OCTOBER 2 is liturgically celebrated as the Memorial of our Guardian Angels, reminding us of this tremendous reality that we have these powerful spiritual beings who are assigned to each one of us to help us in our earthly life and, most importantly, to connect us with God.
The gospel reading of this memorial somehow tells us of the crucial role these guardian angels play in our life. (cfr. Mt 18,1-5,10) In it, we are made to understand that there is a connection between being child-like and being great in heaven, and why the angels are important in our life.

When the disciples asked Christ about who is the greatest in heaven, Christ placed a child in their midst and said, “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.” And he further said, “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.”

A little later, he again said, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.”
These words are worth considering very seriously because in them Christ somehow tells us the important role angels play in our effort to becoe child-like even as we grow in age and experience.

Let’s remember that angels are spiritual beings who upon their creation have made the eternal decision to be with God. There are also spiritual beings who upon their creation have made the opposite decision whose effect remains with them forever. These are the devils.

That the angels of children “always look upon the face of my heavenly Father,” as Christ said, can mean that these children who still are not in the age of reason, are always connected and guided by God. They are yet incapable of separating themselves from God.
In our case, since we already have our own mind and have accumulated a lot of knowledge and experience, we should try our best to be humble so as to be like children, always guided by the angels who are always on the side of God.

In other words, to be child-like is to be guided always by our guardian angels who will always connect us with God. There is a connection between being child-like and being with God through our guardian angels. We should not downplay the role of angels in our life, taking them for granted or, worse, considering them as unreal or just fictional literary devices, etc.

This is a truth of our Christian faith that we should always remember and act on. We definitely have to train ourselves how to be child-like and how to connect with our guardian angels all the time. Christ told his disciples that they had to humble themselves to become child-like, for the obvious reason that they—and us—are notorious for regarding ourselves as mature and totally independent, with hardly any need for God.

It would be helpful that everyday, we have the habit of consciously entering into a close engagement with our guardian angels. We should not dare to face our day simply relying on our own human powers. Each of us is assigned a guardian angel to connect us with God, and vice-versa, for God to enter into our lives, since these spiritual beings are God’s messengers to us.

“Halal” a word most identified with Middle Easterners, is actually common in countries where there are Muslims. The same word was introduced to us non-Muslims working as Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), in the Middle East. My understanding of halal refers to the manner of butchering animals which has to be done facing the sun. Another interpretation attributed to halal is the process of cooking meat products not using animal fat, specifically coming from pork.

In the Philippines, halal industry is a new, thriving business gaining popularity and acceptance among Filipinos. Lately, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), has publicly announced full support to promote the industry following the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU), with the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) and the Mindanao Development Authority (MDA), purposely “to take a-whole-of government approach to support the sector.” Also, to popularize the halal industry it is necessary to strengthen the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) identified with halal industry is anticipated to succeed as a new industry even in non-muslim countries like the Philippines.

Some suggested that halal industry in the country could be boosted by creating halal hubs like those found in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and United Arabia Emirates which invested P17.6million P10.4 million and P11 million this year.

Incidentally, it has been observed that the Muslim population grows fast in Asia and one of the fastest in the world. In the Asean region the Muslim population is 240 million, a fact that paints a bright future for the halal industry in the Philippines, in terms of market potentials.

MY COMMENT:
Indeed, with other Philippine government agencies joining PEZA in promoting halal industry in the country, plus the export potentials of the Philippine halal products to ASEAN countries with high muslim populations like Indonesia and Malaysia, the industry promises to become a sunshine industry.
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Stirred by the unearthed quick funding, quick release through a quick dispensing cash machine, blinded followers in the lower house of congress were taken aback by the callousness of the vice president. It would be recalled that the vice president whose name does not have the usual h, reportedly explained to stand for honesty. She retorted a query by explaining that honesty is not a requirement for public office. She won with that tag of being without the h trait of the honesty.

The campaign that presented a diametrically opposed campaign for a governance with transparency, honesty, integrity and accountability. Her acts are clear manifestation and symbol of corruption.

How else can one fathom the deep mystery of the intelligence fund that is beyond the auditing power of the audit commission. Even the supposed grilling interpolation by the well-meaning progressive block in congress. A factutum lady congressperson had dutifully done her role as shameless defender of the undefendable.

It is now the taxpayers who took the task to unceasingly fight this glaring robbery of public funds. The tale of a trail on how a father-daughter tandem effectively used power to abuse the use of local funds remain unrefuted if untrue. The public is now called to jointly serve as vanguard by acting akin to a fine sieve.
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