Filters

I was watching, again, Bo's Preacher in Blue Jeans...
and what brother Hermie told in his sharing before their worship was a good one...

Just a background in his story,
He has this fish that died... but he thinks he had done his part by changing the water always... feeding this special fish with special and expensive food... but still it died...

Do you know why?

It is because he didn't cleaned the filter of the aquarium. It is mandatory... just like the changing of water... the feeding of special food. It died because of the unclean filter.

and he reflected about it. And it sinked in me his reflection.

That we also have filters... we also have to change our water... and we also have to be fed with special food.

The special food is the Word of God and Eucharist.
The changing of water is the grace of confession or reconcillation.
and lastly, our filters is our eyes... our mind... our senses...

We can still die... die from sin.
Even if we go to mass and hear the Word of God or eat the Eucharist...
Even if we constantly go to confession to confess our sins...
We can still die if our filters are not cleaned... if our filters failed to "seperate" the wrong from right... the bad from good... which goes in and which should be filtered.

Brother Hermie's sharing really struck me. He shared about him just browsing to a set of books like Didache, Sabbath... when he saw on the other side a full blown shot of Iwa Motto's pose in the FHM's front cover of its magazine. He was tempted to look... but he turned away...

Why? Because he knows that it is bad... he had quickly filtered the bad. And also he had trained himself that he will just look at his wife... and he need not look at that because his wife is sufficient for his love.

I too can relate... I have been in many stores where you can find vcds or vid games of hentai and/or pornography and I am still tempted to look... to read the captions... to buy the cd. I have been in many places where there are FHM and UNO magazines racked up in the shelves waiting for me to pick them up and read and look at photos inside. I've watched TV episodes or movies in our cable that promotes sex and pre-marital sex for the sake of "love” or pleasure of it. I've been in situations that my mind just starts to think about lustful things and I don't stop myself from imagining it...

My filter is not yet that clean. And even if I go to mass and participate in the Eucharist or confess my sins... I'm still gonna sin and die.

Thus, I have to clean my filter also lest I die of sin. I have to fight my temptations. I have to run away from these temptations... I have to have the graces from God to keep on struggling and cleaning my eyes... my mind... my thoughts...

Lord God I ask for your graces to help me clean my filter. I still struggle not to fall into temptation. Lord God help me. In Jesus might name... Amen