The heart of Christian life

I’M referring to the Paschal mystery of Christ, his passion, death and resurrection that is the sum and substance of his redemptive work and that we celebrate liturgically in the Paschal Triduum, starting evening of Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday.

At the moment, I’m just a bit bothered that many, especially among the young and even among the elders, do not know Christ’s passion, death and resurrection comprise the Paschal mystery. Much less do they know about its significance, background, purpose and implications in all aspects of life.

They can know a lot about computers and other branches of human knowledge, but sad to say, their knowledge of their faith is kept in the subsistence level, quite emaciated and incapable of doing anything other than merely existing, reduced almost to just a name or title.

The task of catechesis is becoming increasingly bewildering. On the one hand, there is a lot of competition for people’s attention. Truths of faith, since they require grace and effort, suffer and lag behind in people’s priorities. On the other, there seems to be fewer catechists, let alone competent catechists.

Of course, in the first place catechesis demands gigantic effort, since it is not only a matter of transmitting ideas, but of translating these doctrines into our life itself. A tall order indeed, since the goal is nothing less than to make God’s thoughts and will our thoughts and will too.

But there’s always hope. No use getting stuck with the negatives and the difficulties. Of course, we need to consider them to be realistic about things, but precisely with Christ’s death and resurrection, hope is always around, what is humanly impossible becomes possible with God’s grace.

We just have to do our part. God’s grace is never lacking. St. Paul reassures us: “Where sin abounded, grace has abounded even more.” (Rom 5,20) We need to have a firm hold of the situation to avoid getting frozen into inaction, or confused, or distracted.

For this, one thing we can do is precisely to slowly go through and relish the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord. We have to understand that in the whole gospel and, in fact, in the whole divine revelation, this part is the heart of it all. It is the last word on Christianity, its bottom line.

This is where Christian life springs from and tends to. This is where we should most intently and attentively listen to the Holy Spirit, because it is in the Paschal mystery that the fullness of God’s wisdom for us can be found.

Reading it, meditating on it with the full force of our faith and piety, in unity with the whole Church, can yield us precious insights that can enliven our soul and launch us into heroic action.

This is the part where death gives way to life, darkness to light, sin to grace. It is what engages us both in time and in eternity, immerses us both in the world and in heaven, in the small and the big things, the material and spiritual.

This is especially crucial in the continuing and arduous work of catechesis. Living the Paschal mystery converts ideas, words and intentions into action and life itself. What is old, traditional, cold-blooded and distant in the abstract becomes new, updated, warm-blooded and immediate in the flesh.

Living the Paschal mystery is what catches and discerns the spirit of the times, and enables one to mysteriously read the minds and hearts of people.

It is a “conditio sine qua non” in catechesis, that enables us to engage with the audience in a most natural way. For this, there’s a need to monitor and know people’s mentalities, and flow with the changes, being always flexible without compromising essential things.

So, it’s important to observe and take note of what they are thinking, what excites and worries them, etc., and to adapt the catechetical strategy to these circumstances.

We have to be clear about what is unchangeable in catechesis and what is incidental only and can and even should change. The aim is to engage the audience in a meaningful dialogue where the objective truths of faith get to be subjectively appreciated, loved and lived by the people.

This is, of course, a tough act, requiring nothing less than the full complement of our human powers and faculties, and absolute reliance on the grace of God. But it can be an exciting adventure, full of learning moments and enlightening surprises.

Overkill

MEDIA is funny. Obviously, not all the time, but I must say, very many times.

A public thing and invested with the sublime and delicate duty to report the truth in the highest standards of objectivity and fairness, it plays a precarious role as it has to contend with a swarm of demons, both big and small.

It has to gather data and make stories everyday, verify the facts, process them for presentation, hope that they attract attention and sell. Deadlines have to be set and met, and the balance sheet should be in the black, not red. It’s both public service and business, and the right blend has to be discovered.

It’s this nature and character of its work that gives rise to the possibility of shallow, incomplete, one-sided reporting, and the often irresistible temptation to indulge in sensationalism and other gimmicks to grab attention from people.

There’s always the tendency to improvise, to exaggerate, to emit instant, not well-thought-out knee-jerk reactions to news events. The line between straight news and opinion, between reporting and taking sides is often blurred.

And worse things can happen, as questionable ideological motives and hidden agenda of some media practitioners can come in, coloring the media’s perspectives. This has happened before. It continues to happen today.

How many times some of us, who have the inside track of a particular story, would say the reporting did not hit it bull’s eye In fact, often we would say not only was it incomplete, but it already contained distortions and biases if not outright lies and malice.

For sure, this is not unique only to the media. Everyone of us is subject to more or less the same constraints, limitations and pressures. But the media suffers them a lot more. We therefore have to understand it more. We have to help it in any way we can.

But those in media should undertake a rigorous and abiding sense of self-examination and checking. It’s nice to know that many outfits have installed appropriate offices of the ombudsman and the like to carry out this internal task. We just hope they fulfill their duties well.

Thing is with the recent predicament the Church is having, what with all these allegations of sex scandals involving some members of the clergy in some countries, I get the impression that the media is making things worse not only for the Church but actually also for everyone.

Clearly, the scandals are serious. They cry to heaven for justice. And the Church authorities are doing their best to grapple with the issue. It’s crucifixion time for the Church.

But now there are clear attempts to corner the Pope himself in these scandals. And other wild accusations and claims are made. Someone even made the suggestion that because of these scandals, religion should also be eliminated. Religion only distracts us from our real problems, he said.

This is an overkill!

I thought the world is big enough to accommodate all sorts of people, and we just have to learn to be tolerant with each other, no matter how different and in conflict our views may be. But no. The press, portions of it, seems to give normality to some intolerant voices.

I’m afraid the media continues to play the whole thing up, often engaging in nitpicking and fault-finding. There seems to be some kind of feeding frenzy over the Church predicament, a gloating over the pains and hurts of an entity with long standing in the world.

It would now seem that the Church has absolutely nothing good to offer to mankind, that it has always been a villain, a fox dressed in sheep’s clothing. The turn of events seems to reveal an agenda to destroy the Church. I suspect there’s a powerful group behind all this.

I always thought it’s most unkind to kick someone when he is already down and in agony. But it seems this perversion is now the new normal promoted by some parts of the media, especially the foreign ones, now unashamedly showing fangs and claws and spitting cobra-like venom everywhere.

On one hand, I get amused to watch all these developments. It’s funny to see a kind of combat between two different parties, acting on two different levels, using different weapons, and aiming at different objectives. It’s a terrible mismatch.

On the other hand, I sink into pity and sadness to realize this is happening in our supposedly knowledgeable and already mature world of ours. We all need to get a good grasp of the situation!

Entering the spirit of Holy Week

WITH Holy Week, we mark the end of the Lenten season to enter into the most important mystery of the redemptive work of Christ, which is his passion, death and resurrection, aka the paschal mystery.

It’s like we were having a journey or a pilgrimage in Lent toward the most sacred event in our history, after which we will enjoy a period of supreme joy and peace in Easter that extends for some weeks.

