Power of Prayer - A Testimony

A few weeks ago, as I was getting ready to attend a retreat led by a very gifted priest, I sent out a message on my Facebook account asking friends to make their prayer requests so that I could pray for them. Given I do not have many friends on Facebook, I was still saddened by the response I got for my request - I received three requests. Now, I know for sure that most of my Facebook friends are catholics or at least Christians, and I also believe that they all strive to maintain some kind of relationship with the Living Christ. I don't think I received only three prayer requests because the rest of my friends were living a life with perfect health, satisfying careers, and soothing relationships. It is just that they couldn't bring themselves up to asking God for some of their pressing needs. As I look back at my own life, I can't blame any of them for not approaching God with a prayer request. It took more than a few miracles in my own life to convince me of the power prayer. From my past experiences, here are three main reasons for not asking God in prayer: 1. They think that there is no need to ask God. God knows everything and will give what's needed, when it is needed; 2. They don't think God cares about specific problems of each individual; he is God and has the whole universe to worry about; 3. They don't believe they have problems that couldn't be solved by themselves. 

Can Anyone be Addicted to God?

There are instances where people who were addicted to things like money, power, luxury, recognition, or pride give up on those things when the love of God touches their heart. God actually finds ingenious ways to touch the hearts of those people who are addicted to worldly things. One of the most effective way He uses is by allowing suffering to enter the lives of those whom He wishes to touch. During the times of trials and tribulations, many tend to turn to God seeking relief from the desperate situations that they are in. Once a person discerns the presence of God - the warmth of His gentle and comforting love - there is no going back. Once we realize that the life offered by God through Jesus Christ is worth more than anything we ever possessed, it is easy to trade our life, with all of its riches and relationships, for a life in Christ. But many would argue that when somebody give up their worldly pleasures for joy in Christ, all they are doing is trading one addiction in for a different one. But is that really so, is it possible to be addicted to God?

Point the Way

The Church celebrates Epiphany - the visit of three magi to the Christ child - this Sunday. The Scripture says that they came from the East following the star of Bethlehem. The wise men saw the star and they left the comforts of their home to embark on a difficult and dangerous journey in search of God. The star went before them, guiding them, and pointing them in the right direction, thus drawing them closer to God. Several years later we get to see another star in the Bible, he is John the Baptist. As the man responsible to "Make straight the way of the Lord", John pointed the crowds that came to listen to him to Christ Jesus. 

Religion: What is it?

While discussing about the existence of God (Is there a God?), I briefly discussed what set humans apart from animals. Saint Thomas Aquinas, as part of his fourth proof 'gradation', used human being's ability to reason to place them on a higher level than animals. Rationality provides us with the tools to think logically and choose intellectually. This unique ability of humans to reason also make it not only amazing but also strange that majority of the human beings believe in the supernatural. Even with all the logical thinking and free will available to our disposal, we choose to believe that there is something or someone else out there that is invisible to us, but somehow plays a vital role in our very existence. 

Christmas without Christ

I stayed away from blogging for a couple of days to prepare a talk for the Faith Forum discussion at our Church. I must say that I worked really hard for it, picked apart the hard language of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and came up with a talk about the mystery behind the simple and inglorious birth of Jesus. Then came the disappointing part - I had three people in attendance to listen to the talk! It turned out people were too busy to come to church an hour early because all of them were busy getting ready for Christmas. Some even suggested that it was really not a good idea to schedule a talk a day before Christmas - even though the talk was about Jesus' birth. I am sorry if I sound bitter, but am I the only fool to see the irony here? We are too busy preparing for the birth of our Savior, but what about the Savior who is already here?

Rejecting Jesus during Christmas

A billboard from American Atheists at
Times Square, NY

Many of us go into the Christmas season with lot of expectations - it is supposed to be a joyous time of the year, a time for family, a time to share gifts, a time to slow down and listen to the holiday music playing nonstop on the radio. But I don't feel all too happy this time of the year - things just didn't pan out the way I was hoping. I feel rejected during one of the happiest time of the year. I hope and pray that I am the only one who feels this way, but I know I am not. 

For most of us, Christmas is a time when we are anxious, frustrated and desperate. We spend months planning and making lists of things to do during Christmas. We park a mile away from the mall and fight the crowd to get around the stores, only to find out that half of the stuff on our shopping list is out of stock. We wait on an endless line to pay for the useless stuff we bought as gifts only to face the smirk of a cashier who would inform us in a less than sympathetic way that our credit card has been declined.

