Isa sa mga nag-retiro sa Bataan si Ate Lucy. Dati siyang guro ng Biology sa isang paaralan, Lakandula yata ang pangalan. Nang suwertehin, nakapagtrabaho siya sa ibang bansa. Apat na taon siya sa Nigeria. Bumalik siya ng Pinas para asikasuhin naman ang papeles niya papuntang Amerika. Nang handa na ang lahat patungo ng Tate, inallergy siya sa isang gamot na ininum niya. Yun ang naging sanhi ng pagkawala ng kanyang paningin. Mahigit isang dekada na rin daw ng mangyari iyon. Pero ngayon nasa Ephpheta siya tumutulong sa ibang mga bulag para ipamalas na may liwanag pa rin. Tama nga at Lucy ang kanyang ngalan.
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Ate Lucy
Isa sa mga nag-retiro sa Bataan si Ate Lucy. Dati siyang guro ng Biology sa isang paaralan, Lakandula yata ang pangalan. Nang suwertehin, nakapagtrabaho siya sa ibang bansa. Apat na taon siya sa Nigeria. Bumalik siya ng Pinas para asikasuhin naman ang papeles niya papuntang Amerika. Nang handa na ang lahat patungo ng Tate, inallergy siya sa isang gamot na ininum niya. Yun ang naging sanhi ng pagkawala ng kanyang paningin. Mahigit isang dekada na rin daw ng mangyari iyon. Pero ngayon nasa Ephpheta siya tumutulong sa ibang mga bulag para ipamalas na may liwanag pa rin. Tama nga at Lucy ang kanyang ngalan.
Friday, March 24, 2006
ephpheta
Last Wednesday, Chrys and I headed to Bataan for the annual retreat of the staff and officers of the Ephpheta Foundation. It was my second time to be invited by Fr. Jess to facilitate their retreat. Last year I went there with Bong and Koko. 
The retreat house is nestled on a hilly portion of Hermosa -- the first town of Bataan when one is coming from Lubao. It has a vista of ranges and ranches. At the same time, one can see the expansion of residential areas surrounding the locale.
Nuns, I forgot from what congregation, used to reside in the house. I think it was primarily intended for the congregation's hospice. But, they left the place and gave it to the Ephpheta Foundation. It now serves as the Foundation's seminar place and a retreat house for students within the locale.
The place is small but it is beautiful and lovely. I would not deny that life there is a little bit spartan -- compared with other retreat houses. But for a home that could cater to simple, basic needs -- it suffices. It is more than enough.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
SEDL: Of Love, Of Judgment
Grace: My Lord Jesus, I beg for the grace to really enter into the mystery with which this season of Lent brings. May I be able to face the depth and the breadth of the love you have for me -- amidst my brokeness, woundedness.
Jesus said to Nicodemus: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God (Jn. 3:14-21).
Points:
1. Pray over Chapters 8 to 10 of St. Anselm's Proslogion. The text is on the next box. You need not read all three chapters. Just peruse through the material. Then, try to relish and savor the words or thoughts or feelings that surface.
2. Should you find yourself desiring to do magis, read all three chapters. What are your reactions to his reflections? Can you resonate with it? How do you find it?
Jesus said to Nicodemus: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God (Jn. 3:14-21).
Points:
1. Pray over Chapters 8 to 10 of St. Anselm's Proslogion. The text is on the next box. You need not read all three chapters. Just peruse through the material. Then, try to relish and savor the words or thoughts or feelings that surface.
2. Should you find yourself desiring to do magis, read all three chapters. What are your reactions to his reflections? Can you resonate with it? How do you find it?
Anselm's Proslogion (VIII to X)
CHAPTER VIII.
How he is compassionate and passionless. God is compassionate, in terms of our experience, because we experience the effect of compassion. God is not compassionate, in terms of his own being, because he does not experience the feeling (affectus) of compassion.
