I WEAR ASHES ON MY FOREHEAD TODAY

I wear ashes on my forehead today because I confess, with much sorrow and remorse, how I defiled and defaced the beauty of the Lord’s image in me through my stubbornness and sin. I wear them on my forehead as a BADGE OF SHAME.

I wear ashes on my forehead today because I acknowledge that my life is just as worthless and meaningless as a heap of ash when divorced from the saving and nurturing love of God. I came from ashes, I will return to ashes. I am only because God breathed on a pile of dirt and called me out of it. I came to be only because of God’s immeasurable love for me. He is everything. I am nothing. I wear them on my forehead as a SIGN OF HUMILITY.

I wear ashes on my forehead today because I am reminding myself of the sheer ugliness and filth of sin and evil. I wear them on me to remind myself and others of the inescapability of the reality that the more we cling on to our shortcomings and selfish ways, the more that we drift away from the source of all life and beauty. I wear them on my forehead as a reminder of how my sins take away from me my original beauty in having been created after the very likeness of God. I wear them on my forehead to remind me of my NEED TO BE PURIFIED AND FORGIVEN.

I wear ashes on my forehead today. And they are traced on me in the form of a cross. This is the most important thing that I celebrate today: CHRIST JESUS HAS TRANSFORMED MY SHAME INTO JOY, MY HUMILIATION INTO VICTORY, MY HELPLESSNESS INTO STRENGTH, and MY DEATH INTO LIFE ETERNAL. This my sweet Savior has triumphantly accomplished on the Saving Cross of His love for you and me.

Thus, more than a badge of shame, a sign of humility, a reminder of my need for purification and forgiveness, I wear ashes on my forehead today as a SIGN OF HONOR, a CROWN OF VICTORY, a PLEDGE OF SALVATION, a MARK OF BELONGING TO THE ONE FOLD OF OUR SAVIOR!

Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see!

"I CREATED THE SEA" (LK5)

Simon to Jesus: Believe me Lord, we've been out the whole night, there was nothing out there! I should know, I am a fisherman. I am the master of the sea! Jesus to Simon: No, YOU believe Me Simon! put out into the deep and lower your nets! There you'll have a great catch! I should know...I CREATED THE SEA!!!

WARNING: LARO LANG ANG FB, MAG EMOTE TALO!

In reality, Facebook (“Facebooking”) is simply engaging in cyber-voyeurism, that is, deriving delight and pleasure at taking a peek into someone else’s daily grind in life, no matter how insignificant and even downright inane it may sometimes be; as well as the almost as pervert urge to “expose” one’s self for the others’ viewing pleasure, by constantly feeding “update” boxes with what you have just eaten, the manner with which you brushed your teeth, or wore your pajamas, or bought that hundredth tall frap of yours, costing you almost half your tuition fee for the second semester and thus momentarily endangering your educational upkeep as well as your fair shot at the future, only so that you could grab your very own copy of this year’s edition of that ridiculous coffee shop planner, which is actually nothing more than a compilation of discount coupons and cloyingly disguised advertisements for their other caffeinated products; your undying love for some imaginary object of desire who doesn’t even know you exist, or at least not on this planet…what you had for your dinner, for breakfast, where you spent the afternoon, that new fancy leash for your mongrel, etc.

Sure some geeks and party poopers may argue that this application is our modern, decadent times’ God-sent opportunity to educate them bad grammarians and good-for-nothing gremlins that completely depend on their parents’ wallets and pockets for their very survival, or an avenue for lecturing others about the deeper meanings of life and other evangelistic agenda. While I am not denying that FB can every once in a while be used to communicate serious stuff to others,the truth, however, remains that after a series of thumb-up signs and likes and comments of whatever kind…everything’s just a game at FB…an extremely creative, innovative, hi-tech, and definitely costly way of wasting time and actually doing nothing…and enjoying every minute of it!

I Envy Them Fishes: Insomnia2

I envy them fishes of all scales and sizes
Which float in their sleep whilst eyes remain open;
No cares to harass their piscean domain,
Bereft of the need to overcome battles;
No dirges to sing, no deaths to bemoan
Save those of the weeds that shelter their spawn.

O yes how could one man not possibly loan
His soul for a moment of quiet and peace,
When all around him reeks of putrid demise
Of the badges of decency and the honors of old;
And after the pillage of the castle of gold
Lay scattered the wreckage of malice and lies.

I envy them fishes for their being spared
Of the burden of speaking when the prophet is dead,
And the lamb has been skewered with the totem of dread;
And the many other species of the lesser floating kind,
That break not in their hearts when the sun becomes crimson,
Nor break out into riot at the fall of a brother!