Let There be Light

Book of Genesis says that in the beginning, when God created the universe, it was darkness everywhere and there was no form or shape to be found anywhere. "Then God said: Let there be light, and there was light" (1:3). Thus the story of creation. There are too many arguments for and against the Biblical narration of creation. But that's not what I want to talk about today - I just want to talk about light.

Wait Santa, I am Not Ready

The Jesse Tree (Jesse is the father of King David)
A depiction of genealogy of Christ

December is here and it is Christmas time! For most of us December is a month of festivities and happiness. I can't think about any other celebration that has a universal appeal like Christmas does. People regardless of their faith, in some form, celebrate Christmas. It could be a couple of lights outside their house; it could be taking advantage of the promotions of the season and buying something new; it could be making a charitable donation by tossing couple of dollars into a Salvation Army bucket. Knowingly or unknowingly, we all participate in the spirit of Christmas, it is hard not to. And we should, all of us should regardless of our beliefs and religion. But is that enough for those who call themselves Christians? Should Christians be satisfied with Christmas trees, lights and decorations along with Santa Claus and Christmas carols, just like our Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or atheist neighbors? Do we need to do anything different during Christmas season to distinguish ourselves as Christians, followers of Christ?

The Catholic church celebrate the season of Advent which extends four Sundays before Christmas. It is a time of preparation . Advent means "to come to", and it refers to the coming of Christ.

Gauging My Faith

The Crucifixion of St. Peter
Caravaggio, 1600 AD

There times when I wonder how strong my faith is. This question becomes even more valid as I am getting ready to join a small group of faithful lay people in our church to form a forum with the intention of promoting faith within the community. 

Over the last year, I was blessed enough to meet many people whose faith is incomprehensible to me. I know a doctor who who uses his office to hold Bible studies in the evenings. I know an unemployed man who spends all day making rosaries to raise money for the needy. Then there are a lot of people in between these two - people who are willing to do anything without any regard of the consequences, in the love of Christ Jesus. I don't think any of them have benefitted significantly for doing what they do. If anything, their lives are filled with sacrifices - both personal and financial.  But somehow they were able to stay in their faith and grow in their faith. I often thank God for placing me in the company of people with strong faith, because I have a tendency to be proud about my achievements - whether it be faith, health or wealth. But a glimpse of these people is more than enough to me bring me back on to earth and fills me with the reality that my faith is anything but solid.

Hating God

Looking back at my life away from God, I can say it with certainty that I never hated God. But I also know that there is nothing in that awareness for me to be proud about. No, I am not being humble here. The only reason I could say with certainty that I didn't hate God is because I never cared about God. So what's my point? Here it is: In order for for somebody to hate God, they need to believe in God. Not just any god, but they need to believe in an All-powerful, Almighty, Omnipresent, Omniscient God.

Atheists have no reason to hate God - how could anyone hate someone or something that doesn't exist? I can't understand the mindset of an atheist any way (I never was an atheist, I was an agnostic. Yes I know, nothing to be proud about). On one hand they go around and tell everybody that there is no such thing called an absolute truth, then on the other hand they proclaim the non-existence of God as a definite truth. They credit the existence of humans to mere chance, an accidental byproduct of time, matter and energy - something the nature failed to abort in time. It is like your parents telling you that you were conceived by accident, that they never wanted you to be born. On top of it, they are also telling you that since you are created by accident, there is no particular purpose for your existence. Just dine, dance and die. If you ask me, that is a way grim way to look at life. No wonder suicide rates are much higher in educated societies than the uneducated poor societies of the world. Atheists take hope away from life. But why would anybody want to live in this world filled with pain and sufferings, if there is nothing to hope for - either in this life or the next?

