Monday 29 September 2008

Sow&Harvest


(An inspirational message delivered by the author on September 28, 2008 during the launch of Sow&Harvest, a project of TawagAwit that brings together members to work and cultivate a vegetable garden in a household)

Sow&Harvest is basically a backyard gardening program meant to bring vegetables on the tables of the host household as well as members of TawagAwit. But this project must be seen in a deeper perspective – for it is about relationships: with the earth, with people, with family, with God.

With the earth: From the earth springs life. The food we eat comes from the earth. The bricks and wood of our abodes are sourced from the earth. The animals feed on grass and grains from the earth. Sow&Harvest aims to re-establish our connection and commitment to the earth to which our bodies will return to when we die.

With people: Hands working together as the theme for this project means communal work. It is about community – for we are meant to live for, work with and serve each other. The Christian faith thrived because believers supported each other both in happy times and trying moments. Without the early Christian community caring for him, St Paul would not have written some of the finest attestations of our belief. Jesus Christ, God the Son, could not have brought the Good News to Jews and Gentiles without disciples whom He sent out in pairs and without the 12 Apostles who continued His mission. As we work together to sow, so must we share the harvest amongst ourselves. Sow&Harvest aims to forge the spirit of goodwill and camaraderie among members of TawagAwit.

With family: Each Christian family is a church. Each Christian family is holy. It is thus the responsibility of individual members to nourish the family, to make it a true church, to keep it holy. Let me tell you of a depressing story about failing to nourish within a family. There was a man who was an achiever who provided well his family. He was incapacitated and was bound in a wheelchair after a serious heart attack. He stayed home alone most of the time, while the rest of the family members were busy pursuing their works and lives. One day, when the wife came home, she found her husband lifeless. He had committed suicide. As a wilting plant needs more care and attention to regain strength, so must family members care and attend to each other during times of difficulty. Sow&Harvest aims to strengthen the bond among family members as they share the task of caring for the plants like caring for each other.

With God: We are familiar with the parable of the sower and the soils. (Mark 4:3-12) We are the seeds sown by God on earth. He places us on fertile ground. He wants us to grow and be fruitful in our lives. As He provides us food for our bodies, He gives our souls nourishment with His Word as written in the Bible and taught by His Church. If we refrain from knowing His Word, then our spirits will wilt in faith. He wants to come to the harvest to measure the fruits of our labour. Sow&Harvest aims to remind us that we are children of God and that He wants us to grow in faith, so that when harvest time arrives, we are prepared to join His banquet.

by Mel Libre

Monday 22 September 2008

Secular State


Being used to having an invocation delivered during gatherings, I am dismayed at most of the office meetings and public activities I attend in New Zealand since prayers are not said as a matter of practice. In a secular state, the separation of government and religion is consciously observed by most of the citizenry. In a secular state, the display of religious objects in public buildings is unacceptable. Performing religious rituals in the presence of colleagues is perceived as insensitive to their rights or beliefs. Making reference to one’s faith in conversations or writings can be deemed as offensive.

There are various reasons for the separation of the State and the Church including doing away with traditional religious values in favour of modernisation, and protecting religion from government interference or vice versa.

During the four-day visit of Pope Benedict XVI to France in September 2008, President Sarkozy addressed the long-standing (since the 1789 Revolution) anti-clericalism hostility against Catholic institutions and teachings. He declared: "Religions, particularly the Christian religion with which we share a long history, are living heritages of reflection and thought, not just about God, but also about this core concern today about nature and the defence of the environment. It would be madness to deprive ourselves of it, quite simply a mistake against culture and thought." He said that he wanted "positive secularism which stages dialogue, not a secularism that walls out or criticises." For what has occurred in most secular states, not just France, is religious intolerance.

The Pope reacted: "New reflection on the true meaning and importance of secularism has become necessary…The Church does not want to take the place of the State."

There should be a strong effort not just among Catholics, but other faiths as well towards positive secularism and religious tolerance. Americans should continue printing "In God We Trust" in their monetary bills.New Zealanders should continue singing "God Defend New Zealand". Filipinos should continue believing in the letter of the Preamble of their Constitution: "We, the sovereign Filipino people, imploring the aid of Almighty God, in order to build a just and humane society." Let us be reminded: "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance." (Psalm 33:12)

All must continue to invoke God not just in confines of their homes and churches, but in public functions as well where two or more people come and gather. "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matthew 18:20)

by Mel Libre

Monday 15 September 2008

Alice Experiment and Doubting Thomases


Susan Parker, a colleague in the High Court of New Zealand, wore a black dress on September 11, 2008. For me, it was just a typical workday. Little did I realize that Susan had prepared herself had the world ended on that day. With just four people left in the office past 5:00pm, the 50ish lady said that she was relieved that everything seemed okay after the world’s largest particle collider fired off a beam of protons all the way around a 27 km deep tunnel in the boundary of Switzerland and France.

ALICE or "A Large Ion Collider Experiment" is the biggest physics experiment in history with the aim of detecting evidence of extra dimensions, invisible "dark matter" and an elusive particle called the Higgs boson. In layman’s term the scientists want to unravel the truth on how the universe came be – based on the Big Bang theory.

The first major test on September 11 was the result of two decades of work with a staggering bill of US$10 billion. 9,000 physicists around the world have wired themselves to a massive network of 60,000 computers with the intent of gathering and analyzing the data generated from the series of tests.

