Honors' Society Week

Last week we celebrated the Honours’ Society Week, wherein all the honor students in the campus were invited for a weeklong celebration in the hope to strengthen the zeal of each one in their studies and also to encourage them to help their fellow students and be sources of encouragement for fellow students to studying more.

Through arts, quiz bees and oratorical contests we celebrated the week-long celebration with glee. We also had some fun during the team building. Certificates of honours were given during the recognition day and it ended with a film viewing of “The Giver” on Friday.

What I think is the importance of this celebration is not so much of the honors that we all received but on how we used the talents that we have. I think it is not what we got but on the process how we got them. This is because in the end the world does not care at all in the plaques and medals and the pieces of paper that lay dusty on my showcase divider but on the heart and soul that I have. The character which I built as foundation of my personality is what matters in the end.

Presuming that I have the highest honor in all of the students yet I did it all for the sake of studying all is vain. Even if I have the highest honor yet I did it through cheating nothing is gain. But, if I have done it with love and thought of the other everything is rewarded.

Another important reminder which I have for myself during this celebration came from the movie that we have. In the “The Giver” Jonas – the main character – has the responsibility to learn all the former knowledge which is barred from the rest of their community. Only two of them has the responsibility to keepsake these knowledge and Jonas being the receiver, has his predecessor as the giver. The Giver who is now in his old age has to teach his knowledge to another so that the wisdom is continued and be beneficial to the community. But, only one has this responsibility because the leaders – called the elders – are afraid that if given to everyone, man has the tendency to be selfish and use it for himself.

The setting is that a utopian community which made its individual uniform with each other – in their words sameness. The members were genetically modified and take daily injections in the mask that these medication is for their benefit but actually this is to suppress their emotions and even to take away the sense of colors in their eyes making them only see in greyscale because colors as the Giver said is the source of difference and thus the source envy, hatred, etc.

This reminded me of how we always give priority to the logico-mathematical intelligence that we neglect the geniuses in art, music and even in the athletics. We always consider the intelligent in class in terms of their quiz performances, recitations and exams that we do not realize how hard it is to be people smart. We often refer to those which can solve the most technical problems in mathematics that we do not develop the spatial smart students that we have. We always focus on only one direction that we neglect the future that other intelligence holds in their hands.

Sometimes, we too unconsciously form in our community not unity but instead sameness. Given the list of do’s and don’ts and thus we embark on a journey single piled and robotic. When emergency comes along the way we all fall because all we know is how to make the line straight. But, if we take the journey having differences with only has the center to be united we will surely succeed for we do not only pile up but we are all connected.

So, what I think of every cluster of people to be called a community is for its each individual to find his own identity. It is a connected difference to a common center respecting the boundaries of each one but open to each other. It is not marked by sameness but by its diversity.

There is this cliché that goes like this: “We cannot all be teachers, we need farmers.” For if we are all teachers where will we get the food for the table, milk for the morning and fruits for the evening in such a way that though farming is a noble profession we also need teachers to teach us the basics of arithmetic and rhetoric.

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Into the Pinhole

 

Every time I go to a place for vacation I always have my camera. I make sure that everything is fine before I go. I make sure that the battery is well. I make sure that the camera itself is well. Aside from the camera, I have the plane ticket and the money. As long as I have these three, I know I am well.

I am always into history when it comes to travel. Before I embark on my chosen destination, I always make sure that I know the historical facts and places of that place. Since I really don’t travel with much budget, I travel light and I walk grand. I choose walking to minimize my expenses. I also prefer restaurants and carinderias, this is because I do not like to move with fancy inside a first class ones and also the expenses.

Aside from historical places or should I say museums, my side-trip destinations are shrines. I also need to refresh myself with a visit to a spiritual place. But, this does not limit to a Christian place, since I am a Christian. This visit could also go to a Taoist, Buddhist or a Hindu temple. I have always been fascinated by these three religions by their fancy rites along with their architecture. Also, I find their philosophies intriguing. Theirs is very simple yet profound. 

I am an environmentalist by heart! I find it a need for us to conserve this mother of ours. So, I also visit places which advocate environmental awareness. I am interested in the endemic species of floras and faunas that thrive in our country. If not endemic, I prefer those native species. 

