A Sacred Space

Posted on November 21, 2014 by Spirit Moments

The volume of pedestrian traffic usually determines whether a certain location is good for business. Thus, because of the high volume of pedestrian traffic around churches and temples, these places often and soon enough attract businesses of all sorts. I am thinking of the Quiapo Church in Manila, the Marian Shrines in Antipolo and Manaoag. In medieval Europe, many towns and cities were gradual accretions in the vicinity of monasteries, shrines and churches.

Now, the reverse has also been happening in the Philippines. Where there is heavy volume of pedestrian traffic, chapels and places of worship have started sprouting up. There are now chapels, complete with Sunday masses, in all the major malls. There is the EDSA Shrine in Ortigas Center. There is the shrine of Padre Pio close to the Eastwood.

Both situations make me uncomfortable. I agree that God can be found in all places anytime. One only has to seek Him to find Him. But when one goes to pray, it should be on sacred and holy ground, properly attired and with the proper behavior. My prayer to God can be every moment. But I would want to devote a special time and space dedicated just for Him and for me to encounter Him fully. For this reason I love my Sacred Space and Time.

How sweet to my taste is your promise!
~Psalm 119

Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out
those who were selling things, saying to them,
“It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer,
but you have made it a den of thieves.”
And every day he was teaching in the temple area.
The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people, meanwhile,
were seeking to put him to death,
but they could find no way to accomplish their purpose
because all the people were hanging on his words.
Luke 19:45-48

 
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Jerusalem

Posted on November 20, 2014 by Spirit Moments

Jerusalem was in the news again the other day when five people died and eight more were wounded in a brutal attack on a synagogue there. The two assailants were also killed. It was a tragic and a very ironic event. Tragic, because of the senselessness of it all. Ironic, because Jerusalem is the Holy City for Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike. How can all these people, believing in one God and proclaiming His greatness and love, be forever at each others throat? How can such a holy and revered place be a sign of so much contradictions? Indeed, like Jesus, one can only weep in sorrow.

At this very center of where God had revealed Himself to us, He challenges us. Can we have a faith stronger than all the biases and prejudices that have kept us separate and isolated from one another? Can we have a love that is stronger than all the anger and the hatred we might have caused in each others’ hearts? Beyond our differences and disagreements, can we not see that we are all brothers believing in the same God who made us all?

And all this carnage and hatred has been going on centuries with no signs of abating. Will it even end at all? What will it take to heal all the hurts and ease all the sufferings in the Holy City? I have no answers but the pain I feel in my heart. I bring this pain to my Sacred Space and offer it to God.

Let the faithful exult in glory; let them sing for joy.
~Psalm 149

As Jesus drew near Jerusalem,
he saw the city and wept over it, saying,
“If this day you only knew what makes for peace–
but now it is hidden from your eyes.
For the days are coming upon you
when your enemies will raise a palisade against you;
they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides.
They will smash you to the ground and your children within you,
and they will not leave one stone upon another within you
because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
Luke 19:41-44

 
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Laws of the Universe

Posted on November 19, 2014 by Spirit Moments

There are certain laws and principles that govern our daily lives. We violate them at our own peril. We are aware there will be consequences – dire or desirable – to our actions.

Like, what you do not lose, you lose. The law of atrophy. Muscles that are not used get shriveled us. Money not invested loses it value through inflation. A heart that is not used gets hardened and stops feeling.

Or, the law of attraction. It is in the nature of bodies to attract. Like attracts like. Thus, to one who already has, even more is given or comes to him. A joyful person attracts more joy. A miserable person attracts more misery.

Or, the law of karma. What goes around comes around. You reap what you sow. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.

But all of these laws are trumped by faith and love. With faith, one can move mountains, bring the dead and atrophied back to life and attract anything and everything. Love cancels karma, brings riches to the poor, power to the weak and happiness to those in sorrow.

Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Holy, holy, holy Lord, mighty God! ~ Psalm 150

Jesus replied, ‘I tell you,
to everyone who has, more will be given,
but from the one who has not,
even what he has will be taken away.
Now as for those enemies of mine who did not want me as their king,
bring them here and slay them before me.’”
Luke 19:26-27

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Different Ways of Seeing

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Spirit Moments

Our date night movie last night was Big Hero 6. It was entertaining and the production value was excellent. Animation has gone along way from the childhood cartoons I used to watch on TV. The plot was simple and pretty straightforward but there was a ring of deep truth to it.

