A father had two sons. Son A is suffering from Cancer while Son B is healthy. The father provided for Son A chemotherapy. Son B protested, "You are unfair, father. You are providing an expensive chemotherapy for my brother while I don't get one. I want one, too.". The father answered, "for the sake of equality and justice, I will provide for your chemotherapy, too."
It sounded kind of weird for another person to simply just ask for what the other has, but we do so often. It is quite foolhardy for a guardian to just give in to what is being demanded beyond reason; Yet, we do so often. It was not rationally (intellectually) just to give the same therapy knowing what chemotherapy is. It was neither morally just. Initially, Son B may feel emotional justice but the consequences in the long run won't make him feel that way.
The greatest injustice and inequality to render another person is to offer "sameness". It is treating people as robotics passing through a conveyor belt. It may seem like we are creating a homogenous society but what we are actually making is a dead society.
The very origin of our existence comes from a man and woman - same humanity and integrity but different in many ways. And the very unit of society that we are placed into, that is, a FAMILY, is composed of different genders, ages, interests, and skills. We are coming from a vantage point of DIVERSITY. Now, that could be a threatening word which does not belong to the warmth, comfort, and unity of a family. This unity in diversity is the AUTHENTIC EQUALITY. It is the consciousness of the UNIQUENESS of individual members This makes each individual capable of giving and receiving at the same time. The harvesting of rice is equally important to the cooking of rice. And equally important to the appreciative comment of a child. And to the cleaning up afterwards by another.
This ideal of UNIQUENESS that makes us truly EQUAL is not easily attained. Often, borne of the values of the society we live in, this equality in uniqueness is not recognized. The materialism and production-oriented society we are in marginalized those who are not income generating. Housewives are regarded as lowly and subservient to the male provider. Children are then treated with price tags and project plans. Recognizing and valuing the uniqueness of each person is a growing process. It is a maturation of relationships and often the rate is different from other. Like loving and living, we continually learn to be.
In the Catholic Church, this is likewise the endeavor - unity in diversity. As St. Paul puts it, we are ONE BODY IN CHRIST. That leads us to the bond (unity) amongst us unique individuals (diversity) which is the ONE SPIRIT and TRUTH. The objective truth is the ONE thing we can share amidst our differences because this Truth transcends the continually changing things in our lives. We continually age. Strength, interests, capabilities, physique, and intellect are as dynamic as the ticking of time but the Truth then will be the same Truth now and will be the same Truth in the future.
For now, we are self-destructing in trying to make a homogenous world thinking it will be the peaceful and perfect world. Still, it is not a dead world, and there will always be something inherent in us that will impel us to seek and grow that unique "me" and "you" and in a smaller, imperfect scale - a family.
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
The Worst of Times is the Best of Times
The world at a glance continues its battle and search in this tapestry of life.
Peoples want independence from Emperors, Monarchs, and dictatorships. Fighting revolutions and crying FREEDOM. Yet, freedom is hard work. Grumbling like the Jews OUT OF EGYPT and lobbying, let our governments make the CHOICE for us - HHS mandate in the US, RH bill in the Phil. No smoking here and here. Sex is like this and this. Give us education, jobs, food, and cure for our sickness.
Exasperated, leaders want ONE World, One GOVERNMENT but let me choose the number and form of its citizens. Back to empire perhaps. The TOWER OF BABEL can be built and MAKE A NAME for ourselves but communication is never easy in to each his OWN WAY.
Women seek itheir happiness - work, no man, no child, work to fame and fortune. To take over manhood or perhaps the helms of power. Cleopatra seeking the weak spot of Samson. Still FEMALE children NOT WANTED and aborted. While women continues its search, the BATTLE for EVE goes.
Those with same-sex attraction seek their ACCEPTANCE in an imstitutionalized relationship. Marriage like heterosexual. Redefining marriage would REDEFINE HOMOSEXUALITY. SODOM and GHEMORRA, no more be it destroyed. And so the search for IDENTITY goes.
Free love and SEXUAL REVOLUTION led to sexual abuse by fathers, teachers, coaches, pastors, and priests. Victimhood runs deep , it doesn't matter if only 0.1% of priesthood. Someone has to pay for the LOST CHILDHOOD. GOD must pay, new IDOLS we create. Lady Gaga perhaps for now.
IMPEACH the NOT LIKE through little lady, vatileaks, wikileaks. People reading only headlines, hasty to judge. Still searching for PARADISE yet driven into the WILDERNESS.
