You Love Me Anyway

Love – A so familiar term yet distorted in today’s world. I’ve touch on what is TRUE love and I suppose this is a follow up to that post in a way. Over the pass few months, I was going through a roller-coaster period with the faith. It was really a tug of war – one point I was refreshed to face the world and the next second filled with despair and hopelessness. But through it all, there’s this particular item that always remained unchanged – God’s unconditional love for me. I’ve said it many many..MANY times, God’s love can truly be found in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

All of us, if we humble ourselves, realize that we are truly useless, evil, envious creatures. WHAT? I hear you say? If you compare yourself to God, you know what I mean. Feel angry towards another person because you think he/she is not giving you equal attention unlike his/her other friends, getting angry/annoyed when someone is driving slow or is dangerously driving, parents are running late to pick you up, teachers are being inconsiderate human beings, refusing to help or say a word of thanks because you’re just plain out lazy/unappreciative and the list goes on and on. And yet He still allows me to walk on this earth, how unworthy am I.

This is how much God loves us despite all out shortcomings ;-

I am the thorn in Your crown – Refusing to to trust in God’s love and peace, anger towards another person

BUT You love me anyway

I am the sweat from Your brow – Refusing to allow God to enter in your life especially through the Sacraments of the Eucharist and Reconciliation, not appreciating mass, not taking the catholic faith seriously, fail to take prayer seriously, leaving mass early, hatred towards another siblings/friends/another human

BUT You love me anyway

I am the nail in Your wrist – Not trusting God’s providence for the future, unable to let go of the past, kept hurts/pains away from God, committing sin daily big or small

BUT You love me anyway

I am Judas’ kiss – Deliberately miss mass, receiving Holy Eucharist in the state of mortal sin, worshipping/loving something/someone else more than God such as grades, boyfriend/girlfriend, popularity, power, backstabbing someone out of jealousy/anger

BUT You love me anyway

“See now, I am the person who yelled out from the crowd
For Your blood to be spilled on this earth shaking ground
Yes then, I turned away with this smile on my face
With this sin in my heart tried to bury Your grace
And then alone in the night, I still called out for You
So ashamed of my life, my life, my life”

You see all of us are the crowd on that Holy Thursday, we shout “Crucify him, crucify him, crucify him!!!” by the way we live. We are content with what we have. This especially happens when life is great, good grades, no family/friend problem – we are “happy” but how “happy” is happy? How can one be truly happy without God in the equation? When the storms of life come, it is only then we realize that we need God, we treat God like a Emergency-Go-To which shouldn’t be the way. Life is a journey that should be walked with God on a daily basis. Why?Cause God will always be there, be it the good times and bad times. Let’s just put it this way, think of a horrible period/event in your life right now. Got it? Think of it in detail as if you were going through it again. okey? How did you manage to pull through, you are after all reading this, so somehow you must have gone through it right? Who are you going to give credit to?Yourself?Friends? Have a bad outcome? – You’re still alive aren’t you? What I’m trying to say is count your blessings and give credit to God all the time and everywhere because it is only Him that can make all things possible and use those bad events for something amazing.

Ever doubt God’s love for you? Meditate on the passion every time that happens. Just as we Christ entered into His passion on Holy Thursday, crucified on Friday we relate to Him during our struggles, big or small, He CARES, He wants to KNOW, He wants to HELP, He wants to COMFORT you, He wants to LISTEN to you. But similarly as He rose from dead on that first Easter Sunday rest assure we will rise above our problems.

“It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation always and everywhere to give you thanks, Lord, holy Father, creator of the world and source of all life.

You never abandon the creatures formed by your wisdom, but remain with us and work for our good even now. With mighty hand and outstretched arm you led your people, Israel, through the desert. By the power of the Holy Spirit you guide your pilgrim Church today as it journeys along the paths of time to the eternal joy of your kingdom, through Christ our Lord.” 

The Trinity Wants YOU

As we approach Lent, I personally believe we enter into Lent broken, sad, hurt, bothered, lost, confuse, exhausted, misunderstood, scared, and the list can go on and on. But I also believe we enter into Lent being mean to other people with the words we say or didn’t say or as the penitential rites go “through my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do”. I think it’s vital that we acknowledge that we have hurt others just as much as others have hurt us.