Now, anyone watching the movie knows that this is a work of fiction, a totally invented fantasy world. But at the same time, any moviegoer will also see the truths the movie is telling its audience. One of these truths is that what and whom we love never leave us. What we love becomes part of us. People we love will always be in our memory or in our hearts or in our genes. Things we love become part of us. If we love beauty, we become beautiful. If we love courage, we become brave. If we love giving, we become generous.

The biblical account of creation is not a scientific treatise telling readers exactly how the world was made. But it conveys the truth of a Creator who made the universe and everything in it out of nothing. It tells us of a Creator who brought us into existence out of love and who shares a part of Himself with us that we may also become like Him, made in His image and likeness.

There are many ways of seeing. One can see with the eyes. The blind can see with their touch. And there are those who see with their hearts. Those who are short take up vantage points to see – like Zacchaeus did. Those who are tall stoop down to see. In the dark, we need light to see and in the brightness of the sun, we need shades. Happy the person who sees beyond the senses and into the deeper nature of things.

I will seat the victor beside me on my throne.
~Psalm 15

At that time Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town.
Now a man there named Zacchaeus,
who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man,
was seeking to see who Jesus was;
but he could not see him because of the crowd,
for he was short in stature.
So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus,
who was about to pass that way.
When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said,
“Zacchaeus, come down quickly,
for today I must stay at your house.”
And he came down quickly and received him with joy.
Luke 19:1-6

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Spiritual Blindness

Posted on November 17, 2014 by Spirit Moments

I recently met a man so full of himself. He revels in his talent and shares them generously. But he gives me the impression that he feels the world owes him the acclamation and adulation he thinks he richly deserves. Like, the world would stop just to listen to his words and wisdom. I used to be so full of myself too. I guess I saw a bit of my old self in this person. And there are surely some people who would still know me as someone so full of myself. I was blind then but now I see.

We recently feted a great man who has just retired after many years of service in the vineyard of the Lord. He is known to be a simple, humble, and a holy man. He is the very personification of an ascetic person. He saw and shared in the sufferings and travails of the people he served. He would see the need where most people don’t. He would go to serve where many people wont. He would see things not just with his eyes but also with his heart.

We have a close family member who is battling with a dreadful disease right now. She has kept her conditions mostly to herself all this time, not wanting to cause any worry or trouble to others. But it is sad how I would miss out on the sufferings of loved ones until it is too late. This is a spiritual blindness that can be cured by a simple caring question or a loving touch or just being there to really see.

About two years ago, I got a Thanksgiving greeting from a dear friend from my yesteryears. It came out of the blue and I was deeply touched but I did not follow up. Recently, I tried getting in touch with her again but I could not anymore. I am now wondering whether that call from two years ago was a call for help, a cry for assistance. Sometimes, I can be blind to such calls and cries.

I am often blind. I have my sight but my self preoccupation often prevent me from seeing many things happening around me. This spiritual blindness makes me miss out on the more important things in life. Indeed, there is no one so blind as one who would not see. I make the prayers of the man by the roadside in Jericho my own:

“Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!”

“Lord, please let me see.”

Those who are victorious I will feed from the tree of life.
~Psalm 1

As Jesus approached Jericho ,a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging,
and hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what was happening.
They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”
He shouted, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!”
The people walking in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent,
but he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me!”
Then Jesus stopped and ordered that he be brought to him;
and when he came near, Jesus asked him,
“What do you want me to do for you?”
He replied, “Lord, please let me see.”
Jesus told him, “Have sight; your faith has saved you.”
He immediately received his sight and followed him, giving glory to God.
When they saw this, all the people gave praise to God.
Luke 18:35-43

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The Ocean

Posted on November 16, 2014 by Spirit Moments

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Often, I tend to intellectualize my spiritual life too much.  This tendency then gets me into difficulties like the problem I have with the Parable of the Talents. So God Has given me talents, is He really like an accountant or a manager who will demand an accounting of how I managed His assets? What is the acceptable ROI for Him? What if I just gave everything away for free and not made any profit? Would I also be thrown into “the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth?” I do not want to be doing good in expectation of a reward, like “There are others I know who in piety go

because of a Heaven to follow.” I hate it when I am asked to rate my own performance. And neither do I think highly of those who would rate their own work excellently.

