Let Your Beauty Shine

We live in times were everything can be artificial. And thanks to Adobe Photoshop, even beauty can now be reproduced artificially.

Since have somewhat got addicted to everything artificial, human beauty has also fallen to artificiality. Beauty is now what we see in the Media. Beauty that is been fabricated by the almighty Photoshop. Natural beauty, specially, the beauty from within is now being set aside on the shelf like an old picture.

Everybody wants to be beautiful. But we have pursued it outside the nature, our human nature. So our artificial beauty is also superficial beauty.

True beauty can only be found within our human nature. The beauty that God gave us when He created us in His Own Image. And God is beauty Himself.

So how do we find this beauty within?

We have to find the Person within, Jesus.

Only in Jesus can our true beauty shine. To shine like the Light of the World.

The more we let Jesus live in us, the more we become human. The more we are like Jesus, the more our human nature is restored to the beauty of its original creation.  Jesus is the most beautiful person in existence. It will be His beauty that will be shining through us.

To live without Jesus is to live without the Light. It is to live in darkness. Darkness is the absence of light. Darkness is also the absence of beauty. In the darkness there is only ugliness, for we were created to live in the Light of Heaven.

There is no real and lasting beauty apart from Jesus. Everything in this world passes, what is real today may be gone tomorrow.

Only the Eternal can give and preserve our beauty.

There is no beauty without Christ.

The Spiritual Canticle

By St. John of the Cross

Dialogue between the soul (Bride) and Jesus (Bridegroom)

Bride
1. Where have you hidden,
Beloved, and left me moaning?
You fled like the stag
after wounding me;
I went out calling you, but you were gone.
2. Shepherds, you who go
up through the sheepfolds to the hill,
if by chance you see
him I love most,
tell him I am sick, I suffer, and I die.

3. Seeking my Love
I will head for the mountains and for watersides,
I will not gather flowers,
nor fear wild beasts;
I will go beyond strong men and frontiers.

4. O woods and thickets,
planted by the hand of my Beloved!
O green meadow,
coated, bright, with flowers,
tell me, has he passed by you?

5. Pouring out a thousand graces,
he passed these groves in haste;
and having looked at them,
with his image alone,
clothed them in beauty.

6. Ah, who has the power to heal me?
now wholly surrender yourself!
Do not send me
any more messengers,
they cannot tell me what I must hear.

7. All who are free
tell me a thousand graceful things of you;
all wound me more
and leave me dying
of, ah, I-don't-know-what behind their stammering.

8. How do you endure
O life, not living where you live,
and being brought near death
by the arrows you receive
from that which you conceive of your Beloved?

9. Why, since you wounded
this heart, don't you heal it?
And why, since you stole it from me,
do you leave it so,
and fail to carry off what you have stolen?

10. Extinguish these miseries,
since no one else can stamp them out;
and may my eyes behold you,
because you are their light,
and I would open them to you alone.

11. Reveal your presence,
and may the vision of your beauty be my death;
for the sickness of love
is not cured
except by your very presence and image.

12. O spring like crystal!
If only, on your silvered-over faces,
you would suddenly form
the eyes I have desired,
which I bear sketched deep within my heart.

13. Withdraw them, Beloved,
I am taking flight!

Bridegroom

Return, dove,
the wounded stag
is in sight on the hill,
cooled by the breeze of your flight.

Bride

14. My Beloved, the mountains,
and lonely wooded valleys,
strange islands,
and resounding rivers,
the whistling of love-stirring breezes,

15. the tranquil night
at the time of the rising dawn,
silent music,
sounding solitude,
the supper that refreshes, and deepens love.

16. Catch us the foxes,
for our vineyard is now in flower,
while we fashion a cone of roses
intricate as the pine's;
and let no one appear on the hill.

17. Be still, deadening north wind;
south wind, come, you that waken love,
breathe through my garden,
let its fragrance flow,
and the Beloved will feed amid the flowers.

18. You girls of Judea,
while among flowers and roses
the amber spreads its perfume,
stay away, there on the outskirts:
do not so much as seek to touch our thresholds.

19. Hide yourself, my love;
turn your face toward the mountains,
and do not speak;
but look at those companions
going with her through strange islands.

