A Prayer for Mother

Summary: More will be given to those who give

It’s War or Love

Do you still have it in you? I mean love! Let me share a poignant letter below from Einstein to his daughter.

“Give me 100 men who love God and fear nothing but sin and I will move the world.” — John Wesley

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love. I Corinthian 13:13

¡Hola! SiLENCiO

Faces Waving

LET US, our children and our children’s children continue their legacy

By July 4, 2026, the USA would be 250 yrs old. It has the most recognizable flag in the world, its sacred treasure. Sad to say, it is the only national flag I have seen to be shredded and burned by its own. To say that it is just a piece of cloth so it can be burned and trashed is dishonest, childish, and disrespectful. It deserves to be protected from vandalism; to be spared from being used as a punching bag, a personal weapon or megaphone. As our symbol of freedom , it is to be displayed to represent such ideals and hope, so that when you look at it, you could almost see the faces of those who fought for it waving to you. What a beautiful reminder and a simple way to unify us despite our differences! So it is not ours to replace, to do as we please with it. Crafted by those who fought for it, it belongs to all who continue that fight even today.

Unworthy……………

The Lord’s Supper is both a historical and symbolic gesture of Christ. Pinhead by micro-sculptor Willard Wigan 2007

Feeling like an outcast, invisible, useless even in your own home?

No matter what the reason, it hurts. Once, there was a woman who came to Jesus when she was in the pit of pain. Feeling worthless, she said, “Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

Little did she know that in God’s table, there’s abundance of real food for deep healing, even crumbs turn into gold. Our faith shows what we depend on especially in dire time. Don’ waste it on what’s unreliable.

Note: The conversation above is found in Matthew 15:21-28.

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Small step: You may not realize you have faith. Just come to the table that serves real food. s

Why dip into a well when you can dip in the living water that is eternal?

Fixing Happiness?

Do you have a gnawing need to find validation? Do you go to great lengths to alter the parts of your body that you do not like to ward off any insecurity or sense of dissonance? Do you work hard on the parts you want people to notice, while unknowingly sacrificing your real assets? Do you constantly notice in others what you think you lack, then make comparison? Do you quickly become depressed because you cannot get the attention or acceptance you seek? Does a single negative comment change your mood and bring you down easily, disrupting your work and relationships? Do you then cry even for no apparent reason? Have you been binge-eating or self-cutting, drugging yourself, contemplating ending your life, and still nothing you do can erase your loneliness or dis-ease? Happiness seems so elusive.

If you answer yes to a few of the above, you could be obsessing. But obsession is marked by rushing, restlessness, repetitive intrusive thoughts and irrational, risky behavior. That shows the locus of control may no longer be within you. That which we obsess we serve. We’re enslaved. Freedom seems elusive.

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A day I am true to myself

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The Justice We Seek

It’s an extraordinary time when we can no longer distinguish adults from children, government from parents, men from women. This confusion spills into the culture too: is it art or witchcraft, dance or porn, free speech or hate speech, news or opinion. Instead of outcry, instead of demanding hard evidence, allowing freedom to discuss, agree or dissent, there is approval of violence, suppression of conscience, tampering with the law, and the threatening of lives. It’s being done for justice. In short, as long as it is for justice, for the greater good, then any means is justified. As a result, we need to examine both the means and the end!

How did our pursuit of justice become like this? Could it be because we have also changed our approach, understanding and attitude towards the law? The law is no longer anchored on the truth but context and outcome become the basis. This is a clear departure from the Judeo-Christian foundation of the law. If the moral compass is broken, if it is justice without God in it, then what is it and who is in it? A select few?

From the dawn of civilization, laws have been drawn to preserve order and protect individual lives. These laws may need occasional revisions to strengthen them. But all laws talk about rights and seek accountability for justice. Justice seeks whether I have my rights and others’ too. It pursues whether I have given my due too. Justice demands accountability where I am not judged for what I have not received, but for what I do with what I have, no matter how small it is.

Unique to Christian law is almost all countries that adopt it prosper. “Have I done my responsibility of loving my neighbor as myself?” is the core of the second half of the Ten Commandments. A humane society is a just society. It is built on looking out for one another. In case you haven’t noticed, the commandments address the individual’s duties. And thus God’s justice starts with the individual. not the group. It assumes that each person is responsible for knowing the law, self-examining, and prioritizing the other over oneself. It is humane to aspire to contribute to the whole, using whatever one has. Stealing, murder, slander, disobedience to parents, lying, and covetousness all betray this and the perpetrator is held accountable, if not immediately, later.

Someone once described a scene in hell in contrast to heaven. In hell, each one keeps others at arm’s length with long forks, making it hard to feed even oneself. It’s hellish. In heaven, everyone feeds one another. The short or long fork does not matter.

