Caveat Emptor: Harry Potter

I can remember as a child going crazy over Tarzan, Samson, Robin Hood, Hercules, Superman and the Filipino Tarzan Kulafu. Many other heroes both real and fictional kept me fascinated, no, fantasizing even when I was already studying college Calculus. In my fanciful moments, I became the idolized character. I took up his persona as immortal hero: I thought like him, or so I thought. I even tried to talk and walk like he did. And, most pretentious of all, I treated people the way he did.

And so it is that, at all ages, we, I think, model our lives in the mould of our chosen heroes. Those heroes not only had extraordinary or superhuman abilities, they also had noble qualities. Take for instance, Robin Hood. The epitome of the glorified outlaw who was driven to the forest by a wicked ruler, he vowed to serve the oppressed. Excellent in the ancient skills of the hunter-warrior, he saved the day for the peasants with his gang of merry-men in green suits. His hands and his heart were his tools of trade as a social change-agent. His high calling required uncommon virtues and great challenges to the human spirit. Is it possible that rebels today, like the NPA and MILF, are grown-up kids unable to outgrow Robin Hood?

Greatly idealized through comics and novels, those heroes defined adventure – and life itself -- for me in simple and understandable terms. Much more sophisticated than the fairy-tale characters in grade-school, they also gradually lost their appeal as I got immersed in the world’s descending cloud of cynicism, indifference and liberalism.

Thus, when writers like Nick Joaquin redefined our history by calling many of our national heroes “anti-heroes” and Hollywood released counter-cultural films that sometimes portrayed Jesus as less than the perfect person that He is, something happened to our minds and our behaviors in ways society was not totally prepared for.

From music to fashion, from commerce to governance, from education to technology, the counter-cultural tide soon washed away the “civilized” world that took many centuries to form – the one I was born and grew up in. The once stable institutions of government, religion and society itself rocked violently and got displaced from their former foundations. Chaos ensued. And even now, we still reel in the aftermath of these cataclysmic events that keep coming back to haunt us, if not in ginormous (hurray, I’ve used the new word) tsunami waves, then in tiny splashes in the basin.

Are the heroes of the new generation any different from the ones we had then? Are they any better or worse? Or just the same?

Hercules and Superman were both quintessential man-gods caught in the constraining arena froth with human frailty and folly. The former hero showed how much the Greeks had comprehended their own world and conveniently painted that world-view on mythical canvases. The latter hero did the same for our generation, though not worshiped officially as a god but admired as a shallow novelty. Nevertheless, they both provide an alternative world where order could be had in the sanctity and sanity of the imagination. At least, in the child’s mind.

But much in the same way that these characters never grew old or died, they have evolved not only into sophisticated characters but eventually resembled more and more the people that we are. In the process, these heroic stories we now gorge on have been humanized and weaned away from their fabled or mythical aura. All for the same purpose of whiling us away from the painful realities of our existence. The bored pencil-pushing clerk and the over-pressed president both constantly need role-models to lift them up to higher planes of existence, albeit temporarily. To some, the search goes the other way.

Books and movies – the life stories of heroes or villains – do this to us. Harry Potter is then just another phase in the history of recasting for ourselves a symbol that could effectively give some meaning and direction to our lives. Or so it seems. For this time, however, beyond the requisite virtues required of heroes and instead of mere extra-human skills to meet challenges, three kids have been made to harness virtual powers of darkness – black magic, that is -- to fight the wicked enemy. And they are only a few among many who do so blatantly in media.

A series of novels based on the magical secrets practiced by warlocks and witches of ancient and medieval times, Harry Potter has captured the minds of millions of readers and viewers unaware of the dire consequences in store for them. What!? How can it be so?

Superman, for all his mythic abilities, was a mere cartoonist’s daydream founded on childish fantasies and pseudo-scientific notions. Batman, on the other hand, banked on his Bruce-Leean martial skills and McGyverian creativity to defeat his enemies. But this innocent-looking bunch of young magicians utter ancient incantations and magical formulas (some fictional perhaps) once used by devil-worshipers. This is no secret even to those who know the fact that horoscope and feng shui -- although appearing like sciences -- are based largely on superstitions and are mere garden varieties of the same magical arts founded by the wicked spirits of this world. (Note: Although the word “magic” denotes incredible feats, it derives from the ancient practice of astronomy. The “magi” -- learned men -- who came to Bethlehem, charted the stars to find the baby Jesus.)

Here is a case where the lines between fact and fiction blur. Whereas the Potter novels and the movies appear like fiction, their foundation is historically and patently real. Not many know it or really accept that; but ignorance does not change the record. Witch-hunts, the real ones, came about because those culture-crushers bedeviled and plagued society. Glamorizing their practices and feeding our children’s minds with them would be like adding a game in the Olympics where we pit wrestlers against hungry lions.

This subtle onslaught of evil disguised as entertainment is in truth counter-cultural. When people focus on the enticing powers of darkness instead of the re-creative enlightenment of the eternal truths upon which creation has been established, we open the floodgates of destruction. And yet not many even know about it, least of all, shudder at the thought.

The Bible advises us to answer a fool with his foolishness. Let us apply the principle to discover hidden messages behind the name Harry Potter that Ms. Jane Rowling may have unwittingly hidden in her dark, mysterious, mental chambers. Check out these many anagrams and their terrifying meanings:

Her Troy trap (Captivity/Destruction; Remember the Trojan horse)
Her Troy part (Spiritual adultery; Remember Paris and Helen)
Her art to pry (Dark, sinister and mysterious schemes)
Her tarot pry (Occultic practices)
Pry rot heart (Corruption is the game)
Th’ prayer rot (Spiritual decay)
Party to Herr (Connivance with Satan – “Herr” is German for Mister, as in “Der Herr Fuehrer”)
Hr. to try reap (Time to harvest evil)
Hr. to try rape (Time to pillage society)
Thy error apt (Blasphemy/Deception)
Try hero trap (Invitation to idolatry)
Pa, thy terror (Rebellion/Evil worship)
Threat to pry (Enslavement or control of the mind and soul)
Trophy r tear (Bringer of anguish and sorrow)
Pry other art (Prohibited magical practices/Counter-culture)
Terra trophy (The prize - Earth, fr. Latin terra/The goal - world domination)

For such an unassuming name lies numerous deep and horrible thoughts we rarely deal with and yet unconsciously toy with in our mind. Harry Potter awakens detestable desires until they bear fruits of sin. Ostensibly, behind the innocence of three children used for commercial and sinister schemes lie many concepts and images that would truly terrorize the unwary individual. Unless we set our minds free of these enslaving thoughts, we will fall easily into the many snares set by God’s arch-enemy.

Don’t think that these battles against witches and underworld spirits happen only on paper and on screen. In reality, they occur in the mind and in the soul. The media are mere screens upon which evil spirits reflect their powers to entice the untrained. The final targets are the souls of ignorant and weak individuals who are led away from the source of genuine spiritual power from heaven. We think we simply watch entertaining wars between virtual images or spirits? Think again. We unwittingly involve ourselves by cheering those who wield such dark powers, no matter how innocent or noble they seem.

Today, we simply watch but in the future we take sides. Many already have. Many have fallen. And when we eagerly push our kids ahead of us in the fray, how can we expect them to survive? How can the future be any brighter?

Those who die from terrorist attacks still have a chance to save their souls. But this war of real, spiritual terrorism does not spare the soul – it is the main target. Next to false religion, it is the best strategy Satan ever invented in his plot to conquer the world.

Cheap doomsday warning? Perhaps, but it is one we desperately need to remind us and to make us aware of what is happening and what will eventually happen if we persist in walking blindly the dark paths. Some things – like the sea and the mountains -- may be trod innocently and safely by kids and adults without dire effects; but a few things – like the realm of the dead and evil spirits -- God forbade humans from ever entering.

