The Nags to Appreciate

jack_0_dandy@yahoo.comThe lonely dark room was dimly lit by the white light that reflected on the tainted glass of our window, having a pale green pane, with a view beyond it of a tall, sturdy mango tree that practically added up to the horror of the coldness of the airy night. The unevenly-shaped clock at the far right side of the gloomy warm room filled me with stupid anxiety for I seemed to hear how its hands struck the minute and the hour as they ticked to indicate the delightfully wee hours as I trudged the evening thoroughfare to the dawn of the next new-fangled day, patiently waiting for the beautiful sun to come out of the darkest horizon and persistently enchanting me to the daunt of the fearful.

Everything actually gave me the impression that somebody was fiercely staring at me, just around the corner, waiting, waiting for me to give in to my terror until it hastily takes a grasp on me. Everything inescapably made me delve with the idea that someone was coming in the middle of the lonesome evening.  With these, many things ran through my mind, racing to get into my senses captivating me with so much fear little by little.

I heard steps of a man, strides that made my heart pound. Then, suddenly, the door sprang out widely open. Somebody banged the door. I was actually terrified by that dream- a nightmare to which I wished to wake up at the moment. Yet, I was all wrong. I suddenly realized that it was not just a mere reverie. It was no longer a dream, an escapade which I indomitably created.

I could see nothing except for the blinding white light that covered the living room and continued to flash out my sight and a figure of a man whose front-face was all black whom, at first, I did not recognize until it blurted out annoying nags which made me realize that it was not a man, after all, but a woman. It was my aunt, a woman who drove me crazy the whole time.

“Oh God!”, I whispered protesting against the legendary nagger reciting her litany.

I always told myself that if she would only know what I was doing, she would know why I was in front of this sensibly appealing invention of the modern era. I would mockingly tell her with my lavish indignant lies that I was surfing the internet for me to know how people assessed the use of it, finding out the biased judgment of the people who exactly thought like her; people eaten up by the ennui of the outmoded 50’s. That is all.

Even if I hated (a bit) my aunt for always pestering me about it, as if I were merely putting my precious time into waste, that, I deemed, was not a bad speculation after all, I still gave a thought to the fact that, indeed, there was something wrong happening already. Even though I was not aware of it which more often than not I chose not to be aware of it, there was really something concretely disappointing happening.

Seating on a black tall chair in front of this seemingly lifeless state-of-the-art invention is, indeed, an inert pastime, just quite a waste of time, I guess, for I look as if I am tolerating the do-nothing-all-day campaign of the indolent and the non-functionaries of the town. This concrete indication of the relentlessly advancing world and incessantly innovating culture seems to curse us with the excruciating pain of the perilous nothingness, the leisure of unproductivity.

The conventional yet quite progressive impertinent manner of the young towards our responsibility to our neighbor and country as a whole seems to be in full command of the entire system of the local area network of the country, the modem of the youth that appears to be a unit of the typographically erred advertisement in an influential social networking site. Most, if not all, of the youth functions no longer the way they should in the society for this reason that is actually awfully contagious.  This, I am certain, is the most significant lesson I learned from the age of luxurious usage of the internet to take internet as the depiction of the totality of progress of technology.

As I created fascinating yet gruesome delusions on my mind, I was actually gradually coming up with the whole-wide truthful idea that the young are really filled with the resonating hard-whimpering sound of fear. We merely fear to sniff out of the plain of the snug softness of our comfort zones and forget figuring out where we will thrive in the end. We always frightfully detested facing every bit of the exasperating reality of our poor country wherein we can actually contribute what He has graciously given us from the very beginning, as we breathed our first.

Everything is explicitly defined as technological advancements in one way or another, drives us to the wrong road. This is only for one reason- i.e. cowardice. We want to push our exhausted parents to the limits to work for us and make everything possible for our silly wants.

Moreover, as I patiently waited to find out what the mysterious entity was, as it untiringly distracted the solitude while I was surfing the internet, I forgot to act, and not merely to act, but to act with much exerted effort to give. This became one of the most significantly dangerous psychological effects of technology that we enjoyed every day. It became the main culprit of the continuous exacerbation of the murderous procrastination of the supposedly naïve yet hardworking Filipino youth.

