God's Plan

Last Palm Sunday, the responsorial psalms came from Psalms 22: 8-9, 17-20 and 23-24.

All who see me scoff at me;

they mock me with parted lips, they wag their heads:

“He relied on the LORD; let him deliver him,

let him rescue him, if he loves him.”

Indeed, many dogs surround me,

a pack of evildoers closes in upon me;

They have pierced my hands and my feet;

I can count all my bones.

They divide my garments among them,

and for my vesture they cast lots.

But you, O LORD, be not far from me;

O my help, hasten to aid me.

(image source: vikasacharya.wordpress.com)

 Widely known to have been written by King David during his reign of Israel around the years 1,055 t0 1015 BC, the words were strikingly and accurately detailed in its prophecy of how our Lord would suffer the extreme sacrifice and utter disrespect at the hands of His creation. There is no single iota of doubt for any believer how God has planned our salvation since the beginning, how the ancient prophets who listened to God’s messages will precede Jesus coming and how Jesus will suffer the penultimate penalty of suffering and death as a ransom for our deliverance. Through the years, God made sure that His eternal plan for us will happen by anointing people, repentant sinners and saints alike, to prepare Christ’s coming and to propagate His salvific mission long after His resurrection. From Abraham to Noah, to Moses, to Saul, from David to Solomon and to all the prophets up to John the Baptist, despite their constant failures, remained focus in sharing and doing their part to fulfil God’s mission. 

God has a plan for each one of us!

As the prophet Jeremiah was called by God by saying “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.” (Jeremiah 1:5), so we can also be assured of His calling for each one of us.

He plans for us to live fruitful and significant lives.

He plans for us to be one of His apostles in this ever-changing world where materialism and Godlessness prevails.

He plans for us to be His disciples of hope and love amidst people of indifference and apathy towards others in need.

He plans for us to follow His call to faithfulness despite the difficulties, challenges and weariness in our own lives.

But like God’s original plan for our salvation, He needs our cooperation for Him to accomplish this.

He can only work on us if we are open to His inner workings in us.

And so He lovingly waits for each one of us.

Will you accept His invitation?

The Man of the Hour

On December 8, 1941, the then Japanese Imperial Army launched their invasion attack on the Commonwealth of the Philippines. It was the start of a 3-year brutal and inhuman atrocities by the occupiers on the hapless and helpless poor Filipinos. It took the famous return of Gen Douglas McArthur at Leyte Gulf to regain their liberation. But the human cost during the occupation was so devastating with an estimated 1 million Filipinos dying, more than 10,000 American-soldier and more than 250,000 Japanese-soldier casualties. The Japanese resistance went on despite the victories by the Fil-American forces until the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed by the United States on August 6 and 9, 1945 respectively.

It was the last straw.

Japan finally surrendered and signed the Instrument of Surrender with many leading countries at that time.

That was September 2, 1945.

As destiny would have it on this same auspicious day, our beloved Dad, Silvino C. Santos Sr., was also born. It was a peaceful time to be born yet the difficulties and uncertainties of nation rebuilding hangs on every Filipinos mind. But, with the loving perseverance of his parents and his determination and hardwork, he finished his studies at the University of the East and was able to be employed at Marcelo H. Del Pilar School where he met his future love of a lifetime – our mom. After getting married, they would have planned for a one-boy-one-girl child family but we ended with a basketball team (4 boys + dad) and with a muse (our mom). From then on, it was just an avalanche of trials and challenges but he piously stood his ground as the head and provider of our family, a steady sail and rudder that gave us all spiritual direction. 

When we were growing, Dad would give praise when it is due and would discipline us when it is necessary. He slowly inculcated in us the virtue of hard-work by admonishing us to participate and contribute to the house chores and small family businesses even it means just giving change to customers, washing dishes or running errands. On the other hand, he freely allows us to play our hearts out with friends when there is no chore or work to be done. He did not supervise us or look over our shoulder when we were out with our friends. Instead, he puts premium on his trust on us that we will not make any stupid action that can harm us, our family or others. In return, my brothers and I valued and kept this unspoken father-and-son trust unblemished (ok, so we maybe did some crazy stuffs then but nothing at the “serious” level). We eventually turn out to be fine young men.