It’s important that we don’t lose our spiritual bearing as we go through the Holy Week. Now we have to make some special effort to achieve this ideal, since the environment today is so paganized many people prefer to be in the beaches than in churches during Holy Week.

The Holy Week is “the” week in the Church calendar. It also should be so in the life of each one of us, believers and followers of Christ. If we go by our faith, it’s the week when we practice the most rigorous of our spirit of penance and sacrifice to match with the very passion and death of Christ on the Cross.

Why? Because we can only resurrect with Christ if we also suffer and die with him. St. Paul describes it this way in his Letter to the Romans: “If we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.” (6,5)

We have to be familiar with this language of our faith, and in fact make it as our own. That’s why we always need to exercise our faith, and especially as we go through the many events of Holy Week.

Our faith is not an on-and-off affair, much less, an optional element. It’s meant to be an abiding thing, the one that guides us all day. Considering it otherwise would actually be a disaster, since without faith we would just be left to our own devices. No matter how smart we are, without faith we will fail to reach our ultimate goal.

Our usual problem is that we put our faith often in the mute mode, sometimes thinking that such faith takes us away from reality. Or that it is a bother to our spontaneous desires for fun and action. Hardly anything can be farther than the truth.

Faith is the ultimate source of truth. It’s not only what we see or understand that gives us the truth. It’s what God gives us to understand, what he shows us and reveals to us that teaches us the truth. And that’s what faith is.

We need to correct this mistaken mentality about faith that sadly is spreading like wild fire especially among the young today. With a handicapped faith, we will fail to realize the eternal value of Christ’s cross, actually a good news to all of us, never a wet blanket or a nuisance.

Christ’s Cross is that indispensable element that completes and perfects the process of our creation. It’s what gives meaning and direction to our rich spiritual endowments we received in the first stage of our creation in Adam and Even, making us the image and likeness of God, and with his grace, children of his.

Christ’s Cross gathers all the sins of men from the beginning of time up to the end, making us to realize the true and objective malice of our sins that would require God to become man to save us.

With the Cross, Christ makes all our sins his own, without committing them, and dies to them so as to allow us to participate in his resurrection.

We need to have a good grasp of the situation, and avoid being held captive by a reductive if not childish understanding of the spirit of Holy Week. The Holy Week is the most exciting week of the year.

It’s when the fullness of our being gets totally engaged with the dynamics of love Christ our redeemer is offering us. It’s when we are invited to give our all to correspond to the all God gives us. It’s a dance of love involving our whole being and with cosmic dimensions and eternal effects.

This is how we have to understand the Holy Week. It’s not just one more week of the year, my dear. We have to be careful with the spiritually blind and deaf attitude that emerges in our society during Holy Week, emptying it of its true religious value.

Arming the youth

WE need to reach out to the youth and really take care of them. It’s worth all the effort and sacrifice. Especially these days when confusing elements abound in the world, we need in fact to arm them to face the many challenges in life.

The Church annually celebrates the World Youth Day precisely to give due attention to this most special duty. This year it is held on March 28, Palm Sunday, at the diocesan level.

The Pope’s message again focuses on that gospel story of the rich young man who asked our Lord: “What must I do to inherit eternal life” (Mk 10,17-22). It’s a beautiful story that reflects the life of a typical youth, often fired up by great ideals but does not know how to pursue and attain them.

With this story, the Pope tries to invite the youth all over the world to discover the importance of taking care of their spiritual life by developing an appropriate plan of life that nourishes their faith and spirituality, and keys and locks their attention and interest in eternal life, beyond the merely earthly.

This is a tall order indeed! But again it’s all worthwhile. I just hope and pray that more and more of us, the elders, in the great variety of our positions and circumstances, as parents, teachers, public officials, priests, etc., can dedicate time and effort to practically arming our youth for life’s warfare.

Yes, we should not forget this particular aspect of our life. In the first place, no one likes to see, much less talk about life under that aspect. That’s understandable. But it’s also undeniable.

While we have to respect everyone’s, and especially the youth’s fondness for a good time, we should also make it a point to remind all about life as a continuing struggle. We would be unrealistic and doing a disservice if we fail to give this reminder in an engaging and continuing way.

My experience in dealing with the youth has always been meaningful and often moving. I consider it a great privilege to be able to enter into their lives and even to take part in their dramas, at once amusing and stimulating.

They have to be helped to understand and appreciate the value of prayer, sacrifice, the sacraments, the different virtues. This is not easy at all, since the youth suffer a certain instability that needs precisely to be settled. A lot of patience is needed here. Also a sense of humor and sportsmanship.

They can be enthusiastic at one time, and then lethargic the next. They often get inspired and easily encouraged, but are notorious for lacking in perseverance. Their sense of freedom is often restrictive and certainly needs to be broadened.

It’s a painstaking job to deal with them. They have to be taught the proper criteria so they can have some sense of priorities, a sharpened sense of right and wrong, and can use their time, money and energies auspiciously. For this, we often need to walk the talk with them, ready to get dirty and all.

The proper doctrines have to be imparted and received well. Some tricky parts may arise in this regard, since the youth can be very spontaneous and fiercely sure of their opinions that actually need to be corrected.

Among the virtues to be given special attention is chastity. Given their condition, they are most vulnerable to sensual stimuli, both within them and outside. And so this topic has to be handled with utmost care and refinement.

They have to realize the precedence of the spiritual over the material, study and work over sports and gimmicks, contemplation over action.

But once successfully managed, this virtue facilitates all other virtues—humility, obedience and docility, temperance and fortitude, etc. Everything has to be done to win their confidence so they lose the fear of talking about this most intimate topic.

They have to be slowly taught about developing a sense of commitment and vocation. The idea is to make them fly or swim on their own later on. How important therefore is the role of friendship! Friendly chats should be fostered and hopefully these develop into spiritual direction and confession.

It’s in this setting that delicate and complicated issues are sorted out and clarified, pieces of advice, suggestions and words of encouragement are given. Truth is the environment is full of confusing elements, and many times the youth without malice easily fall into many traps, some of which can be truly vicious.

Going through all this is all worthwhile!

Cry in the desert

LIKE St. John the Baptist whose call for repentance as preparation for the coming of the Redeemer was a lonely cry in the desert, the voice of God today as well as that of the Church or of any spiritual and moral Christian teaching is becoming a voice of one crying in the wilderness.

Present circumstances in the world point to a growing deafness and insensibility to truths of faith and morals. The prologue of St. John’s gospel already captures this phenomenon: “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” (1,11)

The Psalms have many references to the same predicament. For example, Ps 76 says: “How often they rebelled in the wilderness! / How often they grieved him in the desert! / Again and again they put God to the test / and provoked the Holy One of Israel. / They forgot his strength, they forgot the time / when he saved them from the oppressor’s power.”

I don´t refer so much to those who openly declare themselves as atheists or agnostics as to Christians themselves, some of whom flaunting their Christianity, who fail to be consistent to their beliefs. The former needs a lot of understanding and patience. The latter, some ¨spanking.¨

Yes, there is secularization, a deadly process of removing God from society and in people´s daily lives and affairs. But this, I believe, is not so much because of non-believers but rather of those who say they believe and yet behave as if they are not believers.

