Today's Gospel

As you may have noticed, I haven’t posted any gospels up but I felt that today’s gospel (i went to church @ 5:pm) was worth the story and it hit home for me.. so with that being said, please read on… (my comments are after the blue shaded words). Thank you for your patience in reading this, I realize it's quite lengthy {so prep yourselves with water}- mz

Let me first introduce:
the letter of St.Paul to the Philippians: {Philippians 4:10-14}
I rejoice greatly in the Lord that now at least you revived your concern for me. You were, of course, concerned about me but lacked an opportunity. Not that I say this because of need, for I have learned, in whatever situation I find myself, to be self-sufficient. I know indeed how to live in humble circumstances; I know also how to live with abundance. In every circumstance and in all things I have learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry, of living in abundance and of being in need. I have the strength for everything, through him who empowers me. Still, it was kind of you to share in my distress.

Over the years (especially in my early 20’s), God has placed so much opportunities for me to learn, for me to grow. When I left home a week before age 21, I started on a journey unknowing what was going to happen. I took each day, DAY BY DAY. As the days progressed to weeks and weeks to years, I found myself growing abundant with learning pains. I tried to grasp everything that God brought me with: balancing Life- work, money, a relationship, learning who Michelle was, and what I wanted to do in my life. When I was 21, I thought being a buyer and being in the corporate world was what I wanted to do (it just sounded really cool when you’re 21), climbing the corporate ladder, and becoming ‘somebody’. There was even a point in my early 20’s where I thought the boyfriend at the time was the guy I wanted to spend my life with. But little did I know what was to become today.

I learned so much just by facing the problems, or for lack of positive terms, let’s change ‘problems’ to ‘opportunistic challenges’. So moving out of the house, moving to different cities where family/friends are sparse doesn’t sound like a big deal and in reality, it ain’t. However, the growth that you learn to live by yourSELF (yes, I mean NO roommates whatsoever) is tremendous. You learn to buy everyday necessities, you've got your own lengthy chores (like cooking dinner!), learning that you might just be scared of the dark, you have nobody reminding you that tomorrow is the 1st of the month (for those that don’t know, that’s rent time baby). And like many others who can side my back, time simply goes by too damn fast that you may or may not forget rent is ‘tomorrow’ and bills need to be paid.

Having gone through a few promotions means more money (even though the promotion ain’t much, its still something), but for those that understand me means, more money equals more opportunities to buy materialistic objects. For example, I found myself splurging more on food where at one time I thought a restaurant that had a food menu of $10 and up was pricey, found myself going to restaurants that averaged at least $25/plate- and hey, if you add wine to the list (which as many of you know I drink), that’s an extra $10 to the total. I also found myself moving to a bigger studio. And yet I wonder, ‘where the heck did my savings go?’ {Obviously it was rent- hey, Bay area rent ain’t that cheap fellas}. And I admit, it was fun in the beginning.

So why am I telling you this? Well remember above it said, ‘for I have learned, in whatever situation I find myself, to be self-sufficient…know how to live in humble circumstances; know how to live with abundance..in all things I have learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry...I have the strength for everything, through him who empowers me.'

For I do have THE strength to know I can make things happen if I set my mind onto it (remember that 10 percent are actions/events that are OUT of our control, 90 percent is OUR attitude towards the situation). Fortunately I have no current commitments (other than school) so I feel that I’m somewhat lucky to do things I can easily do if I wanted to. Yet, I’m 26. I’ve got friends that are married or will be married, have kids or will have kids. But I’ve also learned over the past year, that that simply won’t happen to me (marriage stuff for example) just yet.

I caught myself on a different plane. Money isn’t everything and having a billion dollar home won’t make you the happiest person on earth (well, maybe for the first few seconds).
I caught myself on a different plane. Was being in the retail corporate world really want I wanted to do? Do I really want to be ‘stuck’ in this kind of work environment?
I caught myself on a different plane. Who is Michelle and what are my contributions?
I caught myself on a different plane. Long term, what do I want to accomplish? I caught myself on a different plane. How was I changing and how have I adapted from the people that mean the most to me?

Additionally, over the past year I’ve had friends/family (meaning more then 4 people) who’s been stressed out over the course of their current livelihood. Think about your obligations in life and in what priority would you number it at. Can you realistically and honestly handle all of it and still break a smile once and awhile? If the answer is probably no, then perhaps its time to “change”. {Remember change isn't necessarily a negative action and remember everything is PERCEPTION." Stress isn’t worth forgetting what you are, who you are, and the impact it has on your love ones. Yeah, we all stress out. I know I do! I know it affects people yet for that moment I lose site who its affecting cause I'm so wrapped onto my own stresses. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons my ex-boyfriend left me—because I was becoming a wad of stressballs steadily increasing the road to cynicism. For those of you who know me, I stress out about my dad- a man who’s stubborn, close-minded and who stresses way too much over the pettiest things. So yeah, please please try not to stress out and try to see who you’re affecting when you stress about the things in your life. Try to ask the other person, happily, “how are you doing today?” and break out with a smile (even if you're own the phone, the person on the other line knows when you are smiling). For those that i've stressed to you, i'm saying it right now, I'm sorry.


Holy Gospel according to Matthew {Matthew 22: 1-14}:
The Parable of the Wedding Feast:
Jesus again in reply spoke to them in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come. A second time he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything sir ready; come to the feast.” Some ignored the invitation and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. The rest laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged and sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find. The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?’ But he was reduced to silence. Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Many are invited, but few are chosen.’

I’m not gonna be able to break it down the way the priest said in his sermon but some of the points I got from the parable is this: In the beginning of the story, when the king’s servants went out to tell people that they were invited by the king, the people simply ignored the message (they went back to their homes, businesses, and some killed the messengers). In our lives, these are the people (messengers) that tell us the reality, the stuff that we don’t like to hear and yet, what do we do? We turn the other way. Why, we don’t want to hear it, right? Some just can’t bear constructive criticism. And yet there’s times where we don’t realize but IT IS constructive criticism {sometimes, the delivery just ain’t right unfortunately :(}

The invitation is God- He brought us Life, brought us our Family/Friends/Love, our Health, our Opportunities, most of all, Salvation. The parable invites everybody- good or bad. The parable depicts people who are rejecting kindness which has been graciously offered. Although not all people will be gracious to you, that’s okay. Try to be gracious to them. God sees your good deeds. In addition I just wanna say, ‘karma.’

The destruction from the King is the chaos, the progress of destruction in our lives- the stress, the part of us that is slowly dying, the way we feel we can’t cope dealing with so much crap in our lives.

The man at the end of the story was a rebellious, disrespectful man (didn’t wear wedding attire). This is us when we’re rebelling from Him, turning the other way trying to temp Him.

It’s hard to face change, especially when the ‘change’ or ‘adjustment’ needs to be us. Many people find constructive criticism extremely difficult. Like a married couple, one must be able to be open-minded in order to see things from the other partner; it’s no longer about “me” anymore but rather, “us” in a marriage; Not “how am I doing?” but “how are we doing?” “How can I stop being stubborn and how can I better see things from the prospective of my partner?” The people who ignored the message in the parable didn’t want to change for the better.
At the end of the gospel, the parable states, “Many are invited, but few are chosen.” I conclude with this question for you to think about, you have been called, but will you be chosen?
Currently Listening : Ancestry in Progress By Zap Mama Release date: By 14 September, 2004