Manariwa

Faith and Logic Do not Mix?

2012-01-08T19:34:00.004+08:00

(This is a short excerpt from a chapter in my forthcoming book entitled Preparing a Body for Eternity.)

The respected cosmologist, Dr. Stephen Hawking, recently stated that God does not exist. He shares the view of others who say that faith and logic do not belong together. We take this to mean that resurrection, the foundation of Christian belief, is not a viable process in life.

Let us define logic. Ironically, the word “logic” comes from the Greek word "logos" which means “word”. In fact, Christ is often called the Logos. Logic, then, would mean reason or truth, the very essence of human understanding or wisdom. The Greeks sought this wisdom and built statues to this indefinable idea as if it were an "unknown god". Yet, many of them did find it in the person of Christ: the Wisdom Incarnate, the Logos in the Flesh. Strike one, Mr. Atheist! Faith and logic belong as similar concepts, if not one and the same literal idea.

If, however, logic is limited to scientific investigation and reasoning using material objects or processes to reach an observable truth, then faith would certainly find itself in a corner. But let us consider the water-to-wine "experiment" of Jesus. Has anyone ever done that using science? Obviously, no one has. Why? Because it is impossible for humans and human logic. But since Christ is God, nothing is impossible for Him. In divine perspective, faith and logic belong together. Strike two!

Finally, what establishes logic to be acceptable? Is it not human senses and verified evidences of eyewitnesses? Or do scientists claim to have the only functioning eyes and minds? The followers of Jesus were just as meticulous observers as scientists are. They used pen and ink like many of us do today (cursor and pixels, for many now). They were equally smart and honest researchers as many of us today. And they were recipients of good news which they had long awaited, unlike most of us today, unfortunately. That is, they had prepared minds as well, as most scientists claim to have.

Scientists must project from what is available to them in the present into the future. Logic requires it. They may or may not succeed. Prophets, on the other hand, projected into the future the mind of God and those tasked with unraveling those prophesies declared or explained them. The logic of God, Who by the way invented logic for humans to use, requires it. But all prophecies come true without exception. The record, better and clearer than any research journal, shows it. Theories are mere hypothetical concepts which totter unsteadily upon incomplete human logic.

You just struck out, Mr. Atheist! If you limit yourself to human logic, you will certainly miss seeing eternity.

(Painting above taken from www.spiritlessons.com.)

Oblateration Run

2011-12-20T18:15:00.009+08:00

There is oblation. There is obliteration. Now, there is oblateration. What once was a noble idea of a living offering of all that is humanly perfect and pure has been obliterated by human folly. We – no, they – call it Oblation Run.

The ancient Jews, chosen by Yahweh as a special nation and people, began as a colony of Hebrew slaves in ancient Egypt. Led by the pillar of fire through the wilderness, they were disciplined and purified for forty years before they could claim the Promised Land. In their triumph, God reminded them constantly of that miraculous, historical event through burnt offerings (oblations) of animals. Centuries later, that sacrificial rite would be replicated on a cross by a human being born of God.

A Filipino national artist who was also a strong believer of the Hebrew God, sculpted the Oblation as the University of the Philippines’ symbol of its mission and a reflection of our country’s destiny, as envisioned by our greatest heroes. Every incoming UP student learns this as his or her first lesson of the heart. All the other lessons learned by the mind pale in comparison to it.

For each struggling student for two or five years in one of the many campuses of UP, the Oblation stands as a mute witness to the unspoken vow every parent ostensibly makes on behalf of a youth on whom the promise of a bright and glorious future has been endowed -- both by family and country.

Such ideals seem hard for the youth of today, brainwashed by decadent thoughts and practices from western cultures, to understand, much less internalize. What started as a naked streak by anti-Vietnam-war protesters in the 70's has given birth to this despicable bacchanalian display by misguided youth claiming academic freedom of expression.

Expressing what principles and ideals of academic excellence? Brotherly devotion? That is, taking the shame upon one’s self on behalf of your frat brothers? And done at a time when people celebrate supposedly the birth of the Messiah of the Jewish nation and of the world? And with masks to hide even their own shame?

And so, the institution tasked with bringing to life those lofty ideals in the lives of its products has failed. By allowing the media to sensationalize this shameless practice and making it even an acceptable social and campus tradition as if it were a harmless festival to be followed and cheered by innocent children and gullible men and women, it has established a precedent for citizens to throw away the cherished symbols of our ideals. If it cannot protect mere symbols of our values, how can it hope to protect and promote the very values themselves? And if a university can’t do it, can the lower schools and the smallest institution – the family, that is – be expected to do it? Chaos retains its image from the great to the small.

But we, as one people, share the shame and ignominy of those among us who would demean themselves facelessly and their bodies before the public. Our common shame before the world and before God, however, must lead us to rectify the guilt we all bear by our individual sins. Not by our own power but by our faith in the One Who promised to give back to Adam his honor. The same honor he lost by his own sin. The same honor he lost and tried to reclaim by covering himself with fig leaves. And yes, the very same fig leaves Oblation wears permanently to hide his own shame (our shame) until, together as one, we can stand again with innocence and holiness before our Creator.

A symbol is not a dead ideal. It lives because we live it in truth and with faith in the righteousness and holiness of God.

(Photo above: The Oblation, done by National Artist Guillermo Tolentino, stands in every campus of the the University of the Philippines System.)

Removing Our Blindness to Eternal Things

2011-12-17T18:24:00.008+08:00

(This is the Preface to my forthcoming book entitled Preparing a Body for Eternity: From Adam to Christ to All Believers)

“It all started with the Big Bang!”

So goes the theme song of the popular, bone-tickling sitcom “Big Bang Theory”. Four genius (“geeky”) friends regale viewers with their idiosyncratic views of the Universe – and of each other. They sort of help us forget or laugh at our problems, which is what sitcoms do and should do. Laughter, of course, is the best medicine in life and for many of its mishaps.

This book, however, will not give us answers about the Universe nor bring us fits of laughter with well-phrased and well-timed tech-loaded puns and gags. It only hopes to provide readers with some apt views and, well, useful answers to many of life’s sublime and even not-so-sublime issues and, hopefully, some stress-relieving laughter.

To illustrate further the parallelism and differences between this book’s purpose and that of science-oriented programs and publications, let me deal with one of the biggest issues between theologians and scientists -- and even among theologians themselves: the firmament or, in Hebrew, raqia’.

Gen. 1:6 says that God created the firmament that separated the waters that were below (i.e., the seas) from the waters that were above (apparently, what poured down during the Great Flood).

Job 37:18, further:”With Him, have you spread out the skies, strong (or firm) as a cast metal mirror?”

Psalm 19:1, on the other hand, states: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.”

Put together, these verses will lead, as they have, many to conclude that the firmament is a solid or firm material that made up what the ancients described as the vault of the sky. Since this solid, metal-like firmament no longer exists (if it really did), we have no way of proving whether the ancient writers of the Old Testament were talking of one and the same object or if they were at all referring to something that really existed before. Hence, later translators referred to the firmament as the “expanse” between the waters to remove apparent confusion in our times. Our reluctance or resistance to the elementary, unsophisticated or unadorned accounts of those scribes has somehow led many to eventually invent their own newer views.

It is easy then to see how this old “science of the day” produced the ancient vocabulary and the concept that naturally arises from following those “scientific observations” (the ancient writers wrote what they saw or what people said they saw). Modern interpreters, however, have clever ways of going around the science that the ancients based their writings upon by using our “latest science” to explain away the evidence, hence, distorting or totally rejecting the facts and, ultimately, the truth.

In my book, Noah’s Ark and the Earth Rebuilt, I gave biblical and scientific proofs that there really existed a layer or canopy of water above and around the Earth. In essence, the book fused all available solid evidences and without rejecting the eyewitness accounts of the ancients in arriving at a more convincing picture of the past. Applying this method, we can come up with this workable and plausible picture of the ancient sky.
Here are the facts that arise:

1. God did create the “firmament” to separate the waters above and those below. Gen. 1:6 clearly states that.

2. Logic should tell us that this firmament could have been a visual illusion or a seeming material reality produced by the curved body of water (most probably liquid, as the upper and lower surfaces would enhance the illusion of solidity) that stayed above the atmosphere. Job 37:18 seems to prove this idea of the firmament appearing to be like a “molten looking-glass” (per King James Version). That is to say, the writers did not really mean that the firmament was solid but that it appeared like a solid, curved bronze mirror that held up the waters that lay behind or above it. Furthermore, the fact that it stayed there motionless must have made them think it was as solid as the ground they stood on.

3. As such, Psalm 19:1 is in keeping with that idea of a literal translucent mirror up in the sky which actually reflected the surface of the Earth at daytime and even at night-time while letting the stars and moon shine through. The fusion of the glowing images of terrestrial and celestial bodies in one encompassing canopy throughout the evening is a magnificent vision we can only imagine but which the ancients saw daily as a reality. This is the only way the firmament effectively, logically and scientifically “shows or declares the handiwork of God.” No one can see beyond several kilometers beyond the horizon; but the literal mirror up in the sky reflected the seas, the mountains, the fields and the valleys in a multicolored display via a circular, panoramic, blown-up image of the Earth’s surface due to the concave-shape of that mirror.

4. The vault of the sky was, therefore, not like a gray-cement-plastered cathedral dome but a majestic Sistine-Chapel-like canopy daily and nightly exhibiting the grandeur of God’s handiwork to either humble or haughty human eyes. The Sun’s shifting light and position (in the absence of clouds, the canopy may have refracted sunlight variably) made a moving show of the Earth’s surface, something we cannot see today but can appreciate from the photos taken by astronauts in outer space.

Do we still see this today? No, and it is no wonder why so many people do not know God nor give back glory to Him. He left us a record of His grandiose work and we do not even believe it. Well, even those who saw it during Noah’s time did not really feel compelled to obey God, so there is not much value in trying to convince people that the canopy really did exist. But we try just the same, as obedient servants should. (Unfortunately for those unbelievers, what they saw and thought would not fall on them, did fall and kill them. Today, what we do not see and do not also believe will also kill us.)

Is there science and logic in this interpretation? There is and it is because the Old Testament writers have provided us with the real, basic framework that allows us to apply our own modern science to come up with an acceptable universal concept.

This then is the dilemma in our modern era: our blindness to eternal things and ignorance of the reality of the eternal God. With this book, I hope many will feel compelled to look at God’s written evidences with more openness, honesty and humility.

That their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (Highlighting provided) - Col. 2:2,3

(Photo simulation above done using Google Earth image.)

Michelangelo’s Dilemma: What Do We See in Art? (Is There Truth in Art? Part 2)

2011-09-06T10:50:00.011+08:00

It is not easy being an artist. Da Vinci. Michelangelo. Van Gogh. Hugo. Rizal. They all had problems, big and small. But as great artists, they had historically interesting problems. Let us take a look at Michelangelo.

In a previous article, we talked about how our favorite sculptor/painter/architect – hey, most architects are multi-media artists, too – had to deal with possibly the biggest patron in the world: the pope. In any language, that spells a lot of honor, fame, money and -- sorry to say this -- trouble. And not necessarily in that order. Hence, in the four years that he painted the Sistine Chapel, he said that he probably aged more than ten years. Was it the work? Yes, of course. Employer-employee issues? That, too.

Lying down on your back all day long to paint is not the best kind of work one can have. First of all, Mike (as we may call him) did not want to do the job as he was a sculptor and not a painter by training and disposition. Sculpting made one strong, sitting down or standing up and using one’s arm in vigorous motions and with a lot of resistance that builds muscles. But lying down and putting colored mortar delicately on a ceiling with only candles for light, not only dulls one’s eyes, it also prevents blood from circulating well. One gets really old. And crabby, when your patron peeps in every now and then and shouts to you from below, “Is it finished yet?”

Yes, they also shouted to (and sometimes at) each other – painter and pope – because they were quite a distance apart, at least 30 meters or about ten-storeys high. They had to or they would not have heard each other. Mike was up in the ceiling while Julius was on the ground craning his neck and trying to catch a glimpse of the ongoing work. The pope, of course, respected the artist’s abilities but still looked at him as an ordinary employee working for the Catholic Church of which he was supreme head. Mike, never got to finish (that is paint gold edgings over the paintings) because the pope impatiently demanded to see the work. Mike took down the scaffolds and refused to put them back when asked to put on the finishing touches.

But there was more to the physical and professional gap that separated artist and patron. There was the spiritual. Yes, spiritual, not religious, because they were of the same sect. There was something in the commission that was somehow helping Mike sustain his body and his spirit in spite of the daily abuse of physical pain and personal deprivation he had to go through. Four years painting on his back on a ceiling about the size of a basketball gym! That’s probably like being in prison for four years and being forced to lie down almost all day in a bunk a foot or two away from a ceiling. Call it torture or deprivation – the result is the same.

No, if you are not wise enough, you would go crazy or quit. Mike did quit a few times but came back to finish the work. If you are truly wise, like Mike was, you immerse yourself in the work and find meaning or transformation though the process. And as we said previously, he found out his work was not that of a mere chronicler of biblical stories but as a true searcher and, it follows, conveyor (hence, teacher) of divine truth. He finally saw God, like many philosophers before and after him, not just from the text of the Scriptures he read but from the spirit of the message of Him Who caused it to be written. The difference between a scientist who studies Nature and sees only atoms, cells and natural processes and an artist who studies God and Creation and sees supernatural life is direction or perspective of vision. The former looks in and sees more of matter while the latter looks beyond and sees more of life. Who do you think will find the greater truth?

When Mike first envisioned the creation of Adam for his panoramic fresco, he must have thought like an infant imagining how he might have come out of his mother’s womb into a world of great wonder. As a newborn baby slides through a woman’s portal of life, it has no strength or real being that we often assume is our legacy in life. It goes limp as it separates from its life-giver and source of sustenance. It feels initially lost and blind to whatever grand design it was meant to comprehend and accomplish in this vast earthly environment.

The muscle-sculpted Adam, in fact, looks like a big baby whose life is just about to begin, a lump of clay given mere form but not will and awareness. (Or in Mike’s medium, a mixture of cement and color given artistic life.) Adam blindly looks at God or behind Him where Eve is but a blurred vision. He can hardly recognize the hand of the One Who created him. Or lift his hand and finger high enough to touch His power so that he may have complete life, sight and understanding. But God, right before He grants abundant gift of life to Adam, extends His hand to perfect His work for him and the whole Universe.

Mike himself was now seeing the truth in the power of God to create, not just Adam and life but the whole universal reality. The “Creation of Adam”, right at the center of the chapel, is the very beginning of all that Mike would portray through his almost divine creative power as an artist. It seemed that he was trying to tell the world that his faith in the power of God to create Adam was but the culmination – or crown -- of His ability to create everything else: light, water, Sun, Moon and stars. The whole of human history (the entire painting’s theme) around Adam, therefore, merely serves witness to that originating Divine Power which Mike so magnificently portrayed. One Power uniting with one Creation. Only the human heart, through faith, can unravel such inevitable truth.

It was Mike, for all intents and purposes, who decided what he wanted to paint on the ceiling. Sure, the pope may have told him the basic idea of retelling the biblical epic in glowing fresco as if Heaven itself had projected the lives of those characters we merely read into visual forms and colors and high above the heads of those who can only see them but not touch them. Only Mike, with his hands and his spirit as if he were God himself, had that privilege as delegated creator.

It is easy then to understand the many instances when Mike and Pope Julius II argued about certain details of the frescoes. Whereas the pope envisioned to decorate his chapel with the best and grandest masterpiece ever made to perpetuate his influence as well as that of the church (aside from being head of a religious group, he was also the commander of the papal army – he fancied himself as a “Julius” Caesar -- and was more a politician than a theologian), Mike, like a true mystic, was searching for truth. Mike, therefore, benefited more from the relationship for it gave him the motivation to go into the introspective process of divining the essence of God and life.

To prove this hypothesis, for that is what this is mainly all about, we present the painting of the Last Judgment on the Sistine Chapel altar wall, a fresco done by Michelangelo for seven years long after he had finished the ceiling. His new patron was now Pope Clement VII who died before the painting was started and was replaced by Pope Paul III. It is well known that Mike had preliminary sketches (See this video) for this monumental scene but not as they were finally painted. In the sketch, we see Mary seemingly kneeling or crawling toward Jesus on His right side – the good side, of course. She seems in fear, as if pleading to Jesus to be sparing in judgment, as if it were her place to do so. The question is: Why did Mike end up putting Mary right beside Him on His seat? Does not Christ sit at the right hand of God? If Mary then sits at His right hand in Heaven and at the judgment, then that makes Mary equal to God – a clearly Catholic teaching. My belief is that Mike knew he was doctrinally correct when he sketched Mary like any among those who will be judged. Perhaps, Mike was even trying to show that Mary herself pleaded for her own soul, humbling herself before Jesus like everyone else. That, by all measures, is a sound, biblical point of view that endows Mike a clear and impartial grasp of spiritual realities.

What then caused Mike to change his fresco, if he really did it himself? Or, more precisely, who prevailed upon him to amend his original idea? Could Mary’s final figure have been a revision done by someone else? We cannot tell for sure without science’s help -- or that of the Vatican.

In investigating this hypothesis, we find out that some of the figures in the painting were actually revised later (fresco portions were scraped out and replaced with new fresco mixture) to remove the obscene nudity and latent carnality. As today, religious sensibilities then were pricked by artistic license and, in some cases, extreme experimentation. For instance, the figures of St. Bartholomew and St. Catherine were painted over with clothes to cover the frontal nudity and to eliminate the fact that the lady saint was looking at the male saint’s organ. It is judgment time and the holy children of God are still at it! Whether this naughtiness is true or not, Mike must have been trying to tell us something else less vulgar.

A chapel is a place for prayers; but as a model of the Universe, it is freely open to all and every thought and activity of humans. Ironically, in painting over lifeless, gray ceilings and walls inside a chapel, Mike succeeded in opening instead our minds to what truly happened and what was actually happening out there in the world and way above it. Our bodies are a gift from God and appreciating the wonder of this fact can be seen as acknowledging God’s power and can be, therefore, a form of worship. “I was fearfully and wonderfully made, and my heart knows it well,” King David wrote about his own body.

The common idea that chapels, convents or church buildings are sanctuaries built to keep away the world has all but lost its significance in our changing times. Did not Christ move and live among the peasants and the sinners where they were – the real world – and effectively showed that knowing and serving God required only an open and humble heart and spirit? Did He not teach that true worship was neither in Jerusalem’s temple nor in Samaria’s high places but in spirit and in truth? Our body is the very temple of God; what we do to it expresses our worship.

Likewise, the common perception that worship “requires” purity of thought is at best merely a way to brainwash people to a form of religion. Anyone who genuinely struggles through prayer knows that the devil forces his thoughts even in the most sacred or solemn moments. Women wearing shorts or tight clothing inside churches or in the streets, although they are generally clueless or care-less, provide Satan clear and living pictures (not static frescoes) with which to plant impure thoughts among men – and even among women. Besides, worship – what we define as a living offering – is a continuing, long journey through both darkness and light and not a series of pleasant trips around a paradise island on a clean cruise ship. A life of faith is not like going to a safe school to learn modules of lessons from expert teachers but a real trek through a thick forest full of beauty as well as dangers and the teacher is God Himself. Sistine Chapel was designed by the pope to be that cruise ship, but Mike turned it into the thick forest of reality.

Better to come before God with impure thoughts and begging Him to cleanse us completely than to pretend to be pious for an hour but immoral the rest of the time.

Artists tend to disturb people. In Mike’s case, that is an understatement. In fact, he intentionally and impishly positioned the door to hell so that the priest who celebrated mass faced the way into damnation. Perhaps, nothing expresses Mike’s personal view of those religious leaders then more harshly than that fact. He might have preferred that people turned away from chapels and their pre-programmed rites and defined iconography so that they can live real lives acceptable according to God’s standards and not to those of humans. For there are those who would rather worship outside of churches, buildings or rituals in obedience to Christ’s call to true worship (in spirit and in truth). A human painter like Mike can only paint a tiny part of God’s workmanship on a ceiling for God alone can paint His entire truth in the vast Universe. Have a real life, Christians!

Mike himself predicted that many people will look at his Last Judgment painting and discover so many hidden things. What we have said so far is but a tiny portion of what he was trying to present.

Mike, who was no longer as pressured and as harassed as before (he was standing now and not lying down), was in a better mood and even took certain liberties. He painted his face into the scene as the flayed body of St. Bartholomew. Was this his idea of “dying to the world” as a Christian? Or just a playful way of relieving work stress?

We will never prove beyond any doubt that Mike was pressured to edit his concept of Mary’s position. He was completely free to interpret it as a painter as much as the pope was as a theologian. As an artist, he did see himself higher than the pope while the pope, of course, saw himself higher than Mike. But whose thoughts have truly remained for us to see: the pope’s, the artist’s, their shared idea or that of God?

I believe that artists take too much liberties at times because they see, like many ordinary people, but a part of the truth. That is why whether we read only the Bible or teach it or paint its stories, we must make sure that we represent it as faithfully as we can. Art or artistic freedom is not an excuse for changing God’s essential truth. Yes, we can imagine things where the text is silent; but we should not pass them off as absolute truth. Factual, perhaps, but not necessarily true.

Still, it seems that Mike may have tried to use his freedom to stretch the truth toward how he saw it as much as he could. Thus, even if Mike did freely change his composition to make it what it is now, we doubt that it really represented what he understood to be a valid message of the gospel. The presence of the study sketch seems to support this view. The final scene may have been an accommodation he made either as a compliant Catholic or as an obedient employee of the Church.

Mike was a poet as well. He wrote several sonnets and in those poems he expressed the deep spirituality of one who had intelligence and the independent mind of a true searcher of truth. Like Galileo, perhaps, who turned his back on his discovery in order to keep the peace and to maintain his ability to do more work, might Mike also have compromised to continue working and doing what he needed to do which was to live reality according to the truth? For isn’t a commissioned art-work, after all, nothing but a work you do for someone who may not share your own beliefs? For as Galileo said, “The Earth moves just as well”, Mike could have also said, “Mary is not yet in Heaven after all”.

By the way, one of Mike’s vocal critics (Cardinal Baigio da Cesena, papal master of ceremonies) ended up being one of the painted nude figures consigned to hell (inescapably bound and bitten by serpents). It may not have been a kind Christian wish but a purely albeit sadistically artistic move. Mike had his own foibles definitely. He lived in a real world, not in an artistic vacuum like some artists do.

Art is full of mystery just like life. Yet, art can be also funny at times. And so is life. But all hidden things will be revealed eventually and the laughter of those who made fools of many will turn to crying when we all come face-to-face with the Great Judge.

Finally, we judge a painting and its painter to test ourselves whether we seek and live out the truth that they strive to show or we will forever be blind people seeing the painting and yet seeing only what we see or what we want to see and not what God ultimately wants us to see. Like the Pharisees who heard the parables of Jesus, do we hear but do not understand the meaning? Art can open our minds some more if we already have the truth in us. Most artists struggle to do so but there are artists and people around them who willfully close our minds from the truth. Beware of them.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So is truth. Do we see only art or do we see life also? Do we merely see life or do we see God as well? And so, do we use our eyes alone or do we also use our minds?

Only the Truth can give us clear sight and save us from condemnation.

(Painting above: Detail of "The Last Judgment" by Michelangelo.)

Is There Truth in Art?

2011-08-10T16:25:00.009+08:00

The issue confronts us once more as a nation. And no doubt, it will for years to come.

Background for what happened: An artist uses religious symbols to express his apparently political and even facetious personal views by incorporating phallic or extra-realistic (a Christ with rabbit-ears must be an ET) images, thus causing furor among religious devotees of the Black Nazarene, the people in general and even the legislature (including the president himself) who find the works offensive. The heads of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) close the exhibit on the grounds of security (as some of the works have been vandalized).

On the surface, we see what caused the explosion of passion: a penis for a nose of a Christ on the cross is definitely too avant-garde, modern or liberal an expression in a country that is still caught in the medieval adoration of religious objects and relics. Hence, the use of words as “sacred”, “sacrilegious” and “desecration” being thrown around. Artists and their friends in media and academe, on the other hand, throw in their “freedom of expression” in defense of the artist, who by the way, is named Mideo Cruz – a cunningly and literally “sacred” name in Latin-Spanish meaning “My God, the Cross”. Although we do not know the man, he must be himself a deeply religious person who may even value the symbol of the cross but in a way that many of us do not comprehend. Who can fathom the mind of an artist?

Let us try to unravel the web of opinions and raise it to a higher level where we see art as truth and truth as art. Or even higher than that, where art is life and life is art. Otherwise, we have become nothing but a society of people who do nothing but pass opinions around. If we are truly a Christian nation, of what use is revelation to us? God would have utterly failed us. For the truth of life is the only opinion that will unite us. Freedom is just the first fruit of truth. Unity is the real harvest.

But there must be divisions and differences of views in our multi-cultural world. The goal of democracy is to allow these opposing forces equal opportunity of expression while preventing either side from annihilating the other side through violence or intolerance. Which of the two does more harm is not obvious, for war or conflict destroys in an instant while intolerance does so through generations.

At first glance, this is a simple case of idolaters (image-worshipers) condemning another idolater (art-worshiper) for misusing their proprietary symbol. For one man’s religion might be another man’s art. And a man’s art may be his religion as well. On the other hand, our laws guarantee the freedom of expression of any citizen. Can the two coexist in a democracy? How shall we be guided through this endless maze?

And who can judge artists? Just the artists – as seen from the actuation of CCP heads when they allowed the exhibit in the first place and when they failed to find fault on an artist? As Aristotle said: Some artists must be judged by non-artists. For who can be the better judge of a house: the builder or the one who lives in it? Who can judge a meal more effectively: the cook or the eater? You present an art work before the public and must expect the public to give fair as well as unfair judgment. When the highest judge of the land (the president or the Supreme Court, as the case may be) comes in to bear upon the issue, we realize how great the monster has grown.

What is this growing monster called Art then?

Art is not mere representation or symbolism of ideas, people and events. It is an expression of life in a fleeting or frozen moment – through oil, marble, film or words – as seen by a person who has been impelled by the spark of divine creativity. Artists imitate Nature – the original and divine Art -- and her ways, not merely to duplicate her beauty but to enhance it, twist it, distort it even and, at times, destroy it for a moment’s need. For artists are also messengers, like prophets, who regale us with visions of monsters and beasts that demonize kings, nations and peoples. What for? To entertain us? To inform us? These and more. But, in our modern world, musicians and artists have ceased to entertain more than to lead us to passions of anger or self-annihilation. Those who merely entertain, to such people, are like blind beggars waiting for the cash to go “kachinnng” melodiously into the cup. Real artists, however, must raise the questions of life for people to see themselves in the realities of their world. Real artists must portray ideas that people may be led to transform themselves.

When Michelangelo began painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling, he saw his work merely as a documentation of the stories he read in the Bible. Then he had his epiphany -- like Archimedes shouting “Eureka!” -- and erased his first paintings. Whereas he had seen only history written in the Scriptures, he now saw God’s hands working directly through those times. Whereas, he had seen only a cycle of human-v.v.-divine love-hate relationship, he now saw a loving God reaching out to obedient humans. Whereas he had seen only a time-trapped God handing down laws, he saw an eternal God promising His people abundant, if not eternal, life as well.

In being transformed by his medium (he was a sculptor forced to become a painter) and his message (he was a student of God’s word) in his craft and commission, Michelangelo sought also to transform his viewers to share in his god-like ability not just to create a thing of beauty and power but also to become part of that beautiful and powerful tapestry that God alone can create through His Spirit, the Holy Sculptor of human spirits.

Can any modern artist presume to stand beside Michelangelo and say, “Hey, man, I really like your work; but your message is not for me. I see things and will do things differently.” Can any modern musician face up to David and say, “Hey, dude, your psalms are great; but I prefer to be less direct and more horizontal – you know, man-to-man and not man-to-God.” True, it is a privilege for any artist to be free and to be oneself. Art students study art and its history to learn as well as to improve or improvise upon the works and lives of the old masters. The question that remains is: Have art schools or has society, in general, preserved and protected the truth that the masters like Michelangelo discovered through the things they teach and through the works they spawn among their students? To this, we say a big NO.

Classical art and much of what it represents is history (meaning “dead”) and has lost its appeal among people and artists in particular. The elusive truth that also motivated people of science like Kepler, Galileo and Newton sought to discover from the written Word and from Nature has become passé and unattractive to many. Belief in this truth has served its purpose in this post-modern era and has turned our artists, thinkers and shakers into practitioners of unbridled freedom and even ungodly living. Experimentation and Quantum Physics – the idea of going where matter or our minds may lead us -- rule our psyche and our culture.

That is how we lost the truth. And when truth disappears, who will suffer? Not just the artist, the discoverer or the philosopher but the people who look up to them for guidance and inspiration. Artists behave and think like gods within the vast freedom our laws grant them. No, they are a God unto themselves oftentimes! How often did Michelangelo rant against Pope Julius II over matters of style and finances? Were the Pope’s religious views better than the artist’s inspiration? Somewhere in between them, the truth must have been juggled about. We can only judge partially from the paintings we see; but God will judge from the issues of their hearts as He will from those of ours.

Undoubtedly, in history, art itself has been the destroyer of truth. As early as ancient times, people sought to represent God in a way that led people to dishonor Him. Idolatry – worship of graven images of God or things in Heaven -- was a sin not just of ancient times but much more so today. As we said, God created Nature (the original Art) to give us a view or an image of His real nature, His love and His power. But humans turned that image into a god which they worshiped instead of God. The truth that God placed in Nature was turned into a lie. And the lie had become the truth for many people. The golden calf removed God and His laws from the minds of the Hebrews.

This offense was punished in many severe ways as recorded in the Bible. (Visit this link and see how Michelangelo depicted some of these events - Sistine Chapel) Yet, the blood, flesh and guts produced by the judgment of those people have long been swept away and forgotten. Even seeing paintings or old movies of Moses and Noah do not bring enough shame or guilt in the consciences of complacent individuals nowadays. Entertainment can be had for a dollar or two; but truth is worthless and nobody is willing to pay even a cent for it.

The lie in art remained and even became desirable at a point in history when patrons of the art found a way of endearing themselves to the masses and even using their self-proclaimed position as preservers of faith and art to perpetuate their wealth and their faith-systems. (This was true then as well as today.) Thus, during the Renaissance, the best painters and sculptors (including Michelangelo) were maintained to produce the art of the church. And so, his image of a younger-than-Jesus Mary holding her dead son in “La Pieta” has been perpetuated in other art works and more so in the minds of many Marian devotees. The initially “innocent” desire to produce church art gradually became a seed for idolatry among many who see such images as sacred or holy in themselves. Or was it only a perpetuation of a old ancient habit?

Whatever it was, the truth that artists wished to convey had become another truth or a lie. The images were adored as holy relics themselves, to be revered or even worshiped in place of God. Perhaps, this is what iconoclastic artists like Cruz wish to achieve: disabuse our hapless idol-worshiping devotees of their superstitious beliefs. The awe that Sistine Chapel evokes to a visitor may not be far from the sense of piety that a devotee has for the Black Nazarene in Quiapo. They may even be one and the same for many people. But this comes from not knowing, first, what art is and, second, what genuine worship is. The confusion comes, ultimately, from forgetting the truth.

And what is the Truth? A ruler asked this once of a man who was about to be condemned. No answer was given for right in front of him was the Truth in the process of being confirmed. Jesus Christ – The Truth -- was to die and to rise again. He was going to ascend to Heaven and judge the living and the dead. (An entire wall is devoted in Sistine Chapel for this fact, but, unfortunately, with Mary beside Jesus and not the Father. The man was not perfect after all even as an artist or a student of the Word. Which proves our point here.)

The whole Truth is founded on the historical fact that God created man, Adam, in His likeness. (Artists use something to make something else; but God used nothing to make the Universe and from universal dust created man.) When that perfect image of God was destroyed by sin, God sent (created is not the proper word) His Son to be the real image (representation or art work, if you please) of Himself and Whom we must imitate through a sublime art of living. (Our living then is our worship.) But as many artists have often done to Him, the real Jesus was also “desecrated” and ultimately killed.

In raising Himself from the grave, Jesus proved His true nature as equal with God the Father. Yet, the work of God was not finished there. Today, both the Father and Son work to finish the Ultimate Art Work of all time: the transformation of humans made in the image of Adam (carnal/sinful) to that ultimate image of the true, exalted and eternal Jesus Christ (holy/divine) Who reigns in Heaven. Both living body and living spirit (not inanimate objects) will be excellently painted, marvelously sculpted and graphically-virtually morphed into the very essence of the eternal God at the right time. Is this the Truth? Judge for youself. For you will be judged based on your own judgment.

In the face of such magnificent divine art work, how do we look at ourselves? What kind of art do we produce? What kind of stories do we tell? What kind of novels do we conjure? What kind of movies do we imagine? What kind of music do we write and sing? What kind of faith do we preach and practice? What form of worship do we invoke? What nature of business ventures do we implement? What style of parenting do we exercise? What kind of governance do we run?

The truth then is that the cross and all other images used by devotees are not sacred in themselves. In fact, in God’s eyes they could be abominable for they distract our view of His real image which is His being Spirit, being invisible and being in Heaven and not on Earth and certainly not in a relic, a picture or an amulet. How then can you desecrate something that is not sacred? How can you insult Christ Who sits in Heaven through mere impish, material art work? No, you have to reject God and His truth in your heart and in your life in order to bring Him down. But why do so when you, as an artist, can glorify God and uplift people through truthful, respectful and decent art work?

God taught and gave us art just as he gave us life and existence. The least that He expects is for us to give honor to Him and to others. Better still, to love Him and others. Our art and our life speak of how we express our understanding or lack of understanding of the Truth of God.

(Painting above: Michelangelo's "The Last Judgment" at the Sistine Chapel. What is wrong with this painting?)

Across the past: Conquering Ancient Fears

2011-07-25T12:33:00.014+08:00

The Dragon Flies Again

Across the past
Across the sky
Across the sea
Across space
Across time

I fly once more
To visit my home
In this my homeland
To revisit my youth
To review my early journey

And conquer my fears
And heed my calling
And face my destiny
And seek the answers
To questions left unanswered

This is the poem I wrote at Manila’s departure lounge on June 1 as we waited for our flight to Cebu, the first leg of our trip to the Visayas. From Cebu, I, my sisters and other relatives would proceed to Bohol and then, finally, to our native province, Negros Oriental. We planned to spend some time in Dumaguete City where all of us siblings studied as kids and then visit our father’s hometown, Siaton, 50 kilometers southwest of Dumaguete.

Yes, it had taken 46 years before I could visit these two towns -- virtual arenas of my past as a child and as a young student. I had travelled back and forth to Mindanao and most islands in the Visayas, including the Occidental side of Negros. This was when I still worked in a bank in Makati. Even Cebu and Bohol I visited several times; but those were the only times I got really close to the old province.

It had also taken me about 25 years to take the courage to ride a plane again. In the interim, I had developed a lot of other phobias — claustro (enclosed places), acro (heights), elevato (a combination of the first two inside a lift, my term), agora (crowded places), cinemato (perhaps, a mixture of claustro and fear of the darkness inside a movie-house), seismo (earthquakes) and even transpo (if fearing a bus ride can be called that). Name it, I had it all it seemed.

But, thank God, I overcame most of them one by one although I do have some apprehensions about many other things. Coming out of my shell and moving around again after about ten years of reclusive living in Baguio helped to rebuild and refresh my mind, my heart and my spirit.

I tell these things to give courage to those who may have the same fears. My cousin who works with trauma victims told me that I was one of the “lucky few” for, in most cases, the fears remain and even get worse.

Writing books and songs, and singing them, of course, certainly saved me from total ruin from a heartbreaking experience. We all know the one thing that can break the heart – love. But love is also the remedy for a broken heart. The love of God and of the people who truly care for us. Even when we don’t feel like loving anyone in return, we find comfort in the fact, for instance, that our mother will always love us no matter what happens. And so many others out there who may not express or show it, but come to our lives bringing the sunshine of refreshment into our lives.

Travelling back to our hometown was not just a much-needed, long-overdue vacation. It reinforced filial love that extended to other relatives whom we had not seen and heard of for decades. It also allowed us to meet new relatives (second generation) and friends who went out of their way to make us feel welcome and accepted as part of their homes and families. Likewise, it opened up vistas I never thought existed when I was a child. Think of Valencia’s forest, Siaton’s Balanan Lake, Tayasan’s Calag-calag reefs and Sibulan’s Balinsasayaw Twin Lakes – sparkling gems on an emerald island waiting for tropical dreamers. But that’s another story.

Why we have to travel to some far places when right here in our country we can find such abundance of friendship and fellowship (not to mention fantastic places) is puzzling. Yes, we see beautiful sights and exciting cultural experiences in many places. But those foreign places do not really belong to us; neither do we belong to them. As the modern diaspora-nation, this may be hard to re-instill among our people who have come to belong to other nations and cultures as well. But I have discovered the value of looking more closely into what made me what I am now. Let me mention just a few things.

As a small boy, I developed this terrible fear of the dark. Stories of ghosts, vampires and “sigbins” (a Visayan-invented kangaroo-like elemental creature) kept me awake many nights and prevented me from venturing five feet away from my parents or any of my older siblings in the dark. Looking back now, my recent fears may have arisen from this early penchant to believe in unreal things. Worries, we call them now, which can take a life of their own and become monsters who inhabit our minds and souls as if wanting to rule over us.

