On this day, April 1, one year ago, which was a Palm Sunday (why is it Tuesday today and not Monday? - it's because 2008 is a leap year!), Fr. Francis Maddhu, SVD was shot at close range shortly before he was to celebrate the Palm Sunday Mass in a mission station in Barrio Mabongtot, about 4 hours walk from his parish in Lubuagan, Kalinga. He arrived in the Philippines exactly a year, if the liturgy were the basis of this chronological account. He arrived in the Philippines in 2006 also on a Palm Sunday! The killing was senseless as there seemed no apparent reason for shooting him. His dying seemed senseless as well. Until this time, the case has not been solved. The last time I read about his case mentioned that the suspect ran scot free after a few days ofbeing arrested.
From the human point of view, vengeance is the immediate feeling upon realizing this current situation. Justice remains to be served for him. But as it is, a year after his death, justice for his death remains an illusive dream! It is good that he was a priest; hence the thought that Someone knows what has happened can give some consolation. Wasn't Christ likewise killed almost senselessly? But today he speaks about being "born from above."
To be born from above is to be born of the Spirit. It is to live, knowing that our life is not simply our own. Someone owns us, Someone knows us. Hence, to remember that by virtue of our baptism this being "born from above" has indeed taken place, that God has taken us unto Himself through His Son, Jesus, is to realize that living now our lives is living for Christ, for God. Hence, whatever way we die, if it be as God allows, doesn't really matter. What matters is how we live this life of "being born from above." I'd like to believe that Fr. Maddhu was born from above because he lived his life as a priest, and died a priest as well.
To be born from above is to be begotten by the One Who has recreated us anew. Hence, the human person being an image of the Creator, undergoes an identity and reality that surpasses all we can ever imagine about ourselves, that is worthy of respect and valuing. Indeed, if I can say it here, the human person can be higher than the priest simply because the person born from above is the image of God Himself, even today in our midst. Whoever fails to see this reality fails to live his life of being born from above.
To be born from above is also to live as Christ lived. The Crucifix appears to be the best way to show what it is to be born from above. He who hung on the Cross is above all. Hence, it is from this perspective that life has meaning, has direction and has worth. The film "The Passion of the Christ" showed Jesus really hanging from on high on the Cross. Living our being born from above from this angle can really show us lots of insights and meaning. The experience of being abandoned, in pain, thus gains some vicarious benefit. Sometimes the pain and the abandonment can defocus us from this fact and make us forget that we are "above" already with Christ. May our knowing that while "above" in our pains and sufferings we have Christ, may we be strengthened to do the will of the One Who has sent us as He Himself was sent to show us how it is to be "from above."
God bless
Monday, March 31, 2008
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Why We Need To Forgive
The Gospel of the 2nd Sunday of Easter always brings us that scene in the Upper Room where for fear of the Jews the Apostles stayed locked and in the dark. I've been in that room myself when I had the chance to visit the Holy Land way back year 2000. Jesus comes and greets them "Peace be with you" three times. On the second time, he breathed on them and gave the Holy Spirit. "As the Father has sent me, so I send you. Whose sins you forgive shall be forgiven, whose sins you hold bound, they are held bound."
Why must we forgive?
Before I answer that question, I'd like to share what I read lately. Last month I underwent a personal crisis, and in the process of healing myself, I chanced upon in the internet a journal article entitled "Interpersonal Forgiving in Close Relationships: II. Theoretical Elaboration and Measurement" by Michael E. McCullough, et al. (1998) in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology vol. 75, 6, 1586-1603. If I may summarize here what particularly struck me, it was the dynamics of the experience of being hurt. According to the study which asked people about their experience of being hurt, avoidance of the person who had hurt them, or withdrawal from contacts with them was a common experience. (Now I understand that keeping distance has a self-healing end. Thus, it is a challenge for me to understand the other when he starts to keep away from me when I shall hurt that person.) While alone, the rumination of thought took place. Revenge was a common experience as well among those who've been hurt.
But asked if those who've experienced hurt had forgiven those who hurt them, asking apology by the "hurter" was a common factor in forgiveness. This seemed to be a common denominator for forgiveness to be truly given. And those who forgave tended to have had close relationships with the "hurter."
Come to think of this: how come it is those who are close to us who dare to hurt us? What makes anyone among us think we have the right to hurt those we love? Is there really love when we hurt the other? Accepting the apology of the "hurter" seems to convey the following victim's message: "Ok, I accept your forgiveness, and hope you don't do it again. Because we've had some good times together, and for the sake of those times, we can start again. I am here to help you understand yourself in your process of learning how to control yourself."
Indeed, to forgive is to give the other another chance to grow and become better. Hence, the Resurrection becomes that great opportunity to really extend our patience at the other who's hurt us, and also a challenge for us to stop the hurting of others as well.
But why forgive?