Finally, God warned the early Christians not to revile or to deal directly with angelic beings. We simply do not have the facility and authority to do so. Even the Archangel dared not do it. A “hero” then who puts himself or herself before or above God is not a real hero but an enemy of God.

God alone has the authority to rebuke or judge wicked spirits. (Jude 8-11) For our own good, let us heed the warning.

BUYER BEWARE AND BE AWARE!!!

Unraveling the Mystery of Creation

Is it possible to make something out of nothing? This is what God did in the beginning. But why? Why indeed if not to “make life”? Is there anything worth having. Or giving? If you were God, would you not give it?

Again, the question pops up: Why didn’t He make us like angels? Or why did He not place us in heaven where there is no death at all? The question brings on very interesting thoughts that could help explain the human predicament.

The idea of making something out of nothing seems basically illogical (see the scientists nodding their heads?), for God, in creating, would have to have some kind of resource to use in creating something, a part of Him perhaps or a force that emanates from Himself. In that sense, there may not be such a thing as “nothing”.

Thus, in creating the Universe out of that “nothing”, we can take it to mean that there was no Universe then and God put one into existence. The chaos that resulted from the initial creation was apparently not satisfactory. Hence, the point when God said “Let there be light” was the moment when God “gave of Himself” – God being “light” or the source of it, as we are told. And when He created humans “in His image”, He essentially reproduced Himself.

If God had made us like angels, we would all be mere spirits without bodies. We would be free, glorious and powerful but have no ability to reproduce just like God Himself, in the sense that He created us in His image. God had to create “something out of nothing” – the physical world – to enable Him to accomplish something new, something better perhaps. Furthermore, conditions in heaven required it as we will see.

What that new thing points to is this: Humans, like angels, are children of God. But unlike angels, we have body (from nothing?) and spirit (from God). Likewise, we not only can reproduce; we can rule over angels and over other humans like God does. This was no accident. Behind the heavenly plan are reasons we can try to unravel.

The rebellion that Lucifer had begun in heaven caused a cataclysmic event that led God to consign the rebellious angels down in the “depths of the Earth”. There are two possibilities here: First, that God had created the Universe before the rebellion and, second, that the rebellion occurred before the creation and that He might have created the Universe to serve as a kind of prison for those rebels.

In the first instance, we see a couple of issues. One, why would God allow Satan to dwell in Paradise if He had meant it to be only for humans? But think of it: If rebellion can occur in heaven, how much more on Earth? Why didn’t God just create another world to imprison devils?

These questions miss the point that whether a being exists in heaven or on Earth, spirits have the ability to visit either. Hence, in the Book of Job, we see Satan before God’s throne. Satan may not “live” in heaven but he seems capable of going there. Why should God fear his presence? What harm can he do to angels who know what Satan has done? Hence, the idea of creating another world serves no purpose.

In the second case, we might see the Universe as a halfway house for rebellious spirits who have been bound for a final destination: Hell. The initial chaos seems to support this idea. Yet that did not stop God from creating Paradise on Earth where He put His “new” creation.

With this two creations – one new and the other condemned -- existing at two different levels – physical and spiritual realms -- and yet close to one another, we have what we see “in the beginning” in the Garden of Eden. Paradise was man and woman’s home. God walked with them in the Garden, to show that God related with humans freely on a spiritual level even though they also lived on the physical plane. It comes as no surprise then that Satan, in the form of a serpent, could also interact with humans. Satan certainly knew (and knows) how to manipulate physical realities to suit his schemes.

Yet, we often fail to realize how much God had done in the beginning that proves His power, wisdom, compassion and love in preparing the Universe to benefit humans. The light, the seas, the mountains, the planets, the stars, the plants, the animals, the seasons and His spirit of life in us – all of those He gave plus freedom and the inheritance of heaven itself. Still, many of us dwell on the one negative thing: The forbidden fruit or the downfall of humans. And from that, people proceed to question the wisdom of creation; no, the goodness and the intentions of God. Sometimes, the very existence of God: “There is no God; God is nothing.”

We question God’s wisdom when we should accept His grace and justice in doing what He does and what He has done. He promised to solve the problem (death arising from sin) and did solve it (Christ’s resurrection) and yet we still reject Him. Just as angels rebelled, just as Adam and Eve rebelled and so with countless others, we continue to reject the testimony of His truth.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil therefore showed that even in Paradise, rebellion was a possibility. He has given humans that much respect and trust that they could roam freely in the Garden except around that dreadful tree. Whatever the real case was then, Satan had entered Paradise but not without God providing a way for humans to beware and to be aware. God did not have to ask permission if humans wanted to live or not; but He did give them and us a choice whether to die or not.

Once eaten (or seen, for the sight alone led to a weakened will), the forbidden fruit would give them the real experience of good and evil. That is, just like Satan who tasted the goodness of heaven (good) and rebelled (evil), eating of it gave humans the same knowledge and the resulting punishment -- death. Separation from God (real death) is worse than “dropping out of life” (physical death or annihilation).

How appropriate then that humans, now fallen, corrupted and bound to die, would now live outside Eden and in a world that seemed to match our idea of a prison for evil spirits. For that is what this world is, the kingdom of Satan. The lord of rebels and sinners has enchained us all under his dominion. We live in sin and in constant fear of death because Satan rules over us. (Satan’s worst fear is his own death. To keep us from believing in God, he poisons us with his own dread of death.) Of course, that is true for those who have not taken complete hold of God’s saving grace through Christ. “Perfect love casts out fear.”

Yes, Christ, has prepared a New Earth and a New Heaven. This final creation will be the final home for humans but not rebellious spirits. This corrupted world may well remain as the abode for demons or it could be, as prophesied, burnt in fervent heat and sent to that place of eternal fire. Who would want to remain here then?

The physical world may have come from “nothing”, whatever that means, and will return to “nothingness” but the spirit in us came from God and will remain forever (see the skeptics rolling their eyes?). But God has assigned a place for our souls and spirits, whether we believe it or not. We don’t have to choose. Our actions will determine God’s ultimate judgment. And He does have the right to do so for He created us.

(Photo above: Guess: butterfly or shell? Click on photo for a closer view.)

Why Christ Wasn’t Born a Gentile

If Christ had gone to the Greeks, they would have sat down with Him, asked Him questions until they believed Him and He would not have died on the cross.

If Christ had gone to the Egyptians, they would have made Him eternal Pharaoh, everlasting Priest and immortal Surgeon.

If Christ had gone to the Africans, they would have tied Him up and boiled Him in water and failing, end up serving Him a great feast instead.

If Christ had gone to the Chinese, they would have left Him alone to roam with His disciples to teach and to live forever on Earth.

If Christ had gone to the Indians, they would have venerated Him as a great guru, showered Him with flowers and erected a majestic shrine for Him.

If Christ had gone to the Aztecs, they would have worshipped Him above the sun and moon and built the greatest pyramid ever to honor Him.

If Christ had gone to the Japanese, they would have made Him eternal Emperor and Chief Executive Officer of all their corporations.

If Christ had gone to the Americans, they would have made Him the biggest celebrity ever in Hollywood and He’d be on CNN’s headline everyday.

If Christ had gone to the Filipinos, they would have required Him to register His own denomination, put up His own televangelism program and all His contenders would be agog trying to refute His teachings that the TV networks will be so happy with the ratings.

(Photo above: The fruit of the land: the grains are nearly ripe for harvest.)

How to Move a Mountain

Many people dream of living on a mountain, others of climbing it, while a few dream of moving a mountain. Because of their mystical appeal, sheer size and grandeur, mountains represent the highest, the best and most enduring of human ideals. But why would people want to move mountains?

Unlike people who climb a mountain for the mere challenge or, as the cliché goes, “because it is there”, others aim to move mountains for more specific or meaningful reasons.

