Bad Fish Good Fish

“The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea which collects fish of every kind.” Matthew 13:47

We can see how different God is from some earthly kings and presidents who want to kill the ‘bad fish’. God will only get rid of the ‘bad fish’ at the end of the age. 

When Nicky Cruz was young, he was a leader of a bloodthirsty gang, and up to no good every night. Because of that, he became the target of David Wilkerson, an evangelist in the worst areas of New York. 

Nicky was born to a witch and a warlock in Puerto Rico. They sacrificed animals to Satan and ate it raw, and the stench of blood used to sicken Nicky. His mother beat him up several times and tell him he was worthless. His father would throw him naked into a small locked room full of pigeons attacking him. When he was sent to New York, he wanted to make others suffer and feel pain the way he did. 

When Nicky was 19 years old, Pastor Wilkerson risked his life to throw out his net for the bad ass gang members. Nicky and the others heard him preach, “God has the power to change your life.” Nicky cursed out loud, spit in the Pastor’s face and hit him. “I don’t believe in what you say! Get out of here.”

Pastor Wilkerson said, “You could cut me up into 1000 pieces and lay them on the street. Every piece will still love you.” Nicky and his gang eventually attended one of the Pastor’s rallies and gave their lives to Jesus Christ, bad fishes no more! Nicky Cruz went to Bible College, met Gloria who is now his wife. He preaches around the world. One time he preached in Paraguay and two thousand witches came to put a curse on the proceedings. Nicky and the 70 people who were with him prayed and many of the witches gave their lives to Christ. The ones who didn’t were carted off in ambulances, screaming and writhing in pain. 

Lord, thank You for being merciful and patient. Even bad fish can be saved by Your love and grace. May You use us O Lord to reach out to the hurting.

Radiant

"When the Israelites saw Moses and noticed how radiant the skin of his face had become, they were afraid to come near him." Exodus 34:30

In Acts 6:15, Saint Stephen's face is described as "bright like an angel". This was when he had been arrested and was being accused before the high council. When my cousin Susan saw Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Susan said she was beautiful, so young! Susan was not the only one who thought that Mother Teresa was radiant. You can find many who met her who would describe this nearly bent over wrinkled old woman as "very beautiful". Such is the transforming power of God in our life. 

Malcolm Muggeridge, the British journalist and satirist who helped introduce Mother Teresa to the western world in his book , "Something Beautiful for God", wrote that she was like a light that could never be extinguished. "She had the beauty of holiness — that special beauty, amounting to a kind of pervasive luminosity generated by a life dedicated wholly to loving God and His creation. This, I imagine, is what the haloes in medieval paintings of saints were intended to convey."  

The writer recognized that  "without the special grace that vouchsafed her, she might have been a hard, even grasping person. God turned these qualities to his own ends." Yes, Mother Teresa could have been controlling, shrewd, stubborn, tough, hard-headed and uncompromising, but she offered all she was to God and He transformed her. He wants to do the same for us. 

May we turn to You Lord every day that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect Your glory. May Your Spirit work within us, that we may become more and more like You and reflect Your glory even more. (2 Cor. 3:16-18)

Both Mary and Martha

I have to confess that after I am Mary in the morning, after I read the Word, attend online Mass, and pray, I am Martha  all the way through to when I close my eyes and rest at night.

I am so preoccupied with the so many things I need to do in a day! I like the story in John 11:19-27, because even if Martha has gone down in Biblical history as a woman so preoccupied with "work", she is also the woman who gave one of the clearest confessions of faith, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the One who is coming into the world." (John 11:27)

Martha is the woman who had the temerity to approach Jesus, and say reproachfully, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you."

Martha was the woman who asked the impossible, and received the impossible. Lazarus, her brother, rose from the dead!

So let us be BOTH Martha and Mary, and see miracles happen in our lives!

