Am I with Christ or against Him (Thursday, Lent 3)

-

In the fourth week of Lent, the emphasis of the readings seem to be on the commandments (or law) of God. In Deut. 4 and Deut. 30:15.19, Moses told the Israelites that the commandments are the route they must follow in order to arrive at life. As we have it in today's reading, Jeremiah takes it out on the Israelites for being a stiff-necked people, for being obstinate and unyielding in their observance of the law (or commandments) of the Lord (cf. Jer. 7:23-28).


Christ has summarized those commandments in one word: LOVE. His mission on earth was to UPHOLD, PROMOTE AND FULFIL THE IDEAL OF LOVE. To be on His side (cf. Luke 11:23) is to promote what He upholds: to work for the fulfillment of the law of love. To be against Him is to work against Christian charity. In Luke 11:14-23, Christ performed a work of love: He cast out a demon from a demon-possessed. And some people accused Him of working with the power of the prince of demons. In other words, He was accused of being on the side of the devil.


However, in all conscience, we must admit that those who were really demon-possessed were those who saw goodness and misinterpreted it as evil: Christ did the work of love and it was interpreted as demonic. In our time, many of us are too quick to dismiss good acts as evil and ill-intentioned. We must be careful and circumspect in our utterances/evaluations or else we may end up ignorantly interpreting the work of God as satanic or demonic. Please know this: Christ is always on the side of love; the devil is always on the side of wickedness.


If my attitudes in any way frustrate the flow of Christian charity, what it means is that I am not on the side of Christ. And anyone who is not on the side of Christ is obviously (and logically) on the side of the Satan. This is the real demonic possession which we must be worried about.


Prayer:

Lord, keep my feet firm in following your tracks of love and goodness, Amen!


Have a fruitful Lenten journey!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gifts versus the Giver (Monday, Week 20, Year II)

-
Image
A gift, by the virtue of what it is, is given. In other words, there must be a giver. Gift can come or be in the form of a good friendship or relationship, material thing, good job, personal talent, and so on. Every cherished gift is the delight of our eyes, the pride of our power and the desire of our souls. The gifts that we possess should then remind us of the giver. It smacks of arrogance and ingratitude when gifts are used without acknowledging or making reference to the giver. For the Jews, the Temple or Sanctuary was the delight of their eyes, the pride of their power and the desire of their souls. It was a precious gift which they jealously guarded. However, they adorned the Sanctuary but did not truly adore the One for whom the Sanctuary exists. They were too attached to the “gift” (sanctuary) but were completely detached from the Giver of the gift – from Yahweh. Ezekiel prophesied to them that this sanctuary which was their delight will be profaned and taken away from them. M
Read more

Persecution and Triumph, the Two Realities of Christian life (Saturday, Week 33, Year 2, The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary)

-
Image
The book of Revelation is full of symbols and imageries that need to be carefully interpreted for us to understand the message they communicate. In today’s first reading (cf. Rev. 11:4-12), John was told about two olive trees and two lamp stands serving as witnesses to the Holy One. Who or what do these two sets of witnesses (olive trees and lamp stand) stand for? When we read further in order to understand what happened to these two witnesses, it may be a bit clear to us that the “two witnesses” may be pointing to Moses and Elijah, judging from what they did on earth and what they stand for. Moses stands for the Law; and Elijah stands for the Prophet. Anyone who bears witness as Moses bore witness to the Law of God must be persecuted by the beast as the first reading (from the Book of Revelation) recounted. Anyone who bears witness to the messages of truth as Elijah and other prophets did must be persecuted just as the prophets were persecuted. Persecution is a fate that awaits every
Read more

Enkindle the Embers of Unity, Quench the Fire of Disunity (Wednesday, Week 22, Year A)

-
Image
For some time now, we have heard Paul talk about the spiritual and the unspiritual: what it means to live and operate on the level of the Spirit (the spiritual) and on the level of the flesh (the unspiritual). Paul was very emphatic about this topic possibly because he was addressing a group of people who were too intellectual and academic in their approach to the things of God and all of that. Remember that the Corinthians were Greek; and the ancient Greeks were known to be too particular and more interested in intellectualism, sophistry, philosophy and human wisdom. And we must not forget that Paul has been very suspicious of over-reliance on worldly/human wisdom in understanding and appreciating the things of the Spirit. To rely more on human/worldly wisdom is a sign that one may be operating on the level of the flesh; and to operate on the level of the flesh breeds a whole lot of vices such as division or sectionalism, hedonism, and so on. In today’s section of that letter to the C
Read more