In five hundred, twenty five thousand,
six hundred minutes
How do you measure a year in a life?
                            -Jonathan Larson Seasons of Love

The year in minutes is exactly five hundred, twenty five thousand, six hundred, the musical Rent is one of the longest in Broadway. It is a Pulitzer Prize winning play that centers on gentrification, poverty and addiction and a lot of other things including AIDS. It features Seasons of Love as the main theme song.

Although the context is on how one will measure a year, the whole thing is not grounded simply on the events unfolding but the measure of life and the whole gamut and scale of the season.

In my line of work as a Teacher, a year is not only a measure of the days but an encapsulated reality. It’s a degree or yet another try at it, it may be another chance to pass the subject or a shot to make life better, time is vital.

It’s a very important measure.

Consider the consequences of losing time: Consider how you would feel if you missed the bus, or if you were waiting to meet a loved one.

Realize that time is limited: Time is a valuable resource that can’t be replaced or replenished. Consider the impact of time on your life: Time affects everything you do, from the growth of a flower to the destruction of empires.

Philosophically, we can look for ideas on time and we can find several things. One of these would be Fatalism Fatalism can be understood as the doctrine that whatever will happen in the future is already unavoidable (where to say that an event is unavoidable is to say that no agent is able to prevent it from occurring). But for me, the future is not yet written, it’s a thing not yet final and that the year ahead and in front is not yet certain, it’s something we have to live and act on.

And that the future is not yet made. An old song Que Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be) written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans released in 1956, this used to be a lullaby of sort being sung by my mother to put me to sleep . And more than that, the song was an antidote for my fear that, the future is already made. And that as every New Year unfolds, I remind myself that In five hundred, twenty five thousand, six hundred minutes we can still make things right and live a year that we can create.

The year ahead is what we make it. We have not yet created the New Year; it is still up to us.

THE Solemnity of the Lord’s Epiphany reminds us that Christ is meant for all of us, and not just a few, and like the 3 magi, we should make an effort to look for him, that is, to look for God, in everything in our life—in the persons we meet, in the different situations, conditions and circumstances of our life.

To be sure, God is everywhere. This is how one of the psalms describes this reality: “Whither shall I go from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.” (139,7-10)

More than that, God’s presence is not merely passive but active. He is always intervening in the existence of all the creatures, ever applying his wisdom through the ceaseless providence that he exercises over all his creation whose nature he always respects, upholds and defends.

What all these considerations can tell us is that like the 3 magi, we need to persevere in looking for Christ despite the difficulties and challenges we may encounter along the way. “By your perseverance you will secure your lives,” Christ told a crowd one time. (Lk 21,19) He listed down some terrible scenarios that can happen in our lives which we should just learn to endure, since he will always be with us, defending, protecting and teaching us how to react all the way.

“They will seize and persecute you…You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed.” (Lk 21,12ff.)

Christ even said that we should not worry about having to prepare our defenses before all these possible severe trials, because as he said, “I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.” (Lk 21,15)

We have to remember that if Christ could not help but had to offer his life to save us, how can we think that our life and the world in general would take a different path? Remember Christ telling his disciples, “A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” (Jn 15,20) So, let’s always keep in mind his assurance, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (Jn 16,33)
With faith and hope, we can manage to endure anything and to persevere, because as St. Paul told us once: “God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” (Phil 1,6)

The Pauline words somehow tell us that the secret of perseverance is our strong faith in God, in his omnipotent and merciful providence that can always make do with whatever situation we may find ourselves in any given moment.

We have to see to it that we keep that faith alive and burning. And to make that faith vibrant, we need to keep ourselves always in love. It’s love that keeps our faith going. It should be a love that goes beyond good intentions, sweet words and nice feelings. It has to be expressed in deeds.

These are rainy days and we do not know how many people are well prepared for it this new year. We have seen the devastation of many farms that were hit by the floods. The destruction of crops will surely affect food supply in the next few months. We cannot expect too much come harvest time as many of our plants, especially rice which is our staple food, had been washed by the heavy rains and floods. There still will be harvest time no matter what, but the produce of our farms will surely be lean as plants were inundated. Rice that already started bearing healthy grains were suddenly washed out by the floods.

If these are lean months where the supply of rice is low, causing prices of our staple food to rise almost on a daily basis, much more crisis is coming in the aftermath of the torrential rains. People must face the reality of an impending food shortage due mainly to the destruction of many plants, rice above all. But with the current crisis we are in, it is quite difficult for many people to save enough for the leaner months that is sure to come. While we can foresee the effects of the flood that hit the region, many will be unable to find means to prepare for such impending shortages in the supply of food and other basic needs.

We truly need to revive the basic lessons demonstrated by ants, that small creature that shows unparalleled industry and diligence in gathering enough stocks for the rainy days. It is truly unfortunate that we tend to conveniently forget such lessons, setting on a happy-go-lucky lifestyle, if not total laziness to gather enough for the occurrence of rainy days. We have so much time to produce the basic needs we need during better times of the year. Unfortunately, we prefer to enjoy the times of bountiful harvest without saving enough for the days when we cannot earn due to the rains.

It is sometimes awesome to observe our penchant to just keep singing in the rain. We tend to enjoy the moment by spending instead of saving every extra penny from our hard-earned money. This is evident in the proliferation of machines that our people love to croon to while away their time in the guise of leisure after work. We are caught with our inclination to be happy by our manifest preference for the videoke that eats money than buying tools of trade that produces money. These are fundamental reasons why we often fell yawning with empty bellies during rainy days and floods this new year.
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