Why Catholics Went to Mass on December 8, a Thursday

This post is a day late ... but perhaps it's just fitting. We usually reflect after an event, and yesterday was busy. In the middle of a still busy work at the end of the day, I ran to attend Mass with my family, wearing my white Extraordinary Minister's uniform to help the priest distribute the Eucharist to mass goers.

Yesterday was a day of obligation for Catholics. It was the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

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Now what is that?

Outside of God, where else could we really go?

Gratitude ... that's the one word that I believe summarizes the gospel today.

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Yesterday, I was reading an article about how science begins to acknowledge the biblical account of creation as that which more closely relates with their findings - a starting point for everything (the Big Bang) and a seemingly grand design that underpins them all.

A scary Advent message for us all

Today is the first day of Advent with a scary message in the gospel for all of us. The gospel talks about being prepared for Christ's second coming, which will come "like a thief" in the night.

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"In [those] days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be [also] at the coming of the Son of Man."

Believe it or not, I do have a King

Believe it or not, I do have a King (capital "K"). I know, I know, hindi halata, di ba? That's because I'm more of a prodigal son. In every mass, I come sincerely pleading, "Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. I broke someone's argument and pride to smithereens again in FB. I'm no longer worthy to be called a Christian."

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Sometimes, I don't know what my sins are. I just feel guilty for some reason. That's perhaps because the past week I have debated with not a few people in Facebook about political matters. I don't know if we commit a sin by tackling political issues. It just isn't a topic that nice people discuss . . . and I'm not a nice person. Ginusto ko na nang ilang beses na bumait. Di ko magawa. Tanggap ko na po yan.

Sunday Thoughts: Prudence in the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of man

Without exception, all us have dual citizenships, members of two kingdoms. We are citizens of the Philippines (or whatever country you've sworn allegiance to). That's the kingdom of man. The other is the Kingdom of God. In both kingdoms, there are those who swear allegiance to the ruler and there are those who reject the ruler.

Let me share with you some thoughts about that:

1. Like the two faces of a coin, we have a face to show to both kingdoms. These faces are imprinted on the same coin ... on the same person - you, me, he, she. Whatever a person does in either kingdom always speaks about the character of that very same single person.

Sin is the Absence of God

Four years ago, I had a protracted discussion online about religion with a friend who left the Church. You have an idea how "pleasant" that discussion was, right? I held up my "fort" for weeks until someone hacked his email account and silence enveloped our channel for 4 years. He complained to me about that a few days ago. Not wishing he'd begin insinuating that I did the hacking, I told him about Google's 2-step verification system.

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Anyhow, without boring you with details about what we discussed, I just thought at first that he was a born again Christian. Deeper into our discussion, I saw that he was an agnostic. Just recently, a chance conversation with him (seemingly from outer space) blew me away as he declared, "Life did not start with conception! Life started billions of years ago" or something like that.

Who's the servant? Who's not?

When you find yourself surrounded by people who would readily smile and shake hands with politically correct thieves, destroyers of young lives and the incompetent, rather than work with someone who swears, seriously runs after hardened criminals and promote meritocracy in society, then you'd simply know that you need to shed off a lot of things.

This is an imperfect world that gives us an array of imperfect options. So, let's do a bit of reflection.

When a criminal enters a man's home and touches his family, that man will tackle that criminal and kill him on the spot if the situation so requires. Only then can we expect that man to pause and pray for that lost soul and, perhaps, his own. That man won't care about any political correctness nor the prospect of going to jail. All he'd care about is the survival and honor of his family, whatever that would take.