Insomnia

A one-eyed panther stares at me tonight,
Its orb gleaming with a most surreal cataract
Contemplating an attack but unmoving,
Frozen on its track,
It seems as if it’s eternally on guard,
Patiently waiting for ages
To pounce on an unsuspecting prey

Like me, and many of my kind
Who in the deepest, darkest hours
Would suffer the pangs
Of dilated minds and bursting hearts,
Waiting for the promise that each dawn brings
Yet wallow helplessly,
Endlessly,
In the cold, black pool
Of the reasons why we pray

And the games that we play
While still able and unsaddled
By the all too urgent concerns
Of a grown-up’s artificial world,
Are by now just mere phantoms
Of some innocence long lost,
Utter delight and wispy smiles
At some make believe flights
Aboard spaceships made of card-boards

"He knew what to do..." - an invitation to trust, an invitation to remember ( 2nd NCC - Day 3)

“Where shall we buy bread so that this people may have something to eat?’ He said this to test Philip, FOR HE HIMSELF KNEW WHAT HE WAS GOING TO DO…” (John VI, 5-6)

There were about five thousand men, plus women, plus children. Three days and three nights of wandering and listening and everyone were exhausted. The master took pity on the people. He wanted the disciples to give them something so that they may eat and rest. The latter complained. None of the adults around understood the plea of the Lord. None of them wanted to part with the provisions that they have with them either. The grown-up men refused to trust Jesus to make something out of what they have with them; they offered him complaints and incredulity instead. A little boy came forward and gave all that he has. Jesus knew what to do. He merely tested them. Everyone else failed. Save for that little child…

The disciples were bewildered at the improbability of the Master’s command: “Give them something to eat yourselves!” immediately, calculators went calculating, debaters went debating, and all sorts of opinions and strategies and every manner of evading the problem flew aplenty in the thin, harried air. And this was not what the Master has in his heart. He was saddened that the immediate response these grown-ups gave was to take control of the situation and forget the most essential, in fact, the very first thing that they should have done. They forgot to ask help from Jesus. They forgot to first listen to Him before even setting out on a hunt for solutions they could never have. They quickly turned to the poverty of their empty hearts and found nothing. They forgot they have the Lord in their midst! They forgot Jesus!

This vicious habit of forgetting the Lord whenever faced with the challenges of life would continue to be handed over from one generation to another. The same sorry scenario would be repeated again and again in a seemingly never ending train of miseries and failed attempts at pseudo-discipleship. And the farce would go on, for as long as the essential thing remains buried beneath our insistence on being on top of every situation and other brash and brazen and utterly foolish display of adult-like stupidity and stubbornness. The sad story would continue, for as long as we keep on forgetting that “he knew what to do” and he’s just trying to find out if we truly trust him enough so as to first do whatever he asks us to do before even asking how or why.

The Lord was not looking for an intelligent solution or a scientific analysis to the trial that he has set before his proud disciples. He was simply looking for trust. He was simply asking for obedience. He knew very well what to do. Not one of the adults got the message. It was a small child who truly heard and understood the simplicity of the Lord’s invitation. It took a simple kid to show everyone the way.

This episode in the ministry of the Lord flashed into my mind as I went back to the WTC for the third day of the priests’ congress. More than two thousand years later, the event sprang back to life…Three days, five thousand++priests, hungry for the bread that the Lord would provide, huddled together in rapt attention.

The call remains as we trudge past this third day of the congress. Renewal for us would mean to never again forget that the risen One is in our midst! That as priests, we are never asked by the Good Shepherd to satisfy the hunger of the flock with what we do not have in us. He is not goading us to commit suicide. He simply asks us to trust enough. He simply invites us to remember…

Христос воскрес! Christ is risen! - (2nd NCC-Day Two)

Христос воскрес! The Christ of our faith, the Christ of our struggles, the Christ of our hopes and salvation; He is the risen Christ! He is truly risen, truly among us!

The Christ of our tears and joys, the Christ of our every waking, the Christ whom we run to as refuge and defender; He is the risen Christ! He is truly risen, truly among us!

The Christ of our longings, the Christ of our sufferings, the Christ of our victories; He is the risen Christ! He is truly risen, truly among us!

The Christ who in spite of our betrayals, remain faithful and loyal, the Christ who awaits us at the end of our every misadventure, the Christ who never fails to invite: "come, let us break bread anew!" He is the risen Christ! He is truly risen, truly among us!

The Christ at our side when we are defeated and down, the Christ who laughs out loud at our every pleasure, the Christ who delights in the littlest of our successes in life; He is the risen Christ! He is truly risen, truly among us!

The Christ who offers all His divine and human perfection in exchange for all our imperfections, the Christ who doubles the love that we once in a while accord Him, the Christ who is at the finish line cheering us on as we make our way through, He is the risen Christ! He is truly risen, truly among us!

Christos voskres! Alleluia, Alleluia!