You plan to move to the Philippines? Wollen Sie auf den Philippinen leben?

There are REALLY TONS of websites telling us how, why, maybe why not and when you'll be able to move to the Philippines. I only love to tell and explain some things "between the lines". Enjoy reading, be informed, have fun and be entertained too!

Ja, es gibt tonnenweise Webseiten, die Ihnen sagen wie, warum, vielleicht warum nicht und wann Sie am besten auf die Philippinen auswandern könnten. Ich möchte Ihnen in Zukunft "zwischen den Zeilen" einige zusätzlichen Dinge berichten und erzählen. Viel Spass beim Lesen und Gute Unterhaltung!


Visitors of germanexpatinthephilippines/Besucher dieser Webseite.Ich liebe meine Flaggensammlung!

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Showing posts with label Hatred. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hatred. Show all posts

Thursday, October 7, 2021

When driven by unbelief and hatred

 





By Fr. Roy Cimagala



          YES, when one is driven by unbelief and hatred, he is likely

to fall into self-contradictions. This was illustrated in that gospel

episode where some of the crowd reacted to Christ’s driving away a

demon from a possessed person in this way: “By the power of Beelzebul,

the prince of demons, he drives out demons.” (Lk 11,15)


          Of course, Christ immediately corrected them by saying,

“Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and house

will fall against house. And if Satan is divided against himself, how

will his kingdom stand? For you say that it is by Beelzebul that I

drive out demons. If I, then, drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom

do your own people drive them out?”


          Clearly, when one is driven by unbelief and hatred, his

reasoning can go off the rails, even the simplest of logic is thrown

out. We need to do everything to always strengthen our belief in God,

the very cause, origin and pattern of unity amid the vast and

increasing diversity and variety of elements we can have in this

world.


          Nowadays, we are seeing the intriguing phenomena of

asserting what is right and moral as wrong and immoral, and

vice-versa. What is clearly an expression of true freedom is now

called slavery, and vice-versa. What should clearly be considered as

taboo is now regarded as a human right. The forms of

self-contradictions go on and on.


          To correct this situation or, at least, to deal properly

with it, we need to take care and strengthen our belief and our

charity. We cannot take this duty for granted, especially now when the

world is sinking in confusion and error as it distances itself farther

from God.


            In many places in the world today, people are now

legalizing and inculturating outright immoralities and perversions,

rationalizing them as part of their human rights, their freedom, or as

a gesture of tolerance on a multiplicity of preferences, etc.


            This is a big challenge for all Christian believers who

want to be all-the-way consistent with their faith and with humanity

itself, for the issues at hand are not just a matter of a particular

religion but rather that of our common humanity.


            And the Christian faith is not meant only for a few. It is

for all, though it obviously is not meant to be imposed on everyone.

It has to be accepted knowingly, freely, lovingly, that is, with

charity.


          Instead of responding to evil with evil, hatred with hatred,

we should rather respond to evil with good, hatred with love. That way

we turn things around, rather than plunge into the spiral of evil and

hatred.


          This was specifically articulated by St. Paul in his Letter

to the Romans where he said: “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be

careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is

possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do

not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for

it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord. On

the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty,

give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning

coals on his head.” (Rom 12,17-20)


          We have to try our best to erase whatever disbelief, doubt

or skepticism we can have as we consider this teaching, since most

likely, our first and spontaneous reaction to it would precisely be

those reactions.



* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com




Wednesday, September 22, 2021

When misunderstood and hated

By Fr. Roy Cimagala *

 

         THAT gospel episode where Herod the tetrarch was perplexed

about Christ and was more disturbed than simply curious about him,

(cfr. Lk 9,7-9) reminds us that if we are to be like Christ, we should

be ready to be misunderstood and even hated.


          Like Christ, we can be a sign of contradiction to some

people. We should therefore learn how to handle that condition the way

Christ handled his. It’s going to be an unavoidable feature in our

life, especially nowadays when there are many powerful and influential

people straying away from God’s will and ways.


