WE have to learn the art of how to stay on course in our life so that we do not get distracted, confused, entangled and lost. For this, we have to be clear about what the real and ultimate purpose of our life is, as well as know how to relate everything in our life—both the good things and the bad—to this purpose.
This, of course, would require us to undertake regular review and updating of our plans and strategies through practices like daily examinations of conscience, monthly days of recollection, annual retreats, etc. And even during the day, we should make a number of pit stops to see if we are still on course or are already getting deviated from the proper way.
We should always keep sharp our awareness that our life is actually something like a journey where we are expected to make daily progress on our way to our ultimate home or destination, which is to be with God in heaven. Yes, we have to realize deeply and abidingly that our life here on earth is also like a test God gives us, to see if what he wants us to be is also what we ourselves would like to be.
We are somehow reminded of this need of ours in the gospel of the Mass on Tuesday of the Third Week of Easter. (Jn 6,30-35) “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst,” Christ told a crowd of people, somehow telling us also that it should be Christ who should be the object of our real hunger and thirst.
Thus, we have to realize that we need to educate our biological or bodily functions, insofar as possible, such that they acquire a theological meaning and purpose and not just purely biological functions.
If we are truly serious in our Christian duty to make ourselves “another Christ” who is the pattern of our humanity and the redeemer of our damaged humanity, then the Christian transformation of our own selves should not only involve our spiritual faculties—our intelligence and will—but also our biological or bodily powers.
Thus, when we experience hunger for food or thirst for some drink, it should not just be food and drink that we should be interested in. We should not remain in the level of the material aspect of our life. Our hunger and thirst should also lead us to God.
For this to take place, we certainly need a kind of plan or program to keep our spiritual life alive and vibrant even as we go through the drudgery of the routine things or the excitement of new and challenging things.
We need to realize more seriously that more than feeding our body, we actually need to feed our soul which, being the principle of our life, is more important than the body. We are not just a biological being, like the plants and animals. We are human beings, persons with a rational nature and animated by a spiritual soul.
We need to discipline ourselves to follow a certain plan that would help us keep alive our awareness of our need to make Christ the constant focus and goal of our life. This would mean that we learn how to be in contemplative mode even as we immerse ourselves in our earthly affairs.
This is the way to properly stay on course in life!
Rice culture (Second of two parts)
But the trend is alarming than inspiring as many of us would like to believe. The departure of many from the bondage of the soil and cruel exploitation of such unjust social order had actually been gradually depleting the working hands that till our lands. Efforts of government to reclaim so much land or find compensation from those lost to land conversions would be futile due to the bitter reality that the work force in the farms had dwindled significantly over the years.
Many of our productive generation, those within the working-age population, had been pushed by poverty to become domestic and blue collar workers in foreign shores. We have lost so much to the rich countries of a powerful workforce that could potentially augment rice production. A huge number had been migrating to foreign shores to take odd jobs like caring for the old and sickly that offers high wages. Our government cannot afford to match both in pay and opportunity just to hold our workers from going abroad.
The situation is aggravated by the unabated exploitation of our farm workers who suffer economic difficulties despite their industry tilling farmlands. It starts with the misplaced priorities of the agriculture department that promotes organic and scientific farming as a mere advocacy but implements programs like the use of synthetic fertilizers. The high cost of farm preparation, farm inputs such as the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides cause the poor farmers to avail of usurious loans usually from rice traders who control the rice supply chain.
The apparently unjust setup places the poor farmers buried in debts that usually bear high, if not usurious interests. What they earn during harvest is inadequate to settle their loans. This causes the vicious cycle of borrowing and paying loans while living in poverty despite their sweat in rice farming as palay prices are purposely pegged low by rice traders who intentionally lower the market prices of rice.
With palay used as commodity for payment of loans, the harvest is captured by rice traders who have the capital to keep the stocks until the harvest season is over. When farmers have no more palay even for their own consumption, rice traders will again raise rice prices until the next harvest season when they would lower rice prices to justify their cheap buying price of palay. The hapless farmer had been at the losing end as they remain in the shackles of the proverbial bondage of the soil.
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