In the many times I've been hurt myself, whenever the hurt was done in public, there was in me the need to be vindicated also in public. I remember one classmate who had hurt me in the presence of my other classmates. Even now, after I told that classmate to apologive in public, no public apology had come. Indeed, there seems to be too much self-enhancement in the person that may have kept that other from apologizing in public! But I remembered one scene, so poignant it sent shivers down my spine. That scene was when Pope JPII went to the jail cell of his assassin, Ali Agca Memet. Pope JPII had been hurt in public, but he forgave his "hurter" in public. I bet the Crucifixion experience of Christ that public forgiving God has given us. The Crucifixion is a public declaration of God that He has forgiven us in the many times we have hurt Him. Having been forgiven, having been sown the seed of forgiveness by the Lord Himself, we are then taught and challenged to make that seed of forgiveness bear fruit in forgiving the other. This is believe is the reason for forgiving.
Dr. Schlesinger of Australia, a forensic psychologist once in 1996(?) came to the Philippines. He brought with him the Spiral Test he himself had invented in order to identify those who are truly suffering from whiplash injuries from those who are simply malingering. I remember very vividly the directions he gave me since I volunteered to take the Test myself. The Spiral Test went this way: In front of me was a plate-size round object on which was printed the Spiral. The moment he put it on, I watched as it rolled clockwise. After some moments, he announced to me that he had stopped it. From that time, he started counting the time until I pushed a button to signify it had stopped. To my surprise, when he announced that he had put off the Spiral, the spiral in my head continued to move, but this time counterclockwise. I pressed the button after this movement stopped.
This experience helped me understand the nature of the rumination process. Like the epxerience of those who've gone through trauma, the coming back of thoughts and memories about the incidence seems to be a natural part of the brain's reaction to the experience. I remembered the spring of the notebooks we have. Once freed from being twisted, it recoils back until it has gone back to its former form. The rumination process seems to be that recoiling process of the brain in order to achieve a state of equilibrium and stability.
Sometimes, the rumination seems not just a physiological process, but a psychological process as well. For how do we account those who don't seem to have forgotten even after some time? For me, when we shall have gone through the insight of why something happened to us, the lessons shall have become the receptacle which ensures the "forgetting" of the experience.
Thanks be to God Who started this forgiving process, or else what a life to live without being forgiven! Truly, the Lord is risen! Alleluia! Alleluia.
Why must we forgive?
Before I answer that question, I'd like to share what I read lately. Last month I underwent a personal crisis, and in the process of healing myself, I chanced upon in the internet a journal article entitled "Interpersonal Forgiving in Close Relationships: II. Theoretical Elaboration and Measurement" by Michael E. McCullough, et al. (1998) in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology vol. 75, 6, 1586-1603. If I may summarize here what particularly struck me, it was the dynamics of the experience of being hurt. According to the study which asked people about their experience of being hurt, avoidance of the person who had hurt them, or withdrawal from contacts with them was a common experience. (Now I understand that keeping distance has a self-healing end. Thus, it is a challenge for me to understand the other when he starts to keep away from me when I shall hurt that person.) While alone, the rumination of thought took place. Revenge was a common experience as well among those who've been hurt.
But asked if those who've experienced hurt had forgiven those who hurt them, asking apology by the "hurter" was a common factor in forgiveness. This seemed to be a common denominator for forgiveness to be truly given. And those who forgave tended to have had close relationships with the "hurter."
Come to think of this: how come it is those who are close to us who dare to hurt us? What makes anyone among us think we have the right to hurt those we love? Is there really love when we hurt the other? Accepting the apology of the "hurter" seems to convey the following victim's message: "Ok, I accept your forgiveness, and hope you don't do it again. Because we've had some good times together, and for the sake of those times, we can start again. I am here to help you understand yourself in your process of learning how to control yourself."
Indeed, to forgive is to give the other another chance to grow and become better. Hence, the Resurrection becomes that great opportunity to really extend our patience at the other who's hurt us, and also a challenge for us to stop the hurting of others as well.
But why forgive?
In the many times I've been hurt myself, whenever the hurt was done in public, there was in me the need to be vindicated also in public. I remember one classmate who had hurt me in the presence of my other classmates. Even now, after I told that classmate to apologive in public, no public apology had come. Indeed, there seems to be too much self-enhancement in the person that may have kept that other from apologizing in public! But I remembered one scene, so poignant it sent shivers down my spine. That scene was when Pope JPII went to the jail cell of his assassin, Ali Agca Memet. Pope JPII had been hurt in public, but he forgave his "hurter" in public. I bet the Crucifixion experience of Christ that public forgiving God has given us. The Crucifixion is a public declaration of God that He has forgiven us in the many times we have hurt Him. Having been forgiven, having been sown the seed of forgiveness by the Lord Himself, we are then taught and challenged to make that seed of forgiveness bear fruit in forgiving the other. This is believe is the reason for forgiving.
Dr. Schlesinger of Australia, a forensic psychologist once in 1996(?) came to the Philippines. He brought with him the Spiral Test he himself had invented in order to identify those who are truly suffering from whiplash injuries from those who are simply malingering. I remember very vividly the directions he gave me since I volunteered to take the Test myself. The Spiral Test went this way: In front of me was a plate-size round object on which was printed the Spiral. The moment he put it on, I watched as it rolled clockwise. After some moments, he announced to me that he had stopped it. From that time, he started counting the time until I pushed a button to signify it had stopped. To my surprise, when he announced that he had put off the Spiral, the spiral in my head continued to move, but this time counterclockwise. I pressed the button after this movement stopped.