First, moving a mountain is a natural process. The Earth’s natural dynamics caused the folding of the continental and oceanic plates. Although we seldom see or feel this movement, Plate Tectonics have uplifted and continue to raise peaks to greater heights (as much as 4 mm yearly for Everest). Integrated in this geologic phenomenon is the process of mass movement. No matter how high a mountain is, it submits itself to the cycle of water and to gravitation. Hence, no ocean bed came into being without having been laid out there by materials coming from the mountains. And no mountain ever reached such height without having been once a part of the valley or the abyss. This cycle of nature whose by-product is soil has made it possible for life to survive on the face of our planet. The Japanese reforestation motto accurately expresses it: The ocean yearns for the mountain.

The proverbial story of the mustard seed having enough faith to move a mountain is a simple illustration of how nature effects change in the environment. A tiny crack in a gigantic boulder eventually grows to cause a major rock or land slide that will alter a mountain’s entire character and thus affect the land, the biodiversity and the people living around it.

Hence, moving a mountain does not simply mean moving rocks and soil; it means changing the environment and the life on it. So it is with one person who believes in the power of change. One focused and meaningful life can also cause an indelible mark on society.

Secondly, moving a mountain can also be a human-induced process. More precisely, people aim to conquer a mountain primarily for economic reasons. Miners scour, scrape and strip mountains to reach to the diamonds, the gold and the minerals required for progress and pleasure. Urban planners cut down forests, level mountains and decimate wild life to put up living communities. Such a practice we are only learning to reconfigure in order to save the ecosystem and ourselves.

While nature had been doing it for ages, we have only been at it for a short time. We certainly owe much of our modern progress from this human activity. Still we have much to learn. But where do we turn to at this crucial stage in human history? After having neglected nature for so long, do we think we will change now?

This brings us to the third and final principle: Moving a mountain through prayer. Or in short, we say that moving a mountain is essentially a divine process. The God Who designed the Universe and its indefatigable servant, Nature, allowed everything to work for the benefit of humans. His principles thus apply in nature as much as they do – or should -- in our lives as His workmanship. We are His heavenly heirs.

We think of mountains as the symbol of all that we can be as humans. God says we can attain it through prayer, and that means, through faith in Him. Mt. Zion pictures the glory of Jerusalem and its Architect and Builder who is God. In the Bible, we are told that the New Jerusalem – the spiritual City of God -- will one day be raised up to heaven. This is obviously a divine task and one requiring a certain amount of belief for any person to accept it as truth.

Everything that illustrates faith – the mustard seed, a mighty tree, the moving mountain – brings out the principle that not only applies and works effectively in nature and in human society but more so in the spiritual kingdom of God. A poet sees the Universe in a grain of sand or the mountain in a shiny pebble because humans have the capacity to see the oneness of nature. Cause and effect. Source and product. Creator and creation.

However, we do not always see the Hand that rocks the mountain. We fail to recognize the power given to us to allow that Hand to move for our own good. We refuse to accept the higher purposes that we physical beings and things were meant to achieve.

Not a few mountain climbers express awe and worship of God when they reach the mountain tops. Even astronomers who have observed the farthest reaches of space eventually find God. But in the silence of prayer, one can inescapably feel the touch of that Hand that shaped the mountains, the stars and the planets.

It takes single atoms and the electromagnetic forces they produce to form the elements and minerals that shape the mountains. It takes individual human spirits and the fervent faith they possess to form the kingdom of God on Earth. How that kingdom eventually becomes uplifted to heaven is determined by how the individuals participate in the process.

We don’t simply go to heaven by doing good. We become part of a kingdom that is ruled in and is destined for heaven. How one responds to the King now determines how one travels from the shore to the mountain, from Earth to Heaven and from now to eternity.

Jane Fonda: Feeling the Holy Spirit

I just read a rather unexpected and very interesting interview of Jane Fonda where she talked about the Holy Spirit. (“Jane Fonda on Lohan and Finding God”, Ruben V. Nepales, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 2007 June 03) Almost 70 now, Fonda had married and divorced some of the most famous and richest men and now spends her time writing books (3 at the same time) alone in a private ranch (watch my eyes turn green!). And there she was talking openly about religion and her faith. Well, it’s not anything unusual. Just the other day, three former US presidents (Bush Sr., Carter and Clinton) shared the stage with Billy Graham on the inauguration of the latter’s library in North Carolina and took turns extolling God and the work that Graham did.

Not that popularity prevented anyone from having faith. Those former presidents most probably had faith before becoming popular. Besides, a former sex-symbol like Fonda curiously pursuing the influence of the Holy Spirit in her life has more news value. It is such a pity that that bit of news ironically came out in the entertainment section. (Where else could it be otherwise, silly me? How about, hmm, front page?) For me, it was good news; no, it IS great news!

She, the Barbarella who donned probably the very first spacesuit in Hollywood that showed a lot of flesh, became the fantasy for many young men in the late sixties. In the early ‘70’s, she came to UP College of Arts and Sciences one day wearing a t-shirt and denims and spoke against the Vietnam War. Unwittingly, I find myself pondering upon her transition from a glamorous celebrity to a political activist to a tycoon’s wife to an exercise guru to a book-writer and now to an aging, professing believer. As a former student-activist, as a writer and as a not-so-aging believer, I can relate with her personal journey.

Somehow (unless it is another Hollywood publicity trick, which I doubt), the role of such a unique and intelligent person as Fonda as a real person who does have genuine spiritual needs can inspire even the most cynical among us. Especially so when she spoke lovingly of Lindsay Lohan (who co-stars with Fonda in the latest movie “Georgia Rule” as if she were her mother. Well, alright, that last part might have been a carry-over of her film role as Lindsay’s mother. But, the Holy Spirit thing? I find that hard to turn away.

Whatever we might say about Jane Fonda and her morals (who will cast the first stone?), we must allow every person the chance to discover what the Holy Spirit can do in our lives. Unlike Socrates who only heard an “inner voice” or the conscience, anyone must feel blessed for the privilege of knowing and eventually receiving the Holy Spirit.

Many great and ancient civilizations had founded their cultures on their understanding of the secrets of the spirit and of the soul; yet, today more people spend more time securing their grasp on material possessions and political power. Perhaps we listen more to the call of the world and not the voice that speaks into our hearts.

People have many motivations for noticing what the Holy Spirit is doing. Age, with all the challenges attached to it such as sickness, loss of beauty and youth, acquired wisdom and the prospect of death, certainly can be a major factor. Religion -- the ceremonial practice, that is -- no longer matters at a certain age. Even for many of the young today, a relationship with a divine being is the primary consideration. Of course, family and traditions are the most natural but perhaps the least fail-safe way toward spiritual enlightenment. Theologians have a funny way of complicating matters of faith. Jesus knew that too well.

Fonda’s own confession came as sincere and open-ended. She said:

I was raised as an atheist. Sometimes it's in the presence of pain and chaos that you begin to heal. It was when I was in tremendous pain that I began to feel the presence of the spirit in me, the sacred. That was when I began the process of becoming whole. Maybe it's different when this happens to you when you're older because you're really aware of it. As I became aware of this part of me moving back inside, I sort of said, this is God.

When I began to feel whole, I really felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. I'm still in the beginning of a journey into what that means. And it's hard because I'm a feminist, especially in the way Christianity is viewed these days in this country. I'm a feminist Christian who is exploring what that means.

Historically, the Holy Spirit was poured out to humans at a time set by heaven’s itinerary. He had sent His son, allowed Him to die, raised Him and welcomed Him back in heaven. It was time for the Holy Spirit to do His part. 3000 Jews accepted the “gift of the Holy Spirit” on Pentecost Day. Was that a majority or a minority? Could it have been more? Who knows? God simply harvested on that day; or should we say He planted the Spirit generously for the first time in history? (Can you hear the angels shouting in heaven in jubilation?)

