Veritas PH

The WORD. The TRUTH.

 442 total views

There are many ways of showing our love for our friends. Love is inventive. Love always finds a way. Some people love by doing what their friends like them to do. Some express love by giving their friends their favorite things. Part of loving is knowing the favorite food, the favorite perfume, the favorite flick, the favorite shirt, the favorite color, and the favorite places of your loved one. We take so much time getting these favorite things into our minds and hearts because we love our friends. My best friend does not enjoy Japanese food very much. I like Japanese food. Because of my liking Japanese food, my friend has come to like it too. That is love. I know it is love.

Another way of showing our love for our friends is by way of avoiding the things they do not like or the things that make them angry. Some time ago, I found myself in front of a young married couple arguing against each other. The wife started feeling that she was not loved and cared for. The husband kept repeating: “I work myself to death so that I can get you the things you like. All that you like, all your favorite things, I am able to buy for you. That is my love for you.” He said with an air of frustration, feeling that his wife did not appreciate his sacrifice.

The wife asked him back, “You just do the things I like to do and get me the things I enjoy. But do you know what hurts me?”

The man could not answer. The wife dropped a statement that caught me awestruck too: “If you do not know the things that hurt me, how can you say you love me?” Part of loving indeed, is knowing what hurts the loved one and avoiding them so that the one we love may be spared from hurt.

Repeatedly in the Bible, God has told us what makes Him happy. He is happy when we serve. He is happy when we love one another. He is happy when we forgive seventy times seven times. But if we truly love God, we must also know what hurts Him. We must avoid the things that make Him sad, hurt, and pained.

Jesus was at His angriest state when He visited the temple and saw what the people had done to the Father’s House. What was it that made Jesus angry at the temple as to lead Him to make a whip of cords and drive the money-chang-ers and vendors away from the holy place? Was it the number of people crowding the area? Was it the animals being brought for sacrifice? Was it the incense and the money being brought into the temple? These are all external things. What made the Lord angry was the fact that although there were many people in the temple area, they were not treating each other as brothers and sisters but as merchants and customers. This was disgusting. What made the Lord angry was not the money being brought into the place of worship but the absence of love and the forgetfulness of the poor who had no money to buy the basic things in life. What made the Lord fuming mad was not the incense in the temple rising in the air. It was rather the reality that the rising incense was not accompanied by hearts rising to God in prayers. In other words, there was no spirit in what the people were doing. It was the lack of heart. The absence of the spirit in the external acts made the Lord very mad. If we truly love the Lord, we must avoid these. “If you do not know what hurts me, how can you say you love me?”

Another matter that always hurts the Lord is the hardness of the heart and insensitivity to His call to change of heart. He wept over Jerusalem because of the stubbornness of His countrymen. Complacency hurts our beloved Lord.

Complacency is self-satisfaction. It is the kind of self-satisfaction that makes us blind to the deficiencies and dangers on the road of life. Complacent people take things for granted. They are happy with their present situation and have no desire for progress. The Lord certainly does not want us to be complacent, to take things for granted, or to be self-satisfied. How does the Lord deliver us from complacency? How does the Lord deliver us from the blindness of self-satisfaction? He does it in at least two ways. Paul said to the Thessalonians, “You were called to holiness. You belong to God. So live up to your dignity as God’s children.” God was using St. Paul to put the Thessalonian community in the right place. God was using human beings to remind people not to become too self-satisfied.

When we are complacent, when we take things for granted, when we become negligent, sometimes the Lord sends a friend to remind us of our priorities. He may send a mother, a father, or somebody else to remind us what we should and should not do. But sometimes, He does not send friends to remind us. Sometimes the Lord does not send parents or relatives who will counsel us. Sometimes, the Lord sends crises into our lives to prevent us from becoming complacent.

The Lord uses crises to prevent us from becoming self-satisfied. The Lord uses it to jolt and shock us so we will recover our senses and return to our priorities. We can all be victims of complacency. Sometimes, the Lord reminds us with a gentle tap on the shoulder from a friend. Sometimes, the Lord encourages us and delivers us from negligence with the kind words of a relative or an officemate. But sometimes, the Lord shocks us and jolts us out of our complacency by sending an illness, a difficulty, or a problem.

