Don’t show off

https://t.me/eph2atha/14 - click here to listen to the recording 

Love that completes

The strangeness of the Lord

The Lord stood with Moses and proclaimed His name

- - - Then .... "If I find favor with you, O Lord, do come along in our company.  This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins, and receive us as your own."

The paradox of exhortation 

To the Christians of Corinthians, St. Paul did important recommendations which is also valid for us today, thus we should practice it each day, until we will be experts:

«Brothers and sisters, rejoice.

Mend your ways, encourage one another,

agree with one another, live in peace,

and the God of love and peace will be with you.»

The total love

The Father at the perfect time offered His son in exchange of the salvation of the world. The Son revealed the love of the Father into the world. But not all understood such Total Love. This is the only path that will reconcile us to the Father, no religious practices can save the world; except love. Love that drives out fear; love that brings light to those who are in the dark; love that feeds the hungry and gives water to the thirsty; love that restores the dignity to the one who unjustly condemned; love of the truth; love of honesty and with no corruption; love of simplicity with no vainglory and narcissism; love of sharing and with no publicity; love with no if’s and why’s; love so to share the love of the Father to the Son in communion with the Holy Spirit.

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First reading from the Book of Exodus

EX 34:4B-6, 8-9

Early in the morning Moses went up Mount Sinai as the LORD had commanded him,

taking along the two stone tablets.

Having come down in a cloud, the LORD stood with Moses there and proclaimed his name, "LORD."

Thus the LORD passed before him and cried out,

"The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity."

Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship.

Then he said, "If I find favor with you, O Lord, do come along in our company.

This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins, and receive us as your own."

 

Second reading from second Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians

2 COR 13:11-13

Brothers and sisters, rejoice.

Mend your ways, encourage one another,

agree with one another, live in peace,

and the God of love and peace will be with you.

Greet one another with a holy kiss.

All the holy ones greet you.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ

and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to John

JN 3:16-18

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,

but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Inspired by the Holy Spirit

No one can profess who is Jesus unless he is inspired by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:3B)

The most renowned king David talked about the future messiah, as so far as under the  inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the only one who can bring us to Jesus. There are no Pastoral Strategies and magical prayers, or any pilgrimages that can give a true experience of the love of Jesus.

The presumption to be religious and to be devoted is the worst enemy of the work of the Third Person of the Holy Triune God.  Because it gives an idea of a pre-packed options of God in which He in His Wisdom and Glory has to submit to a mediocre vision and practice, by reducing it all to moral doctrines of “do’s and don’ts”. 

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Mark 12: 35

As Jesus was teaching in the temple area he said, “How do the scribes claim that the Messiah is the son of David?

36

David himself, inspired by the holy Spirit, said:

‘The Lord said to my lord,

“Sit at my right hand

until I place your enemies under your feet.”’

37

David himself calls him ‘lord’; so how is he his son?” [The] great crowd heard this with delight.

Being Catholic

The basic truth of Catholic faith is not how many masses we have participated and how many times we confessed? Or are you divorced or not; or how many sanctuaries you have visited; or how many rosaries you have said; or how many relics that you have gathered; or how much money you have given for the feasts; or how many priests and bishops you have known.

The basic truth of our being CATHOLIC is this :

John 17:20-26

20 (Jesus) “I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.  22 And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23  I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.

24 Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world.  25 Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me.  26 I made known to them your name and I will make it known,  that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.”

"HOLY SPIRIT MAKE MY HEART OPEN TO THE WORD OF GOD, MAKE MY HEART OPEN TO GOODNESS, MAKE MY HEART OPEN TO THE BEAUTY OF GOD EVERY DAY". POPE FRANCIS

Protected by the word of God

Consecrated in the truth

The truth is the word of God, the truth that shatters the lies of the prince of this world, whose work is : Power, Glory and Wealth. Many are blinded and turned into the wrong path, because the father of lies know where to confound the people who started to do good things but ended up for complice and adulatory spirituality: obsequious, unctuous and parasitic; thus, turned to be self-referential Church, preoccupied only for its own spiritual life.

