TRUE FREEDOM

“This generation is a wicked generation.” – Luke 11:29

When the RH Bill came out and our Church took its stand in rejecting it, even devoted Catholics became conflicted. Many asked, “Why is the government’s attempt to improve the lives of its citizens considered evil?” As a Christian, I think the more important question is: Why are we so passionate about fighting for our “rights” and our “freedom” when they hold us in bondage to sin and move us farther away from God?

       Think about it. Contraceptives give us freedom to have safe and pleasurable sex but leave us less able to master our lust.

       Divorce gives us freedom to love another person, by forsaking our vow to God to love our spouse no matter what.

       Abortion gives us the freedom to determine our capability and willingness to care for the unborn, yet we fail to consider God’s hand in creation and His plans for the child.

       Keep in mind that being legally free to do something does not mean that it also frees us from accountability to God. Think beyond the present and make sacrifices that will ensure an afterlife. Break free from the shackles of sin! Cecil Lim (cez_lim@yahoo.com)

Reflection: “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” (C.S. Lewis)

Father, You have given us all a conscience by which You guide us to live in truth and love. Let Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven!

Blessed Angela Salawa, pray for us.

Jonah disobeys God’s call and runs as far as he can from it. But God finds him and through the means of an incredible act He gives Jonah a second opportunity to obey. God has also given us second chances in our relationship with Him. In fact, God has given us many second chances. His patience is never ending.

1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you.” 3 So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the Lord’s bidding. Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,” 5 when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth. 6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes. 7 Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh, by decree of the king and his nobles: “Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep, shall taste anything; they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water. 8 Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God; every man shall turn from his evil way and from the violence he has in hand. 9 Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath, so that we shall not perish.” 10 When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.

1 [3] Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. 2 [4] Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me. (R) 10 [12] A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me. 11 [13] Cast me not out from your presence, and your Holy Spirit take not from me. (R) 16 [18] For you are not pleased with sacrifices; should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it. 17 [19] My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit; a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn. (R)

Why are we not satisfied with God’s promises? He has never broken any of them. Why do we ask for signs of them? We are indeed a faithless generation. But this does not have to be the case. We can choose to believe; we can choose to leave behind all our doubts and have true faith in the promises of God.

Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart for I am gracious and merciful.

29 While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. 30 Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. 31 At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. 32 At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.”

think: We can choose to believe; we can choose to leave behind all our doubts and have true faith in the promises of God.

READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR Revelation 19-20

Whenever the Chicago Bulls team of the Michael Jordan era goes to court, Jordan usually shouts, “What time is it?” The team shouts back, “Game time hoops!” The response is supposed to psyche the team to a serious game of basketball. One time, Jordan shouted, “What time is it?” Someone quickly shouted back, “8:30!” Everybody laughed.

       “8:30.” This is what philosophers call chronos time: a linear, quantitative reckoning of the seconds, minutes and hours. When the Bible speaks of time, it is usually in the sense of kairos time: the qualitative indwelling of God, the in-breaking of God in history. God’s entrance into human history has radically transformed our dry, qualitatively deprived experience of chromos time and has aligned it to a participation or perfection in the exciting, rich and fulfilling experience of kairos time: the domain of the Divine.

       As admissions director of a seminary, I once interviewed 12 candidates. They were high school seniors, hoping to begin seminary formation after graduation. All of them asked the same question: “How long will it take until I become a priest?” When I told them, “Ten years,” their jaws fell. I smiled because that was also my own reaction when I applied in the seminary. Why? Because I looked at time then only in terms of chronos.

       The First Reading narrates the conversion of the King of Nineveh and the whole city upon the preaching of Jonah. Conversion is God breaking into your personal history, making it His story as well. A life lived in friendship with God is an ever-present experience because finitude is sprinkled with eternity. That’s why it feels like there’s no beginning, no end.

       Why did the king and the whole city convert to God upon Jonah’s bidding? When the God of kairos summons, everything else is second place. God’s call is not simply a call to do something. It is a call to be something — to be holy, to be friends with God. Belonging in the Kingdom is not a matter of doing. It is a matter of being. Fr. Joel Jason

Father, it is truly good news to be given the offer of kairos time — the time of fulfillment. May that offer be mine — for all time. Amen.