Isn’t that what Lent is about, just as everything else, we need maintenance, we need to better ourselves. I can say that Lent is the most practical time of the year in the Liturgical calendar of the church. A successful Lent requires a lot on our part to be honest, outside the requirements of the church which is fasting on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday alongside all other Fridays from meat, we need to do something outside of that. Obviously something not impractical and foolish but at the same time challenging to us.

The thing about this post is, I’m not here to help you create a Lenten program as I’m sure there are many resources on the web to help you with that. I’ll however leave that topic with this, at the very least try to come for daily mass daily and spend time before our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament for at least 30mins, you don’t have to say anything but being in the presence of the one who can ONLY give us true love and true peace is a wonderful thing. I read from somewhere that if you’re not good in being still, other things can be done. Abstracted from Catholic Answers and base on the Mary and Martha situation in which Mary just sat and listened to Jesus whereas Martha were running here and there trying her very best to give Jesus the first class treatment. Some can do what Mary do and just listened and have a conversation with the Lord but there are some people who just can’t and must do a Martha. Fear not! Jesus NEVER condemn Martha for doing what she did, although striving to be like Mary is the aim. Maybe that’s just the way Martha served the Lord. For those who can’t just be still, read scripture before the Lord and meditate on it, find meditations on the readings before going to the Blessed Sacrament and in time and practice, you too can be still and know that HE is God. Furthermore when you are sick you see a doctor, likewise all of us are spiritually sick and thus we need to come to the Physician of Life and ask forgiveness thru the Sacrament of Penance, I THINK it is a requirement to go to confession at least once a year and to receive the body and blood of Christ during Lent/Easter/Holy Week and we CANNOT, I repeat, CANNOT receive communion unless we are clean of sin that is not in the state of grace if you do receive it is a MORTAL SIN and sacrilege.

 

Back to what I originally planned, I’ve been reflecting with what Bishopsaid awhile back and been reflecting a lot about those people not involve with the church or who don’t go to church altogether. “They have a conversion to Christ but not to the church, His bride” Bishop once said and that struck me because it is true. They go to mass every sunday but you never see them unless it is required such as days of obligations. In simple they are not involve with the church in any ministry. But what even strikes me are those Catholics not taking their faith seriously and it is a serious matter and to a degree when I think of my love ones  and friends, to a point, it scares me that they are not. Take Catholic out of the equation and we still can see many people not taking their faith seriously. Well I’m not here to condemn cause neither am I perfect and sinless but instead I want to see YOU back in the church. Jesus said “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.(Luke 15:7)”  and it does make me happy really.

Well there is a reason why Jesus left us with His bride, the church and His Spirit, simply because we need it. But who exactly is the church looking for? For all the hurting souls running from their healer, for all the Pharisees, empty on the inside, for all the lovers who spent their love on a lie, for the forgotten, the Father’s heart says come, for all those looking for approval, for those who have never heard being called beautiful before or that they are important and special, come. All of us are tired in one way or another be it physical, mental, emotional or even sometimes spiritual but one of my most favorite verses is “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.(Matthew 11:28)”  I don’t need to say anything more. Please come back.

For those who are already in the church so to say, please pray for the conversion of those who do know His love and peace, for those who have harden their hearts towards Him.

 

“At the time he was betrayed and entered willingly into his Passion, he took bread and, giving thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying:

TAKE THIS, ALL OF YOU, AND EAT OF IT: FOR THIS IS MY BODY WHICH WILL BE GIVEN UP FOR YOU.

In a similar way, when supper was ended, he took the chalice and, once more giving thanks, he gave it to his disciples, saying:

TAKE THIS, ALL OF YOU, AND DRINK FROM IT: FOR THIS IS THE CHALICE OF MY BLOOD, THE BLOOD OF THE NEW AND ETERNAL COVENANT, WHICH WILL BE POURED OUT FOR YOU AND FOR MANY FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS. DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME.”

 

The Grace and Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you †