This experience helped me understand the nature of the rumination process. Like the epxerience of those who've gone through trauma, the coming back of thoughts and memories about the incidence seems to be a natural part of the brain's reaction to the experience. I remembered the spring of the notebooks we have. Once freed from being twisted, it recoils back until it has gone back to its former form. The rumination process seems to be that recoiling process of the brain in order to achieve a state of equilibrium and stability.
Sometimes, the rumination seems not just a physiological process, but a psychological process as well. For how do we account those who don't seem to have forgotten even after some time? For me, when we shall have gone through the insight of why something happened to us, the lessons shall have become the receptacle which ensures the "forgetting" of the experience.
Thanks be to God Who started this forgiving process, or else what a life to live without being forgiven! Truly, the Lord is risen! Alleluia! Alleluia.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Reflection for March 28, 2008 Duc In Altum
The Gospel for today March 28 speaks about Jesus' 3rd apparition after He rose from the dead. St. John starts the text by showing us Peter telling his 6 other companions that he intends to go fishing. These six others decide to join him. However, they caught nothing for the night. While they were getting near the shore, Jesus asked them if they caught anything. They did not recognize Jesus yet and replied in the negative. Jesus told them to throw the net into the starboard side, after which they caught a haul-full! It was the beloved John who recognized Jesus, and told Peter, "It is the Lord."
In the Scriptures, the Synoptics mention this account before Jesus rose from the dead. The apostles' experience of Jesus' telling them to throw the net again ["Duc in altum"] was particularly striking for Peter, because he seemed to not have given Jesus the adulation He deserved when the latter told him to fish again. Didn't Peter tell the Lord that they had gone out to fish the night before and got nothing? But after they got a big catch, didn't Peter kneel down and tell Jesus, "I am a sinner." This catching fish then, being his way of life in the first place, has become for Peter something altogether personally significant because here he encountered Jesus so concretely and personally. This could have been one of the foundational experiences for Peter's later confession after being asked by the Lord "Who do you say I am?" "You are the Messiah, the Son of God."
In the Gospel of John, this catching fish episode is mentioned after Jesus rose from the dead. Note too that Peter had just denied Jesus three times as the latter predicted during the Last Supper.
In both instances, Peter showed the Lord the worst of himself - his tired self in the Synoptic accounts, and his denial of knowing Him to those who asked if he was in His company. And yet, here the Lord approaches him, again, and telling him to catch "men" from then on. It is indeed a poignant scene, one that sends shivers down the spine. The Lord has truly Risen, He who doesn't mark out our offenses but sees the many possibilities in us if only we are open to aligning our wills with God's, like He definitely did.
In the Scriptures, the Synoptics mention this account before Jesus rose from the dead. The apostles' experience of Jesus' telling them to throw the net again ["Duc in altum"] was particularly striking for Peter, because he seemed to not have given Jesus the adulation He deserved when the latter told him to fish again. Didn't Peter tell the Lord that they had gone out to fish the night before and got nothing? But after they got a big catch, didn't Peter kneel down and tell Jesus, "I am a sinner." This catching fish then, being his way of life in the first place, has become for Peter something altogether personally significant because here he encountered Jesus so concretely and personally. This could have been one of the foundational experiences for Peter's later confession after being asked by the Lord "Who do you say I am?" "You are the Messiah, the Son of God."
In the Gospel of John, this catching fish episode is mentioned after Jesus rose from the dead. Note too that Peter had just denied Jesus three times as the latter predicted during the Last Supper.
In both instances, Peter showed the Lord the worst of himself - his tired self in the Synoptic accounts, and his denial of knowing Him to those who asked if he was in His company. And yet, here the Lord approaches him, again, and telling him to catch "men" from then on. It is indeed a poignant scene, one that sends shivers down the spine. The Lord has truly Risen, He who doesn't mark out our offenses but sees the many possibilities in us if only we are open to aligning our wills with God's, like He definitely did.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Towards a Morally Rebuilt Nation
Here is the Bishops' Statement for Palm Sunday 2008 here in the Philippines courtesy of Frt. Felmar Castrodes, SVD who had this posted in his blosite at http://fielsvd.blogspot.com/2008/03/towards-morally-rebuilt-nation.html yesterday Saturday March 15, 2008. Happy reading!
Today we are experiencing a social and political mess. This however goes beyond the question of truth to the search for probity. Probity is about the integrity of all, the accuser and the accused. We are unhappy and we feel betrayed. And yet as Pope Benedict XVI reminds us “in spite of our great disappointment our great hope can only be God who has loved us and who continues to love us to the end, until all is accomplished”, (Spe Salvi, 27). We also know that together we have the capacity to correct and purify the nation by starting with ourselves.
The Model for Change is the Desert.
The history of salvation teaches us that the long road to freedom inevitably passes through the desert of purification and conversion. Having escaped from Pharaoh, via the miraculous crossing through the Sea of Reeds, the Israelites considered themselves liberated. But they were not yet free, because they wanted to go back to their old ways in Egypt. “Should we not do better go back to Egypt?” (Numbers 14: 2-3).
