.: 03/28/23

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

† "He Has Not Left Me .. "

†Saint Quote
"Cheerfulness strengthens the heart and makes us persevere in a good life. Therefore the servant of God ought always to be in good spirits."
–St. Philip Neri

†Today's Meditation
"With regard to the nobility of the angels, we need only consider that they possess a privileged place amongst all the creations of God. For they are of a purely spiritual substance and of an immortal nature, immune from the sufferings, disease, aging, and death to which corporeal beings are all subject. Their intelligence is such that they are free from all errors and ignorance with respect to knowledge of created things. In addition to this perfectly illuminated light of intelligence, the angels possess a will which is completely and utterly constant, such that it may not be overcome or made to waver by any perturbation or adversity."
–St. Aloysius Gonzaga, p.32

An Excerpt From
Meditations on the Holy Angels

†Daily Verse
"Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows."
–Matthew 10:29-31

click to read more

St. Conon of Naso

St. Conon of Naso (1139–1236) was a wealthy nobleman, the son of a Count, from Naso, Italy. He was a devout young man, and at the age of 15 become a monk. He lived as a hermit until being called to serve the local monastery as its abbot. Upon the death of his parents he distributed his inheritance to the poor. While on pilgrimage to Jerusalem he had a vision of a priest he knew being choked by a snake. Conan raced to the priest to warn him of the danger. The priest's heart was convicted by the truth of the vision and confessed that he was hoarding money and neglecting the poor. Under Conan's direction the priest gave his excessive savings to the poor and recommitted his life to serving others. After his death, Conon was hailed as a miracle worker. The city of Naso experienced a series of terrible storms which destroyed crops and disrupted the shipping trade, and the city ran out of grain and other food supplies. When the famine became severe, St. Conon appeared in a vision to a ship captain who was preparing to transport a load of grain. Conon told the captain to change course and take the grain to Naso. The captain obeyed the vision and arrived in Naso with food to relieve the famine. St. Conon's feast day is March 28th.

Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Reading 1 Nm 21:4-9

From Mount Hor the children of Israel set out on the Red Sea road,
to bypass the land of Edom.
But with their patience worn out by the journey,
the people complained against God and Moses,
"Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert,
where there is no food or water?
We are disgusted with this wretched food!"

In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents,
which bit the people so that many of them died.
Then the people came to Moses and said,
"We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you.
Pray the LORD to take the serpents away from us."
So Moses prayed for the people, and the LORD said to Moses,
"Make a saraph and mount it on a pole,
and whoever looks at it after being bitten will live."
Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole,
and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent
looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 102:2-3, 16-18, 19-21

R. (2) O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
O LORD, hear my prayer,
and let my cry come to you.
Hide not your face from me
in the day of my distress.
Incline your ear to me;

in the day when I call, answer me speedily.
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
The nations shall revere your name, O LORD,
and all the kings of the earth your glory,
When the LORD has rebuilt Zion
and appeared in his glory;
When he has regarded the prayer of the destitute,
and not despised their prayer.
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
Let this be written for the generation to come,
and let his future creatures praise the LORD:
"The LORD looked down from his holy height,
from heaven he beheld the earth,
To hear the groaning of the prisoners,
to release those doomed to die."
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.

Verse Before the Gospel

The seed is the word of God, Christ is the sower;
all who come to him will live for ever.

Gospel Jn 8:21-30

Jesus said to the Pharisees:
"I am going away and you will look for me,
but you will die in your sin.
Where I am going you cannot come."
So the Jews said,
"He is not going to kill himself, is he,
because he said, 'Where I am going you cannot come'?"
He said to them, "You belong to what is below,
I belong to what is above.
You belong to this world,
but I do not belong to this world.
That is why I told you that you will die in your sins.
For if you do not believe that I AM,
you will die in your sins."
So they said to him, "Who are you?"
Jesus said to them, "What I told you from the beginning.
I have much to say about you in condemnation.
But the one who sent me is true,
and what I heard from him I tell the world."
They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father.
So Jesus said to them,
"When you lift up the Son of Man,
then you will realize that I AM,
and that I do nothing on my own,
but I say only what the Father taught me.
The one who sent me is with me.
He has not left me alone,
because I always do what is pleasing to him."
Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.

