I just attended a forum of farmers the other day. It was organized by some Church people, with some public officials in attendance. The theme was on soil fertility and productivity as key to food security.
The farmers looked on the whole hopeful. Some managed to smile and to show a face of serenity. Others looked a bit concerned and apprehensive. Well, the world is big enough to accommodate all sorts of people, I thought.
That it was organized by some Church people should not come as a surprise. Farming is a basic human concern and need. The Church is very much interested in it. It was done well, so there should not be any accusation the Church was interfering and engaging in purely social action.
The Bible is full of images about farms and agriculture. Our Lord conveyed important lessons through parables that made use of agricultural terms: seed, sowing, plants, trees, sheep, weeds, shepherds, goats, rocky ground and good soil, etc.
In short, farming is very much in the heart of the Church. Obviously, the forum I mentioned was more on the technical side of farming. They were talking about the virtues of organic farming as well as the need for basic infrastructure and investments to support the farmers, etc. All very good!
But then again, the technical side of farming, so basic and indispensable, should not be detached from the religious side of farming. It has to be understood that farming is never just a human activity. It is one that has deep and immense spiritual and moral repercussions.
Consider Christ's indication that before a seed sprouts into a plant, grows, matures and bears fruit, it has to be sown and die first.
That should remind us that farming, just like any human enterprise, requires some dying to oneself, some sacrifice and pain. Without this ingredient, we should not expect that endeavor to succeed and prosper.
There is need for conversion always. That's how we give impulse to our proper growth as persons and children of God. We need to continuing conversions, otherwise, we stop growing and get stunted.
Consider the parable of the sower and the seed. This reminds us that we should try to be a good, well-plowed and prepared ground, so that the seed, God's word, can take root, grow and bear fruit a hundredfold.
We just cannot be hearers of God's word alone, and flaunt it with the rich foliage of our clever, deceptive ways, which unfortunately we can be very good at. We have to be doers of God's word, assimilating it such that it becomes flesh of our flesh, the substance and form of our thoughts and actions.
Consider also that part about the Bread of Life. That's the end result of Christ's work of redemption, with Christ himself being both the sower and the seed. That work produces ultimately the Bread of Life, which is our food that will bring us to eternal life.
We need to connect every human activity to our spiritual and supernatural goal. We should not just stop in the technical level, for that gives us only a short-sighted and very narrow view of life and of our dignity.
Which brings me to wonder why, if we are so interested in achieving fertility and productivity in our farming and agriculture, we are so eager to cut fertility and productivity insofar as human life is concerned.
Now that the Reproductive Health Bill is widely analyzed in the public, it seems that its fallacies and stupidity are getting exposed. A little boy has just declared the king who claims to wear gold apparels is actually naked.
That it's for reproductive health is false, because it neither reproductive since it is for population control, nor is it for health since it considers the reproductive capacity of man mainly as a disease.
That it's for informed choice or freedom of choice is also false. It nothing more than a euphemism to go immoral, and to use what is convenient, what is a weakness, a failure, a sin as standard of our behavior.
That it will solve our poverty problem, telll that to the marines. Unless there is inner conversion, even there are few people in this world, there will always be inhuman poverty.
It's time for the proponents of this pro-death bill to reconsider their points and regroup themselves.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Monday, October 6, 2008
Give reason for your hope
THIS is an indication that appears in the first letter of St. Peter. The complete text is the following:
“Sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts, being ready always to satisfy everyone that asks you a reason of that hope which is in you.” (3,15)
Nowadays, Christian believers are going through increasing pressure to explain their faith and hope in God, in eternal life, in religion, in supernatural life, etc.
This could be because the world is becoming more and more secularized, that is, detached from a culture where the spiritual and supernatural realities not only still matter but are its prime ethos.
The world, it seems, is plunging headlong into a purely earth-and-time-bound worldview. It cannot imagine a reality beyond this world and this time. Everything has to stop in death and in what may be foreseen as the end of the world.
