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…
Category: Social Awareness
Talents
Matthew 25:14–30 Once I was conversing with an expatriate. He was a president of a shipping company and they were hiring Filipino seamen. He said that should he be given the difficult task of reducing manpower, the last people he would retrench are the Filipinos. He said they get along very well with other people…
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…
The Most Respected Professions
Forbes Magazine came up with an article of the most respected professions in the U.S.: No. 5, Engineer; No. 4, Military Officer; No. 3, Firefighter; No.2, Scientist; No.1, Doctor. While there are varied reasons why people would reflect a certain profession, the fact remains that priesthood is not in the top 5. It is not…
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…
Giving is Life
The person who is perhaps the most giving in the world is none other than our mothers. Mothers are always giving. In fact, we arrived in this world because of Mothers. Notice the term used is “giving birth.” Because of Giving, we have life. In the Gospel, someone gave seven loaves of bread and few…
Love One Another
Local elections are most ideal when people work together for the common good of the country. Yet this seems to be not the case. Just go to social media and you will realize that there is so much negativity. Further, it is not only about politics and it is not only in this country. Just…
3 Ways 2 Your 1 God 