SHARING COMMON HUMANITY IN TIMES OF TRAGEDY

The aftermath of last Monday’s tragic hostage crisis has greatly altered the lives of those who were involved or has taken part in this hapless incident. The innocent victims and their families; the authorities and law enforces; the media people and us who have witnessed in horror whether from the actual site or from our television or radio, we each have been unwilling participants to this incident. Nobody among us wanted such incident to happen and how we wished it was resolved peacefully without anyone, including the hostage-taker, being killed. None of us condones such violent means to demand justice. Yet we may occasionally experience socio-political upheaval or endure geographical, ethnical or cultural divide, it has been shown from our history that we advocate peaceful resolution to every conflict. Moreover, we believe in the rule of law and adhere to the highest ideals of democracy. We never had anything in our culture that espouses intolerance or may indicate prejudice of people from other demography even when we were often the victims of such bigotry.

There is no doubt about the pain being experienced by the families of each victim and the outburst of sympathy being shared by every Hong Kong citizen. We are one in their grief. We mourn the lost of the lives of the people who had visited our island and had become our friends. How we wish they could return and share with us moments of fun and relaxation once again. But their tragic visit shall haunt us. We can only hope that our peoples can look beyond the hurt and move-on. Let us look not to each other as to our race, citizenship, gender or creed rather to our common humanity. We can celebrate life again. Together we can revel as we discover the unfolding of the beauty of our respective lands and cultures. We shall wait for the storm in our relations today to pave way to a brighter tomorrow with greater understanding and mutual trust.

For now, we honor the grieving and the memory of the innocent victims. We offer our sympathies and learn from whatever lesson this tragedy has taught us.

May Almighty God have mercy on us all and in His divine grace may we find consolation, enlightenment and peace of heart.

LIFE'S MOST

We oftentimes hear the word “extreme” nowadays. We hear or experience extreme sports, extreme adventure or living to the extreme. Today’s generation demands so much from life. Nothing can contain us but the best, the biggest, the most. These are the modern reality that clamors for the ultimate quest in life.

The ultimate quest in life is to live it to the fullest. There is an instinctual need for us to be the best or to get the most out of what this world could offer. With all the ‘superlatives’ that are within our reach we wonder why we had to gain everything and in the end lose everything.

You may work to get to the summit of success in your career; prove to be the greatest and biggest among the lot and strive to have the largest of anything or the most expensive. You may reach the pinnacle of fame and fortune yet feel like an empty bottomless-glass waiting to be filled to the brim but never does.

It is commendable to labor for fame and fortune. Afterall, it is what makes our world go round. Whatever good they serve however will not suffice for anyone to claim a full life. These alone shall not give the meaning we seek in the process of achieving and succeeding.

I am sharing the following piece as a reminder to what constitute a full life. I lost the source or who wrote it but its’ not important. Whoever wrote this discovered the most essential ‘superlatives’ in life. I’ve been too redundant for words here but I hope you got the message.

THE GREATEST

The greatest handicapped: FEAR
The best day: TODAY
The best therapy: HUMOR
The easiest thing to do: FIND A FAULT
The most useless asset: PRIDE
The greatest mistake: GIVING UP
The greatest stumbling block: EGOTISM
The greatest comfort: WORK WELL DONE
The most disagreeable person: THE COMPLAINER
The worst bankruptcy: LOSS OF INTHUSIASM
The worst disease: ENVY
The greatest need: COMMON SENSE
The meanest feeling: REGRET AT ANOTHER’S SUCCESS
The best gift: FORGIVENESS
The greatest moment: DEATH
The greatest personal asset: CHOICE
The greatest knowledge: GOD
The greatest thing in the world: LOVE
The answer to everything: FAITH

SAINT DOMINIC DE GUZMAN: DEFENDER OF THE FAITH AND PARAGON OF CHARITY

Today is the 8th of August, the feast day of St. Dominic de Guzman. He is one of my favorite saints because of his close affinity with the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Holy Rosary.

