a Reflection on "Service" (V) Closing

--continuing

This is what service is all about. It is about giving our Life fully to God. It's about sacrifice. Since there is no Love without sacrifice as there is no happiness without Love.

Service is not just a duty. It's not about what we have to do. It's about giving our Life fully. It's a realization of Love. For Love comes not in words but in deeds. It is not in flower but in blood.

To serve means to Love. Since we do not really Love if we do not serve. If Love is only to satisfy our selves, and if Love is only directed to our ego, then it is not Love. It is selfish. Love is true only when it goes outward, only when Love is being given. Love is true when we serve, for when we serve we give Love. It is not a service then, when we do not Love.

This is the reason why we serve: because we Love. Because we Love, then we simply want to give our Life fully. To serve is not to be a worship leader, to serve is not to play music, to serve is not to give teachings. To serve is to give our Life. Some give themself by being worship leaders, others by stacking up the chairs. But what is the same is that both give themselves fully.

It is in service that we learn to Love. It is in service we learn to sacrifice, which is the true Love. It is in service that we find our happiness.

9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love.
10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.
11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
John 15:9-11

12 "And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I command you this day for your good?
Deut 10:12-13

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. "
John 13:34


45 Man is made to live in communion with God in whom he finds happiness: When I am completely united to you, there will be no more sorrow or trials; entirely full of you, my life will be complete (St. Augustine, Conf. 10, 28, 39: PL 32, 795}.


Psa 37:4 Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam
--For the Greater Glory of God--

a Reflection on "Service" (IV)

--continuing

Now we realized that "to serve" the Lord goes along with "to Love" the Lord. And by this Love we find our desire.

How does service and Love related to one another? I still remember the time when I reflect this, and it was during the Holy Week, the day before Good Friday, it was on Holy Thursday. I entered the church for the celebration, and the Gospel was taken from John, the Washing of Feet.

you can read the passage at here.

As I reflect on John 13, I realized that God speaks about Love and service. Most of the time we read the passage of Washing of Feet only in the context of service, and not in the context of Love. But John started the story in the context of Love.

1 Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
John 13:1

Love must begin the story. Love was the motive. Love was the reason. It is because Jesus Loves us who are in this world, He loves us to the end.

What story to begin then? is it the washing of feet? No, It's the story of the greatest sacrifice. It is the story when Jesus gave Himself to us, body and blood.

You might be wondering why do I say this. In Holy Thursday, we celebrated the Feast of the institution of the Eucharist. It is the Feast when Jesus gave Himself, body and blood, out of Love.

It is surprising that John never told the story of the Institution of the Eucharist itself. The other Gospels wrote about the institution of the Eucharist when Jesus said, "This is my Body...This is my Blood". Instead, John replace it with the story of Washing of Feet. And the more surprising is that during the Feast of the Institution of the Eucharist it is the Gospel of John that is being read.

I then realized that the story of Washing of Feet, the story of service, is actually the story of Sacrifice, it is the story of Love.

Joh 15:13 Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

There is no Love when there is no sacrifice. Love shows it self not in rommance, but in sacrifices.

Mat 20:28 even as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

I often read the verse in Mat 20 as something seperate. That Jesus came to serve and to give His life. But I never realized that actually Jesus said about the same thing. This is His service, to give His Life as a ransom for many.

Bishop Fulton Sheen once said that Jesus did not come only to teach or to do miracles, but Jesus came to die on the Cross.

This life giving is His service.

"the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

That day, the Holy Thursday, is the day of sacrifice, is the day of Love. On that day, He started the sacrifice which He completed on Good Friday. The washing of feet is the giving of His body and blood. The story of service is actually the story of Life Giving. The reason is simply Love. Because He loves us to the end.

And this what Jesus told us after He washed the disciples' feet.

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. "
John 13:34

To Love as Jesus has loved us, to Love by giving our Life as Jesus gave His Life.

Next: Closing >>
---to be continued.

a Reflection on "Service" (III)

--continuing

It is by Loving and being Loved that we enter union with God, and by entering this union with God we find our desire.

