Fridays

About three months ago, an unsuspecting student was invited for lunch by a couple of classmates to talk about faith and life stories. They met in the warm second floor corridor of their building during the hour-long break, but the conversation went far too interesting that they agreed to meet again in the afternoon after class. He had tons of questions which they wanted to answer, so they agreed to meet every Friday during lunch. However, something always came up on Fridays that they weren't able to meet.

As usual, this Friday, something came up that the student couldn't keep the appointment but instead sought the classmates after lunch. The news was that two of his groupmates attended in his stead, one was previously invited while the other, who was conveniently in the vicinity, joined out of intrigue.

As they did earlier, the classmates talked about Christian apologetics, and logic. The claim is that Christianity, despite being a religion that requires faith, does not at all dispense with reason. In fact, according to the Christian bible, God himself encourages thinking.

“Come now, let us reason together,

says the Lord”

Isaiah 1:18

It is a misconception that, in Christianity, matters of faith cannot and must not be questioned. For instance, Mary, one of God's most favored human beings who was then faced with the most extraordinary situation, just had to ask the fear-inspiring angel who brought her the news of her being a virgin mother, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” and, without repercussions, was provided with an answer.

For a lot of questions on faith, if not all, God has provided answers. But whether these are recognized as answers or found to be adequate is a completely different matter. It remains, though, that the God who created the human brain with its intricate structure and functions that bring about human thought makes use of this same facility to enable us to comprehend parts of Himself. We are allowed and encouraged to think.

And this thrust is the foundation of the subsequent Friday discussions.

A Dialogue on Unconditional Love

A: It's about reciprocation. It's obvious that unconditional love is the greatest love of all. The ideal. What we should aim for, as it models God's love for us. But is it wrong to hope for reciprocation? Is it unbiblical to want to also receive the kind of love one gives?

Confession and Consultation: A Subtle Analogy

A friend comes to you and confesses, "I did something wrong. . ." and this wrong thing may range a wide spectrum: from an unintended neglect to an intentional act, from harming one's self to harming another, from a minor sin (if there is such a thing) to a grave, moral offense. . . What would you say? How would you react? Should your reaction depend on the weight of the offense? Should it depend on who was wronged? Should you consider whether it was intentional or not? Does it matter which friend was confessing?

Before you say anything, I think these things are worth considering:

1. The person is confessing (James 5:16). They have began to recognize and agree that what they did was wrong. They likely already feel remorse. 
2. Confession is hard. It is exposing one's flaws, and insecurities. It is revealing one's heart, rendering one vulnerable. 
3. The person chose to tell you, of all people. They regard you as someone they can talk to. They trust you.

Questions About Legalism

I don't think I understand the concept of legalism. According to John Piper, it is a certain attitude about the Law, a heart issue: it is pursuing the Law with some other engine than faith. I suppose it is what they refer to as trying to earn your salvation by being good in the belief that being good is what saves-- as if God requires it in exchange for salvation, as if it were a price to pay. 

But the question remains, what does it mean to pursue the Law by faith? If one pursues the Law not in order to earn God's favor but just in the desire to live as commanded, a desire to follow, is it safe to say that the person is on the right track?

GotQuestions presents another possible meaning of legalism: the demand of a strict literal adherence to rules and regulations. I understand this to be a lot like legal positivism, the theory in jurisprudence stating that law as written is absolute, followed word-for-word, as if simply a matter of pure semantics. I suppose this is considered an error in so far as it reveals an attitude like that of the Pharisees, an attitude that is essentially opposed to grace. Underlying their demand for strict compliance was the belief that it is works that save, that we have to deserve our salvation.

So then, what does this entail regarding obedience to Law? Are Christians not supposed to follow everything commanded in Scripture? Are we allowed to say "hindi naman kailangan e" about certain laws, like that about the Sabbath? Is there indeed such as a thing as 'optional commands'? How are we to choose which of them to strictly abide and which to be lax about? Is it even a matter of choice? Is it legalism, then, to feel indignant when one deems that a brother/sister in Christ failed to act according to what the Law states? Is it legalism to feel frustrated that there is so much disagreement in these matters? 

Some Christians discourage the performance of a practice if one does not feel the Spirit's leading, as it is the Spirit that one ought to follow to avoid legalism. But what does this even mean? Is obedience then just a matter of "feeling like it"? Are we only to help one another when we feel like it? Are we excused from following when we don't feel inclined to do so? Is forcing one's self to be kind to an enemy being legalistic? Is sharing the gospel out of obligation rather than feeling inclined to being legalistic? Is limiting to the minimal requirement what one follows being legalistic?