A good lawgiver will also give just punishment to stem lawlessness. Participation, association, and consent are clearly stipulated so degrees of guilt and punishment are measured accordingly. What happens when solutions are subjective, inappropriate, or inadequate? It is like using a straw boat when compared to the heavy-duty ark built by God awarded to those who believe in God’s justice. It is unjust to design policies that endanger the law-abiding citizens but reward the vile, the fool and the ungodly.

The justice we seek is the justice we’ll get, if not immediately, then later. I know that justice delayed is justice denied. But that a fair judge would be patient, not rushed. The flood did not happen until after a century of warning was issued through Noah. God’s seeming delayed judgment was not due to softness or neglect but to give each person ample time to repent. Don’t we all want mercy? Probably what we want is mercy, not justice. And God is capable of giving both.

Quick check: Is there an aspect of God’s justice you would like to have more of in our society?

Fr. Goodbye to See you later!

What to think of death? Medically, death is the termination of all functions of life up to the cellular level. However, its salient impact and relevance would be the cultural ones. “Death” is found in all languages. In particular, is “Wang” which means death in Chinese. It connotes destruction, departure or elimination. Surely, this cutthroat designation conveys a gut-wrenching event. “Extinction” best captures its finality and horror as archeologists refer to the dinosaurs’ demise. Maybe that is why death is often used as a weapon against one’s enemy, or as a way to deal with emptiness, to self-punish for guilt or a dare to pain in defiance through suicide.

How have we so misunderstood and misused death! We use it to solve our problems when it is the problem we need to solve. Many have tried. There’s the quest for a fountain of youth, others try philosophy. It is explained as a release from this evil world achieved thru endless cycles. But this is like going under the knife multiple times till one pays it all and gets it right. Isn’t that endless pain, not endless life?

Some soften it by regarding it as “passing from this world.” But if it is mere passing, do we reappear somewhere? If it is cessation of cellular functions, I better eat healthy. If it is extinction, I’ll worry less about doing the right thing and just enjoy myself. If in death there is no longer any consciousness, then I’ll use it to end my troubles. But if there is a continuation, then where is it and how much time do I have to prepare? “Becoming one of the stars” lifts the heart in bereavement. Holding someone’s memory forever in one’s heart warms the cold reality. But what kind of existence is that? These euphemisms attempt to make sense of life, to help us overcome the pain. These do not assuredly tell us what lies ahead, but somehow they provide a relief from the grief of losing a loved one, and the agony of the unknown, of not seeing them again.

The end is the end. What more is there to talk about? Right? But I beg to differ. Death is part of one’s life, though it comes at the end. Not giving it importance is like watching a movie that is suddenly cut, it’s meaningless. The fact is though the future is unknown, death is not. A good ending comes from knowing it’s coming and developing it. Write it into your life, but how?

O death, where is thy sting. Death is the last enemy. By His stripes we are healed.

Jesus predicted, planned, preached and prepared for His death and resurrection. He changed everything about death and how we too can prepare to enter the land of the living, not the dead.

Instead of theorizing or romanticizing death, be down to earth, grounded in evidence. This is where the Easter story is pivotal to our understanding of death. To date, the resurrection of Christ is one of the best attested historical evens by scholars, both Christian and non-Christian. What awaits after death is no longer a mystery, but a tangible hope echoed in “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even if he dies.” Thus, the resurrection has changed billions of lives from one of despair to hope, from meaningless to purposeful, from goodbye to see you later. Easter is when death becomes a continuation of our existence, not the end. Like a door one enters another room. the story does not end with death. Jesus uniquely used the metaphor of sleep. Lazarus was dead for four days, but Jesus said He would wake him up from sleep. Lazarus came back to life. Finality becomes temporary. Death becomes temporary to all who believe.

In an age where certainty is frowned upon, absolute truth is replaced by relativity, and faith is regarded as unscientific, there is still no answer, and therefore no end to pain. Death is a fact, it hurts, it disrupts, and facts do not care about feelings, status, gender or age. But then there’s the fact of the resurrection. Then what?

Quick check:  Who does not think of death? A Christian Uber driver surprised me by saying death is a time of awarding. November 2, 2023, is All Souls' Day. What are your thoughts after reading this? How does your idea of death 
hold up? What makes you certain of it?

Small step: Rest in peace" is comforting only if you
have found peace already.
Have you made the peace? Eternal peace?

* Reference: Gary Habermas, Did Jesus Rise From the Dead?; Anthony Flew, “There is A God”; and https://www.bethinking.org/jesus/ancient-evidence-for-jesus-from-non-Christian Sources.