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Jesus obtained heaven for us with His own Blood
Post date: 2016-08-18Autor: BCP
The Divine Saviour obtained heaven for us with His own Blood. He did not need to purchase heaven for Himself but He sacrificed His life and His Blood for our sake to open the path for us to eternal happiness in heaven. He left all His rights and claims to us, His least brethren. In view of the merits of Jesus Christ, His passion and death, I may say: Heaven belongs to me.
What makes heaven heaven?
Post date: 2016-08-17Autor: BCP
The most important thing which makes heaven heaven is that we are in communion with God which will never end, or in other words, we participate in the life of God. Angels are close to God and live a perfect life. Unlike them, we share in the very life of God because Jesus became man. Becoming man, He grafted the divine life onto our nature. We who have received Christ have eternal life already on this earth. The essence of eternal life consists in receiving the divine nature, becoming joint heirs of the kingdom of God. We have been literally grafted onto Christ.
Reflection on Mt 7:13-14
Post date: 2016-08-13Autor: BCP
Ask yourself: Which way am I on? The broad way of sin or the narrow way of following Christ? True wisdom is mindful of the end, death and eternity. A fool is spiritually blind and forgets about death and eternity.
Reflection on Mt 7:12
Post date: 2016-07-30Autor: BCP
Original sin programmed schizophrenia in the soul and therefore man uses a double measure. We are uncritical of ourselves and unwilling to admit or see manifestations of our egoism, but we are very sensitive about egoism of others, we criticize or even hate it. We have special demands – we want people to respect our will and to approve of everything we do, to see our problems, and even to guess what they should do for us without us humbling ourselves and asking them to do it for us, and if they do not act according to our ideas, we take offence. We want to profit from them, but if they want us to do a little favour for them, we do not want to oblige them but rather judge them that they exploit and manipulate us, or at least we make them feel how hard it was for us what we did for them and how very much they should appreciate us. But as for us, we are unable even to thank them for the good they have done for us, and we take it for granted. This is a sign of spiritual blindness and a mark of injustice which we fail to perceive in our intellectual stereotypes. It is the fruit of original sin.
Reflection on Mt 7:7
Post date: 2016-07-17Autor: BCP
We should above all ask for the gift of repentance, that our eyes may be opened, rather than for material or temporal good. We should ask the Lord to grant us that we may understand the Gospel of Christ, that we may love Jesus and desire to be with Him in prayer. Those who are not married should also ask for the desire and the strength to live a life consecrated to God in chastity, obedience and poverty – out of love for Christ and for the salvation of souls.
Reflection on Mt 7:6
Post date: 2016-07-02Autor: BCP
What is meant by the words holy and pearl? The Lord Jesus means above all His Word and the Divine mystery. Our Pearl is Christ and His Gospel. Who are the dogs? In the first place religious Pharisees but also all people who do not have good intentions at present but consciously resist the Spirit of Christ. “But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practises a lie.” (Rev 22:15)Who are swine? People knowingly indulging in sinful lusts (homosexuals, paedophiles, transsexuals, fornicators, adulterers…) who shamelessly resist the Gospel of Christ (the Law of God) and refuse to repent of their slavery to sin.Jesus preached the Gospel to the poor and sinners who desired forgiveness. As a rule, however, He ignored religious leaders and arrogant people who had state power. He openly said to the Pharisees and Sadducees that they were vipers and spoke not one word to Herod.
Reflection on Mt 7:5
Post date: 2016-06-18Autor: BCP
We see the speck in our brother’s eye, which indeed is there, but we cannot see the plank in our own eye. It means that we see even a little fault in our brother but we do not notice our faults and sins. Jesus says: “remove the plank from your own eye” and He emphasizes the word “first”. Despite our good will we tend first to remove the speck from our brother’s eye. Therefore we must literally make a step of faith associated with true repentance – that means admit our own fault, and by this repentance we remove the plank from our own eye, i.e. from the system of our false thinking. After we remove our plank, Jesus does not say that we can then be indifferent to our brother and to appeal to false mercy or false love – no. The next step we are to make is to help remove the speck from our brother’s eye. Jesus says that if we remove our plank, we will be able to see spiritually. Without removing the plank, we will not see spiritually.
Reflection on Mt 7:1-2
Post date: 2016-06-04Autor: BCP
The question of judging others: Jesus says: “Judge not, that you be not judged.” One must be clear about what this requirement means – judge not. It does not mean to abolish the courts and to let criminals rob and kill, appealing to this verse from Scripture. We are obliged to judge ourselves with righteous judgment too. Being superiors or parents, we are obliged to judge our subordinates or children with like judgment. If we neglect to judge with righteous judgment, we are careless and we will be responsible for crimes and rude behaviour. Thus, “judge not” refers to unjust condemnation or hasty judgment at an inappropriate place or time.
Our home is in heaven
Post date: 2016-06-03Autor: BCP
Our home is in heaven. We are mere pilgrims here, and we know neither the day nor the hour. We really need to be mindful of eternity. We will grow old, fall ill...The goal of our life is to be united to God and to live in this communion for all eternity. Eternal life begins already here on earth where God puts us to the test. The length of this test varies from life to life. These few decades of life will pass very quickly; and, moreover, they are full of suffering, disappointment... True happiness cannot be found in a career, money or pleasures. All is vanity. Everything will pass away. True happiness lies in a pure heart where God dwells. He who has received Jesus need not fear death anymore because Jesus is his Saviour to whom he gives his sins every day and Jesus forgives him again and again. And when he dies, he will just pass over to eternal joy and attain true happiness in heaven.