Talking about hope, I believe hope is what gets God in trouble. Of all the hardships we face in our lives, there is nothing more torturous than the simple act of waiting. Hope require waiting; God's timetable is password protected, we don't have access to it. And that is a problem. If I am out of work and my wife and kids are eating dust to survive, or if I am a widow whose husband died in an accident a year ago and just got news that my only kid is diagnosed with terminal cancer, or if I am a recovering drug addict who prays constantly for mental strength but only see an increase in tempting circumstances, then I would have a problem with that timetable that God is keeping. Because I can't think of a better time for God to intervene than now. Am I suppose to be hopeful when my wife leave me and the starving kids to have a new life with my best (ex)friend? How about watching my son dying slowly in the midst of mind numbing pain? Am I to blame for failing to resist constant temptations and getting drawn back into a life of addiction? I prayed, I believed, and I hoped. But nothing happened. People in despair hate God. People hate God when hope is shattered.

When we hope, we do it according to how we want things to turn out. This might look perfectly fine on the surface. But what we fail to recognize is that hope is not just expectation, but it is also desire of what the future should be like. When we design how our future ought to be like, unknowingly we are elevating ourselves to be gods. Hope centered on self fails to see the whole picture, instead we assume that what we see is the whole picture. When we set our mind on a certain outcome for our situation, we take God's will out of the equation and forgets, "The human heart plans the way, but the LORD directs the steps" (Proverbs 16:9). Trusting in God and having hope in Him should help us realize that the life on earth is not everything, rather it is only a small part of a life that goes on. Sufferings and pain are not God's design, instead they are the byproducts of us wandering away from God's mercy. But just like anything else, God uses and thus He allows, pain and suffering to draw us back to Him - in this life or the next one. 

"All things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). St. Thomas More knew this: Before his execution, he joked with his executioner that his beard was totally innocent of any crimes and did not deserve to be harmed during the beheading. He then positioned himself so that his beard wouldn't be cut off while they cut his head off. St. Lawrence of Rome told his executioners, "I am done on this side, now turn me over" while being grilled on a gridiron. None of us are no longer expected to be this brave to keep our hope alive. Those who hate God, if there is any sense left in you, should ask: What is going to be next? Are you going to hate Him enough to say that there is no God? But how is that going to solve anything? How is the knowledge that there is no purpose for pain and suffering going to give you comfort? Do you think about God only when things are not going well, to blame Him and to hate Him? When we direct our anger and hatred towards heaven, all we are doing is exposing our ignorance of God, His life as Jesus, and His teachings through the Bible. For beginners, just know that your free will to hate Him is also a grace of God - a gift wrapped in pure Love. 

"We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that sees for itself is not hope. For who hopes for what one sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance." (Romans 8:22-25)

"Master, I Want to See"

While listening to Mark's gospel about how Jesus gave Bartimaeus his sight back, I was a little surprised by the question that Jesus posed to the poor blind man, "What do you want me to do for you?" (Mark 10:51). Though I have heard and read this passage many times in the past, never before it struck me as an odd question. As a blind man begging for alms, his disability and his need couldn't be anymore obvious - the man wants his sight back. He has already shown enough humility and trust in Jesus by his persistence, even when the crowd was annoyed at him for disturbing Jesus. Why would Jesus want to hear from the man the obvious?

Self-centered Faith

Non-believers and nominal believers dread an encounter with a "born again" believer - somebody who had a profound religious experience after spending much of their life as an agnostic or atheist. It would seem like many such "born agains" have gone off the deep end, expressing loudly their disapproval for everything from movies and television to other religious beliefs and lifestyles. Talking to them would give you the feeling that God has empowered them to argue on His behalf. Often, by weighing in on everything without proper knowledge, they often appear intolerant and self-righteous. They want to believe in God more than everybody and practice religion better than everybody, then they want everybody - spouses, kids, relatives, coworkers - to follow them in those practices.  

Faith and Works

Ever did any good deeds hoping to erase the effects of sin, like donating money or time to the Church or a charity as a self-prescribed penance? I know I have - one of the reasons I started this blog was to bring people back to faith, in return for the many I have taken away from faith. For me, it was a reasonable thought process - I have done something bad, now I want to correct it and hope that God would forgive me for what I have done. But now that I said it like that I sense something wrong with it, I feel something divine in that statement, as if I am doing God's job. St. Paul said it the best: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast" (Ephesians 2:8,9), and I just did the opposite. I picked out some of the horrendous things I have done and tried to make up for it with time and money. But now I am confused - if I am to quit doing everything I have been doing since my "conversion" because none of that is required of me to earn good credits with God, then what is the difference between me of the old and me of the new. If I get up in the morning everyday, kneel down in front of the Crucifix and accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, then go on with my life as I have in the past, that would make me a good Christian, really?