Fast forward to today, our Dad, is celebrating his 70th birthday, a remarkable and memorable milestone for him and for our family. All four of us his sons are now well in our own family way. Not that Dad has totally left us each on our own, instead he (and mom) simply took more steps backwards to make sure we do things on our own yet always and still ready to give advice if something is amiss. I guess the father-and-son trust is still at play in our family.

Maybe for some, being 70 means sipping a cold pineapple juice while pushing back and forth on a cozy comfort rocking chair watching the sun setting over the horizon. This is not true for our Dad. With 10 young grandchildren in our circle, there is simply no time to rest for him as he continues his latest role as the doting grandfather Papa Ben to each one of them. He still opens, attends and closes their small convenience store and delivers cooking gas to his clients everyday. He keeps his mind whirring by keeping abreast with world and national news and politics. Just a few days back, he received a recognition plaque and medal from his alma mater  MHPHS alumni group for many years of coordinating and organizing their reunions and projects. Recently, he was browsing the net on bungee-jumping and sky-diving as part of his future activities but we are strongly opposed to these extreme sports since these are detrimental to one’s health – our mom.

Cheers to our Dad on his 70th birthday!

We are so blessed and proud to have a father with integrity, humility and piety by our side all these years and in the years to come.

We love you po!

God bless you always. 

Geometry of True Wealth

In the pentagon figure without any given length of sides or angles formed, what is the sum of all angles inside? To solve this trivial question, we must choose to remember and apply a basic geometry rule – that any given triangle has a sum 180 degrees for all 3 angles. Then, we choose one vertex and draw imaginary lines to its opposite vertex to create triangle figures. By “dividing” the pentagon, 3 triangles can be made. Therefore, 180 degrees x 3 = 540 degrees; it is the sum of all the angles of the pentagon.

In our life, the ambiguity of how to gain true wealth can also be solved by applying the same approach to this geometry problem. We must adhere to the basic biblical rules of contentment (trust in God) and generosity (gratitude to God).

Contentment

Indeed, it is necessary to be contended so our figure of wealth will not uncontrollably grow more than we really needed it to be able to live a simple life. We must pray and be on guard against our fears and greed for these two can ignite our desire the love for money. Hebrews 13:5 reminded us to ““Let your life be free from love of money but be content with what you have, for he has said, I will never forsake you or abandon you.” God knows our needs and He will provide. Therefore our focus on wealth accumulation is only towards meeting our needs and not to be immersed and to get lost in wealth's exponential growth. The key words here are “be content with what you have”. This simply implies we still need to work in order “to have” but we do not need to keep on working when we already have what we need.

Related bible readings:

Matthew 6:19 - “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal.”

Luke 12:15 – “Then he said to the crowd, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.”

1 Timothy 6:9-10 – “For we brought nothing into the world, just as we shall not be able to take anything out of it. For the love of money is the root of all evils, and some people in their desire for it have strayed from the faith and have pierced themselves with many pains.”

Generosity

In the geometry problem solution, we needed to “divide” the pentagon to be able to see the sum of its angles. Just the same, we need to always “divide” also our financial blessings in order to find our “true” wealth. This “division” of wealth should translate to sharing our wealth for the betterment of our neighbors in need. 1 Timothy 6:18-19 attest to this biblical truth – “Tell them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, ready to share, thus accumulating as treasure a good foundation for the future, so as to win the life that is true life.” When we use our financial blessings to “store up treasures in heaven”, our life will have a meaningful purpose that is in-line with God’s divine purpose.

Related bible readings:

Matthew 6:20 – “But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal.”

2 Corinthians 9:6-7 - Consider this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each must do as already determined, without sadness or compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

In all, contentment leads us to share and sharing leads us to a meaningful life.

Then we gain our true wealth.

God bless us all.

Healing

photo from google with credit to celebrationspublication.com

Read: Mark 1:40-45.

The story of Jesus’ healing of the leper reveals us three “conditions” that happened during his miraculous healing.

Approach

“A leper came to Jesus…”

A lot of people has the wrong notion how be “healed”. They turn to get a quick-fix albeit temporary solution to their ailments. At the on-set of an ill-feeling, popping the pill always comes first to our mind. When family strains happen, the first option for some men is to turn to alcohol and for teenagers to resort to drugs or bad company. When somebody gets slighted by a remark or action from the people around them, they hold their grudge and plot their revenge or intentionally ignore the other person. When someone they love so dearly is taken away, they revert to isolation and depression.