Battle against ABORTION with those for abortion. Seeking one's personhood. Like Esau & Jacob, for crumbs, the BIRTHRIGHT had been exchanged.
Yet not much outcry for Chinese eating fetal parts. Thy own flesh and blood for one's pleasure. Tired of the MANNA from heaven.
Throughout HISTORY, people always feel their generatiom is the WORST of times. Yet saints were there and have lived through it. There is no denying that we get affected by what is HAPPENING AROUND.
St Alphonsus Liguori in his time writes, "As for ourselves, we much keep silence, RESPECT the SECRET JUDGMENT of God, and hold ourselves in PEACE”.
And during the time of World War II, St. Edith Stein says, "God revealed himself only in the impenetrability of His mysteries, welcomed in faith, hope and love. That which we catch a GLIMPSE of is but a FLEETING reflection of that which the DIVINE MYSTERY HIDES, until the day of future brightness. That faith in a SECRET HISTORY should strengthen us, and give us PEACE.”
The worst of time welcomed in FAITH, HOPE, and LOVE can bring out the best of time. There can be peace within even if everything outside seems amiss. There is that conviction of the LAMB OF GOD who came to be the spotless VICTIM to restore us to LIFE and conquer DEATH. The Lamb of God that had given His own Flesh for us.
All these things will pass and perhaps the next generation will be no better times. Still, in every generation the UNCHANGING TRUTH remains to give us a glimpse of eternity and in there is... LOVE.
Peoples want independence from Emperors, Monarchs, and dictatorships. Fighting revolutions and crying FREEDOM. Yet, freedom is hard work. Grumbling like the Jews OUT OF EGYPT and lobbying, let our governments make the CHOICE for us - HHS mandate in the US, RH bill in the Phil. No smoking here and here. Sex is like this and this. Give us education, jobs, food, and cure for our sickness.
Exasperated, leaders want ONE World, One GOVERNMENT but let me choose the number and form of its citizens. Back to empire perhaps. The TOWER OF BABEL can be built and MAKE A NAME for ourselves but communication is never easy in to each his OWN WAY.
Women seek itheir happiness - work, no man, no child, work to fame and fortune. To take over manhood or perhaps the helms of power. Cleopatra seeking the weak spot of Samson. Still FEMALE children NOT WANTED and aborted. While women continues its search, the BATTLE for EVE goes.
Those with same-sex attraction seek their ACCEPTANCE in an imstitutionalized relationship. Marriage like heterosexual. Redefining marriage would REDEFINE HOMOSEXUALITY. SODOM and GHEMORRA, no more be it destroyed. And so the search for IDENTITY goes.
Free love and SEXUAL REVOLUTION led to sexual abuse by fathers, teachers, coaches, pastors, and priests. Victimhood runs deep , it doesn't matter if only 0.1% of priesthood. Someone has to pay for the LOST CHILDHOOD. GOD must pay, new IDOLS we create. Lady Gaga perhaps for now.
IMPEACH the NOT LIKE through little lady, vatileaks, wikileaks. People reading only headlines, hasty to judge. Still searching for PARADISE yet driven into the WILDERNESS.
Battle against ABORTION with those for abortion. Seeking one's personhood. Like Esau & Jacob, for crumbs, the BIRTHRIGHT had been exchanged.
Yet not much outcry for Chinese eating fetal parts. Thy own flesh and blood for one's pleasure. Tired of the MANNA from heaven.
Throughout HISTORY, people always feel their generatiom is the WORST of times. Yet saints were there and have lived through it. There is no denying that we get affected by what is HAPPENING AROUND.
St Alphonsus Liguori in his time writes, "As for ourselves, we much keep silence, RESPECT the SECRET JUDGMENT of God, and hold ourselves in PEACE”.
And during the time of World War II, St. Edith Stein says, "God revealed himself only in the impenetrability of His mysteries, welcomed in faith, hope and love. That which we catch a GLIMPSE of is but a FLEETING reflection of that which the DIVINE MYSTERY HIDES, until the day of future brightness. That faith in a SECRET HISTORY should strengthen us, and give us PEACE.”
The worst of time welcomed in FAITH, HOPE, and LOVE can bring out the best of time. There can be peace within even if everything outside seems amiss. There is that conviction of the LAMB OF GOD who came to be the spotless VICTIM to restore us to LIFE and conquer DEATH. The Lamb of God that had given His own Flesh for us.
