“Oh you Pharisees! Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil.” (Lk 11,39)
This is the typical reaction of Christ toward the rigid rules of the Pharisees, who make a big issue out of little things while ignoring the bigger and more important things. Remember Christ accusing them with these words: “You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.” (Mt 23,24)

We need to be careful with our tendency to fall into this predicament that we call as hypocrisy, inconsistency, or not seeing the forest for the trees. This can only happen when we are not with Christ who as God knows everything, both the small and the big things, and as man shows us how to deal with that tendency so as not to get lost, confused, and more, how to maintain the proper unity of life despite the many and often conflicting things we have to consider.

We have to understand that only with Christ can we aspire to have unity and consistency in our life, one that is not rigid. Rather it is a consistency and unity that knows how to adapt itself properly given the different and changing conditions and circumstances of our life.
So, we really have to earnestly pursue the effort of living and defending our Christian identity all the time. We should not be afraid to show our Christian identity at all times and in all situations. We should not be Christian by name only, but also by our thoughts, desires and deeds, and in all aspects of our life. We should not be Christian in good times only, but also, and most especially, in bad times. We should not be Christian only in our sacred moments, but also in our mundane activities.

This does not mean that we have to flaunt our Christian identity or to exude some kind of a triumphalistic aura. In fact, we have to be most natural and discreet about it. But it should not be hidden because of fear or shame.

Remember Christ saying: “Everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in heaven.” (Mt 10,32-33)

That Christ is the Son of God who became man to redeem us means that God in Christ through the Holy Spirit identifies himself with each one of us at all times. This is the basis for keeping a consistency in our Christian identity.

This is what our Catechism teaches us clearly: “Christ enables us to live in him all that he himself lived, and he lives it in us. ‘By his Incarnation, he, the Son of God, has in a certain way united himself with each man.” (Catechism 521)

Let us remember what Christ said so clearly. He is the vine, we are the branches. We can only have life, let alone, consistency and fruitfulness in our life, if we are united to him. Outside of him, we can only expect death, inconsistency and sterility.

Yes, only in and with Christ can we have the real principle of unity and fruitfulness in our life. We would be fooling ourselves if we fail to recognize this basic truth about ourselves.

Everytime we humans partake food, someone has to die.

The plants we uproot and we cut, dies. The animals we have to slaughter and dismembered. The Fishes we uproot from the seas and we hooked, choked and eventually boil. The fowls we shot and decapacitate and the species of flora and sfauna who shows up our table are sacrificial lambs to appease our hunger and entertain us. Creating nourishment and emotional security. They die so we may live.

We humans are never lacking of anything, the Earth provides. It gives food, shelter and furthermore, it gives wonder. It allows survival and creates hope.

While we wantonly destroys natures way of maintaining our survival , we seldom gets an epiphany, we miss the lessons, we never recognize the pedagogy and the methods of natures teaching. We harvest more, we gather beyond our carrying capacity we use too much and plant too little.

We fast track processes that takes decades to complete , we exploit resources and never worry of the fiture, we need to have more today. We call this Earth as Mine not ours! That is why there is Mining and its root word is Mine, not Ours.

Everytime, we partake in a meal we are reminded that living things had died so you will have your fill. Everytime , we see and eat the delicious Peking Duck and Baby Back Ribs we fail not to see the sacrifice of that pitiful fowl and that gentle beast.

We must be grateful for the furtherance of our lives, someone or something has to stop living.

Next time you have your good fill in that sumptuous banquet, remember to be grateful.

In the capacity building training conducted by the Department of Agriculture (DA-7), with a theme “Halal Food Industry Development Program, the DA strongly believe that halal prepared foods could prosper in both domestic and foreign markets, moreso with the growing muslim population in bigger cities.

Halal, a muslim associated term mentioned in the quoran is defined as clean, permissible and lawful. Halal prepared/processed food while ‘meant’ for out muslim brothers and sisters, are also recommended for consumption by non-muslims as well.

What was started in by DA-7 earned praises from the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF), that pushed for halal foods as an add export item by the country.
My experience about halal food, especially meat products, was during my 9 years plus stint in the Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, as an OFW with the academe. As ‘virtually’ head of then 25,000 strong OFWs in Oman, I was happy to know that a high percentage favored buying halal foods with their families.

MY COMMENTS:
I recommend to the non-muslim Filipinos to patronize halal prepared foods and an advise to Filipino entrepreneurs to include halal food business in their production line – in line with PBBM cum DA honcho’s mandate for food security.

ooo000ooo

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They’re all over social media, enticing people with their huge incomes earned in just short spans of time. They include pictures of their paychecks, thick money bills, newly-acquired elegant homes, and newly-bought glossy cars, expensive tours to world-class destinations, and many more.

Sometimes, they interact with their colleagues in the comments section, boasting about how they earned so much in just a few days. Their income based on their claims is unbelievable, surpassing the salaries of managers and company presidents, even those that work overseas and earn dollars. They are practically earning millions as claimed.
Why can’t they just keep their successes to themselves? Why not just keep quiet and enjoy what they earn? Why boast of their huge earnings with widespread publicity? Well, it’s because they are enticing people to join them in their company. In short, they are recruiting people. Why, what are they up to?

These people are into what we call the networking business. They earn by way of recruitment. The more people they recruit, the bigger earnings they get.

Theirs is very much like the pyramiding schemes that proliferated not so long ago. Countless people got hooked on joining these. They invested huge capital, but sad to say, many of them failed to recover their investment. They lost their hard-earned money to scammers.

This time, though, these companies have devised a new scheme—they now have products to sell or consume. When you join, you invest big amounts of money, but get their equivalent in terms of goods or wellness products. You can sell and earn as a result, or you may just consume them yourself. But these purchases further entitle you to commission percentages and a position in the pyramid of recruits.

In their recruitment ads, it appears as though the huge earnings you are to get are the salaries you will receive. But they are not. They are incentives you are likely to get if you will be able to recruit new investors. Such recruitment should never stop or else the said incomes will likewise stop.

It’s quite frustrating to those who join thinking that they will work as salaried workers. They hardly think that they are supposed to invest a huge amount, which they might not have hence their desire to work. Similarly, they do not expect that they will have to be recruiting people to do the same thing that they did.

Not only is it frustrating—but it’s also despicable to some. They look for jobs since they have no money, yet here comes a ‘company’ that will ‘employ’ them only if they will invest a big capital and recruit people to do the same. Despicable indeed, right? No wonder why many people are pissed off by these enticing advertisements. Who would not want fast and big income if only their companies are not into this networking thing?