Like Yeast

"The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened." Mt. 13:33

Pope Francis in his pastoral letter, the EVANGELII GAUDIUM, exhorted all of us, not just the clergy, to be "in a permanent state of mission." That wherever we are, in our places of work, in our school, our neighborhoods, our organizations, we should be able, like yeast in dough, to permeate and affect every environment we are in.

When my mother was alive, she would spend her Sunday mornings speaking to students who wanted to interview her about our business for their school requirements. After they finished with their questions, she would say, "Now it's my turn." And she would ask what they believed in, and she would tell them about God and His good news for all of us.

She would talk about God, not only to students, but to our suppliers, to BIR examiners, anyone who would happen to cross her path! When I was young, I would roll my eyes and think, "Here we go again!"

Now of course I know she was merely doing what Jesus commanded us to do!

Pope Francis was a good example of someone who was permanently on mission. He called random people up, he went out at night incognito to feed the hungry, he joined the Vatican employees for a meal in their canteen. So should we be more creative in thinking of ways to permeate the world with God's goodness and faithfulness!!

Teach Us to Pray

Yesterday I held a workshop for the bridesmaids of my son’s fiancée. I taught them how to use Shrinky dink plastic to make charm bracelets, keychains, etc. 

They had a lot of fun! I was so happy to do it. 

“Lord, teach us to pray.” Luke 11:1

There is a funny story about a little boy who wanted a bicycle. After watching a high church service on TV, the boy prayed: “Lord, if it is in Your Sovereign will and in Your Eternal plan that I can get myself a bicycle – in Your time and according to Your will – would you please get me a bicycle In Jesus name I pray. Amen.”

After no bicycle arrived for him, the next day he watched a prosperity gospel preacher, and decided to pray: “Lord, I declare my need for a bicycle! And I declare that it will be a nice blue-colored bicycle and delivered to my home within 24 hours. I lay claim to it, Amen!”

Again he waited in vain for a bicycle to arrive so he decided to do things his own way. He walked off into the woods with a statue of the Virgin Mary. He then prayed,

“Dear Jesus, if you ever want to see your mother again…”

Is there a formula for prayer? The disciples observed Jesus praying often. He needed that connection with His Father. We must need it even more. The most important part of what Jesus taught the disciples about prayer was that the Father is not distant. He was ‘Abba’ not only to Jesus but to us. We are His beloved children, and we do not have to resort to formula prayers or to bribe Him. We just have to speak what is in our heart. 

The amazing thing is that it is God’s Son, Jesus Himself, who invites us into this intimate circle of family!

Treasure in Earthen Vessels

“We hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us.” 2 Corinthians 4:7

Of the short stories in the book “Chicken Soup for a Woman’s Soul”, the one that impressed me was that of Mary Kay Ash. Like many women in the book, she had a hard childhood, a difficult time trying to earn a living, and although she made good sales for the company she worked for, it was the men who would get promoted. When her first husband divorced her, she was left with three children to support. We can say she was “afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed...”. (2 Corinthians 4:8-9)

In 1963, after quitting from a job where women were not given the same opportunities as men, she started her own cosmetics company with $5,000.00 and her family backing her up. Her sons and her mom always said, “You can do it, Mary Kay.” They saw the gold in her earthen vessel.  Mary Kay’s company was founded not on competition, but on the Golden Rule, on praising people to succeed and on the principle of placing faith first, family second and career third. It was a company – as Mary Kay Ash would say – "with heart." Mary Kay died in 2001, but what she built lives on.

Today is the Feast Day of St. James the Apostle. And it is so fitting that we read from St. Paul's 2nd letter to the Corinthians. Like St. James and all the other saints, we are 'earthen vessels', fragile, weak, easily broken. And like St. James, we hold the treasure of God's Spirit, something more valuable than any gold or precious metal. From a man of quick temper and selfishness, he became a man who traveled long distances to preach the good news and was the first of the apostles to be martyred for Christ. 

