Before moving back to Connecticut last year, I worked for less than a year in Manhattan. Working in an L-shaped cubicle on the 5^th floor of one of the foremost buildings in front of the New York Stock Exchange; I was constantly in awe of walking through Wall Street and being one with the hustle and bustle that is NYC.  But it is not cut out as fun or exciting as movies or sitcoms would show. Life in the Big Apple was a constant race, of getting somewhere and leaving nowhere. Commuting proved to be a tremendous task for someone like me who is used to getting from point a to point b in the comfort of my own car. I suddenly found myself memorizing subway lines and walking the treacherous stretch of path commuters as drones paraded to during rush hours. I became one with the flux and the robot-like crowd was part of me as well.

Work was challenging enough in an environment of pail-pushers in a seemingly mediocre working atmosphere. Early on, I have felt that in order to go higher up my rank, I inevitably would have to step on some toes along the way.  I was not okay nor at any rate comfortable in doing so. To prevent myself from growing and excelling would also mean stagnantly rotting in the sparseness of my position. These were one of the few thoughts that would envelop my mind day in and day out as I join the lemming procession of commuters exiting the subway station hoping for a respite in the embrace of old New York charm. Yet, these thoughts were nothing compared to what I can only surmise as dark abyss of discernment that I see from the faces of each and every fellow commuter I see on the subway. Each distant glare was a brooding story. Each habitual flip of the morning metro rehashes a deeper crease on the reader’s forehead.  The petulant rush to exit the subway doors is coupled with a sigh of profuse exasperation.  The rest are ghost-like in their attempts to be in their own made-up shield protracted by their headphones. The humming of the train and the rattling of metal against rails juxtaposed the bleak soundtrack to a working New Yorker’s claim to space- silently screaming “I am here, I can sense you right there, leave me alone.”  Once in a few days, even during the morning rush, the end seat on the subway would always be taken by a sleeping homeless person, reeking in his own waste.  And each time I encounter that sight, my heart aches in pain as to how this person has come to this and to my horror, how can anyone else not be as affected as I am. I fight the urge to go near the homeless person. I argue with myself on actually inviting danger if I do approach the vagrant man. What can I say to him that can leave him better or me worst? Or was I struggling with myself not because of what I can do for his plight but more to alleviate my guilt for being in a better position than he was? I sometimes encounter old women in the subway stations as well. And I would also fight the urge to engage them in human contact. What was I so afraid of? Did I think that I was better as a person hence the air I breathe shouldn’t even mix with theirs? Did I perhaps feel the fear of contracting whatever they have? I would sometimes stop in catatonic shock within my thoughts only to be rudely bumped by the speedwalking commuter behind me who would verbally express in creative profanity how my sudden stop in tracks is causing everyone’s delay.

As I write this now, my heart aches even more. I spent time thinking about the homeless and helpless people in the streets and on the subways of New York but I never really did anything for them. I once volunteered to help serve in soup kitchen, but I was told that there was a waitlist of volunteers already. I was not comfortable leaving a dollar or two, as I could still make out the strong smell of alcohol in the pungent mixture usually around them.  Yet, I would later on feel guilty again for inadvertently mentally dictating what they should do with whatever money I can give them.  Seeing the homeless and the downtrodden and the weary commuter gave me a deeper introspection on what, how and where I would want my life to be. I wanted my time in New York to be a temporary phase to greatness but for each day I spent drowning in my work, it felt more like quicksand; I was slowly losing grip and I might eventually get stuck forever.  I wonder if the homeless people feel the same way, that they are just down on their luck and it was a temporary thing. I wonder if the middle-aged gentleman trying to doze off on the subway felt the next big break was just around the corner and he just needed to work to pay the bills. I wonder if the tourists snapping photos actually realize the façade that is the city in the unending pursuit of dreams.

