The Word God Spells

Matthew 5: 43-48
1 Kgs 21: 17-29 / Ps 51: 3-6, 11, 16

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…
(Matthew 5:44 )

We’ll always tend to alienate
The people that we cannot trust;
Let’s learn to love, and not to hate
Those who are different from us.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5: 43-48)

Reflection

Clearly, Jesus is teaching us a higher standard of love than that taught by the scribes and Pharisees. There is no reward for a kind of love that takes no effort to practice. To be worthy children of God, we must love the way He loves all men, with no discrimination, showering His blessings and trials both on the righteous and the sinners.

While it may seem that loving one’s enemy is almost an impossible proposition, Jesus is telling us that we must elevate our standard of love to the level of the divine. Which is why He said, “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” It is only impossible if we try to love the “unlovable” on our own human effort. But if we pray for God’s grace to transform our hearts and help us to forgive our enemies, then we will eventually understand the true meaning of love in the perspective of Jesus.

If we reflect on what our Lord has been trying to tell us in these last two paragraphs of chapter five of Matthew’s Gospel, we can see that He has been presenting to us what the character of God our Father really is. Jesus lived this example of righteousness in His life, and He wants us to reflect all its aspects in our own life as well. For instance, His love is not influenced by our behavior. “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Mt.5:45). As St. Paul said, “God proves His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Rom.5:8). God’s love is pure, unaffected by our sinfulness, sacrificial, and heroic. I remember a Philippine army soldier who exemplified this heroic kind of love in an encounter with a group of insurgents a few years ago somewhere in the hinterlands of Mindanao. He brought one of the rebels who was severely wounded to a rural hospital, and there donated one liter (two units) of his own blood to save the enemy’s life. His heroism demonstrated how he was able to love his enemy, and be counted as a peacemaker more than a good soldier.

There is more animosity and conflict in the world today not so much because of competition for land, resources, or power — there are more than enough to go around — but because it is easier to hate or alienate than to love and trust those we perceive to be different from us. This has been the case between Jews and Palestinians in Israel, Catholics and Protestants in Ireland, Indians and Pakistanis in the subcontinent, ethnic conflicts in Africa and other parts of the world, and even in our own backyard between Christians and Muslims in Mindanao. As long as we believe this “law of differences”, there will never be true peace. The only way to peace is what our Lord Jesus teaches us – to love our enemies despite their faults, just as God loves us in spite of all our imperfections. Nobody’s perfect. Only the love of God is.

Grant us, dear God, to learn how to love our enemies, so that we may enjoy the peace that only You can give. Not as the world teaches do we learn to love, but from the lessons that our Lord Jesus imparts to us, and through the power of Your Holy Spirit. Amen.

Mark 12: 28-34
2 Tm 2: 8-15 / Ps 25: 4-5, 8-10 and 14

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
(Mark 12:30)

In loving God, Jesus has defined:
With all my strength, all my heart and mind;
But if I must strive to reach the Goal,
I must also love with all my soul.

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked Him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” Jesus answered, “The most important one is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” The scribe replied, “Well said, teacher. You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but Him. To love Him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions. (Mark 12: 28-34)

Reflection

Notice in today’s Gospel reading how the atmosphere has suddenly changed into a more amicable setting, in contrast to Jesus’ earlier verbal encounters with the religious authorities (the “tenants”), the Pharisees and Herodians (on paying taxes), and then the Sadducees (on the resurrection). Why? Because one sensible lawyer was not out to entrap Jesus, but had genuinely wanted to discuss the greatest commandment of God, which is love. Imagine that. A teacher of the law, not delving into his legal profession, but on the subject of love. It was only fitting therefore that the conversation should suddenly turn amiable.

Loving God and neighbor are the greatest commandments because they are done not in obedience to laws, but in imitation and adulation of the Father’s nature, Who is Love. Love is the greatest commandment because it is not just a commandment, but the fruit of the Holy Spirit that God gives to His faithful children. It is not just a task to perform, but a commitment to give of our self without conditions, without limits.

Jesus said we must love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength. To love Him perfectly (as He is perfect), He must always be in our mind and in our heart (perhaps this is what praying and meditation is all about); and in all our activities (the things we do out of love for God). St. Paul says, “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Col.3:17) Loving God requires so much passion that even if I slept at midnight last night, I could get up at 3 o’clock in the morning to write this Gospel reflection for today. But I could never do this every day if I did not love God with all my soul. Above all, true love must be spiritual, otherwise it is not love at all. It is His Holy Spirit after all that gives me the inspiration to persevere. I believe He is the one Who writes these messages. In fact He is the One Who writes our lives. God is the Author of my life.

