A Thousand Years

After looking at the comments for Christina Perri’s “A Thousand Years” on songmeaning.com I came across these two comments.

Smegumless: “I was quite surprised at these comments and the fact that it was in twilight.
Quite frankly I thought it was about God.”

Madisonx22 replies “Wow....loserrrr! It's obviously about how she's in love with someone.”

It’s shocking to see how Madisonx22 replies to a simple comment. In a way it’s true that Christina Perri had a different reason for writing this song, but it the end we are all created by the same God, who’s beauty we can see present in one another and in the world around us.

God is the source of our being. He created us, but more than that, He gives us our life. He is the reason why we are able to wake up in the morning. He loves us soo much!

Therefore, in order for us to simply exist, we really do need Him in our lives. However, what if He stopped thinking about us. What if for even a second He decided to stop caring for us. We would thus cease to exist because He is the source of our life. He must therefore always, at every single moment, be thinking about us. In other words we can say that He loves us into existence. Not only does he love us ever since we were born, more than that He has always thought about us and loved us even before we were born. He loves us soo much!

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. You turn men back to dust, saying, “Return to dust, O sons of men.” For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. You sweep men away in the sleep of death; they are like the new grass of the morning—though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered.” (Psalm 90: 1-6)

Wow, who would’ve thought how beautifully both this song and this psalm are able to express the same idea. Oh and by the way, when she says, “I have died everyday waiting for you” no person is able to do this, only God. Every single time mass is celebrated Jesus Himself gives Himself to us in the Eucharist, “The Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ.”

Do you have Faith?

"I believe Lord; help my unbelief!" – Mark 9: 24

            This was the question that was posed every day of my life. My answer in the past used to be that Life is too short for answering such an unnecessary question. After all whether God exists or not, what am I but a speck of dust before him. I really didn’t have the time to answer any of these questions in the past. I didn’t have the time to overlook my faith, because I was so busy overlooking myself. Life I used to say was too small for God; or I used to ask why would God love a creature like me anyways? As silly as the idea initially seemed to me, the irony behind it is, now I serve the one I cannot see. One of the most interesting quotes from the teachings of St. Augustine is “Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.”

Faith is one of the most overused and most misinterpreted words in the perspective of the secular media. To the secular society, faith is just to believe. Sometimes faith is just to show how you believe.  Faith is not only to believe; rather it is to put oneself in service of another. Faith is not only to impose believes, but also to trust.

 When soldiers fight battles, they do not fight it for themselves; they fight battles for the sake of their friends and families. We entrust our lives to these young men to protect our country. We put trust in the hands of politicians who serve this country, but yet sometimes we fail to trust in God. God demands not only belief. St. Alphonsus Ligori in his, Sermons for all Sundays of the year, tells us that even the devil trembles in fear in the belief that God exists. To have faith requires not only belief, but it requires trust, perseverance, love and service. All of this defines the value of the Catholic life and the value of faith. This is what it means to have faith in God, it is not merely to believe that he exists, but also to trust him and to put our lives down for him. This mere definition carves a huge difference between a saint and a devil. We are called to not only believe, but also trust him even amidst the storms of the seas of life.

Believing or Be-living?

Did you receive Jesus in the Eucharist today? If so, did you allow it to change the way you live your life? Did you allow his love to permeate your entire being, your entire life?

As a simple reminder yet a difficult challenge, let us each live up to our potential (which is the very being of Jesus Christ, whom we receive). If we truly believed in the Eucharist, we would change the way we live completely.

What is true love?

     What is true love? Is it as simple as the way kids think it is? We tend to complicate it, but in reality it is quite simple. We see it in the friendship we share with one another, in the self-sacrifice of those who truly care about us. We see it in the care our parents show us. This is the type of love which we see from those who truly care for our well-being. Well then, is this not enough? Why are we not satisfied with the love we already receive from those around us?

     My answer for this is quite simple. We are searching to understand that we are loved in the most perfect way. We want to be loved for who we truly are and that no matter what we do we want to know that we are still loved. This is exactly the type of love we receive from God, who created us and loved us into existence. Not only does He shows us His love in those around us (whom He created), more importantly, He wants be a part of our lives. God is Love. We glorify Him in the way we love others.

     So let us not leave it till Valentine’s Day to show others we love them. Let every moment of our days be an expression of love towards others.