Making and Spending Money

I was just recently greeted by a friend that 2012 will be a lucky year for me because it is the year of the water dragon. I am not sure how but there are lots of people who will believe that 2012 indeed will be a lucky year. My guess, next year will be another year where we will chase money more than ever. Our growing needs and wants will not stop and so our quest for more money will continue to drive us to work harder and work longer.

“It is mine; I worked for it; I can do what I like with it!” These are common expressions for many of us. What we may not realize is that there is no sense for anything to be considered “mine” as it does not make any sense to speak of “me” owning “myself” or ”my bodily powers.” We live and exist using the resources of this world, food, air, water, etc. (which are “owned” by God). Moreover, my human labour would not be able to produce anything unless it made use of the goods of the earth (which are still “owned” by God).

So as not to be deceived, we need to understand the proper attitude towards money. It is anyway a blessing that God wants us to have and enjoy. Fr. Michael T. Ryan in the book “The Social Attitudes of Catholics” suggests the following which I find very practical:

First, we need to realize that making money is proper and even required so that we can carry out our particular role in God’s world. This is the principle of involvement. The amount of money we make will vary to our role. The more roles we have on this world, the more money we need to make to carry out those roles. Mt. 25:29 - For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.

Second, we must see ourselves as stewards of what we possess rather than absolute owners. We are accountable to God who is the source of all our blessings and to others for how we use or spend our money and possessions. This is the principle of accountability. Mt. 25:19 - After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them

Third, we need to cultivate a spirit of detachment. Money can easily steal our hearts. It destroys relationship and fosters wrong sense of hope and confidence. This is the principle of detachment. The best remedy against these is to practice generosity. 1Tim. 6:10 - For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Fourth, as followers of Christ, we are called to be witnesses. Our use of money and possessions should witness to the gospel values, our belief in eternal life and our awareness that the poor of this world are our brothers and sisters. This is the principle of witnessing. Ac 2:4-5 - They made it their practice to sell their possessions and goods and to distribute the proceeds to anyone who was in need.

It is true that our attitude towards money is the final barometer of Christian maturity. We can argue on so many terminologies and technicalities on how we deal with the money God has blessed us with. In the end, we will be measured by the same standard we use on how we earn and spend our money. The question is – will we measure up? 

Happy New Year

This is the time traditionally we make resolutions to be a better person. We aim to outdo ourselves this year to the next. But as always, at the end of each year, we will find ourselves in the same situation. We gained more inches and weight, debts increased and we are no better than last year.

New year is supposed to give us new hope and I believe that our focus has been misguided so we end up most of the time not doing well with our “resolutions.”

In the Church Tradition, the real “new year” begins with First Vespers of the First Sunday of Advent. Advent is the Church’s meditation on the two coming of Christ – first, His coming in the flesh at Christmas, and second is His coming in glory which establishes his reign as the Lord of History.

The missal offers a helpful reminder of this fuller dimension of the mystery of the Incarnation in one of its auxiliary prefaces for Advent:

“You have hidden from us the day and hour in which Christ your Son, the Lord and judge of history, will appear upon the clouds of heaven clothed in power and splendor; on that great and glorious day, the present world will pass away, and new heavens and a new earth will arise. Now, Christ comes to meet us in every man and in every time, so that we may accompany him in faith and bear witness in love to the blessed hope of his reign."

  

Now that’s something worth considering even as we celebrate the “civil” new year. Maybe this time we focus on what is really essential, i.e., renewal than resolution. This coming new year, let us not wait but to actively come and meet Him…let us renew our resolve to come and meet Him in the sacraments, especially the sacraments of Eucharist and Reconciliation where we can find Him and dwell in His presence all year long. Then we won’t really worry about how well we are doing with those resolutions.

Have a blessed New Year to all!

Here I Am, Send Me!

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" (Isaiah 6:8)

People are so worried about commitment and will do anything just to get away with it. There are more and more people nowadays who are going away to self preservation. In our culture of individuality, who in his right mind who would commit him/herself into something that he/she is not familiar with? Who is willing to dwell into unchartered territories nowadays? Some who have had bad experiences about commitment are hurt and have now become afraid to try again.