I believe I have become what I am because of God’s love. My love affair with God is, in the final analysis, transformational. Just as my life has been transformed by the sacrament of marriage – and conjugal love comes from Him too — I have become a better person not because of so much effort on my part, but because God revealed to me the true meaning of His love. In all gratitude for His gift, how can I not love Him with everything I’ve got?

Dear God, You are love. You have shown us that the more we love others, the closer we come to reflect Your image and likeness. Thank You, Lord, for this revelation. Amen.

Matthew 11: 25-30
Dt 7: 6-11 / Ps 103: 1-4, 6-7, 8, 10 / 1 Jn 4: 7-16

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
(Matthew 11:29)

No burden is too heavy,
No task too hard to serve the Lord,
Love always makes the job easy,
With God’s Kingdom as the reward.

At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11: 25-30)

Reflection

Jesus invites us to share in His yoke of the cross by willingly accepting the burden of Christian stewardship or ministry that we may find ourselves in. By submitting to His call we will learn from Him – how to be gentle and humble, like His Sacred Heart- and in the process grow in wisdom and understanding, live in harmony with other men, and find real peace in this world.

No man ever lived (and loved) without a cross to bear. This is the yoke of original sin that all of us, descendants of Adam, inherited from our first parents. But when we answer the invitation of Jesus to ‘take on His yoke’ — in the name of love, for His Sacred Heart — our own yoke actually becomes lighter. Like a pair of oxen bearing a common yoke, Christ becomes our partner in carrying our trials and difficulties in life. That is why those who are kind-hearted and generous have an easier time going through life even if they seem to have heavier crosses to bear. Love makes their load lighter and their journey in life becomes easier. St. Augustine wrote that in all instances, those who do not love feel their trials as “great severities”; whereas those who love others endure the same, but they do not seem to feel them as severe. “For love makes all, the hardest and most distressing things, altogether easy, and almost nothing.”

In today’s second reading, St. John gives the same advice: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:7-8) May the Sacred Heart of Jesus increase our devotion to Him, the Father and the Holy Spirit, and inspire us to be more loving of others as well.

Lord, may our hearts be joined with Your Sacred Heart, so that they may also be filled with love, and the glory of the Father be revealed to us. In Your service we have found rest, and in Your cross we have the hope of eternal bliss. Amen.

Mark 10: 1-12
Jas 5: 9-12 / Ps 103: 1-4, 8-9, 11-12

So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder.
(Mark 10:8)

Thorns of divorce and adultery,
Aim to destroy the family;
God gave marriage for man and wife,
Nothing must break this bond for life.

Jesus set out and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again; and again, as his custom was, he taught them. And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce, and dismiss her.” But Jesus said to them, “For your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder.” And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” (Mark 10: 1-12)

Reflection

The state of marriage is as much a vocation as choosing the priesthood, the religious life, or the single life dedicated to God. I believe it is the most important choice that a man and a woman can make in their entire life. In fact, of the three major milestones in a man’s life (birth, marriage and death), it is only in marriage that God gives him the privilege to make all the choices — who, when and where to marry — before he takes the ‘ultimate plunge’.

Unfortunately, in man’s desire to be in control of his life, and unwilling to surrender his cherished freedom of choice, divorce was invented (by man) as an escape hatch. Marriage, it is said, is made in heaven. True, because Christ Himself instituted this sacrament. But it is lived here on earth, and unless we make our pledge “for better, for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish till death” not only to our spouse, but also to Jesus Christ, our commitment may only last as long as our infatuation, or until the romance dies out. More than “ownership of each other’s heart”, or the “sealing of our love for all time,” the true purpose of marriage is to fulfill our life in God’s plan of procreation, and in the process to experience divine love in the purity of this bond. But this can only be attained if both husband and wife persevere in their pledge of fidelity, remaining chaste for each other as God willed it. God’s command in the book of Proverbs says it so beautifully: “Drink the water from your own cistern, fresh water from your own well. Don’t let your fountains flow to waste elsewhere, nor your streams in public streets or for strangers, so that your fountainhead may be blessed.” (Prob.5:15-17)

For our union to become “heaven on earth”, Jesus its High Priest must be in the center of our marriage, reflecting the image of the Holy Trinity in its love and bonding. Husbands must always keep the words of Jesus in mind: that it is often our “hardness of heart” that affects our loving relationship with our wife. We should be more considerate to our spouses, “realizing that the woman is of a more delicate nature” (1Pet.3:7). After almost 38 years in our marriage, I am convinced that our love for each other is not of our own making, but is a gift from God. It must be divine in nature, because it seems to grow stronger through the years. We constantly thank God, our Father for His gift of love.

