Is God Fair?

I still ask this question up to now.  I don’t think that it is a sign of questioning Him nor not believing in Him, it is more of asking for answers for questions we all fail to answer.  I believe in God.  I believe that He created the earth, living creatures, other planets, heavenly bodies, the whole universe and other forms of life (and non-life) that we have not yet seen.  I believe in Jesus Christ His Son.  I believe in life after death.  I believe in Heaven, Hell and purgatory.  I have faith in God.  Although, I do have my faith in Him, I still question certain events that affect my faith in Him.

·      Why did He allow all these to happen?

   (Tsunami 2004)

this… (Haiti 2010)

this…(Chile 2010)

this…(Ondoy 2010 - Philippines)

this… (Poverty)

this…(Terrorism)

and countless more...

Why? Are these tragic events His way of telling us to repent?  Is this how the way He unleash his anger towards our sinfulness?  If He is a loving God then why all these? If we have caused all these, then why can He not simply magically erase our inequities?  He created everything and I’m sure erasing our human weakness would not pose a big problem.  It would be a simple task for Him.  Does God simply watch over us?  Does He wake up one morning and think of unleashing another catastrophe while He is up in the Heavens sitting comfortably?  Why does He allow evil things to happen so freely?  Why did He create evil in the first place? The poor gets poorer and the rich richer.   Some would say God is dead that is why our world has gone topsy-turvy.  We are on our own.  Why all these?

My answer is...I DON'T KNOW!  Although, one thing is for sure - I HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE IF I  STILL BELIEVE IN GOD in spite of all these calamities, tragedies, and misfortunes that are happening around us. If believing in Him means losing my life, SO BE IT!

Do you want to get pruned?

My mother loves her garden.  She makes it a point that she tends to her “friends” in her garden every morning.  What she usually does is prune them.  To prune a plant means to cut the branches, clip, trim, reduce some unwanted parts or remove something unnecessary.   This must be a painful process for a plant, I guess.  Just as this particular plant has reached its maximum height, generated branches and stems here and there or blooms and develops to maturity my mother would never have second thoughts to snip and clip them.  Watching this process each time I had a chance to visit my mother in her garden made me kind of angry towards her so I finally asked her one morning why would she do such a barbaric and hostile act.  And she told me that it was so silly of me to have thought so.  She said, that by pruning you have added health to a plant and increased its beauty. Pruning is essentially the act of discarding old plant materials to allow the plant's resources to build new growth. When a plant has been alive awhile it usually has parts that are older and less vibrant than other parts of the plant. You probably have seen plants that look tired and have a dichotomy of looks. Part of the plant looks vibrant and green and other parts look dark green or brown. This is due to the fact that these older "stems" are not able to maintain what is fed to them by the root system as well as they once could. So pruning then is the act of removing damaged or old foliage from a plant in order to strengthen it. This ongoing procedure will make a garden or landscape get stronger and stronger.

Ok! I admit that it was so silly of me to have even thought that my mother was barbaric and hostile towards her plants.  Well, how should I know? I don’t have a green thumb. The point is, my mother prunes her “friends” in her garden in order to make them stronger.  I thought about it while I was going back to the house and I figured that not only plants need to be pruned but also myself – my life, our lives!  We need to always look into ourselves and search for areas that need to be clipped and snipped.  I thought that if I want to live righteously then I need to be pruned every now and then.  And it’s going to be a painful process.  It takes  considerable effort and time to deal with areas in my life that need to be changed.  It takes swallowing my pride.  We cannot change overnight.  One will take a long time to change a particular habit that one has already been accustomed to doing for years.  It will take a lifetime.  So many times I have heard of people who have given up in the pruning process.  They would say, “what’s the point of changing if I would eventually slip and go back to my old ways?”  I, myself, am even tempted to give in to this state of mind.  I do get tired in pruning myself.  I do get irritated each time I get to do things that I am not supposed to be doing.  I do get frustrated each time I give in and fall down over and over again.  I do get upset, aggravated and disappointed at myself over things that I lost control of. 

