On Easter Sunday, Catholics all over the world observe the last day of Lent.
Though many may seem dolorous and remorseful-looking over the fact that we have made gods of material things and earthly honors, Holy Week is still celebrated because it is indeed a celebration.
We celebrate the greater love there is of a Father Who has sent His Only Begotten Son to suffer the pain and humiliation of death of a common criminal in Calvary. All that to pay for a debt He never owed and a debt we can never repay by our puny selves.
All of us who have children, let us begin to imagine what kind of sacrifice that meant. Those of us who have only one child to give for others? understand that kind of love even more.
Holy Week, therefore, is that time of the year, when the Faithful must reflect just how deserving we can be of that love. How much of a redemption we are truly worthy of? And the least we can do is to recognize the sinners that we all are and repent for the every lash, nail and spit we inflicted on the suffering Jesus as we lead our daily sinful lives.
As the theme from the movie “The Cardinal” had succinctly placed, we are like lambs that in the springtime (good times, interpretatively) wander from the fold, distracted by the ways and pleasures of this world. But as the darkness and the cold follow as they always come to pass, we grow cold, weary and lost because we know that we have sinned.
As the road underneath us trembles and buckles, we run for shelter and cry with the wind. And yet we find to our wonder that every path leads back to the Lord. So we pray, repent and shout Stay with me, Lord, it is you that I need, the gods of this world never give me peace in my heart. They are empty and vain.”
Those of us who suffer the slings and arrows of daily misfortune can likewise search and find the value in human suffering by taking an attitude of total surrender. For instance, we can offer our abject misery and painful circumstance in atonement for our many transgressions. We can thus participate in Jesus effort to atone for mankind sins.
There one finds a truly redemptive value in human suffering.
Likewise, let us also see that when God drops needles and pins along our path in life, as they say, we dont stay away. We pick them up and collect them. For they too were strewn for a purpose to make us all stronger.
So the essence of Holy Week is as much the redemptive power of Christ suffering from the Garden of Gethsemane unto the hills of Calvary as it is the glorious resurrection on Easter Sunday, three days after His death.
Therefore our whole lives should be a testament of faith and trust, whether in good days or suffering times.
So when we are at the edge of the cliff, we must trust God enough to let go. Because there are only two things that will happen as this text message relays.
One, is that God will catch us as we fall for indeed He will not test us beyond the limits of what we can bear. Trust that fully. Or ……
Two, He will teach you how to fly having learned our lessons in life well. How can we, therefore, fret then over our sufferings?
That is why Divine Friendship with Jesus is the only permanent one we can rely on in this earth where relationships are usually built on expediency, mutual exploitation and materialism.
The Lord Jesus, Our One True Friend, is like the walls of our houses. Sometimes they hold you up. Sometimes, you may lean on them. But sometimes, its enough to know theyre just standing by.
Does Jesus, our friend love us enough?
Hello, He just died for you. How many friends do we have like that?
HIGHEST COURT ACQUITS TOP CEBU MEDIA MAN OF LIBEL
IN 2007 CEBU GOV. GWEN GARCIA filed a libel case for an article written by popular Cebu media man Leo Lastimosa titled “Doling Kawatan”.
In an 18-page decision penned by Third Division Associate Justice head Alfredo Caguioa and concurred in by associate justices and Singh,Inting, and Gaerlan (Dimaapao was on leave) concluded that the case lacked one element of a libel case.
Caguioa is an appointee of former president Noynoy Aquino while the rest are Duterrte appointees.
Effectively, the highest court of the land reversed the previous rulings of a Cebu RTC (2013) and the Court of Appeals (2016 and 2017). The SC said that while Lastimosa did not deny writing the article and recognized the elements of malice and defamation thereof, the article did not directly identify Doling as Gov. Garcia herself.
That does not actually mean that Garcia was a point in reference just because Lastimosa had been critical of Garcia in previous articles, the decision said.
The RTC previously ruled that Lastimosa pay Garcia moral damages of P2 Million which was reduced to P500,000 by the Court of Appeals.
Garcia is a popular and controversial governor of the most progressive province in the country- drawing both praise and criticism from a wide spectrum of the political fence.
The SC decision proves the wide latitude the SC has given media in becoming a critical scalpel in cutting the excesses of governance in insisting that all , not just most, of the elements of a libel case should be present irrefutably.
We salute the SC on this landmark case and extend our congratulations to our esteemed comrade in arms in the media profession, Leo Lastimosa.
For comments: email to dejarescobingo@yahoo.com or bohol-rd@mozcom.com