It seems a lot for a traveller, but it’s not that much if you really know how to talk human language. I find jeep and cabs easier than taxis. All I need to know is how to ask. Besides, when in a jeep you also have the chance to meet other people who can point you to other side-trips. For a man who is interested in history, you will also for sure be interested in culture and you would not find it entirely in books while reading inside a taxi. Why not expose yourself to it face to face?

So, to sum up I am interested in Culture – the collective totality of that which is in a certain place. But, lately I realized this lack in me. Those feelings of after all the years of travelling I still lack something. One feeling is that I need to go back to a certain place which I have already been to and relive certain moments.

At these moments, I scheme my archives. I look into the things which I collected from my travels – the maps that I marked, the postcards which I pasted on an album, the keychain which bears the name and even the tee shirts which bears “I’ve been there.” When I have the chance, I also open my Facebook account to look into the photos captured by my cam.

At one time, I was inside the “Dambana ni Rizal.” A museum inside Fort Santiago in Intramuros dedicated to the Philippine National Hero, Dr. Jose Rizal. The said place was the latter’s actual prison chamber where he was detained, trialled, and sentenced of death. I was peeking into the hole of my camera, just for the effects as if I am a professional photographer. I was taking a picture of the oil lamp Rizal gave to his sister where his last work, Mi Ultimo Adios, was hidden from the Spaniards. I felt a feeling of space. I felt as if was still very far from Rizal. Of course I am not talking about the years for it really is but I am talking about the ties between us. His presence being in the museum and the things he left and me inside it.

It seems hard to picture it that way. Put it this way, this feeling I also felt during the Papal Encounter with the Youth. We took a very long distance. We waited a very long time. We sacrificed a lot just to see the Pope. Yes, I saw the Pope for three seconds. The longest three seconds of my life. I saw the Pope, but not yet Cardinal Tagle.

The point is that, the Pope was riding in his pope-mobile and the cardinal was just in his back sitting and I did not take the chance to look at him. The reason behind you may ask. I was busier taking a video in my camera. Have I not peeked into Pope Francis, all my sacrifice been wasted. I will lose the experience.

As John Eldredge put it:

Something awful has happened; something terrible. Something worse, even the fall of man. For in that greatest of all tragedies, we merely lost paradise – and with it, everything that made life worth living. What has happened since is unthinkable: we’ve gotten used to it. We’re broken in to the idea that this is just the way things are. The people who walk in great darkness have adjusted their eyes...We dismiss the whispers of joy with a cynical “Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt.” (The Journey of Desire) 

Sometimes, we try to make a definite and determinate capture of the experience that we fail to experience the vastness of experience in the indefinite face to face encounter. We merely woke up, study, work then die.

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The Family Threat

The Church today is facing a very serious problem. There wages from different corners of society serious injury to the most basic building block of community life – family.

The church has always held this post for a Christian, to have a family, to be very hard. The apostles would even suggest that it is better for a Christian to instead stay single rather than to find for himself or herself a husband or a wife. The apostles even released letters to different Christian communities founded around Jerusalem to guide those who have chosen the life of marriage so as for them to lead their life more orderly. The best example for this is the letter of Paul to Corinth where he made his statement about staying single and some remarks on how a widow, a married man and a married woman would behave.

I think that the difficulty arises from the different roles and obligations somebody has to perform when he is in that state. Apart from his self needs, a married man or woman has also the obligation to perform obligations which should make his partner happy. Which means, then that the obligations for these people are multiplied.

Aside from the wife or the husband to serve as part of the obligation and role in marriage, they also have the further obligation for their kids. In the family come values instilled in the still innocent minds of the young. In the family comes the character that the individual may possess in his whole life. It is where the very basic tenets of life come. Some would say it is our first school with our parents as our first teacher. That would precisely be it.

What I am tomorrow is because of what I am learning today in my family. My character, my values, my path is because of the kind of family I belong to. It is from my family that I took the discipline which will become my arm against the world. 

But, there is one thing which binds why we learn it all. One powerful thing we can only get authentically in our family. It is as if all the things we have because of the family branches because of this thing which binds a family – Love. 

Some would say that what we say of love is because of the love that we experience. It is not learnt, it is felt and it is best felt in the warmth of the family. We can never know what love is if we will never know it from our family.

Sadly today, this experience of love is making its end. Not because that there is no more love but because of the attacks that is being made to that which is the source of our experience of love. 

