Merry Christmas to our faithful readers

Since I don't have a column tomorrow, this piece will be my Christmas message to our faithful readers. First of all, allow me to say it here that if I have wronged anyone through these columns, I beg for their forgiveness. Our object is to tell the truth…no matter what, even if it hurts, while I know that others have already formed their opinion on a subject matter and they just refuse to accept another story, a story that comes from the truth.

With that said, allow me to share my thoughts for this Christmas Year. Indeed, the Year 2013 wasn't the greatest of years, especially when we were struck by the twin natural disasters, the 7.2 -magnitude earthquake that I personally experienced from the balcony of my house, which devastated Cebu and much of Bohol. I was in near tears when I saw the belfry of our iconic Basilica del Sto. Niño, a fall that was captured on YouTube. Except for the Palace of Justice, which was full of cracks in its walls and the Cebu City Medical Center, which has been rendered dangerous to use, there was nothing much in terms of human suffering. That would happen later.

Then came the most terrible storm that hit the earth called Super Typhoon "Yolanda" (international code name Haiyan) that hit us on Nov. 8th. Frankly speaking, we all thought that its center would hit us in Cebu City, which is why on that fateful Friday we could only hunker down and pray that it would veer away because we already know what a Super Typhoon could do to us way back in 1990 when Super Typhoon "Ruping" struck Cebu City where much of the city was leveled like it was hit by an atom bomb. Those are days we will never forget.

But the super typhoon veered away and struck a hundred kilometers North of Cebu. While Cebu had no power, we still had working cellphones and we learned about the magnitude of this devastation in Tacloban City and later in Guiuan, Samar and Ormoc City. Then reports came that northern Cebu was just as badly damaged. As if on cue, Cebuanos drove to northern Cebu to help the City of Bogo, Medellin, Daanbantayan and Bantayan Island. This was the indomitable spirit of the Cebuanos, who thanked God that our city was spared from this disaster. In gratitude, so many of us took our vehicles, some took buses to go to the North with relief goods in hand. It was so huge an exodus to the north; there was a huge traffic jam over there.

Actually what we experienced was the spirit of Christmas that happened a month before the celebration of Christmas itself. What we saw was an expression of love and that is exactly what Christmas is all about…the Love of God as written by Pope Benedictus XVI as his first book when he assumed the Papacy, "Deus Caritas Est" God is Love.

As we learned from the very words declared by our Lord Jesus Christ himself in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."  Please take a moment and ponder on these words from Divinity. What is its true meaning is all about? Then put yourself in this scene and ask yourself: If you are already in Paradise would you agree if God asked you to return back to earth as another human being?

In the case of our Lord Jesus Christ, he was no mere mortal. He was God, the second person in the Holy Trinity and yet, he was asked to come down to this earth with only one mission in life. To die for our sins so that man as sinful as we all are would have a chance to attain eternal life. Such is the Love of God to his creation and all of mankind. Yet he still allows us our free will. God never imposes himself upon us. He is God and he could very well ordain through the power of the Holy Spirit that all creation would love him in their hearts and minds. He can do this with a snap of his finger! But then we'd all be like robots that cannot decide for themselves and does only what is programmed in its computer. Such is the depth of God's love for us.

In return for all the free will that God has given mankind, he tasked Moses to bring down to the people of God a list of com-mandments for all to follow and the first of these commandments is to love God with all your hearts, your mind, your strength and your soul. And to complete this circle of love, God also commanded us to love one another was he has loved us all. It is a simple request from God and if we only obeyed his command, wars would stop, famine could be averted and the whole earth would be a community of nations that learn to love one another.

All God wants from all of us is a simple task that we can find in Matthew 6:33; "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." So for this Christmas let us seek God first in our daily life and you'd be surprised what God can do for each and everyone of us. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to one and all.

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