Let’s not forget we all have this treasure in earthen vessels. Sometimes adversity brings it out.  Other times we just need others to encourage us and say, “You can do it!” Nothing is impossible with God!

You See

“But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.” Matthew 13:16-17

Don Schwager wrote, “God can only reveal the secrets of his kingdom to the humble and trusting person who acknowledges their need for God and for his truth. The parables of Jesus will enlighten us if we approach them with an open mind and heart, ready to let them challenge us. If we approach God's word with indifference, skepticism, and disbelief, then we, too, may hear but not understand and see but not perceive. God's word can only take root in a receptive heart that is ready to believe and willing to submit. If we want to hear and to understand God's word, we must listen with reverence and faith.”

In the brutal war of Russia against the invading armies of Napoleon, Tsar Aleksandr Pavlovich resorted to going down on his knees in the Assumption Cathedral in the Kremlin. He kissed the holy relics and prayed for a miracle while Moscow was burning. According to one writer, God sent a “minor, minor prophet” in the form of a savage winter that ravaged Napoleon’s forces.

“The terrible sufferings of the French on their return march are well-known. There was even cannibalism, - a sure sign of apocalyptic times, - as the soldiers of the Great Army began to put their fellow-soldiers in the stew pots. Out of the vast army - nearly 600,000 men, only about half of whom were French - that set out for Russia, only 120,000 returned, 35,000 of them French. The Russians lost 400,000, but they had saved their homeland.” The Tsar had been humble enough to go down on his knees and acknowledge that they needed God’s help.

Today, here and now, we need God’s intervention. We need to go down on our knees to implore God to save us from the invisible but insidious enemy who wants to destroy the truth, our families, marriages, our schools and even our country. May this realization draw us closer to God, eager to hear what He has to say.

Saint Apollinaris the Sower

"A sower went out to sow." Matthew 13:3

Jesus spoke of a farmer sowing seeds on different kinds of soil, until finally the seeds fell on good soil and yielded grain a hundred fold. One saint who was like that farmer was Saint Apollinaris. He was amazing! Saint Peter ordained him Bishop of Ravenna. Many miracles of healing followed where he went and he won many to the Christian faith, but at what price?!

Unbelievers and idolaters were so furious with him that he was beaten cruelly several times until he was half dead. He was captured and forced to walk on burning coals, he was stretched on a rack, and plunged into boiling water. Even if he was driven from Ravenna, he would return and be subjected to all sorts of torture just to get rid of him. He was hacked with knives, imprisoned in a dungeon, left to starve, attacked with stones on his mouth so he would stop preaching! Through all this, Saint Apollinaris was Bishop for 26 years. He is one of the first great martyrs of the Church. In the Tridentine calendar, his feast day is today, the 23rd of July, the day he is alleged to have been martyred. Can you imagine how powerful and stirring his homilies would have been? 

“We therefore grossly deceive ourselves, in not allotting more time to the study of divine truths."This quote is often attributed to Saint Apollinaris and shows how dedicated he was to the Scripture. 

Thank You Lord for the example and inspiration of the saints and martyrs. Even if today Christians are not tortured in most places of the world, may there be enough evidence to convict us, Your followers, of being Your disciples!

I Have Seen the Lord!

“I have seen the Lord!” Mary went and announced to the disciples. (John 20:18)

We may think we have very few occasions in which to proclaim this. Some will even say they have never seen the Lord. I know someone who was visited by Jesus when she was young and sick in bed. And then there is the star sportscaster, Nick Charles, who died of bladder cancer. He too was visited by Jesus who sat with him while he was struggling with pain. “It wasn’t a hallucination,” he said. He told Jesus he was ready to go home, but Jesus said, “Not yet.”

I like the story in 1 Kings 19:11-13. The awesome prophet Elijah was told by the Father to “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” A great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard the gentle whisper, he knew it was the Lord. Usually we will hear the Lord and experience Him when we are waiting in silence. He cannot come if we are surrounded by noise and busyness all the time. 

