Opinion

I suppose everyone wants to have friends. It’s kind of difficult to imagine a person who does not like to have friends, since we, in general, are wired to be always in relation with others, and that relation, which can take many forms, is basically achieved through friendship.There is an old Roman definition of friendship that expresses it this way: “idem velle, idem nolle,” which roughly means, “the same desires or likes, the same dislikes.” In other words, friends are supposed to have such a union of wills that they would like the same things and would dislike the same things also.It’s a good definition, except that it has to be taken in its proper context. And that context is what God likes and dislikes. In other words, the union of wills should first begin with the union o...

As we approach the end of the liturgical year, the Church invites us to meditate on “the last things” (eschatology, in theological language), namely, death, judgment, heaven, and hell.Thus, the month of November started with the celebration of All Saints’ Day, followed by All Souls’ Day. In the weeks ahead, the liturgical celebrations will focus on themes about the end times and culminate with the Solemnity of Christ the King, bringing to a close the liturgical calendar. Christ is then presented as King, who comes again at the end of time to bring the kingdom of God to its fulfillment.Meditating on the eschatological realities may seem scary and gruesome, but it is actually helpful and healthy for the soul. Death is the most certain and inevitable reality in life, and on it ha...

This is something we have to be most discerning and careful about. We have to realize that there is such thing as an apparent good, which actually is not good but can look and smell like it is. We should do our best that we go always for the authentic good.And the authentic good can only come from God. The authentic good can only be obtained when everything that we do is done with God and for God. Thus, in that episode of ruler asking Christ how he could gain the eternal life, Christ said that good can only be one, and that definitely is God.Here is how that episode went. “A certain ruler asked him, ‘Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘Why do you call me good?’ Jesus answered. ‘No one is good, except God alone.’” (Lk 18,18-19)And Christ proceeded by saying t...

The local economy is slowly opening up now that land and sea transportation are in operation with very minimal restrictions, except for the mandatory use of masks and face shields.Bacolod business leader Frank Carbon, said in an interview over Aksyon Radyo, that he is positive we are on our way to recovery. By merely opening up sea travel, Frank said some 400 jobs were revived as porters, tellers, and employees of food stalls are back to work.With the ports opening up, hotels are slowly opening their doors too and for as long as the local government units will not re-impose restrictive travel protocols, Frank sees the local economy back on its feet by the first quarter of next year.“It is encouraging because the business community are reinvesting and many tourism spots in the p...

The whole world is glued on who will win the US elections. By Wednesday evening, we will know whether the Americans will re-elect President Donald Trump or have had enough of him and install Democratic candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden.Across the US, especially in major cities that have seen riots and protests this year, businesses have boarded up and the National Guards are on stand-by to ensure that any violence will be quelled immediately.This scenario may not be farfetched as Trump has insinuated that he will question the legality of some mailed-in ballots and his defeat or that of Biden, might fuel unrest from their supporters.It has been an interesting campaign for both, not to mention the much-talked about presidential debates that have been a rich material f...

To go directly to the point, we can only find our true strength in Christ. There’s no other—no, not in some drugs, therapy, physical stamina, genes, etc. These things only give, at best, some temporary relief. They don’t last for long, and they don’t work all the time.This was affirmed by St. Paul and has been proven right in the lives of many saints and holy men and women through the ages. “I know how to live humbly, and I know how to abound,” St. Paul said. “I am accustomed to any and every situation—to being filled and being hungry, to having plenty and having need. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” (Phil 4,12-13)Thus, St. Paul once said: “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsake...

This is the challenge we all have to face if we truly want to follow Christ. We have to try our best to know how to blend the inclusivity of charity and the exclusivity of truth.We know that charity has universal coverage, such that we are even commanded to love our enemies. It’s very inclusive. But truth always sets boundaries between what is true and real, and what is false and fake. It’s quite exclusive.Blending charity and truth definitely is no easy task to carry out. It also involves the issue of how to blend mercy and justice. But difficult or impossible as they seem to be, we just have to do them, because they, in the end, is what is truly proper to us as persons and children of God.We just have to live with the reality that what is simply expected of us is to try our b...

We have to learn to live with this basic fact of life. No matter how much we try to make our life and the world in general as perfect as possible, we can never achieve it. We just have to contend with the reality that we will be living till the end of time in an imperfect world, but also one that is perfectible and hopefully always in the process of proper progress and perfection.That, if we do our part. God in his continuing providence will always draw us and the world in general toward him which is where our ultimate perfection is found. In this world, we will never have that paradise. The utopia will remain a utopia—it’s nowhere to be found here.Let’s remember that Christ, who is our savior, did not finish his redemptive work with this world, and all of us perfect. Problems, dif...

As we celebrate today the Solemnity of All Saints, let us take time to reflect on the significance of the saints in our life of faith. Statues, novenas, candles, processions, and various sacramentals related to the veneration of saints abound in our churches and homes, so much so that some accuse us of fanaticism and idolatry.The devotion to the saints forms part of the popular piety which Pope Francis acknowledges as “a precious treasure of the Catholic Church… [that] manifests a thirst for God that only the poor and the simple can know.” (Evangelii Gaudium, 123)Why do we honor (or as some misinformed would say, adore) the saints?To begin with, we do not adore the saints, but God only. We honor the saints because by honoring them, we honor God himself. The saints are marvelous...

This commentary has nothing to do at all with Negros Occidental, known as the sugar capital of the country, but about “Sugarbook,” the ‘sugar daddy dating’ site that has sparked debates among women advocates.A very interesting and well-written report by Tarra Quismundo on the ABS-CBN News website is a must-read, if only to understand the relationships between sugar daddies and young women, from their lenses, not ours.I was curious enough to look up the site which was started by Darren Chan in Malaysia three years ago. This site is fast rising in the Philippines, mostly from young women in search of their sugar daddies. A noticeable increase of 63 percent in sign-ups happened in the months of March to August this year, coinciding with lockdown periods.Metro cities have the highe...