Recalling and Retelling a Long-forgotten Apostolic Work

The careening new technologies disrupting our once rustic life somehow bring us back to the bygone days of youth when things were a lot simpler and coarser.  When life somehow was easier to understand and live.  Now with dizzying speeds we are hard-pressed even at keeping pace with the consumer technologies available out there.

Noticing beyond just the physical characteristics our gadgets and their almost limitless capabilities to connect us virtually with a world well beyond our physical reach, we begin to realize and wonder about them juxtaposed with the simpler things we had then.

Yesterday, I woke up to the realization that with the smartphones I possess. Yes, I have several yet not one of them is equipped to connect me telephonically with the rest of the world.  Said differently, none has a local SIM card or with load purchase to allow access to other cellphones.

All details aside, this thought brought me back longingly to the time when I was still a college student at XU-Ateneo de Cagayan, which would be in the mid-60’s.  I faintly recall being approached by somebody, am not sure if it was Jesuit priest or a layman, to continue with the practice of broadcasting the 7am Sunday Mass at the XU chapel via the reaches of the local premier AM station, DXCC.  A sweet and serious offer that an avowed Atenean could not refuse.  It was made known to me that the one initially assigned to do it would not be available anymore, so the need to find another.  Okay, I said, and so what is next?

I was handed a brown folder with a few worn pages of script inside.   It was essentially a summary of the typical Mass, from beginning to end, from Entrance Hymn to Final Blessing.  The job was simply to provide audio when the celebrant would remain silent going through the different phases of the Mass.

It was then my responsibility to assess if the documentation was sufficient for my purposes, and more importantly, to present myself to the DXCC technician, who would be responsible for setting up the system to allow the regular broadcast.

Had to rewrite the whole script and armed myself with good reading materials to fill out radio silence during the services.  Met with the DXCC technician who fortunately was already familiar with me, a few minutes before the start of my first broadcast.

So dutifully every Sunday before 7am we both met up at the left side of the XU chapel.  He laid all the wirings and the mikes to be used for the broadcast, while I located myself on the same side close to the altar, holding on to my folder with the script, and the few prayer books I brought along.

This we did with almost no fail for at least a year and maybe closer to more, going to the air at the appointed time and place and reaching to all who tuned in to the radio during that time.  The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and its message of redemption propagated far and wide to the devotees unable to be physically present.

And all that time, we never received any feedback to apprize us of the work we were doing.  Not an iota of comment or emoticon to a Facebook page or other social media.  Complete radio silence.

And just as hazily, this work stopped, and everybody concerned went about their separate ways.  And I am just left to wonder, how crude and limited methods were then to disseminate data and events to the people at large.  Worlds apart from the ways we now handle such things.

That same smartphone that most people, from all strata of society, now possess in their hands, is now capable to do what we once did with great attention and labor, and a lot more, simply with a few clicks, tender taps of the fingers over the screen, etc.

Taking a Fast Boat to Hong Kong

 First we heard of the yellow vests protests in France, a populist movement from the working middle class who took to the streets to vent their frustrations on economic issues.  Now we have the black shirts protests in Hong Kong, going now more than 13 weeks.  Again, another populist movement coming from the middle class ranks.  It kinds of remind one of  a third  populist movement -  in the US during the last election cycle, except that in their instance, instead of bullets, the protagonists used the ballot.

One outstanding thing is how the HK movement has been able to galvanize the citizenry to gather in very large numbers even with a very loose organization whose leaders are not even clearly known.  It gathered at one point 1.7 million people on very short notice, almost a fourth of the total population of the island of about 7 million people.  Tech-savvy residents have created their own networks for communications and dissemination.  Thus we hear buzz words like mesh networks or Telegram, etc.

How could anyone ignore the numbers?  And more importantly how could one not realize the stakes involved?

Among them are:

In the world of finance, HK is the third most important global financial hub,   behind only London and the US.  It cannot afford to be destabilized for long, without deleterious repercussions worldwide.  The tense rumblings are definitely undermining this pivotal role in this Asian locale where English is a primary language.

It is an inevitability that in 2047, HK will truly be molded as part of Mainland China, as per agreement reached in 1997, and it will be ruled by the Communist government like any other part of China.  Once done, HK will lose its financial prominence because the major Western powers will never allow itself to trust in China.  But why should HK be any different from any Chinese city?

But first a little trivia.  Before the ascendency of China as a looming world power, the Communist government had eyed HK with great avarice because HK’s economy or GDP then was comparatively huge compared to that of China. But in the meantime China’s many big cities blossomed and became modernized and prosperous amidst a riotous economy that was burgeoning to the point that now, HK’s GDP contribution would not mean that much, maybe representing only 10 or 15% of China’s total.

But the bigger problem is HK itself.  HK became unique HK because of the uncanny combination of the Chinese people’s intrepid nature and their entrepreneurship genius mixed with the vaunted British Common Law.   That inimitable combination produced HK, and we know this would become untenable once HK becomes part of the Communist regime of China.  Rule of law as known in the West will be alien then, and the HK generations weaned on this cannot survive.

Even with just this, one can easily grasp the mammoth dilemma that HK truly finds itself.

Elusive Peace

Peace be with you.  Peace I leave with you.  Peace I give unto you. Go in peace.

We talk peace.  We shout peace.  We think peace. We all want peace.

But what exactly does each one expect of peace?  For this, we individually have our own ideas.

But by deductive process, we find that the temporal peace we all crave for fall into each and/or every one of the following things.

Our elemental concept of peace first and foremost assumes that we are in possession of financial or economic security.  The kind that allows us to sufficiently take care of ourselves, our families and  loved ones, with just enough efforts and difficulties as to allow us to enjoy it in due time and measure.  This extends to our capabilities to provide the basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter, and overall health and safety of those we are responsible for.

