How does God see us?

In life we see colors. We are like our own eyes, we distinguish and compare things so as to draw conclusion that is capable of bringing out meaning for us. Unfortunately we bring this judgmental attitude into our dealings with people. We compartmentalize people as if they were things, and we judge them based on our comparison and our preconceive notions of who we think they are, wrong as we may be. But the evangelist Luke in his gospel 7:37 admonishes us to “stop judging and you will not be judged”. We judge all the same and with impunity. We just cannot help ourselves. Can we?

But how does God see us? I want to believe that God sees us as human beings. He sees the people he created in his image and likeness. The book of Genesis tells us about God’s decision before man was created. Listen! “Then God said: “let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground. God created man in his image, in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them”, Genesis 1:25-27. The book of Genesis goes on to say in the 31st verse “God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good.” From the aforementioned, it is obvious that God created us because he loved us. He loves us independently, personally and unconditionally. In John’s Gospel 3:16, we are told, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” God loves us because he knows us intelligently, empathically, compassionately, mercifully and intimately. Speaking through prophet Isaiah 49:15-16, he says, “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you. See, upon the palm of my hands I have written your name”. If God so loves us, why do we find it so hard and difficult to love one another? Speaking anthropomorphically, how does God feel when he sees us treating each other with contempt? Or when we judge people based on the color of their skin or the fact that they speak foreign language?

Life has taught me that most of the time we do not want to know people and so not knowing them, how can we love them? Once we are attentive to those around us and begin to see them as brothers and sisters, we will begin to treat them, as we would want to be treated ourselves. We will begin to see that we have many things in common. Fr. Edward Steiner in his homily backgrounds in the priest magazine shares an interesting story. “Alexander Schmemann, an Orthodox priest and theologian, told of being a young man living in Paris. He and his fiancée were riding a train when an old ugly woman sat next to them. Speaking in Russian so that the French woman could not understand them, they spoke of how ugly she was. As the elderly woman got up to detrain, she said to the couple in perfect Russian, “I wasn’t always ugly””. If the couple had looked at the woman with compassion and love, or may be if they had talked to her, they would not have seen her as an ugly woman, but as a child of God who was hurting.

I will like to conclude with a very familiar song titled “What color is God’s skin?”

“Good night I said to my little son, so tired out when the day was done, then he said, as I tucked him in, “Tell me daddy what color is God’s skin?” What color is God’s skin? What color is God’s skin? I said it’s black, brown, it’s yellow… it is red, it is white; every man’s the same in the good Lord’s sight. He looked at me with his shinning eyes, and then I knew I could tell no lies, He asked, “Daddy, why do the different races fight, if we’re the same in the good Lord’s sight?” “Son that’s part of our suffering past, but the whole of human race is learning at last the thing we missed on the road we trod, is walking as daughters and the sons of God”.

So to the question: How does God see us? My answer is simple, he sees us as his sons and daughters and he wants us to see everyone  as such.

My Guardian Angel

Life’s lessons: children need tangible and concrete things to relate to as they grow to adulthood. Some of the stories our parents and grandparents told us about our guardian angels were simply to create some security and support to us when we needed them most. Some of the fairy tales that children hear may give them assurance about the goodness of people and may foster their belief and faith in God. We all liked fairy tales when we were growing up. We believed in Santa Claus. When things did not go well for us as children during the year, we believed that at Christmas Santa Claus would come with gifts at night through the chimney. And oh yes, Santa usually showed up. Our parents always struggled through to hide some gifts under the Christmas tree. That, sure, was our gift for Christmas. Ever watch the film ‘how the Grinch stole Christmas’?

I recall the story of my Guardian Angel in my Sunday school days. I believe in the Guardian Angel. I always do and always will. I love to say the prayer to my Guardian Angel. This is a beautiful prayer that anyone could say and receive support and blessings: “Angel of God, my guardian Dear, to whom His love commits me here, ever this day be at my side to light and to guard, to rule and guide. Amen” As a young child, I was afraid of the dark, and of the night. I would always call on my Guardian Angel to protect and guide me. It worked like magic. My Guardian Angel was always at work at my side and my fear would fade away.