The proper way to erase such fears, I learned while in college, rests in Apostle Paul’s advice in Phil. 4:4: “...whatsoever things are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable— if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think on these things.” But the world is so powerful and wins us over to the side of unreal things. Harry Potter may be cute; but behind his charming aura is an ancient cultic invitation to visit the world of tormented spirits. Hollywood does this best: lift us to heights of fantasy where we desire to stay and forget the real world or bring us down to the pits of darkness where evil spirits fight for supremacy and, oftentimes, do win over our own gullibility by taking much of our time and diverting our attention.

How did I develop fear of the dark? From other, mostly older, people who told stories about unreal things that dwell in the night. Before your kids end up with the same fears, it would be good to avoid such un-bedtime stories. Yes, the worse that might happen is for kids to develop fear of darkness. The worst is for them to fall in love with witchcraft and other cultic practices. In between, some even believe that such stories are allusions to the Christian spiritual warfare. But do we really think that those who make tons of money making people appreciate the cuteness of witches and vampires have any desire to teach Christians a few tricks on battling evil? No, for all we know, they are using these stories and films to soften our fear of or disdain for their real power to destroy our minds and our souls.

There is something in the darkness of our carnal minds we must genuinely fear: the devil. He makes his darkness appear like light to entice us. Ironically, he removes our fear of visually horrible things in order to remove our fear (or apprehension) of the “more terrifying” spiritual fear (of divine judgment) that God wants us to have. A healthy kind of spiritual fear leads to freedom; but the devil enslaves us through deceptive means.

We said “ancient cultic invitation” because the very same stories I heard as a kid (which took away my joy and freedom as a young person) were concocted by those who may have found those stories thrilling and worth telling in real terms. The basis of their stories, as in most myths, may have been real or hallucinatory. In our scientific modern world, such stories can easily be dispersed logically or psychologically. Still, with Hollywood raking in mesmerized minds into its bosom, how do remove this ancient influence from our midst? For the limitless power of the mind can only be made effective when we “think on the true and excellent things”, not the false and depraved things. They divert us from leading truly godly lives. “As a man thinks, so is he,” Marcus Aurelius wrote.

In short, my naive childhood fears came because of ignorance of the realities of the spiritual world. There are wicked spirits and benign spirits. Whoever wins your attention as a child or succeeds in molding your character determines who you are as an adult. Beware then of youthful or naive fears, they could (and will) grow on you during those dark moments.

There are real -- that is, visible things -- that do cause fear in us. Like the ancients who trembled at the sight of wild animals, we quiver likewise at the sight of fearful things or beings. This second case came to my attention when I realized that many of my early fears arose from people who had such strong personalities. One of them is my mother whose hands were swift to discipline me with a hanger or a belt as a boy. Today, she still retains that authoritative voice and glare when she finds me questioning her views. The others were my teachers in elementary who were mostly stern and, sometimes, unsmiling women. My favorite was my sixth-grade, mestiza teacher at Piapi Elementary School, Mrs. Edna Paralejas, who was as beautiful and as stately as Gloria Romero. She was also charming but she knew how to keep us in our places. The main reason I learned to fear her, in spite of her disarming personality, was the fact that she was from Silliman University and, unlike us, spoke very fluent English. She had authority and finesse written all over her. She would embody every other discriminating and intimidating teacher I would have in high school and college – mostly my English teachers: Mrs. Vea, Mrs. Gonzales, Miss Morillo and Mrs. Benitez, my college-speech teacher. (The rest of my male professors at UP College of Engineering, as hard as they tried to, were not as intimidating as the complex courses themselves.)

Corollary to that, I realized those stalwart female teachers did not only develop a fear of authority in me but also real fear for girls or women. Many of us high-school mates, in fact, recently discovered we were mostly “torpes” (we had fear of girls, if not courting them or telling them what we felt can be called a fear). Perhaps, we all had stern mothers or teachers who stunted our confidence when it came to dealing with the opposite sex. Whatever it might have been, I still carry with me this defensive wall against women who may not necessarily intend to cause fear but do create that feeling. The good Lord filled us with such strong emotions; we do not know when and whom to love or fear properly. Or maybe, it’s just me.

Be that as it may, what I found out when I finally visited Mrs. Paralejas after 46 years (she is more than 70 years old now) was that I no longer had the youthful fear I had when she was my teacher. Not because she is smaller than me now or that she has a more wrinkled face than me and that she no longer has the movie-star aura she used to have, but because she looks like my late grandmother who was so doting to me and kept smiling at me. She was no longer the person set on teaching me proper grammar or pushing me to excel with that serious voice and look. She was like a friend, no, a child buddy, who just wanted to talk about simple things. It was a restful conversation, not a stressful classroom lesson with thirty other kids around. When I gave her a copy of my latest book, she gave out a big smile that reflected my own joy in having had such a great teacher who prepared me to be what I am now. Perfect love -- and real joy and peace, as well -- is the absence of fear. There it is: the Lord’s “easy” answer to this emotional dilemma!

Yes, I also got to fly again after more than two decades; but the return flight was something else. Never had I had a more turbulent ride. I was glad I rode with my cousin Susan Monte de Ramos-Soldwisch’s husband, Bill, who knew how to cheer up a phobic person like me, especially at those moments when the plane was rolling and pitching around like a flip-flop on a raging river. During my first flight, I had taken videos of the islands and seas between Luzon and Cebu. Weather was perfect! On that return flight from Dumaguete, however, all I saw were gray clouds and tiny rivulets of rain through the window.

All my fears of sigbins, strict teachers, pretty girls, thunder and earthquakes disappeared in the face of a storm’s tail buffeting our plane. This was the Mother of all fears, the most ancient of all fears – the fear or sting of death that the devil succeeded in planting in humans hearts early on. I was not facing my fear of flight. I was actually flying in a plane that was juggling me around, strong and long enough to make my heart sink to its lowest point. Singing the old hymn “Peace Be Still” helped a lot, like it had done many times before. But I can’t help thinking that I was singing “Nearer, My God, to Thee” instead of that song! Even after we touched down, I did not dare sigh in relief until I got out of the plane. The thought of a terrorist’s bomb exploding before we deplaned did come to mind!

It turned out that a typhoon that had just left the country was sucking winds and rains over Manila. After we landed, I heard that all outgoing fights were canceled. Faith is the victory – this is so true over death and even over not-so-funny phobias.

The one remaining real fear I had to face was flooding in the magnitude of Ondoy. (How I envy the people during Noah’s time who had no fear of flooding! Ignorance is bliss indeed.) The taxi driver promised he would take me home through the floods, of course, for the right price. I was hungry, sleepy, tired, heavy-laden and fear-wracked at that point, so I had to pay up about a third of my plane fare for a cab ride. At one point, the driver had to stop and think if he could cross a flooded bridge over a creek. He kept his promise. Being in a plane crash or drowning in a creek was a possibility that did come to me (or in my belly, at least, as my cousin Susan said) that day; but they were after all the same old fears or worries at work given more real manifestations.

My life-long education in handling fears took a rest for a while when I got home, happy and dry. Twenty-three days after I had left, I was back in my room that remained as cluttered as I had left it, but with more dust to clean. I was in no hurry to clean up. Besides, mud from a possible Ondoy 2 could have come that night. At that point, it was just a stray thought, not fear of floods.

Vacations are truly fun when you get to see old and new persons and places. But the best vacations are those that also let you see the old and new persons and places in your own heart.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. -2 Tim. 1:7

(Photo above: Aerial shot of Bicol, showing majestic Mayon Volcano, below the wingtip, Burias Island and Ragay Gulf in between. Taken by Paolo Enteria.)

On Tithing, Receiving, Serving and Giving

2011-07-18T15:26:00.005+08:00

Much has been said about the issue of bishops receiving or using money from the government. Before the issue finally dies down and swept into oblivion like so many other issues involving ministers or churches, let us take a quick look at what is really expected of leaders of the Christian flocks everywhere.

As much as I respect the opinions of fellow Christians on the matter of tithing or giving, it is necessary to look into the issue from the perspective of the apostles of the Lord Jesus. And no other personality would provide us a clearer picture of what it is and how it should be done than Apostle Paul.

First off, the word “tithe” or “tithing” (giving 10% of one’s income) is nowhere mentioned in the New Testament as a teaching or as a requirement for believers. The few verses available are allusions to the old Mosaic law given to Jews. This is an important point for it settles, once and for all, the basic difference between what tithing (in particular) is all about and what giving (in general) is all about. Tithing was necessary to support the Levitical priesthood. But with the fulfillment and eventual removal of the Mosaic system (including the priesthood) through Christ’s ministry, such a teaching or practice no longer holds. It was a command of Moses to the Jews only. Being Gentiles, I don't see how we should be compelled to follow it. Unless, we require men to be circumcised as well.

What remains now then is giving. Tithing is out. Or, it was never a command given to Gentiles. (Please check out Acts 15.) So, what is Paul’s teaching and attitude on giving? Can we consider it the final word on the matter?

In Acts 20:17-35, Paul calls for the elders or bishops from Ephesus and tells them how he had conducted himself before all, namely:

1. With humility
2. With suffering from persecution
3. With diligent teaching to the end of his life
4. With innocence

With such a virtuous stance no one then and now could question, he then warns them against the coming wolves. (As a prophet as well, Paul gives a warning to tell the early disciples and us future disciples of what was going to happen. That it did happen is no longer a question. It is just a matter of looking for wolves in sheep’s clothes.) He then commends the leaders to God's grace and leaves them his most ardent and revolutionary teaching on serving and giving, the one ministry that most religious groups are big on (but not necessarily in that order of importance). But what he tells them is so contrary to what is practiced and believed now. It is so obvious that I wonder why so many preachers do not teach this, to wit:

1. “Do not covet people's money or clothes.” (I could almost hear him say, "Do not covet anyone's SUV or Lotto profits.")
2. “I provided for my own needs and those of others. In this way, we must support the weak.” (He does not say: by asking for tithes or donations or alms from among your flocks. Remember, he was talking to bishops not mere disciples.)
3. Finally, quoting Christ, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ (Surprise!)

How consistent is this statement of the Lord with the stance that Christians should give tithes to support the weak or, as a modern adjunct, to support the work of the Lord? If Paul told bishops to give rather than receive, why do we require people to give tithes to bishops or pastors then? We failed to see this: The leaders are supposed to give, not the followers. Who is more blessed now, the giver (the people) or the recipients (elders or churches)? Spiritually, we give and are blessed. Materially, we receive and are helped. Churches today are materially helped, not spiritually blessed, sad to say. That explains our penchant for nice, expensive church-buildings or monoliths that house our assemblies while the poor live in shanties and starve.

Just look around and see who live in comfort and contentment from the income of the weak and poor and you will see how Paul’s teaching on serving and giving has been totally inverted. No, the funds have been diverted! The weak continue to suffer while the strong bask in glorious wealth. Who live in palaces and nice houses of prayer and meditation? Who ride in cool cars and vans in pursuit of serving the weak and poor? And whose money is it that props up the government’s lotto or sweepstakes if not of the poor, in general? The rich do not bet to become richer, although many do. The poor who make up more than 60% of the population do. Do the Math and you will readily see how a single person can win PhP300 Million in a few weeks while the rest continue to hold on to the same dream until they die.

The government takes and gives. That is its job. That is what taxes are supposed to be. But taking money and giving it to a few people through sheer luck is a wilderness gambit. ("I bet You, Jesus, You won't die if you jump from this cliff." Or, you can bet your life you can become rich.) Ask why Las Vegas can make the desert bloom and shine. Mammon controls such games and those who play it serve the god of this world. Of course, the government also takes and gives to deserving people. It comes, however, from being confused about taxes and pot-money.

As Christians, we are compelled to give – but, to the needy and the weak, not to the strong, learned and powerful, like some pastors, priests and bishops. They must lead by the example set by Paul. It is not too late to learn to do the proper way. In some cases, deserving teachers and elders may need support. But as it is, the exception has become the rule.

In short, why don't we just follow the example of Paul and forget about a dubious command supposedly given to the churches? And why covet that which we clearly see to be what the weak and needy gave in order to get what they need? That does not only make us covetous but vile as well for condoning laziness and greed.

Humility, perseverance, diligence and innocence, as in the case of Paul, are pre-requisites to the genuine ability to give to others who need help. Who can be like Paul and work with his own hands from such a standpoint in order to serve and to give to others? Who can follow his desire to preach the Gospel free-of-charge?

(Painting above: "The Widow's Mite" by James Christensen)

Infallibility: Truth or Fiction?

2011-06-26T19:27:00.014+08:00

Infallibility – a word definitely invented and appropriated by humans. Only God is perfect and infallible. For humans to claim even a semblance of such infinite virtue is not only presumptuous but arrogant as well. God did give the keys (plural, take note) to His kingdom; but He gave them to all twelve apostles, not one. And the same keys anyone can receive as well by faith in Christ to unlock the door to the same kingdom, for that is the will of God. (I Cor. 4:1: “This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed.”)

The Roman Catholic Church bases its teaching on papal infallibility on the supposed position granted to Peter as the first pope and Supreme Pontiff (an unbiblical concept and office). Their claim is anchored on the statement of Jesus that upon Peter (Petros, a masculine name in Greek meaning stone) the kingdom of God would be established. However, Christ was clearly referring to petra (a feminine noun meaning rock), which was Peter’s good confession that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That truth – hence, upon Christ (The Rock), not Peter (a stone) – is the solid foundation of the Kingdom. Notice that Peter confessed Christ as He really was – Son of the living God. In return, Jesus confessed Simon (the unsteady) as He wanted him to become -- a firm believer, the new Peter. His new status brought about by his transforming faith in Jesus qualified him to receive the keys to God’s kingdom (keys to open the mysteries of Heaven), something the rest of the apostles could have equally received and did receive, as Paul attested. There is no talk whatsoever about any office or special rank Peter alone received at that moment or later on.

If so, Christ is the first and only pope (father) we should recognize. But He Himself said the Father in Heaven is greater than Him and that is why He left and took His place beside the Father in Heaven. Peter as a pope is as wild a conclusion as saying Marcos is a genuine hero or BB Gandanghari (Rustom Padilla) is a real woman.

How could we miss this simple fact and the obvious fact that Peter denied Christ three times and again denied Him before the Gentiles later on. This does not mean that Peter remained weak for he became a strong defender and preacher of the Gospel of Christ. Upon his and the rest of the apostles’ teachings, the assemblies of the first-century Christians were founded. (Acts 2:4-14 records the fact that all the 12 apostles were speaking foreign tongues through the Holy Spirit. Only Peter stood up to answer the crucial question: What is happening?) As messengers, they merely proclaimed Christ’s message through their words and works as the Holy Spirit enabled them. How could unlearned peasants and mere publicans have overturned the world otherwise? How could they have gotten the ability to uproot centuries of erroneous pagan beliefs and immoral living without Heaven’s direct interference? Please read the Book of Acts again and see how everything was all but the work of the Holy Spirit accomplished through fallible people. (Remember Ananias and Sapphira?) Even the so-called council in Jerusalem in Acts 15 merely echoes previous general pronouncements Moses declared against idolatry, dietary impurity and immorality. Nothing new at all was added. But many ensuing councils under the Roman and Greek Churches would loosen the strong fabric of genuine apostolic doctrines. At that point, the Roman Church slowly became both an ecclesiastical and a political entity.

Beyond the miraculous manifestations of divine power, the apostles had wisdom to rule over believers without the trappings of political, economic and military rule. By divine precept, there was a plurality of leadership in the early assemblies, not a hierarchy under one head. One pretentious head is, in fact, a dangerous formula for dictatorship while many humble heads are a safeguard against abuse of power. Remember how the Israelites angered God by asking for a king (so they could be like the tribes around them) when they already had a plethora of judges? And was God not their King?

How then can a divine kingdom be founded upon one unsteady person (Lord, save me for I am drowning! Matt. 14:30) who merely derived power through the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit? True, Peter healed the sick and raised the dead. But so did Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. In that regard, they were equal in rank, so why was Paul never claimed by the Romans (the first Gentile convert was a Roman centurion) as a pope as well? Because Peter was an “original” apostle whereas Paul was “born out of time”? Upon a dubious interpretation of a verse, the whole Roman Catholic Church hinges its claim to Christ’s throne on Earth which does not exist. Why? Because He reigns in Heaven. Hence, a claim to an earthly throne is all that the pope has. Politics is its real weapon; religion is its mask. How obvious is this?

Any sincere student of history will see through the dark chapters of the Roman Church’s rule and see how far it stands in harmony with Christ’s infallible quality, or even the excellent nature of the apostles’ deeds. In fact, if Apostle Paul were to be the real paragon for popes, every pope would have worked for his own keep in order to support himself and his co-workers and not expect to be supported by millions of souls throughout the world with alms big and small that make their the way to what is probably the wealthiest bank in the world -- the one in Vatican. (Infallible and rich: how favored can one person be?) For Paul vowed not to be a burden (as long as he was able to do it physically) to anyone and worked as a tentmaker. It is one thing to work as an evangelist and expect to be paid for doing so and another thing to work for a pay and then preach the Gospel free-of-charge. That was Paul’s way. He was not infallible (“I am the chief of sinners.” I Tim. 1:15); but he was less fallible than Peter as an apostle. Even when he was ready to be poured out finally, he never set himself at par with God’s perfect status (“Not that I have . . . already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” Phil. 3:12)

In terms of numbers, Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, would technically have a greater claim to a papal seat than Peter who preached mainly to the Jews. It was he who established the churches in Asia and later on over a big part of Europe though his missionary journeys. Peter supposedly died in Rome, giving him greater right to the seat being claimed by the Roman Catholic Church. But Paul apparently did more to encourage the believers in Rome and other parts of the Roman and Hellenistic world as seen through his letters, his travels and his travails. It was he who appealed once to Caesar as a Roman citizen himself and defended the faith in Rome. That he lived to be an old man and, perhaps, also as a martyr like Peter makes him as qualified to be pope as much as Peter. So, why is he not recognized as a pope? Is it because two popes could not rule at the same time, as seen from Rome’s obvious historical disdain for the Patriarch of Constantinople and the teachings of the Greek Orthodox Church? Who knows what motives people have to distort history and the truth?

The truth is that there was no such office to talk or argue about. Peter, Paul or John were mere messengers, not supreme heads of any organization, least of all, that of a sovereign state. The pope in Rome, like Queen Elizabeth, sits on a titular throne whose roots go back to the Roman Empire, not to Kind David, from whom Christ descended. Peter, the lowly, unlearned (not ignorant) fisherman is the stepping stone used to claim Christ’s glory for a religion that falls short of the first-century model of purity and simplicity. Open your minds to history’s irrefutable lessons. See the disparities between first-century Christianity and many modern-day churches, not just Catholic. Better still, why submit to defective modern versions when the original model only awaits our simple faith and compliance. (Please visit this blog.)

What do we mean then when we say the assemblies were founded on the teachings of the apostles? Does it mean they founded a formal organization or a religious group? If hiding in an upper room to evade persecution from Jewish leaders is the way to go about it, then they must have. If worshiping in catacombs can be seen as a convenient way of espousing a religion, then they were far from being very effective.

After many years of persecution by Roman emperors, it was Constantine, a Roman emperor himself, who took Christianity and made it into a formal religion, changing entirely the character of the original foundation the apostles built.

There were obvious benefits to the believers when persecution stopped and a washed-down form of Christianity became officially acceptable. For the entrance of pagan teachings and practices diluted the purity of the early assemblies. Councils conducted both by the Greek and Roman branches of the Catholic Church introduced new doctrines not consistent with the teachings of Christ and the apostles. The formalistic conduct of the original pure and simple rites of the early assemblies became a rule. The Mass took over the love-feasts or agapes they held spontaneously and daily in their homes (Acts 2:42). A priesthood patterned after the Levitical model arose (even though Christ taught that every believer was a priest in the eyes of God, worthy to offer his or her body as a living sacrifice, our acceptable spiritual service --nothing more, nothing less, Romans 12:1). A formal, global hierarchy under one head took over the simple plurality of pastors or bishops overseeing (not lording it over) the lives of believers in various cities.

Christ knew what would happen if humans were given power and authority that is why He claimed “all power and authority” having been granted to Him by Heaven just before He ascended. He never gave part of that to anyone or any group of people. Least of all, His apostles whom He knew to be helpless without the Holy Spirit empowering them spiritually and not politically or legally. He did say that “greater works” than He had done the apostles would also perform. Obviously, He was referring to miraculous acts and the unlimited spiritual progress of the kingdom till now, not political, military or financial progress as the Catholic Church has obtained for herself in the past and much of it in the present.

Papal infallibility’s claim to religious correctness is a dead giveaway to the false and pretentious progress of the Roman Church. It was she who went through a painful reformation in Europe, not the Greek branch, for its excesses under profligate and “infallible” popes. Our very own hero, Jose Rizal, died in the hands of the Spanish rulers through the evil machinations of the friars. If Galileo could be forgiven for espousing a scientific fact, why cannot Rizal be officially “pardoned” or reinstituted for exposing truths about the friars? (Silencing Galileo and killing Rizal are only two of many clear proofs of the religiously intolerant nature of the Roman Church.) Because Rizal rightly recognized and taught against a religion that in reality makes slaves of us instead of setting us totally free. (Donde la fe no mata, donde el que reina es Dios.) To uphold Rizal’s teachings would mean rejecting erroneous Catholic teachings. He remains an enemy to Catholicism and to many priests. And yet, they treat him like a friend for the sake of display. Across almost every Catholic Church in every town in the Philippines, Rizal’s statue stands in the plaza maintained by the government. But in Dumaguete City, for some reason, he seems to face away from where the church stands. This shows that even Rizal’s statue still knows how to look the other way.

Catholic priests would conveniently qualify the pope’s infallibility by limiting it to his professions as Supreme Pontiff on matters of faith and of morals. This despotic qualification holds all Catholics captive to any and all pronouncements of the pope. Hidden behind this dogma, however, is the tendency to add or to subtract from the plain teachings of Christ, for the very position he claims is an invented office, as we already said. In fact, as an example, cardinals and archbishops (obviously with papal permission and as a matter of conscience, hence, of morals) can justify the use of money from lottery or gambling for its religious purposes. This, therefore, excuses from sanction his or other priests’ arbitrary actions. Another case is that they allow marital annulment but not divorce. This is like saying, “Whatever I say is right and whatever else I may indirectly allow is also right.” Such sophistry they have perfected as their trademark. Only the truly discerning can see through the hocus-pocus.

We would easily believe that the pope is infallible if he chose his archbishops, bishops and priests such that they would at least be half as infallible as he is. But, no, the fact that the branches can be as corrupt as the trunk simply means the teaching on infallibility is a hollow, dead and sapless stump full of termites.

The only time any person can be considered technically as infallible (not in error but not necessarily free of sin) is when he or she proclaims eternal truths revealed by the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures. An example would be Peter’s confession that Christ is the Son of God. Another would be that Christ reigns in Heaven and that he will return to judge the living and the dead. These are basic and universal truths. But to say something that is and has not been revealed to the apostles and the gospel writers is “adding” to God’s word (a grievous offense and subject to divine condemnation). Such invented doctrines divide people and cause dissensions – something we are going through now. We must, however, contend for the purity of God’s word.

When Christ prayed in Gethsemane for the apostles, He said, “I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.” (John 17:14-19 - With highlighting) To be sanctified is to be made holy or whole. Our teachings and faith can only be complete through the revealed word of God given to the twelve apostles, not theological inventions or misinterpretations pronounced by false teachers and other wannabes.

Catholics, in general, are sincere believers. But the teaching on infallibility is one matter that even non-believers will find hard to follow into its logical conclusion. Why believers would believe a lie is certainly amazing. The “father of all lies” is still very much alive and gathering harvest everywhere.

Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth? (Gal. 4:16)

Rudiments of Marriage

2011-05-02T18:29:00.006+08:00

With the ongoing public debate on the RH/RP Bill, it might be good to review marriage as God conceived it. This, of course, we can derive from a reading of Genesis and the Gospels which give us a clear, fundamental picture of marriage.

Much of the confusing arguments thrown about in media, in courts and in churches come from people’s misconceptions regarding the origin of marriage. When institutions enforce inordinate marital laws, society gets caught in the proverbial Gordian knot. Today, the moral and economic health of our nation will depend upon our unravelling this knot for us to experience the freedom and prosperity that God wanted us to have in the first place.

When marriages end up becoming mere playgrounds for the perverts and the depraved, it is time to get serious. Let us then review the Rudiments of Marriage:

A – Marriage is an ACT of God.

God established and defined marriage in the beginning. He “made them male and female” and made them “one flesh”. No, in reality, He made them first “one flesh” (one kind of flesh) in the person of Adam from whom Eve was taken. Having formed Eve from Adam’s flesh, God “made them one” (one united flesh) in marriage. Thus, He declared them to be husband and wife. There, the simple definition of marriage from the Author of Life Himself.

One man. One woman. One flesh. One union. Can there be anything more elegant than that?

Today, people pervert the equation: One man. One man. One flesh.... Bang! It blows the mind of God and sensible people. But people don’t know any better and violate the Law of Marriage, making it into a mere act of humans.

B – Marriage BEGINS with the physical union of man and woman.

One flesh, at the start, then there were two different flesh forms (male and female). God meant the two to be reunited -- a physical and loving union. Adam and Eve loved each other. Their union was uniquely and directly physical since Eve came from Adam. They became husband and wife when they consummated and celebrated their entrance in marriage.

Since all of us came from the union of Adam and Eve, we can consider ourselves of the same flesh nature. We also have the privilege to enter marriage.

It is important to see and understand that the pattern of Adam and Eve is our only model for marriage. They entered their union by the physical act of coming together as “one flesh”. The act of God was to make male and female out of one flesh and joining them in marriage. The act of humans in subsequent marriages is to unite in the same manner. That is marriage the way it should be seen and done. From the beginning till the end of time.

In short, the wedding or the pronouncement by any institution does not establish the union. It is two persons following the law and word of God and keeping that union pure before Him.

C – CLEAVING to one another

What God has joined together, let no one separate. But why do we have laws that allow separation? Because we have taken over God’s authority. We change the equation, distort and extend it to satisfy inordinate carnal desires.

To cleave means to be joined with. The initial intense desire must remain, as much as possible. It is a responsibility of married people as well as of society to keep that union everlasting. Of course, this is hard to attain in our fast-changing times. But if it was generally possible in the past to remain married till death, why can’t we do it again? So many reasons to remain one and only excuses not to.

D – DISSOLUTION of marriage is through death or divorce.

Only God can separate what He united. Through death of a spouse, He allows a person to marry again. Or when one becomes unfaithful by uniting with another. Why?

Since marriage is a union between two bodies, a married person who joins with another different body destroys the original union. 1 + 1 = 1, is the formula. But we have changed it into (1 + 1) + 1 = 2. There are now two unions, one from God and one from humans. One holy, one evil. But people still do it! Why? Because they are driven by their carnal desires, not by the Spirit of God.

From the previous illustration, we can see how population explodes and society’s morals disappear. Why? Because people abuse the privilege. Hence, (1 + 1) + 1 + (1 + 1) + 1 + 1 = 5. Both husband and wife have other partners at the same time. But wait, even the young have made their own equation, thus: (1 + 1) + 1 + 1 = 3. What?

Let us make it clear that two who are joined in the sexual act enter marriage as defined by God. Male and female, in the beginning, remember? Even if you are only 13, once you unite with someone, the union is established. Same flesh, same act, producing the same union. You are bound to keep that union or suffer the consequences of entering an adulterous union. But, of course, people have found ways to go around God’s laws.

Now we have “legal separation” because “there was no marriage in the first place”. That is like saying, God made a mistake in defining marriage and, therefore, we can allow two persons to be free to marry again. Divorce -- legal or not, right or wrong -- has become a prized status which brings big profit to many. But the law of God remains and will make us accountable in the end.

Friends, hope you learned something new from an old teaching. So, when you go and multiply, make sure you use the right equation. We don’t want anyone losing the soul for not knowing and understanding the simple Alphabet and Arithmetic of Marriage.

(Painting above: "Tampuhan" (Lovers' Spat) by Juan Luna)

How Jesus Died (Inside the Centurion’s Mind)

2011-04-21T12:12:00.016+08:00

And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. (Daniel 2:44)

The heart of a war-hardened Roman centurion remained loyal to the divine Caesar. His mind sought only to fulfill his duty to his emperor, his country, his soldiers and his family. Centuries of imperial rule and military wisdom had created this ancient machine capable of conquering nations and subduing rebellion over almost the entire world. Pax Romana reigned because of him.

When Jesus Christ began preaching, Judea was a far-flung colony ruled by a Roman governor in alliance with the Jewish Sanhedrin, a council of leaders faithful to Moses’ Law and extremely zealous for its many invented traditions. The link between the foreign Caesar and the local rulers produced a delicate balance which worked effectively to quell unrest and to maintain economic benefit for the colonizer through taxes. Both parties, keeping a safe distance from one another, gladly fulfilled each other’s role while keeping the people tractable, safe and productive. Between the two, the Praetorian Guard, under the governor’s command, played a vital role as a strong bridge.

A centurion, in reality, had command over two hundred to about a thousand soldiers. Today, he would be equal to a colonel in terms of command and dignity. He served both as mother and father to his soldiers – training them, inspiring them, fighting with them, laughing and mourning with them, eating and sleeping with them in camp and even dying with them in the battlefield. The road a soldier-leader trod upon to earn his spurs was paved with unending struggle, pain and dedication. The physical strength, mental acuity and emotional alertness required of him allowed little room for error and excuses. Mens sana in corpore sano (sound mind in sound body) – a Roman maxim -- found its pedestal in the centurion’s life.

The unnamed centurion had heard of Jesus since He began teaching in Judea with a band of followers -- former fishermen, tax collectors and ordinary folks. It was his duty to find out what was happening. Some of the soldiers he sent to observe told him of a man who baptized people and Jesus in Jordan River. The centurion remembered his soldiers saying that they even got a “washing down” from the leather-bound, ascetic prophet: Do not abuse your power. Do not get money from the people.

“Who is the leader of the movement then: the baptizer or this Jesus?” The centurion had asked then.

“Well, the baptizer wanted to be baptized but he ended up baptizing this Jesus instead,” was the answer.

Quite a humble person, this Jesus, the centurion had thought.

For about three years, the centurion had heard many things about this Jesus, also called the Son of Man, Messiah or the Prophet. He heard about his teachings of a coming kingdom, about forgiveness and loving your enemies, about praying and about a resurrection. The miracles – now, those were amazing reports -- even led him to see for himself whether this Jesus was for real.

Disguising himself as a visiting merchant, he decided to see for himself one Sabbath when not many people were in the streets. To his great amazement, he saw Jesus heal a man who had been born blind.

Great Jupiter! This man is indeed very powerful. Who is he? Where is he from?

That night, he had a hard time sleeping. Never in the history of Rome or anywhere else had that happened. But being the literate and smart person that he was, he wanted more proof before putting any trust upon this teacher-healer. He also needed to be unattached in order to focus on keeping the crowds who followed Jesus from becoming unruly.

Still, he wanted to know more about this Jesus. He had an unhindered view to a historic and revolutionary event and he did not want to miss whatever good it offered. Besides, it was his duty to keep this Jesus and the excited people within his scope. Also, he needed to keep Jesus from harm in case the Jewish leaders thought of eliminating him unlawfully. Either way, he kept the guard and gave relevant reports to the governor regarding the rising events.

“This Jesus, although he doesn’t seem intent on starting it, may be the source of trouble for all,” he told his soldiers. “Stay alert!”

When Jesus entered Jerusalem riding a donkey, the centurion provided security in the streets of the city. But since it was his duty to keep a close watch over the band of followers, he stayed close and kept even wider eyes and ears than his soldiers. He gathered reports of what Jesus said in the temple through the stories told by some Jewish “friends” (Spies, we would call them. Romans were not allowed inside the temple, you see. He knew the Jewish leaders had also planted spies among Jesus’ followers.) He heard how Jesus toppled the tables and how he lashed at the Pharisees and Scribes. The Sanhedrin almost had to call Roman soldiers in just to prevent the people from causing any more vandalism. Fortunately, only Jesus showed violent behavior.

Surely, this man is motivated by some kind of ultimate goal for him to defy the Sanhedrin as he does, thought the centurion.

He now wondered what was the final goal of this Jesus? Did he want to ultimately take control over the temple? Was he merely testing the Sanhedrin’s ability to resist Him and the people? Where would he get his weapons to accomplish that? He had tasked his soldiers to search the homes of some of Jesus’ disciples many times in the past. But they found none.

By all counts, this man is a man of peace. He does not know the ways of war like I do. Taking over the temple or the city would require training a big army. But with the Roman legions guarding the province and the city, it would be an impossible task.

So, why is he doing nothing but teach in the temple and in the surrounding towns? For three years, he has not varied his habits. Yet, more and more people are coming to him. And now that he has made a triumphant entry in Jerusalem, he has not said anything to the people that would come close to rousing them to take over the temple or the city.

His claim that he is the Son of God has divided this nation. The leaders hate him; but the people love him. Could he have supernatural power to overthrow Rome and Judea by calling on God’s angels? Their prophet Moses overthrew a great nation before without an army; perhaps, this Prophet will do it again.

This man is very mysterious and very dangerous.

The centurion made a report of the recent events and made an effort to explain to the Roman governor that he had not seen anything like this Jesus or his movement. His recommendation, therefore, was to reinforce the security in the city as Passover was arriving and more people had come to celebrate. It might be that Jesus was waiting for more people to make his final move, whatever it was.

The order arrived one morning at the centurion’s house from the governor for soldiers to assist the Sanhedrin in the arrest of Jesus that night.

So, this is how it will all end? The centurion felt the despair and helplessness. Or perhaps, he has an army trained somewhere and would come at the right moment to begin the uprising. But until then, I have nothing to work on.

That night, they came and arrested Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was half hoping that Jesus and his followers would put up a fight; but only one follower did, cutting off a soldier’s ear in the process. But Jesus rebuked the man and even healed the soldier’s wound. The soldiers confiscated a couple of swords and clubs, nothing more.

This man is not putting up a fight. What is he doing? Maybe he wants a more dramatic revolt. We will have to wait.

The centurion waited in vain. Before the Sanhedrin, before the Roman governor and before Herod in Galilee, Jesus did not defend himself. No rescue from any army -- of humans or of angels -- came. When the Jews cried to have him crucified, not even the governor could save him. The centurion, feeling frustrated, accepted his orders from both quarters.

When the governor ordered Jesus to be flogged, he let his soldiers do the job. He felt exhausted and went home to take some rest. Watching another flogging would have been senseless.

Anyway, this is not what I had hoped would happen to this man. Ah, a drink and a bath will clear my mind. Even in battle, such small luxuries can do great wonders. And in this war of politics and religion, a soldier neither wins nor loses. One merely carries on.

Upon his return, however, the soldiers were scourging Jesus with wild abandon.

“The order was to scourge him, not kill him,” he yelled at them.

How can these people laugh at their own cruelty?

He could not look into the eyes of the bleeding man. The crown of thorns and the robe around his lacerated body made him appear neither as a dignified king nor a respectable man by any trace. The laughter he heard around him at this pitiable spectacle seemed to hurt him almost as much as the wounds of Jesus.

After the governor turned over Jesus to the Jews to be crucified, the fate of Jesus fell entirely into the hands of the centurion.

This man has not caused any trouble; but he is being punished and sentenced to die. I envy the governor; he could wash his hands of this man’s blood. Mine are already stained by it.

But he had a task to do and ordered the soldiers to proceed with the sentence. When they arrived at Calvary, he had Jesus nailed and raised on a cross between two thieves.

This is the worst order I ever had to follow in my life, the centurion mused as he watched while people cheered every pound of the hammer on the nails. Yet, the condemned hardly cried in pain. It was nine in the morning.

People who were passing by mocked him. The soldiers were gambling over his cloak. One of the thieves hanging beside him cursed him. The Jewish elders dared him to come down and prove He was the Messiah.

“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do,” the centurion heard Jesus cry out.

The Roman laws which I serve and his own laws have condemned him; but my own heart cannot even condemn him. And yet, he will not condemn anyone. What great love this man has!

At noon, a black darkness covered the entire land. It seemed like the Sun itself stopped shining for there were no clouds; not even the stars or the moon appeared. Light itself seemed to refuse to shed its presence upon the scene. Torches were brought in by the soldiers for they could not move within the gloom.

What kind of man is this that even Nature grieves at his suffering? I have seen both courage and fear in the faces of men who died in battle. My comrades who bled and died in my arms defied death and the enemy and cried out for more blood. But this man refuses to fight, forgives his enemies and brings sorrow even to a man like me who has stared at death so many times. He... he is all alone in his agony and, yet, it is I who feels abandoned.

“I thirst!” came the cry from the cross. Upon hearing this, a soldier gave him wine vinegar mixed with myrrh and soaked in a sponge. But Jesus did not drink.

“Enough! We have mocked him long enough. Let him die with dignity,” said the centurion.

He thirsts for something else. Whatever it is, we have no power to give it to him.

“It is finished,” Jesus spoke.

The centurion felt the end was near. He had been standing several paces from the cross and had remained there to see everything that transpired. He had forgotten about his duty to Caesar, to his country, his soldiers and his family. The only obligation he had at that moment was to the man on the cross. This time, he spoke to Jesus from his heart.

You were placed under my command, for me to observe, to control, to protect, to scourge and now to crucify. In my tour of duty in your land, I have seen many die on a cross – yes, under my command. Men who deserved to die. I know you do not deserve this. But you wanted this. That I know now. For what purpose? I do not know.