I know that I am a sinner, and I am glad

Are you one of those people who give great emphasis to living a perfect life? Are you obsessed with your image - wanting people to admire your morality and values in life? Do you observe your religious duties meticulously - giving great emphasis to saying the right prayers, hoping that God would be pleased? How about charity - do you feel necessary to be recognized by others for your generosity, want to be counted as a righteous and upright one?  Then Jesus got news for you: "Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are  entering the kingdom of God before you" (Matthew 21:31)!

The Church is limiting my growth!!!

With over 2000 years of history behind it's back, Catholicism in particular and Christianity in general can easily be mistaken as faith of the old. With its doctrines and moral guidelines, it seems to enslave its members, determining what they must believe and how they need to practice their faith. Many Christian denominations realized this and moved significantly away from the doctrines of early Church, with tailor made belief systems for the communities they target. But Catholicism resisted any significant changes in its belief system over the course of time. This has caused people of other faith, even other Christian denominations, to label Catholics as culturally narrow by refusing to have an open mind to different lifestyles, practices, and perspectives. Catholics are being bombarded with questions everyday from peers regarding the reasons behind many of the teachings of the Church - homosexuality, divorce, pro-choice and treatment of women are among some of today's hot topics. The following is a common question from many youngsters who grew up as  Catholics, but now think that it is not right for any religion to claim that they are the "true religion". 

I was brought up as a Catholic. Now that I am old enough to think for myself, it seems like Catholicism doesn't allow me the freedom to think for myself. By being a Catholic, I am allowing somebody to limit my personal growth and thinking because it constraints my freedom to choose or formulate my own beliefs and practices.

Many of young Catholics, even some older ones, believe it is important for Catholicism to expand its view on how it sees the world, and better adapt to todays lifestyle rather than asking people to conform to the lifestyle and teachings that are thousands of years old. In today's world, people like to trust in their own power to think and make decisions based on it, rather than blindly following authority and tradition. The standards of freedom are set so high, many even believe that if you cannot make your own decisions, then you are not a free human being. 

The problem with freedom is that it is often defined in a negative term; freedom is the absence of constraints, rather than the liberty to do whatever one wishes. We don't think ourselves as free unless somebody or something put some limitations over what we do. What we often tend to overlook is how humans have always used constraints and boundaries as means of being free. Throughout the history of humanity, we have always lived in groups or communities. Rules and regulations in the form of laws are deemed an essential part of any community. These laws, evolved from the needs of that community itself, are often constraining in nature. They restrict its members from doing certain things, thus enabling the whole community to enjoy the benefits being members of that group. These constraints allows the members to explore and experiment with their abilities to grow and accomplish things - a school or a physical training facility can be examples for such communities. What we often realize is that the laws of that community has helped us in our accomplishments by keeping ourselves focussed. The restrictions also prevents us from any unnecessary risk taken that would jeopardize integrity of the community as a whole. So if we can use judicious restrictions to grow - to free ourselves from restraints -  in our physical and intellectual fields, why couldn't we use constraints to grow in spirituality? Instead of insisting on freedom to determine our own own spirituality and morality, shouldn't we be looking to seek and discover the spirituality that was handed down to us from our families, and learn ways to discipline ourselves to live according to it? We don't leave school every time when we are faced with difficulty to adjust to certain limitations, rather we look for ways to work with it and find ways to assimilate it into our life. So why do we tend to walk away from our faith because of disagreement over certain constraints?

Another thing people often forget about is the basis of morality itself. For everybody, good moral values includes living a descent life by being good to oneself and also to others. This makes LOVE the center of morality, and love is always restrictive. In the real world, any form of love requires that we give up some of our independence - to enjoy the many fruits of love, we will have to sacrifice some of our freedom. You cannot expect to become a morally sound person by making unilateral decisions all the time, for love demands freedom from personal autonomy. 