On a personal note, I do admit my guilt, that there were times that when my work or business presents a difficult situation, I spent more and more time on it, staying up until early morning to resolve the matter. I would even sleep on it. Sounds OK, isn’t it? But soon I will realize that I haven’t even lifted up my problem to God to begin with and was just trying “my best” to turn it around. But once I pause in a quiet prayer to seek His guidance, I do experience a light-bulb moment. I get a fresh new approach that works better!  

Consequently, when the “first” options we took start to fail, then we start to look for God’s healing because only then do we realize that we cannot be healed on our own.

At the first sign or symptom of any physical, emotional or spiritual ailment, our first choice must be to come to Jesus and to seek His healing and guidance.

Acknowledge

“kneeling down begged him and said, “If you wish, you can make me clean”…. “I do will it. Be made clean.”

If and when we do come to Jesus, the next question we should ask ourselves is if we do really believe that God can heal us, not necessarily on our own terms, but on how we will fit into His over-all divine plan. Let us face it, coming to Jesus isn’t a guarantee that our life-threatening stage 4 cancer will go into a sudden remission, or that a broken relationship will abruptly be mended. A few and a handful of documented unexplained recovery from life-threatening situations do happen like the leper that was “immediately” cured of his physical abnormality. And like the leper situation, our faith dictates that their healing happened because it was what Jesus wanted to happen. Like the leper, we too must truly and heart-fully acknowledge that God’s plan for our healing will only come in accordance to His will.

It is His will foremost and not ours.

In the end, if things do not happen as we would have wanted, may we keep our faith and find comfort that God’s will was fulfilled despite the absence of healing.

I remember the story of the Eduardo Zabala who lost 11 members of his family to supertyphoon Yolanda in 2013. The Yolanda tragic figure has transformed himself into one of his town’s emerging community leaders, organizing fishermen in his village by helping them heal and recover from the devastating effects of the massive storm that destroyed most of their fishing boats (source: PDI March 30,2014).

He accepted God’s “painful” will and gradually turned his life tragedy into a life-giving blessing thus giving inspiration to his fellow survivors.

Announce

“The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter. He spread the report abroad…”

Bingbong Crisologo, who lived an unlawful past, was healed and has become a Charismatic Catholic preacher. He attributed his spiritual healing to God’s mercy and love and has never turned his back on Him ever since. It isn’t any wonder that an effective alcohol-abuse counsellor is one who was once an alcoholic himself. Isn’t it that one who can serve with deep empathy towards orphans is one who experienced being without parents as well? A cancer survivor knows what a cancer patient is going through. A former bankrupt person knows the helplessness of not knowing where to get their family’s next meal. A widow knows the pain of losing a loved one.

Be God’s witnesses so that others may know about God. We must realize and respond to His purpose for being healed. Our own life testimony must attest to His merciful healing. The uniqueness of our individual situation shows that our personal experience has been blessed but, at the same time, tasked to testify to others for them to know or re-connect with God.

When God said in Romans 8:28 that, “We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”, I believe He also meant to imply that our healing must serve His divine purpose so others may also experience God’s healing through us.

May we experience God’s healing this Lenten season.

God bless.   

(My reflection is inspired by the Feb. 15 Sunday homily of the EDSA Shrine priest whose name escaped me as of writing)

Voice-Over

Do you remember Fender and Rodney?

Fender was that indefatigably annoying and funny robot that helped a young dreamer, Rodney Copperbottom found his mission in life.

How about Alex and Marty?

They were that best buds Lion and Zebra who always turned their misfortunes away from home into hilarious misadventures of fun and friendships. And amazingly, they always pull through their tough times.

What about Woody?

He is that favourite yet insecure cowboy toy who learned that friendship and being there for his owner Andy is the most important part of his toy life.

Want to know these great characters share in common?

Well, they were all voiced-over by prestigious, ubiquitous and successful actors.

Fender was the late Robin Williams

Rodney is Ewan McGregor

Alex is Ben Stiller

Marty is Chris Rock

Woody is Tom Hanks

The actors’ talent and presence has undeniably given the characters the huge lift to become household names for kids and kid’s at heart (ehem).