BUT how are you compassionate, and, at the same time, passionless? For, if you are passionless, you do not feel sympathy; and if you do not feel sympathy, your heart is not wretched from sympathy for the wretched ; but this it is to be compassionate. But if you are not compassionate, whence comes so great consolation to the wretched? How, then, are you compassionate and not compassionate, O Lord, unless because you are compassionate in terms of our experience, and not compassionate in terms of your being.
Truly, you are so in terms of our experience, but you are not so in terms of your own. For, when you behold us in our wretchedness, we experience the effect of compassion, but you do not experience the feeling. Therefore, you are both compassionate, because you do save the wretched, and spare those who sin against you; and not compassionate because you are affected by no sympathy for wretchedness.
CHAPTER IX.
How the all-just and supremely just God spares the wicked, and justly pities the wicked. He is better who is good to the righteous and the wicked than he who is good to the righteous alone. Although God is supremely just, the source of his compassion is hidden. God is supremely compassionate, because he is supremely just. He saves the just, because justice goes with them; he frees sinners by the authority of justice. God spares the wicked out of justice; for it is just that God, than whom none is better or more powerful, should be good even to the wicked, and should make the wicked good. If God ought not to pity, he pities unjustly. But this it is impious to suppose. Therefore, God justly pities.
BUT how do you spare the wicked, if you are all just and supremely just? For how, being all just and supremely just, do you anything that is not just? Or, what justice is that to give him who merits eternal death everlasting life? How, then, gracious Lord, good to the righteous and the wicked, can you save the wicked, if this is not just, and you do not anything that is not just? Or, since your goodness is incomprehensible, is this hidden in the unapproachable light wherein you dwell? Truly, in the deepest and most secret parts of your goodness is hidden the fountain whence the stream of your compassion flows.
For you are all just and supremely just, yet you are kind even to the wicked, even because you are all supremely good. For you would be less good if you were not kind to any wicked being. For, he who is good, both to the righteous and the wicked, is better than he who is good to the wicked alone; and he who is good to the wicked, both by punishing and sparing them, is better than he who is good by punishing them alone. Therefore, you are compassionate, because you are all supremely good. And, although it appears why you do reward the good with goods and the evil with evils; yet this, at least, is most wonderful, why you, the all and supremely just, who lacks nothing, bestows goods on the wicked and on those who are guilty toward you.
The depth of your goodness, O God! The source of your compassion appears, and yet is not clearly seen! We see whence the river flows, but the spring whence it arises is not seen. For, it is from the abundance of your goodness that you are good to those who sin against you; and in the depth of your goodness is hidden the reason for this kindness.
For, although you do reward the good with goods and the evil with evils, out of goodness, yet this the concept of justice seems to demand. But, when you do bestow goods on the evil, and it is known that the supremely Good has willed to do this, we wonder why the supremely just has been able to will this.
O compassion, from what abundant sweetness and what sweet abundance do you well forth to us! O boundless goodness of God how passionately should sinners love you! For you save the just, because justice goes with them; but sinners you do free by the authority of justice. Those by the help of their deserts; these, although their deserts oppose. Those by acknowledging the goods you has granted; these by pardoning the evils you hate. O boundless goodness, which do so exceed all understanding, let that compassion come upon me, which proceeds from your so great abundance! Let it flow upon me, for it wells forth from you. Spare, in mercy; avenge not, in justice.
For, though it is hard to understand how your compassion is not inconsistent with your justice; yet we must believe that it does not oppose justice at all, because it flows from goodness, which is no goodness without justice; nay, that it is in true harmony with justice. For, if you are compassionate only because you are supremely good, and supremely good only because you are supremely just, truly you are compassionate even because you are supremely just. Help me, just and compassionate God, whose light seek; help me to understand what I say.
Truly, then, you are compassionate even because you are just. Is, then, your compassion born of your justice? And do you spare the wicked, therefore, out of justice? If this is true, my Lord, if this is true, teach me how it is. Is it because it is just, that you should be so good that you can not be conceived better; and that you should work so powerfully that you can not be conceived more powerful? For what can be more just than this? Assuredly it could not be that you should be good only by requiting (retribuendo) and not by sparing, and that you should make good only those who are not good, and not the wicked also. In this way, therefore, it is just that you should spare the wicked, and make good souls of evil.