Yes, I know there are many people out there who want to tell children that there is no Santa Claus; no Christmas; and yes, no Guardian Angel. If you do not believe in these realities today, do not forget that there was a time in your life when they meant so much to you. Do not deprive the children of these mysteries. After all there are many things in our world today that are more disturbing and confusing to children than Santa Claus, Christmas and Guardian Angel.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that, “the existence of the spiritual, non-corporeal beings that Scared Scripture usually calls “angels” is a truth of faith. The witness of Scripture is as clear as the unanimity of Tradition. So who are angels? St. Augustine answered this question thus: “Angel is the name of their office, not of their nature. If you seek the name of their nature, it is ‘spirit’; if you seek the name of their office, it is ‘angel’; from what they are, ‘spirit’, from what they do, ‘angel’. The angels are the servants and messengers of God. Mt. 18:10 tells us that, “they always behold the face of my father who is in heaven. The Catechism teaches us further that the angels belong to Christ. “They are his angels: “When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him… They belong to him because they were created through and for him: “for in him all things are created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities – all things were created through him and for him”. So our guardian angels are the special messengers designated by God to take care of us individually. How lucky are we to have been given such special friends by God.

I like, in particular, the pictures of the guardian angels, especially the one that the angel guards and protects a young child as she plays around. I saw my guardian angel once. He appeared when I least expected a friend, and was there to guard and protect me through a very difficult journey at night when I was alone. He left in the morning and I have never seen him again since then. I have had other encounters with people who appeared mysteriously when I was down and almost out, but they helped when I was not sure where the help would come from. They are my guardian angels. So think hard and you will remember that your guardian angel is hard at work by your side. Trust in them, pray to them and believe and you will discover that they are not too far away from you. They are closer to you than you are to yourself. Teach you children and grandchildren about their guardian angels. We need one in life.   

The Sacrament of Reconciliation

Life’s lesson teaches us that when we get dirty, we should take a bath or have a shower, as the case may be. Oh yes! Recall returning from a heavy day’s work in the office or from the farm, how you could not wait to clean yourself up? Or returning from a workout or from the field of soccer, tennis, baseball or basketball, or any sport of your choice! You were sweaty and smelly; your sporting gear or work clothes all wet with sweat; you could not wait to get home and into the bathtub for a thorough clean up. Now reflect on how you felt after your shower or after some minutes in the tub. You felt clean and fresh. Then you put on your lotion, some powder and colon or perfume. You really smelt good, looked beautiful and now you are ready to go for dinner. Your day is complete and you want to go to bed, fulfilled and contented. These are simple instructions from life. If we do not pay heed to these lessons, we remain dirty, unkempt, unclean and undesirable and soon enough, you begin to lose friends. Who wants to befriend a dirty, smelly and untidy person?

Now what lesson can we learn from the Church? Many you chimed in! And you are right. The Church has taught us many lessons. But in this blog post, my concern is the sacrament of reconciliation. As our bodies are dirty due to work, workout or sporting activities, so too are our souls. As we go about our daily duties and are concerned with life, we gather some dirt called sin and they cling to our souls. If these go unchecked, they begin to rob us of our peace, our joy and gradually our relationship with God and our brothers and sisters are affected. The sacrament is one of the channels of Grace that Christ gave to the Church after his resurrection. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “Through the sacraments of Christian initiation, man receives the new life of Christ. Now we carry this life “in earthen vessels,” and it remains “hidden with Christ in God.” We are still in our “earthly tent,” subject to suffering, illness, and death. This new life as a child of God can be weakened and even lost by sin.” The Catechism goes on to remind us: “The Lord Jesus Christ, physician of our souls and bodies, who forgave the sins of the paralytic and restored him to bodily health, has willed that his Church continue, in the power of the Holy Spirit, his work of healing and salvation, even among her own members. This is the purpose of the two sacraments of healing: the sacrament of Penance and the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.”

Isn’t it sad that very few members of the Church use this sacrament? Many see it as old fashion, outdated or obsolete. Really? It baffles me that many of us would readily spend money to go for counseling but are slow to approach the throne of Grace freely given in the sacrament of reconciliation. Yet the Catechism teaches us that “Those who approach the sacrament of Penance obtain pardon from God’s mercy for the offense committed against him, and are at the same time, reconciled with the Church which they have wounded by their sins and which by charity, by example, and by prayer labors for their conversion.”