I saw a Facebook post of Mel Gibson talking to a bloody and battered Jim Caviezel, who acted the part of Jesus in the blockbuster movie, “The Passion of the Christ”. Mel Gibson looked like he was having a deep conversation with Jesus. The thing is, Jesus is always waiting for us to talk to Him. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20) That is a promise we should claim again and again. 

We should carve out time to make a friend of Jesus who is willing to get bloodied and battered for us! If we open the door every day, one day we will say with excitement, “I have seen the Lord and it was awesome!”

Fear Not!

“Fear not! Stand your ground, and you will see the victory the Lord will win for you today…The Lord himself will fight for you; you have only to keep still.” Exodus 14:13-14

I read a story of a young man who attended boot camp. The training officer put him and the others in the camp through rigorous training, showing them how to use the guns and ammunition. The officer showed them a grenade, and explained, “The one problem with using these is their unpredictability, but the biggest problem is if a soldier doesn’t throw the grenade at just the right time, because of the time delay, the enemy may pick it up and throw it back before it explodes.”  Then he took out the pin and “accidentally” dropped it to the ground. He shouted, “Run! It’s going to explode!” Then laughed when everybody scampered. “Get back here, you cowards,” he barked. 

When the trainees were heading for lunch, a bus arrived, and the young man recognized a friend from high school. In just a few minutes he told his friend that if he got so and so as a training officer, this is what he’ll do with a grenade. Sure enough his friend underwent the same training with the same officer. When the officer dropped the grenade, the friend got down and covered the grenade with his body. He was the only one who got an award for courage in boot camp! And neither he nor his friend told them why!

It’s easy to be brave if we know there is no danger. We may undergo all sorts of trials, suffering and tribulations, but if we know the Lord is with us, that He will never forsake us, and all our experiences are because God is transforming us into better people, we will not be moved. We will not be shaken by circumstances that seem hopeless. We will stand on His Word that, “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). We need to be steadfast because like the grenade, the enemy can use our trials to destroy us, to make us feel weak, hopeless and desperate. We need to use our weapons of prayer, and reading the Word to protect us from the evil one who wants to destroy us. 

It is good to read the whole of Ephesians 6:10-18, to be reminded to “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”

One Thing

“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.  There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her." Luke 10:41-42

What is the ONE THING? 

I guess we can come up with different answers, but I think it is having a relationship with Jesus. That is how to be a Mary in a Martha world. Martha's world is full of deadlines, an avalanche of email, a never ending series of to-dos and want-to-dos. The world of today is maddeningly kinetic, a breeding ground of distraction, and it's hard to find the time to nurture our most important relationship. 

Commandment number ONE is to love the Lord with all our heart, soul and strength, with everything in us! That's the ONE thing, that's number ONE! 

Lord, I want that ONE thing! Help me to slow down and savor Your love for me! Help me to sit at Your feet and learn from You!

Stormie Omartian said, "If we don't deliberately build our lives around these ‘garden walks’ with the Lord, the world will rapidly and relentlessly fill our hours with other commitments." St. Ignatius said that we should begin our prayer by pausing, becoming aware, of the love in the gaze of Jesus upon us. 

Learn From Me

“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and LEARN from me... And you will find rest for yourselves..." Matthew 11:28-30

Sometimes I picture God shaking His head in frustration. He has already given us His 'instruction manual', how to live so that we will have peace in the midst of confusion, joy undeterred by sadness and pain, wholeness and strength in the face of circumstances around us trying to destroy what we have. Jesus says LEARN from me. Listen to me, follow me. Instead we want to do it, "My way!"

Imagine if we didn't know how to drive and we bought a really nice car and didn't read the manual that the manufacturers carefully put together so that the car would run at its optimum. Could we get far using it? Through trial and error?

