THIS is the lesson we can learn from that gospel episode where Christ corrected his disciples who wanted to bring fire on a Samaritan village that did not welcome them. (cfr. Lk 9,51-16)
We cannot deny that in our life, in spite of our good intentions and deeds, there will be times when we still can be rejected and even ridiculed by some people for one reason or another. We have to be guarded against reacting on these occasions in a purely human way, not the Christian way.
Indeed, our zeal to follow Christ can intriguingly counter what to be a true Christian is. We should not be too surprised by this phenomenon. It’s part of our wounded human condition here on earth. But we should correct ourselves as soon as possible.
A true Christian loves everyone, including one’s enemies. He is willing to suffer, and even to die, if necessary, out of love for God and for everyone else. The contradictions he encounters in life do not snuff out his eagerness to continue doing a lot of good.
Yes, we will always be hounded by contradictions in our life, but let’s learn the art of converting them into occasions to go to God more closely. And that’s when, with God, we can manage to derive good from evil.
On our part, we just have to be humble enough to accept this fact of life, and more, to go to God to ask for forgiveness and help every time we are feel the sting of evil. It is pure pride when we refuse to acknowledge this fact of life, and more so, when we refuse to go to God for forgiveness and help.
We have to realize that the root of this all-too-human reactions of ours before certain contradictions is the fact that we are not yet as spiritual and supernatural as God wants us to be. St. Paul offers some explanation in his Letter to the Romans:
“We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.
“For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
“So, I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work with me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
“So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.” (7,14-25)
Costly read
The vice-president was irked by a simple question about a one hundred million pesos allocation for children’s books that she wrote. The books are for distribution to young learners to practically all nooks of the archipelago. The reading materials purposely targets non-readers who are young children that are still to start schooling. Like food chains targeting children with their advertisements as parents or their elders would surely accompany them to patronize their food, the toddlers would surely leave the books to their parents or guardians. Except for the child-friendly drawings and illustrations, children would hardly understand its contents.
It would be the children’s parents who will end-up reading the book, if they would even be interested in reading and share its tales to their children. What will meet the eyes of anyone who gets hold of the book is the name of the vice president who tried hard authoring such reading materials. In retorting to the asker of the question, she wailed that the initiative of educating children is being politicized. She surmised that the query was aimed at her name which is in the course of a self-destination to the presidency. She questioned the timing as a ploy to put her ambition and the name of her father, siblings and husband in a bad light.
With the query on the budget item for her book, the senate investigation committee was led into a proverbial can of worms. It led the committee to unearth an audit finding on alleged fund mismanagement. There were documents showing that the education department was not able to utilize its approved appropriation for school buildings. There too were huge funds intended for laptops for issuance to teachers but there were irregularities in its bidding and purchase. The issues were serious but the vice president was unwilling to provide answers that will enlighten the public.
All these were connected to the poor performance of school children as public schools were ranked at the nadir in this part of Asia and the world. Over the years, books being used in schools had been found to contain many errors. Facts contained in various books contained factual errors. There are errors that appear intentional, especially in the history of the country where efforts to revise history and misled the people are getting momentum with the strong push from the present administration. This will eventually result in making the readers blind of the true history of our country.
It would be a disgrace to our country and people if in the next generations people will carry in their minds the many wrong information that they obtained from uncorrected books. The challenge is for the present generation to do its share in righting the wrongs by exposing the errors in the books used in schools. Indeed, it is hard for learners to unlearn whatever they have obtained. Following the teaching principle of tabula rasa, the aim must be to teach correct information into the proverbial empty minds of learners. Else, cowardly stooping to the capricious ambition of a first-time author would be a costly read.
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