THE LAST WORD

 

The last word is the best news of all. A happy ending after all? Really?

We sense it at rare moments. We see the good, the beauty in new crops, in flowers, in sunshine, and even in rain. The last thunderstorm in Davao City scarred me a lot. Lightning, flood … wow.

This world may be full of pollution, war, crime, and hate. But inside us, all of us, linger remnants that remind us of what the world could be like – of what we could be like.

The Old Testament prophets dreamed of “that day”, when creation would be made new. And those sensations, following a dismal monotone of predicted catastrophes, burst out of the last few chapters of Revelation. That perfect world is not merely a dream. Yes, I am pretty sure, it will come true.

I really enjoy reading Revelation again and again. Revelation shows us a new world at last. There will be no more tears then nor pain.

Revelation ends on a note of great triumph. Somehow, out of all the bad news augured here, good news emerges -spectacular Good News. I remember my radio show hosting on a Good News Radio FM- station in Davao City more than 20 years ago. Yes, good news … .

To those who believe, Revelation becomes a book not of fear, but of hope. God will prevail. All will be made new.

The Bible began, remember, back in Genesis, with a tragic defeat, when humanity, made in the image of God, rebelled. It ends with a reunion – a marriage, Revelation calls it. A happy ending after all … .

A perfect world? How could you design it? What would it look like? I am really waiting for your comments and suggestions.

Why do Filipinos want to have a pointed nose?

By: Dayang C Marikit

I would like to inform people that “nothing is set in stone” because we are constantly gathering information and learning about our history, somethings may change in the future, but for now the things that I publish are the things that we currently perceive to “know about.”

This features are generally what Filipinos find attractive.

• Nicely proportioned face
• Light-olive/light tanned skin tone (especially for women).
• Bright eyes
• Narrower noses
• Nice teeth

These features were already considered “attractive” even before the colonial period.

• This guy is actually from a tribal minority up in the mountains of Luzon.

This facial features have already been desired long before Europeans arrived not only in the Philippines but pretty much most of Southeast Asia… As you can see despite having narrower noses this people still have distinctively Filipino/Southeast Asian facial features.

• By the way even Filipinos with ‘flat noses’ can be beautiful.

A warning on presumption

By Fr. Roy Cimagala *

CHRIST said it very clearly. We have to enter by the narrow gate if we want to

survive the trials and challenges of our earthly life and arrive at our proper eternal

home. (cfr. Lk 13,22-30) We cannot deny that we are prone to fall into presumption. Of

course, we can also fall into the other extreme of despair which is not good for us.

To be sure, Christ is not trying to be a killjoy here. He always wants us to be

happy and to be at peace, if not always then at least most of the time. But he is just

being realistic, given our wounded condition that is prone to be easily spoiled by any

good thing we can have in this life.

In fact, in another instance he spells out what is needed if we want to follow him.

And that is that we deny ourselves and carry the cross. (cfr. Mt 16,24) Of course, as the

pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity, he knows perfectly

well what works for us and what does not, what is truly good for us and what is not.

We have to see to it that we are always aware of this necessity and requirement

in our life if we want to be truly human and Christian. There is no other way we can

attain the perfection and fullness of our humanity.

We know that the anomaly of presumption leads us to think that since God is

always merciful, compassionate and understanding, then we can do just about anything.

We would immediately rationalize that God will always understand and forgive us of our

sins that we could have avoided. 

In fact, we would think that we have some kind of license to sin, since God is

always merciful. A presumptuous person is usually a reckless, over-confident person.

He is deaf and blind to the possibility of divine retribution. He most likely has a lax

conscience.

Entering by the narrow gate means that we have to wage to lifelong interior or

ascetical struggle, since in this life we have to contend with all sorts of enemies of God

and of our soul.

As long as we struggle interiorly, there is spiritual life, the very wellspring that

produces the living water for our river of life. As long as we struggle interiorly, we can be

assured of our fidelity to whatever commitment we have entered into. Interior struggle is

essential and indispensable in our life.

Our life is very dynamic, with all sorts of challenges to face, problems to solve,

issues to be clarified. We need to see to it that our interior life, our spiritual life, our

thoughts, desires and intentions are firmly rooted on God, their proper foundation.

We need not only to purify our thoughts and intentions from any stain of pride,

vanity, lust, envy, sloth, gluttony, anger, etc. We also need to fill them and rev them up

with true love and wisdom. These are the reasons why we have to engage in a lifelong

interior or spiritual struggle.

The ideal situation should be that we are always in awe at the presence of God in

our life, making him the principle and objective of all our thoughts, words and deeds. We

have to be spiritually fit before we can be fit anywhere else—family-wise, professionally,

socially, politically, etc.

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

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com