Tomorrow, the Philippines is in pope-mania fever at the arrival the world’s beloved and well revered Pope Francis. In the coming 5 days, not a single household or TV station will be without a pope topic and viewpoint to discuss and share.The national government as well as the Catholic Church are all busy as ever to make sure that his visit will be safe, meaningful and fruitful towards attaining his papal mission of mercy, hope and compassion.

This is why I admire him more for always reminding the faithful to reduce and minimize his image and presence wherever he will go. Instead he always emphasize that our focus must be on the Lord our God, Jesus Christ and on our conversion and change of heart to become good Christians.

Pope Francis, like the 260+ popes before him, is but a humble vicar and representative of Christ here on earth.

Like St John the Baptist, he is but a voice in the wilderness shouting about the goodness and the salvation of the Lord.

We are indeed blessed to have and to be visited by Pope Francis.

May a deep personal and spiritual renewal come to all of us by God’s presence in him.

God bless. 

Christ is Christmas

Our family loves our gold fish.

We bought them last January for Zek’s 10^th birthday. Well, actually, both he and Aim really wanted a puppy, a cat and a pair of birds….and a horse..and a pig…and lots of chickens. In short, they dreamt of putting up a petting farm inside our 40 square meter flat. Heaven forbid that their dream come to fulfilment for I dread competing with a pig in my snoring-sleep and walking over those nose-wrenching organic wastes on our floor. Not to mention the angry petitioners from our neighbors who’d swear this weren’t their idea of city-living when they bought their flat-units.

Anyway, for almost a year now, we have the serene, quiet and well-behaved companionship of our fish in the safe confines of a fish-bowl. We clean it regularly. We placed white sand and a few rocks. We are adding some water plants now and then. Zek intently observes the fish behaviour and throws out random questions like – “Why do they keep opening their mouth as if they are talking me?” or “Don’t they get tired of swimming?” Aim, on the other hand, often fights his great urge to dip his small hand into the bowl and scare the wits out of them by creating a mini whirpool.

And as for me, I do marvel at how they waited like clockwork for their feeding time. They would make a surface-up group-swim everytime they see the green round container that holds their fish food. They would squish and squash around and get really excited.

Aren’t we also excited this time?

Well, we should be.

It’s barely a week to Christmas day.

The tell-tale signs have been showing the past weeks. Promo sales here and there. Heavy-traffic doubling in size and duration. Malls and houses decorated. Streetlights adorned with colourful flashing lights. People buying gifts. Parties and dinners being held left and right and “diet” is declared a fallacy. Airports at full-capacity due to arriving holiday-makers. Santa is a common sight around. People put up a better effort to be nice.

But here is a last-few-day reminder for us to be really excited for the right reason.

More than two-thousand years ago, our God of love has fulfilled His promise.

In a few days we will celebrate the incarnation of our only salvation.

So how should we show our genuine excitement?

On these days, we must share our joy and our blessings to our less-fortunate neighbors.

On these days, we must sing songs of joy to Him, receive Him through the sacraments and celebrate His Holy Eucharist.

On these days, we must find the elusive time to be quiet alone with Him and in the silence of our heart - talk to Him, thank Him, praise Him.

Jesus Christ, our God and Redeemer.

We love you.

Merry Christmas to all of us.

Beautiful NAIA

While queuing at the OFW counter of the airport immigration, one officer

broke the pervading silent and gloomy ambiance.

"Para po sa maayos na pag-check ng immigration, pumila lang po tayo ng

maayos at huwag magsabay-sabay sa paglapit sa Immigration officer." 

However, upon seeing a wife distancing herself from her husband, she quickly quipped, "Pwede po magsabay basta legal wife."

She then went on, "Paglapit naman po sa immigration officer, ibigay nyo po

ang inyong mga dokumento AA." Seeing the our bewildered looks, she

continued, "AA is Agad-Agad." Smiles and giggles started filling the hall.

The officer has another reminder under her sleeves. "Bago pa man po kayo

lumapit sa immigration office ay mag fill-up na po kayo ng inyong mga

departure card NN." Sensing that we are now all waiting for her punchline,

she smilingly said,"NN - Now Na."

By this time, she successfully has gotten our attention so she finally

narrated how she wished all of us well in our respective trips, that she

knew we are all sad because we are leaving our families behind and that we

should save with passion so we can go back to our families at the soonest

time possible. She even intimated that she went to stay in Canada before but

she chose to go back because she misses her family so much.