There are many cases of infidelities and disloyalties, disobedience and treachery within the Church. The worst enemies are not to be found outside the Church but inside, not those far from the Church but those supposedly near, not those who declare themselves nemeses but friends and allies.

Worse than worst is when the enemy is one´s own self. This happens when one is complacent instead of ardent in his life of piety, when a priest or bishop, for example, talks more of politics and sociology and psychology instead of God, faith and morals.

In this way, preaching is emptied of the power of God, and the theologizing and philosophising do not go beyond pure intellectual exercises that do not spring from a vital contact with God.

It can have the form and the trappings, but not the substance. It can have shreds of truth, but without charity. Thus, the truths are often exploited to serve selfish ends. They fail to comply with the requirements of the common good. They lack depth and scope, and often stuck in the mind without any good act produced.

This kind of mind-frame ends up voiding the commandments of God and building up purely human ideologies, with ever weaker links to faith and ever stronger urges to be worldly.

Thus, there’s a tendency to politicize even sacred things, like the nature of marriage, or the Church itself, the sacraments, the doctrinal body of faith and morals, and even Christ himself. Some have divided Christ into a Christ of history and a Christ of faith, for example.

There are inconsistencies and gaping gaps in the lives of many so-called believers, especially those in public office. Pretensions and hypocrisies abound, and while to a certain degree these are understandable given our fragile human condition, in many cases hardly anything is done to correct them.

Some so-called Christians even go against Christ´s teaching in their public functions. Their idea of governance barely goes beyond bureaucratic efficiency. Again it´s empty of its basic requirement of vital contact with God. It´s purely human, stuck with the criteria of practicality, convenience and the like, and nothing about fostering sanctity.

What can we do with this widespread scenario? I suppose we just have to do what St. John the Baptist did, and what other saints did, and finally what Christ did. We just have to pursue what we know is good and is God’s will, even if there’s no immediate social impact. The cry in the desert will have its fruits someday.

In the meantime, we have to patiently learn the doctrine, wage a continuous ascetical struggle developing virtues and convictions, then start to do personal apostolate making use of whatever circumstance we have at the moment.

Of course, we should also try to aim higher and deeper, even going to public places to proclaim the good news in a world sunk in confusion, ignorance and error. All of these done always in charity, patience and hope.

Let’s remember this is God’s work more than ours.

Crucifying the Church

THIS, of course, has to be expected. The Church, the mystical body of Christ, can’t help but go the way of the man-God who, without sin, assumed all the sins and miseries of men and paid for them by offering his life on the cross.

Crucifixion, in whatever form it takes, will always be a crucial element in the life of the Church. In fact, as in Christ’s life, the crucifixion will be the culminating part that, together with Christ’s resurrection, summarizes everything the Church is mandated to do.

The cross will always be indispensable in our life. Our freedom needs it. There’s no way our freedom can be used well without the cross. The cross gives our freedom its proper grounding and focus.

Without the cross, our freedom, as St. Paul reminds us, can’t help but become “a cover for our sensuality.” (Gal 5,13) We don’t have to look far to validate that observation.

This is how we should look at the painful turn of events the Church is going through at the moment. The scandals that have rocked Ireland, Germany and other European countries, involving members of the clergy and the religious, is another episode in the continuous process of crucifixion of the Church.

The current papal interventions and those of other ecclesiastics are no mere rescue or face-saving operations. They are the attendants of the crucifixion, akin to the scourging, buffeting, spitting, mocking, etc., that Christ received.

But if that crucifixion has to lead to a resurrection in Christ, we all need to learn precious lessons from this crying shame that the Church, in her weak and fragile human aspect, has fallen into nowadays.

And Pope Benedict is doing just that. Exercising his leadership in the Church with determination in these difficult moments, he has just written a letter to the Catholics of Ireland whose content can also be applicable to everyone all over the world.

It’s a beautiful letter that captures the agony of the Church as it bears the sins and failings of men—in this particular case, those of some members of the clergy. The Pope expresses a profound apology to the victims and their families.

But it tries to offer hope and healing and renewal to all parties concerned, without reducing in any way the repulsiveness of the disgrace nor the need for those involved, whether priest or religious, to face the human and temporal consequences of such crimes.

“Openly acknowledge your guilt, submit yourselves to the demands of justice, but do not despair of God’s mercy,” he tells them. Yes, even if human justice is a far cry from divine justice, everyone has to submit himself to it. Christ himself, sinless and unfairly treated as he was, did so.

These words, to me, are a departure from the usual attitude of keeping these problems in confidential disposition. I suppose since things cannot be hidden anymore, the only way to react is to be upfront about them.

We need to find the proper blend between confidentiality and the right of the public to know about these cases, so that the best justice for all can be obtained.

He also tells the bishops that some of them committed blunders in their judgment of the cases brought to their attention. Every bishop should now make a review of the way they handle similar cases.

The Pope now orders special probes in some Irish dioceses and religious congregations. This is a wonderful idea, and I hope this becomes a regular feature, so problems can even be nipped in the bud.

In that letter, the Pope considers both the bigger issues involved and the ugly details, if only to institute the proper curative measures. It tries to go to the root of the problems and offers radical and sweeping solutions.

One portion of that letter which I also like is the enumeration of factors that contribute to the crisis. The Pope mentions:

- Inadequate procedures for determining the suitability of candidates for the priesthood and the religious life;

- Insufficient human, moral, intellectual and spiritual formation in seminaries and novitiates;

- A tendency in society to favor the clergy and other authority figures;

- A misplaced concern for the reputation of the Church and the avoidance of scandal, resulting in failure to apply existing canonical penalties and to safeguard the dignity of every person.

All of us, especially those directly involved, should take the bitter pill. Let’s hope we can emerge from this crisis a better Church, more faithful to Christ. There’s always hope.

They’re now corrupting the Girl Scouts?

I HOPE this has not yet reached our shores. But even if this so far is still an American or European affair, we should already be alarmed and vigilant. We have to do everything to protect our little girls from any trace of moral corruption coming from rich but decadent countries and some powerful alien groups.

A recent news item claims that in a UN meeting last March 1 of the Beijing +15 Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the Girl Scouts delegation was found distributing Sex Guides made by the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).

As you may already know, the IPPF is the umbrella organization responsible for the global promotion of reproductive health, contraception, abortion, safe sex, sex education, the so-called sexual rights even for children, etc.

Under its aegis, the children are made to think there’s nothing wrong like, sorry to be graphic, masturbation, pre-marital sex as long as it is safe, promiscuity again as long as it is safe, infidelity, etc.

In one such Sex Guides made by the IPPF, entitled “It’s perfectly normal,” the grade-school girls were told of the value of masturbation, with explicit drawings of couples having sex and a boy putting on a condom, as well as a listing of the top nine reasons to have an abortion.

This recent incident in the UN once again surfaces the fact that the US Girls Scouts organization has a long-standing relation with the IPPF.

