Generosity and Abandonment
January 14, 2025
Hello! How is each and every one? I was having my hair trimmed yesterday afternoon and Manang Luz commented “Ang bilis po ng panahon! (How fast the season goes!) Kailan lang ay napanganak si Jesus, araw ng Pasko, Si Maria, Ina ng Diyos ng Bagong Taon, Three Kings.” (Only recently Jesus was born on Christmas Day, Divine Motherhood of Mary on New Year’s Day and The Epiphany, Jesus is found and adored by The Three Wise Men.)
“Tama ka dyan, Binyag na ni Jesus, tapos na ang Christmas season.” (You are correct. Baptism of Jesus today and Christmas Season is over.)
“Tapos na din ang Piesta sa Quiapo ng Hesus Nazareno.” (The Feast of Jesus the Nazarene is over.)
“Next Sunday ay Piesta na ng Santo Niño.” (Next Sunday is Feast of the Infant Jesus.)
We have the whole week ahead to intensify our prayers and beg Jesus the Nazarene, the Infant Jesus to put a stop to the fires in Los Angeles. Let us beg Him to heal and convert the persons who are suffering the consequences of the devastating calamity. Let us pray for all the persons who are also healing from the moral realization of any negligence on their part and be sorry, change heart and turn to the Creator for forgiveness and mercy and do whatever they can in their position to do. Let us continue praying for persons who continue with their sinful behavior and actions taking advantage of the vulnerable situation of persons in and around the neighborhood.
Moreover let each one of us realize that it is God who gives and it is also God who takes and allows things to happen for a certain good. Whatever that good is is for each one of us to ask God in our silent moments of prayer and conversation with Him. We can ask God now as we wonder, “Jesus, why are these things happening?” Open your heart and mind to Him. Tell Him everything that runs wild in your mind and listen to what He tells you in reply to all your queries and wonderments. With your deep sincerity of heart and humility of heart, God will also open His mind and heart to you.
What can you and I do for these people? Pray, pray, and pray. Prayer is powerful as it is God who knows everything and can do everything. Without Him you and I can do nothing, nothing at all. But with prayer God listens and answers as only He knows best. Leave everything to God, trust Him with complete abandonment.
I remember my mother’s devotion to Jesus the Nazarene. Aside from an image of Christ the King placed on the landing of our stairway, there is an image of Jesus the Nazarene on the second floor. Every time there is fire around the neighborhood or whenever we hear fire engines zooming around or we see smoke rising to the clouds, my mother would call to us and say face Jesus the Nazarene to the direction of the smoke or flames. Of course when we hear her call, as we direct the image, each one of us prays for those affected by the fire. In these days that I listen to news or we talk about the news I pray to Jesus the Nazarene to stop the fires and help the people and the firemen. Jesus, we trust in You.
Following is a portion of Wikipedia’s article on Jesus the Nazarene.
The image was made by an anonymous Mexican sculptor and arrived in Manila via galleon from Acapulco, Mexico. There is no definite date of the arrival of the image.[10] The Augustinian Recollects asserted that during their arrival in the Philippines in 1606, the Nazareno is not one of the sacred images that they brought with them. [11] Nevertheless, it can be assumed that the image was already in the Philippines before the middle of the 17th century since Pope Innocent X authorized the Cofradìa del Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno (Confraternity of the Lord Jesus of Nazareth) on April 20, 1650.[10]
Popular belief attributes the colour of the image to soot from votive candles burnt before it, although the most popular legend is that it was charred by a fire on the galleon that brought it from Mexico. Filipino Catholic theologian and church historian Monsignor Sabino Vengco, meanwhile, claims that the image is not charred, but is in fact dark through to its core, being carved from mesquite wood. Vengco based this claim on personal research in Mexico, where he said mesquite wood was a popular medium in the period the image was carved. He also likened it to Our Lady of Antipolo, another popular image of similar provenance and appearance.[12]
The image was first enshrined in the Church of San Juan Bautista of the Augustinian Recollects in Bagumbayan, Luneta. In 1608, the image was transferred to the Church of San Nicolás de Tolentino (popularly known as the "Recoletos Church") inside Intramuros. It was enshrined in the retablo mayor or high altar of the church, leaving only for a procession on Palm Sunday. Both the church and the image were destroyed in the Allied bombardment of Manila during its liberation in 1945.
Replica
and alleged vandalism
During his tenure as Archbishop of Manila in 1767-1787,
Archbishop Basilio Sancho de Santa Justa y Rufina ordered the Augustinian
Recollect priests the transfer a copy of the image to the Quiapo
Church. The reason for this is to give
devotees further access to the image and secure the safety of Intramuros from
outsiders. Contrary to popular belief that this transfer occurred on 9 January
1787 which became the basis of Feast of the Black Nazarene
celebrated by the faithful every January 9 through
a procession (the Traslación), there is no available historical
record to verify the exact date of transfer of the Nazareno from Intramuros to
Quiapo.[10]
The venerable image survived numerous fires, earthquakes,
and other natural and human-caused calamities, especially the Philippine
Revolution, the 1929 fire that destroyed the church, and the bombings of World
War II.[10]
In the 1980s, the rector of the Basilica, Rev. Msgr. Jose
C. Abriol[10], feared that the image might be damaged during the
Traslación, fire, or natural disaster. He commissioned Gener Maglaqui, santero (English: a sculptor of religious images) from Quiapo,
to sculpt a replica of the head and body. The original head now sits atop the
1980s body, which remains enshrined behind the church's main altar. The 1980s
head was placed atop the original body. It is this composite combination which
is used during major processions.[13]
There is a popular story about a fanatical Iglesia
ni Cristo member[a] shot the image's left cheek using a gun. It allegedly
caused a hysterical commotion that led to the shooter's death and the gunshot
mark on the cheek has remained unrestored and not remedied by pious popular
demand. [15] However, public historian Xiao
Chua interviewed Eugenio “Boy”
Jongco, former president of the Hijos de Nazareno - Central, to
confirm the story. While he confirmed that there was a commotion and shooting
incident when the procession passed an Iglesia ni Cristo chapel in Concepcion
Aguila St., the shooting incident was not directed to the image. He further
clarified that a gunshot did not cause the hole in the image's face. It was a
dent in the image ever since it was carved and was eventually revealed because
of dryness and age over time. [16] [17]
Let us now continue with the chapter on our divine longing for trust (From Broken Gods, Hope, Healing, and the Seven Longings of the Human Heart, Gregory K. Popcak, Ph. D. Ch 8).
