THAT’S in 1968. Among the million events that happened all over the world that year, a batch of 200 boys and girls finished high school at what was known then as Divine Word College, now Holy Name University in Tagbilaran.
Tagbilaran then just became a city, but it was so awfully small and sleepy that any stir at one end of it would most likely be felt in no time at the other end. Everyone knew everybody else. A newcomer was immediately spotted.
Aside from the Cathedral, the public market and the schools, the other places where we tended to go ‘to see and to be seen,’ were the two or three movie houses which were still showing wholesome movies.
Now, of course, I realize that at that time the city was already into a quiet, hidden but intense ferment of change. No matter how isolated, it could not help but be affected by what was happening in the country and the world in general then.
Marcos was still into his first term. The socio-economic and political atmosphere was still relatively peaceful and stable. But one could already detect traces of dark forces lurking around.
In those years, I never heard my parents talk about budgeting. There was total trust in God’s providence. Though we had our share of hardships, quite common in many families, miraculously we fared rather well. We just worked and did what we thought were the practical things to do. God did the rest.
I seldom went hungry, because as a last resort there was always the sea to get some mollusks from during its low tide. My siblings and I survived with something like a 10-centavo daily ‘baon’ to school, but I didn’t hear any complaint. Envy was kept low. I also raised hogs. Life was fantastically simple.
The movies started retiring the Amalia Fuentes-Susan Roces tandem, and began to show the likes of Divina Valencia and Stella Suarez. That’s when I started going to the movies less and less, in spite of my free passes, courtesy of the owners who hired by father as their lawyer.
When I went to Manila for college, I was exposed to a sharper contrast of a more innocent age that was slipping away and a supposedly ‘enlightened’ generation that was coming in.
I, for sure, would have gotten lost in that kind of environment, if not for the fact that I did not have money to go around and get involved in some experimentations. I must say, poverty saved me.
That, plus, the fact of course that I met some good friends who always brought me down to earth whenever I stupidly thought I could fly to some make-believe world. They became my prophylaxis.
The environment I’m referring to was that of a liberal, free-thinking, free-dissenting and free-loving one, where you could smell marijuana both in the classrooms and in the boarding house. And smut was just around the corner. Its icon was the hippie movement.
Agitation and student activism gripped many school campuses. Many of my college classmates went underground. Alongside these were the discos and the bad films many of my contemporaries got hooked to. Discipline and obedience to authority almost disappeared from the horizon.
The Church situation was not spared. Many crazy experimentations, especially in the area of liturgy, were made. The sacraments, especially confession, emptied of their sacred nature, became either just a social event or a purely personal affair with no social character.
There were a few theologians who seemed to have specialized in doctrinal dissent. Many priests abandoned their cassocks and would wear them only during demonstrations against the government. Vocations dwindled. Doctrinal error and confusion spread. Scandals exploded.
Sad to say, many of these things that I saw in Manila found their way to my province. It was a painful sight. But God has his ways.
During the class reunion we had recently, I can’t help but think of these things, and tried to discern the hand of God guiding us through all these years and the many things we still need to do.
It took me effort to recognize many of my classmates. Time and its vagaries have left surprising changes in us. But on the whole, I found everyone happy and the class spirit vibrantly intact still. Thank God!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Youth need signposts
EVERYDAY we meet crossroads. That is, we constantly make choices., big and small. This is how our life is. Thus, we can never exaggerate the importance of signposts, which are the criteria for judgments and the basis for decisions.
The other day, while negotiating an 18-km trail amid vast expanses of pineapple plantations that went into the foot of Mt. Kitanglad (Bukidnon), with all its dense growth of trees and wild plants, I was relieved and happy that the owner of the place I was heading put signposts in every junction along the way.
It was very easy to be confused and to get lost. The two paths of most of the crossings were hardly different from each other. And I immediately thought of how similar that observation was with most of my experiences in life.
Now that we have just concluded the World Youth Day in Sidney, Australia, I thought of the crossroad that the youth as a crucial stage of our life is, and the many pivotal choices they have to make, especially these days.
We know that the youth can be the meeting point of great potentials on the one hand, with all the effusive energy and creativity inherent in them, and on the other hand, also of possible destructive forces. Youth is that transitory part of life that is still seeking stability and maturity.
More than ever, today’s youth need clear guideposts. And I’m happy that as a way of addressing this need, the Vatican is regularly organizing the World Youth Day (WYD) held in different parts of the globe.
If only to give focus and attention to this concern, the WYD is already doing a lot. But I’m sure there are a lot more that can be done and are being done and achieved through it and from it.
First of all, it can monitor the running developments concerning youth life and ways. Everyone agrees that the youth phase is a very dynamic one. We need to constantly find the proper spiritual and moral moorings for their quickly-morphing ways.
This is no easy job at all. They can not be left on their own. Society and human development cannot be confined to purely youthful ways sans the check-and-balance, the wisdom and experience provided by the elders.
Thus, the elders somehow have to learn to adapt to how the youth think, speak and behave. This should not be that difficult if there will always be attention given to the youth.