So, what value is there in one person seeking to know the Holy Spirit? Is it something to scoff at or rejoice about?

Often, I eagerly await the next Hollywood blockbuster. But now I wonder what the titles are to Jane Fonda’s three books.

We will know a tree by its fruits. For even now, heaven does not cease to plant His Holy Spirit within receptive hearts.

Worship Renewed and Unified

Formerly named Namacpacan (literally, “one who gave food”), Luna Town in La Union could very well be the epitome of Filipino hospitality of the Ilocano variety. The title had enshrined a trait that the Spanish colonizers recognized as expressed in return for a fee or as a form of service to visitors. Either way, the people are also an enterprising lot with many of them working as fishermen or farmers and several others diligently picking stones or pebbles under the searing sun to sell locally or abroad.

The new name of the town owes its origin from the nationalist heroes and brothers Antonio and Juan Luna whose mother came from the locality. Antonio Luna’s statue adorns the poblacion (public plaza) riding a horse beside a simple, diminutive Arch of Triumph which could barely accommodate a car through. For a small unassuming town, the structure fittingly gave the hero-general the honor of having once lived in France during the 19th-century Philippine Reform period.

Visiting Luna recently came like a refreshing whiff of morning wind on a hot day. Eager to spend a couple of days at the beach, our barkada motored into the coast of La Union facing the calm South China Sea. After seeing daily heavy afternoon rains in Baguio, a wind-caressed, sun-filled vacation by the stone-matted beach of Luna was nothing short of a precious treat. And thanks to a gracious friend of a friend, we stayed in a dreamy cottage with coral reefs for its walls and loose flat stones for its flooring.

A dip on the pleasantly warm sea came as a great surprise considering the total absence of sand. A sand-less beach! Never thought that was possible. No sand to clean off your ears or your pockets. The only minor problem came from those slippery stones under your feet, making it hard to walk straight. But the water was superbly clean and clear. Another thing that didn’t seem possible in this era of pollution.

Lying with your face over the edge of the water while the wave rocked you gently, you could hear the round pebbles clinking and clanking in a melodious percussive chorus as the wave receded. The rhythmic action of nature had smoothened and formed rocks into slightly bigger than quail-egg-sized pebbles of various colors and mineral composition: granite, siltstone, conglomerate, silica and quartz. A veritable harvest of thousands of years of geologic process brought together at the shoreline where the land meets the ocean – mountain rocks broken down, reduced and polished eventually by weathering and erosion through the unceasing cycle of life-giving water.

A few curious years of teaching college geology helped me truly appreciate that moment in Luna as a picture of the unified and encompassing physical forces that rule nature. And looking at the magnificently gold-painted sunset or rainbow-adorned morning skies, wrapped the continuing epiphany in a spiritual glow. Aside from creating the emotional high, the visit revived lost youthful imaginations of a pleasant and pristine Paradise -- a place in out hearts we know exists yet find so hard to keep in mind. Seeing it in its crude and fallen state allows us now and then to come close to its promise and certainty.

At night, we brought out our bed cushions and lay under a moonlit and cloudy sky. It was an impossible task to sleep for it made me feel like a tiny crab on the ground, facing heaven and knowing fully well that God looked down from His majestic throne. His glory and greatness He shared through creation; and who couldn’t respond with worship? Truly, “the fool has said in his heart: There is no God.”

Worship has not felt so great and complete for a long while until that time in Luna, La Union.

Feeling Pain, Avoiding Pain

Pain is something we often avoid if we could. But some kinds of pain do make us better. Bodybuilders gain from pain by literally destroying muscle cells through strenuous weightlifting and then rebuilding them during sleep. The muscular pain that they go through during and right after the workout they have learned to endure and even savor while it lasts. Why? Because the overall sense of well-being one gets from exercise brings on an addictive fix. (A beautiful looking body isn’t a bad incentive either.) A period of idleness can bring about a lethargic spell that is worse than the tingling sensation of pain. In this case, the emotional stress can be worse than the physical pain.

Hunger can be a helpful kind of pain or suffering, if you please. (Fasting and prayer have been known to bring rains.) It tells us when we need to rest from what we are doing – or not doing – to reenergize the body. Same with thirst. And other elemental biological human desires. We all learn early on in life to deal with all these kinds of signals in the way we have been taught or the way we have come to cope with them – rightly or not.

Most kinds of pain, however, are generally unwanted, unnecessary and burdensome. Sickness comes to mind. So does the all-too familiar feeling of embarrassment or shame. All these come with the territory of being human. The heartache arising from a failed relationship, although necessary to teach us to become more well-equipped in life, can leave us debilitated for a while. We end up walking half-dead, totally unfeeling at times but almost always bearing that bittersweet emptiness that no one else will learn to share with us. Loneliness is the first and lasting human pain. And even God “learned” to appreciate that it is not what humans need to go through constantly.

So in the beginning, marriage came into being. And then all the real pain came about. If truth be told.

Woman experienced the pain of childbearing and childbirth. Man learned to bear the painful burden of supporting and raising a family. And so many other “slings and arrows” that bedevil marriages.

This does not mean life comes bereft of comfort, joys and unequalled satisfaction. The balance of life – yin and yang -- however, does not mean anguish is necessary for humans to truly know the worth of happiness. Nor vice versa. Angels in heaven do have eternal bliss in spite of all the sorrow they see in us. That comes from their capacity to behold the face of God when they need to. Something that Adam and Eve used to have and do in the Garden. Until in deep humiliation they had to depart that place of painless existence. (Well, except for Adam’s loneliness, nothing else spoiled our first parents’ aborted stay in Eden.)

The pain of sin and its resulting punishment – death – that became our lot after the fall has no equal in terms of consequence. It affects our eternal destiny. And for many, that pain will be the worst burden they can bear in life. Among them are the blessed ones who find release through a spiritual conversion. The rest go through life carrying the yoke of guilt and bitterness through their denial of the One Whom their sinful life has offended. Yes, like many masochistic people who literally induce self-inflected pain, many of us wake up in the morning with our minds chained to unrepented sins. It could be as simple as envy or hatred. Or as heavy as a crime. Whatever it may be, pain – in the form of guilt, anger or jealousy -- lurks like a shadow of the mind, unseen but ever present with its diabolic aura. Yet so many people have built a callous conscience to remove the throbbing pang of guilt in their lives. It takes the top award for being the best defense against guilt ever developed (psychology comes next) and yet the most ineffective of all.

It takes human discernment to know oneself. It takes spiritual discernment to know God. As humans, we all know somehow what pain is and what it can do to us. As believers of God, we may have the privilege to know why we go through pain and what we can do to alleviate or eliminate it. Of the many things we ascribe to God and His nature, the one quality He possesses that is closest to our being human is this: He feels our pains.

(Photo above: Metro Manila lights dance after sundown under a saber of light atop Antipolo hill.)

Tarzan’s Challenge: Creating Something New

The best line from the 1984 movie Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes attacked my mind like a rushing panther: “Transcend the loss and pain; create something new…. Or all you have worked for will be in vain.” The young Earl of Greystoke -- or Tarzan, as we commonly know him -- had been given the chance to be what he really was – human and not an ape. For many of us, the choice is simply between failure and success.

At that point in the story, he was now the former-heir and thus owner of the vast Greystoke estate. But his “animal instincts” would not give him rest. The jungle lived in him – not the serene beauty we see from afar but the seeming chaos of nature we fail to comprehend and yet live daily with in the parallel concrete jungles of the cities.

And so in the end, Tarzan went back to his jungle.

Sometimes, we do need to go back to some places in our past – literally or mentally -- so we can truly appreciate how we were in relation to what we are now. In the process, we find great pleasure in what was and what has been. The fortunate few eventually learn to relish what is and what they have and then move forward to greater heights and fresher horizons.

