The Ilocos Times

By Carlos V. Cornejo Any pursuit on worldly things such as money, fame, power and pleasure will always end up making the pursuer wanting for more but never getting satisfied.  On the other hand, pursuit for knowledge, skills and loving others makes us full and would happily still want more.  With the former it makes the pursuer unhappy.  The latter makes the pursuer thankful.  What’s more the latter gets to multiply his joy because what he additionally acquires feels like a bonus.  In contrast the former may get more but feels he still has less.  This reminds me of Bill Gates , Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk .   They are all very famous people and have altered the world with their inventions.   They too are all very rich.    They’re worth billions and yet they have not retired.   They could have just stopped working, went on a world tour, savored everything that money could buy and still have much money left.   But they are ...

NOWADAYS, mental health clinics are becoming more common. More people, especially the young, seek help for anxiety , depression, stress, trauma, and other emotional struggles. This growing need should concern us all. These clinics perform an important service. Professional counseling, therapy, medication, and other psychological interventions have helped many recover balance and hope. They deserve our appreciation and support. But there is one truth we should never overlook. Mental health and spiritual health are deeply connected. One affects the other. A troubled mind can make prayer difficult, weaken hope, and drain one's desire to do good. At the same time, a neglected spiritual life can leave the mind more vulnerable to fear, loneliness, despair, and confusion. They constantly interact because the human person is both body and soul . Yet we should also keep our priorities clear. Our spiritual life has primacy. It is the soul that gives ultimate meaning to everything...

By Carlos V. Cornejo Karma is a justice belief held mostly by Eastern religions that for every moral action we do there is a corresponding reaction.   If we show goodness, we reap goodness.   If we do evil, we reap evil.   Karma usually is not instant but nevertheless it will come.    It is supposed to teach us life’s lessons and to help us be better people.   Grace on the other hand is love and mercy given to us by God, something that we don’t deserve but God out of His goodness freely gives it.   Grace can also mean a divine influence to inspire us to do good or to practice the virtues and a kind of aid or strength to endure trial and resist temptations to commit sin.   Divine grace enlightens the mind and strengthens the will (our power to make choices) to do the right thing.   Grace can be availed from the sacraments such as Confession and Holy Eucharist .   Karma is attractive to our beliefs because it appeals to our sen...

WHEN the disciples asked Christ why he spoke in parables , his answer was simple and direct: "Because they look but do not see, and they hear but do not listen or understand." (Mt. 13:13) Later, he explained the deeper reason. They did not want to be converted. That answer should make us examine ourselves. Christ's parables are much more than memorable stories. They reveal the mysteries of the Kingdom of God to those who approach him with faith and humility. At the same time, they test the disposition of every listener. Those who sincerely seek God receive light. Those who close themselves to him remain confused. The problem is not with the message but with the heart that refuses to receive it. The same principle applies to all the truths of our faith. Faith has to come first. Reason is indispensable, but it has to be enlightened by faith. Human intelligence, no matter how brilliant, has its limits. Left on its own, it can only grasp what is visible and measura...

MODERN society often associates addiction with alcohol or illegal drugs. Yet an increasing number of psychologists, pastoral counselors, and spiritual writers recognize another destructive addiction that has spread quietly through the internet and digital media: pornography. Available at the touch of a screen and often consumed in secrecy, pornography has become what many describe as the "new drug." Its effects reach far beyond the individual, damaging marriages, families, friendships, and one's relationship with God. From a Catholic perspective, pornography is not merely a moral failing but a distortion of God's beautiful plan for human love. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that pornography "does grave injury to the dignity of its participants" because it reduces persons to objects of pleasure instead of recognizing them as children of God created in His image (CCC 2354). Rather than fostering authentic love , pornography trains the mind ...

THAT part of the Gospel about the ruler whose daughter had died and the woman suffering from a long illness (Mt. 9:18–26) offers us a powerful lesson on faith, hope, and complete trust in Christ. Though their situations were different, both individuals shared one thing in common: they turned to Christ when all human solutions had failed. Their confidence in Him transformed their desperation into deliverance, something that we should learn to do also. The ruler publicly pleaded with Jesus to restore his daughter to life, despite the seemingly impossible situation. The woman, on the other hand, quietly approached Him through the crowd, convinced that simply touching His garment would bring healing. Both acted with unwavering faith, and both received the miracle they sought. Their example reminds us that whenever we encounter trials beyond our strength, our first response should be to seek Christ. Rather than allowing ourselves to be consumed by sadness, self-pity, or discouragemen...

By Carlos V. Cornejo Growth in the intellect is achieved through reading books, studying for a course, attending seminars, etc.   Emotional growth follows our intellectual growth.   Emotion is an internal bodily reaction we would have as a consequence with whatever we perceive in our minds.   If I perceive you as a friend, I will feel comfortable being with you.   Emotionally I am glad to see you.    However, if I perceive you as an enemy, my physical reaction will be one of fight or flight.   My muscles will grow tense and my heartbeat will accelerate.   Perhaps, I feel afraid of you and don’t want to be in your presence.   In short, whatever dominates our thoughts would likewise be the prevailing emotions.   If we think of good thoughts, good feelings will follow.   If we think of bad thoughts, like imagining ourselves having failed, bad feelings would follow.   That’s why many self-help books would recommend to control ...