Bridegroom

20. Swift-winged birds,
lions, stags, and leaping roes,
mountains, lowlands, and river banks,
waters, winds, and ardors,
watching fears of night:

21. By the pleasant lyres
and the siren's song, I conjure you
to cease your anger
and not touch the wall,
that the bride may sleep in deeper peace.

22. The bride has entered
the sweet garden of her desire,
and she rests in delight,
laying her neck
on the gentle arms of her Beloved.

23. Beneath the apple tree:
there I took you for my own,
there I offered you my hand,
and restored you,
where your mother was corrupted.

Bride

24. Our bed is in flower,
bound round with linking dens of lions,
hung with purple,
built up in peace,
and crowned with a thousand shields of gold.

25. Following your footprints
maidens run along the way;
the touch of a spark,
the spiced wine,
cause flowings in them from the balsam of God.

26. In the inner wine cellar
I drank of my Beloved, and, when I went abroad
through all this valley
I no longer knew anything,
and lost the herd that I was following.

27. There he gave me his breast;
there he taught me a sweet and living knowledge;
and I gave myself to him,
keeping nothing back;
there I promised to be his bride.

28. Now I occupy my soul
and all my energy in his service;
I no longer tend the herd,
nor have I any other work
now that my every act is love.

29. If, then, I am no longer
seen or found on the common,
you will say that I am lost;
that, stricken by love,
I lost myself, and was found.

30. With flowers and emeralds
chosen on cool mornings
we shall weave garlands
flowering in your love,
and bound with one hair of mine.

31. You considered
that one hair fluttering at my neck;
you gazed at it upon my neck
and it captivated you;
and one of my eyes wounded you.

32. When you looked at me
your eyes imprinted your grace in me;
for this you loved me ardently;
and thus my eyes deserved
to adore what they beheld in you.

33. Do not despise me;
for if, before, you found me dark,
now truly you can look at me
since you have looked
and left in me grace and beauty.

Bridegroom

34. The small white dove
has returned to the ark with an olive branch;
and now the turtledove
has found its longed-for mate
by the green river banks.

35. She lived in solitude,
and now in solitude has built her nest;
and in solitude he guides her,
he alone, who also bears
in solitude the wound of love.

Bride

36. Let us rejoice, Beloved,
and let us go forth to behold ourselves in your beauty,
to the mountain and to the hill,
to where the pure water flows,
and further, deep into the thicket.

37. And then we will go on
to the high caverns in the rock
which are so well concealed;
there we shall enter
and taste the fresh juice of the pomegranates.

38. There you will show me
what my soul has been seeking,
and then you will give me,
you, my life, will give me there
what you gave me on that other day:

39. the breathing of the air,
the song of the sweet nightingale,
the grove and its living beauty
in the serene night,
with a flame that is consuming and painless.

40. No one looked at her,
nor did Aminadab appear;
the siege was still;
and the cavalry,
at the sight of the waters, descended.

Abraham, Isaac and Christ

Is Life Living in You?

Life for some is just a series of daily routines. For others, it is seeking one thrill to the next. And there are those who just want to have fun in life like there is no tomorrow. Unfortunately, if you live life like them, you will find yourself drained in the end. Weariness and the fading of your intoxicating emotions will soon over take you. You will either give up out of fatigue, or seek another emotional high like an addict (and the vicious cycle continues.) And it all leads to one place, emptiness.

Like St. Peter we can all say “We worked hard all last night and didn't catch a thing.” (Luke 5:5)

As much as we want to liven up our lives, our efforts will always be short-lived, for even we are short-lived. Everything is passing in this world, including us. So every attempt to create our own happiness, our own life, apart from God, will always end in vain.

"Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain.” Psalm 127:1

So how do we live? I mean really live?

For any creature to live, it needs LIFE. Otherwise it is just a zombie, walking around aimlessly as life passes by.

Natural life is temporal and soon dies. So we need a life that is beyond natural, we need supernatural life. Supernatural life is always dynamic, it never tires nor bores. Most importantly it never gets empty.

“But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)

So where do we find this supernatural life? The life that lives…

We shall not find it “where”, but with “Whom.”

Jesus!

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life.” (John 14:6)

Only Jesus can liven up our lives. Only He can give us supernatural joy and peace, and ultimate meaning for our existence. For Jesus Himself is Peace, Joy and Life. To have Jesus live in us is to have all of them.