Creating something new -- as opposed to remaining stagnant in the past or even in the present – takes quite a great amount of courage and wisdom. The challenge, however, remains. History and literature (oh, well, even Hollywood) have equipped us with sumptuous fare to whet our appetite for the greatest adventure we call life. Too often though, we just sit smugly in our comfort zones.

The childish and sometimes inane treatment of such classic stories as Tarzan and Hercules used to excite the kid in me no end. The action and the sense of adventure kept me awake at night and even during boring classes. It gives me great relief that some scriptwriters have matured enough in keeping with our desire for more meaningful entertainment.

Viewing this movie again on cable – while writing this article (this kind of multi-tasking can’t be done inside the movie-house) – proves the idea that we are at a stage in human history when opportunities for personal as well as collective learning and progress have advanced beyond measure. Yes, there will be setbacks like shipwrecks or natural calamities but human life will overcome destruction and corruption as long as we nurture the spirit within us all.

How?

By creating something new every day of our lives, whether it be a work of art, an innovative enterprise, a renewed relationship, a fresh musical style or a new person in you with better habits.

I never thought Tarzan – the epitome of the innocently crude human character -- would come back to me at my age and make me think such sublime thoughts. That is something really new to me.

(Photo above: Musical stairs: A staircase seen from above seems like a stylized grand piano or a harp. The blacks and whites emphasize the illusion. Amazing! Taken by my son, Jon, in Vancouver, Canada.)

A Family of Nations, a Family of Free People

Before nations came into being, there was the tribe. And before tribes arose, there was the family. Like the family, the tribe had its patriarchs while the nation had its founders. Much of what nations do today owes its origins to the family. Thus, Abraham, the Father of Many Nations, taught us tribal dynamics while his descendant Moses gave us fundamentals on nationhood. From the Hebrews, Babylonians, Greeks and Romans, we have gradually perfected the nation as standard for global organization.

Each nation as a sovereign state has its unique set of laws, beliefs, cultural heritage and rules of governance. In their diversity, nations compose a loosely-knit worldwide community often as tenuous as the tempestuous oceans that separate them and the winds that invariably invade their borders. Under one blue sky, nations – through the United Nations -- have learned to co-exist. Somehow, this gradual convergence has helped address problems a few nations alone cannot handle.

To some extent, nations have opted to surrender their own sovereignty to the UN during times of war to allow peace-keeping forces to settle violent conflicts, such as the Gulf War. This development can be both good and bad, depending on one’s perspective. It can be good in the global scheme of things for it preserves economic and social relations. Investments and trading can only flourish in times of peace. On the other hand, no self-respecting nation desires foreign intervention in its own affairs. But with the presence of self-proclaimed global police-states, nations have grudgingly accepted the realities of international dynamics. An age of a shaky balance between national sovereignty and global supervision has emerged.

Since ancient times, the family has existed autonomously within every society. Admittedly, even the family enjoyed a limited sovereignty with its pertinent rights and privileges granted upon its members by the norms and laws of the land. Only in rare cases were such rights waived in order to promote the greater good. In like manner, therefore, nations have simply carried on this accepted practice. Hence, military force – by its inherent persuasive power -- may be imposed upon a sovereign nation to quell violence or to prevent any overspill.

The question however arises: What right do nations have to come in and solve problems for an independent nation? Is it out of real concern or out of selfish motives?

Any individual who has special interests on a neighbor’s wealth would be motivated to interfere pretentiously. The founding of the UN was supposedly to establish an equitable and just settlement of international squabbles, arising as it did from the ruins of WWII. However, certain vested interests have served to put this august organization in doubt. Powerful nations have often used the UN to pursue less than altruistic motives.

The supreme ideal of a single family of nations based on the precedent ideal of the brotherhood of all human beings is the only solution to the spiraling conflicts among nations today. But who establishes the rules for this ideal? Is this not like the delicate and devious “religious” issue that traces back to the time of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael? Why should two brothers who share the same parent and the same heritage of prosperity now look at each other with grave suspicion? How could an ancient family problem still haunt us thousands of years after and not motivate us to face it wisely with brotherly affection? What religion are we talking about here when our own survival is at stake?

In the beginning, there was only the family: the divinely-conceived essential pattern of human relations that has not outlived its usefulness or its effectiveness. Only when people do away with this ideal that things go awry. Only when people choose something else in place of its efficient dynamic power that they realize that chaos results rather than progress. Only when people disregard the undeniable blood relations they have by virtue of their one family origin that they find out they are really destroying themselves.

Like Cain, nobody destroys the family and lives to savor the consequences. Like Hitler, nobody cuts the filial bond that exists among all people and rejoices in the alienation it creates. Like all colonizers, nobody built a nation today or in the past by the sweat and toil of foreign slaves and remains in control forever. The family is the first and last bastion of freedom. Unless we go back to its pristine promises, we will continue to drift in the wilderness.

At any level, the family gives and preserves life. Only a strong family of nations can assure us we can live peacefully together on this planet. Only a global family of free people will bring us a lasting environment of tolerance, cooperation and prosperity.

(Photo above: Kids cool off in the backyard beach. Tuazon family.)

The Three Levels of Belief

The truth. The false. And what we decide to believe in. We all fall generally within any of these three levels of faith. Life silently dictates that we reach out for the first, which actually requires attaining perfection or holiness, in the spiritual sense. At the same time, it tells us to consciously and totally avoid the second, a task we find almost beyond human effort or even human desire. Yet, it is in attaining that balance that we gain a fulfilled life. The best education one can have involves acquiring the fundamental tools for realizing this two-pronged human task.

We all know that those who live in ignorance or dwell in myths or with misconceptions do not endure in this world. For centuries the ancient Greeks and Romans established civilizations founded on many things we would laugh at today – their many gods and many “unscientific” conclusions about nature and even spirituality. And why not? Where have the glories of those people gone? If they had known the truth as we supposedly know it now to be, would they have survived?

Today, we have the glory. Who wouldn’t feel so much pride now drinking a hot, P100 Cappuccino in an air-conditioned room while typing on a laptop or punching on a P35,000 Nokia phone so far away from the uncertainties of those old, low-tech civilizations? Modern life has provided us with so much economic and emotional power – self-assurance, for good measure -- that we have taken for granted how much the ancient people struggled to dissect the truth from the false even in scientific terms. Reading the Great Books collection always gave me that grave feeling of how much people put up with, at least intellectually, to understand life.

Nevertheless, in the process of establishing foundational values in our institutions and our individual lives, we have ended up forming our own beliefs not so much different from what the ancient people believed and practiced. The many festivals or celebrations we have reinvented have really nothing new to show except for the technology we put into them. In the end, we have simply glamorized them and added our own peculiar way of keeping the hype fresh for the next generation to get interested in them and eventually inherit from us.

We have inherited a world built on the ruins of the impotent untruths and hypnotic fables not knowing that we have built a crystal palace of modern folly over the basic truths as well. We still sing the same songs not only because we relish the good memories (which is not bad) but also because we refuse to change our ways (which may be bad). When we can easily create new songs that herald our own new march into a more glorious tomorrow.

The truth has infinite power to fire up our passions for progress and honor. Ancient technology and architecture have had their time to inspire or create awe. What we feel now while looking at the Egyptian pyramids or the Great Wall of China is not much different from what we feel appreciating the new technological wonders. But the pyramids and the Great Wall serve no practical use other than as tourist attractions. History is after all something we only visit and not dwell in, to learn from and not to teach as the goal. But the skyscrapers, cruisers, the jet planes, the 3G cell phones, laptops and fuel-cell cars are things we use to make life the way we want to live it -- today, this moment. Yet, even these are mere tools for us to achieve something else. And what is that? Nothing but the truth.