We come to know now attacks from many parts of the society. Lately, grudges in the family are not anymore settled. Instead, they end not the grudges but the end the family. It is becoming more and more easier to tell a husband or a wife to end a relationship. It is becoming more and more easier to decide for a husband or a wife to split without thinking of the children that they have and the government would even support it.

The government whose ideals are to uphold the family for being the nucleus of the society is becoming more and more ready to split a family.

I think that the problem with husbands and wives today as to why they are becoming more and more ready to split is because they have lost that sense of astonishment. They have succumb more and more to intellectualize everything and forgotten that original feeling of mystery. They have forgotten to live out that sense of wonder in the things that is happening because of the workings of a mystery – Love.

In this age of unlimited, we have thought that everything could only be an option. After failing at one thing, we will run and chose the other thing. We will prefer choosing again, hoping that we may mask the past with the future when in fact we are just wasting our time and fooling ourselves.

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Papal Hangover

 Last January 15, 2015 the leader of the worldwide 1.2 billion Catholics arrived in the Philippines via Villamore Airbase. He has the mission of bringing the message of Christ of Mercy and Compassion to the 80 million Filipino Catholics. Arriving in the said airbase he was greeted by scores of Filipinos including church officials and that of the government. He was greeted with smiles by both the Filipino youth and seniors alike. Also, he was greeted by his constituents in church matters and was greeted by the President as leader of a state - the Vatican.

Cabinet members of the Philippine government pile up to kiss the ‘Ring of the Fisherman’ which is the sign of the pope’s leadership to the flock of Christ. “You are Peter, the Rock, and upon this rock I will build my Church.” Matt. 16:18 says Jesus to Peter, making him the leader of the Church. Their kisses reminded me with the kiss that brought death, death on the cross. After the tragedies happening in the Philippines they seem to wait for the pope before they would do some charity and find a place in the limelight of that Church affair and be dubbed as one of the Good Samaritan. They are like the Pharisees in Jesus’ time who follow and follow the Lord not to learn from his wisdom but finding holes to discredit him. They are kissing and kissing the ring of Peter and yet they forgot the message of Jesus carried by this man: “Tend my Sheep.” John 21:15

I left General Santos City in January 16, 2015 for the Papal Visit. At 7:45 I arrived at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3. I rode a shuttle bus going to Taft Avenue for an MRT ride going to our host parish. This will give us lodging for our next 5 day sojourn in the country’s capital. The parish convent is a modern design building. It has a common air-conditioning system not including the rooms for every room has its own air-conditioning. Life in that parish is very smooth. With parishioners coming from the upper social strata, no jeepney ride comes in front of that Church. Only taxi is the available public transport in that area. With such commodities present in a convent who can ask for transfer? After we arrived in the parish we took dinner offered by the parish priest.

After making it to the parish convent we made our way to the host family who will be giving us also an accommodation. My companions were first to arrive in Manila in the 15th so they told me about the ‘wonder’ inside the house of our host family. We reached the house inside a private village. We were asked what business do we have inside the village and we said the name of our host which they eventually called. After calling we were asked to log in our names in a log book in the guard house and we proceeded. Upon reaching I was amazed by the truth they were telling me. It has three floors and an elevator. 48-inch television is catering our recreational needs and it has an ‘azotea’ overlooking Quezon City. It took me some time to process the feeling I have with the house of our host family. Thinking that we have an unfinished house in a remote barangay in Mindanao the feeling inside this three-storey house is amazing!

For three days in Manila I was in the midst of the upper social strata of Manila. Living and doing everyday things in the way how a Quezon City rich club member would do. I do shower under hot and cold and spent time inside a spacious C.R. Touring and touring Manila with nothing in mind but enjoying life. We also joined a Saturday mass in the parish chapel. We were in the midst of the rich and when the offering part came bills not smaller than Php 100 came out from the pockets.

From my experience inside that village of the Rich I saw the real other face of men. I realized that we should stop stereotyping the rich and realize that they too keep their pace in their spirituality.

The other side of the face of man that I saw is that of the more common – the Poor. I saw that the face of the poor of Manila is different from the poor I was used to. Atleast in Mindanao the poor can be seen but the poor in manila is ignored more. I saw a man pleading just for rice and he was sitting in front a fast-food chain. Nobody who heard him ever listened to him. It broke my heart for during at the papal mass in Luneta there is about 7 million who participated, cried and said: “Oh! I was really transformed!” I doubt if they ever listened to the pope of his pleadings of mercy and compassion and ready to turn the word upside down or were they only there hoping to take for themselves a Papal Selfie.

