Symbols of our faith should lead us to the person of Christ

A Word is a symbol of an idea, it represents the concept but at the same time it limits the the reality of that concept. To represent something, one needs external and intelligible signs, a picture, an image, an icon, a statue, a caricature, etc.

The creed is a symbol of faith, but it is not faith itself. Faith is something beyond the symbols. Faith does not only concern an intellectual assent but a response to the personal love of God. It is very personal and personalizing. Our faith is not only contained in the dogmas of our faith but it is a life that we live according to this response.

Jesus is not an idea but a person like you and me, who existed in history, suffered, died, buried and rose again. His resurrection makes Him present here and how because through it He is now beyond the boundaries of time and space. Perhaps this is the reason why we fail to see him as a person because He is presented beyond time and space, a God, uncaused, un moved, transcendent, etc.

Yes, He is beyond us but He existed, He was seen, He was historical. He is not only a symbol but the reality itself, the truth, the way and the life.

When we believe, we should not stop at symbols, like the creed, the images, the rituals. It should direct us to the reality, but yet it something hidden in these symbols – this is sometimes called a “mystery” not because it is mysterious but it has something of a suspense, something not yet revealed fully. One has yet to see its beauty. A friend said, it is like a “mini skirt”. It is something attractive, but it hides the “essential”.

Jesus is that essential but there is always something hidden about Him which will be shown us when the time comes. Our nature could not contain Him, out of love for us, He will tell and show everything about Himself when we are no longer limited with our bodies.

When we see symbols, when we listen to the doctrine, when we do a sacred act, let us always remember that the reality is far greater than all these – even though sacraments give us the reality itself, but because of our limitations we cannot simple contain it in ourselves. How great is the beauty, the goodness and the glory of God!

Jesus: the truth of our identity

If Jesus is the way the truth and the life, then He is the anthropological model of all men. He is true God and true man. As the fathers of the church would say, God became man so that man could become like God. That is the true objective of man. It is like homesickness. We came from “heaven” and we are always homesick of heaven if this world does not correspond to what shoudl be the ideal. But this is not a cause for one to dream too much.

Since God is love and He created man according to His own image and likeness, our true vocation is to become His son and daughters, to be like Him and God himself showed us the Way – Jesus. Jesus is Jesus, the savior and the one who reveals the Father, on the Cross! It is therefore in this reality that man could see his model. It is only through man that man could know himself and it is through this “eye” that God could know man.

Man could fix his eyes to the crucified and risen Lord to know his true identity. If on the cross, he became nothing, (kenosis) out of love for the Father, would this be a hint of who man is? This is not buddhistic since it is because of Love that Jesus lost everything to be only one with the Father. Love not only gives but empties oneself, denies oneself to love the beloved. One has to die to himself to love the other, giving preference to the other. As John Paul II said: it is only through a sincere gift of oneself that man could really find himself. Jesus: it is in loosing our lives that we find it. Is this not ultimately the reality of Jesus on the cross?

To be what we are then is to be like him, a man of peace, a man of unity, a man of justice but at what price? It is only when we seeminly loose that we gain. In every pain, life is gained. We live if we die to ourselves. We become what we are if we loose our own invented, idolatrious identity. We are what we are in Jesus Crucified and Risen.

Identity Crisis, anyone?

Identity crisis especially of those who are young is a sign of growth; new life is coming and it entails pain and crisis. On the one hand we could say it is inevitable, and on the other, we could prevent its occurence by giving the fullness of our identity its possibility to grow and develop. When space is created in terms of one’s awareness of who she/he is, then all the stages are virually assumed in this identity which is ontological, psychological and even physical.