No matter how creative, outlandish and rebellious their ideas and gimmicks are, the youth’s mind can easily be read and molded, their logic and rhetoric can be smoothly triangulated.
In fact, it’s not so much words and arguments that should be used, but more on affection and understanding, patience, constant presence and example. In short, the approach is more of the heart than of the mind.
We need to help them tackle their usual vulnerabilities—mostly things of the flesh as well as the need for focus, direction and constancy. Then we need to show them how to live by faith, how to pray, and understand the meaning of suffering in all its forms.
Early on, they should be made to understand the intrinsic relation between freedom and responsibility, freedom and obedience to authority, spontaneity and naturalness, independence and solidarity, etc. They have to learn to see God in everything and in everyone.
The environment should be made as conducive as possible to the proper maturation of the youth. We have to avoid pandering to their weaknesses. Their integral development—physical, intellectual, spiritual, moral, etc.—should be enhanced.
In difficult situations where seemingly conflicting values are involved, as in blending creativity and novelty with our dignity, common in the field of entertainment, there has to be clear infusion of the spiritual and supernatural values.
I believe this tricky duty can be done without compromising the full weight of both material and earthly values, on the one hand, and the spiritual and supernatural ones, on the other. We have to acquire the appropriate skills.
In the end, what is really important is that the youth be with Christ, knowing how to discern and follow God’s will. When they have this, they can be in any crossroads, and they would instinctively know which way to choose.
The other day, while negotiating an 18-km trail amid vast expanses of pineapple plantations that went into the foot of Mt. Kitanglad (Bukidnon), with all its dense growth of trees and wild plants, I was relieved and happy that the owner of the place I was heading put signposts in every junction along the way.
It was very easy to be confused and to get lost. The two paths of most of the crossings were hardly different from each other. And I immediately thought of how similar that observation was with most of my experiences in life.
Now that we have just concluded the World Youth Day in Sidney, Australia, I thought of the crossroad that the youth as a crucial stage of our life is, and the many pivotal choices they have to make, especially these days.
We know that the youth can be the meeting point of great potentials on the one hand, with all the effusive energy and creativity inherent in them, and on the other hand, also of possible destructive forces. Youth is that transitory part of life that is still seeking stability and maturity.
More than ever, today’s youth need clear guideposts. And I’m happy that as a way of addressing this need, the Vatican is regularly organizing the World Youth Day (WYD) held in different parts of the globe.
If only to give focus and attention to this concern, the WYD is already doing a lot. But I’m sure there are a lot more that can be done and are being done and achieved through it and from it.
First of all, it can monitor the running developments concerning youth life and ways. Everyone agrees that the youth phase is a very dynamic one. We need to constantly find the proper spiritual and moral moorings for their quickly-morphing ways.
This is no easy job at all. They can not be left on their own. Society and human development cannot be confined to purely youthful ways sans the check-and-balance, the wisdom and experience provided by the elders.
Thus, the elders somehow have to learn to adapt to how the youth think, speak and behave. This should not be that difficult if there will always be attention given to the youth.
No matter how creative, outlandish and rebellious their ideas and gimmicks are, the youth’s mind can easily be read and molded, their logic and rhetoric can be smoothly triangulated.
In fact, it’s not so much words and arguments that should be used, but more on affection and understanding, patience, constant presence and example. In short, the approach is more of the heart than of the mind.
We need to help them tackle their usual vulnerabilities—mostly things of the flesh as well as the need for focus, direction and constancy. Then we need to show them how to live by faith, how to pray, and understand the meaning of suffering in all its forms.
Early on, they should be made to understand the intrinsic relation between freedom and responsibility, freedom and obedience to authority, spontaneity and naturalness, independence and solidarity, etc. They have to learn to see God in everything and in everyone.
The environment should be made as conducive as possible to the proper maturation of the youth. We have to avoid pandering to their weaknesses. Their integral development—physical, intellectual, spiritual, moral, etc.—should be enhanced.
In difficult situations where seemingly conflicting values are involved, as in blending creativity and novelty with our dignity, common in the field of entertainment, there has to be clear infusion of the spiritual and supernatural values.
I believe this tricky duty can be done without compromising the full weight of both material and earthly values, on the one hand, and the spiritual and supernatural ones, on the other. We have to acquire the appropriate skills.
In the end, what is really important is that the youth be with Christ, knowing how to discern and follow God’s will. When they have this, they can be in any crossroads, and they would instinctively know which way to choose.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Christian secularity
WE have to be more familiar with the concept of secularity. This is because whether we are aware of it or not, we cannot escape from it. And there are good and bad kinds that we have to choose. We have to learn to discern which is which.
Secularity, quite simply, is our attitude towards the world in general. How we see the world in terms of where it came from, what its purpose is in itself and for us, how to deal with it, what we can get from it and what our duties are towards it—these more or less define our idea of secularity.
Lately, the word has acquired some negative connotation. This is mainly due to the trend, perhaps not so much as a professed philosophy or ideology yet in our country, of treating the world simply “as it is,” that is, rid of any relation to the concept of God.
