“Messengers from Eden”

These days I have become increasingly intentional about carving out more time for God because it’s so easy to lose it when we give the world and its ways the car keys and let it drive us.

As I explore my adoptive country, I now use the ferries mostly to go between the islands; so rather than a one- hour journey at 900 miles per hour in an aluminium tube at 30 thousand feet, my most recent trip was 60 hours at a steady 19 knots with no WiFi, mostly no cell service, an audio book about eternity and my rosary beads.

It was wonderful and as each day unfolded I was surrounded with messengers from Eden as reminders of who we are and our destiny. On the seas, aside from the vessel I was stood on, there were no man made objects to be seen; everything else pointed to heaven. The sun rose over calm endless seas, the sky and clouds moving toward a far horizon, blazing sunsets and thunderstorms displaying the majesty of God and his creative energy. And the moon and stars are a finale. All new every morning and as my soul settled into it I could feel the ache in the heart at what we lost in Eden and a great hope for what was yet to come in eternity, when all things are made new (Rev 21:5 Then the one who sits on the throne said, "And now I make all things new!")

I heard a speaker ask an awkward question once after he quoted a scripture from Peter 3:15 ‘Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have’. And then he asked, “when was the last time someone came up to give in the supermarket, grabbed you by the arms and demanded to know the reason for your hope ? I have never been asked either. We don’t often think about what it is we hope for. Forgiveness, a not too unpleasant death perhaps, but eternity is a long haul, what then ? Often times we feel that life has passed us by, missed opportunities or maybe no opportunities, unable to follow a particular dream or develop a particular talent, the many losses we take as we see loved ones die or friendships end. Well the good news is we get everything we lost back, better then ever, perfected and permanent and a mansion in heaven !

We will do everything we were born to do, and whilst our minds cannot contain such thoughts it will be good, it will be worth the wait, worth the current and future sufferings. What awaits us is Eternal Joy when the voyage is over.

Have you seen Lazarus ?

 

Just before Christmas, on the way home from paying the electricity bill, I came across a homeless lady lying in the street in the rain. A security guard was on his radio to report it and arranging for the barangay (local government unit) to see about any medical help they could arrange as motorists peered out of windows and accidently splashed her with rainwater. She regained consciousness and told a bystander that she had not eaten in a long time. Two young men helped her to her feet and onto the sidewalk and shelter near a convenience store. Someone gave her a raincoat as she was shivering while someone went to the store to get her a hot meal. Others spoke with her and waited. 

Oftentimes we wait until the last minute to help and then come through and whilst that’s good what underpins the situation isn’t really. 

I read the other day that, here in the Philippines, the 9 richest Billionaires own as much wealth as the poorest half (55,000,000 or 55 Million ) Filipinos. If we were to weigh in the multi-millionaires and the numerous common or garden millionaires then you get a picture of a seriously polarised and disordered society. Is this what we would expect from the only Catholic nation in Asia ? 

Revisiting scriptures that talk about wealth and particularly insatiable greed and unwillingness to share can be enlightening. The man who built bigger barns to store his wealth, (Luke 12 :16-21) and of course Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16: 19-31) are two striking teachings. What is interesting is what was considered wealthy then and how we think of wealth now. The farmer building larger barns seems like ‘small potatoes’ really and perhaps although his life was taken suddenly and he lost everything in an instant, we do not hear of his eternal destiny. 

For Lazarus and the rich man story though…is a bit different. Again the notion of wealth is rather subdued really. He had fine clothes, dined sumptuously every day; but it doesn’t mention the trappings of extreme or obscene wealth. No private jet, no yacht in the harbour, no 4x4 in the garage, no i-phone or offshore dollar account in Panama or Switzerland and yet his fate is sealed by his complete indifference to Lazarus. He knows he is in need, he knows he can well afford to help and does..…nothing. And such a huge price is paid for that lack of compassion, the loss of his immortal soul, for a lack of charity, unwillingness to share what God had blessed him with. Truly we have nothing that has not been given by God, however clever or hard working, it’s all a gift from God to be used in a proper manner. Lazarus is outside our front doors. 

What we do to others, we do to ourselves and it must go way beyond family and friends to our true brothers and sisters, those who have no one else, that’s where you find true joy and meaning in life. There are many charities that serve the poor. Join. Give. while we still have time.

Bronze, Rubber and Rice

The commodities market has always been a bit of a mystery to me, the buying and selling of futures in metals or foodstuffs; fortunes made and lost. I suppose it depends on your social standing which ones have importance to you in real life too.

Politicians and civic leaders are fond of monuments and landmark buildings, their constituents more often than not with feeding and clothing their children. This is certainly true in the area I live in, near Manila bay.

Along the sea front there is a walk-way and dotted along it are a series of bronze sculptures of various people, from General McArthur, to a sea captain, various political figures, and one of a ‘typical’ Filipino family gathered together enjoying each others company.

Many people live by the sea, under the trees or tarpaulin canopies, often whole families and from time to time pieces of the bronze statues are chipped off and find their way to junk shops to be weighed in and sold for money to buy rice most probably. I found the sculpture of the Filipino family to be most striking in this regard. All the arms are missing, the little girl is gone now except for one foot, even the dog’s tail is gone. 

A clash of priorities between state and people but a minor one compared to the latest. The recently passed Reproductive Health bill, in part  aims to provide free condoms and other contraceptives to the people (the poor people). The estimated budget for this is 3 Billion pesos.

Not really in keeping with the culture of a country that is 90% catholic, 5 % other denominations and 5% muslim. Perhaps some enterprising people will recycle them or sell them back unused to the suppliers and there will be some benefit, otherwise a total misuse of public funds to no positive end.

I am reminded of stories I heard from Africa, where rural clinics were pilled high with contraceptives people didn’t want (as its not part of their culture either) but had no medicines at all for the real needs of the people.

Supporters believe the reduction in population will eliminate poverty. As if overpopulation was related to their poverty; with most of the wealth of the nation in the hands of a small minority here, and everyone else scrambling for as much as they can get, poverty is much more related to inequalities in distribution of wealth not a lack of it or an excess of people. But that is an inconvenient truth. So many measures like these around the world; the imposition of lesser values, are little more than a smoke screen for greed to flourish without having to look at the consequences.

Laura Vicuna Foundation

The Railway Children