“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” – Matthew 16:24

       My father is a farmer. To make trees bear more fruit, he would often need to do some grafting, pruning or trimming. That is painful to the tree but it ends up being sturdier, healthier and definitely more fruitful.

       When we signed up to become Christians, we told God we wanted to change. Then God started pruning, trimming, and grafting at our lives. That’s when the complaints started; “not this part, Lord” or “work on this later” or “please don’t do that!” So what happens? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. We’re stuck.

      And then at some later time, we go back to God and accuse Him, “Lord, I prayed that you change me, what’s taking so long?” But one thing that God will never do is to change us without our consent. He says to us, “…must deny himself,” which basically means we sign up to become a better version of who we were by giving up the old self.

      God will never give us anything we cannot bear. And like the Israelites in our First Reading, God wills for us to be blessed but we have to do our part, too. Rod Velez (rod.velez@gmail.com)

Reflection:What will it take for you to realize that you no longer have to be in bondage of that recurring sin that you confess so often?

Master, I cannot change alone. Please send me friends who will remind, encourage, admonish, and pray for me because I truly want to be a better Christian.

St. Clare of Assisi, virgin, pray for us.

Moses reminds the people of all the things that God has done for them. Remembering God’s goodness will help us to continue trusting that He will be with us in all that we do. The best way to lose our faith is to forget and doubt the good things God has done for us. The liturgy of the Church’s repetitiveness is precisely geared to this truth. We are presented again and again with the fundamental truths of our faith, so that we will not forget them and so that we can easily call them to mind when needed.

32 Moses said to the people: “Ask now of the days of old, before your time, ever since God created man upon the earth; ask from one end of the sky to the other: Did anything so great ever happen before? Was it ever heard of? 33 Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live? 34 Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, with his strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terrors, all of which the Lord, your God, did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? 35 All this you were allowed to see that you might know the Lord is God and there is no other. 36 Out of the heavens he let you hear his voice to discipline you; on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard him speaking out of the fire. 37 For love of your fathers he chose their descendants and personally led you out of Egypt by his great power, 38 driving out of your way nations greater and mightier than you, so as to bring you in and to make their land your heritage, as it is today. 39 This is why you must now know, and fix in your heart, that the Lord is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other. 40 You must keep his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you today, that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may have long life on the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you forever.”

R: I remember the deeds of the Lord.

11 [12] I remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I remember your wonders of old. 12 [13] And I meditate on your works; your exploits I ponder. (R) 13 [14] O God, your way is holy; what great god is there like our God? 14 [15] You are the God who works wonders; among the peoples you have made known your power. (R) 15 [16] With your strong arm you  redeemed your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. 20 [21] You led your people like a flock under the care of Moses and Aaron. (R)

As we celebrate the Feast of St. Clare of Assisi, let us remember that she and the order she founded are wonderful examples of what Jesus speaks about in the Gospel. She gave up a comfortable and wealthy life for the starkness of a life of poverty, penance and prayer. Let us be inspired by the simplicity of the lives of the saints — their faith, their trust and their humble hearts.

Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness; for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.

24 Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. 25 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? 27 For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay each according to his conduct. 28 Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.”

think: How will you lose your life in the service of the Gospel today?

Read the Bible in one year 2 Maccabees 7-8

T O D A Y’S BLESSING LIST

thank You, Lord, for: ______________________________________________________

FROM SELFIE TO SURETY

By God’s grace, I have traveled quite a bit. Before your imagination runs wild, let me say from the outset that I don’t refer primarily to having been to places in the same way tourists visit places to do one and only one thing — take pictures for posterity. Truth to tell, I also did take pictures, but I realized one thing. In this age of Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest, no one looks at pictures anymore in the same way people used to — when photo albums were painstakingly prepared and preserved for many generations to enjoy. Nowadays, people post nothing but selfies. We now belong to the selfie generation.

         The people of Israel were getting a little selfish. I know that is different from a selfie, but the root word is the same — being too focused on the self, on one’s issues, on one’s concerns and problems. The selfie of a selfish person (technically called a “narcissist” when pushed to the extreme) is one whose main feature is the self, the grandiose self, the beautiful self, the perfect self, and the entitled self.

          Moses today has seemingly had enough of this me-first attitude. He told his people: “Ask around… from one end of the sky to the other… Did anything so great ever happen before?” Moses was ready to roll out his footages of divine wonders wrought by God and God alone.

       Self-entitled people, selfish people, selfie-driven people all have stories either about how great they are, how beautiful and good-looking they are, or how intelligent and smart they are, or their exact opposite — just how rotten they are, and how the world has given them a raw deal. The first type put up a molten calf for a false god. The second type spent all their time whining and wailing about how bad the food is, and how they missed the herbs and spices of Egypt.

          Let us allow Moses to roll out the real instead of the reel — everything “the Lord your God did for you in Egypt.” “The Lord is God in the heavens above and on the earth below.” Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

---------- REFLECTION QUESTION ----------

In what ways are you selfish? How can you change that?

Lord God, there is nothing I have that I can call my own. Everything I had comes from You. Thank You for Your generosity. Amen.