JESUS CHRIST DELIVERED, my insights on the visit of of Pope Francis to the Philippines 2015

Common Photo grabbed from Facebook

What kind of blessing do we really want?  A million bucks? How about a shining a career? Romance? Travel around the world?  We all want those blessings and they are all good to make the most out of life.

Recently, I received a blessing that encompasses all that.  It will not just give me all that. It will make me a better person and maybe even give me more.  I was blessed by Pope Francis.  He blessed me by extending the life of Jesus Christ to me. Jesus Christ is the blessing and Pope Francis brought Him to me. 

We did try

No, I wasn’t able to see him in the flesh like the many others.  I was not able to attend the Grand Sunday Holy Mass he gave. We did attempt and I don’t want to say that we were unsuccessful. I want to say that it was just hard because of the crowd and the weather. We weren’t equipped physically as the others.  Biel, my daughter, had a bit of colds.

Filipinos are still on a “Pope Francis high” as I write this. He may still be up in the air back to the Vatican. The challenge now is getting back to reality.  Is this all hype?  Have we really allowed ourselves to be transformed into the likeness of Christ that the Pope intended in this visit?

We need to zero in now into our personal lives.  I will take on the courage and share some personal bits of my own life. How will I now apply the blessing of Pope Francis?

On his homily in Tacloban.

I have tried imagining a Yolanda-like storm hitting my place. I could not. Going to other catastrophes, tragedies or trials in other places and times, I do not know how I will be able to handle the kind of catastrophe that hit the Tianzon family on December 31, 2014.  Fire burned their house in Las Piñas to a total ruin and killing all of them except Mr. Bunny Tianzon, the father.  I do not know how I will be able to handle cancer, after seeing a friend of mine in skin and bones, balding and almost dead lying in her bed.  I am not suffering anything like that and my health, thank God, is in good condition.  

So how do I relate to the message of Pope Francis to the Yolanda victims? 

Many of you, my friends know, my marital situation.  I can say that I am married single.  Edward, my husband has not abandoned me and especially the kids but we are silently estranged.  I know this is not a unique situation now to many marriages and should that be a consolation on my part?  It’s hard. Yes, I do suffer and I’m sure a lot of wives and mothers in this same condition also do.  We just don’t demonstrate it.  It hurts when Edward makes me feel low, when he doesn’t talk to me, when he puts on a sour face when I am around.  I feel like the lowest person in the world.  I suffer more when my kids are affected.  

I know what I shared is absolutely nothing to what the Yolanda survivors are going through.  Nevertheless, this homily hit the core for everyone who suffers whatever kind of pain.

“Jesus is Lord and He never lets us down” 

“And beside the cross was His mother….In the moments when we have so much pain, when we no longer understand anything, all we can do is grab hold of her hand firmly. And say, Mom, as a child does to a mother, when he or she feels fear.”

I do not mean to put Edward in a bad light.  If I cannot seem to bring Jesus Christ to Him, maybe I should just bring Mama Mary to him. I will remain patient like how a Mother does to an erring child. 

On his message to the Filipino youth at the University of Sto. Tomas (UST)

This message hits me in my career. I am in my late 40’s and I am still soul-searching. I told that to my friend Mina and she thinks that I am joking.  I am not.  I look at my contemporaries and see them all accomplished.  They are Vice Presidents of big companies, they have their own booming businesses, they are in high positions in government.  Me, I don’t have anything stable. I don’t know how to say it but I see myself as a loser.

“For this the Gospel offers us a serene way forward: using the three languages of the mind, heart and hands – and to use them in harmony. What you think, you must feel and put into effect. Your information comes down to your heart and you put it into practice. Harmoniously. What you think, you feel and you do. Feel what you think and feel what you do. Do what you think and what you feel. The three languages…”

This message does not tell me, “No, you are not a loser”.  It talks me as if I am still in my youth full of hope and advises me what to do moving forward.  In all my endeavours, I shall always remember the three stages… think, feel and finally, DO.  They must all be in harmony and done well. How can I be a loser now?

While I am in this high, I don’t intend to get down.  I will process this by thinking, feeling then DOING.  With Jesus as my Lord, He will never let me down.

Thank you so much Pope Francis. This is long already. I have so much more to say, but let the rest be between Jesus and me.