Dominic (Domingo in Spanish) was born in Spain, in the town of Caleruega, in 1170, to Juana de Aza and Felix Guzman. At the age of seven, he was trained by a priest, who is also his uncle, in the clerical studies and the service of the altar. At fourteen, he was sent to the University of Palencia, the center of learning for the Kingdom of Leon. Moved with compassion, he sold his precious books for the relief of war refugees who were homeless and without resources. He said, “How can I study from dead skins when living men are starving?”

In 1193, Dominic was ordained priest. Aware of the dangers posed by the Albigensian heresy he founded the Order of Preachers (popularly known as the Dominicans) the purpose of which is preaching for the salvation of souls. He envisioned a group of apostolic men who live in common, profess the evangelical counsels (poverty, obedience and chastity), fervently celebrate the Holy Eucharist, study assiduously, persevere in regular observances, and preach the Good News of Salvation.

Consumed by his ardent love for God and neighbor, Dominic died in Bologna on the 6th of August, in the year of our Lord 1221 at the age of 51. He was elevated to the altars of the church in 1234 when he was canonized by Pope Gregory IX.

Legend has it that the Holy Rosary was given and taught to Dominic by the Blessed Virgin Mary herself in an apparition. This belief may have inspired the Dominicans throughout the ages to propagate the Rosary as the most popular Catholic devotional practice next only to the Holy Mass.

Saint Dominic, Pray for us!

NO TIME TO PRAY

I knelt to pray but not for long,
I had too much to do…
I had to hurry and get to work
For bills wound soon be due…

So I knelt and said a hurried prayer
And jumped up off my knees…
My Christian duty now was done
My soul could be at ease…

All day long I had no time
To spend a word of cheer…
No time to speak of Christ to friends
They’d laugh at me I feared…

No time, no time, too much to do,
That was my constant cry.
No time to give to sols in need
But at last it was time,
The time to die…

I went before the Lord,
I came and stood
With downcast eyes…
For in His hands God held a book;
It was the book of life…

God looked into His book
And said, “Your name I cannot find…
I once was going to write it down…
But never found the time.”

- Adapted –

Prayer is the most essential practice of our faith. It is the act foremost to connect with the Almighty God. Anyone professing his belief in God but does not pray betrays the faith.

Prayer is an act of the will. It is not a matter of finding the time to pray but whether do you want to pray. To find ourselves too busy to pray stems from our limited notion that prayer has to take too much time and effort. We may find ourselves in quandary thinking about the seemingly sophisticated ways of praying taught to us by the church. Yet we miss the whole idea that God hears even the simplest prayer, prayed in earnest. Thus, time is not the essence of prayer, it is faith.

We who are consumed in the bonfires of the vanities see time as a tyrant. We constantly watch time ticking-away. We count the minutes, hours, days, months and years as we strive towards an unending quest for what this world can offer. We are deceived by the belief that the wisest investments are those in stocks, bank notes and real estate that grow overtime. Yet because of these ambitions, we are constantly frightened by the fact that we have so little control over our own lives. Lest it too late, we shall find ourselves possessed by those we possess.

For God however time is but a tiny drop of vapor that appears in an instant and then gone. The true and lasting investments are those invested in times of prayer and contemplation. And the real wealth is in our faith. The times of prayer are treasured opportunity to experience the unique and rich relationship that anyone shares with God. Prayer brings in enlightenment in times of confusion and wisdom that carries us through the most difficult moments.

When we do our obligation to pray, we do so out of faith and love for God. It is when we feel uninspired; when we find it too tiring or when we are loosing faith that we should pray even more. These are the perfect time to tell God what’s in our heart. Oftentimes, we don’t even need to voice out our prayers especially when we are lost for words. It is in these time when we let our spirit soar to meet the Divine and express the yearnings of our heart.

There is nothing complicated about prayer only if we acknowledge that it is the most natural thing to do; an act necessary to our temporal existence and essential to our passage to eternal life.

Hence, even in the midst of our busy life, anytime should be prayer time. It has to be integrated in our lifestyle. God gave us time, we should offer it back to Him.