Daily Meditation: John 8:21-30

What I heard from him I tell the world. (John 8:26)

Have you ever noticed how often Jesus turned the tables on his listeners? Take today's Gospel reading. During a dispute with some Jewish leaders, he says, "I have much to say about you in condemnation" (John 8:26). That makes sense. He had already said "much" to them about their hard hearts and their opposition of him. So you might expect him to end with a stinging rebuke and words of rejection. But he didn't. "But," he said, "the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world" (8:26, emphasis added).

Not words of condemnation from Jesus, but a message from his Father, a message he preached everywhere he went. It's the message that St. John had summed up a few chapters earlier: "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him" (John 3:17).

Amazing, isn't it? Jesus had good reasons to condemn his enemies. They were trying to kill him, after all. But instead, he urged them, "If you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins" (John 8:24). If only they would accept him, then all would be forgiven, and they would know the joy and freedom of being "saved through him" (3:17).

The same is true for each of us—including you. There may indeed be "much" that Jesus could say to you "in condemnation" (John 8:26). He might be able to produce a long list of your sins and render an appropriate punishment for them. But he doesn't. He looks at you with love and compassion. He may point to your sins at times, but only to forgive, to heal, and to save. That's how much he loves you.

Are there sins in your past (or present) that are making you feel unworthy of God's love? Are you so enmeshed in some situation right now that you think you're beyond his mercy? Don't believe those lies! Turn to Jesus. Let the experience of his love break any chains that might be binding you and soften whatever hardness is in your heart.

Jesus has not come to condemn you. So settle your heart, come into the Lord's presence, and listen for his voice. Let him save you.

"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner."

Numbers 21:4-9
Psalm 102:2-3, 16-21

click to hear 2cents

Listen to my2cents audio. Share the link if you like:

Click to hear it

From today's 1st Holy Scripture:
"But with their patience worn out by the journey,
the people complained against God and Moses..." End Quote Numbers.

Have you ever met somebody that is ruled by their emotions? It is hard to gauge them! Right? One day good, another day bad. I see that mostly in people that don't have a real good grip on faith, many don't go to church, many in addictions, and thus, it all binds up in a psychological effect. And then, people get medications, or try to self medicate. And so, the world fills up with what the world offers, drugs (legal and illegal), recreation, any distraction to keep us from a true faith in God. But to complain? I am kind of getting tired of my kids complaining about the smallest of things. Some things are completely ridiculous! And I see the same things at work, or even in our church, complaints about anything and everything. And some of these complaints go all the way to the Bishop, and I'm sure the bishops get tired of complaints, the same old ones over and over, how the parish is sick and tired of their priest, or so and so problem, as if the Bishop could magically solve everything with a complaint letter? Complaints go much deeper, and the roots, well, we will have a hard time getting to the bottom of them, because, I hate to say it, but, it is a hard root to pull out and kill...it is the root of pride. Things boil down to selfishness. My biggest complaining kid has the hardest time sharing his things, toys, computers. You see, he's a great kid, smart, funny, lovable, but he has a hard time with this very important issue.
And so, we should examine ourselves too, with our complaints, what is at the root of our complaint, against our family, our co-workers, our neighbors, our church?

The people complain about the priest and the priest complains about the people. There is a huge disconnect! And I'm not talking about our parish, because this has happened to all priests that I know of here, but as a community as a whole. All one needs to do is look on the internet and see a huge group that complains even about the pope and blames him for everything wrong today in the church!
I visit a blind man and we always say the same things in our conversations as if to fill the silence he will say in Spanish "well what can one do?" and my reply an old Mexican adage: "not even crying will do any good".

We pray today:
"O LORD, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
Hide not your face from me in the day of my distress.
Incline your ear to me; in the day when I call, answer me speedily."

