All that was written in the Scriptures has to come true. Jesus is the Messiah prophesied and long awaited. He arrived as a helpless babe born in a stable, in a town far from His own, a lonely place visited only by farm workers and animals. But up in the sky a star symbolizing the birth of the beloved Son of God, the Anointed One of God, was twinkling and shining brightly. This star was the largest and brightest of all stars. The star was installed by the Almighty God announcing the birth of His beloved Son, the One who was going to save the world from sin and death. The One to unite mankind with God. Yet He was born in a place where no one really knew or cared.

He was not born of a princess or queen but rather a poor Jewish country girl. She was so pure and chaste that God found in her womb a place for the Savior of the world to grow. Born later to the family of a carpenter, having enough food, clothing and shelter for daily use only.

This was the way the Son of God, the New Adam, the New Mankind had to be, by being obedient and submissive to God always.

Jesus is going to purify and transform the disobedience of the fallen Adam into an obedient, humble and submissive one, having the fullness of God's nature in Him. We too need to have the same in order to dwell in Heaven. The Nature of God here means the image and likeness of God. We could never ever understand God's nature, except the one that was revealed and manifested by Jesus the Son of Man and Son of God. That was a perfect and mysterious combination of God and Man, working and living in perfect harmony and love. Therefore to have God's Nature in us, is to be completely like Christ. The heart, mind, soul, spirit and the body that is in this world, needed to be transform into the similarity of Jesus Christ, as Son of Man. As this Jesus who was perfect and pleasing towards God, therefore in unity with Jesus, in our hearts, souls and minds, we too shall be pleasing to God. This nature of Jesus was supposed to be in the first Adam, but they had succumbed to the allure and temptation of the Devil. They built themselves a boundary, separating God and Man. By this they could not made wise decision for their human spirit and souls, so were their descendents. God wants to transform our human body to the Body of the New Adam, that is Christ. Jesus gives us His Spirit so we are capable of being like Christ.

It is up to us to open our hearts to let His Spirit flow. He is extremely generous and it is up to us to allow Him to have however much power and authority over us. If we only allowed part of His nature to renew us, then it shall be done. Purity and holiness are essential for us to enter Heaven, whether through purification and sanctification on earth or in Purgatory.

Jesus as the Son of God knew what He had to go through. His death and sufferings were prophesied long before His arrival, even at the moment of the fall of mankind. So He asked His disciples to be the instruments of this plan.

When the water looks calm, then a person will fish. When storm starts and the sky and waves threaten, fishermen disappear. The disciples stayed with Jesus during fine weather awaiting the final plans of God. In their hearts they knew a person like Jesus would never come into their lives again, it was a great opportunity to make Jesus the King of the Jews against the Roman colonizers and conquerors.

They wanted Jesus to head His people as their leader with supernatural power like King David, Moses and all the outstanding prophets of God. But that was not God's plan. Jesus kept reminding them repeatedly that His Kingdom was not of this world but the next. They were very disappointed after Jesus said that, in Jerusalem He would be put to death, yet Jesus was not afraid of going to Jerusalem. They thought Jesus was out of His mind to do such a foolish act, to bring oneself to be slaughter.

Judas decided to manipulate the situation first, he wanted to earn money by betraying Jesus.

Obviously Judas was a very ambitious and jealous man. Not much was mentioned about him but Jesus did criticize him regarding his attitude. To him, he was not outstanding in the eye of Jesus, not like Peter, James and John. He was not satisfied of being positioned at the back seat all the time. He knew if Jesus became King, he would have no chance to sit in power and authority to govern. The people at the Temple too made use of Judas' dissatisfaction to further their own selfish acts. They offered a huge sum as a reward for the job of bringing Jesus to them.

The Temple people were very arrogant and proud. Their hearts and minds were closed to the teachings and miracles of Jesus. He was not given an opportunity to opening express Himself, in conducive environment. They treated Him as a huge obstacle, hindering them from gaining popularity in the eyes of those in political authority. They considered Jesus a sinner, a blasphemer and a false prophet to deceive the people. They would not come down to Jesus' level of humility and simplicity or to touch Jesus. They thought by touching or having a good relationship with Jesus who was a great sinner would defile them and make them dirty and sinful. They thought of themselves as being highly holy and pleasing to God always.

'...How terrible for that man who betrays the Son of Man!'

Judas was seated near to Jesus, as he waited anxiously and impatiently for Jesus to dip His bread into the dish. It was the Jewish custom, after that it would be polite to leave the table otherwise the others would have suspected something amiss.