One of the best ways to celebrate the resurrection of Christ from the death is to purify ourselves of sins through the sacrament of reconciliation, so called, as the Catechism teaches “because it imparts to the sinner the love of God.” He who lives by God’s merciful love is ready to respond to the Lord’s call: “Go, first be reconciled to your brother.” Pope Benedict XVI links the sacrament of reconciliation to the work of evangelization. In his address to1300 priests and deacons who were participating in an annual course regarding confession and matters of conscience on March 9, 2012 in Vatican City, the Holy Father exhort:

“Thus sacramental confession is an important aspect of new evangelization. “True conversion of hearts, which means opening ourselves to the transforming and regenerative actions of God, is the ‘motor’ of all reform and turns into an authentic force for evangelization. During Confession, the repentant sinner, thanks to the gratuitous action of divine Mercy, is justified, forgiven and sanctified… Only those who allow themselves to be profoundly renewed by divine Grace can internalize and therefore announce the novelty of the Gospel”. All saints in history bear witness to this close relationship between sanctity and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. New evangelization itself “draws life blood from the sanctity of the sons and daughters of the Church, from the daily process of individual and community conversion, conforming itself ever more profoundly to Christ.”

The sacrament of reconciliation offers us the chance to humble ourselves before God our father, acknowledge our short comings, as the prodigal son in Luke’s Gospel 15, and hence receive forgiveness of our sins. It is the washing or the shower that we need for our souls. The penance that we receive will make us feel clean and refresh so that we may have the courage to face a new day with strength.

So if you have not yet done so, I exhort you to make use of this sacrament. Approach it with love and humility, fear not the priest, he is only a mediator between you and God, and he will bring down blessing and forgiveness from God to you. Listen again to the words of Christ in John’s Gospel 20:22-23: “Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” The Church truly has the power to forgive sins and Christ gave that power in the sacrament of reconciliation.

The Lenten Prayer

I was at a phone conference two weeks ago at Mercy Medical Center; before the conference one of the organizers gave a powerful reflection that I thought was a wonderful way to start the Lenten season. After the conference some of us expressed that we would like to have a copy of the reflection. My director Ms. Kathy reported that she had a copy and that she would be glad to email it to us. Well then I am more than willing to share this prayer with you. This is what I would like to call ‘The Lenten Prayer’. I only hope that we take a long loving look at this prayer and pray that we may have the courage to put it into practice.  

Lent: A Call to Fast and Feast:

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Fast from judging others; feast on Christ dwelling in them.


Fast from emphasis on differences; feast on the oneness of all.


Fast from the darkness around us; feast on the light of JESUS within us.

Fast from thoughts of illness; feast on the healing power of GOD.

Fast from actions that pollute, feast on deeds that purify.

Fast from discontent; feast on gratitude.

Fast from pessimism; feast on hope.

Fast from worry; feast on trust.


Fast from guilt; feast on freedom.


Fast from complaining; feast on complementing.


Fast from stress; feast on self-care.


Fast from bitterness; feast on forgiveness.


Fast from selfishness; feast on compassion for others.


Fast from apathy; feast on enthusiasm.


Fast from idle gossiping; feast on spreading the Good News.


Fast from being so busy; feast on peaceful silence.


Fast from being in control; feast on letting go.”

If am to dissect this prayer and take it apart line by line, I dare say, it would make a book. Fasting from negativity, pessimism, apathy, bitterness and gossiping would pave a bright future for many of us who like to pursue a life of holiness. We cannot live a life of holiness with bitterness in our hearts. We have to consciously follow the teaching of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel chapters 5, 6, 7 and 18 if we have any hope of going to heaven.

Life’s lesson has taught us that vices, anger and hording our hurts only succeed in doing one thing, rob us of our peace, serenity and happiness. We have long ago learnt, though we have not always put it into practice; that we cannot keep someone down without being down with that person. Hence we have to free ourselves of poisonous thoughts, behaviors and habits and begin to see the bright side of life. We have a choice to make. Do you choose to be sad and negative or won’t you rather choose to be happy in life? The choice is yours. You have nothing to lose if you choose to be happy. The most important thing is that we always have a choice. Look at the prayer above once again, spend sometime with the Lord in prayer, in the silence of your heart and allow God to speak to you. Do not be afraid of silence for it has so much to teach you about yourself. Sad to note though, many would rather spend eternity in the cacophony of noise in our everyday life than to spend just an hour with the Lord in silence prayer. The Lord would teach us the true meaning of Lent and fasting. So why not try it out, after all what have you to lose?