Finally, what is not done justly ought not to be done; and what ought not to be done is done unjustly. If, then, you do not justly pity the wicked, you ought not to pity them. And, if you ought not to pity them, you pity them unjustly. And if It is impious to suppose this, it is right to believe that you justly pity the wicked.
CHAPTER X.
How he justly punishes and justly spares the wicked. --God, in sparing the wicked, is just, according to his own nature because he does what is consistent with his goodness; but he is not just, according to our nature, because he does not inflict the punishment deserved.
BUT it is also just that you should punish the wicked. For what is more just than that the good should receive goods, and the evil, evils? How, then, is it just that you should punish the wicked, and, at the same time, spare the wicked? Or, in one way, do you justly punish, and, in another, justly spare them? For, when you punish the wicked, it is just, because it is consistent with their deserts; and when, on the other hand, you sparest the wicked, it is just, not because it is compatible with their deserts, but because it is compatible with your goodness.
For, in sparing the wicked, you are as just, according to your nature, but not according to ours, as you are compassionate, according to our nature, and not according to yours; seeing that, as in saving us, whom it would be just for you to destroy, you are compassionate, not because you feel an affection (affectum), but because we feel the effect (effectum); so you are just, not because you requite us as we deserve, but because you do that which becomes you as the supremely good Being. In this way, therefore, without contradiction you do justly punish and justly spare.
How he is compassionate and passionless. God is compassionate, in terms of our experience, because we experience the effect of compassion. God is not compassionate, in terms of his own being, because he does not experience the feeling (affectus) of compassion.
BUT how are you compassionate, and, at the same time, passionless? For, if you are passionless, you do not feel sympathy; and if you do not feel sympathy, your heart is not wretched from sympathy for the wretched ; but this it is to be compassionate. But if you are not compassionate, whence comes so great consolation to the wretched? How, then, are you compassionate and not compassionate, O Lord, unless because you are compassionate in terms of our experience, and not compassionate in terms of your being.
Truly, you are so in terms of our experience, but you are not so in terms of your own. For, when you behold us in our wretchedness, we experience the effect of compassion, but you do not experience the feeling. Therefore, you are both compassionate, because you do save the wretched, and spare those who sin against you; and not compassionate because you are affected by no sympathy for wretchedness.
CHAPTER IX.
How the all-just and supremely just God spares the wicked, and justly pities the wicked. He is better who is good to the righteous and the wicked than he who is good to the righteous alone. Although God is supremely just, the source of his compassion is hidden. God is supremely compassionate, because he is supremely just. He saves the just, because justice goes with them; he frees sinners by the authority of justice. God spares the wicked out of justice; for it is just that God, than whom none is better or more powerful, should be good even to the wicked, and should make the wicked good. If God ought not to pity, he pities unjustly. But this it is impious to suppose. Therefore, God justly pities.
BUT how do you spare the wicked, if you are all just and supremely just? For how, being all just and supremely just, do you anything that is not just? Or, what justice is that to give him who merits eternal death everlasting life? How, then, gracious Lord, good to the righteous and the wicked, can you save the wicked, if this is not just, and you do not anything that is not just? Or, since your goodness is incomprehensible, is this hidden in the unapproachable light wherein you dwell? Truly, in the deepest and most secret parts of your goodness is hidden the fountain whence the stream of your compassion flows.
For you are all just and supremely just, yet you are kind even to the wicked, even because you are all supremely good. For you would be less good if you were not kind to any wicked being. For, he who is good, both to the righteous and the wicked, is better than he who is good to the wicked alone; and he who is good to the wicked, both by punishing and sparing them, is better than he who is good by punishing them alone. Therefore, you are compassionate, because you are all supremely good. And, although it appears why you do reward the good with goods and the evil with evils; yet this, at least, is most wonderful, why you, the all and supremely just, who lacks nothing, bestows goods on the wicked and on those who are guilty toward you.