I did what I thought best then. With less money but with the peace and serenity that the suburb brings, I quit the L-shaped cubicle. I was offered another position in another department with more benefits but I found myself politely declining saying “it’s not about the money.” In the end, I knew that the subway faces I cannot help but look at in morbid fascination are loudspeakers to the endless sob stories I hear in my head. And each glance, each presence I feel right next to me affects me in a way I cannot explain.  My recent foray into academic philosophy exacerbated these struggles within me. Truth is, I wanted to relegate my New York experience to distant memory. Do not get me wrong, I love New York for the diversity and the arts it showcases and the warm fuzzy feeling it gives to tourists.  Perhaps, it is being part of New York in the heart of its gears and pinions that one would really experience the profound emotional attachment.  I could not help but question with an even more quizzical tenacity how certain lives are intertwined in the big city.  I could not help but question how my faith in me and my belief and value system can keep me afloat in my most wretched and weak moments. I could not help but wonder how the others do it, how they can survive, what are their constitutions? What are they made of? Am I alone in what I feel? Or am I not strong enough to ignore them?

What I have seen and experienced are marked indelibly in my brain and what I have studied are hardwired in my synapses in a way that I will always be prejudiced in succumbing to my ethics.  Perhaps, being in the subway again, I may feel misplaced and tormented with the internal melee going on in my own thoughts and would simply find solace in the hypnotic metal grinding and whirring of the train.

Published in the Archdiocese of Manila Homiletic Guide

Introduction

Experience tells us that the environment becomes noisier and nosier as time ticks to 12 midnight and a few hours after. The loud karaoke singing, never mind if it is out of tune, competes with the sound of the firecrackers. The festive air also becomes polluted more and more as people take delight in their noche Buena, watching their favorite TV stations. Many people believe that when we fire whistle bombs and all sort of firecrackers, we drive away the evil spirits of the old year. Their loud noise scares them away. At dawn, smoke thins out and we hear a few sporadic firecrackers here and there. People are dead in their sleep, tired as if they had just gone to war.

Body

People, Christians and non-Christians, all over the world give importance to this day January 1 because it is the first day of the calendar year. We remove the old calendars and we put the new ones. It is also considered the fiscal year or financial year. That’s why, toward the end of the old year, the people in the business world are frantic in finishing their accounting and other unfinished agenda. The fireworks seem to accompany their jubilation for beating the deadlines.

For us, Christians especially those who are in communion with the Catholic Church under the Pope, New Year is more than lighting fireworks and beating deadlines. We celebrate today the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. Today we give honor to Mary, a young Jewish virgin, who said Yes to the angel at the Annunciation. Her Fiat made her bear Jesus Christ our Savior in her womb and give birth to him into this noisy world and to mother him until death. Her motherhood is divine because we believe that her Son Jesus is God. He is both human and divine. We draw our faith from the apostolic traditions crystallized in the New Testament and in the church pronouncements later on. Other religions cannot swallow this. They do not believe that Jesus is God.

Mary’s motherhood should teach us something. Motherhood is something beautiful. To be fertile is a gift of God. Married women who did not bear children were believed to be cursed. There was so much joy when the old and sterile Sarah miraculously gave birth to Isaac, the son of promise. There was joy in the whole neighborhood when the old and barren Elizabeth gave birth to John the Baptist. God healed their barrenness. Inability to bear children is sickness; fertility is a sign of good health.

Like Mary, all young girls must be prepared for motherhood. There is always a big possibility that they will become mothers when they get married. Some women forgo this great privilege when they enter the convent or become consecrated, living the vow of chastity. No matter what their vocation will be, young women should take care of their beautiful bodies including their reproductive organs. The whole person, body and soul, is sacred. Human nature has ordained that women, not men, bear children.

Mary’ motherhood also teaches responsible parenthood. This has nothing to do with limiting the number of children, but the responsibility to accompany children in their growth. Mary did not leave child’s development to chance. Mary, along with Joseph, reared her Son, as a normal Jewish boy, brought him to Jerusalem to enjoy religious festivities and to the local synagogue in Nazareth for his spiritual formation. When Jesus grew up, he preached peace and love for life.

Mary’s motherhood teaches that peace starts in the womb and continues to progress when we respect nature and God’s laws. No wonder today is also the World Day of Peace. We cannot promote peace in the world if already in the womb there is already threat to life or if the mother has been conditioned by the vendors of contraceptive mentality that child-bearing is evil, old-fashioned and the cause of poverty.

Conclusion

There is no peace, joy and prosperity in the world if the sanctity of motherhood is under threat by misconceptions, deceptions and infirm laws. We cannot also bring about the desired social and economic order in the world by exploding firecrackers for a few hours. In fact, this leaves many to suffer from physical injuries, gunshots, respiratory ailments, and homelessness because houses or villages get burned during the unbridled revelry.

