In the Jewish tradition, there are 613 laws known as mitzvot, all of which are meant to show their love for God. Humanly speaking, this can be very hard and very confusing. How does one show love for God with all these laws? Perhaps, the question of the scribe is the most practical, “Which is…
Category: Mercy & Forgiveness
What Forgiveness Can Do
Matthew 10:16-23 The story of Joseph is perhaps one of the most popular Old Testament stories. In fact, it was made into a play named “Joseph the Dreamer” Joseph was the 11th child of Jacob. His stepbrothers were envious of him because he was the favorite of Jacob, and so they sold him as a…
How to Have Eternal Life
At the end of this journey called life, we all know that what matters is Life Eternal. How do we attain eternal life? Some of our brothers and sisters say that just proclaim with your lips that Jesus is Lord and you will be saved. Hence, no need to do good works. Others say, that…
One or Another
Luke 16: 9-15 During the time of Jesus, the thinking of the people was that if a man is rich, then he is blessed by God. Why? The thinking was that a rich person is happy because he has everything. However, is this truly the case? We all know that the strongest economies are: USA,…
Reunions
Reunions are opportunities to catch up with people we grew up with. In all the stories, one realizes that in life: First, nothing is permanent. Sometimes life is good, sometimes we are experiencing storms. Sometimes we are up, sometimes we are down. Second, one realizes that nothing is forever. Year after year, we say goodbye…
New Mindset
By now we have been regretting the many things that we ate during the Christmas season. I think the desire is to lose weight. Nowadays, on Facebook, one would encounter many formulas, many tricks, many types of diets, but I guess the one that is most interesting has this message in Tagalog: “Sa taon 2021,…
Life is Given
Matthew 10: 17-22 Last Friday, we just celebrated Christmas day. Very interestingly, in our Church calendar, we celebrated the feast of the first martyr – St. Stephen. Three reflections on these two celebrations: Christmas is about the birth of our Savior – God was brought to man. “Because God so loved the world that he…
Eternal Life
In an article at the Philippine Daily Inquirer written in 2012, it stated that the Philippines leads the world in believing in God – 94 percent. This is followed by Chile at 88 percent and then the U. S. with 81 percent. Belief was lowest in former East Germany (13 percent) and in the Czech…
Turning Back the Clock
There was a survey done in the U.S. some time ago, for people 90 years old and above. The question that was asked of them: “If you had your youth to live by again, would there be anything in your life that you would change?” The top three answers were as follows: They should have…
Pearl of Great Price
Matthew 13:45-46 There is this story that a certain General Yamashita during World War II brought most of the gold from the Southeast Asian countries that they controlled to the Philippines with the intention of eventually bringing it back to Japan. Whether this is true or not is debatable, but even today there are many…
3 Ways 2 Your 1 God 