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highest courage is to dare to be yourself in the face of adversity,
choosing right over wrong, ethics over convenience, and truth over
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Travel the path of integrity without looking back, for THERE IS
NEVER A WRONG TIME TO DO THE RIGHT THING.
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Bishop Soc Villegas
25 July 2007
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LESSONS OF JOB
(Part 22)
REVISITING ONDOY
November 9, 2009
Today’s psalm (Ps
46:2-9) reading brings us back to the devastating flood wrought by
typhoon Ondoy. The psalmist says “its waters rage and foam and
mountains totter at its surging” (v.4a). We experienced severe
flooding and landslides. A huge landslide happened just outside our
compound in Antipolo, which blocked Sumulong Highway with big
boulders, muddy earth and fallen trees.
In the midst of our affliction, when we laid helpless before the
onslaught of nature, many rediscovered God. When there was no other
place to turn, people turned to God. When the situation seemed
hopeless, we found our hope in God. When the earth trembles, it is
actually God’s voice that thunders (v.7b).
Indeed, who can figure out the Almighty? Who can fathom the
inscrutable ways of God who allows misfortunes to happen, only to
bring good out of them?
Time and again, we suffer in the world. But such suffering
purifies and is salvific. Such suffering brings us closer to God,
makes us more dependent upon Him, leads us to trusting more in Him. If
so, then such suffering, even as it causes great pain and affliction,
is a blessing and is cause for joy.
What needs to happen is for us to accept that God is just and
righteous. Whatever He allows to happen, it is intended to draw us
closer to Himself, to set us back on the right track, to focus us on
the things that really matter in life.
As such, even in the face of calamities and threats to our physical
well-being, we trust and will not be afraid. Why? Because “the Lord
of hosts is with us; our stronghold is the God of Jacob.” (v.4b).
“God is our refuge and our strength, an ever-present help in
distress. Thus we do not fear, though earth be shaken and mountains
quake to the depths of the sea” (v.2-3), “though nations rage and
kingdoms totter” (v.7a). If so, then nothing can ever again faze us.
Not severe earthquakes or tsunamis, not world wars or global economic
crises. Nothing at all.
Occasions such as Ondoy should spur us to evangelize. People need to
understand what is truly happening. And people, as they are led to
Christ, should find their comfort, consolation and joy in God. When
people ask, Where is God in all this?, we must be ready and able to
answer: “The Lord of hosts is with us” (v.8a).
Then, in the midst of grief and suffering, we must be able to issue
the invitation. “Come and see the works of the Lord, who has done
fearsome deeds on earth.” (v.9).
The Almighty! Just and righteous is He.
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