Despite of all my shortcomings, at this stage of my understanding about life, I have never entertained the thought of giving up.  I have never thought of losing hope.  I have never thought of not getting up each time I fall.  Why? Because I know that the pain and sacrifices of pruning myself will not be in vain.  I believe that the rewards will be great.  I may or may not get these during my time here on earth but I am confident that I will get them eventually in the afterlife.  St. Paul in his letter to the Romans speaks of his own struggle to do good.  He wrote:

“Brothers and sisters: I know that good does not dwell in me, that is in my flesh.  The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not.  For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.  Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.  So, then, I discover the principle that when I want to do right, evil is at hand… Miserable that I am! Who will deliver me from this mortal body? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

                                                                             Romans 7:18-21; 24-25

Even the great St. Paul had his own share of difficulties to do good.  He struggled until the end.  He didn’t give up. He allowed himself to get pruned in order to remove the bad habits  in his life to make way for the good and morally upright habits to grow and strengthen him to become a good Christian.  He was steadfast and unwavering in his faith to Jesus Christ as his deliverer and savior from his wickedness and iniquity, which caused his struggles.  Pruning is a painful and long process.  Nevertheless, knowing that our uncomplaining attitude towards the pruning process will not be in vain then we’d rather get clipped and snipped for as many times as we needed to be.  My mother loves her “friends” in her garden that is why she prunes them every now and then to make her garden get stronger and stronger.  God loves me that is why He wants me to get pruned so that I can grow, realize my full potential, find the meaning of my life and become the person He intends me to be.

Do you want to get pruned?

A Dangerous Prayer

Posted below is a reflection of today's Gospel reading (Matthew 6:7-15) taken from my "Sabbath" book.  I took the liberty to post this one since it is best for all of us to know the importance and true essence of the Lord's prayer since this prayer, I believe, is one of the most overused prayers that we Catholics pray along with the "Hail Mary."  

Sabbath 

February 23, 2010

 Tuesday

A DANGEROUS PRAYER

A visit with a pilgrim group to Jerusalem always includes a moment of reflection on the Mount of Olives where the “Our Father Church” commemorates that moment when Jesus taught this prayer to His disciples. On the walls inside and outside the Church, you can find the Lord’s Prayer in more than 60 languages, including Tagalog. We usually sit down there and think about this profound prayer. Then I read a text I got years ago, I don’t know anymore from whom. And this text makes us aware how dangerous a prayer the “Our Father” actually is. Here is the text:

         “Do not say FATHER if every day you do not behave like a son or daughter.

Do not say OUR if you live isolated in your egoism.

Do not say WHO ARE IN HEAVEN if you think only of earthly things.

Do not say HOLY BE YOUR NAME if you do not honor Him. 

Do not say YOUR KINGDOM COME if you confuse Him with material success.

Do not say YOUR WILL BE DONE if you do not accept it when it is painful.

Do not say GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD if you are not worried about the people who are hungry, who are without culture and means to live.

Do not say FORGIVE US OUR SINS if you bear your brother a grudge.

Do not say AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION if you intend to keep on sinning.

Do not say DELIVER US FROM EVIL if you do not take position against evil.

Do not say AMEN if you do not take the words of the OUR FATHER seriously.”

A dangerous prayer, don’t you think so? The next time you recite it, take note of what you are actually saying. Otherwise it becomes what Jesus calls in today’s Gospel passage: a “babbling of the pagans. ”Fr . R u d y Horst, SVD

SFC ICON LIVE 2010

Inspired, moved, excited, challenged, awesome, fun, cool, entertained, absorbed, captivated, marvelous, thankful, grace-filled, renewed, encouraged, loved and life-changing.  These are the words that best describe the event and my 1^st experience of SFC ICON (Singles For Christ International Conference) encounter at Davao city.  It was a 3 day event and not a single spot of boredom spoiled my experience at the encounter.  I thought about writing down my ruminations at some point in the event but I fell short in coming up with words, phrases and sentences to capture my moments of “AHA.”  I simply wanted to go with the flow and carelessly give my all to God.  I believe, this is how we are supposed to act when we worship the Lord.  We cast away all our worries, fears and doubts.  We don’t have to follow a series of steps to be able to connect to our creator.  We simply have to unplug ourselves from all our usual routines and become open, bare, exposed and stripped down to nothingness if we want to receive God in our lives.  And that was exactly what I did at the SFC ICON along with the other 5,000 delegates from all over the Philippines and some countries around world.  SFC ICON is a huge gathering of believers.

