Rafael L. Oriel, Jr.
18 April 2008
Mr. Ceralde,
Actually, that is what you are saying. I am not saying that the churches nowadays in the Philippines are dysfunctional.
In reality, you are the one saying it and you are jumping to that conclusion because you think that the churches in the Philippines are behaving nowadays like the religious institution of John the Baptist time.
I wonder where you got that idea. How can it be possible that they are behaving the same way? We know that during those times, some religious leaders are prosecuting Jesus Christ and His followers including John the Baptist.
There was also a time when the same religious leaders corrupted the mind of other people so that the crowd will rally for the release from prison of a convicted murderer named Barabas instead of Jesus.
In fact, the mother of all briberies, corruptions and impairment of virtue and moral principles was committed at that time by, of all people, religious leaders when they bribed Judas Iscariot to betray our Lord Jesus Christ.
As we all know, this betrayal of Judas led to His Crucifixion. Are you really sure of your claim that this religious institution or religious leaders were as meek as some churches in some regions of the Philippines?
I think your interpretation of the word meek is far different from what I understand. From what I learned, when it is used in Christian life, the word meek means humility, humbleness and total submission to the will of God.
Unless you are living in a different time frame or civilization, nobody will surely lose his head for speaking out against anybody nowadays because, unlike the time of Herod and the Romans, we are now in a democratic country and era.
Besides, chopping of head was never done in the history of the government, is it not? In fact, for some unknown and suspicious main reason, death penalty was abolished recently.
If we look closely to what is happening to our society today, there is nothing new really. Just look around us and you will find many people who are misleading and corrupting the minds of other people.
They reminded me of the first corruption in the history of mankind, the time when humans were banished from the paradise Garden of Eden because the Devil corrupted their mind and made them disobey their Creator.
Come to think about it, if humans cannot obey a single commandment from their God, how much more of today wherein we have to obey all sorts of complex man made laws that need constant reforms and improvements to suit our needs while the devils are looking for their next victims to corrupt? Is it really not the system but the peoples’ attitude?
Who knows, unless we will try our best to really discern the truth? It is very unfortunate that some man-made laws are created, reformed and/or being implemented to suit the needs of influential few.
Anyway, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” - Mark 8:36. Who really needs to be the richest man among those who are buried in the cemetery?