In Rome, we have a hero who was bound to a rock for stealing fire from heaven and giving it to humans. I see now that even as you approach death, Prometheus that you are, even the light dies with you. It is my privilege to see a man whom we Romans would call a true hero of the people. No, we would call you a god! For that, I give you honor.

The centurion took off his helmet, unsheathed his sword and stood it on the ground.

“Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit!”

With such a piercing cry, Jesus died. It startled every one. Even the land shook with such a force that the centurion fell on the ground. In the lingering darkness, he stayed down kneeling and supporting himself on his sword. People were screaming and trembling. No one, not even the mockers who had gathered like vultures uttered a word. Only the centurion’s clear voice rose above the rumbling ground and fearful cries.

“Vere filius dei erat iste!” (Truly, this man was the Son of God!)

It took a while before the chaos subsided. The darkness dispelled in a moment and the soldiers took enough courage to gather back around the cross at the centurion’s call. It was three in the afternoon.

It was a custom for executioners to make sure that those who were crucified were dead before they were brought down. The centurion hesitated to give the command when it was Jesus’ turn for he had a glimmer of hope that he would still be alive.

Perhaps, it is his way of surviving this great injustice. Wouldn’t that be a great vindication for the innocent? The governor, who understands our laws more than I do, believes so.

“Sir, we have to do this,” asked the soldier ready to plunge the spear into Jesus’ heart.

“What‘s another wound to a dead man?” The centurion waved his hand and walked away.

The centurion went home that day pondering. He had proven something to be true and still had some hope remaining that that truth would last long enough for others to see. He only had to nurture that hope.

Today, many do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that He lives and reigns in Heaven. Many others do not even believe He ever lived at all. One man witnessed how Jesus died -- and believed.

(Painting above: "The Roman Centurion" by Nathan Greene)

The Parable of the Last Doll

2011-04-14T15:33:00.009+08:00

Many appreciate those lovely Russian “nesting dolls”, very popular as gift items. The original “Matryoshka” doll set, carved from wood in 1890, is shown at left. The smallest doll is a baby while the largest is a mother holding a rooster. All the inner six dolls are girls, except for one boy.

If I were to make a set, I would probably begin with the smallest doll. Easiest to hardest, which works well with crammers or late-bloomers like me. But anyone could just as well begin from top to bottom. It would depend on one’s fancy or bias. Either way, the last doll would certainly be, to the maker, the most cherished. One would eventually have learned enough from mistakes that the last doll would be perfectly and lovingly done.

And you thought looking at or handling those dolls was all there was to the doll set. Sure, we all love opening up the big mama or papa doll and down to the smallest family member, lining them up and counting them. Putting them all back together is just as delightful. The magical feeling actually mimics Nature’s many processes. Hence, through it we become part of the artistic or creative process of discovery and synthesis.

Physicists and cosmologists explain the origin of the Universe through a similar fashion. They say that in the first three minutes of the Big Bang, hydrogen and helium nuclei were already stable. 700, 000 years later, much of the H and He available (together making up more than 99% of all the elements in the Universe) were already formed. The Big Bang Theory somehow provides scientific proof of the Genesis claim that God created the Universe from the tiny atom particle to the galaxies and beyond. From down up. Within our bodies, in fact, are the components that God carved out first – water made up of hydrogen atoms (the same material needed by stars to produce light) and oxygen, carbon and iron. And many more.

This small-to-big process is also apparent in many things around us. The Solar System parallels the structure of the atom. The river system, from its tributaries to its distributaries, is similar to a tree's root and branch systems (not to mention the human circulatory system). A mother gives birth to a daughter who will give birth to another girl and so on. Males are, in an indirect way, bearers of seeds that produce the tiny babies of the world. The laws of creation and reproduction came about because a wise, all-knowing Creator put such obvious order in His handiwork.

Everything then is part a whole and the whole derives its essence from the parts.

So, if God made the tiny and the big, how did He do it? That is, what did He use to form all things, whether finite or infinite?

To answer this, we will have to reverse the process. From the big to the small and beyond? What!!?

Before anyone could carve a tiny “babushka” doll, one would have to get wood. Obviously. But in God’s case, what did He have before He made the tiny hydrogen atom? Yes, He had protons, neutrons and electrons. Or even tinier energy particles than those. But wait? What was the source of all those particles? Scientists will probably not agree; but there was nothing before there was something. The logic works; but it defies logic. Faith has to take over from this point.

Inside the last tiny doll is nothing. While the Universe continues to expand at speeds beyond our imagination, the purpose of God to bring back all things to the beginning will not be thwarted. As people build gigantic structures, they actually behave like God – not so unlike the people of Babel who built a tower in order to challenge God. As nations go about coalescing to form a global nation under a global government, they actually think the way God does – to bring all people under His mighty rule. And yet, they are not able to do so because they go about it in their own selfish and wicked ways.

What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? One can succeed in building the biggest doll set but it will be the same dull doll as the tiniest doll, in shape and in essence. The biggest business company will still make use of the same formulas that made it a success in the beginning – for good or ill. A trillion dollars will seem like a million dollars to a convicted drug-dealer who needs only five dollars to pay for his last meal before his execution. Correction, he or she gets the meal free of charge. The world is worthless compared to the value of the soul.

In the beginning was the Word. There was nothing first. The Word brought everything into existence.

When Christ said that anyone who humbles himself will be exalted, we understand His way for us. He who denies himself will gain life. When we become nothing to this world, we will receive everything. The meek will inherit the Earth. His mission on Earth then was to reverse the process of Creation and create the New Creation. Having seen how humans have failed to appreciate His gift of life and abundance in a perfect Universe, He decided to call us to look into the last doll – into our spirit which He created lovingly and perfectly in His own Divine Image.

Crush a tiny babushka doll and you will end up with a mess of wood. Vaporize it and you will have disassembled atoms. You reverse the Big Bang and you get the Big Yawn into Oblivion. Nothingness.

In the beginning, there was nothing – no matter, no space, no time. And God said, “Let there be light!” And there was light.

Today, that light has been covered and hidden deep inside the last doll. Whoever uncovers the light will have life eternal.

(Photo above taken from Wikipedia.com.)

Earthquakes: An Act of God?

2011-03-21T10:59:00.010+08:00

When the M7.7 earthquake hit Luzon in July 1990, an Evangelical preacher said it was a quirk of nature. That is, neither God nor humans had anything to do with it. Such a fatalistic view somehow excuses our inability to do anything to prevent it from happening and destroying everything in its path. Likewise, it somehow releases God from any moral responsibility in causing death to hundreds of people. As if God needed a judge to absolve Him.

Today, after the devastation wrought by the Sendai M9 quake and tsunami, some are saying earthquakes and their corresponding tsunamis are an “act of God”. Meaning, together with shaking the Earth and causing the ocean to rampage inland as well, God causes the death of thousands of people caught in the wakes of these gigantic force-generators. Or maybe, it is just our way of saying we do not really understand God or life at all. Still, we can’t avoid imagining God as if He were a mean brat pouring hot water over helpless ants scrambling on the ground.

Two different views of one and the same supposedly natural phenomenon: one makes God indifferent, the other makes Him answerable for all the suffering we see splashed on TV every minute or so.

Do these views give us the real pictures and the truth? Are we then helpless and worthless creatures blown here and there, buffeted to and fro by the heartless forces of Nature or by a whimsical God ?

Haiti, Chile, Christchurch, Sendai and so many other places have tasted the blind “quirkness” of Nature or the indiscriminate “act” of God. Christian or not, rich or poor, nations suffer the same devastation from some of life’s inscrutable realities.

How are we to make sense of these cruel events?

Let us lay down principles that will hopefully make this difficult question more within our grasp.

First, when God created the Universe, He put perfect order into it. (Everything was “good” in the eyes of God.) Whether it came out of a Big Bang or not, it now proceeds according to His laws – laws which we now ascribe as the characteristics of Nature. Adam came after all things were already made and working according to the Grand Universal Design. We can be sure that God gave him a lecture on how the cosmos worked and how the Earth played its role in it. Without this assumption, we would make of God and Adam two indifferent beings with nothing to converse about except for laying down rules. (“OK, Adam, here are the rules: blah blah blah….” “Yes, Father. Yes, Father. Yes, Father.” Sounds like something we would hear happening today in some circles.)

Second, somewhere along the line, Adam caused things to go haywire. That led God to rewire the whole Universe in order to make things difficult, apparently, for Adam and the rest of us. Sounds so simplistic but we might as well see it as kids do; for in the eyes of God, we are truly kids at play. The way Adam and Eve misused their blessings proved it. The way we continue to misuse Nature proves it.

Third, how things work today has come as a result of God’s rewiring the Universe to show us humans how we must not forget that divine law and order still apply in spite of our belief to the contrary. The fact that God has patiently waited for humans to learn this lesson also shows His love for us His wayward children. Noah’s Flood was a prime example of how God totally changed the playing field so He could begin afresh with good seeds, human or otherwise. And He did it not without waiting for 120 years to give a chance to those who turned their backs on Him. Failing that, He destroyed then rebuilt the Earth and made it even a more habitable place for more people but not without its misgivings. If God has to adjust to our wild and rebellious ways, we humans must also learn to adapt to His firm and unchanging ways. Somewhere in between, we can learn to live with God and with one another in our God-given planet Earth. Easier said than done.

Fourth, in rebuilding the Earth, God ended up making it less conducive for long life to be experienced. He had foreseen how people would become more sinful and made it a place where He could easily instill discipline and judgment when people needed it. The stories of Sodom and Gomorrah and of Moses in Egypt prove this point. When we hear people reaching the age of 100 or more, we wonder if they are exceptional quirks or they exemplify a state that once was the rule. Eat your hearts out! Methuselah really did live to 969. Unwittingly, even scientists name the elusive long-life gene after him—not the myth but the real historical person.

Finally, the present spate of disasters is simply in keeping with what God has been doing for millennia. Nature is God’s tool to make people recognize His power and authority – even for those who think that God is a myth Himself. The many calamities and disasters that come and go prove that sin still abounds and God’s judgment still applies. There are those who believe and there are those who do not believe. That does not stop God from doing what He had been doing for centuries and which He had made known to humans long before they forgot. Then, in the end, we will know who holds the Truth.

In short, Nature is not quirky. It behaves according to God’s plan -- Plan B, that is. Disasters are, in essence, acts of God which He accomplishes through Nature. Yet, He does so in relation to what humans do. In spite of having made the Earth less livable than Paradise, it does not mean that God has no way of making us live in abundance and contentment through His provision and protection.

Nothing happens by accident, not even disasters of such magnitudes that rattle and dazzle our senses. The best we can come up with is to say that such disasters are “just or justified acts of God”. In cursing the Earth because of sin, He was and is justified in placing it under a less orderly or less comfortable manner for humans. Greater pain in childbirth, sweating in order to feed ourselves, getting sick and eventually dying. All these are products of human frailty, not of divine cruelty. Of human disobedience, not divine helplessness.

But even disasters can be “loving acts of God” as well, especially when they lead people to turn back to God. Nevertheless, many find it hard to accept that considering that many of the victims do not even believe in God in the first place. Thousands of Chinese, Japanese or Haitians who died in those earthquakes may have lived all their lives not knowing the true living God other nations commonly worship. How can we tell those people what they suffered was brought about by love? It is so easy to say then that in their case, they received the justice of God. But then again, even believers could be placed in the same lot. Like Job, who suffered much though he was upright.

God’s love and justice, inscrutable as they are, do not apply haphazardly like tsunami waters carrying infants and adults alike. If there is order in the Universe, there is also order in God’s righteous laws and rule. When He sent His son Jesus to die on the cross, it was a “loving act” for it allowed sinners to be saved by the pure sacrifice of a perfect being. Yet, it was also a “just act” in that it punished the sins of many through the same sacrificial offering of Jesus. Christ took our pains and our sins and died doing so. The Father, thus, punished His own Son on our behalf. And He did it through wicked people whom He loved and forgave. That prime act in human history merged both justice and love in one supreme plan designed to undo the work of sin and death upon humans.

Who suffered and died that justice and salvation might be established and proclaimed? Jesus Christ. Yet, so many still do not see the value of that turning point in history as the final solution that God would want us to apply in our lives. Our refusal to do so keeps bringing us back to the ancient times when people preferred to walk in the wilderness instead of entering the Promised Land.

Today, justice and salvation are being applied through God’s handiwork in the lives of people. He does it through human societies recognizing His sovereignty and, thereby, applying His rule and grace in small and great ways. When a criminal is put in prison, that is divine justice at work. When a worthy politician wins an election that is divine grace at work. When nations rise up against dictators, that is divine justice being expressed. When they are freed from bondage, God’s mercy applies. All these events – big and small -- make God’s presence known and felt. So, why can’t disasters do likewise?

Hence, when earthquakes occur today, we can be sure that God is not asleep but is working to shake us up from our complacency and forgetfulness. Ironically, suffering and death can be great stimuli for people to awaken to spiritual realities. And yet, we wonder if people are truly paying more attention to God when He gets their attention through disasters. After a while, people go back to their normal wanton ways because they never learn to appreciate God, His creation and His ways.

To bring out more clearly how people often miss God’s role in the midst of disasters, let us consider a paradoxical reality exhibited by the tragic Sendai Tsunami. It is clear that Japan was prepared for the M9 earthquake in cultural and infrastructural terms. In general, only minor damages, casualties and social disruption, if there were any at all, were reported immediately after the temblor. It was the tsunami surge that wrought havoc to the coastal areas which killed thousands and led to the present threat of a global radioactive exposure from the Fukushima nuclear reactors.

Water from the sea caused the tragic death of about 8,000 people in Japan. And as we said, God did not originally design the Earth to behave that way but rebuilt it to behave, in response to human behavior, in ways that allows Him to deal with humans for their benefit (“loving act”) or for their discipline (“just act”) and eventual salvation. Paradoxically, it is now water that is badly needed in order to cool down the overheated reactors of Fukushima.* The first case showed how water kills; the second, how it can save. (In the same way that the Great Flood waters killed and also saved.) The first is a result of human inability to live perfectly within God’s laws and the second a result of human inability to completely control Nature. This may sound like a theological cop-out to many. Nevertheless, it shows us how we continue to put ourselves in harm’s way when we only seek to satisfy our all-too-human thoughts and fail to incorporate divine realities in our ways.

The historical record shows that humans did have technical expertise in ancient times which allowed communities to attain control of Nature’s forces. For example, some of the unearthed iron tools used by those so-called “crude” people are so advanced we cannot even duplicate their metallurgy today. The medical practices and tools of the ancient Romans remain in use in modern hospitals. The pyramids amaze us no end but they were in pursuit of the most elusive goal of humanity: eternal life. Today’s social and technological progress could mesmerize many into thinking that we have had it all figured out. Until Nature messes up all that we have labored hard to achieve. And, we are back on the muddy ground asking ourselves what happened and thinking what we did to deserve all the pain and anguish. We weep and we wonder. We struggle to cope and we somehow overcome. For what? Simply to die eventually? No, God gives us the opportunity to understand and accept once and for all the INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF LIFE. And that kind of life can only come from God.

In essence, we see only death and suffering in disasters; but God sees and wants us all to see as well His love when He disciplines us humans. Disasters can be our only window to genuine life.

*With all the technological know-how Japan has, they failed to design the reactors such that cooling water could be conveyed by gravitation during power disruptions. As it is, they have to pump water using generators, hose it using fire trucks or pour it from helicopters.

(Painting above: "The Deluge" by Francis Danby, 1840)

Clarifying the RH/RP Bill Issue

2011-02-28T18:40:00.005+08:00

Is it possible to clarify a most complex issue as the RH Bill (now the RP Bill for Responsible Parenthood)? When priests, politicians, P-noy and plain Pinoys passionately defend each possible view on the issue, what hopes do we have to see the real grain of the matter?

Reproduction is a matter meant to be practiced and understood by adults or the mature alone, ideally speaking. But has it always been that way? Ancient societies and tribes gave their children to marry at 14 or even earlier than that. What made the marriage successful in most cases was that the whole family or community came to the aid and support of the couple. (And so it is in our times but with a lot of ramifications.) Certainly, there were rules, duties and even taboos required of the partners and of society itself. Laws and traditions pertaining to the union kept its sanctity and value in the minds of all.

In some strange cases, the parents took care of the infants born to the marriage until such time the teenage parents were old enough to do it themselves and for their children in turn. Uncannily, this pictures exactly what has happened to many teenage pregnancies today! What was socially right and un-shamefully normative before has now become socially wrong but shamelessly normative in our era. (There is no shame in teenage pregnancy, per se. Usually, it is the wrong values we measure it with that make it seem shameful.)

Reproduction, we assume, was a regular, natural and uncontrolled duty of a woman in those early marital practices, as long as she was physically able to perform it. Or was it? We mentioned in an earlier article (read article here) that the ancients did not lack for medical knowledge in contraceptives and abortifacients. With modern medicine, however, our grasp of the physiological nature of the sexual act and reproduction has crossbred with shifting values that try to define morality solely in terms of religious (that is, canonical) principles while negating general spiritual, physiological, historical and philosophical principles. (Constitutional principles may count a lot in this controversy; but is not politics or human laws just another form of “religious” attachment to legalities that try to bind people to a moral order based on external control and not to a way of life bound by a free and clear conscience as produced, protected and guaranteed by our Creator and Savior? Besides, are not canonical laws, in general, mere opinions of men presented as laws of God Himself?)

Some have the notion of separating the Church and the State due to such issues as this that divide people two-way, religiously and politically. But Christ prayed to the Father in the Garden to make us ONE “even as the Father and the Son are one.” That desire to separate Church and State, therefore, runs fully opposite the solemn desire of the dying Savior. Why? For it tries to divide one group of people from another, one rule by some people from another, one belief of a group from those of other groups. We separate two things only when they are divisible or are not one in purpose, principle and practice. And since the Church (Roman Catholic or not) and the State are deemed by many to have different or irreconcilable missions and methods in many instances (though not in reality and as designed by Heaven), we can never unite them. Hence, the divisiveness spawned by this issue and many others. And the division applies among “church” people themselves and even within religious groups and political parties.

Subsequently, in the wake of many Catholics walking out during Mass on the reading of the CBCP pastoral letter against the RP Bill, we see a rising discontent among Catholics and a patent resolve among priests to sanction disobedience. The strengthening of the spirit of those who want to be free to make a conscientious decision will be met by the flexing of ecclesiastical muscles in order to make people behave like meek lambs. This is a dangerous development that does not augur well for our nation at this time. Yet, it is a necessary step toward liberating many from the shackles of intolerance and ignorance that have bound our nation’s soul for centuries.

How do we discern then what the Lord truly wants us to believe or where He wants us to stand in this issue when the Tower of Babel has become smaller than the ivory towers we have built for ourselves in our religious denominations, our legal institutions and in our personal domains?

This issue is but a symptom of the larger division that has arisen from our departure from the basic teachings of the Lord Jesus, particularly in the Sermon of the Mount. What can that Sermon teach us regarding the RP Bill issue? Is there a message there for us, perhaps, to resolve this proverbially thorny and ostensibly horny issue?

The main argument against contraceptives raised is the capital offense of murder against unborn infants. Yet, murder, as condemned by Christ in Matt. 5:21,22, arises from the hatred we hold in our hearts against others. Preventing conception is certainly not motivated by hatred for children but by love for one’s spouse, one’s family and oneself. Abortion is murder, clearly and obviously, for it not only exhibits cruelty for a living being but disdain for a woman’s dignity and one’s own dignity. But preventing conception is nowhere near that realm. We hope people will be honest and humble enough to concede this clear point.

The other argument is that of proliferating immorality and adultery with the use of contraceptives. But in the Lord’s Sermon, the sin occurs in the heart even before the physical act itself. No law allowing contraceptives will diminish the force of Christ’s teaching. People may now commit adultery without legal rubber in between; but it will not make them moral or upright to use legal rubber later on. The best contraceptive for adultery is a heart with a spiritual shield – a rubber shield can only be effective for preventing physical birth and disease. Our failure to teach and to exemplify the pure Christian life has caused much of the present moral decay.

The final argument worth mentioning is that the poor, through our government, are being used to propagate a global plan to control the use of the Earth’s resources. Now, this may apply to countries that do not have enough natural resources to support their population. But we, as a nation, have all we need, except the political will and the moral motivation to distribute the vast wealth we have – wealth that is not in the hands of the people but in the hands of those who hold power, whether political or religious. If we want true obedience to God, let us (the leaders, first and foremost, and the people will follow with gladness) seek first to deny ourselves the pleasures of this world and to share the fatness of the land and our pockets and not keep it to ourselves. A certain amount of population control will help improve the lot of many of our people; but that is not the main solution to our many problems.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom in heaven." (Matt 5:3)

God’s ultimate desire is to hand over the kingdom in Heaven (i.e., God's rule over humans) to the poor, as the Lord meaningfully opened His great Sermon. And here we are, keeping the power to ourselves (claiming what God alone deserves to have) and keeping the wealth from the poor (claiming what the poor also deserve to have). There must be an eternal weight of divine punishment commensurate to this grievous offense.

Sadly, two extremes of immorality prevail in our land today. They remain to be the real roots to our society’s accelerating descent to physical and moral decay.

As we have seen, a social structure once existed to preserve moral order within and outside of the family. Today, we barely have a moral structure to uphold social order in all levels. The family is the first victim in the growing sexual immorality. Total abandonment of once strong moral values has overtaken society and with a lot of help from the greedy Media. For instance, how TV networks utilize the young and the beautiful to enhance profits has eroded respect for the purity and the sanctity of the human body and responsible practice of marriage, sex and reproduction. This insidious practice escapes even the most discerning among our leaders and business-people and is allowed to spawn in out midst. Billboards advertise not commercial products but seduction, lust and lewdness. The bigger and more tempting the ad, the bigger the greed. Those who buy are those who give in to their own human frailty. What we hear now is not the “sound of silence” but the “scream of sex”! And our best bet or defense is to stuff our ears and other organs with rubber. (When a billboard blatantly invites us to “return to temptation” with images of lewd sex-partners towering above our heads and we do nothing to stop it, Mammon has truly succeeded to rule in our lives. Are we so helpless against these voyeur advertisers?)

The other extreme is the villain of spiritual pride. A case of people imposing a false morality, hypocrisy or imputing guilt where there is none. More than that, claiming authority that has not been granted and will never be granted.

The Pharisees murdered Christ. Today, they still rule, control and even deceive people through a dead and wooden image of Christ – a tool they use to show a semblance of piety but only ends in perpetuating idolatry and spiritual bondage. How can truth and righteousness reign then in a nation under such a system which continues to crucify Him, entomb Him and use His glory to claim power for themselves? How can a nation tied to images and rites of the dying Christ be eventually and effectively free to reign with Him (He in Heaven, Christians on Earth – for His “will to be done”) with full spiritual power? A dying “Christian” nation is a shame to the true living Lord.

This issue ultimately is a test of moral authority. The immorality and corruption that we are trying to prevent or correct politically or theologically are the very indictment of our loss of moral authority. The issue is not birth control but self-control and spiritual control. Against such, there is neither law nor judgment.

What we have or what we are is a divided nation that will not desire to be one. What we have or what we are is a Christian nation that has no desire to follow Christ as one. What we have or what we are is a nation that is so culturally and materially blessed but does not know that it is blessed and does not know how and by Whom it has been blessed. A nation dies for lack of genuine knowledge.

“That they may be one even as We are one.”

Is Christ one with the Father in Heaven? Is He with the Father in Heaven now? Who does He rule then? Either the resurrected and reigning Christ truly lives in our hearts and causing us to live triumphant lives now and to transform the face of the Earth with our deeds and ideas or we are victims of a corrupted faith.

With or without the RP Bill enacted into law, a Christian will still find himself or herself busy fighting the forces of evil in our midst. Our fear that evil will abound with the RP law is much too late, for evil already abounds. We might be surprised to realize that we are part of the evil that we fear might arise.

Are we truly defending the youth and the unborn with our stand in this issue? Shall we bequeath them with peace and unity that we can and must establish now or are they going to fight and die for it still?

What we do and say now will determine what the next generation will do and say in the future.

(Painting above: "Easter Morning" by He Qi.)

Was Jesus Christ an Environmentalist?

2011-01-12T10:51:00.003+08:00

What a silly title for an article! No, it’s a silly question, in the first place. For how could the Designer and Creator of the whole Universe not be one? That is, if we define an environmentalist as one who is concerned with preserving and conserving the Earth’s resources to sustain human societies that can provide equitable means of livelihood and opportunities for wholistic development.

Jump to the Book of Revelation (v. 11:18) and we find that among those reserved for God’s wrath are those “who destroy the Earth”. Who could those be? Why would God have such anger that He would take vengeance by “destroying” them?

If you search the Bible, there are only two cases where the phrase “destroy the Earth” is mentioned. The first was accomplished by God through the Great Flood and the second is this one accomplished by humans. God has all the right to do whatever He desires upon His own Creation but not so humans. These are those who murder people whole-scale – not just a few individuals at a time but populations and even generations. That gives us a clear reason for the future judgment, one we would do well to heed.

You destroy the Earth, you destroy life. You destroy the environment, you destroy the web of life -- or what we call the ecosystem that supports life on this planet.
But why do people not fear such a dire outcome of their wanton ways? Why do illegal loggers, destructive miners, greedy fishing companies, polluting manufacturers, selfish big-farmers and nuclear-testing, war-freak leaders continue to participate in the murder of Nature?

Sins bring about judgment. Whom God wishes to utterly destroy, He makes first totally blind (usually through money or power) to their wicked ways until it is too late. The ten plagues unleashed by God through Moses upon Egypt was a prime case of multiple environmental destruction directed upon a proud leader of a nation who defied the authority of God and His messenger. The polluted rivers, the sickened animals, the widespread pestilence, the cataclysmic meteorological carnage and the death of an entire generation that accompanied the release of the Hebrews from Egyptian slavery, provide us with a picture of a future divine act that will target Earth-Destroyers.

Those few families and individuals who use or manage natural resources without considering the future generations who will take over the use of those God-given gifts must awaken to the call of the people, if not of Heaven. Perhaps, if they understood this “green” character of Jesus or, at least, feared the gravity of their misdeeds, they might earnestly try to save not just their own souls but also the lives of those thousands they destroy and will destroy along with Nature’s resources. These new slave-owners enrich themselves at the expense of Nature and God’s people. They are God’s enemies and allies of Satan.

He who made Paradise also gave humans precious life and bliss. To benefit from such divine love and providence without a corresponding love and service to others removes our privilege to be called children of God that we all truly are. Did not Jesus say that the “meek shall inherit the Earth”?

Picture our fishermen, farmers and tribal people dispossessed of their natural and ancestral sources of livelihood – no, their very homes and playgrounds – by selfish businesspeople and sometimes even by governments. They have no arms and money to fight against the powerful managers of Nature. All they have is their dignity, their historical rights and their hopes of bequeathing their children and future generations what they themselves received from God since the beginning. All they have is meekness to oppose the mighty, powerful and wealthy Nature-owners/destroyers of today. How then shall God grant them the Earth if God will not destroy the destroyers? The problem is so simple that even the solution stares at us like a wide-eyed child asking for candy.

Where are the forests that provide us everything we need to survive (more than 80% already gone after mindless logging began during the Spanish Era and accelerated in the early 1900’s under the American administration*)? Where are the many mountain springs that water the luscious plants and refresh the various animals and birds that dwell in these islands? Where are the clean rivers and seas the ancient people used to get their daily sustenance from? Where are the fish and corals that once lined and defended our coasts and our lives from poverty? All these will soon be gone in a matter of decades if we continue with our negligent ways.

And we will continue to do so because the nation’s managers and their cohorts have pawned the future of the nation to the banks and corporations that have lent us money to spur our country’s development. And since the only way we can repay our debts is to give in to the creditors’ demands to develop (that is, exploit and despoil our natural resources) in the manner they have dictated upon us for many years, we will continue in our spiralling downfall into environmental decay.

Together with the meek, the mighty will suffer their ignoble end with Nature’s demise. As King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 9:3: “This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all.” Many of them may think that the destruction of our islands will not affect their continents far away. Think again! What they began to destroy decades ago will cease to provide them with what made them affluent. What they conquered and could not resist them will fall with them. But guess who will rise up for the ashes?

Yes, how will the meek inherit the Earth eventually?

That is for God to accomplish in His own good time. If He allows the wicked to remain wicked still, He can also allow the holy to be holy still. If He can create the Earth and make it as perfect as Paradise, he can do so again and grant it to those he desires. A New Earth: That is the only hope believers have in this life. It is the only hope this so-called Christian nation has whatsoever.

And so, a fair warning to Earth-Destroyers: Beware of God’s coming judgment. You may escape the many noisy environmentalists-activists lurking around you today; but you will not escape God and His angels who see your grievous deeds in the daylight and during the night.

Christians can only teach and warn people; but Christ, the Environmentalist-Judge, can send people to eternal punishment. Remember, no matter how rich or powerful a person may think or feel he or she is, that is nothing compared to what Jesus Christ has. All authority in Heaven and on Earth is in His hands. His judgment will not be thwarted by lawbreakers.

Today (as of this writing) may be December 26; but Christ was not born yesterday. He is eternal and the same yesterday, today and forever. When He returns, we will see Him and receive according to what we have done.

May 2011 be a bright beacon to all that will constantly remind us that Jesus Christ reigns in Heaven with love, righteousness and power over the Earth and all of Creation. Give Him the glory!

*Robin Broad with John Cavanagh, Plundering Paradise (Berkeley & LA: University of California Press, 1993), p.32.

What I Remember about My Childhood Christmas (The Simple Art and Science of Bamboo-Cannon-Making)

2010-12-22T14:01:00.009+08:00

The chill of the air, the sound of children’s carols and chimes, the smell of native food and the blast of firecrackers bring me back to my childhood days. Well, almost, I don’t hear bamboo cannons anymore. No -- sadly, I don’t get to fire them anymore!

It was a rather tedious process. You first had to warm up the bamboo – oh, sorry, you first had to get a piece of bamboo about twice your height (which means about 5 to 6 feet since I was only 10 years old then) and smoothen its surface with a sharp knife or a bolo. You sawed off one side so that you had one closed node left and the rest of the nodes you punched out with a long steel bar to come up with, well, a hollowed cannon.

Near the closed end, you chopped off enough bamboo skin to form an oval depression (this was where you pressed your lips while blowing air into the cannon) and, at the center of it, you carved out a small hole using a bar of steel heated over a fire (we didn’t have a drill then, I guess). Once the hole was finished, it was best to reinforce the same end by tying around two pieces of wire on each side of the firing hole. Much of the pressure during the explosion would be at this end and the wire support assured you of a durable cannon.

Any straight bamboo type -- at least three inches in diameter -- will do for this project. Oftentimes, we made do with what our father brought home or what my older brothers were able to get in the neighbourhood. The strong and loud cannons were those of mature bamboo and of such species that were thicker and wider, the ones available in the provinces. (Today, the shorter, seemingly harmless ones made of welded aluminium cans or PVC pipes can rock a whole house. I heard they have been banned.) For our purposes, we just needed any bamboo that could create enough noise and fire tin cans twenty to thirty paces away. As kids, anything more powerful would have been dangerous. If we had two cannons, we fought against each other, firing cans back and forth until they became deformed. (Nobody got hurt as cans were so easy to dodge or catch.) With one cannon, we contented ourselves with making as loud an explosion as possible, with or without cans. The loudest it could go was less than that of a one-inch wide triangulo (triangle firecracker). But for us, the noise was merely the clapping after the whole performance. Seeing a can fly through the white ring-shaped smoke emitting from the cannon’s mouth and land across the vegetable patch was sheer triumphant joy. Projectile motion was a child’s delightful experience before it became a formidable Physics exam-problem in high school.

Oh, I almost forgot -- how did we fire the cannon?

After pouring a handful of kerosene (rubbing alcohol and gasoline were expensive; of course, the ancient Chinese, who must have taught us the use of cannons, used gunpowder) through the hole, you had to prop up the firing-end over a lighted candle or kerosene lamp to warm it up. A cold cannon will not fire since the kerosene needed to reach a certain temperature to produce enough heated vapor inside the cannon. To keep the cannon warm, it was best to keep glowing charcoal beneath the firing-end where the kerosene pooled. We made sure fire did not rise up from the coals and scorch the cannon. We lost a cannon once that way. (Wrapping the bamboo’s bottom with tin sheet prevented that.) Once it heated up, you positioned the cannon with its open-end raised and supported a bit higher than the firing- end. You fired the charge with a wicker made of a thin bamboo stick dipped in kerosene before being lighted.

At first, you heard a sudden rush of air coming from the closed end to the open end – like the sound of a car’s exhaust pipe when it back-fires but a much softer and soothing sound. I know what it is -- it’s like the bamboo singing a bass tone lower than any tuba player can make and more full in timbre. Whooofff! -- it went. And together with that sound was smoke spouting through the firing hole and the mouth. At night, you could even see the red flame from the blast. The explosion -- well, it was not yet a real explosion -- was a mere preview of the cannon’s power. One needed to prime up the cannon before it could really fire.

Priming required blowing rapidly several times through the small hole. (We often coughed and shed tears as we inhaled smoke and as our eyes smarted from the heated gas and from smoke.) I didn’t really know why then; but thinking about it now, I suppose it added oxygen and helped hasten the evaporation of the kerosene by spreading the heat and the gas all throughout the cannon’s length. The mixture of air and heated gas only needed to be ignited with fire to produce the explosion. Only after a few sets of blowing and firing did we get a sudden combustion loud enough to startle our mother and sisters who were cooking dinner. (Beware of overheated gas, it can ignite spontaneously. It might be best to wear goggles to protect your eyes.) By that time though, the sound would have been a bit muffled, as a tin can was often loaded just inside the tip of the mouth. A really deafening blast could split the whole cannon and that would be the end of the fun. Well, not really for we made a bonfire and barbecued with the silenced cannon.

It was a crude child’s toy but one that needed a whole brotherhood (four of us boys) working on it to become a success. Of course, our father taught us how to do it at first but after a while, it was us alone playing. Sometimes, it was just me and one or two of my sisters making and firing the cannon. Big boys move on to bigger toys.

Today, most kids will not have that rare satisfaction (and education) of making their own toys. Toys are bought mostly these days. Back then, we made our toys from all kinds of scraps or plants. Papaya-leaf flutes, bamboo swords and bow-and-arrow, banana-leaf airplanes, carton boats, tin-can trolleys and old-newspaper-and-coconut-stick kites.

Recounting this crude technology of kids wanting to have fun is a memory come-alive. It is childhood living in the heart and the mind. It is an undying memory that can only come at that time when the conditions are right – the cold month, the festive season, the familiar faces and places, the magical ambience and the refreshed feeling of being fully alive and of knowing God meant to bless us with life and joy at any age.

(Warning: Do not do this inside the house. And kids should not play with this toy without adult supervision. Suggested age of kids who could play: 10 to 92. Price: Inexpensive (or the price of a taxi ride to the nearest mall). Benefits: A Merry Christmas!)

[Photo above: Taken from (http://malaeoletalu.blogspot.com/2010/12/fagaofe-bamboo-cannon.html), photo shows a Samoan firing a bamboo cannon. It seems this toy is an Asia-Pacific phenomenon. Watch boys in Fiji Island cheering each big blast by clicking the link below.]

(Bamboo Cannons on YouTube)

The Law: Its Origin and Essential Meaning (How We Can Build a Strong Christian Nation)

2010-12-06T18:26:00.003+08:00

The first time humans encountered the concept of law, as the Bible reveals, was in Eden. “Thou shall not eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.” This command, for that was what it was, had the effect of establishing in human consciousness five basic things: (a) there is a lawgiver, (b) there is a law handed down, (c) there is a law-recipient, (d) there is a corresponding response to the law (i.e., there is a law-keeper or a law-breaker) and (e) based on the previous, there is a corresponding response from the lawgiver (there is a reward or punishment).

God is the source of law and order. He set all the laws of Nature and the whole Universe even before He taught humans how to deal with Him and with one another. The Law of Reproduction (although an optional choice for capable persons, unlike the Law of Gravity which applies to all things) is an example of natural law that humans likewise learned to comprehend as they practiced and celebrated their sexuality in the beginning. Today, with birth control and homosexuality issues, we have come a long way from that time when humans clearly understood and simply followed this natural law. But it did not take long for humans to find clever ways to violate or go around this law. Case in point: Sodom and Gomorrah -- homosexuality supplants this natural law to the detriment of the parties involved as well as society itself. Today, however, we may not see the brimstone fire; but it burns with fervent heat, ready to claim its prize. (Please don’t shoot the messenger; the law is there and that is why we are here.)

After the Fall, the first humans had to deal with contingent laws or, or more precisely, forced conditions as a result of disobedience to the first command. Whereas initially Adam and Eve simply had to pick fruits from trees and derive all they needed to maintain perpetual health, they ended up working the land and toiling day-in and day-out just to remain alive, only to die eventually. The Law of Death (“On the day you eat of the fruit, you will die”) contained in the first law and which arose from the first sin was indeed a most grievous result from human failure to keep the Law.

Keeping the law, it seems, is a herculean task every person is bound to undertake as long as he or she lives. As children, we got rudimentary training in recognizing law and order in what we considered an uncomplicated life. We knew the effects of being good (Santa smiling with a gift) and being bad (Mama frowning with a belt). How we were taught to appreciate parental authority helped us to appreciate the authority of society and the State. How we valued our training and how we kept fidelity in our duties as law-abiding citizens determined likewise our value as a person and as a member of a community. Hence, we were or are either a burden or a blessing to this world depending on how we behaved or behave in relation to human laws.