So, are we living life in the midst of all the comfort and convenience while sacrificing or disregarding the truth? Have we reached that point when we can have all we want and not have to deal with the truth? The same truth that the ancients sought with the same eagerness that we seek wealth or health or fame? Hence, we have made for ourselves a civilization that allows us to claim our very own and not be beholden to any that came before us, whether in reality or in conception. That is, the inescapable truths that had impelled our forefathers to willingly give up sweat, tears and blood no longer matter in our overweening desire to amass security or material possessions. That in trying to gain those truths, we succeeded somehow but looked at them with a perplexed expression then turned around and got hold of that which is utterly false and made it appear to be the ultimate truth.

To be certain, the ancients also did what we have done. The Egyptians may have been not far from their idea of preparing for the after-life (at least, the rulers did so while keeping their privileged status), however, they did so while maintaining their selfish clutch upon wealth and power. Those titanic tombs were designed precisely to keep future generations from using their supposed eternal possessions.

And so, we merely follow the normal turn of human folly. No modern civilization has existed longer than any that existed before. Our fall may only be just around the corner. A pandemic may send shivers now but it could end up with, well, the end of us all.

Not with all the technology we have, some might say. We certainly hope not. We place our confidence on the historical certainty that humans and human life will survive. That the human spirit will overcome all trials. Right?

Not right. Even the best intentions of the human spirit cannot overcome the utter descent into untruth. The truth did not just happen. It serves an eternal purpose. And if it does, the eternal survival of the human spirit is at stake in any experimentation with what is false. Compromise with half-truths and “innocent’ lies dilutes the power of the pure truth.

All the human institutions and enterprises that have ever come to pass involved humans who were and who are at one time faced with the question of what is truth. A market vendor who sells a kilo of chicken meat does not merely do so in order to gain a profit and to feed a family. A call-center operator does not simply interact with a customer halfway across the globe in order to pay for a car. A government executive does not only lead his people to produce as much good as possible to the national economy. All of them have to deal with the basic questions of truth now and then. How they react to those issues determines how they deal with others. Each one affects the welfare of society or the nation at large. Every generation benefits or decays from what it receives from the previous one. But the world is made better by people who cherish the basic truths in life and establish their work, their family and business relations according to those truths.

Chaos is the absence of the light of truth. That is how the world began before it was born and that is how it is ending and how it will end. We may feel complacent – read that, smugly and drunkenly proud -- at what we have achieved for ourselves with all the tools we have invented. Yet the essential issue remains. Do we have the truth or have we merely held on to something which we have casually accepted or inherited as truth?

The question and the struggle remain. The truth still waits for us to answer its call for us to live at the highest level possible.

(Photo above: The road bends behind a hill to an unknown destination but we drive ever so confidently because the way has been prepared for us. It was taken in Sierra Madre, Tanay, Rizal.)

Imitating Job

The whole story of Job in the Old Testament parallels the history of the world. Satan gets the chance to sneak into a lovely picture of God’s making, does his thing with God’s express permit and finally gets what is due him by God’s power. Adam and Eve dealt directly with Satan when they gave in to the temptation. In so many ways, we all do, too. The sacrifice of Christ rendered all that Satan has done and is doing null and void. Now all that we await is His return and the Final Judgment.

Job was a righteous man. And he was very wealthy as well. Now if that’s not Paradise in this world, we don’t know what good is. Job knew and thanked God for it everyday of his life. Yes, he gave sacrifices for the sake of his ten precious children and knelt in their behalf that they might also walk the way he walked.

But Satan had to have his way with Job. Take away his health then his wealth and then his children and he will curse you. Job’s wife chorused with the Tempter: Curse and die! The test was beyond a test of patience. Or love. Or faith. Or perseverance. It was a test of the entire human spirit, all that it is and all that it can possibly sense and contain. Like those archeologists who use tiny brushes to brush off every inch of dust in the hope of recovering what many would see as useless dead bones, such a test scratches away the unimportant things that prevent us from seeing the sunshine.

The ultimate test of the human spirit aims at the essential thing that makes us what we truly are. In truth, we are nothing but spirit, the kind created from the same image as God is, not flesh or dust, not blood or guts, not intelligence or idea. Moreover, it aims at proving each and every one of us of the indestructibility of life. A terribly hard lesson for one person to learn that we all, in various ways and in a much lesser degree or perhaps greater at times, have been privileged to undergo.

Job’s story ends with his becoming wealthier and having children who are more beautiful. Not to mention the corresponding maturity of character from his experience. What the latter is, the story does not dwell with at length nor do many of us truly recognize. As such, many quote the Book of Job invariably using Job’s words while in the pangs of pain and frustration. How easy it is for us all to use commiserating words of those who have eloquently described their journeys through suffering. Even today, Christians continually highlight the so-called seven last words of Jesus to somehow glean wisdom or courage that may come in handy in times of trouble.

And so, the violent death of 33 people in a mad and murderous rampage at Virginia Tech feeds our need for solace, hope and understanding. Desperately, we clutch at dry straws of platitudes as we hang from the cliff of insecurity. Or we grab and hurl broken rocks of raw emotions with which to express our outrage and confusion. Yet, some would echo the dirges of those whose sufferings may have mirrored the pain others may go through now. All in the hope of gaining or providing the healing we all need as one suffering family.

Yes, Job went through so much and we quote him while he went through pain and grief. But Job, perhaps not unlike Adam and Eve, never knew what eternal motives moved God and Satan to showcase him as the great experiment on suffering and faithfulness. The mystery of suffering has remained but has somehow lost its darkness in the revelation of what God allows and eventually grants to those who – well, stick it out with Him: ultimate triumph of goodness over evil, spiritual salvation and eternal life.

Thus, Job remained a righteous man throughout his ordeal -- almost. His one and singular mistake was to presume that God, in creating and blessing Job and letting him be destroyed so, could not renew or revive him. For Job questioned God and wished to die in his agony (did we forget to say Satan knew how to hide from the scene as the crisis raged?). He spoke things he did not understand, in the same way that many of us do. But when Job heard God speak in the storm and saw Him (and also Satan perhaps?), he bowed down and said: Now, my eyes see You and I retract.

We see evil in one man and we trace that evil from his past, his family, his friends, his schools and, naturally, his country. But do we know where that evil came from? From traditions? From society? From our genes? Or from the evil that is already there, sown everywhere and growing where it wills?

Evil lurks in every place. Until we see it as it is, we are wretched fools talking like Job and pitying ourselves and claiming how absolutely good or right we are. Until we all see God, like Job eventually did, we are blind fools postulating and sermonizing to other blind fools.

The Loss of Innocence

Children in their innocence illustrate the character of God’s kingdom. Jesus told the ancient Jews, “Unless you are converted and become like children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.” That seems clear and obvious to many of us who read or hear the Bible almost daily. For we see children and admire their unaffected ways, their spontaneity and their unpretentiousness. Nevertheless, many fail to truly comprehend the value of what the Lord taught.

Is the purity of childhood such a non-renewable quality we adults find useless or difficult to attain? Take for instance their capacity to derive gleeful fun from things and situations that we adult already consider passé or wearisome. Compare the seriousness and fuss we put into big-boys’ games or toys such as basketball, racing and football. Kids, on the other hand, roll marbles on the dirt, ride their bikes on the grass and kick a ball around with abandon and without regard to the many strict rules and appurtenant rewards we put into “playing games”. The main difference being not the amount of thrill derived from “the moment itself” but the quest to land in the “hall of fame”. Hence, the highlights and statistics that sports networks flash onscreen record not the intrinsic worth of the game but the so-called “glory of triumph” and even the “agony of defeat”. And all that is supposedly done in the name and the excitement of business-as-usual competition.

