Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes

What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself? – Luke 9:25

       I’m an idealist. I’d like to believe that there are many generous billionaires and millionaires who give more as they earn more.

       In a letter to a non-profit group, Bill and Melinda Gates wrote, “We have been blessed with good fortune beyond our wildest expectations, and we are profoundly grateful. But just as these gifts are great, so we feel a great responsibility to use them well.” They made a pledge to give millions of dollars to the development of life-saving vaccines and other worthy causes.

       Billionaire Warren Buffett also pledged to give away 99 percent of his fortune and has donated $23 billion so far.

       Bestselling author and preacher Bo Sanchez dreams to do a “reverse tithe” and give back 90 percent of his earnings to God’s work.

       They are only some of the emerging philanthropists, the truly rich in wealth and spirit. I pray many more rich people will be touched by God to follow their lead and promote not only an economy of profit, but also an economy of giving. Then there is hope for us to make this world a better place. Dina Pecaña (dpecana@yahoo.com)

Pope Francis Says: “These days there is a lot of poverty in the world, and that’s a scandal when we have so many riches and resources to give everyone. We all have to think about how we can become a little poorer.”

Lord, enrich my life with Your grace and wisdom, that I may be wealthy with what is essential and true.

Discipleship is all about the choices we make. Every day we make a choice between actions that will bring life and those that will bring death. How will we choose? A disciple of Jesus decides based on the Word of God and the teachings of the Church. When we are in doubt, we defer to these authorities. Let us allow our minds and hearts to be formed by them so that we can make right decisions.

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

15 Moses said to the people: “Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom. 16 If you obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I enjoin on you today, loving him, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the Lord, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy. 17 If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen, but are led astray and adore and serve other gods, 18 I tell you now that you will certainly perish; you will not have a long life on the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and occupy. 19 I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, 20 by loving the Lord, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him. For that will mean life for you, a long life for you to live on the land that the Lord swore he would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

P S A L M 17

Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4, 6

R: Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

1 Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, 2 but delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on his law day and night. (R) 3 He is like a tree planted near running water that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers. (R) 4 Not so the wicked, not so; they are like chaff which the wind drives away. 6 For the Lord watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes. (R)

GOSPEL1

To become a disciple of Jesus, we must be willing to take up our cross and follow in His footsteps. This is not an easy or a pleasant task. Jesus has shown us the way through His own passion and death. We will face our own share of difficulties as disciples at one time or another. Let us pray for the grace to face the trials and overcome them.

Repent, says the Lord; the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.

22 Jesus said to his disciples: “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.” 23 Then he said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?”

think: Every day we make a choice between actions that will bring life and those that will bring death. How will we choose?

Thank You Lord for: __________________

READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR 2 Corinthians 9-13

CHOOSE, LOVE, LIVE

Everything is a choice. This includes being happy or being sad. We have the power that no one can ever take away: the power of choice.    We know the story of the chosen people. They, too, were overtaken by commitment, by disappointment. At one time, they were ecstatic; at another time they were lethargic. They even did the unthinkable extreme — make for themselves molten, golden but false gods. That was how free God considered them to be.

       William Shannon, in his book Here on the Way to There: A Catholic Perspective on Dying and What Follows, reports about several close encounters with dying persons. One poignant story was that of a man in his 70s who, for some time, showed a face in anguish as he still had to deal with the shady side to his life and, thus, unable to forgive himself. “I am not ready yet,” was his stock answer to everyone who tried to help. Finally, one afternoon, his loved ones filed into the room. He was ready. He had chosen. He had worked through what needed working through and, when he decided to resist no longer the dying process and perhaps forgive himself, he gained peace. He chose. He chose love and forgiveness. For self. For others. And it led him to life, even as he physically died.

       There was a time in my life when I was, for all intents and purposes, dead, too. I decided life was unfair. I chose to hold on to the truism that “hell is other people.” I chose to hold on to my anger, to keep telling myself how wrong others were and how right I was. The fact that life gave me a raw deal was not the problem. But it was my choice to prove everybody wrong and myself right and entitled to being treated as such was what perpetuated everything in me that was not life.

       But thanks be to God, this is all behind me now. Take it from God, not from me: Choose, love, live. Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

REFLECTION QUESTIONS: Are you still holding on to some grudge, some anger? What’s keeping you from letting go?

Lord Jesus, grant me the grace to let go. Help me to always choose the better way — to love so that I may truly live. Amen.