Also, for a love relationship to work, the loss must be mutual, both parties must be willing to sacrifice. At first sight, Catholicism seems inherently demanding - without any willingness to negotiate or compensate. To understand, what seems like, the stubbornness of the Church, it is important to understand what the Church is. The Church is the Body of Christ, any changes made to the Church is changes made to Christ Himself. So what's the big deal about changing Christ's body? Changing Christ's body is making changes to a God who love us so much so that He took the human form, "it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured" (Isaiah 53:4). Changing the teachings of the Catholic Church to fit to our needs means changing a God who nullified Himself for the sake of Love, a God who not only said but also practiced, "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends" (John 15:13). God has already adjusted to us in the most radical way - by becoming a limited human being, by suffering and dying on a cross - because He loves us. Have we amended our ways enough in return for His love? Why do we keep insisting that Him and the Catholic Church, His body, be changed again and again? What is it that we want it to be changed to - a God who refuses to die for our sins, a God whose love has reservations?

Love is not limiting and constraining when it is true love - love that is willing to sacrifice everything without expecting anything in return. The Catholic Church teaches that message of love to its followers through the Doctrines of the Church. The Church cannot change the love of Christ because there is no better love out there that it can replace it with. If the love of Christ seems too much and too constraining, and if you want to walk away from it, then I can't help but wonder about the  basis of your thought process and sense of morality. Could your love be selfish? Could your actions be self-serving? Could your moral values be self-centered?

"Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, love is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails..."       

(1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

What does it take for Jesus to be amazed?

Can you imagine doing something so amazing that even Jesus Christ will be in awe? Now we all know that, during His life on earth, people were always amazed by Jesus. And they ought to for reasons we all know - no one ever spoke the way He did and no one ever acted the way He did. He always had a crowd following Him, to be amazed by the wondrous deeds. In the midst of all His mighty works - His power over diseases, death, demons and devil, what could anybody do to make Him stop in His path and say "wow"?

There is no mystery about the man who amazed Jesus, it is the Roman centurion, "When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him and, turning, said to the crowd following him, 'I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith'" (Luke 7:9). I have always thought what amazed Jesus about the centurion was his faith combined with humility and obedience. It was quiet unusual for a Roman official to display such humility in front of a Jewish man, even if the man was a rabbi with great abilities. But the centurion put aside his pride and decided to ask for help. I have no problem to agree that the centurion had a lot more to lose than many of his contemporary jewish people. But the only reason the centurion had more to lose because he was given a lot more than others, and Jesus knew this. I thought the leper in Luke 5:12-14 had a lot more to lose than the centurion, he was taking a lot more risk by approaching Jesus like that, and how could anyone even come close to the faith of the woman with the hemorrhage in Luke 8:43-48. Both the leper and the woman were risking their lives by approaching Jesus because both of them were untouchables by the Jewish law. Is humility and obedience better than willingness to risk one's life for faith?

One thing I failed to pay attention to, while attempting to 'argue with Jesus', was the nature of the request itself. Both the leper and the woman went great distances because they were desperately seeking help with unbearable personal problems, while the centurion wasn't suffering from any such situation - he was seeking help to heal his slave. Though it is hard to figure out the exact cost of a slave at that particular time, it couldn't have been high enough for the centurion to risk possible rejection by a Jewish Rabbi and the humiliation to follow afterwards. I believe that Jesus was commenting about the unselfishness in the centurion's action - he was willing to take a risk in love for his neighbor which in this case was a mere slave, and Jesus was amazed.

Such a view on the whole incident also confirms something many have known already, the power of intercessory prayer - an unselfish act that amazes Jesus even today because "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). Nowhere in the scripture do we read about the slave himself; we don't know what kind of a person he was - whether he had any faith in Jesus, whether he was God fearing or not. But it didn't matter, all Jesus cared about was the faith of the person making the request. This brings up the importance of praying for others regardless of who they are, what their faith is and without giving any concern to their current state. It is an opportunity to amaze Jesus with our faith and healing for somebody who desperately need one. 

"This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you." (John 15:12-14)

Free will: What's the point?

Here is something that has been on my mind for sometime: It is written that God has created us with free will, the ability to choose. In order for us to choose, we are also equipped with the ability to think. But the Holy Spirit through St. Paul says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith" (Ephesians 2:8). So as a Christian with an ultimate goal of  salvation of my soul, I need to have faith. "Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). Clearly, faith doesn't require a whole lot of thinking and there is definitely not a whole lot you could choose from. That is, when I believe that there is a God and this God could save me with His grace, I am believing in someone I cannot see and also believing in something that cannot be proven. It is all good and well, unless I choose to use my ability to think because the whole thing lack a logical explanation as salvation require no human effort. So here is the problem - what good is the ability to think and a free will to choose, if my only path to salvation is a complete trust in God and His ways, I am not left with a much to think about or to choose from, am I?

