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SEEKING THE ULTIMATE GOOD

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MONDAY, FOURTENTH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME Hosea 2:16,17-18,21-22; Ps 145:2-9; Mt 9:18-26 Our Rediscovery of God As human beings, we are born with an innate desire for God, which ought to mature with time. In creating the material universe, God fashioned everything he made to be the means of our rising to our ultimate Good, who is God. He created everything good. The goodness of each creature is a share in the ultimate goodness of God. The same way our wills rise to the Supreme Good from desiring and using the limited or proportionate goods of creatures, our intellects also rise from the knowledge of creatures to the knowledge of the Eternal Truth that is God. As we noted yesterday, these two faculties are spiritual in their intent and operations. The evil one used the created good to lure man’s mind and heart away from seeking God. The inordinate desire for creatures causes sin within us. To win the hearts of men back to the end for which they were created, God decided to present...
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CHILDREN WITH HEAVENLY MYSTERIES

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SUNDAY, FOURTENTH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME Zech 9:9-10; Ps 145:1-2,8-11,13-14; Rom 8:9,11-13; Mt 11:25-30 Revelation of Hidden Mysteries The salvation of God, which is fully delivered in the Christian Gospel, is couched in deep mysteries. Why is that the case? This is due to the spiritual nature of human salvation. The human problem of sin is in the spiritual realm; the solution of the problem is therefore spiritual and packaged in such a way to reach the spiritual part of the human person and apply the remedy therein. Sin is a spiritual problem that wrecked the spiritual foundation of the human person. The human intellect (mind) and will are spiritual faculties; as such, they are the seat of our spiritual activities. Our spiritual foundation and structure are established through their operations. Our will, most importantly, must desire and unite with the truth conceived in our intellect to construct a solid and eternal structure where God lives within us. But our intellect has su...
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ATTENTION ON THE BRIDEGROOM

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  SATURDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Amos 9:11-15; Ps 85:11-14; Mt 9:14-17 The Fasting of the Attendants There is usually a marked difference between a model of a building and the actual building. The difference lies not in the design, for that is somehow the same for both. The difference between the two is typologically conceived. It is the difference between reality and its image. It is the difference between a cause and its effect. The incarnation of the Son of God is the cause of God’s revelation of Himself to Israel in the whole of the Old Testament. The Scripture is sealed without the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Hence, the Law and the Prophets are presented as in service of the Gospel. According to the words of our Lord, the Patriarchs and the Prophets strained to catch a glimpse of what is revealed in the Gospel or one of the days of the Son of Man, but it was not given to them. The coming of the Son of God in human flesh is such that whatever advantage the Isra...
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MEMBERS OF THE GOD'S HOUSEHOLD

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THE FEAST OF SAINT THOMAS, APOSTLE Eph 2:19-22; Ps 117:1-2; Jn 20:24-29 The Alignment of Our Structures on the Apostles Our faith in Jesus Christ is a shared possession. Profession of faith in Jesus Christ brings us into the spiritual commonwealth, in which the apostles were first. They were first to behold the Son of Man and believed his divinity. What they beheld, they did for all of us who are meant to come to faith in the later ages. They are able to do this because they share the same human nature as we do. Because of our common human nature, we were there with them and saw with their eyes, heard with their ears, touched with their hands, the word that is life. That they touched the word of life is a statement of faith from the Apostle John, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it.” What they proclaim to us in faith, ...
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RESTORATION OF STRUCTURES OF LIFE

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THURSDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Amos 7:10-17; Ps 19:8-11; Mt 9:1-8 The Decree of the Lord is Perfect The word of God is the source of all natural structures, both physical and nonphysical. By listening, meditating, and doing the word of God, we build our lives and structures with the blueprint of God. Before our encounter with the word of God, the visible reality that came to be through the Eternal Word of God is supposed to inform our minds through the senses. Nature is said to be our first teacher in the divine school of life. Failing to pay attention to nature is a refusal to listen to the divine will revealed in creation. The Church’s emphasis on natural law in matters of family, sexuality, social order, and other social structures is based on this understanding. Because a true understanding of nature and natural ordering presents man as the end of creation, any social, political, scientific, or technological advancement that removes from the dignity of the human p...
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FOUNDATIONS AND STRUCTURES

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WEDNESDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Amos 5:14-15,21-24; Ps 50:7-13,16-17; Mt 8:28-34 The Structures of Sin Structures arise in a person or a city from operations or activities of the person or city. A city or part of a city may be unhabitable for some people due to the type of lifestyle and activities prevalent in such a city or a particular part of the city. The lifestyle and characterising activities depend on the existence of suitable or enabling structures, including social, political, economic, and sometimes cultural structures. It is the same within an individual person. The structures within each of us support a particular lifestyle. Since a human person cannot be without a controlling spirit or master, the inner structure corresponds to the spirit each person serves. These structures make it impossible for us to serve two masters, according to Jesus Christ. We are either the slaves of God, having divine structures within us, or slaves of demons, with demonic or si...
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WALKING THE WAY WITH GOD

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TUESDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Amos 3:1-8,4:11-12; Ps 5:5-8; Mt 8:23-27 The Difficulties of becoming Light The fact that we are all natives of this sinful world implies that we all have the structures of sin within and operative in us. We inherited the structures from our parents; they are reinforced through nurture and our daily choices and actions. The presence and operations of the sinful structures within us make it easy for us to fall into sin of all sorts through the instigations of demons. It is through these sinful structures that particular demons remain associated with a particular person, family, or bloodline. As we have previously noted, these structures provide the enabling ambience for demonic spirits to communicate with us and move us to act, especially when we are in mortal sin. It is difficult and impossible to destroy these structures of sin within us without divine aid. When we discuss original sin, we should understand it more in terms of these inhe...
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