Making Friends With The Lord Jesus Fr. Edwin

Jesus expresses His willingness to cure the leper. This poor man got our Lord to cure him by introducing his petition saying that He could cure him if He wanted to. That way seems to get Jesus to cure Him. His was an act of faith in that Jesus could cure him if He wanted to.

Jesus explains to us today that to enter Heaven, we need to do God's Will. To know God's Will, we need to communicate with Him. This communication involves reading and studying His Letters to us in Sacred Scriptures. We need to discern His desires. We will fail in that if we do not pray, spend time with Him, and use our reason and other faculties in finding out what He wants. Wisdom is attained when we act on His Will. Otherwise, Jesus compares us to a man who builds his house on sand. That house will fall eventually. Our Christian life would only be like the life conducted by some Jews who Our dear Lord called as hypocrites.

Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Josemaria Escriva, Founder of Opus Dei. During his canonization mass, St. Pope John Paul II referred to him as the saint of the ordinary. The gospel for the feast tells us about the miraculous catch of fish, where Jesus tells Simon Peter, and all of us, not to be afraid of Him because of our sinfulness. He will count on us to establish and spread the Church He was setting up. We live the Church in the ordinary life we all lead, through our work and life of fulfilling all our duties, made holy by God' action and our free collaboration.

Our Lord Jesus winds down His monumental Sermon on the Mount with shorter teachings, but no less important ones. First, He commands us not to be wasteful of His Things, like the graces He gives us. We would have to answer for each grace He gifts us with. Then, the Golden Rule is given. This not at all unique to Christ. Other cultures also follow this principle, although they express it in the negative form. Jesus enunciates it in the positive form. In this way, He tells us to be creative in doing good to the others. In the negative way, one only avoids what is bad. Lastly, Jesus describes the path to Heaven as passing through a narrow gate, indicating its difficulty.

We celebrate the Birth of St. John the Baptist today. His significance stems from his role in Salvation history. He was assigned to prepare for the arrival of the Savior.

Our Lord asked His Apostles why they were frightened when He was there with them, only sleeping at the stern of the boat they were on to transit to the other side of the Lake of Galilee. An unforeseen gale began to blow, pushing up the waves so much that their boat was almost swamped. They feared for their lives that they woke Jesus up to plead for their safety. The Lord criticized them for their little faith. Then, He commanded wind and sea to calm down, and they went peaceful again. They were so awestruck by His power. They realized they need to trust in Him more.