Children do not think in terms of such high-valued -- or more precisely, high-priced – post-games intramurals. But mind you, many kids nowadays are no longer safely protected from the pernicious mentality that adults inevitably impose upon them. Computer games are what they are – violently sophisticated, ultra-realistic and mind-and-soul warping – because of what adults want kids to become. Or is it, because of what kids want from what they see adults do and what adults therefore end up giving the kids? The whole process seems to defy analysis but the shakers are way ahead in the money game, too. Use the kids to find out what sells to kids because their parents would want them to have it. In the meantime, parents are hard put to point a finger on why their children behave the way they do.

Will the time come then when the real gap between adults and children disappear? Or at least, diminished to a vanishing or negligible degree such that the world will have lost all vestiges of innocence? A terrifying thought, one that presages the disappearance of guilt as a social deterrent. That is, guilt as we still know it to be: the result of losing one’s innocence or the effect of violating the laws of life. Thus, in a guiltless-ridden society no law will apply; hence, a lawless society arises. Nervously, we sense that day coming upon us soon.

It used to be that bikini-clad dancers pranced and wiggled only inside dark, smoky bars. But now they shamelessly hump in front of TV cameras for tots and grandpas to watch. Innocence? What childhood innocence are we trying to preserve or protect as a Christian nation? On the contrary, we have allowed the unconverted and the perverted to rule over our society and altered the normal process of the human development. Do we think that the degradation of the ecology came without the corresponding decay in human character? The Apostles John wrote hundreds of years ago in the Book of Revelation about those who will suffer hell for “destroying the Earth”. Moral or spiritual decay naturally leads to total physical decay. Sin causes death, as obviously as children become adults.

How do adults become un-childlike then? What happens to them to make them lose their innocence? They, or should we say, their parents or guardians, often expect them to emulate adults who are unconverted. Simply said, the world’s standards – not the Lord’s -- become their own. Adam and Eve led the way to the loss of innocence. Since then, every generation has been given a chance to gain it back.

Children, in general, gain the basic moral and emotional foundations of life from elementary and high school. College merely adds more knowledge and a sense of sophistication. Hence, early on, we attain a more or less completed character or personality that is necessary for good or meaningful social behavior, ideally that is. What we were at around 12 years of age – give or take 5 to 7 years -- somehow defined what we are morally now in essence. A diligent person learned early to be so as a child. Conversely, a criminally-minded adult came to be so from teenage years. Many of our habits and even mannerisms we have had as children.

For most cultures, the traditional age range of 18 to 21 marks the point when a person starts to lose parental-control and gains self-independence. Young enough to be excusably childish at times, yet old enough to make responsible decisions. Interestingly, it also signals what many refer to as the age when one is allowed to lose one’s innocence. The fact that it now occurs at 14 or 15 bothers many people. How does one effectively admonish a pubescent kid to convert into a child in order to enter the kingdom? As a high school teacher, I did so in so many ways and on so many occasions. I know at least two instances when lack of self-control led to teenage pregnancies. A sudden and tragic way of losing one’s childhood and innocence at a time when life begins to beckon.

Perhaps, the ancients had it so right when they gave their daughters into marriage at 12 or 13, at an age when every person who has ever been young knows the impossibility of dousing the blinding fire of carnality. Ironically, today we have succeeded in teaching people to wait as long as they can until they are emotionally and financially capable to marry. Yes, marriage can wait but, sex? There are many ways of hiding in the guise of false innocence or of lessening the inescapable guilt from the loss of it. We are adults expected to be adults and not, as the good Lord said, children of the kingdom. Yet the Lord clearly said: no impure thing enters the kingdom. God doesn’t have to prevent us; our own guilt prevents us from entering. Claiming back our innocence is the key.

We live in a time of freedom, of experimentation, of cloning and of extreme experiences. The senses seek to taste the knowable as well as the unknowable. What we can have – money, pleasure and power – we must have. Why not indeed? What we cannot have – the infinite power to have and to create what we want – we may have. Who cares for such things anyway? Only adults do, not children.

(Photo above: Cotton clouds above dead pine tree and house in Baguio City.)

Passion and Jubilation

Holy Week to us when we were kids meant keeping silent the whole week. And especially when Good Friday -- the climax of the whole Catholic celebration -- came, a single peep was met with the admonition, “Silence! God is dead!”

Imagine how hard it was for kids with excess energy to be kept on a leash for almost a week inside the house; and that when school vacation had just begun. It must have been so stressful for us and our parents, especially my mother who was ready to maintain the solemnity of the feast with a belt.

Throughout the whole of Philippine society then, or at least in our small, gentle city of Dumaguete, the theme of Christ’s death was held with such respect and sobriety as to bring up the use of that common expression “you look like Good Friday” to describe someone with a sad face.

As part of the whole cultural phenomenon, Passion plays and biblical movies played in plazas and theaters as there was no TV yet. Twilight processions paraded the slain Savior in a glass casket in candle-lit streets crowded with people singing hymns. All of those to play up the sufferings that one man did go through so many years ago.

Holy Week was beyond any doubt, a repeated scene in my childhood that instilled not merely respect but also acceptance of the historical significance of the Gospel story. Yes, in spite of moments of atheistic spells in my adolescence. When the prodigal son finally came home, passion took on a different connotation.

Today, after having gone through several transformations in my spiritual belief, the passion of past Holy Weeks has turned into a less somber or death-shrouded period of meditation. Not because so many people nowadays spend the time more in gay outings or unabashed merriment, but because the missing part of the whole story – that of the resurrection – has taken a fixed hold of my mind and soul more than the death had ever done.

As a child, I acted like a child, Apostle Paul once said. I am glad I had those experiences and visual memories as a young boy for they led me to real faith in God. I only wished they had an equally effective way of removing all the pain and pathos they had inflicted on me when Easter Sunday came. Palm Sunday had seemed joyful enough; yet the thought of an empty victory parade into Jerusalem could not prevent the spirit from eventually going down the way to Via Dolorosa. After all, the irony of children singing Hosanna and people waving palm fronds at a man riding a donkey was heaven’s way of giving in to the powers that ruled the City of Peace which was also the City of the Prophets’ Tombs. Christ did not enter it to merely proclaim victory but to submit Himself to those who would bring to fulfillment His entire mission.

Yes, today, a lot of people make a big thing or a big show of the resurrection as a religious feast or as a historical-cultural phenomenon. Sunrise services and grandiose celebrations accompany its arrival. One day to erase and undo all the evil that Jesus bore for us all. But it fails to impress any person who suffers enough everyday and awaits the salvation promised to those who persevere in tribulations. Not the reality and the significance of the resurrection but the empty display of religiosity by so many who when confronted with the burdens of life once more live like there never was a death and a resurrection at all. Passion and jubilation as a mere cycle like the passing of the seasons and yet no real harvest of righteousness in surrendered lives.

The often repeated line in Paul’s letters to the early Christians glorying in the cross of Jesus (“I endeavored to know nothing among you except Christ crucified.”) has somehow led many believers to remain in the throes of the passion of Christ. It is not merely culturally acceptable and theologically accurate, it is also essentially appropriate for creatures bound to suffer and die. Humans that we are, we glory in the wounds of Christ for even the Apostles taught and lived that way. So it seemed.

However, in the context of Paul’s letters, we find that he was talking to unstable and struggling disciples for whom he suffered through his work. He had willfully borne the pain that Christ Himself bore so that those people might attain a maturity that would no longer require them to “glory in death” but to “glory in life”. Somehow, many disciples matured and we see this reflected in the succeeding letters of Paul and more so of John, whose vision of Christ surpassed all others in its sublimity and perfection. Not that suffering no longer held power to transform and discipline but that the level of transformation had reached a point where pain and suffering no longer held any direct challenge within the absorbing reality of eternal life in Christ.