Love is the greatest commandment. I once thought that this is a new commandment that Jesus gave but I was wrong. The old testament has mentioned the same thing and Jesus,-- the Word of God Himself, the author of the Old testament-- reinforced what He has spoken.

4 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD;
5 and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.
Deut 6:4-5

Does this sound like what Jesus said? And in another passage of the Old testament, it is written.

12 "And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I command you this day for your good?
Deut 10:12-13

It is for our good (v13) that God gave His commandments. His commandments is to Love, to Love our God above all else.

It is interesting to note that Deut 10:12 is about the same as Deut 6:5.

love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.
Deut6:5

to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
Deut 10:12

The difference is that in Deut 10 adds the word "to serve" after the word "to love". We often have a wrong impression about service since our thought would always think about a duty, a thing we have to do, an obligation.

But here, to serve the Lord is only related by the word Love. Serving the Lord must be seen in the context of Love. Serving God must be based on one motive, that is Love.

I remember when I joined the ministry in my prayer meeting, there was a session given by my brother Riko and He asked what was our motive in serving the Lord. We all had our answers, and yet he said the only motive is Love. Out of Love do we serve God.

Next >>
---to be continued

a Reflection on "Service" (II)

---continuing

We might ask, how is this all related to serving God? Do I have to serve in order to find my happiness? Why don't we forget the topic about service at all. Let us just talk more on finding our happiness.

St. Augustine said,

45 Man is made to live in communion with God in whom he finds happiness: When I am completely united to you, there will be no more sorrow or trials; entirely full of you, my life will be complete (St. Augustine, Conf. 10, 28, 39: PL 32, 795}.

It is by living in communion with God that we can find happiness. It is when we are fully united to God, fully united, that we will surely find happiness. For God is Love, and in Love we find happiness, and this happiness is our desire in Life.

How do then we live in communion with God?

9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love.
10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.
11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
John 15:9-11

This is what Jesus told us, to Live in communion in Him means to live in a communion of Love. But how do we enter into this communtion? How do we enter the union of Love of God. Jesus told us by "keeping His commandments". Most of us always have a negative impression on the words commandments, yet His commandment is simply to Love.

12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
John 15:12

36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"
37 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
38 This is the great and first commandment.
39 And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Mat 22:36-39

It is not a burden since in Love we find what we actually want, that is happiness, our desire. It is by Loving and by being Loved that we enter union with God, and by entering this union with God, we find our desire.

Next >>
---to be continued

a Reflection on "Service" (I)

Dearest brothers and sisters,
I would like to share my reflection on service. I often ask myself what is the important of service and serving the Lord. Why do we serve? Do we have to serve God?

My first thought why we serve God goes back to my first Life in the Spirit Seminar (LISS). In the "Growth" session the speaker told me and the other participants about four things that makes our spiritual lives going: prayer, reading the Word of God, community, and service. And since that LISS, I went to my prayer meeting and tried to serve God in the community.

But why do we have to serve God? can we not just enjoying our lives? Well I sometimes ask this questions.

Recently I came to a prayer meeting and the speaker said something that made me realize onething. He said, "We usually think that doing the will of God is something that contradicts our will to be happy. It does not."

It does not contradict at all. Achieving our own happiness and the doing the will of God is something that goes along the way. But most of us, if not all of us, always think that if I do the will of God, then it means I have to sacrifice my own happiness. It shouldn't be.

As I reflect on this, I realize that it is true. It does not contradicts at all. It is not that we have to serve, but we Want to serve. It is our desire to serve God. Hey, wait a minute! you might say, I don't really think so. It's not me.

I love to start by thinking what do we actually really desire? We have a lot of answers to this questions. But if we really go deeper and ask ourselves, each and everyone of us would answer the same thing,"Happiness".

Deep inside our hearts, we long for happiness.

We all want to live happily; in the whole human race there is no one who does not assent to this proposition, even before it is fully articulated.

