IT’S HOLY WEEK so we want to offer some personal thoughts about Lent. We often hear people waxing nostalgic, longing for the past, asking what happened to the good old days? They often say: “Mas mabuti pa noong araw.”
For them, the past is something they regard with fondness as something better, more ideal. It was a time when the world was a more beautiful place and life was more worth living, more simple, full of happiness, compared to the present which they regard as something stressful and chaotic.
Actually, nothing happened to the world, except perhaps for climate change. In more ways than one, it really got better, what with all the modern technology and the latest gadgets that help us communicate more quickly and entertain us, too. Air travel is easier. You cannot afford to get bored as there is always something somewhere to offer us some diversion.
It is us who changed. We became more greedy. With shorter attention spans, we’re more difficult to satisfy. We don’t really want to work so hard, but we always need a bigger house, a more expensive car, the latest models in the gadgets we want to be in our possession. We are never contented. We just want to have more: more power, more success, more toys to occupy us with.
Everything is equated with money, power and material things. We don’t mind deceiving other people for monetary gain. Faith and spirituality take a back seat. We believe we’re the ones in control, not God.
But in the end, it’s not really the material possessions we own that will make us happy. It’s our relationships that really count: with our Creator (if you have any relationship with Him at all), with our family, people in our workplace, our friends.
As we now recall the sacrifices of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray that you too will learn how to cultivate your relationship with the Lord, who’s the one who’s really in control of everything, and with other people to make your life less empty and more meaningful. After all, as persons and as Christians, we are all works in progress. Have a meaningful Lent and a Happy Easter!