The true “I”. When we talk about the true “I,” we immediately could relate it to the “Thou”. Men are created under the “image and likeness of God” this means that man is rational and relational being, at the same. I have a reason but I am also related to the others. God is not only an intellegent being, but He is also a relatioship of “persons” – He is Triune. In as much as God is Trinity, He is love and vice versa. If He is love He must not only be One but a relationship of at least two. This mytery is too enourmous to understand, but if one believes that God is love then at least there must be “the Love, the Loved-One, and Love-itself” (St. Augustine)

Our identity then is not only because we are rational but also because we are relational, since we are created in the image of a Trinitarian God – a God with a “trinitarian face.” My identity therefore is relational, and it is in and through love that I could affirm my own identity. If I love I am what I am, if I don’t love I become less of what I am supposed to be – less a human being, less to that image.

One’s true identity therefore is not based on my possessions, my actions, my plans, my projects, my name, my family name, my nationality, my friends, etc. These things are external to me and therefore to base my identity according to what I possess or my actions but eventually lead me to crisis of identity.

My true identity is based on my creator’s “idea” on me when He created me even before time existed. His plan for me is far more beautiful than I could ever imagined. In fact my identity is precisely this relatioship of love with my Creator who loves me infinitely and personally. This personal, exlusive and intimate, love is the one that “personalizes” me and it personalizes me and you. It opens for us our true identities, unique, but full of adventures and possibilities since it grows according to how deep or shallow this personal relationship is and how do we able to discover it in times of our limited lives. It makes me a “person” – the true person as my creator wants me to be and it opens up like petals in front of me as sometime beautiful and dynamic. Day by day we have to discover this “identity” through this personalizing relationship that we should have with Him in spite of seeming crisis, darkness and difficulties.

Everything will pass away, but this relationship of Love with God will last forever! This is our true identity and we begin to discover it by relating to Him, the Absolute Thou without which the “I’ could not exist.

Walls will be written with spilled blood!

Another militant killed in Negros Oriental: Eladio Dasi-an! This latest killing is said to bring to at least 232 the number of militants killed since President Macapagal-Arroyo took office in 2001, and to 44 the number of media people murdered during that period. This makes all the more the letter of Archbishop Lagdameo, the present president of CBCP, relevant!

One could readily conclude that this wave of unprecedented killings is reinformed by Gloria's misadvised policy against the rebels. (See previous blog). This is even reflected by an off-tangent appeal of Secretary Bunye, calling on the public "to lend its full cooperation to the campaign against terror and graft by acting as the eyes and ears of the government. In a statement, Press Secretary and Presidential Spokesman Ignacio R. Bunye pointed out that "the fight against terror and graft are both indispensable elements of the country’s political stability." Although I agree that graft should be addressed, the fight against terror is always to eleminate the causes of terrorism or rebellion.

Doronilla's editorial could give us some revealing light. According to a disclosure, the upsurge of killings of Left-wing militants since 2001, totals more than 200 members of the legal Bayan Muna party-list organization. "The principal suspects behind these killings are paramilitary death squads." According to an Inquirer source, documents “don’t say that members of sectoral groups are to be killed but they do use the term neutralize — a term implicitly understood by the underworld of Philippine politics as a go-ahead for death squad assassinations.”

He continues. . ."The emphasis of this strategy on “neutralizing” sectoral/front/legal organizations helps explain why most of the victims of the past five years have been non-combatants and defenseless members of the Left. During that period, the number of murdered aboveground members of the Left has far exceeded fatalities of the New People’s Army in armed encounters with security forces."

Death penalty was officially abolished! Really? Or there is another death penalty the continues to bleed our country and blood of our countrymen is offered as a sacrifice to the gods of this present government: power, money and corruption. Let us not wait that these spilled blood will be written on the walls!

This war policy of President Gloria Macapagal would lead more people to take arms. It will militarize our government. It makes more and more evident that the military is over the civilian authority or it allows itself to be ruled by these "death squads".

The people will be alienated more from its own government when the same allows them to be killed rather than defend and seek justice for them. Justice to a husband and wife also recently killed in Kidapawan: George and Mazel Vigo and to all the defenceless journalists!

Let first justice reign in our land and peace will surely flourish! For there cannot be peace without justice!