All these things will pass and perhaps the next generation will be no better times. Still, in every generation the UNCHANGING TRUTH remains to give us a glimpse of eternity and in there is... LOVE.
Monday, June 4, 2012
Wounded Earth
If earth would manifest the woundedness of the people inhabiting it, how would the earth look like?
There is the barreness of the landscape coming from the wounds of artificial contraception. Soil rendered infertile not because it is but because fertility had been accursed. The fishes lost its food and the birds in the sky can not find its home.
It is a wound that is denied by many and can easily be hidden. Concrete, steel, plastic, and glass covered the barren land. It is cold to the heart yet scorching to the skin, it is remedied by patches of flowers and puppies to bring some life.
The wounds of sexual abuse that linger long after and sending forth anguish. Like storms gushing, tornado destroying whatever is on its path. Broken trees, houses with no roof, cars and things upside down. Difficult to appease, earth must just let it unleash and try to be out of its way. Fishes in the sea hide in the deepest burrow. Birds fly to distant haven.
The abandoned elderly, in spite of, its contribution had no place in the production-oriented world. Old trees withering with no water or nutrients. Deprived of the sun blocked by billboards and condominiums. Rice terraces abandoned by hands too tired to work. The plow unused, rusty and dirty.
Streams disrupted like water running out. The sky is sweating, an atmosphere losing its breath.
The wounds of divorce and broken families bring forth broken youth. The flowers and plants can not find their place. They struggle to survive and grow just anywhere - crevices, abandoned churches. The sheep knows not its pasture, the fish knows not its water, the birds knows not its sky. The plants and animals that were once a food for survival had become strangely dangerous for consumption.
The wound hidden with artificial food, synthetic and unmarked poisons bringing slow death and a painful end to people.
The wounds of abortion to the unborn child, parents and family and to society at large. The earth is roughen by missing parts losing its once natural beauty. Branches of trees hanging loosely without a fruit that was supposed to be there to ripe. Fishes are unsettled eating their own. Birds destroying its own nests.
What a grim world betrayed by its own - sullen and loveless- thirsting for love and life. What we do to ourselves, we do to our habitat.
In spite of its woundedness, there is still a merciful love that never gave up. The planets are still in its place. A new blossom springs forth. A gentle breeze soothes. A light dispels the darkness. A new day. A new choice even after the choice.
There is the barreness of the landscape coming from the wounds of artificial contraception. Soil rendered infertile not because it is but because fertility had been accursed. The fishes lost its food and the birds in the sky can not find its home.
It is a wound that is denied by many and can easily be hidden. Concrete, steel, plastic, and glass covered the barren land. It is cold to the heart yet scorching to the skin, it is remedied by patches of flowers and puppies to bring some life.
The wounds of sexual abuse that linger long after and sending forth anguish. Like storms gushing, tornado destroying whatever is on its path. Broken trees, houses with no roof, cars and things upside down. Difficult to appease, earth must just let it unleash and try to be out of its way. Fishes in the sea hide in the deepest burrow. Birds fly to distant haven.
The abandoned elderly, in spite of, its contribution had no place in the production-oriented world. Old trees withering with no water or nutrients. Deprived of the sun blocked by billboards and condominiums. Rice terraces abandoned by hands too tired to work. The plow unused, rusty and dirty.
Streams disrupted like water running out. The sky is sweating, an atmosphere losing its breath.
The wounds of divorce and broken families bring forth broken youth. The flowers and plants can not find their place. They struggle to survive and grow just anywhere - crevices, abandoned churches. The sheep knows not its pasture, the fish knows not its water, the birds knows not its sky. The plants and animals that were once a food for survival had become strangely dangerous for consumption.
The wound hidden with artificial food, synthetic and unmarked poisons bringing slow death and a painful end to people.
The wounds of abortion to the unborn child, parents and family and to society at large. The earth is roughen by missing parts losing its once natural beauty. Branches of trees hanging loosely without a fruit that was supposed to be there to ripe. Fishes are unsettled eating their own. Birds destroying its own nests.
What a grim world betrayed by its own - sullen and loveless- thirsting for love and life. What we do to ourselves, we do to our habitat.
In spite of its woundedness, there is still a merciful love that never gave up. The planets are still in its place. A new blossom springs forth. A gentle breeze soothes. A light dispels the darkness. A new day. A new choice even after the choice.
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