Part of the reason is that the Christian faith, as taught in many places and as practiced by many people, has become, to the eyes of the worldly-wise, out of touch with what is commonly understood as our reality.
Many people are now openly saying, for example, that prayer and the sacraments are meaningless to them, that faith has nothing to say to the developments in science, arts and entertainment, that Christian moral principles are not in sync with people’s mentalities and lifestyle today, etc.
There are those who, in spite of their supposedly Christian education and upbringing, still cannot figure out what the Church is and what role it plays in the life of a Christian believer.
This is the big challenge we are facing now. People are not anymore living by faith. They do not know how to relate their faith to their earthly affairs, and vice-versa. There’s a big, yawning disconnect between the two.
Knowing how to give reason to our faith and hope is truly the urgent and most needed task we have today.
Of course, mastering the doctrine would be a great help. And that’s already a tall order, since it involves a big body of knowledge to be studied. And it’s constantly growing.
The only consolation is that there is a unifying spirit in all of this corpus, such that if one gets that spirit, he would not have difficulty studying it. He kind of gets an automatic key that makes him understand what he believes.
Which brings us to a more important point. Giving reason to our faith and hope is not much a matter of words, doctrines and arguments. It is more a matter of the spirit.
St. Paul says it beautifully: “My speech and my preaching were not in the persuasive words of human wisdom, but in showing of the Spirit and power, that your faith might not stand on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” (1 Cor 2,4-5)
I don’t wish to put into contrast the doctrine and the spirit, but we have to understand that both should come together. They are inseparable just like a living body cannot be separated from his soul.
Thus, faith and hope should not just be an intellectual affair. It has to affect and imbue our whole being, from our thoughts and will to our feelings and desires. Our faith and hope should be seen in our behavior, in our reaction to things, etc., since actions speak more loudly than words.
When the faith is studied not only with the mind but also with the heart, then that faith and its accompanying hope enter into our whole being, transforming us. It would be a faith and hope that truly bring us closer to God, that is, to sanctity.
In this regard, some words of Pope John Paul II are relevant. “Let the theologians always remember the words of that great master of thought and spirituality, Saint Bonaventure,” he said.
“He invites the reader to recognize the inadequacy of reading without repentance, knowledge without devotion, research without the impulse of wonder, prudence without the ability to surrender to joy, action divorced from religion, learning sundered from love, intelligence unsustained by divine grace, thought without the wisdom inspired by God.”
“Sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts, being ready always to satisfy everyone that asks you a reason of that hope which is in you.” (3,15)
Nowadays, Christian believers are going through increasing pressure to explain their faith and hope in God, in eternal life, in religion, in supernatural life, etc.
This could be because the world is becoming more and more secularized, that is, detached from a culture where the spiritual and supernatural realities not only still matter but are its prime ethos.
The world, it seems, is plunging headlong into a purely earth-and-time-bound worldview. It cannot imagine a reality beyond this world and this time. Everything has to stop in death and in what may be foreseen as the end of the world.
Part of the reason is that the Christian faith, as taught in many places and as practiced by many people, has become, to the eyes of the worldly-wise, out of touch with what is commonly understood as our reality.
Many people are now openly saying, for example, that prayer and the sacraments are meaningless to them, that faith has nothing to say to the developments in science, arts and entertainment, that Christian moral principles are not in sync with people’s mentalities and lifestyle today, etc.
There are those who, in spite of their supposedly Christian education and upbringing, still cannot figure out what the Church is and what role it plays in the life of a Christian believer.
This is the big challenge we are facing now. People are not anymore living by faith. They do not know how to relate their faith to their earthly affairs, and vice-versa. There’s a big, yawning disconnect between the two.
Knowing how to give reason to our faith and hope is truly the urgent and most needed task we have today.
