The Ilocos Times

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...

THAT’S what we can learn from the Gospel of St. Luke where Christ talks about death that will come to us like a thief in the night and how we can prepare for it by giving ourselves to others what God has given us. “Unto whomsoever much is give, of him much shall be required, and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more.” (cfr. Lk 12,39-48) This point is reinforced in that gospel story about a rich young man who asked Christ how he can inherit eternal life (cfr. Mk 10,17-27). It is a poignant warning among the so-called good Christians who may already be doing a lot of good but still are unwilling to give all to God. It’s a story that effectively reveals what is truly inside our heart. Is our heart really for God or is it actually just for ourselves though it can be showy about being Godly? The man in the gospel readily admitted that he had been observing the commandments, as Christ articulated them again. But when he was told what he had to do to merit ...

By Carlos V. Cornejo Faith is a very rich virtue. Much like the virtue of charity it has many definitions. Faith in God means to believe, to trust and to obey Him. St. Thomas Aquinas calls faith as the door to the spiritual life. It is the door to our relationship with God. One of the definitions of faith in the Catechism of the Catholic Church states that, “Faith is first of all a personal adherence of man to God. At the same time, and inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed. As personal adherence to God and assent to his truth, Christian faith differs from our faith in any human person. It is right and just to entrust oneself wholly to God and to believe absolutely what he says. It would be futile and false to place such faith in a creature (both humans and created things).”   (CCC 150) We practice faith in our everyday life and often times we are not aware of it. We have faith in a jeepney driver that he would drive us safely to our intende...

B y Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo The term powerful here means authoritative and forceful. Holy Scripture contains many powerful statements and one of them is from the Gospel of St. Matthew that says, “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet lose their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? (Matthew 16:26) No human being past, present or future could utter those words. No wise man, such as Confucius or Buddha could ever think of making those statements because it is not an earthly statement. It is not earthly wisdom but heavenly wisdom. An out of this world statement. It is not earthly because it talks about the soul not the body. And because it is an out of this world Person that talks about it. The gospel passage basically means that you might gain all the things that this world would cherish such as wealth, honor, pleasure, and power in great abundance and yet that’s nothing compared to losing one’s soul.   The losing of one’s soul does no...

UNLESS our human laws can capture the logic behind that divine commandment to love one another as Christ has loved us and continues to love us, even to the extent of loving our enemies, we can only say that indeed our human laws, despite all the good things they can accomplish, can only do so much for us. Our human laws can only struggle to capture the divine wisdom of loving our enemies because they are designed more to maintain order, human justice and protection within a society, whereas the commandment to love our enemies is a moral and spiritual teaching that certainly goes beyond the scope of legal codes. Our human laws can mandate behaviors like not harming others, but they cannot legislate things that are mainly on the spiritual and supernatural levels which actually are the ultimate dimensions that shape our life not only as persons but also as children of God, created in God’s image and likeness. While we obviously need to be governed by the rule of law, we should also ...

By Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo In Genesis Chapter 22 of the Old Testament, God put Abraham to test by asking Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a human sacrifice only to be held on when Abraham was about to kill Isaac. Many atheists would point out to this Scripture story as another proof of the absurdity of a God who asked a father to kill his son but stops him when His creature was almost done obeying Him. Atheists would claim that this Christian God is playing games with His creatures. Therefore, according to them, it’s another proof that He does not really exist. What the atheists don’t understand was the purpose of the test. It was all about fulfilling the virtue of Charity. God wanted to see if Abraham loves God above all, even more than his son. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines the Theological Virtue of Charity as the virtue by which “We love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.”   (CCC 1822) Theologians would s...

A NUMBER of times, Christ complained about the lack of faith of the people of his time. “This generation is a wicked generation: it asks for a sign, and a sign shall not be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet ,” he once said. ( Lk 11,29-32 ) We need to see to it that our faith is strong, deep, and abiding so we can go on with our daily activities with a profound sense of commitment and not just go through them with the attitude of simply complying with what is expected of us. To do things and to live with a sense of commitment means that we should be driven by some core belief which in none other than a belief in God. We would always be aware of doing things with and for our Lord and because of that, we would do things in the best way we can, despite our limitations and the various conditionings that we are subject to. When we have a good sense of commitment, we would show determination in fulfilling it, a determination that can only spring from love. We make a promise...