---St. Augustine

The cathecism of the catholic church even speaks of this:

1718 The Beatitudes respond to the natural desire for happiness. This desire is of divine origin. God has placed it in the human heart in order to draw man to the One who alone can fulfill it:

How is it, then, that I seek you, Lord? Since in seeking you, my God, I seek a happy life, let me seek you so that my soul may live, for my body draws life from my soul and my soul draws life from you.

--St. Augustine

God alone satisfies.

--St. Thomas Aquinas

It human desire to be happy. It my desire to live a happy life, it is your desire as well. And this desire is natural, it is in every human heart.

Where can we find this happiness? How can we obtain this happiness? I tried to think about this and what I found is that we can find happiness in Love. It is when I experience Love and when I give love to others that I feel most happy. Doesn't it make sense?

We desire for happiness, and this happiness can be found in Love. And God is Love.

1John 4:8 " He who does not love does not know God; for God is love."

45 Man is made to live in communion with God in whom he finds happiness: When I am completely united to you, there will be no more sorrow or trials; entirely full of you, my life will be complete (St. Augustine, Conf. 10, 28, 39: PL 32, 795}.

Next >>
----to be continued

Baptism, why? (X) Closing...

---continuing

This is the wonder of being part of the Body of Christ, which is the Church. That we, as His Body united with Jesus the Head, receives Life. The head gives life to the Body.

This is what Baptism brings to us, New Life in God. So that we may be one with God, truly one. And this is What God wants from our lives, to be united fully with Him in His Love, to Love and to enjoy His love.

This is what Jesus prayed before He was arrested. This is His prayer for us.

20 I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word,

21 that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

22 The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,

23 I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me.

24 Father, I desire that they also, whom thou hast given me, may be with me where I am, to behold my glory which thou hast given me in thy love for me before the foundation of the world.

25 O righteous Father, the world has not known thee, but I have known thee; and these know that thou hast sent me.

26 I made known to them thy name, and I will make it known, that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them."

This is what Jesus wants from us, so that we may be in Him, united through His Body. So that we may enjoy the Love of the Father who is in Jesus, the source and the Giver of Life.

Dearest brothers and sisters, how wonderful it is our christian life, how amazing it is our destiny, which is to be with God and to share Life with God. And how precious it is our baptism as we enter into this communion of Life with God. That we become the children of God who are waiting to be fully united with God at the end of our lives.

As I reflect on my own baptism, I realized that sometimes I could not appreciate the gift of being "born catholic". I still remember there was one time when someone asked me "Why were you baptized as a catholic?". And I answered him, "Well, I was born catholic, I do not know, I did not choose to be". Well I did not lie.

One day as I am reading the bible, I came across the passage of the Samaritan Woman. I believe that you all know the story. Jesus was sitting at the well and there came a samaritan woman. And jesus asked her "Give me a drink".

And you know the rest of the story, the samaritan woman found that Jesus is the Messiah and the whole town people were converted and believe in Jesus.

One interesting thing is that until the very end, the samaritan woman never give Jesus a drink. Sound ridiculous right? But even when His disciple offered Him a food, Jesus refused and said, "I have food to eat of which you do not know....My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work. " John 4:7-34

Then why the first time Jesus asked the woman "Give me a drink"? Why did not jesus take a drink by himself then? Have you ever wonder the same thing?

Jesus knew very well what He is going to do when He said , "Give me a drink". Jesus is the one who calls the samaritan woman and not the samaritan woman who is choosing Jesus. Jesus is the one who took the first step. He is the one who calls and He is the who draws people to Himself.

"Give me a drink" is Jesus personal invitation to the woman so that she may find the true God. Jesus started the conversation. Jesus took the initiatives. He did not interested to drink the water, He is interested to call the samaritan woman.

And how the Bible reminds us when Jesus said, "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. " John 15:16

I did not choose Him, but He chose me.

Brothers and sisters, let us be aware of this wonderful of baptism, the grace of New Life with God. And no matter how we are baptized or for whatever reason it is, Jesus knows what He is doing. Jesus starts the call. Jesus takes the initiatives. We did not choose but Jesus chose. We are simply chosen.

