my Articulate Heart

Drug abuse is the denial of our fundamental right to have life. And those who are involved in the business of providing drugs to people, especially little children, are either ignorant of the gravity of damage they are causing or they are simply blinded by the false hope money gives. We know that our body is sacred and the Triune God dwells there. Our body is not a prison or a useless shell from which we must escape from, as some believe. But instead it is a sacrament that manifests the invisible mysteries of God. We see the true beauty of the human body on the cross, in mother Mary and in the lives of Saints. We believe in the glorious resurrection of our bodies just as Christ experienced it. Yes, it is in the same body with which we are going to spend eternity in union with God. The human body is sacred and priceless. Man’s rejection of God (Original Sin) has caused human lives to become treacherous and painful. But God out of mercy and love towards His own suffering children se

Often we think, God was punishing Adam and Eve when He sent them out of the Garden of Eden. We also think, God was cursing them when He said to man "you will live by the sweat of your brow," and to the women "you will suffer the pain of labor." God did not cast them out of the Garden. They distanced themselves from God when they sinned. This distancing is the natural result of sin. Nobody can come into the presence of God without holiness. We see how Adam and Eve hide themselves behind the bushes. We see them trying to cover themselves with leaves. That’s what sin does to us. It distances us from the presence of God. Sin is not an act but a condition – the condition where man loses his capacity to know, love and serve God, and also his neighbor, even if it is not lost completely. The acts we commit are the fruit of this condition. Are we not then confessing only the fruits and not the condition itself! We also see how God covers Adam and Eve with animal ski

Even though a man sincerely chooses to follow Christ, the sinful nature in him remains. He is able to follow Christ not because he is already free from his sin but because God loved him first. When we repent and turn to Christ, the grace that God weaves around us is much like a cocoon. Grace is the loving, living presence of God. This unconditional love and the faithful presence of God provide us the right condition to grow and emerge into a beatiful butterfly. When we begin to live in the grace of God, we live no longer by the law of flesh but by the law of the Holy Spirit. We experience freedom. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. [Rom 8:2] This cocoon around us is weakened when we commit venial sins and it is completely destroyed when we are in mortal sin. As we know little sin draws us to little more sin. It is so because si

Christ offers healing, restoration and rehabilitation of our body, mind and soul. He will bring it to perfection when He returns in Glory to take us home. Jesus, the Son of God, became like one of us, except in sin. He took our brokenness, sicknesses and sinfulness upon himself and gave us his perfect body in exchange. He distributes the merit of the the finished work on the cross through the sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Reconciliation - healing, restoring and rehabilitating us. Christ comes to dwell in us. And thus we can say: It’s no longer I, but Jesus who lives in me. He Heals me, Restores me and Rehabilitates me During the last supper, breaking the bread, Jesus said, this is my body given up for you, take and eat it. He did the same with his blood. Jesus reminded us that He is the bread from heaven. His is the blood that will be poured out for the remission of our sins. He chose to let his body be mutilated for our sake so that we can be healthy and free f

It is the experience of “being healed from sicknesses” that makes people venture out, crossing the lake and climbing the mountain, to meet Jesus again. Refer John 6:1 On the mountain, Jesus gives them the Word and soon undertakes to give them the bread. This is clearly a sign leading to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The celebration of the Holy Mass is our participation in the perfect worship Jesus offers to the Father on our behalf. It has the Word and the Bread [body and Blood of Jesus] central to it. The barley loaves and fish the boy gives, represent the work of our hands and fruit of our labour - both good and bad, inadequate, short-lived and imperfect. Jesus receives our imperfections and gives back his own flesh in the form of the Eucharistic Bread - feeding the hungry and healing the sick. Jesus here also presents himself as the New Moses and the New Manna. When Jesus asks Philip “Where can we buy some bread for these people to eat?” [John 6:4-6] He was paraphrasing Moses

Wrestling with God is the battle man experiences within. Jacob of the old testament is known for wrestling with the angel of God. Genesis 32:22-28 - The same night he [Jacob] got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” Post the fight, God called Jacob “Israel”. Is-ra-el in Hebrew means "the man who wrestled with G

Jesus came to save mankind from their sins. Mathew 1:21 Saving the mankind from sin also means saving them from their sickness because it is sin that causes sickness. And therefore it is forgiveness of Sins that initiate healing. [CCC 1502,1503] [1502 The man of the Old Testament lives his sickness in the presence of God. It is before God that he laments his illness, and it is of God, Master of life and death, that he implores healing. Illness becomes a way to conversion; God's forgiveness initiates the healing. It is the experience of Israel that illness is mysteriously linked to sin and evil, and that faithfulness to God according to his law restores life: "For I am the Lord, your healer." The prophet intuits that suffering can also have a redemptive meaning for the sins of others. Finally Isaiah announces that God will usher in a time for Zion when he will pardon every offense and heal every illness. 1503 Jesus has the power not only to heal, but also to forgive s