There is also a rebel streak in me that is adverse to authority and wary of authority figures. I usually hate being told what to do. If someone wants me to walk a journey with him, let him be my friend and I will walk to the ends of the earth with him. If someone wants me to do something, let him paint me an exciting vision of what it is we will do together, and I will give without counting the cost, labor and not ask for reward, toil and not to seek for rest until the project is accomplished and done in an excellent manner.

Fr. Abe used to share with me that the spiritual life can be likened to the ocean. I imagine myself adrift on the ocean in a boat, with no land in sight and surrounded by nothing but the blue waters and the blue skies. I look over the horizon – the ocean just seems to reach up and to meet the sky. And I am one with the scene. No reasoning. No intellectualizing. Just being part of the vastness and beauty of the spectacle. I have need for nothing else.

Or, better yet, I imagine myself simply immersed in the endless waters of the ocean. The water envelopes me. I simply look at my talents and I am washed over with feelings of gratitude for such gifts. I enjoy seeing my accomplishments and I am flooded with feelings of humility and fulfillment for the gift of being able to share in God’s creative activity. I imagine all the people I have done these achievements with and the people for whom I have done them, and I smile and am filled with love for having been blessed to be able to do good with, for, and by others.

I thank God for my talents. I shall not let them go to waste. I thank God for the people in my life for whom the talents have been put into service and I will explore still other ways of doing so. I thank God for His generous outpouring of gifts, blessings and talents on me and doing it all because of His great love for me. And whatever and everything I do with these talents, I will do to reciprocate that great love I have been shown and given. And where there is love, there is no need for any accounting.

Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
~Psalm 128

Jesus told his disciples this parable:
“A man going on a journey
called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them.
To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one–
to each according to his ability.
Then he went away.
Immediately the one who received five talents went and traded with them,
and made another five.
Likewise, the one who received two made another two.
But the man who received one went off and dug a hole in the ground
and buried his master’s money.”
Matthew 25:14-18

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Cosmic Encounter

Posted on November 15, 2014 by Spirit Moments

Most scientists acknowledge the fact that randomness rules the universe, from the continuous galactic explosions that give birth to new stars to the quirky spin of sub-atomic particles shooting off hither and thither. And yet, in the world of Newtonian physics in which we live, the law of causality reigns supreme. In his classic laws of motion, Newton postulates that an object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction, unless acted upon by an outside force and that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. There is always a reason for anything happening.

I experience the same disconnectedness in my life. On the one hand, my birth seems to have been a random event. There is no particular reason why I am here. And my death will probably be a random event, with me not knowing the time nor the hour of my demise. But everything else in between my birth and my death can be explained by a reason. And many of the things I do, I have done because I had a reason for doing so. More importantly, I have a free will when using reason to decide what to do.

So how can reason and free will come or emerge from such quirky and random events as sub-atomic particles? Come now two highly regarded Princeton mathematicians, John Conway and Simon Kochen, who claim to have proven that if humans have even the tiniest amount of free will, then atoms themselves must also have some form of free will and thus behave unpredictably.

It seems to me then that I can view my life as a random event, a one in a million chance happening, never again to be repeated; or, I can view my life as part of an intelligent cosmic design and plan and that I am here for a reason. Between randomness and reason, I find the latter a more logical and simpler explanation. I choose to believe that I am here for a reason.

The leap of faith is as much a conundrum as the phenomenon of randomness. My faith tells me that the Author of the cosmic plan is a God who is a person interested in me in particular. He has loved me and planned for me to be from the very beginning. It may not be clear to me now but He has a role just for me to perform. He took on our form and mode of existence to teach us all of these truths. He meets us when, where and if we are ready to encounter Him. I only need to look deep inside me to know Him and feel His presence. In prayer. Unceasing prayer. And not losing heart.

Blessed the man who fears the Lord.
~Psalm 112

Then Jesus told them a parable
about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.
He said, “In a certain city there was a judge
who neither feared God nor had respect for people.
In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying,
‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’
For a while he refused; but later he said to himself,
‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone,
yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice,
so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'”
And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says.
And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night?
Will he delay long in helping them?
I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them.”
Luke 18:1-8

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Universe Unfolding

Posted on November 14, 2014 by Spirit Moments

The fog, rainbows and primal particles all seem so ephemeral but they are the stuff reality is made of. They may be fleeting but nothing could be more permanent. As long as there is water, there will always be fog and there will always be rainbows. The primal particles, unseen, just keep on beating. Matter is never destroyed. The particles just vibrate and spin in a different frequency and different harmony with other particles.