In this New Year, the whole humanity must overcome fear of its own kind and must stop following the prescriptions of the anti-life multinational corporations, but must act (if I may use the term) like a healthy reproductive organ that gives birth to peace and more beautiful people.

To borrow the words of St. Francis of Assisi, “Brothers, let us begin again for until now we have done very little.”

Question:

1. Do you love your bodies?
2. Do you love your mothers?
3. Do you know what your faith demands of you in terms of bringing about peace in your families and in the world?
4. For the girls, if you don’t enter the convent, are you willing to become good, healthy and responsible mothers?

MEDIA RELEASE
For immediate release
Task Force for Family and Life Visayas, Inc. (TFFL)

Marian Groups release statement opposing RH Bill

A national convention of leaders from Marian groups throughout the Philippines recently released a strongly-worded omnibus resolution opposing the RH bill. The statement was signed by over 1,400 leaders and members of the various Perpetual Dawn Rosary and Cenacle organizations that met in Carcar, Cebu, on February 12-13.

The Task Force for Family and Life Visayas, Inc. (TFFL) in turn forwarded copies of the resolution to President Aquino, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, CBCP President Nereo Odchimar, and newly-installed Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma. The TFFL called on all parties to heed the heartfelt sentiments of ordinary Filipino citizens expressed in the resolution.

The Marian convention’s statement noted that the RH bill “has caused a deep division among our people,” and that the proposed measure now pending in Congress “in its entirety is about contraception.” It warned that its passing would bring about the propagation of a culture of death, promiscuity, and breakdown of families.

The attendees at the convention concluded that they fully agree and support all the points taken up by the Bishops in their recent Pastoral Letter entitled “Choosing Life, Rejecting the RH Bill,” including the rejection of the RH bill.

To back up their call, the signatories vowed to support the actions recommended by the CBCP, including civil disobedience should the RH bill be passed, and possible excommunication of legislators and national leaders who endorsed the RH bill.

In addition, the resolution also called for an Oratio Imperata against the RH bill to be read in all churches during every Sunday Mass all over the country, and a Church-led educational initiative on Natural Family Planning (NFP) and issues concerning the protection and nurturing of human life and the family.

The convention gathered together leaders and members of the Marian movement from all over the country, under the theme, “Marian Pro-Life Witnesses of Hope, Reconciliation and Peace in Our Times.”

About Task Force for Family and Life Visayas, Inc. (TFFL)

The Task Force for Family and Life Visayas, Inc. (TFFL) is an association of men and women who are committed to the protection of family and life, as mandated by the Constitution and specific legislations and by the teachings of the Holy Scriptures. It is a juridical entity duly registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

###

Media contact
DOUGLAS GACASAN
President
Task Force for Family and Life Visayas, Inc. (TFFL)

This post also appeared on my blog: http://mamador.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/marian-groups-release-statement-opposing-rh-bill/

This is false and obsolete thinking.

Numerous economic studies have shown that there is no causal link or correlation between poverty and population growth. In the paper “A Primer on the proposed Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood, and Population Development Consolidated Bill,” Dr. Roberto de Vera cites Nobel Prize winner Simon Kuznets’ 1966 book, Modern Economic Growth: Rate, Structure and Spread, which concluded: “no clear association appears to exist in the present sample of countries, or is likely to exist in other developed countries, between rates of growth of population and of product per capita.”

More recent studies have supported Kuznets’ original conclusion and applied it to all nations in general. De Vera cites five more:

“(1) the 1992 Ross Levine and David Renelt study of the relationship between growth and its determinants found no significant effect of population growth on economic growth;

(2) the 1994 Jeff King and Lant Pritchett study arrived at a similar finding where they allowed the effect of population on economic growth to vary according to the level of development and resource scarcity;

(3) in a 1996 review of the population-growth-poverty relationship, Dennis Ahlburg points out that studies have shown population growth has little or no effect on poverty;

(4) in a 2004 study examining the determinants of long-term growth, Gernot Dopelhoffer, Ronald Miller, and Xavier Sala-I-Martin, found that average annual population growth from 1960-1990 was not robustly correlated with economic growth;

(5) the 2007 Eric Hanushek and Ludger Wommann study found that total fertility rates, which can be seen as an alternative measure of population growth, did not have a statistically significant association with population growth.”