He also serves who stands and waits

Many times we find people in Church wondering what they should do for God. There are also those who do not care that they do nothing or anything for God. Their only concern is to go to Church, nothing more, nothing less and nothing else. What does going to Church really mean? Going to Church means being an active participant in the life of the Church. Being an active participant at Mass for instance, means doing what everyone else is doing - standing up, sitting down, kneeling down, praying, singing and responding to the priest at the appropriate times. But you do not have to stand when you are unable to do so. You can sit down and still participate. Sitting down does not mean you should also shut your mouth. If you cannot sing, you can at least pray. If you cannot serve Mass as an altar server, you can at least read as a lector. If you cannot read, you can be an usher. If you cannot be an usher, you can be a greeter, or you can at least be friendly, cordial, helpful and willing to give direction to those who need help. What I am saying in a sense is that there is something that everyone can do in Church for God at one time or the other. We must, each of us, look in our hearts and pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit to instruct us on how best we can serve the Lord. Tithing of course is a must for everyone.

There is a story about Harry the usher, by William J. Bausch in his book ‘A World of stories”, that I will like to share with you in this post. This story demonstrates how we should be the best we can possibly be in whatever we have chosen to do in Church; knowing that we are in it to serve our God and help bring about His kingdom here on earth. Here is the story:

“The pastor received a letter marked, “Please give to Harry the Usher.” It was handed over to Harry, and this is what it said: “Dear Harry. I’m sorry I don’t know your last name, but then, you don’t know mine. I’m Gert, Gert at the ten o’clock Mass every Sunday. I’m writing to ask a favor. I don’t know the priests too well, but somehow feel close to you. I don’t know how you got to know my first name, but every Sunday morning you smile and greet me by name, and we exchange a few words: how bad the weather is, how much you like my hat, and how I am late on a particular Sunday. I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to remember an old woman, for the smiles, for your consideration, for your thoughtfulness. “Now for the favor. I am dying, Harry. My husband has been dead for sixteen years, and the kids are scattered. It is very important to me that when they bring me to church for the last time, you will be there to say, ‘Hello, Gert. Good to see you.’ If you are there Harry, I will feel assured that your warm hospitality will be duplicated in my new home in heaven. With love and gratitude, Gert.”

From this story, it is obvious that Harry was a very good usher. He made everyone comfortable as they came in for Mass. He called everyone by name, spent some time chit chatting as they move into the Church for Mass. Harry was not a priest; he did not need to be one. But Harry was a good Christian who understood his work in the Church. Harry may not have known that what he did amounted to anything, but he was noticed and appreciated.

Come to think of it, we are all equal in the eyes of God. Whatever calling we have and whatever profession we choose in life, it does matter how we chose to function and how we affect people. It is all about relating to one another as we relate to our God. The priest is not bigger or greater than a young child just baptized. So you don’t have to be a priest or bishop or pope in order to serve God and his Church. To the Question ‘who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven’ directed to him by his disciples in Matthew’s Gospel chapter 18, Jesus answered with a demonstration: “He called a child over, place it in their midst, and said, “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven”.

God may not ask us to do extraordinary things, but like Harry the usher, He wants us to do the ordinary things in life extraordinarily well. Let me conclude with a verse from a song you all know well, “If you cannot sing like angels, if you cannot preach like Paul, you can tell the love of Jesus, you can say he died for all.” So pray and ask God what it is he wants you to do for him in your church. Once you have found your niche, hold firm to it and do it with all you heart. Pray and pray as if everything depends on God, and work, and work as if everything depends on you, and you would have assisted God in establishing his kingdom here on earth. Never you say ‘there is nothing I can do’. There is always something for someone somewhere in God’s own house. 

Fix it, it’s broken!

Life’s lesson says “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” But Lent’s lesson is “it’s broken, now is the time to fix it.” So the Bible reminds us to go into the desert so as to fix our broken lives. Jesus went into the desert immediately after his baptism by John the Baptist at the river Jordan. Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem tells us that the fast of Jesus “took place in the desert region four kilometers northwest of Jericho, on a mountain named “Quarantena” (or Quruntul in Arabic)”.

Prophets, like Moses and Elijah, went into the desert to fast and pray either for themselves or for the sins of others in preparation for an encounter with God. In the book of Prophet Hosea 2:16, God says, “I will allure her, I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart.” In the book of prophet Ezekiel 20:35-36 we read “then I will lead you to the desert of the peoples, where I will enter into judgment with you face to face. Just as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the desert of the land of Egypt, so will I enter into judgment with you, says the Lord God”. You will recall that after the children of Israel left Egypt, they wandered for forty years in the desert en route the Promised Land. It was while in the desert, as we read in Exodus 16, that the children of Israel started complaining to God that they had no water to drink, no food to eat and that they would have preferred to die in Egypt under force labor and slavery rather than in desert.

