Via Dolorosa, Davaoeño Style

[caption id="attachment_2559" align="aligncenter" width="468"] Photo by Janice Sabnal[/caption]

The Via Dolorosa or Stations of the Cross—the way of the suffering—recalled the fourteen events before Jesus Christ was crucified. Catholics all over the world continue until today to commemorate it. They follow the way Jesus took, if not in the actual road, at least in their own enclaves.

No country celebrates the Holy Week, particularly the Via Dolorosa which falls on Good Friday, with much fanfare, festivity, exuberance, pomp, and energy than the Philippines. Each city or province has its own way of commemorating it, and each seems unabashed in declaring that under its aegis the faith lives on, even if what's on display is far from what the occasion truly means, and its religious significance is lost on the religious themselves.

Due Process in the Garden of Eden

[caption id="attachment_2510" align="aligncenter" width="670"] Expulsion from the Garden of Eden by Giacinto Gimignani[/caption]

Human rights are recognized here and elsewhere in the world. These human rights include the right to life, liberty, and property. In these modern times, there are various safeguards against the arbitrary and whimsical deprivation of these rights.

In our Constitution, for example, Sec. 1, Art. III provides, "No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor shall any person be denied the equal protection of the laws."

Due process of law, in the classic definition by Daniel Webster, is a "law which hears before it condemns, proceeds upon inquiry and renders judgment only after trial."

The religious among us say that the concept of due process dates as far back as to the time of Adam and Eve. In Genesis, we first heard of the story of Adam and Eve.

How far will you go to prove your love?

I will go as far as Aklan.

Marianne and I will be leaving for Aklan on April 13 to attend the International Leaders' Conference of the Youth For Christ. She talked me into this. Of course, I didn't hesitate. Attending the ILC is like hitting two birds with one stone. We'll be able to have a trip together and at the same time thank God for making our relationship stronger and healthier.

Also the reason why I agreed to join, though I'm no longer a YFC but already an SFC,  is that Aklan is near Boracay, and Boracay is in our list of must-visit places. So we'll be going there, too,  by the end of the conference which will be at 12 noon of April 15. We'll stay there overnight, and then go home.

While in Boracay, we'll probably try some recreational activities like Banana Boating and Underwater Walking. But we can try those somewhere else. So I'm thinking of doing things we cannot do here, things one can do only in Boracay.

How about a walk along the beach? Who knows, we just might get sight some actors and actresses and controversial couples?

Confessions of a Marianne devotee

[caption id="attachment_2221" align="aligncenter" width="744" caption="Marianne and I during the JS Prom held at the Davao Convention Center."][/caption]

My girlfriend, Marianne, is a deeply religious woman. She is surrounded by equally religious people. Her sister is a nun, a member of the Ancillae Christi-Regis or Handmaids of Christ the King. Her parents are active members of the Couples for Christ. Her maternal grandmother came from Bohol, perhaps one of the regions in the Philippines that can be considered a bastion of Catholicism. She's not given to curse words. I never heard her say f*** or s***. She's ill at ease with people who backbite. She doesn't mingle with sycophants.

The problem is not that she's not virtuous enough. It's that she's so virtuous our colleagues say, and they sometimes tease me about this, that she's more likely to enter the religious life. Fear gripped me every time they talk about her being a nun. I couldn't stand to lose the woman I love.

I was afraid again when one day, a congregation visited Stella Maris to sell books and other religious articles. One nun gave her an invitation form. If you want to join our Search-In, the nun told her, fill out the form. She told me about the invitation. I feigned not to be affected by it and convinced myself to be realistic. It's just a Search-In, I kept telling myself, she's not going to be a nun yet. I prayed to God not to let the Search-In come to pass. God must be listening, for she was not able to attend the Search-In.

I somehow regretted having a girlfriend so in love with God. But later I regretted having regretted that I have a girlfriend so in love with God.

In the middle of October last year, I joined the Singles for Christ. In one of the teachings, we were taught that the first Christian ideal is to love God. Thereupon it dawned on me that I should not get in the way of my girlfriend and her God. And it's a precept we all would do well to follow.

If your girlfriend loves God more than you, don't hinder her. Feed that love.

If she wants to go to the Church, let her go to the Church. If possible, go with her.

If she wants to pray the Holy Rosary, let her pray the Holy Rosary. If possible, pray with her.

If she wants to visit the Adoration Chapel before going to work, let her visit the Adoration Chapel. If possible, visit with her.

My girlfriend loves God above all---above work, above family, above herself, and above me.

Do I envy it? No. Do I get frustrated if much of our time is spent attending masses? No. Do I feel like baduy if we spent our monthsary in Shrine? No.

Lest you think I'm a martyr, I'm not. But why I'm doing all these? It's because I've just unfolded the secret to a happy relationship, and it is this: A person who loves God shows that love by loving others. So the more I help her enkindle her love for God, the more she loves me back as an expression of her love for God.

Trust me. There's no point threatening your girlfriend she can't find someone like you, so she has to stick with you and follow whatever you want. And if you want to marry her someday, you must love the God she loves and follow what Shamcey Supsup said.