I didn’t cloud my mind with preconceived notions whilst listening to the talks from invited speakers, who themselves are also Singles For Christ members (long-time active, committed and dedicated members).  I thought that if I would have a yeah-I-already-know-your-point-so-what-because-I’m-better-than-you attitude at the same time as the speakers then I would never appreciate the points taken during their talks.  So I simply shut my trap and listened.  And boy did I listen! I learned that I am not alone in my struggles to live in the fullness of life in Jesus. I realized that I am not alone in my constant exertion of effort to live righteously and live life to the fullest.  I took in the impression that I can also get something inspirational from people who are not in my league.  I became conscious of the fact that I need a community of believers who will support me in my spiritual maturity.  I accepted the importance of support and becoming good influencers to each other.  I recognized the tininess of my anxieties compared to other’s concerns and, much more, to God’s glory.  I acknowledged my nothingness to God’s magnificence.  In a nutshell, I was humbled by the experience.

My SFC ICON encounter had allowed me to appreciate the vision, advocacies and mission of CFC’s Singles For Christ.  It is best to become a single for Christ than to become a single for something or someone else.  It is best indeed!  As a neophyte in the SFC community, the ICON is, somewhat, a culmination of my initiation in becoming a full pledged member in this community of believers.  Right there at the event, I made a promise to God and myself to remain sober for Him, for as long as I can.  I will continue to fight the good fight.  I will never give up just as God has never given up on me.  I will immediately stand up each time I might fall.  I will never get tired of dusting myself off with the remnants from my fall.  My SFC ICON encounter served as my kick-off to my earnest and resolute observance for this Lenten season. This is such a perfect time for me and I thank God for this.  Finally, I can now answer the question that was thrown at us by the speakers during their talks.  We were invited to fill in the blank: “Fullness for me is ________.”  It took me a considerable amount of time and effort to answer such a very simple question.  Some people would answer “Fullness for me is to have a dream job.”  Others might say “Fullness for me is to have a happy family.” 

My fill in the blank is: “FULLNESS for me is TO BECOME EMPTY” – One has to become empty in order to receive the fullness of God’s eternal glory!

Our battle cry for 2010 is to LOVE FULLY! To love as Christ loves.  SFC ICON LIVE 2010 Davao city - I'm proud to say that I was there!

The Sabbath for Man not Man for The Sabbath.

"The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath"

                                                                                Mark 2:27

When I was young, waking up as early at 6 o’clock on a Sunday morning was as a huge sacrifice on my part.  I was used to waking up at 5 am on weekdays to prepare myself for school, because our school is situated 15 kilometers away from the place where we once lived, and waking up early on the weekends (particularly on Sundays) would somehow require my mother to  morph herself into a menacing human alarm clock, ready to knock me out of my drowsy and sluggish mode, out from my resting chamber on a beautiful and peaceful Sunday morning to attend the Holy Sunday mass at our cathedral.  Although I was always hesitant to wake up early to attend Sunday Masses, this routine has already become a habit.  A good habit indeed, except of course that it isn’t a huge sacrifice on my part anymore.  Before I was hesitant but now I am expectant to wake up early on Sundays.  It is now a part of my system that I must attend neither midmorning nor noon nor afternoon nor evening but early morning Sunday masses.  My Sundays will never be completed if I don’t get to attend early morning Sunday masses.  Thanks to my mother’s persistent, pushy and sometimes relentless Sunday morning wake up calls.

Not surprisingly, there were times (and there always will be) that I wasn’t able to fulfill my early Sunday morning obligation.  These were times that I got so busy and slept late the day before and I couldn’t wake up early the next day.  Although, I still try to make it a point that I would attend the Holy mass later that day but the feeling wasn’t right anymore.  My mind would be so occupied with the day’s concerns and, surely enough, I would also find it so hard to focus since my mind is already full.  Now, this brings me to a particular issue that points about our attitude towards Sunday masses.  What are the reasons why we Catholics are so lazy to attend Sunday masses.  Listed below are some of the reasons:

·      1. You’re so busy with your work, job or business that you still attend to these concerns even on                Sundays.

