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PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY September 1 - 15, 2016
FAITH AND RELIGION
Wisdom from
the Word
PROFILING ‘GOD THE SON’
Ben Berto
For God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish
but have everlasting life. John 3:
16, NKJV
I would like to share with
you the most insightful profile
about Jesus Christ from an unlikely source; from a soldier, a
fighting man, an emperor, and
a prisoner, Napoleon Bonaparte,
of France to his aide, Count de
Montholon at St. Helena.
“The nature of Christ’s
existence is mysterious, I admit;
but this mystery meets the wants
of man. Reject it and the world
is an explicable riddle; believe it,
and the history of our race is satisfactorily explained.
“I know men; and I tell
you that Jesus Christ is no mere
man. Between Him and every
person in the world there is no
possible term of comparison.
Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne,
and I have founded empires. But
on what did we rest the creations
of our genius? Upon force. Jesus
Christ founded His empire upon
love; and at this hour millions of
men would die for him.”
“ I see in Lycurgus, Numa
and Mohammed only legislators
who, having the first rank in the
Moments
state, have sought the best solution of the social problem but I
see nothing there which reveals
divinity...nothing
announces
them divine. On the contrary,
there are numerous resemblances between them & myself, foibles and errors which ally them
to me and to humanity.
“ It is not so with Christ.
Everything in Him astonishes
me. His spirit overawes me, and
His will confounds me. Beside
Him and whoever else in the
world, there is no possible term
of comparison. He is truly a being by Himself. His ideals and His
sentiments, the truths which He
announces, His manner of convincing, are not explained either
by human organization or by the
nature of things.
“ His birth and the history of His life; the profundity of
His doctrine, which grapples the
mightiest difficulties, and which
is, of those difficulties, the most
admirable solution; His Gospel,
His apparition, His empire, His
march across the ages and the
realms, is for me a prodigy, a
mystery insoluble, which plunges
me into a reverence which I cannot escape, a mystery which is
there before my eyes, mystery
which I cannot deny or explain.
Here I see nothing human. The
nearer I approach, the more
carefully I examine, everything
is above me, everything remains
grand—and of a grandeur which
overpowers.
“ His religion is a revelation from an Intelligence which
certainly is not a man. There is
a profound originality, which has
created a series of maxims before unknown. Jesus borrowed
nothing from our sciences. One
can absolutely find nowhere, but
in Him alone, the imitation or the
example of His life.”
That is Napoleon’s answer to his question to his aide,
“Can you tell me who Jesus
Christ was?” Now let us continue
with the Seventh-day Adventist
official statement about God the
Son.
“Even before the foundation of the world, the godhead
devised a plan to deal with the
possibility that sin might arise
on planet earth( Ephesians 1:
4). Through christ’s death, all
those who accept Him become
sons and daughters of Godand
heirs of eternal life. (John 3: 16,
1 John 4: 11, 12)
“When Jesus was ready
to begin His ministry, John the
Baptist pointed Him out as “the
Lamb of God who
takes away the sin
of the world.” As the
concluding act of
His ministry Jesus
submitted to the supreme sacrifice: He
gave Hi life to secure
for human beings the possibility
of escape from sin and eternal
death as its inevitable result..
Jesus suffered and died
voluntarily in Calvary’s cross ion
our place, for our sins. Yet He
was raised from the dead for neither death nor the tomb could
hold the Creator of the world in
their grasp. After appearing several times to His disciples and
commissioning them to to carry
on the work of saving souls that
He began during His short ministry, Jesus ascended to heaven.
Yet, He did not abandon His people who remained in the world.
Rather, He entered upon an intercessory ministry to prepare
them a place in the kingdom that
He plans to restore on earth.
HE’S COMING AGAIN
Soon Jesus will come
again in the clouds of glory, accompanied by the holy angels to
free His people and restore them
everything they had lost because
of sin. The heart of the bible is
Jesus Christ. He is the Center
around which all the teachings
of the Seventh-day Adventists
cluster. “ “In Him we we live and
move and have our being.” (Acts
17, 28 ) Our love for Christ motivates us to obey His commandments, follow His example, and
give Him our lives so that He can
live in us through the Holy Spirit.
For prayer, questions and
Bible study, call Ben at 604-5811278, Junjun at 778-927-8040,
and Stanley at 604-700-3053.