The depth of your goodness, O God! The source of your compassion appears, and yet is not clearly seen! We see whence the river flows, but the spring whence it arises is not seen. For, it is from the abundance of your goodness that you are good to those who sin against you; and in the depth of your goodness is hidden the reason for this kindness.
For, although you do reward the good with goods and the evil with evils, out of goodness, yet this the concept of justice seems to demand. But, when you do bestow goods on the evil, and it is known that the supremely Good has willed to do this, we wonder why the supremely just has been able to will this.
O compassion, from what abundant sweetness and what sweet abundance do you well forth to us! O boundless goodness of God how passionately should sinners love you! For you save the just, because justice goes with them; but sinners you do free by the authority of justice. Those by the help of their deserts; these, although their deserts oppose. Those by acknowledging the goods you has granted; these by pardoning the evils you hate. O boundless goodness, which do so exceed all understanding, let that compassion come upon me, which proceeds from your so great abundance! Let it flow upon me, for it wells forth from you. Spare, in mercy; avenge not, in justice.
For, though it is hard to understand how your compassion is not inconsistent with your justice; yet we must believe that it does not oppose justice at all, because it flows from goodness, which is no goodness without justice; nay, that it is in true harmony with justice. For, if you are compassionate only because you are supremely good, and supremely good only because you are supremely just, truly you are compassionate even because you are supremely just. Help me, just and compassionate God, whose light seek; help me to understand what I say.
Truly, then, you are compassionate even because you are just. Is, then, your compassion born of your justice? And do you spare the wicked, therefore, out of justice? If this is true, my Lord, if this is true, teach me how it is. Is it because it is just, that you should be so good that you can not be conceived better; and that you should work so powerfully that you can not be conceived more powerful? For what can be more just than this? Assuredly it could not be that you should be good only by requiting (retribuendo) and not by sparing, and that you should make good only those who are not good, and not the wicked also. In this way, therefore, it is just that you should spare the wicked, and make good souls of evil.
Finally, what is not done justly ought not to be done; and what ought not to be done is done unjustly. If, then, you do not justly pity the wicked, you ought not to pity them. And, if you ought not to pity them, you pity them unjustly. And if It is impious to suppose this, it is right to believe that you justly pity the wicked.
CHAPTER X.
How he justly punishes and justly spares the wicked. --God, in sparing the wicked, is just, according to his own nature because he does what is consistent with his goodness; but he is not just, according to our nature, because he does not inflict the punishment deserved.
BUT it is also just that you should punish the wicked. For what is more just than that the good should receive goods, and the evil, evils? How, then, is it just that you should punish the wicked, and, at the same time, spare the wicked? Or, in one way, do you justly punish, and, in another, justly spare them? For, when you punish the wicked, it is just, because it is consistent with their deserts; and when, on the other hand, you sparest the wicked, it is just, not because it is compatible with their deserts, but because it is compatible with your goodness.
For, in sparing the wicked, you are as just, according to your nature, but not according to ours, as you are compassionate, according to our nature, and not according to yours; seeing that, as in saving us, whom it would be just for you to destroy, you are compassionate, not because you feel an affection (affectum), but because we feel the effect (effectum); so you are just, not because you requite us as we deserve, but because you do that which becomes you as the supremely good Being. In this way, therefore, without contradiction you do justly punish and justly spare.
Sa Angelo's
ng makaraan ang mga pagsusulit kina dionisio, aquino't anselmo
mag-aala-una kaninang madaling araw, kasama ko nama'y si Shio
upang tsumibog ng mainit na goto, duon sa tindahan ni Angelo
sulit ang sarap, halo sa mainit na lugaw -- mata ng baka
binudburan ng bawang at may halong kalamansi pa
P45 lamang po ang halaga ng gotong may mata ng baka
mag-aala-una kaninang madaling araw, kasama ko nama'y si Shio
upang tsumibog ng mainit na goto, duon sa tindahan ni Angelo
sulit ang sarap, halo sa mainit na lugaw -- mata ng baka
binudburan ng bawang at may halong kalamansi pa
P45 lamang po ang halaga ng gotong may mata ng baka
Monday, March 20, 2006
230/711
at 2:30 a.m., i was still up reviewing for a written exam in medieval philosophy.
