Eudaimonia = Grace + God

          Inevitably, each human being has the inner dynamism to search for what makes him happy. Indeed according to a great ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, ‘the purpose of human life is to attain happiness.’ Be that as it may however, we crave to obtain such human thirst no matter what the means are. We forget that we are not the gauge for everything to exist but rather we just belong to the community of existents. We fail to realize that ‘Homo est non mensuram omnium’. 

            After a deep introspection in relation to the value of Grace ‘per se’, I reach to the point that we are indeed, pre-determined to be in union with God and that is only possible through grace. However, this idea of pre-determination must not be conceived akin to the Protestants conception about the term inasmuch as it would be an extreme approach to say ‘sola gratia’ is the only way for us to be saved. Nonetheless to add, we must also have good works because St. James once stated, “Faith without good work is dead”. 

        In connection to this, comprehending St Augustine’s conviction about ‘grace’ enables me to say that we human beings are not really having the absolute autonomy of ourselves although we still have our part – i.e. to do good. We truly tend to need God for in Him is the GRACE to will and accomplish actions for our eternal salvation. Thus, St. Augustine’s Doctrine of Grace is truly a magnanimous contribution to ponder upon as we continue to live in this ephemeral world.

Is Virtual Real?

      Since time immemorial, interaction between people in a community is already a part of existence. Indeed, one of the natures of a human being is to be social. One cannot define to be who and what he is unless he is in communion with a particular locus or situation he is with. However, the usual concept of the term ‘interaction’ has become deteriorated on this days. As the world has become so advanced in technology wherein the social media is one among the many discoveries, the new era of development invades the human minds leading to forfeit the essence of interaction ‘per se’. What we consider real has seemingly become those that exist mostly to our very own ideal image. The tendency of this is that those virtual facts which are supposed to be unreal in the ‘here and now’ have been perceived to be the reality. We tend to visualize things based on our own gauge while refracting such to the beauty of nature in reality.

       Now a lot of applications available in the internet are offering us a lot of virtual realties, the most recent ones are what most young generation of today had enjoyed: the internet games. Not only with games but also other stuffs, videos, images visual effects and many more. With all these technologies, these aid us to materialize all our ideal pictures including the kind of environment, persons and structures we desire to see in the reality. We forget that we become so selfish enough to think that we can be the ‘mensura omnium’ or the measure of everything that exists akin to the conviction of the sophist, Protagoras. Be that as it may however, these discoveries on virtuality is not to be conceived as objectively evil also inasmuch as it has good effects also. This can be an avenue for some to express their real feelings if they can’t express it face to face.

            

El Effecto Francisco: El Papa del Cambio

        Celebrating the liturgical year being the year of the poor, we, Christ’s Faithful have become privileged enough to have an exemplar icon of a leader of what it is to serve the poorest of the poor being a Servus Servorum Dei. Having a pope like Pope Francis is truly a blessing to the entire Roman Catholic Church. Indeed, Pope Francis has made a remarkable gesture when he was elevated to the papacy last March 13, 2013. The supreme pontiff who is known for his simplicity and humility, who constantly desire to embrace and share his faith to everyone keeps on urging us to recover the original freshness of the Gospel through comprehensive and effective renewal of the church structures and vision. Here in the Philippine Church setting, it would be an avenue to reflect upon as we continue to express our faith.

       As the Philippines has the opportunity to meet such one-of-a-kind celebrity, then beyond reasonable doubt, it is a privilege not to be neglected. Certainly, his visit to our country will result a big impact to believers and non-believers of Catholic faith alike. This is inasmuch as for the faithful it is a hustle-free anymore to meet the pope in person instead of going to Vatican while for non-believers, it is an opportunity for them to get acquainted of a down-to-earth person not as a leader but as a real man in words and actions while observing his legacy on the essence of mercy and compassion. As for me as a seminarian, if given a chance to be acquainted with him, then inevitably it would be a great opportunity for me to experience. I would feel gratuity so to think if this will happen. However, sad to say that as the pope visits here in our country on January 15-19, 2014, I will not be one of the persons who will have the chance to meet him in person. Be that as it may however, I will remain grateful because he does not forget his flock here in the Philippines who needs comfort being victims of the last calamities: viz. earthquake and typhoons. Hence, kudos to Pope Francis and mabuhay ang Pilipinas!

Valuing Freedom

            Often I ask, why I behave like this, why I decide to do things like that and how come I commit mistake? Am I obliged to commit such in order for me to know how to become right someday and eventually decipher that truly life is a union of opposites wherein we cannot know the reality of a something unless we experience the opposite? If so, how embarrassing life should be? In fact sometimes these experiences lead me to the point of blaming my Creator who is the Ultimate Source of my existence (i.e. The Supreme Being-God). If I were not given freedom as one of His greatest gifts to humankind, I may not act the way I act as I am today because ‘agere sequitor esse’ for action defines to be who and what I am.

            Martin Heidegger points it out that man is Dasein (i.e. being in the world) yet while fully immersed in the world, he is not fully ‘of the world’. He does not drift into the trivialities the world offers for such will just make him preoccupied with these things, but instead he keeps on withdrawing in order to reflect and remind himself of his ultimate purpose. However, it remains a challenge on how he becomes able to define his existence inasmuch as the circumstance he is to participate with is limited to the situation where he exists corporeally. Example if he lives in America, then subsequently he will have an orientation and life style akin to that of the Americans. If he were in the Philippines, then it will follow that he is immersed to the Filipino culture unlike to those of Chinese, Russians or Europeans leading to a subjective conviction if what we can define to be human ‘per se’. In addition, by the fact that we exist as finite, quantified, flawed and problematic beings, then it becomes inevitable to commit wrong acts.

            Yet after a deep introspection, I come to the point of comprehending that the option I can do is to accept these realities of being human while thinking that these are merely challenges to overcome. To expound, those are just spices for me whether I am already mature enough to face the reality of life ‘per se’. Besides freedom should not be cognised to be something negative but instead we take its implication as positive. Indeed, Richard Gula states that freedom denotes an obligation. It enables us to subordinate our self-interests in order to give a greater degree of preference to serving the needs of others over our own. This is the kind of freedom that makes our gifts as instruments of God’s love. In discerning, we have Jesus Christ, our Lord as a model of the free and faithful response to God, and we have the Holy Spirit to empower us to make such a response. Hence, I must accept that I am not totally dependent of my own free will however there is God who serves as an antecedent who influences me in every endeavour I may take.