And so is the transitoriness of life itself. A beautiful flower blooms today and is gone tomorrow. But it leaves behind seeds to start the cycle of life all over again. The seasons come and go. But it is the same cycle of spring, summer, fall and winter over and over again. And through it all happens the gradual unfolding of the entire universe according to the design of the creator – from the big bang to the fulfillment of His words of creation: Let it be!

With all my heart I seek you; let me not stray from your commands.
~Psalm 119

Jesus said to his disciples:
“As it was in the days of Noah,
so it will be in the days of the Son of Man;
they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day
that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.
Similarly, as it was in the days of Lot:
they were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building;
on the day when Lot left Sodom,
fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy them all.
So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed.
On that day, someone who is on the housetop
and whose belongings are in the house must not go down to get them,
and likewise one in the field must not return to what was left behind.” 
Luke 17:26-31

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Seeing Beyond the Senses

Posted on November 13, 2014 by Spirit Moments

The other morning, as we were on our way to bring Jonathan and Jane to school, there was a thick fog that enveloped the Santa Clara valley. It was so thick I could barely see more a few feet ahead of me. And as we drove into it, there was water condensation on the car’s windshield and rear-view mirrors. And yet, as we went through it, it looked like it wasn’t even there at all.

Rainbows are beautiful and I saw several of them on our recent trip to Hawaii. They are sometimes but a vague formation on the horizon. At other times, they are bright and distinct arcs suspended against the blue sky. They sometimes seem to pierce in and out of the clouds and, at other times, the arcs look superimposed on the clouds. I have even seen multiple rainbows which are simply awesome. And yet, to get the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is impossible for the rainbow moves or dissipates the closer you get to it.

Matter is tangible and palpable to the senses. It can be touched, often seen, smelled and sometimes heard. But as you drill down into its component parts, it eventually dissipates and disappears and become invisible to the senses. At its smallest level, matter is but the endless beating of energy, almost like it is not there at all if one tries to observe it.

And so it is with He who made the fog, the rainbows, and the particles of matter. I do not see nor touch Him but I can see Him in the wonders He has caused. I can see that there is a lot that is wrong in the world. But I can see and feel His presence in the many more things that are going right in this world. And the latter far outweigh the former. Many seek His presence in the heavens or in the after life. I can sense His presence and His wondrous deeds in my here and now. For I was not, and He made me to be. I could have been blind to all the beauty and goodness around me but He made me to see. I could have been alone and so lonely but He gave me friends and family to keep me company.  I could have just been bored to death but He gave me to explore an endless marvel of a paradise on this earth.

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.
~Psalm 146

Asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come,
Jesus said in reply,
“The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed,
and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’
For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you.”
Luke 17:20-21

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Gratitude

Posted on November 12, 2014 by Spirit Moments

A loving heart is a grateful heart.
I thank the Spirit that always hover over me
For the many blessings I have received, most of which are undeserved and unmerited.
For my family that has been the source and the reason of who I am.
For my friends who have been the instruments for my becoming who I am.
For the many people I have met for they have all been part of my story.
For each day that I am being given until now.
For every piece of nature that I have become a part of.
For the life and the love that makes me want to live for yet another day.

May I never succumb to the temptations
Of feeling entitled to all the good things happening to me for everything is gift.
Of expecting all the blessings to just come to me without exerting any effort.
Of giving and sharing because I want something in return.
Of missing the presents that come in small packages, not being grateful for them.
Of sometimes being so hurt and bitter to stop being thankful.
Of always wanting things my way as to be ungrateful when things happen otherwise.

May I live all the days of my life with a “Thank you” on my lips.
Grateful for all the life and the love I am continually blessed with.

The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
~Psalm 23

As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem,
he traveled through Samaria and Galilee.
As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him.
They stood at a distance from him and raised their voice, saying,
“Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!”
And when he saw them, he said,
“Go show yourselves to the priests.”
As they were going they were cleansed.
And one of them, realizing he had been healed,
returned, glorifying God in a loud voice;
and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.
He was a Samaritan.
Luke 17:11-16

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