As a result also of sin (violation of Divine Law), humans became subject to complete corruption. Why? When our first parents were driven from Paradise, they lost their intimate relationship with their Creator and Lawgiver. Spiritually and physically, humans had become slaves (to sin) and violators (sentenced to die). Whereas they walked and talked to God face-to-face in the Garden, outside, they no longer had that privilege other than through the indirect process of prayer or, eventually under Mosaic Law, through the intercession of God’s anointed ministers. Whereas they ate labor-free and life-renewing fruits, they now had to eat herbs and crops they had to plant, care for and even process (cook, grind, bake or ferment – culinary arts is such a fine but expensive spice in our otherwise somber life of earthly suffering) in order to eat. From then on, sin abounded and has not let up. And as a result, the law’s coverage also increased geometrically with every person born, family set up, city established and nation established.

From only one law in the Garden to more than six hundred in the Mosaic Law to thousands that we now have (and still growing), humans have to deal with laws, laws and more laws. (And we pride ourselves of having progressed in time!) And not only that, each law has its peculiar interpretations, nuances or applications, depending on the circumstances that prevail. For instance, complex marital laws are applied (both by civil government and the Big Church) to settle domestic differences. Sometimes, it takes years before these cases are resolved -- proving how we have avoided or missed the simple spiritual law Christ came to establish: Love One Another. And we are not even talking about criminal laws which likewise fall (or so they should) under the same encompassing influence of the Golden Rule. We have somehow forgotten the original Lawgiver, the essence of Law, our duty toward the Lawgiver and have taken for granted the consequences of our response to authority. Hence, we no longer recognize even those supposedly appointed to maintain law and order in society.

And so today, when the State comes out with a directive for squatters to vacate a place or to stop using pedicabs in major city streets, we end up with policemen quelling a riot, if not a virtual rebellion. Obviously, there are valid reasons for people to resist and their lawyers naturally would defend the people’s rights to justice or due process. But in many cases, city ordinances (which have the force of Law, or so they should) are not implemented without prior notice to those concerned. The hard-headed citizens (like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, perhaps) defied law and authority and, therefore, suffered the consequences. We are not happy that people are hurt on either side. In fact, we are not happy that such incidents should occur at all. (These issues, of course, are more than just cases of civil disobedience but mere symptoms of the bigger problem of a society that has abandoned its adherence to law – from the lowliest citizens to the highest officials.)

One wonders then whether we should call our society modern if such issues, whether great or small, could not be settled in a peaceful manner among mature and cool-headed individuals. After millennia of having had experience in law-making and law-keeping (did we not have laws in our ancient Barangay systems?), are we not still open-minded enough to consider the wisdom and the practicality of settling issues in brotherly ways? Or is it because many of us do not have the fundamental education in understanding Divine Laws and are, therefore, not disciplined enough to fear the consequences of unlawful acts and behavior?

The Devil is said to be the father of murderers. This is what Jesus said when He upbraided the Jews who wanted to slay Him for teaching the poor. A soldier or a policeman has the duty to enforce the law of the land. What the law demands then is for the law-abiding law-enforcer to uphold. Before the barbarians came, the Roman Empire (“united by laws and adorned by the arts,” as Gibbon wrote) kept the peace throughout its boundaries for centuries by applying strict discipline among its subjects through the presence of the imperial armies. Yes, there were abuses but the stability and glory of Rome was unshakable as a result of the application of the laws set by the Roman Senate. Even Jesus Himself became a “victim” of Roman justice as a result of the Jewish leaders’ manipulation. It was the one and only case in the history of humankind when the law of humans was applied to serve the Law and Plan of God and, thereby, save all lawbreakers – Good News, this is! For no matter how hard Pilate tried to navigate around the Roman and Jewish laws to save Jesus from the cross, he could not because the justice of God required that the Son of God must die in order to establish His Law of Liberty. That new law replaced the old one and taught us to live through faith in the resurrected Christ and be free from sin and death – that is, to reverse the effect of our violation of God’s laws. Some call it justification; but it is simply a redeeming process that begins with forgiveness and continues with an inward transformation of a person being led by a law “written in the heart” which is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This is what is meant by the verse: Love is the fulfilment of the law. (Romans 13:10)

The Philippines is said to be Christian nation. By that, we could mean Christ is the virtual ruler of all the nation’s affairs or, simply, that many people practice a religion related or similar to the teachings of Christ. In essence, if Christ is the unseen ruler in this country, then His law (of liberty) must apply in most of our dealings, for so many people claim to be believers of Christ. Of course, it only means that we are a nation where many people individually believe Christ and practice His teachings ceremonially and/or in reality, whether consistently, sincerely or passionately or not. In a democracy, however, Christianity often takes on the form of, well, a loosely-fitting costume one puts on only when needed or convenient. As a nation among so many, we do not have much to show for our vaunted title as a “Christian” nation. But in reality, Christ reigns over the whole nation, although not all adhere to or accept His rule. That is why there will be judgment.

The most damaging effect that the idea of law placed in the minds and hearts of people throughout history is that of legalism or, more precisely, legalistic mentality. This occurs when people once more return to law-keeping (animal sacrifices, temple-worship, empty rites, etc.) and not progress to love-keeping. That is, they replace the law that gives life within them with the law that kills. Whereas they have freedom to do what is essentially required of the law (to love and serve God and others), they bind themselves again to laws that enslave their lives (by loving this world and its ways). This is the nature of the legal beast, the one that the Gospel teachers fought against in the past and which present teachers still wrestle with.

Many believers today are guilty of legalistic attitude. Either because of the laws or ordinances they have invented or because they see the teachings of Christ as another set of laws they must impose upon themselves and upon others (turning the Law of Liberty into a “new” Law of Moses, it seems), people become blind and cruel judges of those who live freely in Christ. This is why the Inquisition happened. On the other hand, this is why persecutions by civil authority also occurred. And this is why (and how) religious leaders today work hard to maintain their hold upon their followers. The externalities (rites, pomp, physical and religious structures) awe and daze people away from the simplicity that is in Christ.

A simple illustration will show us how people are so confused with the fundamental concept of law. A recent case of an American football player kneeling and raising a finger to heaven after a touchdown being penalized by the referee has raised many protests as well as counter-protests, both from believers and atheists on either side of the fence (confusing, as we said). A game has its rules and the referee, true to his role, applied it without regard to a person’s religious colors. The act or offense, for him, constituted a violation of a “law” and punished the violation. He could be as fervent in his faith to God as the player is; but he is now called a servant of Satan by many protesters. Neither is the player a recalcitrant violator for out of his personal celebration he expressed joy and exaltation that lasted but a couple of seconds or so. The question then for all of us is this: Are we free to violate laws or rules just so we can supposedly serve or worship God in a manner or at a time we deem right for ourselves but may be not so for others? Would Apostle Paul have been a “barbarian” in this case and disregarded the laws or a “Roman” and kept the laws of the game? As viewers, would we favor the player or the referee? Who is the legalistic one in this issue, if there is one? Who violated the law? Take a moment to think what kind of person you are with respect to the law or any particular regulation, like littering or texting while driving. (This could not have happened in the Philippines for we have a different approach to law and order and are more tolerant to religious differences. I use it to highlight, perhaps, how we have put hard lines when we could just as well play or work without boundaries at all. Fines have replaced fun even in our games.)

So you see, based on the passions burning or flickering within us, there are levels to our adherence to law and to faith. A stable society requires devotion to both aspects of our individual and collective lives. God gave us law (it did not evolve nor was it invented, mind you) and the government (as far as it is able to comprehend and apply them) upholds divine rule and justice. We cannot escape both aspects (law and faith) of our humanity and expect to live happy and fruitful lives.

A strong Christian nation, therefore, requires comprehension and obedience to the call of our Master Jesus Christ: living our submitted lives as a continuous living service to our Lord and Savior. The King of Kings indeed has loyal subjects who truly understand why He holds that title. But this army is obviously still very small and ineffective as to capture the whole nation for Jesus. This nation remains a battlefield where God’s warriors fight innumerable forces of darkness. Ultimately, even the governance of our nation will be put before the bar of justice in Heaven. For there is no escape from God and His judgment, now or hereafter.

Do we have a nation already and completely established upon God’s Law of Liberty? Or does it only endeavor to establish law and order based on human or man-made precepts? Do we have a strong Christian nation today or is it something we still need badly to establish?

Our answers to these questions determine our reaction to the events that occur in our daily lives. Consequently, our answers will determine whether we have abundant life now or not. They also determine whether ours is a nation that others (including our compatriots) would love to visit or shun.

(Painting above: "Adam and Eve After the Fall" by Edward Jakob von Steinle, Austrian, 1810-1886)

Why Manny Pacquiao Should Retire from Boxing

2010-11-17T14:30:00.008+08:00

1. As a husband and father, he should preserve his health and use his energy raising his family as a non-boxer, something he is well-equipped to do.

2. As a congressman, he must devote more time (the time he spends in training and fighting which is about three to four months a year) to his constituents in Saranggani. Congress should file a bill (I’m sure Coach Roach would file it if he could) requiring him to quit, for his own good, for his family’s good and for the country’s good. That is, if the Speaker is brave and wise enough to do so.

3. He has nothing else to prove – he already has 8 belts. 8 is a well-rounded and double-rounded figure connoting infinity or completeness. There might be better boxers than him; but he has proven he is the best in all 8 divisions. 9 could be unlucky for him. As they say, stop while you’re ahead.

4. He should stop punishing himself and others, in that order. “Galing ko, aray ko!” (My secret to my greatness is my ouch, to paraphrase the ad) Pacquiao claims, commercially. In reality, genuine “galing” or talent (or literally, wellness) involves keeping yourself “unstained” in this world. So, one might do well in one area but miserably fail in another. Or, more graphically, your face might be stainless (pun intended) but if your body or hands are blood-stained or spotty, you cannot attend the Great Banquet in Heaven. So what’s stain-ful about boxing? Next item please. . . .

5. Manny should stop making himself a tool of those who run gambling shows and joints. Or of those who simply want to gamble. For boxing is one big gambling event. Having the fights in Houston and not in Las Vegas does not make it any less a gambling extravaganza. As they say, in Texas, they do things in big or bigger ways. Back home, I saw one of his constituents in Saranggani say that he was looking for someone to lend him his whole month’s salary which he wanted to bet on Pacquiao. Retiring and teaching his people to make more decent and lasting means of livelihood would make the Champ a real social change-agent and values-reformer.

6. Proof of this exploitation that Manny allows himself to be a tool of is the fact that Margarito was chosen precisely to make the fight more exciting and to sustain the interest of people (and gamblers): a much taller opponent with a longer reach. Before the fight, I had to doubt Manny was going to stop Margarito, not because I knew Pacquiao was better but because I knew what promoters were thinking. (That Manny was up for the challenge made the whole thing more thrilling. And so many bought into it.) You can be sure that they will do the same thing the next time around, whether it is Mayweather or not. It seems now nobody will fit the tab or even dare take up the challenge. I hope that is enough reason for Manny to quit now. Unless the promoters come up with another wild idea, like resurrecting Pancho Villa – now that would be one show indeed. Maybe Manny should just make that dream-movie and make as much money. We can still see him fight and win. The gamblers can still bet if the movie will make money or not. Besides, there are many ways to reinvent boxers. For Manny -- the lawmaker, the singer, the actor and the product-endorser -- the list is endless.

7. Boxing is a cruel sport not so far removed from the bloody gladiatorial bouts in ancient Rome. Everybody loves a winner but not everyone loves a winner who punches peoples’ faces to a pulp. We all love a hero but not all would want to honor someone who makes a living by hurting others. Yes, it is only sports but one that has sent many to death or a coma or dealt them with broken bones, Parkinson’s disease or damaged organs. People who have fun watching boxing, whether they admit it or not, have a degree of sadism in them that allows them to feast upon such a melee. (Manny himself wanted the fight stopped but the referee, who must have been instructed by the promoters to keep the fight on, had no other choice. "Kill or be killed" was the gladiator's motto.) It is among the original reality shows and one that has survived because people feed upon the boxer’s cruelty and vice versa. Without equally bloodthirsty fans, the gladiators in Rome would not have made good money for their promoters. Why would the Romans spend so much for a huge coliseum if there was no money in it? (I like to believe the early Christians kept away from those fight-to-the-death games; but today this Christian nation literally stops to watch Manny’s fights without losing much sleep over it. Nah, it even holds feasts to honor St. Pacman!) If only for this reason, Pacquiao should retire right now.

8. And finally, in the eighth round, Manny has built so much goodwill among his country-folk and throughout the world that he has enough to make him an effective leader and an ambassador of goodwill. Starting from his hometown, he can show what anyone with the guts and talents can accomplish and thereby lead others to make their lives and their communities better. Fighting is all about perseverance and dedicating yourself to your goals in life, one that Manny has shown excellently as an athlete. Manny Pacquiao has attained his goals, he has reached the peak and he has garnered the wreath of honor. All that he needs to do now is to lead others to be where he is now, unparalleled and unchallenged – at the pinnacle of triumph. The Philippines remains in shambles today. We desperately need more people like Manny who can develop the courage and determination among the people to make their country a Victor and not a Loser. How much happier we would all be if the country earned the billions and benefited from them through a productive and equitable national economy and not just one person who regularly wins a boxing fight?

Take the challenge, Congressman Manny Pacquiao! Be the true leader God wants you to be.

(Painting above: Pacman in action against Diaz, an oil painting by John Murawski.)

Time is Life: When it Begins and How We Must Spend It

2010-11-09T11:55:00.008+08:00

If God stopped time, all of Creation will collapse. Time is the seed of the entire Universe. Without time there would be no matter.

Thus, Moses wrote "In the beginning..." and the gospel writers referred to Jesus Christ as the Alpha and the Omega – the beginning and the end (giving reference to His participation in Creation and in the Final Judgment). He is eternal - not subject to time, not material. He dwells in the realm of timelessness or “matterlessness”. This is as much as we can say about God being Spirit.

Time is not what we see on a watch for time is immeasurable. It is merely the passing of life – for instance, the aging of the body or the movement of things or events – as we experience it. It is the very flow or continuum of what God has shared with us through giving us a taste of His glory and His own being. Simply said, this is how we experience or share in His divine character. Anyone who does not recognize this is a self-deluded or self-unknowing person. King David called such a person a “fool” for not seeing God in all of Nature’s essence and beauty. In other words, such a person walks and lives in time but does not realize he does so on borrowed time, literally. He is like a slave who has been freed but does not know how to live as a free person.

Just as a song has a time signature, life has a time foundation. Time defines our very being. Time establishes our material existence and reality. It is not an illusion as some thinkers like to believe but the very image or copy of Divine Reality. How can God create something that is part of Himself and not have real reality as well? He would have to be so deceptive to do so. The fact that humans are sentient or aware of their own existence proves the divinity in us and the very existence of God. What we may call illusion of material reality then is an inkling of and a link to spiritual reality. We exist at a lower level of reality but we do exist. Until we graduate and see the Schoolmaster face to face, we can only think and act like “students” and not as “masters” of Time and Life.

Also, just as a song exists in time, we are because of time. On paper, a lyric is not a song. We cannot hear the melody nor feel its rhythm. Outside of physical reality – that is, in this world of time - we are nothing, we have nothing. We would have no senses, no awareness, no life, no fancy cars, no physical beauty.

Our own seed in us has potential to create time and being, i.e., another human being. This is the Law of Reproduction established by God during Creation. Alone, a sperm cell is like the lonely Adam. Unfertilized, an egg cell likewise wastes away and dies a natural death. The union of the two through sexual intercourse replicates existing life. It does not produce a separate being but a being that is a branch of the proverbial family tree planted by God in the Garden – very near the beginning of time. And the root of that tree is Adam and Eve.

Every one of us then is a carrier or vessel of Time and Life once granted to our very first parents. We share in their divinity and their legacy as heirs of God’s heavenly blessings. If this is not a gift worth keeping and nurturing, then nothing else in life is worth doing.

If people stopped reproducing today, time would still exist. So would matter. Hence, families grow and decay. They may prosper and exist for centuries or so but they may also disappear like nations do. But it would have to take God to say “Time’s up!” for the Universe to fold up.

Controlling birth is a normal and natural function. Just as people die, babies are conceived and may even die from miscarriage. Oftentimes, a tiny twig is broken or pruned to benefit the tree. Hence, some abortions are allowed medically.

Artificial birth control, in general, simply prevents conception. It does not curtail or destroy life. Just as menstruation and wet dreams wash away potential life in a normal process, birth control is a novel (albeit ancient) human option availed of to prevent reproduction.

If babies are pure and sinless, when they die they go to God. If at conception fertilized eggs are destroyed, is that murder? ls it preventing a branch of Time and Life to exist? Maybe it is. Some may passionately defend their belief that a zygote is a complete human being with full human life. Destroying it, therefore, becomes to them an act of abortion and considered a grievous or capital offense. We might then picture a nitpicking God lining up all those who murdered zygotes through contraceptives and taking them to task. Or, perhaps, those infants themselves pointing tiny, angry fingers at their miscreant parents. Is the denial of life or earthly experience enough justification for God to take revenge upon the cursed parents? Is the guilt (and the punishment supposedly imposed) then commensurate to the offense? Or have we been given the freedom and leniency by God to determine for ourselves what is proper in what is primarily a physiological matter? (Hence, Hebrew religious laws regarded a woman pregnant only 40 days after her conception.* Such a law today would make contraception issues irrelevant.)

And what about in cases where there is no conception at all – as in the use of condoms and other means that prevent the union of the female and male cells? Where is murder or abortion there? Where is the wasted life and the unlived time there? Are we, perhaps, taking the argument far beyond the realm of logic and common sense?

Declaring artificial contraception as contrary to the divine plan is stating that all things man-made or artificial are wrong or sinful. When a couple do the sexual act at “safe” times, they do it for the simple reason of wanting to have sexual pleasure without the “fear” or concern of producing a baby. Or was it, perhaps, God’s plan to give pleasure to couples during the nine months that a woman is pregnant and after that continence is the sole “birth control” method approved by God? That is, the couple must eventually decide and accept the fact that making babies has ended and that they must not have any contact again? (“...some indigenous Australian communities forbade men to have sex with their wives for several months after the birth of a child.**) If we look at the Old Testament people who lived for centuries, this seems to be the case. Most if not all of the patriarchs married (or began to bear children) at the age of about 65 to 180 (most people today would be dead by then), and had only a few children on record. Noah, for instance, had his three children when he was about 600.

Did people, perhaps, have such complete control of their passions then? Or did they have a very efficient birth control technique that we know not of? How can, for instance, Noah have only three children if he lived to be 950? (We know of actors who are less than 90 but have almost as many children as their age.) Many plants and substances have been used by the ancients as abortifacients or contraceptives – acacia seeds, gum resin, carrot seed and silphion or silphium (an extinct herb which the Greeks and Romans swore to for its efficacy). Ancient midwives held the secrets of this medicinal knowledge for four thousand years but lost them when modern medicine came with its haughty “scientific” ways. Diaphragms, vaginal suppositories, spermicides and condoms were already freely used a long time ago. Indeed we are new at this game and yet we are making so much fuss of its religious or spiritual significance for certain selfish motives other than to please God or to fulfil His commandments.

The command is to “go and multiply”. Today, it is more sophisticated: marry and have as many or few children as necessary. In China, the command is to have only two children. Practicality and wisdom, of course, forces us to be wise in “multiplying”. Having dominion over Nature and over ourselves requires self-control of many forms and in many dimensions. Sexual drive is just one of the things we need to control. Birth control, essentially, is not self-control nor sex-control but, well, birth control. For many, it is simply having pleasure plain and simple, moral or immoral. We have not learned to have real self-control (and may never do) that is why we have this issue at hand.

There are those who preach against the use of birth control without giving enough emphasis on how to gain genuine self-control – within and outside of marriage. And there are also those who practice birth control and yet have no self-control at all – within and outside of marriage. The issue encroaches upon the issues of authority, credibility and personal responsibility. Who are we hearing, humans or God? What do we hear, human doctrine or God’s word? Is God in all this talk at all? Is He the one preventing us or allowing us to do the things we want to do with our time, our bodies and our lives? Is the God Who gave us Time and Life also the one telling us to have pleasure? Is He also the one telling us to have self-control? Or are we the only ones telling ourselves what we want to do? How then are we giving back the glory to Him? By mouthing senseless or baseless doctrines or practicing immoral or indecent acts?

The price of enjoying fully and abundantly Time and Life as a gift from our Creator is that of believing Him and following His ways. How that is done or neglected is the very source of all human progress and problems thus far. Yet, it is or should be the ultimate objective of every human being. It is the most “primary education” we must have from childhood to adulthood. Spiritual education begins at home where parents must picture godly living to their children. Faith, in its essential form, once proceeded out of the homes of faithful believers, not in the formal assemblies of religious sects controlled by the priesthood. Hence, with Christ’s death, the temple, the temple worship and the priesthood became obsolete. Worship, the true kind, emanates from the heart of every believer indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

Worship, the very application of having faith in God, therefore, must lead a person to spend his/her Time and live his/her Life for God. The final determinant is that person’s conscience as educated by God’s Word through the Holy Spirit and as aided by one’s education in a decent and mature society. Ours today is far from being one. Radio, TV and news commentators, many obviously unqualified, blurt out inane and even insane advice to the youth (often about dating and sex) in general. The dissipation of values is not just wholesale; it is FOR SALE AT ANY COST. Money dictates that anyone can give any advice as long as one has a glib mouth, and plenty of jokes to tell. If the youth of today seem to lack self-control, we have their parents, first, and these media people, second, to be blamed. The latter’s power to influence, in fact, goes beyond that of the parents. (MTRCB must be sleeping because the lewdness stink and toilet smell suffocate daily commuters in buses and jeepneys.) Our dumpsites have nothing compared to the maggots dripping from the mouths of these deejays who are polluting our ears and sensibilities.

But we are only talking about the garbage in media, particularly on radio. Today, as Apostle Paul hinted, we now have many false prophets and teachers. Our individual task is to search out Scriptures and test every spirit whether it is from God. We must even test our very own spirit whether we act and speak from and for God. Reading and discussing these matters openly and freely, benefits us in no small way. Only then can we see what CLEARLY IS, what SEEMS TO BE SO BUT IS NOT and what CLEARLY IS NOT.

Any spirit then that does not come from God must be resisted and contended against. Silence is defeat.

*http://www.uic.edu/classes/osci/osci590/13_2%20Birth%20Control%20in%20Antiquity.htm
**http://www.medhunters.com/articles/historyOfMaleContraception.html

(Painting above: Peter Paul Rubens' oil painting -- The Birth of the Milky Way.)

“He Made Them Male and Female”

2010-10-31T17:28:00.006+08:00

Having been one myself ages ago, dealing with teenagers gives one an advantage of hindsight, experience and the ability to appreciate what and where they are and to somehow foresee (or prevent) what and where they will be in their future. One particular encounter was with an intelligent conversationalist named (“unfortunately” according to her) Andrea (not her real name), a cousin of my guitar student. In spite of having such a beautiful name, she calls herself Andy because, she says, “I look like a boy.” Whether she chose that name for herself or others did so for that inappropriate reason, she seemed on the road to accepting that she had a face that was not “saleable” or that she did have traits of being a boy and that accepting that “tendency” might be a good option.

The young do tend to reflect the thoughts of others as a result of peer pressure or, perhaps, in trying to seek overall social acceptance, especially among the older set who may gloss over such “petty” or “childish” stuff. I told her that she had other “assets” that should have convinced her she was a girl (and a pretty one at that) and that she had no reason to treat herself or let others treat her as a boy. Embarrassed at the mention of the word “asset”, she blushed and tried to cover her semi-plunging t-shirt with her jacket. I had to explain that what I meant was that the face does not define who or what you are in terms of gender. The figure or form of a female (small waist, wide pelvis, etc.) is different from that of a male, no matter how “masculine” a girl might look or might want to appear. Moreover, I said that having the figure itself is not enough; it is the way a girl moves or, in general, the way she behaves that makes her female.

In the original divine design, the female figure was meant to provide her not just with the structure that would allow her to bear and deliver children but also to exude the feminine aura – what Neil Sedaka wrote in a song: “poetry in motion”. God made Her female. All that she is is the totality of what God had conceived from the very beginning: a unique female individual, a properly or appropriately designed mate for man, a corresponding partner in marriage and a bearer and deliverer of children.

Conversely, God made Him male. In truth, man was made in the image of God. How he appears and moves, ideally, pictures divine nature and character. How can a man then be double-minded or doubles-sexed? How can he behave as if God did not make him male? Did God make a mistake in creating us? Of course not!

All that man is, therefore, is the totality of what God had conceived from the start: a unique male individual, a proper mate for woman, a corresponding partner in marriage and a provider and protector of the family. Moreover, God declared that he would have authority over woman. Well, it is some divine-legal provision that arose from that sin the first woman and man committed (in that order). But, without going into that (perhaps, we can classify homosexuality as a form of dereliction of a God-given male/female duty), we can see the original plan -- no, the one and only plan given for all humanity. One that has been toyed around with by so many people since Sodom and Gomorrah.

Many of us understand the foundational meaning of this text and principle in the Bible. And yet, not so many try to act upon it for their own sake or for their children or relatives. When God made the Sun and the Moon, He had specific purposes for them. We know what they are and what they are for. At least, today we do. But in the past, people made those celestial bodies as real gods whom they worshiped and gave human sacrifices to. Perhaps, humans do have a spiritual blind-spot that causes them to misread what is clearly visible and logical. They see and know but their hearts and their minds tell them something else. Is it any wonder then that He would tell Moses to write: God made the Sun and the Moon. God made them Male and Female. As clear as Night and Day and, yet, we stay in the Twilight Zone. And THAT is a really frightening reality.

It is no longer surprising that the so-called “third sex” has become a dominant force that has gained “respect” and “power”, thus giving it social and political legitimacy it never had in the past. How this has gradually crept into the psyche of people and society, in general, is one example of the wholesale erosion of spiritual values which once formed the strong foundation of God-fearing nations. (Remember: Sodom fell because of “sodomy”. If nations today still totter at the edge of the precipice instead of having fallen down, it is because of the patience of God Who is giving us a warning against our own sins.) The big churches have not done enough to arrest this malady that has clearly brought so many social ills and the shameless devaluation of divine principles in recent times (gay priests, AIDS, effeminate/lesbian TV hosts, etc.)

Many would readily label this piece as archaic, homophobic or politically-incorrect. But let us go back to the original design. He “made” them male AND female! There were and are only two God-given choices. What we choose beyond or between that is a desecration of Creation and Nature. When a man puts on a face of a woman (c/o Calayan, perhaps) or the boobs of a woman (c/o Belo?) or, the coup de grace, changes his organ into hers (c/o the Devil who started all this rebellion), it is because the inner mind has been converted and perverted against the will of God. The face, the figure and the motion, now deceptively feminine, have completed and complemented the devious internal deception. Others, in the closet, have only mentally convinced themselves and are still in the process of jumping out once the social acceptance they seek appears. Others defy society and glory in the shock they create. The shame that once blanketed homosexuality has turned into an expensive and lovely robe of fame. Gay beauty pageants are promotions to this irresistible social phenomenon. The rise in confidence or brusqueness shown by gay and lesbian media celebrities has encouraged many to follow their steps. This will bring about a deluge that will overwhelm all of us far beyond that of Ondoy.

So now, they look, talk and move like females or vice versa (even if they were made males/females by God) and even gain success and adulation because society couldn’t care less. It is a freedom granted by the Constitution. Eeech! Wrong again. The law never defined a third-sex, at least, not yet anyway. Until it is declared an alternative gender, all that talk and walk is illegal. And even if it does become legal, in the eyes of God it will never be lawful or acceptable. Did God make them male, female and hermaphrodite? Did He make them gay and He was as well? No, the Sodomites made themselves gay and God was angry – very, very angry. Is that not enough lesson and historical perspective to convince ourselves of what we are doing and where we are headed?

But, no, we allow things to happen because of our so-called democratic rights, our freedom of choice. What we fail to realize is that God has given us vast freedom wherein we can be as happy and as abundant as we can be within His immeasurable limits. But we want something that will enslave us instead. For any form of deception is slavery. Instead of accepting His plan as to how we can glory and bask in His grace, we disgrace Him and His Creation. In short, we desecrate our very own bodies and even those of others.

Are you male? Are you female? If you cannot answer this honestly in front of God, then you have an issue you must settle before Jesus Christ returns.

(Photo above: Statue of the two-faced Roman god, Janus.)

The Priest and the Publican (Confusion of Mission in the RH Bill Controversy)

2010-10-05T12:11:00.014+08:00

The Parable of the Good Samaritan tells of two duty-shirkers who “passed by the other side” when they saw a wounded man, who had been waylaid by bandits, lying on the roadside. One was a Levite priest and the other was a Publican. Today, they would be a priest or pastor (archbishop, perhaps) and a public servant or politician (senator, perhaps). Both personages bear important roles in society. One ministers to the religious needs of people while the other performs tasks pertaining to vital social or material needs of citizens.

Whatever led the priest to leave the poor man alone to the harsh elements must have been a good reason “for him”. Perhaps, the high priest was waiting for him at the temple and he had no time for the dirty work best left to deacons or menial servants in the temple. In most priestly minds, serving God does not always mean serving every person’s particular need at any given time. Otherwise, his energies will not suffice to allow him to do his duties within a day. True, the priest missed serving the immediate needs of a person he was duty-bound by God to aid at that moment. One need not be an “important” person in society to fulfil the divine duty to “love your neighbor”. One could even be a “second-class” citizen – like a Samaritan. This was the lesson of Jesus.

The same case applies to the publican. Whatever caused him to hurry on must have been so compelling as to allow his conscience to bear the guilt of leaving a dying man without him lifting a finger. In both cases, the humanly-expected or “socially-contracted” duties of the two persons ran counter to the divinely-expected or “spiritually-contracted” duties of all humans. Loving requires everyone to feel for others in need. Whether it is within one’s defined role as a private or a public worker or not, the Lord expects us all to “drop our schedules” for those who are placed before us to show our love to in order to lessen their burden in life. Apart from our perceived big roles as workers in churches, companies and government agencies are genuinely bigger roles of serving God through our unscheduled “good deeds”. (Certainly, there are overlaps somewhere and some would even say that what they do as paid workers is their “good deed” for God.) It is doing such deeds that spells the difference between a society that has heart and one that is merely efficient.

Today, the duties of priests and politicians cover a wide array of concerns that at any given day they are called upon to face issues that make them appear either as heroes or villains to the people. The present controversy regarding the Reproductive Health Bill has pitted the Catholic Church against the politicians who have proposed or defended the bill. As the heated debate rages, the people are also being divided into pros and cons in the use of contraceptives using public funds. Even Catholics openly criticize their priests for their sexual escapades – a non sequitur, obviously, but one that is good for the moral weight it bears upon those who may be guilty of such a hypocritical offense. Just as we have scalawag priests (those who violate their vows of celibacy), we also have immoral public servants or politicians (those who violate their marital vows). So, that is neither here nor there.

The main issue we must settle is which side is right, if it were possible to make that judgment. If not, then we must raise the issue to a higher level than where many perceive it to be. Are they, perhaps, both right in their own perception of their duties and have, therefore, taken the stance they need to pursue? That in doing so, they may have ended in “passing by the other side” and avoided the real duty or duties they were meant to achieve in their work? If so, what would that duty be?

What is the real problem here: overpopulation or poverty? Contraceptives or morality? Or is it a combination of two or more of these things? It appears that a confusion of our true mission in life has occurred in that we have all kept to each of our own “important” duties, in good conscience perhaps, but have failed to accomplish the Lord's demand to “love our neighbor”. So, let me beg the issue.

Who brought about poverty? Is it worth answering this question? If that were the main problem, we must seek to alleviate or erase it if we can. Perhaps, the better question is: Why is there poverty? Or, why is a land so rich in resources not able to feed its people? Hence, we cannot avoid asking the question: Who owns the biggest portion of prime properties throughout our land? It must be a toss-up between the Church and the State. But it doesn’t matter who does; the point is, the neglect and failure falls in the hands of the stewards of the national wealth. Who then holds the power to produce wealth and distribute it accordingly? Historically and technically, that role is in the hands of the Priest and the Publican. In truth, the burden of supporting the material needs of the two biggest organizations today in this country – the Big Church and the State, has always fallen upon the backs of the poor and suffering workers. The people give and the recipients receive and horde instead of spreading the wealth to all. This is the source and the very cause of poverty. The Communists, copying the early Christians, aimed to level the use and enjoyment of resources by “having all things in common”. Today, the rich and the poor are like the molave and the kamote: the mighty and strong and the lowly and sapless living together.

Is the Catholic Church poor? Of course not! Is the government poor. Hardly! But why are there so many poor Filipinos?

Population control is one of the prescriptions we have come up with. Anti-RH proponents claim it is a pharmaceuticals-lobbied move to favor, as usual, the drug companies’ worldwide dominion in the health industry. (Private companies are as equally responsible for the welfare of the people. In our story, the innkeeper made money out of the kindness of the Good Samaritan by providing lodging, food and medicine. With or without love for his client, it was business as usual!) Is it at all moral for one sector to enrich itself over the sufferings of others? Like the Good Samaritan, we are sometimes forced to part with our wealth in order to stop suffering. The best we could expect from the innkeeper is to give free service or some discount. But that is making fantasy of a parable.

If we must face our problems as one nation, we must do so by thinking right and thinking the way God wants us to think. The Catholic hierarchy claims it speaks for God; but does it? The opportunity the Church had to spread the wealth to all Filipinos died a long time ago with their greed in amassing lands and wealth as early as in the Spanish era. Today, the highest earning schools are mostly run or owned by Catholics. Is that spreading wealth or amassing it? Is teaching the Gospel the real mission of the priests or educating the people for the national workforce and maintaining their reputation as a social and political force in our country? Sorry, Mr. Carlos Celdran: It is too late for priests not to meddle in politics. They have made politics what it is. Money fuels and controls politics. The very moment you make attending masses and worship services totally “free-of-charge” (no alms and tithes) is the very time you kill these religious organizations. That old folk ditty we sang in the ‘70s still rings true: “If religion were a thing that money could buy, the rich would live and the poor would die . . . .” Our troubles are not over yet! As ever, religion is good business.

And yet, the Lord talked about true worship and of worshipping neither in Jerusalem nor in Samaria. And, it follows, neither in Vatican, Manila Cathedral or Crystal Cathedral. Neither in a chapel nor on the prayer mountain, it follows. Worship is where God needs to be served – like a roadside where a wounded man lies, perhaps? Or a home where the father is often absent because he is too busy with work as a congressman? Or in a one-room shack where the mother huddles with her six children feeding on one pack of Lucky Me noodles? What happens in those places shows how we love God, our families and our neighbor. There are no sacred places, only people with sacred hearts. Anyone who feels insulted inside a so-called sanctuary has a conscience that will not and will never tolerate self-examination. King David fell down on his face when a citizen (through a parable, not unlike Noli Me Tangere) accused him of adultery.

Worship is everywhere. So is love (the real meaning of worship) where a “neighbor” waits for God’s blessing through a kind heart. All the artificial rites we do in grand buildings do not count as worship “in spirit and in truth”. Christ already defined and clarified that (incidentally, to a Samaritan woman), yet we still blindly neglect it. How then can we expect people to understand when their spiritual and political leaders (who are mostly Catholics) do not know the right from wrong?

For in truth, the government has also had all the opportunities to alleviate poverty and to accomplish the noble task of distributing wealth to the people. It has failed up to now. Agrarian Reform is a mere political wish and not a reality. So many Filipinos now reside in Vancouver, California and Sydney where they feel wealthy – really wealthy, or, at least, wealthier than the Filipinos they were in the Philippines. Their host countries have succeeded in their duties to distribute wealth (and, thus, to prevent poverty). While here we are fighting it out against one another trying to prove who is on God’s side and who is on the people’s side. Pity the poor – they are still pawns in the dirty game of politics. The government continues to avoid its duty to manage the country well to allow people to enjoy freely the fruits of their material as well as their maternal labors. If other countries can do it, why can’t we? If it is true that Mindanao can feed the whole of China if properly developed, why go through all that trouble when we have enough islands and teeming seas to feed as many as we can? Give us neither condoms nor menstrual calendars. Give us good and sensible leadership.

Passing the bill will only increase promiscuity even among the youth. Not passing it will just merely maintain its present normal course -- that of people engaging in “safe” or “unsafe” sex within or outside of marriage (in spite of people attending masses or services). Hence, both sides of the issue do not truly serve or have in mind God's basic purpose of strengthening and protecting marriage. What they really espouse is their own brand of morality devoid of genuine spiritual anchorage or their misdirected economic programs meant to provide palliatives. We are barking at the wrong rubber tree. Our Master wants us to quietly stand guard over His house of which our nation is but a small part.

In simple terms, while we debate whether we should promote the use of artificial birth control methods or not, the people are not made truly aware of their responsibilities to uphold the sanctity of marriage and to attain self-control. If our citizenry became more aware of their responsibility (or love and respect) to God and His laws, then they would also be more aware of their responsibility (or love and respect) to their neighbors. If a big portion of the population boom is caused by promiscuity of the married and the unmarried and the rest is due to lack of self-control, why should we provide legal support, in effect, for that sin and the lack of continence? What the Church failed to prevent through effective and exemplary teaching, the State wants to curtail but not correct judiciously. Perhaps, education has totally failed as a foundational moral tool in both secular and non-secular worlds. We are all confusing our true mission in life.

