Hermeneutic of Continuity and Rupture

Where is the church going? Many Catholics are unconsciously puzzled by the many activities of the Church and individual religious men and women whose mentality are also distorted. Unconscious because the Church somehow jibes with the modern thinking of doing things like going to concert for fund raising, which they see religious perform and dance the modern way, and distorted because they think and do the way people in modern and secular world do, like doing business and becoming materialistic. People know to group them where they belong, either the traditional thinking or modern thinking. But understanding deeply what Pope Benedict XVI is saying about hermeneutic of Continuity and hermeneutic of rupture, one would rather be able to appreciate the right direction of the Church as a whole, which many of the religious do know but not keeping it, or just hanging around in their comfort zone and be ignorant with advantage.

The term Hermeneutic

The word ‘hermeneutic’ derives from a messenger, whose name is ‘Hermes.’ He is a messenger in Greek mythology. And the Church, in her theology, adopted that word in its critical understanding and interpretation of the Biblical text. It is very important to do that in order to bring out the essence of God’s word or message and put things in its proper place together with the teaching documents done by the teaching authority of the Church called the Magisterium. The magisterium serves well the Sacred Scripture and the Sacred Tradition according to the document Dei Verbum.

Hermeneutic of Rupture

The term rupture implies a decisive break and an entity, totally new, emerges. And this kind of mentality is found with satisfaction because it is totally different from what has been accustomed to. This is an attempt of what is going on to disrupt the Church mission to teach faithfully all what the Lord has commanded to his first disciples. It is an attempt to introduce a new perspective, as influenced by modernization and secularization. It is modernization because it is something new, and secularization because it is something peculiar to the Church – it is not-church related. An example to this is the introduction of same-sex marriage – totally new from what has been practiced for many centuries, that is, not same-sex marriage or a boy-girl union.

Hermeneutic of Continuity

The term continuity implies evolution, a forming out of something better. This is the kind of path being followed by the Church. It is something different to many or some of us, but definitely it is a combination of the old and the new. It is old because the Church remains faithful to what has been handed down to them by the Lord, and it is something new because what has been handed down is being implemented according to the situation of the time. When the Church speaks about each Catholic as a missionary in his own right, she speaks the truth about the nature of the sacrament of baptism – the three-fold mission of Christ given to the newly baptized.

The Church and the Hermeneutic of Continuity

The position of the Church is very clear that she follows the hermeneutic of continuity. By this the Church do not just come up with something new policy or let us say, rules and regulations that is not in accordance with her doctrines and with the Code of Canon Law. The right term here is corroborates and enhances what has been implemented. And what has been implemented before is being subjected to the signs of the times. And behind this hermeneutic of continuity is the principle of infallibility by the pope that guides the whole activities of the Church to the right path, and frees her from all errors that contradicts her teachings. When the Church is talking about the immorality of corruption in the government, it is not a sign of being rebellious against the politicians. It is indeed a sign of her mission as part of matters in faith and morals. 

Source: http://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/articles.cfm?id=296

Useful or Just a Waste Opportunity

Many people aspire for change. But to execute change is not that simple. Everybody knows that change results to something that is novelty. This novelty is either in itself serves for the betterment or for the worst. And since the world seems so cruel, disordered, unpleasant, dreaming of making the scenario exactly the opposite is not far-fetched. Change is an ideal prize that each one wants. There are two types of change, among the many types, I would like to highlight here. The simple kind of change is the change of one’s self. And this change is considered elementary – it brings change only in a narrowed and limited sense. The other type of change is complex by nature – a change that is broad and boundless. And everybody benefits from it. It results to make other people better, and so with the environment.

This type of change is intertwined with power. This power is not rested on the lowest part of the social strata, but on the highest plain. One has to climb up the ladder in order to reach the top. And once you are on the top, change that you are aspiring for is now in your hands. What does it mean? Change is realistic when one has the means – power. Its implication is power means positions. And this position is pragmatically the best venue to bring about novelty. A position is not all is there the case. It is also tangled with another means in order for the occupant to enjoy the luxury of executing change. And this is money. Money is the means for transacting change with other means of change. Thus power is accompanied with money in the execution of necessary change in one’s place.