THAT’S what we can learn from that gospel episode about Christ’s disciples caught in a storm while in the middle of the sea. (cfr. Mt 8,23-27) They, at first, were gripped with fear, a very understandable reaction. And when they noticed Christ simply sleeping in the boat, they woke him up, expressing their fear. That’s when Christ simply stood up and calmed the turbulent sea, leaving them greatly astonished. But Christ faulted them for their lack of faith. Yes, we too can easily be frozen in fear when we encounter the different forms of life’s storms. But like Our Lord’s disciples, we should just go immediately to him and ask for his help. And to be sure, he will always be there to help, but maybe in ways that may escape our understanding. In this, we should not be surprised and start to loosen our faith in God’s powerful and wise ways. There’s really no reason to be too worried and anxious when we encounter some difficulty in our life. In fact, we have every reason to be conf...

By Carlos V. Cornejo The third kind of anger is the good one.   It’s sometimes referred to as just anger or rightful anger.   The Psalmist implies this when he writes, “Be angry, and sin not” (Psalm 4:4).   It is the kind of anger of a parent for example to a child who has not done his school work because the kid was busy playing computer games the whole day.   The parent has to express clearly his or her emotion of anger so as to send the message to the kid that what he has done was very wrong.   Otherwise, if the mother will just put on a sober face while reprimanding the child, it could be misinterpreted by the kid that mommy is not angry after all and therefore I could do it again.   St. John Chrysostom says, “He who is not angry when he has cause to be, sins.” If we don’t get angry when we are supposed to be angry, more bad things happen.   If the mother had tolerated the misdeed of her child, it would have made the kid lazier. The same sa...

  THE story of the leper who took the effort to get close to Christ, asking for healing, (cfr. Mt 8,1-4) teaches us several powerful lessons about faith, humility, God’s authority and the right use of good works. As the story goes, a leper approaches Christ, kneels and begs: “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.” And Christ responds not so much with power as with mercy as he stretches out his hand and touches the leper: “I do choose. Be made clean!” Let us remind ourselves that though we may not have the condition of leprosy, we cannot deny that we are dirty, no matter how much we try to be clean, and we gravely need to be healed, to be pardoned and purified. Our weaknesses and sinfulness will always be with us all our life. We always need to go to Christ, begging for spiritual and moral healing. But, yes, whenever we have physical illness or problems regarding our bodily health, we should not hesitate to go to Christ, asking for healing. Let’s imitate the example of ...

THAT’S because of our undeniable tendency to enclose ourselves in our own world, practically unwelcoming and even hostile to God who actually gives us the proper spirit of our humanity as his image and likeness. We have to find ways of how we can live out this basic necessity of ours. There’s certainly a need for tremendous effort. But we should not forget that the first thing we need to do is to humbly ask for God’s mercy and grace. We need to be humble, first of all, which is an effect at least of what is called as God’s actual grace, before we can successfully proceed with the effort to empty ourselves in order to be properly filled with God’s spirit. Christ himself told us that this should be the law that should rule our life. “He that shall lose his life for me, shall find it.” “Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel, shall save it.” “He that hates his life in this world, keeps it unto life eternal.” The same idea, the same truth and ideal, is reiterated...

ONCE again , we celebrate the very wonderful Solemnity of the Assumption of our Lady to heaven, reminding us that like her, we too are meant to be both body and soul in our definitive state of life, hopefully in heaven, at the end of time. Let’s remember that man is always a unity of body and soul. He is not just pure body nor pure spiritual soul. And as our Catechism teaches us, the body, properly animated by the spiritual soul, shares in the dignity of the “image of God.” (cfr. CCC 364) This is how the Catechism explains it: “The human body shares in the dignity of “the image of God”: it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit. Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity.” The Catechism further teaches that, “Through his very bodily condition he (man) sums up in himself the elements of the material world…He is obliged to regard his body as go...

THIS is indeed a most intriguing and mind-blowing teaching of Christ. “Whosoever shall seek to save his life, shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose it, shall preserve it,” he once told a crowd. (Lk 17,33) We really need to pause and try to figure out how we can reconcile these words with even the most basic common sense we have, since at first glance they definitely involve contradictory ideas. Indeed, this is where we have to go beyond our common sense and our reasoning and try to penetrate the spiritual and supernatural message these words are trying to teach us. Christ, the very “way, truth and life” for us, the very source of all that is good, true, and beautiful, just cannot tell us things that may sound to us as nonsense. First, we must consider the context in which these words were spoken. He prefaced this teaching by warning the crowd about the danger of worldly entrapment and self-indulgence which are actually a clear and present danger to us. “As it came to pass in...

By Carlos V. Cornejo We might think that St. Thomas Aquinas being a brilliant theologian, if not the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) among theologians much like Michael Jordan is the GOAT among NBA players, would just talk only about spiritual matters. Surprisingly, he is practical and down to earth as well. Here are his remedies to sadness from Summa Theologica that we can apply in our day and age. First remedy if you are feeling blue is to grant yourself what you like. If you like ice cream, go for it. If you need to drink a beer or a glass of wine to relax a bit, have one. If you need to unwind by playing a game either a physical game of basketball or a mental game of chess, card games or computer games then do it. Others might prefer to go to the beach or to the mountains and interact with nature, this would also do. The idea is to reward yourself with something you like and help your mind be diverted from your worries. Second remedy is weeping. Saint Thomas actual words from hi...