If Jesus Can, Why Can’t We?

5^th Sunday of Lent. Pls Read God’s Silent Message: JN 12:20-33

Are there people in your life that have hurt you and you have not yet forgiven?

Yong mga taong kinakasamaan mo ng loob kasi ang sabi mo nasaktan ka nila …

Yong mga taong sabi mo nakasakit sayo kaya nagalit ka sa kanila …

Pero ang tanong Friend … nalaman kaya nila na sumama loob mo sa kanila?

Nalaman kaya nila kung bakit at kung ano ang iyong ikinagalit?

And kung nalaman man nila, napag-usapan nyo po kaya ng tama where to draw the line of reconciliation?

Hanggang kailan ka po kaya magagalit?  Hanggang kailan hindi magagawang magpapatawad?

Just some of the questions we could reflect on. Sometimes it’s not really all about them – but about nobody than US!

Minsan kasi, kailangan din nating masaktan para maisip natin kung kailan din natin hindi sinasadyang makapanakit. Stories always have two sides of the coin. Supposedly, when we commit, we admit; when we omit, we submit! – but in reality, when one commits mistake & omits to ask for forgiveness, we normally judge & condemn – sacrificing the relationship to death.

Pero alam mo friend, what makes us uneasy to forgive is the fact that the real enemy that Jesus came to overcome was Satan who tempts the human race to create their own destiny through sinful pride and disobedience. In today’s Gospel, Jesus reminds:

“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies,

it remains alone. But if it dies, it will bear much fruit.”  – John 12.24

Only when the seed is destroyed by burying it in the ground, can it rise to new life and bear fruit. What it means is that, sometimes we have to die to our self-satisfaction of justifying why we’re mad.

If Jesus took our sins upon himself and nailed them to the cross to set us free from destruction, why can we not give up our pride and futility?

Friend, ayaw ni God na laging mabigat ang pakiramdam mo dahil galit ka sa pagkukulang ng iba!

God has been striving to bring us into an inseparable bond of love & unity with Him. Only if we would be one with God would we be able to “free others from our unforgiveness” – then it would eventually free us to extend more love and bear much fruit of encouraging relationships! #sunset

 

***published in The Feast San Lorenzo Bulletin. Issue #15. 18 March 2018. UNLEASHED Series, Talk 3: Freeing Others.

***you can also read this in: https://trendingprof47.wordpress.com/2018/03/18/if-jesus-can-why-cant-we/

 

EGO TRIP

                         The Most Essential

QUICK SELF-TEST:

[1] Have you ever gotten THAT CHANCE “to look in the eyes of your child” when he/she tells you what he/she feels? – or [2] have you even TRIED TO LISTEN – not to those spoken words but to such yearning HEART? [3] What about giving those words of approval when your partner has been striving for something he/she loves doing? OR [4] have you ever had the initiative to say sorry when you’ve been weak to be slow in anger?

If your answer is a TRUTHFUL YES, God could surely be SMILING AT YOU right now because you’re SEEING YOURSELF IN OTHERS!

If on the otherhand, you give some “philosophical” EXCUSES which ACTUALLY give a “NO” answer, you might then be needing some BRAVE SOULS “to HELP YOU REALIZE some perpectives – and I am praying po that today’s gospel could be one FEARLESS avenue which I hope you’ll GRAB REFLECTING ON.

pls read more @ https://trendingprof47.wordpress.com/2015/07/27/ego-trip/

Can’t we be Vulnerably Equipped?

“Love the Lord your God with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’

“Love your neighbor as yourself.”

No other commandments are greater than these.

Hmmmm…straightforwardly, this one seems to be a difficult task! ‘don’t you think so? Would you ever love a person to whom you have given that much, yet, would still want to get “much more” from you?

Would you ever love someone who’s been hurting you over and over again just because he doesn’t know how to love you back?

Would you still learn to trust when the pain created in you has been too deep for you to still forgive after all those lies?

Would you take chance to live another day with that someone who doesn’t even know how to appreciate YOU?

Bottomline, hanggang saan mo kayang magmahal? Pwede bang pag nahirapan ka, “ayawan” na lang!  Yong tipong, “kung ayaw mo, eh di wag mo!” “Away kung away”, “galit kung galit”! “Walang pakialamanan kahit na dumating sa point na pareho na tayong nasasaktan!”