The chosen people hesitated at the shores of the Sea and remained enslaved. So Moses led Israel away from the Sea of Reeds, and they entered the desert of Shur. (Exodus 15: 22). Believing that Pharaoh was the idolater refusing them the worship of the true God, it was in the wilderness where the people discovered that they too were guilty worshipers of golden idols. (Exodus 32: 1-29). People were disciplined and converted from their greed (Exodus 16: 17-21); and the desert which the Israelites feared to enter became for them a place of purification, discipline and conversion, before they could enter the promised land of freedom, forty years later. There are yet no proven easy short cuts to conversion and renewal.
Looking back at EDSA I, euphoric and heroic as it was, it appeared that the event became the Filipinos’ day of crossing to freedom; but that was only the first step that hardly anyone knew. The “desert” awaited the people who would be purified and converted, before they become fully liberated. But people preferred the convenient streets as the easier route to an imagined freedom, and feared the “desert experience” that awaited conversion and new beginnings.
Corruption as the cancer of the nation.
We cannot add more to the wrath of God for lies, untruth, injustice and evil. Conscience, as the voice of God within, already tells us of what good there is to pursue and what evil to avoid. Our people are known to be God-fearing and God-loving; sadly, they fight, deceive and kill for money.
Shamefully we have been known to be a nation whose prime industry has been identified as politics simply because politics is the main route to power, which, in turn, is the main route to wealth (1). In this country people use politics to get money, and more politics to protect more money. “Corruption radically distorts the role of representative institutions, because they become an arena for political bartering between clients' requests and governmental services. In this way political choices favor the narrow objectives of those who possess the means to influence these choices and are an obstacle to bringing the common good of all citizens.” (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 411).
The subordination of the public good to individual or group interests is what corruption is all about. In whatever form it takes, the practice of corruption is both immoral and unjust. Corruption is worse than lies, because lies are employed only to cover it. Whenever Government money is stolen or whenever suppliers or contractors’ money is offered as bribe to secure projects, to the disadvantage of the Government graft or corruption is committed. Graft is the acquisition of gain by dishonest, unfair and sordid means through the abuse of one's position in politics, business, etc., while corruption is the improper enrichment of politicians or civil servants or those close to them by the misuse of public power entrusted to them. [BIR, Revenue Memo Circular 12-2005]. As an injustice to the Government and people graft and corruption are against the Seventh Commandment and have the added element of betraying one's country.
The Universal and All-time Application of the Seventh Commandment.
The Seventh Commandment, “Thou shall not steal”, applies to all, as individuals or as groups. Thus, if one holds on to money or its equivalent that is not his or hers (or theirs), justice demands restitution of the stolen or bribe money to the owner. (CCC, 1459). If the owner can no longer be located, then the money should be given to the poor, or to a credible institution that will give the money for the poor or give true services for the poor.
Restitution was the constant teaching in relation to the violation of the Seventh Commandment in the Bible. “If anyone steals..., he will pay back”. (Exodus 21: 37).“Look Lord, I am going to give half my property to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody I will pay him back four times the amount”. With this confession, the Lord Jesus blessed Zacchaeus with salvation. (Luke 19: 8-10). The teaching of the Church on stealing is this: No Restitution, no Absolution. In the words of Jesus: with Restitution, there is Salvation. (Luke 19: 9). An authentic conversion demands willingness to restore what has been stolen and the resolve not to steal again.
The penitent should not be so complacent about one's faith as to consider oneself truly absolved before God on account of faith alone, even if one has no contrition... For faith without penance would effect no remission of sins. (Council of Trent).
The mandate of the Seventh Commandment is also addressed to traders and ordinary citizens in all practices of business, commerce and trading. Fraud in business, over pricing, bribery in contracts, cheating in scales, cheating in legitimate taxes and the smuggling of taxable goods, including also the smuggling and trafficking of substances for abuse to damn the innocent and the weak members of society, etc. --- all these are among the many forms of violating the Seventh Commandment.
Our Response: Our desert experience.
The old and the young, from kindergarten through high school on to the tertiary level of education till up to the licensure exams, are all to be formed and guided towards integrity, trained never to cheat in studies and exams. The “discipline of the desert” is to be taught and applied, if anyone is to succeed at any level towards “the fullness of life.”
The Seventh Commandment covers not only the present corruption deals that have been recently exposed, but also all deals, at all levels of government service, of all administrations and governance, no matter what came out of the past or will come out of the present or future inquiries. “Thou shalt not steal” covers also all trading of even ordinary citizens.
We suddenly notice that the widespread corruption we see in others is also the corruption we detect in ourselves.
Corrupt practices and fraud prevailed in the cities, towns and even in small Barangays. In the last two generations there had been tens of thousands of graft-ridden contracts in Government, the biggest single controversial project ever recorded in Philippine history was the Westinghouse’s Bataan Nuclear Plant (2).
