It’s school time again!

 THAT’S right, and I am now again back to school. It’s just
one among many other pastoral assignments given to me this year. But I
welcome this opportunity to be involved in a school, since the
suspenseful work of forming people is made easier by the more or less
controlled and structured conditions schools have.

            Still I know I have to keep myself strong inside and out
to cope with all the burden that undeniably is also great. Just the
same, I also know that it also has its sweet and gratifying moments.
It’s not all sweat and blood.

            As chaplain, I say Mass everyday for everyone
there—students, teachers, staff, some parents and guests. I hear
confessions, conduct recollections, retreats and doctrine classes, and
sit for hours in the confessional for personal spiritual direction.
I’m happy to learn that this year the population has grown
tremendously.

            These are very delicate tasks but also a very privileged
honor. Not everyone gets the chance to be of help and to make some
crucial impact on the most intimate aspects of the lives of young
people.

            Much of this work is done hidden and in silence, without
fanfare and worldly rewards. But what consoles is the thought that
that’s how things and persons grow. And if I do things well, I know
that together with God’s grace, I would be making a big difference in
the lives of people.

            It’s in these personal chats that I can clarify matters
and issues, give pieces of advice and words of encouragement, sow
reasons for hope, open horizons and broaden minds and hearts by
pointing to our ultimate common goal while learning how to avoid
getting entangled along the way. My desire is to be able to motivate
people.

            In a sense, I would be journeying with them. And given
current world conditions, the effort is not without difficulties.
Complicated minds and attitudes have taken root in many people. One
really has to be very patient and creative with them, knowing how to
make timely detours, when to stop, when to go, etc.

            The effect of all this is many times very heartwarming, as
people make welcome changes in their lives. Some people think miracles
do not happen anymore these days. My experience is different. I see
miracles taking place every day, though most of them do not have
external manifestations.

            Among the things I do in school is to give a class on
Christian morality to high school seniors. While I have been giving
classes and talks on this topic, there’s always the challenge of how
to present the same ideas and doctrine especially to young people,
given the obvious generation gap.

            There’s always the need to adapt oneself to his audience,
to talk their language, to be at their level. He needs to be most
perceptive of the subtle shifts of mentality that takes place among
people through the years and to attune himself to those conditions.

            It cannot be denied that giving classes also involves some
skills in performance and theatrics to be able to catch and keep the
attention of the students. Especially when the students are young, the
teacher has to contend with the notorious fickle-mindedness of these
students. But he should not lose sight of the essential things to be
imparted.

            Due preparation is a must in giving classes. A teacher has
to bear in mind that his presence alone should project a certain
wholesomeness that would attract the young students, including the
laziest and the most distracted and inattentive ones.

            He should try his best that he is consistent himself with
what he is teaching. What frustrates students most is when they see
their teachers not living what they are  teaching.

            In this class on Christian morality, I immediately felt
the need to clarify what morality is not. That’s because nowadays,
many people, especially the young, come with very distorted ideas and
biases against the mere mention of morality.

            I had to say that morality is not just about human
sexuality, though a good part is dedicated to it since it is where
many of us have our weakness, if not, our Waterloo. Neither is
morality simply about rules, though rules there also are.

            The challenge is how to make a keen sense of morality an
integral, natural part of one’s thinking, speaking and acting. Sad to
say, with the thick cloud of confusion nowadays, many people have
practically lost this sense, and if they still have it, it is quite
damaged, needing repair.

            Please pray and wish us luck!

Human and Christian consistency in politics

POLITICS, of course, is an unavoidable concern for us. As
social beings, we cannot help but get into politics. That’s simply
because we have to organize ourselves as a people. And it’s a need
that will always be an on-going affair.

            We need laws to govern the way we live, we need peace and
order, we need a working economy. We need leaders on whom we invest
some authority. These and a lot more is what politics is all about.

            In all of these, we have to find ways of how to meet them.
That’s why we have elections, among many other others. Of course, the
conduct of our elections is also subject to some agreed rules.

            Now, with the elections coming up, the political fever is
upon us, and the big challenge now is how to maintain our human and
Christian consistency—some say, sanity—in politics.

            What we are seeing now, even while quite early yet in the
game, is a gathering storm of political attacks. There’s a lot of
mudslinging, faultfinding and muckraking, reckless branding and
stereotyping.

            If not these, then they go to the other extreme of
unmitigated praises and alleluias of personalities whom they
practically portray as completely sinless, the savior of the world,
while the opponents are pictured as the devil incarnate, the ultimate
villain deserving instant death and hell.

            Some say this is normal. I say it’s not. It’s inhuman, let
alone, unchristian.            There seems to be an unspoken
understanding that when it comes to politics, we can behave like
animals, fighting each other over ideas and opinions.

            Some say we need not distinguish between the persons of
the candidates, officials and supporters, and the different positions
they hold. Everyone and everything is fair game. Killing can even be
resorted.

            We have to say that this cannot be. We are supposed to be
ruled always by something indispensable even in our most contentious
affairs.

            Everyone seems to forget that charity is what keeps us
human and Christian in politics as it is in every aspect of our life.
But especially in politics where, by its nature, things can be messy
and tricky. Precisely the complexity of politics makes charity most
indispensable.