Tell Gloria: No need for violence to remain in power

To end the rebellion the president pumped P 1 billion. She will go to war at all costs to make herself remain in power. This is a shortsighted solution. It will bring her more problems and the victims will always be the innocent. War is not the solution, it will never be and never was. It aggravates the situation. A simple child will understand that to get rid of rebellion/terrorism is to take away its cause. They thrive when there is poverty, injustice, hunger, persecution. Take these causes away, terrorists and armed rebels will be fish out of water.

Violence will breed more violence and if this logic continues we will self-destruct as a nation! She will destroy what she would like build!

An alternative? Randy David asks: Is there a better way? He answered positively, "The government must show the people that it is still a source of hope — not their enemy, but their friend. . . . Because they believe that justice is for sale in our highly unequal society, they turn to the New People’s Army as the ultimate equalizer. As simplistic as it may sound, it is the experience of powerlessness — rather than sheer poverty — that constitutes the soil in which most rebellions are nurtured."

Power and money corrupts! They also blind. It is no wonder if Gloria's personal wealth has increased by 18.7 percent or P12.49 million since she she assumed the presidency in 2001. One can opine that one of the many reasons she wanted to remain in power could be wealth.

If only power is service to the people; if only that power is maintained not by the power of the gun but by the power of her example; if only the power is equated with more love of her constituents; if only power is guarded by the armor of peace and justice, then perhaps, there is no need to allocate P 1 billion to kill more since the very reason to wage war does not exist.

Pope John Paul II once said: War and violence is a way without any exit! Tell Gloria: violence breeds another violence!

Are we in the right Angle?

The gospel can be lived in different perspectives. To live it concretely, even a phrase, can bring one to be in union with God! It becomes incarnate in one’s life. Since the church exists also in history, the way it lives the gospel many times depends on historical the historical context.

The Holy Spirit who always guide the church enlightens men and women to live the gospel according to the needs of the times to make it more alive and a radiant presence of Christ here on earth.

When there was a need to stabilize the church, St. Benedict became the saint of the time. When the church needed poverty, St. Francis because the man who shouted poverty to the church; prayer – St. Therese of Avila; obedience – St. Ignatius. These is so because of the the concrete historical needs and the Holy Spirit wants as if were to revive the church.

In these times, unity, communion is the need of the world and humanity. To make the church a school and a home of communion is the challenge of this millennium! This blog then is to see reality in the perspective of unity – the cry of our times!

CBCP declares a Year of Social Concerns, are we concerned?

CBCP celebrates this year as the Year of Social Concerns. It is but right that the president himself, Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo was very much concerned in what he expressed in his homily, in a rally in Iloilo city during the Independence day last June 12, 2006. He identified “disguised authoritarian rule” as one of several problems the country needed to free itself from. He said: “We have freed ourselves from the punishment of the death penalty. . . but we still have to free ourselves from drug addiction and drug lords, from jueteng addiction and jueteng lords, from the temptation to extort and to bribe, from exploitation of women and children, from the killings of militants, labor leaders and journalists without the benefit of just trial, from torture and maltreatment of every kind, from graft and corruption and subtle dictatorship.”

In the local level, outside of our computer screens or monitors, are we afraid that our young in our town and neighborhoods would be prey to drug pushers? Are there concerns that maybe some of our young friends, just because they are with their other friends, could eventually take drugs not only because of curiosity but more because drugs are available in our neighborhood? Do the local police know about it, it in case this is true? If the police is the problem are there other higher authorities to turn to?

The same with jueting. Together did we create a consciousness against this gambling? For the corrupt, did we make them feel that we do not like what they are doing. They could be our uncles, padrinos, godfathers, our own mayors, baranggay captains. Can we help in making them aware that to stop it could bring a greater good? Did we try to help those who are easily prey to prostitution because they have nothing to eat or to feed the family?

Extrajudicial killings plague are country! We need to do everything to discourage or stop killings. You will know how in your neighborhood, if you listen to that “inner voice” inside is that would conquer our fears.

