Daily Manna: “Why do we forget?”

Date: March 25, 2016

Sharer: Karen Bajador

Title : “Why do we forget?”

 Today’s gospel narrates the last moments of Jesus prior to his persecution at the cross. It started from his arrest by the betrayal of Judas up to his burial wherein he would rise again in three days. The narration encompasses a lot of events and all of them give us a notion to reflect on as Catholics. However, what I do want to reflect on is when Peter disowned Jesus three times.

 In our everyday life, we tend to focus on the things that we usually do. More often than not, most of us forget to take a step back and reflect on the blessings we have received. The demand of accomplishing a day’s task usually requires a lot of our time and energy; and by the end of the day, all we want to do is to rest.

As children, we were trained to at least pray before we eat and before we sleep. It was easy to do back then as children do not have a lot of things to do in a day. But growing up is different, the older you get, the more task require your attention and energy. I personally, would attest to that. I would go as far as saying that some of the time, I feel so tired after a day’s work and would not have the energy to even pray and talk to God. I do feel guilty as I know how blessed I am for all the things I have received until now. I have gone through a lot, both the good and bad; but one thing was constant all throughout; it was that God has never abandoned me. And believe me when I say that he has, and never will, leave your side. Life is a cycle and things will never be good always; time will come wherein we will be at our lowest. But let me tell you that in our lowest point, it’s usually the best time where we can feel God’s unwavering love for us.

Going back to the Gospel, we can almost compare ourselves to Peter because in some way, we are just like him; we often tend to ignore, and sometimes, deny his presence. We are usually overwhelmed with the things that we have accomplished and received that we forget to respond whenever he calls for us. God does not require us to exalt before him for a whole day, nor does he demand to give back something equal in return; all that he asks of us is a small amount of our time. He just wants us to have a moment with him, just like what we do with our parents or partner whenever we get home from a day’s work. And this Lenten season is one of those times where we can do so. I encourage you my brothers and sisters to take a step back, reflect and have a moment with him during this season.

Sharer: Karen Bajador