Only Jesus can lift our natural life to supernatural, our temporal life to eternal. Anything else will fall short. Anything else will pass away.

If Jesus dwells in us, we have the same dynamic power that created the universe living in us. Just imagine that!

You have not known what life is until you have known Jesus.

So don’t waste it.

Come to Him.

Written by Daxx Bondoc

When Christ Comes in Crisis

When Christ Comes in Crisis

We often feel god is close when our ship is sailing smoothly, but seldom when we are being rocked by storms. But Christ does come in storms. Sometimes, it is in the storms that His power is more manifested.

Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

“Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Matthew 14:22-33

Sometimes God permits crisis to happen to us to show how powerful His grace is. It is in these times that God shows us He is bigger than our problems. Jesus shows us that the winds and waves of life is no competition to Him.

When our natural strengths fail, the supernatural reveals itself and takes over. In crisis, we learn to rely on God than to ourselves, for we have proven that our own effort is seldom enough to survive it. It was in the buffeting winds and waves that Peter was given the chance to walk on water. Even when we feel that the winds and waves of life are drowning us, Christ’s grace is enough for us to rise above it. And all we need is faith.

It was faith that made Peter walk on water; it was also his lack of faith that made him sink. Faith opens us to the supernatural, to the impossible. And Faith in practice is Trust. That is why Jesus always reminds us, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

Faith makes the impossible possible. Faith let God be God. And He is the God of Wonders.

Crisis shows God’s power more magnificently. Crisis also gives us the opportunity to experience that magnificent power by trusting in Christ.

Sometimes we only appreciate the Light of the World shining upon us when we are enveloped by the darkness.


Sometimes we truly appreciate Jesus when He comes to us as our Savior. When He reaches out His hand and lifts us from drowning in our misery.

Crisis are always an opportunity to encounter Christ more powerfully, more intimately.

So don’t waste the opportunity.

Jesus we trust in you.

By Daxx Bondoc

Our Finest Moment

The world considers that our finest moment is when we are rich, famous or powerful. We consider our life’s highlight is when we shall be on a thrown and wearing a crown. And not when we are hanging on cross with thorns around our head.

When we hear in the phrases, “This is my time. This is my moment. This is my hour.” we often think of something glorious… in a worldly way. Movies often picture this by some kind of a victory, a winning basketball shot on the buzzer, a long football pass that leads to a touchdown as the clock runs out, etc…

But Jesus’ “hour” was different. Throughout the Gospel, we hear about the “Hour” of Jesus. Unlike in the ads and the movies, Jesus’ moment, His “hour” was anything but glorious by worldly standards. His hour was when He was lifted up in the cross. And it did not look magnificent in the eyes of those who were there. They actually considered it as a defeat, even his disciples did. But it was Christ’s finest moment, for though His crucifixion He paid the price of our salvation. In his disfigured bloody body, He defeated sin and Satan. And there was nothing pretty about it.

A soldier's finest moment is not when he receives a medal of honor. But it is when he is in the battle field. Where he has to overcome his fears amidst flying bullets. He is at his best when he practices courage and self-sacrifice amidst life threatening situations. And one thing he is not at that moment, happy. Emotional happiness comes after he survives all of it. But until then, he just tries to be brave, hang in there and keep going. Only in the battlefield can a soldier know how much courage and self-sacrifice he really has. No soldier gets a medal of valor sitting around the camp.

Our finest moments maybe our worst moments. When everything is falling apart and we still choose to be faithful to God. When we are filled with pain and suffering and yet continue to choose to love others. Our finest moment might not actually feel emotionally good. It is in these “hours of darkness” that God gives us the opportunity to practice a deeper level of faith and love.

Stars shines in the darkness. We shall never know how much we shall shine until we are thrown in the dark. In the darkness, God gives us not only the opportunity to shine, but He gives us the light as well, Himself.

So in joy or sorrow, in sickness or in health, in wealth or poverty let us love God and our neighbor. And every moment will be our finest moment.

Written by Daxx Bondoc

Realizing the Best Version of You

The seed of greatness is planted in our hearts. Everybody wants to be their best. The problem is that most of us have given up on it. We have accepted mediocrity.