We see many of them every time the temperature drops on a Sunday morning, would prefer to sleep in and do not bother going to church anymore? That Sunday worship has become just another “activity” or “disposable commitment” that one can get away with anytime one wants? And our concept of God has been reduced to that of a fairy godmother or a genie? We only call when we need something from them.

Come to think of it, would your life be any better if you are free of commitment? Would you rather spend time sitting at your Lazy boy and watch TV, than out in the cold of the night volunteering to make life better for other people?

As I dwell into the book of Isaiah, I have come to appreciate the depth and meaning of committing one’s life to God. Isaiah experienced the emptiness of his religious experience despite the richness of their faith as a people. He saw that their processions are well attended, the clergy is powerful, but behind this facade life is absent. It was a religion that is learned and does not spring from the heart.

Unless what we do are products of an encounter of God and not just of religious experience, it will always be difficult to say – here I am, send me! God dwells in our heart and when we experience this person in our heart and not just in our mind, love is now no longer a mere “command”, it becomes a response to the gift of love with which God draws us near to Him. It propels us to move and do beyond what we think we are capable of.

There was once an occasion I was listening to a prayer leader who were leading us in prayer and mentioned those who are poor and have nothing to eat. He asked that God may bless them and may send somebody to help them. It has dawned on me that it might be more pleasing to God if the prayer would be “Lord we remember those who have nothing to eat at this hour and we ask that you may give us courage to reach out to them and share whatever blessing you have given us.”

Being sent does not mean you are the most qualified or the most capable. Being sent means your heart is ready to love and to trust. That your life is to be one of simple, childlike faith, and that our part is to love and to trust, not to do. While humanity will always look for the tangible result of what you do, God does not. He is more interested in your heart than in all that you have accomplished. 

Remember, God chose Peter to be the foundation of His Church not because he is good but because God is good. He chose Peter because of his heart and in His goodness, He qualified him. This will be so to anyone whom He will put to task. 

So when the Lord asks: who do I send? Don’t be afraid, look at your heart then say, here I am, send me! 

You'll Never Walk Alone

I remember this popular song in my early years by Elvis Presley “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” I am sure you will be able to relate to me about the message of hope that this song conveys, that “at the end of the storm is a golden sky and the sweet silver song of the lark...walk on with hope in your heart...and you’ll never walk alone.”

No matter how, when and where we are born and the corresponding circumstances of our birth, regardless if we are born poor or rich, white or brown and even what faith our parents have passed on to us, we will for sure encounter difficulties in life. It is as if, we are born and have been pre-destined to experience pain. Unfortunately for majority of people living in this world, almost their whole life is lived in pain and difficulties.

Are there reasons to hope that darkness will come to pass and we will finally see the light? That every Saturday we wake up with anticipation that we finally won the jackpot in Lotto Max and we don’t have to come to work the following Monday! That we have finally won our battle with the big “C” and we don’t have to go back for chemotherapy and experience one hour of “hell.” Only to find out that when we wake up the following day, nothing of our circumstance has changed. We feel alone and hope is gone and so with our reasons to live. 

How can we keep faith when nothing seems to be going right? Where can we find motivation and optimism when we are feeling defeated and rejected? Worst is, we will discover that good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people. Then we conclude that life sucks and is not fair!

I have dreamed of driving a BMW too, of living in a big and beautiful house, of being restored to my profession and enjoy the respect and admiration of people working for me, of having the body that I had 20 years ago and the list goes on. I believe I deserve those more than anybody else I know. But the more that I think of them, the more I have come to realize that there is a great chance not one of them will happen.

But always, I will wake up and snap from these dreams, that though they may not happen in this lifetime, it will happen in the next. Yes, the hope in my heart that one day I will come home and enjoy all these and much more than these that my Father in heaven has prepared for me. 

You see, if we look at the things that are finite, we will for sure be disappointed. We have forgotten that we are made for heaven. That God intends to have us all in heaven but He is so perfect and holy that there is no chance that with our present state of life, we would make it to heaven. Say you are filthy and full of dirt, are you going to put on your immaculate white shirt? Of course not, we are going to wash first and make sure there is no single trace of dirt left in our body before we try and put on that shirt. Every pain, difficulties, rejection and defeat we experience in our life are like scrubs, they scrub the dirt on our body. The more we scrub, the more and faster we become clean. 

