Reflections of a beloved son

What strikes terror or fear in your heart? What weakness of yours paralyzes you and keeps from trying? What causes you shame and keeps you down?   What troubling event in your past haunts you and keeps you from living? We all have these things that make us question ourselves – am I worthy of this?   Do I deserve to be happy? I’m a bad person. What do they possibly see in me?   What God sees when He looks at you is His beloved child. Aren’t you tired of living in fear?   Aren’t you tired of settling because somehow you don’t feel worthy of something better? Aren’t you tired of feeling undeserving of love and happiness?   It is time to rise up. Jesus died and was buried in the tomb. He descended into hell and then rose up out of the tomb on the third day. It is time for you to rise out from the tombs of your fears and shame. There will be people who will doubt you, curse you, and reject you, but that is no reason to stay down. Jesus came to free you from all t...

The story of the encounter between Jesus and Zacchaeus is, in my opinion one that gives hope and strengthens faith.  We are told that Jesus "came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town." But, He stopped when he saw a man who longed to see him so much that he climbed a tree just so that he could see Jesus.  " Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay in your house. "  Now Zacchaeus was a tax a collector, a wealthy man, someone perhaps the people did not like and who they considered a sinner.  But, Jesus chose him among all the others to stay with him.  And, Jesus among all people, decided to stay at a place through which He first only intended to pass.  Jesus stopped for Zacchaeus.  Jesus stops for sinners.  Jesus stops for you. Our Lord stopped for Zacchaeus because He knew it was important for Zacchaeus that He did.  He saw the earnestness and faith of Zacchaeus.  He knew how much Zacchaeus was suffering inside fro...

Come out and show yourselves!   This is what the Lord said to the People through the Prophet Isaiah ( Is. 49:8-15 ) in today's first reading.  Do we hide who we really are because we are ashamed of who we believe that we are?  Do we believe the lies about ourselves that the world drills into our minds?  God says to us: " Come out and show yourselves! " We must not believe in the lies what others and the world say about who we are.  Who we are is not based on any material thing.  We are not what we do.  We are not what we have.  We are not what others say that we are.  The essence of who we are is rooted in the Father.  We are children of God.  We are His beloved ones.  Our true identity lies in something that is eternal , and nothing that is temporal and limited .  If we root our identity in things that are not permanent and transient, we are guaranteed to get hurt and eventually find ourselves confused and sad.  ...

Guilt. Shame. Hopelessness. These are the things that can weigh us down and may even paralyze us.  In today's Gospel reading , Jesus tells a parable about a Pharisee and a tax collector who are in the temple.  The Pharisee begins to pray out loud thanking God that he is not like the other sinful people and not like the tax collector.  We are told that the tax collector kept his head down, "beat his breast and prayed, 'O God, be merciful to me a sinner .'"  Jesus told the crowd that the tax collector went home justified and not the Pharisee.    What's the point of Jesus' parable?  Sometimes we may feel entitled and we begin to allow our pride to take over, judging others and thinking we are better than them.  Even when we reflect we may sometimes say "I know I'm a sinner, but at least I did not kill anyone or did anything as bad as that guy."  That is no different than what the Pharisee said.  Though it may be true that what you did ...