As I end my sharing here, let us all live our baptism daily. To die to ourselves and to live for God, to say no to ourselves and to say Yes to God daily, to say yes to the Life of Love. Let us unite ourselves in His own Life, in His love.

"And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. "

Baptism, why? (IX) The mystery of the Body...

---------continuing

How great it is to be called the children of God, yet sometimes we just do not realize it. St. John the apostle said, "See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now;..." 1 John 3:1-2

This is wonderful, we have become part of God's family, God's household as St. Paul said, "So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, ..." Eph 2:19

What is this household? household is a family, God's own family. But Paul give another name to this Family. In Paul's letter to Timothy he said, "... you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth. " 1 Tim 3:15

We have become part of the Church. God's household, or God's family is The Church, the Body of Christ.

Through baptism, by dying and rising, we have become the Body of Christ.

What is so great about being the Body of Christ?

Have you ever wonder why St. Paul used the analogy that the church is the Body and Christ is the head? "For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. " Eph 5:23

Why head and body?

I myself never realy bother about this until one day I read the notes in my bible about the word "head".

In the first century medical point of view, the head is the source of live to the whole body. Head gives Life to the Body. Body has its Life only from the Head. This is how they think. And this is why St. Paul use the word of Body for the Church and Christ as the Head.

We are His Body. And by being His body, we receives Life from Him. We receives Life from God. And this is our purpose, this is our destiny. To be in union with God, to be a real sharer of God's own Life.

And we obtain this Life, by being His body, by being the Church. Through Baptism, We have become part of the Body of Christ. And by becoming part of the Body of Christ, we receives God's own Life. By being members of God's Church, We Live.

Next: Closing...
-------to be continued

Baptism, why? (VIII) Baptism...amazing Love

----------continuing

This is our baptism. To die to our old self together with Jesus, and to rise again to live in a new Life in Jesus. In the words of St.Paul, "We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." Romans 6:4

Through Baptism, we might walk in newness of Life. What kind of life is it? It's the Life in union with God. It's the union with God's own Life. It's the life in a communion of Love with Love itself. And this is the purpose of what we have been created for. To be with God, To love God as God loves us. To be in union with God. Through Baptism, which dying to our self and being born in God, We obtain our heart's most desire.....union with God.

This dying and rising again is our baptism. This is what everyone of us have to undergo if we want to be in union with God. "We must be born a new". What is the fruit of this dying and rising? We become in union with God. What is the most perfect union that we may have? A family! We become God's own family. We are God's children, part of God's household, a real sharer of Divine Life.

Let us pause for a moment to think about this reality. I called this reality because most of us would feel nothing about it or amaze about it. But reality does not require whether we believe it or not. Reality happens already either we believe it or even if we do not. Our believe and feeling does not form reality.

Let us reflect the wonders of being God's own children. Let's think what does it mean when God shares His life to us.

I love to imagine things when I reflect. And I would like to ask you to imagine together with me as we reflect this reality.

Imagine that you are a poor man or woman, have nothing but your own body. And suddenly one day, a good old man see you and decided to take you as his own children. What would you feel? It's great. The old man decided to share everything that he has to you, even his love. What a great feeling to be loved.

Now imagine that the old man who adopt you is not just and ordinary man. He is a King of a mighty country. And Now, you are the children of the King. You, from a poor man or woman, now become the King's own children. And amazingly the King give anything for you, the King love you very much that He shares His very own Love and feeling with you, the poor.

And Hey, Imagine if the old man is the master and King of the world, he has everything in the world, and everything in the world belongs to him. And now you become His children, a poor man or woman, now sharing life with the master of the world.

Now stop for a while, and try to imagine the universe in your mind, how big is the universe with the stars and the galaxy. and This King of the Universe look at you and say, "From now on you are my children".

How amazing it is. And God is not just the King of the Universe, He is the Creator of the Universe, if you can imagine universe with its boundaries, then God is even greater than those.