          In this life, in this world, we just have to be ready to get

dirty without compromising what is truly essential in our spiritual

life. Evil is unavoidable in this world, and we just have to know how

to deal with it, always focused on going toward our eternal destiny

with God in heaven.


          We should not worry too much about the misunderstanding and

even hatred against us that we can provoke in others, because we have

been given all the assurances that if we are with God, everything

would just turn our right. The challenge now is how to handle the many

evil things that will always get mixed up with the essential good of

this life and of this world that all come from God.


          Evil does not have the last word, unless we let it. It is

the good that will have the last word. And so we just have to learn

how to go through such things even to the extent of cooperating with

evil materially, not formally, if only to change things for the

better.


          In this, we should look at Christ not only as the model but

also and most especially as the power to enable us to derive good from

evil regardless of all the dirt involved in the process.


          St. Paul has something relevant to say in this regard. “God

made him who had no sin to be sin for us,” he said, “so that in him we

might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor 5,21)


          That is why Christ allowed himself to take on all the

suffering so unjustly inflicted on him and ultimately to offer his

life on the cross to bear all the evil of our sins in order to conquer

sin and death itself with his resurrection.


          We have to understand then that our life here on earth, if

patterned after that of Christ, cannot but get involved with the dirt

of evil. It would be naïve on our part if we think that Christian life

is pure clean living pursued in a sterilized environment as if in some

controlled laboratory.


          In this, we have been amply warned by Christ himself. “In

this world,” he said, “you will have trouble. But take heart! I have

overcome the world.” (Jn 16,33) More graphically, he said:


          “If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off

and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or

crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal

fire.” (Mt 18,8)


          We just have to learn how to suffer, how to let go even of

some legitimate things if only to get what is truly essential. In

other words, we have to learn how to get dirty and how to suffer with

Christ.


* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com


Friday, February 3, 2017

Philippines is not about hatred or violence

 Office of Senator
Alan Peter S. Cayetano
Rm. 602 GSIS Complex Senate of the Philippines Roxas Blvd Pasay City
         


PRESS RELEASE
03 February 2017

“Come to the Philippines and please look at us from a different perspective.”

This was the message of Senator Alan Peter Cayetano to the delegates of the National Prayer Breakfast being held in the United States, consisting of leaders from different religious and business groups across the globe.

 “We invite you to come to the Philippines and see for yourselves that the Philippines is not about hatred and violence as being shown in the international media." 

He encouraged the foreign leaders to come and visit the country to discover for themselves the natural beauty of the country, and get to know Filipinos who are loving, kind and hospitable.  

Cayetano also took the opportunity to discuss to the international community his insights on the Philippine war on drugs. 

“The war on drugs is not a war to kill criminals,” Cayetano clarified.  

He explained that the anti-drug campaign is not a war against life but a war to fight for the lives of all Filipinos. 

Cayetano noted that the Philippine government and even President Duterte have acknowledged that there are law enforcers who abuse their power, but he added that this should not be a reason to stop the entire drug campaign in general. 

He said, “President Duterte is being potrayed in the international community as a 'violent' man. But a 'violent' man does not want peace for anyone." 

He added that, in contrast, "Our President is doing everything to make the peace talks successful, achieve lasting peace, and win the war against illegal drugs,” the Senator added.  

Cayetano compared the rogue cops in the law enforcement agencies like the PNP to the corrupt personnel in tax agencies. 

“When tax collecting agencies become rigged with corruption, we did not tell them to stop collecting taxes, but we cleansed the agencies,” he said.

Cayetano explained that there may be weaknesses in the systems and opportunities for corruption and abuse but the important thing is that the cleansing is on-going.  

Finally, he urged the participants in the National Prayer Breakfast to pray for the Filipino leaders to gain wisdom and fear of the Lord as the Philippines continues to address the problem of illegal drugs. #