I stopped at him and later on realized what I asked to the man: “What happened to you!” in Tagalog. I normally don’t do that to strangers but in that moment my feeling was so different that I need to explode. As I look into my wallet for what to give to the man I saw him crossing himself with the sign of the cross. Thanks God he has not lose his hope – in Jesus.

He told me after I asked that exploding words that he was finding a job. But, why? He is lame! How can one man could be so hardworking and not be given the opportunity? How heartbreaking it is to hear from the news the millions and millions or even billions of pesos being lost in the hands of those who promise hope, justice, equality, progress and many other things which could make the lives of these simple people better. Last election we hoped of the best from the son himself of the couple who fought in the front for the people against the regime of martial law and we again were disappointed. He is always there talking and talking about the corruption of the past government that he mask his own puppets in their money laundering spree.

This is the problem with kind words. Rhetorical words put great people to death. Nice and appealing words which took the hearts and souls of those who listens away from God. The Socrates of Athens and the Jesus of Nazareth were speaking of truth and yet put to death for it. The Rizal of Dapitan was shot because of the truth he spoke. The Gandhi of India was assassinated due to the truth he fought. All for the words that pierces more surely than the two edged sword. Martin Luther King Jr., Malala Yousafsai, Ninoy Aquino, Aung San Suu Kyi and scores of others who suffered from the rhetoric of selfishness.

Rhetorical words disillusion us from the truth. As we listen and continue to hope, there come those who take advantage. Most often they are those who has promised. An old anecdote goes that: what differentiates us from those who are in the prison cells is that they were caught and we are not.

At UST I met thousands of others who is ready to meet with the Pope. They were mostly from top institutions of learning such as Ateneo, UST, FEU, etc. In essence we are all the hope of the fatherland for in our hands lies the future. We are the future. This was actually a very old saying said by a man born almost 150 years ago and was also killed because of his fight for truth – Dr. Jose Rizal. Yet, after the years spent where are we?

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Bless Me, Ultima (2013)

It tells of a story of coming into age of Antonio Marez. A boy in his six years. It all began when a curandera, Ultima, was welcomed by his parents to live with them in their home. A curandera is a healer which is highly respected in their culture for the ability to heal people using 'magic' through the supernatural present around.

With Ultima, tonio learnt the many wonders nature possesses and the 'magic' present in them. She taught tonio about the balance which nature possesses and the need to conform to that balance. Tonio learnt about the herbs which according to Ultima is very much alive. She taught tonio about the spirits dwelling in everything.

Tonio had difficulty reconciling certain philosophies. Conflicting philosophies which make him wonder about life. He found ways how to reconcile philosophies he is learning from the Church and from Ultima. He thought of the problems of men such as good and evil and got differing answers both from the Magisterium and the Spiritism of Ultima.

Ultima became Tonio's spiritual teacher. She taught him the difference between the powers of the good from the powers of evil and that the powers of evil be greater from that of the good, the powers of good will always prevail. She taught him about love and hate, life and death and helped him reconcile these differences between two opposing worlds.

In the end, ultima dies leaving Tonio the message of the harmony in the world. That everything which is in the universe is in harmony and creates a cycle whch produces life. Evil men creates the disharmony and suppresses life. But, this opposing forces is necessary for us to hold wonder in our lives. We must transcend from these experience for us to gain strength.

The very first lesson which Ultima taught Tonio is to speak to all things for everything is alive. Yes, everything is alive. We must speak to them. We must respect their role in nature. This is very much true today. In this age where industry is very much on the front scene that we are blinded by these tall buildings with our view of what is alive. Thus, what is life?

We are now in the point when life is very much material. We come now to where life is very much for only today. We have forgotten the eternity of life. The greater reality of what is in life. The transcendence of life. We have forgotten the magic of life.

We forgot to look into our life as a great symphony. A great harmony of notes as in the music. Without one of which or one of it displaced will lead  everything into disaster. We must look into each thing as living. As one part of the great symphony. As one of a great music where the absence of it is the absence of the tune. This too does not mean that one cannot stand alone. But, one is important in its own. Only that each one should come as one. In itself. One's existence is in itself but not only for itself for it holds in itself something which will give meaning for another thing. We need each other.