THAT gospel episode, where some resurrection-deniers among the Jews tested Christ with a tricky question about the resurrection, gave Christ the chance to talk precisely about this truth of our Christian faith. (cfr. Mk 12,18-27) They approached him and posed the question about whose wife a woman who married seven brothers, one after another, would be among the brothers at what they regarded as the so-called resurrection. And so, Christ told them that at the resurrection, everyone would have gone beyond our earthly condition to enter into our spiritualized and supernatural condition. Yes, we will still retain our body. But that body will be fully subjected to its spiritual and supernatural condition where marriage, whose main purpose is procreation, would already be irrelevant. As Christ said, in the resurrection, we would be like angels, but angels with a body. We will not be pure spirits. And then he proceeded to explain about the resurrection by citing some passages in the Bo...

By Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo The title above does not say, “Why did God create evil ?” because God does not directly create evil. All that God created is good. We men are the ones who have spoiled creation and created evil. God only allows evil to happen but always for a good purpose. Life is full of good things. Some of them are very good. But life is also full of bad things:   sin, suffering, disease, death, disappointments, fears, follies, and failures. A religion that does not take into account the “dark side” of life is unrealistic and incomplete. The Catholic Church , like God Himself, has always taken evil seriously, in real life as well as in thought. First, let’s discuss evil and its nature. Evil is the most serious problem in the world for three reasons:   one, it is the only anti-God thing in the world. Second, evil is the strongest argument against the existence of God, the only reason for atheism :   if God is good why does He allow evil? There are many ...

AT one time , Christ told this parable about how to behave when invited to some special event. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor. A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him, and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then you would proceed with embarrassment to take the lowest place.” (Lk 14,8-9) He is obviously telling us that we should avoid feeling entitled and privileged because of some position or status we enjoy in life. We should rather try to pass unnoticed, always concerned with doing a lot of good and with the eagerness to serve anyone and everyone. This way we would be imitating Christ who is the very pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity. And with him, we would already have everything we truly need. We would have no more need for any earthly consolation or compensation. It is with him that we have our tr...

CHRIST clearly said, nay, commanded us to do so. (cfr. Lk 6,27) We, of course, could not help but be incredulous by these words of Christ. Why oh why should we love our enemies when our very basic common sense would tell us the opposite? We truly need to pause a little to find why Christ, who is supposed to be the embodiment of love, the very essence of God, would say so. And the only answer we can find is that precisely God, who is full of love, cannot hate anyone or anything. And Christ showed it to us by offering his life for all our sins. He even offered forgiveness to those who crucified him. Whenever we have to deal with our enemies in whatever form they can come to us—whether in the form of persons or contradictions, difficulties, trials, failures, etc.—we should be quick to acknowledge that we are actually given a chance, an invitation to grow in love, to conform our love to the real love that Christ has shown us. Let’s also remember that Christ himself commanded us to lo...

THAT gospel episode about Christ’s disciples experiencing a terrible tempest at sea while Christ was simply sleeping in one corner of the boat (cfr. Mt 8,23-27) should remind us that while we cannot help but be filled with fear and worries when all kinds of life’s troubles would assail us, we should never lose the hope that Christ will always come to our aid one way or another. We should try to recover our hope and serenity so that we can be in a better condition to tackle the many challenges of our life. We have to train ourselves to have this kind of reaction, knowing that trials and all kinds of difficulties are unavoidable in our life. Let’s never forget what Christ once said: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (Jn 16,33) In all our affairs and situations in life, we should always go to God to ask for his help and guidance, and to trust his ways and his providence, even if the outcome of our prayers and petitions appears unanswere...

By Noralyn Dudt FAITH and science collide, often the saying goes. But developments in biochemistry and cell biology are proving otherwise. A biochemist peers into a tiny cell and   he stands in awe by the intricacies of the molecular machines that reside there which science has been uncovering over the last decade. There are elegant machines that translate RNA into protein, others that help move the cell around and others that transmit signals from the cell surface to the nucleus, traveling along a cascading pathway of multiple components. And   It is not only   the cell that provokes a sense of astonishment -- entire organs that are made up of billions or trillions of cells are constructed in a way that can only inspire awe. Consider, for instance, the human eye, a complex camera-like organ whose anatomy and physiology continue to impress even the most sophisticated student of optics. Dr. Francis Collins, a renowned geneticist and former director of the National Ins...