In the Gospel today we heard:

"For if you do not believe that I AM,
you will die in your sins."
So they said to him, "Who are you?"
Jesus said to them, "What I told you from the beginning." End Quote.

It was to Moses that our Lord said what His name is in the book of Exodus: ""Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is His name?' What should I tell them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
God Sent Jesus.
Every time the Jews heard our Lord say "I AM" they should've shuttered to know that God had sent this "man" as "son of Man" to them, with this dire message.

And so the Gospel said:
"They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father.
So Jesus said to them,
"When you lift up the Son of Man,
then you will realize that I AM,
and that I do nothing on my own,
but I say only what the Father taught me.
The one who sent me is with me.
He has not left me alone,
because I always do what is pleasing to him."

Indeed, they lifted up God...on a cross, unbeknownst to them, that atrocity they had committed, this murder, would mean the salvation of the entire world.

Does God punish people? Only if necessary. But mostly, people punish themselves.
I cannot believe, my lent, it has been filled with trials and tribulations and temptations, and I have failed time and time again...to remain faithful. I consider myself a total loss before God our Father. How can I be trusted with big things, if I can't even do the little things?

So what can one do? Reconcile.
I'm learning, I cannot do this alone. I cannot fulfill my promises to Him without His power and grace. And so, I reconcile, and this unites us even more. Sin can have a positive outcome if we do the right thing with sin...bring it to Him, at the foot of the cross.

Confess and sin no more.

I had a revelation as I meditated today for you...and the message was something like:
Me: "Lord, why don't we feel a greater love with You?
Lord: "It is not My love that is lacking my Child, the reason you do not feel it is because you have chosen so."

Our Lord is raised up by sinners. Our Lord is stabbed in the heart by sinners.

And out comes love and mercy, blood and water, by which we can be touched, healed, saved...and loved forever.
We don't believe in love, yet we say we believe in God.
There is something wrong in that picture and it is not Him that is the matter! Right?

I really enjoyed some quotes from Mother Angelica today and I'll leave you with them as a pick me up, so we can have a greater outlook on faith as we cling to hope and mercy and attempt to love God more:

1) "Unless you are willing to do the ridiculous, God will not do the miraculous."
2) "Where most men work for degrees after their names, we work for one before our names: 'St.' It's a much more difficult degree to attain. It takes a lifetime, and you don't get your diploma until you're dead."
3) "You must laugh your way to heaven, because tears won't get you there."
4) "You can't go to Heaven hating somebody. Forgive now. Be compassionate now. Be patient now. Be grateful now. Love Jesus and Mary now. Accept God's will now."
5) "You have all eternity to experience the presence of God, but you have a very short time to do something for him."
6) "Boldness should be the eleventh commandment!"
7) "I think one of the greatest things you could kick yourself all around heaven for, if you could do that, would be for not realizing He was always with you just as if no one else existed."
8) "Try to laugh a lot, because life is funny and everybody today is too serious. The only tragedy in the world, my friend, is sin."
9) "Holiness is not for wimps, and the cross isn't negotiable, sweetheart — it's a requirement."
10) "If you're not a thorn in somebody's side, you aren't doing Christianity right."
11) "Everybody is searching for their identity. But the real you only emerges when you are united to God. You need His grace, and without it you are stumbling in darkness."
12) "Everything starts with one person… I don't care if you're five or 105, God from all eternity chose you to be where you are, at this time in history, to change the world."
13) "Only in eternity shall we see the beauty of the soul, and only then shall we realize what great things were accomplished by interior suffering."
14) "Sometimes we ask God for things, and we seem to get the exact opposite. God sees the whole chapter. You just see the beginning."
15) "I guess that is what dying must be like; to be finished and to be able to look back at the struggles of life, and know that God was your constant companion." end quotes.

Let's pray:
....†....
Lord, how can I raise You up as we ought? Not on the cross, but at the forefront of our hearts? Help us with Your Grace to love Thee as we ought! Forever!
..........