This should be an eye-opener to us in our country. We cannot be naïve. We have to be more discerning and to ask whether those leading our Girl Scouts organization truly have the integrity we expect them to have.

This is not to cast aspersions on the current leaders of the group. Frankly, I don’t know any of them, and I hope and pray that they are all ok. But given the temper of the times, we have to be prudent. Yes, this is prudence, not paranoia.

After all, if we have to read a little into the mind of those behind the IPPF, it should not be any wonder if they use the Girl Scouts as their vehicle to pursue their agenda worldwide. The Girl Scouts could offer them good cover and effective coverage for their work.

Besides, if we also look at the crop of women leaders in our country today, we can see that we are not lacking either in those who could easily ally themselves with the IPPF ideology. Some are even school heads and members of religious congregations.

Again, I’m sorry to be bringing out these unpleasant things. But if we have to squarely deal with our problems, present and potential, we need to be clear about how things really are in the battleground.

Yes, we are in some kind of continuing warfare. Our present condition requires us to be ever watchful and to act, of course, with charity, but also with decision and precision.

A good strategy is to engage the enemy even while it is still far from the main walls of our fortress. Again, we have to be very careful and discerning here, since with all this mantra about tolerance and respect for the plurality of cultures and perspectives, we need to have the right blend between truth and charity, charity and justice, etc.

Toward this end, it should be understood that the struggle has to be carried out by all, and not just by the clergy. The parents, the teachers, the community leaders, etc. should be in the forefront. And they better be well-equipped for this battle for the minds and hearts of people.

Also, it has to be understood that everyone should feel free to talk about God and morality in public. They should not be ashamed to show their true colors, just as the liberals are not ashamed to show theirs either.

We cannot fall for their ploy of saying that since we are in a democratic society, we should not be talking about God in public, while they are all free to talk about their neo-pagan ideas. We have to talk more openly and consistently about God these days, precisely because of the moral confusion around.

Of course, we have to do this with utmost charity, which is what would really take place if one is truly with God. There will obviously be mistakes in this area, but these mistakes should not stop us. Rather they should make us think how we can correct them, and then on with the fight.

In the news again

I AM referring to the issue of priestly celibacy. The slew of scandals involving priests in child abuse cases now popping up in Ireland, Germany and in other countries in Europe is again putting the spotlight on whether priestly celibacy is any help to a priest’s life and ministry.

One news item cheekily suggested that the celibacy requirement must be the cause for some priests to get mired in sex scandals. Another speculated that celibacy must be psychologically dangerous. I think those fears and suspicions are wide of the mark.

There was even a thinly-veiled attempt to draw the Pope to these scandals, considering that before becoming a Vatican official and later on as Pope, he was bishop in one of the German dioceses where the scandals erupted. Well, nice try.

The media is now on edge, ready to pounce once the situation develops into a more interesting state. Ok, let’s enjoy the suspense.

I can understand all these reactions and turn of events. Still I have to reiterate that priestly celibacy is good and helpful for everyone. Not that there are no problems. There are, and they can be big and menacing, but the solutions are also not lacking. We just have to tackle this issue the way it now demands.

Priestly celibacy, for sure, is not just a disciplinary matter. It has a deep and rich theological significance that gives crucial meaning and direction to our lives. It´s actually a matter of love. Where there is love properly grounded and focused, celibacy would be no problem. In fact, celibacy would be one of love´s finest expressions.

Its requirements are tremendous, but its benefits are simply indescribable and what everyone needs. Living it is giving witness to our future ultimate state of life in heaven, where everyone will be celibate. On the practical side, it makes one more available for the others.

Of course, if not lived well, and in fact when scandals arise, it can truly cause sharp pain on everyone too.

So to live it well should be the concern of all, especially of the priests themselves and the pertinent authorities. But we have to have a reality check first. We cannot go by theories and good intentions alone.

Given our weakened human condition and the complexity of our world today, not to mention the many dimensions of celibacy that need to be integrated, more teeth have to be put into the proper understanding of its nature and purpose, and its proper practice.

For one we need to dismantle a certain unhealthy clerical mentality, obviously not intentionally wanted but is somehow present, where this concern for priestly celibacy is kept mute and therefore not sufficiently addressed and worked out.

I get the impression that the official attitude toward it is reactive more than pro-active. We seem to act only when there are problems. We take for granted the on-going efforts we need to nourish and strengthen it especially these days when there a lot more of temptations.

Just look at all the gadgets available, for example. While they can be a great help, they too can be a source of subtle but constant temptations. We cannot be naïve and just turn a blind eye at likely dangerous situations these gadgets can give rise to.

We need to create a culture where this topic should be brought out more often in spiritual direction and confession, all done in an atmosphere of confidence and trust. Indeed, it can be brought out in open discussions to take up general concerns.

If the priests and seminarians don’t bring it out, then their superiors and formators should ask about it. In fact, there should be constant monitoring of relevant events and developments—social, cultural, etc.—to see how these affect priests and seminarians with respect to celibacy.

It’s important that the concrete situation of each one is mapped out, delineating where the danger areas are and indicating the prudent measures not only to prevent mistakes but more to foster the love and skill for celibacy.

There is complacency, or perhaps an understandable hesitation to talk about it, since it is a very intimate, personal matter. But then again, if we understand the social implications and public character of such a personal matter, talking about it in confidential chats and making consultations should not be deemed awkward.

To live this well, that is, always in the context of love, both the supernatural and human means are needed—prayer, sacraments, mortifications, fidelity to a plan of ongoing formation, Marian devotion, temperance, prudence, hard work, etc.

In the news again

I AM referring to the issue of priestly celibacy. The slew of scandals involving priests in child abuse cases now popping up in Ireland, Germany and in other countries in Europe is again putting the spotlight on whether priestly celibacy is any help to a priest’s life and ministry.

One news item cheekily suggested that the celibacy requirement must be the cause for some priests to get mired in sex scandals. Another speculated that celibacy must be psychologically dangerous. I think those fears and suspicions are wide of the mark.

There was even a thinly-veiled attempt to draw the Pope to these scandals, considering that before becoming a Vatican official and later on as Pope, he was bishop in one of the German dioceses where the scandals erupted. Well, nice try.

The media is now on edge, ready to pounce once the situation develops into a more interesting state. Ok, let’s enjoy the suspense.

I can understand all these reactions and turn of events. Still I have to reiterate that priestly celibacy is good and helpful for everyone. Not that there are no problems. There are, and they can be big and menacing, but the solutions are also not lacking. We just have to tackle this issue the way it now demands.

Priestly celibacy, for sure, is not just a disciplinary matter. It has a deep and rich theological significance that gives crucial meaning and direction to our lives. It´s actually a matter of love. Where there is love properly grounded and focused, celibacy would be no problem. In fact, celibacy would be one of love´s finest expressions.

Its requirements are tremendous, but its benefits are simply indescribable and what everyone needs. Living it is giving witness to our future ultimate state of life in heaven, where everyone will be celibate. On the practical side, it makes one more available for the others.

