CHOOSE LOVE

Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight. – Sirach 27:30

       I am God’s soldier. I’m His champion. I am His fire. I am firm in my identity in Christ. I know what I am called to do — to use the power of words to evangelize the world. Because of this, I’m constantly under attack.

       The devil knows my weaknesses and he is vicious in using them against me. Often, when I am all fired up for God, the devil would use cheap but effective tactics to distract me from my mission. (Hello, Facebook.) He would use my emotions against me and he would plant seeds of sloth in my heart. But what I hate the most is when he would create strife within my family.

       When the devil attacks my loved ones, my first reaction is to hate him. I would get the instinctive desire to address him directly and tell him that he can’t win against me. But whenever this happens, I would always turn back to God and pray, because I know that lashing out — even against the devil himself — would be my downfall.

       Where there is hate, where there is strife, where there is war, choose love. Let us not let the devil win. Karren Renz Seña (karren.s@shepherdsvoice.com.ph)

Reflection: When you are pressed and attacked on all sides, do you choose to lash out, or do you choose to surrender the fight to God?

Lord, whenever I am under attack, let love still reign in my heart. Deliver me from hate, from pride, and from evil. Amen.

St. Robert Bellarmine, bishop and doctor of the Church, pray for us.

Sin tends to predispose us to more sin. Once we enter into a life of sin, it can easily turn into a horrible spiral of increasing sin if we are not alert to the wiles of the devil. This is why the saints are adamant that we break with the ways of sin as soon as we become aware of their presence. The challenge is that this process is painful. Rooting out anything always means a certain amount of trauma. Let us accept the pain that accompanies growth in holiness.

30 Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight. 28:1 The vengeful will suffer the Lord’s vengeance, for he remembers their sins in detail. 2 Forgive your neighbor’s injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven. 3 Could anyone nourish anger against another and expect healing from the Lord? 4 Could anyone refuse mercy to another like himself, can he seek pardon for his own sins? 5 If one who is but flesh cherishes wrath, who will forgive his sins? 6 Remember your last days, set enmity aside; remember death and decay, and cease from sin! 7 Think of the commandments, hate not your neighbor; remember the Most High’s covenant, and overlook faults.

R: The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.

1 Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all my being, bless his holy name. 2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. (R) 3 He pardons all your iniquities, heals all your ills. 4 He redeems your life from destruction, crowns you with kindness and compassion. (R) 9 He will not always chide, nor does he keep his wrath forever. 10 Not according to our sins does he deal with us, nor does he requite us according to our crimes. (R) 11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him. 12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has he put our transgressions from us. (R)

Paul reminds us that God should always be the focus of our lives. It is when our hearts and minds slip, and their focus shift to something other than God, that we open ourselves to sin. We need to be alert to the challenge to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. It is hard work but worth it in the long-term as we prepare ourselves for the gift of eternal life.

7 Brothers and sisters: None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. 8 For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord; so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For this is why Christ died and came to life, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

We live in a time when terrorist acts seem to be almost a daily occurrence. What should be our response to this? Are we permitted to hate the people who perpetuate such things? We can hate the sin, but we are always called to love and forgive the sinner. This is the way of Jesus and so it should be our way too as His disciples. Yes, we need to take the necessary precautions to protect life as best as we can, but it is love that is going to bring any solution to its root cause.

I give you a new commandment, says the Lord; love one another as I have loved you.

21 Peter approached Jesus and asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times. 23 That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. 25 Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt. 26 At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’ 27 Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan. 28 When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ 29 Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ 30 But he refused. Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison until he paid back the debt. 31 Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair. 32 His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. 33 Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?’ 34 Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt. 35 So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart.”

Read the Bible in one year Psalm 116-118

T O D A Y’S BLESSING LIST

thank You, Lord, for: ______________________________________________________

HAGGLING AND FORGIVING

The only teaching of my mother that I have deliberately refused to learn is the art of haggling. I found it so embarrassing to ask for a tawad or discount from a vendor. But now that I am a priest trying to live on my own, I have found haggling so valuable in buying things. Most of all, I have realized something spiritual about asking tawad, which means “to forgive” in Filipino. Consider this: When buying, we ask for discount on the price of a product, a tawad like P5 from the original price of P12. The seller usually raises the price to make some profit, and that’s when you haggle until he offers something acceptable to you, like P9, declaring tapat na (the last price), an equilibrium when your desired prices finally meet. You saved some, the vendor earned, and both of you are happy.

       Today, Jesus Christ teaches us to forgive one another because we are all loved and forgiven by God. God’s mercy is always a given, but the problem is we cannot experience His mercy when we become unmerciful like the debtor in the Lord’s parable. When we ask for forgiveness, we go down when we ask for a tawad. God is like the vendor who matches the price of our tawad to make it tapat, which is also to be at par or of equal footing in our loose translation. And here lies the good news: God raises us up whenever we make tawad. Should we not do the same to our fellow debtors or hagglers who ask tawad from us?

       Forgiving involves two sides — giving and receiving. Often, we think it is difficult to forgive but, in reality, our problem is on how to receive forgiveness. That was the case with the pardoned debtor who could not accept or appreciate the goodness of the king who forgave his huge debt, such that when he saw a fellow worker with a smaller debt owed to him, he was unforgiving. We must strive to receive forgiveness to be able to forgive, too. It is in the Lord’s name that receiving and giving forgiveness becomes easier because He was the one who had gone through it first even though He had not sinned. Fr. Nick Lalog

---------- REFLECTION QUESTIONS ----------

Is there any sin that you have already confessed yet still bothers you today? Why can’t you be convinced of being forgiven, of being loved by God?

Lord Jesus, thank You for always loving me and forgiving me. Grant me the grace of humility to receive Your forgiveness so that I may also learn to forgive others, including myself. Amen.