Farewell Pope Benedict

I saw a flurry of Facebook posts from my Catholic friends that made me tremble the day Pope Benedict XVI announced his abdication.

Some of my friends said that they are crying. Other expressed their disbelief. I expected the worst and almost asked them, “is the Pope dead?”

He is very much alive but the news still struck me hard. Pope Benedict XVI decided to step down of the Petrine Office. He is leaving the Papacy and thus the Church is in to a turbulent times in her history.

Pope Benedict XVI is the pope on the day when I decided to be more serious in professing my Catholic Faith. I look up to him as the father of all Catholics. A steady guide in the reforming the institutions within the Church.

I cried yesterday night as I watched the last papal audience. Something stirred in me while I listen to Pope Benedict's speech. I just noticed that tears are welling up in my eyes.

Ah, Yes! I cried. I cried for this man who I never met personally. I cried for him because I love him.

It is his last day as pope and all I can say is this: “Farewell Pope Benedict. Thank you for everything that you did for the Church!”

All I can do now is to pray for him.

It is also the time to pray for the cardinals that they may elect the man chosen by God to become the next pope.

Unearthing my Talents

“What am I doing with my talents?”

This question confronted me again as I meditate during my prayer time this first Sunday of Lent. Was this a nudge from the Lord? I may never know the answer. But this nudge is enough for me to realize that I need to do something more.

About 7 years ago, I started two blogs. One is a personal blog. The other is a sort of socio-political blog. I thought, during those times, that I knew a lot of things. That my political commentaries are correct. The pride in my writing increased when a group of bloggers invited me to join their “collective blog”.

My years of writing for my socio-political blog continued until an incident occurred that caused me to withdraw the blog from the world. That incident is the pin that blew my huffed-up pride. I realized that I am just an arrogant and ignorant man babbling on things that I have limited knowledge of.

That's when I buried my talents and decided to limit myself on blogging about topics that are not risky. “I'm doing this”, I said, “for peace”.

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I know at the onset that being a follower of Jesus Christ is not convenient. It is inconvenient to fast, to abstain, to pray the Rosary everyday, and to read the Bible. The more of these inconveniences I commit the more inconveniences I desire. All of these inconveniences points to the inconvenience of the Cross.

And now, I feel that I'm being nudged to take the inconvenience of my talents. To write about inconvenient things.

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The pitiful servant digging for his talents.

I think about the pitiful servant who buried his talents so as to keep it “safe”. I am that servant and I'm digging my talents now hoping that I it is not too late to make it profitable.

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Image sources:

The first image is a painting by Titian entitled "Christ Carrying the Cross" from Wikipainting.

The second image was cropped from the 1712 woodcut of the Parable of the Talents from Wikipedia.