Hopes for 2022

Ravaged by the pandemic and its effects on our economy, now comes a devastating year-ender typhoon which further challenged our much-touted Filipino value of resiliency. Could our people be on the brink of despair? We watched resort owners from Bohol to Cebu and Siargao who just recently rejoiced to see a trickle of tourists knocking at their doors cry as their investments were blown away by Odette. Productive farmlands are reduced to a barren state. Houses swept away by floods. The untold suffering is mind-boggling.

Yet, on bended knees, we still pray for a reversal of fortunes come 2022. People are starting to gather, and are getting ready for another burst of energy to rebuild and grow the material side of their existence.

The Church is often depicted as a boat buffeted by storms. The disciples of Jesus struggle to reach the other side of the lake as wave after wave battered the boat and sapped their strength.

In our struggles in life, we often forget that Jesus is in the boat with us. We have to remember that our salvation is a done-deal, that because of so much love that God has for us, He redeemed us. All that is to be done is to correspond with the ever-present and flowing grace that abounds every moment. We Catholics are spoiled. We have the scriptures, the magisterium and pope to guide us, the Sacraments to draw grace, the intercession of our Blessed Mother and the saints, and more! Many not only forget that Jesus is with us in the boat, but completely ignore Him. We row into the storms of life believing that somehow by our own selves we will reach the shore of happiness. There are others, moreover, like the Jews in the time of Jesus who continued to seek the signs to bolster their beliefs. But people of faith up and down the centuries have been telling us that the signs have always been in our midst. We only have to read them. God is present and grace abounds, and it only needs to be recognized from the supernatural angle. The saints did. After all, Jesus came to give life for all. And our loving response is to heed His teaching to be perfect as the Heavenly Father is perfect. God is the standard. Helped by grace, struggle becomes meaningful. With this, we thank God for the year past and we move on, always remembering to tap our access to grace through the Sacraments so that on the day that God will call us back to Him, we are a breath shy away from being perfect. He will do the rest. We certainly do not want to go astray which leads us to perdition. Losers. As St. Josemaría puts it, “We have a crisis of saints.” Be one. Happy New Year! (Johnny Sulit)