What Have We Done To Christmas?

Posted on December 23, 2017 by Spirit Moments

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As I try to insert myself into this calm and tranquil scene
and soak the peace and serenity,
the world around me is about to explode
into a frenzy of shopping, feasting and merry-making.

It is the end of the year.
People are rushing through their shopping
to buy presents, food and drinks.
Businesses are enjoying, not Christmas bells,
but the ringing of cash registers tallying up sales.
The frenzy is for more goods and material things
that are better, faster, fancier.
It is a never-ending cycle of growth and consumption.
It is supposed to make us happy.
But it is a very sad reality.
We live in a finite physical world,
and we fill ourselves with infinite wants and desires.
At the rate we are going, we either run out of resources
or we run out of space and burst at the seams.

Christmas was never meant to be like this.
The first Christmas was in a stable,
simple, humble, uncluttered and austere.
Many have already taken Christ out of Christmas.
And it is now the politically correct, “Happy Holidays.”
But Christ is really and actually the reason for the season.
And we have made this reason the reason for our wild dash to self-destruction.

If we listen to the message and meaning of Christmas,
we might yet save ourselves as a species.
I imagine myself there in the stable,
looking with marvel at the baby in the manger
– poor, humble, hardly noticed, on a quiet and silent night.
These are the thoughts that run though my mind:
Many gifts given are often worthless and unwanted.
Why don’t we give instead the gift of self and presence to those who are dear to us?
Many presents are ridiculously expensive and corruptive.
Why don’t we instead give experiences and memories as presents for dear friends?
Can’t we tone down on the feasting and the drinking,
and share what we save with others?

I wish everyone a simple yet blessed Christmas.

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Christmas Gift

Posted on December 21, 2017 by Spirit Moments

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Christmas will be in a few days.
It is a time for joy for many people.
Gift-giving, often lavish and extravagant,
helps to make the season bright.

Yet, the first Christmas was very simple and literally poor.
It was about ordinary women (Mary, Elizabeth), poor carpenters and shepherds,
no room at the inn, manger for a crib –
all considered austere and at the outer fringes of mainstream Jewish society.

But it was a joyous occasion celebrated by angels and wise men (not kings) from afar.
We need no gifts to feel the joy of Christmas.
The baby born in the manger is gift enough.
In fact, He is the only gift we need.

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Nature’s Selfie

Posted on December 20, 2017 by Spirit Moments

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I caught Nature one morning taking a selfie of herself.
She had no camera but the lake waters were calm and clear.
It was also a clear and chilly wintry morning with blue skies.
The lighting was perfect for for such a wonderful day.
The leaves still had their autumn colors.
And the waters reflected faithfully the blue of the sky.
Nature was resplendent in her beauty.
The colors and composition of the scene perfectly captured
the goodness – there was nothing that was out of place.
Nature was but reflecting the beauty and the goodness of her Creator.

The surrounding mountains complete the scene.
Gently rolling slopes covered with vegetation.
But the hue and tint of the heights was not green,
as it should be because of the trees,
but blue – the reflection of the skies above.
It was a clear day.
There were no clouds to block the view nor the sun.
The mountains were majestic in their grandeur.
Made of stardust, they bring life to everything
on, around, above, under and within them.
Nature, through the awesome blue mountains,
was but reflecting the grandeur of her Creator.

When I take a selfie and see the person that is me,
do I mirror back the beauty and goodness of my Creator?
am I awed by the grandeur and awesomeness within me?
yet, like Nature, can just keep calm and silent?
and perhaps utter a simple and humble prayer of gratitude?

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Promise And Fulfillment

Posted on December 19, 2017 by Spirit Moments

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It is a beautiful world. We only need to look at nature to realize what a great gift it is that has been given to us. It could only have come from the Source of Beauty. Deep inside us, we know that all of this could not have just happened by chance. And the exciting thing about all of this is that the best is yet to happen.

In the great love story between the Creator and creation, there is a recurring pattern or theme of Promise and Fulfillment. Men see the promise behind an event, place or person. And then, they see that promise fulfilled.

The Israelites were aware of the promises of Yahweh. And they Yahweh was faithful to His promises and always fulfilled them. In fact, He often even exceed that he has promised. The People of God had a special prayer, the Dayenu  which literally means “It would have been enough.” It would have been enough even if God just delivered a mere portion of what He has promised and they would have been immensely grateful. But no, God delivered on His promise in full measure. And then some.