·      2. You’re family is not complete and you couldn’t afford to let the public see you attend Sunday masses if your family members are not complete.

·      3. You don’t have anything fancy to wear.

·      4. You just broke up with your boy/girlfriend and attending Sunday masses meant eternal loneliness to you.

·      5. You think that you are rich and famous and you don’t want to go to your church because going there meant sitting together and rubbing elbows with the dirty, smelly poor people.

·      6. You have an unexpected guest, which you have to accommodate first.

·      7. You don’t understand the meaning of the mass.

·      8. You don’t like the way the priest gives his sermon and you don’t understand what the lectors are saying in the mass.

·      9. You don’t believe in God.

·      10. You believe in yourself alone!

 God is everywhere, so why will you bother attending Sunday masses?

We have so many excuses why we can’t afford to spend for, at least, an hour at the church on Sundays.  We have to do this and that and we have to go here and there.  It appears that the Sabbath, as a day of religious worship, should agree with our routines.  It’s the Sabbath day that must be adjusted and instead of us adjusting otherwise.  Jesus is clear to point out that we are not created for the Sabbath (and we always misconstrue this).  We are not created by God just so he has people to worship Him.  He didn’t create us so that God can live and be God.  God didn’t create us so that He can exist.  In fact, God will continue to exist even if He didn’t create us.  He will still be God even if we don’t recognize Him.  And worse, He doesn’t need us , really!  He is still God even if Sharon Stone doesn’t recognize Him.  He is still God even if Brad Pitt doesn’t recognize Him.  He is still God even if President Obamma doesn’t believe in Him.  God is God!  The infinite. The Alpha and the Omega.  Period!

Accordingly, if this is the case, we are the most ungrateful creations that He has ever created if we couldn’t dedicate at least 1 hour of worship to Him every Sunday.  This isn’t so hard right?  We can sit and watch movie for 2-3 hours everyday but we can’t afford to sit inside the church for at least an hour once a week.  God gave us the Sabbath day so that we can connect to Him as a COMMUNITY OF BELIEVERS.  It’s a gift truly given to us not for God’s own satisfaction but for our own benefit.  As Jesus said, “…where one or two are gathered in my name, there I am in their midst.”  So, there’s nothing like praying together, worshiping together, singing together and asking for God’s help and forgiveness together.  Isn’t it nice to have this kind of chance to be with God as a community?  But very few people are able to realize the significance of this Holy day.    The Sabbath is for man (and not man for Sabbath) and, yes,  we have every right to refuse  in accepting this truth.  We can go on with our own  beliefs and live freely as human beings.  Nothing and no one is holding you back from not honoring the  Sabbath day.  But then again, do you have anything to lose if you could just at least offer 1 hour of your precious time each week to the Lord?  I believe, back in the days, there was only one schedule for Sunday Masses and that would be early in the morning.  But because our world is ever evolving, there are now different schedules for the masses to accommodate the schedules of different people with different lifestyles.  Same goes with other non-Catholic denominations (they have morning and evening Sunday worships).  There are even churches that celebrate the Holy Mass every hour on Sundays.   We can now also watch the celebration of the mass on TV -- LIVE!  There might also be some websites that offer live streaming of the mass accessible not just through our computers but also our hi-end mobile phones.  So you see, what more do we want to ask?  Maybe, soon we might demand a more personal encounter by inviting priests to come over to our houses to celebrate the mass every Sunday (God forbid!).  Sunday masses/worships are already adjusted according to our own convenience and it’s a shame if we couldn’t offer our precious 1 hour on this day for, at least, once a week.

If you’re a non-practicing Catholic then you must think of these:

·      “What’s keeping you from attending Sunday masses?”

·      “Do you have anything to lose if you attend Sunday masses?”

·      “Do you understand the mass?”

…and if you have any questions about the points/matters I have discussed you can email me at raccoon_glc@hotmail.com.  Or better yet, do your own research. :)

P.S. The picture posted above is our very own Christ The King Cathedral here in Tagum city where I sometimes frequent.

Enjoy life!