Many have tried bringing out the best in them. They have tried putting letters after their name (Phd, C.E.O., etc…). Some tried power, fame and fashion. But all these superficialities have not brought out the best in them. They might be powerful, famous or rich, but they are not really the best model of humanity.

So how do we bring out the best in us?

Jesus told them, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it. And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing where it came from (although the servers who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but you have kept the good wine until now.” (John 2: 7-11)

When the water in the jars encountered Jesus, it became a new creation. The bland water (used for washing of feet) became the best of wine. Until Jesus came, the “good wine” was kept. Until Jesus came, everyone was satisfied with mediocrity.
When the Spirit of God hovered over the water, it blushed! It blushed so much that it turned red, red as wine. Every time we let the Spirit of God hover us miracles happen. Like when He overshadowed the Virgin Mary. Every time a new creation is made, the Spirit is there.

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Gen 1:2)

Only in Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit can we be a new creation. God’s best creation.

So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. (2 Cor 5:17 )

Until you encountered Christ, the best of you is still kept. Until you let the Holy Spirit breathe life in you, you will be bland as the water in the jars.

So how do we encounter Jesus and the Holy Spirit?

You can encounter them in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass together with the Father.

Let Jesus bring out the best of you.

He really wants to.

Written by Daxx Bondoc

Surviving Life's Trials

It's All or Nothing

All of us are looking for some kind of fulfillment to bring us peace. We need it to justify our existence. And we invest ourselves in to whatever we believe that would fulfill us.

What really fulfills us is God.

“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” – St Augustine.

Jesus is our fulfillment. It is either you accept that or reject it. But the fact will not change. You need Him!

Only Jesus can satisfy our hunger for fulfillment, meaning and purpose. To reject Him will not take away that hunger, that longing. It will only be directed to something else.

The Catechism teaches us that we are religious beings by nature. It means that we will seek fulfillment, meaning and purpose religiously. We are all fanatics, only the object of our fanaticism changes. We have seen how people have religiously sought money, power, fame and sex. They have devoted all their waking hours pursuing it. They have offered their life to them. They are their gods.

We will always be fans of something or someone. So are you a Jesus fan or your own?

Choosing our god will direct our way of life. And it a direction towards Heaven or Hell.

All that God has created is good and is good for us. But once this “good” becomes god, it will now be the instrument of our destruction. Evil is always a distortion of good, evil cannot create. Satan can only distort what God has created.

Sex is good, but being a rapist isn’t. Money is good, but being a thief isn’t. Power is good, but being a tyrant isn’t.

Without God, all these goods become gods and get distorted in the process. For only God can tell us how these goods are to be used.

Fulfillment is one of our basic needs in life and for sanity. And you cannot escape that need.

To have everything and have not Jesus is to have nothing. For in the end all will be lost.

To have nothing and have Jesus is to have everything. He is God and everything is contained in Him.

By Daxx Bondoc

Is Holiness the Enemy of Happiness?

The word “holiness” these days is often imagined as something rigid, cold and joyless. They think holy people are “killjoys”. Or so they think.

People who have these concepts of holiness don’t really understand what holiness really is. They imagine a holy person as a rigid, ascetic lifeless monk, like a zombie. But they cannot be further from the truth. Holy people are not just happy, they are joyful. And joy is much deeper than happiness.

A sick person is not a happy, he is miserable. A healthy person is a happy fellow. We sinners are sick with sin. Being holy only means living a healthy spiritual life. If both are body and soul is healthy, then we are happy. It is really that simple…

But hard to live.

Spiritual health, like physical health demands effort, especially if we have lived very unhealthy or sinful lives for years. The start of a workout program is always dragging. There is always a lot of resistance on our part. But once we get into the flow, it becomes easier. The more we become healthy the more we become strong and free (sick people are always confined in their beds).

It is the same in the program of holiness. It really takes a lot of effort in the beginning. We have been attached to our sins for so long that it has become a part of us, like fats. But the more we strive to be holy, the easier it gets. And one day it will be second nature to us (which is actually our first nature, God created us totally holy before “the fall).

Being holy means to be who God created us to be. Our natural state is of pure holiness. But sin has stained that.

To be holy is to be fully alive. To be holy is to animate all our God given gifts and potentials. To be holy is to be totally human again. The saints are our example. The saints are the greatest accomplishers in history. They were also people of joy. There are no unhappy saints.

