In life with Christ.

"And behold a voice from heaven, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." - Matt 3:17.

Thank you Fides for growing and supporting me all these while.

If Jesus knew that Judas was going to betray him, why did he keep him in the circle of his close companions until the end?

Among the many disciples who followed him, Jesus designated twelve to be closest to him, to share and continue his mission. He took very seriously the formation of this group of twelve apostles, praying an entire night beforehand.

But at a certain moment, Jesus realized that one of the twelve, Judas, had changed his attitude. Jesus understood that Judas was becoming distant from him, and even saw that he was going to “hand him over,” as the gospels put it. According to John’s gospel, Jesus understood what was happening already in Galilee, long before the events in Jerusalem that would bring him to the cross (John 6:70-71). Why then did he not send Judas away? Why did he keep him close to him until the end?

One of the words used by Jesus to speak of the creation of the group of the twelve apostles gives us a clue. “Did not I choose you, the Twelve?” (John 6:70; see also 13:18.) The verb to choose is a key word in Bible history. God chose Abraham, and then chose Israel to become the chosen people. It is God’s choice or election that forms God’s people, the people of the covenant. What makes the covenant unbreakable is that God chooses to love Abraham and his descendants for ever. The apostle Paul would comment on this: “God’s gifts and call are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29).

Because Jesus chose the twelve just as God chose his people, he could not send Judas away even when he realized that he was going to betray him. He knew that he had to love him to the end, to show that God’s choice was irrevocable. The prophets, Hosea and Jeremiah in particular, spoke in the name of a God wounded and humiliated by the betrayals of his people, but who nevertheless never stopped loving them with eternity’s love. Jesus did not wish to do less, nor could he do so: humiliated by the treason of one of his closest companions, he kept on showing him his love. By lowering himself before his disciples to wash their feet, he made himself the servant of all, Judas included. And it was particularly with Judas that he shared a peace of bread, a fragment of burning love that the disciple took away with him into his night (John 13:21-30).

If he wanted to be faithful to his Father – to the God who chose Abraham and Israel, to the God of the prophets – Jesus could do nothing else but keep Judas close to him until the end. He loved Judas even when Judas was enshrouded by darkness. “The light shines in the darkness” (John 1:5). The gospel says that Jesus “was glorified” at the moment he gave his love to Judas, when he loved him without gaining anything by it and beyond all measure (John 13:31). In the darkest night of resentment and hatred, Jesus manifested the unbelievable radiance of God’s love.

Source: http://www.taize.fr/en_article4572.html

Season of Lent

And so it is, Lent once again. How fast time pasts. It seems just yesterday or thereabouts that it was Advent, and Christmas. After all that joyous activity, we had New Years, and the Chinese Lunar New Year. Amidst all this, we had Ash Wednesday, which marked the beginning of Lent.
Lent is a time when we prepare ourselves for what is to be the commemoration of the greatest gift one can get. This of course would be Jesus, and His great sacrifice for us all. In this time of Lent, we are called to not only make sacrifices like Him too, but to do good things as well. Moreso now, after today, which is the 15th day of the Lunar New Year, meaning that there can be no more excuse to be still in the festive mood of indulgence.
Inspired by the contemplative mood set in for this season, I decided to paint a picture, a Lenten project if you may, to remind me of what this season is about. It seems to be no coincidence that I painted this today, which as I mentioned is the last day we can use as excuse to be "immune" to what Lent requires of us as Catholics; we are now called upon to carry up our cross and journey with Him. I hope this will inpire the rest of you who read this blog to think and pray, during this Holy season of Lent.

-Shawn

Virgin Mary did not had any other children other than Christ

Greetings,

As promised, the Douay commentary on Matt 1:25, attesting to the fact that the Virgin Mary did not had any other children other than Christ.

Your humble elect,
Gus

Click on the text to see larger font.

One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church

The Latin phrase that you see at the start of the clip is "In principio erat verbu, et verbum erat apud deum et deus erat verbum". This comes from the Gospel according to St John and in English it means "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (Jn 1:1)

The background music that you hear is from the Pirates of the Caribbean Soundtrack. Both 'Fog Bound' and 'The Medallion Calls' are used.


At the end of the clip the following are the lines used...
"Urged by faith

we are obliged to believe
and to maintain

that the Church is
ONE

holy Catholic
and apostolic.