Pastor John writes

Discipline is not legalism. Hard work is not legalism. Acting against carnal impulses is not legalism. They may be. But they may also be the torque of the engine of faith running on the fuel of the Spirit to the glory of the grace of God in a self-centered and undisciplined world.

But this still does not clarify much.

Is asking these very questions being legalistic? Can not wanting to be legalistic itself be legalistic?

A Case for Feelings in Faith and Medicine

A good doctor is not merely someone who can diagnose accurately and cure diseases, but someone who treats the person behind the disease. As the usually quoted aphorism goes, a physician

cures sometimes, relieves often, comforts always.

Medicine is not just the science that aims to eliminate illnesses, it is the art of communicating with people in the manner that addresses their interests. To me, this second part is more than a job. It is a command, the way of life to which I am called:

Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Phil 2:3-4

Reconsidering Mr. Tan's Faith

A few months ago, I wrote about the concept of faith that Amy Tan acquired from her parents, saying that both concepts of her mother and father assume that God’s will is to grant our wishes. Her mother was Chinese, who heavily believed in the Chinese concept of luck. Her father was a minister who wrote this as his definition of faith in his own journal:

Faith is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen. It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us even though we still cannot see it ahead of us.

I said that what Mr. Tan meant by “something we want” is exactly that, something we want, our own self-centered desires. But after reading this article about George Müller, I started to think that maybe I’ve misunderstood what Mr. Tan really meant, as I was reading him only through Amy’s interpretation. Perhaps I’ve harshly scrutinized what he said based on strict semantics-- an elitist error that merely intellectualizes, instead of seeking to understand or be understood-- when I should’ve looked first at the context. And here was the context:

Jean-Paul Sarte's Concept of Hell

He sums it up in four words: "Hell is other people!" And these words may be found in his play No Exit.

[SPOILER ALERT!]

Amy Tan's Faith vs. Fate Dichotomy

Some years ago, a friend who knew I was into writing recommended that I read Amy Tan's memoir, The Opposite of Fate. This year, I finally did in hopes of appeasing my frustrations in writing fiction. I loved how she wrote the memoir that I decided to read The Joy Luck Club, her first book. I liked it, too, that it convinced me to learn chess. I learned that fiction writing did not necessarily mean use of only pure imagination (I suck at that) and one can start as old as I am and still be good at it (Amy Tan began even older!).

But there was one thing about both writings that struck me, and not in the good way: her faith vs. fate dichotomy.

There is this passage in The Joy Luck Club:

My mother believed in God's will for many years. It was as if she had turned on a celestial faucet and goodness kept pouring out. She said it was faith that kept all these good things coming our way, only I thought she said "fate," because she couldn't pronounce the "th" sound in "faith."

And later, I discovered that maybe it was fate all along, that faith was just an illusion that somehow you're in control.

The Lolo I Never Had

My Lolo at his best.  Jan. 4, 1997
I've always thought he was a handsome, old man, more handsome than in his youth,
and more handsome in his usual scrunched up, weird-smelling clothes. 

This was my lolo, Plaridel, the grandparent with whom I have the most memories. Memories of him consists of afternoon walks around the village with him walking backwards and his sweater worn backwards, or inside-out or both, peeling mangoes with our hands and wiping the stickiness on leaves, throwing macopa flowers at each other, playing in the backyard baha during rainy days, watching him cook rice with firewood under the makeshift shed he made his carpenter build, being spun in his office chair as transport to Quiapo, and feeling grossed out when he put the molted skin of an insect on his navel, saying he was breastfeeding it. 

He was a lawyer, and a queer man. His office and bedroom was a makeshift extension of our house, and looked pretty much like the houses of informal settlers. His files were kept in cut Tide boxes. His drawers had disgusting things no one wanted to touch. His bed smelled of him, the smell of an old person. Under his bed was a small, old hopia box with soil, where he would spit out phlegm. In his bookshelves, he kept a small pack of lemon drops, which I would try to find every now and then. And in one corner, very accessible to children, he kept the rifle he allegedly used in war. The place was dusty, had a weird smell, and was covered in agiw. He let us play there all the time. 