The locus of change could be in any of the existing institutions today. Institutions exist to serve the needs of the people, like the government and the church for instance. These two institutions are known to be in the Philippines as the savior of the masses. Any institutions are being administered by authorities. These authorities are being elected by their subjects who are being seen as qualified to be in the position. And those positions are being assisted with power as executor’s power, sustained with money as machinery. It is an illusion when authorities occupy those noble positions without power and money. And that is why, many are tempted by these means, in spite of one’s noble and ideal intention of ‘to serve’ or be ‘of service.’ Service has become the password and the bridge to have power and money.

But being in authority is a rare opportunity and privilege. It is rare because not everyone can climb the ladder to that position. It is also a privilege for those who are chosen to be there. Election is not only the sole privilege. Selection is also a privilege because only few people are involved in that process. In the religious world, to be in the position is also a privilege coming from above. Armed with power and money, the mission entrusted by their Master is now within its reach. That mission is the heart of evangelization – for the BUILDING OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD here on earth. The sign of failure in not realizing that mission is because the hearts and minds in authority are worldly. It simply means that their focus is now on the means at the expense on ends. To be in authority in fulfilling that mission is a very rare golden opportunity. But to be in authority for power and money is just a WASTE OPPORTUNITY.

The Sign of the Cross (Part 2)

The Sign of the Cross is made thus: First choose your style:

·         Option A. With your right hand, touch the thumb and ring finger together, and hold your index finger and middle finger together to signify the two natures of Christ. This is the most typical Western Catholic practice.

 

·         Option B. Hold your thumb and index finger of your right hand together to signify the two natures of Christ

·         Option C. Hold your thumb, index finger, middle finger of your right hand together (signifying the Trinity) while tucking the ring finger and pinky finger (signifying the two natures of Christ) toward your palm. This is the typically Eastern Catholic practice.

 

·         Option D: Hold your right hand open with all 5 fingers -- representing the 5 Wounds of Christ -- together and very slightly curved, and thumb slightly tucked into palm

Then:

·         touch the forehead as you say (or pray mentally) "In nomine Patris" ("In the name of the Father")

·         touch the breastbone or top of the belly as you say "et Filii" ("and of the Son")

·         touch the left shoulder, then right shoulder, as you say "et Spiritus Sancti" ("and of the Holy Ghost"). Note that some people end the Sign by crossing the thumb over the index finger to make a cross, and then kissing the thumb as a way of "kissing the Cross."

Conclusion

This sacred sign being practiced by Catholics is no mere empty sign as thought by many who did not understand it. The forehead is the locus where each individual recognized as the entry point and storage of knowledge. By this holy gesture, it helps us remember that God is the only Supreme Being whom we render our worship, reminds us of our identity as followers of the cross where we attain salvation, shows our dependence to Him and our nothingness, and makes Jesus as the center of our being and living in the truth of the Trinity – Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Sign of the Cross (Part 1)

Among the Christian groups, only members of the Roman Catholic Church are doing the sign of the cross. Yet many of these members do not know the meaning and reason why they are doing it and how to do it properly. This simple note can help us understand the topic in four points. 1. The foreheads in the writings of the Old Testament and the Church Fathers. 2. Why do we make the sign of the cross? 3. When do we make the sign? 4. How do we make the sign of the cross?

1. The forehead in the writings of the Old Testament and the Church Fathers are of utmost importance. The Church Fathers inherits its significance from the Old Testament that became the tradition of the whole Catholic Church where the sign of the cross should begin with. There are two OT writings that tell about the foreheads – Book of Deuteronomy and the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel – and two writings from the Church Fathers – St. Cyril of Jerusalem, A.D. 315 – 386.

a. In Deuteronomy 6: 4-8, the first part of the passage contains the Shema that informs every Jew about their religious duty of love God alone. Every Israelite should place the shema inside the small box and place them in their foreheads as a sign of being a faithful follower of Yahweh. They call it phylacteries. In Ezekiel 9:4, Yahweh tells prophet Ezekiel about the destruction to come in Jerusalem because of the abomination people were doing, and do the mark on the foreheads of men who were righteous.

b. St Cyril of Jerusalem speaks of the forehead from which the sign of the cross be made by our fingers. For him every Christian should reveal the sign of the cross proudly. One should not be ashamed of it nor hid it from the public. For the great price won by Christ is no other but through the cross.