True liberation will mean that we enter our desert of repentance and conversion. Change lies only at the heart of every person. Let us begin there. Values for living justly will be preached in parishes, prayed for in the homes, re-taught in schools, discussed in small communities and groups. Support structures will be required for a righteous life and fair dealings. After our personal and communal “desert” conversion, we will, please God, be ushered to the freedom we seek.
God’s Help is always needed.
We need God’s grace, if we are to encourage one another, forgive each other, pay our debts to the justice that we all violated, and start again, not at the banks of “our Sea of Reeds”, but beyond the streets of EDSA. Believers and lovers of God, like true Christians, do not have to hate, destroy each other even if they want to correct the mistakes of the past or the present and of each other. Many are critical of the present governance particularly in the areas of truth and justice. But we can restore truth and justice without resorting to violence and hatred. A nation built on contempt is completely unimaginable. As pastors we cannot tell you less, even if some will resent the way we teach. It is for everybody's good, especially the very poor among our brothers and sisters that we now address this call for communal renewal.
We need the leaders from the highest to the lowest and their families not only to lead us, but also to give us examples of repentance and true humble conversion. We also need people with other ideas but with positive emotions in nation building. Given the example and encouragement, the citizens will be inspired to follow where in the past they hesitated to proceed --- to their “desert” transformation.
Ngayon, diretso na tayo sa hindi natin kaagad gustong puntahan --- sa Disyerto ng ating mga masamang karanasan at kasalanan na dapat nating baguhin! May Pag-asa po ang ating Bayan at ang ating sarili. Basta’t sa pagbabago kay Kristo Hesus tayo ay magsama-sama.
In prayer let us beg Mary and Joseph to lead us back to the Christ that we had lost in the past! God bless us all!
+ Gaudencio B. Cardinal Rosales
Archbishop of Manila
Bp. Honesto Ongtioco
Bp Jesse Mercado
Bishop of Cubao
Bishop of Paranaque
Bp. Deogracias Iniguez
Bp Francisco San Diego
Bishop of Caloocan
Bishop of Pasig
Bp. Gabriel Reyes
Bp. Antonio Tobias
Bp. of Antipolo
Bishop of Novaliches
Bp. Jose Oliveros
Bp. Leo Drona
Bishop of Malolos
Bishop of San Pablo
Bp. Luis Antonio Tagle
Bp. Pedro Arigo
Bishop of Imus
Vicar Apo.of Puerto Princesa
Bp. Edgardo Juanich
Bp. Leopoldo Tumulak
Vicar Apo. of Taytay
Military Ordinariate
Bp. Francisco de Leon
Bp. Broderick Pabillo
Auxiliary Bishop of Antipolo
Auxiliary Bishop of Manila
Bp. Bernardino Cortez
Auxiliary Bishop of Manila
Palm Sunday, 2008
(1) Samuel Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies, p. 67.
(2) Ricardo Manapat, Some are Smarter than Others, ($1.9B in 1981 to $2B in 1982), pp. 324328;
Today we are experiencing a social and political mess. This however goes beyond the question of truth to the search for probity. Probity is about the integrity of all, the accuser and the accused. We are unhappy and we feel betrayed. And yet as Pope Benedict XVI reminds us “in spite of our great disappointment our great hope can only be God who has loved us and who continues to love us to the end, until all is accomplished”, (Spe Salvi, 27). We also know that together we have the capacity to correct and purify the nation by starting with ourselves.
The Model for Change is the Desert.
The history of salvation teaches us that the long road to freedom inevitably passes through the desert of purification and conversion. Having escaped from Pharaoh, via the miraculous crossing through the Sea of Reeds, the Israelites considered themselves liberated. But they were not yet free, because they wanted to go back to their old ways in Egypt. “Should we not do better go back to Egypt?” (Numbers 14: 2-3).
The chosen people hesitated at the shores of the Sea and remained enslaved. So Moses led Israel away from the Sea of Reeds, and they entered the desert of Shur. (Exodus 15: 22). Believing that Pharaoh was the idolater refusing them the worship of the true God, it was in the wilderness where the people discovered that they too were guilty worshipers of golden idols. (Exodus 32: 1-29). People were disciplined and converted from their greed (Exodus 16: 17-21); and the desert which the Israelites feared to enter became for them a place of purification, discipline and conversion, before they could enter the promised land of freedom, forty years later. There are yet no proven easy short cuts to conversion and renewal.
Looking back at EDSA I, euphoric and heroic as it was, it appeared that the event became the Filipinos’ day of crossing to freedom; but that was only the first step that hardly anyone knew. The “desert” awaited the people who would be purified and converted, before they become fully liberated. But people preferred the convenient streets as the easier route to an imagined freedom, and feared the “desert experience” that awaited conversion and new beginnings.
Corruption as the cancer of the nation.
We cannot add more to the wrath of God for lies, untruth, injustice and evil. Conscience, as the voice of God within, already tells us of what good there is to pursue and what evil to avoid. Our people are known to be God-fearing and God-loving; sadly, they fight, deceive and kill for money.
