Sunday Reflection by Mayor Beng Climaco

BROTHERS AND sisters: Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption. All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice.

And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ. So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma. 

A Covid-19 survivor called me apologizing for fear I might have misunderstood him because of someone influential who “posted” an activity with them together. Rather than paying attention to this concern, I went beyond and focus on the miracle of God in curing him from Covid-19 after being administered 10 vials of Remdisivir. He recounted being in the aisle witnessing patients dying, with cries. I told him how a generous friend shared two vials only to have his father-in-law die from Covid-19. 

In those moments of uncertainty, God has provided in the midst of impossibility, granted him the miracle of life! For me that life changing miracle leads to imitating Jesus our Savior who gave His life to save us. Our complaints, negativity, disappointments, belittling, backbiting, backlash, criticism and bashing have NO PLACE in a world where JESUS reveals HIS SALVATION. We have enough! Too much danger, doom, disaster! We need to FOCUS on the opportunity God is giving us in the face of pain and pandemic. 

Jesus answered and said to them: "Stop murmuring among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets: They shall all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life." 

In our rice distribution, we reach out to families as they try to survive the Pandemic. They are able to count God’s blessings with a house built from the fires in Camino Nuevo last December 25, 2017. I met a grandmother concerned about her grandchild’s chemotherapy because of cancer and neighbors also asking help for the child afflicted with cancer. 

The Spirit of Concern in the community is reflected with caring neighbors. We listen to Mark’s dream of taking up Criminology as he sells “merienda.” His Dad, a champion singer in the urban poor community, met an accident. In the midst of hunger, Jesus tells us “GOD WILL MAKE A WAY!” Even if the situation is bleak, y deficil, el Dios pan de Salvacion dale Vida canaton todo! Ayaw mu balaka! Kapit sa Panginoon. (MBC)