by Bro. Ben Quiñones

Father God, we bow down before you today in our individual capacities as stakeholders of the Philippine economy. We confess, Lord, that we have sinned against you. We confess that we have contributed to the decline of our national economy and pulled it down from a privileged position of being the second largest & wealthiest in Asia in the 1950s to that of being the sick man of Asia today.

As consumers, we have put our self-interest above the higher good of the nation. We coveted and patronized foreign and imported goods over our own local products. As a result, our labor-intensive local industries collapsed against the onslaught of competition from foreign companies. Jobs in our erstwhile factories have become scarce for our own people, forcing millions of our good workers to seek employment as domestic helpers abroad. Forgive us, Lord, for our selfishness, for our ignorance on and indifference to the social effects of our individual actions. Renew us Lord. Thank you for the blood of Jesus. Make us today socially responsible consumers who will always put God and country first as a standard basis for personal consumption.

As producers, we confess our selfishness. We are more interested in making profits than in the welfare of those who work for us and those who use our products. We marginalize our workers by giving them slave wages. We cheat our customers and charge unbelievably high prices even when we know ours are inferior goods. At the time when the Philippine government gave protection to local industries against foreign competition, we squandered the industry profits on extravagant, wasteful and decadent lifestyle. We borrowed from our government financial institutions and used the nation’s wealth in fattening import-dependent industries, while keeping local technologies and technical capabilities outdated and globally uncompetitive.

We confess, Lord, our individual and collective greed. We also confess our pretentiousness. We tried to show the World that we knew globalization much better than those who brought it to our shores. When forces of globalization were knocking at our nation’s door, we were among the first ones in Asia to remove the trade barriers and open our economy to greater influx of foreign goods. Forgive us Lord for our greed, forgive us for our hypocrisy. Renew us Lord. Thank you, Lord, for the blood of Jesus. Make us today socially responsible producers who will always put God and country first as a standard for producing goods.

As traders and service providers, we have minded our narrow self-interest and disregarded the higher social good. We took advantage of farmers by buying their products at low prices when we very well knew that supply shoots up at harvestime and farmers have no recourse but to dispose of their products in order to pay their obligations and provide for their family’s survival.

We lend money to producers at exorbitant interest rates, forcing many of them to sell their lands, if not their own children, just so that they could liquidate their debts. Forgive us, Lord, for our greed. Forgive our callousness. Renew us Lord. Thank you for the blood of Jesus. Make us today socially responsible service providers who will put God and country first as a standard basis for our service.

Lord, behold the youth of our Land. They are also stakeholders of the Philippine economy. What kind of an economy will they inherit? What kind of an economy are we the elders of the land leaving them behind? Forgive us, Lord, for not being good stewards of the resources you have entrusted us. Forgive us for not being good example to our youth. They have only known corruption, greed, and treachery from those who profess to be the leaders of this land.

We confess, Lord, our iniquity for way-leading our youth to perdition. We confess our lack of compassion for them. Forgive us Lord. Renew us. Lord, look at the youth who are standing for Jesus Christ. They are the true hope of our fatherland. Bless them Lord. Make a new thing in them Lord. When the iniquity of our past has only brought forth a desert, Lord make a way for our youth. When our selfishness has only brought forth a wasteland, Lord create streams for our youth. Make us all today socially responsible citizens who will put God and country first and bring back the dignity to one and all so that once more we Filipinos will rise up to make the world know our God is a good God, and His mercy endures forever.

To the only begotten Son of the living God, Lord of Lords, King of Kings, our Master and Savior, be honor, dominion, authority, praise, worship, glory forever and ever. Amen

By Jade Angelo Gascon
On Eagle’s Wings Development Foundation Philippines

It was a cast of thousands: a disheartened paralytic, a dead girl, a sick woman, an awestruck crowd, astonished tax collectors, clamoring blind men, and a silent-type demon-possessed.

One can only imagine how stressful Matthew 9:1-36 must have been. They were all after Jesus. Everybody wanted a piece of his much-talked about healing power. “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed,” said the woman who has been bleeding for twelve years.

Ultimately, they all wanted one thing.

I want to get out of this messed up life.

I want to be healed.

I want things to be different for me.

I want…peace.

Most of the time, we also find ourselves cast in the scene. Whether we like it or not, life throws us at bitter circumstances and heart-breaking situations. Often, they leave us restless. Exhausted. Worse, unhopeful of tomorrow.

