John 2:13-22 Whenever we read the Gospel, we realize that Jesus, who is 100 percent God and 100 percent human, has a soft spot for the poor and the sinner. While society would judge these people, Jesus would not. In fact, he even mingled with them. Yet, there were things that made even Jesus angry….
Category: Mercy & Forgiveness
Meaningful Death
Once I attended a wake. While the relatives were very sad that their mother passed away, their greatest consolation was that she was prepared. She picked the dressed that she would wear in the coffin. She had a list of priests who would celebrate Mass for her for the three days of viewing. She picked…
Anger
Often people confess Anger as a sin. It is explained that Anger, per se, is an emotion. When parents get angry at their children because they are not studying, it is not a sin; When a boss gets angry at an employee because she has not performed well, that is not a sin. When citizens…
Love for Children
During the time of Jesus, he had a preferential option for the disadvantaged: the poor, women, the widow, the sinner, the prostitute, and yes, the children. Children during the time of Jesus were treated as second class citizens. Hence, they were closest to the heart of Jesus. That is why he scolded his apostles for…
Fault Finder
Once, there was an experiment made. A white sheet of paper with a small block dot in the center. When people were asked “What do they see?” the most popular answer was the “black dot.” Not the white sheet of paper, but the small black dot. We human beings are not perfect. We have all…
Holistic Healing
One day, I anointed two elderly women. The first one, the son said, “please keep open your evening schedule for mommy’s masses. The doctor says she can go anytime. It has been a month already and she is still alive. No respiratory, no dialysis, no extraordinary measures”. The second one just came from a stent…
Being Prepared
Some time ago I visited three wakes. The first was a 14-year old girl who died of leukemia. She finally rested after two years of in and out of the hospital. The second wake was an unexpected death of a 55-year old man who had a heart attack. Everyone thought he was fit and athletic,…
Divine Mercy
When people hurt us, we have the tendency to confront and give them a litany of the things that we have done for the person. “I did this… I did that…. I gave you this… I gave you that… I helped you with this… I helped you with that…. how can you be so ungrateful?”…
Christian Persecution
Is it said that two-thirds of the 2.3 billion Christians in the world today live in dangerous neighborhoods. They are often poor. They often belong to ethnic, linguistic, and cultural minorities. And they are often at risk. Hence, every month, we hear of a Christian being killed. Not too long ago, a priest, Fr. Mark…
Saying Goodbye
Psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross has journeyed with so many people who were about to die, that her famed model, The Five Stages of Denial, has become the accepted standard of examining terminally-ill emotions. They are classified as: Denial – “No, I am not going to die” Anger – “Why me? There are so many other people…
3 Ways 2 Your 1 God 