2. The words of St. Cyril have become the basis and standard for the Catholic Church in doing the sign of the cross, beginning with their forehead. The church has also adopted new meanings to it. First, instead of placing the words of the scripture in the foreheads like the Jews themselves were doing, the act of signing one’ self with the cross has been made as the procedure of expressing one’s faith and love for Jesus. Secondly, the cross itself has become the new seal of being Christians, because through the cross Christ has won the victory over sin for us – eternal life. Thirdly, whenever we do the sign of the cross, we profess that our God is indeed three persons – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And lastly, St. Cyril says that by doing the sign of the cross, we are shield from Satan and his temptation because they are afraid of Him, and for St. Ephrem, it is a protecting wall round all your conduct.

3. St. Ephrem of Syria (died A.D. 373), along with St. Cyril of Jerusalem, has taught the Christians in their own respective communities when they would do the sign of the cross. Let me quote their exact words.

St. Ephrem said: “…over the bread we eat, and the cups we drink; in our comings in, and goings out; before our sleep, when we lie down and when we awake; when we are in the way and when we are still.”

St. Cyril said: “Do not go out from the door of your house till you have signed yourself with the Cross. Do not neglect that sign whether in eating or drinking or going to sleep, or in the home or going on a journey. There is no habit to be compared with it.”

The Importance of Baptism

The Holy Father, Benedict XVI, sends his message for Lent 2011 to the Christendom last 04 November 2010. There are three parts in his message, to wit: the importance of the sacrament of baptism, the Word of God, and the traditional acts of fasting, almsgiving and prayer. The flow of his message describes the journey of every Christian, from being born again with water and spirit, nourished with the scripture, and the praxis of the gift of faith.

To my judgment, the focus on baptism is something of valuable importance to expound the topic in order to avoid misconceptions believes by many of our brethren Christians (not Catholics). It is because baptism is considered as the gateway to other sacraments. It means that one cannot proceed and receive other sacraments without being baptized. And the first part of the message for lent by His Holiness can help us enlighten the matter.

The sacrament of baptism indeed gives each recipient new life. By this life, our state from living a natural life is now elevated to the next level. And that is to supernatural life where we become somebody, as special than the rest of natural lives on earth like animals and plants and nonliving things. And why do we receive it after few days or weeks or month right after our birth?

First, baptism shows us that this new life is a gift from God. It is only God that can give us this supernatural and elevated life. Second, in baptism, the recipient becomes sharer in the death and resurrection of Jesus. When we receive it, we let go of our state of sinfulness by dying and by rising to a new state of life with Him. Third, in baptism we meet the Lord. It is a personal and a holy encounter with Him. What a privilege! And lastly, baptism imparts divine life. In sharing our own life with God through sanctifying grace and genuine prayer, we do not journey on earth on our own. We are not alone in struggling our own sinfulness and limitation. He will help us bear our problems and struggles.

Becoming part of the Lord’s community by being baptized is a great act of love on our part to God. The community is the venue where we develop our identity as Christians and where we receive Jesus concretely in the breaking of the bread. Our parents’ choice of having us baptized is the best choice they have made for our salvation. So, why we deprive of ourselves of this gift of baptism until when we get adult?

Remarks on the Natal Day of Mary

This is my closing remarks last 08 of September, on the occasion of the birthday of Mary, our Spiritual Mother.

"Do what he tells you." These are the words of the mother of our Lord to the wedding attendants at Cana. The consequence of their action was the first miracle done by Jesus - turning the ordinary water into the best wine.

The point of this closing remarks is not on the miracle per se, nor on the consequence of obeying our Lord that yields endless miracles. The real point here is discipleship of every followers of Christ.

The reason why we believe in her is because of two things: our belief that Mary is the most powerful advocate or intercessor in heaven, and secondly is our belief that when we pray to her, she will not abandon us but she will help us to accomplish our mission in fulfilling her son's commands for us.

Mary, intercede for us now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Theology for Personal Purposes

If in studying philosophy one cannot make money out of it, it is not in the case of theology. Many religious leaders in the Christian world have become rich because of theology.

Theology is the study about God, coupled with the divine revelation. It is an in-depth inquiry and research on the nature of God and His will for mankind. This discipline is very rich on how God has reached us out first in order to establish relationship with us – his universal salvific will. Since God is the Supreme Being, He knows all human queries. And that is the reason we ascribe to Him with the adjective word ‘omniscient.’

