Cockroach - balance

Among the fearsome and unsightly creatures we sometimes meet are the common cockroaches (cucaracha in Spanish).  Since they look so nocturnal and ugly, we just feel inclined to strike them down, also aware of their befouling effects on food, stored items, or surroundings they can encroach upon. But surely as for all created beings, they do have a purpose for their existence.  After all God created some balance in the world as there are different types composing the total panorama of the good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful.  We just have to learn to accept things as they are, after all in totality there is so much beauty and excellence in God’s created world.

Even cockroaches have some good purpose for which God created them.  An old Spanish song “La Cucaracha” had aptly or amusingly described the creature’s awkward movement, turning it into a danceable tune.  Precisely there is beauty because there is variety.  If all humans, for example, were equally beautiful, whom should we consider beautiful.  There is balance among all God’s creatures even if we categorize some as the good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful.

Our loved ones

The title speaks to us about all the people that have grown close to us from our parents: mama and papa, brothers, sisters and relatives, as well as friends.  As a person grows in age, he gets exposed to multifarious relationships from the home to the global scene, including the influence of technology in the social media, and the list of loved ones expands. In such case, the Holy Bible (in Mt. 12:48-50) talks about those who should really be close to us.

“He (Jesus) was still speaking to the crowds when his mother and his brothers (near relatives) appeared; they were standing outside and were anxious to have a word with him.  But to the man who told him this Jesus replied, ‘Who is my mother?  Who are my brothers?’  And stretching out his hand towards his disciples he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers.  Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother” (Mt. 12:48-50).

One Love

 

There is some problem in our society today as far as marital relations are concerned.  God said: “What God has joined together let not man dare to put asunder” (Mt. 9:5).  Immature as many of us are, we think we gain more exploits the more women or men we indulged in.  What happens is a degradation of the quality of love.

 

Love was destined to last forever.  Marriage is not a joke.  It is an exchange of the perpetual vow of love, as you yourself witness from the ceremony “till death do us part.”

All those who practice love in another way are just destroying themselves, wasting their energies in non-love.  They  will just multiply problems, distractions and wastage of energies, and hamper growth to maturity and success.  God made the love between a man and a woman to last forever—in its endurance and depth.  Now you cannot call that deep love that keeps changing partners, as the moderns attempt to do to enjoy more.  What happens is self-destruction and the hampering of the growth towards maturity, solidity and success.  Infidelity or unfaithful love breeds disaster.  Let us ask God, the Source of Love, to bless our marriages with enduring union, patience and depth.  That’s the usual advice they give to those who want to avoid AIDS and other venereal diseases: stick to one partner—husband or wife—in life.  Now this means too that the selection of a life partner should not be a joke but a serious, prayerful affair.  You will be more happy if you stick and agree to one love.  Precisely the prime purposes of marriage are: procreation of children, mutual support, satisfaction of physical desire.  How can these be fulfilled if one will advocate separation or flimsy relationships?

Gross blunder -- injustice

St. Thomas Aquinas had mentioned that wrong ideas are like mistaken angles that when extended would magnify also the erroneous perspective.  This is happening in our land today when people keep on moving in the guise of justice without even knowing where their actions lead to.  Just look at all the violence around.  Is that justice?  And where therefore is the missing link, the gross blunder?

Maybe we have forgotten what Jesus said:  “Without me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:5).  As St. Pope John XXIII once said: “I don’t complicate my principles.  If Jesus would do it, I would.  If Jesus would not, neither would I”.  People think it’s justice enough to be concerned for the poor.  Justice means “giving to everyone his due” (Rom. 13:7).  So that includes the right relationship to God, ourselves (since charity begins at home), and our neighbor.  And Jesus is justice incarnate whom we are to follow (Mal. 3:20; Jer. 23:6; Jn. 13:15; 1 Cor. 1:30; 1 Pet. 2:21). 

The problem at hand is our centering on Christ, especially for leaders to—know, show, and lead the way.    If Jesus is the way, the truth and the life (Jn. 14:6), we can only be effective leaders if we know him that well as by witnessing to his life and principles in our own life, because examples speak louder than words.  That is when justice can be truly exemplified, and blunders overcome.

Jesus -- in the Bible and in Islam

Why is it that in the world the greater number recognize Jesus as Redeemer?  He is “the Way, the Truth and the Life” (Jn. 14:6).  Moreover, He is Love.  He asks us to love and forgive even our enemies (Mt. 5:43-48).  He asks us to be humble and care for the needs of others (Lk. 14:11, 18:11; Mt. 25:31-46).

Even the Koran of Islam has this about Jesus.  In Surah (chapter) 3:45: “Behold! the angels said, O Mary! Allah giveth thee glad tidings of a Word from Him: his name will be Christ Jesus.  The son of Mary, held in honor in this world and of those nearest to Allah.”  In Surah 3:55: “O Jesus! I will take thee and raise thee to Myself...I will make those who follow thee superior to those who reject faith....”  In Surah 43:63: “When Jesus came with Clear Signs, he said: “Now have I come to you with Wisdom, and in order to make clear to you some of the points on which ye dispute: therefore fear Allah and obey me.”

The Koran asks the people to fear Allah and follow Jesus.   Why not?  Jesus only teaches love, humility, truth, forgiveness and care for one another.  One fundamental law of Jesus is: “Judge not and you shall not be judged.  For with what judgment you judge you shall also be judged” (Mt. 7:2).  “Forgive and you shall be forgiven” (Mt. 6:12-15).

While we work for reconciliation it is always profitable to see common points in the Bible and in the Koran.