"There is no other place like home, so come home soon", she tenderly

reminded us.

Whereas our premier airport has been notoriously battered the past years

with bad ratings and impressions due to poor facilities and services, there

was an unappreciated beauty unfolding in front of us.

Salamat po, Ms. Abesamis of the NAIA 2 Immigration Department.

Hindi nyo lang po kami napasaya habang nakapila sa pag alis ng bansa,

pina-alalahanan nyo pa po kami na mahalin ang aming pamilya.

You make NAIA (and the Filipinos) proud and beautiful.

God bless po.

It's All In Your Hands

Many centuries ago, two teenage boys decided to play trick on one of the wise old philosopher who wandered about the Agora, or market place, of ancient Athens. They captured a tiny bird. Afterwards, they approached the wise old man as one of them held the bird in his hands behind his back where the old man can’t see it. Then approaching the old man he said,”Wise man of Athens, I have in my hands a bird. Tell me, is it dead or is it alive?”

If the old man said,”Dead,” the boy would open his hands and let the bird fly away, proving the old man wrong. If, on the other hand, he said,”Alive,” then crunch! The boy would squeeze the little bird to death and then hold it up. They were quite certain that they could make a fool of him either way.

“I have a bird in my hands. Tell us, wise man, is it dead or alive?” the two boys challenged the old man. By noww a crowd had gathered to watch this confrontation of wisdom and foolishness.

The old man thought pensively for a moment, then looking into the face of the lad holding the bird replied,”I know not whether the bord is dead or alive, but this I know: Its life is in your hands.”   (taken from Harold J. Sala’s “The Parent Map: Navigating the Way to Raising Great Kids”)

Dear co-parents, our responsibility to bring up our children is so tremendous it could mean their success or “demise” in this troubled world. It is even “non-transferrable” (hint: school, teacher, spiritual counselor) and “non-delayable” (hint: when he/she is seven or when he/she becomes a teen). It’s a daily nitty-gritty-grinding head-butting decision to be the “best” parents we can be to their impressionable minds.

Sounds scary? Not if we seek daily God’s grace and strength for our family journey. After all, it is God’s divine plan that our children become “our” children, so His grace is sufficient for each one of us. And whatever we lacked or over-looked, we still can pray that God blesses the seeds of love we have sown in their hearts to overcome those.

God bless us families.

A Question of Essential

In the 2011 comedy movie “The Big Year”, the three main protagonists Bostick, Brad and Stu have chosen the same year to go for their “big year” in which they will have to travel the whole of North America trying to find and name the most bird species in a given calendar year. They share the same passion and drive to meet their goal. But their commonality ends there. Bostick who was the previous year’s record holder of 732 birds, was also on his second marriage wherein they are trying to conceive their baby. His bird passion turned into his obsession that led to the demise of his relationship. Brad, a struggling “underachiever” in the eyes of his father, turned his passion to improving his father-son relationship as well as finally meeting the girl of his dream during his course of birding. Stu, already successful as a CEO of his own company, used his passion to fulfill his dream, to gain friendship and to appreciate more his existing and ultimate passion - his family.

Do not let love and fidelity forsake you;

bind them around your neck;

write them on the tablet of your heart. (Proverbs 3:3)

We all have personal ambitions, individual passion, private pursuits or our own special goal that we believe can bring fulfillment and a sense of accomplishment. However, the question that we need to answer as well is - at what price are we willing to achieve that goal? Is our personal dream indispensable with what is truly essential – to seek first the Kingdom of God?

It is lamentable to note that a lot of powerful, famous, successful and influential people in world are also at a loss in their personal and spiritual lives. Powerful people in the government succumb to greed and corruption. Famous people battle vices and failed marriages. Successful career and business people are highly-risked to be alienated from their own family members because of lots of unspent times with them. Influential people suffers from secret struggles when the camera if off and they are alone.

All because their pursuits of personal ambition is not linked to the pursuit of heavenly rendition.

Before they know it.

The powerful is disgraced.

The famous are unfulfilled.

The successful has failed.

The influential is shamed.

And at deathbed, the emotional regrets out-pour with the slimmest chance of even being heard.

Sad but true.

