Talent: The Seed that was Planted

Talent: The Seed that was Planted

A Reflection on the Parable of the Sower

            It’s difficult to understand somebody when he or she starts to compare talents. Some thought of themselves that they have nothing good to contribute to the community or to the society. They admire one’s talent and yet they can hardly look into their potentials. It is confusing to identify either they envy or admire somebody.

            I believe that I was not born as a gifted person like a genius of anything. I am not a geek. I am not a nerd. And, I am not an imbecile. Instead, I believe that I have potentials to do great things. It turns out that one’s skills and talents are rooted from how one has developed and improved them. It depends on how the seed has been planted and taken care of. The seed that was thrown into the good soil would not grow into wheat unless the farmer has not taken good care of it. Still less if he has not watered it, he won’t know the result. The effect comes after the cause. The same thing goes to other seeds thrown into the barren and rocky grounds. No matter how the farmer waters, the seeds won’t really grow.

            There are at least two salient points that the parable mean. For a seed to grow into a wheat, one needs first of a good soil to plant it and second, he needs to take care of it. It is like planting rice seedlings into a well-prepared soil but one does not water them by irrigation. Nature speaks the same thing too. If without rain plants won’t grow. Nature is both the ground and farmer.

            Nevertheless, talents are like the seeds that were thrown into the good soil. For the seeds to reach being wheat, one needs to water them regularly. Even genius persons are improved in order to achieve their greatest potentials. For a talent or skill to develop, one must nurture and strengthen it. To do a leap without taking the precautionary measures, it would likely be a suicide.

            My talents and skills would not be like what it is now if I stopped exploring and developing them. In eight years, my knowledge and skills grew that originally started from scratch. As it grew, it even reached a bigger potential. The playing field also grew. I consider this playing field as to the people whom I helped. Before, my talents were only limited to committee involvements. Now, my talents have been involved into the international arena. This outcome has not crossed my expectations. I just simply do things out of love and out of service.

            Because of love and service, I was able to hold on to the demands of the responsibilities attached to my talent. I underwent also struggles and hardships. Maybe like the wheat, different insects and birds would come over to the field to destroy and pester.

When harvest time comes, the wheat can now be served to the people. The fullness of one’s talent can later be of greater helped for those who are much in need.

The parable of the sower was narrated by Jesus, in this manner God also plays an important role in the story. It was God, who threw us into the good soil. We were created out of his love in the beginning. Our being human depended on how much we use our freedom. It is a responsibility that was given to us. It is how we freely use our talents in order to fulfill its real end, which is to serve the good of the community.

            It is indeed a two-way process. It is always an interaction between God and human beings. God plants and we maintain. God has given each one of us different kinds of talents, but to reach its fullness depends on how we have handled the responsibility well.  

Social Media is the new Areopagus of the kerygma by an Evangelized evangelizer

              Last July 14-15, 2012, I, together with Fray Alvin John Salgado, OSA and Asp. Keith Lawrence Ermac, attended the First Catholic Social Media Summit in Renaissance Convention Center in Marikina City.

I am grateful and thankful to our community (San Agustin Center of Studies – Formation house of the Order of St. Augustine – Philippines) for allowing us to participate in the summit. With a positive outlook from our formators, they strongly supported us with this endeavor. For without them, we won’t experience the many wonderful things we encountered and nourished, particularly, the thoughts, ideas, information, trends, workshops, variety of sharing, stories and the people as well.

After that two-day summit, I was blissfully evangelized by the various speakers from the uninterrupted wonderful teachings and information about social media. Listening to them may look tiresome yet I never got bored and fell asleep to their practical and trending concerns of the society. We had speakers like Fr. Stephen Cuyos, MSC, who talked about becoming a true and authentic Christian in the Digital World, Arch. Luis Antonio Tagle, who shared about the spirituality of Social Media, Carlo Ople from TV5 sharing his marketing experience in the Social Media and finally Msgr. Pedro Quitorio, who shared about winning the Digital World through the Word. Moreover, there are other breakout sessions within the summit especially workshops, a talk show, and a free concert with Rivermaya.

            All the talks were fully loaded with essential content that missing a single part wouldn’t create the puzzle to form an aesthetic value. From the various speakers, I would much want to share my reflection about the thoughts of two speakers: namely Bishop Joel Baylon of the Diocese of Legaspi and Msgr. Pedro C. Quitorio III about the role of social media as the new areopagus for evangelization.

Social Media is the New Areopagus

            Bishop Baylon is the head of the Episcopal Commission on Youth of the CBCP. In a video interview, he asked young people that are very present in the cyber world, (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Linkedin etc.) the social networking sites, to join him in the endeavor to evangelize the world, this cyber world. It has been the recent call of the Church through the Holy Father Benedict XVI that this is the “new Areopagus”, the new place, for us to proclaim the Gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ, where many young people are present.

