Passage Into Old Age

Posted on May 3, 2016 by Spirit Moments

Jesus said to Thomas, “I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you know me, then you will also know my Father.”
~ John 14:6-7

 In my younger years, this is how I would imagine what it was to be old: with cane in hand, the old man sits in his porch or on a bench in the park watching the passing before him of time, people and events. Alone and quiet, he watches and waits as life unfolds before him.

He feels his emotions but there is no one there to share them with. He is grateful for the gift of life, humbled for the many blessings he has received, joyful for the many happy moments and memories in his life.

He has many inspiring thoughts and precious insights but there is no one there with whom to share them. He has seen enough of life to have learned and lesson or two. He can express these lessons in ways no one else could.

He is alone but not lonely. He is quiet but there is a lot of noise within him. He is alert and watchful but neither is he a participating observer nor an observant participant of what is going on around him.

So he prays, sharing his feelings, thoughts and observations with God. In the solitude and silence, he carries a conversation with his God who has brought him here. But is he praying? Or just another old man talking to himself?

I have become the old man I have always imagined.

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Do Good Anyway

Posted on May 2, 2016 by Spirit Moments

Jesus said to the disciples,
“The hour is coming when everyone who kills you
will think he is offering worship to God.”
~ John 16:2

It is the conundrum of all ages: why do good men suffer and bad people prosper?

The choice for a Philippines President is seems to be a candidate who is more than willing to break the rules he vows to enforce if only to get things done; and the candidate who follows the rules is seen to be indecisive and lacking in charisma because his honorable lifestyle seems to be so unexciting.

I was once doing a project with one of the biggest agency in the national government. The long-term objective was to ensure there was honesty and transparency in their processes and procedures. I saw how government bureaucracy can be often times very slow and tedious because of all the rules and safeguards that have been put in place to prevent corruption. The good people wanted to follow all the rules. The bad ones did not care about the rules. So, if you wanted to get things done fast, you went to those who did not follow the rules or who knew how or were willing to break them.

Still in all, I chose to be good. I am not always successful. Together with Mother Teresa, I pray that even as good men suffer and pad people prosper, I will chose to do good anyway.

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Peace!

Posted on May 1, 2016 by Spirit Moments

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Jesus said to his disciples:
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.
Not as the world gives do I give it to you.
Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.”
~ John 14:27

 Four years ago, I wrote:
It’s a long and winding road, this journey of life. Sometimes, I walk on the mountain top where it is sunny and exhilarating. Other times, I walk along a stream down in the valley where it is cool and refreshing. Sometimes there is a fork on the road and I must choose. Other times there is a happy confluence of paths, serendipitous moments when people, places and things just come together and the whole universe makes sense. Sometimes I walk alone, but always there are people on the same path: walking with me, passing me by, meeting and greeting me, offering help, friendship and companionship. Sometimes the path becomes thorny and even dangerous. Other times there is no path at all and I may feel lost. But I just need to remember he’s got us all in the palm of his hands.
For most of the time, I walk with peace for I keep the promise of the Lord in my heart, “My peace I give to you.” And therefore, I walk with heart untroubled and unafraid.
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It’s A Cruel World

Posted on April 30, 2016 by Spirit Moments

Jesus said to his disciples:
“If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first.
If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own;
but because you do not belong to the world,
and I have chosen you out of the world,
the world hates you.”
~ John 15:18-19

My thoughts this morning are with the former Chief Justice Renato Corona. He has passed away. And from the distance, I feel he died a broken man. From the heights, he fell in defeat and disgrace. I feel terribly sad for him.

A husband who dutifully drives his wife to her work in school cannot be a bad person. And along the way, they pick up and give rides to two other co-teachers on their way to the school where they were all teaching. This is a couple made after God’s own heart – loving and generous.

A dutiful husband and a doting father to three children cannot be a bad person. So how can he have been so guilty as to deserve the shame and disgrace he was subjected to? There were surely among those who sat in judgement over him during his impeachment who were guilty of more horrific crimes. And yet they remain scot-free and sanctimoniously self-righteous.