So what do we find in the desert? Life’s lesson informs us that in the desert we find a sea of sand, wild animals, hostile and unfriendly weather conditions. The one thing that is not common in the desert is water. There is heat in abundance and life can indeed be difficult. Here was where Jesus chose to go to after his baptism. Mark the evangelist reminds us in the first chapter of his Gospel, in the 12^th verse that: “The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remind in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.”

Since the conveniences of life are lacking in the desert one can only be confronted by ones mind. Here all illusions of riches and wealth give way to a stag realization that we need a being bigger and greater than ourselves. Here we rely on God for everything. Here we experience our nothingness, our helplessness and our dependence on God. In the desert we have to make do with the barest necessities of life. In the desert God becomes our all and all. Oh yes, it is easy for God to speak to our hearts directly and we will listen to him. In the absence of material things around us, we become easily attached to God. In the desert it becomes easy to begin to fix our broken lives after we have stripped ourselves of the glories of life, our self-importance and our authority and the feeling that we are better than everyone else.

As we enter into this season of grace, let us create our own desert and take a long loving walk in and around it. Let us spend some time in prayer and constantly feel our need for God and our dependence on one another. Lent will only be meaningful after we have spent some time in our wilderness, our desert. So let us heed the lesson of Lent and begin to fix our brokenness in the desert created just to be with God and God with us.

Why do we fast?

In the book of the prophet Isaiah 58:3 we read these words: “Why do we fast, and you do not see it? Afflict ourselves, and you take no notice of it?” This was God’s way of replying to the children of Israel who wondered why God was paying a deaf ear to their supplication. Don’t we feel like this most of the time? We sometimes wonder why we go to Church at all if our prayers seem to go unanswered. So as we begin this season of Lent it would be good to look at the pillars of Lent: Prayer, fasting and almsgiving. We are told by Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that we should pray more, fast a lot and give to those in need more than we have ever done before during Lent. But note: he said that all these should be done in secret since the one to reward us is God himself. Please read for yourself these sacred words that come out of the mouth of the teacher himself as recorded by the Gospel of Matthew 6:1-8,16-18. Notice that Christ started by sounding a note of warning: “…Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father."

God, in the passage from Isaiah quoted above, went on to state why the fasting and the prayer of the children of Israel do not go up to Him. “Lo on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits, and drive all your laborers. Yes, your fast ends in quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw. Would that today you might fast so as to make your voice heard on high! Is this the manner of fasting I wish, of keeping a day of penance: that a man bow his head like a reed, and lie in sackcloth and ashes? Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? This rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own” Is. 58:3-8.

From the aforementioned, there is a strong correlation between fasting and justice. God links the fasting that pleases him to doing justice. The reason why this is so emphasized during Lent, I think, is that Lent should bring out the best in all of us. Since during Lent, we must necessarily think of the welfare of our brothers and sisters as well as doing all that we can to avoid sins and all that lead to sins. In his message for Lent this year, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict calls “us to be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works. He stated that, “Christians can also express their membership in the one body which is the Church through concrete concern for the poorest of the poor. Concern for one another likewise means acknowledging the good that the Lord is doing in others and giving thanks for the wonders of grace that Almighty God in his goodness continuously accomplishes in his children.”

In his Lenten letter the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal reminds us that we fast during Lent so that we may “adapt our lives with determination to the will of God, freeing ourselves from any egoism, lust for power, or avarice, by opening our hearts to the love of Christ and neighbor, especially the poor and indigent. Lent, as the Holy Father reminds us, is a providential time for us to recognize our frailty and welcome reconciliation, in order to orient ourselves to Christ.” So we fast for various reasons, but most of all we fast so as to imitate Christ, according to Patriarch Twal, “to be conscious of those who hunger and thirst. As proclaimed by the fourth Preface for Lent: “For through bodily fasting you restrain our faults, raise up our minds, and bestow both virtue and its rewards, through Christ our Lord.”

This then is the type of fasting that pleases God. Listen to Him, “If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech; if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday; then the Lord will guide you always and give you plenty even on the parched land. He will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails” Is. 58:10-12. What else can I tell you?