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Tag: Heart

  • Keeping God closer to our Heart 

    Keeping God closer to our Heart 

    June 25, 2022 – Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062522.cfm)

    With all the complexities, strangeness and difficulties to understand the situation, Mary kept the Lord closer to her heart. She kept all those revelations from the Lord closer to her heart that she may be able to understand them in the way God desires them to be understood.

    This was how Mary would always find wisdom and strength because with the many events that happened in her life, she might not be able to bear them all. Mary was certainly confused, afraid and unable to decide and do anything if she chose to distance herself from the Lord by reacting out of impulse or mere emotions.

    “Keeping all those things in her heart” would mean that Mary tried to understand how God was uncovering and revealing to her the plan of salvation. Mary realized that God reveals Himself to her every day. Mary did not want to miss all of them. Thus, she sought the best way of understanding them by not reacting to every event through mere emotion or just out of compulsion.

    Mary did not react out of anger or through an emotional reaction in front of the young Jesus after losing him for three days. Though the words of the young Jesus were baffling for her, but she must have felt that there was something deeper in there. God must be behind it. In her confusion, she kept all those things in her heart, to ponder them, to seek wisdom and understanding in the way God wants her to understand them.

    Most of all, Mary was able to do that because within her heart, God is there already. She has welcomed the Lord and allowed the Lord to be always in her heart. This led her into that kind of understanding from God’s perspective and so she responded to every invitation of God for her, willingly and lovingly, because God has touched her heart.

    This is how we find Mary’s presence captivating in our Christian faith because her very life is an example of a perfect communion with God. This how we also find comfort in her, as a mother, because her human heart is touched by God’s heart. The human heart of Mary too, has given flesh to the human heart of Jesus.

    In today’s feast, God invites us to grow in this area, that like Mary, our heart too will be touched by God’s heart and to allow the Lord to be in our heart. This is an invitation to make God as the closest and dearest in our heart. It is in this way that we shall also find understating, wisdom and strength in the many unfolding of events that happen to us every day.

    As we allow God to be closer to our heart and to seek the Divine wisdom, we may also become more welcoming of others, more connected with people around us, by having a heart capable of loving, as Mary is to us. Kabay pa.

  • Hearts Known

    Hearts Known

    July 1, 2021 – Thursday 13th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070121.cfm)

    Jesus said in our gospel today: “Take heart, son. Your sins are forgiven.” The paralytic & his friends came for healing, but they rather received more than what they bargain for. Instead, they got encouragement & forgiveness from Jesus. Yes, their present immediate concern must be for healing from physical paralysis. But beyond the hopeless bodily outward condition of the paralytic, his friends & himself must have felt the guilt, shame & curse of the inner condition of the paralysis and sickness. Beyond & more than physical healing, deep inside, the paralytic & his friends need & are longing for mental, emotional & spiritual healing. This is what Jesus gave them – not only physical healing but moreso, encouragement & forgiveness, – not only healing of body but more so, healing & health of whole life of the cured paralytic & his friend.

    For the scribes, however, the whole miracle happened is a blasphemy. For the scribes, not only the physical healing of the paralytic but above all the forgiveness of sins are complete violation of their religious law. They saw more the violation rather than the miracle happened. Jesus admonished their actions & attitudes, & showed themselves & the crowd His authority beyond their religious laws. Healing & forgiveness are His’ because He is of God.

    And all of these happened because Jesus saw and knew their hearts. Jesus saw the faith of the paralytic & his friends. Jesus saw the evil thoughts and hearts of the scribes as well. Jesus knew their hearts. And Jesus knows the condition of our hearts as well. Our hearts are known to Him as well.

    A lot of things are happening in our lives nowadays. At the very surfaced level, lots of things going on, lots of pressures & stresses to cope with. We do have a lot on our plates – urgent pressing concerns. But what is the condition of our hearts? How are we deep inside ourselves? Like the scribes, at times, we do have our evil thought & bad hearts. Like the paralytic & his friends, many at times we do feel broken, hopeless, tired & confused with life nowadays.

    Be mindful then that the Lord knows how & where are hearts is. Our hearts are known to Him, for He sees what we deeply need at this time. Same way as he saw the faith of Abraham, He sees also our faith & our heart’s desire. He is with Us indeed, but also He is of God. He has the power & authority to respond for what we really need, – not only our urgent need but the heart’s desire of our whole person & life.

    Perhaps as we go through this day & this week, we ask & reflect on the condition of our hearts these days. What is happening in our hearts these days? We do believe our Lord wants us to be healthy & whole. What is he offering us these days? Encouragements, forgiveness, admonitions & guidance? How is he restoring us inwardly? How is he helping us to stand up tall & alive amidst life-challenges?

