Today is All Saints day, a celebration of all those who have followed Christ by taking up their cross daily, entering the narrow gate and passing through the eye of the needle. They have loved and served the poor and the suffering and have themselves tried to live like these poor and suffering ones. The world in contrast loves and serves the rich and powerful. The Church has always done well when it kept its eyes and heart focused on these that Christ loved: the least, the last and the lost. But alas, the Church has also succumbed to the temptations of the world and has at moments in her history have also lusted for riches and power. These moments often produced the darkest days and most scandalous periods in Church history. When this happens, the Church becomes dogmatic and even triumphalistic. I make the beatitudes my prayer today. May I never lose sight of the Suffering Servant nailed to the cross.
Today is also a day of remembrance for our dearly departed, specially our parents: Mama and Papa, Ima and Tatang. They may not have lived heroic lives in the usual terms. But any person who brings and rears another into life is a hero. Coupled to that fact, is the promise of Christ that whoever believes in him will not die but will live forever. Holding on that promise, I remember and am grateful not only for the gift of life I received from them but also the precious gift of faith.
The anti-thesis of Love is not Hatred but Fear. Fear breeds anger which leads to hatred. Our deepest fears are of death, poverty, pain, sufferings, isolation, unjust oppression. Christ took on our deepest fears and transformed them into blessings.
Remembering my loved ones who have died; their lives have not been taken away but transformed.