Whatever it may be, let us ask the Lord to keep us from falling into complacency. Complacency is the feeling of self-satisfaction that blinds us to dangers or makes us so happy that we can no longer see our deficiencies, faults, and weaknesses. Complacency is perhaps the most common sin in Christian communities, where we take things for granted or become too satisfied with what we do and are. Let us ask the Lord to protect us from taking important things for granted. Let us set our hearts in the right place.

Do you really love the Lord? Do not be satisfied with doing the things He likes. Avoid, too, the things He dislikes.

WHAT’S HURTING YOU?
Jesus Our Light

ads
2
3
4
previous arrow
next arrow

Veritas Editorial

Rev. Fr. Anton CT Pascual

Rev. Fr. Anton CT Pascual

President of Radio Veritas

Ningas-cogon

 34,547 total views

 34,547 total views Kapanalig, ang salitang “NINGAS-COGON” ay tumutukoy sa ugaling Pilipino … Masigasig at masipag sa simula lamang, ngunit walang natatapos sa kalaunan (NEVER TO FINISH WHAT THEY STARTED). ANG “NINGAS-COGON” AY karaniwang maihalintulad sa mga “hearing in-aid of legislation” ng Kongreso na binubuo ng Mababa(Kamara) at Mataas(Senado) na Kapulungan ng Kongreso. Kadalasan, ang Kongreso

Read More »

Job Mismatches

 45,622 total views

 45,622 total views “Job-skills mismatches”, Kapanalig ito ang malaking problema sa Pilipinas na hindi pa rin natutugunan ng pamahalaan at education sector. Sa pag-aaral ng Philippine Business for Education (PBEd), malaki ang ambag ng “job-skills mismatches” sa umployment at underemployment sa bansa kung saan hindi napapakinabangan ang potensyal ng young workforce. Ayon sa Commission on Higher

Read More »

Mining

 51,955 total views

 51,955 total views Kapanalig, nararanasan natin sa Pilipinas maging sa buong mundo ang “climate crisis” na dulot ng climate change o nagbabagong panahon. Ang Pilipinas bilang tropical country ay dumaranas ng mahigit sa 20-bagyo kada taon na nagdudulot ng matinding pinsala sa ari-arian, kabuhayan at buhay ng mga Pilipino. Ngunit sa kabila ng banta ng climate

Read More »

Kasabwat sa patayan

 56,569 total views

 56,569 total views Mga Kapanalig, ganoon na lamang ba kababa ang pagpapahalaga natin sa buhay ng ating kapwa-tao na handa natin itong bawiin ng mga iniluluklok nating berdugo sa ngalan ng pagkakaroon ng payapa at ligtas na kapaligiran? Ganyan kasi ang mapapansin sa mga sentimiyento ng ilan nating kababayan habang isinasagawa ng Senate Blue Ribbon Subcommittee

Read More »

Walang magagawa o hindi handa?

 58,130 total views

 58,130 total views Mga Kapanalig, kasabay ng malakas na ulang dala ng Bagyong Kristine dalawang linggo na ang nakalilipas ang buhos ng batikos kay Pangulong Bongbong Marcos Jr.  Ika-23 ng Oktubre, kasagsagan ng pananalasa ng bagyo, nang bigyan ng situation briefing ng mga pinuno at kinatawan ng iba’t ibang ahensya si PBBM. Papalapit na noon ang

Read More »
catholink
Shadow
truthshop
Shadow

Related Story

Father Soc - Everyday Jesus
Most Rev. Socrates Villegas

3 Cs OF MARY

 8,899 total views

 8,899 total views Sunday is the Lord’s Day. Today is September 8, Sunday. It is also Mary’s day. When we have a choice between the Lord’s Day and Mary’s day, the Lord’s day takes priority. That is why the Mass is not the Mass for the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is the Mass celebrating the 234th

Read More »
Father Soc - Everyday Jesus
Most Rev. Socrates Villegas

Lord Save Us! We Are Perishing! (Matthew 8:25)

 23,949 total views

 23,949 total views Lord Save Us! We Are Perishing! (Matthew 8:25) Pastoral Letter for the Archdiocese of Lingayen Dagupan to be read as homily for all Masses for the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 15 and 16, 2024  Beloved people of God in the Church of Lingayen Dagupan:  The threat is no longer imagined.  It is

Read More »
Father Soc - Everyday Jesus
Most Rev. Socrates Villegas

WOUNDED FOR LOVE

 27,962 total views

 27,962 total views I am sure you know at least one person who has left the Church due to a hurtful experience within it. This individual, once identifying as Catholic, has abandoned their religion because of disappointment with a priest or with people in the Church. Perhaps they encountered a priest who was unfaithful to his