Dr. De Vera goes on to say:

Similar conclusions have been arrived at by the US National Research Council in 1986 and in the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) Consultative Meeting of Economists in 1992.

Moreover, these studies support Kuznets’s explanation of why no direct relationship could be expected between population growth and economic growth. Population growth and economic growth are linked through a “common set of political and social institutions.” Thus, any “direct causal relation” between them “may be quite limited.” Moreover, any relationship that is measured cannot be used as a basis for managing population to affect economic growth.

It is important to note that even if there are recent econometric studies that show that population growth is negatively correlated with per capita income growth in the Philippine case (i.e. an increase in the population growth rate leads to decrease in the per capita income growth rate), these studies cannot conclude that higher population growth rates causes lower per capita income growth rates. It is more probable that there are intervening factors such as those mentioned by Kuznets that may cause economic growth. This these studies cannot serve as bases for a policy that aims to reduce population growth to raise per capita income growth.

For the Sun Star to say that population growth causes poverty is unscientific. Overpopulation is clearly a myth.

The real causes of poverty in the Philippines are massive corruption, bad governance, economic mismanagement, indiscriminate debt servicing, greed, and war (in Mindanao). The so-called “reproductive health” bill and its population control measures will not address these issues; but the Church’s social teaching — if put into practice — certainly will.

(NOTE: This post also appeared in my blog at http://mamador.wordpress.com/2010/07/15/obsolete-thinking-again/)

Although the approval may be given today it wouldn’t be put into practice until next year perhaps.  A while but certainly worth looking forward to.  The Holy Father gave the following address to the members of Vox Clara.  Vox Clara is an international group of bishops that advises the Vatican about the translation.

The new translation can be found here.

Aleluia!

Dear Cardinals,

Dear Brother Bishops and Priests,

Members and Consultors of the Vox Clara Committee,

I thank you for the work that Vox Clara has done over the last eight years, assisting and advising the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in fulfilling its responsibilities with regard to the English translations of liturgical texts. This has been a truly collegial enterprise. Not only are all five continents represented in the membership of the Committee, but you have been assiduous in drawing together contributions from Bishops’ Conferences in English-speaking territories all over the world. I thank you for the great labour you have expended in your study of the translations and in processing the results of the many consultations that have been conducted. I thank the expert assistants for offering the fruits of their scholarship in order to render a service to the universal Church. And I thank the Superiors and Officials of the Congregation for their daily, painstaking work of overseeing the preparation and translation of texts that proclaim the truth of our redemption in Christ, the Incarnate Word of God.

Saint Augustine spoke beautifully of the relation between John the Baptist, the vox clara that resounded on the banks of the Jordan, and the Word that he spoke. A voice, he said, serves to share with the listener the message that is already in the speaker’s heart. Once the word has been spoken, it is present in the hearts of both, and so the voice, its task having been completed, can fade away (cf. Sermon 293). I welcome the news that the English translation of the Roman Missal will soon be ready for publication, so that the texts you have worked so hard to prepare may be proclaimed in the liturgy that is celebrated across the anglophone world. Through these sacred texts and the actions that accompany them, Christ will be made present and active in the midst of his people. The voice that helped bring these words to birth will have completed its task.

A new task will then present itself, one which falls outside the direct competence of Vox Clara, but which in one way or another will involve all of you – the task of preparing for the reception of the new translation by clergy and lay faithful. Many will find it hard to adjust to unfamiliar texts after nearly forty years of continuous use of the previous translation. The change will need to be introduced with due sensitivity, and the opportunity for catechesis that it presents will need to be firmly grasped. I pray that in this way any risk of confusion or bewilderment will be averted, and the change will serve instead as a springboard for a renewal and a deepening of Eucharistic devotion all over the English-speaking world.

Dear Brother Bishops, Reverend Fathers, Friends, I want you to know how much I appreciate the great collaborative endeavour to which you have contributed. Soon the fruits of your labours will be made available to English-speaking congregations everywhere. As the prayers of God’s people rise before him like incense (cf. Psalm 140:2), may the Lord’s blessing come down upon all who have contributed their time and expertise to crafting the texts in which those prayers are expressed. Thank you, and may you be abundantly rewarded for your generous service to God’s people.