Of course, if not lived well, and in fact when scandals arise, it can truly cause sharp pain on everyone too.

So to live it well should be the concern of all, especially of the priests themselves and the pertinent authorities. But we have to have a reality check first. We cannot go by theories and good intentions alone.

Given our weakened human condition and the complexity of our world today, not to mention the many dimensions of celibacy that need to be integrated, more teeth have to be put into the proper understanding of its nature and purpose, and its proper practice.

For one we need to dismantle a certain unhealthy clerical mentality, obviously not intentionally wanted but is somehow present, where this concern for priestly celibacy is kept mute and therefore not sufficiently addressed and worked out.

I get the impression that the official attitude toward it is reactive more than pro-active. We seem to act only when there are problems. We take for granted the on-going efforts we need to nourish and strengthen it especially these days when there a lot more of temptations.

Just look at all the gadgets available, for example. While they can be a great help, they too can be a source of subtle but constant temptations. We cannot be naïve and just turn a blind eye at likely dangerous situations these gadgets can give rise to.

We need to create a culture where this topic should be brought out more often in spiritual direction and confession, all done in an atmosphere of confidence and trust. Indeed, it can be brought out in open discussions to take up general concerns.

If the priests and seminarians don’t bring it out, then their superiors and formators should ask about it. In fact, there should be constant monitoring of relevant events and developments—social, cultural, etc.—to see how these affect priests and seminarians with respect to celibacy.

It’s important that the concrete situation of each one is mapped out, delineating where the danger areas are and indicating the prudent measures not only to prevent mistakes but more to foster the love and skill for celibacy.

There is complacency, or perhaps an understandable hesitation to talk about it, since it is a very intimate, personal matter. But then again, if we understand the social implications and public character of such a personal matter, talking about it in confidential chats and making consultations should not be deemed awkward.

To live this well, that is, always in the context of love, both the supernatural and human means are needed—prayer, sacraments, mortifications, fidelity to a plan of ongoing formation, Marian devotion, temperance, prudence, hard work, etc.

Perverting our subjectivity to subjectivism

A RECENT news item reports that the UN, with heavy support from the current US government headed by Barack Obama, is adopting the resolutions of the 1995 UN women´s conference in Beijing that gives women absolute right over their body.

It said that in that UN meeting, abortion was not anymore an issue. It was a foregone conclusion, a shoo-in, accepted by the majority of the members and not deserving any further discussion, thanks to the rousing speech of its main global proponent Hillary Clinton.

Women can now do anything with their body, a doctrine meant to be the basis for women´s right to abortion, among many other things. The same thinking is behind the global promotion for reproductive health, safe sex, same-sex union, etc.

This is a great cause for concern, and even for alarm. That this perverted reasoning has gone up to the level of the UN indicates that not only human, but also some super-human or sub-human forces are at work. I don´t think this is just a usual social or cultural phenomenon, a purely human affair. There are spirits behind this development.

We cannot remain passive in the face of this disturbing phenomenon. Here in our country, some prominent voices echo the same sentiments. They are public officials and even university presidents.

A senator now running for president openly batted for safe sex. In fact, many of our candidates mouth similar mantras. Many city councils today are enacting reproductive health decrees, obviously riding on a bandwagon, following a global pied pier that dangles a lot of money and support.

But how else can we explain the irrationality of their position when it can open the floodgates to everyone claiming absolute rights not only for their body, but also for anything they like? If the women now can do anything with their body, who can stop the men also to do the same, the adolescents, the children, the different groups also to do the same?

It´s true that we all are free, and because of that we are subjects of our own actions, conscious of them and responsible for them too. That´s the reason we have subjectivity. That´s because we think, we choose, decide, love or reject, orient our actions to some goal, etc. In short, we are responsible for our actions.

But that subjectivity, by the very nature of our being persons who think and are free and responsible, necessarily leads us to be connected with others, let alone, with God who is supposed to be our Creator, the Author of everything, of what is right and wrong, what is good and evil.

Our subjectivity can´t help but enter into the dynamics of intersubjectivity. Our life is always a life of sharing, of inter-personal relation. No one, no group can claim to live by himself or by themselves. No one, no group can be absolute authors of the laws to govern us. No one, no group can be a law to himself or themselves.

You do that and you immediately get into trouble. You will lapse into the world of subjectivism, a parody of our subjectivity. You will simply be tossed to and fro in an ocean of relativism where without absolute guide your survival will just be a matter of brute force and violence and other forms of inhuman and unfair justice.

Our individuality is not meant to freeze into individualism and isolationism. A recluse, unless he is one due to ascetical reasons, and an asocial or anti-social person are always an anomaly.

And this is what the UN seems to be promoting now. It seems it has not learned its lesson after it has burned its fingers with its rash support of the global warming issue, now largely discredited by scientists worldwide. It´s declaring women to be a law to themselves, detached from an absolute standard.

We cannot remain passive here. This development is a call to action. We have to understand that our life will always be some kind of warfare, not only in the personal level involving internal and spiritual situations, but also in the global level.

For Christian believers, this battle will always be a war of peace and love, of truth, justice and charity. But just the same, the unavoidable aspects of warfare will always be there—the cut and thrust, the discussion and arguments, the effort to clarify and win followers through their heart and mind, dialogue, patience, understanding, mercy, etc. We have to be ready for all these.

Laity co-responsible with clergy for the Church

I WAS happy to learn that Pope Benedict, in a recent visit to a Roman parish, clarified that lay people are as responsible as the priests in carrying out the mission of the Church in the world. He was asking for some radical change of mentalities.

For years, decades and centuries, many and big parts of the world´s population have been under the wrong notion that the Church is mainly if not exclusively the responsibility of the priests and bishops. The lay people only play a supporting cameo role if not just an extra.

Priests and laity, by their baptism, enjoy a fundamental equality in that being conformed to Christ all of us are called to aim at genuine holiness and to participate in carrying out the mission of the Church, each one in the way proper to his condition.

It’s true that there’s distinction of how priests and laity carry out their mission, a distinction that’s meant to nourish their mutual cooperation. But it’s this fundamental equality that needs to be aired out more fully to erase some wrong ideas about the laity’s role in the Church.

These erroneous ideas can be called the clerical mentality that has been afflicting us here in the Philippines, in spite of our long Christian tradition. It gives undue importance to the role of priests and bishops at the expense of the laity.

Its usual manifestations are the tendency to make the lay people as some kind of assistants, servants and longa manus of the clergy or the attitude of regarding the priests as the sole agents of the Church mission.

With this anomaly, priests and bishops can be seen as superior in status in the Church compared to the lay people. The lay people can develop the mentality of being second-class citizens in the Church.

The clerics can then enjoy certain unwanted privileges that tend to spoil them. They also can develop the thinking that even in secular affairs, as in politics and business, they too could take a direct and active part.

With this anomaly, the lay people will tend to fail to realize their true mission. They can think that to be active in Church, they can get contented with doing some service in parishes and religious organizations. This, while most welcome, is not their main calling. It should not deflect them from what is their proper role.