Although, be it good or evil we must listen to it. It is part of that greater scheme of things. It is part of that greater symphony. We must not only speak to it but listen into it. We must listen to it making it as part of us. We must not only speak to it as though we only wish of it but ever be one of it by listening into it. By listening in its mysteries we make ourselves embrace it. We let it unfold itself.

But, we must beware not to exploit everything by thinking that we should know everything. For when we do that we will succumb to the temptation of thinking that we are now the conductor of that greater symphony. That we direct it into the tune which should match into our ears. For we too are finite.

We must instead be gracious to the gift of being. We must respect it kindness and embrace everything. Let our soul be contented to what it gives and embrace that mystery which the world emanates when our time is fulfilled.

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Greater Scheme of Things

I found myself one day walking from the alumni section passing through the old business office into the new building of NDMU where the latter's business office is now situated. I saw they were unpacking old and new commodities for their new office and arranging them for use. They have these new chairs for those who will pay their school fees. These chairs were like the ones used in banks. Everybody inside is in rush.

I noticed one framed portrait. It was the only one hanging on the wall when I passed. Speculating it one can say that it is from the 1990's as telling from the design. It was an old print as one could tell from how it was layout with the words. It is a commemoration portrait maybe during the canonization of the one in the portrait. It was St. Marcellin Champagnat.

St. Marcellin was one of the founder of the Society of Mary. He later founded the Little Brothers of the School. A Catholic congregation dedicated to teaching in the schools. He is famous for the words: "In order to educate children we must love them first."

St. Marcellin's vocation started when he met Jeanne Baptiste-Montagne. A young lad dying and yet without knowledge of the faith. From this experience he promised to dedicate himself in the service of teaching. Teaching the faith to those who are deprived of it.

Yes, these are the stories which we are taught in our religious education and were taught to imitate. But, as I see the rush going on inside that office. It breaks my heart. It breaks my heart because of the progress that we have gone through. We have forgotten something. We have forgotten about the ones who dedicated the cornerstones of this institution. The cornerstones whose purpose are affectionately guarded inside the hearts of the ones who laid them out with the hopes to educate. To educate not only those who have the necessities to have education but especially those who do not. We have forgotten the toils and the sacrifices the early brothers and fathers shed to bring about this institution not for the profit of treasures where moth and rust destroys and where thieves break in and steal but ... on the treasures where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. (Mt. 6:19)

Have we not forgotten our purpose? Instead of a family-spirited institution we can feel that we have become a business institution whose membership needs points in the statistics.

Once I was walking along Alunan Avenue. To the left of me I passed by a street kid. To the right I saw a convent. A convent serving as shelter to those who dedicate themselves to God. What a purpose! So great and noble. All for the greater glory of God. But, what about this kid? What happened? Is he not part of that greater glory of God? 

Have we been blinded by the tinted windows of our expensive cars that we cannot see him anymore? Have we been deafened by the hums of our air-conditioners inside our room that we cannot hear him anymore?

We have been so engrossed with the realm of the divine that we have forgotten that God has became man so as to relate all the more to the sufferings of his people and save them from their sins. We have forgotten that our faith is communal. We have the responsibility to anyone we pass-by.

As Philosopher's put it: "Esse est co-esse." To exist is to co-exist. We are part of that greater reality. We are in the web of cause and effect. What we see is what we should give action upon. As the song Pilgrim's Theme sings it: "I hope to find my place so my life would fall in place...in the greater scheme of things."

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On Appearances

A story was once related to us by our professor about the story of a man who asked God that, since God gave man free will, to let him choose after his death whether he goes to heaven or he goes to hell. But, before he will choose he also asked that God would let him see first both ends. And so, because God is so kind and generous God complied to the request of the man.

He first toured heaven. He was welcomed by St. Peter, the keeper of the gates of heaven and was opened with the pearly gates, old and gray. He saw scores of angels all praising but God. There was sumptuous foods and drinks. All that his heart desires is in heaven. He has all that he wanted to have. Total happiness and love. He was so overwhelmed by what he saw in heaven.

Next, he visited hell. But, hell is far more beautiful! Contrary to who welcomed him in heaven, he was welcomed in hell by a very dashing young man! Full of vigor and vitality - Satan. He was also opened by the pearly gates, far more bigger and brighter from what was in heaven. He was also delighted by the sumptuous foods and drinks. The rooms for those in hell are also far more towering than that in heaven. He was very much delighted for those in hell are younger than those in heaven and so, he wanted to be in hell. For in hell he can preserve his youth and enjoy far more than in heaven. He thought is the God in hell.