That's what we do with our lives when we don't read our instruction manual, the Bible! I think when we get to Heaven and see our Creator face to face and talk to Him, we're going to say, "If only I took You more seriously! It would have saved me a lot of pain and frustration!"

Like a Child

“You have hidden these things from the wise...and revealed them to the childlike." Matthew 11:25

Richard Dawkins, the infamous militant atheist biologist, was on a BBC radio show once with the Rev. Giles Fraser, former canon chancellor of St. Paul's Cathedral in England. Dawkins had just claimed that people in Britain who identified themselves as Christian were not Christian at all, because according to a survey conducted by their group, they could not even name the first book of the New Testament! Reverend Fraser then countered with the question: “Could you give me the full title of The Origin of the Species?”

Dawkins hesitated and mumbled, "On the Origin of Species…Uh…With, oh, God, On the Origin of Species. Um…There is a sub-title with respect to the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life.” Would his answer indicate that Dawkins was not a real evolution-believing atheist? 

Sometimes we can be too wise for our own good. Jesus said in Matthew 18:3, “I tell you the truth, unless you repent and change, and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Strong words. Wise people have tried to prove that God does not exist, but they can’t answer where moral law comes from if there is no God. 

Little children instinctively trust adults, and we, like little children, like lambs, should trust our Shepherd. Like little children, we should be full of hope and expectation. We should bask in our Father’s all powerful love. Instead of always being bothered and stressed, we should recover our capacity to be fully in the present, to experience the gifts God gives us. Like little kids who are enthusiastic and lack guile, we should not be afraid of creating or making or starting something new. Atheists may try to destroy, but little children like to build. Lord, may we never be cynical or angry. There is so much for us to discover and learn if we open our hearts to You, like a little child! 

Listen To God

“Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will repay you.” Exodus 2:9

The Pharaoh’s daughter was instrumental in saving Moses who became the great deliverer of the Hebrew nation. When she noticed the basket floating in the water, and opened it, she saw the crying baby boy inside with eyes of compassion. 

Many of us have eyes of compassion for those who are hurting but do we go further and act on it? 

I was listening to the great grand-daughter of Smith Wigglesworth, one of the giants of our faith. He was just a simple man, a plumber, who did not know how to read or write until his wife taught him, but he ushered in a revival during his time that reached many corners of the world. Although he was extremely busy travelling everywhere, he never forgot to teach his children and grandchildren about the Lord. 

When his great grand-daughter Lillian was about 4 years old, more than 70 years ago, her dad who was also a pastor in the Congo, brought his whole family to a village that had never heard about Jesus. He wanted to bring them the Good News. When they reached there, they asked where they could sleep for the night. The villagers pointed to a 4-pole, open hut in the middle and they set up their camp beds there. A storm erupted and Alice and Harold Berry, Lillian’s parents, started rebuking the storm, but the thunder and lightning continued throughout the night. When the sun came out in the morning, the men of the village approached. 

“We want to serve your God!” they said. “How do you know who our God is?!” Harold asked in surprise. “Your God is the God who can save our children from the lions. We put you where the lions sleep every night. Sometimes our children forget and go outside our homes and the lions eat our children. Your God sent a storm and the lions did not come! Your God protected your children. We want to know your God!” The whole village came to know Jesus. 

When we see others with the eyes of compassion, we can never imagine what God will do to help us, and what can happen if we listen to God, and follow His guidance. 

Go and Do Likewise

“Go and do likewise.” Luke 10:37

Sometimes there is much discussion about faith and good works. In Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan, clearly Jesus highlights how important it is to do good. A man fell victim to robbers and is left half dead on the road. Both a priest and a Levite, an assistant to a priest, crossed to the other side of the road when they saw the wounded man. 

A man who was a Samaritan, sometimes described as half Jew and half Gentile, usually scorned by Jews, chose to stop and help. He poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. He carried the man up his animal and took him to an inn, giving the innkeeper money to take care of him. He even said he would give more on his way back if the innkeeper spent more than the two silver coins. 