The laity is meant to live the fullness of Christian life, nothing less than that, developing and giving witness to it in the middle of the world—in their homes, work places, etc. It’s a serious and demanding vocation that requires their full dedication.

The laity has to shed off that common bias that for them just a few touches of holiness would be enough. They are meant for the fullness of Christian life! Enough also with the double standard, often reinforced in the media, that put stringent requirements on clerics, but lax treatment on the laity.

As such, the lay people have to know and assimilate their doctrine thoroughly, and be in the forefront in sanctifying the different fields, structures and levels of society. It’s true that they need the sacraments, administered by clerics, for their sanctification, but they have to give their all in sanctifying themselves in the center of worldly and temporal affairs.

Thus, they should realize that they need to undertake continual ascetical struggle, developing virtues and changing things inside and outside them that are not in accordance to Christian living. They too should realize that they need on-going formation, making their consciences more sensitive to the increasing demands of Christian life.

This, of course, will require tremendous effort. For one, a lot of catechizing is needed. Spiritual direction should also be done. I just hope that those who can help be generous enough to extend a hand. They need not do extraordinary things. They can just teach catechism at home, or in the neighbourhood, or even in the offices, etc.

Some clarifications of issues also have to be done. I’m happy that the current president of the Bishops’ Conference is clear about clerics not getting partisan in politics, especially now that we are in an election year.

We need to give stimulating ideas to many people to inspire and launch them into action that can help many others. Certainly, we need to change the general temper in politics, business, media, etc., where we can see a lot of confusion and error in the people involved there.

Falling to demagoguery

THE world is now awash with demagogues. It looks like we have an infestation. Whether we look at the fields of politics, business, the sciences, sports and entertainment, culture, etc., we can readily find dishonest and corrupt leaders, false prophets and lying teachers.

It actually should be no surprise. Since time immemorial, and even during the time of Christ, demagogues proliferated. Our human condition, if not grounded on God, is vulnerable to it. We can´t help it. Our world can easily produce the necessary elements and factors. And we can never run out of potential materials.

These demagogues have great capacity to read people´s mind, and know how to adapt their behavior and speech to what people want to see and hear. This, of course, regardless of whether their words and ideas conform to God´s laws or not. They do things quite independently of God, and often even hostile to God.

Of all these demagogues, I am not worried so much by those who identify themselves as atheists, agnostics and free thinkers. We have freedom, and we just have to learn how to cope with some of its not-so-good consequences. If the lines of conflict are clearly drawn, then things are a lot easier to handle.

Just the same, these can already create a lot of mess. Consider a very rich billionaire. His investments and fund movements can spell prosperity or doom to a country and even to a region. His open support for abortion, euthanasia and same-sex union certainly causes severe headache to those who believe in following the moral law as taught by Christ and the Church.

Or a president of a leading country in the world with patent agnostic tendencies in spite of official affirmations of being a Christian, who is now reshaping the country along the lines of a socialistic ideology. Any coincidence with God´s law is just that, coincidence. He for sure is creating a monstrosity.

Many people are now waking up from a spell that mesmerized them during the campaign season. They were sweet-talked into believing he was going to be a transformational president, the messianic agent of change, and not just an effective executive.

Still, the problem with this kind of demagogues is not that big. It´s when we have to deal with those who say they are God-believers or Christ-followers but who actually go against God that things become very tricky. And these men and women can so master their demagogic rhetoric and craft that they can effectively take a lot people for a ride.

This is what St. Paul said of them: ¨For such false apostles are deceitful workmen, transforming into the apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.¨ (2 Cor 11,14-15)

We need to sharpen our spirit of discernment. St. John in his first letter warned us: ¨Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits if they be of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world...¨ (4,1)

In our country, we have politicians who at least by name are Christians, but in practice are not. They do not know how to be consistent with their faith in their official functions. Many are confused doctrinally and can even go to the extent of doing things directly against God´s commandments.

Thus, the practices of corruption, kickbacks and briberies, cheating and performing and delivering things below specifications, etc., not only have proliferated, but have become SOP (standard operating procedures).

But these are of less importance compared to attitudes and practices that go directly against God and against the inner man. I´m referring to officials’ views and even campaigns related to sexual morality.

Right now, for example, there is a massive campaign spearheaded by the Department of Health to promote condoms. How this little piece of rubber or plastic, of dubious practical benefit, has become the centerpiece in the fight against AIDS and the so-called over-population problem is beyond me.

It´s quite clear that the campaign is part of a worldwide network driven by powerful ideological and economic groups. To this campaign many of our leaders, especially those in the media, simply take at best an attitude of indifference.

¨It´s not against any law of the land, so let it be,¨ more or less captures their attitude. They don´t care about the moral implications. This is precisely what a demagogic frame of mind is. It´s a leadership detached from God, as if all authority on earth did not come from him but are just of their own making.

The value of suffering

NOW that we are in the middle of Lent, it’s good that we consider once again the value of suffering. All of us are harassed by it, in one form or another—it’s a universal phenomenon—and yet many still do not know how to react to it or to handle it.

Suffering has to be viewed from the perspective of faith. It should be taken out from an overly human outlook that restricts it to its purely negative, painful and destructive character. There’s a lot more to our suffering than what our senses and our reasoning unaided by faith can cope and discover.

First, we have to understand that our suffering was not meant for us in the beginning of our existence. Nor is it meant for our end. It came about as consequence of our mishandling our freedom, that supreme gift God our Father and Creator endowed us with at our first creation in Adam and Eve.

We have to make that qualification of “first creation,” because our creation is actually an ongoing affair that is played out in stages all throughout time.

There’s the first creation by God the Father of Adam and Eve, endowing us with the best of gifts like our freedom, then our second creation in Jesus to introduce the crucial correcting element of the cross in our life once we misuse our freedom, and the third stage which is our personal sanctification through the work of the Holy Spirit.

The business of creation takes the whole of time and, in fact, covers the entirety of our existence, since it involves our very existence itself. For as long as we exist, our creation continues to take place.

From the point of view of God who lives in eternity, this whole process is just but a blink to him. “One day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2 Pt 3,8) Of course, from our point of view, all this process covers the whole of time.

Back to our freedom, we have to understand that it’s that gift that makes us image and likeness of God. Together with our intelligence, it enables us to mirror God’s greatness is us. With God’s grace, it lets us enter God’s life itself, sharing that divine life and perfecting our ultimate identity.

We are not mere creatures like the others that come from God and belong to him, but do not participate in the very intimate life of God. We are the masterpiece of his creation, charged to be stewards of the whole of creation.

But all the goodness that our freedom gives us turned sour when we abused it. As a consequence, the good things are now replaced with bad things that make us suffer. This is the origin of our suffering that continues to grow, morph and spread in ways we cannot account anymore.

Still, God has not abandoned us, and instead has undertaken a very complicated plan to recover us, sending his Son to become man and effect our own redemption through the Cross.

With the Cross, he has made the very cause of our downfall also as the very means of our salvation. The Cross is where sin is transformed to grace, death to life, darkness to light.

