Among the 101

I learned lately from a priest-friend that I was presented as among the 101 priests to be followed on Google. To be honest, it was flattering enough to be mentioned ( I remembered that while in high school I strove hard to be what Cardinal del Val's Litany of Humility asked: the desire to be forgotten. I still do so today most especially. I'm afraid that I'm so far from being what the saintly Cardinal prayed for). But digesting the good piece of news made me realize that this means that I need to be more availing of this media in order to teach, share and inspire. Thanks to Fr. Zenki Manabat for the tip (and the example of his assiduous and fruitful blogging), and I hope to post more thoughts, reflections, insights and experience in the immediate future!

THE TRUE FACE OF SEX

Is it just me, or am I witnessing what someone one day described as " a veritable avalanche of sex and filth" in mainstream media, both print and digital? Reflecting on that combination, a deeper truth would cause me to recoil at the way "sex" has been paired with "filth". Yet sadly what I myself would observe nowadays seems to justify this unholy tandem. As an afterthought, I think "Lies" needed to be added to the two as a third party. TV shows and series that present marital infidelity and homosexuality (the lifestyle, and not the mere tendency) not just as a reality (which need not be denied as a present reality) but more as an option that could be ideal; surveys that may seek to present an objective fact, but which may be used to argue that teen and pre marital sex, homosexual lifestyles and sexual deviance be treated as the normal, the "in" thing in society nowadays. 

There are so many voices, a real cacophony, while will serve mainly to confuse. Proponents would argue that this is a fruit of the sexual revolution. It is true that what we are witnessing are products of the revolution that erupted in the late '60's. BUT WHAT EARLIER GENERATIONS PERCEIVED AS A REVOLUTION THAT LIBERATED, WE IN OURS REALIZE AS A REVOLUTION THAT IS CLAIMING COUNTLESS VICTIMS. 

In this revolution, the great number of its victims are the youth. We are witnessing the growth of a victimized generation that would later go on to be victimizers. 

Going back to that avalanche, there is a need to counter the revolution with another one: that of love, love that lies at the very heart of sexuality and which gives it its authentic face. Love which is the only one capable of making the true beauty of human sexuality shine.

These considerations push me as a formator to speak about sex to the young people under my charge. I believe that in the seminary, formators need to speak about this to their seminarians, in a manner that is frank, to reveal the true face and beauty of sexuality, to teach that "sex" and "filth" need not go together, and that such was not the plan of the Creator "in the beginning"; that sex is not shameful, you don't talk about it in whispers, that it goes beyond skin-deep, and looks toward the fulfillment of the whole human person. I owe it to my seminarians, especially in the high school seminary. 

But parents also owe it to their children to talk about it with them, in a manner that is sincere, that is honest, frank, and based on the truth of is great gift. Educating children and the youth in the beauty of authentic sexuality forms part of any Christian parent's witness to Christ. You owe it to Christ as well: to be brave, to be truthful, and most of all to be loving.

Of loaves and fishes

The Gospel for today once more shows us the immense love that lies in the heart of the Savior. Concerned for the people who have come from all parts to follow him and listen to his words, he calls upon the Twelve to feed the multitude. The apostle have merely enough to feed themselves. But the Lord presses them to do what is virtually impossible, judging from the very limited resources. Taking from what his men have and which they have offered to him, after having blessed them, they suddenly become enough to feed the hungry multitude.

The Lord knows that by ourselves we have nothing much to offer that could give him sufficient glory. And yet he continues to ask for our correspondence to his grace. In,y when we have given the little that we could possibly give to The Lord could miracles truly happen, only when we have generously surrendered the little that we have could we be able to feed the multitude.