            Charity is what enables us to respect and love one another
in spite of our sharp differences and conflicts, thereby following
Christ’s new commandment of loving one another “as I have loved you.”
He even went to say that we have to love our enemies. For this love,
Christ ultimately had to die on the cross.

            All these for the simple reason that first and last, we
are brothers and sisters, creatures of the same God even if we call
him by different names and describe him in a variety of ways.

            Truth is we are all members of the same family. Whether we
like it or not, we are obliged to love one another no matter what.
This is a basic truth that we should never forget, especially when we
do politics.

            Some say that charity dilutes if not dissolves many
important values like truth, justice, fairness, etc. That’s why many
politicians do not give much attention to charity. At best, they
render only some lip service to it.

            But hardly anything can be farther than the truth, since
charity, in fact, holds the highest standards insofar as these values
are concerned. What is often conveniently forgotten is what while
charity requires the most stringent criteria of truth, justice,
fairness, etc., it goes much further to include mercy and compassion.

            It’s charity that would enable us to have a certain
openness to all views and positions, including those we do not agree
or even consider as objectively wrong. It’s not so much because of the
views that we are open as to the persons who hold them.

            If, in the worst scenario, we believe that they are in
error, we can try to correct them with utmost delicacy, strictly
following due process that governs the proper resolution of issues.

            We should avoid ad hominem attacks, rash judgments that
often are a product of an orchestrated mob rule, assertions and
accusations that hardly have any strong basis or are simply based on
hearsay.

            We should try to tame our passions that often blind us and
push us to do uncharitable things. While we inevitably have our biases
and preferences, let’s also be open and fair to those who differ from
us.

            In the end, we should be guided by a well-formed
conscience, always attentive to God’s will and ways in doing politics,
and especially when choosing our public officials.

Corpus Christi

WE have just celebrated that tremendous Solemnity of the
Body and Blood of Christ. Tremendous, because we can never have enough
of the overwhelming truth and mystery that in spite of our natural
limitations, not to mention, our infranatural defects due to our sins,
Christ continues to be with us and to love us, offering himself as
food to nourish us, heal us, save us.

            We need to take time to savor and fathom a little this
truth of our faith that should fill us with joy and hope regardless of
circumstances. This is not an exercise at escapism and fantasizing,
but rather a realistic gesture—indeed, a necessity—given our true
dignity as persons and children of God.

            May we never get accustomed to this great sacrament of the
Holy Eucharist that contains the very body and blood of Christ! With
it, we actually have God himself with us, offering everything that we
need to be what we ought to be. With it, time and eternity  are
united, the natural and supernatural, the material and spiritual, our
sinfulness and our salvation become one.

            Yes, there are certain things, very fundamental and
indispensable to know about ourselves, that we need to be more aware
of and to be more consistent in. We are children of God, created in
his image and likeness, whose lives just cannot be by ourselves but,
by definition, lives lived in God and with God.

            In other words, we are not meant to merely have natural
human lives. Ours are also meant to be supernatural, a completely
gratuitous privilege to which, with God’s grace, we are expected to
correspond. Our life with God is something that we have to work out.

            It is worthwhile to pause and meditate on this mystery. We
should try to distance ourselves from our usual concerns, at least for
a while, if only to enter into another level of reality—the spiritual
and the supernatural—that we often take for granted.

            Such effort, for sure, will do us a lot of good. It would
help us to see things holistically and to put us on a track that is
most proper to us. Truth is we very often miss what is truly essential
in our life.

            We just get entangled with the peripherals in life which,
while unavoidable and in a sense also necessary, are not the most
important. We get confused as to which is our true end and which
merely are means toward that end.

            The liturgical celebration of Corpus Christi that in some
places is extended with an octave or weeklong solemn exposition of the
Blessed Sacrament should lead us to ask questions like how am I
nurturing my Eucharistic devotion, am I developing the urge to attend
and actively participate at Mass, especially Sunday Mass, do I know
what the Holy Mass really is, etc.?

            Do I feel something special whenever I am in front of the
Blessed Sacrament or even when I just happen to pass by a church where
I know the Blessed Sacrament is reserved? Do I get to engage Christ in
some intimate conversation when I receive him in communion or simply
when I am in front of the Blessed Sacrament?

            Do I make a pious genuflection whenever I am before the
Blessed Sacrament? Do I feel good when I am there? There are many
heart-warming anecdotes about how one’s piety before the Blessed
Sacrament converted the most cynical and sceptical persons.

            The Blessed Sacrament should be a magnet in our life. It
will help us to have a supernatural tone in our outlook. It will
remind us of the real purpose of our life. It will serve to
organically shape our day.

            It’s been said that the Holy Eucharist is the source and
summit of Christian life, the center and root of our spiritual life.
We cannot overemphasize these overwhelming truths. That’s why, we need
to take time to meditate on them and draw concrete resolutions.

            In fact, the resolutions we can get from our devotion to
the Holy Eucharist can be endless. Especially at these times when we
tend to be most harassed by temporal concerns, leading us to forget
about the eternal goals of our life, we need to make this devotion
truly vibrant.

            Let’s take advantage of our preparation for the
International Eucharistic Congress to spread this devotion, teaching
everyone, especially the young ones, how to live it. Again, the family
plays a fundamental role, with the parishes and schools giving
valuable support.

            Let’s never forget that with the celebration of Corpus
Christi, we are presented with the truth that Christ continues to
really with us! He has not left us.