Objectively speaking, the discipline of theology is full of divine truth. It is not mixed with human understanding called syncretism, for God’s thoughts are beyond human understanding, according to one of the wisdom books of the Old Testament. But what makes the claim that ‘one can make money out of theology’ is of human doings.

The topic on tithing is out of the question here, for all members of any religious institutions are obliged to give one-tenth of his earnings for the support of all the expenses and the missionary activities of the Church, and of thanksgiving to God for the blessing we receive every day. But some religious leaders, who are knowledgeable in theologizing, manipulate and use it other than what is essential for religious purposes.

What is this all about? Theology should be in the service of the God and of the Church. But what we see from our religious leaders? They are using theology in the service of their personal gains by accumulating wealth. I remember the words of the executive director of one of the religious institutions in the city that ‘they are making the Church as milking cow!’ He himself, as a Jesuit priest, testifies to this common observation.

I think this is one of the reasons why people nowadays, who are immersed in the very secular world, do not take into hearts the preaching of their pastors. And if they do not give their listening ears to them, it is because they do not see the truth of theology. It just that people want to hear the real theology that brings salvation and not theology that fishes out money from their pocket.

Theology and the Limitless Queries of Human Reason

I met my former classmate a month ago. We had a short and update about personal life. And I was glad to know that he had just finished recently his doctorate in theology. He went to share about the struggles and hardships in doing the defence on his dissertation. But what stocked to my mind after our chat was when he made mentioned this thought ‘I wonder why I studied theology?’

I, too, asked the same question to my own self why I studied and obtained my masters in theology and in philosophy. In short, what are these degrees had to do with my life? My professor in college commented that studying philosophy would not make you financially rich. It is the truth that one cannot make money out of philosophy. (But I do not believe in the case of theology.)

My personal answer to the question in studying philosophy was I love wisdom. I love reading the thoughts of other philosophers. And in the process of understanding their writings, I would be able to reply to my own personal queries about life and the world where I live. But I always put in mind the limitation of human answers to all human queries. And here the role of theology comes in.

I do believe that theology would show me the way to the ultimate answer to our limitless questions. This can only happen when one would not deny the existence of God and his revelation. To the question on why I studied and obtained master in theology, my answer is very simple. Theology is not to put a stop to all limitless queries of human reason, but theology would lead us to limitless answers to human hunger for truth.

The One-Sided Speaker

In the previous article that I have written, the whole point of it is to shed light on the role of lay-teachers in the life and mission of the Church. This will bring us to consciousness of many religious people who are being one-sided. An instance of this is the way the speaker neglects the fundamental importance of why these lay-teachers applied in their educational institution during the seminar on the WBLS and RCC.


If I am correct, the speaker began the talk with an introduction on two premises. First is that every Catholic school is founded on the mission of Christ – the reason of its being. And secondly, teachers applied in their institutions because of the need for money. But what happened eventually is that the flow of the exposition is now focused on the mission and not money. The speaker has intentionally separated mission from money.

Of course many are indignant in what they were listening. We could not believe that what the speaker was trying to say, and to support the claim, writings from the documents also been cited. But from the very beginning, the audiences were already following to where the flow of the talk would lead to. And many were expecting that there will be fusion between the two premises. But the speaker has gone beyond the boarder that if the lay-teacher still living with the idea of expecting more and living on compensation, that teacher, according to the narrow-minded speaker, has not imbibed the true intention of the Church – mission.

The speaker has missed two importance matters. To enumerate again, those two things are: the lay-teachers are not compensated through the generosity of the Church’s leaders, and the lay-teachers are front liners and great benefactors of the Church. It is not the other way around because they are not self-reliant. They have not read in one of the encyclical letters that salvation is not only an aspect of spirituality but on the totality of the person (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis). Thus these lay-teachers are not to be fed with purely spiritual matters. Even the speaker herself has already forgotten the second premise that they hire these people because they need money for survival. I just hope that every religious speaker should always bear in mind that no mission has ever survived without the involvement of money, lest there would be no tuition fees to be collected from the students and no payment for the reception of the sacraments in the parish.

