THE clear lesson we can learn from the parable about the wheat and the weeds (cfr. Mt 13,24-43) is that we should just have hope amid all the trials and challenges in our earthly life, since God will take care of everything. We should avoid overreaching our capacity to resolve all our problems here in life, since most likely we would end up doing more harm than good in the process.
If we have strong faith in God, we can manage to be hopeful and even optimistic, oozing with confidence, whatever challenges and difficulties we can encounter in life. Christ himself said that “in the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (Jn 16,33)
Hope is never naivete, but is a certainty that is based on the belief that God never loses battles, since he is the Lord of history, assuring us that he will be with us, guiding us till the end of time. (cfr. Mt 28,20).
If we have a strong faith in God, we know that he will do things whenever he wants, sooner, more and better, and even in spite of us. We should not allow the suspense and the mysteries of our life to bother us too much. Thus, part of the signs of hope is to have a sporting spirit in our life.
Of course, this virtue of hope is first of all a gift from God. It’s a theological virtue for which we should never stop asking God for it. And from there, let us align our attitude, outlook, habits and practices to this truth of our faith. Let us not doubt that God is ever eager to give this gift to us.
With hope, we can see things better and would be more encouraged to undertake ambitious projects of human redemption in the very heart of our daily affairs. We would have clear vision of the real and ultimate purpose of our life, and the means and the path to take to reach that goal, whatever may be the circumstances at a given moment.
This virtue of hope also lets us see the past, the present and the future through the eyes of God. It will always fill us with joy and peace, with a deep sense of confidence, knowing that whatever the drama we may encounter in life, God will always have the last word, and that word can only mean victory.
We should inspire others to always have hope. We should try our best to be credible witnesses of the hope that, in the words of St. Paul, “does not defraud, because the love of God has been poured in our hearts.” (Rom 5,5)
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)
While it’s true that we are completely responsible for our life, we should not forget that life has more things to give us than what we can handle. Hope gives us that impetus to let things be and let go of certain things, abandoning ourselves in the hands of God who is in control of everything, just like Christ abandoned himself to the will of his Father and submitted himself to his own death on the cross.
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The mess is getting complicated as the senate investigation on the involvement of suspended mayor Alice Guo in the illegal operations of online gambling. Lately, the National Bureau of Investigation in collaboration with the Philippine Statistics Authority that over one thousand two hundred fabricated certificates of live birth which were mostly issued to Chinese criminal elements.
The increased number from the previous two hundred is an indicator that the fabrication of such certificates of live births involves key officials of the local civil registrar in purportedly one municipality in Davao. It is surprising that the fabrication of such documents would be in Mindanao when the operations of online gambling are in Bamban and recently in Porac, both in Pampanga province.
As bared by the senate committee conducting the investigation, the cost of the fabricated certificates of live birth is three hundred thousand pesos. It puts the entire fabrication racket at a huge take of about three hundred thousand six hundred pesos. Such huge amount would unbelievably be assumed to have gone into a single official. With this development, it would not be far for the investigating committee to delve into the lifestyles of the officials in the said municipality. Should that happen, the investigation would depart from the main issue involving the suspended mayor. It would require more time to dig into the assets of officials involved in the fabrication of the documents that allowed Chinese people with criminal records to do their shenanigans in our country.
Amidst all these developments, the house of representatives is also conducting its investigation in aid of legislation, on issues purportedly connected with the parcels of land where the buildings were erected which houses the illegal gambling operations. The resource persons had been following the lead of the suspended mayor of being forgetful and making blatant lies before the investigating committee.
So appalling are the hearings that the resource persons who are all placed under oath, would be contradicting each other before the committee. The lies are very clear even to the citizens following the hearings but the liars are being given ample opportunity to evade from being cited in contempt. All that had been issued are warnings that the resource persons are under oath and could be cited in contempt at the discretion of the committee.
In the meantime, the main subject of the investigation is having a good time evading the authorities. The cost of the surveillance is too high that the meager resources of government could place in more important needs of taxpayers. It would not be surprising if in the coming days, the investigation committee would discover more intertwined mess that would bare the suspended mayor’s links.
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