Read More »
Father Soc - Everyday Jesus
Most Rev. Socrates Villegas

ASTONISHED

 54,668 total views

 54,668 total views In one short paragraph, Jesus astonished the people around Him for two significant reasons. Firstly, they were astounded by His preaching. Secondly, they were astounded by His healing. Why were they astonished by His preaching? Because He spoke only the truth. Truth possesses its own power. It requires no sugar coating. It needs

Read More »
Father Soc - Everyday Jesus
Most Rev. Socrates Villegas

ASTONISHED

 55,309 total views

 55,309 total views In one short paragraph, Jesus astonished the people around Him for two significant reasons. Firstly, they were astounded by His preaching. Secondly, they were astounded by His healing. Why were they astonished by His preaching? Because He spoke only the truth. Truth possesses its own power. It requires no sugar coating. It needs

Read More »
Father Soc - Everyday Jesus
Most Rev. Socrates Villegas

GOD DOES NOT LIKE MIRACLES

 55,309 total views

 55,309 total views By nature, we like miracles. When we hear about a miracle or read about it, we rush to the miracle site because we want to experience the supernatural through those miracles. Human beings probably like miracles a lot, but God does not like miracles. That is why miracles happen very rarely. God does

Read More »
Father Soc - Everyday Jesus
Most Rev. Socrates Villegas

DISBELIEF

 55,307 total views

 55,307 total views The story of Zechariah is our story as well. Zechariah received a blessing. We all have been blessed at one point or another in the past. After Zechariah received the blessing, his response was doubt. His response was fear. His response was disbelief. Isn’t that what we often do after we are blessed

Read More »
Father Soc - Everyday Jesus
Most Rev. Socrates Villegas

INSPIRATION!

 55,324 total views

 55,324 total views Once in a while, we come across children who have plenty of toys and children’s books, and yet go to their parents and say, “I am bored.” We see college students shifting from one course to another, not knowing what career path to take, and then they say life is boring. This attitude

Read More »
Father Soc - Everyday Jesus
Most Rev. Socrates Villegas

BLINDNESS

 55,354 total views

 55,354 total views The blind man could not see. That is a fact. Yet, he warns to me that even if he could sense or see with his being, he could not see with his eyes, but he could sense with his heart. That is why he immediately felt the disgust of the crowd. That is

Read More »
Father Soc - Everyday Jesus
Most Rev. Socrates Villegas

BE GRACIOUS

 55,634 total views

 55,634 total views In Grade 3, I learned a poem about good manners: Hearts, like doors, will open with ease With very, very little keys. But don’t forget that two of these Are thank you, sir, and if you please. People who are grateful, people who know how to say thanks sincerely, win the hearts of

Read More »
Father Soc - Everyday Jesus
Most Rev. Socrates Villegas

WHY DO YOU GIVE?

 56,288 total views

 56,288 total views Why do people give? Why do people do good things for other people? Unfortunately, our motivations are not always clear and good. Unfortunately also, we are not always aware of the impurity of our motives. Why do people give and why do people do good things for other people? The first motivation, unexpressed

Read More »
Father Soc - Everyday Jesus
Most Rev. Socrates Villegas

CLAY AND POTTER

 58,030 total views

 58,030 total views Most of us are familiar with the Serenity Prayer: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” The prayer has been adapted by many rehabilitation programs for dependents on drugs, alcohol, gambling, and even

Read More »
Father Soc - Everyday Jesus
Most Rev. Socrates Villegas

RESPECTFUL GOD

 59,018 total views

 59,018 total views Children are expected to respect their parents. Younger people are expected to respect their elders. The laity are expected to respect priests. The priests are expected to respect their bishops. And the principle is—the higher, the more experienced, the older, the more deserving of respect. If we follow the same principle, then God

Read More »
Father Soc - Everyday Jesus
Most Rev. Socrates Villegas

PRAYER IS STRENGTH

 59,443 total views

 59,443 total views Prayer is our strength. Prayer is a strong tool. Where does prayer get its strength? The strength of prayer does not come from the one who prays. The strength of prayer comes from the one to whom it is addressed. In other words, prayer does not become a strong tool because we pray.

Read More »

Latest Blogs

Scroll to Top