Lay-Teachers: Partners in Church’s mission

This article will focus on the lay-teachers who are working in the Catholic educational institutions. This thought has been circulating in my mind after attending various seminars given to the teachers. We, the delegates of representing schools, cannot help but express to our dismay that most of the speakers, usually appointed religious people, are one-sided. The content of their talk is substantial for our professional growth, but somehow detrimental both to the lay people in general, and to the Church, whom we dearly loved most, in particular. What I want to explain here are of two things: the lifestyle of the lay people is different from the religious men and women, and the crucial role of the lay in the mission of the Church. Hopefully, in the end, this will help us enlighten that lay people and religious are unique partners in being the hands of Jesus in spreading the Gospel values.

Objectively speaking, the lifestyles of the lay people and the religious are different. What makes the two peoples different is not their status of life like being single or married. It is because some lay people are also internally professed celibate for Christ like the religious. However, lay people have so many responsibilities than the religious. Lay people, either single or married, have to support their family members and loved ones. Of course the religious people are not exempted from this duty. But the lay people have to divide their meagre salary for his self, and for others. Who is this ‘his self?’ A teacher whose work is far from his hometown, has to divide the monthly salary for the boarding house, for food, and other basic needs like cellular phone load, cosmetics, etc. If the teacher is married, his self is his own partner in life, his children, housing loan, and other basic necessities. On the other hand, the religious people, although they do not receive single peso as his salary, he is provided with everything, from shelter, food, clothing, and other basic necessities too. And somehow they are free from manual work, because they have hired people to do those things. Thus we cannot, and will not ever be, put these two peoples on the same footing.

The role of the lay-teachers in the Church is so crucial for two things. First is that lay-teachers are part of the definition of the word ‘laity’ as members of the Church whose mission is to sanctify all temporal realities. This people are indeed part of the world, immersed in the world, struggling in the world, and spreading the Word of God in their respective places and real-life situation. An example of the crucial role of the lay-teachers, and the lay in general, in the Philippine setting is during the conduct of local and national elections of choosing leaders-to-be of our country. The religious people, who are part of the Church hierarchy, are in neutral status or non-partisan. As part of the mission of the Church, these religious people are giving political education to the lay, because change in the society can be done with them as front liners of the Church. And secondly, the Catholic Church needs the help of the lay people particularly their financial assistance to support her projects and activities. The Church, objectively speaking, cannot survive solely on spiritual assistance alone. An example to this is the dissemination of Mission Sunday envelopes, because financial assistance could not be provided by the Church’s hierarchy alone. Thus there is the existence of benefactors and generous donors.

The invited speakers, who belong to any religious groups, have to understand better their vocation within the Church and the position of the lay-teachers in their educational institutions. Being one-sided is tantamount to say as being insensitive to the realities of life. Religious people have to care more these lay-teachers who are front liners and supporters of the Church, lest they become too narrow-minded, selfish and day-dreamers of the impossibilities.

The simple way of being a true Christian

Who are Christians? Christians are those who professed their belief in the Son of Mary as the ‘one sent by God’ to be the savior and liberator of mankind from the bondage of sin and death. Every Christian has gotten his identity on the savior and liberator of the world, whose name is no other than Jesus the Christ. Each Christian should anchor his life on this significant person. It means that one’s life should be patterned after the life of Christ, i.e. following his examples by living a simple lifestyle amidst the materialistic world (not by being one of them), and being close to the poor by giving much time and attention to these little ones (not the rich ones that makes each Christian bowing down before them because of their wealth). This I believe is what makes each followers of Christ true Christians.

 

The goal of this article is not theological by giving high-sounded and academic approach, but by simply showing the basic means on how to be a true Christian. This item is timely as the world joyously waits for the second coming of Jesus into our hearts. Being authentic Christians should live up one’s life according to the patterns of Jesus’ life – simple lifestyle and close to the poor. What mars the face of Christianity is the absence of the two, mostly done by our leaders in the Church. It is undeniably a fact that when our lifestyle is one with the affairs of the world, it follows that one is also worshipping the false God – money – at the expense of the rich. Even the rich become their own God to these people of cloth who values and loves money at the expense of the Church.

