Thanksgiving and vigilance

WE are fortunate in having the best of both worlds. We have the faith and democracy, two of the best ways of living. But we have to be vigilant that we lose neither of them. Many dangers lurk. Our people are not properly instructed on their faith. They leave the knowledge of their faith in the second-grade level when they received their first communion. No wonder they look down on their faith. They have become professionals and have a lot of knowledge but their knowledge of their faith is left in childhood-level knowledge. There was a law passed by Congress of the Philippines for religious instruction in our schools but vetoed by President Quezon before the Japanese war. The argument was separation of church and state. There was some reason for this. But the abuses of the past are now far past. Knowledge of our faith has to be invigorated. There must be a new evangelization. There are people especially in the lower classes that dislocate our

people. They mislead them with fellowship and use of the Bible. The Bible belongs to the Catholic Church. These wayward churches claim to be one hundred years or less and therefore in no way linked to Jesus. It is incumbent on the faithful to bring these misled back to the Church. We are both not instructing our members enough and not reaching out to those who have been misled. Going to Mass on Sundays is spiritually important but it does not give the fellowship and knowledge of the faith that seems to be necessary. It is the family that has the primary obligation to instruct, then in our schools and other systems of idea propagation.

The second jewel that we have is democracy. Here the danger of loss is just as imminent. Knowledge of democratic processes is low. To be able to make democracy work properly we need to know and be committed to rule by law. The biggest danger here is corruption. The poor are ignorant. There is no perfect political rule but we should aim to come closest to the democratic ideals. Now is the time for elections which is the most important mechanism of democracy. We should consider e; ections as an obligation and a privilege which we must guard as closely as possible. We should vote for officials who we think will follow the rule of law and are dedicated to the preservation of our Constitution. Our electorate is not knowledgeable enough to choose well our leaders. We need more education for the furtherance of the prosperity that we enjoy.

In both faith and politics we have been doing quite well. We therefore have to be thankful to the Lord that we are so fortunate. But as mentioned above there are dangers that might destroy our jewels of faith and democracy. We need to be vigilant in little things to preserve our faith and democracy. This is a duty of individuals. We need to know our faith and our democracy because they can be lost. Pray this does not happen. If we do not make the needed sacrifices, they will be lost and we lose our paradise.