My HOMILY Reflection

My assignment for Sacraments class: Homily based on the readings from the May 23 page on usccb.org

One of the hardest things to do now-a-days is to act out the Word of God in our daily lives. Take a look around the world in which you live. Our society, our environment that surrounds us is becoming more vulgar and lacking the grace and good-virtues that Jesus possesses. All the selfishness and the thought of putting myself above everything else, all the carelessness of our bodies...the pride and greed that takes over us, the desire for sex, bullying to the point of suicide, senseless murders that destroy innocent families, countless acts of violence especially with the war...this is pretty much our world.

Looking around this world, I see nothing but chaos. Despair. Fighting. Inequality. Injustice. Gluttony, Envy, Wrath, Lust, Sloth, Pride, Greed (and yes, the last seven things I've mentioned are the seven deadly sins). These are the elements of destruction of a pure, sacred soul-THESE THINGS ARE OUR DOWNFALL.

But, it's not entirely our fault, because after all, we are only human and we will always fail at trying to attain perfection. And yes, we are sinners-- it cannot be helped. Yet we must do our best ALWAYS to be better people, especially during these harsh times. And sure, we can't live exactly like Jesus or be little angels all the time, but still we should put forth effort into doing so. It's a rare day when you hear about something good that's happening or some kind of miracle taking place. I believe that it is OUR job as Catholics to bring forth goodness in today's world, to pluck away the lingering evils of our lives and be the people that make miracles happen and produce positive energy, spreading it to all people that we encounter. We won't please God every single time or live up to our everyday expectations (because that's pretty much impossible anyways), but we should at least try. Because the Holy Spirit dwells deep within us, but it's OUR job to bring it out and to action. The Holy Spirit longs to be free, and when we put ourselves to good use, we are also free.

Today's Gospel tells of Jesus approaching His fearful disciples and saying, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." The gist of this simple quote is that Jesus was sent by God to send peace and assurance to the disciples. After this, Jesus also said, "Receive the Holy Spirit, Whose sins you forgive are forgive them, and whose sins you retain are retained." This meaningful message is closely related to one of my previous statements. We are all sinners, each and every one of us. We all have our moments of wickedness, we commit sin daily, we all have our fair share of bad days. But we must make our sins known and ATONE for them. If we don't confess our sins, who will?! It's all up to us. We choose whether we make our sins known, acknowledge them, are forgiven, and move on with life. We must bring out the Holy Spirit and its gifts-- and follow closely in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. It'll bring out the best in us.

My Sacraments teacher gave me an extra bonus point for this. ^_^