Of course, mastering the doctrine would be a great help. And that’s already a tall order, since it involves a big body of knowledge to be studied. And it’s constantly growing.
The only consolation is that there is a unifying spirit in all of this corpus, such that if one gets that spirit, he would not have difficulty studying it. He kind of gets an automatic key that makes him understand what he believes.
Which brings us to a more important point. Giving reason to our faith and hope is not much a matter of words, doctrines and arguments. It is more a matter of the spirit.
St. Paul says it beautifully: “My speech and my preaching were not in the persuasive words of human wisdom, but in showing of the Spirit and power, that your faith might not stand on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” (1 Cor 2,4-5)
I don’t wish to put into contrast the doctrine and the spirit, but we have to understand that both should come together. They are inseparable just like a living body cannot be separated from his soul.
Thus, faith and hope should not just be an intellectual affair. It has to affect and imbue our whole being, from our thoughts and will to our feelings and desires. Our faith and hope should be seen in our behavior, in our reaction to things, etc., since actions speak more loudly than words.
When the faith is studied not only with the mind but also with the heart, then that faith and its accompanying hope enter into our whole being, transforming us. It would be a faith and hope that truly bring us closer to God, that is, to sanctity.
In this regard, some words of Pope John Paul II are relevant. “Let the theologians always remember the words of that great master of thought and spirituality, Saint Bonaventure,” he said.
“He invites the reader to recognize the inadequacy of reading without repentance, knowledge without devotion, research without the impulse of wonder, prudence without the ability to surrender to joy, action divorced from religion, learning sundered from love, intelligence unsustained by divine grace, thought without the wisdom inspired by God.”
Thursday, October 2, 2008
The universal heart
THAT’S the heart of our Lord, Jesus Christ. It’s also the heart we should try to cultivate, since he himself gave us the new commandment that summarizes and perfects all the previous commandments that “you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” (Jn 13,34)
It’s a love that covers everyone, including our enemies, the unlovable, the sinners, offenders, those who are wrong in a human issue and all others who for one reason or another we may have some reason not to love or like.
In fact, one sure sign our loving is authentic is when we include these people in our loving. Otherwise, our love is fake, no matter how fervently we profess it. Our love gets spoiled and deteriorates into self-righteousness.
Remember what our Lord said about this point. “If you love them that love you, what reward shall you have? Do not even the publicans do this?” (Mt 5,46)
Thus, our Lord explicitly said that we have to love our enemies, to do good to them that hate us and pray for those who persecute and calumniate us. This is how we are going to be identified as children of God who makes his sun to rise upon the good and bad, the rain on the just and the unjust.
Love by definition involves all and is given without measure or calculation. This essence of love is what breaks us loose from our limited human condition to make our world universal, not entangled in some parochial, partisan or isolationist grip.
Love matures and perfects us. It checks on our tendency to be self-seeking and self-absorbed so as to be “all things to all men.” (1 Cor 9,22) It brings us not only to others, but rather to God himself, identifying us with him, for “God is love.”
This love is what properly measures out our true dignity and value as persons and children of God. It’s not just some wisdom or knowledge or talents and any human power. It’s love, babe!
It’s high time that we understand the need for true love, the love of Christ, to give ourselves a universal heart. It’s not the sciences, the philosophies and the ideologies, no matter how good and useful they are, that can accomplish this.
We have to disabuse ourselves from this mentality that, sadly, is constantly nourished and reinforced by some pagan thinking that’s dominating our world today.
We have to go beyond them. That’s why there’s a need to develop the appropriate attitudes and virtues, all done in the context of God’s grace, for nothing succeeds without God’s grace.
We have to learn to be patient, and to be “rich in mercy and slow to anger.” We have to know how to take on different and even conflicting positions in human issues without undermining our love for one another.
This surely means we have to learn how to discipline our feelings and passions, knowing when to talk and when not. We have to learn how to convert difficult, humiliating moments into moments of graciousness and magnanimity.