 

This season of Christmas is the right time to renew our faith in Jesus by welcoming Him again into our life. Jesus has become poor for us to see the real essence that life on earth is not all that is the case, i.e. there is only one life and world to live forever. Thus it is an opportune time for each Christian to make Jesus again rich in the hearts of many. This is the best Christmas gift that we can give to Jesus. To all of us, have a blessed and merry Christmas!!!

Church’s media: a source of division?

In this age, no other powerful tool can be compared to media. It is the most important means of getting across the message to the people around the globe. This means of communication can be in any forms like television, radio, tabloid, internet and cellular phones. No person in this world is free from the influence of media. Even the most secluded and private of a person cannot escape from its reality.

The Church in her mission of fulfilling the mandate of the Lord by going out to the whole world and preach about Him is exhausting all the means available on media. It is of great help to the Church in fulfilling the mandate given to her by Jesus. Thus the Church benefits from the means of media. On the other hand, media also benefits from her by making her its guide to what is right and what is wrong. It becomes the vanguard of truth.

People, since they are the subjects of the Church’s mission, expect that kind of standard, i.e. to be examples of what all should be. Though all are equals in the eyes of God, but prime importance are anticipated from these leaders who preach every now and then the real message of Christian life. Much as people who look toward them as their guide, they are now misguiding the people.

As an avid reader of the Catholic Herald, a weekly local newspaper of the city, bias in relaying simple information happen. Since I have come from one of the theological seminaries in this group of islands of Mindanao, I cannot help but express my dismay that the newspaper, supposed to be an example of equality, does not show fairness by introducing the names of these institutions, where young men of certain dioceses get ordained are graduated. The writers only focus on the seminary of DADITAMA where majority of the shepherds of Mindanao studied there.

It is not wrong to patronize one’s own seminary. But the driving point of this article is, why not treat all these religious institutions on the same footing. When God calls young men to be his future servants, he establishes the seminary as the seed bed of their vocation. All the seminaries throughout the world are God’s own design to nurture the scattered seeds in the hearts of these aspirants. In fact, it is the apple of the eye of the local Church. But by using the media as means of communicating the Word of God should transcend the focus of being locale. Mentioning these other institutions does not harm one’s own seminary. Competing against other religious institutions is totally out of the picture and never in God’s sight, lest the newspaper appears to be the source of division in the Church.

God’s love is greater than sin

Everybody sins. It is a reality cannot be denied. Thus we say all human beings are sinners. No one is exempted. But some people are grounded to a situation where he feels, thinks and lives always and forever in a sinful situation. He believes that there’s no way out of it, even when he goes to confession frequently for absolution. Gradually he hesitate going to confession, being convinced that it’s useless to avail the gift of forgiveness. He, also, is isolated by the pure and judgmental, sinless hypocrites.


But he misses one thing. He looks only to one face of reality, and that is, sin is lurking every part of his life. And he keeps postponing and doubting to confess his sins because of the mentality of irremediable condition of committing again the same sins. The evil of sin is what preoccupied in his minds. Sometimes the one who preaches and teaches has the same mentality – people with condemning-mentality – around him. Thus psychologically they are influencing him.


On the other hand, there is a way out to this desperate situation. The solution is the love of God per se. Yes, it’s true. The love of God does not only serve as medicine to the hopeless situation. The love of God is undeniably greater than sin. All we have to do is to open our eyes wide and see that reality. And that serves as reasons why God sent his only Son into this world to give us the chance to believe in him that he is LOVE (John 3:16); and Peter, the first pope, despite of committing the same gravity of sin like that of Judas, has escaped the trap and able to see the light. A text message sent to me by my friend, who herself a living testimony to this reality of God’s love after realizing what she did – aborting supposed her first child: Whatever you confess, it won’t make me love you less – Jesus.

Do college students nowadays need sex education?

This is the question I formulated when I asked the students in reed 1 to share their opinions about sex education being promoted by the deped months ago before the inauguration of the 15th president of our country. The class had been divided according to ‘yes’ group and ‘no’ group to the issue. As in the field of education, to explore their capacity to express their ideas on the topic, my mind was directed towards those who gave their ‘yes’ to the implementation of sex education. I did not give any condemnation to these students and branded them as ‘immoral’ because of their stand. But behind their all justifications and argumentations on their stand of the issue, there is an urgent need to address their expression, for they seek not an ideal, doctrinal or metaphysical gestures but an empirical and practical help. Why is that so?

