Sermon or Homily?

(This column appears in today's edition of the Leyte-Samar Daily Express)

Hi there! It’s another weekend and uh, we’re days away to THAT day of the year. If you have been reading my previous columns, you ought to know what that day is – Valentine’s Day, what else. And this year, it gets extra focus with the Chinese New Year falling on February 14. I’m not yet into my usual lament about that day of the year. I have reserved that for Monday. But one thing though. Feng shui experts say that the year of the tiger (a metal tiger at that) is not going to be as prosperous like the other animal signs. So, what about it? Don’t splurge on Valentines Day. That would be a good start. (Smile, it’s a weekend!)

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So, the campaign period has commenced. Indeed happy days are here again. And I’m not referring to the economic activity that elections bring. Candidates are doing their best talking, dancing and yup, some mud-slinging. And, as expected, the streets, or at least the poste, pader, and what have you kinda dirty again with the posters of the candidates. Oops, wait until we get to have campaign period for local bets. Anyway, I’ll just wait for any presidential candidate who comes to town and do what I do best – have a picture taken with them. In other words, please don’t expect me to listen to what they have to say. They have the same thing to say – problems or issues on corruption, poverty, the economy, jobs and what have you. These candidates present it with their own solutions so lofty it seemed like they are superman (or men) and that they seem so good they made PGMA the meanest of them all. Ah, politics.

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And what’s with today’s title? Well, those are among the words that came out when a friend and I talked about some guardians of our souls. That friend shared with me his recent experience when he attended a seminar for (Catholic) educators. There was one striking data that the resource person shared with the teachers in attendance. Based on the study of a leading (catholic) university in the country, only 49% of today’s youth believe in God. Now a question - what happened to the 51%? What are the catholic schools doing? What are the priests doing? What are we doing? And let’s not even start discussing the data on the percentage of the youth who engage in pre-marital sex. It’s not because I don’t like the topic, but it’s simply because I misplaced the note upon which I wrote the figures, again based on the study of the leading (catholic) university I mentioned earlier.

Back to the issue on the youth not believing in God anymore. Suddenly I’m reminded of a joke on how some moms complained how they could hardly let their kids do some chores simply because of computer games. A mom complained by saying something like how can you expect you kid to do some simple chores of doing the dishes or even his bed after the kid was able to conquer galaxies, kill aliens and shot down spaceships. Well, nowadays (thanks to my age, I no longer know the names of the games), it’s still the same thing - killing enemies and rebels and what have you on the computer or over the internet. Suddenly it occurred to me, why not make computer games with the end view of making kids believe in God. Now that would be a challenge.

And that leads me to what I got recently from a fellow blogger:

“Pope Benedict says to priests: Go forth and blog. Pope Benedict XVI has a new commandment for priests struggling to get their message across: Go forth and blog. The pope, who has his own web presence which he slowly built in recent years, has urged priests to use all multimedia tools at their disposal to preach the Gospel and engage in dialogue with people of other religions and cultures.”

“Using e-mail or surfing the Web is now not enough, Priests should use cutting-edge technologies to express themselves and lead their communities, Pope Benedict said in a message released by the Vatican. The spread of multimedia communications and its rich 'menu of options' might make us think it sufficient simply to be present on the Web," but priests are "challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources. A presence on the Web, precisely because it brings us into contact with the followers of other religions, nonbelievers and people of every culture, requires sensitivity to those who do not believe, the disheartened and those who have a deep, unarticulated desire for enduring truth and the absolute.”

“The message, prepared for the World Day of Communications, suggests such possibilities as images, videos, animated features, blogs, and Web sites. Young priests should become familiar with new media while still in seminary, though the pope stressed that the use of new technologies must reflect theological and spiritual principles. The 82-year-old pope has often been wary of new media, warning about what he has called the tendency of entertainment media, to be used negatively, he has also praised new ways of communicating as a "gift to humanity" when used to foster friendship and understanding. The Vatican has tried hard to keep up to speed with the rapidly changing field. Last year it opened a YouTube channel as well as a portal dedicated to the pope. No doubt, young priests will have no trouble following the pope's message, but what about the older ones? Would you engage in such a medium if it were here in our own country if there is a preacher or a priest who takes advantage of this medium?”

No question about it. Now some concern. How about priests who take their time castigating the faithful due to some issues in the parish or whatever issues instead of reflecting on the values of the gospel. I am no priest, but I understand homilies are meant to be that – reflection on the gospel and making it relevant to our lives. Well, if I were a kid or was still in my youth, shooting down spaceships and killing rebels on the internet would certainly be more interesting than sitting for an hour (at least) and for almost half that time, endure being reprimanded for something which I do not have any knowledge of. Oh well …

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Chinese New Year in Calbayog. The family of Tiburcio and Estrella Chan will be hosting their friend to a Chinese New Year celebration this Sunday at the Sam Tai Chi Temple.

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This is it for now. Have a nice weekend everyone. Ciao!