i was lifting through the pages of boethius' quomodo substantiae in eo quod sint bona sint cum non sint substantialia bona; dionysius' de mystica theologia; anselm's proslogion; thomas aquinas' summa theologica.
honestly, i was finding a hard time trying to ingest what they were all saying. i could not even afford to ruminate a word or two of their reflections, insights. but one thing was clear: all were hungering for God. they all wanted to taste and see the goodness of the Lord. they were desiring and hungering for
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"kain tayo sa labas," biglang yaya ni eric.
kaya mag-aalas-tres ng madaling araw
iniwanan sina dionisio't aquino sa kanilang kagutuman
upang punan ang gutom ng aming tiyan
sa may 711 sa katipunan.
i was lifting through the pages of boethius' quomodo substantiae in eo quod sint bona sint cum non sint substantialia bona; dionysius' de mystica theologia; anselm's proslogion; thomas aquinas' summa theologica.
honestly, i was finding a hard time trying to ingest what they were all saying. i could not even afford to ruminate a word or two of their reflections, insights. but one thing was clear: all were hungering for God. they all wanted to taste and see the goodness of the Lord. they were desiring and hungering for
God........................................
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"kain tayo sa labas," biglang yaya ni eric.
kaya mag-aalas-tres ng madaling araw
iniwanan sina dionisio't aquino sa kanilang kagutuman
upang punan ang gutom ng aming tiyan
sa may 711 sa katipunan.
Sunday, March 19, 2006
"Bakit ka nagpakalbo?"
"Bakit ka nagpakalbo?" kadalasan mas nababagabag pa ang iba sa mga desisyong, sa totoo lang, di ko naman talaga mariing na pinag-isipan. isa na rito ang pagpapakalbo. mainit lang talaga. at saka, mula ng pumasok ako sa Kapisanan, nagpapakalbo naman talaga ako.
"Bakit ka nagpakalbo? May pinagdadaanan ka bang proseso?"
mainit lang naman talaga. kung tutuusin mas presko at higit na maginhawa ang pakiramdam. at sadyang kay praktikal pa -- hindi ka na gagastos para sa shampu, wala ka nang poproblemahing pamada, at hindi mo na rin kailangan ng suklay.
talagang presko, maginhawa at praktikal ang magpakalbo.
ganun din naman ang tawag sa atin di ba -- ang ipakalbo ang mga bagay na hindi natin kailangan para higit na maging mainam tayo para sa apostolado. mahirap ang maraming bagahe sa buhay. kung buhok lang ay hindi maipagpalaya, ano pa kaya ang mga bagay na mahirap iwanan?
minsan na tayong kinalbo -- nuong talikuran natin ang mundo ng pumasok tayo ng nobisyado. at kahit na lumabas tayo duon at lumipat dito sa loob ng ateneo, patuloy pa rin ang karanasan ng pagkakalbo. iba-iba nga lang tayo. sa iba, madali at suwabe. ngunit karamihan sa atin, kahit anong pagkukubli, hindi pa rin madali. kung nakaraos man -- lalo na sa hirap ng pag-aaral -- salamat na lamang at may grasya. at kung maalala ang sigaw natin tuwing binabasag ang pagkukubli ng mga tinig at himig tuwing sumasapit ang bagong umaga, semper Deo gratia et Mariae!!!
kaya, semper Deo gratia et Mariae!!! sa bawat bagong umaga na may taglay na bagong tuwa't ligaya.
a phone call
I arrived home at almost 2 in the morning. Everyone was still up -- Monch was preparing for the exams in New Testament; Koko was fixing his iced tea; and Jom was surfing the boobtube. I was a little bit tipsy because i took Tex's offer of wine. I went to check my pigeon hole for any letters and opened the house cellphone for any messages. Then the phone rang, I lifted the handset and I heard a voice I barely could identify who."Pagod-na-pagod na ako," the caller whispered.
Perturbed and a little bit disturbed, I asked, "Sino po kayo?"
