HERE WE GO AGAIN

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” – Luke 9:23

“The biopsy result is positive. She has cancer.” In a calm, composed voice, my doctor friend told me about Mommy’s condition. In previous Didache reflections, I’ve written about two close relatives who had cancer the same year and eventually passed away. One of them was my sister, Aileen, who requested, “Pray that the Lord takes me! It’s so painful!” All I could do was carefully wrap my arms around her and cry with her. It was a moment of weakness. But right after that, she went back to work and put her affairs in order. She often prayed on her knees for others despite the pain of her bone metastasis. She was a picture of self-denial.

Here we go again. We spent three weeks going back and forth for doctors’ consultations and tests. Mom finished her first round of chemotherapy and she had to make lifestyle changes. She had to delegate going to market to buy ingredients, which she loved to do because cooking is her passion. All these have to change—for now. I pray she follows the “denial” God calls her to do.

“Here we go again.” I have to stop saying this. Instead, I should embrace it and say, “Here we go, Lord!” Ariel Driz (adriz77@ yahoo.com)

Reflect: What areas does Jesus call you to deny yourself for Him?

Lord Jesus, grant me the grace to deny myself and follow You each day. Amen.

Sts. Perpetua and Felicity, martyrs, pray for us.

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 

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)

GOSPEL 

We can live life the way we want and ignore God. Do you believe He exists in the first place? If you do, then follow Him. Jesus is God in human form. His life, message, and teachings are attested by historical facts and by Scriptures from more than 2,000 years ago.

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

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

 

Luke 9:22-25

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 pro t is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?

think: How do you live your life—God’s way or your way?

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TODAY ONCE MORE

No choice—I am a baby boomer trying hard to fit in the world of millennials. I work for iGen kids, and am surrounded by millennials and Gen Xers who do not think exactly as I do. As an educator, a counselor, and a priest, the quest for relevance is my own version of the Holy Grail. I am in perpetual search for it, and woe to me if I do not find that magic word “connection.” For like Saint Paul, who became all things to all men in the hope of saving at least some of them, I feel useless if I do not evangelize in a way that connects to the world of those I minister to.

Otto Scharmer has popularized the word “disconnect.” We live now in a world of so many disconnects. For example, the disconnect between the world of global economics and the real world of ordinary people who do not even know what Wall Street means for their drab, ordinary, work-a-day lives.

Sadly, that disconnect should also be considered by priests and preachers like us who may be talking about things that the young are no longer capable of even hearing for more than a few minutes or even seconds.

So, it’s “today once more” for me and for you. The prophet Joel harped on the word now. The book of Deuteronomy today hammers on a similar concept: today. It’s today, not tomorrow. Today, you choose. Today, you decide: “life and prosperity; death and doom.” It is a toss-up between “obeying the commandments” and “turn[ing] away [your] hearts and not listen[ing].”

There are two things that postmodern folks like us do very well: tolerance and looking the other way. Tolerance has become the postmodern virtue. It is the height of political correctness: seeing no evil, hearing no evil, and saying nothing in the face of it. The other is related to it—pretend you see nothing and just look the other way, and thus allow evil to triumph.

So, it’s today once more. Yes, don’t look the other way or pretend you didn’t hear. It’s today, not tomorrow. Take up your cross, go, follow! Now! Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

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

Are there things within you that you are postponing to confront?

Make me courageous to truly follow You, Lord—not tomorrow but today. Amen.

Today, I pray for: _____________________________