A Different Beat

The best in us... Philosophers once asked: Is this the best of all possible worlds that God has created? There is a longing in everyones heart to transcend what nature offers us. We are thirsting for something that is simply not there and so we question, we probe, and wonder. Hence, the question, Is this the best  possible world that God has created? It was not long ago that the answer came to me in an unexpected place. The philosophers were right in asking this particular question, but the answer does not lie in philosophy as such...It lies somewhere and that somewhere else is in God's Word...in the Scriptures. What I love about the Sacred Scriptures is its blatant frankness. What you see about man and woman in every age is what you get. It does not attempt to hide or sugarcoat things.  It is an open book wherein God meets man and man meets God. It is the meeting place of the fallen man and a God who fell in love with men. Take Peter for example, he openly claimed...

   A Touch Of Relevance And Reverence... I have read quite a lot of commentaries regarding scripture passages... And yet they seldom touches me... Maybe because i have not touched them. But let me tell you what touched me...it was a long weary day which seldom happens in my life that i came to pray before the Blessed Sacrament. After quite sometime of telling the Lord my problems, i noticed as always that He is so silent. No words, only silence. And so, I also fell silent. And in that silence an eloquent message was spoken. It was spoken with such brevity and effectiveness that one does not forget. It maybe likened to a man thrown in a pitch dark dungeon who for months and years on end was searching for that little bit of that precious light. Then one day a flash of light came sans warning. What a joy and delight if only for a moment of desire. It was as if in that sheer moment he has forgotten all the trials and tribulations he has experienced. Revelations are quit...

God's Loving Refusal The story in the Gospel of John according to scholars is a non-Johannine interpolation. Here we see a story which originally does not form part of the original Johannine corpus so to speak. If we are to believe those who know us better in this regard, like the scholars who says that the grammar and vocabulary is not from the Johannine tradition. This maybe true, however I am inclined to believe that the theme of the story is in accord with the greater theme presented by the Gospel writer and that is Jesus' identity. The story presents to us who Jesus is on the one hand and Who is He not in the other hand. The attitude and response of Jesus to the tricky question of the scribes and Pharisees is basically his refusal to the self-righteous and violent stance of the world around Him. Stoning to death is what Moses prescribed and to our modern sensibility this kind of death is too violent. His indirect refusal to submit to the law of Moses is a clearly ...

Mother knows best. The gospel for today is an example of how far a mother's love and concern can go. A mother wants the best for his sons and daughters. A child knows this instinctively that as he grows up he would imbibe the values of his significant other and in the process assume the attitude of the one he/she loves. In short, we love the people who loves us especially our own mothers.   The mother of James and John has an attitude. She simply wants what she thinks is best for her sons without really taking into consideration the effects of her request to others. She is overly zealous and well-intentioned but for the wrong reasons. This attitude is somehow imbibed by James and John. When one town did not accept Jesus into their midst, they proposed to Jesus to literally bring down the town together with its inhabitants. And because of this they were known to be "Sons of Thunder", in Greek Boanerges. James and John were zealous and well-intentioned but all for t...

There are so many demands in life as on grows up. It seems that age multiplies exponentially one's concern. We always cherish the times bygone when our sole concern as children was to enjoy playing with our peers. Yet, there were rare moments when one experiences them... When one truly becomes like a child again and leave all the worries of adulthood. I am right now entertaining the thought that growing up is a curse. But the curse I believe is not in aging per se but in our ability to open up that fabled box. This is the box that contains in itself a host of curses as it were. It was said that the primal box was already opened and that we on our part cannot resist opening ours. Pandora's box has been opened and all hell was let loose. It was also said, that there was not one box only. There were actually two. Yes, the first one was opened and the second one was also opened simultaneously. Now the second box contains all the virtues and goodness one may imagine. Th...

The day I did everything differently... I have never believed i could do anything different. I am just an ordinary guy living an ordinary life in an ordinary place. It was ages ago that i did not come to realize the power i have within, with words. Yes, this is not just any other kind of philosophy. Words are life and they shape who am I now. Let me tell you a secret, which is no secret at all. Everybody knows the importance of words and what it do with our lives. Words create worlds, they conjures up images long past and tickle our imaginations forward to the future. It is wonder why my favorite Gospel begins with... In the beginning was the Word and the Word was face to face with God. Words create worlds. It has been my dream to create worlds, worlds that I can live with amidst the vicissitudes of living. Words are like the all-powerful black hole that swallows everything whole. This is my dream and this is my world. I want to enter into my world by escaping far from it an...