There used to be a time in my life when a question like this would have been more than enough to keep me away from God. Fortunately with the grace of God, I have overcome that problem. Nowadays I don't doubt my faith, instead I try to understand it; I seek my answers with reverence, and from my limited experience, I know that the answer would be given to me if it is something I should know about. Anyway, what I am trying to say is that the answer for this puzzle came to me today out of the blue, while I wasn't even thinking about it, all I had to do was write it down. 

When God  gave Moses the Ten Commandments, He wanted the people to base their ability to choose on those commandments. The Commandments didn't prevent sins from happening, but it gave the Israelites an awareness, the ability to judge one's own actions to be right or wrong. Thus Israelites were given a shot at salvation by exercising their ability to think, and using their freewill they could choose not to sin. If we look at the ability to think and free will to choose from this angle, it is actually not a bad thing to have after all. 

The only problem was that by the time Moses died, the Israelites had interpreted this ten commandments into over 600 laws, and at the time of Jesus' birth, these laws were over 6,200 pages long. Imagine the burden this put on the life of Israelites trying to make a rational decision on matters of day to day life. St. Paul quoted Deuteronomy 27:26 to fully explain the dilemma, "For all who depend on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, 'Cursed be everyone who does not persevere in doing all the things written in the book of the law'" (Galatians 3:10). If you choose to follow the Law in order to be saved instead of "grace through faith", then you are bound by the law and "For whoever keeps the whole law, but falls short in one particular, has become guilty in respect to all of it" (James 2:10). 

When we think about free will, we automatically think about the ability to choose one or the other, often one is good and other is evil or one is right and other is wrong. Now most us, while exercising this option to choose, do not purposely choose what is evil or what is wrong. However, we tend to make mistakes while exercising our free will - our err in choosing often causes us to do the wrong thing or the evil thing, to sin. In other words, "The commandment that was for life turned out to be death for me. For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it put me to death" 
(Roma 7:10,11).

Grace of God is offered to humanity through the spilled blood of Jesus Christ on a cross. For those who have faith to believe that Jesus Christ is the only Son of God and accept Him as the Savior, the grace of God is a free gift. Sins are forgiven upon repentance and confession because Jesus Christ paid the price for our sins with His blood, "He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed" (1 Peter 2:24). No such protection is offered to those who choose to live by the Law - if you break a law, be prepared to face the consequences. Thus we have a choice to exercise our free will, not just between good and evil, but also between good and good. 

"Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect" (Romans 12:2)

Can you feel the love

The God of the Old Testament is a mighty God,  the One who saved His chosen people from the powerful Pharaoh and led them through a hostile territory to the promised land. He went to war to save Israelites from enemies and abundantly blessed them with everything they needed. For the Jewish people, a Savior meant someone braver than David, someone who would lead them on a military expedition against their oppressors, a mighty king who would establish a kingdom that stretches from one end of the world to the other. Jesus, for obvious reasons, didn't fit the profile of that savior. They refused to believe Him even after the Resurrection, they wanted a savior who would conform into their expectations. 

Since its creation, humans misunderstood God's  feelings towards us and misinterpreted his promises; we have always looked at our relationship to God as an obligatory one, like the one involving a king and his subjects, like a master and his servants. God created humans in His own image with a free will. If given an opportunity to create, no king or master will create subjects or servants who are free to think, free to choose, let alone in their own likeness. God's love is the reason behind our creation, and that is the reason for creating us with a will to choose - to be with Him or not to be. Love is the reason He chose Abraham to father a great nation and love is the reason He fought wars on their behalf. The same love that made leather garments for Adam and Eve after the first sin (Exodus 3:21), provided the food and shelter for the Israelites even when they were disobedient and dishonest. But they failed to see the love behind God's actions, they took God as a privilege, concentrated only on His mighty deeds, used God to make themselves feel special. They made everybody's life miserable by misinterpreting the Commandments, by giving too much attention to the law and no attention to the love behind those commandments.