I liked playing with his office supplies-- the inks, the stamps, the staplers, the paper and all that magical paraphernalia that can do all sorts of things. I was allowed to play with his computer when I was, like, in kinder. It was Windows 95 with Solitaire as the only game I remember but couldn't understand, so I messed around with MS-DOS and learned how to use Microsoft Word. He also let us watch his TV whenever we wished, even though we had our own TV in the sala. He let us jump on and mess up his bed. He even let us use his drinking cups to build soil towers and mud cakes. 

We played a lot, but I don't remember talking. I was perhaps too young to talk substantially. He told stories, but only that one time I specifically asked to hear some. I don't even remember what they were about. He was gone by the time I could really talk about stuff.

Some answers to some questions on church, scripture and prayer

Some weeks ago, I made a friend read this article on salvation by John Piper. We had a very interesting conversation about it. He asked me questions I myself have asked a long time ago, but forgot all about. This time, somehow, I knew how to answer them. He thought my answers made sense, so I thought I'd share them here (translated and edited).

1. How do we enjoy the beauty of God/salvation? Can we really choose to enjoy/appreciate the beauty of something?

It's not a voluntary thing, I suppose. Except the part that you want it to happen so you do something about it. We ask it from God through prayer and study of Scripture. Usually, this is the time when the person is invited to church or to small groups because those also help. It is, then, God's work to open our eyes to the beauty through the Holy Spirit. It's akin to falling in love. You can spend so much time with someone until there comes a time when you just suddenly see the person differently. It may take a while, but we are asked to wait.

Popo

Popo's still missing. We aren't close, but I've known her since second grade, even before we were classmates. We've been classmates since the third grade until she moved to a different high school. We had called each other on the phone where I discovered her nickname is Nikki and she discovered mine is Geno. We teased each other every time we interacted, and she would have that mocking look on her face. She borrowed my Wild Thornberries shirt and never returned it, but I've always been fond of her. I made her write in all my slam books, which I still keep to this day. I used to know by heart her birthday. I still remember her full name. Her younger sister used to be my cadet, and we had fun times in high school. I know they have a younger sister, and it has always amused me (and most people I know) that they all look so much alike. I've seen their parents, and I know they look a lot like their mother.

We stopped talking in high school. But she's just too real. It's natural to feel this concerned.

Aquinas and Fetal Circulation

I stole this from my former philosophy instructor's ancient Facebook post:

  "According to Aquinas, when the angel in Scripture said, 'Hail, Mary full of grace,' it was the first time in the history of mankind that an angel ever saluted a human being with such respect, because more often than not, human beings fell down cringing in terror and fright at angelic beings-- so otherworldly and powerful were they. But the angel said 'Hail,' only because she is higher than angels, higher even than the six-winged seraphim who guard the sacred throne. And when he said she is full of grace, he meant it--because her blood would mingle with the blood of God, who stayed inside her for nine whole months, while their hearts beat in sync in the same body. The heart of the mother, and the heart of the Son, so intimate, as to be One."

-J. Reyes

There are a few things about this that have been bugging me for more than a year now, but I had to make sure I understood them well enough to say something. A few months ago, I finally did.

Notes on the spiritual and moral beliefs of the Bontok

(Or the first of a series)

Most of Bontok is now Christian, or to be more specific: Roman Catholic-- thanks to missionaries of the colonial period. The elders, however, do not seem to be satisfied with their relatively new faith and report that they were more morally upright in the past.

Being a Christian, I tend to think that it's probably not a matter of cultural superiority that makes pre-Christian Bontok more morally upright. Rather, it is likely that Christianity just has not been taught and understood properly. I do not know how to argue for this position and I will not attempt it here. But I admit that I find this disturbing.

I cannot elaborate on the Bontok's spiritual belief system because the film did not delve into much detail. The details it did present, however, did not stick with me. What I did understand is that they believed in a Higher Being. They performed rituals to please those that they believed in. They had a concept of "evil acts" and also of "acts which anger the spirits"-- both of which are prohibited.

The Bontok implemented their code strictly. They were very clear on what is right and wrong, and took that seriously.

Pineapple: a metaphor

My mother planted these pineapples in 2011. They've just been there since.

Reflections on Early Adulthood

It's strange watching what happens after graduation. A couple of graduations have passed and it feels even stranger. Popular student leaders turn into young parents. Delinquent classmates appear in theater, or land teaching positions in your previous school. Classmates who used to bully and be bullied get married. Friends who once conspired with you to write a diary against other friends enter the corporate world. Friends who used to bite and strangle fellow human beings acquire their own screaming fans.