When Jesus said “Be holy as your Heavenly Father is holy”, He was not just commanding us, but also reminding us who we really are. We were made for holiness and there lies our happiness.

The great thing about pursuing holiness is that we are not alone in our efforts. God’s grace is sufficient and abundant in helping us be fully human once again. God wants us to be holy more than we want to. God wants us to be happy more than we want to.

"My grace is sufficient for you…" (2 Corinthians 12:9) “and running over, will be poured into your lap.” (Luke 6:38)

So how does holiness look like?

Look at Jesus. Jesus is our guide to holiness. He is also the program. To be holy is to live like Jesus and live in Him.

So be holy.

Be happy.

By Daxx Bondoc

The Greater the Struggle, the Deeper Faith

The darker the night the stars shine more brightly.

Life’s hardship can be overwhelming. Our fears, anxiety and emotions can overpower us. They can devastate us and bring us down to our knees.

Adversities reveal to us who we really are. It shakes all that is superficial and leaves what is real. Strength can only be confirmed when it is tested. The strength of a tree and its roots can only be tested amidst the winds of a storm. The strength of ship can only be known if it survives the tempest of the sea. And the strength of a building if it still stands after a major earthquake. All that is weak shall fall.

Hardships reveal to us how weak we are. Our imagined self-confidence and faith will not stand the blows of life. Anything that is not deeply rooted in reality will wither and die.

How do we survive life’s adversities? Will we be overcome by the darkness?

That is up to us. If we choose to quit, then it is “the end.”

But for those who want to move on, grace is available. There is a light that no darkness can overcome. It is the Son-light. The light of the Son of God, Jesus.

Many of us are living in the illusion that we have great faith and confidence, specially when things are going well around us. But it is a whole different matter when things go downhill. It is really hard to feel good when you are just desperately keeping your head afloat.

It is in these dark times where God offers us a deeper kind of faith. It is in these times thate we can really put our trust in the Lord. Deep faith lives in the darkness. It is trusting God when all evidences says not to. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." – John 20:29.

If our faith is born in adversities, it is a faith that is tried and tested. It is a faith that is real, and not just something our imagination made up. It is a faith that trusts God stubbornly.

With this faith we can say:

“What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.” – Romans 8:35-37

Deep faith can only be found in Jesus. Faith is a grace, a gift of God. It is something we decide to ask and receive or ignore and deny.

So if you feel you are being crushed or overwhelmed by life’s trials, call out for Jesus. Ask Him for the grace of real faith that is firmly rooted in the Rock, who is Christ Himself. And He will give it generously.

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” – Matthew 7:24

Jesus, I place all my trust in you.

Written by Daxx Bondoc

How to Have a Life Filled to the Brim

Living an empty life is one of the most miserable experiences. We can all drown ourselves with distractions, but when the music fades and you are left to yourself, there is no running away from our own emptiness.

The world, especially the media, has taught us to pursue everything else, except real abiding fulfillment. To them getting emotionally high and pleasuring your senses is more important than real joy and peace. Now, we have emotionally unstable people who are addicted to pleasure. And they are all miserable.

So how do get the real deal?

How do we have a full and filled life?

Listen to our Holy Mother Mary!

Our Mother, who is full of grace, can teach us a thing or two how to have a life that is full.

And this is her words to us.

“Do whatever He (Jesus) tells you.” – John 2:5

Our Mother points us to her Son, the source of all fulfillments in this life and especially in the next.

In the Wedding at Cana, Jesus turned water into wine.

Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.

Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.

Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. When he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” – John 2: 6-10

The key to a fulfilling life is full faith and full obedience to Christ.

When Jesus asked the servants to fill the jars with water, the water Jesus was pointing to was the water used for washing of feet. Just imagine what the servants must have thought. Putting this water to jars meant for drinking. And Jesus asked them to fill it to the brim.

And if that is not disturbing enough, Jesus asked the servants to give this water to their master. Just imagine the servants’ fear. They could lose their jobs because of Jesus.

But they believed and obeyed Jesus. And so a miracle happened.