During the Q&A portion of the 2011 Miss Universe, Vivica A. Fox asked Shamcey Supsup if she would change her religion to marry the one she loves.

“If I had to change my religious beliefs," Shamcey said, "I would not marry the person that I love because the first person that I love is God who created me and I have my faith and my principles and this is what makes me who I am. And if that person loves me, he should love my God too.”

Boys don't just talk about sex

When boys gather and talk, what do they talk about?

They can talk about many things...

Girls.

Toys.

Sports.

Vices.

Sex.

Can they talk and share about God's love?

Recently, I joined the Christian Life Program (CLP) for Singles for Christ (SFC). It is a program by the Couples for Christ community to bring single men and women closer to God.

"SFC is a generation of single men and women experiencing the fullness of life and restoring the world for Christ."

It is not just an overnight encounter. There are 12 talks, each talk is held every Saturday night. For every session, there will be a speaker who will talk about the session's theme; then there's a sharer who will talk about his/ her personal experience and relate that experience to the theme.

After, there will be a small group discussion. Boys and girls are separated. I don't know why. Each group is headed by a DGL (Discussion Group Leader).

If there is one thing I proved when I joined the CLP, it is that aside from sex and other braggadocio, men are also capable of talking and sharing about how they experienced God's love in their lives.

It's, of course, awkward at first to open up and share the things you'd only share to people you know very well. But in time you'd realize that the more you become open the more you understand yourself.

I've so far attended two talks. Ten more talks to go. But I believe I'll be able to finish the program: There is just a lot of inspiration for me to continue. My friends are there. My mother is so supportive. My dream girl is so happy when she knew that I'd be joining.

And there is God. He needs no adjective.

In search of peace: SMAD celebrates the Mindanao Week of Peace

There were about ten people who stood in the center ground. Each was holding a white balloon. "Those balloons symbolize the prayers, hopes, and aspirations of all Marisians," said Mr. Oliver Calledo, the moderator of the Samahang Araling Panlipunan. "At the count of three, they will release the balloons." Then the balloons were released.

Retreat

Starting today until Saturday, I'll be leaving the blogosphere to attend the annual Student Assistant Scholars Organization (SASO) retreat at the Benedictine Retreat House, Ulas, Davao City.

The objectives of this retreat are (1) "to strengthen our relationship with God and with one another, and (2) to recharge for us to become more effective in our workplace."

To me, however, there is one more objective: To catch up some sleep and live like a señorito even just for three days.

Nurturing a gadfly

Developing critical minds in an environment that reeks of conservatism is a contradictory desire. In theory, it is desirable. But in practice, no one wants to nurture a gadfly, which most critical people would turn out to be.

"Care is taken not to expose him to ideas that might galvanize him from his cultural lethargy; then he's berated for being timid," declared Nick Joaquin two scores ago. "Care is taken to keep him cloistered amid the cobwebs of the conservative altar; then he's told to sit up and become a New Filipino."

Sounds like Catholic schools noh?

In fact, this has been manifested in the way our Catholic guardians react when a student in a Catholic school expresses his views with regard to the revelation of Mayor Duterte on the marriage of Fr. Lamata. They mistook the conduct of a curious student as a sacrilege, a blasphemy, or what have you. Instead of looking it as a sign that the student is thinking for himself, he is berated for doing so.

Ranido to Bishops: Shut up!

Mindanao Daily Mirror columnist Florencio A. Ranido devoted an entire column the other day to the Catholic Bishops', as Ranido called it, "pastime"---meddling on purely state matters:

They just cannot keep their big mouths shut and their hands off on purely State matters. The latest attempt by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines to meddle on affairs that exclusively belong to the State is the objection to moves by some administration officials and members of Congress to restore death penalty on heinous crimes specially on illegal drug traffickers. Continue reading...

The Catholic Church as a lobbyist

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="(Photo courtesy of www.nationalreview.com)"][/caption]



The fact that Catholic believers are launching an all-out war against the passage of the RH Bill into law is no cause for alarm. By all indications, it does not mean that we are going back to the middle ages when there's no distinction between the state and the church. It isn't a return to history. Far from it.

We should rather see the role especially of the Catholic Church in a different light. When the Catholic Church is vehemently opposing the RH Bill, in my opinion, it assumes the role of the lobbyist. The Catholic Church thus becomes one among many players of our democratic system that tries to use state apparatus to protect its special interest. Shutting its members from the debate over the passage of the RH Bill because it is entirely a secular matter betrays the democratic ideals that we espouse.

This, I realized after reading Robert Samuelson's Lobbying is Democracy in Action.

"We are a collection of special interests, and one person's special interest is another's job or moral crusade," writes Samuelson. "If people can't organize to influence government—to muzzle or shape its powers—then democracy is dead."

In the Philippine political context, it so happened that the Catholic Church wields considerable power so that it can influence the government like no other other interest groups can.

But the Catholic hierarchy should be too careful to not get lost along the way. While it has the right to oppose the RH Bill, it may be well to remind its hierarchy and its members that the state does not exist for Catholics alone.

Manuel L. Quezon III had it right when he issued this caveat: "our Republic does not exist for Catholics alone, and this means that their faith and morals cannot be made the exclusive basis for state policy."