Antipodes

On the occasion of the global celebration of  Earth Day every  April 22,  I reblog this article first published published July 7, 2011 on larizanetwork.com. This year’s theme is Green Cities. 

Image Credit: www.americanbar.org

God, the Supreme Being (known in various names to diverse tongues and context), gave man and woman the power to have dominion over the fish of the sea, birds on the air, and every living things that moves upon the earth.

But humanity used such power to dominate their fellow human beings.

The Creator put man and woman in the Garden of Eden to tend and care for it.

But men and women plunder, pollute and waste the natural resources. To ensure their domain, they cut a tree, hanged God and built a sanctuary. Confining Him on the four walls of the church, they nailed his hands and feet so that they continue destroying the earth.

Jesus the Christ came to give assurance of eternal life to the dead.

But humans ensure the living of their death by the coverage of insurance companies bearing the religious terms like Eternal Life, Ascension, Resurrection and the like

Jesus invites the weary and heavy laden to come to him and find rest and peace.

But humanity invents destructive weapons to make their fellow humans quickly rest in peace.

Jesus exhorts his followers to feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, visit the prisoners, clothe the naked, invite strangers to their homes.

But humans find it pleasurable to visit the naked, sprinkle water and gas to the hungry, invite the thirsty to prison, sell to the strangers their homes.

As it was in the beginning men and women are fond of making reversals. No wonder Bernard Backman wasinspired to write the Reverse Creation – a gloomy picture of what will happen in the end should these antipodes continue.

Taken from: cancer-tankerousmommy.blogspot.com

REVERSE CREATION
by Bernard Backman

In the end, we destroyed the heaven that was called Earth. The Earth had been beautiful until our spirit movedover it and destroyed all things.

And we said…

Let there be darkness… and there was darkness. And we liked the darkness; so we called the darkness, Security.And we divided ourselves into races and religions and classes of society. And there was no morning and no evening on the seventh day before the end.

And we said…

Let there be a strong government to control us in our darkness. Let there be armies to control our bodies so that we may learn to kill one another neatly and efficiently in our darkness. And there was no evening and no morning on the sixth day before the end.

And we said…

Let there be rockets and bombs to kill faster and easier; let there be gas chambers and furnaces to be more thorough. And there was no evening and no morning on the fifth day before the end.

And we said…

Let there be drugs and other forms of escape, for there is this constant annoyance – Reality – which is disturbing our comfort. And there was no evening and no morning on the fourth day before the end.

And we said…

Let there be divisions among the nations, so that we may know who is our common enemy. And there was no evening and no morning on the third day before the end.

And finally we said…

Let us create God in our image. Let some other God compete with us. Let us say that God thinks as we think,hates as we hate, and kills as we kill. And there was no morning and no evening on the second day before the end.

On the last day, there was a great noise on the face of the Earth. Fire consumed the beautiful globe, and there was silence. The blackened Earth now rested to worship the one true God; and God saw all that we had done,and in the silence over the smoldering ruins… God wept.

Share the Earth Video to celebrate Earth Day.  Join in the Green Cities Campaign.

The Journey Framework

PADAYON encompasses life's story

Padayon is an Ilonggo term which means continue.In deeper sense, it connotes moving/going on (or never give up) despite adversaries or adversities. In this blog, PADAYON serves as framework or acrostic of my life’s experiences and the lessons learned from life. Each area or sub topic will be discussed in details in the succeeding blogs.


Antipodes of life's journey.

Ater undergoing the process of ordination which culminated, as a personal gift,on myGolden birthday on May 27, 2004,I committed myself to do God’s will on earth as it is in heaven, no matter what.Indeed, it was a golden year. On the 7th month that followed, I was awarded as one of the Ten Outstanding Social Workers of the Philippines. For me, it was a vindication of the awful experiences in coping up with life's struggle when I first committed myself fulltime to the cause of Filipino people which dramatically changed the course of my life. It was my last semester in the seminary in 1984 when I decided to stop schooling and dedicated myself to the service of the struggling Filipino people for freedom from the shackles of the dictatorial rule. To what extent will remain a precious and lasting memory for me and my former comrades on the beauty of service and God's abiding presence in protecting His people.


Doing God’s will is dangerous to your health.

Engrossed with my study of the Lord’s Prayer vis-à-vis its relevance to our lives as far as development issues are concerned, I found myself in stressful condition and got sick. Realizing that the prayer is not essentially Lord’s Prayer but a model prayer (for the real Lord’s Prayer is found in John 17), I started to put it into practice in my relationship with God and fellow human beings. Just as I prayed “…Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” I made myself available for their realization. I tried to seek & do things in proper way; be on the side of the truth and stand for it without fear or favor; advocate and work for that which brings or gives life, not destruction. That is where my trouble started.

Adversities: Stepping Stones towards wholeness

It was when I was confronted with adversities beyond my control that I havelearned painful (yet wholesome) lessons in life which ushered me to a new holistic well being. There appears to be a pattern in my health condition every 17 years. In 1975, I was seriously ill causing me to be completely bedridden for 3 months before gradual recovery which lasted for a year. It recurred in 1992 when at the peak of delivering lecture in an evening class, I experienced short breath and almost collapsed. But the worst came in the last quarter of 2009 when the attack took place in a remote area while doing volunteer work.

Yardstick for all of life is still the Bible.

Yardstick has been used metaphorically to refer to anything which serves as a test or standard of measurement, comparison or judgment. It serves as a reference point against which other things can be evaluated. For more than one year of struggle and suffering due to my health condition, the only companion that never leave me is the bible. And in my daily reading and reflections (sometimes almost the whole day), I learned lessons I have never seen before. In succeeding blogs, I will give the details on how the bible is the yardstick for all of our life.

Opportunities come in the fullness of time

No matter how I console myself, as family, friends and colleagues do, that God is just preparing me for something big through the illness (and subsequent rest), I seem not to enjoy the thought. Not until recently I realized that opportunities, indeed come in the fullness of time.

Networking: Essence of the Church as Body of Christ

Having experienced the interplay of our body’s subsystems in causing sickness and wellness, I become interested in studying the mechanics of our body. I have learned how every cell contributes to the body’s functions and dynamism and its capacity to heal itself naturally, as designed by God. Relating this to my study on networking of NGOs (my masteral thesis), I see the beauty and relevance of the biblical comparison of the church as body of Christ. Ironically, it is the business world, information technology, development advocates that maximize the benefit of networking which should have been the forte of Christians in their ministry.