Cases had been filed in the US District Court in Hawaii and in the European Court of Human Rights to prevent the project from operating. With the first beams of protons already fired, there is no more stopping into the experiment that critics fear would create micro "black holes", subatomic versions of collapsed stars whose gravity is so strong they could suck of life of planet Earth.

Man’s insatiable search for understanding of his being and of his creation has led to many discoveries that have improved humanity; but the increase in human intelligence has gone to a point that there are those who tinker with what is exclusively in the realm of God.

In fact, we are made in God’s own likeness. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." (Genesis 1:27) But that seems not enough. Very much like the Apostle Thomas, there are amongst us who want to see, to touch, to smell – to accept the truth. As Christ addressed Thomas so is He telling us. "Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." (John 20:29)

So long as there are people whose doubts can only be quenched if they have gone through the process of experimenting to find the truth, many peoples’ lives will be put at a risk. People like Susan Parker. People like you and me. God, though, assures us: "But I will deliver thee in that day, saith the LORD: and thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid." (Jeremiah 29:17)

by Mel Libre

Monday 8 September 2008

Higher Grades with God


I was fortunate to be born in a family with brothers and sisters excelling in their studies. It made me proud that their names frequently appeared in the honour roll; but then I carried a heavy burden of coping with their scholastic performances, as I was admittedly a mediocre student, struggling to pass my subjects.

My mother, Milagros, aware of my predicament bought ‘wonder’ vitamins that promised to boost one’s brain power; but then these did not raise my grades. When I learned that peanuts helped in developing the mind, I often bought from the sidewalk vendor just outside the campus. It did produce results: pimples all over my face that left scars for the rest of my life.

Thus, I have come to wonder how I was able to pass two of the hardest professional licensure examinations in the Philippines – the Certified Public Accountant Board Examinations and the Bar Examinations. Studying hard was a factor; but most importantly, it was faith in God that carried me through. And there is scientific proof of the latter factor.

In an article written by Robert Roy Britt of LiveScience.com, it says: "Researchers found that church attendance has as much effect on a teen's Grade Point Average as whether the parents earned a college degree. Students in grades 7 to 12 who went to church weekly also had lower dropout rates and felt more a part of their schools. On average, students whose parents received a four-year college degree average a GPA .12 higher than those whose parents completed high school only. ‘Students attending religious services weekly average a GPA .144 higher than those who never attend services’, said Jennifer Glanville, a sociologist at the University of Iowa."
The article further states: "The study does not suggest God is smiling on the students, per se. Rather, it identifies several reasons the students do better:
They have regular contact with adults from various generations who serve as role models.
Their parents are more likely to communicate with their friends' parents.
They develop friendships with peers who have similar norms and values.
They're more likely to participate in extracurricular activities.
Education is the vehicle for knowledge and understanding. The ability to use knowledge and understanding to solve a problem or situation requires wisdom. It is therefore important to develop wisdom. "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding." (Proverbs 4:7) An individual can have all the data and information similar to a computer storing such in its memory. But then a computer cannot have wisdom. How then can a person attain wisdom? It is written: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him."(James 1:5) This is reiterated in this manner: "He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly." (Proverbs 2:7)

For one (young or old, man or woman, professional, worker or student) who gains wisdom, there is no problem too difficult to solve. For the wise has God as teacher and mentor. "Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding." (Proverbs 3:13) And if man finds joy, God is smiling.

by Mel Libre

Monday 1 September 2008

Contrasting Brothers


As Barack Hussein Obama steps closer on the doorsteps of the White House, having been proclaimed as United States Democratic presidential nominee; George Hussein Onyango Obama continues to reside in a two-meter by three-meter shack in the tough community of Huruma on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya. While the Illinois senator has become a popular figure, his 26-year old half brother told Italy’s Vanity Fair magazine: "I live like a recluse, no one knows I exist."

Two brothers of the same father, yet of different mothers, of different families, of different circumstances. Barack is living the American dream and may just lay claim on the highest office of the United States. George was raised in Kenya and lives "on less than a dollar a month." They had met twice, when George was five and in 2007 when Senator Obama toured East Africa. The younger Obama recalls their second meeting: "It was very brief, we spoke for just a few minutes. It was like meeting a complete stranger."

God chooses when, where and to whom we are to be born. In His unfathomable wisdom, He places us where He thinks we can best make full use of our lives and gifts. Moses was brought up in the palace of the Pharaoh, while Jesus was born in a manger and raised in a carpenter’s home. Moses could have opted to stay in the comforts of power and luxury, but he obediently followed the voice of the Lord. Christ with his infinite power had the world at the palm of his hand, but He pursued the mission given Him by the Father: to save humankind through teaching, exemplary living and dying on the cross.

God gives us gifts primarily for His glory; not ours. "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." (Proverbs 19:21) He leads us in the right path, but we make the decision whether to follow or not. Whatever status we have in life, wherever we may be situated, He makes Himself available to carry us through. "For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand. He knows your walking through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing." (Deuteronomy 2:7) He wants us to succeed in our earthly endeavors, but most importantly, in our journey towards His heavenly kingdom.

It is important that we come to realize that God knows each one of us personally and that we are special to Him. "But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered." (Matthew 10:30) If we fulfil the mission He has given each one of us, He will welcome us not as strangers, but as sons and daughters to be in His blissful company for all eternity.

by Mel Libre