Habagat is not the Real Killer

Ave Maria:-)

It is not even a typhoon... yet we have learned to call it Hanging Habagat - the Southwest Monsoon - and at the time of this posting ...18 areas are declared under state of calamity: Pasig City and Pateros.Malabon, Valenzuela and Muntinlupa...Bataan, Laguna, Pampanga and Zambales; and Cainta, Rodriguez and San Mateo in Rizal province...Several towns in Bulacan .....

TV and radio blare updates, the tv footages showing how helpless we can be when faced with Mother Nature's wrath.

It is amazing ---- we can notice immediately who the resilient ones are --- and these are the poor..and also those who have suffered many times in the past , because their area is prone to be the first to suffer when heavy rains come.

The mothers with their children flock rather matter-of-factly to the evacuation centers : these would be schools, daycare centers, municipal halls...anything that could be used to temporarily shelter them.

In the mean time that the poor and those affected severely affected by Habagat  are trying best to cope bravely ..there will be many...oh so many  whose main concern would be annoyance..irritation that the normal flow of their life is disrupted so powerfully - hey I could be one of them ( God forgive me) , perhaps thoughts like these running in our minds:

1) Shucks... di matutuloy outing namin...and to think we planned this months ago.

2)There goes my dream garden party.... napaka bad timing naman ng Habagat.

3) But I have so much work to do.... there's a business to run... I have deliveries to make... nakaka - sira ng 

    momentum... peste.

4) Oh my God ( sounding more like Ieouww Mye Gawd - best colegiala accent we can muster) it's   

     been raining for ages..it's so nakahkah- ineis... anu bahhh...??!

5) Gut reaction - when it's threatening bad weather --- "Tara sa mall... dun may kuryente..walang brown-out

     ... nood tayong sine, Starbucks tayo  ...iwasan tong Habagat na to."

6) Pre'....  ginaw.... o, ano?.... kita kits mamya... tagay tayo. Red Horse.

7) Oh goodie..this is my BAWI BEAUTY TREATMENT TIME: lemme sleep straight fro 12 hours. Spa, mssage the 

     works...heaven.

8) RAIN....POOOH...GO AWAY..AND NEVER COME ANOTHER DAY, YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE.

9). Brat: " Well why doesn't the government do something?  Kaka- bad trip naman  tong ulan na to. Bwisit."

To no. 9 : Iha..ikaw ang bwisit... kita mong ina anod na mga tao... namamatay sa ginaw mga bata..nawalan na ng bahay marami .... gutom, karamdaman naglilipana... tapos ikaw mag arte-arte... naku ....kaya naman tayo dinadalaw ni Habagat is because marami ka nang ka tribu dito. Dios ko. 

Seriously .... it's interesting to listen to the news... everyone giving their ten cents on the calamity -- the why's wherefore's ... the shout-outs for help... some will give scientific updates and explanations... some will use it as a springboard to go preachy --- with text and internet  messages using a scripture passage from Genesis about Noah's Ark ....  it would have been good if it led people to be prayerful , to reflect.... but many grabbed the opportunity to stoke fear. But God wants us to make a movement toward  Him more in faith and in love , rather than out of fear... Wala ring mangyayari eh, if we have a relationship with someone only becoz takot tayo sa kanya... walang magandang fruit na ibubunga ito. 

But Habagat is perhaps just the icing on a cake that we have been baking stubbornly not caring about the ingredients of this cake, not caring how it tastes..and not caring if it kills others and even ourself in the process.

God knows we have become master bakers .

This symbolic cake is none other than our surefooted movement (as a people)  away from God .

No longer can we arrogantly proclaim ourself a Christian nation.... devout Catholics... if we persist in following and obeying the very principles that Christ wanted to destroy through His death on the Cross. And painful as it may be...we are probably more of -->devout Material Boys and Girls ( borrowing Madonna's disco pop hit) ... no way can we say we are devout Catholics when we are breaking every commandment Moses brought down  from the holy mountain--  and if there were more commandments..we'd break them all too, the h_ _k with them ... 

When we make our own creative interpretation of Christ's teachings ( ang talino na natin, promise, mali nga lang application)... of Mother  Church's guidance -- anything that does not suit us... or conflicts with our innate desires and worldly ideals - we shatter or throw away without blinking an eye.... this is after all the Age of DELETE FILES.

Except that there is one truth we cannot delete... we came from GOD, we were created by God...we were made for God's purposes which is to love and glorify and serve Him...we were made to live a life in union with Him, thoroughly  benefitting from His life and His love.

We are almost like a celfone , a computer, a gadget originally made and programmed  to do certain things... yet we command the celfone to do the laundry... or to cook the beef stew.That is our human soul... we command it to hurt others and to hurt ourself... but this soul was made for goodness and holiness.

Today's reading mentions how God made a new covenant 

promising He would write His law in the Israelites hearts...

Jeremiah 31:34 

I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts;
I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
No longer will they have need to teach their friends and relatives
how to know the LORD.
All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD,
for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more. 

The rains could stop... and then after all relief operations are over.. we will say life goes on... but what kind of life would we want it to be... and do we really have life... or is it possible it is not Habagat that will ruin us?... but our our own stubborn will, our very cold hearts.

 May the love and forgiveness that Jesus offers us melt our glacier hearts , so that we will realize God has written His law in the core of our hearts and that it is not impossible to love Him back. To obey Him..because that is what will give us true life...

Heaven took a time-out to cry and grieve for us... as we doggedly pursue the path to perdition. Heaven's tears will be with us for a long time yet.

Habagat is not the real killer. 

Wherever you can help, whether in deed , thru prayers... just go... but more important remind others about the God who weeps for us.God bless you...............................te mye

   

2:45

Napoleon Pastry

August 8, 2012 7:44 AM