    Here we are now, Lord. We come to you as we are. You know our present concerns & our heart’s desire. We do believe in You & that You will what is best & better for us. Make us also see same way as You see us, so that may we be willingly participate with the miracle You are performing for us now & always. Amen.

  • WHERE DO I FIND MY HEART NOW?

    WHERE DO I FIND MY HEART NOW?

    June 18, 2021 – Friday 11th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061821.cfm)

    Where do you find yourself during the day? What keeps you occupied and busy? What are your major thoughts and concerns? And how do you end your day?

    These questions would somehow help us see the kind of life we are living at this very moment. We may find ourselves in front of our computer or smartphones because of our online job or online class. Others would find themselves wandering somewhere else or confined in a quarantine facility or at the hospital at this moment. Others also may find themselves alone and suffering.

    The demands of our work and career, or demands for school assignments and projects, demands in our relationship especially from our family could occupy us a lot. Meeting the deadline, doing all our responsibilities and on how we would manage well our time, presence and resources could also become our major concern. At the end of the day, we may find ourselves exhausted, stressed, empty and alone.

    To be grounded at all times is needed for our physical, emotional and spiritual well-being. This calls us to be constantly aware of our needs and of the needs around us in order to assess our priorities and to give more attention to what are most important and valuable to us. This is something important because when we are bombarded with many concerns and issues whether from our work, from our relationships or personal struggles of insecurities, anxieties and fears, then, we could easily be swayed and become lost.

    Our readings today reminds us to find our heart by also finding our true treasure. We are obviously not talking about the heart as a human organ but the heart as the center of our very being. This is where we find our deepest thoughts, our deepest dreams, our true treasure and the very space of encounter with God. Where do I find my heart now? We may ask ourselves.

    In Paul’s letter today to the Corinthians, he recounted to us his many experiences as a missionary and preacher of the Gospel. Paul was imprisoned, beaten, stoned, persecuted, and experienced dangers in his travels and all for the love of God. The Gospel and in sharing this Gospel to peoples and cultures made Paul busy and occupied. His ministry to preach the Gospel and to found churches consumed his energy physically, mentally and spiritually.

    However, despite all the trials, he was never lost and never felt alone even though he was suffering a lot. Paul did these without any complain neither grumbles nor bitterness. Joy in sharing and giving witness to the Gospel moved Paul to do those sacrifices. In fact, this joy came from Jesus himself, the true joy of Paul, and his lasting and true treasure in heaven. This is where Paul also found his heart, his very being, touched and loved by the Lord.

    Indeed, the relationship of Paul with the Lord and with the people to whom he was sent sustained him and his ministry. Paul would always see the day as something new and filled with hope, that is why he was able to continue in his ministry with joy and perseverance.

    This is the invitation that we have heard also today from the Gospel. Jesus said to his disciples, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven.” Jesus invites us to be more conscious of things that will last. Jesus was not talking about material possessions, neither human desires for recognition and power nor human cravings for self-gratification.

    Jesus invites us to give more importance to our relationships, particularly, to be daring in building intimate and deeper relationships with God, with our families and our community by giving what we have – our time and our presence.

    Thus, each of us will surely be making sacrifices, we may never forget then, that all our effort, energy and presence spent to every sacrifice that we make whether at work, at school, and with our relationships – are all intended towards storing up treasures in heaven where we shall also find our heart. Hinaut pa.

  • How to maintain a welcoming and nurturing heart

    How to maintain a welcoming and nurturing heart

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    July 24, 2020 – Friday of the 16th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/072420.cfm)

    Homily

    How recipient am I of God and of His invitations? How welcoming and nurturing is my heart for God?

    The parable of the sower speaks to us of the different attitudes of human hearts in welcoming and accepting God and God’s living word in us. This was portrayed on how the seeds fell into the different parts of the field.

    Certainly, from this parable, this tell us too that we are God’s field. As a field where the seeds are planted, God desires that we become fruitful by allowing what God has planted in us to grow.

    As God’s field, how do we make ourselves a rich soil then, good for planting and growing? How do we also maintain a welcoming and nurturing heart?

    As in real planting, the soil should be filled with what is natural and organic, with real soil. When our field is filled with rocks, plastics and dangerous chemicals then it would not be good for plants to grow. We have to take away the rocks and plastics that may hinder the growth of the seeds, and the dangerous chemicals that may poison the plants.

