3Fs

For today's reflection, I just would like you to remember 3 words that starts with "F": FOOD, FOLLOW , and FORGIVE . Three w...

For today's reflection, I just would like you to remember 3 words that starts with "F": FOOD, FOLLOW, and FORGIVE. Three words that may help you reflect on the Gospel or the readings of the day. I have written once in my blog that the fastest way to gain a man's heart is through his belly and I have compared it with Jesus' style in dealing with us when he was still on earth. You can find the English version of that HERE. He dealt much with FOOD. He ate here and there, drink here and there. He ate with tax collectors, with sinners, with different people of different status in life. The Eucharist is a living memory of this "FOOD TRIP" of Jesus to gain man's heart, the heart of the lost ones, the sinners, the outcast. So that they may feel part and loved by God.

Through "FOOD" he invited them to "FOLLOW" Him, to follow the right path, to follow the precepts of the Lord. He invited them to follow the way of love. Everybody is invited, everybody is worth the love of God and not only the learned, not only the priests, the scribes, the pharisees, not only the leaders of the church, but ALL. All are invited to FOLLOW the way he loves everyone. That is why we have all kinds of leaders and members in the church. That is why up to now we find sinners in the church, we find incompetent people in the church. We never chose who will be our companions in the community, our companions in the society, our neighbors in the neighborhood.

If we are a group of sinners and at the same time believers in the risen Lord, then we should learn how to "FORGIVE." We must learn how to endure and be merciful to our fellow sinners. For the Lord looks on everyone with mercy and compassion. We must learn how to FORGIVE the mistakes and be in harmony with our neighbors, with the ones we do not like in the society or even in the church. For just like us, we are loved by God wholeheartedly and our sins are forgiven earnestly.

Let the Eucharist nourish us always. Let us draw our strength from it. And let us not let ourselves STARVE but rather be filled always with the FOOD from above. Let us not SEPARATE ourselves from the source, rather FOLLOW Him more closely. So that all things that we do are not mere SACRIFICES but rather are authentic acts of FORGIVENESS, mercy and compassion. Let the Eucharist binds us together as one faithful and loving community of believers despite our sinfulness. Amen.