No one is excused!

All kinds of relationship may be put into such challenge! No choice! … even if you have to deal with the most “difficult person”!   You’ll just need to accept that:

“The difficult person is a child desperate and hungry for love.”

Vulnerable!

This may be our lame excuse because we are only humans! Some would even justify their tendency to give up on someone and to freak out and say “sorry, tao lang!” Yet, if only we would deeply ponder on how much God has given-up just for our sake, somewhere along that line, we should apprehend that we are NOT “tao lang!” We should then carry out the mission that we are created in the image and likeness of God and more than the excuses of just giving up because we think we are weak , we should be like Jesus who has been so sacrificing for the benefit of letting love flow to others through us. Our being “tao” has actually made us equipped with the capability to share the limitless reward to others while we strive to accomplish the greatest commandment!

What we do to others is what we do to God … and extending such “love” in whatever way is that same love we extend to our “self” as our way of showing God that we are worthy of the rewards which we’ve already received and are “yet to come”! — sunset 

“Shalom!”: the First Aid Choice”

If you say you love someone, as much as possible, you want to “Save the best for last”.  If  there is something to correct in the attitude and way of thinking of the person you love, you will try on many ways to bring out the best from that person.  Even if it would come to the point when you almost suffer every bit of pain because that person opted to just listen to what he thinks is true based on his opinion, yet,  you will still strive to save him/her from further hard luck as consequence of his/her stubborn actions and decisions.

In effect, you would even be so persecuted, much that it would lead to disagreements, conflicts, fighting and the worse, broken relationships: friendship, boy-girl steady, parent-child, husband-wife.  “more often than not”, you would struggle, yet be tempted to just give up your fight of winning their heart because you only get too pained while they would never want to realize & understand your intention of helping them to be healthier in mind.

But because you love that much, just as what  Jesus did in today’s gospel where He suffered much to death, yet on the 3^rd day He rose again and did a “sign of peace” to all especially to those who betrayed and denied Him,   you also need to die to the pain brought by  misinterpretations and misunderstandings and extend your humble “Shalom” to the person/s who’ve hurt you so much instead of holding on to grudges.

“Shalom” is our first-aid to rescue and save our relationships before we could eventually open the minds of unwilling hearts. Wounds may be fresh and just as Jesus did in today’s Luke account where He showed his bruised hands and feet to show that He is real, we can also tell the person/s concerned how much they’ve hurt us so that they would realize how much forgiveness we have humbled down for them.

It’s never easy though swallowing your pride when you allow “peace” despite the fact that you were pained just because you want minds of people whom you care for, to be stretched in new directions. Just like what Jesus had to go through after His resurrection when some still did not believe, He had to extend “Shalom” as a sign of compromise until He was eventually able to open the minds of His disciples.

To charge this to our present time &  relationships specially within our families, parents should also strive to fulfil certain three-fold mission:

(1)     no matter how much kids would complain and unfavourably react against the worthy things which we want them to indulge in, we should always strive to find ways so that our children’s minds would eventually be opened to the reality that we are preparing them for the future which they would soon have to manage on their own;

(2)     we have to first learn before our kids can. We should strive to “walk our talk”: as in, if we tell them to be positive, we should also illustrate such positiveness in our words, actions and perceptions;

(3)     we, as parents should commit ourselves to be “at peace” with one another, treating each other as “partners” instead as each other’s competitor while doing things together to fulfil God’s will in our life time.

These missions are ideal – difficult to accomplish in reality because along the way, the opponent may use even your own family to challenge your faith – while they may cause you a lot of silent cries and may bring you to stressful situations which would later on break you down and eventually prompt you to give-in to your human frailties.

However, because you have committed yourself to spread the good news that we can enjoy repentance and forgiveness in every Shalom, your family would soon understand that the sacrifice which you are striving to endure today will be the royalty that they will benefit from specially by the time when we are already called to claim the glory of Eternal Easter which was already won for us by Christ in His Resurrection.

Let every “Shalom” aid us while we BOUNCE to rise up to our indifference in our family and even in any kind of relationship 🙂