Beyond this, we would find peace if we can continue to find ample opportunities for our  robust cravings  for continual activity, so our lives are not desolate and dreary, or bereft of the pleasant activities that are of value to us and that enrich our memories..

We also have peace when we feel that we have developed satisfying and considerable human friendships and bonds that bring smiles and pleasant memories.

Because our very nature hankers for it, we feel peaceful and serene, when we are blest by praise and admiration from our fellow human beings and peers.

With these we feel our lives as fulfilled and in contentment, and therefore at salutary peace with ourselves and the world.

But Christ’s concept of peace for us is quite simple and straightforward.  He demands straight thinking in following His will unselfishly.  Said differently, it means taking up His Cross and following Him

Can we reconcile the temporal with the spiritual?  That is the overriding question that ought to provoke us each day.

To bear the cross and to love it

To chastise the body to subjection

To fly honors and suffer reproaches

To despise oneself and wish others do

To bear all adversities and losses

And finally to desire no prosperity.

God knows all are not part of man’s natural inclination.  Still we are asked to go against them for doing so leads to the only path to inner peace and tranquility.

The March To The Future For Xavier U-Cagayan de Oro

Looking at the futuristic rendering of prospective structures, open spaces, and roads in the perspectives publicly shown, it is plain to see why the awed viewers would be easily taken in to agree that such would be a commendable and acceptable metamorphosis of the current campus.  And truly, it would look good and would do right for Xavier University.  A total and integrated remodeling of an old and minimally-planned campus; and what’s more, creating additional precious finances for the school to undertake its other more ambitious project, the Manresa property.

But how would the entire city be affected by the new development, a city already burdened with many growing problems?  If one of the current problems inherent to the place is congestion, how would the additional buildings for commerce planned not only address but mitigate that problem?  And remember that issue spills over to traffic congestion also.  And more to add.  What about increased volume of drainage, additional energy requirements, H2O requirements, etc.?  Would we envision a complex development with back-up generators (like what we have in the other developments) running during brown-outs, turning this part of the poblacion into one loud noise-polluted amphitheater?

How would the new development address the pertinent issue of “livability” in this part of the city?  Rather than commercialize it even more, why not instead devote areas not set aside for preservation for conservation purposes – like for more greenery and trees, or simply as open airy spaces?  A comprehensive cost-benefit analysis ought to be undertaken, by both XU admin and the city, a city which has been judged by many as not keen enough to address such issues.

It is devoutly wished that such serious considerations and more are earnestly pursued and not just glossed over, keen to the observation that it is easy to be blinded by the sight of grand and tall buildings as glaring signs of “development” progress.  But thinking of our other over-sized cities that observation appears to hit the mark.  We can point to a number of them already beset with burgeoning problems of basic public services.

If confirmed as I suspected that the campus is about 8 hectares, then that equals to 0.08 square kilometers, of a smallish poblacion.  Would the proposed development create its own ecosystem that could adversely skew the city’s own?  Like traffic flow. How immediate surroundings with a lot of old houses would be upgraded or remodeled as to not degrade the supposed gains made by the new development.  All this and more really point to the urgent need for the city to have enforceable zoning laws.

Or are we consigned to accepting that our older cities as they march to the future, will be nothing more than a hodge-podge or patchwork of isolated development sewn together to keep from bursting at the seams?  Or maybe just waiting for the seams to indeed burst.

Non-Fictionalized Fiction: Virtue Personified (Superiority in Every Sense)

By most standards Xenophon, the Greek philosopher, would be held in the same regard as Plato, and Aristotle, or Socrates.  But most of us have not even heard of him.  Even his name, the first 2 syllables in Greek means, foreign or alien.

Anyway, in one of his works, he personified Virtue and Evil as 2 women.  How kindly to use female, rather than the traditionally dominant, male.

Traditionally, the exemplar of strength, power, and virtue has largely been portrayed as male.  Most of our superheroes have been male.  The gods of old and mythology have dominantly been male.  It is almost like an accommodation or afterthought that females have been used to share the honor and adulation.

First it had been Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel, before we had Supergirl, Batgirl, Mary Marvel, and of course, Wonder Woman.  Even fatherland, before motherland?

It is typically my own personal experiences that get highlighted in my blog entries, real and factual narratives culled from the ether of my memory.  Memory that threatens to dissipate as age catches up with me.  So with committed hands I lend words to the truant slivers of memories before they fade away.  Using as much color and substance as I can muster I cobble tales with appropriate words that many times grudgingly escape my attention, and at times I admit invariably flamboyance is allowed to make appearances in my narratives.  So imploring pardon for the shortcomings

Anyway, so my blog initiated more than 15 years ago, is inhabited with stories that are recalled and recorded to posterity.  But there is a part of one’s consciousness that is not grounded in reality, but in the ethereal world of fantasy.  Though for many of us just as relevant as the other, it is congested with the many escapist fantasies that litter consciousness and yes, even in reverie.  Depicting the kind of person that we have always longed for and prayed to be in every respect, however surreal one could get

Narratives existing only in a kind of preternatural sphere and not subject to the constricting world of realities.  And thus in this border-less world we allow our minds to bolt to distant places beyond the strictures of our mundane world.  But which by many is considered just as vivid and impactful as the stories of childhood and beyond.

I wonder if it is a story one wants to unravel and disclose.  Like a third-person pseudo-autobiography given life and told like non-fiction.

Throwing caution to the winds, I will shamelessly attempt to piece together the many details and events that to this day have slyly remained in the dark labyrinths of my psyche.

Following then will be  the evolving serialized story of an  ambivalent alter-ego, a series while so real to me is equally fanciful and interwoven with unbelievable details.

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