In the Bible, another promise that also keeps recurring is the promise and prophecy of the birth of a child: Isaac, Samson, John the Baptist, and of course, the Child Jesus. The promise and the birth of a child was always a welcome event. Every child that is born is a whole new bundle of promises. This is the reason why the birth of a child is always a wonderful event eagerly awaited with much joyful anticipation.

What has come upon the world for this to have changed so?  Now, children – in many places and for many people – are seen as a burden, their coming delayed for as long as possible and in some cruel cases, even aborted. We are indeed a people in need of redemption.

The Savior needs to come and be born among. Now. Today

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The Coming Of The Light

Posted on December 17, 2017 by Spirit Moments

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“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;
for those living in a land of deep darkness, a light has shined upon them.”

Light is pure energy. Where light is, there is life. A new physics is emerging that would explain the origin of life. Jeremy England of MIT explains that “when a group of atoms is driven by an external source of energy (like the sun or chemical fuel) and surrounded by a heat bath (like the ocean or atmosphere), it will often gradually restructure itself in order to dissipate increasingly more energy.” He believes that this is the natural result of the law of entropy. Everything eventually breaks down. And entropy is not a destructive force but rather a creative one for it tends to dissipate energy throughout the universe.  “You start with a random clump of atoms, and if you shine light on it for long enough, it should not be so surprising that you get a plant,” England said.

Imagine the sun, burning in an almost unending series of thermonuclear reactions. When energy is released it radiates light all around. The light we get from the sun is the energy that makes life possible on earth. Light is life.

If light is life; then darkness must be death. Darkness is the destructive force in the universe. Physics also talk about dark matter and dark energy. And the thing is, dark matter and the ordinary matter we can observe (baryonic matter) tend to cancel out each other. And dark energy and light energy also tend to cancel out each other. But since the universe exists, there must be more of light energy than there is of dark energy. Because we exist, then light must be stronger than darkness.

This is heavy physics. And I am not even sure that I have captured it accurately. Not everyone would be able to understand this. But this is what the story of Christmas is telling. With the birth of Christ, we see the coming of the light. People living in darkness will see a great light. In simple terms, the Christmas story tells us that Christ brings us light as much as the sun makes life on earth possible because it bathes the earth with each light.

Christmas tells us that light is stronger than the darkness; that live is stronger than death; that love is stronger that hatred. The Baby Jesus brings us hope that all that we are afraid of (darkness, death, hatred) will dissipate and disappear before the power of His light.

 

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To Be A Hero

Posted on December 16, 2017 by Spirit Moments

P1520227Every epic tale since time immemorial has always involved the hero/heroine
going on a quest or a mission to rescue a princess, win a kingdom or save his people. Along the way, he encounters all sorts of difficulties and obstacles.
He is helped by a host of other people, many of them strangers.
He is distracted by still many others, some of whom are close to him.
In the process, he discovers himself and realizes
that the quest was after all his own self-discovery.
Thus, it is in real life.
We find ourselves only when we seek out the good of and in others.
That truth is subtly embedded in the story of Christmas.

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The Voice In The Wilderness

Posted on December 15, 2017 by Spirit Moments

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The world today is like a depressing wilderness.
Like a gloomy forest, it looks dark, dreary, cheerless.
The winding trails seem to lead to nowhere
What a dismal place! No one seems to care.

There are wars and conflict in many different places.
There’s fear and anxiety in people’s hearts and faces.
Filled with selfishness and greed, it’s each man to his own.
The weak and the helpless can do nothing but groan.

Yet in this wretched wilderness, there is a voice.
Proclaiming there is hope and we have a choice.
For out of the darkness, a blinding light will shine
The voice consoles us with His words, “You are mine.”

Out of nothing, He fashioned the stars and the heaven.
All that there is came to be when His word was spoken.
“Let there be light”, He said and there was light.
And His Word became flesh one cold December night.

 

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To Be Is To Love

Posted on December 14, 2017 by Spirit Moments

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“I think therefore I am.”
With one simple statement, Descartes has spawned a new school of Philosophy
and the rationalistic and scientific culture we see dominant in the West today.
It also explains the intense individualism (“I am.”) we see today,
specially in the US.

A more realistic philosophy is “I co-exist, therefore I am.”
Martin Heidegger, a leading Existentialist, described our human existence
as “being-with-others-in-the-world”.
The Buddhist Zen Master, Thich Nhat Hanh, has a name for this reality:
We are interbeings.

