This time after the almost daily rains, I heard that sound again. A bird that sound as if it was singing Happy Birthday Song in crisp flutelike sound, a manifestation of God’s love. This piece I wrote in 2021 is a manifestation of God’s love and today let me thank Thee…

In that fateful early morning Typhoon Odette ends its rather rude crumpling and blowing, I carried my sleeping bag and walked into the car. From my office here in Leyte Normal University as I trod that red brick road close to the trees near the IGP Canteen one peculiar thing happened, I vividly heard the happy singing of a yellow striped bird which to my astonishment sounds like the first few notes of that Happy Birthday song in a surprising monosyllabic staccato. I swear it was that sound and I felt a small chuckle inside. I said to myself the birds surely are happy that the winds of Odette did not level their homes and they are witnessing a new start. As the Sun hits my checks, I felt the task ahead and the damage to my friends in Cebu, Bohol, Southern Leyte and even Surigao, would be a no chirping matter, at that instant my emotions recoiled from the happy observance of a grateful bird to the sad denouement after yet another brush with nature’s fury.

So how does birds, trees ,men and Sun connects? It’s a question that cannot be answered as perfectly as the Storm can. Its wrath and anger unleashed, its winds packing a wallop of destruction and death. The storm can cancel the Sun, mow down trees, drive away birds and kill unlucky men who had been hit and happen to be in its track. Needless to say, the connection is seen in the detail of the storm.

The birds knew when a storm is coming. Research has shown that birds can hear infrasound (ref) and are sensitive to barometric pressure (ref and ref), so they know when a storm is on its way — especially when the storm is as large and as powerful as a hurricane. During storms birds hide in dense trees and bushes.

They may be able to find some calmer areas on the leeward side of a woods, protected from some of the winds. … Birds may hide there as well, very low to the ground.(google.com).

Anyway the thing is some birds survives the storm by hiding, much like humans. In all its grand ego, humans fled and hides from the storm. It recognizes that fact, man is no match to the power and sheer force of weather systems, at times however, when Man boldly challenges the storm, it can be its demise.

As the trees near that area in our university rustles its best movement and that corny bird clad in yellow and green with black stripes sings its version of gratitude, I remember that we are lucky to be spared, for now. As I gaze at the rays of the morning sun adjusting its light on us, I mumbled a prayer of thanks as I looked down, I prayed more for those who was struck with more fury, those who have seen that dreaded eye of the storm, I felt so sad. And that bird tweeted its own version of gratitude hymn and I did not know whether to feel sad or glad.

TEMPTATIONS will always be around. And we just have to be prepared to deal with them properly. The secret is to learn how to be like Christ precisely at the moment when he himself was tempted three times by the devil. (cfr. Mt 4,1-11).

It’s important that in dealing with this fact of life, we should never lose hope. Instead, we should somehow in a sense welcome it. That’s because temptations are an occasion for us to identify ourselves more tightly with Christ and to make progress in our spiritual life. No virtue is developed and made stronger if no temptations would test us.

Let’s remember that Christ vanquished the tempter for us. (cfr. CCC 540) By contemplating Christ, who allowed himself to be tempted and who triumphed, we can fill ourselves with hope in our constant struggle against temptations and sin. We can manage to have peace of mind and avoid unnecessary stress. With Christ, we know we have the power to resist temptation.

St. Augustine had this wonderful piece of advice: “Recognize yourself tempted in Christ and recognize yourself also a conqueror in Christ.” Now that is the real challenge for us—how we can identify ourselves like Christ when temptations come around. We indeed need a lot of discipline to enable us to achieve that ideal.

We should be constantly aware of the three concupiscences that are the sources of our temptations—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. We should never forget that every day we have to contend with the enemies of God and of our soul—our wounded flesh, the allurements of the world, and the devil himself.

To deal with them properly, we have to imitate Christ in his “prayer, fasting and vigilance.” Through these means, we can expect to be like Christ who never gave an inch to distance himself from the will of the Father.

In fact, he corrected the tempter in his twisted use of some truths, since as is well known, temptations will always make use of some truths and twist them, appealing to our concupiscences to take us away from God. That’s why it is important to really know the truth as revealed to us by God through Christ in the Holy Spirit and taught to us authoritatively by the Church and given witness to by the saints.

What can help us in this regard is to practice what Christ himself advised us: to deny ourselves and to carry his cross. That’s how we can manage to stick to the will of God rather than the will and ways of the tempter. In other words, we have to give our whole heart to God which is what true love is, protecting ourselves from our tendency to fall into self-indulgence. Yes, detachment and temperance are necessary here.

We have to be wary of our tendency to let our ego to take the place of God. We have to be tightly guarded against this danger by always doing things with God and for God, with purity of intention and great eagerness which is the sign of true love. We need to be hot for God, not cold nor lukewarm.

Obviously, we should always feel the need to ask for strength from God from whom all good things come. With that attitude, we can manage to be confident in facing whatever temptations can come our way in this vale of tears we have in this world!