This complex issue has arisen because people have made marriage a mere playground. And sex is the hot toy everyone wants to get hold of. Hence, even the unwed partners, who think they are not “married” -- do not consider themselves as being under the laws of God on marriage. Eeeech! Wrong answer. Statistically, as we said, we can presume that a big percentage of pregnancies are considered “illegal” (thus, prone to abortion) but are as binding in Heaven as any other. Why? Because God defined marriage as the union of male and female. Remember, Eve came from Adam and God gave her to Adam to join them as essentially one in body – again -- in the sexual act. When two become one flesh, THAT is the MARRIAGE. (Those who think this is myth dishonor not just the Giver of Life but also the Sole Solemnizer of Marriage. This also explains why adultery was a capital offense then.) The wedding administered either by the priest or the publican does not consummate the marriage; no, the man and the woman do so through their union. There is no other divinely prescribed meaning and purpose of marriage. Both the Church and the State have usurped the role that God exclusively owns. In short, with or without the priest or the publican joining two persons “in marriage”, the sexual act effectively accomplishes the divine covenant. The rubber between them will not stop God from looking at them as married – no matter what church or civil laws may say about the union afterward. And, the fetus or infant that will arise from the union is a product of divine design no one can easily take out of the equation (1 + 1 = 3) without judgment falling upon the two “united” persons. Those who do are “passing by the other side” and leaving the helpless infant to die by the roadside. (In fact, some mothers dump their babies in trash cans.) Hence, we have this controversy today because so many have failed to see the real divine formula of marriage: Sex is a function of marriage. No marriage, no sex. No sex, no marriage.

So you see, the RH Bill is a mere escape clause for politicians to prevent so-called population explosion and the poverty it supposedly produced without considering what it will do to the moral fabric of our society. But is this what the Catholics truly stand for? Partly, it is. Admirable as their adherence to natural methods is, their failure to give first-hand concrete application of what they preach makes them unqualified teachers. Self-control is so much easier when you are alone; but when you have a warm body beside you, you need all the help you can get from the arsenal of divine power, if not, that of medical know-how. That choice is right there before the married to accept or make use of or not. It is a freedom and a privilege as sacred and as inalienable as the freedom and privilege to vote. To make an issue of it based on a group’s passionate defense of its unique teachings is to impose one’s will upon free-thinking and independent people. Practice celibacy if you must; but do not let others suffer through your own particular choice. Marriage -- including all its many issues -- is for all who want it. Purity in Christ, within or outside of marriage, is our common concern. Everyone must answer to God in the end.

Poverty (in body and in spirit) is THE reality in our times. The priest and the publican, instead of arguing, must own up to their failures. We must all accept the fact that somehow we have all failed in some respect. So, let us all shut up and listen to the Lord: Love your neighbor. Let us not “pass by the other side”. Let us face our duty to spread the bounties of the land. That is, let us not grab or hoard vast lands that are left idle and unproductive. Let us not covet other people’s money (not even gambling money). The poverty of the people will fall upon us all, upon all those who have enriched themselves over the sufferings of others.

Here is what James wrote a long time ago:

Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong? (James 2:5-7)

Do not then presume to speak for the sake of the poor when you yourselves wear better-than-Solomon’s clothes, sit in gilded chairs and ride in perfumed air-conditioned sedans while the perspiring masses walk along EDSA whose polluted air you have neglected for so many years, thus causing the people to get sicker and sicker. Do not say you want to help families to practice birth control when you yourselves do not know how to control your own carnal and material desires. Do not say you do not want others to use contraceptives when you yourselves have sworn not to enter marriage or, it follows, to use your sexual organ for its intended purpose in marriage. If God has given us natural means to prevent pregnancy, let married people use that but do not say it is what God only allows. In truth, God’s way is much, much stricter: prayerful abstinence in marriage for certain periods (pun intended). Only mature Christians or people can be so continent. It takes spiritual discipline. But why do we listen to unmarried or never-married people telling us how to run our marriage and our families? (Know the secrets of real politics, Carlos!)

Ultimately, marriage is still the best and the only solution to all imaginable problems we can think of. Why? Because through marriage we produce the family. The sanctity and the stability of this product of Divine Creativity are at the very center of this issue we face as well as many others in mind. Our archaic and presumptive ways of solving our problems without incorporating the totality of God’s principles in marriage, and as it extends into family and social relationships, has brought about this confusion of our duties to God, to our nation and to the people.

Finally, the State wants birth control without complete regard to deep moral responsibilities while the Church wants moral semblance without respecting personal choice. And behind it all, poverty is brought in as a bogeyman to scare RH Bill opposers or, on the other hand, to justify the hypocrisy of some who pretend to love the poor. God has the answers to all our problems; but we have long sidelined Him and looked the other way.

Loving our neighbor, in short, is not done by “passing by the other side” but facing our responsibilities frontally – that is, putting our money where, well, the mouth of the bleeding poor is. Our hidden or ulterior motives and agenda in this issue will be exposed by the Great Judge – not now but eventually. But even before that day comes, we can already see through people’s body language. Through media, we can see clearly how people behave and think. Rizal even wrote books about it, in case you forgot how that goes. And we are talking about Padre Damaso (the priest) as well as Simoun (the filibuster). (Muchas gracias, Carlos, for that brave graphic memo.)

The way we talk and walk shows whether we truly love our neighbor or not. Make that: love our nation or not. There is certainly no confusion there.

(Painting above: "The Good Samaritan" by van Gogh)

We are Hostages!

2010-09-14T16:39:00.012+08:00

Tragic is the main word for it. A policeman taking hostages, killing many of them and being shot dead as well.

Incomprehensible, as well, could describe the whole incident. That a man should have serious grievances and run out of legal means to seek redress. And he, one among many, in a country swimming in corruption.

Shameful, finally, could best label the event for posterity. How else to describe mishandling a crisis situation that obviously involved what is totally wrong, not just with one person, but also with an organization, a society and a whole nation. We must all bow in shame for what happened and what will still happen to us.

Not that we must feel the shame and bear the guilt of one man’s misfortune and misadventure. But we must, at least, consider how we have absolutely failed to recognize, as individuals and as a nation, how God is using such events as this as well as floods, disasters, rebellion, massacres and senseless murders to wake us up to His ways.

For even the righteous - like Job, blameless though he was -- humbled themselves at the turn of events that lead to their desperate condition before humans and before God. Are we ready to listen finally to the voice of Heaven, just as we are so eager to read and consider the words of those who reported on the latest tragedy that has befallen us, one tragedy more among so many more that will come as long as we continue to miss the lesson? Or are we so inured to the pain and the shame that nothing can move us to act and to get our act together?

Much has been said about the hostage-taking event. So much blame, hatred and bickering has transpired that any more thought would be rubbing salt and pepper into our swollen eyes. But we do need to try to see what God may have to say about the event and about us as a people. Of course, it is too presumptuous that a person should speak for God, let alone assume that he has some inkling as to how God thinks or why He even allowed such a dastardly incident to occur. Given that nobody seems to have that privilege or position, then it behooves any Christian to come out with what insights he might have derived from it.

Now, these insights do not try to explain the whats, whys and hows of the incident as if this were some investigative journalism report. They do not endeavor to provide the reader a valid description of the thoughts and motivations of those people involved in the event. They simply apply and integrate into the circumstances, as much as possible, the spiritual principles of righteous living, of suffering and of sacrifice that the Lord Jesus taught and exemplified in the Gospel.

All pain and suffering arise from the turmoil that dwells in our bodies as well as in our souls. While doctors talk of a bio-chemical imbalance that may lead some to commit insane deeds and theologians speak of evil spirits that may enslave people’s spirits to cause them to do vile things, we can only see the end-result of bloodied victims and the ensuing grief and shame. Even our tears are nothing but mineral compounds in our bodies issuing from some deep emotional processes in our minds and hearts. What makes us humans then is a conglomeration of all physical and non-physical experiences we simply call reality or real-time living.

Today we may celebrate; tomorrow we might grieve. Today we may feel triumphant; tomorrow we might bow in shame. For the past few weeks, we have been grieving and feeling shame. Not the words of a police general or a president can remove that gnawing feeling that we are all hostages inside an archipelagic bus and there is a crazed person vent on blowing us up into as many pieces as there are islands in our country. The question is this: Are people praying hard enough for God to save them from final annihilation or are they more concerned about how they look or sound on camera and on the radio? It is the same question we could ask about the people in Noah’s time: Were they more afraid of a Flood or of not being able to enjoy the pleasures of sin?

A hostage-taker has one primary purpose: to obtain something that is worth killing and dying for. In that one case, the man wanted his job back. In the case of our country, Satan wants nothing more than to continue to rule – no, to have FINAL and TOTAL dominion over God’s people in these islands. A divided Christian nation like ours has been a fertile ground for so many varying teachings and practices that it is a veritable cornucopia for those who would want to promote whatever they may want. Name any belief or faith that you can mention in any other country and pretty sure we have a better (or worse) copy of it. Cults? Plenty around to choose from. Satanic or spiritist groups? There could be one in your neighborhood. Denominationalism? It’s been with us for many centuries.

What exactly do these have to do with taking hostages?

Like a man who would destroy others and even himself in a fiery confrontation, God’s enemies have surrounded our islands and taken us captive and are just about ready to fight it out to a fiery end just as long as they can take as many as they can with them to hell. And there is only one simple strategy they use – so simple we fail to see through it and how we have fallen into its snare: WORSHIP.

Before explaining fully, let us go back to Job. Job was a righteous man who worshiped God and served people. Only one thing stood between him and God: his inability to see the power of God to rebuild and to renew. That is, in his deep suffering (Job talked of His “joy in unrelenting pain”), he blamed God for ever bringing him into this world. Until he realized his mistake, Job did not truly understand what loving and worshipping God meant.

The point in this is that Job, in the throes of extreme pain and great loss, continued to hold on to God – or, he let go for a while but grabbed back His hand in the end. Job could have taken his wife’s advise: Curse God and die! But as a righteous man, he said, “For all the good He has done, how can we do evil against God?”

But most hostage-takers do not have the wisdom of Job. Not even many ordinary people. They claim to worship God but at the smallest sign of trouble, they turn their backs on God, blame Him or even do evil things in His name. God, who has control over leaders and nations, can surely solve any person’s problem if one truly believes and worhips Him. (Why was not a spiritual person brought in to pacify the hostage-taker? Because we never look at things as essentially issues of the human spirit. We only let guns talk to guns because our spirits speak with as much violence.)

A person who truly knows and loves God will want to worship Him with his or her whole life. But since we, as a nation, have lost the real meaning and importance of true, spiritual worship, we have ended up being pierced here and there with many ills and troubles. Many of our leaders do not truly represent our aspirations because they are self-oriented and not God-oriented. Many of our laws are vested-interest-motivated and not people-and-progress-oriented. Our social-economic programs are material-wealth-based and not spiritual-wealth-based. Even churches continue to vie for worldly attention with their well-oiled and monolithic organizations and buildings. Acceptable and pleasing worship has been either marginalized or compartmentalized.

In short, as a nation, we do not truly worship God. We speak His name during Lent, Ramadan, Christmas and other feasts; but we do not honor Him with our hourly talk and our daily lives. We petition God’s help when we utter prayers in the assembly and in our services but we do not need Him (or want Him around) when we take bribes, steal, murder or commit adultery. The hostage-taker took innocent hostages, at least; but Satan holds all of us guilty sinners in his overcrowded bus.

And do not fool yourself into believing that God has the best rescue troops capable of saving us from Satan. All those who died in the Flood failed to see the Ark as their salvation. God has been sending His rescue troops over and over again in the past as well as in the present in many forms and many ways. But we have always been so blind to see His way out.

Here is the sure escape plan for everyone: Stop what you are doing and listen to God and God alone. The wily hostage-taker will show how "good" he really is. He will free some (because they see what he is really up to) and even give food to those that remain. He will continue to take control of your life because you allow him to. The moment you let go of his control over your life, then, you have a chance to escape. But it takes great courage and wisdom not to fall for his sweet ways – he is a sheep in form, but a wolf in substance. Hostages who die are those who continue to behave like lambs among wolves. They end up being devoured! Be a dove that can fly.

Too long have we fooled ourselves into believing that we worship God and that we please Him with our lives. If so, we would have been the most progressive and prosperous nation in Asia. For how can God forsake a nation that truly loves Him? And how could a nation as pure as pearl in the beginning become so stained and still think that with all her sins she can still please God? Alas, we have been pleasing only ourselves for so long and not God.

One man – a hostage-taker -- has shown what kind of people and nation we truly are. We have all reason to blame him and to forget about what we might have appeared to all nations. Or we can look deeply into our souls and ask if we truly deserve to be mocked and blamed for having allowed this thing to happen.

God once promised that the one He loves He will never put to shame. Either we continue to delude ourselves into thinking that God loves and continues to bless us or we finally realize that He is giving us ultimate warnings against continuing in our sordid ways.

The Lord of Hosts never takes hostages; He only wants willing captives of His love.

Rage Against Age

2010-08-21T16:47:00.005+08:00

Compared to my mother who just turned 90, I am a child. In fact, that's how she treats me -- cooks meals for me still and scolds me, oftentimes. But compared to Methuselah or Noah who both nearly clocked a thousand years, I am but a newborn infant. But compared to God, now here is the mystery we must tackle here, I am but a cell. Even if I lived to be two hundred years old, I would still remain as if unfertilized before God.

Unless I rage against age.

This incomprehensible idea of eternity must be the most oppressive idea of all. Consider this: We rejoice at the birth of an infant, almost oblivious to the reality that the baby will grow and eventually die -- from the cradle to the grave, as the saying goes. So, even our rejoicing seems to be a fleeting experience we must savor as it lasts. We love and get lost or crazy in the euphoria of love's embrace, unmindful that even that will give way to myriads of concerns of married and the whole of adult life. We can go on and on with this until the thought of living forever not only seem so unrealistic and so unappealing but also insulting.

Age or the passing of time is something we can rage against and we will still end up hoarse and hoary. At least, we can rage as we age. That could make us strong enough in the lungs to sustain us for a few more days or weeks. What to do?

If we are nothing in the face of the Almighty and Everlasting God what kind of hope can we have aside from our physical existence? If He has allowed us to live a millisecond compared to His unending being, what purpose could there be to this ephemeral taste of glory?

Does God show us real beauty in life we cannot freely behold? Does He withhold a blessing He has given us a foretaste of? Why would He allow us to suffer want when He promises us abundance of joy?

God is the God of glory because His beauty is seen everywhere goodness reigns. He is the God of riches because His wealth supplies the whole Universe. He is the God of compassion because He transforms tears into celebration. He is the God of life because He makes us worship Him in jubilation knowing we will be with Him for eternity.

Why then should we wonder if God knows what He is doing? Of course, God knows what He is doing. But do we know what we should be doing? Has He given us some clear guidelines to attack this problem?

This may sound like a post-mid-life crisis or an extended one, but it is an issue we all must face at any age. In fact, so many young professionals now decide to marry in their lates twenties or early thirties for fear of giving up their youthful pursuits in favor of adulthood. Raging against age through one's career. Look at all the so-called health companies promoting anti-aging products and youth/beauty enhancement procedures: Is this not another way of raging against age? Expensive and illusory but it works, especially for those who make money out of looking beautiful and young, aside from singing and acting, of course, with that expensive mask on.

Aging gracefully comes to mind. But today, it isn't as simple as that. One must keep up with the cost of, well, “grace”. Apart from retaining or developing one's inner worth or character, we are told to look appealling on the outside as well. If you don't care for cosmetic products or surgery, there are always clothes to fit all sizes, shapes, styles and spending abilities. To look glamorous and attractive? Yes, and to look young as well.

No one buys something willingly to look older than one really is. See all the adults wearing faded jeans, sleeveless shirts and minis. No, we do not fault these people. It is their way of raging against the pain of age's onslaught.

It is everyone's right and privilege to rage against age. Those who give in to age with hands and heads down belong to those who have not discovered the creative force given to them by God even before they were born.

Think of it this way: If we were made in the image of God (The Eternal) then what we have within us is a seed that is undying and unaging. When Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven belongs to children, there must be something there for the aged as well to benefit from. Technically, we must state here, He was simply telling the listeners that even before adults could enter the spiritual kingdom over which Christ reigns, children are already in it and part of it by virtue of birth, of right, of promise and of design. Hence, we all have been children given the rare privilege of being under God's administration. That is, in our child-status innocence and purity, we all qualified to be under the rule of heaven.

Until we learned to lie, cheat and disobey our parents. As willing sinners -- whether young or old -- we gave up our privileged position which we could only reclaim through faith in Jesus. All the struggles that the Lord, the Apostles and all Gospel teachers go through have to do with leading people back to their childhood status before God. (Churches are full of juvenile delinquents, in a way.) This is God's way of raging against the corruptive effects of age. Why?

The world had been cursed in the beginning. The purity and innocence of the whole of Creation has been subjected to the power of darkness so much so that we have lost touch with the reality of Adam and Eve's better-than-a-child's eternal innocence and purity. That was how they were created; that is how we were brought into this world. Well, almost. We lost it as soon as we caught glimpse of or grasped the world's lust and pride. As easily as our first parents bit off from that poisoned fruit, we gave up our own birthright. Hence, when Adam began sweating it out simply to eat and to survive, he began to age and to warch to the grave. Likewise, we step out of the womb on to a slow but straight trek back to the dusty ground.

As people then taught to become responsible adults, we learned to give up our childhood ways and even our childhood dreams. The doctor who spent much time through med school has responsibilities to society and family to heal and to feed. But I know so many doctors (lawyers, dentists and academicians, as well) in Baguio City who have raged against age by playing and creating music at the same time. And yet, so many others have given up their dreams of making music because they need to pursue "whatever they must".

Then one day, the old woman will rock her chair and look back and regret not having kept her childhood dream. Meanwhile, an old man picks up his guitar and plays a tune while singing with his grandchildren. Many may laugh at Paul Macartney who still sings his silly love songs; but the guy has remained like a child and seems to be enjoying himself, especially as he plays before Obama at the White House. Grandpa still rocking and raging with his music!

Who is old? The one who is 100 years old but thinks like an eager child still or the 25-year-old who must work and has no time to play the piano or who has to wait to retire so she could pursue her dream of singing or of dancing.

To rage against age is to rage agains this worldly age: its ungodly ways, its greedy ways, its corruptive ways, its selfish ways and its proud ways. The child of God who remains godly, caring, sharing and humble does not age. It remains a cell or a seed from God that will suddenly bear abundant eternal fruits by some mysterious force from heaven.

The Way shows us the way to abundant and eternal life: Unless we become children again, we will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Today, then, I resolve to remain a child before God forever. By His power, I will live for Him by overcoming the world's old and dying ways.

Manariwa!

(Photo above: Inocencia Marcos Ragay, graceful and rageful at 90. I like to think that her daily habit of reading the news, listening to the radio and raging against the foibles of humanity (not to mention her youngest son) must give her the exercise she needs to retain her vitality for life.)

Waiting

2010-07-13T15:56:00.005+08:00

It takes supreme courage and great sacrifice to follow Christ. In my life, I have, more or less, given five out of the ten asked of me, as I figure it. Call it halfhearted or half-full then and it would still not amount to anything until I have given myself fully.

Some have called me the reluctant preacher, reluctant artist and reluctant whatever. And I can understand why they see me that way. I ascribe it to their not knowing the value of “being”, as opposed to that of “doing”. It seems one who has done something or has acquired things is preferred over one who has not done or acquired anything but has simply become what he needs to be. (Does a preacher need to have a pulpit? Must an artist have to hold a one-man show?) Add the fact that I’ve lost so many things in life and you have a real, reluctant loser me. Greater men would have learned to amend early on.

Not me. I know God does not judge according to appearances. And that the essence of life is unseen. What we cannot see, therefore, is often misunderstood. What people see as idleness or unproductiveness, I simply call waiting.

I love waiting. I guess it’s a fault I have perfected. I enjoy waiting for the sun to rise after dawn or to disappear into the night. No other powerful display of harmony of emotions and colors can come close to giving us a glimpse of heaven’s glory. It’s a free show I learned to appreciate since I was a child. While the rich man goes to fancy cinemas and opera houses, the poor man sits down by his window to feast on God’s recreation of Creation Day – and, by design, a preview of Resurrection Day. The hundreds of sunrise and sunset photos I’ve taken, perhaps, are a record of my worshipful waiting for life’s majestic promises.

I love waiting for journeys to end on long rides in buses and cars. At times, I wish I would never arrive. Those trips not only allow me to think, they also let me see the colorful countrysides, the small towns, the crowded cities and the smatterings of people here and there. Seeing people and nature thrive in a moving panorama reflects and refreshes my own enthusiasm for life.

Finally, I love waiting on the Lord. Anticipating what He will do in my life, as opposed to what I intend to do by myself, has given me the real freedom to savor life every moment. This is how I conquered all those years of worrying in my youth. For no one else can create stupendous surprises the way God does. It’s a dangerous adventure I love to play where I have full assurance of coming out laden with promised treasures every time. One day, I’ll get to enjoy them where they are now laid up in my mansion up there.

Many have been the times when I waited on my knees. It is at such moments when waiting becomes the answer or the fulfillment itself. Or the asking becomes the receiving itself. For me, genuine love comes only through patient waiting. Jacob waited for 14 years to win his Rachel. Surely, our God deserves love greater than that. And yet, not many can wait on God to show His loving face to them.

So many people, therefore, spend so much time dreaming, planning and working to achieve their goals, but only to find that what they have amassed eventually loses its worth. Think of all the ancient palaces, lost dynasties and even broken marriages. Not waiting on God has disastrous consequences.

Nothing lasts except what God has given us. I know that death proves beyond doubt the value of the human spirit – not just to the physical body we now have but also to the immortal body we will receive from Christ. What we do with it from birth to death determines our eternal destiny. Is there anything else worth waiting for even beyond the grave?

The seed and the farmer both await the fruits of harvest. Waiting, in reality, is living out one’s God-given purpose in life. Everything and everyone must seek to know and attain that purpose. As Job and Noah both discovered in their own pursuits, waiting is the key to gaining enduring courage and faithful service.

Yes, we all long to live comfortably from all the labors we do in this life. In my case, I have enough experience on waiting to cover me through all the discomforts and failures that will surely come. The material rewards may not come; but that is not a problem. As I said, the waiting – or the journey – is what matters.

Ultimately, the One Who has the “steerage of my course (shall) direct my sail” to His golden shores.

(Photo above: An almost deserted Intramuros street in Manila. Old paths can teach us to walk in new ways.)

The Chilean Model: Is God Involved in Government and Politics?

2010-05-09T11:17:00.008+08:00

What recent developments point us to the hand of God working to convince people of His involvement in their affairs? What specific global events will clearly show us that His eternal plan is the ultimate plan for all humans, whether we believe it or live by it or not?

We need not go far to see that calamities occur more often now than before with such disastrous effects that explaining them away as mere glitches of Nature makes us belittle historical proofs of divine power at work from creation to revelation. Only atheists and cynics take out God from the equation and end up factoring in “chance” -- that indeterminate (read that: illogical and baseless) value -- as the only reason for such disasters to occur.

Two contrasting events in the near past seem to stand out and to show us that neither God nor chance plays mindlessly with the lives (or deaths) of people: the recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. (There is as much purpose for the geophysical design and processes of the Earth as for the birth and death of a person.) Haiti suffered a magnitude 7.0 earthquake in January 2010 with more than 250,000 casualties while Chile had it at magnitude 8.5 in February 2010 with more than 700 deaths. Geologists and engineers would easily explain the difference in death toll to dissimilarities in the geologic foundations of the two countries and differences in structural designs and strengths of the buildings and houses that were damaged. Sociologists, economists and politicians would also explain the great difference in how the global community responded to both countries in terms of the two nations’ contrasting political, economic and social conditions. Many of us, however, do not concern ourselves with how both countries may have prepared for such a calamity, intentionally or unintentionally, knowingly or unknowingly. But there are clear and valuable lessons we can derive from seeing those disasters from afar.

No one knows when disasters strike. We can only prepare so much for a cyclone or a volcanic eruption, for instance. But these two nations provide us models, not just in disaster preparedness but in overall national preparedness against all kinds of major problems that may arise.

Haiti has been known for its adherence to a form of religion (Vodou) that includes Catholic prayers and hymns, ritual food preparations, invoking family spirits and the possession of certain individuals by those spirits. The Haitian form of this religion originated in Africa and is characteristically conservative and decentralized. Many observers blamed Vodou for the dire economic underdevelopment of this country which was exposed to the world in the aftermath of the earthquake. Scenes of people losing homes and loved ones brought tears to many viewers on TV. The great outpouring of aid and relief for the Haitians revived a similar global response for the hapless people of Africa two decades earlier. The inevitable conclusion for many Christians -- as “tactlessly” expressed by Pat Robertson -- was that Haiti had forgotten God and in her pursuit of other gods, reaped judgment.

Perhaps, it was a harsh indictment or judgment. Maybe, the quake was a mere admonition for people to wake up. Judgment -- if God were to do it now, I guess -- would involve annihilating whole cities or nations, as He did with Sodom and Gomorrah. Or the whole world when He sent the Great Flood. Sparing some to live somehow tells us that He is out to renew the land and to give people a chance to return to Him. Alright, some people are judged and given the death sentence. But the question asked is: Why include the children?

That is a tough one to answer, one that only God can answer. And so, we leave that hanging in Heaven. Let us deal with people of our own size and sinful nature. We boast of ourselves as intelligent beings, even as gods, sometimes. All we can do is to ponder upon our own vulnerability as we walk through the carnage and among the broken bodies.

On the other hand is Chile. After the earthquake, the country mobilized its own disaster relief and rescue operations with great efficiency. The Chilean government emphasized their desire to help its own people and did not seek foreign aid or assistance. In contrast to Haiti, Chile faced its calamity with mature resolve and political strength. (Not even the US showed such firmness during Hurricane Katrina.) We can only admire such qualities in a nation and its leaders.

What many people do not realize is that Chile is a strong Christian nation which went through a Pentecostal or Charismatic renewal in the early 1900’s. Although it is a traditionally Catholic country, it boasts of at least 20% (as of 2002) or more Pentecostal-Evangelical Christian population. Through almost a century, Chile has transformed itself from being just another “banana republic” to an economically and politically stable nation. While we fervently sing a hymn calling for aid to Haiti victims, why not sing a song of praise for Chile for its political and moral maturity?

Our country, a predominantly Catholic nation with a population of about 13 % Protestant or Evangelical Christians, has not fared well against the forces of Nature, and much less against economic, political and social problems. A nation that has faith and yet does not show it in its governance and overall national discipline has much to learn from Chile. We had our 7.7 Magnitude earthquake in 1990, our Pinatubo in 1991 and our Ondoy last year. But we have not arisen from our disciplinary experiences. We continue to be a poor and corrupt nation.

Unlike the Confucian nations around us, we are still incapable of applying high ethical and moral principles in social, economic and political administration. Surprisingly, the similarities between Chile’s military regime under Pinochet and that of ours under Marcos, make our countries twins in socio-economic-political experiences. We also had a Pentecostal-Charismatic-Evangelical revival in the early seventies which has resulted in the establishment of many mega-churches that minister to executives, business-people and young professionals. Even the Catholic Church has her charismatic renewal and marriage-encounter movements. This religious ferment, however, still has to produce bountiful moral fruits in business and governance. The State and Media show perfunctory, if not hypocritical, tribute to Christ’s teachings. Our politics, sad to say, has remained the longest-running and most pernicious disaster of all.

Disasters then, as we can see, have two basic purposes: admonition and testing. Moral or not, a nation is constantly reminded to remain true or turn back to the call of Heaven. Obedient or not, people are tested in order to prove their faith and character and to make them stronger through perseverance. As such, we must accept disasters as they come. And they will.

God is present during hard times. Even in the midst of disasters. He is in the center of every storm. He is in the middle of every volcanic eruption. He speaks in every thunderstorm and hailstorm. He created everything to obey His command. He even created humans in His likeness. And yet, we are the least willing among all creatures to hear and obey God.

For better or for worse, God is in our politics. He waits patiently for us to see Him and what He is doing.

When a person seeks to call upon Filipinos, whether Christians of not, to heed God’s desire to choose a God-fearing leader to sit as president, many do not listen. Why? Because they believe that God is not in the middle of our elections. Sure, He is not, if the people themselves drive Him away from its exercise. But if God is at the center of Nature and all its forces, why should He not be the focus of our political affairs and in our presidential elections? God is everywhere and every place we want Him to be, including our hearts and our lives. He can be the Spirit behind our national government.

I chose to hold up for Filipinos to see the Chilean Model to remind them that God is not asleep. He is awakening us to His very presence now and in the years ahead. Perhaps, it is us who have been sleeping and not hearing and seeing what God has been doing. Earthquakes occur not to bring fear into our lives but to bring faith in our hearts and to lead us to trust in the God Who has the power to save and to give us life.

Politics is God’s way for people to create order in society. The people He chooses to rule often may not be perfect in our sight but, in His plans, those people He chooses serve His perfect will. Within democratic governments, God seeks to show all people -- whether ruler or follower -- that His will is for us to learn to apply His principles which alone can make us perfect subjects and followers of His plan.

Socrates, Confucius and other great teachers like Augustine, Luther and Jose Rizal taught people to attain moral perfection. Their visions of the perfect society have remained clear and valid for all times. We need modern leaders who can encapsulate the ideals of these moral pioneers in our families and communities.

Choosing a leader does not merely require us to consider a candidate’s qualifications but what God wants to do with the would-be leader and with the people whom he will lead. A president then is not just charged with administering a nation’s policies but, more importantly, giving people opportunity to participate in the eternal plan of God. No, we must not merely elect a true believer to become a president but a man of tested faith to assure that our nation will remain true to our calling as a people of God.

The lessons of other nations show us that God is at work. The big question is: Are we working with and for God?

(Photo above: As early as the 70's, we were singing: Ibon mang may layang lumipad, kulungin mo at umiiyak; Bayan pa kayang sakdal dilag ang 'di magnasang makaalpas. . . . If even a bird that is free to fly, cries in its cage; much more would an enslaved nation of supreme beauty also yearn to overcome.)

Why I Choose Bro. Eddie Villanueva to Be Our Next President

2010-04-24T12:30:00.011+08:00

Superman was once a boy, too. He grew up eventually and dealt with all kinds of grown-up evil in this world. Running for president is similar to that. It is playing the big-time hero in a big-boys’ game. The rules change from simple to complex, from fair to crooked and from child-like to devious. Well, that sounds almost like high-school capers or college frat-life.

Who said the world has truly grown up? Politics, in general, can be as dirty as a baby’s diaper in the morning. But it can also be as clean as, well, the heart of, ah…, Clark Kent? I’ve been a fan of Superman since childhood. But, we have to deal with the coming elections as mature people, no matter how unheroic and, well, childish sometimes our candidates may seem. For even kids need to be serious for once in their short lifetime. How then do we separate the grain from the chaff, the substance from the media hoopla in this election campaign? How do we help the still undecided millions to choose the best “bet” for their future?

I made quite a long and winded pitch in four previous articles entitled “The Heart and the Spirit of a Nation”, hoping to provide voters with a deeper view of our national ills and the appropriate prescription for them. Yet, it seems the ordinary voter only wishes to see the shallow waters or even the debris or scum floating on the water surface and making do with removing only that part of the pollution that is visible. For them, the only – and simplistic -- answer to such a perceived problem is a public servant who carries a net that will scoop up all that dirt. But what about the dregs underneath, the black soot and the blood-stains that make the waters murky and stinky? Is there a human force strong enough to reverse the trend to our own social, political and spiritual decay? None. As in Noah’s days, only God can save us from ourselves. The lesson remains true today.

Given the problem and the required solution, who should we choose to be president? Is it Noynoy? Or Villar? Gibo? Or someone else?

Obama based his candidacy on the idea of change. Correction! Everyone uses the word as the magic spell to charm votes out of people. Change is a good thing. We all need change for a change. Just how we should attain it is the big question.

At the very least, we must make the initial step of producing change by following the steps of those who have, by their committed lives, pursued change and now show us the way to a greater and unified change for all. Such kind of leadership is the only one we need and must trust and follow for our own good. Christ led the way to such leadership – for He is the Way -- and there is no other. He is the real and mature hero-leader we need – not Superman or any Super-politician. What we direly need is someone who can inspire us all to follow the Way and His ways to bring about genuine change in our nation.

Who then among our candidates is worthy of the title: Genuine-Change Agent? One who – like every worthy Christian -- has gone through a personal transformation and triumphed in life’s essential battles: search for self-identity, accepting one’s destiny and achieving one’s eternal purpose. Anything less than these make us mere humans and not children of the Divine Nature.

From being an atheist to a believer, from an ideologist to a preacher of God’s righteousness and from an evangelist to a crusader for good governance, Bro. Eddie Villanueva, fits the bill for the president WE ALL need. No, make that: for the president that God wants us to have. Now, that may be too presumptuous – reading God’s mind for 94 million Filipinos.

Well, if Apostle Paul could claim that he and the early Christians “had the mind of Christ”, how hard is it for modern Christians to achieve the same thing? “All authority” had been to Christ by the Father in Heaven. To have the mind of Christ, therefore, means to be channels of Christ’s authority here on Earth. How Christians live is the picture of Divine Power – through the indwelling Holy Spirit – moving and giving them the ability to live pure and righteous lives. God’s kingdom must live in the hearts of humans before it can eventually transform human governments and societies.

No one else among the candidates has that clear vision in his heart and spirit that Bro. Eddie bears. We may not perceive him to be the image of the dashing and suave Clark Kent we dream to have as our hero in the Palace, but he has the willingness to provide us the unifying goal that we must achieve as a nation of God. The opportunity given to our nation to attain God’s plan is clearly shown in this one man’s desire to bridge the gap between political and spiritual administration. If we, because of our myopic or biased minds, fail to appreciate this divine plan, then we miss our chance to save as many people as possible from further suffering and even destruction in the gathering storms ahead.

To be sure, it will not be the president alone who will do all the work of changing our society. He will only fail just as Moses failed because of the unbelief of the Israelites. But like Joshua, Bro. Eddie can be our leader to lead us to our own Promised Land if we, by faith, uphold his leadership on our individual shoulders. The leader who leads with righteousness cannot bear the gargantuan weight of national government if the people will not bear their own share of the load through living righteous lives themselves.

Corruption in government can stop – and it will – if we vow to allow God to work in our lives even now, before we go to the polls to cast our vote. Today, let as choose to let God guide our steps to His life-giving and glorious presence. For no unclean soul can appear before the great God of Heaven. As a nation, we cannot hope to cleanse the evil in our land if we do not begin the necessary step given to us by God Himself toward healing our land.

Do we wait then to vote before God begins to heal our land? Or do we ask for His healing now before we make the decision to submit to His way of healing our nation? The answer is simple: Embrace change now! Voting will not solve our problems. The presidential elections will not solve our problems. God holds all the answers to our problems. Choosing the right leader – or, more precisely, choosing God’s righteous leader for our country – is the best step we can take to begin the renewal of our nation.

Bro. Eddie Villanueva is our God-given opportunity for a renewed and greater Philippines of the future. That is why I choose him to be our next president.

(Painting above: "Christ Healing the Blind Man" by Spanish painter El Greco.)
(Drawing above: Superman using x-ray vision.)

The Heart and the Spirit of a Nation (Part 4)

2010-04-13T19:09:00.007+08:00

We should now inspect the palpable, gaping holes in the fabric of our society that weaken it. Often, we easily attribute this condition to the political mismanagement of our country. Wrong! As we have been saying, the problem is much deeper and goes right into the core of our hearts and of our spirits.

The root of our present multifarious problems goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden when Satan led our first parents to follow his ways through subtle and devious ways. Much of what we see then in government, politics, religion, business and media are shot full of holes -- holes of empty lies. That is another way of saying this world is controlled by the forces of darkness led by the “Father of All Lies”. For the best and most effective tool used to keep and control unwary people under one’s power is that age-old trick called LIES or FALSEHOOD.

Who among the present candidates tell the truth? Who speak blatant lies and half-truths? Who took bribes and deny it? Who used their positions to favour their family’s businesses? Who served as public servants and were not true to their vow to serve the masses? Who makes promises now with the silent intention to break them or go beyond their lawful duties?

If we could only answer these correctly, we would all be voting for the most truthful or genuinely servant-hearted of all candidates, if there is one. But precisely, the reason we are all in a big mess is because we cannot differentiate between lies and truth and even lie to ourselves and to others very often. Election campaign period, no doubt, is that time when lies flood our lives with the vengeance of ten Ondoy floods.

Lies come from our evil minds. Traditional politics is basically that which utilizes deception of the masses as the main tool for acquiring power. Hitler was a master of this technique. It makes it difficult then for majority of people to make an objective decision when lies and accusations of lying are thrown around during election campaign periods. We end up choosing whom we perceive to be the least evil or the least liar among the possible choices.

But is it the case in the present electoral contest? Are we up against a gallery of evil-minded manipulators who hold no punches in trying to put down their opponents through dirty tactics? We obviously see this happening as we come close to Election Day and will probably see more dirt flying. Is this the only way we can conduct a campaign or is there something we, individually and as a nation, can do to address the real issues at hand?