We will serve You, Lord all the days of our lives, for You have blessed our marriage with Your love, and nothing we do can ever be enough to express our gratitude to You. Amen.

Mark 8: 34 – 9:1
Jas 2: 14-24. 26 / Ps 112: 1-6

Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.
(Mark 8:34-35)

The values on which we now depend
Will determine our final goal. . .
What profit is there to gain, my friend,
If in the end we lose our soul?

Jesus called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? What could one give in exchange for his life? Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this faithless and sinful generation, the Son of man will be ashamed of when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” He also said to them, “Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.”

Reflection

“Bearing one’s cross” can have a wrong connotation for most of us. What usually comes to mind are trials and sufferings that we are compelled to endure, like a debilitating illness such as diabetes or emphysema, a son who is addicted to drugs, a business on the verge of bankruptcy, or even a failed or unhappy marriage. But these are not the kind of cross that Jesus meant for us to take up in order to follow Him. It is in denying our dreams and desires for the pleasures, power, and privileges of this world for the sake of the Gospel, and for the sake of His kingdom. Our trials and sufferings can also be crosses in life, but they only gain significance if we lift them up to God in full trust and confidence in His plans for our life.

Jesus showed us that ultimately, the essence of the cross is love. In defining the meaning of love to a group of out-of-school youths in one BIL seminar, some of the words that came to mind were: respect, self-denial, giving, and sacrifice. “Suppose you had some money which you had intended for a pair of new shoes, and a brother in Christ came up to you to borrow money for his sick mother’s medical needs, would you part with it to help?” The grim faces told me that love was not going to be an easy subject to define. “Jesus said, ‘What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?’” In defining life, the words were: spiritual, intellectual, physical, social and financial. “Why is spiritual the top priority in our life, while financial is at the bottom of the list?” A youngster answered (in Visayan), “Because the spiritual is eternal, while all the rest are temporal.” Brilliant! But he did not answer the second half of the question. Which is actually similar to the answer of the first half: “My soul is me; my mind is me; my body is me; and my relationships (social) have made me what I am. But my money is not me. It is only mine. That is why money should be the least of our concerns in life. There are things more important than money or material needs. Is that pair of new shoes more important than the life of your friend’s mother?” The youthful faces now glowed with understanding. They had understood why respecting life, denying one’s self, being generous and sacrificing a desire are a light cross to bear for love.

Father God, we sometimes forget that everything comes from you, and we are merely Your stewards in this life we live. Forgive us whenever we fail to share our resources with those who are in need; show us how to be generous and loving as Your Beloved Son Jesus did for our salvation. Increase our faith and dependence on Your Divine Providence, so that our dependence on our possessions may diminish, and we may grow in Your love. Amen.

John 15: 9-17
Acts 1: 15-17. 20-26 / Ps 113: 1-8

This is my commandment: Love one another.
(John 15:17)

What joy to follow God’s command,
To love, here we have understood;
For many decades, it will stand
The test of time, our brotherhood.

“As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit — fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my commandment: Love one another.” (John 15: 9-17)

Reflection

The command to love one another that Jesus is enjoining His disciples to follow is different from that which He preached in the Gospel of Matthew: “Love your enemies…” (Mt.5:44), where His message is that this kind of loving leads to perfection, “as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt.5:48). In today’s Gospel, this commandment of love is exclusive only for His followers -– for the benefit of their relationships with one another — and not encompassing the world at large. As Jesus stated in a previous chapter, “Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples — if you have love for one another” (Jn. 13:35).

This is the love that we experience in our renewal group — inexplicable bonds of friendship even among total strangers who just happen to be members of the same Brotherhood. Whenever we come together in our worship assemblies, teaching nights, or breakfast fellowships, the atmosphere of joy is so palpable that it can only be the presence of the Holy Spirit in our midst. “…my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete” (Jn. 15:11).

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit — fruit that will last.” Most, if not all of us in our Brotherhood were sponsored to join, and not out of our own initiative or volition. God handpicked us thru our sponsors. Those He did not choose or appoint did not last, for some reason or other. But those who have stayed on thru the years have produced much fruit, sharing the Word of God to other chapters and outreaches, and even helping establish new outreaches in other regions.

To love is the divine law of God, but unlike men’s laws, God’s law is not a burden at all, because this law was given out of love. God expects us to obey His law out of our love for Him, just as He gave this law out of His love for us. Clearly, we cannot separate God’s love from God’s law. As the psalmist wrote, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:1-2).

Your law of love is perfect, Lord, for it has converted many souls. May our testimony of Your love bring others to Your fold. May Your commands be our constant source of joy. Amen.