But just when we think there’s no way out, Jesus comes tearing down walls. Walls of troubles. Walls of worries. Walls of infirmities. Walls of our own making.

He looks at our distressed faces with deep compassion. Then he is moved to give us peace. And he overcomes the world for us.

Jesus overcoming the world for us means him depriving our sins and circumstances of power from harassing us. It means him conquering the things that make us distant from Him. It means him rescuing us… with his brand of peace. Peace that absolutely no other in this world can offer.

“I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

In a reading from the Book of Numbers, Moses rejoices that, for the sake of Israel, God has given His spirit to the seventy elders, including two at a distance. He then invites Joshua to welcome, not resent, this manifestation of God’s generosity. This is the same openness that Jesus asks of his disciples in Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48.

A lot of mistakes have been committed by many of us with the alibi – “I just wanted to do what I thought was good.” Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48  gives us some categories to consider whenever we try to discern the goodness that we feel we are attracted to:

Real goodness goes with charity for all. Jesus rebuked John. It was wrong for him to seek exclusivity of doing good in the name of Jesus. Nobody can claim monopoly of God and his Spirit, together with goodness comes not just generosity, but magnanimity. Exclusivity come from an ego bloated with pride and self-preservation. Exclusivity comes from a subtle but dangerous tendency to claim the credit and title for good acts to oneself. Read the rest of this entry »

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By: Jaylord F. Pagadora, Chairman – National Youth for Servant Leadership

Being neighbor to our brethren.

The parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-36)

The story of this particular part of the gospel of Luke talks about a lawyer who asked Jesus about how to inherit eternal life. Jesus replied by asking him what is written in the law. And the lawyer replied quoting the two greatest commandments “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind (the 1^st commandment) and love your neighbor as you love yourself” (2^nd commandment.)

The lawyer’s answer to the query of Jesus was the same thing Jesus told one of the scribes (also a lawyer) in Matthew 22:37 – 40, viz:  ³⁷ Jesus said to him “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind. ³⁸ “This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.” ⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the law and the Prophets.

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By Jade Angelo Gascon
Executive Assistant, On Eagle’s Wings Foundation

Imperfect. More imperfect. Most imperfect.

The longer you put up with an organization, the more you become a witness to its obnoxious idiosyncrasies and to the imperfections of its people.  The more you linger, the more you know. Even if you refuse, the sight shall insist itself on getting beheld: démodé systems that gnaw your nerves, facilities that outlived pterodactyls, and people whose character flaws can vex even the most deeply mused of Tibetan monks. And, believe me, these big-time bummers also happen in church organizations.

Some churches apply operation systems vertiginous enough to make you want to vomit on the system altogether. And if you want to talk about facilities, I probably don’t. But it’s the people that can be the most revolting!

Paul struck by headache (Special thanks to Rembrandt)

I wonder how I can begin to convey here that church people can be so bad you’d be inclined to believe earth is hell in medium rare. Some get unscrupulous with money. Some give in to indecent behavior. And there are those who are just plain annoying.

The people in it must be one of the church’s toughest challenges ever. As the New Testament early church began to grow, Paul (together with the other apostles) was confronted with the hurdle of organizing people, getting their act together and correcting their misconceptions and attitudes toward Christianity. We can only imagine the hardship of leading a people of a fledgling belief worsened by an unsupportive empire and bigoted hit men.
Moses’ exotic tour de force must be tougher, though. Habitually idolatrous, the people entrusted to him were experts in subversion. Their erratic mood swings would drive any leader to incurable mania.

Imperfect, the church is. Because imperfect, we all are.

Moses: "Patience is a virtue but enough is enough." (Special thanks to Charlton Heston)

This is where the marvel of grace walks in. Despite human frailty, God, throughout history, accomplishes his purposes in and through people who are unworthy of interaction with divinity. Grace makes this possible. Astoundingly possible.

The mechanics of grace uncannily overmasters human imperfections. I must know. I’ve seen church systems and church people crash to the depths of irreparable ruin. It seems, though, that grace is designed for the “irreparable.” God knows that people fail, so He makes His grace available to strengthen the hopelessly weak, handpick the ignoble, unshackle the antihero, and metamorphose the monster of a rogue we may have become. The more we fail, the more it abounds to perfect us in ways we can’t do for ourselves.

So ask for grace. Desperately. Because if not for what it does, we would all be mere mortals grappling for heaven in futility. If not for what it does, church would be the world’s most pointless, most hopeless institution society should blacklist ASAP.

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