I submit that our country – like any sick person -- is basically ill as it has not achieved its full potential and status as a free nation. By what particular standards do I say that this is a fact? By social, economic, political and moral standards which would take so much space to discuss. Even if we assumed we were completely healthy in the first two (although in reality, we are socially and economically challenged), we would still be only half healthy when we take into account the political and moral malaise that besets our nation.

This pervading illness is a result of the basic immoral or evil administration of our nation by people under the control of dark spiritual forces. Psychologist M. Scott Peck defines “evil” as “the exercise of political power – that is, the imposition of one’s will upon others by overt or covert coercion – in order to avoid...spiritual growth.”* Politics then can be seen as a mere extension of the cosmic battle waged by evil forces against God’s sovereignty in order to subvert His will on Earth. That is, people – by their prideful use of their free will – commit acts that violate the laws of God and of society. Nowhere is this more true than in governance. In the face of such a chaotic reality, choosing a worthy leader would help jumpstart our journey to genuine recovery.

In the previous articles, we emphasized the idea that our country has a higher spiritual role to play than what most of our candidates would want us to be aware of. True, our many domestic problems demand immediate attention – health, education, infrastructure, transparency, corruption, etc. What we might be missing in our desire to solve these real problems is the question of why we must attain national development at all. Why deal with these problems in order to attain social, political and economic stability at all? Is it simply so we can say we are a bona fide member of the elite club of progressive nations? That we have what it takes to be at par with the community of world-class states?

It seems to be a given desire among many of us that in choosing a leader, we want one who will uplift us from our economic troubles and to represent us effectively in the global community. But is our country a mere part of Asia or of Asia-Pacific? Are we but a nation among hundreds which make up this Earth? Or do we have a greater role to play in the continuing historic and cosmic plan made by our Creator from the beginning?

But are giving too much importance to this plain and simple electoral exercise? Do we really care who will win as long as we have a government that will continue to allow us to live and work in peace and quiet? Are we then satisfied to live the way we have for the past decade or so? No, the essential question is: Will we allow our conscience to bequeath to our children a nation that has remained unproductive and undisciplined and just leave it up to them to unravel the whole mess for themselves?

If politicians, in general, cannot be honest with us, we must, at least, be honest with ourselves. We have a chance to begin rebuilding our nation and our lives. The heart and the spirit of the people of this nation desire a better government established according to God’s plan and run by people who submit to His laws.

We cannot possibly go through all the things that God requires from a “poor and mismanaged” country like ours. Common sense simply tells us that we remain bound by the chains of darkness, ignorance and corruption, no matter how much progress or development we might have attained so far. In the end, moral or spiritual health determines the real condition of an individual or of a nation.

What is happening in Thailand, for instance, speaks volumes of the real condition of the heart and spirit of that nation. Civil strife and violence that arise from a divided nation tell us that evil reigns in the hearts of many of its citizens and manifests itself as hatred, criminality, greed, murder and rage. An election conducted under a military junta (reminiscent of our pre-EDSA snap election under Marcos’ regime), tends to encourage people to commit evil or immoral deeds in the name of nationalism, self-preservation, military discipline and even political righteousness. We thank God that in 1986, all those things found a way to be resolved peacefully. But what if they arise again and come to a fiery clash this time? Would that be the time we realize that God has departed from us and will finally forsake us to do our worst?

God forbid!

As it is, we – a nation of faithful believers, albeit so religiously and politically divided -- have been given the road map through the “valley of death”. God speaks to us more clearly now through those who declare His eternal plan. King David trusted in his Shepherd’s mighty staff to drive away the many enemies that surrounded him. The mighty hand of God stretches toward us now, waiting for us to willingly reach out so He can lift us up from the swirling currents that seek to drown us into oblivion. We can be as direct, plain and obvious as we want to be in declaring God’s plan for our nation today. But our hearts and our spirits – humbled before the Spirit of God -- can discern clearly what He wants us to do for ourselves, for our families and for our nation.

In May, vote for God’s rule of righteousness.

* M. Scott Peck, People of the Lie (Simon and Shuster, NY, 1983).

(Photo above: Sculpture in Baguio City depicts an Ibaloi traditional dance which for thousands of years expressed our joy in the bounties of Nature up in the Cordillera mountains. Today, however, many of our youth wiggle to the tune and rhythm of decadent and immoral songs in many villages.)

The Heart and the Spirit of a Nation (Part 3)

2010-04-06T16:19:00.007+08:00

Can we separate the heart from the spirit and expect a human to live at all? Can we separate faith from politics and expect a nation to live a healthy existence?

Can we mix faith and politics then? Is there a realistic basis for the so-called separation of religion and government? If politics, ideally, is the pursuit of justice and emancipation of people from poverty, corruption and exploitation, then what is there left for religion to accomplish? If religion indeed concerns itself only with the ultimate destiny of humans in eternal terms and not the present issues of physical existence, then it is religion or faith that has missed its primary mission to serve as the channel for God’s love and grace.

“That you may have life and have it more abundantly” does not only refer to a future spiritual reality but a direct reference to the bounties of Paradise that once existed on this Earth and which we can have partial access to in the present. No, Christ did not come to re-establish Paradise on Earth but in the hearts of humans. For if people realize now that such a wonderful place does exist, then the burdens of this present corrupted world would seem like a passing inconvenience and they would have assurance of eternal redemption far beyond the pleasures of Eden.

Why did the early Christians sing and rejoice in the face of sure death amongst the lions in Rome? Why do they still carry that hope through the many heartbreaking struggles they go through in life in small and great ways in various cultural environments today? Whether we talk of believers in Costa Rica, South Africa, China, El Salvador or the Philippines, we refer to that common seed of spirituality that sprouted from the work that the Lord Jesus began through the Apostles and continues to bear fruit today in the lives of millions of believers.

What the so-called Christian Right in the US refer to as “confronting the culture” is nothing more than living one’s faith within the context of one’s unique social, cultural and political environment. A Chinese Christian must face the same temptations of the flesh as a Serbian believer or a Maori disciple. Issues of pride, greed, hatred, envy, lust and indifference beset both believer and non-believer anywhere in this world. The same motives that lead a president to receive big bribes work upon a lowly clerk who is offered a much smaller bribe. There is no political and religious delineation in giving in to one’s weaknesses. A sin has no political or religious color; it is all black to God. Failure to obey the Constitution is no different from failure to follow the accepted rules of society. The punishments may differ in degree and impact, but the root source and ultimate result remain the same: the passions of the human heart and spirit, that is, and how they affect our eternal condition before the God in Heaven.

If we surrender any government’s responsibility of being ultimately answerable to God, then it would be easy to put up walls of separation between it and God’s requirements in spiritual matters. Many, in fact, have used the doctrine of separation of church and state as an excuse for abusing political power. Furthermore, such a perceived separation has, in fact, resulted in establishing artificial legal constraints or social taboos against those who call themselves pastors or priests from going into politics. No, in reality, it is those pompous titles that some of God’s followers have unwisely chosen to embrace that have prevented them from entering freely into the arena where they may uphold the rights of the people. Isn’t the kingdom of God nothing but the rule or the governance of God over those who choose to trust in Him? His kingdom applies to living souls, in the body or outside of it.

Well, some may ask: Didn’t the Lord Jesus say that His kingdom is not of this world? Of course, that is because He ruled over angels as well but chose not to call them to save Himself from the cross. But did He not give the Apostles power to overcome evil spirits as well as to judge believers in the physical realm? Wasn’t that in itself ruling over the lives of believers as God’s ministers? Did not and does not Christian discipleship prepare believers to become diligent and law-abiding citizens of this world? A believer then who serves as a president or a mayor for God is no more special or different from one who serves as a waiter or a doctor for God. A person then, whether he works as a teacher of the Gospel full-time or one-day-in-a-week, has all the right and the freedom to desire a position in the political administration of a nation.

Was David a righteous person first before he became king of Israel or did he become a king whose righteousness blossomed because his position required it more of him as a leader of a nation? Or, perhaps, his being king was immaterial in relation to his being a “man after God’s own heart”? He was, in truth, a great sinner like most of us. And that is the big reason that not many look at him as a saint or a holy and faithful preacher of God’s righteousness. But show me a person who has written as many songs of poignant and deeply sincere praise and intercession to God and I will show you a person who is a better teacher and servant of God than David. Here was a man who knew God as much as he knew himself and other humans as if he had taken all the basic courses in Anthropology, Psychology, Musicology, Poetry, Military Science and Human Relations that all modern colleges could offer. (But some might argue that David had rebellious children. So does God!)

So, how did David do it? By the Spirit of God.

Under David’s rule, there was no separation of faith and governance. Of “church” and of “state”. There is one God and there is only one kingdom worth living in and working for. The Son of David came to establish that kingdom in the hearts of people by offering the Spirit of God as a gift to those who follow Him. David, as king, had the Spirit of God. Every believer may also receive the same gift of the indwelling Spirit.

Today, Christ desires that we all come under His authority for He has been given all authority on Earth and in Heaven. Politics, at best, is a very poor imitation of the spiritual and legal administration established by Moses over the Israelite nation which reached its military and political glory during the reign of David, bloody though it was. (Solomon’s reign was a peaceful hiatus which showcased the ceremonial or symbolic aspect of Judaism through the building of the temple; but David’s rule was the climax, Solomon’s the slow downfall into idolatry that would result in the nation’s division.) The only viable pattern that could usher in a return to moral, legal, political, social and spiritual rebirth of our country is one that follows the Israelites’ experience as God’s chosen people.

Today, Christians are a chosen nation and royal priesthood of God administering His spiritual laws, not just as they are applied in the family or the smallest village that exists, but also in the largest and most complex nation-states that rule today. The reason nations rattle the weapons of war or ravage other nations through war is because humans, like David perhaps, want to defend their beliefs or their way of life. The difficult task of uniting people and allowing them to live in peace, however, belongs to God alone. If He allows nations to go to war, it is because He wants to show us how much we must all work together -- under His power, not ours -- in order to attain what He desires for us. He cannot give us something we ourselves do not want so badly. He could not give Noah a new and cleansed world without destroying everything that stood in the way to that objective. If it takes wars to cleanse the world of so much hatred and so much cruelty, God must be willing to do it if we are as equally hard-hearted as the people of Noah’s time. War or civil war is the worst consequence in our failure to follow God’s leading through a peaceful spiritual revolution.

But we are dealing with something less traumatic: the coming presidential elections (although in the Philippines that may not necessarily be the case). Every big political event in our country is a big deal. As big as the next fiesta or social extravaganza the cities or the media can concoct. In many cases, we cannot separate elections, fiestas and extravaganzas from one another. They are all one and the same.

We all feel the need to have fun even in the serious task of governing a nation. A song or a dance is a necessary part of our rituals in nation-building. But then, we easily get caught in petty “cultural wars” that distract us from the greater tasks ahead. (Like getting constantly hyped over how the National Anthem is sung during Pacquiao’s bouts.) And yet, for many, this coming electoral exercise is a more complex one as it magnifies the religious conflicts among us which we have brought along into the political arena. As if politics were not confusing enough.

It is then in the light of clarifying the air that I have come out with this series of articles. The main objective is to allow every voter or even non-voter to get to know himself or herself, her country’s history and how we may compare to those countries which had similar struggles. We will always be a unique country with unique challenges; but, in the end, as humans we have a common calling and destiny with all other nations under God’s rule. To truly understand what we are and where we are, we can only see our lot through the perspective that God allows us to see through His written word, the Bible. After all, this holy book contains the history and the great lessons that many strong and stable nations applied to reach progress and stability. To miss that point and opportunity is to be blind to the teachings of our own National Hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, who used the Bible as the prime source for his noble writings. Hence, in his final novel, we see spiritual regeneration as his prescribed ultimate solution to our nation’s diverse political ills. Faith and governance brilliantly reconciled!

Who is equal to the task of applying such a vision in real terms today?

In concluding this series in the next part, we will expound upon how we can attain the objectives of God for our nation in more practical and specific terms through an active participation in the political contest in May.

(Photo above: A child is not afraid to swim in the dark so long as it can feel the presence of its father looking over it. Why then are so many of us so afraid of the gathering darkness over our country?)

The Heart and the Spirit of a Nation (Part 2)

2010-03-29T11:25:00.008+08:00

That which comes out of our mouth defiles us, not what goes into it, the Lord Jesus said. Out of the depths of our hearts come corrupt things like lust, hatred, slander, envy, cursing, rebellion and murderous thoughts. How such things arise in the hearts of those who were once such innocent infants or children is a process not many of us understand. It also pictures the transformation that our nation went through when we lost what Rizal described as our Eden-like past.

In the early ‘70’s, I was a lad fresh out of high school, just starting to enjoy and endure college at the same time, together with my bosom friends. It seems, we never had a day without our usual jamming with a guitar and a Jingle chord magazine (which was optional for most of us). In the midst of the seething and growing political turmoil that would divide many of us un-politicized and nearly-politicized Diliman citizens into many factions, we strove to derive as much fun from the free time we had away from calculus computations and philosophical speculations. We had no idea our growing-up years would be accelerated in tempo with the literal staccato noise of Armalite gunshots. Within two or three years, we would see the worst of what a government can do and what depths of suffering a nation could go through before marching into a zombie-like existence during Martial Law years. By then, many of us were political or spiritual renegades, not knowing what to believe in or, in many cases, whether we needed to believe anything at all. Many of us found solace in the Gospel.

EDSA ’86 was a chain-breaking event whose euphoria lasted shorter than it took many of us to await its coming. What many do not realize is that many years before EDSA, the Gospel had already gained a strong foothold in the hearts and spirits of spiritually hungry Filipinos who attended Bible studies in almost every corner of towns, cities and inside stores and office buildings. The confetti that rained in Makati prior to the departure of Marcos were literally those of renewed or born-again believers who put their hopes in God to set them free and not in the ideologues or the politicians. Still, the freedom we thought we had gained remains as elusive as before.

Not many of our youth today understand what the ‘70’s meant to our generation, just as not many of my generation did not understand what our parents went through in the ‘40’s during World War II. If the youth of today could learn to see and appreciate their parents’ strivings to give them the best they can with their meager means, then they would know what we, the parents of today, feel for our parents as well. The cycle of life revolves no matter who sits in Malacañang Palace or in the White House. Each generation’s task is to form a society that works for the common good from top to bottom.

The relative peace and uneasy freedom we have we owe to the people who actively fought to establish our institutions: from the time of our ancestors who set up the villages in these islands and farmed the fertile soils beside the unpolluted rivers to the time of the revolutionaries who took up arms to regain our lost sovereignty. The heart of the Filipino is no different from the heart of the Hebrew during Moses time when they built the pyramids of Egypt. The sugar-cane planters of Negros slaved to maintain the haciendas of the Spanish rulers. Even today, they continue to live the same kind of life of our ancestors in the present haciendas of Negros and Tarlac. The massacres that happen there today are mere spasms of the continuing injustice Filipinos go through till now.

The heart of the Filipino is a patient heart. Like the timid carabao whose only sense of relief from the burden of work is to wallow in the mud after toiling in the sun-baked ricefields, he sits silently in his home waiting for a chance to rise above his dreary existence. The factory worker goes home to the squalid slums with the bright thought that someday, one of his children will work as a nurse abroad and finally give the whole family the comfort and peace of owning their own house. Thousands dream a similar dream in an oppressive landscape that remains etched forever in the conscience of those who desire to provide relief to the weary of body and soul but end up offering only prayers and consolation. In a world where poverty and relief work are daily realities, calamity is nothing more than a vacation from monotony.

When given finally the chance to express his anger, the Filipino rises to the occasion: the Katipuneros, the guerillas, the rebels and the student activists, among others. Each time, the heart marched or marches to the call of freedom and the desire to claim one’s destiny in this world. Yet, so much like the Hebrews who suffered silently and lived to see their freedom given to them through divine grace, Filipinos, in general, desire a peaceful resolution of things that beset them. The heart may rise up in protest but the spirit subdues the violence that emanates from the heart and seeks heavenly wisdom which alone can institute desirable, permanent change. God has honored such pacifism by sparing our land from complete civil strife.

Even before the colonizers arrived, the Filipinos already had a deep spiritual awareness of their role in this world. The Aetas of Zambales recognized the power that reigned over Mt. Pinatubo and called Him “Apo Namallari” – the God Who owns or the God Who is Almighty. The Igorots embalmed their dead in the hope that one day, their bodies would be reunited with their spirits which they believed remained with them, roaming in the forests and mountains and not to be disturbed or desecrated by those who destroy Nature. Perhaps, our ancestors believed in a Heaven somewhere but preferred to believe that the spirits of the dead lived among them and offered cañaos (meat sacrifices) when they had dream-visits from their dead relatives.

Enter the colonizers who taught us a devitalized form of Christianity. (To prove the ironic point: Luther defended the Reformation in the year Magellan arrived here. What Europe was beginning to throw away, we were only beginning to learn.) Thus, instead of showing our ancestors genuine freedom and compassion, they exploited them and educated them in their decadent ways. Thus, unlike the Japanese and the Chinese who preserved their identity, we lost our native character. We had the heart of a person rooted in tropical lands and seas but our hearts and minds were somewhere in the temperate continents, imbibing the soul and the spirit of the ruler who himself was once a slave but learned to conquer. And conquer he did -- or they did.

How do we free ourselves from such a confused experience? It is a task next to impossible. Many have tried to make us aware of this reality (like Rizal discovering and uncovering the writings of de Morga in London or Sionil-Jose writing about what we can do with what we are and have to improve ourselves); but, so far, we have failed to make a concerted effort to harness the gifts we have received through our revolutionary spiritual experiences. Instead of looking into the lessons of our past and charting our future upon our own unique identity, we move forward like dressed, headless chicken – naked and blind.

Yes, the heart may hold much of what we know and desire; but it is the spirit – quickened by the Spirit of God – that will overcome everything, according to the promise of Him Who overcame death itself. The human heart, after all, sees and feels what is right for us and our children. However, the heart, blind to the teachings of Heaven, will march ahead toward perdition in the belief that humans can steer their own destiny. Such were the colonizers who shaped the lands they conquered through their idea of governance and exploitation. They believed in their supposedly manifest role to mold others according to their image. They fancied themselves gods with a mission to save the world when they really needed salvation more.

We have fallen victim to the idea that our salvation is in the material advantages derived from industrialization and commercial progress. We want to be world-class and so we build bigger houses, condos, malls, churches, hospitals, monuments and institutions. Is it not those very nations who usurped our freedoms and stole our innocence who continue to burden the globe in the political and economic sense? Ironically, they also arrogantly assume that they hold the key to our spiritual well-being. The latter is the worst kind of deception our nation has gone through. For more than four centuries, our nation has remained hostage to the spiritual slavery which Rizal sought to free us from. Yet, today, we remain blind and enslaved spiritually. The so-called spiritual leaders are as confused as the people they lead. In many cases, they are as corrupt or even more so.

The heart, the soul and the spirit of a nation that remains enslaved to spiritual, economic and political imperialists, can only attain its freedom from the God of Heaven. It is not from its leaders or from its so-called allies. It is God alone Who can cause a rebirth of our nation. How He does it is clearly seen in the events that are transpiring in our midst today.

The signs of a deteriorating Earth are obvious. Forget about global-warming or climate-change brought about by CO2 emissions. This is already a discredited belief. Other alternative causes of the climate-change are equally viable. The point is: It is not us humans who are causing the deterioration for the signals are those of the End-Times. The problem is not merely social, industrial or economic; it is spiritual. The spirit of humans is what is at stake – not the Earth or the Universe even. If we continue to be deluded that science and technology can help us solve all problems, we are grossly mistaken. If we continue to think that good politics and governance alone will bring about real change in our societies, we are pitifully shortsighted.

The time Noah began to call for riders of the Ark was just before he began building it. More than 100 years earlier. Whether the end of this present world comes in 2, 10, 100 or 500 years from now, today is the right time to tell all that a Judgment Day is coming. We will not mince words; nor will we apologize for our doomsday message.

Many Filipinos escaped sure death when the Ondoy floods came; but, today, they are back to their usual ways – dancing to the lewd tunes of material and carnal pleasure. Whereas they shed tears of fear or of gratitude for having been saved, they now smile smugly in their slavery to worldly passions. We live as if, like the Hebrews, God never showed us His power to save and transform us from within. The TV networks become compassionate and civically-minded when disasters come; but when summer vacation comes along, they purvey us with indecent shows as if the disasters never came about because of our immoral ways. Sadly, the spirituality of Filipinos has descended to a very low point that it is no longer a surprise when calamities visit us with a vengeance. For what the great and powerful media instill in our hearts and spirits is corruption (disguised as entertainment) that leads people to disobedience and further rebellion against God’s laws.

Yes, the average Filipino is corrupt or corrupted by the ideas he or she imbibes from the environment. The total decay we see is merely a manifestation of the corrupting evil spirit that rules over the nation. The only way God can purge such evil from our land, just as He did in the wilderness of Sinai, is to send more plagues. But plagues or disasters will never stop the businesspeople from making more money over the dumb souls of hapless and witless Filipinos who patronize their programs and products. Even the pure and wise may find it hard to escape spiritual annihilation.

Our present political leaders do not have the answers to all these problems we present. They only have answers to those problems they see immediately around them. They are blind to the spiritual decay around them for they themselves wallow in the mire of corruption and refuse to take the only way out. We need a more drastic, inner revolution. It begins with genuine education of the heart and the spirit that can only come with the intense desire to follow God’s life-principles.

I Corinthians 2:6-16

However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

But as it is written:

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

(Photo above: Is it possible for an innocent child to teach an adult?)

(To be continued)

The Heart and the Spirit of a Nation (Part I)

2010-03-21T10:48:00.003+08:00

The Philippine 2010 Election period gradually heats up simultaneously with the rising tropical temperatures of Asia’s first independent Republic. With 9 officially recognized presidential candidates, the contest has left not a few people rather confused and so many noncommittal at this point. Of course, we hear many others eagerly pitching for their chosen candidate with their personal reasons for doing so. Their choices, in the long run, are mainly based on their assessment of the personality, character, qualifications and experiences of their preferences. A few I have talked to and read about bring into the picture their rationale for choosing a person on his or her ability to provide the needed leadership to address the many problems the country faces. It seems that not many have fully analyzed the real state of the nation and what (and it seems to follow, who) it will take to bring it at par with the generally-accepted ideal state (no pun intended in regard to “US Statehood” proponents).

Most of the reasons given, therefore, can be clearly classified as perceptions of voters of the candidates as if they were applicants for a business corporation. True, the role of a president as Chief Executive of the nation requires the highest degree of qualification in administering the many affairs of the State. And among the lot, we can safely say that six or seven are equally and fully capable of fulfilling that task. In fact, even if all of them were individually qualified to serve as an effective orchestrator of the multi-tasks of the president of the land, we would still have to consider their ability to provide the most important ingredient needed in leading a nation into its uncertain future within a fast-changing and self-deteriorating globe.

To complicate matters, one of the main issues, if not the most important issue that is foremost in the minds of Filipinos, is that of corruption. One candidate is said to be so squeaky clean that he is ironically not qualified to rule because he has done nothing whatsoever as a legislator. Not corrupt but so inept, it is said. Another is so corrupt (having been convicted for economic plunder) that we wonder why he even had the gall to run for office. Still another has been charged of corruption that he has spent much money and time doing damage control by literally putting words into innocent kids’ mouths to prove he is not guilty. In short, out of the mouth of babes we could be hearing lies instead of praise for truth and honesty. Pity the children (and other young impressionable volunteers) and leave them out of politics.

Politics -- the ideal kind, the one that involves contemplation of the highest good of the majority and implementation of the supreme ideals of nationhood through selfless service -- engenders unity and cooperation. In that, we must involve the youth. But the one we have -- and the only one many probably know -- divides and corrupts. As it is, our nation is gradually being divided into ten or so partitions that could very well lead into an utterly fragmented nation that mimics the geographical nature of these islands. With such a divided mix, we would easily fall prey in the hands of criminals, opportunists and rebels among us. A failure of elections could very well produce a chaotic society that will be left with so many leaders fighting each other and not one strong leader to summon it toward harmony and peace. It has happened in many countries before.

In the light of such inescapable and even inevitable realities, the leader we choose must be more than an able executive or an astute politician as if the need for the hour is business and governance as usual. Yes, two or more candidates may present themselves as quite intelligent and also academically prepared for the job, but that does not still provide us with the assurance that the entire nation will be safe under the care of any of these “smart” leaders.

I would humbly like to beg the issue by saying that it will not take any one person among the many candidates to prepare us for the coming six years or more of our country’s existence. Any leader will only be as effective as the people will allow him or her to lead them. He will either succeed or fail with them. Take the case of Moses: Chosen by God to lead the Israelites from slavery and into freedom and nationhood, he eventually failed to enter with all those freed slaves because of disobedience. Both leader and people were prevented from receiving their trophy due to unbelief and disobedience.

Was Moses qualified to lead a nation? Absolutely! Was he wise and strong enough to save a people from slavery? Yes, he was. But the people rebelled and wanted to put up their own spiritually unqualified (un-anointed) leaders and because they kept complaining about their situation, God judged them unworthy of His material reward. Moses’ anger against a hard-headed people likewise led to his failure to get the reward. A small thing, perhaps, compared to the glory he received eventually as a prophet but it bears a relevant lesson for us today.

A leader can only remain a good leader as long as he keeps his heart and spirit in the power of the Lord in Heaven. And so with the people he leads. If the people, like the Hebrews, murmur and criticize (a favorite pastime of many Filipinos), any good or qualified leader will lose heart and spirit in his or her work. The Promised Land is for those who (like Joshua who was young, obedient and faithful) are brave enough to listen to the call of God to conquer through His might and to face the challenges of fearsome giants and countless enemies.

Let us then look at the hearts and spirits of those who would claim to be qualified to lead our nation. Let us test their hearts and their spirits and find out if they have gone through the fires of testing that God alone -- not business or political experience -- can bring about in order to form the real person or character that submits to Him and does not seek personal gain or glory. Let us check the motives of those who lay claim to the highest position of leadership of a nation which is called by God to lead other nations to Him.

Our country, by God’s grace and mighty plan, has been established not just to exist on these islands but on every part of this Earth. Visit any major country and you will see that Filipinos live and work there. Today, more than 80% of workers who operate and work in ocean-vessels are Filipinos. The dollars, pounds and euros all our OFW’s send back home are nothing compared to the honor they bring and will bring to our homeland when we, as a united people come to realize our unique role as God’s instruments of His salvation for the world.

Yes, we all want to save our nation from poverty and from corruption. We all want to see our nation like those around us, progressive and well-governed. For ours still needs to see the light of elusive unity and prosperity. The Hebrews also dreamed of escaping suffering, poverty and slavery. They wanted to plant their own seeds on their own land and harvest their own fruits for their own families. God gave them a leader suitable for their dreams. God showed them His power tenfold in Egypt and a hundredfold in the wilderness. Yet, they remained blind to God’s grace.

Even before this election period, we have been divided as a nation. We are even divided as a Christian nation. But our calling today clearly points to our becoming a nation of God that will bring about change not only in our families and in our towns and cities but in the entire globe, even in all the nations of the world. To look at Elections 2010 then as just a make-or-break political event for our country is to shortchange our destiny as God’s people. We are a beloved nation of God. We suffer because God is purifying us and preparing us for a great task ahead. We are divided because we go through the wilderness without a recognized strong unifying leader (although God is there speaking to us every moment). We are confused because there are so many around us who would want to leave God out of the picture and bring themselves or their selfish interests into the arena.

The heart and the spirit are not abstract things we are incapable of seeing and understanding. We, perhaps the most religiously receptive nation in Asia, if not in the entire world, are quite capable of discerning spiritual truths and realities. We just need to humble ourselves like we did during all the calamities and revolutions we have gone through and learn to recognize God’s hand in molding us into a nation ready to claim its Promised Land. It is faith in God that will guide us in this election period. It is our trust in the almighty power of God that will open our own hearts and spirits to the ultimate plan laid down since the beginning of the world for our country to accomplish.

Politics and elections are mere tools for attaining change in our society. Remember, we are not merely choosing a leader; we are reaffirming our submission to God as our one and only true leader. He is the one allowing us to escape poverty and suffering. He alone can bless us through the way He has chosen for us to follow. In short, when we choose a leader, we must allow God to enlighten our hearts and spirits according to His eternal plan for the life of our nation and the entire world. That plan cannot proceed without the people deciding as one that they will listen and heed the call of God.

Do you hear God calling you to do great things? Yes, you can do great things if you let God direct you. Choose and act according to His plan and His wisdom.

(Photo above: Filipinos crossing the "Red Sea" of Ondoy? Is there a Promised Land for our people?

The House that Built Many Nations

2010-02-02T15:06:00.006+08:00

There is a proven, easy and inexpensive way to earthquake-proof your family and your possessions. Yes, truly there is and it has been around for centuries. How?

The answer came to me when I was reading yesterday’s Philippine Daily Inquirer’s section “Talk of the Town” on page A-10. There splashed on the page was an old, ink drawing (please see photo above) from the Illustrated London News, apparently on its August 29, 1863 issue, showing the destruction of the Danish Embassy in Manila in that year. The whole building is in shambles and mirrors the damage inflicted upon the UN headquarters in Haiti in the recent deadly Intensity-7 earthquake. Roof girders and beams pile up like “pick-up-sticks” in disarray while stone walls look like broken teeth, giving us an idea of the tremor’s devastating force. People carry the wounded and the dead while others evacuate their homes for safe grounds.

Yet, behind this bone-crunching view of nature’s cruel wrath lies a picture of how the ancient residents of these islands withstood the elements and triumphed to become the masters of their environment. It shows, beyond any doubt, something that we have failed to consider and preserve as a cultural legacy from our ancestors. And because of this failure, we have paid a steep price in terms of economic, social and engineering costs. What is this?

Beside the fallen Dutch Embassy still stands a bamboo-and-nipa house whose roof now seems to overshadow the exposed interiors of the embassy. If the native house suffered any major damage, the drawing barely shows it, but, on the contrary, proves modernity’s ironic inferiority to ancient designs and materials. Here, then, is an inkling into the story of our country’s sojourn as a free, self-governed and self-developed community of settlers whose domiciles and ways not just suited the climate but also took into account the destructive forces of nature. Our ancestors who came from neighboring Asian countries bequeathed us with ancient knowledge and wisdom we have somehow lost in less than half a century.

Typhoons have torn and blown away nipa roofings, we know this fact; but people always had a way to repair or replace them since the materials were almost always available within every locality. There were no hardware stores from which they could buy nipa or bamboo. More often than not, they made their own roofs, floors and walls. Filipino bamboo houses were genuine organic homes which provided the people not just with comfort and protection but also a living culture that kept them independent of any social or economic structures which enslaved them. Certainly, many may have eventually depended on skilled builders and traders to accomplish their construction and repair needs; but with the Bayanihan Spirit at work early on in these islands, building or rebuilding houses became a habitual community affair just as planting rice was. With bamboo, coconut and nipa plants growing all around them and providing almost everything one needed for a house – from roofing to walling, from flooring to posts and from windows to doors and stairs – the cost of putting up a house was minimal, if not, negligible as nature, in those times, cared for humans, and vice versa.

The Bayanihan or Community Spirit nurtured a culture wherein humans cared for other humans. A decent and livable house was a gift of the community to each and every new family that rose in its midst. Building and owning a house, then, was a family’s priceless inheritance from an ancient way of life and also a social contract to pay it forward to others who came after it. In that way, no one owned exclusively a house since the entire community pitched in to build it. Nature provided the materials as well as the land upon which the house stood. If nature decided to take the house back through disasters like typhoons or fires, the community offered sacrifices in order to appease heaven and to seek a way to rebuild or to relocate the community. In this way, the natives learned to live and survive in these islands.

For centuries, the bamboo-and-nipa house served as the shelter for many generations of Filipinos in a seemingly endless march. Many of our own aged parents still living now, with a few exceptions, lived in one. Hence, the picture of a bamboo house surviving a strong earthquake speaks thousands of words to us modern, city-dwellers who suffer the summer months inside steel-roofed, concrete houses with small windows that barely let the air in. Yes, we have learned to make them strong enough to withstand storms and quakes but at such a high price. The backlog in housing only shows that we have an impractical and onerous social, economic and engineering solution to a problem that we have so far failed to address completely and rightly. This is what happens when we turn our backs on our past.

Imagine, for instance, if Haitians had built bamboo houses instead of brick or concrete ones. Would there have been 150,000 people dead? Imagine if we had continued to give the honor we once gave bamboo houses for centuries, how much less would be the backlog in housing construction now? How many people would not be living in shanties in cities? How many people would have livelihood in the villages, planting and trading bamboo, coconut and nipa construction materials, not to mention other handicrafts and essential coconut products like copra and lumber? How much will we save from not importing construction materials if we had developed and engineered bamboo materials the way the Indians and Vietnamese have? (They sell bamboo houses to Hawaii from $15,000 to $45,000 or more for a single house kit. We can’t even allow a family to build a bamboo house inside a city subdivision for P50,000 because of impractical ordinances. Living in a bamboo house suddenly became a pitiful idea or sight even to us!)

This is not to say we should build bamboo houses everywhere. It is merely to say: Let us give back the respect we took away for our ancient, proven and practical ways. Yes, we dream of living in a California-style bungalow or a Swiss-chattel house, fine and dandy. We end up using so much energy air-conditioning it that we have ended up making our cities heat-sinks doing so because of the amount of concrete and steel we use instead of the less heat-absorbent bamboo, wood and nipa.

Yes, bamboo and nipa may burn easily. But so do all the wood and other synthetic materials we use in our modern houses. Fires occur not because we use wood or bamboo but because we do not take proper safety precautions. Building regulations have succeeded in discriminating against the bamboo house in cities and towns to the point of disregarding its versatility, adaptability and its acceptability as the prime symbol of our capacity to survive and to live in harmony with Nature.

The picture of the Danish Embassy in disarray beside a tall, proudly standing bamboo-and-nipa house after an earthquake tells a very convincing story that our housing officials must heed. It speaks not only of a way of surviving in these financially-challenged times but also of restoring the dignity in our social, cultural and environmental heritage. It presents an opportunity for us to utilize materials that are not just renewable but are also organically produced, thus benefitting the environment, and locally available, thus serving our economic needs. Finally, it showcases forms and designs that contain our original and authentic identity as a unique, free people.

What ultimately resulted when we neglected our precious architectural heritage by embracing and espousing external influences was our habit of conforming more and more to impractical and expensive methods of building homes and altering our environment, thus, making us forget the most fundamental principle of nature: growing and living with the environment. Today, we have cement plants run mostly by multinationals that scour our mountains in order to provide us with a durable construction material whose strength depends almost totally on another material that is more expensive than many basic commodities per unit of weight: steel.

When the Americans arrived in these islands in the early 1900’s, they introduced lumber as a new major construction material. This sounded the death knoll of bamboo as the primary source for building homes as well. After the Second World War, they introduced reinforced concrete and eventually led to the ultimate death of the bamboo houses in the cities and towns. Today, we hardly have any bamboo houses standing that date back to the American Occupation. In our rush to become modern and industrialized, we forgot to make use of a material that would have made us remain a self-sufficient nation capable of providing homes even to the least of our citizens. The pride we had upon what our ancestors practiced for centuries, we cannot even bestow upon ourselves as we see thousands and thousands of our fellow citizens dwelling in crowded slum areas inside shanties made of old galvanized-roofing walls, used-plywood flooring, recycled tin-doors, cardboard partitions and plastic-sheet windows and awnings.

Our ancestors would cry in astonishment to see us at this stage in modern civilization and say: “What a foolish people! They saw something from afar and copied it when right there in their backyard is what they need to live a happy and proud life in their homeland.”

Some would say it is a matter of taste and quality. Yeah, tell that to the millions of city-slum dwellers who could have been planting or raising their food and also their housing materials in the provinces if we had not given up on the essential and traditional Asian home: the Bamboo House. An earthquake may not easily destroy a concrete house; but neither will it easily destroy a bamboo house. A community of sturdy concrete houses may look modern and progressive; but a village of bamboo houses can be exotically stylish and even be more viable through a system that provides sources for construction materials, food and livelihood.

Calamities teach us a lot of things. But the greatest calamity that can happen to a people occurs when they can no longer learn to value the proven, ancient paths.

(The writer is presently working on a book entitled Bamboo House: The Essential Asian House.)

Heroes for President (Love Stories as Election Campaign Ads)

2010-01-26T10:15:00.005+08:00

As we approach the May elections, we expect more media noise coming from the hundreds of candidates in their TV, radio and print campaign ads. Good for business, in general, but not so much for our tranquility and our efforts to achieve moral recovery. As the Medicis of Florence loved to proclaim: “Money to get the power, power to keep the money.” A concise definition of politics, if we ever needed one.

There is the billionaire who spends millions to gain access to the highest position of the land. His many and certainly expensive TV ads alone are veritable movie-trailers showcasing his past, his accomplishments and his abilities. Then, there are the two cousins – scions of wealthy landowners and industrialists – who are paraded as young and dynamic leaders, eager to serve the people and to please them with their promises of, well, wanting to serve them. Both also have their own ads, obviously created by the best PR and copywriters around – crisp and clean visuals and catchy cinematography that would make many would-be movie-makers envious, if not for their quality then the financial windfall they would provide. Such things don’t come cheap, you know.