God's love, "...is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). Jesus is the personification of God's love, a love that yearn to be with us all the time. It is this love that compelled Him to be born in a manger and not in a castle, it is this love that made Him relieve people of their afflictions regardless of its causes, it is this love that "he empties himself, taking the form of a slave..., he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:7,8). It is this love that we have no time for; we want things from God, not as fruits of His love, but as a right for being one of His subjects. Jesus summarized  hundreds of thousands of Jewish laws into two commandments - love God above all things, and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39). As images of God, He expects us to love like He does. 

Is my love patient?

Is my love kind?

Is my love not jealous?

Is my love self-centered?

Is my love exaggerated?

Is my love rude?

Is my love purpose oriented?

Is my love comforting?

Is my love hurtful?

Is my love makes me turn a blind eye to wrongdoings?

Does my love allow me to bear all things?

Does my love allow me to be a believer?

Does my love allow me to be hopeful?

Does my love allow me to be enduring?

When we have faith in God, we are trusting in His love. God's graces and mercy are all outbursts of His love. Can we see God's love when we look at Jesus, can we hear His love in the Scriptures, can we experience His love in the Eucharist, can we feel His love in us, among us, all around us?

"No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us." (1 John 4:12)

Is it okay to DOUBT?

Doubt is not a word commonly associated with religion; conventional wisdom will tell you that the backbone of any religion is its devout followers. Every religion seeks God, when was the last time anybody found anything without searching? Does searching not involved traveling on previously unknown paths? How could one travel an unfamiliar road without asking a question or two, without ever doubting the directions given? How could anyone be a Christian without wondering about at least some of the contradictions they are being asked to believe? And the contradictions are many: it talks about a God who is just but "Was not Esau Jacob's brother? says the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, but hated Esau" (Malachi 1:3), it speaks of a God who is Omnipotent but chose to die on a cross, it claims to be one true religion but both Judaism and Islam worship the same God. The list could go on and on, but I think you've got the idea. 

During a Thapas Retreat this past weekend in Baltimore, MD, I was told to give a talk about 'Faith' to a group of devout Christians (I consider this proof enough that God has a sense of humor). And I wasted no time in posing the question whether anybody had any question about their beliefs, the foundation of their faith; not surprisingly, not a single person had any, they even thought of it as not a wise thing to do. If "Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1), then should we not put the evidence to test from time to time, how else do we know that what we have is the actual evidence?

I used two specific instances from the Bible to prove my point that a true Christian should ask questions about his/her faith, both from the gospel of St. Luke. When angel Gabriel announced to Zechariah, "...because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall name him John" (Luke 1:13), he asked the angel, "How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years" (Luke1:18). Zechariah asked a question and God left him "speechless and unable to talk" (Luke 1:20). Six months later, angel Gabriel made another announcement, this time he was sent to Mary, a virgin betrothed to man named Joseph, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus." (Luke 1:30,31). Upon hearing this Mary too asked the angel a question, "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?" (Luke 1:34). Instead of punishing Mary for daring to ask a question, she was given an answer, "The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God" (Luke 1:35). I asked my audience what they thought was the reason for Mary to be exempted from a fate similar to Zechariah, after all they both questioned "evidence of things not seen"? The best answer I received from the crowd was that God gave Mary a pass because she was about to bear His Son.

However, I found three things wrong with Zechariah's question:
1. The angel says, "your prayer has been heard", this means Zechariah had been praying to God for an offspring. By questioning an answered prayer, Zechariah proved himself to be a hypocrite.
2. As a Jewish priest, Zechariah must have heard about a man named Abraham, his wife Sara, and their son Isaac. This was not the first time that God gave a kid to a couple who were "advanced in years".
3. The pride in Zechariah made him to think that creation required the consent and physical ability of humans. Conception is God's gift and humans are mere instruments.

In short, God showed mercy to Zechariah by shutting his mouth, thus preventing him from uttering further fallacies.

In Mary's case, the question was a valid one; what she heard from the angel had never happened before except for a prophecy from Isaiah, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel" (Isaiah 7:14). A prophecy is neither "realization" nor "evidence". Mary was given an answer because her question was sincere, and she responded to the answer from the angel by saying, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word" (Luke 1:38). 

