To gather the pieces and form the puzzle

Prayer is a necessary ingredient, like air, itself, to life. Without prayer, life is a collection of pieces of a jigsaw puzzle without any hope of discovering the picture that they form

Come down and let me in!

For the concluding Mass of the World Youth Day in Krakow, the Gospel passage of Zaccheus' encounter with Jesus was chosen. As always Pope Francis gave a very interesting homily and he invited the young people to see in Zaccheus a journey of conversion that is very similar to our own journey of conversion. 

Zaccheus had to overcome three obstacles:

First, his short stature, which was why Zaccheus climbed a tree to have a better look of Jesus. Shortness of stature is not only physical. It is actually our feeling of inadequacy, almost incredulity that leads us to believe that we are not loveable, that even God cannot love us.

Second, the paralysis of shame. What would people say? It is the tendency to follow what the crowd does and says. Often we live paralyzed lives because of fear to make a mistake, to cut a bad figure, to be bullied and humiliated.

Third, the grumbling crowd, the voices around us that tell us that there is no way out or it is not worth the fight. These are the voices that lead us to always choose what is safe instead of opening a trail.

In the end, what will make us overcome these obstacles is what Pope Francis says towards the end of his homily: Jesus calls us by name. He wants to stay with us. He wants to be a part of our life. Only in this way can we overcome the voices of inadequacy, shame, and mediocrity.

God's patience

One of the Gospel passages that clearly express God's patience is: "No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them" (Mt 13:24).
Faced with the world's current situation, a lot of people favor drastic solutions. I remember what one Sister shared with us a few days ago, that there is no such thing as a "just war". War is always violence and always begets further violence. To respond to violence with violence is to knowingly enter into the spiral of violence.
So what do we do?
I think the call for me is to willingly pay the price so that the chain of violence stops in me. This is not something that I do once and for all. An action in this direction is made possible by a journey of purifying myself from everything that is selfish that leads me to horde and to accumulate, to defend myself and to look at people as threats, to use and to exploit, to humiliate and to discard. All of these cause violence.
Yes, in my own body I need to pay the price. It may even cost me my life, but this is the only way. In fact, this is the way of Jesus.

Vox populi

Today, as I was browsing over the news on the internet, I was amazed at how there was not even one article on the ongoing World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland. I am not thinking of conspiracy. I am just a little sad that a gathering of people from the whole world, with a number that is not indifferent, we speak of more than two million, is not considered newsworthy.
I am sad that a gathering that shows people from different countries and walks of life, filling the streets and plazas with their joyful and enthusiastic spirit, isn't given a space.
I am sad that an experience that will surely revive joy and hope for the whole world is just disregarded.
Then I don't wonder why we find it difficult to be people of hospitality. If all we ever see and our minds are fed with are fighting, violence, aggression, and threats, then, of course, the only reaction is defense and prejudice.
Thank God for social networks. Otherwise, with the way traditional news outlets are doing their reporting now, we wouldn't even hear anything about the World Youth Day 2016 in Krakow.

God has the greater picture

I have been looking forward to participate at the World Youth Day in Krakow. Due to reasons beyond my control, I cannot. I am saddened by this sudden turn of events, but deep in my heart, I believe that there is a greater good behind this. At the moment, I do not know what it is. I might know it in the future, or I might not. But I believe that when we have done all that we can, we leave everything in God's hands. He has the greater picture, after all.

Bargaining with God

Why, O Abraham, did you stop bargaining with God when you arrived at ten righteous people? Sodom and Gomorrah could have been spared even if there was not even one righteous person. You see, God's mercy has no limits!
But then, of course, you belonged to the Old Testament. You didn't know the wonderful truth about God: His mercy is everlasting.
When we look at Jesus on the cross, we realize that no one and nothing can be outside God's mercy.

Called

Mary of Magdala went early morning to the tomb of Jesus. She must have really been desolate and totally in grief that she chose to start her day at the tomb, a place of death, certainly not the best place to perk you up.
But this place of death was Mary's only contact with the one person who loved her most. She wanted to keep that contact, to maintain it. In the coldness of the tomb she found consolation, the presence of Jesus, albeit silent and lifeless.
But Jesus is the resurrection and the life. He said this, himself. And suddenly, with the sound of Jesus' voice calling Mary by name, the cold tomb is transformed into a place of true encounter, with the living Jesus. Wow, just one word "Mary" and everything radically changes.
Jesus wants to transform the dead parts of my life into shining shafts of light. But a lot of times I prefer to wallow in the dark. It's as if I am finding therein a masochistic comfort.
Jesus, however, wants me to be fully alive, to rise above the shackles of death's tyranny, to be at a place I am not familiar with, trusting only in His fidelity and love.
Jesus, call me by name! With your voice, rouse me from my deep slumber and lead me to the path of true life.