SHOPPING OR LOVE AND CARE?

Plastic money (or better known as credit cards), loneliness, and advertising - that's a dangerous mixture, owing to more and more people falling straight into shopping ecstasy.

Yesterday was Thursday again, the sunbeam touched us too much outside, the heat maybe too much too.  We were on the way to a shopping mall. Yes, they are really tempting us with their offers. The credit cards of many people glowed - everyone is all right for the money.

We don't need decent clothes any more! Our shoes make us a laughing-stock. Top stylish or even the latest fashion for a few pesos, sure, we can afford it!

Women especially (really?) arrange to meet very often for substantial shopping sprees. It's just fun, but sometimes it becomes a competition: Who gets hold of the most stylish and best special offers? It's paradoxical; actually they are not able to afford it. In spite of their strained financial situation, many people do unnecessary free-living shopping. They feel happy, content, satisfied, and relaxed.

Is shopping a substitutive or vicarious satisfaction because of less love and care? Yes, for a short moment shopping satisfies and eases mostly unfulfilled longings for love, appreciation, receiving attention and affection.

The shopping ecstasy will be followed by a happiness-intoxication. The new dress becomes a four-leaf clover and a lucky break. But, we became addicted... .

Disastrous, unlucky and awkward in shopping is that the special offers are not really needed. That's the point: it's just a kick-down which can be felt while shopping for useless things. Clothes, shoes, jewelry, or cosmetics will be used just once or once in a while, they will be cleared or concealed and hidden from other people. Our conscience is pricking us. Depression follows, an empty inwardness causes pain - up to the next ecstasy!

It's a dangerous vicious circle, which can bring us to a financial precipice. For a long time experts have warned: "The limits between pleasure, desire, frustration, and ecstasy shopping are fluent and fluid." I remember the lady yesterday "trying" to pay an amazing amount with three credit cards - always getting the cashier's "Excuse Ma-am, there is a problem with your credit card!". The lady went away by saying the wonderful sentence: "Okay lang, actually I don't need all this stuff!". Wow... .

Let me anticipate this: I don't want to mess up anybody's  shopping mall stroll. Not everybody buys a lot and is at the same time shopping-addicted. Boisterous and superfluous "reward-shopping" can be absolutely normal. Only a permanent recurring irresistible shopping compulsion needs an immediate action.

By the way: Love and care are emotions inherent in human beings. They are crucial in every relationship.  Care refers to a feeling of concern or interest or the act of attending to someone or something. Love, on the other hand, bears broader meaning.

The pursuit for truth

By Fr. Roy Cimagala *

WE have to realize that the pursuit for truth is a very tricky one. To be sure, truth is not just a matter of citing facts and data. Though these are important and even indispensable, they are useless unless they are animated by the true spirit of truth.

We need to be familiar with the Spirit of Truth. He is the one who will show us the whole truth and not just some aspects of it. If we really want to be in the truth and not confused and lost in the many appearances of truth, we need to get in touch with the Spirit of Truth.

Christ himself said: “When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own. He will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” (Jn 16,13)

We have to take note that this business of getting to the whole truth involves a process. It’s not a one-shot deal. It involves some kind of journey. No one can ever say he has the whole truth until he reaches where the Spirit of truth would finally lead him, and that is when God becomes “all in all.” (cfr. 1 Cor 15,28)

We have to remember that everything that exists has something of the truth, since by merely existing, that something is already true. But as to whether it has the whole truth, it would depend whether it has the Spirit of truth or not.

The most important thing is to see if something that we consider to be true is in conformity with the Spirit of truth. Otherwise, we will be deceived and trapped by the many appearances of truth that do not bring us to the real thing which, in the end, can only be God.

Thus, we can say that even the devil, who is a liar and is the father of lies (cfr. Jn 8,44), has some truth in him. That he exists is already an indication that he is true and real. And everything that he says to tempt us certainly contains a lot of truth, otherwise we would not be tempted.

We really need to know what the truth is. That was the question Pilate asked Christ. (cfr Jn 18,38) But Christ already answered that question before it was asked. “Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice,” he said.

There we have a clear answer as to what the truth is. It’s when we hear the voice of Christ, this time in the Holy Spirit. It’s a voice that is full of charity, understanding and compassion on others, patience and mercy. It’s also a voice that knows how to be strong and implement the requirements of justice.

Truth therefore is not just cold facts that we observe, nor some objective data that we derive from our studies and researches. Much less is it simply a matter of political opinion or some ideological bias or things of that sort. While giving us some aspects of truth, these do not have the last word. And as such, they are incomplete and can easily be manipulated.

That is why right now with everyone trying to say the truth without God, we are practically sinking in an ocean of fake news, hoaxes, disinformation, urban legends, propaganda, inane trivias, superstitions, biased opinions that seek to absolutize the relative and relativize the absolute, etc. As a consequence, we generate a very toxic atmosphere where conflicts, anger and hatred dominate.

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

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com