[00593-01.01]
[B0256-XX.01]

The article in the Philippine Daily Inquirer (March 5, 2010) on A2, second front page titled Noynoy Eases Up on RH Bill seems to show he misunderstands the Church’s position. He says: “If they have unwanted children that they cannot take care of, I think I will err in favor of the child that will not be attended to rather than the criticism I will get from the more conservative elements of my Church.” A direct question to Noynoy is: “Is that real love or concern for a child when you eliminate his chance to live just because you think his parents will not be able to take good care of him or her?”

It only goes to show the superficial perception he has of the point in question. The fact that you will find it hard to attend to or rear the life that you give birth to as the normal fruit of sexual love does not mean you have the right to terminate life or block the normal course of a life that will be conceived through sexual union. Whether actual or potential life, it is not moral to terminate life. If this mindset is allowed to escalate, life will tend towards extinction. Continue reading here.

The Nation Must Repent

In Luke’s travel narrative, today’s Gospel on the Lord’s reminders on the need for all to repent (Luke 13:1-9), is part of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51-19:27) in which he prepared his disciples for their role after his passion and death, at the same time continuing to teach his listeners about the in-break of the Kingdom of God to which all must respond. In the present pericope, Jesus’ teaching was occasioned by the calling of his attention to two incidents. The first refers to Pontius Pilate’s slaughter of Galileans whose blood he mingled with the sacrifice. This incident is not attested in other gospels nor in extra-biblical literature, although that Pilate could have done this is not out of his character. It is probable that these Galileans were pilgrims in Jerusalem . They were likely in the forecourt of the priests in the Temple , slaughtering their Passover lambs, when the soldiers of Pilate came to liquidate them. In contrast with this deliberate murder of Galileans was another incident, purely accidental, involving eighteen persons who were killed when the water reservoir of Siloam fell. Luke is probably referring to a tower that formed part of the old wall of ancient Jerusalem .

Continue reading here.

I was reminded of this bougainvillea-in-summer image as I reviewed all this issue about the new Secretary of Health distributing condoms to the public last Valentine´s Day and, as latest news would have it, up to when she ends her term.

Her act offers a precious opportunity—to clarify things. Like the bougainvillea, this task of clarifying may have thorns, but it also has those beautiful flowers.

Frankly, I was amused by all the antics surrounding the controversy. No, I was not irritated or disturbed. Just that, amused.

As a doctor, she is free to prescribe anything she thinks is good for the patient. Of course, that is not infallible. Many doctors have given wrong prescriptions after making wrong diagnoses too. Besides, I still have to convince myself that human fertility is a disease to be cured by some drug or gadget.  Continue  reading here.

From: Fr. Chito’s Kalakbay at Katoto Blog.

LANGIT ANG TUNAY NATING BAYAN

Isa sa mga palatandaan ng postmodernismo ay ang palaisipang ang mahalaga ay ang nakikita, ang nahihipo, ang nabibilang, at nasusukat. Ang katotohanan ay hindi tiyak, hindi maipapako sa iisang paka-unawa, at bagay na napapalitan, nababago, at nahuhubog. Ang objetivong katotohanan, ayon sa palaisipang ito, ay hindi makakamtan ninuman.

Isa ito sa pinakamahalagang dahilan kung bakit ang karamihan ng tao ay puno ng pagdududa, at ang pagtitiwala ay tila naglaho nang parang bula. Wala tayong tiwala sa mga namumuno. Wala tayong tiwala sa mga naghahatid ng balita. Ang lahat ng institusyon ay pinagsususpetsahan ng balana. At ang nagsisikap mamuno ay nananalo lamang kung pina-aandar ang pera o dili kaya ay malawakang pandaraya.

Bunga ng lahat ng ito ang paniniwalang ang buhay ay nakatuon lamang dito sa lupang ibabaw. Kung ang mahalaga ay dito at ngayon, ang impiyerno, ang purgatoryo, at ang langit ay hindi na masyadong pinag-uusapan.

Tutumbukin ko na agad ang gusto kong sabihin … May langit, kaibigan. May purgatoryo at may impiyerno. Ito ang turo ng Simbahan magmula pa noong una, sapagka’t ito ang nilalaman ng Banal na Kasulatan.