Thus, Paul would write to the Colossians: “Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Likewise, John would proclaim to us all “perfect love” where “there is no fear”. Within such concepts, death loses its sting and dreariness. And there is no less passion in it either but a greater compulsion to reach out for the completion of our spiritual journey.

Hence, the unproductive cycle of Passion and Jubilation engendered by ceremonial practices by denominations tends to keep us bound within easy and comfortable zones. Yet, at the price of depriving us of the liberating experience of what the gospel is all about.

It’s all about life and the absence of death, pain and suffering. The victory has been won and well secured. Why compel ourselves to dwell anymore in one minute of virtual crucifixion, of pretended pain or of unfounded fear as if to offer Jesus again on the cross? No need to relive history; only to proclaim it.

Jesus Christ rules in heaven. The more we look up to where He is, the better for us all. Then we can truly live each day as if death never existed. Hallelujah!

(Photo above: Children in their innocence picture the indestructibility of life. Of such is the kingdom of heaven.)

Creating Real Wealth that Spreads

Question: If, as the Bible states, God gives the ability to create wealth, what about those who do not receive the ability or those who do not desire wealth at all?

Answer: The question involves two kinds of people: those who (whether they are aware of divine principles or not) have desire (noble or otherwise) for wealth and those who have no regard (noble or otherwise) at all for wealth. In between are people who either swing from one extreme to another and countless other people who simply struggle through life without much concern for principles regarding personal financial management.

The above Q&A lays down the basic problem that besets many people whether rich or poor. Wealth, in the end, refers not merely to material possession but the possession of the ability to "create wealth" for the benefit of as many people as possible. It also suggests possession of moral virtues required for wise stewardship of earthly goods. For there are those born into wealth who do not have the least concern for the needs of the working class or the poor in general. Yes, they are wealthy but they do not have the kind of wealth that truly benefits people and society as a life-supporting-structure. These people who do nothing but make money out of their money only to spend it on their own pleasures do not serve society's future but in fact are obstacles to the distribution of true wealth.

God blesses those whom He wishes to use to bless His people. For instance, when God called Joseph to become the right-hand man of Pharaoh in Egypt, it was not to make Joseph or Pharaoh rich (although the latter was already rich). Neither was it to make Joseph rich. The main object was to save two nations in a time of natural calamity. Joseph served his role as manager of material wealth he did not own nor had any inordinate desire for. His moral training before he was given that role came in the most painful way: rejection from his brothers and imprisonment. With unselfishness, justice and competence, he ruled in Egypt and made a legendary dramatic and moral story.

God, in essence, gave Joseph that ability to create wealth. Whereas there would have been nothing left (not even life) during a seven-year drought, He used Joseph to create prosperity even through times of need. The ants know this economic art by nature but many of us have no real training for preparing for the future. It does not take too much faith or too much spiritual maturity to save something for future needs but less than 10% of our population practices saving money. Saving, as a matter of fact, involves the simplest form of creating wealth at least for the immediate future, something that God magnifies in many parables and proverbs in the Bible.

But the question still remains: How can one save if one does not have money at all or money to spare? Creating wealth presumes the ability to make money out of what we have. (Nobody can make money out of nothing -- only God can.) And yet we do have so much in us that we can use to create wealth. What are they? Let us enumerate them:

Our God-Given Human Resources

1. Artistic Talent

Visual and performing artists have talents that allow them to attract people who are willing to pay to watch their work or hear their performance. The production of movies, musicales, art publications and other related things prove beyond doubt the amount of wealth that artistic talent has generated and continues to generate. This simply means that God has given certain people talents that serve economic, cultural and spiritual purposes in human life. Imagine how boring life would be without music. Still, so much of what we might call talent seems overrated due to opportunists who use commercialism to create wealth for themselves -- the same attitude of greed that enslaves those who misuse riches.

2. Business Acumen (e.g., Investors/Entrepreneurs)

The “children of this world” are said to be “wiser than the children of God”. That is, in the management of money. One can only serve one master. For in the end he who wants to serve Mammon will have to sidestep so many of heaven's decrees in order to make it in this material world. The wealthy pierce themselves with so much trouble, this has been proven over and over again.

But this does not mean that Christians cannot become good or successful businessmen. In fact the churches have progressed well into the present millennium because of the proliferation of believers who have the means to support the work of preaching the word. Hence, to a certain degree, God uses numerous wealthy believers to create the wealth necessary to sustain His work of propagating His message throughout the world. He is not out to make super-rich individuals who will carry the burden of financing His mission but countless people (including the poor) who share the burden of giving. Still, the effort is hampered by the divisions among believers. But that is another story altogether.

3. Employment/Self-employment

For many of us, employment serves as the source of our living. Those who have the wealth (the government included) pay for our time spent working achieving certain objectives. As fast-foods clerks, janitors, grocery baggers, drivers, architects, contractors, bank managers or presidents, people derive income from employment. God has created the various structures of society to create the wealth that we think we do not have but in reality share in and enjoy every moment of our lives. Go to the public market and observe the seemingly chaotic atmosphere and you will realize that this daily orchestra provides any community the essential structure that sustains our physical existence. And when you do realize this, the cacophony turns into beautiful music to the ears.

In the final view, God is the only creator of wealth for without His wisdom nothing would have existed to provide for all that we all take so much for granted. Or sometimes those we so proudly claim to be of our own doing. For wealth can so easily delude us to become strong, powerful and proud that we forget where we got what we have. And the ordinary factory worker is no exception when it comes to this kind of deception. Aren't there people who spend their entire weekly pay on alcohol because they think they "own" what they earned? As we said, saving (and investing) creates future wealth but spending unwisely destroys our future.

The secret then to financial independence lies in understanding who and what creates wealth. Everything else follows from knowing how people in the past and the present created wealth that spreads and not wealth that burdens and eventually kills.

The Irony of Financial Independence

Ironically, it becomes obvious that there is no such thing as independence in finance. We can never think of making or having money without giving thought to others. The father earns a living not for himself alone but for the entire family. The businessperson makes profit not just for the family but for the community. The government imposes taxes not just for the present community but also for the future generations, ideally speaking.

Financial independence has a tendency to place in people's mind the idea of "my money I can spend freely in any way I want". This is nothing but selfishness. This is the curse of consumerism. A person saves enough to buy a fancy car. Or a pair of Ferragamo shoes. What for? Durability? Higher resale value? Yes, in certain instances, the more expensive a thing is, the more value in terms of quality compared to cheaper goods. But in most cases it is merely pride and vanity. Somehow this speaks of self-oriented wealth both for those who create overpriced products and those who buy them.

What about the man who sold his BMW so he can help build low-cost houses for the homeless? Yes, that is charity. An exceptional act of personal sacrifice. Still it emphasizes the financial dependence of others upon those who have. For we cannot have total independence without considering the dependence of those who suffer from want. And there are so many of them out there.

Think of wealth then as a tool or as a means for creating more wealth in terms of completed lives. Lives that would have no existence if not for the food, clothing and dwelling others may share with them.

Some nations do not have the kinds of problems the Philippines has in terms of poverty. In fact, the reason many leave these islands is because wealth is more easily accessible in some countries. More accessible indeed! Why? Because their governments know how to spread the wealth around in terms of free education, health insurance, efficient services, excellent tax management and other social benefits. Not that there are no greedy people in other countries. It is that more greedy people manage our national wealth than in most countries. No wonder that others are well-off and we remain poor.

Conclusion

For a nation to be truly free politically, culturally and economically, God must lead the way in creating wealth that spreads. The only way this can be done is to raise up more and more people who are willing to part with their wealth and not just hoard it. That is, people who invest in future wealth directly in the lives of others and not invest in their own selfish and wasteful desires.

This question remains: What shall it profit a person if he/she should GAIN the whole world and lose his/her own soul?

(Photo above: Bayanihan or communality originated from the Filipino practice of neighbors literally carrying a bamboo house to another location.)