He is back!!! A ghost story?

Every time we hear of a ghost story, typically the ghost is back to get revenge to the people who have caused him harm. Just imagine what the apostle would have felt when they heard Jesus was back! “He’s baaaaaaaack!!! They might have been really scared knowing they betrayed Jesus. Peter even denied knowing him. What fear must have overwhelm them when they first saw Him. But Jesus first words was “Shalom” or “Peace”. The apostles must be surprised with those words! Jesus was not out to “get ‘em’”. But also Jesus shows them His wounds to remind them of what they have done. But that is how God is with us. He doesn’t point fingers and says “You fool! Look what you have done to me!” Even though how much we betray and crucify Jesus with our unfaithfulness and sins, He still says to us “Peace! Do not be afraid!” He has come for the very reason that we are sinners! Yes we have hurt God in so many ways! But God continue to “haunt” us. He continually wants to bring Peace in our lives! He wants to free us from our slavery to sin, the cause of all our anxiety. So matter what you have done, do not be afraid of God. He only wants to bring peace in your life.

Shalom!

Blog by Daxx Bondoc
(www.inspirationalblogs.com)

*If you want to repost this blog please include “ From Inspirationalblogs.com “ and the end.

Lent and Lord of the Rings

One thing we can do this Lent is watch the Lord of the Rings, specially the Return of the King. But when we watch the Lord of the Rings we must put our spiritual glasses, Christian glasses more specifically. JR Tolkien was a devout Catholic and wrote the Lord of the Rings with a lot of Christian themes. First the LOTR is a story unlike many other fairy tales of pursuing something, like rescuing a damsel in distress or a quest for the Holy grail, but it is a saga of destroying a ring. Let us look at Christianity, the basic story of Christianity is that God comes down to humanity not to get “something” but to destroy something, SIN in particular. Jesus sacrificed Himself so sin might be destroyed and eventually save us. Frodo volunteers himself to carry the ring to Mount Doom to destroy it save the Shire. We can also see how Frodo felt the weight of the Ring as he carries it. Jesus bore our sins for us, that is why we call Him, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” Frodo is also that lamb, of all the members of the Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo was the most weak and helpless, like a lamb, but he was the only one who could bear the ring. Here we can see that Sin can never be defeated by force, but by self-sacrificing love. We cannot fight fire with fire, the fire only gets worst. A saint once said, one of the greatest weapons against the devil is humility and self-sacrifice, he has no defense against it. We can see all through out the movie the value of self-sacrifice until the end. Watch the Lord of the Rings this Holy week and observe carefully the Christian themes and values displayed there.

Note: In our world of dog eat dog, where we use force and step on others to get our selfish goals, it is always the meek, like Frodo and Jesus, will be the one always remembered the most. Many respects the poor Mother Teresa than the billionaires of this world, I don’t even know their names.

Blog by Daxx Bondoc
(www.inspirationalblogs.com)

*If you want to repost this blog please include “ From Inspirationalblogs.com “ and the end.

Samurai X Part 1

My most favorite anime is Samurai X. The animation is not just great but the script as well. It’s a story of Kenshin, a samurai man-slayer, an assassin of the government in other words during the Tokugawa era. After killing so many lives he decided to give up killing and live a life of a wanderer. Now he uses his sword to protect people, specially the week. He vowed not to take any life for what ever reason, even his enemies. No life was taken by his sword in the whole series. The story also involves the people he have met as wanderer which became his friends. He has risked his life and even ready to sacrifice it for their sake.

Now what did I learned from Kenshin?

First, it is never too late to change, no matter what your past is? That’s what always Kenshin tells people. To make amends for his killing he is now using his sword to protect people. Many of us get stuck from because of our past. Because of our past misdeeds we can never change to a better person. We have given up on ourselves. But no one is past redemption. Everyone of us has a chance to set things right and to live a meaningful life no matter what we have done in the past. We can only look at St Paul, a murder of the early Christians. God converted him to become the Apostles to the gentiles. Or my other favorite, St Augustine, who has chastity issues, he considered himself a slave if his flesh. But the grace of God he became one of the great doctors of the church. All of us is given a chance to live a life of purpose and meaning, if we want to. Change is always available to those who wants it.

Going out our way

Every Wednesday of the month I join the sisters to go out the mountains to give medicines to the poor who can’t afford to buy them. I really enjoy going with them. For me it’s living the Gospel in a real way. It reminds me of Jesus going town to town to heal the sick. In their own little way, the sisters bring healing to the poor by the medicines they are giving freely. “What you freely receive freely give.” But what I really like with our mountain dispensaries is it reflects God’s love for us. God is the one who comes down to be with us, he sought out us first. The parable of the Lost Sheep shows God going out of his way to seek the one lost sheep. He did not wait for the sheep to come back to the fold, but he went out to find him. Jesus did not wait in heaven to be with us sinners, but He went down and became one with us so to be with us. It’s a deeper charity when we go out our comfort zones to help the suffering, to go to them than them going to us. In going out and seeking the suffering we resemble Jesus more. That is the whole point of the Incarnation. God so loved the us that He sent his only Son that all might be saved.

Blog by Daxx Bondoc
(www.inspirationalblogs.com)

*If you want to repost this blog please include “ From Inspirationalblogs.com “ and the end.