And thus, now with the help of the Holy Spirit, we have to understand the true value of our cross—all the sufferings we have to endure in this life. Let’s not waste too much time figuring out why we suffer and how we can overcome it. These we will always do somehow, but we should not stop there.

Every suffering we have should be an invitation for us to go back to Christ, to be converted again, that is, to identify ourselves with him through the work of the Holy Spirit, so we can effect in our mortal flesh that very transformation that took place in Christ, who died and rose from the dead.

This is the challenge we have—how to go beyond mere human considerations of our suffering so as to savor its ultimate religious value. We need to develop the skill to escape from the self-focusing dynamics of suffering when considered only humanly, to be able to hitch ourselves with the saving dynamics of Christ’s suffering.

Are we just contented with complaining and groaning and moaning when we suffer? Or do we start as soon as we can to enter into the more glorious dimensions that our suffering offers?

Faith in our public life

A SPEECH delivered recently by an American archbishop is, I think, worth noting. The Archbishop is Charles J. Chaput of Denver who gave an address last March 1 before a group of Protestant pastors in Houston, Texas. The topic was “The vocation of Christians in public life.”

The speech was about how Christians, particularly the lay faithful occupying official functions, need to live their faith in public, living it in complete consistency and visibility, without hiding or diluting it.

The theme is very relevant to us, because in the world stage today, especially in developed countries like the US and Europe, there’s this notorious tendency for Christian politicians to feel a certain unease regarding their faith.

They appear to be ashamed of it, giving the impression that their faith hardly has anything to do with their work. Perhaps they believe that their faith is completely irrelevant to their public actuations, a position that really has no basis.

Or, worse, their faith has nothing to say about their work.

Thus, they tend to suspend at least parts of it, or they treat it purely as a private thing with absolutely no public effect. And so there develops a type of dichotomy in their public life and private life, their public views and positions and their conscience, an unhealthy situation, to say the least.

This kind of mentality, sad to say, is also gaining ground in our local scene, and this is what should worry us. We have to correct it, because it is wrong and has dangerous consequences.

In the US, this mentality became an official doctrine with the pronouncement of the former president John F. Kennedy, the first and so far the only Catholic president in the US.

Precisely to the same audience of Protestant pastors in Houston 50 years ago, he described how he as Catholic could be a good president if elected. At that time, there was some public concern over how a Catholic would behave as president.

To pacify that worry, Kennedy proceeded to articulate a doctrine of rigid and absolute separation of Church and state.

In Chaput’s words, Kennedy “began the project of walling religion away from the process of governance in a new and aggressive way. He also divided a person’s private beliefs from his public duties. And he set the national interest over and against outside religious pressures or dictates.”

This Kennedy doctrine prepared the ground for secularism and relativism to take root in society as Christian politicians practically did nothing to stop them. They just flowed with the fashions, with what was popular, and adopted positions openly anti-Christian, saying it was just a public position but personally they were still Christian.

And so, we can see in these countries delicate moral issues that we need to resolve very clearly: abortion, confusion about sexual identity and human nature, disconnection of science and technology from morality, lack of respect for freedom of conscience, questionable educational thrusts in schools, etc.

These issues are slowly invading our shores, and we just have to strengthen our faith, especially that of our leaders, for this eventuality.

Faith and religion are always involved in these issues. While these issues have to be considered under many aspects, we have to understand that the considerations of faith and religion, being so basic in us, should be given priority.

It’s in our faith and religion that the fundamental and ultimate meaning of the issues are given. It’s where our ultimate common good is determined. The practical, the legal, the social, cultural and historical aspects have to somehow defer to them.

Contrary to some views, being consistent to one’s faith and religion in public office does not make him a fanatic, a fundamentalist or detached from reality. Quite the opposite is true.

Obviously, this task is not the primary duty of the clerics, but rather of the laity. They need to be competent and clear about their priorities.

Certainly, they have to do this task properly, knowing which part of the issues are open to opinion and therefore can change, and which are of the nature of the eternal truth, that should not be changed.

They have to master the art of dialogue, knowing how to argue in defense especially of the uncompromisable part of the issues with forcefulness, flexibility and naturalness. This is where their leadership can truly be shown.

When they make a position, they should refrain from calling it the Christian position, because there can be other positions different from theirs but just as Christian also.

Politics should not shun the cross

IN FACT, politics should look for the cross and embrace it. If politics has to be realistic and effective in its work and purpose, that is what it should do. Politics, and of course those directly involved in it, should be wary of being swallowed by a deadening inertia that usually afflicts it.

I would even go to the extent of saying that the cross would comprise the fullness of any political work, and indicate the authenticity of one´s motives in politics.

Just as the cross is the summit of Christ’s redemptive work, and also the life of every Christian believer, the cross has to be the crown of this human affair we call politics.

Without the cross, politics would be doomed, prone to our tricks and games and the ways of deceit and corruption. There´s no valid reason to extricate the cross from politics.

Thus, we can say that the best quality of a politician that should summarize all his other qualities is his love and competence to carry the cross, understanding the cross as the Cross of Christ, and not just our mad-made crosses that have nothing to do with Christ’s cross.

It’s this love for the cross that would give the politician the necessary integrity and competence for his work, the capacity to distinguish and relate the essential and the incidental, the requirements of justice and charity, magnificence and temperance, the common good and the particular good.

It is what makes a politician discern the over-all picture of an issue without ignoring the details, what gives him prudence when to move and when to wait, when to speak and when to keep quiet, to tolerate and to be intolerant, etc.

Everyone understands a politician’s need to make his work easy, efficient and successful, taking advantage of whatever propitious structure, support, funding, etc. he can get. Everyone understands his desire to want to serve the people even endlessly, if possible. But these motives should not be the end-all and be-all of his work.

A politician has to understand that just as in anything else, the cross sooner or later will appear and therefore should be met and carried to its full term. No one and nothing is actually exempt from this law of life.

Thinking otherwise puts him in fantasy land, not in the real world, and leads him to a spiral of temptations with hardly any grace and strength to resist them. He has to understand that the higher he goes in the world of politics, the bigger also will be the temptations. The cross will keep him humble, protecting him from corruption.

A politician, a constant necessity in any society, should realize that in the first place there is always hard work to do, not to mention difficult decisions to make. He has to face these responsibilities with a full heart, not afraid to suffer pain in any form to fulfill them.

They have to study many issues well, regularly consult their constituents, clearly outline their agenda, seeing to it that the agenda truly reflects the people’s real needs, etc. He should always hone his skills and competence, never falling into complacency. He has to be calm, forever patient, and yet decisive.

In studying the issues, for example, he should not limit himself only to the practical aspects. He first of all should give priority to the morality involved. And where that requirement becomes unpopular, he has to learn to undertake the challenging task of persuading the populace.

He should be unafraid to suffer whatever bad fate may come to him due to his position. He never compromises on matters of faith and morals. He should keep his conscience intact.

Of course, it pays to be popular, but certainly there are times when unpopular decisions have to be made. And they simply have to be made, even if one suffers political loss and electoral defeat.