    Thus, our heart can also be filled with our pretensions, our masks and our self-serving attitudes that serve rocks and plastics in the field that will hinder our faith to grow and mature. Our heart can also be filled with anxieties, excessive attachments to things, uncontrollable desires and addictions. These surely are dangerous chemicals that will poison our hearts. These lead us away from God and away from others and even away from our true selves.

    For us to have a welcoming and nurturing heart, we need to empty ourselves from our insecurities and anger, from hate and aggression. Without these, then we can be filled with love, with forgiveness, with faith and hope, with compassion and mercy, with tenderness and peace.

    Moreover, we can only accommodate God and others when we are not filled with ourselves. Yes, when we are filled with ourselves, with our arrogance and pride, with our bitterness and guilt, then, we won’t be able to welcome and give space for God and for his invitations to grow and bear fruit in our hearts. In the same way, we will not be able to welcome others to take part in our life.

    Thus, the invitation for us today is to seek understanding and wisdom from God that we may be able to recognize the way God is leading us today. To seek understanding will help us to take away at least two poisonous tendencies of our heart.

    First, is our tendency to accept what we only like to believe. This is a tendency that only seeks comfort and does not want to be challenged. Such tendency in us will make us dismissive of the Word of God that gives discomfort.

    Second, is our tendency to believe to what is only beneficial for the sake of our personal interest. This tendency expresses aggression when confronted with the truth. Such tendency will also make us narrow-minded because it is fixed to what is only good for our sake.

    However, such attitudes of the heart make us stagnant. This is not what God wants us. God desires always that we become individuals and a community that bears fruit for others and that we will be able to share and give life.

    Therefore, to seek understanding from God is to constantly challenge our hearts and confront our selfish desires. To be able to maintain a rich soil then, is to receive the word of God organically, without any color from our selfish intentions and self-serving interests. In this way, we could make our heart welcoming and nurturing, not for our sake, but for our community. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR

  • Let God speak in your heart today

    Let God speak in your heart today

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    July 6, 2020 – Monday 14th Week in Ordinary Time

    Click here for the readings (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/070620.cfm)

    Homily

    “I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart.” Prophet Hosea reminds us today of this.

    Indeed, the Lord leads us into emptiness, into situations of our life where we become vulnerable, unpretentious, without our facades and masks. It is in those situations where we can hear God the most because of our emptiness like the desert. God then speaks to us in our heart as Yahweh spoke to Israel in her downfall.

    There are two concrete situations where God speaks in the experience of emptiness of a person as told to us in the Gospel of Matthew.

    First, a synagogue official who was most probably had many doubts in Jesus but was able to hear God speaking through his desperate experience. His love for his daughter and his desperate plea to heal her led him to Jesus. In that experience, God spoke to his heart and believed.

    How? The grief and sorrow of that Synagogue official were situations where God made himself present in a very surprising way. God’s presence was revealed in Jesus as he willingly journeyed with the official towards the place of his sorrow and grief, towards her dead daughter. This was his desert, his place of emptiness where he was most helpless. And Jesus got up and followed the man. It was in that experience that the Synagogue official felt closer to God.

    Second, a woman who was suffering for many years ended her bitterness as she encountered Jesus. That very suffering in her life led her not into a hopeless scenario by committing suicide, and ending her life to end her suffering. However, the very encounter with Jesus gave her hope that there was something beyond her suffering, beyond her bitterness, beyond her sickness. This was hope for healing, hope for a better life. In this way, God also spoke to her, there in the desert of her suffering that there was indeed hope for healing and life for her.

    Moreover, the woman with hemorrhages was surprised at the power of God. Certainly, Jesus had somehow allowed this woman to touch him. And when Jesus saw her, Jesus also treated her warmly and affirmed her faith.

    From here, there are two invitations for us today.

    First. Seek help. God also intervenes through our participation. Remember, the woman touched the cloak of Jesus. This means that God also does not want us to be just a passive receiver of graces and blessings. On our part, we do something. So take the initiative and realize what we need. Reach out to people who can help us. Certainly, this does not mean that if we are greatly suffering then we can do nothing for ourselves. With our participation and willingness, God gives us the grace.

    Second. Allow the Lord to touch us by allowing Jesus also to walk with us in our own desert, in our own emptiness. Jesus took the hand of the dead girl because the official allowed Jesus to journey with him into his own desert. This means that God also touches us through the help of other people. God walks with us when we allow him to by allowing others to be with us. By allowing God to be with us, then, we shall surely find assurance and confidence. Thus, through the love, support and care of our family, friends and community we too will experience healing and a fulfilling life. Hinaut pa.

    Jom Baring, CSsR