TO be guided by our Christian faith should always be an abiding thing for us. We should never just rely on our own intelligence and the many ways and forms of human estimation. These can only do so much, but without faith, they cannot reach the ultimate goal meant for us.

We are somehow reminded of this reality in that gospel episode where some leading Jews approached Christ asking for a sign of who he really was. (cfr. Mt 12,38-42) That was when Christ told them about the many signs in the past that should answer their question. He told them about Jonah, the men of Nineveh, the Queen of the South and Solomon.

Faith, of course, is a difficult thing to deal with. And that’s mainly because it is something supernatural that contains truths that simply are mysterious to us. What makes us accept it is explained in the Catechism as follows:

“156 What moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed truths appear as true and intelligible in the light of our natural reason: we believe “because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived”.

And it continues: “So ‘that the submission of our faith might nevertheless be in accordance with reason, God willed that external proofs of his Revelation should be joined to the internal helps of the Holy Spirit.’

“Thus, the miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the Church’s growth and holiness, and her fruitfulness and stability ‘are the most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the intelligence of all’; they are ‘motives of credibility’ (motiva credibilitatis), which show that the assent of faith is ‘by no means a blind impulse of the mind’.”

We should really be concerned about developing an operative faith. Our faith should not remain only in the theoretical, intellectual level. It has to be a functioning one, giving shape and direction to our thoughts and intentions, our words and deeds. In fact, it should shape our whole life.

The ideal is that we feel it immediately and continually. Indeed, it should be like an instinct such that whatever we think, say or do, or whenever we have to react to something, it is our faith that should guide us before anything else.

We have to understand that it is our faith that gives us the global picture of things, since it is God’s gift to us, a gratuitous sharing of what God knows about himself and about the whole of creation. It is meant for our own good, for us to live out our true dignity as children of God.

It is a kind of knowledge that will lead us to our eternal life. It will make us relate everything in our earthly life, both the good and the bad, to this ultimate goal in life which is to be in heaven with God, a state that is supernatural. But it is a divine gift that we need to take care of. It is like a seed that has to grow until it becomes a big tree and bears fruit.
For this, we really need to have a living contact with Christ who is the fullness of God’s revelation to us. He is the substance, the content and the spirit of our faith. So, the first thing that we have to do is to look for him always in whatever thing we are thinking, saying or doing.

The Philippines, one of the countries frequently visited by natural calamities such as typhoon, floods, earthquake, landslides, etc., has appealed to multilateral development banks (MBDS) to ramp up financial support for countries vulnerable to climate change.
Climate crisis was one of the four top agenda during the held recently in Washington, USA. G -24 Ministerial Meetings of the 2023 Spring Meetings of the World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Secretary Benjamin Diokno, first vice-chairman of G-24 Bureau and World Bank Governor for the Philippines, said that “MDBS, should redouble their efforts in raising capital and expanding private sector participation to scale up climate investments.” Indeed, the Philippines incur as much as P1.5 trillion in losses from natural disaster in the next 5 decades. Also, as much as $4.12 billion from 2015 to 2030 is the estimated cost once climate change actions are implemented for priority sectors of energy, forestry, industry and transport alone.

The Philippines, through the Department of Finance (DOF), aims “to mainstream climate financing through policy harmonization and mobilize finance for green projects as well as engage with multilateral and development partners to be able to provide and channel grants, investments and subsidies for climate change mitigation and adaptation.”
In closing. Secretary Diokno was quoted stressing “the important role of WB in supporting countries, especially emerging markets and developing

MY COMMENT:
I wish to re-state by quoting the statement, thus: The United Nations earlier said the world be inhabitable unless governments everywhere reassess their energy policies.“ And that “The Philippine remains as one of the most climate-vulnerable countries over the past two decades.”
Indeed, climate change, the worst natural disaster can NEVER BE PREVENTED NOR STOPPED, but man can only mitigate and/or adapt to its ill-effects!

The tale that the president would tell the Filipino nation in his second State of the Nation Address (SONA) would be a narration of what the Marcos administration labeled as hits and misses based on the targets and promises laid in the first SONA. It would be recalled that the president emphasized on his election campaign promise to make the price of rice at twenty pesos per kilo as one of the major concerns of his administration. Amid the seemingly unattainable promise, he took the helm as secretary of the agriculture department ostensibly to provide direction to the plans and programs in the agriculture sector.

While the price of rice remained high, the electorate who were duped into believing on such promise remained poor as wages stagnated under the influence of capitalists owning big businesses. In the intervening period, prices of sugar skyrocketed as local producers were losing from the onslaught of imported sugar that the government permitted to selected private importers. The common people could not afford the extremely high sugar prices. Also, prices of bread and other products use sugar as an ingredient similarly went up.
The impact of such prices was followed with the increase of prices of onions. The situation got worse as food menus had to increase prices to at least cover the undue high prices of onions. People lived in undue hardship as the high prices of commodities were increasing unabatedly. Aside from the high prices, people had to look for such goods such as rice, sugar and onions which went scare in markets. Where there are limited supplies, people had to endure queueing long lines just to avail of rationed limited purchases.

The situation led congress to conduct investigations in aid of legislation. People witnessed the political hustling in such investigations, with members of the investigating committee toeing the line of the administration. While witnesses and documents bared that the undue price increases were artificial and caused by individuals who had connections with the administration, the buck stopped where high ranking officials were purportedly involved.
The importation of sugar was traced to permits issued by high ranking officials of the government who acted under instructions of the powers that be. In like manner, the hoarding of sugar and onions were made at the behest of those with the proper connections that were traced in the congressional probes. All that anomalous deals where scratched by the congressional inquiries merely on the surface. No definite conclusion was reached.

The individuals involved as found and identified in the congressional hearings were merely noted but no one was ever indicted before the courts. Meanwhile, we live in a state of low wages and high prices, and that is the true state of our nation.
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