ALMSGIVING

John’s not been feeling good last night. He had pain in his hips and he was feeling either hot or cold. Then he was shivering. This morning, I was the one who got out of bed to get the kids ready for school so he can rest some more.

Then he told me to tell Johnathan to stay home. I figured it was so he can attend to his needs since I had to work. When it was almost time for them to go out, he asked Johnathan to bring the babies out and me to call his doctor. It was 6:48 a.m. and it was still closed. He asked me to dial 911. When he asked me not to go to work, I knew he was really very ill. That was a first. He would not ask me to call in.

When the EMS guys walked in, the first thing they did was to test his blood sugar. Theirs would not work so we offered to let them use John’s instead. The reading was 149, and they said it was not the blood sugar that was causing it. He was asked to grip the man’s hand and his grip was very weak. They brought him to the Chipley Hospital.

When I arrived at the ER, his IV was not connected anymore. He said he was tested for flu and it came back negative but according to him, the doctor turned around and told him that he might have the flu and he could go home. John told me later that they were in a hurry for him to go home because they needed the room. He’s been there a couple times or so more, and it normally takes them an hour or an hour and a half to get his discharge papers; this time, it took them only 5 minutes. I should have listened to my instinct to tell the EMS guys to bring him to either Gulf Coast or Bay Medical but it’s all water under the bridge now.

Today’s reading talks about the fasting that is pleasing to the Lord. I vowed to be strict on my meat abstinence for the Lenten Season and I’ve survived Ash Wednesday and the 1st Friday of Lent. I knew that the thing we should really be fasting and abstain from is sin.

We could also abstain from doing something we would like to do in order to help someone. And what better place to do it than at your own home. Not going to work would mean less paycheck but I had to be there for John.

My friends, this season of Lent, there are 3 things that we must focus on — prayer, fasting and almsgiving. It is the last one that is very hard to do for we seldom find the opportunity to serve the poor and the needy. But there are always ways to find if we really want to do it and excuses if we don’t.

We also need not look further or wait for a grand one. We could do it at our own neighborhood or community, in our work, in the grocery store, gas station, in our own church; anywhere where there is someone who needs our service and help. This was proven by the many persons who prayed for John and me in this ordeal, and those who called to ask John how he was doing, Mama Gail and Ms. Sallie. Ms. Tulita even asked for prayers for John in her Facebook page. Ellen, my Filipina friend spent yesterday with us, showing her love and support to John, helped me cook his soup and laughed at my antics.

I still believe those who observe the Lenten Season are more blessed because of the yearly reminder of who we are and what we are in God’s eyes. It is very easy to get lost in the busyness and craziness of this fallen world. Fame, fortune and easy life is its priority.

The reminder that we are in this life temporarily and that this is not our real home. We are responsible for our brothers as well because we are all brothers and sisters from the same Father — God. Therefore, whatever good we can do, we need not defer or neglect it, as the great anonymous saying states, not only because we may not pass this way again, but because that is what the Lord our God wants us to do.

My friends, let us take this season seriously. Let us renew our commitment to our faith and to God. We need to pray more, read the bible more, and most of all, love more. We can forgive those who have wronged us because that is the only way our Father in heaven would forgive us. We can restore our broken relationship with God and trust in Him more because it is only Him who could truly help us and do something.

Most important of all, we can take away the focus on ourselves because we know God will take care of us. We can channel our energy and focus on others whom Jesus put first before Himself. It is only when we love our neighbors as our self can we prove that we truly get God’s message.

“Most gracious Father, help us to do penance, show mercy and give love to others not only this Lenten season but always. Amen.”

Meditation: Isaiah 58:1-9a

Thus says the Lord GOD:
Cry out full-throated and unsparingly, lift up your voice like a trumpet blast;
Tell my people their wickedness, and the house of Jacob their sins.
They seek me day after day, and desire to know my ways,
Like a nation that has done what is just and not abandoned the law of their God;
They ask me to declare what is due them, pleased to gain access to God.
“Why do we fast, and you do not see it? afflict ourselves, and you take no note of it?”

Lo, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits, and drive all your laborers.
Yes, your fast ends in quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw.
Would that today you might fast so as to make your voice heard on high!
Is this the manner of fasting I wish, of keeping a day of penance:
That a man bow his head like a reed and lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?
This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly,
untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed,
breaking every yoke; Sharing your bread with the hungry,
sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; Clothing the naked when you see them,
and not turning your back on your own.
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your wound shall quickly be healed;
Your vindication shall go before you,
and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer,
you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!

–that in all things God may be glorified