My Articulate Heart

God our father has authored our lives in perfect love and that's why He has authority over us. God created us not out of necessity but out of love. He created us so that we might be like Him. We are created in God's own image that is "perfect love". God's authority is the result of His love for us. Because His authority is founded on perfect love, it does not insist to assert His own will upon us. It instead upholds and respects our freedom to choose. His authority wants us to make our choices in perfect freedom. His loving authority desires to perfect us even when we reject His perfect love and choose evil. We see this love at work in the self gift of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection restoring for us what we lost due to our disobedience. In lieu of the perfect reparation Christ accomplished on the cross He gave us His authority by commanding us to love as He loves us. This is why the authority that God grants us as husbands, parents, administrators, m...

If a man who is set free from chains continues to live as if in chains, what is freedom! Freedom becomes liberation only when we live it. The sacraments cannot do what it is capable of doing, if we do not live the truth it embodies. If baptism freed us from the clutches of sin and restored our sonship, why do we still sin? If Eucharist is the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus given to us as his self gift, why despite frequent reception we remain unchanged?. Why despite so many confessions, we have the same laundry list?. Is it because of the inefficacy of the sacraments itself or because we deceive ourselves? Are we not trying to false justify ourselves and experience some kind of a phony make over by queuing up to receive these sacraments? Fact is we do not want to change. We love our sins. We have blinded ourselves and denied us the reality of the ultimate ecstasy we are capable experiencing in union with God. We h...

The consequence of original sin deprives us of the capacity to love as God loves. The lack of love within causes us to sin. Sin committed by all generations is a result of the original sin. By offering himself as a ransom Jesus paid the price for the original sin once and for all thus Jesus’ sacrifice is a valid reparation for  all sins. In baptism you and I receive the merit of Jesus’ priceless redemptive work -freely. This is called sanctifying grace. By choosing to submit their will to the source of death (satan) and rejecting God the father, the source of life, our first parents deprived themselves of the divine life they shared with God. This resulted in a wound (vacuum) deep within that kept humanity enslaved to sin. We too have inherited this woundedness and are thus inclined to sin. Today you and I who are baptized have the sanctifying grace unless we reject it by un- repented sins. But we have a wounded heart too. Primary objective of Jesus’ incarnation was to heal t...

When we decide to try harder and love Jesus more, we unfortunately are being proud. Even though our intention of choosing to try harder and love Jesus more is highly desirable and life giving, it renders fruitless and short-lived because we choose to be 'still control' while do this. We bank entirely on our own capacity to fulfill this desire. Since 'human love' is conditional and opportunistic, our physical and emotional conditions greatly influence and regulate the measure of our love for Christ. It even diminishes altogether for a while in worst conditions. This is true as long as we are affected by the consequences of original sin. On the other hand, in order for us to experience Gods love, all we must do is to prepare ourselves to receive this torrential love which is waiting to explode into us, in proportion to the exact measure we open up ourselves. God's love is unconditional and unchanging. It is 'unconditional' because there is nothing we can do ...

Jesus calls each of us to a 'totally faithful' relationship with him when he says "no one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other" [Mathew 6:24]. We see in the Gospels, examples of lives thrown open in total submission to Christ. Let me illustrate three such lives here. First is Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mary's holiness is the result of her total submission to Christ. We see her responding with with emphatic 'yes' when she says 'be it unto me according to thy word'. We witness her life being completely in submission to Christ from beginning to the end and it continues to be so. When Jesus tells the disciples 'my mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and obey it'.[Luke 8.21], he is telling them if you want to know what is it to be mothers and brothers, you must learn from my mother and brothers. The relation Mary shared with Jesus was...

“In order to be successful, we should do our 50%, and God will put in His 50%.” This is the saying we have often heard as we grew up. But is this really the formula for success? I do not think so. No one can truly succeed unless he gives his 100% and then stretches beyond what seems humanly possible. This is not about becoming a workaholic. It is about aspiring to become everything God has created us to be. Seek the Truth How do I begin? The first step is to have an ardent desire to know the truth about everything. Ask yourself: Why am I here on earth? Who put me here? What is my purpose? Where am I going when I die? Why do I die at all? Turn to God for the answers. Turn to Scripture and to the teachings of the Church. Read the YOUCAT, the Youth Catechism, or the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC). Ask people who can guide you. Go before the Blessed Sacrament and ask Jesus these questions. He will guide you to the right resources and, perhaps, whisper the answers into the depths of...

Here is a classic example of how Jesus wants us to stretch beyond what is seemingly possible by human standards. This is not because Jesus is hoping to enjoy some kind of sadistic supremacy over his creation by raising the standards so[oooo] high. But instead he alone knows who we are and what we are capable of. He knows very well that all he has done is now possible for humans through Him. This is precisely why he said "Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father [John 14:12] Now here is what Jesus has to say to us today. “But I say to you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you and pray for those who treat you badly. To the one who strikes you on the cheek, turn the other cheek; from the one who takes your coat, do not keep back your shirt. Give to the one who asks and if anyone has taken something...

Heart is the innermost recess of a man where he meets with himself and God. Man cannot understand one without the other. His understanding of himself will be obscure and distorted if his understanding of God is obscure. And he will not fathom God without understanding first, himself. Heart is where convictions are formulated. The "condition" of our heart defines them. A wounded heart will not be able to make a true and complete assumption concerning anything. It lacks the fullness of love to understand the truth. Heart that needs forgiveness cannot love until it is healed in the light of pure love. Our past experiences, beginning from original sin contribute to our brokenness. Only pure love can heal it. Not human love but the love of the one whose love is eternal, unchanging and unconditional. It is Gods love. It is the pure honey found in the rock. Only God can remove the bitterness within. Truth and Love is insepar...

God’s first command is to “be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1:28). When we reflect on childbirth, we realise that being fruitful can be painful. Every conception leads towards fruition. In the case of childbirth, the seed of life that a woman conceives must eventually be delivered. Her body prepares for this event by dilating and stretching, sometimes painfully, beyond what seems humanly possible. Yet at the end, the reality of a newborn child transforms that pain into an inexplicable joy. On the Cross, Jesus gave Himself to His Bride, and He continues to give Himself in the Eucharist. His Body and ours are united in a one-flesh communion that leads to a similar fruitfulness. To become fruitful, we too must allow ourselves to be stretched beyond what seems humanly possible. When we cooperate with God’s plan, as Mary did and as the Church does, we too can glorify God, and His joy can become complete in us. This is the unconditional, sweet pain we willingly endure for the sake of another....

Sin is the result of not giving God his due, Man his and Myself mine. Sin is the lack of Love. Sin is the reason we will be cast into hell fire. Sin is the root-cause all miseries of mankind. If sin is such dreadful thing, why do we desire it deep within? As St. Paul says why do end up doing what we do not want to do. Blame it on the law of sin at work in our bodies. The world we live-in too is hostile to holy living. WeLooks like sin always has the last laugh! What are we to do? How is holiness possible? How long does it take? Is it worth? On our own, we are incapable of uprooting and avoiding sin. But in Jesus we are more than conquers. Jesus by his perfect obedience, self sacrifice and resurrection destroyed the claw of sin forever. He founded the church upon himself and apostles. He instituted sacraments as a means to give himself to us. Beginning with Baptism, through all the sacraments, Jesus washes us clean by the merit of his perfect sacrifice, gives us his Holy S...