Eyes That See

 "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.” Luke 10:23-24

I always marvel at how much knowledge, entertainment and news are at our fingertips if we have a computer or a phone with an internet connection. The first computers were huge, some occupying 1,800 square feet, consisted of about 750,000 parts, with vacuum tubes that weighed almost 50 tons. The first hard disk drive was the size of a cupboard! And now, my phone has more power than those monster computers powered by steam!!!

Before, news had to carried by people on horseback. Now, a glance at my x or Telegram feed can bring me news faster than CNN! What an amazing world we have!

We often take for granted that we can actually worship and fellowship with other believers without fear of getting caught, stoned, burned at the stake, or carted off to be killed by animals in the middle of an arena like the Hunger Games. I so enjoy listening to Oxford Professor John Lennox, an Irish mathematician, bioethicist, and Christian apologist, debate with atheists like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. I can even ask hard questions of Sean McDowell if I tune in to one of his live shows. 

Just two months ago I listened to the speeches of Bishop Barron, Father Mike Schmitz  and company at the National Eucharistic Congress held in Indianapolis via EWTN on YouTube. Imagine joining 60,000 Catholics gathered in the stadium and many more listening in via livestream! These are amazing awesome  times!

But are we just as amazed at how awesome it is, that the Messiah that "kings and prophets" longed and waited for, is here with us today? That we can actually have a relationship with Him? We can talk to Him. We can read His words, we can know His story. 

The Jews are still waiting for their Messiah. Have we "found" Him for ourselves?

Of Little Account

“Behold, I am of little account; what can I answer you?” Job 40:3

I have been reading from the Book of Job since Monday. I don’t know if there is any verse in Job that we would cross stitch and put on our walls. Job lost his sons and daughters, his sheep, his shepherds, his camels, his servants, even his health. He was only left with his grumpy wife who advised him, “Curse God and die!” 

Job replied, “You talk like a godless woman. Should we accept only good things from God and never anything bad?” Indeed, we never know what a day brings. Last month, my husband Luigi ended up in the ER as he was feeling like he was going to have a heart attack. It was a good thing he was with brothers from his men’s group. He asked God what to do, and God said, “Go and ask the brothers to pray over you.” After the prayers, the guys took him to the hospital where they had him undergo some tests. While this was happening at the other side of the city, I asked family and brothers and sisters in our community to pray. Thank God, the tests showed nothing amiss, but I realize the situation could easily have ended differently. 

Job’s friends tried to comfort and guide him. “My advice to you is this: Go to God and present your case to Him. For He does great works too marvelous to understand. He performs miracles without number...For though He wounds, He also bandages. He strikes, but His hands also heal.” Job didn’t understand and he had many questions. He was so desperate and devastated like us when we are in a dark place. 

But God stooped to Job’s level and answered his questions from a whirlwind: “Brace yourself for I have some questions for you!” Of course, Job could not answer God’s timeless and profound questions! We too cannot answer our own questions, much less God’s. We just need to get to a place where we can trust in Him and hide under His wings.

My Vindicator Lives!

“But as for me, I know that my Vindicator lives…” Job 19: 25

Lyle C Rollings III, 2008 wrote this in 2008: “The Greatest Man in History… Jesus; Had no servants, yet they called Him Master. Had no degree, yet they called Him Teacher. Had no medicines, yet they called Him Healer. He had no army, yet kings feared Him. He won no military battles, yet He conquered the world. He did not live in a castle, yet they called Him Lord, He ruled no nations, yet they called Him King, He committed no crime, yet they crucified Him. He was buried in a tomb, yet He lives today.”

I was looking for the writer who penned the quote as I saw it in several blogs and posts without any credit. And in one Instagram reel, they tagged this on to it:

“His Kingdom is not of this world, yet it lies within the hearts of those who believe. He spoke of love and forgiveness, and his words have transformed billions of lives worldwide. He offers no material wealth, yet we consider him the treasure of our lives. He promises no earthly power, yet in His name, the powerless have found strength. Though He left no written words, His message has filled countless pages.

In His weakness, we find our strength. In His  suffering on the cross, we find our salvation.”

Yes indeed, our vindicator, our defender, our advocate lives! 

Marvelous Things!

“He alone stretches out the heavens and treads upon the crests of the sea. He made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the south; He does great things past finding out, marvelous things beyond reckoning.” Job 9:8-10

More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of, Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote. But more marvelous things has God worked into shape even before He made man, the apex of His creation. There is so much to be in awe of in how finely-tuned the universe is, in support of our existence. If we ever think we are unimportant, we just need to ponder on these amazing facts. There are just too many life-friendly constants, laws, and conditions, in the vast universe to dismiss as accidents. 

If gravity and electromagnetism had been just one billionth of a gram slightly stronger or slightly weaker, planets, stars, and galaxies could not have formed. What is man that God made the sun the exact temperature we need to exist? Scientists have long been in awe of how the laws of physics, and biology have such finely tuned constants. Mathematical physicists and cosmologists Frank Tipler and John Barrow wrote in their 1986 study that a world with less than three dimensions would produce an aberration where the digestive tract of any higher animal would separate into disjoint upper and lower parts. Nerves and blood vessels and our other parts depend on the number of dimensions. In other words, so many things could go wrong! 

Theologian and scientist Alexander McGrath said that if the ratio of the mass of the proton to the mass of the electron changed by only a small amount from 1,836.15267389 times, this would arrest the formation of many molecules, including DNA, the building blocks of life. 

To Christians it is obvious that our biological fine-tuning is evidence of God’s masterful design, but many scientists prefer to see it as a product of evolution. The arguments go on and on, but let us think as Biochemist Michael Behe does- the flagellum, a microscopic thread line structure that allows a bacteria to swim, is so complex that “it cannot be the outcome of consecutive small-scale evolutionary steps”.  There has to be an intelligent designer! 

How marvelous are Your works, O mighty God! I ponder in awe at what Your hands have made, including me! You know how many strands of hair I have on my head! You mind my tears and rejoice when I rejoice! Thank You for revealing Your love for us in the workings of the universe and in our human bodies! There is no God like You! 

Brought Low

“I am numbered with those who go down into the pit…” Psalm 88:5

“The good news is that God has made provision for our waywardness. He has given us the great gift of repentance.” I took note of this from the meditation booklet, “The Word Among Us”. I don't know why, but I like the word “waywardness". Somehow it does not sound so bad! But the truth of the matter is that sin is sin, whether it is serious or not. Mostly because small sins lead to big sins. Take David’s idleness which led him to murder the husband of the woman he lusted after. Then there's Saul, whose impatience progressed to rebellion against God! 

It is good to look at our ways honestly and see if there are little sins (sometimes we don't even  consider them as sins!) like telling white lies, unkindness, inconsideration, unmindfulness, impatience, lack of generosity, etc., and then repent and try to do better.

Today is the Feast Day of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church. We visited her comfortable home, Les Buissonnets, in Lisieux several years ago during a pilgrimage. Her life became more vivid to me as I stared at her bed where she lay sick of a mysterious illness when she was just 10 years old. My impression of Saint Thérèse was that she was quite spoiled. She got into temper tantrums frequently and even unreasonableness, but she entered the Carmelite Convent at the age of 15. While there, she confessed that she had a difficult nature and always struggled with even the small things. Through God’s grace, she shared with the Church her “Little Way”, the “the way of spiritual childhood, the way of trust and absolute surrender” and humility before God. She had learned to offer to God even her mundane chores like folding napkins, and doing it with great love for Him. Indeed, we may be brought very low when we think of our many sins. But when we repent, God’s compassion can lift us up the same way He did with Saint Thérèse.