DO LIVE FOR SOMETHING!

Admittedly, this sounds like a very easy request. Already, Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847), a Scottish minister, professor of theology, political economist, and a leader of both the Church of Scotland and of the Free Church of Scotland, treated that topic already with plenty of flowering words. 

“Innumerable human beings live, move and have to pass away – free from worries but unknown and unnoticed. Incomprehensible and inscrutable: no line written and no word talk by themselves are still in the memories of their bereaved. Their gleams of light switched out in the darkness of life’s night”.

Why do people like to live like this even knowing they have to leave the platform of their lives one day? Still in mind is the one question of Brother Francis Castro of the Little Brothers of Jesus about the “burning flame inside him that makes him jump out of his bed … and hurry to work…”. The Little Brothers of Jesus congregation was established in the Philippines in 1977. It now has two communities — in the Diocese of Antipolo, northeast of Manila, and in the Quezon City district of the Archdiocese of Manila. Four brothers — three Filipinos and a native Vietnamese with French nationality — live in the communities with a French priest of the order.

Brother Francisco C. Castro, head of the congregation´s Philippine region, reflects on his experiences of quiet witnessing among poor Filipinos as part of spirituality.

In our daily life, we do have plenty of situations where we could show our real calling. Thomas Chalmers describes it as follows, “Good deeds are shining like stars from heaven”!

So, do live for something. For your beloved fellow creatures in your private surroundings as well as at your workplace. And do it for yourself. Do it now!
Kindness, helpfulness, hospitality, obligingness, ready to do favors – and our moment of virtue  will not be destroyed by time’s storm. Love and mercifulness from the bottom of our heart is shared with people who will cross our path – and nobody will forget you.

I really wish you time for this. Time for special thoughts and doings. I wish you time, but not for haste, hurry and precipitation, but time for contentment and satisfaction. I wish you time to sort out yourself everyday and every hour, simply to find strength. I wish you, my dear reader, a continued blessed Advent season.

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Email: doringklaus@gmail.com or follow me on Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter or visit my www.germanexpatinthephilippines.blogspot.com or www.klausdoringsclassicalmusic.blogspot.com .

Being Compassionate

 

By Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo *

* Former Chairman of the Electronics Engineering Department of Mary Our Help Technical Institute, a Don Bosco Engineering School for Women in Minglanilla, Cebu.  Teaches subjects on engineering, business, values and Catholic doctrine.  Has Masters in Business Administration from University of San Carlos and Masters in Telecommunications Engineering from University of Melbourne.  

Compassion means empathizing and caring for the unfortunate situation of others.  When we have compassion, we put ourselves in the shoes of others in their misfortunes and feel what they feel.  Compassion is supposed to not only feel pity but also to try to remedy the sufferings of others.  

When we feel compassion for a friend who has lost a loved one, we try to tell him we feel his sorrow and that we are united with him in his suffering, perhaps with a word or two of condolence.  We could not fully remedy his pain and our condolences are all we could offer. But it would be a big help to alleviate his pain.  

St. Thomas Aquinas discussed the virtue of compassion in his Summa Theologiae by asking a question: “Whether pain and sorrow are alleviated by the compassion of friends?” The question may seem odd to the modern mind because the answer seems obvious.  But St. Thomas' reasoning however is enlightening.  He offers two reasons.  First, as mentioned it is to lessen the weight of the burden of others by telling them we are united with their sufferings.  His second reason however is more positive.  He argues that because the virtue of compassion is rooted in love, when a person who is suffering witnesses the love his friends have for him, he experiences a care that he has not experienced before.  In short, it’s not just compassion but also love.  The friends of the grieving person are therefore telling him, “We love you, that’s why we feel sorry for your misfortune.”

