RECONCILIATION

Every second is God’s manifestation of love. He let us feel it. But are we paying back His great love on us? He called us to have a personal relationship with Him. But are we responding to that calling?

 

I recall a particular experience when I attended a Youth Camp, someone gave a talk about repentance, faith, healing and forgiveness. I believe these are the steps to respond on such call and I would like to discuss these significant matters in life in this reflection. As what I have learned and practiced, repentance is an act of the will. It is deciding to turn away from evildoings for God’s sake. Sins are hindrances in seeking the kingdom of God. That is why the first stage to respond is to repent, sincerely asking forgiveness from the Lord. Repentance begins when we humbly acknowledge our human weaknesses. Confess your sins of abusing your body through excessively drinking alcoholic liquors, smoking cigarettes, masturbation, fornication and other sinful acts. Amend your life from being rebellious to your own family and to the society to becoming obedient and faithful. Profess your faith into one true God. Many people nowadays are practicing occults. Some believe in superstitions, horoscopes and fortune telling. All these things are considered immoral practices and must be avoided. And what are the virtues we need in order to repent conscientiously? We must repent with honesty. We should call sin a sin. We should recognize our own sins and stop blaming others. Another thing is humility. We should be humble and heartily accept the truth that we need God to overcome our sins. 

Furthermore, faith is a trust to a person or belief in God. It is relying on what God have said. We should believe and accept Christ as our Savior. God has promised to save us and thus, we should trust on His will. When we sin, we are spiritually sick. Hence, we need spiritual healing form the Lord through his priests. It is also in praying that we renew our faith to God. Then, when we receive forgiveness from the most compassionate Lord, the process of healing immediately begins. Learn also to forgive for it is necessary to love our enemies. If we ask God to heal us, then we must help others too to be healed through our prayers. Get rid of that ego-centered attitude within you and start thinking for other people. 

To summarize what has been said, sins are the hindrances of responding to God’s love. He wants to remove these hindrances and extend his arm on us. He wants us to experience his love but we must repent first on our sins and have faith on Him. It is then that you can fully receive His graces. May God bless us always! Padayun!