IN the gospel, there is a part where Christ lamented about the lack of faith of the people. “This generation is an evil generation,” he said. “It seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” (Lk 11,29)

We need to understand that faith is the original and ultimate source of truth about everything—about God, about ourselves, about the world and the whole of creation. We need to understand that faith is a gift from God the Creator who wishes to share his knowledge of everything with us who have been created to be like him, his image and likeness, sharers of his divine life and nature.

Faith gives us the over-all picture of things. While it has to be learned, and the learning process obviously requires certain stages, not to mention tremendous effort also, we need to understand that the pursuit to have the fullness of faith should be of prime importance to us. We need to do everything to acquire that faith in its fullness.

We have to be wary of our tendency to set aside faith or at least to have recourse to it only from time to time, because we may feel that with our human knowledge brought about by our sciences, technologies, philosophies and ideologies, etc., we can already be on our own and declare some independence from God and from the faith that he gives us.

Part of the problem we have in this regard is that belief that by resorting to faith, we would be undermining our human powers, our capacity to know, our reason, etc. Nothing can be father from the truth. Faith, in fact, requires the full use of our human faculties. It does not do away with them, nor treat them as unimportant. Faith would not be faith if it ignores our reason.

We just have to realize that our reason alone cannot cope with all the reality and the truths that are relevant to us. These are truths that are spiritual and supernatural in character, and therefore are beyond what our human powers can handle.

But despite the limitations of our human powers, we have the capacity to live by faith if only we are humble enough to accept the truths of our faith since they are given to us not just by a human authority but by God himself who reveals himself in Christ who in turns makes himself present and actively intervening in our lives, through the Church and the many instrumentalities in the Church.

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.

We need to check our attitudes and dispositions. Do we really look for him, in the manner spelled out by Christ himself, that is, with constancy and determination? Christ said: “Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” (Mt 7,7)

What obviously would help is the habit of reading and meditating on the gospel, at least for a few minutes everyday. In that way, we get to know Christ better, and to familiarize ourselves with his words, deeds and reactions to the different situations he encountered. Let’s remember that since he is “the way, the truth and the life,” everything in him will always be a guide to us.

In what could be considered as the official stand of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said “sugar importation should be allowed if local production is unable to meet the rising demand to prevent further price increases.”

He (Balicasan) was further quoted saying “Local production has to grow. Now if it cannot grow, imports should be allowed . Otherwise, prices will continue to skyrocket.”

It should be noted that sugar prices have been rising by over five percent per month since the start of 2022, a pace considered by observers as fast. NEDA honcho identifies the biggest problem of the sugar industry is the “insufficient volume of supply” – proven by the falling production in recent years, aggravated by typhoon Odette that hit the country during the cropping year.

The issue of sugar production shortfall has caused one of my fellow Outstanding Young Scientists departure from his post with the Department of Agriculture – referring to Dr. Leocadio Sebastian (who was VP of the Outstanding Young Scientists Association of the Philippines during my watch as President). This made me think naughtily that DA is not an office-friendly government agency as another fellow young scientist in Dr. William Dar got a “whipping” during his sojourn as secretary.

MY COMMENT:
Scientists are not meant to join the DA least suffer the destinies of my fellow outstanding young scientists – go elsewhere – science and politics are immiscible! Tomodachi-tachi Dr. Leo was for sugar importation, Dr. Balicasan is up production.
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