What is the best thing you can do in the Philippines?

David Tomlinson

The best thing about the Philippines is the people. Do whatever you can do to meet, talk, drink, eat with Filipinos. Even if you don’t speak Tagalog or Cebuano or any of the other Philippines languages, many times they will speak or at least understand English. The further you get out into the provinces, the more important it is to have someone who understands both to help translate.

The people are resilient, funny, usually kind to us poor foreigners. That is if you make an effort to treat them like people. Get out and eat and drink with people, dance and sing karaokke… don’t hang out with only your fellow countrymen, make an effort. I’ve been to more funerals, weddings, christenings, and birthdays in the last 10 years than in the first 50 in the States. Gatherings of friends and family are a very important part of social life here.

Oh, and, as long as you are living in a tropical paradise, with over 7000 islands and beaches, enjoy swimming, scuba, snorkeling, eating seafood, drinking cheap beer. Go to some of the clubs and music venues and enjoy the local music. Get out and golf at the dozen golf courses within 100 km of central Manila. And the dozens more in Cebu, Davao and elsewhere. Go up into the mountain provinces and enjoy the forests, cool air, different food and the coffee that’s grown there.

Marry a Filipina, grow a family, build a house on a hill overlooking the sea. Enjoy life.

The dishonest steward and the world’s unavoidable evils

By Fr. Roy Cimagala *

          ONCE again the parable of the dishonest steward (cfr. Lk

16,1-8) presents to us some intriguing questions and issues that we

have to try to resolve and reconcile with our Christian faith and

morals.

          We can ask if God, who must have been personified in some

way by the rich man in the parable, is just ok with some cheating,

with being dishonest, with being calculating as leverage for one’s

personal gain and interest.

          Remember that the conclusion of the parable was that the

master praised his dishonest steward for his ‘cleverness,’ saying that

the “people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own

kind than are the people of light.” (Lk 16,8)

          I suppose what the parable is trying to tell and teach us is

that Christ is being realistic with our situation in this world. We

try to put everything in our life right, clean and moral. But no

matter what we do, we would always be hounded by evil and by all kinds

of dirt, physical, moral, spiritual.

          This parable seems to tell us that we should just learn how

to live with this condition and do our best to come out ok in the eyes

of God in the end. What may be considered as aggravating circumstance

in human justice may be regarded as a saving grace in God’s eyes.

          We may have to handle dirt in our life and deal with

situations that are fraught with moral irregularities, but as long as

we do not compromise what is essential, which is love that comes from

God as shown by Christ who became like sin without committing sin

(cfr. 2 Cor 5,21), then things will just turn out ok.

          We have to learn to distinguish between what is a tolerable

cooperation in evil and an intolerable one. With the former, we should

feel the obligation to do whatever we can to clean up what is evil in

a given situation, system or structure.

          So, we have to be ready to properly live this unavoidable

condition of our life here where evil and its increasingly powerful

structures are sprouting around like mushrooms.

          Some of these immoral structures are already large and

well-entrenched in our culture and systems like the old acacia trees

that we still see around. They really pose as a tremendous challenge

to anyone who wishes to be consistent with his Christian life.

          For sure, the attitude to take toward this unavoidable

reality is not to escape from this muddled world. We would be like

fish out of water that way. Yes, we might be able to flee from the

mud, but then we would die instantly if we are taken out of our proper

place.

          Neither should our attitude be of just indiscriminately

accepting what comes or what is around. We are supposed to be the lord

and master of this world in the name of God whose best creature and

children we are. And so, we just have to do some discerning, some

purifying and some struggling. It cannot be helped.

          Christ himself said, “Behold I send you as sheep in the

midst of wolves. Be therefore wise as serpents and simple as doves.”

(Mt 10,16) It’s quite a combination to attain. But if we have faith in

God and follow what is taught us, we can make it. Truth is we have

been provided with more than enough to be able to reach this ideal.