Yes, who will not be tempted? The luxury and comfort are all well-laid, printed on the whitest unmarred tablet, that they almost steadily stare us on the face. Just click the Orange Fox or the Blue e’d Explorer or, if not, the colorful latest chrome in town. Look for the most popular and indispensable search engines like the exclaimedY and the Goo where you can get their latest versions as well when they pop out of the LCD whenever you try to open them. Type everything you want to know. Oh no, you want to Co-Pa, I mean. Count 1, 2 and 3 which depends on the speed and the paid amount enough to buy a sack of rice. Poof! Everything is there from Aa to Zz and 1 to infinity.

I myself can never deny that fact no matter how hypocrite I may become. It is all there. We are pragmatically deceived by lightness of the supposedly hard life of the world, the misleading ease brought about by the machines our intellectually great forefathers invented.

We, having been caught up by our utopian European and American infatuations, have been and still are having a hard time dealing with this timely and seemingly time-bound reality where we are actually creating our own foolish demanding dreams which in the end create political, social, economical and psychological setbacks that continued ad nauseam.

Then, as I abhorred my aunt, I realized that I became the person I hated then on. I became indolent and insolent as well, the characteristics of a person that in no time destroy any kinds of relationship, or if not, making any relationships join the ranks of absolute superficiality.

The grandiose of being liked by different people around this vastly diverse world we have, invited as virtual friends by people whom you never know or whom you never expect to have lived, not even in the wildest dreams you have, and followed and twitted by people who know nothing but to click and click and click is affixed by the split-a-second speed of this damnation of lethargy, the internet, the technology. The social life is, then, greatly misfortuned by this terrible leisure we have. Having this ever-burgeoning and self-alluring social networking systems to which I, myself, am passionately obsessed, everything is all-conspicuously jeopardized- from taking the quest to putting an end to the computer –generated life story you shared with your computer-generated friends is all but an easy thing. This factual triviality of one’s cyber-affability is but the good-for-nothing fruit of easy and time-saving yet meaningless search for true friends.

Everything, however, does not end there. We instilled the mindsets that are in fact wrong and bring them into reality- to greet our loved ones superficially because of the mere reminders in our accounts, to add others to our circle of friends without knowing anything about the person and without knowing them any better in the long run, to converse with sheer hi’s and hello’s and nothing more, to easily and inaptly spread the hottest yet proliferated and destructive gossips to make others the talk of the town in the ultra negative ways. Everything, moreover, just got very easy- to get one’s friend and to dump him, to make one’s name and destroy it.

The effortless charity it flaunts in the midst of this work-filled world we have is somewhat intolerable. I just wonder why I became almost completely engrossed with it for I know these things. Perhaps, I just became too erroneously obstinate and expressively insensitive.

By the way, did I confidently say that being irresponsible of the people on the use of this technological advancement is what I learned from the use of internet? Yes, as aforementioned, I did. Nevertheless, let me humbly draw it back for just now there is one thing I vividly realized that I inadvertently failed to notice from the sole beginning. It is all about my aunt, my hope, who untiringly annoyed me so much to make me take a grasp at things which I often opt not to because of my childish tenacity and insensitivity. I failed to regard hope as a significant element.

What for is hope, if we would not consider it, and, perhaps, not merely faultily consider it but to work with it and be motivated by it as well. I believe that we can still do something about what is apparently taking place. It takes time and it may even require a million years to be made possible. Yet, if all of us would start now- to be courageous enough to face the dreadful realities in this innately erratic life and to be determined to do something about them by working not only for one’s selfish benefits but by being inspired by so much altruism as well- maybe the next day when we wake up ready to face what the forever unpredictable tomorrow has to offer, everjack_0_dandy@yahoo.comything is done for I consider hope as a perpetually existing entity, amidst the near seemingly becoming-bleak-and-vague future, trying to nag us every now and then, yet, give us a million chances or so.

Phantom of the Opera Commentary and Movie Review

                Human intellect has, indeed, gone so far in the course of history. It has improved so quickly that seemingly all changes just happened with a wink. No one has certainly ever thought of this. 

                Human intellect has also turned out to be very influential in the human race. It has influenced so many people of all races and of all walks of life. 

                Few of the greatest achievements that men have ever attained were in the field of arts- arts in the form of painting, sculpting, speaking, dancing, singing, writing, etc- and the most well-liked and prevalent is the performing arts which include dancing, singing and acting. People have become very enthralled with this to the point that they have gone beyond the walls of theatre and strode up above the flight of steps of the stage.