Protected and kept from the Evil one, by consecrating them in the Truth. The Word is the Truth, and the Word is God, and such Word became “flesh and dwell among us”.  This means to say, the first way to fight the Devil is by knowing the Truth of the Word of God, that remains in us: in our minds and hearts, and not just recite prayer formulas which are not based in the Word of God.

A traditional Christian is a half-cooked believer. A Christian should know the Word of God so to be “consecrated to the Truth”.  He should know this Spiritual Warfare condition, and being Consecrated in the Truth of the Father.  Moreover, knowing the Word of God implies becoming One and United: Jn 17:11b Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are.” The term “devil”, diabolos , division! The work of the devil is to divide, and create divisions; while a Bible based Christian will always find the Path of Communion and Unity.


Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 17,11b-19.
11b Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are. 12 When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled.  13 But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely. 14 I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.  15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. 16They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. 17Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world.  19And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.

The hour, the time, the eternal life

The hour has come. It’s not the chronological time (Kronos) but opportune time (Kairos), the time of salvation, the time of grace. The time that we come to realize the Eternal Life, which is the knowledge of the Only True God.
Knowing God, is not a matter of religion but of love. Making known the love of God, is the measure of the accomplishment of the work. God’s work is salvation: in Hebrew, the precise term is Ieshua, which means God saves; translated as Jesus.
God saves, because He loves. He loves the broken nature of man, but He refuses the arrogant and the hypocrite. The time of God meets the brokenness of man that needs healing and salvation. Healing that comes from the love of the Father, through the words of Jesus that gives life.
The words of Jesus are the words of the Father, the words of eternal life. So beware to those words given that are not from the Father but words according to the wisdom of men. The words of the Father brings eternal life, not just intellectual thought of a charlatan. The words of the Father are the words of Jesus that give hope and freedom from every anguish. The words that consoles because it’s empowered by the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.

From the Gospel according to John
JN 17:1-11A
Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said,
“Father, the hour has come.
Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,
just as you gave him authority over all people,
so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.
Now this is eternal life,
that they should know you, the only true God,
and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
I glorified you on earth
by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.
Now glorify me, Father, with you,
with the glory that I had with you before the world began.
“I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world.
They belonged to you, and you gave them to me,
and they have kept your word.
Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,
because the words you gave to me I have given to them,
and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you,
and they have believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,
because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours
and everything of yours is mine,
and I have been glorified in them.
And now I will no longer be in the world,
but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.”

Saying goodbyes

Every end is a new start

Accepting the loose of a beloved person, a friend or a relative, will never be an easy fact to accept. It changes us. Our way of seeing things, our way of perceiving life and our way of getting into relationships. It’s either it turn us to be better person or a bitter one. Jesus before His ascension, left an important message to His disciples and it’s also valid for us. Saying goodbyes truly it’s hard, but when you know that your beloved is in the hand of God, so you may be sorry for not seeing him like before, but your heart is happy that he’s in the hands of the Father. He is with our Lord and Savior. The assurance is this: “our sorrow will turn into joy”, because, He is and always be; He is and reigns forever; He is because He is our Eternity in the glory of the Father. 

It's not easy, but we have to learn how to accept it

It's healing and it's freeing. When we know how to accept the loose, it's easier to love again. It's not replacing. Because if that was been a true love, you can never replace that person in life. You just learn how to live better, with the best memories of that beloved who gave you a lot of lessons in living. You were never been enslave to that love, so you nothing to feel bad if you love again. Love again is broad, it's not necessarily like before, or limited only towards a man or a woman. It can be towards something, a kind of an interior calling to do, a mission to accomplish.

The ascension of Jesus was the start of the Mission of the Church

 The "mystical body" of Christ. Me and you. Us with the gerarchy. Us with the People of God: Pope, bishops and priests.  We need to learn that the mystical body is in action where we are in. Where there's hunger, sickness, pain, injustices, despair, fear, etc. There me and you, are called to bring the love of the Crucified but Resurrected, who sits in the right hand of the Father, as our Lord and savior.

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John 16:16-20

16"A little while, and you will see me no more; again a little while, and you will see me." 17Some of his disciples said to one another, "What is this that he says to us, `A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me'; and, `because I go to the Father'?" 18They said, "What does he mean by `a little while'? We do not know what he means." 19Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him; so he said to them, "Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, `A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me'? 20Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.