As I think about this, I started to reflect on this wonders on the other way around. What is other way ?

Imagine now that you are the old man. And you see a poor kid. And then you decided to take him as your own children. You give everything for this kid. You love him and you care for him.

And now, you see a dog on the street. And you look at this dog, and you said to this dog, "I want to take you as my own, my own children". What a strange thing this is. A man want to be in common-union with a Dog. And you Loved this Dog, and You share everything with this dog as your own children. Can you imagine this is you?

And let us go even further. Imagine that you see a mosquito. And you said to yourself, "I love this mosquito and I want to share my life with you." then you give everything to this mosquito. You called this mosquito your beloved son. And you shared your life to this mosquito.

Wow, and not just sharing your life, you decided to be a mosquito simply because you want this mosquito to be in union with you. You became a mosquito so that this mosquito may be come like you and share your own love and life.

Did I go to the extreme? It is not that I want to degrade the dignity of human being, No. I simply want to exalt the greatness of God. God has created us worthy and precious.

If you can imagine yourself and mosquito then try to fit in the size of the universe and its boundaries into your head. If you can not, then realize one thing. What God is doing to us can not be comparable to what you would do to this mosquito, for God is even greater than the universe. God is much much much greater and holy than we, his creation.

How amazing is this Love, a God, the Creator of all things decided to look at us, a creation. And this is the reality. Through baptism, we have become God's own and God shares His Love and His life to us.

Next: The mystery of the Body
----------to be continued

Baptism, why? (VII) Now..baptism..

--------continuing

Finally we mention something about baptism. And this is really what Jesus did. After He talked with Nicodemus that we Must be born anew, Jesus went and baptized.

Many of us, I believe, would feel that this topic "dying to oneself and rising to new Life with God" is something that is too theological. This is not something practical or something down to earth. This belongs to the spiritual realm that we do not understand.

But as I think again, this is not so. This is human being Life. This is what Nature lives. Look at the seed that dies to give life to the new plants. Look at the caterpillar which dies to itself and become a butterfly. Look at our family.

What is better to express this dying and living to new life rather than when a man and a woman enters into a communion of life. As the man or the woman stops living for themselves only, they start to live for each other. They leave their old lives and enter into a new life that is self-giving. As they become parents, they stop to think of their own happiness and they start to give themselves to love the children. How many sacrifices that each has to made for the love of the other. And this is what the church says about marriage

1609 ..... After the fall, marriage helps to overcome self-absorption, egoism, pursuit of one's own pleasure, and to open oneself to the other, to mutual aid and to self-giving.

And so are we with God. This is not "not down to earth". This is human life. As we enter into a communion with God which is self-giving and loving unconditionally, we have to died to our old life that is full of self-absorption, egoism, pursuing our own pleasure.

As Jesus said, "You must be born anew".

And it is interesting to see that as Jesus put the necessity to be born anew, He started to baptize. Several time Jesus talked about baptism. This is one occasion when Jesus mention about His own baptism

Another passage is at Luke

"I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it is accomplished! " Luke 12:50

Hey, take a look at the chapter where gospel writer put it. It is Luke chapter 12. But Jesus is baptized at the Jordan in Luke chapter 3. So what does that mean? What baptism that Jesus is talking about in chapter 12? What kind of baptism that Jesus wishes to be accomplished?

Let us look at another passage from Mark.

37 And they said to him, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory."

38 But Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?"

39 And they said to him, "We are able." And Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized;

Mark 10:37-39

James and John want to sit in Jesus' Glory, but what did Jesus answer? Are you able to drink the cup that I drink? to be baptized with my baptism?

What baptism is it?

Jesus is refering to His Passion and His Ressurection. This is Jesus Baptism. This is what Jesus wishes to be accomplished. And this is the way the He said to James and John if they want to sit with Him in Glory. This is what Jesus is telling each and everyone of us to be united with God, to enter into this communion of Love, to love as God loves us. This is our baptism.