I believe that Phantom of the Opera is one of the greatest movies, not so much of category but in general, man has ever made. With the movie alone, you will see how man brilliantly thinks when his craft is concerned. The story of the film was really fantastic as well. No wonder why it became so popular all over the world. 

                The Phantom of the Opera was a complete package if entertainment is concerned. It was a nearly perfect incorporation of singing, dancing and acting per se where, indeed, the conglomerated parts worked so well. The way the songs were arranged was very classy and sophisticated. The songs suited favorably to the settings of the movie which was opera that we know a place for the rich and elitists. The chosen actors and actresses really fitted to the movie very well. Their abilities as singing actors and actresses were exceptional which made them capable of the roles. The choreography was done very professionally as well. Everything came off very effectively.

                The film was really a form of art. It was not just a movie. It was a movie that depicted the greatness and grandeur of the word love. It was not made just for entertainment that most of the time people dwell with a perfectly indifferent commonality. It was not made merely for leisure; instead, it was made to move the audience through the way how the actors and production staff expressed their own perception of love.

                The movie has shown how mysterious really love is, and it is not because of the fictionality of the phantom but because of its story. I, too, can not explain exactly what love really is but I will just do it quite assertively. Love, indeed, is a two-way process. It is an in-depth form of communication between people. Love will never be called love when it is selfish. This was significantly shown by how the phantom acted. He has done everything just to get his love, Christine for he knew he was actually waging in a lost crusade for her. We will not feel the ecstatic elation of love when the other does not love us in return. With this, I admire the phantom. He has given up his greatest love because he understands what love is for others and not just what love is for him. 

 

                Often times in our lives, human as we are, we get so hurt every time we fail most especially when we did everything just to win the race. Often times we blame ourselves in failing on some things because we think we did not try hard enough even if we actually know that we did. We just have to understand that everything is not a matter of winning,rather, it is a matter of knowing really what we are fighting for in the very first place.

The Church I Now Know and the Church I Knew Before

          Often times, human as we are, we utter words we do not actually know. We just burst out and speak out things without knowing everything about those words. I admit and can not deny the fact that I also do because it is really tempting especially when I hear words for the first time and when they sound so pleasing to me. I use them. I can still clearly remember how I pointed out to the infrastructure alone every time I was asked by my teacher in grade school what a Church was for me. However, what’s worse is that she affirmed with what I said and she was my teacher so I thought I was completely right. That was how I simply and naively thought about the mysterious word, Church.

          It is, indeed, quite embarrassing that I had been pointing out to something just as I knew it without having any certainty with what I was saying. Nonetheless, I can’t blame myself because I grew up with it. I was oriented the wrong way or, perhaps, not really the wrong way but it is just that its commonality is perfectly incomplete.
Nevertheless, I will just charge it to experience- a concrete proof that I really learned something from my stay in a minor seminary and now, in a major seminary wherein better and more things about this important word are unraveled.

          Church, indeed, is not just a mere building or infrastructures where we pray, venerate saints, and adore God. The Church is not Church with just 1 or 2 persons. The Church is not only the pope nor the bishops. Church is not only for priests nor for lay people. The Church is not for the rich alone or for the poor alone. The Church is not only for those in need or for those who are bountiful. The Church is not only for the problematic or for those who can sleep soundly. Instead, the Church pertains to the people of common belief and one faith which include us.

          The Church has different roles in the life of a believer. First, it is a Sacrament. God uses the Church as instruments and means of communicating with his people. It serves as the visible sign of his presence in the midst of people’s materialistic behaviors and unwarranted attachment to material things per se. God continues to shower upon us the Graces we need and the graces, he knows, we are ready to receive. Like, in the form of the seven sacraments- baptism, confirmation, holy Eucharist, reconciliation anointing of the sick, matrimony, and holy orders. Second, it is an institution. The Church has its own identity as Church and as one people of God. It has maintained order in its people through the bishops and priest under the jurisdiction of the pope. The institutionality of the Church only signifies that members need each other especially in terms of cooperation in spreading our belief as a Christian. Thirdly, it is a community of believers and of common faith. It focuses on its people. It continuously encourages its people to live as one people of God. It also encourages all believers to become dependent to others in such away that they may work as one in reuniting the church, making it prosper, and for most cases, defending them to those who attempt to ruin the Church through prayers. Fourth, it serves as a herald in a sense that it continues to proclaim the word of God to all people. The Church also continues to remind all people to deem the scriptures so important to their lives because the word of God is, first and foremost, the structure and framework of our belief. Through the scriptures, God also encourages us to live a moral life. Lastly, it is a servant. It continues to work for the transformation and betterment of the worlds, and at the same time, work for the works Jesus has already started.. The Church is always for the service and care for others especially for the poor and the marginalized.
          