In heaven we will have everything the human heart desires
Post date: 2016-05-31Autor: BCP
Do we desire wealth and power? In heaven we will be heirs of God. Just think how rich our Father is and what an inheritance awaits us! All that belongs to God He will give us. He says that we shall be joint heirs with Christ. The Heavenly Father gave everything to Christ, and Jesus gave Himself to us and for us. To us who have received Him as our Saviour and are ready to endure a brief suffering or humiliation in this world for His sake He will give the crown of eternal glory. We need to know it.
Let us be dependent on Jesus alone
Post date: 2016-05-28Autor: BCP
There must be nothing to replace Jesus in our life, no other source of pleasure but Him alone who loved us from eternity and humbled Himself to the point of death, even the death of the cross, for our sake.
We can do nothing more than seek and do His holy will
Post date: 2016-05-25Autor: BCP
We should always try to discern what the Lord wills. The process of a sincere seeking of the will of God in serious life decisions is painful but what we do according to the will of God remains forever! We need to carry His cross, to accept the cross of uncertainty, seeking and powerlessness. Such are the ways of God – it is dying in practice. But it is worth it! Life is too short and we can do nothing more than seek and do His holy will.
Reflection on Mt 6:34
Post date: 2016-05-21Autor: BCP
We worry automatically. What to do with worries? We have to learn to give them to God in prayer every day. This is the only right solution. Our problems are often so big and difficult that we see no way out. If we learn to give our worries to God, prayer will become our daily need and our life will become fruitful. Every day we will experience the power and love of our Lord ever anew.
Reflection on Mt 6,33
Post date: 2016-05-07Autor: BCP
Jesus emphasizes the word “first”. It seems to us a trivial thing; however, if the kingdom of God and the salvation of our soul are given the second place in our life, there is a danger that thousands of good things will deceive us and we will lose God’s kingdom. If your family seeks first the kingdom of God, God will give His blessing to your children, protect your family and fill the family relationships with self-sacrificing love. But if you seek first everything else and move the kingdom of God to the last place, there is a danger that you will lose everything.
Reflection on Mt 6:24
Post date: 2016-04-23Autor: BCP
The word mammon means wealth and property, especially dishonestly obtained at the expense of one’s neighbour. It also indicates a bribe intended to silence a witness or judge. Jesus points out the demonic enslaving power of mammon: “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” So eventually the faith, in the sense confidence or trust, in mammon excludes the faith in God. Therefore, Jesus contrasts the relationship to God and the relationship to mammon and calls for a personal choice between the two.
Let us live this day, this very moment, by faith
Post date: 2016-04-16Autor: BCP
Someone can say: “I will live a lukewarm life, which will not cost me much effort, and then I will go to purgatory.” But this is foolish. What costs pennies here on earth will cost thousands or millions in eternity. Only a fool would miss a chance to escape purgatory. We have a precious thing here on earth, which is called time. Let us redeem the time, transform it by faith.
Reflection on Mt 6:22-23
Post date: 2016-04-09Autor: BCP
It is important to know that man has a physical eye and an inner – spiritual – eye. The spiritual eye reflects the inner life. Man either lives by the law of God and so he is wise, or has the light of wisdom, or he lives a sinful life, commits evil and so he is in darkness, spiritually blind. This spiritual eye is an inner look turned toward God, listening to the voice of conscience, perceiving that God sees everything and that nothing is covered that will not be revealed.
Reflection on Mt 6:19-21
Post date: 2016-03-26Autor: BCP
Jesus shows us in a simple way that it is unwise to lay up for ourselves treasures on earth. He says that moth and rust destroy them and thieves steal them. Moreover, the main thief who steals everything is death. The important thing here is the words of Jesus: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Where is your treasure? If it is on earth, you will lose it and if you do not care about eternal treasure, you will not obtain it. What is your treasure? The most precious Treasure is Jesus. He died on the cross for you. He prepared for you eternal glory in heaven. If all hated you, all scorned you, if you suffer for His sake and for the sake of justice, if you are persecuted for His sake, rejoice, for great glory is prepared for you in heaven.
The devil wants to deceive us and drag us to hell
Post date: 2016-03-19Autor: BCP
In all periods in history, the devil had an argument which denied eternal damnation. He said already in the Garden of Eden: “You will not surely die but your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God.” (cf. Gen 3:4-5) The devil told a lie. The essence of damnation is that man believes the devil and his lies rather than the Word of God. And so man is united to him whom he believes. That is why we must offer resistance in our hearts to the programme of rebellion inherited from our first parents, to original sin, to spiritual blindness, to the love of lies and to the belief in lies. Jesus brought the truth to us and He seeks our good. The devil wants to deceive us and to drag us where he is himself.
What to do so as not to go to purgatory?
Post date: 2016-03-16Autor: BCP
What to do so as not to go to purgatory? We must repent – receive Jesus as our Saviour, live by faith. We should also make the most of mental or physical suffering which purifies our soul. God allows it in the form of humiliation, ridicule, defamation, scolding... We should accept it from the hand of God, give thanks for it and be aware that this is now my purgatory instead of the purgatory after death, as St Augustine said: “Chastise me here, O God, and do not spare me now, in order that I may be spared the punishment (fire) of Hell.” I want to love myself truly, so I do not want to be in purgatory for a single minute.