Marcos had his “Iginuhit ng Tadhana”, a love-story starring Luis Gonzalez and Gloria Romero, which introduced him and Imelda as the "saviors" of our country. At least, with a movie, one stands to gain back some of the investment. Perhaps, the “Apo” was much wiser than we thought he was. Putting up the CCP was in itself the crowning jewel of his regime as it showed the world how beautiful Filipino culture was and how generous a government can be to preserve or develop its culture. Some, of course, would say it was nothing but propaganda. For some, it was indeed a shot in the arms for our artists and, it follows, for our people.

Others would say it was nothing but business as usual. Money making more money for the rich while sparing some loose change for the service industries. Media and the film industry stand to gain from this recent surge in demand for political ads.

However, business and culture are much like food and flowers in a restaurant. You can eat the former but not the latter. Yet, this kind of thinking is exactly what keeps us from maturing as a people: We spend each day thinking about what to feed our families while we forget to feed our souls with the finer things in life. In fact, we continue to patronize cheap western music and Korean telenovelas and forget to appreciate our own excellent music and literature. Ironically, CCP’s cultural events are affordable only for the wealthy. Whereas pop or rock concerts get replayed often on the TV networks, not many of CCP’s shows get enough sponsors to air them. Thus, we remain an unaware and confused people, subject to exploitation by cunning people.

One of the latest attempts at mimicking Marcos’ use of film as campaign tool came in the form of a network’s soap-bio on the love-life of Ninoy and Cory Aquino. Aired on primetime last weekend, people were treated to an “infotainment” (drama-docu show, that is) which probably garnered a sizeable chunk of the viewing public. Considering the network’s open and self-serving endorsement of Noynoy’s bid for the presidency, it was an unabashed plug for his character and his legacy as the only son of what many recognize as modern heroes of our country.

And they are heroes, if we are to set up before ourselves high standards of courage, dedication and sacrifice -- the very same standards we use to declare our OFW’s as our modern heroes. What makes Ninoy and Cory exemplary is the vast influence they had within a particular period in our political history. Specifically, in relation to the Marcos regime. They served to set us free from two decades of darkness. We celebrate -- and will again celebrate next month -- that fact as the EDSA Revolution. For how can we forget the glorious unfolding of our nation’s destiny without mentioning the contributions of these two personalities?

Yes, we need to thank them and uphold them as cherished leaders of our nation for when the time came when we needed them, they answered the call. And yet, the present requires that we kiss the past struggles and glories goodbye and face the future still with an open embrace. Open to new opportunities and new ways of meeting fresh challenges. Let us keep Ninoy and Cory as symbols of freedom, among so many others from the past and in the present who lived and live to make democracy a reality.

Noynoy, as a symbol of one family’s struggles and triumphs as well as a budding icon of what our nation can become is indeed a welcome potential. He deserves to be heard and given the opportunity to prove himself. Or, perhaps, he has already been given that chance and that it is time to make the right and mature judgment on his ability to lead our nation.

Would Ninoy, the father, have made a good president? Perhaps. If the TV drama is to be believed, he would have kept his promise to be uncorrupted, as his son now also promises not to steal from the nation. Ninoy never became president and Noynoy just might become one. But let us consider their qualifications, to be more subjective.

Ninoy was a traditional politician before he became a reformer of some kind. A defender of the system before he became an activist. A conventional thinker before he became a pacifist-rebel with a just cause. A mainstream Catholic before he became a mystic of some sort. I hope the soap drama would ultimately showcase (Part 2 is still coming) these nuances in Ninoy’s transformation as it is crucial in determining if we all have understood what it takes to bring a nation back, close to its Eden-like condition (Rizal’s vision of our own ancient past).

The questions then that we must ask, if we are to make the right choices when the time comes to choose our leaders, are these: Did Cory truly embody the same visions that Ninoy had (as well as those of Rizal, other heroes and those of our own today) when she served as president? Did she fulfill the dreams of her husband not just to restore democracy but also good government and social justice? If so, will Noynoy be able to do the same? If not, why should we entrust to him the seat in Malacanang? Has he done what is necessary to prove that he really is the very person his own father would elect to fulfill his (Ninoy’s) own dreams for our country?

It doesn’t take to be a son or daughter of Ninoy to know his ideals, the same ideals that our previous heroes held and defended with their lives. We only need to be aware of our own capabilities and duties to be ready when called upon to serve in turn.

The true measure of Ninoy’s success as a political leader and as a belated visionary late in life should not be simplified as if it were a natural or conjugal succession with Cory’s becoming president. It is a dangerous assumption that leads people to think Noynoy would then be the next and normal heir to the mythical throne of EDSA. EDSA was a phase, just as the Philippine Revolution was. Did we have the best leaders during the Revolutionary Government? Did we achieve our aspirations under their watch? Will we do so now under the one we want to elect? Is Noynoy the genuine reformer, activist, visionary and thinker that we need in this critical time of our history? Can we honestly say that he is and not merely hope that he will be when he needs to be?

Beyond mentioning the political baggage that the Aquino-Cojuangco family carry into this presidential campaign, we must look at a person’s claim to his ability to lead our nation in relation to our long history of heroism and not just recent political realities. For many are the problems and the enemies that we must face. The same issues that beset our fathers under the Spanish and American Regimes remain today in the same forms, colors and odors: black, odious and rotten corruption and exploitation of our social, cultural, political and physical environment. The skin colors and the names may have changed, the addresses and the costumes may also have changed, but the rules of the game have remained the same.

The powerful and the moneyed still hold sway over our lives and still hold the reins over how we think, believe and move. The friars may be gone; but their descendants are still around preaching love and receiving blood money. The Ilustrados may have long been silent; but their heirs still sit in gilded chairs in mansions. The Guardia Civil may be only be a memory now; but their brood still lurk somewhere ready to pounce upon those who disturb the status quo.

Elections give us a chance to see ourselves where we really are: Back to Square One. Corruption is with us and will be with us when we lie with the worms in the grave. For now, we lead ourselves into thinking that real heroism comes merely to those born of heroes and not to those who live it and plod through its struggles and come out as totally transformed individuals.

Who among our candidates have gone through a transformation from inside out? Who exhibits in living form the life worthy of our admiration and emulation? This is what should guide us this campaign period.

Perhaps, what we need is not a new president but a new spirit of heroism within us all, one that makes us to walk and live as heroes ourselves and not just followers of heroes. Perhaps, what we need then are movies that help us to become heroes and not movies that lead us to worship others as heroes – whether fantastic or real heroes. We certainly cannot fly like Darna does; but we can be compassionate like Josephine Bracken who cared for the wounded during the Philippine-American War. We cannot be as strong as the Flavio, the mythical Panday; but we can be as strong of mind and of character as Rizal was when he led the way to our freedom as a nation.

Incidentally, I wrote a semi-historical script of the love-life of Jose and Josephine a few years ago. The story makes Rizal the president of the Philippines, a timely idea that may help us consider how he would have behaved as a political leader. Here is an idea: Why don’t we writers and film-makers come up with stories of real or fictional people who will exemplify the highest ideals for us and candidates to follow? So, instead of us watching people tell us how great they are, we can show them how great they should be, that is, great enough for us to vote for them. But I still have to hear of a wealthy candidate who will bankroll a film on the life of, say, Bonifacio or Mabini just so he or she can win an election. Now that – is a real dream!

(Photo above: Is it a butterfly or a shell? Images can be deceitful.)

Predictions Made Me by Emilio Sardan Ragay

2010-01-08T23:27:00.008+08:00

A month before my 81st birthday (22 November) an old woman appeared in my dream telling me that I will win the mega lotto jackpot. When I awoke, I kept tossing in bed trying to decipher who she was. After hours of “flashbacking” I recalled that she was someone I met during my younger bygone years.

Here’s my story. After graduation, the UP Vanguards Batch ‘41 to which I belonged immediately underwent physical and medical tests for commissions as 3rd Lieutenants in the Philippine Army. While waiting for my commission and call-to-active-duty, I decided to visit my father who was with the PC Command in Naga City.

I lost no time in befriending the folks residing in Mabini Interior Street, where my father rented a house. In no time, I became a member of DALOLI (dance, love and live) Club, which was very much to my liking.

One social event the club member looked forward to was the baptism of the son of our neighbor. I was supposed to be one of six sponsors. Unfortunately, our plans to this social event went “pffft” . In between sobs, the child’s mother informed me that her son was seriously sick. I hurriedly visited her sick child and what I saw alarmed me. Expecting the worst, I gave the child a layman’s baptism. I dipped my forefinger in a cup of water and made the sign of the cross on his forehead while intoning the “I baptize you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” ritual.

I felt momentarily relieved. An hour later, we rushed the child to the Cathedral to be baptized formally by a priest. The child who was cradled in my arms died right after his baptism. I was emotionally devastated by this sudden turn of events. The child’s grandmother confided to me during the wake that my godson would bring me good luck, saying, “He will save your life in a year’s time.” “Remember what I am telling you.”, she added.

Not long after, I gave away my civilian clothes and old uniforms. For the second time, the old woman admonished me not to give away my old clothes or else I would be begging for clothes myself. I hugged her and told her that would not likely happen. And again she told me, “Just remember what I am telling you.”

Before I left Naga City, my barkada in the DALOLI Club tendered me a despedida party. When the old woman saw me dancing and being lovey-dovey with a school teacher, she called me aside during music breaks and whispered, “Lieutenant, you will not be lucky with her. Besides”, she continued, “you will soon forget her when you leave our place. You will meet your future partner in life in an unusual situation.” I simply shrugged and thanked her for her advices and predictions.

By mid- August, I reported to GHQ of the Philippine Army, which was then located at the Mehan Gardens (behind the present site of the Manila City Hall). Together with several army officers, we boarded the interisland boat S.S. PANAY bound for our Visayan and Mindanao assignments.

We were inducted into the USAFFE on September 1st at Camp Guihulngan, Negros Oriental and immediately transferred to another camp in Negros Occidental where we attended a refresher course. After over a month of trainings, we were moved to a camp in Negros Oriental. By the end of November, we were transferred for the third time to our permanent camp, Camp O’Donnell in Capas, Tarlac. We were barely settled in the new camp when on December 8, war was declared with Japan. We were hurriedly dispatched to the Lingayen Gulf frontlines. We did not have to wait long. On the even of November 22, the Japanese forces landed in La Union. We were committed to meet the Japanese Forces in Damortis and Rosario in La Union. Without airplanes, tanks and big artillery, we were decisively repulsed. From Rosario, we retreated to Sison in Pangasinan where we were also battered. We retreated to Pozorrubio, another town, and again we were attacked while resting at night. We again retreated to Binalonan which was defended by an American anti-tank unit.

Without letup, the Japs attacked us on Christmas Even in Binalonan. We were overran and ordered to retreat. Bullets were flying in all directions. When I fell for the first time, I thought I was hit but I struggled to get up and ran in semi-darkness. I stumbled again and again and when I looked back after my third fall, I saw the enemy closing in on us. I froze and stayed put where I fell and played possum, hiding beneath a canopy of palay stalks.

When morning came, I found myself among dead comrades. Not far was a machine gun nest of the enemy which kept firing at the retreating soldiers. I prayed hard as I never did before. Then I remembered my dead godson and the prediction that he will save my life. So I prayed to him for my deliverance.

Before noon, the Japs burned the rice field where I was hiding. Although my whole body was numb all over, I tried to shift my position slowly. To add to my misery, red ants were having a field day biting me; but movement of a “dead soldier” was too risky to gamble. I prayed again. Suddenly, a strong gush of wind swept the direction of the fire and stopped its tracks.

By about four in the afternoon, I heard a Japanese command which I could not understand. But a little later, the revving sounds of their tanks and lorries indicated that they were moving to the next town, Urdaneta.

It was nearing dark and the thought of being with the dead another night gave me goose bumps. I decided to change my position slowly to prone. It took me about half an hour to unwind the numbness all over my body. I slowly crept toward a patch of sugar cane where I broke two stalks and chewed to fill my empty stomach.

I moved stealthily eastward to avoid the enemy. While walking, I heard a voice coming from a deep irrigation canal, “Sir, help me, I am a soldier. I was hit by sniper fire in Urdaneta.” Thereupon, I applied sulfanilamide on the wound on his left shoulder, put a gauge and sling around his shoulders and neck.

I was glad to have met him. Being an Ilocano, he could be useful as guide and interpreter in my attempt to rejoin my forces. Our plans to reach Rosales in Pangasinan was, however, frustrated by darkness. We arrived at Villasis town where we were met by civilian guards led by an ex-teacher who advised us not to cross Agno River as it was very deep and swift. He instead invited us to his house. There, he produced a plate of hard cold rice (bahaw) with a few mustard leaves garnished with bagoong. That meal was indeed most welcome and a luxury, after two days of forced hunger. With a full stomach, I soon fell asleep only to be awakened by the shouts of our host to escape the heavy bombardments coming from both sides of the Agno River. After several hours of running and walking in darkness, we reached the evacuation center in Unsad, a barrio of Villasis where our host’s family had evacuated.

Since it was our duty to report back to our lines, we decided to cross the river in several places, but each time we were pushed back by civilians who were also running away from the enemy. After three failed attempts to cross, we returned to the evacuation camp. On the advice of the ex-teacher, we discarded our uniforms to escape detection by spies. He was so kind to provide us with used clothes.

Later, I joined the guerilla organized by an American colonel who escaped Bataan through Mt. Pinatubo. Unfortunately, I was captured several months later. I was incarcerated at the Kim Pei Tai POW camp in Binalonan, where I was kicked, boxed, “jujitsued” and given the water-cure treatment. My sufferings at the POW camp was somewhat eased when a week later, then Governor Estrada of Pangasinan visited the camp. It so happened that his cousin was my Literature teacher in Dumaguete City. This information elated the governor who promised to help me with my release. He convinced that Japanese colonel that I was his relative. Thus, I was released with the condition that I give my gold-plated Waltham Premier watch. I had no choice so I handed over my watch to the Japanese colonel who in turn handed me P70.00 as payment. That was how I lost my P120.00 pre war watch. It was good bargain, though. The money not only freed me from prison but also helped me finance my church wedding and barrio reception. Yes, I met my wife at the evacuation center. What a coincidence – the third prediction of the old woman had come true.

The events that happened some 59 years ago seemed like a beautiful dream. Recalling those incidents and predictions is what keeps me ticking like an old alarm clock. To me, she was a seer par excellence.

By the way, I am still hoping that I will soon be a quickie millionaire via the PCSO mega lotto draw as prophesied a few months before Y2K. Will her fourth prediction, even if relayed to me only in a dream, come true? Given her 100% track record, I have no doubt this too will come to pass, but that will be another story.

(My father wrote this article seven years before he passed away. It remained unpublished and hidden in his old but still-sturdy army-issue trunk until my sister discovered it and had it posted on Facebook. His war-time exploits often regaled our visits, with this story being a favorite of mine and one that became more interesting and real with each telling. We all miss him, more so with this written version of how the failed defense of Luzon and the country (what Quezon and McArthur called War Plan Orange) brought him to Villasis, Pangasinan where he met my mother. One of these days, I hope to write the sequel to this story: how he rejoined the USAFFE years later and helped in retaking Baguio City from the Japanese forces. Btw, my nephews and nieces still look forward to harvesting that Mega Lotto prize their Grand-Papang failed to get.)

One Week to a Disciplined Life

2009-12-31T09:40:00.010+08:00

I started this set of New Year's Resolutions last year and did quite well during the first few weeks. It might be because the goals are too idealistic and too-world changing (I quit after a few weeks!). But that is what life is all about -- changing your perspective as you feel you need to in order to keep everything fresh.

I said "change your perspective" -- not change your personality or your beliefs. Someone said she found the secret to life: Stay around long enough till you get used to it. Removing bad habits involves replacing them with good habits -- candies for cigarettes or praises for curses. At first, it seems hard but time works wonders for those who persevere. I guess that word "persevere" comes from "perform" and "severe" (not really, but it's nice, no?). Do it even if it is hard or painful! Do it because it is the right and good thing to do. Just do it! Do!

For one whole week, focus on the goal set daily. Do a thing or two (or twenty!) to make the habit stick on the first week. Go back at the start of the list and begin all over again. When you feel you have formed the habits, forget about the list and live free and do right as a more disciplined person. Even if you do it for only a week or four, you would have set yourself on the course to a more focused and fulfilling journey to excellence. Most of all, you enjoy more in life when you have reason to be joyful about it. A better you is definitely reason to celebrate.

Read the list and prepare to begin a new life in 2010 (there's always next year to do it again!):

1. Clean up – Remove all unnecessary and harmful stuff from your dwelling place, work place and relations and, most especially, from your body, soul and mind. Example: real trash, dust and useless things and negative thoughts, energy-vampires and unproductive habits.

2. Organize – Establish order in your environment, work and relationships. Be not a servant to others or to yourself but only to God. Prioritize. Eliminate excess baggage. Give time for rest and recreation.

3. Simplify – Choose to be uncomplicated and unaffected. Deal with simple people, matters and ways. When tempted to take on so many things, stop and unburden. Unburden!

4. Economize – Save on energy, time and material resources. Do with little what others can do with much. Use only essential skills and the proper essential tools to achieve goals.

5. Work smart – Work for God and His glory and you’ll never go wrong. Do what is proper and what brings the best good. Be excellent!

6. Pray hard – Let God do the real work; you only listen and do as told!

7. Do it with God – You have a partnership with God – He shows the way but you have to do the walking. He lights the way; you keep your eyes on the pointing light -- the One that says Follow Me and YOU WILL LIVE.

Do it now! Zooo...2010...oooom ahead!

(Photo above: Guitar strings don't move at all until human hands coordinate in the making of wonderful music. Be the beautiful music that God wants to play. >>>Thanks to Rocky Esperon for the great shot.)

Open Letter to Mr. Conrado de Quiros Re Ladlad Candidate Disqualification: Nuisance or Know-Sans?

2009-12-22T00:06:00.010+08:00

Dear Mr. De Quiros,

Your criticism against the Comelec’s disqualification of Mr. Danton Remoto as a senatorial Candidate (Phil Daily Inquirer, Opinions, 09Dec21) borders upon nuisance as well as know-sans (that is, a lack of appreciation of the fundamental spiritual and moral issues involved). You argue that one’s gender should not be a reason for one’s disqualification – being male or female, that is. But it is not gender that is the issue here but whether being gay is a legal or a moral gender choice or condition at all. Hence, your defense of Remoto’s right applies only in a very narrow way based on your perception of political or legal rights entrenched in our Constitution. I can agree that everyone may have particular rights, such as freedom of suffrage or speech; but anyone may opt not to make full use of them without suffering any serious personal consequences. Hence, a person who does not vote is not like someone who commits a public offense by walking nude in the streets or smoking in a non-smoking area.

It is presumed, under any legal system that rights are granted based on a consensus of the majority of people or by a duly recognized authority, like a king or a dictator, for that matter. But being gay, as far as I know, is not (not yet, anyway) a right specifically granted by our Constitution and our Civil Code. Socially, and loosely at that, it is tolerated and even given protection by virtue of the presence of individuals or groups who lobby for its recognition and even its legal protection. In certain states in the US and in other countries, homosexuality is already afforded legal recognition and protection. Whatever moral compromises, concessions and consequences came or will come with this development, we do not fully comprehend at the moment. And yet, history has shown us that playing around with morals does have dire consequences.

Under the unwritten natural laws recognized and practiced through thousands of years of human history as well as under the written laws of God handed down to the prophet Moses and others, homosexuality (as an act, as a lifestyle and as a practice) is considered unnatural and even abominable. So abominable, in fact, that God, through direct and irrefutable concrete manifestations, would go to the extent of causing calamities to show His wrath against those who practice homosexuality. (Being gay or being effeminate but not practicing homosexuality may not fall within this obviously harsh judgment.)

Of course, for an atheist or a skeptic, such an argument has no weight. That is why it is so hard to make any sensible discussion with those who define matters of great consequence (such are rights -- whether legal, sexual or political) based on invented or alternative but unnatural and illogical philosophies. Unnatural, in the sense that even nature abhors and rejects, as a rule of course, a so-called “third sex”. This is so for several simple reasons. Firstly, a third or middle gender is unnecessary as far as reproduction is concerned. It takes only two basic genders, male and female, to complete the process of human reproduction, so why invent or contemplate one or two more? To be different or stylish? Reproduction is the primary function of sex; but, we have turned marriage into a game where the toys we use may vary. In fact, sex has become the main goal of many people and not the reproduction, development and propagation of the race.

Secondly, homosexuality elevates personal satisfaction or carnal pleasure above everything else and, thereby, leads people to violate social and family norms established and promoted for centuries by successful and progressive nations throughout history. The reason people and nations now succumb under the intense pressure for people to respect and accept homosexuality is because we have allowed our moral values (particularly those which pertain to marriage, public conduct, drug use, etc.) to be gradually diminished to a point where those who have the slightest desire to realign the social and legal boundaries may easily do so.

Loose morality is the order of the day. Being gay is but one glittering product among so many others going on in the process of de-threading the social fabric. Running for a public office to promote a minority lifestyle is obviously Ladlad’s objective. If the members feel that they are indeed a marginalized sector of society that needs protection, it is because they have chosen to be what they should not have been according to the norms of society. What makes them different from armed rebels who seek recognition through violent means? In the eyes of God and of straight people, they rebel against God’s righteous ways and need to be reformed or restored to the right path. To allow them to use our institutions to espouse a clearly unacceptable choice is like inviting the NPA to walk freely in our streets with their firearms.

We have all heard of families which took pains in preventing one or two of their members from becoming gay but ended up accepting them eventually. It is so much like having a pregnant teenager and having no other choice than to accept her and the baby into the family. Marriage is no longer a must but an option and even a past-time for those who jump from one to another.

Finally, homosexuality has no scientific or physiological basis, contrary to so many claims. If it were really true that certain individuals have an imbalance in their sexual glands that makes them tend to be what they are not, then God, both in His wisdom and justice, made a terrible mistake in creating some people and more so in condemning them to hell-fire. Where is the morality in killing a bird because it was born with only one wing? Why then would God destroy gays if He made them so biologically? Are scientists not merely overriding morals by giving a justification for homosexuality? No, God judges because of sin and sin is willful violation of laws or norms a mature and responsible person knows and comprehends fully well. Otherwise, God, more than any biased court of law, is awfully guilty of injustice or unlawful punishment. This is exactly what the apostle was saying: Who are you to question what the potter should do with the pot? Yet, we know that any potter only aims to make the best pot and not just play around with the clay in a senseless way. God’s first pot was a perfect man. The fall was in the man, not in the potter. Perhaps, the pot has now found a way to change its own use and ended up being rejected by the potter. And yet we now have the gumption to say, forget the potter or what he thinks!

Hence, in your defense of Ladlad’s right to field a candidate for a Senate seat, you have failed to consider what homosexuality is really all about and what the ultimate goal is of anyone who seeks legal or political recognition of this unnatural, illogical and unnecessary lifestyle that has caused social ills everywhere it rears its beautiful ugly head. If we want God’s anger and judgment to come upon us, then let us let loose the bounds of unnatural passions within us. Let us make fools of ourselves by not recognizing the divine design in our very beings. Let us deny the sexual organs given us by using them in ways we deem necessary. Let us all surrender our cherished values and start teachings kindergarten kids that we must respect and accept those who do not fall within the God-given, fundamental classification of male and female, father and mother, brother and sister (read some of the gay-oriented children’s books and you’ll be surprised).

It is so easy to change one’s sex or sexuality nowadays. A married artist may easily shift to become a single, gay person and then be considered a woman, not just by name but also by nature and character. That, in their minds, should convince people that they are technically male or female and not of the “third” kind. The self-deception is complete and they want others to play along, like what you are doing.

But in all this, you forget that it is homosexuality that is one of the great nuisances we can think of today. I dread the thought of what calamities and punishments our country will have to go through until we realize what we have done to nature – environmentally and humanly speaking. You think we can appease nature and God when we continually go against His laws?

We have all respect for people who are intelligent and make decent and moral choices. But homosexuality, based on the above discussion, is not just an unnatural, unnecessary and illogical choice but an immoral choice as well. Because of it, Sodom and Gomorrah fell completely and ingloriously. Thanks to people in government who still believe this and practice their belief in God in spite of opposition from those who would reject and deny God’s laws and His very existence. Their decision is not being discriminatory to gay rights, as claimed by human rights activists, but an upholding of divine as well as human laws. The rule is straight; being gay is crooked as the devil’s tail. I would not wish burning rocks upon sinners; but God has shown He can do so. Do not judge then those who believe in the one, true Judge who alone is able to destroy.

But then you accuse “Bible-spouting types” as being “trapped in the Old Testament” in your defense of gay rights. And yet, when you speak or write, you are not even sure if you would believe in God or not. Who gave you the right then to say that what is recorded in the OT is not relevant in our times? When Mt. Pinatubo erupted, was it not God’s desire to end the presence of military bases and their appurtenant brothels in the cities of Angeles and Olongapo-Subic, among other things? Was it merely an incidental inconvenience for us Filipinos to suffer such a calamity without seeing and benefiting from what heaven was doing to our people who look up to Him for salvation? Of course, this notion is as foreign to you as the idea that sexual sins are abominable to God.

Do we Christians fear God’s wrath for nothing at all? Or is it because we respect Him first and His laws and, therefore, recognize our responsibility to save those who do not fear His judgment? And so, if our respect for God then is seen as fear then how do we show compassion for those who ignore His laws? By denying the lessons of history and being blind to our visions of the future and the judgment to come? If we fear, it is because we know how an angry God exacts justice upon those who knowingly reject Him and His ways. We fear because we also sin and yet when we live righteously we achieve incomprehensible peace. But the peace that those who remain in sin seem to experience is an uneasy one. For them, we feel vicarious fear.

When you say, we “fear (our) sexuality”, do you mean to say that we fear our being a male or being a female, which is neither here nor there? Or do you mean we suppress our expression of our sexuality in any and all forms possible (like what voyeurs and permissive gays do) without regard to certain moral obligations? Is this so-called moral or sexual liberation a given evolutionary consequence of natural selection that people fondly give vent to in their “enlightened and sophisticated” circles? Methinks, it is an insult even to Darwin who started all this fall into humanistic delusion.

Being gay and being in the Senate is not something new. Some came upon it by being simple politicians who kept their sexuality and gender-preference hidden and outside of the political umbrage, or so it seemed. If they practiced their lifestyle within or beyond the walls of Senate, it was not of public concern or scrutiny but was definitely under divine supervision. Whatever the consequences of their immoral deeds, we leave for God to decide. For in the darkness, only God can see what humans do. But when a proclaimed gay and gay-rights vanguard pushes his way inside the walls of Senate or wherever, he comes as a marked person who is out to take some amount of control upon the reins of our political and legal systems to espouse his unnatural, unnecessary, illogical and immoral lifestyle. It will throw up into the wind all the fetters we have put against those who would destroy our moral and family values established by God through His teachers and practiced by His followers since the creation of the world.

Ladlad means "to unravel or unmask". If Mr. Danton Remoto is sincere in unraveling his nature before the nation, let him see himself as he really is, as God created him. Let him and every gay see themselves naked before the mirror and ask this question: Was I truly born like this? Was I truly created in this manner? Is what I feel right? Do I have the right to feel what I should not? Was I given this body and this life to be what I wish to be or what God wants me to be? Is there more to me than what I see in the mirror? Is there a spirit in this body formed in the image of the divine? If so, who needs the Old Testament, for even Buddhists and Confucianists believe likewise? If one cannot find the answers, then it time to ask for help from one’s Creator.

If Mr. Remoto wishes to run for office, let him run as a politician and not a gay-moralist who is out to change or diffuse the morals and beliefs of people. Does he have to become a Senator to live the way he wants? Does he believe he can rally all gays to his side in an effort to protect their rights without causing more division and strife in our society than there is? And if you wish to defend his so-called gay rights, please limit your arguments on fundamental electoral issues and avoid putting down those who believe in God. Faith in God is a guaranteed right under our Constitution which a person cannot renounce without suffering grave consequences. Defend someone else’s rights if you want for what it is worth; but do not put down others’ spiritual preferences and beliefs and thereby mock their own Constitutional rights. Straight people, and I dare say God-believing people, comprise the majority of our population while gays make up a small minority. Why insult the many to defend the few?

On the other hand, homosexuality is not a guaranteed right under our Constitution. In fact, it is something a person can and must give up in order to avoid grave eternal consequences. But, of course, you do not know that; nor do you believe it. Who then is the nuisance: the one who knows or the one who does not? The one who recognizes God and follows His laws or the one who does not? Perhaps, it is time to look into the mirror and get to know yourself more.

Yours truly,

Vincent Ragay

A Tribute to Pearl and a Love Theme for Daniel and Pearl ("Feed My Love") on their Wedding

2009-12-21T15:23:00.002+08:00

The Premeditation of Murder

2009-11-30T15:41:00.015+08:00

When Cain killed Abel, what was he thinking? That God was unjust not to accept his sacrifice while He accepted Abel’s? That he (a planter) did his best to please God while Abel (an animal-er) was just as good as him? That his values were not confused and that his unresolved frustrations needed to be resolved? That to kill Abel was the right solution to whatever personal crisis he went through?

Cain knew from Father Adam and Mother Eve that God was real – his parents talked to God in the Garden – but He was nowhere to be seen East of Eden. Cain, then (it seems), only had second-hand evidence of God’s existence. The third human being was the first to be born and to live in the new and fallen world, a bird’s flight away from Paradise and from immortality.

Raising Cain was literally a new paradigm for the forlorn former-dwellers and freshly-ordained parents of Eden. Barely had they overcome the trauma of encountering guilt and the prospect of inevitable death when they – driven from Paradise with fig leaves as their only worldly possessions – now faced the reality of the gruesomeness of death and what it was really all about. Their other son, Abel, whom God favored for His righteous behavior, became himself the very first human offering in what will turn out to be a long, senseless string of murders of innocents that humanity will inflict upon a dying Earth itself till the arrival of the Lord of Life.

Abel, the pure sacrifice who prefigured Christ, offered a pure sacrifice. For God looks at the heart of the worshiper. He saw, even before Cain offered his own sacrifice, that he was merely following rules and not loving God (or others) with his whole being – heart, soul and mind -- as Abel did. That the first death should be tied historically and morally to the supreme sacrifice of God’s own Son Jesus, gives us a preview of the righteousness of God’s final judgment upon those who fail to obey His commands, one of which is not to kill. Or, put it positively in its general perspective, to love others including one’s enemies.

Death is morally tied up to worship or any spiritual act involving one’s life, talents and ambitions. Ancient people saw the necessity of blood as the ultimate symbol as well as the very reality of life as the highest God-given gift which humans were expected to value and respect with their very life in return. Hence, Cain’s and Abel’s works allowed them to express their tribute to a righteous God through a symbolic representation of their “best-effort” produce. For Christians, Christ's perfect sacrifice models a living sacrifice they now must struggle to exhibit daily. Again, God looks at the heart first before the offering.

Cain failed the test. His may have been externally his best offering but his heart was not. His offering was tainted by his inner unrighteousness – his hatred for his brother. He may have offered a good thing; but he felt bad within him and worse for Abel and, so, did his worst. Cain spent days and, perhaps, even weeks and months dealing with the hatred in his heart. With every rejection he felt for his failed worship (he could not seem to accept that what he did reflected his heart and his whole life and, therefore, his relationship with God), he became envious of his brother’s material and spiritual prosperity.

This dilemma Cain faced was merely a continuation of the battle between good and evil which began in the Garden. Being the first child of the womb ever and the first inheritor of Adam and Eve’s fallen nature, Cain, unfortunately, grew to become a maladjusted person. He, it seems, harbored hatred not just for Abel but also for his parents and, it follows, for God Who had brought such a disastrous thing to occur to him, his family and to the world-at-large. Abel was merely a, well, convenient and appropriate scapegoat at that, upon which he vented his unhappiness or displeasure in life. Apparently, there are no genuinely happy murderers.

Death then first came to this world through Cain’s murderous act and through Abel’s sacrifice. Since then, murder has stained this world a million-fold or more. Since then, countless martyrs and innocents have given up their lives for God.

In essence, every murder is premeditated or planned by its perpetrator. Whether one takes a day or a year to plan the act or does so in a moment’s anger, it all comes from a heart which has been brought up in a culture of hatred, vengeance, selfish pride and unrighteousness. A road-rager kills not because he has a gun in his car but because his heart speaks hatred and murder every minute. Hence, like genuine worship, which is nothing but an expression of constant love, the antithesis of hatred, it all starts in the heart. And it was conceived in the Garden. By whom?

Satan. His great plan was to murder pure and innocent beings. Such were Adam and Eve. Such is every one born into this world. But to effect his plan – the premeditation of murder all began in Eden – he had to cause the most devious deed ever thought of in the history of the Universe and even of pre-Creation: the invention of death. Not that Satan had the power to author death but that God merely authorized Satan to be the bringer of death which was his lot after he, as Lucifer, rebelled against God with his angels. Imprisoned, it seems, in the underworld and within reach of humans, Satan sought to interfere with Creation and take vengeance upon God through humans. And here is the big catch, literally: Satan would put the blame in the hands of God by causing Him to pronounce death upon humans and, thereby, implicate God in the eyes of humans and lead many to doubt God’s goodness and even His very existence. Great plan, for it works so well that so many even deny Satan’s or Hell’s existence.

Eden was God’s replication of Heaven in material form. What was up there, He put in the Garden. Life, Beauty, Bliss and Immortality. Satan, who was driven from God’s presence for his rebellion, planned the overthrow of this new realm. He, like every other murderer, hopes to destroy whatever goodness there is that exists. Hatred, in essence, is a person’s inability to see or acknowledge that God is good and that to acknowledge that truth (that is, to worship Him) one needs only to thank Him and do as He bids. How hard is it to live and let live in this world? Not for Satan and murderers; death is their aim and also their lot. Divine Justice requires the latter.

Why then did God put the Forbidden Fruit in the Garden? To give way for Satan and his evil scheme? No, it was put there for humans to appreciate God’s goodness – and His power. With a million and one good things in Eden and one nice-looking bad thing to choose from, how could we choose the latter? Unless one is so naïve and so lacking in self-control, the choice was so easy. Such was Adam; he kept away from the Fruit and from Satan. Not so Eve. It was not that Eve was weaker. Both she and Adam were weak when separated as individuals. If Adam had been there, they would not have eaten it. And so, when Eve had eaten and tempted Adam, he could not resist for he was all alone against Eve and Satan.

And so, Satan, it seems, succeeded in forcing God to destroy His own creation. Furthermore, it seems that he succeeded in putting the blame upon humans for violating God. They were not pure and innocent after they had committed sin against God. And with God, the Just One, punishing them for their disobedience, Satan triumphed over God and His Creation. Since then, the whole Universe has followed the whims of God’s archenemy. Murder is but one of many past-times the Devil delights in for breakfast, lunch, supper and snack-time. His followers are legions and their ways versatile and atrocious.

When we see massacres, bombings and wars, we see Satan smacking his lusty lips, savoring the flow of blood into his deathly coffers of souls he hopes to keep eternally in Hades. His gruesome collection awaits judgment just as he does. Knowing he has little time left and no hope whatsoever of victory, he aims, at least, to maximize his hold over those who will join him in Hell. He suffers punishment as of now and seeks only to do as much damage as he can to a wasting Universe. He has brought about so much confusion, delusion and destruction upon humanity that to stop at any time would only give a chance for more people to escape his clutches.

Satan, as is often said, is the busiest person there is -- more workaholic than a bee or any banker, media person, politician, business-person or showbiz celebrity. When we see how many of these people seem to be in the Devil’s sway (if not drugged for primetime, drunk with money, prestige, lust and power), we do not wonder at all. The spate of murders and unnecessary deaths around us all come from the Great Death Orchestrator whose curtain is about to fall.

His final and supreme act is nothing short of spectacular for apart from death he also has tentacles into the very realm of God. Whereas He has caused God to pronounce death upon humans, he has proudly pronounced life upon those he has deceived. Satan has proclaimed himself as the sole god of this world and promises salvation through deception via the many false teachings, fake sciences and pseudo-religions he has established. This is, in fact, his great soul-harvester: Promising life eternal without or apart from God. In the end, however, what it leads to is – Death. Bloody murder of souls! The Great Deceiver continues to plan and to deceive. Satan continues to murder.

In all this, God has already given the antidote. Beauty for ashes. Life and Resurrection in Christ. The war has already been decided except for the body count. When God finally visits the scene of the crime and looks at the strewn bodies of Satan’s victims, He will not simply carry a clipboard and list the names of those who had died and how they looked when they died. He will bring His Book of Life and call out those whose names are written there. And those who hear His voice will rise up and join Him to Eternal Life. God will un-murder those whom Satan murdered. Victory!

Myth or Fancy? Satan whispers unseen. But the Holy Spirit says openly: Trust God and live. His own Son Jesus was murdered and resurrected. The testimony of Christ speaks out the Truth. Listen, finally, to what He said to the hypocrites:

You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. (John 8:44 NKJV – highlighting provided)

Hand-Made Civilizations: The Story of the World

2009-11-15T19:59:00.010+08:00

Look out the window and what do you see?

If you live in a high-rise condo, you will see tall buildings or low houses. All made by human hands. If you live in a subdivision, you will also see houses, streets and cars -- all formed by human labor. Even in the provinces, you will see old churches, bamboo houses and concrete or asphalt roads built by human hands. Except for the plants, animals, rivers, forests, mountains, planets, the Sun, the stars in the sky and yourself, almost everything else came through the power of human ingenuity.

