sunday leisure

Here I am on a Sunday morning reading the newspaper. Felt so good to have eaten a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs with tomatoes and bread with the goodness of oats and happy nuts to keep me and you happy. ^^ Learned a lot from reading the news. Apart from the politics and kidnapping, robbery and killing, there's hope. I can read it somewhere there in the middle. Whenever I read about Obama, it sparks hope and whenever I read about the Phil Star inbox that stores people's comments and reactions about a certain issue, it has hope that someday peace will be restored, whenever I read the comics, it gives me relief and hope as well. Moreover, when I read about the editors' views especially about Jesus it gives me hope all the more.

I am sharing a piece of beautiful words from Manuel Francisco, S.J.

"God does not will our suffering. God desires fullness of life for all. God did not ordain Jesus’ death on the cross. Human beings, particularly the Jewish religious leaders and representatives of the Roman Empire, connived to execute Jesus whose preaching and way of life threatened them. God did not manipulate Judas, the High Priest and Pilate to have Jesus crucified. They rejected God’s will, words and ways embodied in Jesus, in all that he did and stood for.

What then is salvific about the cross? Not the physical pain, but the love underlying the suffering. Love redeems, not pain. Love redeems, not shame. The unjust execution of an innocent man, Jesus, the Son of God, is the work of human sin, a travesty in the eyes of God, the rejection of the Father’s supreme gift to humanity. But the love of Jesus underlying his suffering and his fidelity to his Father and his mission despite the consequent persecution is redemptive.

If the Season of Lent is the period of renewing our baptismal promises, then to recommit ourselves to our Christian Faith involves, on the one hand, alleviating suffering caused by moral sin and denouncing immoral forces of suffering, such as, poverty, exploitation, oppression. On the other hand, recommitting ourselves to our Christian Faith entails embracing the suffering that comes with loving unconditionally, for instance, material deprivation for opting to live with the poor, calumniation for defending the unlovable in society, persecution for speaking the truth.
Fasting from meat and physical comfort is a laudable way of recommitting ourselves to our Christian Faith. But the physical fast must be conjoined to a spiritual fast—fasting from affirmation and fame and embracing calumny and shame due to love is a redemptive fast that participates in the total self-emptying of Jesus who loves unto death, death on a cross."

Here is an inspiring comic strip that I got online from http://www.arcamax.com/hagarthehorrible

Keep reading, learning and always do your best in everything! It's good for you! :)