First reason is that their parents neither teach nor talk them about sex in general. Other reasons, too, came out during the debate like: parents were not open to the matter out of shame or parents just inject a wrong timing of religious dose of doctrine that the topic is evil, and etc. The students ask for it not because for the sake of learning about sex but to give them a clear direction of the right understanding of sex with a purpose. Since this generation belongs to them, it is a product of liberalism where all threats to religious and cultural conservatism are flowing in from the television, radio, internet, and cellular phones etc., and the urgent call behind all their answers cannot be ignored. The question Do college students nowadays need sex education? needs to be address as soon as possible, not only for the sake of these young minds, but for the little kids as well and the future generations to come.

Parents and Sex Education

Parents are the right persons to teach sex education at home. This is the official stand of the Catholic Church in the Philippines on the recently aborted issue on sex education promoted by the DePed. The Church has been vocal and critical on this event while the DePed people are busy in disseminating their modules to be given to the pilot schools in public secondary level. Their undertaking will be evaluated, and if it proves to be successful, another option will push through for the elementary levels on the same topics.

The church keeps repeating that parents are the right persons to handle the issue on sex. Her position is borne out from the development of the doctrine on the sacrament of matrimony, where Augustine began the idea of the three goods of marriage, and later Aquinas modified them to ends of marriage. What is the contention all about? The first end of Christian marriage is to procreate and educate their children, and it has become the basis of the Church's stand on the brewing issue of sex education.

Following the thought of the Church, when it comes to who is the right person to teach their children about sex, the answer is very clear – parents and not anybody-teachers. The role of the teachers is not being downplayed here, but the role of parents is indispensable because it is their prime duty to exercise as such.

If the right persons on this matter are the parents, it follows that the right place for sex education to be conducted is in their very home. Why is that so? It is where the bond of friendship, intimacy, belongingness, familiarity among parents and children established. And everybody seems to believe that the home is a place where all the positive values such as love, respect, care are taught and practised.

The opposite might be true when sex education will be taken place at school. The situation is not healthy and conducive for a well-rounded process of learning, where students and teachers come from different family backgrounds and perspectives. Only when parents become active teachers to their children especially on the issue, the fear of negative effects such as promiscuity, increasing of AIDS victims, unwanted pregnancy, abortion and the like will be of less possibility to occur.

Marie Rivier...Gabay ko

I. Sa simula ang buhay ay parang kulang
Wari ay wala itong patunguhan
Naghahangad mabigyan’g kahulugan


II. Ngunit nang nalaman ko may sandigan
Maningning na buhay may kahulugan
Kagit’ngan, kapayapaan at saya
Marie Rivier, dakila kong gabay


Chorus 1:
Salamat O Dios na ako ay nagabay
(salamat aking gabay)
Salamat Kristo’t Maria, mahal ng bayan
(salamat kristo’t maria)
Salamat O Marie Rivier
Sa n’yo ang buhay ko ay sumigla


III. Dahil sa ‘yo kami’y umaasa
Kabutihan mo’y laging nasa diwa
Buong mundo’y masigla’t magkaisa


IV. Kaya, dito na,tayo na at sumaya
Ang bawat buhay ay laging mahalaga
Huwag sayangin bigay na biyaya
Maria Rivier, ang buhay ng madla
(repeat chorus)


Chorus 2: (2 notes higher)
Salamat O Dios na ako ay nagabay
(salamat aking gabay)
Salamat Kristo’t Maria, mahal ng bayan
(salamat kristo’t maria)
Salamat O Marie Rivier
Sa n’yo ang buhay ko ay sumigla
Sa n’yo ang buhay ko ay sumigla


Coda:
Sa n’yo ang buhay ko ay ... sumigla




Lyrics: Mrs. Marichu Eva and Mrs. Rosario Pagalan
Music: Mr. Arnel Morte
Interpreters: Mr. Arnel Morte, Mrs. Bernadette Vitor
Guitarist: Mr. Elijah Ogario

This is my first music composition I have ever made as an official entry to the 60th anniversary of the presence of the PM Congreagtion in the Philippines. We were five finalists presented our piece last February 3, 2010 at the SPCT AVR, and we bagged 3rd place. Thanks God for the gift of music!