Next: Baptism...amazing Love
------to be continued

Baptism, why? (VI) The paschal mystery...

----continuing

How wonderful it is to be in union with God. It's about loving and being loved by Love itself. Isn't Love that man are looking for in their life? And Now Love is inviting us to come. Love has told us that it is our destiny to Love and to be Loved.

How to be in this union? how to unite ourselves with this Divine? How to enter into this communion of Love? ......This is what father Errasto Fernandes called the Paschal Mystery...

If you recall the first time I mentioned about the purpose of our lives, I quoted from a book. And the chapter title where it says about this wonderful purpose of our lives is "The Paschal Mystery".

The writer of the book told us that Paschal mystery is about enter the union of God. It's about dying and rising. It's dying to ourselves and rising into new life with God. There is no other way to enter into this communion of Love other than dying to ourselves and rising into new life with God.

Why is it so? why is it so difficult? why can't we just enter into union with God? Why do we have to die to ourselves? What does it mean to die to ourselves?

The writer also said that we, human, are not able to accept God's Life unless we first leave or surrender our own distinctive (yet selfish)human life.

We, human, can not be in union with God's unconditional and unselfish love unless we leave our self centred Life. I was surprised by this statement because I realized that I sometimes, or more exactly often, lives only for ME.

Who is the centre of my life but not Me?

And this is the very reason that we cannot enter into God's own Life. God's union is self-giving, God's love is unconditional, His Love is faithful and sacrificial. This is impossible for us if we put ourselves in the centre of our lives.

But then how to enter into this union if this is impossible? It is impossible for man, but nothing is impossible for God. God came down and became flesh, he died and rose again. Jesus in his humanity brings all human race in His dying and His rising.

From CCC
654 The Paschal mystery has two aspects: by his death, Christ liberates us from sin; by his Resurrection, he opens for us the way to a new life. This new life is above all justification that reinstates us in God's grace, "so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."526 Justification consists in both victory over the death caused by sin and a new participation in grace.527 It brings about filial adoption so that men become Christ's brethren, as Jesus himself called his disciples after his Resurrection: "Go and tell my brethren."528 We are brethren not by nature, but by the gift of grace, because that adoptive filiation gains us a real share in the life of the only Son, which was fully revealed in his Resurrection.

Wait, wait. This passage is too long, I get lost when I read it. What does it tells us, Jesus by His dying and His rising has open for us the way to New Life. And what is this new Life? This is a new Life as God's children. Take a look again at the last sentence, it says this adoption (to be God's children) makes us to have "a real share in the Life of the only Son". a real share in the Life of Jesus, the Life of God.

Isn't it what we are meant to be, to share in God's own Life, and What is the Life of God ? isn't it simply Love. And What is a communion of Love if not a Family? And here we are now, God's own family.

Here we are. We are called to die to ourselves and rise again into new Life. How is it possible for us except by uniting ourselves to Jesus who has died and rose again for us? This is what is written in CCC

793 Christ unites us with his Passover: all his members must strive to resemble him, "until Christ be formed" in them.227 "For this reason we . . . are taken up into the mysteries of his life, . . . associated with his sufferings as the body with its head, suffering with him, that with him we may be glorified."228

This is how we are taken up into the mysteries of Jesus's Life, the Mystery of God's Life, by uniting ourselves with His suffering and at the end we may be in union in His Glory. This is the way to enter into God's Life, by dying and rising together with jesus.

This might sound too difficult. But this is what God is telling us. What does it mean when Jesus said, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. " Mat 16:24, What does it mean by "deny himself"? What does it mean by taking our cross? It is to die to our old self and be born again into New Life.

Let's listen to Jesus as He speaks to Nicodemus.

3 Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

4 Nicode'mus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"

5 Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

7 Do not marvel that I said to you, `You must be born anew.'

And after Jesus speak to Nicodemus, Let us see what Jesus did.

22 After this Jesus and his disciples went into the land of Judea; there he remained with them and baptized.

Next: Now Baptism
------to be continued