You are invited to worship with
us every Sabbath (Saturday) at
the Abundant Life Community
Seventh-day Adventist Church at
13062-104 Avenue, Surrey. Welcome.
We will be welcoming our
new Filipino Pastor in October
this year. He is Pastor Leomar
Macaraig. He will also shepherd
the Vancouver Filipino and Burnaby FilCan SDA churches. Pastor
Levi Estores will be the district
Pastor for the Filipino districts
comprising six churches.
Giving and forgiving
Fr, Jerry M. Orbos, SVD
The story is told about a little boy who went up to the priest
after the Mass and told him: “Father, I would like to give you my
allowance money which I saved
this week.” Quite surprised, the
priest asked him, “Why?” The
boy, almost in tears and full of
pity, said: “That’s because my father said to me during the Mass
that you are a poor preacher, the
poorest one we ever had…”
***
In today’s Gospel (Lk. 15,
1-32), Jesus tells us the parable
of the Prodigal Son.
The central figure of the
parable is the loving father, so
full of mercy and compassion,
pity and understanding. May we
become more like him in a world
that is so full of anger, hatred, arrogance, violence and killings.
***
Let us ask ourselves today: “Is God, our loving Father,
pleased when He looks at us and
sees what is happening in our
world, in our country, in our families, in our lives? Is the Father
looking at us, nodding His head
with a smile? Or is he looking at
us, shaking His head in
disgust?
***
The word “prodigal”
means profuse, lavish, immoderate, or excessive, connoting generosity. Someone said that the
prodigal son took after his own
father. Aelred Rosser says: “It is
the father who is excessive and
extravagant and immoderate,
anything but frugal with his forgiveness and mercy.” The father
is generous in his forgiveness, in
calling for a feast for his prodigal son, and even in pacifying his
older son. Yes, we still have so
much to learn from God, our loving Father, in terms of goodness
and generosity.
***
Are you a peacemaker? If
so, congratulations. You are like
our loving Father. It is not easy
to be a peacemaker. It is difficult to be in the middle of two
opposing sides. A peacemaker
can be hit by one or both sides.
A lot of peacemakers risk being
hated, risk becoming unpopular,
or risk being misunderstood and
misjudged. It’s difficult, but we
must go on being peacemakers,
anyway.
***
Pope Francis is very much
like our loving Father. He reaches
out to prodigal sons and daughters in mercy and compassion.
He also challenges the so-called
righteous older brother or sister
to be more merciful, compassionate, and understanding.
Here is a Pope who thinks out of
the box, and even out of structures. He gives comfort to the
last, the least and the lost, and
he disturbs the righteous, the
well-placed and the elite in the
Church.
***
At one funeral Mass I had
last week, I was surprised when a
12-year-old boy stood up and, in
between sobs, delivered a touching eulogy for his grandfather.
Duduy told the assembly about
the lessons he had learned and
the love he had received from his
grandfather. He was so eloquent
and natural, that he delighted
everyone, including myself, so
much so that I told him he would
make a good priest someday.
And to my further delight, he
said yes! Praying for you, “Father
Duduy!”
***
Rosben Ogbac,
an XVD (exSVD seminarian),
went to the
wake
of
Benny de la
Luna at the
Don Bosco
Church last
week. On
his way home with fellow XVDs
Dante Magdangal, Sammy Yap,
and Jules Quinabo, together
with Fr. Romy Castro, SVD, Rosben suffered a heart attack. He
was rushed to Makati Medical
Center and died about 10:55
p.m., after 30 minutes of efforts
to revive him. He was 71 years
old. What touched me was how
this band of brothers took care
of Rosben, and took turns being
with his remains until the next
morning when his family members finally arrived. These acts
are really pleasing to God, our
loving Father.
***
Let us learn to be kinder,
WWW.PHILIPPINEASIANNEWSTODAY.COM
more thoughtful, a nd more considerate toward one another. Let
us learn to go the extra mile and
to give the extra smile to our
brothers and sisters. We can never love enough. Like our loving
Father, we must become more
loving, more understanding,
more giving and more forgiving.
***
Think about this: “Poor
people are more generous because they know what it is like to
have nothing.”
***
A moment with the Lord:
Lord, help us to become
more merciful, generous, compassionate, giving and forgiving,
like You. Amen. (Inquirer)