Seventy is the sum of our years,

or eighty, if we are strong;

Most of them are toil and sorrow;

they pass quickly, and we are gone. (Psalm 90:10)

(Remarks: The world's one of the well-admired funnyman, Robin Williams allegedly took his own life after years of battling clinical depression. It is a mental ailment that is not related to his personal beliefs and life-goals but still leaves a sad mark in his grief-stricken family members. He was also a meaningful and funny movie hero to me. Zek and I love his "RV" movie about family vacation. Rest in peace, Mr. Robin Williams.) 

A Beautiful Love Story

We all heard the story about the wife catching his husband sniffing and sighing on their sofa before midnight. Realizing that it was their 20th wedding anniversary the next day and touched by his random show of afffection, she asked him why he was emotional. The husband’s dead-panned answer was that he remembered his wife’s father’s threat of 20-year jail time when they eloped and how a free man he would have been starting the next day.

Kidding aside.

I admit I was misty-eyed as I witnessed last month a wedding of two persons in love. The bride looked stunning in her gown and the groom was all smiles, happiness uncontained. All of us were giggling at how the groom can’t seemed to wait for the ceremonial wedding kiss as he kept on moving his assertive self towards his bride. Hindi makapaghintay, sabi nga nila. And when the officiating priest finally gave the clearance for the groom’s exploding desire to kiss his bride, we had to cover all the children’s eyes to help maintain their innocence.

I was misty eyed because the wedding is not for a newlywed but for the renewal of vows for my uncle and aunt’s 50th golden wedding anniversary. Yes, my aunt was stunning in her golden wedding gown and my uncle was all smiles in his toothless state, yet there I was witnessing how “love conquered all”.

I know since childhood that my aunt has always been a devout Catholic and was actively involved in Church activities but my uncle has been known in our circle to be “more holy” as he religiously served in another gathering where he is the “kristo”. My aunt is such a sweet lady but uncle was more sweet especially when asking some budget for his next kristo game. She was a very good cook and my uncle always brought home the “fresh” chicken after the games. Fond childhood memories kept filling my mind.

Tita Conching is like a second mother to me and Tito Lonie has nothing but fatherly affection for me when I was a child. They lived simply in their house beside the river come high tide or low-tide. They have six children and a handful of trying times. One of their children turned his back on his Catholic faith and joined another sect. One got pregnant out of wed-lock and their youngest, a namesake of mine, died very young a year before his own wedding plan is to take place. These are the only known and visible ones but it does not take rocket science to know for certain that they have more challenges, a lot difficulties and tons hardships during their 50 years of being together.

In an age where a mere wrongly positioned toilet paper or a forgotten month-sary is enough grounds for separation, my uncle and aunt stood humbly and totally in love in front of us, in sickness and in health, for richer and for poorer, to love and to cherish until death bring them apart.

Now that’s what my feel-good tears are for.

Congratulations to Tita Conching and Tito Lonie!

Mabuhay po kayo.

Saludo po kami sa inyo!

Ephesians 5:22-33

Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the church, he himself the savior of the body.As the church is subordinate to Christ, so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. So [also] husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the church,because we are members of his body.“For this reason a man shall leave [his] father and [his] mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.In any case, each one of you should love his wife as himself, and the wife should respect her husband.

For Aim

A few days ago, we bought our youngest son Aim his first bicycle with balancing wheels. Our young tot wasted no time to ride it around my father’s small garage. To give him more maneuvering space, I opened the gates and positioned myself halfway across the street for safety. Aim was having such fun that he started making shifty sharp turns that I felt the need to intervene. Slowly, I tried to position myself at his back to secretly hold the bicycle chair from the under. But as soon as Aim noticed my not-so-covert action, he gave me the cute wry smile.

“No, Daddy! ”, went his high-pitched soft voice with matching pouting face to boot. “For Aim only”, he continued.

Rewind from the not-so-distant past.

When Aim was learning to speak, he has accustomed himself to using the expression “for Aim only” if he wants to do things by himself. It’s “for Aim only” if he wants to color the book without our intervention. It’s “for Aim only”, when he is playing and his kuya Zek suddenly has the urge to let his giant hand spider crawl and disassemble Aim’s wooden train tracks. It’s “for Aim only” when he wants to eat alone using his spoon and fork.

Back to the present. 

So as soon as Aim blurted out his often-used expression, I have no choice but to back-off as well. But do you think I would have backed-off totally. No way, Jose!