"Pagud-na-pagod na ako. Ipagdasal mo naman ako."
"Ha?! Sino po sila?"
"Pagud-na-pagod na ako. Ipagdasal mo naman ako."
"Sige po ipagdarasal ko po kayo. Sino po sila?"
Then, he hang up. I was never able to get to know him. Others say that probably he was just a crank caller but I could never know. I just hope that, if he was serious with his request, he finds what he was begging for -- serenity, rest, inner peace.
Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light (Mt. 11:28-30).
Saturday, March 18, 2006
POWERBOOKS' WAREHOUSE SALE!!!
Visit the new and bigger Powerbooks Warehouse and enjoy big discounts on their wide range of new and best selling titles!!! (20% off on regular items and up to 90% off on bargain items). Don't miss out on the hottest sale this summer starting on March 16 up to March 31, 2006 from 10AM-7PM (including Saturday and Sunday) at # 25 Brixton St. Capitol Subdivision, Pasig City.
Below is a map to Powerbooks' Warehouse.
Below is a map to Powerbooks' Warehouse.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Look At Me
SEDL Prayer Points • 15 March 2006
Grace:
My Lord Jesus, I beg for the grace of a heart like yours – compassionate and loving to all those who call on you. With a heart like yours, I hope to be able to look on others too with love and compassion.
Jesus said to the Pharisees: “There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores. When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames.’ Abraham replied, ‘My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented. Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.’ He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment.’ But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’ He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ Then Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead’” (Lk 16:19-31).
Points:
1. The rich young man was usually called Dives – Latin word for rich. Every phrase adds something to the luxury in which he lived. He was clothed in purple and fine linen, that is the description of the robes of the High Priests (it would probably amount to one leather jacket from Zara). He feasted in luxury every day. The word used for feasting is the word that is used for a gourmet feeding on exotic and costly dishes. He did this every day. In so doing, he definitely and positively broke the fourth commandment – no work on a Sabbath.
In a country where the common tao were fortunate if they eat meat once in the week and where they toiled for six days of the week, Dives is a figure of indolent self-indulgence. Lazarus was waiting for the crumbs that fell from Dives’ table. In that time, there were no knives, forks or napkins. Food was eaten with the hands, and, in very wealthy houses, the hands were cleansed by wiping them on hunks of bread, which were then thrown away. That was what Lazarus was waiting for.
2. Strangely enough, Lazarus is the only character in any of the parables who is given a name. The name is Latinized form of Eleazar (meaning God is my help). He was a beggar. He was covered with ulcerated sores. And, he was so helpless, he could not even ward off the street dogs which pestered him.
3. Such is the scene in this world; then abruptly it changes to the next and there Lazarus is in glory and Dives is in torment. What was the sin of Dives? He had not ordered Lazarus to be removed from his gate. He had made no objections to his receiving the bread that was flung away from his table. He did not kick him in the passing. He was not deliberately cruel to him. The sin of Dives was that he never noticed Lazarus, that he accepted him as part of the landscape and simply thought it perfectly natural and inevitable that Lazarus should lie in pain and hunger while he wallowed in luxury.
The sin of Dives was that he could look on the world’s suffering and need and feel no answering sword or grief and pity pierce his heart; he looked at a fellow-man, hungry and in pain, and did nothing about it. His was the punishment of a man who never noticed. It seems hard that his request that his brothers should be warned was refused. But is the plain fact that if men possess the truth of God’s word, and if, wherever they look, there is sorrow to be comforted, need to be supplied, pain to be relieved, and it moves them to no feeling and to no action, nothing will change them.
It is a terrible warning that the sin of Dives was not that he did wrong things, but that he did nothing.
4. For the coming days, you might want to know the names of your company’s security guard, the janitor, the elevator operator, the porter. You do not have to know them all. You might at least would want to get three or five names. Include them in your prayer.
5. With your colleagues at work, how have you been sensitive to them? Do you greet them or at least smile at them? In what ways have you been insensitive to them? How can you be a better co-worker in the days to come? Include them too in your prayer.