            This is the urgent call of the bishop about entering into a new place of evangelization, the Areopagus. This word is derived from the Sacred Scripture that refers to the place where Paul proclaimed the Good news.  “Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said: ‘You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious. For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar in inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’ What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you.” (Acts 16:22-23) At the time of the ancient world, Areopagus is a kind of a cultural center. Areopagus in Athens is a place of access for knowledge. It is where it is popularly known in ancient world. It is considered the birth place of great minds like Aristotle, Plato, Socrates and other great philosophers. Paul went there because a great number of audiences are present. Eventually, he was led by the Epicurean and Stoic Philosophers to go to the Areopagus.  However, what matters here is not the place but the message that was proclaimed by Paul. His proclamation on the Gospel of Christ made the place coined word for evangelization. The same message then should be proclaimed in our time despite the long span of years from Paul’s time and people of the 21^st century.

            The reality of social media in the 21^st century is an undeniable truth that should be considered in the life of many. In our context, social media has dragged people, especially the young, to be involved in this world wide trend, wherein people have all the access to everything in which they need and want to know either one is rich or poor.

It follows then that the Church should go to this place, the social media, as the new areopagus for the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Since we have identified the social media as the new areopagus for the proclamation of the Gospel, it leads us to ask, “How then are we going to preach it?”

           

Kerygma is E2E

One of the highlights of the talk was the six ideas of “Winning the World through the Word: Shaping a Digital Full of HOPE” shared by Msgr. Pedro Quitorio III. Among the six ideas, the third idea was simply relevant and timely for this year’s theme about Kerygma or proclamation. Msgr. Quitorio said that “The Catholic Social Media is the E2E way of proclaiming the Gospel.”

Above all it is called, ‘Catholic’ because it is not only associated to technology but it is also about the content and the unique perspective of truth, which is proclamation of the Gospel. On the other hand, ‘E2E way’ is the means to proclaim the gospel from an Evangelizer to another Evangelizer. Before a person becomes an evangelizer he/she then must first be evangelized. Then, the former is the evangelized evangelizer of the Word of God. E2E way is quite different from the P2P way (the old way) which means “Pulpit to People”. Through this, E2E intensifies the subjective value of the evangelizer rather than sounding objective (the P2P perspective).

Msgr. Quitorio then gave us the best example of an evangelized evangelizer. They are ‘Elizabeth’, the mother of John the Baptist and ‘Mary’ the Mother of Jesus (Luke 1:1-80). Both of them were provoked by the Word of God that was revealed to them through the same angel. As to Mary, she became the first woman to rejoice by praying the Magnificat that the savior of the Israelites is about to be born through her. Elizabeth also rejoiced when John was conceived that despite her being advanced in age she can still carry and deliver a child through the grace of God. Both of them were provoked with the Word but Mary had the greater part since in her womb was the savior of mankind. The Word was viral, in the language of social media, from the positive perspective that made Mary become and evangelized evangelizer. She was the first one to use the E2E way that contains the Gospel, which is our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Above all, a new frontier for mission has been opened to us as young servants of God. With the gift of technology in our generation, we were able to discover our purpose not only as mere active users of the social media but as emphatically as an active Christian Catholic user.

            I think it is clear that the kerygma or the proclamation of the Word of God is to be done in the social media but not as the sole means but one of the many ways.  

            Lastly, I strongly call my brothers in the community and also to you my reader to make use of social media as a means to proclaim the Word of God to people of every nation even when you are just at home.  And as Arch. Luis Antonio Tagle said in his talk on the Spirituality of Social Media let us adhere to call also “Don’t use it in a mere label. But use social media to proclaim the Word.”

Article 1-07-31-12

"Go forth and blog:" a reflection on Media Evangelization

“Go forth and blog”

“Go forth and blog”, this is the highlight of the encouraging message of Pope Benedict XVI on the occasion of the 44^th World Communications Day in May of 2010 to all Christians but a special calling is addressed to the priests. Unlike the conventional phrase we here from the Sacred Scriptures that commands men and women to “go forth and multiply” it is now fondly called as “go forth and blog”. Pope Benedict XVI challenges priests “to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated feature, blogs, websites) which alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis¹”.

As Pope Benedict XVI identifies our world today as a world of digital communication, we carry the task also to be responsible and take a leap to be in communion with the world. With the aid of new technologies, people create deeper relationships despite distant places. It is connecting people from various races, countries, families and relatives and at the same time creating a new form of friendship amidst differences.

