breathe oxygen

wahaha i'm back to ripping off of Oxygen again! if you feel like you need a little spiritual food in your mailbox everyday, don't hesitate to burn 5 calories and clicking this link. trust me la, you won't regret one. this one i copied wholesale from the email i receive daily, sometimes a few hours late, but hey they've got their own lives too yea! as a team they're still really good la. so please enjoy... and give thanks to god for the gift of their ministry.

26 Oct

DEATH AS A LAW OF LIFE

Around us everyday we see many examples of death bringing forth life. A kernel of corn is buried and it grows into a tall cornstalk. The ice cube dissolves and it cools the water. A match burns itself out to light a fire. Water gets itself dirty to clean you. A battery goes dead giving you music and light. Wood burns itself out to cook your food. A tree dies to give you sago. Animals and plants die to give you your food.

By dying, all these things rise to a higher life. This is what Christian mortification is all about.

- Frank Mihalic (1000 Stories You Can Use, Volume Two by Frank Mihalic, SVD)

Will you die to yourself so that others may live?
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Romans 8:26-30

The Spirit comes to help us in our weakness. For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words, and God who knows everything in our hearts knows perfectly well what he means, and that the pleas of the saints expressed by the Spirit are according to the mind of God.

We know that by turning everything to their good God co-operates with all those who love him, with all those that he has called according to his purpose. They are the ones he chose specially long ago and intended to become true images of his Son, so that his Son might be the eldest of many brothers. He called those he intended for this for those he called he justified, and with those he justified he shared his glory.
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Luke 13:22-30

Through towns and villages Jesus went teaching, making his way to Jerusalem. Someone said to him, "Sir, will there be only a few saved?" He said to them, "Try your best to enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed.

"Once the master of the house has got up and locked the door, you may find yourself knocking on the door, saying, 'Lord, open to us' but he will answer, 'I do not know where you come from.' Then you will find yourself saying, 'We once ate and drank in your company; you taught in our streets' but he will reply, 'I do not know where you come from. Away from me, all you wicked men!'

"Then there will be weeping and grinding of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves turned outside. And men from east and west, from north and south, will come to take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God.

"Yes, there are those now last who will be first, and those now first who will be last."
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More than ten years ago, when I first experienced the gift of tongues, someone told me that the gift of tongues is the only gift of the Holy Spirit which can be used for ourselves, and he used the first part of today's first reading to prove it to me. That was probably the first in many times I've heard that proof being used for the gift of tongues.

What can I say about the gift of tongues, except that it takes tremendous faith to believe that what one is babbling is actually words from the heart to God and that he understands our babble. Someone once scolded me for using the word 'babble', but really, to anyone listening to someone speak in tongues, can they honestly say that it isn't babble to them?

I have encountered maybe a handful of people who truly have the gift of tongues and use it wisely for the good of others. But for every one of these there are hundreds more who believe that they have the gift of tongues and use it for themselves. However, I am no expert on the gifts, so I cannot judge who does and who doesn't really have the gift. Best for me just to avoid it altogether.

Last night, I was thinking of something just before going to sleep. I was thinking about the glory. To be more precise, I was in the loo last night, looking at an ad which spoke of the glory of Rome. It was the ad for a documentary on TV. It showed a woman standing in an ancient Roman city where its roads were running with blood. Is that glory, I asked myself?

Yes. Glory is always accompanied by bloodshed. The glory of Rome was when the Romans shed the blood of those that opposed them, letting it run through the streets of their cities. However, the glory of the Lord was when the Lord shed his own blood for those who opposed him. That's the difference between the glory of the Lord and the glory of men.

So in the first reading, we read that God's Son shared his glory with those he justified, which means to say, those who are with him must also share in his glory by shedding their own blood for those who oppose the Son.

Are we willing to do such a thing? Are we willing to shed our own blood, to sacrifice ourselves so that others may live? Especially if these others are the ones that oppose us?

For those who are not willing, the Lord does not recognise. "Lord, Lord," they say to him, "we went to church every week to share in the meal with you", but he will reply, "Did you share in my glory? Did you give of yourself so that others may live?"

For those that the Son shares his glory with, he justifies them by the gifts he empowers each. These gifts are meant to be used for the good of others, not merely for ourselves. The narrow door is where many will try to enter by, but not succeed, for the only way to enter it is by bringing others to the door at our own expense.

To love others as He has loved us. And He literally loved us to death.
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Prayer: We pray for those who oppose us, that the Lord may be merciful and forgiving to them.

Give Thanks to the Lord for: Sharing his glory with us.

Upcoming Readings:
27 Oct, Thu - Romans 8:31-39; Luke 13:31-35; green
28 Oct, Fri - Ephesians 2:19-22; Luke 6:12-19; Sts. Simon and Jude, apostles; red
29 Oct, Sat - Romans 11:1-2, 11-12, 25-29; Luke 14:1, 7-11; green

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Disclaimer: The reflections expressed in this e-mail are the writer's own. They may not necessarily reflect the teachings of the Catholic Church. Nonetheless we should all be able to learn something from it.