Being compassionate also means being generous with others or being helpful especially to those who are in need materially or spiritually.  The Catholic Church lists down two kinds of compassionate actions that we could render to others that are based on Scripture.  One is corporal or bodily in nature and the other spiritual.  These are the corporal works of mercy and the spiritual works of mercy.  The corporal works of mercy are:  to feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to give shelter to travelers or homeless, to visit the sick, to visit the imprisoned, and to bury the dead.  The spiritual works of mercy are:  to instruct the ignorant (especially with religious knowledge), to counsel the doubtful (especially giving spiritual advice), to admonish the sinners (correcting others with love or practicing tough love), to bear wrongs patiently (patience with the weaknesses of others), to forgive offenses, and to pray for the living and the dead.  

Compassion seems to be the modern world’s favorite virtue.  It is the slogan of those seeking social justice.  We often hear cries of compassion towards the poor and the marginalized, the downtrodden of society, the discriminated people such as those of different skin color other than white, the bias against women in the workplace, etc. These are good causes in themselves but sometimes there is a kind of compassion related to this that is misplaced.  We refer to the kind of compassion that is used to justify abortion and euthanasia.  With abortion some groups feel compassionate towards the distraught mother who perhaps could not afford to raise the child therefore the baby ought to be aborted.  With euthanasia on the other hand, it seems to offer a stronger argument because they are trying to relieve dying people of unnecessary pain when death is inevitable.  Dr. Peter Kreeft, would counter that the life of a person is more important than our feelings of compassion for the dying.  We are not the creators of life therefore we have no authority to take it away.  We can’t act like gods.  Only God is God.  As the Muslims would say in their Shahadah, there is no god but God.  Therefore, only God can decide when to take away a person’s life.   

The joy of Advent

By Fr. Roy Cimagala *

          THAT’S what the main theme of the 3rd Sunday of Advent

reminds us of. There is joy in this season of Advent even as we

prepare ourselves for the birth of Christ with practices of penance

that are proper to this season.

          The 3rd Sunday of Advent is also called the “Gaudete”

Sunday. The expression comes from the entrance antiphon of the Mass

that cites some words of St. Paul, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again

I say, rejoice! The Lord is near.” (Phil 4,4)

          It’s important that we don’t lose sight of our need for joy

even as we go through the exercise of penance which is what is called

for in this season of Advent. And that’s because, as St. Paul said,

the Lord is near. This piece of news should gladden our heart even as

we intensify our penitential acts to prepare ourselves properly to

receive him.

          This Good News, which with faith we can consider as already

done, should remind us of the bigger picture about ourselves. We come

from God and not just from our parents. We are meant to be with God in

our definitive state of life in eternity. Our life here on earth is

simply a training and testing ground to see if what God wants us to be

is also what we want to be.

          Joy is the ideal condition for us to be in while we are here

on earth. Yes, even when we encounter difficulties and all the

negative things in life, we can and should try to live in joy, but

understanding it as a joy in and with Christ. Especially in these

pandemic times, we should avoid feeling sad, empty, helpless, or

feeling overwhelmed.

          This was what Christ promised to give us if we are united to

him, like a branch to the vine. “If you keep my commands, you will

remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain

in his love,” he said. “I have told you this so that my joy may be in

you and that your joy may be complete.” (Jn 15,10-11)

          With these words, we are clearly told where our true and

complete joy will come from. It’s from Christ, from God, and not just

from some earthly and temporal source. It’s a joy that we can always

have in any season or weather, fair or foul. It’s a joy that

transcends whatever earthly and temporal condition we may be in.

Whether we are up or down, successful or defeated and lost, we can

still have that joy.

          We need to work out our true union with Christ to have this

kind of joy. To be sure, Christ is already with us. We should just be

with him. And it’s not difficult to be with Christ, because he is

already with us always. Being the pattern of our humanity, the savior

of our damaged humanity, he cannot be absent from us. It’s rather us

who can dare to ignore and resist him. We have to be wary of that

tendency and do something about it.

          For this, we really have to activate our faith that, if

lived well, can always give us hope, in spite of the tragedies that we

can encounter in life. Faith lived well also gives us the ability to

love everybody, whatever the conditions may be. A faith-based love

makes everything beautiful and lovable, even if by worldly standards

things are bad and ugly. This is what makes us live in joy despite

whatever!

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

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com