It also pays to know how to be very flexible, very adept in forging practical compromises with all sorts of people and groups. But again there are also times when one has to be uncompromising, since the matter or issue involved would require it despite the majority’s sentiments.

A case in point is the current effort to approve the immoral RH bill and also the condom campaign now waged relentlessly by our Department of Health with vast support from alien groups. These are instances when politicians, to be true to their vocation, should be strong enough to say ¨no¨ and to marshall the political power to this end.

Dra. Cabral´s condoms

YOU would know summer is here when all of a sudden you see the bougainvilleas around bloom in exploding profusion and color. Seeing them makes you forget the inconveniences of summer. It tells you summer has its own blessings, its own fun and beauty. You just have to know how to make use of them.

I was reminded of this bougainvillea-in-summer image as I reviewed all this issue about the new Secretary of Health distributing condoms to the public last Valentine´s Day and, as latest news would have it, up to when she ends her term.

Her act offers a precious opportunity—to clarify things. Like the bougainvillea, this task of clarifying may have thorns, but it also has those beautiful flowers.

Frankly, I was amused by all the antics surrounding the controversy. No, I was not irritated or disturbed. Just that, amused.

As a doctor, she is free to prescribe anything she thinks is good for the patient. Of course, that is not infallible. Many doctors have given wrong prescriptions after making wrong diagnoses too. Besides, I still have to convince myself that human fertility is a disease to be cured by some drug or gadget.

But as a public official with zeal to serve the people, she must have felt she has to go beyond simply prescribing. She has to go out to the streets, walk her talk, and give away condoms. That´s where she starts to get some reactions.

Some bishops called for her resignation, an understandable reaction given our democratic system. She answered by calling the Church ¨vicious,¨ lectured professorially on the standard bull about Church-state separation, and instantly attracted the usual following who praised her to high heavens for having balls.

I hope she’ll have the bigger balls to admit that in all this condom business, she also has to input the indispensable moral elements. Morality is not optional. It is not a religious peculiarity. It is a universal, natural need. Its nature is not defined only by practicality. It’s by the very dignity of a human person.

Her first excuse was that she has to do something to curb the rise of HIV-AIDS, and what better way than to spread prophylactics. Children got hold of them too and promptly made them into balloons. Talking about scandals nowadays has already been considered passe.

She said she´s for the ABC method—abstinence, be faithful, and if these fail, then condoms. So you see it´s really not that bad. She´s just being practical. If the moral fails, then why not the immoral, that is still short of aborting and killing. She has a point. Right or wrong, we´ll see. Anyway, who cares about morality nowadays? That’s really our problem today.

Then she also said she has to distribute condoms because our population is just too much or too many. We cannot cope with the people´s needs. In her calculus, condoms will solve the problem or at least give some significant relief.

And by the way, powerful groups like the EU, the US, and others are giving generous grants in Euros and dollars to promote the condoms. We do not know anymore if this open season against morality is driven by conviction or by economic considerations. Knowing our politicians, we have basis to wonder.

What can give a window of hope is that these interfering blocs, already morally bankrupt for some time, are starting to bankrupt themselves financially with the current global economic crisis. Let’s wait a little for how this development unfolds.

In the meantime, other relevant elements spring up. Robin Padilla—I pray for him—obviously paid, is now going around promoting Godless family planning. In the blogosphere—you have to be extremely careful and game there—an orgy of pro-immoral-family-planning sentiments explodes, dripping with mockery, insults and name-calling.

Imagine, Church and spiritual leaders who appeal for a moral sense in this issue are now called Talibans, holdouts of the dark ages, rigid, dense, detached from reality, etc.

The only consolation is that that kind of reaction will just fizzle out shortly. It’s like a showy firework only. It cannot stand the test of reason. It cannot cope with the demands of truth and justice.

We are still in Lent. Perhaps, this thorny issue is meant to purify us further. We need to see this whole affair within the context of our faith and beliefs, using it to nourish our ascetical life and sharpen our sense of duty to evangelize forcefully but always in truth and charity.

What does it profit…?

RECALL Christ’s words: “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but suffers the loss of his own soul?” (Mt 16,26) It’s good to be reminded of these words as we go deeper into our march toward progress.

These words were spoken just before Jesus went to Jerusalem to go through the final and culminating stage of his redemptive life. Peter tried to dissuade him. He was promptly rebuked. “Get behind me, satan, you are a scandal to me, because you do not mind the things of God, but those of men.” (Mt 16,23)

From there, Jesus articulated the doctrine of the cross: “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Mt 16,24)

These are words to be received by faith, and not just by our reason, much less by our senses. There’s no way the latter human faculties can like them, much less, follow them. Faith is needed, the one that comes from Christ who gives it freely and abundantly and to which we have to correspond fully also.

These words challenge us to go beyond our own world of understanding to enter the ultimate reality meant for us. That’s none other than a life with God, a shared life at once human and divine, ours and God’s.

We have to understand that we cannot remain in the purely natural level of our senses and reason alone. That would unduly restrict us. That would frustrate the natural tendency of our intelligence and will that project themselves toward infinity, looking for the ultimate truth and good that only can be God in the end.

This is the most challenging task before us. A lot of things need to be clarified, the truths of faith need to connect with our human ways. Obviously a numberless raft of obstacles has to be hurdled. But we just have to face them.

Among the things we need to clarify is that this truth about our shared supernatural life, while a truth of faith, a religious and Christian doctrine, is also meant at least to be known by everyone. It’s not just a Catholic or Christian affair to be confined within churches, but one that has right to be proclaimed in public also.

We need to disabuse ourselves from the thought that religious truths are not meant to be publicly proclaimed, or that they are just personal and private affairs, or worse, are optional. That kind of thinking is fallacious, erroneous. It does not correspond to the whole truth about ourselves.

Obviously, we have to respect each other’s freedom, no matter how badly lived and exercised that freedom is. But precisely also because of freedom, we have the right and duty to proclaim, without forcing anyone and imposing things to him, the whole truth about ourselves.

And truth can not only be restricted to the level of the sensible, the intelligible. It has to go all the way to the religious sphere, to the world of mysteries that while mysterious always exercises a certain attraction to all of us.

In spite of how we may be in life, of what we say and profess, at bottom we are all a religious being. We go beyond our senses and reason. We cannot help but enter into the world of faith and belief. Or at least we get to be aware of it.

That’s the reason why we should try our best to develop our religious sense, sharpening our spiritual faculties, nourishing them with the proper doctrine and relevant virtues plus God’s grace always.

We need to protect that religious sense, even strengthening it as we go through the day where we meet all sorts of things that can distract us and weaken that spiritual and supernatural outlook.

We have to be aware that being immersed in the world, we have to contend with so many things that can absorb us at the expense of our living union with God and with others. They can drag us to the depths of self-centeredness and self-absorption.

Everyday, we have to devise ways and strategies to keep and recover, once lost, our spiritual and moral bearing, our experiential contact with God and with others.

Is there peace and joy, prudence and wisdom, goodness and mercy, etc. in our every action? These, and more, are clear signs we are with God. Absent those, we have reason to think God is not with us.