I just kept a safe distance for me to easily jump to the rescue just in case Aim totally losses his balance. Well, he never did fall but when he reached a corner of the garage and realized he is stuck, he turned around and smiled, ”For Daddy only.” I was more than glad to lend a hand.

A lot of us can relate to this situation when it comes to our spiritual life.

When everything is good and all things are going our way, we often ignore and dismiss God into the farthest corner of our life. We bask in our happiness and dwell at our false sense of “for myself only” achievements. Then, we howl in disapproval whenever the spiritual prodding from God comes. Safe to say, everybody loves their own comfort zones.

But if we only keep an open and welcoming heart, we would come to realize that God’s close presence is not about imposing His will nor push-buttoning an abrupt power off to our happiness. The plain truth is that the cycle of life is always about ups and downs, success and failures, happiness and sadness. And it is precisely when we are about to go to another low point in our life that God’s has lovingly intended to keep us company, to catch our fall, to lend and support, to comfort and hold. But He cannot do this when we have already ask Him to stay clear of our lives during the “up-times”. Just as a mother proudly and lovingly follows her toddler who is learning to walk, trying to prevent any dangerous fall at each precarious step, so does God shares in every bit of our happiness even as He patiently wait to comfort us especially when the rough times comes in a swift sudden twist.

Our Prayer:

Dear Lord, please stay with me all the time whatever and wherever I am.

Share in my happiness and comfort me in my sadness. Amen.

Old Vs. New

“..that you should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth.” - Ephesians 4:22-24

Consequently, brothers and sisters, we are not debtors to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.  For if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." - Romans 8:12-13

One time I bought a handful of bolts and nuts and kept them inside my toolbox, mixed with the old rusty screws in one compartment. A few days later when I needed to use them again, I found out, to my dismay, that they have already become rusty as well. Being a technical person, I should have foreseen that mixing ordinary metals with rusty metals will undoubtedly lead to contamination.

Lesson learned.

After I got married, I have made a personal vow to live a pure and chaste intimate with my wife and my wife alone. Slowly, I veered away from all my previous college activities of “fun” activities of beer-drinking-to-get-drunk, men’s bar hopping, print-porn viewing and vulgar huddles. I believe with all my heart that for me to succeed, I must “put away the old self of my former way of life”. There were ups and downs. I would say that for ninety-five percent of the time, it is working for me. I also observed that the five percent instances when I was failing always happened during those prolonged times that I was away I from my family, a sad reality of being an OFW, and coupled with the easy accessibility of red-district websites. And so, to finally cut off even the slightest chance of any slip back, I made the irrevocable personal decision that wherever my wife and kids are, there I must be as well. No ifs and no buts. All for one and one for all. Not a slightest distance in between. So far and by God’s grace, I have more success with this basic life decision. Am I fully clean? Not by long shot. But the odds are much more favourable than ever.     

All of us have our own spiritual struggles and challenges because we are humans with natural tendencies towards the desires of the body and flesh. Men, in particular, are visually enticeable. The good news is that God’s grace and mercy are enough to help us turn back from our sinful tendencies, to put off our “old” ways and be “new” in everything that we think, say and do. Whether we are presently in a sinful situation or we are struggling to keep straight in our chosen path to holiness, God will be there to guide and to strengthen our resolve to persevere in doing good.

They key for us is to “put away” the occasion of sins. We all know that the well-known seven capital sins are more of seven occasional magnets to commit sins – pride, anger, lust, sloth, jealousy, envy and greed. We must avoid them altogether. It will even serve us better to search deeper on what really exposes us to these seven occasions so we can cut off the root even before the temptation sprouts. Remember that a sober and fully-recovered former drunkard will never dare to take that first liquor-sip again lest he put himself into high-risk of drinking again. No sip, no slip. We, too, must be fully aware of and admit our weakness in order for us to circumvent the teeny-weeny tiniest chance for us to desire to re-test the murky waters.

Sounds like a tall order, right?

Yes, but there is a way.

“Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will act.” - Psalm 37:4

“But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one” - 2 Thessalonians 3:3 

By our own strength, we will always give-in in the face of irresistible invitations of the flesh and body.

But with God’s strength and our faith, the impossible will be doable.

God bless.

I Do

He was thin, dark and shy.

She was slender, petite and friendly.

