Love Made To Be Touched

St. John Bosco in his letter from Rome writes, “ the youngsters should not only be loved, but that they themselves should know that they are loved.” This pedagogical wisdom underlines the human need to feel concrete love. Love, after all, is not an abstract concept nor is just a subjective feeling. Love is an immersive reality that seeks to embrace a human person and seeks to lift him to a higher consciousness and existence.

God knows this perfectly and so the Father, in the fullness of time (Gal 4:4), sent His Son into the world so that the Father’s love may have a face, may be touched, and may be embraced. The Feast of the Annunciation is the celebration of this mystery. Through the proclamation of the Angel Gabriel unto the Virgin Mary and her subsequent assent to God’s invitation, the Word became man in her womb. It is the beginning of humanity’s assent towards God. It was God’s condescending act towards humanity. In this event, God stooped down to not only love humanity but they themselves know that they are loved with a Love that is made incarnate.

Our human experience has always taught us that love is not only said, it must be felt, must be given time. This is where the connecting power of the internet and technology finds its limit. Nothing compares to the tactile experience of love. The human heart feels loved when it is touched. The great mystery of God’s incarnation of the womb of Mary, when He stripped Himself of His glory to don our weak humanity, is God’s own invitation for us. He invites us to feel His love in the person of Jesus. He invites us to make others feel His love through our touch.

The Fire of Curiosity

We were having our practices inside the church in preparation for the Easter Vigil when the frantic shouts of people outside stopped us. “Sunog! Sunog!” was the shout. Apparently, a fire just erupted in one of the sitios in Pasil. This time it was near the convent of the Missionaries of Charity sisters. Just last January 14, 2018, a fire raged in another section of the parish, in Lawis, robbing 300 families of their homes. Fire can spread easily in this neighborhood since most of the homes are built very near each other and the houses are made of light and combustible materials.

Interestingly, the Knights of the Altar (or KOA) members dashed towards the church side door towards where the shout was coming from. Unlike the world of common sense, most people in Pasil where I grew up would rather see the spectacle of the fire than run for their lives. They say fire lit man’s imagination. It still does so with a Pasilanon’s curiosity. For your curiosity’s sake, the fire was immediately put out even before the first responders from the fire department came.

This short anecdote reminded me of Jose Rizal’s story about the moth and the candle flame. Too often we come close to the light that has bedazzled and enthralled us. Our curiosity gets the best of us. Young people who start with experimentation end up enslaved to addiction to drugs, alcohol, and smoking. It is however responsible of many more good things for humanity in the many discoveries and inventions that the curious have achieved.

As we celebrate the Easter Octave this week, there is one Light that we still need to appreciate and get close to. There is still one Flame that can engulf us with passion and power without consuming us, just like the fire that Moses saw on Sinai. May the fire and light of Easter also captivate our curiosity, so we could get closer to our Savior.

Autograph or Selfie?

A celebrity comes and people flock to him. This time, instead of pen and paper, the flock is armed with cameras. If you were to meet your favorite celebrity, what would you do, ask him to write a message for you and sign his name, or take a selfie with him that you can post on social media?

New technology means new behavior. The tools that we use everyday change the way we think, feel, and act. The internet and the smartphone has erased the word patience from everyday vocabulary. Everything runs in an instant. We expect people to reply immediately. We immediately check our new Facebook posts for reactions. That is why we feel that the world runs on octane and everything should catch up to fiber optic speed. People are often frustrated and restless. Smartphone and social media addition is fast becoming a global pandemic. Instant gratification takes on high tech mode. Everyone fixed and imprisoned in the world of their phones' and computers' LCD screens.

The question really brings us to a realization. Celebrities are as old as human civilization itself. We love to be connected, especially to the powerful and the famous. But how is this need expressed today? Autographs require people to pause and think before writing down a message. A written word is more tangible. It conveys ideas that are not easily discerned from the outward. It speaks of an exchange and an encounter of persons. A selfie has more impact. Pictures always speak louder than words. It is a piece of the now forever frozen in history. It presents me boxed in with you in a frame and that frame holds us together forever.

Life is all about connections. We can use any tool and technology available just to be connected. This runs true in all of our relationships, be it in the context of a family meal, an outing with friends, or inside the church. Even prayer and communication with God makes use of tools. The need to be connected is part of our human nature, one that everyone is athirst of. We just have to make sure that the connection is more important than the tool used.

What behavior are you more likely to exhibit? Your choice reflects your own values in life. Some could even ask for an autograph, then take a selfie.