A very happy New Year to all our readers!
It is our first column for the New Year 2015. So first off, allow me to greet all our readers a very happy and hopefully a prosperous New Year. Yes we all have hope for a better nation in this coming year. I usually make my New Year's Wish List to greet the New Year but upon reading and re-reading my last five New Year's articles, it would seem that I would be sounding like a broken record because those New Year's wishes, especially wishes having a better government, haven't come true.
With the visit of Pope Francis this month in time for our Sinulog celebration all happening at the same time, allow me to present a New Year's spiritual wish for our readers. I have pointed out several times before that if we in Cebu are so blessed, it is due to the fact that our biggest fiesta celebration falls on the Feast of the Señor Sto. Niño. It brings to mind what our Lord Jesus Christ said which you can find in Matthew 6:19-34. So read this New Year's spiritual wish, which is scriptural.
"19 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. 22 The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light: 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be?
24 No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted in one and despite the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. 25 Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
26 Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? 27 Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life span? 28 Why are you anxious about clothes? Lean from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. 29 But I tell you that even Solomon in all his splendor was not clothed like one of them.
30 If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you. O you of little faith. 31 So do not worry and say, 'What are we to eat" or 'What are we to drink? Or 'What are we to wear? 32 All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you besides." 34 Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil." What a beautiful scriptural passage for mankind.
Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and all these things shall be given to you… is one of my favorite scriptural quotes from the Bible. It is in this quotation where I strongly believe that we Cebuanos are so blessed because right after Christmas after our Lord Jesus Christ was born, the first thing we Cebuanos do is celebrate the Feast of the Sto. Niño. For as long as we keep this Christian tradition going, God would always bless us in Cebu.
As for the coming visit of Pope Francis, I earnestly hope that when the Pope meets with Pres. Benigno Aquino III, Pope Francis too would question the President why he allowed the passage of the Reproductive Health Law in this very Catholic country. Was it for lack of spirituality on the part of the President? If the Pope asks Pres. PNoy this question, I'm sure he'd be groping for an answer!
This is what the Pope recently did to the Roman Curia, when he chastised them for their lack of spirituality and worldliness. And when Pope Francis meets the Catholic Bishop's Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) I also wish that he would also do to them what he did to the Roman Curia.
Pope Francis has been heralded as a pro-life champion having consistently spoken out on pro-life issues and condemning abortion since his installation as the head of the billion strong Catholic Church. Alas, the CBCP as an organization of Catholic Bishops in this country were not solid in our fight against the RH Bill. This is why the RH is now a law.
In his annual Christmas message, the pontiff remembered the plight of aborted babies as the world celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ. This was a very powerful message to send to all Catholics as a few days after Christmas was the Feast of the Holy Innocents. Today, innocent babies are literally murdered inside the wombs. Some babies cannot even cling to the mother's womb because of artificial means of birth control. If this has been legalized in this very Catholic country, the blame goes to Pres. PNoy Aquino who made it a political promise to pass the RH Bill into law.
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