The Silence of the Night

Coming home from the evening Mass, a familiar tune is playing on the radio. Silent Night, Holy Night. All is calm, all is bright. Tonight is a holy night. For this is the eve where we celebrate the birth of our Savior. It is a holy anticipation.

I've always enjoyed this night of all nights of the Christmas season. It is the culmination of the Simbang Gabi celebration where all homilies in the Mass, as well as choir performances, become the best in the lot. Then the childlike excitement of opening the gifts, concluding with a sumptuous feast of Noche Buena.

But the real joy in this night is in its silence. In silence, we can feel the Spirit of God moving among us, filling our hearts with positive love, joy and peace. It is in real silence that Jesus comes and is born in our hearts.

Parties, celebrations, gifts, food - we can live without them. But the silence of this night, it is an important condition for us to accept Jesus. And that - we can't live without.

Merry Christmas. Sssshhh :)

An appeal to bishops and priests

I just came from Simbang Gabi and I am enjoying it. It's not just the beautiful church lights and the heavenly singing of the choir that was so inspiring. It's the whole liturgical experience. Perhaps this old age kicking in that I'm more excited about the Simbang Gabi than going to the malls this holiday. I don't truly appreciate the traffic, difficult parking, and the hordes of shoppers in a mall.

I look forward to Simbang Gabi again. Tomorrow, the last of the 9, is the culmination. It should be the most exciting liturgical celebration for Christmas.

But I'm a little bit apprehensive. The last thing I want to hear in what I expect to be an inspiring and spiritual celebration of the Christmas season, is another apologetics against the RH Bill. Be it in homily form, or a pastoral letter, I've had enough hearing about the subject within the Holy Mass. In the Mass I attended, the priest mentioned a little of it. Thank God he did not elaborate.

I think the bishops and some priests are given enough media mileage to be able to say what they believe is needed and necessary against the RH Bill. Let the Mass be for the real spirit of the season, the birth of Christ, which we want to feel in our hears, through the liturgy.

So I am appealing to priests and bishops who will celebrate the Holy Mass tomorrow, Christmas Eve. Please spare us from any mention of the RH Bill, or anything connected to it, the state of our Congress, or what will happen after the law is signed. Your laity watches the news and reads the papers. We are all informed.

Through the liturgy, we feel the Spirit of Newborn Jesus. Please don't corrupt it with the RH Bill issue.

Remembering Fathers

My father has already passed some 9 years ago. With physical absence, celebrating Fathers' Day is mostly filled with remembrance, and storytelling that me and my mom shared. I went to Eastwood City this afternoon. And I was just so happy seeing families celebrate this occasion still with their fathers with them. Indeed, a father's presence is still a blessing for any families.

A 5 year old kid ran towards the fountain to enjoy the water, unaware of a pool of water on the way. He slipped. He cried. His father came to hush him and offer comfort. The kid stopped crying knowing his dad is there. What a beautiful sight. We all grew up seeing our parents, especially our fathers, as the hero in our lives. Some even consider them our first superheroes - always providing protection from harm, providing for our needs, removing our fears. And that is proper. To a child's eyes, fathers are incapable of errors and weakness.

But as the child in us give way to the adult, this world-view is challenged to be changed. Most misunderstanding in families, especially the father-children conflict, is brought about by our insistence on our child's perception that fathers are incapable of errors and weaknesses. Fathers are people. Indeed, they are capable and even prone to errors, weaknesses, and mistakes. Fathers are not super human as we children think them to be. But they try to be, so we as children will be super safe and secured.

Fathers do their best to be heroes in their children's eyes, in any way they know how. As we become adults, let's look at them as they really are. People of weakness like you and me. We don't easily get irritated, and in fact we are patient, if our friends make mistakes, terrible it may seem. Why don't we extend the same patience to our parents?

As for me, I have been a witness to the weakness of my father, towards the last days of his life, fighting against cancer. He wants to become a hero till the end, enduring the pain and not letting us feel it. But I have seen how human he is, and I loved him more for it.