By means of these new technologies, we partake in the mission of the Church to go beyond traditional means in proclaiming our faith to Christ. These will help us in our mission to let the men and women “sense the Lord’s presence, to grow in expectation and hope, and to draw near to the Word of God which offers salvation and fosters an integral human development.”²

This new calling of the Pope created a strong foundation to partake also in this missionary activity of the Church. After I read this message in 2010, I was inspired to create personal accounts in various social websites popular in the Web. To mention some, I have accounts in Youtube, Facebook, Friendster, Formspring, Tumblr, Blogspot, Multiply, Hi5, Deviantart, Yahoomail, Gmail, Twitter, Forums, Netlog, Flickr, Tagged, Yelp and many more. Unfortunately, these numerous accounts are difficult to maintain. May be at least 5 of them I regularly update and maintain. In one of my blogs, blogspot, I post my paper works and reflections. I also post pictures of various seminary activities, nature and infrastructures, which I personally shot. At first my purpose of creating those accounts was not for any spiritual purposes. It was just for personal leisure. But as I grew maturely in my vocation my old purpose was purified into a more noble aim.

Can I be considered as going too much? My answer is Yes and No. There were instances that I went beyond the limits. In this way, I affirm with the Pope’s reminder about the danger of these new technologies. We become attached to it that tend us to forget the real purpose.

Prudence, discipline and discretion are to be our companions so that we may not draw ourselves to it with much attention. Same as to how the Rule of Augustine was rooted in Caritas or “Christian love”, which is to guide us in our search for God in becoming holy.

1 Pope Benedict XVI, “MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI FOR THE 44th WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY”, Sunday, 16 May 2010 (source: http://www.vatican.va)

2 Ibid.

Fostering brotherhood within the Community

            One aspect in seminary formation that needs to be developed is the sense of brotherhood or fraternity. Unlike the conventional definition of a fraternity which is always associated to being a gangster, Augustinian spirit of brotherhood is very much different. Most of the youth today join groups like this because they want to feel the love they’ve been looking for since it’s missing within their family circle.  Eventually, some are lead astray as they go along with the demands of the brotherhood which are sometimes harsh and painful. Within that kind of brotherhood they are chained by bond that when a brother is hurt they will immediate retaliate. Why do they retaliate? It is because they recognized the need of their brother. They know who is weak in their group and on their very best they do everything to protect and help their brother. My point here is that within their group they know the weakness of their fellow.  They may have just interpreted the other meaning of brotherhood, but have the spirit of the importance of brotherhood.

January Article - Community of friendship and love

Augustinian Professed brothers on their retreat in Tagaytay.

For Augustine to achieve a perfect community one must create an atmosphere of love and friendship. As the Ratio Institutionis 29-30 would elaborate it more clearly, which says, “(29) Community is the fruit of charity and is expressed in friendship which brings forth and nourishes loyalty, trust, sincerity and mutual understanding…(30) Friendship in Christ not only favors the development of each one’s personality, but it also increases freedom in the community itself, in which a healthy openness of mind fosters dialogue and enjoys a necessary autonomy with which to serve God better…” We can think then that this is the foundation needed in order to achieve the ‘friendship in Augustine’ in the community. What is this friendship then that turned to be the root of building a community? Let me share this wonderful song that would help us in defining what friendship is. But, I’ll just pick the lines that had struck me since it would take space if I write the whole piece.  

“The Statement of Commitment” An emblem of our communion

“Growing in Communion: A Renewal to Common Life” was the theme for our
Augustinian Seminarians Spirituality Congress. At the end of our 3-day congress, a
statement of commitment was written as the fruit of our sharing and personal opinions
with our respective group and the whole body as well. The Statement of Commitment
was a sign of our unification as seminarians of the Order of St. Augustine, which
had brought us to be aware of the reality’s challenges. It has not also brought us for
communal renewal but also to the inner renewal of our personal calling.

The Call to be Humble

The Call to be Humble

By Fray Genesis P. Labana, OSA

With you I am a Christian but for you I am a bishop. I first heard and saw this unique quotation when I was still a 3 year college seminarian. I didn’t know that this phrase will create an impact along my journey with the Augustinians. It so happened that I was in Augustinian Contemplative Nuns in Bulacan to design the brochure of the monastery. Together with Fr. Ervite, who was a simply professed friar at that time, we worked together with the project. We were at the monastery for 3 Saturdays from morning to afternoon. In return of our effort and time in helping them they allowed us to choose shirts. In one of the displays, I then saw and attracted to one of the quotations imprinted on the shirt, which says “With you I am a Christian but for you I am a bishop”. It really disturbed me that I want to get it but unfortunately, the sister-in-charge told me “I think that shirt is good to look at if a bishop would wear it. I’m sorry brother. May be you can pick another one.” She said enthusiastically. Consequently, I chose a different t-shirt design.