6. Who were the Dives’ of your life? In what ways have they been insensitive to you? Pray for them, bless them and forgive them. And, learn from the things that they did to you so that you may no longer do the same to others.
7. End this prayer with the Prayer for Generosity.
Grace:
My Lord Jesus, I beg for the grace of a heart like yours – compassionate and loving to all those who call on you. With a heart like yours, I hope to be able to look on others too with love and compassion.
Jesus said to the Pharisees: “There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores. When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames.’ Abraham replied, ‘My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented. Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.’ He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment.’ But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’ He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ Then Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead’” (Lk 16:19-31).
Points:
1. The rich young man was usually called Dives – Latin word for rich. Every phrase adds something to the luxury in which he lived. He was clothed in purple and fine linen, that is the description of the robes of the High Priests (it would probably amount to one leather jacket from Zara). He feasted in luxury every day. The word used for feasting is the word that is used for a gourmet feeding on exotic and costly dishes. He did this every day. In so doing, he definitely and positively broke the fourth commandment – no work on a Sabbath.
In a country where the common tao were fortunate if they eat meat once in the week and where they toiled for six days of the week, Dives is a figure of indolent self-indulgence. Lazarus was waiting for the crumbs that fell from Dives’ table. In that time, there were no knives, forks or napkins. Food was eaten with the hands, and, in very wealthy houses, the hands were cleansed by wiping them on hunks of bread, which were then thrown away. That was what Lazarus was waiting for.
2. Strangely enough, Lazarus is the only character in any of the parables who is given a name. The name is Latinized form of Eleazar (meaning God is my help). He was a beggar. He was covered with ulcerated sores. And, he was so helpless, he could not even ward off the street dogs which pestered him.
3. Such is the scene in this world; then abruptly it changes to the next and there Lazarus is in glory and Dives is in torment. What was the sin of Dives? He had not ordered Lazarus to be removed from his gate. He had made no objections to his receiving the bread that was flung away from his table. He did not kick him in the passing. He was not deliberately cruel to him. The sin of Dives was that he never noticed Lazarus, that he accepted him as part of the landscape and simply thought it perfectly natural and inevitable that Lazarus should lie in pain and hunger while he wallowed in luxury.
The sin of Dives was that he could look on the world’s suffering and need and feel no answering sword or grief and pity pierce his heart; he looked at a fellow-man, hungry and in pain, and did nothing about it. His was the punishment of a man who never noticed. It seems hard that his request that his brothers should be warned was refused. But is the plain fact that if men possess the truth of God’s word, and if, wherever they look, there is sorrow to be comforted, need to be supplied, pain to be relieved, and it moves them to no feeling and to no action, nothing will change them.
It is a terrible warning that the sin of Dives was not that he did wrong things, but that he did nothing.
4. For the coming days, you might want to know the names of your company’s security guard, the janitor, the elevator operator, the porter. You do not have to know them all. You might at least would want to get three or five names. Include them in your prayer.
5. With your colleagues at work, how have you been sensitive to them? Do you greet them or at least smile at them? In what ways have you been insensitive to them? How can you be a better co-worker in the days to come? Include them too in your prayer.
6. Who were the Dives’ of your life? In what ways have they been insensitive to you? Pray for them, bless them and forgive them. And, learn from the things that they did to you so that you may no longer do the same to others.
7. End this prayer with the Prayer for Generosity.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Monday, March 13, 2006
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Saturday, March 11, 2006
photographs
i was in college when i took a semester to study photography.
i remember using a manual camera.
it was not mine.
i just borrowed it from a friend.
this afternoon,
a good friend,
Eric,
lent me his apostolate's digital camera.
i tried to catch faces but no one took time to look and see.
everyone seems to be very busy.
so, i went to those who would take time to strike a pose,
and who could hold close...
as i held my breath close
i tried to catch some moments
until the battery went low...
and in that one afternoon, afterglow
i realized that i need to close
a habit that is both bitter and sweet
that i might find time to sit
and finish my paper both in psyche and in philo...
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