As a human being, Jesus was disappointed of being let down and betrayed by a friend. He said it would be a curse indeed for that person to participate in His killing. It was a final warning to Judas of the consequence of his actions, but Judas had to go and fulfill his part in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. God gives all men freewill, there are those willed by God, if we obediently participate, it is very much pleasing to God. Willed by God, here means those that God destined; meaning those actions that were perfect and most pleasing towards God. God had a masterplan of which the focus is on the salvation of the souls. For the souls are God's life enthroned in our hearts and lives. It is liken to a little baby, under the care of the adopted parents. For the earth and all its physical of the earth were liken to the environment of adoptive parents. For on earth we were nurture to be like God or the Devil. Most of us were nurture into partial likeness of God and the Devil. God wanted to draw us into His Kingdom on earth, through the Spirit of His Son, and perfected or fullness in heaven. If we were participants of God's plan of salvation, we would work towards its fulfillment. We would welcome the fullness of the working and empowerment of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We would allow His Spirit to have the final say in every one of our plans and visions. We would yield our children and all those whom God entrusted to us to God, as we continue to be God's instrument as parents, guardians and those needy; as the flows of providence comes to us. God finding us a trustworthy instruments would shower us with plenty more, yet we are not to indulge ourselves on God's gift and neglecting others.

There are those that God allows, knowing it will be safe for us to go through, He also knows He has the ability to bring us back if the plan turns sour. There are basically three category of allowance here. All these were focused from the dimension of relationship, between God and His creature. Firstly there are those creatures of God who had separated from God and complacent with their spiritual blindness, had no regret. God freely allows them freedom in action. They usually became the Devil slave in destroying the goodness of God in the world and in the lives of their fellow Man. But they had limitation in their plans of destruction. The Devil and his instruments had limited power and right over God's Children. They tried to exert themselves further, but still limited. Secondly there are those lukewarm souls and people, who neither care much about God nor the Devil, that is what they believed. They put themselves on the top of everything. They even exert themselves, trying to chart their own destiny apart from the will of God. These people were self-centered and selfish. They lived by the attitude of putting themselves and their interest first before others. Others and the world were ground whereby they were fed. They would manipulate and exploit others, selfishly and return to others, if justified, according to their human conceited wisdom. Their sinful flesh enslaved them, for they blindly ignore another part of them, which were holy and of God. They denied their souls of God, but excessively indulged their flesh with aplenty. Thirdly there are those well loved by God and heirs to the Kingdom of heaven. They were also allowed freedom of choice, to choose God, the world together with the sinful flesh, or the Devil. But God would be watching His 'little ones', with all His hearts. But allowing is not good enough, it is better to let God lead us to where He wants us in our every will, desire and plan. God was their Father and they His Children. God is the source of all Fatherhood, whereby our natural instinct to love our children, was in fact instilled by God. Ours were imperfect and tainted parenthood, far different from the Origin and perfection of God.

Satan had used Judas as instrument to destroy Jesus. Judas responded freely and willingly but not with full knowledge of the consequences. Indeed he had committed great sin of betraying a friend, who is God, but God is merciful, He forgives all of us who repented and seek His forgiveness including Judas, but regretfully, Judas did not allow time for grace to work in him.

How do we know when God wills and when He allows?

God gives us the Holy Spirit, which is God with us in this dark and cold world. God would moves our human spirits, our senses and conscience. When these were empowered by God, they overcame the power of darkness and deceit. Conviction would tell us that we are moving towards the right direction. As we are still partly veiled from the presence and glory of God, when we sinned or our lives are tainted by sins, we lost this conviction and we became confused. We began to relent and refused to participate in God's plan.

God, through the presence of His Spirit, understands our human limitation and He would be patient. In times when the channel of communion is clear; meaning we repented and confessed our sin, by taking full responsibility for our actions, God comes in again and prompts us. Most of us responded only after they are fully convinced that this was the will of God.

We need to be reminded that God's will is love and selfless. When we prayed or expressed our prayer into action, we need to review the whole plans, so that evil might not plant on God's plot of land. Meaning that when we were instrumental in expressing God's charity to others, the sinful flesh must not tried to claim glory and credit. The sinful flesh would usually tried to snatch what belongs to God for themselves. For the sinful flesh are still part of our lives. They were huge obstacles and continued to sabotage charity from being expressed, yet when glories and honors were given, they were hasty to claim them for their own. We need be at home in the purity of flesh that is still in existence, despite the fall of Man. This purity in us had full knowledge that all goodness comes from God alone; therefore offered up every glory showered on us to God, alone.

Praise the Lord. Amen.

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