A year of social concerns, a different perspective to look at our country in the national level and in the very concrete level. In Liwasang Bonifacio, Manila, in an ecumenical prayer meeting, another member of the catholic hierarchy, Bishop Teodoro Bacani expressed: “The administration has abolished death sentences but not the death squad, . . . They say the Filipino people are free but in the event that they speak against the government, we do not know if they would still be free the next day.”

In Bacolod City, Bishop Vicente Navarra led some 10,000 people in a rally against Charter change (and Fr. Anecito Buenafe, Social Action Center director of the Diocese of Bacolod, said there were 20,000 participants) said: “We are arousing patriotism in our countrymen and saying it is about time we put up a united stand against people who want to encroach on our Constitution and eventually on our freedom,” Navarra said.

These are voices of modern prophets. For those who have not attended these rallies, we need to look and listen in our own neighborhood and give an attention of concern to what is happening around us.

Affirming culture of life in Palawan

I join the Apostolic Vicariate of Puerto Princesa condemning “in the strongest possible terms the heinous murder of Dong” and appreciate the church’s courage to do it openly. I want to be included in the “demand for justice for him and for all martyrs in the media. Such dastardly act is shameless cowardice. Only weaklings and cowards resort in defense of their selfish interests and greed.”

Weakling because one degrades himself/herself of the strength that comes from the truth and justice. Cowards since one hides in the force of the gun the “selfesh interest and dark greed” afraid to come to the light of a just, transparent and moral lifestyle.

Truly “when you kill your neighbor, you kill your own humanity” We share in the same humanity, one family, Killing the other is tantamount to self-mutilation. Murder makes one less human, and more beast!

“When you snuff out the light of truth, you become children of darkness. You cannot escape” from your own prison of your guilt.

But perhaps there is no need to evoke fires and brimstones which is already existing in the heart of the murderer! In one way or another “God will catch up with you!”

I cannot but join the “peace loving Palaweños to be critically aware of issues affecting their lives, to be vigilant and be involved”. . .As the good bishop said: “Let us keep our hearts and pursue with our actions his legacy of courage, honesty, service and crusade against corruption. Let his death not be in vain.”

Let’s celebrate life, rather than curse death!

Again, thank you CBCP for your statement affirming the abolition of death penalty and in so doing encouraging our justice system to take the path towards the culture of life, a term used by John Paul II against the background of the culture of death.

As any human positive laws that could change, this one is more attuned to the divine law. “We hope that the abolition of death penalty in the Philippines will now be a permanent one,” says the statement.

We could not but now turn our gaze to our prisoners who have seen through the eyes of hope especially those who are staying in the death row. As we turn our prayers for them and their families, we could increase their hope by doing our part in visiting them. (On June 24, we will be there in Bilibid for a for one-day Mariapolis in the maximum security department, where those convicted of death sentence are) I could imagine how they and their families received this news!

Their families too need encouragement. Perhaps to let them know about this is as important and make initiatives so that they may be in contact with one another!

We breath a fresh air on what the CBCP suggested: “A program of rehabilitation through values formation and income generating projects must be pursued for the prisoners in order to generate the sense of humanity and usefulness among them.”

Let’s celebrate life, rather than curse death!

Hurrah to the “Culture of Life!”

This culture of death must end! Following the much appreciated decision of the Supreme Court’s denial of Presidential Proclamation 1017, declaring a state of national emergency in February and the so-called “Calibrated Pre-empted Response”, I welcome this another enlightened decision of the Supreme Court.

Nobody has the right to take another man’s right – even the state. Only the Creator has. The right to life is absolute and it is God-given. Abortion, euthanasia, suicide, even killing of fetuses for stem cell research is objectively and intrinsically evil!

By abolishing death penalty in our country we could begin a milestone of affirming the culture of life. This is a good start for change, first of all: a shift of our cultural mentalities which has gone wild to the point of killings, kidnappings, rape, etc.

I do appreciate very much this new and fresh wind of mentality from the Supreme Court. May these good men and women flower and bloom in this country which seem to become a valley of tears, if not a land soaked with blood.