If we want our boring life turned into a life of intoxicating joy and peace, Jesus can make that miracle happen. But He needs a faith that is filled to the brim. He wants our full obedience, even if He asks us to do something beyond our understanding. Even if it means risking ourselves. Just like what the servants did.

God’s grace is overflowing. But we can only receive what we accept. Give God a half filled jar, you get half filled fulfillment.

God is not stingy… we are.

True fulfillment comes from Christ alone, for He is our fulfillment. A fulfilled life comes from living in Christ and like Christ. And that is a life of faith and obedience to the Father.

To have Jesus is to be filled.

To live like Jesus is to find fullness.

Written by Daxx Bondoc

The 7 Highly Effective Habits of Hobbits (Part 7: Self-sacrifice)

Hobbit Habit #7: Self-sacrifice

One of the great things about Lord of the Rings is that is not your typical fairy tale. The typical fairy tale is often about a quest on getting something, like Prometheus stealing fire from Zeus, Jason and his Argonauts questing for the Golden Fleece and Jack carrying away with the Golden Goose. But the Lord of the Rings is the opposite. It is about a quest to destroy something, the Ring. While the other fairy tale is about the grabbing an item of power, Lord of the Rings is about letting it go.

One of the main themes of Lord of the Rings is about “letting go”… letting go of the self that is.

All the member of the Fellowship was ready to let go of their very lives for the greater good. They were ready to lose their lives for the mission. Near the end of the epic we hear this from the Fellowship:

Aragorn: Not for ourselves. But we can give Frodo his chance if we keep Sauron's Eye fixed upon us. Keep him blind to all else that moves.

Legolas: A diversion.

Gimli: Certainty of death, small chance of success... What are we waiting for?

Together with Aragorn and Gandalf, Frodo is one of the Christ figures of the epic. Aragorn represent Christ the King, Gandalf the Prophet and Frodo the Priest. Frodo is the priest figure because he was the one who was going to sacrifice his life for the sake of the many.

“But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter.”Jeremiah 11:19

Frodo went straight to Mount Doom, ready to be slaughtered by the Orcs, just to destroy the Ring. He knew that he could die if he took on the mission. But still, he did. It was his selfless act that saved Middle Earth.

This is how Jesus saved us. He too came into this world, not to gain worldly power, but to destroy sin. He conquered sin not by a sword, but being pierced by one. Jesus conquered the world by his self-sacrificing love. Like Frodo who went to depths of Mount Doom to destroy the ring, Jesus too went to the depths of sin and God forsakenness, and from there He let love explode and thus defeating sin.

And since then, sin lost its sting.

Self-sacrifice is one of the most powerful things that could change the world and defeat the “enemy”. “There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends.” says Jesus. And of all the virtues, love is the greatest says St Paul.

One cannot be a Christian without self-sacrifice. For one cannot be a Christian without love.

Our Lord and our God sacrificed Himself for us.

Is the servant better than the Master?

Written by Daxx Bondoc

He's Baaaack! (A Ghost Story)

Every time we hear of a ghost story, it‘s typically a ghost who is back to get revenge to the people who’ve hurt him.

Just imagine what the Apostles felt when they heard Jesus came back from the dead. “He’s baaaaaaaack!!!”

They might have been really scared by the news since they betrayed Jesus by abandoning Him in His Passion. Peter denied knowing him, three times! Fear must have overwhelmed them when they first saw Him.

But a Jesus first word was “Shalom” or “Peace”.

The apostles must have been surprised with those words! Jesus was not out to “get ‘em’”. Jesus also shows them His wounds to remind them of what they have done to Him.

Jesus ate in front of the Apostles and let Thomas touch His wounds to let them know that He was no ghost. He was the Resurrected One.

God is the same with us. He doesn’t point fingers and says “You fool! Look what you have done to me!” Even though how much we, and continue to, betray and crucify Jesus with our unfaithfulness and sins, He still says to us “Peace! Do not be afraid!” Jesus has come for the very reason that we are sinners!

Yes we have hurt God in so many ways! And God continue to “haunt” us. He is the great hound of heaven that will now stop seeking us till we are with Him.

He continually wants to bring Peace in our lives! He wants to free us from our slavery to sin, the cause of all our anxiety.

So matter what you have done, do not be afraid of God.

He wants only to bring peace in your life.

Shalom!


Written by Daxx Bondoc