I am trying to remember when I went out of my way to help someone. Instead I remember freezing when a lady fainted. A friend ran to help and I continued staring. A very bad example! But I offer the good example of my brother-in-law who stopped his car to help some nuns walking in the pouring rain carrying something heavy. It turned out they were serving in a prison ministry and bringing a pot of arroz caldo to feed the inmates. 

I am sure there are many opportunities to be a Good Samaritan in our daily life. Sometimes we choose to look the other way, too preoccupied with our busyness. Sometimes, like me, we let others take the burden. Then there are those days we choose to be Jesus to others. Lord, may there be more days when I choose to be Your hands, Your feet, to have Your heart of compassion.

Do Not Be Afraid

"Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge. Even all the hairs on your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." Matthew 10:29-31

This a good assurance especially after Jesus said in the same instance, “There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. Whatever you said in darkness will be heard in the light, and what you whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed on the housetops.” 

I can’t help but think of how prevalent false news is spread on social media. Reputations of good people are being destroyed, and the bad deeds of some are being praised and made to look like it is the best thing that ever happened to our country. I am sure we cannot imagine the evil being done behind closed doors, not only in political arenas, but in the Church, in schools, offices, on the computer, even sometimes in our own homes. 

We need to always be wary because we have an ancient enemy out to destroy each and every one of us. He wants to destroy our country, our political institutions, our churches, our work places, our schools, our marriages, our families, our children, our faith. It seems to me like the world is getting more and more rotten to the core. This is because the enemy is wily and is slowly getting us to compromise with culture, and destroying our absolute values by replacing them with relative values. 

That’s why it is assuring that Jesus said even the hairs of our head are counted. That means every second of every day, God knows what’s happening to us, because our hair is always falling off and there are new ones growing! Even while the enemy is plotting all the time to destroy us, to make us quarrel with our spouse, or to introduce our children to pornography or digital cocaine, God is there. Even while global history is in God’s hands, our personal history is also in God’s almighty hands. We only need to turn to Him, to read His Word which is sharper than any two-edged sword that will reveal to us even our secret sins. If we repent, and intercede for one another, for our Church and our poor country, our God is faithful to hear us and heal us.

Do Not Be Afraid

“...do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say.” Matthew 10:19

God has supplied what I need to say, to answer, or to write, many times in my life. But I’ve never been put in a situation like Shony Alex Braun, where what he needed to do could result in his life being taken away from him. 

At age 13, this Romanian-born Hungarian Jewish boy was forcibly taken to Auschwitz with his parents and brother Zoltan in 1944. After he was moved to Dachau, the Commandant of the camp wanted to hear classical music played and he instructed the Kapo to look for volunteers who played the violin. They would be given bread in exchange. It so happened that Shony was a proficient violinist. He volunteered along with an old classical violinist and another younger man. 

First the old man played but the commandant was not pleased and at a signal, the Kapo split the old man’s head with a lead pipe and brain matter and blood scattered all over. It was the young man’s turn next but he shook so badly, he could not play at all. The lead pipe came out again. When the Commandant turned to Shony, the young boy prayed desperately, and asked God, “How does anything start?” Shony recounted that when the Kapo was two steps from him, suddenly his left and right hand started to move in perfect harmony.  He played Strauss’ Blue Danube even if he had never played the piece before. The commandant started to beat with the rhythm of the music. “God’s hands were on my violin. It’s the only way,” Shony testified later. “God gave me the song. I tell you, it was God!” We can read this story in his autobiography, “My Heart is a Violin”. 

We too can trust God that He will not only give us the words when we need it, but He will provide what we need when we need it. 

Let us stand on God’s promises: 

Philippians 4:19: "And my God will meet all our needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus." 

Matthew 6:33: 

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." 

2 Corinthians 9:8: “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work."