Shamefully we have been known to be a nation whose prime industry has been identified as politics simply because politics is the main route to power, which, in turn, is the main route to wealth (1). In this country people use politics to get money, and more politics to protect more money. “Corruption radically distorts the role of representative institutions, because they become an arena for political bartering between clients' requests and governmental services. In this way political choices favor the narrow objectives of those who possess the means to influence these choices and are an obstacle to bringing the common good of all citizens.” (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 411).
The subordination of the public good to individual or group interests is what corruption is all about. In whatever form it takes, the practice of corruption is both immoral and unjust. Corruption is worse than lies, because lies are employed only to cover it. Whenever Government money is stolen or whenever suppliers or contractors’ money is offered as bribe to secure projects, to the disadvantage of the Government graft or corruption is committed. Graft is the acquisition of gain by dishonest, unfair and sordid means through the abuse of one's position in politics, business, etc., while corruption is the improper enrichment of politicians or civil servants or those close to them by the misuse of public power entrusted to them. [BIR, Revenue Memo Circular 12-2005]. As an injustice to the Government and people graft and corruption are against the Seventh Commandment and have the added element of betraying one's country.
The Universal and All-time Application of the Seventh Commandment.
The Seventh Commandment, “Thou shall not steal”, applies to all, as individuals or as groups. Thus, if one holds on to money or its equivalent that is not his or hers (or theirs), justice demands restitution of the stolen or bribe money to the owner. (CCC, 1459). If the owner can no longer be located, then the money should be given to the poor, or to a credible institution that will give the money for the poor or give true services for the poor.
Restitution was the constant teaching in relation to the violation of the Seventh Commandment in the Bible. “If anyone steals..., he will pay back”. (Exodus 21: 37).“Look Lord, I am going to give half my property to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody I will pay him back four times the amount”. With this confession, the Lord Jesus blessed Zacchaeus with salvation. (Luke 19: 8-10). The teaching of the Church on stealing is this: No Restitution, no Absolution. In the words of Jesus: with Restitution, there is Salvation. (Luke 19: 9). An authentic conversion demands willingness to restore what has been stolen and the resolve not to steal again.
The penitent should not be so complacent about one's faith as to consider oneself truly absolved before God on account of faith alone, even if one has no contrition... For faith without penance would effect no remission of sins. (Council of Trent).
The mandate of the Seventh Commandment is also addressed to traders and ordinary citizens in all practices of business, commerce and trading. Fraud in business, over pricing, bribery in contracts, cheating in scales, cheating in legitimate taxes and the smuggling of taxable goods, including also the smuggling and trafficking of substances for abuse to damn the innocent and the weak members of society, etc. --- all these are among the many forms of violating the Seventh Commandment.
Our Response: Our desert experience.
The old and the young, from kindergarten through high school on to the tertiary level of education till up to the licensure exams, are all to be formed and guided towards integrity, trained never to cheat in studies and exams. The “discipline of the desert” is to be taught and applied, if anyone is to succeed at any level towards “the fullness of life.”
The Seventh Commandment covers not only the present corruption deals that have been recently exposed, but also all deals, at all levels of government service, of all administrations and governance, no matter what came out of the past or will come out of the present or future inquiries. “Thou shalt not steal” covers also all trading of even ordinary citizens.
We suddenly notice that the widespread corruption we see in others is also the corruption we detect in ourselves.
Corrupt practices and fraud prevailed in the cities, towns and even in small Barangays. In the last two generations there had been tens of thousands of graft-ridden contracts in Government, the biggest single controversial project ever recorded in Philippine history was the Westinghouse’s Bataan Nuclear Plant (2).
True liberation will mean that we enter our desert of repentance and conversion. Change lies only at the heart of every person. Let us begin there. Values for living justly will be preached in parishes, prayed for in the homes, re-taught in schools, discussed in small communities and groups. Support structures will be required for a righteous life and fair dealings. After our personal and communal “desert” conversion, we will, please God, be ushered to the freedom we seek.
God’s Help is always needed.
We need God’s grace, if we are to encourage one another, forgive each other, pay our debts to the justice that we all violated, and start again, not at the banks of “our Sea of Reeds”, but beyond the streets of EDSA. Believers and lovers of God, like true Christians, do not have to hate, destroy each other even if they want to correct the mistakes of the past or the present and of each other. Many are critical of the present governance particularly in the areas of truth and justice. But we can restore truth and justice without resorting to violence and hatred. A nation built on contempt is completely unimaginable. As pastors we cannot tell you less, even if some will resent the way we teach. It is for everybody's good, especially the very poor among our brothers and sisters that we now address this call for communal renewal.
We need the leaders from the highest to the lowest and their families not only to lead us, but also to give us examples of repentance and true humble conversion. We also need people with other ideas but with positive emotions in nation building. Given the example and encouragement, the citizens will be inspired to follow where in the past they hesitated to proceed --- to their “desert” transformation.
Ngayon, diretso na tayo sa hindi natin kaagad gustong puntahan --- sa Disyerto ng ating mga masamang karanasan at kasalanan na dapat nating baguhin! May Pag-asa po ang ating Bayan at ang ating sarili. Basta’t sa pagbabago kay Kristo Hesus tayo ay magsama-sama.
In prayer let us beg Mary and Joseph to lead us back to the Christ that we had lost in the past! God bless us all!