I remember of another just and upright man who was also unjustly condemned. Raul Manglapus was a great and inspiring statesman. He was convicted for having overspent in his election spending for his seat in the Senate. Probably the only person to be so condemned. All because he correctly reported what he had spent for his campaign.

I feel and pray for Rene. I feel and pray for his family. And I recall and paraphrase the words of the classic Don McLean song:

For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And when no hope was left in sight
On that starry, starry night

Your life may have seemed sad
after what evil men did to you;
But I could’ve told you Rene
This world was never meant for
One as beautiful as you.

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Promptings of the Spirit

Posted on April 29, 2016 by Spirit Moments

Jesus said to his disciples:
“This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.
No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
~ John 15:12-14

I always get thrilled when I see a thing of beauty. There is something deep in mr that resonates with what is beautiful.

It is always exhilarating when I learn something to be true. There is something deep within me that profoundly appreciates what is true.

I always feel animated when I see goodness in things and people around me. It is what i want to be and to become.

When I see people in pain and in sorrow, there is something that moves me to be compassionate and to comfort them.

When I see what is ugly and untrue, I know this is not how things are supposed to be and I want to change them for the better.

When I see the hungry I want to share my food with them; when I see the thirsty, I’d give up my drink for them; when I see the homeless, I’d like to welcome them into my home.

It is not always that I am successful in working for what is true and good and beautiful. But I know the Holy Spirit and God’s love dwells within me prompting me and nudging me towards the right direction.

I only need to be sensitive to the promptings and the nudging of the Spirit till I full get it.

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The Sun and My God

Posted on April 28, 2016 by Spirit Moments

Jesus said to his disciples:
“As the Father loves me, so I also love you.
Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father’s commandments
and remain in his love.”
~ John 15:9-10

The sun is about 93 million miles away from the earth. Its surface temperature averages 3.5 million degrees F. Anything from earth would quickly be vaporized into smoke at such temperature. And yet from the distance, the heat and the light from the sun provides the energy that makes all life on earth possible. Everything on earth depends on the sun’s energy to exist. Humans need food and the food we eat (meat, fruits, grains, vegetables, etc.) are nature’s factories for capturing the sun’s energy and transforming it into edible and digestible forms. The sun’s energy not only energies; it also transforms. Over millions of years, the sun’s rays have transformed inert substances into living ones, single-celled organisms into complex multi-cellular micro-organisms, cells into animals, animals driven by instincts into conscious human beings. It is no wonder that the ancient Egyptians worshipped the sun and the God Ra. They did not understand the science and the physics of solar thermodynamics;  but instinctively, deep in their hearts, etched in their souls, they knew the vital role the sun played in their daily lives and how it permeated all and everything in their lives.

I reflect on my own life. I know how the sun gives us energy. People are now starting to tap directly the sun’s energy to power our lives. I can imagine the day coming when we will not need to burn fossil fuels but instead tap solar energy to power our cars and appliances, to heat or cool our homes, to lighten up our nights and refresh our days. But deeper than the physical energy, I imagine what it is that inspires and energizes our daily lives as human beings. It is not the sun that is worshipped as a god by the ancient Egyptians. It is the God who made the sun and who energizes our lives with His love. Just as the sun permeates all and everything in our lives, God pervades and animates and abides in everything we are and do with His love. The sun makes life possible on earth. God brings that life to its fulness through His love.

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Deepening My Spirituality

Posted on April 27, 2016 by Spirit Moments

“I am the vine, you are the branches.
Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit,
because without me you can do nothing.”
~ John 15:5

In my philosophy classes, I learned that I am a contingent being. I depend on other beings for my existence. I exist within a network of causes and effects. I came into this world through the actions of my parents and grew up through the help and action of many others. In turn, I have caused some things to happen in this world and have been instrumental in the coming to life of other people into this world. Ultimately, all of us contingent beings depend on a necessary being to come into existence.