We believe in her firmly

and we confess with simplicity that outside her there is neither salvation
nor the remission of sins,

as the Spouse in the Canticles proclaims:
"One is my dove, my perfect one".

ONE. "


"One is my dove, my perfect one is but one" is found in Canticles of Canticles (Song of Songs) Chapter 6 Verse 8.

Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI for Lent 2007

They shall look on Him
whom they have pierced” (Jn 19:37)

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

“They shall look on Him whom they have pierced” (Jn 19:37). This is the biblical theme that this year guides our Lenten reflection. Lent is a favourable time to learn to stay with Mary and John, the beloved disciple, close to Him who on the Cross, consummated for all mankind the sacrifice of His life (cf. Jn 19:25). With a more fervent participation let us direct our gaze, therefore, in this time of penance and prayer, at Christ crucified who, dying on Calvary, revealed fully for us the love of God. In the Encyclical Deus caritas est, I dwelt upon this theme of love, highlighting its two fundamental forms: agape and eros.

God’s love: agape and eros

The term agape, which appears many times in the New Testament, indicates the self-giving love of one who looks exclusively for the good of the other. The word eros, on the other hand, denotes the love of one who desires to possess what he or she lacks and yearns for union with the beloved. The love with which God surrounds us is undoubtedly agape. Indeed, can man give to God some good that He does not already possess? All that the human creature is and has is divine gift. It is the creature then, who is in need of God in everything. But God’s love is also eros. In the Old Testament, the Creator of the universe manifests toward the people whom He has chosen as His own a predilection that transcends every human motivation. The prophet Hosea expresses this divine passion with daring images such as the love of a man for an adulterous woman (cf. 3:1-3). For his part, Ezekiel, speaking of God’s relationship with the people of Israel, is not afraid to use strong and passionate language (cf. 16:1-22). These biblical texts indicate that eros is part of God’s very heart: the Almighty awaits the “yes” of His creatures as a young bridegroom that of his bride. Unfortunately, from its very origins, mankind, seduced by the lies of the Evil One, rejected God’s love in the illusion of a self-sufficiency that is impossible (cf. Gn 3:1-7). Turning in on himself, Adam withdrew from that source of life who is God Himself, and became the first of “those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage” (Heb 2:15). God, however, did not give up. On the contrary, man’s “no” was the decisive impulse that moved Him to manifest His love in all of its redeeming strength.

The Cross reveals the fullness of God’s love

It is in the mystery of the Cross that the overwhelming power of the heavenly Father’s mercy is revealed in all of its fullness. In order to win back the love of His creature, He accepted to pay a very high price: the blood of His only begotten Son. Death, which for the first Adam was an extreme sign of loneliness and powerlessness, was thus transformed in the supreme act of love and freedom of the new Adam. One could very well assert, therefore, together with Saint Maximus the Confessor, that Christ “died, if one could say so, divinely, because He died freely” (Ambigua, 91, 1956). On the Cross, God’s eros for us is made manifest. Eros is indeed – as Pseudo-Dionysius expresses it – that force “that does not allow the lover to remain in himself but moves him to become one with the beloved” (De divinis nominibus, IV, 13: PG 3, 712). Is there more “mad eros” (N. Cabasilas, Vita in Cristo, 648) than that which led the Son of God to make Himself one with us even to the point of suffering as His own the consequences of our offences?

“Him whom they have pierced”

Dear brothers and sisters, let us look at Christ pierced in the Cross! He is the unsurpassing revelation of God’s love, a love in which eros and agape, far from being opposed, enlighten each other. On the Cross, it is God Himself who begs the love of His creature: He is thirsty for the love of every one of us. The Apostle Thomas recognized Jesus as “Lord and God” when he put his hand into the wound of His side. Not surprisingly, many of the saints found in the Heart of Jesus the deepest expression of this mystery of love. One could rightly say that the revelation of God’s eros toward man is, in reality, the supreme expression of His agape. In all truth, only the love that unites the free gift of oneself with the impassioned desire for reciprocity instills a joy, which eases the heaviest of burdens. Jesus said: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself” (Jn 12:32). The response the Lord ardently desires of us is above all that we welcome His love and allow ourselves to be drawn to Him. Accepting His love, however, is not enough. We need to respond to such love and devote ourselves to communicating it to others. Christ “draws me to Himself” in order to unite Himself to me, so that I learn to love the brothers with His own love.