The chair you sit on may have been once a tree planted by Nature without any human involved; but it took human hands to cut it down, to saw the lumber and to nail the wooden parts to make the chair. In a way, the chair and its wooden parts are still the tree -- transformed into something else -- and is, therefore, not entirely human-made.

But, philosophically speaking, we can also say that the lumber taken from the tree is dead and is, therefore, no longer the original tree. It has taken on a different form and has even acquired value for human use. Even as firewood, it might still have some of the qualities of the former living plant species but it is now a different matter with a different use. Its heap of ashes is the remains of the tree and, well, “was” the tree.

As creative humans then, we see ourselves as agents of change or transformation -- for better or for worse. People have the power to utilize what Nature hands us and to form things -- that is, solid ideas -- that make us multiply the value of un-harnessed things, so we think.

Of course, many today say that tropical forests are better off left alone to preserve the environment and to maintain ecological balance. That allows millions of living things to thrive and reproduce in the perpetual cycle of life. Ideally this is the case, for we know that dwindling resources bring us closer to transforming the globe into something that it was not meant to be before humans began abusing Nature.

Conservation and preservation are, in reality, two somehow overlapping goals of environmental protection which can provide the only practical approach to saving the environment. Conservation aims to “conserve” the use of things such that we allow Nature to recover and to maintain production in a sustainable way. Economic use requires producing value out of things -- tree to lumber to chair involves input of human capital and labor which is why the chair may be many time more expensive than a single tree. When people are led by greed to make more than Nature can produce, we end up with no raw materials and a degraded environment. The resultant floods tell a truly sad story, apart from the expected deaths that they bring. We lose good soil and we lose water. What is life without these?

Preservation, on the other hand, aims to preserve the overall interrelation of each aspect of our environment. This means, leaving enough space for rivers without shanties or buildings constricting its flow to the sea. It also means retaining enough open space for plants to grow, animals to thrive and humans to live in comfortably and provide water to seep into the ground and be retained much longer. This refreshes the land instead of letting the water carry so much soil through uncontrolled erosion. Ultimately, preservation is finding the ideal and overall balance of Nature needed to sustain life in any tiny patch of land and, it must follow, in the whole Globe. When we fail to do this, we not only lose raw materials, we also lose many of our basic needs in life -- enough space for planting and for water to collect in. Yes, we may have houses, condos and malls; but where would we go to catch fish, to wash our clothes and to swim for leisure if the rivers are gone? A long time ago, we used to do all these things in a river.

We may have passed the point-of-no-return in conserving and preserving what we have left in order to sustain a rapidly growing global population. Human hands (and other organs) have worked too fast and too wildly to have caused so much change while failing to give back to Nature. We have changed the entire world just by our unknowing and uncaring ways. Unknowing, because as young ones, we did not know that we live in a world that has limits. Uncaring, because we said often that everything will be fine.

Today, we cannot afford to be unknowing and uncaring.

Take this simple insight into the human cycle of life. Inside the toilet room, we shed off a small part of our physical being -- some falling hair, dead skin cells, liquid and solid excreta and, in an unending process, carbon dioxide and other gases. Yes, in the process, too, we renew or refresh ourselves by inhaling oxygen and when we eat, we rebuild our bodies. With what?

With fish, vegetables and the meat of animals which ingested what we gave out. The water we used to take a bath carry with them some of ourselves and flow into the streams and into the oceans where other creatures feed upon our dead skin and excreta. And so, the food we eat is actually us! The cycle of life seems gross but, quite literally, “we are” what we eat! Well, maybe in another form made more colorful and tastier by someone who studied culinary arts, but, in reality, the foie gras or the dimsum may contain the remains of a whole generation or two of nations from at least two or three continents. For without being facetious at all, the soil that remains to be eroded from the mountains today may well contain the remains of thousands who had died during the Flood of Noah. Forget about the millions who may lie safely in their modern “sanitized” graves. Millions more – whether shipwrecked, killed in battles or fires, or simply lost at sea or in the jungles -- died and gave back to wild Nature what it gave them beforehand.

People and animals die so that others may live. Now we know that this must be also literally true.

Human hands may reform or change the environment but the original design and intent of the Creator will never change. To dust we came from and to dust we will return. From a once-perfect land, humans were formed and given the spark of life. In the Fall that followed, the imperfect land now claims back what it once owned. Four things, Solomon said, are never satisfied: a barren womb, a barren land, fire and the grave.

Humans today remain unsatisfied, insatiable, greedy and subject to death. It is not in our power to completely conserve and preserve this world. It is a passing scene. Like a movie which begins with great youth-filled allure and magical hopes, it winds down to the climax until the story unfolds and brings us home to its resolution. Either the lovers kiss and live happily ever after or the actor dies and leaves us empty or victorious.

The story of the world is the greatest story we can tell our children and one another. Until today, we do not agree as to how it began and how it will end. Some say it will survive forever. Others say it will disappear. No, it was actually God Who said the latter. And if He did say so, we must have reason to listen more intently. Why? Because if this world is not made by human hands -- obviously --then it must be God-made. As it is written, God’s word created everything from nothing. And to nothing it will return. If He said so, it must truly come to an end, like a movie that has an ending. A beginning and an end.

Whether the story of the world will be a happy ending or not is the big question. As it is, it does not show much of a promise. But the weather alone seems to be telling us something. Is it something good or evil? Well, depending on how we treat the world and people today, we can deduce the outcome. The Maker of this world must be saying something through His own handiwork, the way our own hand-made civilizations are telling us that we have failed in so many respects.

Hope or despair. Life or death. Human-made or God-made. We have the power to create; we must surely have the power to decide what we can have out of life.

(Photos above: Thea Jael Tuazon builds castles on the sand not unlike so many people who think their handiwork will last forever.)

Transubstantiation Revisited

2009-11-04T10:02:00.016+08:00

(I am posting a letter I wrote to a member of the Eastern Orthodox Church on the complex issue of Transubstantiation. As the other forum did not allow me to voice out my personal opinion, I have opened this space for that very purpose without being bound by rules that seem necessary for order but not really conducive to free exchange of ideas and, the opportunity to learn from one another.)

Dear ____,

Thank you very much for your comments.

I never said my book or my discoveries matter to anyone. In fact, my views don’t matter, to so many -- Orthodox, RCC, Protestant or Evangelical. But it is my own and I live my life and faith by that revelation. Besides, a wrong concept repeated a billion times will still be wrong. But when one discovers the Truth, it can erase a thousand years or more of error, as in the case of Christ bringing the Gospel to the Jews. My statement served only to introduce who I am (a writer) and what I know (from studies) in relation to the topic.

The verses you quoted (John 6:48-66) only prove my point that Jesus was not talking about literal flesh and body. He still had to finish His ministry and He was merely testing the faith of the disciples if they were indeed willing to see His mission through the end -- that is, to eventually “eat” His flesh and “drink” His blood. But we have to understand what He meant based on what He really said as a whole.

All He was saying at that moment was that He indeed was able to give them life through real food (spiritual food, not physical substance). He defined His words as “spirit”, hence, to be construed figuratively or spiritually. Not literally as many do. (John 6:63) “The flesh profits nothing!” (Was He not also referring to His own flesh when He said this? Obviously, for He was talking about His own flesh and not anyone else’s.) Why then should He leave us with His flesh if He lives and reigns as spirit? The bread and wine are enough concrete reality that connects us to His bountiful blessings here and now.

Remember what He said after feeding the throng? (John 4:32-34) He was telling them that “to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work”-- that was His food! Christ was as consistent on the figurative meaning as He could; but, today, we act like Jews still taking the literal, albeit, mystical meaning (a very convenient mental route). Those who deserted Jesus, as with so many today, think of food and of flesh every time they see or read the “bread” or “body” but fail to see the real significance in “spirit”. The veil of Moses still hangs!

Those who worship today must do so in truth and spirit. Transubstantiation fails under this primary test.

It is so easy to say, as you claim, that what Jesus said (“This is My body”) means what it says. But He was also referring to His own real body when He spoke those words. He was, in effect, saying, “In a few hours, I will be giving up this body and my blood for you all. (The kingdom is not about eating and drinking -- Rom. 14:17) Meanwhile, I have this food that will remind you of Me and what I am about to do for you.” In the minds of the disciples, Jesus was saying meaningless words, until the Spirit explained everything afterward on Pentecost Day.

The Greek word used for “reminder” is anamnesis which derives from a root word which means “to think of” or "to put into mind" and not “to remember His death”, as we do today. Thus, when Jesus said, “Do this to think of Me”, He was not referring directly to His death or His body but to Himself as Lord and Savior. He was still alive and He wanted them to think of Who He was, what He had done and What He would do. The bread and the wine (ordinary food, like burger and juice) merely point us to the real nourishment we have from Him through His completed saving work. Hence, today, we think of Him alive and reigning in Heaven. (II Tim. 2:8) That is all that He requires from each believer. So, what’s all this talk about flesh and blood? I do not see it from all the verses cited and from the essence of His teachings.

I don’t know which is more obvious: what He explains or what He speaks without explaining? It is like a father telling his son one day that he will strangle and kill their bad neighbor, which really scared the son. When the dad said, “I won’t really kill him, I will sue him in court,” the boy understood what he meant. If the son had left without hearing the explanation, he would have been uneasy all day long. The same confusion remains among us today.

Therefore, when we say that “This is My body” should be taken literally, materially or substantially, we miss the easy and liberating feeling of being filled with plain food and yet being full of the spiritual grace knowing that Christ sits on His throne in Heaven, no longer to be sacrificed over and over again on the altar of ritualism but proclaimed as Living Savior once and for all in the hearts of simple believers.

Can we not see how simple and elegant the Gospel message really is?

In short, therefore, what I believe and practice is much older than what churches today practice for that is what the early disciples did. Acts 2:42, 46 pictures the culmination of Christ’s work, the spontaneity and innocence of which is sorely missing in our world until now. They were communing (eating full and satisfying meals, just like the Passover was, and not a mere bite and a sip) and celebrating daily the reign of Christ in their homes as one community. Do we now see why churches today are so divided? It is because we cannot agree upon what Christ taught about the Meal of Love and Unity.

Finally, I respect what the Orthodox fathers have taught and done for their followers but I honor the Lord Jesus Christ above all. It is His word and His alone, as revealed by the Holy Spirit, our Sole Teacher, that guides me. (I John 2:20-22, 27)

In Christian love,

Vincent

(Photo above: Someone said that the Bible is shallow enough for a child to swim in but deep enough for theologians to drown in. Often, God talks as if He were a child talking to a child, rather than an adult talking to an adult. Thus, "out of the mouths of babes" God speaks. >>Tyra Jamile Tuazon plays with the sea and sand of Subic Bay.)

We, Pinoys, Have a Choice!

2009-10-28T11:14:00.014+08:00

I have always thought of the name “Philippines” as a memorial to our painful colonial past and a demeaning vestige of our being diminutive copies of a vile Spanish monarch. To call ourselves “Pinoys” further emphasizes our not-so-amusing self-wounding tendency. My use then of the above title is more poetic than honorific. (The title actually came to me in a dream; so, what writer can resist an inspiration?) Besides, it adds a slight sarcasm that might help awaken us to finally claim a better nation with bigger dreams and, preferably, a better name (read: reputation, also). Not a bad choice at all.

After Ondoy, Pepeng and a taste of Ramil’s Lupit, we squat on the muddy ground like hungry flood-victims shivering in wet clothes, waiting for some help from generous souls. Dazed and cold, we seem not to know where to go. We eventually stand up and tell people that we must do this and that to rebuild our towns and our homes and to prepare for more disasters.

We go through a disaster and get ready for more! This is how we forget how to live a full life. We have not done what we should have done a long time ago and so we pick ourselves up every time calamity comes around. And yet we do not really improve our lot. We simply live and survive. The cycle is too obvious to miss.

The 1972 flood in Central Luzon brought us down. We built dams afterward -- great! But we failed to provide wider channels or protect our forests to prevent future floodwaters. 2009 brings us Ondoy and Pepeng and we blame the dams for the flooding! Then, the July 1990 earthquake struck Luzon and we shuddered with the Earth. The ill-prepared government did its best and the people simply suffered through it all. Laws were passed to limit heights of buildings in Baguio; but, soon, high-rise buildings mushroomed. They might be strong; but they still pose real dangers and deduct from the city’s quaint resort-image as well as its dwindling resources. And gauging from our response to Pepeng, we still are not prepared to face the coming Big One. Landslides and road cuts isolated Baguio as they did in 1990. Earthquakes or rains deliver the same disastrous effects; but we fail again to deliver deliverance from them. We must not be learning at all for us to fall into the same rut every time.

Then, Mt. Pinatubo dealt us its near-apocalyptic wrath in 1991. Central Luzon became a wilderness and continues to suffer from lahar flows, if not, faces the danger of the volcano’s crater collapsing. God forbid! In spite of assurance from Phivolcs, we must do what is necessary to prevent a big catastrophe. Who would have thought before 1991 that Mt. Pinatubo would erupt? Who are we to say that its crater lake is as safe as a water tank atop a tall building? Water pressure is not the only natural force that will cause its crater walls to give way. Another strong tremor can bring all that water down. How do we prepare for that eventuality? Who was it who said that anything that can go wrong will go wrong? We can’t go wrong if we do what is right as early as we can.

We need not talk about the many shipping disasters, mudflows and fires that come our way often. Natural or man-made, we have them all. It seems we do not really have a choice but to hunker down and face the howling winds and the rampaging waters.

But we do have a choice! We, Pinoys, definitely have a choice. In spite of the dark picture we paint here (something that TV, radio newscasters and even movies cater ad infinitum), we remain masters of our destiny.

But how do you prevent a typhoon or an earthquake or a volcanic eruption from occurring? We cannot. But we can prepare our lives and our cities to mitigate effects of disasters. Now, we know how to prevent flooding in Metro Manila; but can we do it without so much corruption slowing down the process? We found ways to diminish the danger of lahar flows; but it too became a source of corruption, a disaster of sorts equally draining on our souls. We found ways to allay fears of structural failures during earthquakes, but people readily violated laws -- another disaster waiting to happen?

The point then is not merely to say we know what we must choose to do. It is not even a question of actually doing what needs to be done. The issue requires assuring the next generation that they will receive a priceless heritage from us by our making a disciplined and moral choice now. Without that hope burning in the hearts of the youth, I fear that this country will have lost its chance for greatness.

Discipline covers all aspects that its meaning implies, from military to academic to spiritual. The discipline of soldiers, artists and scientists is the lower limit, while the discipline of saints is the higher limit. Average that and we have a citizenry that is not only trained, creative and aware but also inspired, compassionate and sacrificing. A disciplined choice is one then that tries to encompass the wealth of intellectual, scientific, social, economic, cultural and spiritual wisdom -- quite attainable now through our integrative management systems. Our colleges, universities and public and private corporations have some of the smartest people capable of synergistic thinking. What they may lack as a whole is the capacity to incorporate higher moral values without which plans and decisions turn into nothing but inane or inanimate, lifeless, if not, immoral ventures.

Can we, at least, make these criteria (trained, creative, aware, inspired, compassionate and sacrificing) as among the basic requirements for our elective officials? Never mind if they are college undergrads as long as they have heart and soul to start with. As long as they qualify the next requirement, they should be given a chance to prove their worth as public servants.

Moral choice, of course, refers to right behavior based on certain ethical standards. As a predominantly Christian nation, it would not be presumptuous to make the essential principle of Christianity as our guidepost: Love for God and for others. That should include all faith-systems without causing ill-will or prejudice among any of them. The important thing is that we make the choice to agree that THAT is the only way we can live with one another, nothing else. For if one says he loves God but harms his neighbors then that choice violates the communal peace and stability.

LOVE. As simple as that.

Religious differences have no place in this effort to make disciplined and moral choices in rebuilding our nation. In whatever way an individual or group worships God or practices his or her religion, it should not detract from our common goal of achieving a disciplined and moral society. A biologist goes about his work of studying animals and plants while a geologist, that of understanding the Earth. So why cannot a Christian live her life as one, the same way a Muslim can? In any island, province, city or town, this must be possible as long as we keep in mind the common good.

Withholding our tendency to highlight the minor issues that cause divisions among us (whether religious, cultural or political) and nurturing the desire to fulfill the “weightier matters of the law” will go a long way toward patching up the wounds and aches that separate us as a people. Indeed, we can converse and contend to our hearts’ delight, but must end our dialogues with a group-hug or a high-five. Absurd? No, quarreling and fighting are absurd and stupid. As Jim Wallis stated in his book God’s Politics, “Ideologies have failed us; values can unite us, especially around our most common democratic visions.”

Even as early as now, we already feel the heat of the election fever rising. AH1N1 has nothing compared to the boiling partisan passions that can cause more deaths than any virus can inflict, as seen in our long list of political assassinations and violent conflicts. “All You Need is Love” and “Give Peace a Chance” may be corny themes for this Beatle-fan to bring up; but they simply echo the need of the hour. Under such dire and tragic circumstances as we have, flared up political sentiments are the last things we want our people to hear and see in the news. No matter how sincere one’s thoughts or motives are, no matter how diplomatically phrased our words are, if it involves partisan politics, expect divisiveness to thrust its morbid head.

But in our country, an election seems like a disaster we cannot prevent and find hard to avoid. Hence, we push for a disciplined and moral way of going about choosing our leaders as well. How? Choose those people who truly lead disciplined and moral lives (remember our definitions) and campaign for them (you must) in a disciplined and moral manner. Use your phone, the Internet and your conversations as calm venues to highlight your candidates’ qualities, not the failures of others. This is the least we can do to attain our bigger dreams. Avoid rallies for they are subject to inordinate passions and to mob rule. (To candidates: Use YouTube to campaign or, if you feel the need, to sing or dance.) Watch them on TV if you must, but only as if you were watching a movie, a concert, a documentary or a reality-show and not as a way to glorify anyone. Be a fan but do not be a fanatic. Be a believer but do not be a blind follower or voter. Idolatry is both a political and spiritual mistake. Why adore would-be public servants? The last time people cheered servants was when they fed them to lions. Ironically, it’s you they are feeding to lions. For more often than not, they are the lions!

We can have disciplined and moral elections if we choose to, not the noisy, dirty, violent and shameful ones we have had for so long. If we can hack it this time by electing disciplined and moral leaders, we could have fewer disasters (or, at least, one disaster less). God is not asleep and knows how to care for obedient followers. Ultimately, God’s way is our choice.

Passions, then, must give way to disciplined thinking and living. Know what is true and right and work toward perfecting the craft of living a righteous life. The Japanese Samurais attained perfection in their way of life, albeit violent for common taste; but if we acquired the same discipline in our moral lives, imagine what we can do as a nation. Let other people herald their deeds and their promises. Our common duty is to show everyone that we want a better deal in the way we build our cities and towns and that means a better deal in governance. Let us choose to lead as individuals by having disciplined and moral lives and even our leaders will follow us.

Pinoys – as one -- have a choice. Unless and until we make this idealistic and uncomfortable choice, we will end up where we find ourselves today: in a looping, disaster reality-movie. Seeing our country-folk on CNN or National Geographic as real-life actors in tragic events is not only embarrassing and humbling; it is mentally, emotionally and spiritually torturous. For such gentle, God-fearing and self-effacing people to suffer so, there must be something wrong with how we behave and that God does have something to tell us that we fail to heed. For if we did what was right, sin, terror and death would not be right behind our doors knocking every night.

Ours may not be the only country going through the same fate but we have no time to understand others’ lot. Let us make our own choices and chart our own course first before we deal with helping others. We have so much to correct in our own backyard that once we accomplish what needs to be done here, we can have the desire and capacity to extend whatever good influence we may have. For now, we need to look inward and begin a real revolution within us.

We, Pinoys, have a choice! A disciplined and moral choice. This could be our last chance.

(Above photo: Engr. Cesar Yniquez, left, of UP ACES (Assoc. of Civil Engineering Students, Alumni Chapter), assisted by Mang Nonoy of UP Admin. Division, joins the group's tree-planting project at the University Avenue grounds last Saturday, October 24, in anticipation of the UP College of Engineering Centennial in 2010.)

A Damming Evidence

2009-10-21T18:07:00.015+08:00

In response to Mrs. Monsod’s "Analysis" on GMANews.tv, I have these to say:

1. Timing of the release was dependent upon attaining the end-objective of dam operators which is to fill up the dam. You do not release until you have enough water in the dam. The five days or more of waiting was exactly the time the dam needed to do that.

2. When she said NPC “panicked” and released so much water which caused the flooding, she did not take into consideration that Pepeng came back twice and wreaked havoc upon Northern Luzon three times and, hence, poured an inordinate amount of water than anyone can handle. Common sense will tell us that if you have a full dam, you have no other choice but to “release” as much water as you can to prevent causing damage to your structure. The “panic” came because there was no other move but to “let pass” (not anymore “release”) the surplus water Pepeng delivered.

3. The rate of “release” was not dictated by dam operators but by the amount of water falling into and passing through the dam. It was reported that at first the rate was 500 cu m per second and progressively increased to 600 cms, to 2,500 cms and then to more than 5,000 cms. That, in simple terms, is the better and only logical option than all the water of the dam bursting through a broken dam.

4. Finally, considering that Pangasinan has a total land area of 5,368.8 sq km or 5,368.8 million sq m and San Roque Dam’s watershed area is 9,500 hectares or 95 million sq m, we have a ratio of about 56.5:1. Using official estimates of 80% of Pangasinan as having been underwater, we derive a flooded area of 4,295 million sq m. Using this conservative figure against the watershed area of San Roque, we still have a ratio of 45:1. Meaning, more than 40 times the amount of rain that fell and collected into San Roque Dam eventually and actually fell upon the entire province of Pangasinan and coursed through the waterways, part of it joining the comparatively smaller volume coming from the dam’s spillway and the bigger part going directly into the towns that got submerged. You might feel the sting of a cup of water spurting from a water pistol; but it will not fill up a basin the way 45 cups poured slowly into it will. To put the blame of the flooding on the dam alone is to say that the last straw broke the camel’s back.

Generally, rains fall evenly upon the land, whether up on the mountains or over the plains. That is why meteorologists measure the amount of rainfall by inches or millimeters per day. Area, then, determines volume. This whole issue has not highlighted this fact, but rather focused on a part which is much smaller than what reality presents.

Again, I say that with or without the dam, there would have been flooding because for so many centuries we failed to work within the signs or warnings given to us by Nature that the land can only absorb so much water and that we must allow the rest to flow over wide channels and direct them to the sea without causing damage to lives, lands, farms and properties. A dam mitigates flooding by storing some of the rainfall. It is not a miracle-solution to eradicate our neglect in preparing the land so that it will be spared from disastrous floods.

(Photo above: Calm Subic Bay -- while Typhoon Ramil (a.k.a. Lupit) threatens Northern Luzon, beach lovers were treated to this vista of friendly water, mountain and sky, so far away from the tortured memories of another time, place and story.)

Dam if You Do, Dam if You Don’t

2009-10-19T22:03:00.008+08:00

Even in the aftermath of Ondoy and Pepeng, our country continues to reel and roll like an empty steel barrel careening on a rampaging river fed by a monstrous tropical typhoon. Also, it seems those two killer visitors brought out the many hidden cracks in our already weakened foundations of our society.

In an effort to find out what happened, many voices – official and unofficial, wise and otherwise – have expressed exasperation, anger and hopelessness over the government’s neglect, mismanagement and unpreparedness in the face of disasters. One major target of public indignation was the NAPOCOR engineers’ supposedly untimely release of waters from San Roque Dam. That is, the flooding in Central Luzon was caused by delayed release of water. Lawmakers and critics were quick to release their own putrid floodwaters upon those beleaguered engineers during a Senate hearing.

Flood us and we will flood you!

But the engineers did exactly what they were supposed to do, for several simple reasons:

1. A dam’s purpose is to, well, dam water in order to store as much water as possible for future use. As the rains fall, dams are filled up to their optimum carrying capacity.
2. When there is more rainfall than needed to fill up the reservoir, water is allowed to spill over to protect the structural integrity of dams.
3. The timing (when) and the rate of release (how much per minute) of water from a dam is left for engineers to determine. Obviously, on the side of certainty, engineers would have to assume that a typhoon’s rainfall is the last chance it has to impound enough water to capacity level. Hence, the time of release would be that moment just before or, possibly, when capacity has been reached. Again, that would be a decision based on the rate the dam is filling up. So, whether we have a fast-filling or a slow-filling rainfall, the amount of water to be released will be computed based on when the rains (assuming it does not cease) will fill up the dam.

To make it simpler, when taking a bath using a pail and a tub, you take out as much water from the pail at about the same rate the pail is filling up. This is to prevent the pail from overflowing. One may get water as fast as possible to keep the water low. But in the dam’s case, the rain may not stop and the release of more water becomes inevitable. It fills up and water has to be released. Hence, the rate is both determined by the rate of the rainfall and how much water has been stored.

4. Furthermore, the rate of rainfall – hence, the corresponding rate of release -- is complicated by the added effect of water runoff within a dam’s watershed (the enclosed area that captures the rain and collects all that water behind the dam). The less forest cover there is, the greater the rate a dam fills up.

In brief, we see that dam operators base their decisions on their objectives of storing water, of releasing water to feed irrigation canals as needed, of generating power and of alleviating (not preventing) flooding during the rainy season. The tricky nature of the fourth role puts the operators between nature’s unpredictable ways and people’s unsavory opinions.

Flooding, when there is more rain than the land can absorb or handle, is inevitable and is further aggravated by the denudation of forest covers in the dam’s surrounding watershed and the failure of waterways to drain waters readily to the sea. To blame dam engineers for flooding is too much to ask from these people who must work only within the reasonable parameters that nature will allow. If they must be blamed, blame also the other engineers who fail to dredge creeks and rivers, the politicians who allow people to build houses along water channels and the illegal loggers who destroy forests.

Maybe we can blame nature for its unpredictable ways. But why blame anyone or anything at all? Are engineers such clueless and heartless creatures that they should take all the blame?

There is a simpler way to look at this issue graphically and more clearly. Look at it this way: If there was no dam, would there have been flooding? Of course! In 1972 when Central Luzon was flooded, there were still no San Roque or Pantabangan Dams. Who did we blame way back then in the absence of dam engineers? They built the dams, precisely, to alleviate flooding. The fact that the dams are there should be reason for us to be thankful that the flooding did not reach Noahic magnitudes!

There is a corollary illustration which will finally bring home the point and help ordinary readers to put the blame where it should put or, if not, thrown where it should be discarded entirely. This was brought to my mind while I traversed the Candaba Viaduct along NLEX. Cruising in a bus above the glistening floodwaters that covered the Candaba Swamp, one can appreciate the unchallenged prominence of Mt. Arayat over the Pampanga rice fields. I almost felt like Noah seeing Mt. Ararat itself rising above the receding Great Flood. What is this anomalous mount doing in the vast expanse of Central Plains of Luzon? It looks out of place. It should not be there at all!

During Ondoy’s visit, Arayat town in Pampanga was flooded and remains so at the present. But what if Mt. Arayat had not been there at all? Would there have been a flood? Of course! The mountain – like a dam – absorbs or stores as much rainfall as it can through its soil, its underground aquifers, its trees, its animals and its vegetation. Beyond that, the rivers carry the excess water to the lowlands. Anything not stored on the mountain or underground and carried away by the river to the sea, will remain as floodwaters. If Mt. Arayat had not been there, imagine how much worse the flooding would have been in Arayat and its neighboring towns?

A dam then is a veritable mountain that stores water. It holds visible water while a mountain hides it. Humans built the first; God provided the second. Let us be thankful we have dams and we have forested mountains like Mt. Arayat that can still absorb enough water. Maybe, just maybe, we could blame sin for the flooding that occurred. It has happened once or twice before. But that might not be something an engineer should say. Yet, as one, I would gladly take the blame for I, too, am a sinner.

We have some of the most diligent and intelligent engineers in the world. Many of them work in the best companies in Asia, in the Middle East and in the major industrial countries. To make them culpable for a disaster that they did not cause is an injustice. To accuse them of wrongdoing in spite of their having done their work well is pitifully foolish.

If there were no politicians or journalists who spoke as if they already knew the conclusions before the technical people were able to explain fully and clearly how civil works functioned, or, who listened and failed to understand as they should have, we would still have a society that would operate. Perhaps, it will function even much better.

(Photo above: Floodwaters in Candaba Swamp.)

What Images of Ondoy’s Damage Teach Us

2009-10-03T18:19:00.020+08:00

View this Music Video Tribute to Ondoy-Ketsana Flood Victims

The images made the heart succumb with unbelief and horror: cars floating in the flood current or piled on top of one another after the flood; people huddled on rooftops, unable to reach safe ground or unreachable by rescue teams; and, the most terrifying of all, people standing on what seems like floating debris on a rampaging river rushing at such speed that all one can do is weep and wave goodbye.

The final scene reminded me of that time when I lived in Marikina (yes, the same town in the news today) in a subdivision which turned into a lake after an hour or two of continues rain. After one particularly heavy downpour which submerged all the streets and left our driveway and the rest of the house dry, I stood behind the post of the gate surveying the Venice-in-Marikina panorama.

As the water flowed past our house, I saw this fiery-red clump of trash floating lazily by. When it became clear that it was a colony of giant red ants, I suddenly had this childish urge to drown them. This was long before I became an environmentalist (read: before I had gained enough common sense in dealing with nature and life). So, I threw a stone at the ants hoping to displace them from whatever they were floating on. Only to find out that there was nothing between them and the water! The ants had floated by sheer self and common buoyancy. Or for some other reason. The colony had formed a pyramid to float to safety. (Whoever taught them to do that, I raise my admiring hands and fold my humble knees to.) Scattered on the water, the ants scampered to find a foothold on solid ground. They swam (walked on water actually!) toward the nearest object they knew would give them refuge – the post I was leaning upon. An army of vicious ants was now attacking me!

Well, I was bigger and smarter, I thought, and got some matches and old newspaper. If water spared them, fire will not! Many ants died that day, fried and frittered on the floodwaters. War brings out the worst in humans oftentimes, even against the most innocent and helpless creatures of God. In my viciousness, I felt triumphant.

Several days later, I came home and noticed a trail of red ants crawling up from the garden where I had my previous battle, upon the house façade and all the way beneath the roof. The ants had survived water and fire, not to mention my mean ways! How did I react? I gained so much respect for the ants and their Creator, I let them live with me and my family for as long as they wanted to.

I don’t know what happened to those people who rode the river on nothing but flotsam and a flickering hope that someone would come to their aid. God, Who gave ants such instincts and survival skills must have a reason why He would allow humans – gifted with greater wisdom and abilities than ants, supposedly – to perish in no less cruel a manner, so it seems.

Almost 300 people died from the devastation that Typhoon Ondoy caused in September 2009, a month to be remembered for its many dire stories and its heroic scenes. As a nation tries to recover from the grief and damage, one can only stop to think what precious and practical lessons that can be learned.

First and foremost, of course, is culled from this nursery song: All things bright and beautiful, creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all. Like the ants and the cockroaches which we as children (and even as adults) somehow learn to despise, everything has a purpose in the circle of Life. That includes the trees, the rivers and the mountains. Kill or destroy any one of these and we also kill and destroy ourselves and our homes.

Floods, like taxes and cancer, have been with humans for as long as we can remember. Perhaps, we cannot give humans all the honor of causing floods. The dishonor belongs to those, among others, who continue to court disaster by building structures and living beside rivers and thereby eventually constricting the flow of water. The shame goes to those planners or officials who have not given enough space for water to flow down from the hills and mountains and let it reach the ocean with as much volume and violence as it wants. We can certainly control its flow with modern technology but only if we first learn and respect its ways. In the meantime, is it at all possible to enforce the law (I know there is one) or enact one that provides a 50-meter (make it 100 meters) open zone along beaches and the banks of rivers and lakes? No houses or buildings, only parks, bike-lanes or promenades. No malls or factories, only trees, flowers and grasses. No human structures expect, perhaps, dikes or walls to keep away the flood.

Yes, we have flood control systems properly designed and constructed within the limits provided by existing urban realities. Mangahan Floodway is located near one of the most populated areas in Metro Manila – Pasig City, near Marikina and Cainta (another town badly hit by Ondoy). It was designed to allow some water from Marikina River to be diverted to Laguna Lake and thereby alleviating flooding in Metro Manila. But what happens when Laguna de Bay, which finally drains into Manila Bay via Pasig River, overflows? The catastrophic answer was provided by Ondoy: Water from the mountains and from a large lake beside the Metro flooded the towns located right beside the rivers and the lake, such as the towns of Tanay, Pateros and Taguig City. Perhaps, the better plan was to build another outlet for Laguna de Bay that is deeper and wider than the constricted Pasig River.

We “destroyed” the rivers and lakes by building around them such structures that prevent them from breathing and moving with freedom and clarity: subdivisions (Provident Village in Marikina was one of those worst hit), malls (whoever thought of building a shopping mall beside a river?), hotels and amusements parks (Riverbanks in Marikina was submerged), factories (again, those along Marikina and Pasig Rivers) and commercial buildings along the bodies of water.

The amount of rainfall as a major cause of flooding was not -- or is not – totally unavoidable, contrary to common belief. The past heavy floodings in the Metro should have been enough to convince us that the worst was yet to come. With relatively fewer people and structures in the late ‘60’s, we should have done a massive and unforgiving flood control design that will prevent constricting the bloodlines of the megacity; but we did not. This is the primary goal before we can make any sensible design. Moreover, this objective will not be attainable without addressing other related issues such as: population control, enforcement of urban zoning laws, relocation of informal settlers and, most importantly, restoration of estuarial areas to their rightful owners – the creeks, rivers and lakes and not to private individuals or companies.

When I first arrived in Mandaluyong in 1965, my cousins and I played with the ducks on a shallow, sandstone-bed creek behind the houses. There were trees along the banks and the water was clear and clean enough to wade in. But signs of urban blight slowly crawled upon our town and the surrounding districts back then. I remember a flood there in 1967, I think, which was inevitable for the government-owned residential area (it was called a squatters’ area then) was located beside the creek. With the burgeoning population in the Metro, officials allowed more and more people to occupy what should have been estuarial areas off-limits to human habitation. (By the early ‘70’s, the creek – murky and stinking -- had disappeared from view when shanties sprouted along and on top of it.)

The main point is that the greatest amount of water or an extremely high rate of rainfall within a short period of time – worst-case scenario, they call it – can always be assumed before making any design for a flood-control system. Provide enough open and wide channels (like the ones in Makati) to convey the water and everyone can sleep easy through the night. The closed canal they built underneath España Extension is obviously insufficient. So with many channels we have built. Time to redesign and to rebuild! Ondoy has shown us the way.

This is not blaming but assessing what we have and projecting ourselves into the future. This is not crying over spilt milk or, more to the point, merely seeing the mess as water under the bridge. It is precisely the best lesson we can learn from Ondoy, one we must accept with humility, if not remorse. And there are so many more lessons which we will come to know soon enough. Unless and until we face this problem squarely, we will continue to float in a wet limbo.

Open, wide and unobstructed channels that can take in as much water as it can from an angry Nature. Oh, yes, did we forget to say that Nature is on a rampage to repay all that we have done to her or neglected to do for her for so many years? Yes, it is an expensive proposition; but any monetary value is nowhere near the real value of Life and of Nature which sustains that Life.

All things wise. . ., wait, doesn’t that include us humans? Are we not wise enough to figure out what is right and necessary to make our lives so much better than what we have now? God made us indeed; but as it is, we make Him not so proud of us. In fact, as in the days of Noah, He could be angry – really angry -- at us. If Noah could spend more than a hundred years building the expensive Ark to save the world, how much are we willing to spend today to save our own lives and our cities? (In one of life’s fateful twists, I missed watching the musical N.O.A.H.* at the Meralco Theater last Sunday because it was flooded out. I had just released a new book on the same theme of Noah and the Flood and eagerly wanted to compare notes on the story’s relevance in our times. Talk about timing and relevance!)

A nation remains poor, languishing and subject to destruction because it fails to spend for things that are truly of value. Like ants, humans will survive, but only by God’s grace. Are we not much more valuable than ants? Then, why do we allow ourselves to die like helpless infants? Ants know how to work with Nature and survive; but humans continue to work against it and reap the consequences.

Yes, it is the time to go out and help the afflicted survivors and assuage their suffering; but it is also the time to remind those who have the ability to prevent more suffering to do their job. Our Christian duties of healing and of convicting go hand in hand. We have two arms: the right to hold the sword that makes us do righteous deeds and the left to hold the shield against evil attacks. To leave ourselves defenseless while rebuilding our homes will make us easy victims to the predators around us. Time no longer allows us the luxury of being nice to those who wantonly destroy for selfish reasons.
Rebuilding requires destroying such things that prevent us from progressing. No, not by destroying wicked people but by removing the mess they have done in our midst. A flood teaches us to clean up – really clean up -- our lives.

(Photo above: Muddy road and loads of trash after Typhoon Ondoy in Marikina City.)

*"No Ordinary Aquatic Habitat", a Trumpets Family Musical

Typhoon Ondoy Flushes Metro Manila (09sep26)

2009-09-27T10:34:00.011+08:00

Suddenly, we realize once again that Nature is still in control over our lives and not us who controls it. A wake-up call? Yet in the midst of this new calamity, we see so much compassion and heroism and, therefore, enough reason for hope and renewal.

Manariwa tayo!

Photo above: Street in a Quezon City subdivision becomes a river for kids to splash in.