IN that gospel episode where Christ complains about the inconsistency and hypocrisy of the leading Jews at that time (cfr. Mk 7,1-13), we are reminded of the danger of being trapped in our earthly affairs and in our human ways while neglecting what is truly important for us.

“This people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition,” lamented Christ. (Mk 7,6-8)

We have to be most wary of this danger because especially these days we have to contend with powerful forces that can easily absorb us while desensitizing us from the most fundamental duty of ours to do everything with God and refer everything to God. Sad to say, many people these days do not anymore know what the real purpose of our life here on earth is. They are hooked in their self-indulgence.

How many people these days, especially the young ones, are addicted with their cellphones to such an extent that they lose sleep and proper rest and get exposed to many dangerous, unhealthy stuff like pornography? Getting distracted from their real duties seems to be the game of their life.

Seen from another angle, many of us seem to be simply playing the dynamics of materialism, consumerism, hedonism, etc. in our earthly and temporal affairs. God seems to have nothing to do with our life. The spiritual dimension as well as the supernatural goal of our life are practically thrown out of the window.

We have to recover the consciousness, sharpening it as much as possible, of the real and abiding purpose of our life. God wants us to be like him since he has created us to be his image and likeness. Our life here on earth is still God’s continuing creation of us. And he is testing us to see if what he wants us to be is also what we want ourselves to be.

Thus, we should see to it that everything we do, everything that happens to us should be seen, understood and reacted to in accordance to what God wants us to be. We have to follow what St. Paul once said, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Cor 10,31)

Let’s always remember that we always have a choice of whether we want to follow God or to follow ourselves in everything that happens in our life. We should see to it that we are always conscious of how this choice should be made so we would be guided properly.
In a sense, we are meant to be always in contact with God, since in the first place our life is meant to be a sharing in the life of God, if not in his very own divine nature itself. That’s how our life ought to be.

Our natural life, and everything in it, is geared toward the supernatural life of God. Everything in our life and in this world is meant to lead us toward this end. We have to develop a taste and even an appetite for the supernatural life with God and of things supernatural in general.

In this we have to help one another, because in the end, this is our common ultimate end in life—how to live our life with God, how we can be immersed in God even as we are immersed also in the things of the world.

The hardest thing I’ve ever done
Is keep believing
There’s someone in this crazy world for me.
I need to be in love
– Richard Carpenter , Albert Hammond and John Bettis

For the folks like us whose age is more than 40 years and above, we knew Carpenters as one great band whose ditty include a pile of great songs that put us to sleep, lift our hearts and even usher in a tear or two.

One song that stands out of the heap of good songs is that one written by Richard Carpenter, Albert Hammond and John Bettis it is simply called I need to be in love. The opening stanza says

The hardest thing I’ve ever done
Is keep believing
There’s someone in this crazy world for me
The way that people come and go
Through temporary lives
My chance could come and I might never know

Released in 1976, it was in the Album A kind of Hush, the first lines of the song hits me as a song about chances (there is someone in this crazy world for me). It is about believing (the hardest thing the singer ever done) and hopelessness (my chance would come and I would never know). I realized its like the controversial PCSO Lotto numbers game.

I remember the late General Alfredo Lim winning the Sweepstakes game and read about how it came to be by way of an Ambeth Ocampo column, the later worked with General Lim and to date Lim was the prototype and inspiration why I continued buying lotto combinations because it is a form of pangaliya, pakimalooy ha Ginoo (Hail Mary shot) the bet is gauged against the millions of combinations extracted from the permutations of numbers.

But now this belief was shaken.

For years, I swear that I was a constant ally, believer of of the numbers game, knowing fully well that winning will be next to impossible but for a good cause my losing combinations will be forming part of the charity aspect of the system. One that would be transformed into ambulances, free medications or reimbursements of the same. Today however, it may not be the case, I don’t believe this bettor or anyone else could win, it is outright unbelievable and perhaps, impossible.

The view from below the citadel of PCSO is shrouded with murkiness and opacity. The edited picture is actually an exponent of the blatant deception that we have been dealt with. It lessen and erodes our trust and lead us to the conclusion that perhaps cynics are right all along, its not fair. It cannot be trusted.

After a long while my love affair to that number game ceased today. I am sure now after 15 years my chance will never come, and as the song goes, I know I don’t need to be in love.

Funny it may seem that the magical president and his predecessor are engaged in a word war. The former went into a tirade that his then protege for vice president and now his successor albeit magical president is listed by the government’s drug agency as allegedly among those addicted to prohibited drugs. The seemingly baseless accusation caused an eruption of clapping from a gullible audience present in that public gathering.

Following such public pronouncement from the former president who happens to be under investigation by the international criminal court of the United Nations, the drug agency immediately issued a disclaimer that there is no truth to such allegations. That somehow cleared the magical president from such seemingly baseless accusation sans other sources that may point to prove otherwise.

In a stroke to parry the former president’s aggression and divert public attention, the magical president issued a retaliation by issuing a similar accusation that it is the former who is appears to be high on prohibited substances. The counter-accusation has ignited a rift between former allies and their followers. It now is an ugly word war that would eventually cause a great division between their political camps.

The public is now dragged into a conflict between powerful politicians who are out to knock each other down to grab a decided advantage towards the next elections. Indeed, the political maneuvering is too obvious as each camp is bent to do whatever it would take to attain their hidden agenda.

Amid the baseless accusations is the main issue of ensuring that political power is won by those aiming to be the next in the line of key top position to govern this Filipino nation. All that the hapless people could do is hope that the power to rule this nation will not fall into those who would be accused with any iota of doping.
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