Blood and water

“They shall look on Him whom they have pierced.” Let us look with trust at the pierced side of Jesus from which flow “blood and water” (Jn 19:34)! The Fathers of the Church considered these elements as symbols of the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist. Through the water of Baptism, thanks to the action of the Holy Spirit, we are given access to the intimacy of Trinitarian love. In the Lenten journey, memorial of our Baptism, we are exhorted to come out of ourselves in order to open ourselves, in trustful abandonment, to the merciful embrace of the Father (cf. Saint John Chrysostom, Catecheses, 3,14ff). Blood, symbol of the love of the Good Shepherd, flows into us especially in the Eucharistic mystery: “The Eucharist draws us into Jesus’ act of self-oblation … we enter into the very dynamic of His self-giving” (Encyclical Deus caritas est, 13). Let us live Lent then, as a “Eucharistic” time in which, welcoming the love of Jesus, we learn to spread it around us with every word and deed. Contemplating “Him whom they have pierced” moves us in this way to open our hearts to others, recognizing the wounds inflicted upon the dignity of the human person; it moves us, in particular, to fight every form of contempt for life and human exploitation and to alleviate the tragedies of loneliness and abandonment of so many people. May Lent be for every Christian a renewed experience of God’s love given to us in Christ, a love that each day we, in turn, must “regive” to our neighbour, especially to the one who suffers most and is in need. Only in this way will we be able to participate fully in the joy of Easter. May Mary, Mother of Beautiful Love, guide us in this Lenten journey, a journey of authentic conversion to the love of Christ. I wish you, dear brothers and sisters, a fruitful Lenten journey, imparting with affection to all of you, a special Apostolic Blessing.

From the Vatican, 21 November 2006.

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

Bits and Pieces

Yesterday's prayer session was very meaningful and invoking. I came away from the meeting with not only St Thomas Aquinas in hand, but also with a greater appreciation of the gospel. Kudos to the people who have planned it out!


Last time, one of my main motivations of going to prayer meets was to socialize and also know God better. Besides making it harder to sleep in group prayer, it added structure and variety to my prayer life. In such meetings, the strong in faith uphold the weak, the fervent inspire the not so fervent and the learned instruct the unlearned, so all the good and weak are mixed up and for the sake of the wheat, hopefully God won't separate them so soon. LOL, anyway, really appreciate all the effort that goes into the preparation for all e meetings.



The passage was about the three wise men visiting the infant Jesus and it always amazes me about the humility of Jesus. Would He not have been happier with a roof over His Head and a pillow to lie on? And then when Jesus grows up, He doesn't eat much either! In the desert, and somewhere in the Bible, he rejects the food the apostles brought Him.


The way our Lord continuously denies Himself seems to defy human logic. But looking beyond that, maybe He's trying to tell us that there is something better than all these things, better than sleeping under a roof, on a pillow and eating good food. Perhaps He was exchanging one joy for another kind, the joy of doing God's work. The wisdom of it all sometimes evades me.



Anyway, Glenn raised up the point that the wise men travelled because they had hoped that they would find the King. We all study because we hope to do well, he said. Then Jeremy added that love is greater than hope and to all things we should add love. That really echoed with my sentiments.



Living in a competitive world, it's easy to become ambitious and totally absorbed in getting the ever elusive A's. We study so hard just to get the grades we want. One day, I got up and looked at the mirror and instantly disliked what I saw. I realized I was becoming a product of a system that encouraged competition and achievers. I was studying to get honour for myself, for my self satisfaction, forgetting my family, even to the extent of rejoicing if others did worse than me. Terrible, terrible, terrible. Where is the love?




So I started to spend time with my family and friends. Besides that, it's about loving yourself too. Gradually the Lord led me to discover that to really love yourself, you need to have a sense of self- worth that is larger than grades. Instead of focusing on the grades, why not focus on learning which is far more important?



The prayer meeting ended with what I thought was a very befitting passage of the day. From the Gospel of St John, Philip invited Nathanael to "come and see" and they stayed with Christ. To all of us who have seen, we should be like the Samaritan woman and tell other people, "come and see" We always glorify the new movie we watched and the food we like by telling everyone about it. We also need to talk about God and get our friends to simply show up at our favourite hangout. As Jesus reveals Himself to them, they will also want to stay with Him


* the power of peer pressure should not be underestimated- winks* I better get my friend to come.