More than secularity, what is actually referred to here is secularization. That’s precisely the process of ejecting God from our human and earthly affairs, like in our business and politics. That process may come in a subtle but effective way.
That’s what’s happening now! The Pope and many other Church leaders, past and present, have warned about our secularized world. Thus, we have to be more aware of the proper meaning of secularity and what its bastardization—secularization—is.
We have to give due attention to this concern, which figures as a crucial aspect of our life, since being attitudinal, it gives shape and form to our whole life, and determines the path we take and the destiny we are aiming at in this life.
Christian faith teaches us that the world, being God’s creation, is good. God is always there and guides it with his providence. It cannot be without God. It cannot be developed outside of God’s designs.
But its development also needs us. “Increase and multiply,” God told our first parents. “Fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth.” (Gen 1,28)
God wants us to be stewards of the earth, developing and governing it freely and responsibly according to his designs. It’s the usual Christian phenomenon where our freedom ought to coincide with our obedience to God’s laws.
That is why we have to reconcile ourselves with the truth that our true freedom is when it goes together always with obedience to God’s will. We have to disabuse ourselves from the fallacy that freedom and obedience are against each other.
The Christian concept of secularity considers the world as the place and time God has given us to pursue our goal, both immediate and ultimate. It is the setting of our encounter with God, our work of sanctification and identification with him and his plans.
We don’t have to go out of the world to look for God. We can and should find God there in the world, in the midst of our human activities and earthly concerns. And we ought to bring God also to these human affairs of ours.
Christian secularity, then, has a very positive attitude towards the world. It asks us to love the world. We should not be afraid of it, thinking that it separates us from God. We have to be wary of certain religious mentalities that pit the world against God.
Obviously, we do not deny that there are dangerous elements, millions of them, in the world too. We have to understand though that evil came to the world because of sin, first, that of our first parents, and then those of ours.
“By one man, sin entered into this world, and by sin death. And so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned,” (Rom 5,12) St. Paul said, affirming the character and history of our present world.
But not everything is lost. Precisely, Christ, the son of God who became man to redeem us, has given us the proper way of handling the world. We have to identify ourselves with Christ, follow his teachings, now taught by the Church, so we would know how to behave in the world.
We have to master Christian secularity—its teaching on respecting the autonomy of earthly things, respecting freedom of all, purifying them and infusing them with true Christian spirit.
Secularity, quite simply, is our attitude towards the world in general. How we see the world in terms of where it came from, what its purpose is in itself and for us, how to deal with it, what we can get from it and what our duties are towards it—these more or less define our idea of secularity.
Lately, the word has acquired some negative connotation. This is mainly due to the trend, perhaps not so much as a professed philosophy or ideology yet in our country, of treating the world simply “as it is,” that is, rid of any relation to the concept of God.
More than secularity, what is actually referred to here is secularization. That’s precisely the process of ejecting God from our human and earthly affairs, like in our business and politics. That process may come in a subtle but effective way.
That’s what’s happening now! The Pope and many other Church leaders, past and present, have warned about our secularized world. Thus, we have to be more aware of the proper meaning of secularity and what its bastardization—secularization—is.
We have to give due attention to this concern, which figures as a crucial aspect of our life, since being attitudinal, it gives shape and form to our whole life, and determines the path we take and the destiny we are aiming at in this life.
Christian faith teaches us that the world, being God’s creation, is good. God is always there and guides it with his providence. It cannot be without God. It cannot be developed outside of God’s designs.
But its development also needs us. “Increase and multiply,” God told our first parents. “Fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth.” (Gen 1,28)
God wants us to be stewards of the earth, developing and governing it freely and responsibly according to his designs. It’s the usual Christian phenomenon where our freedom ought to coincide with our obedience to God’s laws.
That is why we have to reconcile ourselves with the truth that our true freedom is when it goes together always with obedience to God’s will. We have to disabuse ourselves from the fallacy that freedom and obedience are against each other.
The Christian concept of secularity considers the world as the place and time God has given us to pursue our goal, both immediate and ultimate. It is the setting of our encounter with God, our work of sanctification and identification with him and his plans.
We don’t have to go out of the world to look for God. We can and should find God there in the world, in the midst of our human activities and earthly concerns. And we ought to bring God also to these human affairs of ours.
Christian secularity, then, has a very positive attitude towards the world. It asks us to love the world. We should not be afraid of it, thinking that it separates us from God. We have to be wary of certain religious mentalities that pit the world against God.
Obviously, we do not deny that there are dangerous elements, millions of them, in the world too. We have to understand though that evil came to the world because of sin, first, that of our first parents, and then those of ours.
“By one man, sin entered into this world, and by sin death. And so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned,” (Rom 5,12) St. Paul said, affirming the character and history of our present world.
But not everything is lost. Precisely, Christ, the son of God who became man to redeem us, has given us the proper way of handling the world. We have to identify ourselves with Christ, follow his teachings, now taught by the Church, so we would know how to behave in the world.
We have to master Christian secularity—its teaching on respecting the autonomy of earthly things, respecting freedom of all, purifying them and infusing them with true Christian spirit.
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