We have to avoid bearing grudges or worse, nurturing animosities. Let’s remember that whatever happens, we are all men and women, children of God, who are obliged to love one another.
We have to learn how to be positive, encouraging and optimistic in our tack to problems instead of tanking into pessimism and hostility. We can never overdo in our efforts to learn the fine details of tact and diplomacy.
We have to increasingly polish and refine our manners so as to keep the bonds of unity amid unavoidable differences among ourselves. We will always be human as to always need affection, and it should be given. Let’s never forget that we can choose to make these differences to enrich us rather than destroy us.
We have to learn how to drown evil with an abundance of good, dispel darkness with light. We have to understand that ignorance, confusion and error are not corrected by truth alone, but by truth given in charity always. This, even if we have to make corrections that need to be given clearly and vigorously.
Given the present world’s rush to specialized knowledge that inevitably generates divisions, we have to double up our efforts to cultivate this universal heart.
It’s a love that covers everyone, including our enemies, the unlovable, the sinners, offenders, those who are wrong in a human issue and all others who for one reason or another we may have some reason not to love or like.
In fact, one sure sign our loving is authentic is when we include these people in our loving. Otherwise, our love is fake, no matter how fervently we profess it. Our love gets spoiled and deteriorates into self-righteousness.
Remember what our Lord said about this point. “If you love them that love you, what reward shall you have? Do not even the publicans do this?” (Mt 5,46)
Thus, our Lord explicitly said that we have to love our enemies, to do good to them that hate us and pray for those who persecute and calumniate us. This is how we are going to be identified as children of God who makes his sun to rise upon the good and bad, the rain on the just and the unjust.
Love by definition involves all and is given without measure or calculation. This essence of love is what breaks us loose from our limited human condition to make our world universal, not entangled in some parochial, partisan or isolationist grip.
Love matures and perfects us. It checks on our tendency to be self-seeking and self-absorbed so as to be “all things to all men.” (1 Cor 9,22) It brings us not only to others, but rather to God himself, identifying us with him, for “God is love.”
This love is what properly measures out our true dignity and value as persons and children of God. It’s not just some wisdom or knowledge or talents and any human power. It’s love, babe!
It’s high time that we understand the need for true love, the love of Christ, to give ourselves a universal heart. It’s not the sciences, the philosophies and the ideologies, no matter how good and useful they are, that can accomplish this.
We have to disabuse ourselves from this mentality that, sadly, is constantly nourished and reinforced by some pagan thinking that’s dominating our world today.
We have to go beyond them. That’s why there’s a need to develop the appropriate attitudes and virtues, all done in the context of God’s grace, for nothing succeeds without God’s grace.
We have to learn to be patient, and to be “rich in mercy and slow to anger.” We have to know how to take on different and even conflicting positions in human issues without undermining our love for one another.
This surely means we have to learn how to discipline our feelings and passions, knowing when to talk and when not. We have to learn how to convert difficult, humiliating moments into moments of graciousness and magnanimity.
We have to avoid bearing grudges or worse, nurturing animosities. Let’s remember that whatever happens, we are all men and women, children of God, who are obliged to love one another.
We have to learn how to be positive, encouraging and optimistic in our tack to problems instead of tanking into pessimism and hostility. We can never overdo in our efforts to learn the fine details of tact and diplomacy.
We have to increasingly polish and refine our manners so as to keep the bonds of unity amid unavoidable differences among ourselves. We will always be human as to always need affection, and it should be given. Let’s never forget that we can choose to make these differences to enrich us rather than destroy us.
We have to learn how to drown evil with an abundance of good, dispel darkness with light. We have to understand that ignorance, confusion and error are not corrected by truth alone, but by truth given in charity always. This, even if we have to make corrections that need to be given clearly and vigorously.
Given the present world’s rush to specialized knowledge that inevitably generates divisions, we have to double up our efforts to cultivate this universal heart.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)