My being here is contingent on links to nature, people and God.
If nature were any colder, we would all be frozen stiff.
And if it were any hotter we would all be burnt to a crisp.
We need others to live as it takes at least a village to raise a man.
And finally, we need a Loving God who has made
this web and circle of life the wonderful experience that it has been.

Indeed, because of this Loving God, we can truthfully proclaim:
“I love and am loved; therefore, I am.”

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Pueblo Amante de Maria

Posted on December 12, 2017 by Spirit Moments

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This morning we joined the Spanish Community in our Parish in las mañanitas for our Lady of Guadalupe whose feast day it is today. And at the end of this week, the Filipino community will have their turn with the start of the Simbang Gabi on the evening of the 15th.

I have always been struck by the similarities between our culture and religious practices and those of the Mexicans. In fact, our brand of Catholicism has a stronger Mexican flavor than a Castilian character. Among Mexicans, Dia de los Muertos is an important day of remembrance of their departed loved ones, very much similar in tone and character to out undas. And I was amazed the first time I cross the border in Tijuana. It was like I was immediately transported back to Manila as soon as we drove over into Mexico from the US. The sights, sounds and the streets felt eerily family, like a strong sense of deja vu.

In the highly secularized societies in the West (i.e. the US and Europe), more and more people are becoming agnostics and even atheists in their religious outlook. There has been a growing falling away from religion and a sense of a spiritual life. Many churches are empty and people now worship in sports arenas or in concert halls. They go on pilgrimage to theme parks in exotic destinations.

But where there are many immigrant communities, the churches are alive and robust. Many parishes in the US and Europe (including Rome), it is the migrant communities that keep them open and alive. In Rome, many of the the Generalate and Motherhouse of religious orders are managed and run by members from countries that used to be colonies of European nations.

Bishop Desmond Tutu was reputed to have said, “When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said ‘Let us pray.’ We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.”

It strikes me as ironic and indeed the mystery of God’s ways that we are now bringing back the Good News to those from whom we have received it.

Marian devotions are very strong in both the Philippines and Mexico. Bot claim and profess to be Pueblo Amante de Maria. And Christmas is a dear and holy period for both people. It is time of hope and waiting for the Promised Redeemer. In the deepest part of their soul, our peoples know that they have been resilient in many adversities because of this hope and faith in this Promised One.

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Forgiveness In The Time Of Advent

Posted on December 11, 2017 by Spirit Moments

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Autumn leaves can be breathtaking in their explosion of wild colors. Somehow, falling leaves in Autumn remind me of the Advent hymn Rorate Coeli:

Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above,
and let the clouds rain down the Just One.

We have sinned and are become as one that is unclean:
and we have all fallen as a leaf,
and our iniquities like the wind have carried us away:
thou hast hidden thy face from us,
and hast crushed us in the hold of our iniquity.

Advent and the fall season remind us of our iniquity and the evil that lives within us. We are all in need of salvation. Advent is waiting for the coming of our Savior; just as Autumn is waiting for winter to come and usher in spring. Sinful as we are, we are in need of forgiveness.

The Second Sunday of Advent is about John the Baptist, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins to prepare the way for the coming Savior. Jesus would later preach about God’s forgiveness. He reveals God as the God of second chances, as the Prodigal Father who welcomes back His prodigal son even after he has squandered his inheritance in a dissolute life. Jesus would also challenge His followers to forgive, not only seven times but seventy times seven.

The world today is in need of forgiveness. And we also need to forgive one another. There is so much evil and much of it comes from a vicious cycle of greed, hatred, anger and selfishness. Everyone who get offended demands his pound of flesh in retribution. The seeking for retribution, in a corrupted sense of justice, would ask eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Even the golden rule of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you has been bastardized into the immoral practice of a preemptive strike: do unto others before they do unto you.

It is never easy to forgive. And some find it impossible to forgive. They nurture hurts and they nourish their hatred. The bile and the vitriol fester and then give rise to even greater offenses. The cycle of hatred and violence in many parts of he world often goes back for centuries because people would not forgive nor forget. In some places this anger and hate go back for millennia.

But there are people who have learned to forgive. They bring out the best in us. They show us that forgiveness is a sign of strength and not of weakness. Forgiveness is the ultimate sign and test of true love. Be it among peoples or between two loved ones. We are in need of forgiveness. God offers us unlimited forgiveness. In return, He desires that we also forgiveness does who offend us. This is the hope that Advent brings.

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