+ Gaudencio B. Cardinal Rosales
Archbishop of Manila
Bp. Honesto Ongtioco
Bp Jesse Mercado
Bishop of Cubao
Bishop of Paranaque
Bp. Deogracias Iniguez
Bp Francisco San Diego
Bishop of Caloocan
Bishop of Pasig
Bp. Gabriel Reyes
Bp. Antonio Tobias
Bp. of Antipolo
Bishop of Novaliches
Bp. Jose Oliveros
Bp. Leo Drona
Bishop of Malolos
Bishop of San Pablo
Bp. Luis Antonio Tagle
Bp. Pedro Arigo
Bishop of Imus
Vicar Apo.of Puerto Princesa
Bp. Edgardo Juanich
Bp. Leopoldo Tumulak
Vicar Apo. of Taytay
Military Ordinariate
Bp. Francisco de Leon
Bp. Broderick Pabillo
Auxiliary Bishop of Antipolo
Auxiliary Bishop of Manila
Bp. Bernardino Cortez
Auxiliary Bishop of Manila
Palm Sunday, 2008
(1) Samuel Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies, p. 67.
(2) Ricardo Manapat, Some are Smarter than Others, ($1.9B in 1981 to $2B in 1982), pp. 324328;
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Paranoia, The Word of God & the Christian Faith
Being beloved = having everything that we need to live eternally.
If you went to Mass last Sunday and still remember the Gospel then, (Jesus' healing the Blind Man born blind from birth), one can easily understand today's readings, today being Friday of the 4th week of Lent. The first reading is from the book of Wisdom which mentions the plan of the evil ones against the righteous one. The Gospel shows us Jesus in Jerusalem in view of the Feast of the Tabernacles which every devout Jew is called to celebrate. The Gospel text ends up with the often-used phrase "his hour had not yet come."
As I read the Word of God, it dawned on me that there can be people who have serious difficulty in the area of trust. I thought about those who are classified as PARANOID or those who have PARANOIA. They usually keep in their minds thoughts of others intending to hurt or kill them, hence their very strong and rigid defenses. They can be so isolated because of their fears, and a very strong sense of self-protection is paramount in their minds. They limit their relations and activities and take every precaution in order to maintain their security, their sense of safety. Lacking trust in others, they may have sleepless nights and have a very high stress level which can lower one's self-esteem. However, it can be a lonely life, one that has in mind only limited views and ways. Sooner or later, the paranoid person can break down, trapped in his fantasies and psychosis.
But the Word of God can be very freeing. Jesus Himself, knowing that He was to be killed, something that may have really harrowed him as days of its fulfilment came closer "braved through" it all and fulfilled His mission. Knowing that He was doing things not on His own will but because He was sent for that mission became the rock on which He stood and worked. He must have known that if the time comes, that time would be the time of God: the kairos and not the chronos. Just remember this: when the kairos came, Jesus was given courage to face it all, carry the cross, bear the pain and forgave. The reward? The Resurrection on the third day!!! Kairos can indeed be very liberating!
What the Christian faith gives us is God's call to live the freedom of a beloved. In Christ, the Beloved, we all partake of His Love and mercy. God is calling us during this Lent to learn to trust in Him as He can recreate us anew. Being beloved = having everything that we need to live eternally. Everything in between or along the way to its fulfilment becomes bearable, tolerable, forgiveable. One need not imprison oneself in false thoughts! God's plan in Christ is not to condemn but to save, to love and to give us His life.
Indeed, the Word of God can be very liberating. It can set the Spirit free to live in the freedom of the beloved. It can make us sing with praise and worship. And if you care, the youtube of Sandy Patti's song can help a lot in this: please go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-J2CbJ-fEc&feature=email and enjoy this very uplifting song.
God bless
If you went to Mass last Sunday and still remember the Gospel then, (Jesus' healing the Blind Man born blind from birth), one can easily understand today's readings, today being Friday of the 4th week of Lent. The first reading is from the book of Wisdom which mentions the plan of the evil ones against the righteous one. The Gospel shows us Jesus in Jerusalem in view of the Feast of the Tabernacles which every devout Jew is called to celebrate. The Gospel text ends up with the often-used phrase "his hour had not yet come."
As I read the Word of God, it dawned on me that there can be people who have serious difficulty in the area of trust. I thought about those who are classified as PARANOID or those who have PARANOIA. They usually keep in their minds thoughts of others intending to hurt or kill them, hence their very strong and rigid defenses. They can be so isolated because of their fears, and a very strong sense of self-protection is paramount in their minds. They limit their relations and activities and take every precaution in order to maintain their security, their sense of safety. Lacking trust in others, they may have sleepless nights and have a very high stress level which can lower one's self-esteem. However, it can be a lonely life, one that has in mind only limited views and ways. Sooner or later, the paranoid person can break down, trapped in his fantasies and psychosis.
But the Word of God can be very freeing. Jesus Himself, knowing that He was to be killed, something that may have really harrowed him as days of its fulfilment came closer "braved through" it all and fulfilled His mission. Knowing that He was doing things not on His own will but because He was sent for that mission became the rock on which He stood and worked. He must have known that if the time comes, that time would be the time of God: the kairos and not the chronos. Just remember this: when the kairos came, Jesus was given courage to face it all, carry the cross, bear the pain and forgave. The reward? The Resurrection on the third day!!! Kairos can indeed be very liberating!