In sociology and the human sciences, I learned that it takes a village to raise a child. I exist in a web of relationships that make human lives and communities possible and to prosper. Generations have come before us for us to enjoy what we are enjoying now. And more generations will come after us to continue this great human adventure. It gets better and better from one generation to another. There must a Great Chief ruling over this global, even universal. village.

In my spiritual life, I learn that I am a branch and I need to be attached to the vine to be alive and productive. I exist only because I am attached tot he vine. Without the vine, I am worth nothing as a branch. Even as I am attached to the branch, the vinedresser prunes me so that I become more fruitful.

Simple images. Great lessons. I only have to stay quiet and let them sink into my being and I move deeper into my spirituality.

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Proclaiming the Gospel

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Spirit Moments

Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them:
“Go into the whole world
and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.”

They went forth and preached everywhere,
while the Lord worked with them
and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.
~ Mark 16:15,20

There is this quote from Albert Einstein that has been playing in my head the past few days, “The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.”

There is darkness and chaos in the universe. But there is also abundant and overflowing beauty in almost everything I see – from the biggest galaxies to the tiniest living thing. I believe the world, our world, was meant to be beautiful in spite of some glitches we may experience.

There is evil and destruction happening all the time, from exploding stars to decaying carrion. There are evil men and there are bad situations. But still in all, life refuses to be denied. It springs forth in the most unexpected places. There is goodness even in the destruction and new life always emerges from the rot.

There are lies and deception in the world, among individuals and among nations. People would fabricate falsehoods just to attain what they want and desire. And yet, truth is stronger than all the lies, like life is stronger than all the desolation and beauty overcomes all ugliness. Through it all, man knows deep in his heart all these truths.

And God joined man in his humanity to teach us that love is what will make all things beautiful. Love will eventually life victorious over death and destruction. And love will reveal to us all the truths that govern time and space.

In acknowledging beauty, goodness and truth and in responding to the power of love to transform everything, I proclaim the Gospel, the Good News of our existence.

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“Behold, I make all things new.”

Posted on April 24, 2016 by Spirit Moments

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Then I, John, saw a new heaven and a new earth.
The former heaven and the former earth had passed away,
and the sea was no more.
I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God.
~ Revelation 21:1-2

Four years ago today, I wrote:
Hunger and thirst. Without food and water, man would perish and die, like a frog boiling to death in water being slowly brought to a boil. Hunger and thirst drive men to seek food and water to survive. And when this basic hunger and thirst is satisfied, men seek to quench a deeper hunger and thirst in order to thrive. Primal hunger and thirst tell us we lack something to keep on living. Human hunger and thirst tell us we need something more than just food and water to make life worth living.

We always seek to fill what is lacking in us. And somehow, we have an idea of what it is we are seeking. We have experienced what beauty is to know that we can turn something ugly into something beautiful. We know what goodness is; so that we seek to make good that which we experience as bad. We have laughed and had fun to seek these when we are in tears or in sorrow.

Deep inside us, we know that someday somehow there is Someone who “will wipe every tear from our eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain.” The One who sits on the throne and says, “Behold, I make all things new.”

 

 

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De-bugging Oneself

Posted on April 20, 2016 by Spirit Moments

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SPIRIT MOMENT: Anabelle and I have a friend who is a Poor Clare cloistered nun. I remembered one time she was telling us that they do not change clothes everyday but wear the same set of habits for several days. I asked if this was to save on clothing or on the laundry expenses, knowing they had vows of poverty. She said it was indeed because of their vow of poverty but not to save but to be in solidarity with the real poor, who may have just one set of clothing in their life or who may not have anything to wear at all. Ima always loved to say that God will provide and He does, He did and He will. It bugs me that I am often bitten by the acquisitiveness and the possessiveness bugs.

This is something I wrote on April 20, 2012. Since then I have greatly simplified my life but I am still struggling to rid myself of the two bugs I wrote about.

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