Catching Up

Here we go again.

A lot has happened these past few weeks that I want to write about. Unfortunately, I usually don't have the time to write and when I do find time, I'm either tired or suffering from writer's block. 

Anyway, I'm still committed to this blog. Don't be surprised if, one of these days, I'll go on a spree.

Peace out.

The Ideal Woman

A woman's heart should be so hidden in God that a man has to seek Him just to find her.

The quote is from Maya Angelou, an American writer noted for redefining the autobiography genre.

I got the quote while I was browsing Facebook and came across one of the wedding pictures of Bro Franco and Sis Mae. It was a simple photo of the newlyweds with the quote strategically overlaid via Photoshop on the groom's suit.

The quote got me thinking about how the brothers in my community, Ang Lingkod Ng Panginoon (Lingkod), perceive women and what their criteria of the ideal girlfriend should be.

For me, the criterion was simple: someone just has to be smart for me to be infatuated at her. I've shared this to a lot of people that if a girl is smart, everything else follows. My thinking was that, considering their rarity, intellectually engaging women are and should be more attractive (Unfortunately, most guys don't share my sentiment). 

But Rommel, a fellow brother in the community, shared to me another thing that guys should be looking for instead. During our prior conversations, he talked about the 'essential' stuff that should be in every single guy's wish list when he's out looking for someone to court. It's non-negotiable. It's something that's more important than brains or beauty. And it goes something like this: the woman has to have a relationship with God.

It's simple really but it's something that's very hard to fake. I've had only glimpses of it observing everyone during the prayer meetings or even during our fellowships.

But it was during the Regional Lingkod Training Conference (RLTC) that I saw how transformative the quality was and how evident it is. For close to a week, I was surrounded with women whose aura were pleasantly different. Their genuine smiles spoke of the joy and happiness they felt inside. Their confident demeanor reflected the peace and serenity that pervaded their inner selves. The way they spoke, honored, and encouraged one another showed how much love they had to give. These were women of God and they were beautiful.

Angel, another Lingkod brother, shared to me the need to be with such a woman. A woman who has a strong relationship with God inevitably pushes her man to "level up": to be more Godly and holy. The man wants to become a better man for her and, because of the standard set by the woman, he does become one. He becomes more loving, more generous, more life-giving.

To end, the quote mentioned earlier sums it up: a godly woman chooses to love her man because she loved Him first. And a man, seeking to win her love, must be ready and willing to seek and find God.

Never Again

This is saddening. 

With a generation like this, it wouldn't be far-fetched to think that another Marcos can stay again in Malacanang.

To the younger generation: Please. Never again. Utang na loob. Study your history.

God and Suffering

God is not the source of suffering. But he allows suffering to happen. As to why, that's one of the biggest questions in history and also one of the biggest mysteries of Christianity.

This was the nugget of wisdom I got from the priest's homily last September 30 (sorry, I forgot the name of the priest). The first part was not new; I've heard Fr. Manny, a Jesuit, say this one time. But the latter part, where it says that even the Catholic Church has no answer to why a benevolent God would allow suffering, was novel. 

The first reading in that mass was about Job lamenting about his dreadful situation, specifically cursing the day of his birth. But, surprisingly, Job never got around to cursing God. 

Unfortunately, the book of Job doesn't answer the question on suffering either. Instead, the final parts of the book exhorts us to put our faith and hope in God in our times of distress, to lift up our suffering to Him who knows everything. 

This reminds me of a dialogue from the movie God on Trial. After Nazi soldiers begin herding Jewish prisoners into the gas chambers, a prisoner, Moche, asks the resident rabbi, "What do we do now?"

The answer? "Now, we pray."

There's no clear answer to why we suffer; the only thing we can do is to take solace in our God.

Human Personhood and Abortion (Part 2)

In a previous post, I shared an article by Peter Kreeft, a Philosophy professor, who debunked the position held by pro-choice advocates by demonstrating that their arguments are not logically sound.

In another article, Nina Martin writes about Justice Tom Parker and how he's subverting the precedent established by the Roe vs. Wade case, which legalized abortion in the U.S. How he is doing it is based on a simple assumption: that, in order to illegalize abortion, the fetus must be considered a person in the eyes of the law.

In the Philippines, abortion is already illegal. The 1987 constitution protects both the life of the mother and the unborn from conception. The Revised Penal Code of the Philippines (RPC) provides criminal penalties against women who undergo abortion and those who assist in such procedures.

In our country, most people recognize that unborn fetuses are indeed persons, as contemplated by law, and are to be accorded rights, including the right to life.

In the U.S., this assumption is still taking root several decades after the Roe vs. Wade case. What judge Tom Parker is doing is laying out the foundation, the jurisprudence necessary to overturn the current precedent. He is doing so by establishing in his opinions that fetuses already enjoy fetal rights, rights which show that existing statutes recognize fetuses as persons. From there, it can already be argued that fetuses also have a right to life or have the right to seek legal protection against abortion. 

As to whether Justice Tom Parker is successful in pushing this position if and when the right case comes along, we'll have to wait and see.

Here's the article: This Alabama Judge Has Figured Out How to Dismantle Roe v. Wade