Why Fast?

During the season of Lent, Catholics are encouraged to fast during Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Since Filipinos eat six times a day, from breakfast to morning merienda, to lunch to afternoon merienda, to dinner to midnight snacks, fasting is so hard.  While it is very difficult to skip meals, let us be reminded that…

The Best Investment

Luke 6:38 When people are asked to do something, the first thing that goes into our minds is “What is it in for me?” Even the apostles were not exempted from this reality. Peter once asked Jesus, “We have left family, lands, and houses for the Gospel, what do we get back in return?” The…

Impossible Situations

How often do we find ourselves in a situation that we do not know what to do? We feel that the problem is bigger than our skills and talents. In one of the most popular Gospel readings, the apostles, specifically Philip, was faced with a seemingly impossible situation – how to feed thousands of people? …

Neighbor

I once celebrated Mass in an upscale subdivision. After the Mass, I was speaking to two couples. Since I realized that they did not know each other, I introduced them to each other. Couple A asked Couple B, “What street do you reside on?”. They realized they lived in the same street. Couple B asked…

Compassion

Because of technology, news and information get around so swiftly. On one hand, the good, the true and the beautiful. On the other hand, the lies, the deceptive and the fake news. The thing is as human beings, we judge too swiftly and easily. Take for example the story of a policeman who was in…

Convenient Religion

In today’s times, the name of the game is convenience: If you need to eat, just have the food delivered; if you want to buy something for the house, the stores are open 24 hours a day; if you want to watch a movie right now, just go to the internet. We all want it…

Know Your Neighbor

I once celebrated Mass in the middle of two residential condominium buildings: on my right was clean and orderly and the one my left was dirty and in disarray. Why the big difference? The one to my right followed the rules of the condominium and thus it was clean and orderly. The one on my…

Service

Many years ago there was tension between the Philippines and Hong Kong because of the killing of the Hong Kong tourists in Luneta. When emotions were high, there was a Hong Kong journalist who wrote an article about our country being a “Nation of Servants.” Certainly, he was not only referring to the Filipina servants…

Judging by Appearance

A social experiment was made with a person made to dress in very ordinary street clothes and enter an expensive car dealership. At first, none of the salespeople were minding him. Then he was treated shabbily, and he was not even allowed to test drive a car or even just to sit and get a…

Humility

There is a story of a businessman who made it not only big but very big. As the business grew, so did the ego, and he became very, very arrogant. Until one day, because of the changes in attitude, the business went down. Because of this, he could not show his face to his relatives,…