He was nursing a rejected heart.

She was a nursing student with an open heart.

He caught a glimpse of her gorgeous smile.

She pretended he was far by a mile (at least that's how he felt then).

He found himself visiting her in the days that followed.

She cordially accepted his friendship, meek and mellow.

Their friendship and love, as the years went by, blossomed and grew.

Finally after eight years, they were married as they exchanged "I do".

Yes, that pretty much sums up how I met my one and only ex-girlfriend and now the mother of my beautiful and wonderful kids. Those eight years of getting to know each other's best and promising sides while deepening and enriching our spiritual lives has become our strong marital foundation.

Now that we are on our 15th year as husband and wife, what a colorful and memorable journey it has been so far! We have been through a lot of mostly grace-filled ups as well as a couple of challenging downs that included one life-changing and heart-breaking loss. We have lived mostly overseas and met great friends with similar interests in life, love and living. But now that we are back in our motherland, we are now making some adjustments after our long hiatus. Our eldest who was home-schooled ever since, has to bear the brunt of my at-times impatient teacher-parenting, while my wife undertakes the daily grinds of the house up-keeping and the delicate and stressful art of home-making.

Once I asked myself what would I be now if I haven't met my wife.

By God's grace and mercy, I do believe that I'd still be a striving-to-be-a-good person mainly due to the consequential upbringing of our parents. And just like most of everyone, I would still be in pursuit of a meaningful life in whatever direction I would feel the Lord is leading me into. I would be fine, I guess.

But God has no plans for a "fine" life for me. He is not interested with me just getting on with my life. He meant for me to be able to reach my full potential. He has planned great things for me ever since.

Indeed, with my wife by my side and our ever-growing kids, I am becoming a better person, a better husband and a better father as time goes on. I am far from being perfect but the journey with her makes it all worthwhile and worth remembering. She always give me her understanding and support when I am struggling. She constantly prays for our family's safety and well being. She is my best friend and a true confidant of my innermost fears and frailties and my co-conspirator in my achievements and successes.  

In my lifetime, immeasurable and profound joy will always be with me because my ever-loving wife is with me.

Happy anniversary, honey!

Cheers for more, much more, forevermore years!  

 I love you!

Yes, it's you ...

You're the one in my life I've known

From the start that it's you I'd spend forever with

So please hold on with me...

You know so well that we can't last a day

Without each other

You're all I have and you're all that's there

To keep me goin'.*

-Side A band (with a slight lyric revision from my side)

Blindness

Blindness is defined as the state of being sightless. A blind individual is unable to see. In a strict sense the word "blindness" denotes the inability of a person to distinguish darkness from bright light in either eye. (definition from www.medicinenet.com)

When Jesus healed the blind man from birth, He answered the blind belief of the people and inadvertently exposed the other kind of blindness among the Jewish religious authorities of that time.

The disciples asked Jesus if it was the blind man's fault or his parent's sin that caused his infirmity. But the Lord dismissed both old beliefs and emphasized that it is in accordance to God' plan so that "the works of God might be made visible through him". He then proceeded to heal the man.

The man, subsequently brought to the Pharisees, testified before them how he was healed. But the Pharisees, blinded by their lofty pride and position in the community has rejected the miracle by accusing Jesus a sinner for not keeping the Sabbath and the blind man for false declaration that he was born blind. Except for a few, Jesus has always been a threat to their self-righteousness and tightly-held-yet-misplaced authority that they failed to see the very fulfilment of the prophecies that their ancestors have foretold. They failed to recognize and understand His preaching and miracles of love right in front of their eyes!

In our present times, the world has also offered us a lot of blinding lights to spend our lives. There is fame. There is money. There is power. The endless pursuits of these vanities have sadly side-stepped a lot of people's true purpose and calling in life which is to love God and love others.

Hopefully, in this time of Lent, may we unplug ourselves from the temporal blindness offered by the world and set our sight towards a more meaningful and worthwhile lives. May we distinguish the Lord's light in whatever life-situation we are into and avoid the alluring darkness that can make us blind.

'Di nalalayo sa 'yo ang tunay na mundo

Marami sa ami'y nabubuhay nang tulad mo

'Di makita, 'di madinig, minsa'y nauutal

Patungo sa hinahangad na buhay na banal.

-Freddie Aguilar

God bless.