If we think this way, then we will realize that not winning the lotto is not bad at all. That every time you undergo chemotherapy is not bad at all because one hour of chemo is equivalent to a thousand years in purgatory. That every pain and difficulty is God’s loving way of bringing us closer and nearer to Him.

Our Lord Jesus has exemplified all of these on the cross and He will not ask us something that He himself has not done. Remember His pain and suffering and you will realize that it is true – you don’t walk alone and will never be. 

Merry Christmas

Christmas is almost upon us and for quite some time we have been exchanging gracious greetings and wishes for a  joyful and spiritually fruitful celebration of the coming of God. As we are further buried in the many activities that make us busy in this time of the year, let us all remember that God came in the quietness of the night in that small town named Bethlehem. No fuss, no media, no VIP’s, no paparazzis, no big celebration….. He came  small, weak and helpless – yes that’s how the God who is all powerful and all knowing came. He came this way to teach us one thing – that we don’t need elaborate methods to get into contact with Him as we can find Him in the ordinary circumstances of our lives like the shepherds on that fateful night.

May this Christmas season allow us to remember the most humble of all events in the history of our faith. May we learn to strip ourselves with many of our self-sufficiency and comfort in exchange for learning the lesson of the Incarnation – that God wants to meet us right where we are. And so with Christ, the everyday circumstances of our lives become occasions of divine revelation and encounter…we see him every day through all the people that He sends our way….we meet Him in the Eucharist where He feeds us so we can be more and more like Him…we meet Him in the confessional where He touches us and heals us. Yes, everyday can truly be a Christmas day.

I would like to thank all of you from my heart for allowing me and my family to work with you on the common mission that the Lord has given us as witnesses to his truth. I wish all of you the joy that God wanted to bestow upon us through the coming of our Lord

A blessed Christmas to you all! 

Freedom of Choice

I was born in the year Ferdinand Marcos was elected the 10^th president of the Republic of the Philippines. Growing up in this era reminds me of our struggle for democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to assemble and protest. Now that democracy has dawned the Philippines through the 1986 EDSA revolution, the country enjoys democracy and the abundant freedom it brings with it for most part.

When I look at the Philippines today, I wonder if democracy has done well in us as a people and as a country. And in the interest of time and space, I won’t enumerate and break down what had gone from bad to worse. I am not saying that if Philippines didn’t had democracy, that we will be a better people and country. What I am saying is that while freedom is a blessing, it could also be a curse.

When God created Adam and Eve, He has given them dominion over all His creation. We call animals as animal, fish as fish, birds as birds etc. because Adam named them. Even as created beings, God gave them their freedom of the will and the only thing that God forbids them is to eat the fruit of “the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”

If we look around us today we will see the many people, and their numbers are overwhelming, who seem to have eaten the same fruit that God has forbidden. The era of “freedom of choice” where there is no longer an absolute right or wrong and the individual becomes the ultimate judge whether his/her actions and decisions are morally right or wrong.

While I can understand that we are free to choose what kind of car we want to buy, or what type of restaurant we want to dine, as these are matters of preference and they do not harm anybody whether you choose one from another, there are certain things that we don’t have absolute power of choice especially if it affects the lives of others.

We don’t have the power to decide who lives and who dies. Hitler had that power and I believe the people who lived in that generation and participated with him either by approval or omission will not remember their time and their contribution to society with great pride.

C.S. Lewis in his journey to understand God through nature has concluded that men have a natural vacuum in life that only God can fill. As God’s own image, our search for true freedom ends with God and only with God we can truly be free. If He is able to give us His life, we too can give back our life to Him.

If we die to our selfishness, we will stop killing our unborn and call it “choice.” They are beautiful creations of God like you and me. As Blessed Mother Theresa said “the destroyer of peace and love is abortion for if a mother can kill her own child, who are we to stop one another from killing each other.”

Christmas is almost upon us. Let us take this opportunity to remember that there was a time that we as individual and as a people obey the commandments of the Lord. Lives were simple and less complicated but we were happy. If we can do this, we will realize that yes happiness is not about doing what we want to do but doing what God wants us to do.

Let us take joy on the assurance that when we kneel down in prayer, there is a God on the other end listening to us and fighting our battle.

I wish all of you the joy that God wanted to bestow upon us through this experience of incarnation – Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us. A blessed Christmas to you all!