Generosity
and Divinization
As we become more generous to others and, in turn, reflect on God’s
generosity to us, we eventually must turn our attention to the incredible
generosity that God displays in his desire to share with us his most precious
gift: his divinity. He wants to make us gods! By what right can we claim such a gift? How could we earn it? Of course, it’s impossible to lay claim to
deification on our own, but God in his infinite generosity longs to make it so.
Reflecting on this ultimate act of generosity begins to satisfy our divine longing for trust in two more ways that affect us on an even deeper level. First, reflecting on God’s desire to share his divinity with us drives home the realization that if God would share such an unbelievable gift with us what would he deny us? I don’t mean to imply that if you pray for a mansion and a yacht God will give them to you. But what I do mean is that if God is willing to share the gift of his divinity with us, would he fail to help us find a way to pay our electric bill? In light of the gift of divinization, it’s absurd that we fret so much over so many things. That’s not to say that we should sit around and wait for things to fall into our laps. As Scripture says, those who are unwilling to work also should not eat (2 Thes 3:10). Of course we have to work to meet our expenses, but maybe, in light of the gift of God’s divinity, we could allow ourselves to work in a manner that is more in line with our dignity and our relationships. Maybe we could trust what Scripture tells us: “Work at your tasks in due season. And in his own time God will give you your reward” (Sir 51:30).
Second, reflecting on the gift of God’s divinity reminds us of the deep level at which he wants to satisfy our divine longing for trust. It is as if, knowing that we have a hard time trusting him, God says, “Look, you’re always bugging me about these little things you need, and no matter how much I say, ‘I got this,’ you doubt me. How about I do something so crazy, so impossible, so unbelievable, that if you grasp it, you’ll never doubt me again? Would you like that?” And then he takes our hand and starts transforming us into gods.
Divinization requires radical trust. As we established in the earlier chapters of this book, to think that we—in our brokenness, sinfulness, and imperfections—could aspire to become gods is laughable, if not outright offensive. Except that’s exactly what God has told us he intends to do. Although in reality we control nothing and can guarantee less, we can at least uphold the illusion that we have the power to pay our water bills on our own. Be that as it may, there’s is no illusion outside of delusion that says we could turn ourselves into gods. But the more generous we are to others, the more we are able to get in touch with the radical generosity of God and believe, even though it is truly impossible to comprehend, that God intends to make us like him, both perfect and eternal.
If we who are imperfect
can use every part of ourselves to work for the good of others, how much more
can our Father in heaven use every part of himself to work wonders in our lives
(see Lk 11:13)?
This is exactly why
those who progress along the illuminative way and the unitive way in their spiritual walk experience less and less
anxiety and greater and greater trust.
The farther we travel down that spiritual path that leads to
divinization, the more real the idea of God’s promise to make us partakers in
his divinity looks to us. The more
apparent this becomes, the more ridiculous it seems to worry about every other
concern or desire, which pales by comparison.
We can find the fullest satisfaction of our divine longing for trust only by drawing closer to God and realizing that there is no part of himself that he holds back from us. He is ours and we are his. By accepting his generosity in our own hearts and then letting this generosity inspire us to be as fully generous to others as our circumstances permit, we begin walking the path that satisfies one of the deepest longings of the human heart: the desire to trust, to, as the saying goes “let go and let God.”
May
I share with you the following experience?
Thank God, I finally overcame my human respect and dared to get some reply
for my wonderment and curiosity. When I was sharing my wonderment with somebody
the other day, she simply said, “go and ask her”. I tried considering what she said and at the
first opportunity I did ask the person.
I was edified at her quick reply, she distributed them to the children
of a girls’ club in the community and gave the rest to secretaries, guards, and
church workers of the parish church she is in touch. I found that so
wonderful. I actually thought she must
have an outreach. So it turned out to be
something like it.
I
am now questioning myself why I was not simple enough to ask. Perhaps because I was the one who prepared
the items? Just charge it to experience
as they would say. I thought the anecdote relates to generosity and sharing
whatever one has and can share - talents, gifts, resources, time?
Let
us continue praying to Jesus the Nazarene to stop the fires in Los Angeles and to
caution the winds so that people can get some relief and move on. Trust in God
who is almighty power, mercy, hope and love.
Let us pray for the authorities to do what they need to do and put the
evil doers (looters, squatters, etc.) into justice. Prayer is powerful; God is in control; His
wisdom is beyond ours; Let go and let God.
Jesus we trust in You!!!
As
we always do, let us talk to God about the above thoughts and ideas in the
quiet moments of our conversation with Him in prayer and listen to what He
tells us and do what he tells us.
See
you in the next post, “May tomorrow be a perfect day; may you find love and
laughter along the way; may God keep you in his tender care; ‘til He brings us
together again.”
Affectionately,
Guadalupinky
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