Going back to earth, he fixed his choice to Hell. So, he prepared himself. He done everything he could so as when he dies he may win for himself the eternal reward Satan has opened for himself in Hell's pearly gates. And so, he died!

He happily brought himself in front of Satan's pearly gates and knocking the doors it opened. There it was the lake of sulfur and fire opened for himself. People ash-colored lamenting. Spirits burning as black as night. There was gnashing and grinding of teeth.

He asked Satan lamenting: "What happened?" "Where are all the delights that you had promised?"

Satan replied: "You came here a tourist, now you are a citizen!"

There are so many rendition to this story. There is one rendition that the man was Bill Gates and when he asked Satan what happened to hell when it was so beautiful when he saw it Satan sarcastically replied: "Oh! It was just a screensaver that you saw."

I suddenly realized that this is an important anecdote to discernment. Especially that election is now fast approaching, we must know how to discern whether the appearances that the candidate shows is authentic or not. We must know whether it is the true value that a somebody shows. As St. John reminds us: "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." (John 4:1) 

Yes, there are many false prophets which gone into the world and the very first responsibility that we have is to know whether which side of the coin we are in. We must know whether what we are conform to what we really is. We must be honest with ourselves because in the end it is ourselves that we also make perfect.

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Christmas Broken

Its December now once again! The merriest month of the year for it is the month when Christmas is celebrated. Christmas trees are now being dusted off. Christmas balls are now being shined. Christmas lanterns are now being unpacked. Poinsettias are now becoming the most famous plant.

Once when I was a kid, I have always wondered why our Christmas tree at home has no star. I have always wanted to put a star atop our Christmas tree too. I want to put the star just like how I saw it in the televisions. And yet, too bad ours has no star. Many a times I have tried to make a star to put atop our Christmas tree. Using the paper I use in school I would trace a star and cut it out for me to put atop our Christmas tree making the tree very funny. I also tried to use a star-shaped Styrofoam to put atop our Christmas tree as a star but I was still dissatisfied. I really want a star just what they have in their Christmas trees!

I have my friends back then who belongs to rich families. Every Christmas just as we have our Christmas tree, they too of course have theirs and it is 5 times much bigger than what we have at home, with more pomp and with more decorations. It would reach atop the ceilings of their house when ours could only be put atop beside our TV. I thought back then at that time that the Christmas tree with its star is the very essence why we would celebrate Christmas. I have always thought that without these things our Christmas would be nothing. Added here are the presents, the sumptuous foods, the wall hangings and the sock for where Santa Claus would put his presents. We may not be rich but when we were kids we always have the reason to expect, for every year that expectation is never wasted. We always have something every Christmas from Santa Claus. From the simple expectations I have as a kid I always have gift.

But now, I have known that these things are nothing but mere accidents. All of these Christmas balls, Christmas toys, Christmas lanterns and Christmas poinsettias are nothing but accidents leading us to a greater importance – Jesus Christ. These things are nothing but outward signs of our happiness in celebrating this event, this event of someone without which all these things will not be.

Just like Christmas we tend to make importance to fireworks and round fruits and feng shui to New Year. We rush to and fro and back and forth during this day. Picking fruits that are round and has no black seeds very much convinced that if we celebrate new year with these we may be more prosperous and lucky next year. We tend to forget that it is not that decides our fate.

There are so many things that people tend to do without seeing the center. We tend to perform things that later masks what is the very issue why we do these things. We forget the very center and the very importance why we do such things.

I would like to invite myself all the more to break down the Christmas tree that we have at home. It has a plastic commercialized  Christmas tree that we adorn with twigs, Christmas balls, stars all around, Santa faces, packed gifts underneath, pom poms and luckily now, one big star atop this Christmas tree. The tree symbolizes new beginning, Santa Claus or St. Nicholas symbolizes charity and the one big Star points to the three wise man to somebody beneath. He is the present to the world. The greatest present.

He is put underneath. His birth is put underneath for underneath does a tree from its roots makes new beginning. But, also underneath for he is from atop and to show his humility he chose to be underneath. From underneath he emanates. He emanate his goodness and blessed all mankind by being underneath.

We must look underneath to understand the things. Just as what we do in metaphysics, we look closely underneath to find out: 'why?'

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