What the Christian faith gives us is God's call to live the freedom of a beloved. In Christ, the Beloved, we all partake of His Love and mercy. God is calling us during this Lent to learn to trust in Him as He can recreate us anew. Being beloved = having everything that we need to live eternally. Everything in between or along the way to its fulfilment becomes bearable, tolerable, forgiveable. One need not imprison oneself in false thoughts! God's plan in Christ is not to condemn but to save, to love and to give us His life.
Indeed, the Word of God can be very liberating. It can set the Spirit free to live in the freedom of the beloved. It can make us sing with praise and worship. And if you care, the youtube of Sandy Patti's song can help a lot in this: please go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-J2CbJ-fEc&feature=email and enjoy this very uplifting song.
God bless
Saturday, March 01, 2008
The Beauty of Colors, a pps
It looks like I can't post the powerpoint I received from a friend entitled The Beauty of Colors 3. But if you want, I can send it to you by email as an attachment. Email me at berngu721@gmail.com where I still have the pps attached in an friend's email. Please put in the subject Request for The Beauty of Colors 3. Or else, your email might be placed in the Spam section. I have been duped before, hence I want it not to happen again.
Anyway, after seeing the powerpoint, what came into mind was this: Light doesn't seem to be enough. The first part of every picture is in grey color, or black and white. After a second or two, the color comes and shows the grandeur of His Creative Power. Wahhw! The whole experience has in itself become a contemplation. I call that LOVE, which brings in color, which colors our life. The hues bring in the quality of life we live, the grandeur of all that God continues to do as he has created us and continues to recreate us to become the person or creation He wants us to become. Hence, I'd like to share you the powerpoint so you can contemplate as well. God bless
The Blind Man
Today's Gospel focuses on the blind man. From the Jewish point of view, amalady such as this is a sign of sin. Hence, it was even believed that the blind man was blind from birth due to his parents' sins. This kind of thinking stems from their experience of God Who punishes those who sin, and as can be seen in the Jewish history, the punishments were evident through the signs, such as blindness or leprosy. One who has the sign of punishment logically is imputed as being the bearer of being a sinner, or has been so due to the sins of one's parents.
But for Jesus, the blind man's blindness is not due to his parents' sins, but that through his blindness, God can show His greatness. This is a totally new perspective and thus makes this Sunday really "Laetare" Sunday, a day of rejoicing because for God, sin no longer counts. His mercy counts. He wants to show us His mercy, His greatness He wants to show us if only we were such a blind man who has alllowed God to do things His way .
Focusing on the blind man, he hasn't seen anything since birth, hence, it may not be fair to say he is blind when he hasn't lost anything since he was born. I remember in 1995, when I was new in the Philippines having just come back from Taiwan, I attended lessons in sign language. Among the things we were told was to remember that the deaf are people some of whom may not have heard anything since they were born, hence they shouldn't be imputed something they have never lost - the sense of hearing. Those who've never heard shouldn't be called deaf, hence, since the blind man in the Gospel has never seen anything, then he can't be accounted for what he never had. This thought seems to have some divine quality which wants to work with what is there that is open and ready, if only to show His mercy and Love. This seems the reason for our Laetare today: God is in our midst if only we are ready, and He works for us so that we may believe.
I am right now immersed in darkness. It may have been due to my sins, but the thought that He wants to come into my life, into my darkness, to show me His mercy and goodness, His Love, makes me rejoice. I don't have to choose to stay in the darkness. In fact I am called to believe and live as light the way St. Paul says in the second reading.
But for Jesus, the blind man's blindness is not due to his parents' sins, but that through his blindness, God can show His greatness. This is a totally new perspective and thus makes this Sunday really "Laetare" Sunday, a day of rejoicing because for God, sin no longer counts. His mercy counts. He wants to show us His mercy, His greatness He wants to show us if only we were such a blind man who has alllowed God to do things His way .
Focusing on the blind man, he hasn't seen anything since birth, hence, it may not be fair to say he is blind when he hasn't lost anything since he was born. I remember in 1995, when I was new in the Philippines having just come back from Taiwan, I attended lessons in sign language. Among the things we were told was to remember that the deaf are people some of whom may not have heard anything since they were born, hence they shouldn't be imputed something they have never lost - the sense of hearing. Those who've never heard shouldn't be called deaf, hence, since the blind man in the Gospel has never seen anything, then he can't be accounted for what he never had. This thought seems to have some divine quality which wants to work with what is there that is open and ready, if only to show His mercy and Love. This seems the reason for our Laetare today: God is in our midst if only we are ready, and He works for us so that we may believe.
I am right now immersed in darkness. It may have been due to my sins, but the thought that He wants to come into my life, into my darkness, to show me His mercy and goodness, His Love, makes me rejoice. I don't have to choose to stay in the darkness. In fact I am called to believe and live as light the way St. Paul says in the second reading.
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