the Lord to speak to us, to nourish us and at the same time to teach, correct and challenge us. Let the Lord confront us of our passivity and indifference towards others, of our sin and guilt, to confront us when we only settle to what is only comfortable and beneficial for us and to confront our hearts and conscience when we choose to keep our eyes blind from an unjust system.

    In this way, we may become Christians who like St Paul and St Boniface who were martyred because of what they preached, to also become a light and inspiration in this time of pandemic where our religious freedom is also being tested. Hinaut pa.         

    Jom Baring, CSsR