This brings us to the two conditions for asking a question about faith: first, BE SINCERE, and second one is BELIEVE when the doubt is cleared. In other words, do not question faith just to question God, and do not walk away from it when God reveal the answer. Believe what you have already known about God, question what you don't understand about God. Everybody was created with a certain amount of faith, "For by the grace given to me I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than one ought to think, but to think soberly, each according to the measure of faith that God has apportioned" (Roma 12:3). So God has created everyone with a certain measure of faith. God did this because our salvation depends directly on our faith, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God" (Ephesian 2:8). Some were given a lot more faith than others, but that is besides the point because all of us have the ability to increase the amount of faith given to us initially through hearing the Word of God, "Thus faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ" (Roma 10:17). Coming back to the conditions, therefore do not question or lose the faith that God has already allocated to us at our creation, no matter how little it may be. If anybody wonder what that little bit faith might be, the answer is simple; if you are born into a Christian family, then God, at a bare minimum, has given you enough faith to believe in God the Father who is the Creator of the universe, in Jesus Christ who is His only Son and Redeemer, and in the Holy Spirit who is the Finger of God.

Faith without doubt is like salt without flavor. People who go through life without asking hard questions about why they believe what they believe will find themselves speechless while facing tragedies or when being probed by a skeptic. They are no different from those "...who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, it collapsed at once and was completely destroyed" (Luke 6:49). I firmly believe that it is time for us to lose the image of God as the punisher and dictator, somebody who watches every step we take and hands out punishments every time we falter, and somebody who doesn't like questions. Time has exceeded to replace Him with, "There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens to help you and on the clouds in his majesty" (Deuteronomy 33:26). He is the God of Jeshurun which means God of the darling, He is God the Lover, "...for God is Love" (1 John 4:8). If doubt is what keeping us away from that love, then shouldn't we at least say, "...help my unbelief" (Mark 9:24)? Shouldn't we at least allow God to reveal the answers to our doubts through the Holy Spirit, when dared to ask in the name of His only Son, Jesus Christ.

"Taste and see that the LORD is good;

  blessed is the stalwart one who takes refuge in him." (Psalm 34:9)

Let's NOT mess with The Timetable

It would be the understatement of the century if I say "mysterious are the ways of God". The joke is always on us when  we even begin to think that we have an understanding on how God fulfills His promises in our lives. God has a plan of action in place for everybody who trusts in Him, it might not be what we are hoping it to be, but there is definitely a plan. Since the plan is a mystery, the timing of it becomes even more mysterious. It always seems like God is not in a hurry and that the time is running out on us, and often, we ruin God's perfect plans with our impatience. 

There couldn't be a better example than Abraham to clarify this thought. God had promised him a son, but, from a human perspective, time was running out. With both Abraham and Sarah closing in on the century mark, most people would have said that time had already run out. Just like any one of us, they too felt that they are out of time and wanted to help God to come through on His promises. It was acceptable for a barren woman to give her maid as a substitute to bear children for her in those times, so Sarah suggested Abraham take Hagar and let her bear his child. In his hurry, Abraham ran ahead of God's plan and the consequences are still felt in the Middle East today. The Arab nations (descended from Ishmael, the son of Hagar, the maid servant) and Israel (descended from Abraham's legitimate heir, Isaac) continue to be bitter enemies.

The two articles I posted this week, one about Dr. Crandall and also about the man and the nun vividly depicts the timeliness in God's actions. Now I know Dr. Crandall is a true story, I am not so sure about the other one because I was distracted and didn't hear the first part of the story when it was told by a priest during his sermon. Truth or fiction, together they show the contrast in the way and time God chooses to act. Dr. Crandall, it says, is a man of faith, he gave himself to God at the age of 19, spent majority of his time off from work to spread the Word. He really wanted God to give him his son back, he knew it was possible for God. But God waited two years to answer his prayers, and not the way the good doctor ever expected it to be. On the other hand, the man in the other story struggled with his faith, but God came through for him also in what looks like at the right time. God not only has a plan for everyone, he also has chosen a time to implement it, He only expects us to hold on to however little faith we have in Him and wait patiently for His time to come. Just as the apostle Paul reminded Christians that in "the fullness of time" God sent His Son (Gal. 4:4) and "in due time Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom. 5:6), so God has a schedule for everything in our lives as well. We certainly don't want to lag behind God's plan, but it's equally disastrous to run ahead of it.

 
As you seek God's will for your life, seek His timetable as well. Don't let your impatience carry you ahead of God. Doing the right thing at the wrong time makes the right thing the wrong thing.