            In the Status Quo, the Church faces a lot of scandals and issues that, definitely, without God’s help, will make the Church stumble down. The Church finds it quite hard to deal with it because of the quick spread of the issues through the media. I, too, was scandalized by those. And, at first, it made me ask what is happening to our Church, where, in few years, if God would only will it, I will dedicate my whole life. However, knowing the issues better made me realize that only a few or only a small part of the Church committed the grave misdemeanors and, as a matter of fact, not all of the members or leaders. We can never judge something or someone just by knowing one or two things about him or about it because it will only be a part of a whole. It will be unjust to other parts or members to get involved with things do not know and be allegedly accused with crimes they did not do, in the first place. Just because we all have one belief? Better not utter any word, I suppose. Moreover, human as we are, we are frail and part of our frailties is for us to commit mistakes. We are no Gods. Even saints committed mistakes. That is practically the paradox of life being created by a God who is perfect. It is just that our merciful Father has given them millions of chances to change, and they did change. People just have to broaden up their horizons and just face it. We all commit mistakes. We just have to help others change and never place them in a box as if there would be no chance for them to change. Who are we to judge then? Who are we to condemn others just by looking at their weaknesses and never consider what they did for others and for the many?

           Reminiscing the past is, most of the time, funny. It is really funny thinking and looking back how I ignorantly yet a little too confidently told everybody that a church is the building or the infrastructure alone. At least, now I know more than that. I learned that each one is part of it. It just sounds quite ridiculous to be part of the building, though. Moreover, church is the living work of the Holy Spirit, the giver of life. Without the Holy Spirit, Church will definitely break down in the long run.

Communications for Seminarians

          I have in mind countless insights that I want to share with you. I can’t count with my fingers the things I want to impart, the topic I want to discuss. However, I realized and deemed it more important to first say something about the significance of communication for me which I believe one of the subtlest things to do in the course of my studies.

        I am certain that not all of us  will become priests few years from now, not all of us will end up standing on the Altar of God in front of hundreds of people, preaching, not all of us will turn-out teaching the people of God to create a change in their lives for the better through priesthood and be a model of it.

          Thus, we can never be certain who among us will make it. We can never be so sure who among us will become priests someday.

So, in the long run, we will resort to pursuing another career, another field of endeavor, which I hope, will be a well-thought one for each of us.

       In the Status quo, in a group of people who received equal scholastic training, it is rather reasonable to ask what makes one person more effective than others, more successful than others.

         I think it is the ability to express one’s self more clearly and explicitly.

        It can also be one’s power to make eligible and logical decisions that more often than not needs to risk the whole office through considering not only one’s own perspective but also that of others which usually requires one proper disposition.

        And, most importantly, it is one’s ability to do well with his colleagues and, perhaps, in one way or the other apprehend his adversaries.

           Nevertheless, if God would only will it that I would become a priest, I would be truly grateful. And I want to express that gratitude by rendering efficient and quality-wise service to all most especially to his people.

           I am convinced that priesthood is not a mere contemplation; it is a total submission of one's self to others. Priesthood is not simply talking about God; it is practically one’s highest expression of how he knows God and one’s strongest conviction that, indeed, there is God. Priesthood is never a form of egoism; it will forever be an outward manifestation of altruism through knowing more about others and embracing their culture in the process of one’s own self-discovery.

            I believe that we can only fulfill these when we know how to TALK, when we know how to communicate well.

          Moreover, as seminarians aspiring to become priests, it is but important to bear in mind that our communication skills will serve as our stepping stone towards the mileage of success and personal growth in this vocation.

        In the end, whatever happens, whatever this precarious life brings, may it be surprisingly far from what we expect, our success will most probably rely on our communication skills particularly our proficiency in oral communication.

    In whatever path we would wish to undertake, our communication skill would always matter especially when we have the desire to go beyond the walls of our limitations and be more professionally and economically competent in this world where, figuratively, only the fittest survives.